Has he been brought to Japan to be trained as an assassin; or is his mission even darker? Does the secretive Senkyo sect control powerful Yamazaki Industries which pays him well, but requires little? And does the beautiful Hanako appear suddenly to help or to undermine his training? Deep within the Japanese martial arts is a rarely revealed mystical core. Why then would it recruit a young American, skilled in karate and Zen, but only beginning to master the language? He must practice stringently, focusing on his sensei's mountain quest into a forbidden art. There, he too, will discover and...