The Hand of Death Ch. 09

"That money box!" pointed Shingan.

Ino gave a sort of 'Oh that money box' expression as he handed it to me and I passed it on to Sensei. He opened it and sifted through it before giving a small whistle.

"Nice trophy for you children. There must be almost 150 silver in there." He said as he closed it and handed it back to me.

I was puzzled. "Sensei?" I asked as I took it back.

"There are no lords in the Bei-oshi, Hiro san. What you collect, you keep."

That night on the boat I tried to sleep, but something nagged me. I cracked my eyes slightly as Grandfather had taught me, so that they would not glow from any light hitting them. I saw Shingan just before she leaned into me and whispered, "Domo arigato." and then she leaned down and kissed me! I enjoyed the kiss. It made me feel... different. Then she pulled away suddenly, "You're awake." She sounded angry as she went back to her place on the boat. I couldn't help but grin. She stuck with us after that, whether it be training or raiding. She fit in well with us. Most of the other students had broken up into little groups of friends also. Not that we didn't interact with each other, we just had our favorites.

"What do you mean you haven't read the Dao!?" I said.

Shingan replied coolly, "I wasn't aware it was required reading for an assassin."

"It most certainly is!"

Sanuro and Ino looked at me surprised. Ino said, "It is?"

I frowned at him and shook my head.

"Why have you not read it?" Sanuro asked her, but was interrupted by Ino.

"Actually, I have heard that the more you read the Dao, the farther you are from

enlightenment."

Sanuro turned to him. "Then you must be very enlightened."

I ignored them. "You are going to be a monk someday, if you live. Do you not think you should, at least, have a basic understanding of the book?"

She thought a moment. "No. Because I am not going to be a monk."

"Why not? It is a good reward after a life of toil and strife."

"It is no reward for me, domo arigato."

Ino took up the cause. "Why not?"

"...I have my reasons."

Ino scooted closer with a grin. "What reasons?"

She shook her head. "You will laugh."

All three of us looked appalled. I said, "We would never. You have our word."

"No. They are my reasons."

"But, you have our word." Sanuro said.

After a moment she gave in. "...They shave their heads."

There was a short pause before we rolled on the floor with laughter.

"You promised!" she screamed.

She was very angry, which just made it that much funnier. I managed to get the sensei to agree to letting me have a copy of the Dao. I read to my friends a few times each week. I would ask them questions on the Dao, much like Grandfather used to ask me. We continued this way practicing and reading together for another three months. We were six months into the class and we had already lost twenty students. Ino looked very concerned when we found out we were to go against the Mito family of the Bandai House.

"This doesn't look good." Shingan stated when she saw his expression.

"Why are you so depressed? It's just another raid." I asked.

"My father is a samurai whose master travels to the Bandai lands all the time. He talks to many of the Mito when they pass through. He says they are very competent."

"Has he ever fought one?" She was being rude again. She liked being rude.

"No. But you can tell a lot about a man from the way he carries himself."

Sanuro chimed in with, "Yes. One would think you an idiot when he first sees you. So you have proven your point to me," he smiled.

I listened to the whole exchange that followed, laughing. The sensei lead us to the wall of

Toshi Towada, after our briefing in the woods. We went over as one and managed not to be detected by the city guards. There were eight of us that night. Our class crept through the back streets of the city to the castle walls. We crossed it in groups of two. This too went well.

We all waited in the gardens for the signal that was to come from the castle. When we saw the woman open and close the windows to the courtier's room three times, we moved. Tonight's mission was one of distraction. We were not informed why it was needed, just that we should make a scene. We heard the alarm get sounded by the watchmen.

"Well, here it comes." said Ino.

"Fearful are we?" replied Sanuro.

Ino looked at him and said. "Oh you're talking like a big mononofu now."

I laughed at them. Shingan piped up with, "Where should we go to start?"

I answered her. "I don't recall the enemy ever having a problem finding us before."

"Yes but Ino said these samurai were really good. Which translates as, "The morons probably won't check the gardens."

Ino looked offended. "Are we going to talk all night or do our job?"

He ran off towards the edge of the gardens; a Mito saw him and the game started for us. The distraction went well, at first. Everyone danced around the samurai with grace, and the Mito were in a quandary as to how they should respond. They finally sent detachments to hunt us down. These we harassed and wounded. We tumbled all over the city that night.

My friends and I had led many of the Bandai away from the castle and out into the city. Everything went well until we were dodging a party of them in the merchant district. We ducked down an alley in order to buy some time when Ino was cut down by a guardsman hiding in the shadows. He grunted and fell before our eyes. The mononofu grinned, happy at his success. He felt safe in his heavy armor. He was wrong. A few moments later his body lay in the dirt with three shurikan buried in his forehead. Ino was dying. His back had been slashed and his spine severed. We drug him into the shadows that had hidden the samurai. The other hunters ran by a moment after Sanuro brought Ino's legs in.

"Where are you?"

Shingan held his hand. "We're right here, Ino."

"It was fun, eh?" Samurai do not cry. But we weren't samurai. "My father said they were good."

He laughed a little then his face relaxed. I thought he was going to say something else at first. He had wanted to spy on the Okayama and bring back their secrets, like Goemon Kamitanto did with the Shikoku. But instead Goemon Ino died in a dark alley of Toshi Towada. He never screamed.

We sat there hurt and stunned until we heard the horn calling us to leave. Sanuro wiped his tears away and stood up as he threw Ino across his shoulders. I pulled my sword and a dagger as I led the way out of the city. Shingan had done the same as she brought up our rear.

The walk home was a quiet one. Ino was the only student we lost that night. The Sensei was actually sad for us. He commented that Ino was one of the five for Inari. A ninja who did what he was supposed to do but died anyway. That evening as we tried to sleep, Shingan crawled over and lay next to me. All I could do was hold her while she cried quietly. I was pretty angry at Inari on that walk across the Honshu lands. My friends worked to bring me out of it. Not Shingan and Sanuro as they were too devastated, but the other four survivors, Izanagi, Ebisu, Kinsen, and Roko. They loved Ino as well but were trying their best to improve our moods. None of us knew what would help. We missed our stupid friend.

So there we were, in the dead center of the Honshu, angry and beaten, when we saw it. Night had set an hour ago and the glow from the village was very obvious. Sensei wanted to get closer in case it was a problem that could affect us. Best to know. As we approached we heard people screaming and the fire looked like it had engulfed half of the small village. Just then a man in tattered clothing and covered in ash came running up to me from the village.

He grabbed me by the shirt as he begged, "Please you must help us! The Doshin cannot last much longer!"

I spoke to him. "There is nothing we can do. We are just beggars."

"No! Please! He and the Komono will die! She will kill them and destroy our town!"

"Who?" I asked.

"The Jorogumo!" That is, a large, scary, and very powerful, spider/woman/demon. "I don't know why she's attacking us but she's destroying everything!"

I looked at the man and sighed. Sensei stepped towards me. "This is not our fight."

I looked at him as I dropped my pack. "I am only required to let my enemies die."

I removed my sword from where it was hidden in my bedroll. The man's smile was enormous. I put it on my back and looked over my shoulder at my friends; they were doing the same. Sensei shook his head and dropped his pack as well. The peasant was pouring thousands of thanks over us and we hadn't done anything yet. When we pulled out our hoods and slid them over our heads his smile faded and his eyes became very large.

I squatted next to him and said, "Stay here where it is safe until we return."

He nodded many times. The eight of us took off sprinting to the town. Sensei was able to

just hop to the top of the first building. The rest of us scaled it quickly and squatted at the top. In the street below us we saw bodies strewn everywhere. One that used to be a Komono lay melting from the inside out because of her poison. The Jorogumo was thrashing around and trying to kill the last two people in the town. Everyone else had run away. Only the Doshin and his last Komono were there attempting to stop her and her rampage. The other side of the street was on fire and the heat was intense.

We looked to Sensei and he gave the nod. I dropped to the street and bounded over to the

monster from her left side. I had readied my shogue and threw it across her neck. I waited for the hook to make it just over her head before I pulled the rope and sunk the hook into her. The spider hissed in pain and moved to attack me. The Doshin and Komono were stunned at what they saw. My friends sent three more shogue into her from other sides while the rest hacked at her limbs with their ninja-to. The Doshin came back to his senses and began to slice into her head while his man went back to piercing her with his spear.

Just then Sensei came flying over the back of her and landed just behind her head, sinking his ninja-to into her neck. She howled, if that could describe the sound. Sensei forced his sword to the right, slicing through half of her neck and then forced it back to the left. At the same time the Doshin gave a mighty swing at her head sending the huge thing flying across the street. The bulk of her body just collapsed to the ground after that.

The Doshin and his Komono stood ready for us to attack, as they did not know what we would do next. We recovered our weapons while Sensei just squatted atop the beast and stared at the Doshin. After a moment he flicked the blood from his blade and signaled us to leave. We sprinted back to the safety of the woods. Just before I stepped out of sight I looked back at the village, and then slipped into the dark.

The peasant was gone when we got back to our things. Once we were repacked and back on our way Sensei walked up next to me and asked,

"What did you see when you looked back into the town?"

I smiled. "They were praying."

He smiled at that. When we returned to Shiro no Shotoku we found out the story of our

adventure had spread. The story was that the spirit of the woods saw the people being destroyed by a jorogumo so she sent eight ninja to kill the monster. The Honshu changed the name of the village to "Ninja's Grace" and the citizens planned a celebration every year to commemorate the event. Shishou Shi was very proud.

A month later we were informed that we had another mission. We were going to the

Shikoku lands. The House Daimyo had a pretty serious problem. The House merchant had

managed to take control of his finances and now he had no choice but to do as the man commanded. This was a very embarrassing situation for the Daimyo. He needed the merchant removed immediately.

The three of us walked for over a week with our sensei to get into position. As was normal for us, we spoke to no one and didn't stay in any towns. We slept in the woods and were resupplied by Koga agents along the way. Eventually we crossed by boat from the Imperial town of Shira and headed into the mountains of the Shikoku. It wasn't until we were just outside of the city that our sensei told us the man's name, description and where his home was located. The city we were outside of was Toshi no Tokushima. These were the samurai who used Niten-Ichi, the two sword style of fighting.

All we had to do was kill the man. We slipped over the wall and crept through the shadows of the city until we reached the walls of the castle. So far so good. We scouted a good spot to cross over. It was a cold night so most of the guards were gathered around the wood heaters. Once we crossed over we moved very slowly to the castle itself. Sanuro scaled the side with a rope to lower for Shingan and me. Once he was in place he lowered it and we followed him up. We recovered the rope and left it in the rafters of the fifth floor for us to use when we had to leave. We eased our way around the outside wall, being careful not to wake the sleeping people in the rooms below. Our orders were for Sanuro and me to back up Shingan when she went for the kill.

When we reached his room, Shingan slid down to the floor while we covered her. She pulled her ninja-to and moved towards our sleeping target. When she was half way there I saw some black smoke come down from the ceiling behind her. It took me a moment to snap to what it was. Just before it reached her I dropped from the rafters and knocked her out of the way just as the shinobi swung his katana through the space where she had been standing. He tried to counter swing into me but I had rolled away and back onto my feet. Before he could decide who to attack, I saw another ninja-to burst through his chest. Sanuro had just enough time to duck out of the way as another shinobi tried to stab him the same way Sanuro had just stabbed his partner. Sanuro did get cut but I leaped in to parry the shinobi's strike. As we continued to fight the merchant woke up.

"Who is there?"

Was all he got out before Shingan had thrown a knife into his chest. Sanuro sliced the shinobi's leg which gave Shingan the opening she needed to take his head off. There were two samurai stationed outside the room the whole time, but since no one sounded the alarm, they never knew anything was wrong. The man would have been better served by good yojimbo. One of the things I got from my father's story of the ronin attack was that he was screaming for help the whole time. His job was not to be stoic. It was to keep his master alive. These men were ninja and as such had too much time in training on, "You cannot speak! You cannot scream!"

Anyway, we bound up Sanuro's cut with a strip of sheet from the merchant's bed. I checked the dead ninja but all they had were weapons. No notes or money or anything that might give a clue as to who they were. They both had some kind of tattoos and other markings on them but I was not sure what they meant.

Sanuro's wound was not too bad of a cut, he got out of the way just in time, but it would take some time to heal. Once he was ready to move we went back up into the rafters and back to our rope. Down the rope, recover the rope and stow the rope. Then finally the slow creep back to the castle walls. Amaterasu was starting to rise. We, a little less slowly, made our way to the city walls.

The "up and over" went cleanly and we met up with our sensei again. He was very interested in the shinobi. I described the markings they had but he did not seem surprised by any of them. We quickly made our way to the boat and cast off as soon as we got there.

Sanuro said, "Shingan, be sure to let me know if you see Sensei preparing any ropes and stones, OK?"

Sensei laughed with us. "It is not that bad of a wound, Sanuro san." he replied.

Once we made land and walked to our next hide for the day, Sensei removed his shirt. He had strips of silver on his back that resembled wings and odd scars all over his chest and arms along with multiple tattoos. He asked me over to compare his markings with what I saw on the shinobi. I did not see their backs but his chest was very similar. I told him what I remembered as being different and he wrote it down in a log.

Later, Sanuro asked, "How did you know to shove Shingan out of the way? I was still sitting there trying to figure out what that smoke was."

"My sensei set me to follow Daimyo Tetsuya one time. I got caught by a man

who appeared after some black smoke came down from a tree."

"Was Tetsuya mad?" asked Shingan.

Sensei replied, "No. He was quite impressed with the boy," as he continued making notes in his log. He looked up to see me staring at him with a stupid expression on my face. "I was still in the tree." he commented.

Once we got back to school we found that Daimyo Uwajima Ryu had begun an extensive search to find the assassins who cruelly and viciously murdered his merchant in cold blood. In reality, his searches coincided with the villages and cities of the Shikoku lands where his merchant's ledgers said he had conducted business. Ryu's payment to my House was on time and double the amount promised.

Shishou Shi had an Onmyoji come in to heal Sanuro. Even so, it still took a week for him to be whole. Once he was back up and ready to go Shi gave us our next mission.

"Hiro, you are to take your two friends and go to the 'Loyal Koga' tea-house in town."

I was a little concerned.

"Once there, steal the apron of Shotoku Taiki, the owner."

Huh?

"You have until dawn tomorrow to complete this most difficult task," He said sternly.

"...OK?" I said.

Then he bowed and left.

We turned to each other and Sanuro spoke. "So I know why I am so confused by this 'mission,' but why are you acting like it's odd?"

I looked at him and scratched my cheek. "My sensei and I lived in this town for over a year. I ate at Taiki's place probably twice a week in that time. I know the man. I can just go and ask for his apron." I shrugged.

Shingan said, "I think Shi knows that. This sounds like a break."

"Why would they give us a break?" I asked.

Sanuro nodded. "Because they didn't know there would be shinobi waiting for us with the

merchant... We should be dead."

I grabbed a few coins from our stash and walked my friends out of the school and up the road to Shiro no Shotoku. I showed them a few of the sights as we walked but wanted to get to Taiki as soon as I could. When we walked in I dropped a silver Genbo into his jar. That always got his attention. He looked up with a slight smile.

"Domo arigato, my... Hiro?!"

I smiled and bowed to him. "How have you been Taiki sama?"

"Very well but even better now! How have you been? I have not seen you in years!"

"I have been busy." I slightly turned and gestured to my friends. "I would like to introduce you to my friends, Shotoku Shingan and Fujibayashi Sanuro."

We finished the introductions and, since he had plenty of help on the floor, we walked with him to his office so we would not have to be too proper.

Once there I explained. "Taiki, I cannot give too many details, but I need your apron."

He thought a moment. "Well it will cost you your first born male child."

I looked at him. "Please don't tell me it has sentimental value."

He shook his head. "No. I was teasing. My wife has sentimental value. This thing is just an apron." He took it off and handed it to me. "You can't tell me why you need it?"

"No, but I can make it up to you. Do you still serve that fish stew you are famous for?"

I saw Shingan and Sanuro become very interested once I mentioned food and the word

"famous."

"I do."

"We will pay double." I smiled.