Hyakurin and Manji are eating back at the Mugairyu hideout.  Hyakurin asks where Shira is.  Manji says nothing. "Oh, I see....", is all Hyakurin says.
Rin is rocovering from the fight with Shira.  Manji comes in and they talk.  Rin is worried that they're losing time since it's taking her time to recover.  That night, Rin heads off on her own to follow Anotsu.  On her way out of the town she bumps into the Mugairyu head-cutter.  He's coming back from some mission or other, carrying a large, wet, dripping bag in one hand and his weapon on the other.  She tries to think of something to say, but he just flat out tells her- Anotsu is heading towards a certain sword school in Kaga prefecture.  He tells her to be careful (the way he talks is really cool- really polite and gentleman-like, maybe later I'll bring in some examples), and goes on his way.
On the outskirts of town, she notices a bunch of people giving her funny looks.  A little kid runs up to her, and then runs away from her.  She's confused until she finds a signpost on the edge of town.  A picture of her and Manji- both wanted by the prefectual government for murder.
    In the next episode, Rin's in disguise- a cloak and shawl (sort of like the clothes that Makie wears).  She comes to a house and begs the woman working inside to let her in.  She tells the woman a little about what happened to her.  Later, she's introduced to the woman's husband, puts out all her money, and begs them for their help- she needs the woman's ID to get from one prefecture to another (she can't go as is- she's wanted).
    Finally, we come back to Manji.  Hyakurin is upset that Rin ran off by herself so she tells Manji where Anotsu is.  They give manji a new yukata (he needs new clothes because the police are looking for someone wearing a yukata with the manji design on the back).  They tell him that he needs a new ID to get from one prefecture to another.  So Manji sets off to kill some Itto-ryu punk on his way back from another prefecture and take his license.
    Only problem is, he runs into three Itto-ryu guys.  They recognize Manji, and he spends the rest of the manga (like 3 or more whole episodes) in a giant fight with them in the forests on the outskirts of Edo.  He gets a French pike-looking thing stuck into his hand, and his arm gets yanked to a tree and pinned there.  He cuts off his own hand and goes running off.  After that, his time in the forest just doesn't go well- he sets a trap or two and kills two of the Itto-ryu guys, but he loses the rest of that arm (I wonder if he'll get it back- it's not certain now), he gets two half-meter long needle-like weapons buried in the back of his skull.  At the end of the manga he faces off with the last of the Itto-ryu guys.  It doesn't look good for Manji.