Continuing from Musashi – Book 1: Earth
1. The Yoshioka School
Yoshioka Seijuro, the head of the House of Yoshioka, a sword-fighting school, spends the night drinking in Oko’s teahouse in Kyoto and the next morning he takes Oko and Akemi to a kabuki show. While they are away, Matahachi, who has been living with Oko ever since they left Takezo, finds out that a man called Miyamoto Musashi is at the Yoshioka School waiting for the Young Master.
2. The Wheel of Fortune
At the Yoshioka School in Kyoto, Musashi challenges Seijuro to a duel but, in his absence, he defeats three of the senior students. On Seijuro’s return, the Yoshioka students attempt to ambush Musashi but he manages to escape. Matahachi, who heard rumors about the swordsman from Miyamoto, realizes that Musashi is in fact his old friend Takezo. He swears to change his lazy way of life and become a swordsman, too.
3. Encounter and Retreat
Wondering around Kyoto and visiting its temples, Musashi encounters Osugi and Uncle Gon who challenge him to a fight. Their intention is to kill him. When he refuses to fight and walks away, they call him a coward.
4. The Water Sprite
Musashi leaves Kyoto for Nara where he wants to meet “the famous lance fighters at Hozoin.” He is followed by Jotaro, his new apprentice, who also brings him a letter from Matahachi. Musashi sends Jotaro back to Kyoto with a letter for the Yoshioka School and a message for Matahachi.
5. A Spring Breeze
On his way to back to Nara, Jotaro meets Otsu and a samurai in the service of the Yagyu family. Otsu lets herself convinced that Nara is too dangerous for a woman to travel alone, so she accepts the samurai’s proposition to go with him to his master’s house on the Koyagyu fief.
6. The Hozoin
Musashi goes to the Hozoin Temple where he kills Agon, one of the senior students of the temple. Musashi also meets Nikkan, the abbot of the Ozoin Temple, whom he can hardly stare in the eyes. Musashi spends two nights in Nara until Jotaro returns from Kyoto. Meanwhile, he turns down the offer made by three ronin who wanted him to help them stage a fight show.
7. Hannya Plain
Musashi goes to Hannya Plain where he expects to fight a group of lance-wielding monks from the Hozoin Temple and a group of ronin who instigated the monks against him. After Musashi kills many of the ronin, the monks kill the rest of them and soon Musashi realizes that this was Nikkan’s idea of cleaning the streets of Nara of the unruly ronin.
8. The Koyagyu Fief
Musashi and Jotaro arrive in Yagyu Valley, northeast of Nara, where they encounter a well run fief and the legacy of Yagyu Muneyoshi Sekishusai, who has retired in a mountain house behind Koyagyu Castle. Back at the only inn in the village, Jotaro meets and becomes friends with Kocha, the young maid. Musashi takes his bath together with three other men from the city who complain that Yagyu has refused to duel with Denshichiro, Yoshioka Seijuro’s youngest brother, who was returning from a training trip in Ise. After his bath he finds Kocha and Jotaro crying in his room; they have had a fight after Jotaro bragged about Musashi prowess as a sword fighter while Kocha maintained that Lord Yagyu was a much better fighter. Musashi decided that he must challenge Yagyu, too.
9. The Peony
Old Master Yagyu Muneyoshi Sekishusai enjoys the company of Otsu, the young woman Shoda Kizaemon (the chief retainer of the House of Yagyu) has brought along from his latest trip. Yagyu considers her a pleasant companion and he enjoys her playing the flute. When Kizaemon returns from the inn and informs his master that Denshichiro still insists in coming to the castle for a lesson, the Master sends Otsu with another letter of rejection and one peony, which he had cut himself. Otsu delivers the letter and the flower, but Denshichiro feels offended and discards the flower. Otsu gives the flower to Koncha who in turn gives it to Musashi. Realizing that the flower was cut with a sword by someone with great skill, Musashi cuts the stem of the flower too. His attempt to reproduce the cut fails and Musashi realizes that whoever cut the flower, must be a great swordsman. On her return to Yagyu’s house, Otsu meets Jotaro and tells him that he can come and see her at the castle. Later Musashi sends Jotaro to Koyagyu Castle to deliver a letter and the cut stem. Yagyu’s senior students can’t tell the difference between the two ends of the stem and decide to invite Musashi to the castle so that they can have a party together and get to know him better. While waiting outside, Jotaro starts playing with a dog but soon the dog attacks and bites Jotaro.
10. Jotaro’s Revenge
The following morning Musashi checks out and goes up to the castle where Kizaemon and three other senior students have arranged a party for him. While they eat and drink sake, Musashi tries to provoke the four men, but to no avail. Then they hear the wailing of the castle dog and upon investigation, they find out that Jotaro has killed the dog with his wooden sword in revenge for having been bitten the previous day. The commotion thus provoked soon degenerates in Musashi challenging the entire House of Yagyu to battle. The men draw their swords but upon hearing Otsu playing the flute, Musashi briefly loses his concentration, and retreats into the trees.
11. The Nightingales
Musashi looks for Yagyu’s house all night long. When he finally finds it, he takes a nap by its gate and in the morning he wakes up invigorated. He reads the messages posted at the gate to Yagyu’s house and realizes that the old master had chosen to step back from the affairs of every day life. Just then he hears Otsu and Jotaro’s voices and from their conversation he learns that Jotaro came to the house the previous night, following the sounds of the flute. Otsu sees Musashi hiding behind a tree and follows him when he runs away; he is too fast for the two of them to catch up. On the road, she meets Takuan Soho who is on his way to Master Yagyu’s house. Takuan tries to convince Otsu not to follow Musashi, but to no avail.
Continued with Musashi – Book 3: Fire
