This issue begins a multipart story with the discovery of gold in a mountain range. The hunter who finds it is captured and tortured by a power-hungry lord, but there is another problem: the gold technically lies in the neighboring Geishu Province. As if that weren't enough news for the Geishu border, there is a sudden outbreak of the plague! Lord Noriyuki sends his bodyguard Tomoe to investigate, and she and her retinue soon enter a village in the "hot zone"...with lethal results! What new perils threaten this beloved character? And what about the gold? Find out in the first part of "The Treasure of the Mother of Mountains," this month in Usagi Yojimbo!