They had need of good luck. The trip south towards the larger city of Sendai had been long and slow.
It had started well enough, with the hospitality of the Aomori lord; a bath and a few days rest. Even though the Aomori was hesitant to offer more, he had been very courteous. He had supplied the group with armour boxes, so their armour could be easily carried. It would have been disrespectful to the Aramaki, who controlled Sendai province, if they had walked the roads in armour. Kenji hadn't liked it much, as it meant he ended up carrying the armour boxes slung on long poles, but it had been much more comfortable for the samurai.
Still, they were on foot. They passed through the Aomori fief without incident, but it was a slow, dusty road down the highway. Every night Yabu had collapsed in exhausted sleep, not yet fully recovered from his terrible injury in the battle of Ariki. They could not afford horses. What little money Ogame-sama had needed to be carefully hoarded, as they had yet a very long way to travel.
Then they stopped at a small honjin on the highway. It was raining, so the inn was a little crowded. When they entered Junzo's foot had inadvertently struck the katana hilt of a Samurai sitting close to the door. The samurai claimed insult immediately, and challenged Junzo to a duel in the morning, then left the inn.
Warming themselves with heated sake, Yabu heard a snippet of conversation from the next table. They were talking animatedly, and suddenly Yabu heard a name he recognized. They seemed to be discussing the news that Kano Jigoro had been defeated recently in a duel in the northern part of the province.
Soon after, one of the men from that table came over, and asked if he could join them. The man was clearly a samurai by his manner and weapons, but he wore no clan badge. His clothing was moderately clean but patched and well-worn. He introduced himself as Gen, a ronin.
Gen turned out to be well-informed about the small village. The samurai who had challenged Junzo was Gunichi Kano and had apparently made six previous challenges in the last two weeks. He had not even been touched in any of these fights. According to Gen he was a master of the Silent Sword technique.
Yabu had heard of this rare and difficult technique, but had never seen it used. It was a form of kiai or warshout that could actually stun the enemy, making him very vulnerable to a simultaneous strike with the sword. In the hands of a master it was very dangerous.
Deliberately off-handedly, Gen mentioned that he had heard that the Silent Sword technique was ineffective against a deaf swordsman, and some said that it might be defeated by plugging one's ears with beeswax. Yabu nodded warily. Clearly Gen was more than a simple ronin, but what was his game?
The duel next morning was almost an anti-climax. After some thought, Junzo had plugged his ears with beeswax as advised. Yabu and Ogame-sama had discussed it, but they could not see any way that it would hurt Junzo's chances. And if the tip was accurate, it might make the difference between life and death.
The opponent was waiting in an animated crowd of people. Junzo went and stood before him, and the crowd backed up. For several long minutes, the two men stared at one another.
Then a flash of action, and it was over. The enemy had used his Silent Sword technique, exactly as Gen had said. Even five paces back, both Jiro and Yabu had been staggered. It was truly a dangerous technique. A peasant between them had fainted with the force of the shout.
Junzo, however, was unaffected. He struck as his opponent leaped in, nearly cutting the man in two pieces across the hips.
Gen had come over after the fight, grinning and pocketing the coins he had made betting on Junzo. He then asked if the group was going south, as he was also going that way. After some hesitation Lord Ogame agreed that they might accompany him, and they all went back to the honjin to discuss it. It seemed that Gen had a scheme to make money as a bounty hunter. He knew of some pirates not far away that had a significant bounty -- more than 100 ryu! They were too numerous for him alone, but with the group of them it and their armour it should not be hard. He'd split the reward from the military government evenly with them if they would help.
Ogame-sama didn't like the idea of bounty-hunting, but both Yabu and Junzo advised him that they weren't in a position to refuse any honorable method of making money. The funds they had weren't sufficient to get far, and with 100 ryu they could take ship from Sendai to Osaka, rather than spending months on the road. They would soon be destitute if they didn't get more money, forced to work as caravan guards or something.
They had agreed to Gen's plan.
The pirates had apparently taken over a village responsible for lighting a navigation pyre at night, marking a reef. The pirates were planning to divert a ship into the reef by moving the pyre, then salvaging the wreck.
Two days later they lay hidden, watching the village. The activity matched Gen's story, with peasants under guard systematically building a pyre on one headland of a small bay overlooking their village. A matching stack of wood on the other headland showed the position of the true navigation marker.
Yabu crept into the village, past the bandit guards. Most of the village was not in use; the men of the village were locked in one building under guard. Some horses were stabled in a second building, also under guard, and the bulk of the bandits were in a third. All the other village huts were cold and empty.
When Yabu returned, they resolved to attempt to sneak down into the village that night. The ideal moment to strike would be when the pirates were most busy and split up, soon before the ship was sighted. They would be mustering the peasants to help salvage the wreck, not expecting a sudden attack from an unoccupied building.
They spent an uncomfortable day hiding in the hut, right in the middle of their foes. When the ship was sighted and the alarm was given, they burst out of the hut and took the pirates totally by surprise. Yabu took a slight wound from a short throwing-spear, but they slew the pirates to a man. The pirate captain had struck down Junzo, though; splitting his helmet and nearly his skull. After some inspection it appeared that he would live -- Jiro handled Junzo's wound most deftly. The pirate captain had not survived his success, and he lay like a fish on the beach, impaled on Jiro's naginata.
Yabu started collecting heads when Gen stopped him. "I don't think that will be a good idea," he said. "I think it might be better if all these ... pirates simply disappeared."
Yabu was confused, and it must have showed in his face. In answer, Gen went over to the leader of the pirates and flipped back his outer kimono. Clearly showing the mon of the Aramaki clan on both shoulders, hidden under his cruder outer garment. Jiro and Yabu both sat back on their heels. The Aramaki controlled Sendai province. What was going on?
Yabu glanced back at the bodies strewn across the shale beach. That explained the strange behaviour of the `pirates.' When attacked by surprise by armoured samurai, they had not fled, but rather had attempted to regroup and counterattack. When their leader had fallen, the last group had charged furiously to attack rather than running in disorder. Their weapon-training was superior, and they were disciplined.
These weren't pirates, they were samurai. Samurai hiding their allegiance.
Gen waved at the ship passing by the headland. Even in the dim light, the mon painted on the sail marked it clearly as a ship of the Muromachi Clan who dominated the Bakufu, the military government. Heading south, away from Sendai province.
"It is a Bakufu gold shipment," Gen said matter-of-factly. "It seems that this group of Aramaki were intending to divert and wreck it."
Yabu couldn't decide if he was angry or not. "Are you an agent of the Bakufu?"
Gen smiled disarmingly. "I am just an unemployed samurai," he said.
Yabu didn't know how far behind them the Aramaki were. It would only take a little questioning to determine the likely people who had interfered with this plan, and they could not move quickly with Junzo so severely injured. But once they left Sendai they were safe, at least for the moment. It might be awkward to return, though. Hopefully the Aramaki would decide to pretend the incident never happened. There was no evidence, after all.
Gen had been as good as his word, though. He had given them 60 ryu plus the horses, which they had sold at Sendai for another 16 ryu. It had taken them three days, carrying Junzo in a litter between two horses, to reach Sendai. They had managed to find a ship leaving for Osaka that would take them.
Sitting on the ship's deck as they left the Sendai harbour, Yabu looked over what he had just written.
Our boat of gumwood and dark locust
Her paint scaling like serpent's skin
Sets forth into the throng of craft
In Sendai harbour.
Uncounted travellers,
Uncounted desires
Borne over green water.
A sudden gust of wind snatched the scrap of mulberry paper from Yabu's hand and flitted it over the ship's rail, ink still wet.
Yabu smiled. An offering, of sorts; sometimes the spirits waited for their offerings and sometimes they took what they desired. It was a good omen, he decided.
They had need of good luck.