The Living and the Dead

Standing out on the front porch of the inn, Nishi tried to stop shivering. It had been a week since she had waken up the servant's quarters with her shriek of terror; a shriek she blamed on a nightmare of seeing her dead husband standing before her. Considering the truth behind the event, it hadn't taken much of her acting skill to convince the others that her fear was genuine.

As soon as she had been able, Nishi had sent a message to Yoshi up at Ariki castle to meet her at the inn in the evening. At the moment, the inn keeper, pleasantly surprised with her industrious work habits, refused to allow her any time off during the day. In truth, Nishi was almost glad, since it meant she didn't have to venture inside the walls of the castle, where Kura cast dark spells and things 350 years dead walked the halls.

Now, clad in her kimono and haori, Nishi sat on the edge of the inn's front porch, sipping tea and waiting patiently for Yoshi to arrive. The ashigaru she had given the note to had promised to deliver the message as soon as he saw the giant youth. Nishi suspected that Yoshi couldn't read, but that didn't matter, she had told the man to inform her 'boyfriend' where she was working.

 

Down the dim street came a distinctive figure. If anything, Yoshi looked even bigger than usual. His shoulders were broadening. With a smaller man one might have said his youthful frame was filling out. Since Yoshi's frame was so large to start, this was a daunting prospect.

"Ah! Yoshi-kun! You finally made it!" Nishi jumped up, waving delightedly. Inwardly, she sighed slightly. Playing the part of Yoshi's seemingly simpleminded girlfriend got to be a bit tiring at times.

Yoshi raised a huge hand self-conciously. "Hi Nishi... -chan." He wasn't a very good actor, and it was clear he hadn't entirely gotten over the revelation that his ally Rinzo was a woman. It was also clear that he wasn't entirely comfortable using a term of endearment to Nishi.

"Yoshi, I'm glad you could come, I've got some important news for you."

"Oh?"

Clinging tightly to the man's massively muscled arm, Nishi pressed herself up against Yoshi's side. "Yoshi," she whispered into his ear, "I know who the hero of Dan-no-ura and Ichinotani is."

"Uhn?"

Nishi glanced about the darkened street in front of the inn before continuing, "He is Minomoto Yoshitsune. The man I saw talking to Kura in his tower... Yoshi! Kura brought him back from the dead! That's why he dug up the funeral bowls!" Nishi looked about fearfully, hoping no one had overheard her fierce whispers.

Yoshi looked around also, but no-one was near. "Let's go down to the beach, Nishi"

Nishi nodded in agreement, "Good idea Yoshi." Tailing after the towering youth, Nishi tried to act casual as she made her way down to Ariki bay. Nishi could feel her impatience to reveal her new-found discovery to Yoshi growing. Keeping quiet for even a short walk such as this was almost more than she could bear.

 

Finally, she and Yoshi stood on the wind-swept beach. The last houses were only a hundred feet or so away, above high-tide, but the sound of the surf made this as secure as any place could be.

Nishi pushed her long hair over her shoulders, combing a few loose strands out of her face. Turning to face Yoshi, she tugged her haori tighter about her shoulders. "Yoshi, the man that Kura was speaking to in his tower, the man I saw, is Minomoto Yoshitsune. Kura brought him back from the dead!"

"Minomoto Yoshitsune? Back from the dead?"

"Yes," Nishi tried to keep her voice low, but her obvious excitement and nervousness made her words shrill. "He defeated the Heike at the battle of Dan-no-ura and Ichinotani! He helped make his brother the first Shogun!"

"But why bring him back from the dead?"

Nishi paused and thought a moment, "I don't know why... but Kura promised him that he would soon be made Shogun. And..." Nishi fell silent, trying to remember the priest's exact words. "He said something about being Shogun over a realm larger than anyone had ever dreamed..." Her eyes suddenly went wide, "You don't suppose Kura wants to use Yoshitsune to help him conquer Korea and China?"

Yoshi shook his head. "Why would anyone want to conquer barbarian lands? And where is the huge army that would require?" Suddenly his eyebrows quirked. "... but where is the army to make Yoshitsune Shogun?" Slowly he raised his gaze from Nishi to the surf, then the sea, and then the horizon. His face went white.

Nishi joined Yoshi in looking out over the sea. "What is it Yoshi?" she asked, not really wanting to hear the answer. "Where do you think Kura is going to get the men he needs?" She paused, and then white as well as she remembered the Korean sailing ship that had anchored here several months ago. A ship carrying a cargo of small urns for Kura. "He's raising an army of dead men..." she whispered, throat tight with fear.

Yoshi shook his head. "No, that doesn't make sense. Where would he hide them?." His eyes stayed locked on the horizon. "Don't you see? The only way Yoshitsune can become Shogun is with an army, an army Kura doesn't have. Doesn't have here.

Yoshi gestured around the isolated port city, taking in the high mountains, the coastline. "Ariki is too isolated to make a good center of a rising against the Bakufu. If Kura's army is in Japan, why is he here, where he has only a very small force?

"It only makes sense one way. Kura's army is not in Japan. So he needs Ariki, not as the center of a revolt, but as the site for an invasion."

Nishi blinked, images of Kura madly summoning dead samurai back to life vanishing as she realized what Yoshi had said. "In... in... invasion? Kura is going to use Ariki to invade Japan?" Nishi swallowed and paled even further. "Yoshi? Remember I said Kura had been talking into a bowl, and that he was talking to someone? He said something like; 'hurry back, your countrymen grow restless in your absence'. He must have someone gathering an army for him in China." Nishi turned to Yoshi, grabbing one of his large hands in her own much smaller ones, "Yoshi! I was right! We must leave Ariki immediately and tell Ogame-sama what is going to happen here!"

Yoshi looked down at Nishi's two small hands surrounding his and flushed before removing his hand from hers. ".... I guess so ..."

"Of course. Do you think you could leave tonight?"

Yoshi looked up at White Feather Castle. "But the plan was a good one, Nishi. It might work."

Nishi shook her head rapidly, "No, no, no, NO! Yoshi, we can't fight Kura! Not if he has men such as Minamoto Yoshitsune guarding him!"

"We cannot resurrect a hero of our own, to fight Yoshitsune! Shall we give up, because Kura has such a name on his side? This is the only time that plan would work, Nishi. And if there is an invasion coming, killing Kura might stop it, or at least slow it down."

Nishi took several steps back from the youth, her expression suddenly cold, "Yoshi I'm sorry, but I will not help you to try and kill Kura. Not now. I am leaving Ariki to head for Osaka and try and find Ogame-sama. If you want to stay here then that is your decision, I have made mine."

Yoshi's face hardened. "I ... see." His normally cheerful eyes looked hurt and angry. He stood for a long time without speaking, looking at Nishi.

Nishi stood silently, ignoring the wind that blew her hair about and tugged at the folds of her haori and kimono. Her expression was stern, although her eyes seemed sad. Finally, she broke the silence, "Yoshi, there are only the two of us; we will probably die trying to kill Kura. How can we serve Ogame-sama if we are dead? At the very least one of us must head south and try and find him, he must know what we have learned here." She paused and looked away from the younger man, trying to ignore his obvious anger, "Yoshi, I had hoped you would come with me, to accompany me on the trip as a yojimbo."

It was a long moment before Yoshi responded. "Hire some _other_ dumb peasant." He turned and started the walk back with long strides.

 

 

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