The episode opens with Balsa practicing with her spear. She is still badly wounded however, and a wrong move causes her to stop abruptly, holding her side. The scene moves on to show us Chagum getting his hair cut and Tanda, who is chopping wood. Balsa returns from her practicing and watches as Saya cuts Chagum’s hair. When she’s done, Chagum tries to put on a brave face, saying that he looks nothing like a prince now in a confident voice, but it’s clear he’s actually pretty upset.
Balsa and Chagum head off for the Misty Blue Pass. Torogai has apparently decided to go with them, and has borrowed (read; stolen) a donkey from Tanda’s uncle for that purpose. Farewells are said, and Balsa and Chagum head off.
The scene then shifts to the manhunt currently in progress, and we some exposition in the form of army officers discussing the progress and strategy of the manhunt. As they’re talking, we see the results of Balsa’s decoy attempt; multiple false reports of her alleged whereabouts thanks to the decoys.
While the army officers are off investigating all of the various sightings, we see the emperor’s black ops team, who immediately realize that Balsa has arranged for distractions. However, the hunters are not really sure what the heck she’s up to, or what direction she might be heading for. The commander of the team sends a few of the hunters off to get the information gathered by the search teams and has the rest work on analyzing and deducing what Balsa is attempting to do.
Next up is Balsa, Torogai and Chagum, who are heading off at a remarkably slow pace for people attempting to escape a manhunt. Torogai talks about the black ops team, and warns Balsa that they aren’t the type to give up very easy. She also talks about the egg, mentioning that it isn’t likely to hatch very soon. Torogai then states that she’s going to go do some research, and heads off along a side trail.
When we return to the hunters, they have deduced that Balsa will be heading north, toward the Aogiri Mountains. They also attempt to speculate on Balsa’s motives, because they are very aware that as determined and skillful Balsa is, she has apparently deliberately chosen to refrain from killing (which is extremely confusing for the hunters, since they know that during the fight, Balsa should have been able to kill them during the battle). Then they receive word that someone matching Balsa’s description is also heading west, which causes the commander to realize that she’s managed to pin the manhunt teams and the black ops team. (He is very impressed by this.)
In the next scene, some soldiers have arrived at Tanda’s cottage. They’d like to know whether Tanda has treated any women lately. Tanda says he has many patients who are women, and gives a somewhat bitter sounding speech about women who only come to him when they are injured. The soldiers are not up to dealing with the romantic woes of passive aggressive herbalists so they back off with apologies.
We next see the commander of the hunters, who has found the tracks of Balsa’s horse. He notices that she is moving very slowly for someone who is attempting to escape a manhunt. Instead of wondering why she’s going so slowly (he may have decided that it was because she was injured, though that’s speculation on my part, and not something said within the episode) he states that they’ll be able to catch her by nightfall.
In the next scene, we see Balsa and Chagum, who are heading up a mountain trail. (We also see a really big wolf. We’ll call him Chekov.) Chagum asks questions about Kanbal, the country where Balsa was born. She talks a little about Kanbal, but goes very quiet when Chagum asks about her family. The moment is broken when she hears the sound of horses and looks back to see the commander of the hunters and one of his men.
A chase scene along the narrow mountain trail ensues, with one of the hunters following behind, and the other attempting to get ahead of her. Unfortunately for Balsa, the rough riding has opened up her wound again. The commander is able to catch up with her but before he can attack, Chekov the Wolf appears, and snatches Balsa, Chagum and the horse off the trail and into a steep ravine.
The commander dismounts and peers over the cliff, where he can see the wolf, and the poor horse, which is screaming it’s head off. The giant wolf leaps back up to the trail and menaces the commander before retreating. As Chekov the Wolf heads off, he drops a piece of blue cloth and what looks like one of Chagum’s pigtails. In shock, the commander starts to head down the ravine, but he’s stopped by his subordinate. For some reason, it’s too dangerous to go down to the ravine to investigate.
We next see Torogai and the huge wolf. Apparently, they are in cahoots because Torogai pets Chekov the Wolf, and the wolf bumps up against her like a friendly dog requesting head scratches. This in essence means that this entire trip was a ruse, and now the commander of the hunters believes that Chagum and Balsa are dead.
Next we see Chagum’s funeral procession, or at least the preparations for same with soldiers and some kind of barge. (They’re just standing at attention when we see the soldiers.) We see the emperor and his family, and then the scene pulls back and we can see the master star reader and his subordinates, who are standing behind the thrones. The master star reader receives word that Chagum is dead, which causes him to become upset. The next scene following that is Shuga also receiving word of Chagum’s death.
The funeral procession begins and we see Tanda along with many other people showing respect for the procession. We see a very familiar figure kneel down beside Tanda and ask him if he has any medicine. It’s Balsa of course, and Tanda is deeply unhappy because he hadn’t been allowed to go with Balsa. (He asks, “what am I? A warrior’s wife?” This is funny, because it’s pretty much true.) Balsa apologizes, and the scene pulls back a little so that we can see that Chagum is also there, and then we go to the ending credits.