The Way of the Sword

by Unknown

  Jack heard three more squelching footsteps and looked up. Above him towered the bulk of Nobu.

  ‘I can’t go any further. I’m sinking!’ complained Nobu, oblivious to Jack’s presence right at his feet.

  ‘You’re useless! Come back then.’

  Turning round, Nobu slipped and wobbled on the edge. For a moment it looked like he might fall into the hole, but to Jack’s relief the oaf regained his balance.

  ‘Do you think it was one of the sensei?’ asked Nobu as he slowly made his way back to Kazuki.

  ‘No,’ replied Kazuki. ‘A sensei wouldn’t run away! But whoever it was, we need to convince them to join the gang. Or else silence them. Come on. Let’s go find the others.’

  Jack, shivering with a combination of cold, fear and anger, waited until he was sure Kazuki and Nobu were gone, then crawled out of the hole. As much as he wanted to go back to his room, he first had to find his sword. Masamoto had instructed him that ‘it must never fall into the hands of your enemy’. He couldn’t risk Kazuki finding it.

  Jack hurried to the back of the Butokuden, but in the darkness and downpour it was impossible to see anything. He scrabbled around on his hands and knees, praying his fingers would come across it.

  Suddenly he was aware of footsteps running up behind him.

  Loath to leave his sword, he realized he had no choice but to escape while he could.

  Jack sensed the blow a fraction before he was caught hard across the gut. He reeled, gasping for breath. Struggling to keep his feet, he heard movement to his left and turned to face his enemy.

  The problem was that Jack couldn’t see. The darkness completely enveloped him. But he could hear Kazuki snorting with laughter in the background and the sound of shuffling feet. Apart from that, he had no other way of knowing where the next attack might come from.

  Out of nowhere the swoosh of a weapon came rocketing towards his head. More by luck than skill, Jack lurched sideways and avoided the blow. In blind retaliation, he swung wildly at his assailant. Missing his target, he flailed through empty air.

  Before Jack could follow through, he was struck across the shins. His legs went from under him and he fell to the ground face first. He tried to roll out of the fall, but was too disorientated. Jack grunted in pain as his shoulder ploughed into the stony earth.

  ‘Yame!’ boomed the voice of Sensei Kano, bringing the fight to a halt.

  Jack pulled off his blindfold, squinting into the bright light of the midday sun. Kazuki was kneeling in line with the other students, delighting in Jack’s defeat.

  ‘Sorry, Jack,’ apologized Yamato, taking off his own blindfold and offering his hand to help him up. ‘I didn’t mean to hit you so hard. It’s just I couldn’t see where you were…’

  ‘Don’t worry, I’m fine,’ grimaced Jack, pulling himself to his feet.

  ‘Good work, both of you,’ commended Sensei Kano, who sat upon the worn steps of the Kompon Chu-do Temple.

  Once again, Sensei Kano had led his students at dawn up Mount Hiei for their lesson in the Art of the Bō. He considered the long walk good conditioning for them and the mountain air beneficial to training.

  ‘I heard three attacks avoided. And you, Yamato-kun, were highly aware of your surroundings. Two strikes on target are praiseworthy for a first attempt at blind kumite, but please control your strength next time. It sounds like Jack-kun took quite a tumble. Let’s have the next two students.’

  Relieved the free-fighting session was over, Jack handed over his blindfold to another student and knelt back in line between Yori and Akiko. He massaged his aching shoulder, groaning as his fingers found the bruise.

  ‘Are you hurt badly?’ asked Akiko, noting Jack’s pained expression.

  ‘No, I’m fine… but I’m still not sure why we’re learning to fight blindfolded,’ replied Jack under his breath, ‘when all of us can see.’

  ‘As I explained before, Jack-kun,’ interrupted Sensei Kano, whose acute sense of hearing had picked up the comment from the opposite side of the courtyard, ‘to see with eyes alone is not to see at all. In my lessons, you’re learning not to rely upon your eyes to defend yourself. As soon as you open your eyes, you begin to make mistakes.’

  ‘But wouldn’t I make fewer mistakes if I could see what my enemy was doing?’ asked Jack.

  ‘No, young samurai. You must remember the eyes are the windows to your mind,’ explained Sensei Kano. ‘Come stand on this step before me and I will show what I mean.’

  Sensei Kano beckoned him over. Jack got to his feet and joined him on the steps.

  ‘Look at my feet,’ instructed the sensei.

  Jack studied his teacher’s open-toed sandals and was instantly struck on top of the head by the sensei’s bō staff.

  ‘My apologies, I’m blind and sometimes clumsy,’ said Sensei Kano. ‘Please keep an eye on my staff for me.’

  Jack followed the tip of the white staff, ensuring he was not caught out again.

  Sensei Kano kicked him sharply in the shin.

  ‘Oww!’ Jack exclaimed, hobbling backwards.

  The students all sniggered behind their hands.

  ‘Lesson over,’ stated Sensei Kano. ‘Now do you understand?’

  ‘Not really, Sensei…’ said Jack, rubbing his sore shin.

  ‘Think about it! If you look at an opponent’s feet your attention will be directed to his feet, and if you look to his weapon your attention will be drawn to his weapon. So it follows, when you look to the left you forget the right, and when you look to the right you forget the left.’

  Sensei Kano let the message sink in. He pointed to his own sightless eyes.

  ‘Whatever is being contemplated within never fails to be revealed through the eyes. Your enemy will take advantage of this. In order to fight without giving yourself away, you must learn to fight without relying on your eyes.’

  Jack put down his writing brush. After his humiliation in front of Sensei Kyuzo over not being able to write kanji, Akiko had offered to teach him the basics of calligraphy. Whenever they had free time before dinner, they would meet in her room and she would show him a new kanji character and the correct order of brushstrokes needed to form it.

  Akiko looked up at Jack, wondering why he had stopped halfway through her explanation of the character for ‘temple’.

  Jack took a breath. Since his discovery of the Scorpion Gang and losing his sword, this was the first opportunity he’d had to speak with Akiko alone and he was uncertain how to tackle the mystery of her absence the previous evening.

  ‘Where were you last night?’ Jack eventually asked. ‘You weren’t in your room.’

  She blinked once, her mouth visibly tightening at Jack’s inappropriate directness.

  ‘I don’t know what it’s like in England, but that’s not the sort of question you ask a lady in Japan,’ she replied coolly and started to pack away her writing tools. ‘Perhaps the question that should be asked is, where were you?’

  ‘Me? I was at the Butokuden…’

  ‘That will explain why I found this,’ she snapped, sliding open the door of her wall closet and taking out Jack’s katana.

  Jack was completely thrown, both by Akiko’s harshness and his sword’s unexpected appearance.

  The previous night when he’d heard footsteps approaching, he’d run back to the Hall of Lions empty-handed, afraid it was Kazuki and his gang. On returning to the training hall at first light, his sword was nowhere to be seen. He assumed Kazuki had taken it and had been worrying ever since, for to confront him about it would mean revealing he knew about the Scorpion Gang.

  Miraculously, though, Akiko had it. He stared at her in curious amazement.

  ‘Thank you, Akiko. I’ve been looking for it everywhere,’ he eventually said, bowing to receive his sword.

  ‘Jack, this sword is your soul,’ she continued gravely, ignoring Jack’s outstretched hands. ‘It’s unforgivable to lose such a possession. The shame is even greater considering this was a
gift from Masamoto-sama and his first sword. Why didn’t you tell anyone you’d lost it?’

  ‘I only lost it last night. I was hoping I’d be able to find it. Akiko, please don’t tell Masamoto-sama,’ pleaded Jack, mortified at his mistake.

  Akiko stared impassively at him and Jack couldn’t tell whether she was disappointed or pitying him for his carelessness. Then the hardness in her expression softened and she handed over the weapon. ‘I won’t. But what was it doing at the back of the Butokuden?’

  This was not how Jack had envisaged the conversation going. He had wanted to find out where Akiko had been and whether she knew about Kazuki’s plans. He hadn’t expected to have to account for his own actions.

  ‘I spotted intruders in the courtyard again. I thought they could be ninja breaking into the school,’ confided Jack, hoping that if he was straight with her, she would be with him. ‘But it wasn’t.’

  ‘Who was it?’

  ‘It was Kazuki, Nobu, someone else and, you won’t believe this, Moriko from the Yagyu Ryū.’

  ‘Moriko? In our school?’ she replied, alarmed at the idea. ‘Have you told Masamoto-sama?’

  ‘Not yet. He’s still not returned, but we must tell him. Not just about Moriko, but about Kazuki’s Scorpion Gang.’

  Akiko listened intently while Jack described what he had overheard about daimyo Kamakura and the Scorpion Gang.

  After some thought, Akiko replied, ‘Jack, there are always rumours of war. Of daimyo threatening daimyo. We’re in a time of peace now and there’s no reason why this won’t continue. You’ve met daimyo Kamakura. He’s hot-headed and power hungry. Masamoto-sama often complains about how he’s always stirring up trouble. But it never comes to anything. He never has the support.’

  ‘That’s what Sensei Yamada said. But what if he is getting the support?’ insisted Jack. ‘What if –?’

  ‘Jack! There you are!’

  Jack looked up as Yamato burst into the room with Saburo.

  ‘You two look like you’ve been busy,’ he said, picking up a piece of paper with one of Jack’s attempts at kanji. ‘It’ll be dinner soon and we all need to get a bath. What’s keeping you?’

  ‘Jack saw Kazuki in the Butokuden last night,’ explained Akiko in hushed tones, indicating for Saburo to close the shoji behind him. ‘He and some others were getting a tattoo from that Moriko girl from the Yagyu School.’

  ‘Moriko?’ said Yamato, alarmed. ‘What was she doing here?’

  ‘Supposedly, Kazuki’s formed an anti-gaijin gang.’

  ‘But tattoos? They’re the mark of a prisoner!’ exclaimed Saburo.

  ‘They used to be,’ corrected Akiko. ‘But now merchants, and even some samurai, are getting them as marks of bravery or declarations of love.’

  Saburo laughed and gave Jack a reassuring grin. ‘Jack, whatever it is you’re worried about, you certainly don’t need to be afraid of a gang of convicts and lovers.’

  ‘It’s no laughing matter, Saburo,’ retorted Jack. ‘Kazuki’s serious. He has it in for me.’

  Yamato nodded thoughtfully. ‘It sounds like Kazuki thinks he’s a warlord or something. I know what we should do – me and Saburo will become your official bodyguards.’

  ‘And we’ll arrange to see Masamoto-sama as soon as he returns,’ added Akiko.

  ‘Anyway, Jack, you should be less concerned about Kazuki and more worried about how much you smell!’ Yamato teased, throwing Jack a towel. ‘Come on, let’s get to the bathhouse before they serve dinner. I’m hungry.’

  Sighing with bliss, Jack eased himself into the steaming hot water of the ofuro.

  There had been a time when he would have run scared of a bath. In England, it was considered dangerous for your health, a surefire way to catch the flux. But his time in Japan had soon changed that opinion and now the ofuro was one of the highlights of his day.

  Having first scrubbed and sluiced himself down in cold water, he then slipped into a large square wooden tub of hot water. Jack began to relax. Sensei Yamada and Akiko had both dismissed his fears about daimyo Kamakura. Perhaps the combination of the night and the raging storm had distorted his perception of the whole situation. Maybe Kazuki’s war amounted to little more than a figment of his rival’s imagination. Anyway, with Yamato and Saburo looking out for him, he should be safe.

  Jack allowed the steaming water to loosen his muscles, easing the tension in his bruised shoulder. His worries began to disappear too, seeming to dissolve in the heat of the bath. After a while, he got out and towelled himself down before joining the others for dinner.

  ‘How’s your shoulder, Jack?’ asked Yamato as they headed over to the Chō-no-ma with Saburo.

  ‘It’s much better thanks to the bath, but don’t worry about it. I’ll get you back in kenjutsu tomorrow!’ promised Jack, punching Yamato on the arm.

  Yamato gave an expression of mock pain and they all laughed.

  ‘That’s a devastating right hook,’ commented a voice from behind. ‘I’d better watch out.’

  Their amusement ceased as Kazuki, flanked by Nobu and Hiroto, strode towards them.

  Jack clenched his fists, preparing for a fight.

  Perhaps the Scorpion Gang was more than just a game. Perhaps Kazuki really believed he was a warlord.

  20

  THE SCORPION GANG

  ‘What do you want?’ demanded Yamato, stepping between Jack and the approaching gang.

  The two groups of boys confronted one another.

  It was getting dark in the school courtyard, the only light coming from the entrance to the Hall of Butterflies. Other students passed by, oblivious to the impending conflict, and there were no sensei in sight to witness a fight.

  The tension grew as Yamato waited for an answer, his eyes daring Kazuki to make a move.

  ‘Dinner,’ said Kazuki cheerfully in response, before walking on past with his friends, laughing.

  For the next month, Yamato and Saburo stuck close by, but there appeared little need. Kazuki and his gang ignored Jack as if he no longer existed. Kazuki in particular seemed more intent on training for the Circle of Three selection. Jack had spotted him several times in the Butokuden receiving extra tuition from Sensei Kyuzo.

  Although neither of his friends said anything, Jack sensed they were beginning to doubt his story.

  Even though Masamoto had returned to the school, Jack hadn’t managed to meet with him before he was called away on yet another assignment for daimyo Takatomi. But with the apparent threat coming to nothing, and Moriko not having been seen in the grounds since, there seemed little point in meeting with him anyway.

  ‘I’m going for a walk,’ said Jack, passing by Yamato’s room on the way out of the Hall of Lions. ‘I need some air before bed.’

  ‘At this time of night?’ observed Yamato, frowning. ‘Do you need me to come with you?’

  Despite the offer, Yamato looked far from willing. He had already settled down on his futon, it was cold outside and the Shishi-no-ma was warm.

  ‘No, don’t worry. I’ll be fine.’

  Besides, Jack needed time alone to think.

  Stepping outside, he wandered round the courtyard before perching upon one of the beams that would eventually support the floor of the Hall of the Hawk.

  The new building was rapidly taking shape. The foundations had been completed and the main wooden pillars were now in place. When finished, the hall, although half the size of the Butokuden, would nonetheless be an impressive addition to the school.

  Like all the other students, Jack wondered what martial art he would learn within it. That was if he was still around.

  Although his fears of an anti-gaijin campaign were supposedly unfounded, he couldn’t help noticing that certain students seemed less friendly towards him. He had always been isolated by the fact that he was different. During his first year at the school, Akiko had been his only true ally, but after his victory at the Taryu-Jiai most of the students accepted him. Now, many had started to igno
re him again, looking through him like glass.

  Of course, he could be imagining it. He was struggling with his training and had lost confidence in making it into the top five in the forthcoming Circle of Three selection trials. It had been getting him down and this could be distorting his perception. But did he really have any hope of entering the Circle and going on to learn the Two Heavens?

  Jack looked up at the night sky for an answer, but this time the familiar constellations his father had taught him offered cold comfort. The nights were drawing in and autumn would soon give way to winter, signalling the start of the trials.

  ‘Eh, gaijin! Where are your bodyguards?’ demanded a voice that made Jack’s heart sink.

  He turned to face Kazuki. This was the last thing he needed.

  ‘Leave me alone, Kazuki,’ replied Jack, slipping off the cross-beam and walking away.

  But other students emerged from the darkness to surround him. Jack looked towards the Shishi-no-ma for help, but there was no one around. Akiko, Yamato and Saburo would be in bed, if not asleep, by now.

  ‘Leave you alone?’ ridiculed Kazuki. ‘Why can’t your kind leave us alone? I mean, what do you think you’re doing in our land, pretending to be samurai? You should give up and go home.’

  ‘Yeah, go home, gaijin!’ echoed Nobu and Hiroto.

  The circle of boys took up the chant.

  ‘Go home, gaijin! Go home, gaijin! Go home, gaijin!’ Despite himself, Jack felt his face flush with humiliation at the taunts. He desperately wanted to go home, to be with his sister, Jess, but he was stranded in a foreign land that now didn’t want him.

  ‘Just leave… me… alone!’

  Jack tried to escape the circle, but Nobu stepped forward and pushed him back. Jack collided with one of the other boys who shoved him the opposite way. He stumbled into the cross-beam and, as he fell to the ground, Jack caught hold of a boy’s kimono, ripping it open.

  ‘Now look what you’ve done!’ exclaimed the boy, kicking Jack in the leg.

  Jack was curled up with pain. Still he couldn’t help staring at the boy’s exposed chest.