Shogunate executioner Yamada Asaemon receives strange requests from the condemned-such as a woman who bequeaths her severed locks and a gardener who asks for the "beheading" of a chrysanthemum. And while they are strangers to Asaemon, their final moments of life can reveal more of their characters than a lifetime of association. Collects "Everything but Death" and "One Too Many" from volume 8, all of volume 9, and volume 10.