“No, Komeya,” Goro said, taking a step toward the knife. “Nichi does not lie. But I know for a fact that the Yamakai does.”

  Komeya no Toku turned the blade in Goro’s direction. Goro paid it no mind, continuing the pressure on the now frightened man.

  “Foxes? You are working with the Foxes?” Goro asked.

  When the Yamakai man did not answer, Nichi answered for him. “Not only was he working with them; they were financing the Foxes and providing supplies to them throughout the land.”

  The Yamakai man turned the blade toward Nichi again. It was all that Goro needed. With the explosion of the sumo tachiai, Goro launched his incredible bulk at the unfortunate knife wielder. Goro’s hands were in front of him. The speed and bulk of the yokozuna were behind the hands. Goro’s right hand launched an incredibly destructive thumb and index finger web strike to Komeya no Toku’s unprotected throat.

  The force of the blow lifted the stocky man off the tatami and launched him backwards into a sliding door. He crashed through it and landed in the adjacent room. His knife was stuck point first in the tatami at the point he left the floor.

  Komeya no Toku lay in a heap completely dazed on his back. When his brain got around to sending signals to the rest of his body that no air was coming to his lungs due to his crushed windpipe, his hands grasp his throat as his mouth opened wide and tried to suck in precious oxygen. As he panicked, he thrashed around in the remnants of the wall, spinning in circles trying to find air.

  Goro ignored him. He knew the Yamakai man was as good as dead. It was just taking a little longer than he had planned.

  Goro knelt on the tatami and picked up the knife. He grabbed the lapels of his kimono and ripped them apart, baring his ample torso. Then he reversed the knife in his right hand and started the motion to plunge the blade into his middle.

  “No,” shouted Nichi. “I forbid it.”

  Goro stopped. “But I must make amends for my failure to you and the Gumsumgumi,” he said in a calm tone.

  “And so you shall Goro. However, killing yourself accomplishes nothing. Why do you think I chose you as my successor? It is your heart that will bring the Gumsumgumi through this.”

  “My heart?”

  “Yes Goro, your heart. The government now relies on me and the red sticks. And I rely on you. Yes. I will keep the red sticks in line. But we are just one police station among many. I cannot patrol the whole city. The Gumsumgumi can. When there is a corrupt official, I expect you to get me word while you protect the chosin. If one of my new recruits in the future becomes corrupt, I expect you to tell me about it and protect the chosin. And if I turned from the path of righteousness even a little, I expect you to correct me and protect the chosin,”

  Goro bowed as low has his bulk in a sitting position would allow. “I accept your trust and vow to honor it. As a token of my atonement, I offer you a part of my body.”

  Goro placed his left hand on the mat with his little finger extended. Then he drew the razor sharp knife across the finger severing the tip up to the first knuckle. The blood ran red on the straw matting.

  Nichi reached into his kimono and extracted a large white cloth. He grasped Goro’s wounded left hand and wrapped it with the cloth to help staunch the bleeding. Then he grasped Goro’s own cloth towel and retrieved the separated fingertip. He reverently wrapped it in the cloth and bowed and touched it to his forehead. “I accept your apology and we will speak of this no more.”

  Goro bowed with tears in his eyes. “Arigato.”

  The Red Sticks in the room bowed to Goro, amazed at what they had just witnessed.

  Chapter 28: Retribution

  The days of reckoning were upon the Yoshinobu household. The Roju and Tairo counselors summoned them, several times. Each time they had gotten as far as the castle dressing room. Then they would get the announcement of postponement. No explanation was forthcoming. Yagyu Munenori would meet Jii and simply state that the counselors were not yet ready to receive them. After each postponement, an additional member of the Yoshinobu retinue was added.

  Originally, the Yoshinobu contingent consisted of Naga, Jii and Hideki. Musashi was added after the first postponement. Next, Yoshi was added. The most recent to be summoned was Nichi, which bothered Nichi very much. He could think of no good that would come from his appearance before the government. “They will try to kill me,” Nichi declared. However, Jii’s promises prevailed.

  All six men frowned at a bowing Yagyu Munenori. “I am sorry gentlemen. But the counselors now request the presence of the one called Myo at your meeting on the morrow,” he said. “It is requested that all who know how to use the famous ‘red sticks’ should bring one. The counselors would like a demonstration.”

  “This is too much,” Jii said. “Do you think we are playthings to move back and forth as you wish?”

  Yagyu raised his head and looked the old man in the eyes. “I do not think that. But I do think it would be wise to heed the council’s wishes.”

  “We have heeded it, all six times.” Jii exclaimed, somewhat heatedly.

  Naga placed a hand on his grandfather’s arm. “We will agree to the council’s wishes one more time.”

  Yagyu Muneyori bowed to Naga. “I appreciate your patience. I think it will be worth your wait.”

  “What do they want with Myo?” Hideki asked.

  “I do not know,” Yagyu replied.

  “Then who is it that is asking?” Hideki pursued.

  “The request comes from the Roju.”

  “By the Buddha,” Jii said. “It is ever the same—grown men playing childish games. They ought to be ashamed.”

  The next day, the Yoshinobu had their audience. The men were dressed in their best Kamishino with the sleeveless vests of wide-winged shoulders and the long-legged nagabakama of billowing pants that trailed behind as the wearer stepped on the excess length. The movement required a sliding motion to walk.

  Yoshi looked like a court jester in his. He took much good-natured abuse as he learned the sliding steps and the lifting of the cloth on the top of the thighs to keep from tripping. He got to where he could move adeptly enough, but not good enough to keep from being the butt of jokes.

  Hideki spent several minutes teaching Nichi. Then his attention moved elsewhere.

  Myo entered the room, knelt, and bowed to all. She was clothed in a plain, light-blue kimono with a wide, golden obi across her middle and tied in the back. Her hair was up and rolled in the style of the castle. In her shiny, black hair was a simple tortoiseshell comb. She wore no makeup. Her understated beauty left everyone gawking. “Moshiagemasu,” she said, letting everyone know that she was reporting as ordered.

  “Welcome Myo,” Jii said, pointing to a spot beside him. “Come join an old man while we wait for these children to sort out their games.”

  Myo smiled and nodded to Hideki. Hideki just stood with his mouth open.

  “Catching flies, Lord?” Yoshi asked, glad that Myo’s entrance had freed him from the taunts of his castle garb and demeanor.

  Hideki closed his mouth quickly with a click of teeth. “Every time I see her, she is a different person.”

  “Then your life will never be boring,” Yoshi said.

  “I suppose not,” Hideki agreed.

  They waited long enough for Jii to mention he was hungry. Then, very quickly, they moved into the grand room that had impressed Hideki during his first visit. They all filed in with Naga once again taking the place of honor facing the huge golden hollyhock mon on the far wall above the raised section of the room. Jii sat on his folded legs to Naga’s right and slightly behind. Hideki was in the same position to Naga’s left. Musashi, Yoshi, and Nichi formed a second row by dropping to their right knee, sweeping the long-legged nagabakama behind them with a swishing motion of their right hands between their legs, and coming to a seated position with both legs tucked underneath them.

  When Myo entered, she was surprised to be motioned to the side of the room where she received a cushion. She knelt upon it with her legs folded beneath her. She had been there just a few moments when one of the few men she feared moved to her left side and knelt on the tatami. He was not wearing the ornate kamishino or the encumbering nagabakama. He was wearing a very expensive black silk kimono with red piping. More startling was the fact that he wore the two swords of the kodachi. Normally, swords were banned in the castle. Upon sitting, he took the long sword from the obi on his left side and placed it away from Myo on the tatami. She wondered if she could get to her tanto in time to save herself. Hittori Hanzo read her mind.

  “Relax Princess of the Five Families. I am here to protect you,” he said, and smiled.

  Myo was not convinced. Oni Hanzo had a fearsome reputation among ninja. It is why “Devil” Hanzo was the nickname given to him by other ninja. However, she could do little now. Her eyes darted around as if dazzled by the grand sites.

  Hanzo smiled again. “The tatami are strapped down in this room. There is no escape below. I suppose you might be able to reach the ceiling if you had claws and could jump like a cat. But I would not try it. There are archers waiting to file in and stop you.”

  Myo bowed to him acknowledging the trap. “Then I will have to be satisfied with killing you,” she said.

  Hanzo threw his head back and laughed. The laughter seemed forced and incongruous with his menacing features. The whole room stared at him. He seemed not to care.

  “Be at ease, Myo. The highest authority in the land has pardoned you. I really am here to ensure no harm comes to you.”

  Myo stared into his cold eyes. “He means it,” she thought. Then she wondered what could possibly happen here in the castle that could be so dangerous as to warrant his protection.

  Hideki looked to his left at Myo and Hanzo with some trepidation. Hanzo bowed to him. Hideki returned the bow. To his right, Jii was complaining. “Look at this nonsense. Have you ever seen anything so lavish?” Hideki thought it was hunger as much as any concrete disagreement with the architecture and furnishings, and he was a little worried that someone might overhear Jii’s loud whisperings. “Just look at this waste of money. The main level alone must be fifty tatami long and twice as wide. Then the raised tonokoma under that ridiculously large golden hollyhock must be another twenty-five by twenty-five tatami wide. Who needs that kind of space? Are they going to promote everyone in the government at once in this room? There’s no reason for this kind of room.”

  “I guess that’s the point, Jii,” Naga said. “The gold and the greatness of the room are to awe us country gentry.”

  “Well it does not awe me,” Jii said. “What if they took half of the money they spent on the shoji screens along that right wall and used it to feed the ronin roving around this city? It would probably keep them in rice for a year.”

  Hideki thought his grandfather had a good point. The wall was beautiful. It consisted of twenty or so sliding funari partitions with beautiful scenes of cherry trees in full blossom beside a gently flowing stream. Highly polished, dark brown wood and lavish gold angles decorated each section of the screen.

  Everywhere Hideki looked, he saw wealth. Even the tatami they now sat upon was not of the style he knew. Instead of the tightly woven straw Hideki had seen all his life, this straw appeared to be a light green in color and even more tightly woven. The effect was the appearance of a newly harvested field of grass.

  On the left of the grand hall was another great painting of a battlefield. He knew it to be Sekigahara because Jii had pointed it out to him during the first visit. The ceiling throughout was divided into little squares recessed below the highly polished, dark brown wood with a gold inlay that permeated everything in the room. Inside each square was an intricate design of interlacing golden hollyhock surrounded by floral patterns of a sort that he did not recognize.

  “Well, it awes me,” Hideki said.

  “That is because you are a country bumpkin and not a sophisticate like your older brother,” Naga said with a straight face.

  Jii rolled his eyes. Hideki smiled and tried to see into the recesses of the raised portion of the floor beyond him and below the huge golden hollyhock that dominated the far wall. It looked as if the hollyhock consisted of two large sliding panels. To the left there was a step up into sliding plain bamboo shoji screens. “Probably the shogun’s entrance,” Hideki thought. To the right were large, wooden, gold-framed doors that were reinforced with golden hinges. The outside of the door was coated with the same rice paper used for the thick, lacquered funari walls and continued the cherry trees and stream scene up into the shogun’s area. Hideki had to admit, it was impressive. However, he could see how it would clash with Jii’s sensibilities. Jii was a proponent of Zen. Zen samurai sought the simple life. This room was the antithesis of perfection to Jii.

  Jii turned over his left shoulder. “What do you make of this room, Musashi sensei?”

  “Ummm!” Musashi grunted.

  Jii nodded his head up and down in agreement. “Yes, exactly,” Jii said, as if the two agreed.

  From the left, the two Tairo counselors shuffled to the front of the room in the ice-skating motion required of the nagabahama. They stopped at the raised portion and bowed to the golden hollyhock on the far wall. Then they continued the gliding shuffle over to the right wall, turned completely around, and sat on folded legs facing the room.

  Next, the same scene repeated with the four members of the Roju. These took their positions on the left, sitting on their legs and facing the room.

  Lastly, Yagyu Muneyori entered, followed by Oeyo, the shogun’s wife. They moved to the front, bowed to the golden hollyhock, and turned around to sit on folded legs directly opposite the Yoshinobu across from a large open space.

  “I ask your indulgence. We are waiting on one other person,” Yagyu said, bowing deeply.

  Jii had had enough. “Yagyu-sama, you are the personal counselor to the shogun. We have the Roju and the Tairo here and even the lovely Oeyo,” who bowed to Jii at the compliment. “Who else could we be waiting for?” Before Yagyu could answer, a commotion in the rear of the room attracted everyone’s attention.

  “Take your hands off me. I demand to know on whose authority I am being summoned,” a distraught feminine voice demanded. All heads swiveled to the rear of the room to see O’Fuku accompanied by six armed castle guards. The guards stopped at the entrance to the room and bowed. O’Fuku waited at the threshold. She attempted to straighten her garments and hair.

  Yagyu Muneyori motioned to a spot to his right. “Please join us O’Fuku.”

  With her head held high, O’Fuku proceeded to Yagyu and stopped. “Oh, it is you, Yagyu. You have really exceeded your authority this time. I do not answer to you,” she snapped.

  The Roju and Tairo counselors shifted uncomfortably in their spots.

  “Sit down my lady. You do answer to my master,” Yagyu commanded. Heads visibly drew back at the chief counselor’s tone of voice. Obviously, something had changed. Even Oeyo , O’Fuku’s archrival, felt a little sorry for the other woman.

  Naga leaned to Jii and whispered, “Omoshiroi,” letting his grandfather know he thought this was interesting.

  O’Fuku obeyed the stern command and plopped herself down amidst her billowing robes. It was obvious that she was not happy. Nevertheless, it did not last for long. As the proceedings began with the announcement of the purpose of the meeting by the attendants of the Roju, O’Fuku remembered herself and put on a warm smile.

  “This body has heard much of the red sticks and wishes to see a demonstration of their use,” Yagyu announced. “Yoshinobu-sama, are you prepared to show us how they are used?”

  Jii bowed. “Yes, Yagyu-sama. Chief Doshin Nichi and my youngest grandson will demonstrate.”

  Both Nichi and Hideki stood, bowed and moved to the area of the room between Naga and Yagyu. Nichi took on the role of instructor. “The Jutte is an old weapon. It is also the badge of the police officer. In the city, most of the policeman’s confrontations are in close quarters and with commoners.”

  Nichi drew his red stick from his obi around his waist. “If the policeman is threatened with the club,” Nichi started as Hideki stepped toward him with a drawn Jutte as if to club him on the top of the head. “Then the police officer can deflect,” Nichi said as he parried the downward attack to his head by striking metal to metal, “and then use the Jutte to subdue.” Nichi continued Hideki’s motion to the right and hooked his right hand around Hideki’s neck, bringing the Jutte alongside Hideki’s carotid artery. He then applied pressure. Hideki felt himself blacking out and slapped his left hand on his left thigh signaling submission. Nichi released the pressure and added, “as you can see, it can be an aid in submission techniques.”

  Hideki and Nichi took their original positions. Hideki was about to attack again when he was interrupted.

  “What happened to your hand, young Yoshinobu?” O’Fuku asked.

  Hideki turned and bowed to the questioner. “I got a little too close to the flame and burned it, Lady O’Fuku.”

  “That is an interesting glove. Does it allow you full use?” she inquired.

  “For most things,” Hideki responded.

  “Can you still wield a sword … or must you go through life as a cripple?” she persisted.

  Hideki was about to respond when an unexpected ally intervened. “Only someone of low birth would ask such a question,” the shogun’s wife, Oeyo said, looking away from O’Fuku.

  Hideki smiled and nodded his head towards Lady Oeyo. Then he addressed O’Fuku. “I have learned to adapt.”

  “It seems our wild city has been cruel to you, young samurai,” O’Fuku observed.

  “Not the city, just the cowardly vermin that murder the Tokugawa and call themselves Foxes,” Hideki said, a broad smile on his face.

  “It seems you harbor some hatred for them.”

  “It did not start that way,” Hideki said. “I have learned to hate cruelty and the greedy plotting of the elite who waste the lives of the people on senseless whims.”