Heike Shige is the leader of a band of zombie-like workers, who have been mining for the legendary gold of the Heike clan for 500 years. Some unearthly quality of the area's mushroom population preserved them long after their bodies expired and the consumption of the large amount of wasabi (believed to have preservative properties) staved off the inevitable rot of their bodies. Because Shige and his men are already dead, it is apparently impossible to kill them – although Shige notes it was a "close call" when Mugen nearly beheads him.