Manglobe: Samurai Champloo: v. 1 [2005] paperback

Chapter 1: By a series of misunderstandings, the three main characters meet. Fuu - who is working hard to save up money to travel, Mugen - A vagrant from Okinawa who just likes to fight anyone worth the challenge, and Jin - an accomplished Samurai with a mysterious past. After a battle between Mugen and Jin at the tea house where Fuu works (which leaves the establishment burnt to the ground), the three flee the area together. Fuu decides to use their guilt and force the two incredible fighters into traveling with her as her bodyguards and go search for a mysterious samural who smells of sunflowers. Chapter 2: At a bordering checkpoint between regions, word of the three travelers reaches the local officials. They set up wanted posters all over. The trio are now officially wanted people. With the law chasing them, the three must find a way to get through the checkpoint in order to keep moving and hopefully find the Sunflower Samurai. In this town, they run into a curious character named Kin who seems to be a playboy of some sort.
Kin offers to help the three get through the checkpoint in order to maintain the carefree air that the town once had but had lost since the arrival of the three. Should they trust him? The battle begins when Kin sets the three up for a gamble. Win and they get through the checkpoint. Lose, and they are dead. After making it through the checkpoint, the three head west. Chapter 3: Jin gets lost from the other two and is 'found' by Nakki, a common townsgirl. However, after running into a scuffle with some gangsters from a evil loanshark, Jin notices that there may be more to Nakki than meets the eye. After snooping into the loanshark's mansion he finds out that Nakki was a hired assasin who takes revenge for the poor and weak. This is when we see Jin's troubled emotions. He has been travelling in search of a reason to his existence as a samurai. While following Nakki to kill the loanshark, he is reunited with Mugen and Fuu who have been hired by the loanshark as bodyguards. Another battle between Jin and Mugen leaves the loanshark's mansion shattered to the ground and Nakki is also able to kill the loanshark.
After fleeing the scene of the crime, Nakki buys Jin and Fuu some food, but nobody realizes that Mugen had been left behind...Chapter 4: The world is still full of evil. And so a prince has taken it on himself to travel under a disguise to defeat all evil that he crosses paths with. Mugen, on his own, is hungry and is willing to do anything for food. He jumps at a chance to save a girl and possibly reap it's rewards, but is beaten to it by the prince. Furious at the prince in disguise for taking away his chance to earn some food as a reward he attacks the prince but collapses from hunger. The prince sees how hungry Mugen is and mistakes his actions as bravery and chivalry. Impressed, he takes Mugen out for an indulgence of food, drinks, and women. The ninjas who secretly protect the prince from the shadows learn that Mugen is a wanted person and take action to try to part the two men and keep the prince safe. The battle to save their prince ends with a drunk Mugen knocking over a Ninja who then, accidentally kills the prince. Chapter 5: Having found an inn that agreed to hire the three, Fuu finds herself comfortably adjusting to a stable lifestyle once again.
She has made friends with Haru, another employee at the inn who has taken Fuu under her wings. Given the opportunity to settle down at the inn and stay there to work, Fuu is faced with the decision to let go of Jin and Mugen and stay there with Haru or to go back out on the road in her search of the Sunflower Samurai. She is given a chance to reevaluate what she wants to do and decides to pack up and keep searching with Jin and Mugen. However, once they leave the inn, all her earnings are spent to pay off a gambling debt that Mugen had incurred. They are penniless once more!