Episode 2 · Kurozuka

Kurozuka

A hunted swordsman named Kurou flees into the mountains with his servant Benkei, running from a brother who stole his throne. They find a woman living alone in the woods. Kuroumitsu. She takes them in, feeds them, and asks only one thing: never open the door to her room. So of course he opens it. What he sees inside changes everything, and instead of running, Kurou chooses her. He gives up his humanity to stay at her side forever. Then Benkei, bought off by a shadowy outfit called the Red Army, takes his head. Kurou wakes up centuries later. Japan is a ruin now, all wreckage and strange weapons, and he is still alive, still himself, still unable to die. He goes looking for Kuroumitsu and for the men who did this to him. Along the way he keeps running into the same faces, the same betrayals, the same story playing out in new eras, as if history has it in for him personally. The Red Army is still out there. So is she. Why can't he die? Why does the same tragedy keep repeating across a thousand years? And who is Kuroumitsu, really?