Shougen Mukai

Mukai was the retainer of a clan that had been disbarred for crimes against the Tokugawa and whose lord had been ordered to commit seppuku. Ogami, then still working as the kogi kaishaku for the shogun, had participated in the execution, acting as second for the disgraced lord.

~!Prior to his death, the doomed noble requested a mock duel between Ogami and Makabe as his final request; while he insisted that it would simply be a demonstration his real goal was to have his retainer strike Ogami down as a final blow against the Shogunate. Makabe took his lord at his word, choosing to ignore his implied command, and participated in the duel without violence and the execution proceeded.!~

Makabe is now a ronin eking out a meagre existence fishing by the banks of the river where his lord had died. He has taken the name Hoozuki, after a plant that continues to bloom even after it has been uprooted, and lives in quiet peace.

~!He eventually comes into conflict with young samurai who find his way of life a disgrace, insisting that if he were a true bushi he would have died with his lord. After several of these warriors are killed by Mukai the local nobles decide they must hire Lone Wolf and Cub to handle the situation lest anymore die at the hands of the skilled swordsman. Ogami however refuses to take the job and instead faces Makabe as a samurai, not an assassin.!~