The Last Stipend
DramaBittersweet3 audio scenes
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4 chapters • 3 scenes
Summary
In 1873 Tokyo, a former samurai stripped of his status after the Meiji reforms discovers purpose defending the newly emancipated burakumin outcasts from exploitation, forcing him to choose between his fading warrior code and a new path of justice that his family rejects.
Characters
Kenjiro Tanaka
Kaito Nakamura
Yuki Nakamura
Settings
Tanaka Merchant House
A Western-style office building with imported glass windows overlooking Tokyo Bay, where accountants totter ledgers behind foreign desks and maps of export routes cover walls that once displayed ancestral crests.
The Nakamura Tenement
A cramped single-room dwelling in Tokyo's Shitamachi district, where paper screens separate sleeping spaces and the smell of neighboring families seeps through thin walls. A cracked ancestor shelf displays rusted sword fittings alongside Yuki's Western clock.
Story Structure
1
The Empty Sword Rack
Kaito Nakamura drifts through Tokyo as a relic of the samurai past until he witnesses Kenjiro Tanaka's consortium exploiting burakumin workers, forcing him to confront whether honor lives in tradition or in protecting the vulnerable.
1
The Last Conscription
Kaito receives the final conscription notice that renders his sword skills obsolete, while Yuki returns from Tanaka's mill with news that could save their family.
1
The Empty Rack
Kaito sits alone in the tenement staring at the empty sword rack and the government conscription notice that renders his warrior training meaningless.
2
The Sister's Return
Yuki returns from the mill with grease-stained hands and news of a promotion opportunity that requires Kaito's help negotiating with burakumin tanners.
- Story ID
- story_TGhBNUYE2f-YtEPR
- Created
- January 12, 2026
- Art Style
- Realistic (photography)
- Status
- published
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