This is a direct sequel to Volume 8: The Gathering, picking up seconds after Manji ran into the woods. While broken up into several chapters, but really comes in two parts: a battle and an interrogation. Samura conveniently lays them out in blocks, skipping the typical Fantasy and manga conceit of bouncing between multiple stories. We follow Manji until the conclusion of his battle, visit Rin until the conclusion of her drama at the checkpoints.