Akame Kotoji became a wandering samurai in order to avenge his lord and the uproar over the stolen lances, settles down at a tenement house in Edo that Kujiya Shouemon owns with the intention of spending the rest of his days quietly. However, Tajiri Tojiro the chief retainer of the Mitsushima family, one of the domains that fell victim to Akame, hates Akame because the family was humiliated by the lance incident, and is bent on revenge. A wandering samurai Sudo Heihachiro is sent in as the assassin. Meanwhile, Akame is introduced to the lady-in-waiting Oryo, a lady-in-waiting at the mansion of the Mizushima family, by Shouemon. She serves the captain of the military guards, Mizuno Kenmotsu. Akame is consulted about something but rejects her. However, in the end, he decides to take up his sword again. Believing Tajiri’s words that he will be employed as the Mitsushima domain’s fencing instructor if he defeats Akame, Sudo carries his infant son to attack Akame. At the end of the fierce fight, Akame beats Sudo but does not know what to do with the baby boy left behind. He is helped by the residents at the tenement house. Oryo, who intends to gain her own independence as a poet, supports a dispirited Akame. The two of them gradually become close. While Akame deals with love and child rearing for the first time in his life, he begins to find meaning in life.
