Hojo Tokiyuki is eight years old when the Kamakura shogunate his family ruled for generations collapses and the betrayer Ashikaga Takauji puts a price on every Hojo head. A mysterious warrior monk named Suwa Yorishige rescues him and identifies Tokiyuki's one real talent: running. Rather than teaching him to fight, Yorishige trains Tokiyuki to read danger and flee at exactly the right moment, turning survival itself into the boy's first weapon against the men hunting him.