Hmm.
Huh?
Logan!
Are you all right?
Yeah, but everyone's gone.
They've been taken.
We'll get them back.
One of them knew you.
He said you'll never see the X-Men again
unless you fight him, tomorrow.
Who is he?
The Silver Samurai.
What is going on, Logan?
Who are these people? What do they want from you?
Logan!
Get on. We have to go.
Go where?
Tell me what this is all about.
A woman.
Are you serious?
It was a few years ago.
It might as well have been another lifetime.
Her name was Mariko.
She meant a lot to me.
But her father wanted her to marry a guy named Harada.
He was Japanese nobility and a member of the criminal Yakuza.
I was gaijin, an outsider.
He wanted to fight me for Mariko, and I accepted.
Harada was a mutant.
He could supercharge his sword to cut through anything.
Me, I didn't even need a sword.
But this challenge was bound by the samurai code.
No powers allowed.
Yield!
Don't be stupid, Harada.
No, Logan-San. It is over.
Please, leave now.
Mariko!
I was doing this all for you.
And now, for me,
you will leave.
Leave? For how long?
Forever.
But you won.
- Why would she... - Didn't matter.
Minds were already made up.
You're seriously just going to sneak into the Japanese embassy?
Yeah.
What makes you so sure he's even...
Because he's a coward.
And this is where he'd hide.
He thinks he's safe here.
He's wrong.
I don't get it.
He goes to all this trouble, he gets the girl,
what else does he want?
What he's always wanted,
a fight to the death.
We're near the kitchen.
Three cooks.
A tray of tea came by here.
What about the X-Men? Sense anything?
They're not here. But I recognize that tea.
What are you talking about?
Wait here.
Mariko. It's okay.
It's me.
Logan-San.
You should not be here.
I had no choice.
You promised you would not try to see me.
That was before your husband kidnapped my friends.
Mariko, talk to me.
Why is he doing this?
My husband,
he is vying for the leadership of the Yakuza clan.
But they have a very strict code of honor.
What's that got to do with me?
He must wipe his past clean of all failure.
He has never been beaten...
Except by me.
And if he had simply issued a challenge...
I'd have told him to buzz off.
So he is now forcing your hand.
Yakuza is his problem, not mine.
I just want my friends back.
Mariko, please. Tell me where they are.
If I do, will you go?
Will you promise not to face my husband in battle?
Yeah.
I no longer have a reason to fight him.
There is a warehouse near the docks.
A sakura marks the front.
Do you know it?
Logan-San?
So that was her, huh?
What, you were listening in?
Uh, yeah. Who wouldn't?
You! You have betrayed me!
This fight is foolish. Someone will die.
And you fear it will be Logan, desyo?
No.
I fear it will be you.
Get everyone into the warehouse. Now!
We got three!
Rogue, get out.
I mean it, Rogue. These guys are highly trained assassins.
Good.
Check it out.
I just learned Bushido.
Got to cheat to win, huh?
You call this honorable?
Insolent gaijin!
Stop! He is right.
There is no honor in fighting a sedated opponent.
Tomorrow, then, we settle this.
It will be a battle between warriors.
No mutant powers, only katanas.
Such is the samurai code.
You fight like a common thug.
It will be a short battle.
I'm sorry, Charles.
I let you down.
Logan, you've done no such thing.
I'm used to things in my past dogging my heels.
But now the X-Men got dragged into it.
You had no control over that.
Still, I'm being forced into a fight I might not win.
And if I do, I got serious doubts Harada will let the team go.
I thought the Yakuza were bound by a code of honor.
Yeah, they are.
Harada isn't.
It is not like you to fear an enemy, Logan.
I've been on the streets too long, Charles.
The Mardies, Sabretooth...
They turned me into a savage.
I'm not a samurai anymore.
But at one time you had the skill.
The samurai trains every day,
lives and breathes it every day.
I turned my back on it.
It's been years since I've used a blade that didn't come out of my knuckles.
Ah, but your training still remains in your memory.
I've seen it.
Logan-San, on your feet!
You will show respect now!
Sensei? How?
I've taken him from your mind.
He was the only swordsman you ever respected.
Ruthless, but honorable.
Too much talk!
Kata seven!
Sloppy.
Look at your opponent, not at your weapon.
Again!
Well?
Bah!
He is terrible. A disgrace.
But it no longer revolts me to observe him.
Yep.
As I remember, that was his highest compliment.
Good luck, son. I have faith in you.
Thanks, Chuck.
Logan.
Harada.
I beg of you, do not do this.
Still you defend him, this animal?
He is but a brute. His anger will betray him.
You will see.
Harada-San. Logan-San. This will be a battle of skill and honor.
You possess unnatural powers.
I remind you, these must not be used.
You will fight by the code of the samurai,
or you will pay the consequences.
Is this understood?
Of course.
To the death, then.
Fight!
You can still call this off, Harada.
Just return my friends and I'll go.
My wife's eyes are on you, Logan.
They always have been.
So once I defeat you, she will pay for her impudence.
Do you want to know the truth, Logan?
Mariko means nothing to me.
I married her only so that you could not.
You're a fool as well as a coward, Harada.
And this fight ends now.
Last chance, Harada.
Yield!
The Silver Samurai yields to no man!
No!
Enough!
This fight is forfeit.
Harada has violated the code of the samurai.
He is disgraced before the clan.
Take him away.
And the X-Men?
You have shown honor in battle, Logan-San.
Your friends will be returned within the hour.
So...
What happens now?
My husband will be driven from the Yakuza in shame.
They will never admit him again.
And what about you?
He is still my husband.
I swore an oath of loyalty to him.
And I will keep it.
Why?
Why did you choose him and not me?
If I had chosen you,
our lives would have ended that day.
The Yakuza awaited my decision with drawn swords.
Do you not see?
Marrying him was the only honorable thing I could do.
Even if it meant keeping us forever apart.
Mariko!
I could have freed you.
If I'd have finished him off, then...
Then you would not have been the man I love.
Goodbye, Logan.