With the people of his district hungry and no sign of the military lockdowns ending, Ichiro Kasai, an ex-Imperial Ninja, attacks a convoy of food trucks with his new acquaintance, John Dawson, a resistance member. Dawson wants Ichiro to join the conflict against Empress Akamine, who began her mysterious reign of tyranny inexplicably and without remorse with the aid of her six gluttonous and sociopathic governors. But Ichiro's only concern is the well-being of his friends—many of which have come to be the only family he has.