It tells you what kind of swordsman Nanashi is before he ever draws: the rounin who keeps his blade corded shut in the scabbard because unsheathing it costs him something. This is the seed of the Bones Sengoku bruiser, and the DNA is all here. A nameless sword for hire, a boy nobody claimed in Kotarou, and Tobimaru, a dog doing more emotional heavy lifting than most protagonists get to. Then there's Rarou, blond and blue-eyed among Byakuran's Chinese militia, serving no emperor and chasing no boy. He wants one opponent good enough to make him try, and that hunger is the actual engine of the whole thing. Watch this, then go watch the snow turn red in the feature.

A nameless swordsman called Nanashi crosses paths with a young orphan boy and his dog at an abandoned temple during Japan's Sengoku period. The child is being hunted by a secretive armed group from China, and Kotarou hires Nanashi to act as his bodyguard, binding the two together on a dangerous road. Among the hunters is Rarou, a highly skilled blond, blue-eyed warrior who answers to an old man named Byakuran. Unlike his comrades, he serves no emperor and simply wants to test himself against strong opponents. This action and adventure special presents a pilot film for the story of a wandering samurai and the boy he protects.