Ballad: Na mo naki koi no uta (2009)

In the second year of the Tenshō era (1574), during the Sengoku period, there was a samurai named Matahei Ijiri, who risked his life to protect Princess Ren of the Kasuga domain. Because of his strength, he was known as “Ijiri the Demon.” Ren and Matahei have feelings for each other, but because of their difference in status, neither reveals their true feelings. During a battle, an enemy soldier takes aim at Matahei with a gun. He is at a range where Matahei is certain to be killed, but the soldier is startled by a mysterious boy who suddenly appears and misses his shot. As Matahei spends time with his savior, Shinichi Kawakami, who says he has come from the future—the present day—the two gradually grow closer. Meanwhile, a serious problem arises in the Kasuga domain. The ruthless lord of the powerful Ōkurai domain, Takatora, has noticed Ren’s beauty and proposed marriage. The lord of the small Kasuga domain reluctantly accepts. At the same time, Shinichi’s parents, Misako and Akira, who have been searching for their missing son, find a letter from him beneath a large oak tree in the present day. Following the letter, they travel back in time to Matahei’s era in their own car. Matahei and Ren, who had kept missing each other, begin to be honest about their feelings, thanks to Shinichi’s efforts to bring them together. Ren’s father, the lord of Kasuga, also hears from Misako and Akira that the domains of the Sengoku period will eventually disappear, and calls off the marriage that would have sent his beloved daughter to the notorious Takatora. Furious, Takatora invades with an army of 20,000. Matahei and his men defend the castle with a force of just 500. When they seem on the verge of being wiped out, the Kawakami family’s car drives onto the battlefield. The family guides Matahei and his men through the enemy soldiers, who are frightened by the unfamiliar vehicle, and toward Takatora’s camp. Matahei challenges Takatora to a one-on-one duel and wins decisively. In response to Shinichi’s plea not to take Takatora’s head, Matahei declares victory after cutting off only his topknot. Now indebted to Matahei, Takatora tells him that he will come to Kasuga’s aid if it ever falls into trouble, then leaves the battlefield. But as Matahei is about to return triumphantly to the castle, a bullet appears from nowhere and pierces his chest. With Shinichi’s appearance, fate had been thrown off course; now it has returned to its proper path, and Matahei’s life has come to an end. Matahei dies smiling in Ren’s arms. Ren bravely bears her grief and bids farewell to the Kawakami family. Back in the present, Shinichi and his parents find an old, small stone monument standing on the site of Kasuga Castle. It bears a message of gratitude to the Kawakami family that Ren left for the future.