Majime was a fearful, anxious young fellow, apprentice of the carpenter Chu from Tenraku village. They worked in the water-wheeled mill of Koujou village, which was looked after by an old blind peasant woman, Chio. Higaisha, grandson of Chio, eventually helped her to maintain the mill, until the fifteen-year-old boy disappeared. A group of samurai visitors investigated several incidents and crimes in Naishou province, and exposed a Bloodspeaker cell. Chu was one of the cultists, and the leader was Chio, a powerful maho-tsukai.