The Samurai
- Manjiro goes outside after everyone falls asleep and thinks deeply about Japan and the coming changes that are inevitable.
- He can't help thinking that Japan's been this sleepy little country while America's been innovating and speeding ahead.
- He wonders if Japan will be like America one day—at least technologically.
- One morning, a messenger comes for Manjiro.
- He says that Manjiro has to go to Kochi on the orders of the lord of Tosa.
- Manjiro's mom wants to know why, but the messenger knows nothing. He can only say that there are rumors: Either Manjiro will be thrown back into jail for being a spy or he'll be turned into a samurai for all of his knowledge about America.
- Manjiro doesn't know what will happen to him; he just knows who he is—a fisherman at heart, but someone who's been weathered by all the events he's gone through… maybe just enough to make him a samurai.