When Merlin is weighed down by sorrows, Jack and Annie travel back to feudal Japan to learn one of the four secrets of happiness.

"After an attempt is made on her life, Mariko disguises herself as a boy and infiltrates a gang of bandits known as the Black Clan, determined to hunt down the person responsible"-- The daughter of a prominent samurai, Mariko has long known her place--she may be an accomplished alchemist, whose cunning rivals that of her brother Kenshin, but because she is not a boy, her future has always been out of her hands. At just seventeen years old, Mariko...

Orphaned by a ninja pirate attack off the coast of Japan in 1611, twelve-year-old English lad Jack Fletcher is determined to prove himself, despite the bullying of fellow students, when the legendary sword master who rescued him begins training him as a samurai warrior.

After a Japanese master swordmaker and his apprentice craft the perfect sword, they search high and low for someone worthy of it.