Yoshi sat at Denzaemon's house. It wasn't properly an inn, and it wasn't really Denzaemon's house either -- it was an extension to the house of Denzaemon, a wealthy Ariki merchant. The extension sold food and drink, and it was where the poorer merchants and ashigaru came to eat, drink and gamble. The inn was near the boathouses, down below the temple.
Yoshi was nursing a rice beer. It had been two days since Nishi had left, and he was getting uneasy. It hadn't taken him much thought to realize that Nishi had made it impossible for him to achieve anything by leaving. With her gone, there was little he could do here. It was obvious enough. It made him angry, though.
Yoshi didn't get angry very easily. He was easy-going by nature, and quick to forget a slight. For him to be angry for two days straight was almost unheard-of. He was still steamed at the way Nishi had treated him, though. He knew he wasn't as quick as some people, but she had acted like he was a child. Just a dumb peasant. It was clear she didn't think much of him.
Two of Kura's Chinese men-at-arms came in the bar and sat down at a table. Their eyes swept the room, then they kept to themselves. Yoshi didn't watch them, but he kept them in view. Odd - Denzaemon's house wasn't the sort of place that Kura's henchmen would frequent.
Yoshi had been seeing Kura's cronies a lot lately. It wasn't strange; Ariki was a small place, and they tended to wander around, but they had been more visible than usual. Hanging about watching when the ashigaru were exercising, strolling about when Yoshi had gone into town, a few sitting over drinks when he was out drinking and so on. Now that he thought about it, two of them left the castle at the same time as he and Nishi when they had gone for their last meeting.
Yoshi was not a fast thinker, but he wasn't stupid. His size and homely looks tended to make others underestimate him. Even if he didn't get there fast, he got there. They were following him. Yoshi's spine went cold. They knew something.
What it was didn't matter -- they'd kill him just on suspicion. If they knew something and still hadn't taken him in and killed him, there had to be a reason. They were following him to try and find his accomplices. As soon as they got bored with that they would just bring him in and interrogate him, then kill him.
That made up his mind. He had to go after Nishi. It didn't matter that she was pushy and mean; she had been right. But if he was being watched then Kura wouldn't want him leaving. He had to escape without them knowing.
Yoshi walked slowly back to the barracks, thinking all the way. The Chinese didn't follow him, but there was another one sitting in the shade of a mulberry tree near the castle gate as Yoshi went up the ramp. A little too casual.
Escaping wasn't going to be too hard -- they weren't following him very closely. But as soon as they knew he was gone, there would be hell to pay. So the important thing was that he delay pursuit.
Yoshi stopped by the mess and mooched a dozen rice balls. The cooks knew him and liked him; they also knew he ate like a horse. He often got an extra rice ball or two. A dozen was many more than usual, and he made some off-hand remark about going out late tonight. He didn't care if they thought it a little odd -- these rice balls were not his escape, they were his distraction.
Taking the rice balls, Yoshi went back to his mat in the barracks. Opening the crude chest that each of the ashigaru had, he carefully rolled up the riceballs in a strip of cloth for travel. Then he took his armour and bundled it tightly, wrapping it in a blanket and a cloak with all his spare clothing, a small knife, a little cup, and chopsticks. He carefully put the bundle back in his chest at the foot of his mat and placed his staff beside them.
He hated to lose his armour, but leaving the staff was the worst. All his careful preparations were for show. They were a distraction for pursuit. With any luck they would delay a search for him for days, as they waited for him to pick up his bundle before going. That assumed they would search his things, but Yoshi was fairly certain of that.
It was getting dark when he left the barracks. He found his gambler friends and went drinking at Fusasaki's inn. At night it was a very rough place, but Yoshi liked that. None of the locals would make much trouble for him -- there had been a big kago-bearer last month who thought he was tough. Sasaki was his name, Yoshi thought. He was tough, too -- Yoshi had to hit him twice. He should have known better than to have gotten up after the first blow.
The kago-bearers often needed travelling food for refreshment on longer trips, and Fusasaki sold rice balls and dried fish as well as sake and beer and hot food. Yoshi bought enough for a few days, making some joke about how little they fed him at the barracks. Buying any more would draw attention.
As soon as it was fully dark Yoshi left quietly. The moon wasn't up yet, and Ariki was quite dark. Yoshi cut across town to the poorest part of Ariki, the small fishermen's huts on the north side of the inlet. Moving through the dark there, Yoshi cut through an abandoned house and changed direction, heading south along the shore to the boathouses south of the temple. Nobody was there, and Yoshi popped into one of them. He found an oar heavy enough and strong enough to serve him as a staff, then sat down in the dark to wait.
After thirty minutes he was certain he hadn't been followed. He bundled his food into his clothing, tying it tightly with his obi, and left out the water side of the boat house. He made his way straight into the water. Now, in early fall, it was warmer than any other time of the year, but it was still cold. Yoshi had little choice in the matter, though. There were always guards at the bridge, and they would remember if someone as large as he passed by.
Pushing the boat oar in front of him and using it for flotation, Yoshi swam into the little bay. It took him longer than he liked to cross the river mouth, even here where the bay had hardly begun to widen, but he was climbing out into the salt marsh by the time the moon rose over the mountains. From the salt marsh it was a short trek to the Kubota road, and Yoshi could follow it south. He kept the boat oar -- it would make an effective staff, and he had no other weapon.
Soon he had disappeared into the marsh, and the harvest moon shone down on the quiet bay.