“Make it today, Hideki,” Jii thought.

  Naga inched closer to Hideki, ready to bring his sword up and to the right or left to deflect Hideki’s attack. He knew it would come. He knew what it would be. Hideki never varied. It would be a thrust to the chest followed with a strike to the shoulder. He loved his little brother and wanted him to do well. However, Hideki had always been impatient, breaking first with an attack and giving Naga the edge.

  “He’ll attack soon,” Naga said to himself.

  When Hideki’s expression and stance remained motionless, Naga inched closer. Now he was within striking distance of Hideki.

  “Hideki will break,” Naga said to himself again. Now sweat was starting to pop out on Naga’s forehead.

  Jii watched both. “This is a new Hideki,” Jii mused to himself. “He is calm.” He shifted out of his sazen sitting position to unfold his legs in front. The motion caused Naga to glance in Jii’s direction.

  “By Amida,” Naga cursed. He had let himself be distracted, leaving himself vulnerable.

  Jii could not believe his eyes. He had shifted position and made deliberate noise to break Hideki’s concentration. Hideki had not broken. Naga had. This was remarkable. “What has happened to our Hideki?” Jii wondered.

  Naga whipped his eyes back to Hideki. Hideki had not moved. He looked as calm as ever. Naga slowly raised his sword back and up until his head and right foot were closest to Hideki. “Hideki will take this bait,” Naga insisted to himself. “He cannot resist the opening.” Hideki did not move. “What is this?” Naga wondered. He could not stand here all day with this nitwit. He had things to do.

  “Arrrghh!” screamed Naga as he brought the sword’s arc down towards Hideki’s head. “I’ll show the little twit,” he thought as he put all his weight behind the strike.

  Jii gave a sharp intake of breath as he saw the move develop.

  “Hideki, you will never learn,” Jii thought. Then the world changed.

  Hideki moved his right shoulder into his brother’s attack as he brought up the short sword in his left hand to the side of his own head to deflect the downward blow. As his momentum moved Naga’s sword to the left and downward, Hideki brought the long bokken in the right hand up and smashed it down on the top of Naga’s head, cutting his power at the last second.

  “Ahhhhh!” yelled Naga as he dropped his sword to the floor and clutched the reddening lump on his shaved pate.

  “Omedito gozaimus, Hideki,” Jii congratulated. “Omedito indeed. I have never seen a better executed technique.”

  “You are lucky, Naga,” Hideki stated to his pained brother. “You put so much power behind your strike that I almost could not control mine.”

  “What happened?” Naga asked as he checked his head for blood. “I was an inch from braining you and then I was on my knees. Where did you go?”

  “I told you, I saw a very remarkable swordsman today,” said Hideki. “But come, we must get some cool water on your head or the lump may be permanent. That would really end your chances for a suitable marriage,” laughed Hideki. “I’ll show you what I learned later.”

  Jii watched the two brothers go out. He was happy. He looked down to the wooden swords on the hardwood floor.

  “Two swords,” he pondered. “Is it Bushido?

  Chapter 5: The Call

  Yoshi watched the two brothers walk from the large room into the inner rooms of the mansion, one holding his head. It had been a good match. He had watched it from the rafters of the building across the courtyard where he had hidden half the night and all of this day. He knew there was very little chance of detection. For one thing, it looked like his targets did not employ ninja. On the other hand, if they did, they were better at their tradecraft than he. “Ridiculous,” he muttered to himself. Ninja were the first thing any ninja would search out. Nevertheless, he had seen no evidence of any spies.

  He put his eye back to his looking glass just in time to see the old man pick up the two wooden bokken and place them back on the wall, then close the sliding doors that opened onto the courtyard. Yoshi collapsed his looking glass and started to replace the thatch in the roof where his glass had protruded. Just as well; he had seen enough.

  They were both good swordsmen. However, the younger one had an aura about him that disturbed Yoshi. “What am I feeling?” he asked himself. “Is it goodness?” Yoshi pondered before moving. Sometimes haragai could be a curse. “Yes … goodness!” Yoshi agreed with himself.

  That was as closest he could come to defining it. The younger brother radiated a “goodness” that was strange in a samurai. Would he kill? He was a samurai so he would kill. Yoshi had just watched him almost brain his brother. So maybe it was not goodness after all. Maybe he was feeling that the young man was destined for something else—for greater things.

  “Urusai,” Yoshi scolded himself. He could not be thinking about a target. He knew the rules of the people of the grass. “I live in shadows. I die in shadows. I do not walk in the light,” he repeated from memory.

  The light was for normal people. He was ninja. He could only think of his mission and his clan. Nothing else mattered. However, he was coerced into this assignment and that was not the ninja way either. It certainly was not the Dewa ninja way. Poisoning his wife was inexcusable. But neither he nor his family took precedence in an assignment. “That last one is hard,” Yoshi thought to himself.

  He found he really missed Chiyo. He looked at his hands. He could kill with these hands. “But I can also kill with feet, knees, elbows, and shoulders, and I can make a lethal weapon out of almost anything. I am a well-trained killer,” he recited. Then he grinned, remembering the hours of training with his father. “And I am a master of camouflage,” he said dutifully under his breath.

  Then Yoshi shook his head to clear his thinking. He could not afford to identify with a target by thinking of him as human. He was about to depart from his hiding place when equestrians thundered up to the compound gate. From his vantage point, he could only see the tops of their heads.

  “Open the gates in the name of the shogun,” the authoritative leader proclaimed.

  Yoshi watched as grooms took the horses and the three messengers walked inside the compound. Yoshi was trying to determine if he would take a route over the roofs or under the floorboards to listen to the meeting. Just as he was about to cover the hole in the thatch roof and move to a better vantage point, the room next to the courtyard in which the brothers had fought opened and the doors peeled back. Women and young boys bustled about, wiping down the hardwood floor. Small, round, woven mats dotted the room amidst freestanding paper lanterns. The evening light waned. Yoshi’s luck was holding. The same room he had been spying on was to be the meeting room for the messengers from the shogun. He smiled to himself. He remembered his father saying, “Luck is ninety percent preparation.” He would not have to move. He got the glass back into place and went through the drill of tightening and relaxing all the muscles in his body to stave off cramping. He slowed his breathing, got his eye behind the glass, and smiled again. The placement of the mats in the large meeting room meant he could see everyone’s face.

  “I wish Chiyo was here,” he thought. Wanting her was certainly about the physical and mental joy she would bring, but more importantly, she could read lips much better than he could. She had tried to teach him, and he had gotten much better, but if they were speaking in that Edo dialect, he would have a hard time keeping up.

  The chief messenger took position at the head of the room on the raised place of honor that was approximately four inches off the hardwood. Nagamasa faced him in a seated position on the hardwood. Jii was to Naga’s right and slightly behind. Hideki sat to Naga’s left and slightly behind. The chief messenger sat cross-legged and his two assistants did the same, slightly behind on his right and left. To Jii’s right, with his back to the open courtyard, sat the Yoshinobu counselor. To his left were Yoshinobu clan samurai in descending rank down both the outer and inner walls of the dojo, which was now the ceremony room.

  The chief messenger reached into his lightweight outer hoari jacket and pulled out a white paper folded rectangular with a golden hollyhock emblem on the outer cover. “Mina no mono, kike!” he dutifully shouted

  The Yoshinobu all bowed to the crest of the Tokugawa shogunate.

  The messenger opened the letter and began reading in a loud and authoritative voice: “The Yoshinobu are to journey to their Edo mansion in all haste. They are to take thirty retainers for the trip and sufficient staff to run their Edo residence indefinitely.” That was it. He folded the letter back up into the paper outer cover, thrust it back into this garment, and bowed to Nagamasa. The Yoshinobu all bowed again.

  The old messenger had streaks of grey throughout his hair. Nevertheless, he was still lean and hard looking. He turned his sitting position to his left so he was addressing Jii. “I remember your heroics at the left flank at Sekigahara, Yoshinobu-san,” he beamed.

  Old Jii smiled at the thought. “And I yours, Fusa,” Jii replied.

  The old messenger shook his head approvingly. “This house befits a samurai family. Function without the trappings of the merchants you see all over Edo these days,” he said. “Would you believe I saw a Christian cross and Portuguese chairs, tables, and dishes in a high ranking samurai’s Edo home not more than a week ago?”

  Jii rocked back in the expected disbelief. “The old ways are the best ways, Fusa,” Jii stated. “We should carry them on in our children.”

  Fusa nodded appreciatively. Then he turned back to the center of the room. “But your home is almost like a battlefield headquarters. I see no feminine touch here. Do you not give your wife free hand in the home?”

  “Hai, Fusa. I lost my wife several years ago to the spring fever, and my nephews have not taken brides yet,” Jii offered.

  Fusa nodded agreeably. “Yes, it is hard when we outlive our loved ones.” Then, abruptly, he looked back at Jii. “I would love to spend the evening drinking and honoring our fallen comrades, but we must depart once the horses are rested.”

  “Yes, reminiscing is what we old men do best,” Jii laughed. “Please follow the page to your rooms and bath. Refreshments await you afterward. We will wake you at first light. We’ll catch up another time.” Jii bowed.

  “Thank you for your hospitality,” the chief messenger said, returning the bow. Then they stood up and filed out of the great room in procession behind a young samurai boy.

  Once the messengers had left, Hideki spun toward Jii and was about to speak when Jii held up his hand to stop him. Jii turned to the chief counselor on his right. “Please dismiss the men and set the watch.”

  The chief counselor bowed. “Hai.” Then he spun to face the men along both sides of the room. “Mina-san, everyone is dismissed. Section one takes the first watch.”

  When all the men had bowed and walked backwards facing Nagamasa, bowed again at the entrance and departed, Hideki could not contain himself any longer.

  “Finally, Edo at last!” he exclaimed. “It’s where I’ve always wanted to go. I can visit all the famous dojo’s and maybe even get a lesson from the Yagyu themselves.”

  Jii frowned in disappointment, happy now that he had dismissed the retainers so quickly. “It is always ‘you’ that you think of first. When will you learn that a samurai must serve others first?”

  Hideki frowned. “Okay, who should I be thinking about?” he asked.

  “He means me, Hideki,” replied Nagamasa.

  Hideki looked at his brother in surprise. “Why you?”

  Naga smiled. “Because, little brother, we are being summoned to Edo and we have to go quickly. That in itself is a huge undertaking. Then, upon arrival, the counselors of the Tairo and the Roju will judge us. They will test us to see if we are worthy. But the real reason Jii wants you thinking of someone other than yourself involves the fact that two shogun heirs and family members have met with premature deaths in the last month. All died at the hands of a band of deadly thieves plaguing Edo that call themselves the Fox Gang. The entire Yorifusa family, including men, women, and children, were wiped out last week, or so said one of the messengers.”

  Hideki dramatically gripped his sword hilt. “You expect trouble?”

  Jii answered for him. “We always expect trouble Hideki. The closer we get to Edo, the more we have to expect trouble from foe and friend alike.”

  “Let’s be very wary,” said Naga. “Let’s start with doubling the guards and let all know what happened to the Yorifusa. We’re a long way from Edo, but we should start being careful from this moment forward.”

  Jii nodded in agreement. Hideki nodded as well. “It shall be as you say, Naga,” Hideki said.

  Fifty feet away and one level up, Yoshi silently folded his looking glass again as the sliding doors below were closed into place in the great room across the courtyard.

  “Just my luck,” thought Yoshi. “Doubling the guard means I’ll have to catch them in Edo or along the way. Then Yoshi thought of a way to turn the bad news into something good. He could swing by the village and visit his family in the next few days. There was no way the Yoshinobu could ready themselves for travel in less than three days. The thought brought a smile to the assassin’s face.

  Yoshi placed the looking glass into one of several pouches sewed inside his outer garment and moved through the rafters on mouse feet. He exited the building via the loosened roofing thatch and moved along the roof to the tree with large limbs overhanging the thatch. After a short climb down and a jump over the mansion walls, he was into the shadows along the dirt road that made up the main thoroughfare of the village. He removed the hood and wrap that covered all of his face except his eyes, then took off his black ninja jacket and reversed it to reveal a drab gray color with the symbols for Abe Courier Service. His small straight ninja sword tied across his back was removed and wrapped in a brown woven mat with the gray side out and tied across his back for the world to recognize as his outdoor sleeping mat. Next, he retrieved a six-foot staff and a large box wrapped in a gray kerchief. The staff went through the kerchief and everything went across his shoulder.

  Yoshi paused a moment to get into character. He thought about a courier and his distinctive gait, visualizing the rhythm, playing it over in his mind. Then he started the shuffling lope that was faster than a walk but slower than a run. It was the gait used up and down the Tokaido, the road connecting Kyoto to Edo, by couriers to conserve energy but eat up miles. A short time later, he was at the entryway of his temporary abode. It was a dilapidated shack but home while he needed it. He first checked for any signs left by friendly people of the grass. Seeing none, he then instinctively looked for any obvious disturbance caused by an enemy. Only then did Yoshi approach the broken wooden door. He was about to slide it back when he quickly and silently jumped to the right. His haragai sense had alerted him—someone was in his shack.

  Yoshi was about to retreat when he heard a distinctive feminine voice. “Kyotsukete, ne, Yoshi. Why are you so nervous? You are among friends.”

  Yoshi stepped into the shack, turned around and sat down in the iriguchi to remove his footwear. With his back to the one room shack and his feet at street level, he reached down to untie the straw lowers and cloth uppers that were the distinctive purview of the working class. He then ladled out water from the wooden bucket, poured it into his neck cloth and began washing his legs and feet. Once clean he repeated the process in a pottery bowl for his face and hands. Then he stepped up into the living quarters and faced the female ninja.

  “Dostano?” Yoshi asked. “What do you want?”

  “Why so irritable, Yoshi?” she replied. “We are on the same team.”

  “Is that the team that poisoned my wife?”

  “She was never in any danger,” Sachi said dismissively. “We needed something to get your attention.”

  “Well, you got my attention and my blood,” Yoshi stated, thinking of his fingerprint on the contract. “So I ask again, what do you want?”

  Sachi frowned. “I see being nice to you isn’t going to work. Okay Yoshi, I want to know what progress you have made.”

  “I’ve located the family dwelling and identified the key members. I’ve determined it is too early to map their movements as they have not made any,” he stated as if talking to an infant. “And if you are going to be bothering me with constant reports and second guessing, you can forget the contract.”

  “You know that isn’t possible without making your wife a widow,” Sachi reminded. “You’ve infiltrated the mansion?”

  “Of course.”

  “Any chance of taking the target in the mansion?” she asked.

  Yoshi thought before he responded. “None that I’ve seen that allows for any egress. The compound is a little different than most. There are outbuildings just in from the compound wall that surrounds the main building. Getting from the outbuildings to the main building is the problem, and they have just doubled the guards.” Yoshi continued without answering Sachi’s raised eyebrows. “Stealth won’t do. I’d have to infiltrate and that would take a long time to set up.”

  Sachi nodded. “So you will have to wait until they leave the compound?”

  “Yes,” Yoshi replied. “But we may be in luck. I think they are leaving for Edo this week.”

  “You think?” asked Sachi. “Thinking is not satisfactory.”

  “Well we are not all as perfect as you. Some of us must think before acting. I was across the compound in an outbuilding trying to read lips. It is not my specialty.”

  Almost speaking to herself, Sachi murmured, “I told the Oyokata we should not use an amateur for such an important mission.”