In truth, Iori is Otsu's younger brother though Otsu was abandoned by her parents long before Iori was born. Musashi later takes in another student, this one named Iori. Jo eventually encounters his own father and the pair return to the way of the samurai.

Musashi encounters a young man named Jo and takes him in as a student. Otsu makes friends wherever she goes and gains a great many admirers, but her heart always belongs to Musashi. The two have many adventures, with their paths crossing many times over the coming years. He soon parts with her, determined to follow the way of the sword. Musashi is briefly captured by the opposing army but Matahachi's former fiancée, Otsu, helps him escape. His failure to return to his own village prompts his mother, Osugi, to hate Musashi and to vow that she will kill him. Matahachi lives off the two for some time as they run a tea house. Healed, the two decide to leave but Musashi wakes to find that Matahachi has left with Oko and Akemi. Her daughter, Akemi, brings them medicine and food and they discover she is the girl at the battlefield and that she was robbing corpses on orders from her mother. When they find a small farmhouse, they ask for help and a woman named Oko allows them to sleep in the woodshed. Musashi-known at the beginning of the story as Takezo-and Matahachi, friends from the same village who had joined the military together, wake on the battlefield to realize that they are among the few survivors.

Musashi novel by eiji yoshikawa