The swordsman Ogami Ittō is confronted by a secretive branch of the Yagyū clan that practices black magic, including the ability to burrow through the earth. He encounters Kaori, a female expert with knives. And there's Hyouei, an illegitimate son of Yagyū Retsudo who kills anyone Ittō and Daigoro come into contact with. It culminates in a final battle between Ittō and the combined clan groups under Retsudo on a snow-capped mountain in northern Japan, in which the baby cart becomes a sled. Ittō defeats the entire army, shooting, stabbing, slashing, dismembering, and beheading the entire army. But the one-eyed Retsudo again gets away, vowing to kill Ittō another time.