Kabu and Kabocha walk the road out of Mazekane singing 'First One Down', trading verses about how easy that turned out to be and how the rest of the season is basically a formality. By the last verse they're starting to wonder why it was so easy, and whether the seeds have more magic in them than they're aware of.
Shugoro is a small village tucked away in a bamboo grove, and everyone in it is scared. The men left long ago on missions to protect the village, leaving women, children and the elderly under the watchful eye of the village elder, Takeo. Matsu, a boy about their age, is the son of one of those men. He tells them about a bamboo demon that is slowly constricting the town tighter and tighter, like a cage, and about how nobody who leaves ever makes it back. He practises his swordsmanship every day, and has vowed that one day he'll leave to find his father, who went to fight for a more peaceful and unified Japan.
Kabu and Kabocha assume they can find this demon and face it the way they did the last one. They can't find it. Every attempt to leave the village and go into the grove makes the bamboo grow tighter and denser behind them. They ask Takeo for help, and he refuses: he can't afford to lose any more villagers. His fear and pride are palpable to everyone in the room except him.
So they go around him. With the confidence of two heroes who've just had their first win, they gather the villagers, tell them all about Mazekane, and ask them to follow. Matsu tries to warn them this isn't the way. They don't hear him, and predictably the townsfolk aren't willing to cross Takeo's wishes for a couple of kids they met that morning.
Matsu's mother, Hana, takes pity on them and feeds them dinner. When they complain about her son, she tells them to go easier on him. He has the most beautiful singing voice in Shugoro, or he did, before his father left.
As the demon's grip on the town gets tighter, Kabu and Kabocha run out of ideas. They find Matsu practising with his father's old sword. A single stalk of bamboo cuts clean through; a bundle of them snaps the blade. He says it the way he says everything, quietly: one stalk alone breaks, but bound together they hold. For once, Kabu and Kabocha listen to the quiet kid. They tell him he should be the one to say it to the village.
He sings it instead. The square goes still at the voice coming out of him, and then the village starts singing back, rallying around a cause for the first time in years. Together they set traps through the alleys. When the bamboo demon comes, it's bound so tightly that Kabu can't reach the seed, but as the village holds the line together, Takeo sees that his people are stronger than he ever gave them credit for. The bamboo loosens, on the demon and around the whole village, and some of the men who left come stumbling back through the grove, held in place all this time by the very forest they were trying to get out of. They join the fight, Kabu reaches the seed and purifies it, and the demon falls away to reveal Takeo. Matsu searches every face among the returning men. His father isn't one of them.
As the heroes go to leave, Matsu asks if he can come. Takeo gives him a bamboo flute that is meant to be able to call the forest to his aid, the closest thing to an apology he can manage. 'C'mon, hurry up, Pinecone,' Kabu calls over his shoulder. 'It's pine TREE!' Matsu shouts, and runs to catch up, his father's armour, still two sizes too big, clinking around him the whole way out of Shugoro.
OPEN THE BEAT SHEET ▼
- 1Fresh off Mazekane, Kabu and Kabocha walk the road singing 'First One Down', sure they've got this hero thing in the bag, though by the last verse they're starting to wonder why it was so easy and whether the seeds have more magic than they know.
- 2Shugoro is tucked away in a bamboo grove that has been closing in around it like a cage. The men left long ago on missions to protect the village, and anyone who has tried to leave since has never made it back.
- 3Matsu, a boy about their age whose father left to fight for a more peaceful, unified Japan, is practising his swordsmanship. He tells them about the bamboo demon and vows that one day he'll leave the village to find his father.
- 4TURNING POINT — Kabu and Kabocha go looking for the demon the way they found the last one, and can't find it. Every attempt to travel into the grove makes the bamboo grow tighter and denser behind them.
- 5They ask Takeo, the village elder, for help. He refuses: he can't afford to lose any more villagers. His fear and pride are obvious to everyone except him.
- 6TURNING POINT — So they try to rally the villagers themselves, telling them about their victory in Mazekane and asking them to follow a pair of proven heroes. Matsu warns them it won't work. They don't hear him, and the townsfolk aren't willing to cross Takeo's wishes for a couple of kids.
- 7Matsu's mother, Hana, feeds them dinner and tells them he has the most beautiful singing voice in Shugoro, or he did, before his father left.
- 8TURNING POINT — As the grove tightens, they find Matsu with his father's old sword. One bamboo stalk cuts clean. A bundle of them snaps the blade. Matsu says it plainly: a single stalk breaks, but bamboo bound together holds. This time Kabu and Kabocha listen, and encourage him to say it to the village.
- 9TURNING POINT — Matsu sings 'Stand Tall' in the square, a call to stand together and stand up for what you believe in, and the village rallies around him. Together they set traps through the alleys.
- 10CRISIS — The bamboo demon is drawn out and bound tight by the traps, so tight that Kabu can't reach the seed. But watching his people work together, Takeo realises they're stronger than he ever gave them credit for. The bamboo loosens, both on the demon and around the village.
- 11TURNING POINT — Some of the men who left come back through the loosening grove, held in place all this time by the very forest they were trying to leave, and join the fight. Kabu reaches the seed and purifies it, and the demon is revealed to be Takeo. Matsu's father isn't among the men who return.
- 12As the heroes leave, Matsu asks to come with them. Takeo gives him a bamboo flute said to call on the protection of the trees. 'C'mon, hurry up, Pinecone.' 'It's pine TREE!' Kabu, Kabocha and Matsu walk out of Shugoro, his father's armour clinking around him the whole way.
SUPPORTING CASTTakeo · Hana▼
Himeji Castle has stood on its low hill above the Harima Plain for over four centuries. The white-plastered walls gave it the name Shirasagijo, White Heron Castle, and they were not decorative. They were engineered to blind attackers, to signal dominance from a distance, to say: this place is held.
The castle town that grew up in its shadow ran on the same logic. Entry was controlled. Social rank was fixed. The han lords who governed from Himeji built a society where order was the product and vigilance was the price. It worked, by feudal standards. The walls held. The hierarchy held. The gate stayed closed to anyone who hadn't earned the right to walk through it.
What that kind of order does to a community over generations, what happens when the wall stops being a defense and starts being a personality, is a different question.
