While Ichi and his companion are traveling to a village where the local gang leader wants to hire Ichi as a bodyguard, a rival gang attacks the pair. After negotiating safe passage, the blind masseur encounters a dying man -- and more trouble. He wants to help a servant girl escape after a feudal lord has just raped her. Agreeing to help the girl get back to her family, Zatoichi realizes he will have to take on both gangs to make it through.