Usagi again meets his friend Ishida and helps him escort his bound prisoner Haya, whose brother Kaba is still at large. To escape the rain, they spend the night at an inn; the other guests include amateur poet Saburo and his bodyguard Benki; paper merchant Kami, his daughter Ayano and assistant Hoku; and Hasegawa, a stranger. Kami reveals he's carrying a poem written by the great poet Haseo, but refuses to sell it when Saburo demands it. Late in the night, Ayano awakens Usagi and Ishida with her screams; her father has been strangled to death and burned paper lies next to his corpse.