Kaidohmaru

Synopsis

The turbulent Heian age, when evil spirits of every kind ran rampant. In the darkness of history, while monstrous beings moved in the shadows and fought the onmyoji who command shikigami, there were young people who suffered, struggling, for the ones they loved, against bonds of fate they could not break.

Kaidohmaru, the Knight of Fire, a slender woman’s body hidden under armor. Minamoto no Raiko, a warlord who joins fierceness, beauty and gentleness. Ouni-Hime, the bewitching princess whose cold beauty hides the heart of a demon god.

“Kill! Kill Kaidohmaru!”

The year is the first of the Shouryaku era. Deep in the mountains of Ashigara echoes the curse cried out by a figure in a demon mask. Sakata no Yoshinobu, Ouni-Hime’s father, to fulfil his own ambition, has cornered his elder brother’s child, Kaidohmaru, still little more than a child.

At the very moment his murderous blade is about to take Kaidohmaru’s life, an arrow pierces Yoshinobu. The one who loosed it was Minamoto no Raiko, a warlord come from the capital.

Kaidohmaru and Minamoto no Raiko, who end up meeting. Ouni-Hime, in whose heart something begins to go wrong. The love she has held for Kaidohmaru since the childhood days they played together swells, unfulfilled, into a twisted shape.

Then, some years later. Kaidohmaru guards the capital, Kyo, as one of the Four Knights who serve Raiko; with the comrades she has gained, Watanabe no Tsuna, the Knight of Wind, Usui Sadamitsu, the Knight of Water, and Urabe no Suetake, the Knight of Earth, she spends her days in battle and yet in a faint peace.

But, before they notice it, the uneasy air that wraps the capital grows murkier. Days she had forgotten come back to Kaidohmaru’s heart as a nightmare. That was the omen.

In the middle of the Gion festival, the eyes of Ouni-Hime, her heart driven mad by a desire she cannot fulfil, radiant with a beauty like an evil demon’s, catch sight of Kaidohmaru, who follows gallantly at Raiko’s side.

A longing she cannot forget. Nothing could have the power to stop Ouni-Hime. Raiko, the Four Knights, the capital: she does not care if all of it is destroyed. Only one thing. If only she can hold in her arms Kaidohmaru, so beloved and so hated.

“You are mine!”

Shattering the false peace, a voice that wrings the heart rings out over the capital.