"A Dawn Without Light" 「無明払暁 Mumyo futsugyō」 is the eighteenth episode of Basilisk.
Summary[]
Someone poisoned Kunichiyo's food and Oeyo tries to leave to Sunpu, but as it wasn't serious Tenkai prevents her and explains its better to wait for news.
Koshirō Chikuma faces Gennosuke Kōga's group and attacks Kagerō, but Gennosuke saves her before Hyōma Muroga tells Kagerō to take Gennosuke and escape. Hyōma then faces Koshirō, allowing Gennosuke and Kagerō to escape. Koshirō was depending on the hawks wing flaps to tell him where the enemy is, but as the hawk is gone, he wonders where the enemy is. Hyōma uses some items to distract and take Koshirō attention elsewhere and tries to strike, but as Koshirō's scythe returns, Hyōma have no choice to block it and make Koshirō realize his sneak attack and shoots a Kamaitachi, hitting Hyōma's face.
Hyōma recalls when Danjō Kōga came with Gennosuke and told him that Gennosuke was son of his elder sister and asked him to teach him their family dōjutsu. Hyōma wanted to look at Gennosuke as eyes that can see too much could be a problem. After he looked at Gennosuke's eyes, he told Danjō that he was a honest child. Hyōma started to teach Gennosuke making him being used to not use his eyes. Gennosuke is frustrated as that won't make him stronger and want to learn the dōjutsu, but Hyōma told him that if the enemy learns his of his dōjutsu, they will first attack his eyes and this is a training in the unlikely event of which he can't use his eyes. As they proceed, during the night, Gennosuke gets attacked by a wounded wolf and out of fear he managed to active his eyes dōjutsu, and scared the wolf away, but then fainting. Hyōma realized that Danjō was correct and Gennosuke did had their dōjutsu gift. On the next day, Gennosuke wakes up and blindfolds his eyes, accepting Hyōma's training.
Hyōma tells Gennosuke to live as he takes his last breath and bind his sword to the ground and keep him standing as he dies. Koshirō knows his attack hit, but as he didn't hear the enemy fall, he continues to look for Hyōma. Meanwhile, the hawk returns to Akeginu and Oboro where they realize that something must had happened.