Unholy Union

Unholy Union is the nineteenth episode of Samurai Champloo. It was released in Japan on January 29. 2005 and January 16, 2006.

History
Fuu is in a cabin waiting for Mugen and Jin to come back when she’s unexpectedly visited by a girl seeking shelter from two thugs who are hunting her down. When they fail to find the girl, the two leave… for the time being.

Meanwhile, Mugen and Jin come across a mass of people in line, witnessing an elderly woman praying before being carried off by two government men. At the spot where the woman was captured, Mugen catches sight of an image of Jesus Christ being executed, and the official there tells him to step on it as a way of testing to see whether or not Mugen is a Christian.

Despite the fact that Mugen likely has no religious affiliation whatsoever, naturally he refuses to do what he’s told, resulting in a group of government officials surrounding him and Jin on all sides. Suddenly, the fight is interrupted by the arrival of a priest who identifies himself as Xavier III, the grandson of real-life historical figure Saint Francis Xavier, the missionary responsible for introducing Christianity to Japan. He intimidates the officials by firing several rounds from his gun before escaping on his horse.

Back at the cabin, Fuu strikes up a conversation with the girl, who introduces herself as Yuri.

Yuri points out a hidden secret within the miniature skull that Fuu carries around with her: a cross of Golgotha hidden within its eye, supposedly coming from the Ikitsuki Island (historically known as a safe haven for persecuted Japanese Christians) in Nagasaki. Fuu asks about the samurai who smells of sunflowers, and Yuri brings up the name Seizo Kasumi, possibly finally giving her a solid lead in her journey.

Before she can learn any more information, the two thugs from earlier break in, knocking Fuu unconscious and taking Yuri with them. Fuu is finally woken up by Mugen and Jin, and the three proceed to wander off aimlessly after she tells them what happened, eventually coming across a small village. They inquire about the thugs, but the man posted at the front claims to have seen nothing of note.

He offers them a place to stay in the village for the night, which they quickly take up.

Fuu awakens in the middle of the night and notices a massive trail of people all walking in a line towards… somewhere. She stealthily pursues them and finds the mass of people walking into a cave and follows them in, witnessing the sight of a massive sermon being led by Xavier III, with a plethora of Christians praising his every word. He proclaims to the audience that the key to achieving salvation is… to earn it by helping to manufacture tanegashima, a Japanese form of matchlock gun.

During the sermon, Fuu is cornered and caught by one of the thugs from earlier. Meanwhile, Jin goes out looking for her and comes across a deal being made between the other thug and some government officials to sell them matchlock guns. Back at the cave, Yuri questions the motivations of Xavier III, who as it turns out is just exploiting the faith of the local Christian population for massive profit, using the profits from gun sales to purchase valuable artworks, historical artifacts, and even the love of others as he attempts to force Yuri to marry him.

She refuses, which gets her thrown in a jail cell alongside Fuu. Back in the village, Mugen is awakened by Momo delivering a note for him and Jin: a rescue request from Fuu. The two wander around for a lead, tracking down the government officials that Jin was spying on and interrogating them for information.

While they search for her, Yuri speaks more about her situation: she and her father sought refuge from religious persecution within the Ikitsuki Islands, and one of their fellow refugees was indeed Seizo Kasumi, the samurai who smells of sunflowers.

Unfortunately, the refugees eventually fell victim to a massive attack on their safe haven, ending with their refuge being torched and burned down, and Seizo’s whereabouts are still unknown. Later on in her life, she witnessed her father being murdered by Xavier III’s underlings after he learned the truth of his exploitative practices. The two are interrupted by his arrival as he forces Yuri to go through with the wedding ceremony.

As the ceremony is about to get underway, Fuu begs Yuri to not go through with it, giving her the courage she needs to stand up to the priest. This conflict is interrupted by the arrival of Mugen and Jin, who managed to uncover the full scale of Xavier’s exploitative scheme. He starts firing at the two samurai but fails to successfully strike them, accidentally causing the cross behind him to collapse on top of him.

When he comes to, Xavier’s beard and nose suddenly come loose, revealing him to be just a normal Japanese man adopting a false identity. He grabs his gun in a fit of rage to take out our heroes, but the gun explodes in his hands, killing him on the spot.

The next morning, our heroes say farewell to Yuri as they head off to the Ikitsuki island in search of the samurai who smells of sunflowers. Before they leave, Fuu casually reveals to Mugen and Jin that the sunflower samurai is her father.

Characters

 * Fuu
 * Yuri
 * Mugen
 * Jin
 * Xavier III
 * Momo
 * Seizo Kasumi (mentioned)