“I am innocent of any wrongdoing,” Hideki said to himself. “I have protected the weak and upheld the honor of all samurai. I must be on the path of the Way. This is what I was born to do. This is what Bushido is all about. I feel truly alive. Meantime, I can learn more about the Edo justice that everyone complains about. This could help Jii and Brother in their great undertaking.”

  Hideki clutched both swords and pulled them from his obi, presenting them to the nearest officer. Then he glanced at Myo. “I sincerely hope we meet again.”

  Myo returned the smile. “Oh, you can count on it, Takezo.”

  Chapter 11: Jail

  Hideki was amused. First, the detectives added him to their roster of criminals in the outer office of the magistrate’s building. Without his kodachi, he felt naked. He didn’t feel dressed without the swords. When asked for his name, he thought of giving his real one and then watching the confusion. But, he could not do that to Jii. Having a Yoshinobu in the Hatchobori police blotter might kill him. So taking the events of the night one step further, he invented the name Benki Takezo. He would see the magistrate in the morning. Then two doshin escorted him further inside the building. Finally, two different rokushakubo-equipped doshin shoved Hideki along the dim corridors toward the cells with their six-foot staffs.

  The floors were made of highly polished wood, the result of years of attention by the inmates on hands and knees. Unlike most structures, the hall was very narrow. The passageway was only a-man-and-one-half wide. Hideki’s trained martial eye understood. One guard could hold off many rioting criminals until help arrived. No paper walls here. Everything was made of massive wood.

  The two guards led Hideki to the furthest rooms inside the building. They stopped outside a huge cell with thick wooden bars. At a quick glance, Hideki estimated it contained approximately forty men. The smell was quite repugnant. Unwashed bodies, open waste jars, and fear combined for a noxious aroma that was almost overpowering.

  Adjacent to the large cell was a smaller cell with a lone inmate. “He is doing less well than I,” Hideki said to himself. The inhabitant of the smaller cell hung from a beam in the center of the room. His feet hovered above the wooden floor a good two shaku. He was naked except for the fundoshi around his loins. Welts covered his body. Any skin not covered in welts showed bruises and open cuts. His chomagai had come untied and his long black hair hung down around his shoulders, giving him a wild and desperate look. He did not have the shaved pate. Instead, he had a full head of hair like Hideki. The muscles apparent in his beaten body attested to his power and maturity.

  Despite his tormented body, Hideki noticed the man’s face. He had only one good eye. A jagged scar ran from the eyebrow to the top of his cheek through an opaque and non-seeing eye. The good eye watched everything. The good eye was staring at Hideki. Hideki flinched. He had never felt hate in a stare before. A little shiver ran down his spine.

  “If the guards are attempting to break this one’s spirit,” Hideki thought, “they’ll be at it a long time.” Just at that moment a brown clad doshin stepped into view in the small cell and brought a long bamboo rod down squarely on the one-eyed man’s back. There was a loud crack. There was no noise from the one- eyed man.

  One of Hideki’s guards removed the lock from the large cell’s door while the second guard stood behind Hideki with his bo against Hideki’s back. Once the door was swung open, the guard behind Hideki shoved hard with his bo. Nothing happened. He shoved again. Nothing happened. Hideki expected the violent shove and centered his ki. It was a childish display, but he felt better for it. No need to let low-class doshin think he was a pushover.

  When he felt his point made, Hideki strolled leisurely through the opened cell door onto a large, dirty, wooden floor with approximately forty of the toughest looking ruffians he had ever seen. They glared at him with open contempt. His slight stature and handsome, boyish looks marked him as their victim. The hackles on the back of Hideki’s neck went up. Here was danger. How should he handle it? Was he good enough? He forced himself to breathe slowly and deeply.

  A very large and rough-looking man with a scar down his right cheek moved confidently to Hideki’s side, grabbed the back of his kimono at the neck and dropped down to the ground, bringing Hideki to his knees. “Oi, Oi, bukayaro! Kneel when you are in the presence of the Oyabun! Have you no manners?” He demanded.

  A wake broke in the unwashed bodies as they moved back to reveal an even larger and more sinister-looking bandit enthroned on a stack of tatami mats. “Mystery solved on the missing flooring,” thought Hideki. He had the same unkempt look as the rest of the denizens of the cell. His hands were busy inside his thick kimono scratching on the right and then the left. “Sumotori,” Hideki thought. His immense size and fat face made his very slanted eyes almost disappear in his skull. “He looks like a human pig.”

  “Sumimasen,” Hideki managed in an almost controlled voice. “I am new to these surroundings and do not know the customs.”

  “Ha, Ha,” scoffed the large man with his hand on Hideki’s collar. “He talks funny.” The rest of Hideki’s cellmates joined in on the laughter.

  The pig on the tatami was not laughing. “Bring him here,” he commanded.

  The large man jerked Hideki to his feet and pushed him in the direction of the pig. Hideki came to a stumbling stop before the former sumo wrestler. Bowing his head slightly, he muttered, “Oyabun, sumimasen.”

  The pig looked confused and then uttered. “What is your name, where do you come from, and why are you here?”

  “My name is Takezo. I am a recent ronin and I am to see the magistrate tomorrow due to a misunderstanding over a girl in a noodle shop around the corner and some ruffians who didn’t know how to behave,” Hideki replied.

  “What clan were you?” the Pig asked.

  “My old clan is of no importance,” Hideki said and ducked forward as he shot out his left leg backwards, striking scar face in the stomach. Scar face was off balance from attempting to cuff Hideki on the back of the head for his last comment to the Oyabun. The big man’s forward momentum combined with the powerful ushido geri from Hideki’s back kick knocked the wind out of his large lung area. Hideki turned into him and using mai tobi geri jumped on one leg to get elevated height and struck directly on the scar under the large man’s right eye with the ball of his right foot. Scar Face’s head snapped back with the power of the kick and went down like a dropped pot. He fell to a heap on the dirt floor and did not move.

  There was a stunned silence for a moment. Then an angry murmur erupted as the rest of the criminals started to press in on Hideki. Hideki dropped his hands to his side and assumed a hangetsu dachi. The half-moon stance was supposed to provide the best all-around defense.

  “Mate, mate!” yelled the pig man. “No one in this room is a match for this man, except maybe me. Have you no eyes. He did not see Sempai’s attack. He felt it. We have an accomplished martial artist in our midst.”

  The crowd stopped closing in and gave Hideki some room. Hideki turned to face the pig. “Domo arigato, Oyabun. I am in your debt.”

  “Your speech is that of nobility, samurai. Your clothes cannot disguise your prowess and skill. Are you here to spy on us?”

  “No Oyabun, only to learn,” Hideki said.

  “What have you come to learn? What can the Gumsumgumi teach you?” the Oyabun asked.

  “Gumsumgumi, I should have known,” Hideki thought to himself. This was one of the more renowned gangs in recent years around Edo. Their members were masterless samurai, out of work laborers and vagrants of all sorts. They ran gambling halls, prostitutes, money lending, and protection rackets all over the new Tokugawa capital. The Yagyu were watching them, but their activities remained secret. They were tough to infiltrate. Their trademark was elaborate tattoos over the shoulder and back called irizumi. The tattoos ran halfway down their arms. Rumor provided they sported the tattoos to identify themselves as outside the law and outcast from society. Given the Japanese dislike of anything out of the ordinary, Hideki could see why the government loathed them. However, Hideki had heard Yagyu explain one night on the Tokaido that the irizumi was to hide the circular armbands tattooed on convicts to identify them as criminals and allow the magistrate to identify how many times they had been in prison. Three circular tattoos were usually the maximum a magistrate would allow before ordering execution. Either way, they were outside of society’s norm, and Hideki could understand why they were so paranoid about outsiders.

  “Everything Oyabun,” Hideki said. “I’ve lived most of my life in the country. Therefore, the ways of Edo are new to me. I want to learn what every citizen of Edo knows.”

  “I am Nichi, leader of the Gumsumgumi, the protector of the weak and the righter of wrongs. These are my children,” he said waving a meaty hand to include all in the cell.

  Hideki followed the motion of his hand, marveling at the collection of human flotsam and jetsam. “Yes, I can see the resemblance.”

  The Oyabun looked shocked. Then a smile played across his fat face. His eyes almost disappeared. “Do you mock me, ronin?” Nichi asked.

  “No, Nichi-sama, I have much to learn. If indeed you are the protector of the weak and the righter of wrongs, I would like to learn more of your ways. It sounds much like Bushido.”

  “We have our own code, ronin. While we may have borrowed some from the samurai, we pledge allegiance to the group, not a liege Lord. Come, sit—yours is the first intelligent conversation I’ve had in the month we’ve been locked up by the shogun’s corrupt force known as the police,” Nichi said.

  Hideki took a position on the dirt floor and looked up at his new mentor. “The government sends many spies in here to learn of the Gumsumgumi and to assassinate me, ronin. We will see if you are one of them or not. Tell me of your life in the country. If you make a mistake, I will know, as my brothers here come from all occupations. Country living is well known to many of them,” Nichi challenged.

  “Hai,” Hideki started to speak. Then he noticed two of the crowd closest to the Oyabun reaching into their kimonos as they angled away, slowly moving in to hear Hideki’s story. Hideki jumped to his feet, ran the two steps toward the Oyabun, and dived into the mountain of flesh, toppling him off the other side. He landed on the dirt floor with a sickening thud with Hideki on top of him.

  The Oyabun was shaking his head to clear the stars. The attacker on the right appeared first with a wicked looking tanto protruding from his right hand. He lunged the knife at Hideki’s throat.

  Hideki did not have time to stand. He barely had time to untangle himself from the Oyabun and get to his knees. As the knife was inches from his throat, Hideki shifted his upper body to the left. The point narrowly missed its mark. Hideki clamped his right hand on the extended wrist and pivoted on his knees. An upward kumeda palm heel strike inward to the outside of the attacker’s exposed elbow was sufficient.

  There was a distinct crack followed by a loud scream as Hideki continued the motion by pulling the wrist down and removing the tanto from the ruined arm. Now Hideki was facing the Oyabun and saw the second attacker come around the other side of the stacked mats, his tanto held waist high.

  He was moving fast and straight for the Oyabun’s heart. Hideki was too far away to deflect the attack. He twirled the tanto in his right hand so he now held the blade and threw it as hard as he could at the attacker. As soon as he let the knife fly, he knew his aim was off. He was trying for the center of the assassin’s chest. Instead, the blade buried itself in the assassin’s left eye. He screamed and fell to the floor and twitched as he tried to stop the pain in his head just before his heels drummed a staccato on the dirt floor. Then he was silent.

  Around the tatami came Scar Face on the run. He stopped behind Hideki and looked at his Oyabun and the two assassins. Seeing that one was alive and nursing a badly broken arm, he reached down and grabbed the live assassin around the neck and spun his hands fiercely. There was a slight cracking sound as the enemy’s neck snapped like a dry twig.

  Hideki was amazed. He had never seen such strength in a man’s hands before. Just as amazing, those hands were now reaching for his head.

  “Dame, dame, Goro,” the Oyabun managed. “The ronin saved my life.”

  The scar-faced Goro stopped in his tracks when he heard his master’s voice. The Oyabun managed to roll over on his massive stomach and started to stand. Goro pushed Hideki forcefully out of his way so he could help his boss up.

  Once the Oyabun gained his balance, he brushed the dirty straw from his hair and bowed to Hideki. “Thank you for my life, ronin. Now you know why Goro was so suspicious. This is the third time this week. I fear the bakfuku is wearying of the Gumsumgumi,” Nichi said. “My days are numbered with the government.”

  Hideki was shocked at such a statement. “Oyabun, surely the government didn’t send those assassins. They are the law.”

  The Oyabun looked at Hideki in disbelief. “You must be from a very far off clan, samurai-san. The entire bakfuku, starting with that idiot shogun and his keepers, the Yagyu, right down to the guards of this jail are corrupt. Their only goal seems to be to make the average citizen’s life as miserable as possible. If they are not taxing you, they are hanging you or cutting your head off. From roaming samurai preying on the citizens to wholesale larceny by the daimyos, nothing is too despicable or corrupt for the government to try.”

  Hideki shook his head in disbelief. “Bushido would not allow this to happen. Ieyasus himself said, that the highest form of Bushido was good government,” Hideki protested.

  The Oyabun stared at Hideki for a long few moments. “Samurai-san, the Gumsumgumi exists because the bakufu government is corrupt and won’t take care of the people. Who are the little people going to turn to when it is their own government oppressing them? We exist because no one else cares,” Nichi proclaimed.

  Placing a meaty hand on Hideki’s shoulder, Nichi said, “You need our protection more than most. At least the lowest of the Edoko, the children of Edo, knows the seasons of life in this town. You, on the other hand, seem to be more naïve than anyone I have ever encountered. Your mind seems as quick as your hands and feet, but your level of comprehension of politics is appalling. No wonder you wound up in jail. No spy would come to us with such a contrived level of ignorance as yours. You are truly a sheep among wolves,” the large man said. Then nodding as if convincing himself, “We will protect you and teach you the ways of Edo, ronin. However, you must earn your keep like everyone else. Just as soon as my yojimbo shakes off the effects of your flying kick, he shall be your sempai. You will need a mentor if you are to learn our ways. I will take you on as an apprentice yojimbo. Do you accept the job?”

  “Hai, Oyabun. I shall try to be a good bodyguard. However, I do so with the reservation that I may have to depart unexpectedly. But I promise to return,” Hideki said.

  The fat man laughed. “I’m doing you no favors, ronin. You will earn your keep. If the Yagyu spies are not after my head, then it is the money-hungry Daimyos and their samurai enforcers or the no-good thieves’ guild at the river. We’ll talk about your comings and goings later.” He shook his large head in disgust. “No one has any honor anymore. It is the one thing I miss about the Basho.”

  “So,” Hideki thought. “I was correct. Nichi is a sumotori. Now how did a sumo wrestler from the grand tournaments become the head of the Gumsumgumi?”

  Hideki bowed his head in the direction of Goro. “Onegaishimasu, sempai. Oshiette kudasai.”

  The word “sempai” confused Goro. So did Hideki asking him to teach him. His face showed his lack of understanding.

  Nichi nodded. “That’s right, Goro. The ronin has joined us. I am making him an apprentice bodyguard. You are going to be his sempai. He says he has come to learn. So teach him and be his big brother,” Nichi commanded.

  “Hai, Oyabun,” Goro bowed. “Wakaremasu,” muttered Goro. However, he did not understand at all. All he knew was this ronin had bested him in front of everyone and then saved his boss’s life. He did not have any idea how any of it happened. Now he was supposed to teach this young upstart. Goro would just have to find some way to make the ronin pay for his insolence.

  Chapter 12: Jail Break

  “While I thank you for saving my life, ronin,” the Oyabun stated as he surveyed the two dead assassins, “you have made matters somewhat worse.”

  Hideki smiled. “What could be worse than being opened like a ripe persimmon?” he asked.

  “Many things, ronin,” the Oyabun muttered. “How about having all the bones in your legs crushed under heavy rocks? Or, I could wind up like our friend there,” Nichi said as he pointed to the one-eyed ronin dangling from the center beam in the adjoining cell. “They’ll hoist him up higher tomorrow and bring a cauldron of oil in which to boil him.”

  Hideki winced thinking of the barbarity of such an idea. “What could he have done to warrant such action?” he wondered aloud.

  Nichi looked at Hideki as if he had just fallen to earth from the heavens. “That is the point I’ve been trying to make with you ronin. We do not have to do anything. We just have to be poor, or unemployed, or exist outside the law like the Gumsumgumi. They don’t need an excuse.”

  Hideki glanced at the one-eyed ronin dangling from the center beam in the next cell. “What a waste of superb samurai spirit.” Hideki looked the Oyabun in the eyes, “This must be stopped.”

  Now the Oyabun was smiling. “Those are my sentiments exactly. That is why we exist. It is also the reason we are in here.”

  “Unpardonable,” said Hideki. “Wait a moment; are you saying that assassins have attempted this before and you’ve handled it differently than I did?” asked Hideki.