Masako's questline begins here in earnest, and it introduces the game's most uncompromising character. She is a samurai who has lost everything and is remaking herself entirely around the blade, using it not to defend what remains but to eliminate what destroyed her family. The legacy being destroyed is not only her enemies'. It is her own.

Jin watches Masako and sees a path he could take. The ghost methods are not far from her approach — effective, merciless, outcomes-focused. The difference is that Jin still believes the violence is in service of something beyond itself. Masako has stopped caring about the service and kept only the violence. The game places them next to each other and asks which direction Jin is traveling.