Blade Of The Immortal Fan Fiction ❯ Abstinence Education ❯ Part Forty-Five [3/3] ( Chapter 47 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Man and woman, parent and child: can one that’s been lost ever be restored?

The characters and universe of Blade of the Immortal/Mugen no Junin are copyright by Hiroaki Samura and do not belong to me. Not one sen will come into my hands in consequence of this story. Warnings for sex in various forms, including quasi-incestuous themes and a sixteen-year-old female paired with an adult male. Violence and dismemberment are legally required in any BotI fic, though right now everyone's trying to give peace a chance...

taishin hatamoto: ‘Greater bannerman’, a term for the highest ranks of the shogun’s personal retainers.
wakadoshiyori: Junior elder; the officials immediately subordinate to the shogun’s inner council, the go-roju.
nekki: A game resembling horseshoes, in which players attempt to knock down a stake with throwing sticks.
noh: A traditional form of stylized drama with music, performed by actors in masks. Noh was considered more aristocratic and high-brow than kabuki, something like the contrast between grand opera and Broadway musicals.
Jizo: A guardian deity for travelers, women and children. Jizo shrines are still found along roads in Japan, and small Jizo figures can be placed at temples in commemoration of an infant’s death, a stillbirth or an abortion. (This practice probably originated in the twentieth century; I have extrapolated it into the past.)
obasan: Aunt; the term can be used to address any woman of middle age, not just one’s actual relatives.
o-mamori: A protective charm, often written characters enclosed in an envelope which is never opened.

Units of measure:
Cho = 109 meters/358 feet
Ri = 36 cho/4 km/2.5 miles, or about one hour’s walk at a moderate pace.
Shaku = 30 cm/12 inches


Abstinence Education
by Madame Manga

Part Forty-Five, continued [3/3]





“Tongue,” said the doctor.

Rin sat up a little straighter and obediently opened her mouth. The flat-faced young man put a finger on the end of her chin to steady her jaw and tilted her head towards the soft light that filtered through the paper shoji doors. O-Chiyo shifted the lantern; the sun was descending and the cryptomeria trees that rose above the roofs of the guest lodgings would be casting their long blue shadows across the garden and veranda.

Or so Rin imagined they must look, since her medical examination required the doors be kept shut without even a crack available for ventilation, and she had no view of the evening sky. In her tiny screened sleeping area, the combined heat of three bodies and the smoky lantern pressed on her, the air’s smell losing freshness by the moment. The bitter taste of the medicine she’d forced down lingered in the back of her throat even though she’d drunk cupfuls of water to wash it away. “Guhh...” Rin gagged while attempting to keep her mouth open for the doctor’s inspection.

“Hmmph.” The doctor at last released Rin’s chin, opened his notebook, dipped his brush and scrawled something in an illegible hand. Unlike most doctors Rin had ever seen, he wore no professional skullcap; his hair parted over his high forehead as he bent over his writing in the dim light. Rin looked curiously at the top of his head, wondering again why his hair resembled bleached straw. The odd paleness didn’t strike her as premature graying, though the doctor seemed barely older than Manji – Rin fancied it was pathological in some way, though it made no sense that a doctor could be diseased. Her stomach made a loud, impolite gurgle and she tucked a hand into her obi, blushing. The doctor’s writing halted at the sound, but after a reproving pause he merely dipped his brush again.

“Rin-chan cleaned all her dishes at dinner,” offered O-Chiyo. “A healthy appetite is half the battle, my grandmother always said.”

“Hmmph.” The damp slither of the brush tip against the paper made Rin’s skin prickle in the uncongenial silence.

O-Chiyo broke it again. “There’s no sign of the fever returning, is there? I put an o-mamori under the futon as protection – the abbot himself wrote it for her.”

“Superstitious claptrap...” The doctor rolled his eyes and waved his notebook over the lantern to dry the ink. “Though the placebo effect does hold some value – particularly for the uneducated.”

O-Chiyo’s smile barely altered. “Forgive this foolish woman for her silly notions, sensei. Your great knowledge surely saved Rin-chan’s life – the abbot was so kind to offer us your services when you arrived.”

“Very kind of him. Especially since I’d traveled all the way from Edo to meet with medical colleagues, not to hover over a whimpering girl’s sickbed.” The doctor slapped the notebook shut, then smirked. “Ah well... no other doctor here could have preserved her life without an amputation, certainly. Not with the purulent invasion of the flesh so far advanced, and then there’s the added complication of the poisoning. Almost certainly a negative outcome had I not been available to treat her. Hnn... some elements of the case were perhaps not entirely devoid of interest...” He re-opened the notebook.

Rin tried not to roll her eyes right back at him, though he probably wouldn’t have noticed if she had. She slipped her hands into her sleeves and probed the sore spots on her arm. Maybe he would have preferred it if the poison and fever had killed her? Then he could have cut her open to peer at her insides; he’d dropped a few shocking hints that he’d dissected actual dead human bodies for his research!

Obviously such a fearless doctor must know far more than a sheltered, conservative woman who could never have had much schooling, and Rin probably did have his prowess to thank, no matter how boastful. Children’s colds and diarrhea remedies were the limit of O-Chiyo’s medical knowledge. But her motherly concern and warmth must have accounted for a great deal of Rin’s recovery, literally; during her first nights at the temple she and O-Chiyo had slept under the same quilt.

“I thought your journey was to treat the abbot’s joints...?”

“The inevitable price of his hospitality. But he no longer complains about his knees and there’s nothing more for me to do with this patient, so there’s no reason for me to remain at the Hasu-ji.” The doctor put away his writing materials and rapidly packed up his medicine chest.

“Then I’m well?” The doctor showed no sign of having heard Rin’s question. “I can go home now?”

“Hmmph. The incisions have drained and the fever has receded. The poison has worked through the systems and been eliminated, judging from the color and clarity of the urine. Any lingering effects are unknown, but the heavy blows of both conditions have taxed the body’s endurance. Restoring full health is a matter of time, rest and sufficient food. None of which have anything to do with a doctor’s true work... nursing is for women.” He snapped down the clamp on his medicine chest. “My patron in Edo summons me, so I’m leaving in the morning. Goodbye.”

“Oh, so soon?” Yoritawa had obviously been listening from the other side of the screen. “We’re very sorry to see you go.” The doctor gave a negligent grunt and moved around the screens, carrying his chest. Rin and O-Chiyo followed him and sat across from Yoritawa. All three of them bowed as the doctor reached for the sliding door to the outside corridor. Yoritawa cleared his throat. “The blessings of heaven be on you, sensei, for your skill and boldness in preserving dear Rin-chan’s life and limbs. May Amida reward you in paradise! I have a small token of my undying gratitude – ”

“Eh?”

Yoritawa held out a footed tray holding a parcel wrapped in a silk cloth, bowed again and set the tray on the mat in front of him. “Please accept this miserable sum – it’s nothing in comparison to...”

“Dear God, one girl’s arm? That’s what’s nothing!” The doctor swept a contemptuous gesture at both Yoritawa and the money. “I can’t afford to cultivate sentiments for only the few patients my hands can reach. When an entire nation suffers in ignorance of medical science, when thousands die who could have lived – I need to show my ability on work of real importance, not tending to rheumatic priests and a well-connected merchant’s little... whim.”

He met Rin’s eyes, which he hardly ever did, and she suffered a jolt. His gaze lacked respect, like a poke to the face. He thought a single life was a waste of his time, did he? Maybe not to the person with only that one life to spend – or to the family and friends and connections that person shared with the world. People one by one made up thousands, and thousands of thousands, a nation. What a strange doctor he was...

“Oh? What sort of work...?”

“My patron tells me I may soon have a unique chance to make medical history, if his plans come to fruition.” The doctor’s eyes glinted like metal. “But the commencement is still doubtful – I believe he needs to obtain some essential supplies that aren’t easy to locate.”

“Ah... perhaps from overseas!” Yoritawa’s perplexed expression brightened. “A foreign medicine?”

“I don’t have much idea yet... I think he doesn’t want to raise unwarranted expectations. But I gather this element isn’t a certain one. Even when it’s finally in hand, before any experiments can begin he will have to test its special qualities. They may not exist at all.” The doctor shrugged with a short laugh. “In which case, this is a pipe dream and I’ll be prescribing for old men’s aches for the rest of my life.” He pushed the door open.

“Won’t you take the...?” Yoritawa held up the tray again. “Please apply it to your great work, if you don’t want it for yourself. It’s the least I...”

“Oh, very well!” The doctor picked up the parcel of coins and took off the wrappings; he had the grace to look a little shocked at the amount. “Err... my thanks.” He tucked the money into the overlap of his clothing and folded the silk to replace on the tray. Rin’s eyes were drawn to the quick, precise movements of his hands, which unwillingly reminded her of Manji’s dexterity with a blade. “Anything else, Yoritawa-san?”

“No, thank you, Burando-dono. The blessings of Amida be on your journey.” Both men bowed, and the doctor nearly ran out of the room. “Well... one must respect his skill.”

Rin looked at the perfectly placed stitches in the healing flesh of her wrist and refrained from comment.



“No, Rin-chan. You are not leaving this room again!”

A scholar with middle-aged jowls and soft cheeks had a hard time looking more than peevish, especially while wearing a striped bath yukata and a towel on his damp hair, but apparently Yoritawa was doing his best to project an air of authority. Rin looked sideways at O-Chiyo, who knelt opposite her husband with her gaze on the tatami.

“I’m just going outdoors for a while. So many people in this room gets a little...” Rin tried not to echo his peevishness. “I might go take a look at the harvest festival.” Drums hammered at a distance down in the main courtyard, and the shrilling of flutes probably accompanied a dance around a bonfire.

Yoritawa set aside his book, stood up and kicked his seat cushion away. “How will you recover from your illness with all this running about? It’s nearly sunset. I know you’ve had a good long rest and your evening dose, but you’ll take a chill – ”

“I told her that, dear,” murmured O-Chiyo.

“And every time someone’s looked for you today, you’re gone again! I can’t tell you how much worry, how much concern – ”

“I told her that too, anata.”

“It’s intolerable. I realize I’m not your father, young lady, but I am accountable for you and I intend to exercise that discretion. For your good!” Yoritawa firmly folded his arms.

“I know. I’m grateful for what you and your wife have done, okay? But responsibility for me...? I’m not a child.”

“You’re not married yet and you don’t have a master. Your own father is dead.” He uncrossed his tight forearms and gestured to her. “Some man must hold responsibility for a young woman in your situation, or...”

“Some man?”

“For your protection, my dear. Your protection and benefit. That’s all I mean to do!”

No point in mentioning Manji’s protection, of course. Yoritawa had already written him off, and Rin wasn’t sure if she might have to do so herself. But the thought of her bodyguard and of his absence redoubled her restless mood. “I only want to go outdoors before it’s dark. I’m not running away!”

Yoritawa took a deep breath, but O-Chiyo spoke first. “Then I’ll walk with her, shall I? Let me take her to see the Jizos. The festival might be a little... drunken.” The drums hit a crescendo along with hearty shouts and whoops. “They’re celebrating the first sake brewing of the season, you see...”

“Eww, really? Is this one of those dances where the men take everything off but their...?” Rin giggled.

“I’ve... never thought to look, dear.” O-Chiyo blinked rapidly.

“With her?” Yoritawa turned to look at Rin. “Then I’ll come too. Where’s my coat?”

O-Chiyo made a face so slight Rin wondered if she had imagined it. “Oh danna, please don’t discomfort yourself. You’ve had your bath, you’ll take a chill in the belly.” She dipped her head and put on her usual deferential smile. “Women’s talk... trivial matters... and so forth?”

“Ah... I see. Oh, of course!” He nodded at his wife, his manner abruptly brightening. Rin wondered at the change. “Yes, yes, by all means. And I should be here to receive Ayama-san if he should call again. I can send a messenger to fetch you.”

“What a good thought, anata.”

“Ayama-san...?” Rin put a hand to her throat. So that was what Anotsu was calling himself while he lurked right under the noses of bakufu informants like Master Saicho. So kind of him to implicate her into helping him maintain his disguise!

“I hope he does call – I’d like to talk to him much more. His ideas! What a fertile mind – he should be a government minister. So young, but so charismatic!”

“And such a handsome face,” put in O-Chiyo, looking straight at Rin. “It might fluster any girl to be the object of his attentions.”

“Indeed! Rin-chan, we realize you weren’t expecting a distinguished visitor. So your, er-hem, abrupt manner with Ayama-san... well, a delicate state of health. I do understand. But why you never mentioned him to us at all...?” He shook his head.

“I’m sorry.” Rin flushed hard and stared at the floor. “He... it’s complicated...”

“Oh, I can see there’s something very important here, very important indeed, and I think I know what it must – no more to be said from me, however.” O-Chiyo was sending him messages with her matronly shaven brows and smiling constantly. “No, no, I’ve no idea of a young woman’s sensibilities, as you’ve already seen... but I don’t think you’ll need to chafe under my authority for long, Rin-chan.” He chuckled and rubbed his hands. “Go admire the sunset, dear ladies. I’ll hold down the fort.”



“What did he mean, not for long?” Rin let O-Chiyo support her arm as they slowly climbed a winding path to the top of one of the middling-height hills in the temple precincts. The cool tree-shadows swallowed most of the grounds and buildings, though the sky flushed warm with the declining sun and a few stray clouds took on the hues of autumn leaves. The highest roof-ridges of the temple halls seemed doubly gilded. “He sounds awfully impressed with, uh, Ayama-san.”

“Brother Joben spoke highly of him, and we respect Brother Joben’s judgment. He knows the world like few men do.”

“With all that travel he does? Uh-huh. I wonder how Ayama-san got so well acquainted with a peaceful monk...”

“If your parents had lived, dear... is he the man they would have wished you to marry?”

Rin jolted violently and jerked her arm from O-Chiyo’s. “Did he... did he SAY that?”

“Not... in so many words.” Was she speaking on the visitor’s behalf?

“But why – ”

“Danna heard the history of your father’s dojo from Ayama. His rights and connections, as he phrased it... my husband is convinced, at any rate.” O-Chiyo pressed her palms together and looked at her spread fingers, not letting them intertwine.

“He is? Then what about you?”

“I? Now, dear, as a wife... what would I say to contradict my husband?”

“Err... right.” Perhaps O-Chiyo wouldn’t say it in so many words either. Rin couldn’t quite read her smooth, modest expression, but something about the set of her smile drew a different picture. “Look, it’s... it’s hard to explain, but...” She trailed off, biting her lips. She couldn’t explain, whether she wanted to or not – just as Anotsu had warned her, the whole truth could draw the unsuspecting couple into a dangerous maelstrom.

“As I told him, I thought there should be some women’s talk.” To Rin’s mild surprise, O-Chiyo reached out and clasped her by the hand, then took it in both her own.

“Um, okay... like out of his hearing?”

“You see that danna is quite infatuated with Ayama-san. Their minds seem to run in the same channels... and the young man’s force of character impressed both of us very much. Such excellent breeding, well spoken and courteous almost to excess, especially considering our differences in caste. And he seemed so particularly concerned for our dear Rin-chan.”

“I’ll bet it looked just like that.” Rin nearly laughed out loud at the description. “But what are you...?”

O-Chiyo’s lips began to tremble, though she still forced a smile. “I’m just a foolish woman. To wish that our friend’s son, against such an impressive person... I’ve realized my hopes are impossible now.”

“You mean that boy back home you wanted me to meet? Who’s nice to his mother?”

“That was the best we could imagine for you... by ourselves.” A tear crept down O-Chiyo’s beaming face. “To take you home with us, and have you settled nearby, and see your... P-please forgive me, Rin-chan...”

“You’ve got nothing to apologize for! Oh, gosh... but Yoritawa-san – he thinks I want to marry Anot – Ayama? Why?”

“He can’t believe any girl wouldn’t long to catch such a good-looking and charismatic husband. He thought your embarrassment at the visit might prove...” O-Chiyo moved her lips, but her words trailed off. “...Danna means to speak to him again very soon. If he doesn’t pay another visit on his own, he’ll probably send a note to invite him. Tonight, I think, because the time is short. You see, we mean to leave the temple in only two days.”

Rin stared at her.

“Brother Joben suggests that it may be appropriate for us to relinquish responsibility for you, now that we are going home. Danna resisted the idea... at first.”

“So he’s going to hand me over to THAT m-man?” To her greatest enemy. With joy and gratitude for the opportunity! Rin broke O-Chiyo’s hand-clasp. “I thought he promised Manji – !”

“I know we’ve only just met Ayama-san, but with Brother Joben’s backing, danna believes nothing could be wrong. He says... that your bodyguard had no rights to you in any case, and that Ayama’s claim is far better than ours.”

“Claim? I’m not a piece of baggage – and Manji paid for me, he’s got every right in the world – ” Rin lashed a fist through the air, nearly shouting. Anotsu seemed able to make use of anything or anyone as if it were a weapon designed for his hand. By now, nothing she could say or disclose would check Yoritawa’s rush of enthusiasm for his new crush. He’d drag in the abbot to perform the ceremony and press Anotsu to accept an over-generous bride-gift and offer his own house for the marriage feast! “Your husband can’t force me to do anything. Neither can ‘Ayama’, damn him!”

O-Chiyo made a choked sound. “What is between you and Ayama-san, Rin-chan? I saw how he looked at you... like something valuable.”

She froze in mid-swing. The distant drums were drowned out by her own heartbeat.

“You spoke harshly, you wanted to seem aloof... but your eyes follow him, and you react to his every word and movement.”

Rin’s stomach quaked. “...I do?”

“My husband may have misread your manner; he says himself that he doesn’t notice little things the way a woman does. But if you simply despised your visitor... I think you’d have said so.”

Rin cringed; she’d been that frank, hadn’t she? “I’m sorry... I’m horribly rude to everyone today...”

O-Chiyo approached and gave her shoulder a reassuring touch. “Your health, dear – ”

“Why would that make me say everything that pops into my head? I don’t know why you think I’d be a good model for your children!” Rin put her face in her hands. “Oh, God, if I could tell anyone...”

“Such bravery. I’ve never had courage like yours. I know I can’t imagine what you’ve survived so far. He said you had been taken prisoner... your bodyguard tortured before your eyes, and you threatened with... with a terrible fate.” Rin looked up at O-Chiyo with wide, startled eyes. “He praised your conduct in the warmest terms. A samurai woman in blood and in belly, even so young.”

“He said that?”

“I knew he didn’t exaggerate. The first time I saw you... in the street, facing down a man who laid rude hands on you. All girls should have the courage to refuse evil.” Rin opened her mouth to defend Manji – though she couldn’t claim he’d had her welfare in mind at that moment – but O-Chiyo’s manner gave her pause. Something like revulsion, something haunted under her stiffly waxed hairstyle and her comfortable face. A sheltered housewife, someone she’d thought too naïve and conventional to understand? Rin waited a moment longer before she spoke.

“All girls? Like...?”

“My daughters should not be allowed to grow up as cowards.” Again the haunted look quivered under her expression. “Their mother can’t teach them by example.”

“...You?”

O-Chiyo closed her eyes for a moment. “Shall we walk the rest of the way? I’d like to show you the Jizo shrine; I always visit it when we come here.”

“Yes, please,” said Rin, and they went arm in arm to the top of the hill.



“That’s where I meant to place it. Right there...” O-Chiyo indicated a space in the group of little Jizo figures that stood in wavering lines under a gnarled and ancient maple that had shed most of its foliage. Some of the knee-high stone statues wore accidentally comical maple-leaf hats balanced on their heads; some stood unadorned and serene, holding up a gesture of protection.

“For... me?” Rin looked up and down the familiar deity’s reduplicated ranks, like a miniature army standing in defense of the innocent.

“Forgive my foolish fancies. I saw that man threaten my dear husband’s life, and I watched him drag you away to do heaven knew what, and I couldn’t sleep. I wept all night... I’m just a silly woman, of course.” She smiled and nodded, her round face flushed and her eyes bright with tears. She led Rin to approach a little stream that skirted the maple’s roots and ran in front of the group of figures.

The stream ended in an artificial pond, its right-angled edges defined by straight-cut flags but somewhat obscured by the mats of fallen leaves and the creeping plants rooted between the paving stones. It took a moment for Rin to realize that the pond had been laid out in the four-armed shape of a manji. The divine symbol that embodied almost infinite meanings: the whirlwind of creation and change, the conflict of opposing forces, the spiritual melding of those opposites, like the complete joining of male and female...

“Err... well.” Rin stammered; what had she and her Manji been doing in the flesh all the rest of that hot afternoon? No reason to mourn for her... was there? She looked at the dark surface of the water in the still pond, overhung by ferns, and in memory she felt the long shadow cast on that futon, a screen blocking the sun.

“My dear, good danna. He was the one who had been put in danger, it was all my fault for asking him to approach you... and still he comforted me. He promised to take me to this temple as soon as possible and pay to place a Jizo. I apologized over and over, and said that we must give thanks for his deliverance instead of indulging my whims. He is so kind to me, and he knows all my sorrows... though they’re nothing. Such inconvenience I’ve put him to...”

“Um, why there in particular?”

O-Chiyo picked up a dipper that lay by the stream. She knelt down, slowly submerged the dipper and carefully poured water over one Jizo’s head. “Next to this one. Danna placed it for me.”

“That one?” Rin watched the droplets trickle from the figure’s chin. The lichen-spotted statue wasn’t new, though it wasn’t half buried in moss like the ones at the back of the ranks. It might have been there for six or seven years. “Was it for... oh. A child?”

Still kneeling, O-Chiyo replaced the dipper on a stone. She hesitated and lowered her head, then spoke quietly and almost with a sense of shame. “A stillbirth.”

“Oh, I’m sorry!” Rin immediately knelt beside her. “Gosh, you and he must have been heartbroken if...”

O-Chiyo made a gesture as if to deny any claim to sympathy. “No, it was not danna’s child. It was long before I married.”

“Um... hah?”

O-Chiyo hesitated again. Compressing her lips, she swallowed and visibly gathered her strength to speak; Rin silently encouraged her, controlling her own expression.

“...When.... when I was a girl. By a neighbor’s recommendation, I went to work as a maid in a samurai household. To learn deportment and etiquette by example, and to practice with my needle and cook fine dishes so that I could make a better marriage.”

“Uh-huh...”

“My parents were proud of my position there, and I told them I would work very hard. They were only paper sellers with a one-room shop, but they said I might catch the eye of a more prosperous merchant – even a dealer in rice.”

“Oh.” Maybe she’d fallen in love with someone above her caste? They couldn’t marry, but swore devotion to each other and yielded to overwhelming desire... Bittersweet romance bloomed in Rin’s imagination, but withered when she looked at O-Chiyo’s face.

“The heir of the household had four sisters and his mother still living, and his old father lingering in his final sickbed. I spent nearly all of my time with the women and the other servants, of course. The heir never spoke to me nor took any other notice, quite properly. Then he encountered me in the storeroom one day when no one else was in that part of the house, and he took my virginity. I was not quite twelve years old.”

Just like that? Rin felt cold from forehead to breasts.

“He wasn’t cruel, nor violent. He held me and coaxed me to lie on the rice bales, and I didn’t know how to tell him to leave me alone. It hurt, but I didn’t cry out. I thought no one would answer, or that I’d be blamed if they did. I covered my eyes with my hands and lay still...”

“O-Chiyo-san...”

“I could not defend myself... because I didn’t even try. I had no idea how a female could prevail against a man. His authority, his greater strength... the effort must be lost before it’s begun. I was a coward.”

Rin drew an outraged breath. “No, you weren’t. He was a... a disgusting jerk, that’s what he was!”

O-Chiyo threw her an oddly joyful smile. “Thank you.”

“Well, of course! Who could think – uhh, I guess you might not have been brought up to...”

“I never struggled nor ran from him. I felt paralyzed with shame whenever he approached me. He might have believed I enjoyed his attentions... I don’t know. He took me again and again, whenever he could get me alone, and he grew careless. The sisters began to whisper and treated me with disdain. Then I heard raised voices through the partitions one night, and in the morning my mistress confronted me. She accused me of enticing the heir and scheming to rise above my station, and she sent me back to my parents. Within a month, I knew I was with child.”

On impulse, Rin leaned over and put her arms around O-Chiyo’s shoulders. She pressed her cheek against O-Chiyo’s and felt the woman return the embrace; her stiff hairdo crackled slightly and her stomach trembled under her obi. “I’m sorry,” Rin mumbled into the side of her neck. “I’m really sorry.” She sat back and wiped her eyes. “It wasn’t your fault.”

O-Chiyo gave her another beautiful smile, then looked far away, her gaze unfocused. “Danna says the same thing. He excuses me from blame... though I did nothing to stop the man.” O-Chiyo shook her head. “I disappointed my parents so much...”

“It’s true! That guy should have known he was doing the wrong thing – it wasn’t up to a little girl to tell him. He did know!”

“But it still happened. If I’d had courage – like you.”

“You... you don’t want anything like that to happen to your daughters.”

“Never. Not to any girl, no matter how ignorant or unprotected. I know that can’t be accomplished – men are what they are, and some are far worse than negligent.”

“But not all of them. Or not all the time, anyway...” Rin bit a fingernail.

“Of course not – men surpass women in wisdom and goodness as they do in all other spheres.” Rin inwardly groaned at the platitude, but said nothing. “I thank the blessed Amida every day for my dear husband’s care and kindness. He’s never even struck me once... though with justice he could have beaten me daily. Many men will punish their wives for much less cause.”

“Hah?”

“Twelve was too young for childbirth. I hadn’t even seen my first moonrise before I was made a woman. I was in labor three days, and the doctors...” She shuddered all over. “The child was already dead. Mother didn’t tell me, but I know how they finally took it from my womb.”

“Oh, God.” Rin pressed a fist into her churning abdomen. Scars... maybe deeper than her own.

“It took a long time to heal my body, and for the first five years of my marriage, I was afraid I must be barren. Danna didn’t reproach me, though of course he wanted children and I longed to be a mother. One day he found me weeping over the bloodstains on my monthly apron. He knew a little of what had happened to me as a girl, but not all. My mother warned me never to tell anyone. But I confessed everything to him, and I was certain he would immediately divorce me. I even brought him the paper and ink to write the lines.”

“What did he do?”

“He was terribly shocked, and angry that I hadn’t told him. But he forgave me very soon afterwards. He comforted me, and he said that the dead child’s soul must be comforted too. That must be why I hadn’t conceived. So we came here and placed this figure and made offerings.” She caressed the damp stone head. “The next year our elder daughter was born, and her sister two years later. Danna adores his children, though they are only girls... and I pray for a son to complete his happiness.”

She did wish she could have played with those fortunate little girls, just once. Rin smiled ruefully. “I’m glad for you.”

O-Chiyo put her fingers to her lips with a laugh. “There’s a shrine here that’s supposed to encourage the birth of boys. But the priests won’t let unmarried women see the votive carvings... and for good reason. I visit it every day, and I still blush when they’re unveiled!”

Rin turned pink and tried in vain to suppress a snorting giggle. “Oh, my goodness...”

“I’ve been so happy during this stay – as soon as we knew you would recover. I thought I was coming here to place another Jizo at this temple, for a brave, doomed girl... and instead we brought you, yourself. That’s more than enough happiness for me.” She touched Rin’s face. “More than a silly woman deserves.”

“Aw, gosh... but you’re as brave as I’ve ever been! I don’t think I could have stood being treated like that – I might have given up and jumped into a canal. Err... well, first I might have grabbed a knife from the kitchen and carved something off that – ” Rin grimaced; she’d spoken much too quickly. “Well, I don’t know what I would have done in your place. No one knows until it happens...”

“How will Ayama-san treat you, Rin-chan? If you were to become his wife?”

A hot, dragging sensation in her belly. “I... I’m not sure. Right now... he’s courteous to a fault, like you said. He’s not a guy who uses crude language anyway, but he’s never spoken to me like this before. Like I was someone he needed to honor.”

“How well do you know him?”

“I... don’t think I know him at all. Not really. He doesn’t show what he doesn’t mean to show. Hardly ever, I think.”

“Is he a cruel man?”

“Himself? Like, does he enjoy someone else’s pain? I don’t think he cares one way or the other. He drives towards his goals, that’s all.” Rin closed her eyes. “People are tools, or they’re obstacles. Symbols. Human emotions and love and friends and family... they’re nothing, or he’d prefer them to be nothing. Except for honor and duty and the country. Everything else barely crosses his mind.”

O-Chiyo’s face was a mask. “I see.”

“He’s brilliant, just like Brother Joben thinks he is, and I know he’s serious about the politics and the reform and stuff. That wasn’t just trying to get on your husband’s good side. He helped me once when no one else would, though he didn’t know it was me at first. He doesn’t go out of his way to offend anyone, and he’d never wave weapons and curse in public. I think it might be difficult to make him really angry. He’s the opposite of reckless. But if he ever thinks that someone’s in his way...” She was shaking now. “M-my parents...”

“Don’t say any more.” O-Chiyo gripped her arm.

“Uh? Oh, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have been – ”

“Someone has found the person for whom he was searching.” She slightly moved her gaze past Rin. Rin halfway turned in the direction she indicated and then halted.

“Ayama-san, how nice to see you again.” O-Chiyo bowed from her kneeling position. “’The evening sky lends warmth to all faces,’ as it’s said.”

“Forgive me for intruding on your private conversation, O-Chiyo-dono. Your honored husband told me that Asano Rin-dono...”

“Yeah, whatever, I’m here.” Rin set her jaw and stood up. “We were just leaving, weren’t we?” She took O-Chiyo’s hand when she rose. “Let’s go now, okay? It’s going to be dark soon.”

Anotsu held up a lantern. “Then I’ll light your way back.”

“Thank you so much, you’re too kind,” O-Chiyo put in before Rin could retort. She squeezed Rin’s hand with a smile. “Of course we shouldn’t be abroad at night without a samurai escort. It’s the law!”

“Ah,” said Anotsu.

“He’s not samurai.” Rin spoke as an audible thought. “His grandfather was struck from the rolls when he was expelled from the Mutenichi-ryu. Maybe he didn’t make that real clear...”

O-Chiyo made a polite show of obliviousness, pointing out the last glow of sunset on the treetops and the birds settling in pairs on the highest branches, but Anotsu threw Rin a stiff glance. She returned a cool stare – he couldn’t deny what he’d told her father himself, could he? The icy, smiling taunts of that awful night echoed between them; her parents’ deaths might have been only one turn of the sun ago. Raw hatred burned in the back of Rin’s mouth.

Anotsu’s eyelids flickered. And then she realized it, cold trickling down her scalp and shoulders; he’d claimed that he didn’t want the Asano name to perish, and she’d thought he mocked her. No such thing. Because to ally himself to that near-perished samurai house, even through a woman, might well help him reinstate his own name; he seemed familiar with the bureaucratic hurdles involved, and he’d already have sought to uncover Asano Rin’s essential value. As his wife, or his stepping stone. What man remained to defend the Asano honor against his invasions? All other considerations aside...

“O-Chiyo – dear obasan.” She stopped in the path with O-Chiyo’s arm still locked in hers; Anotsu halted a few steps ahead and looked back at them. “When we get to the lodgings, I won’t come in yet. I want to talk to him.” She gave Anotsu a sharp little smile.

“Rin-chan? If you’re sure... you can’t converse in our sitting room? Danna will worry about you staying out in the night air.”

“Gee, if you only tell him who I’m with, I’m sure Yoritawa-san won’t object.” Rin kept her smile. “Not at all.”




Rin rose from her seat at the edge of the garden’s large pond and let the water she had been stirring drip through her fingers. “Okay, Anotsu Kagehisa. I’ve figured it out now.” She flicked the drops away and watched them sparkle in the light of the lantern until they struck the surface of the pond. The koi rose to investigate; glimpses of gold and white bodies flashed just under the dark, disturbed water as the fish darted in circles and bumped each other out of the way. They soon gave up and sank again into the greenish depths.

He’d followed silently behind her while she led him to a private spot; the only person they’d seen had been the ancient blind nun, hobbling down the veranda by herself in the dark. “Excuse me?”

“Why you’ve taken all this trouble when I used to be a nuisance, or something less than that. So polite now – what a joke! – and stalking me all through the Kanto – ”

“I’m afraid I’ll have to plague you for a little while longer, Rin-dono. Regardless of the trouble taken already.”

“Eh?”

“A bakufu official arrived at the Hasu-ji on special dispatch less than two hours ago. A high magistrate from Edo.” Anotsu spoke in a low, rapid voice that made Rin’s heart beat faster. “The gates had already closed for the night, but for him they were unlocked again. He traveled with horses and a retinue – an important man with a great deal of authority.”

“Th-the Edo banshu? The guys who put up all those wanted posters for Manji?”

Anotsu made an affirmative sound. “Brother Joben tells me this official is here to follow up reports on the hunt for the killer of a hundred. Inevitably... just as they did for me... those reports point to you as his companion.” He took a step closer to her and dropped his voice further. “Almost immediately after he arrived, the official was informed that you were here. Brother Joben was waiting in the abbot’s audience rooms, and he says that Master Saicho, the deputy abbot – ”

“Oh, no.” Rin put a hand to her face and looked around as if glowering monks lurked behind every tree. “I didn’t think Master Saicho liked me being here...”

“Brother Joben pleaded your ill health when the official wanted to interview you immediately. He might not have carried the point, but by good fortune the abbot’s doctor came to pay his respects on leaving for Edo, and apparently he minced no words about his patient’s need to heal in quiet. The official relented for now, but if you keep running around the temple grounds the way you have been, that excuse won’t help. Let me show you back to Yoritawa-san’s rooms by a less open path... there, take that gate.”

Rin caught the gatepost. “Are you saying he’ll question me about Manji? I thought you said I should pretend he’d kidnapped me – and I don’t know where he is anyway. Hah! As if I’d tell that guy the first thing to help catch Manji-san!”

Anotsu made a backwards motion of the head and pulled his lips tight. “That may not be enough to avoid some unpleasant – Rin-dono, even a woman of samurai caste may be tortured to extract information, if a magistrate orders it.”

“Tortured?” She stared at him with huge eyes, horrible images flashing through her mind. “Th-they’ll hang me up and...?”

“No, no. I’m sorry.” Anotsu made a calming gesture, palm down. He dropped his gaze and seemed to consider his words. “They can’t do anything to you that leaves permanent marks... always assuming they’ll respect the law. You wouldn’t be stripped of your clothes nor dishonored – they’re not even supposed to disarrange your hair.” He gave a small quirk of the lips. “But still keeping well within the rules, they can make you... very uncomfortable.”

Rin caught her breath, but still shivered and clung to the post for support. “Oh, G-God! What am I going to do?”

“Leave as soon as you’re well enough to go, of course. I’m already forming my plans. I’m afraid you won’t be able to say goodbye to your benefactors – ”

“Plans?” She blinked, emerging from her momentary terror. “Your plans?”

“It won’t be a simple matter now, and you’ll need my – ”

“You... jerk!” Anger lashed out at him like a taut rope slipping from her hands. “What are you trying to pull? Scare me into running off with – is any of that stuff even true? Or are you making sure that no one’s going to know YOU’VE kidnapped me?”

Anotsu flinched upright. “Hah?”

“I bet you had something to do with this whole business. You wouldn’t care why they’re hunting Manji-san so hard, just that they get him!” Anotsu looked at Rin with wary attention but didn’t answer. “Gee, Manji offered to tell some hunters where YOU were, and I guess you might have had exactly the same idea. You’d know just who to alert, and you’d put Magatsu on that other horse to get your message delivered fast. Too bad you pointed the direction wrong, or we might have walked straight into a big pack of soldiers!”

Startled, not confused. Anotsu’s wariness looked much deeper now. But still not confessing anything; she had to admire his control, though she probably hadn’t guessed all the details right. “Rin-dono, risking your safety thus would be – ”

“Outsmarted yourself, hah? You didn’t figure on them hunting ME!”

Anotsu sighed through his teeth. “You’ve obviously convinced yourself, woman. I don’t have time for your wild theories – I’m trying to help you out of a trap, not lure you into one.”

“It’s because you’re planning to marry me... isn’t it?” She blurted it out like a mouthful of too-warm tea. “You want to make sure I – ”

“What in – did you say marry?”

Rin broke off; Anotsu’s brows arched, his eyes opened wide, and he looked at her as if she’d ordered him to strip to his loincloth and perform a festival dance. Then his lids lowered and he frowned: a bad joke at his expense? While Rin’s mouth opened in dawning horror, Anotsu’s frown gradually dissolved. He cleared his throat and shook his head slightly, tapped his forehead and smiled through his all-too-obvious astonishment. Aghast, Rin stared at him with her face almost blistering in its own heat.

“Marry,” he repeated, as if it were a strange foreign word he had just learned. “How... interesting.” Anotsu turned away from Rin and cleared his throat again with a knuckle pressed to his upper lip. “Yes... ah... interesting.”

The entire idea only hers? Not his? She wanted to die.

“I’m... ah, perhaps flattered isn’t the word I want...” Anotsu put his hands on his slim hips and took a long breath. “I see... you’ve been thinking this over.” He tilted his head at her and seemed to invite her to explain, but Rin couldn’t speak at all. She quivered and bent almost double with the weight of her humiliation. “Rin-dono?”

Rin croaked something and sank down on a wall ledge, hand pressed to her cheek. Why hadn’t she held her idiot tongue? And she’d thought speaking unguardedly in front of her benefactors was the biggest blunder she could make today. Perhaps she had better just go kill herself immediately before she said something even worse, if worse were possible! Would a leap from the topmost pagoda railing do the job?

“I’m not angry, if you’re afraid of... ah, I admit you’ve surprised me. But please don’t feel so chagrined; I begin to see why you came to that conclusion...” Rin turned her tear-blurred gaze to Anotsu; he wasn’t laughing, but fingered his chin and looked thoughtful. “Given the facts, it’s even logical. I commend your, er, leap of imagination.”

She ground her jaw and stared at her toes. Imagined it all, like an obsessed and theatrical girl? Was that really what she’d done?

“Rin-dono...” He seemed to register her doubt, though she remained silent. “You told me in Kaga that I was the reason you wandered the mountains alone and starving like a lost kitten. That a man should take responsibility for what he’d caused.” Anotsu hunkered down with the lantern so that he looked directly at her. “Have you changed your mind? Or should I have done nothing at all when Tsukue Ryonosuke peddled your maiden virtue in the town’s roughest taverns?”

“What?” He couldn’t have taken her little outbursts so seriously! “But I wasn’t alone a few days ago. I had my bodyguard with me!“

Anotsu’s expression made a subtle change. “...True enough. And now?”

Rin couldn’t reply. Anotsu remained on his haunches, examining her face. “I don’t regret sending my men to help shield you. Though the outcome was far more violent than I’d expected... they did their duty like warriors. Even the foreigner showed his trustworthy spirit. I found their conduct... inspiring.”

Rin slumped. “I’m sorry... I’m sorry Manji killed poor Hebi-san for no reason...”

Anotsu bowed his head with a grave air and held up a hand. “It was a fair duel. I know Magatsu showed his anger, but he admits that.”

With Manji half dead and missing his right arm? Fair was putting it mildly. But he had gone berserk upon assuming she had been raped, which seemed to Rin like a somewhat better reason to excuse that unfortunate killing. “I guess... um, thank you for saying so.”

“Rin-dono.” She looked up and started at the warmth in Anotsu’s smile. “The... ah, possibility you mention... it has already been suggested to me by more than one person. By implication, at least. Yes, clearly it has – a certain logic. But it simply never would have occurred to me that you... ah... I’m sorry, I don’t mean to embarrass you any further.” He broke eye contact for a moment and twitched both brows as if still processing what she’d sprung on him. “I’ll make no assumptions, of course – that would be absurd. Please put it out of your mind.”

She would have been overjoyed to forget the whole conversation, but he’d just made doubly sure she’d brood on it all night. Rin dug her fingernails into her palms to the point of pain. “I’m going to go now.”

“Of course. You shouldn’t be seen out here, and it’s growing late.” Anotsu dipped his head and stood up. “You’ll be safe tonight with your guardians, so don’t worry. Try to rest, and I’ll come by in the morning with Brother Joben, if I may. He’ll have good advice for you... though he’s very much a member of his peaceful order. With no obligation towards me at all. It’s not my place to call his an impartial voice, but...”

“Okay,” said Rin softly. “When I see him... I’ll listen.”



In the gray twilight of her sleeping space, Rin silently moved her quilt aside and sat up. She’d gone to bed fully dressed except for sandals, and her bag was already packed. Food would have been handy, and Rin especially longed for a cloak or coat to hide her distinctive red dress. But she’d been able to obtain neither without alerting her guardians. A lump swelling in her throat, she shifted towards the door to the garden veranda and glanced at the room-dividing screens. “’May all the gods bless you, dear,’” O-Chiyo had said to her before blowing out the lamp.

She had to leave them without a word of thanks. Not even a note, because that might look incriminating if the official came sniffing around Yoritawa’s quarters. In her mind Rin scored herself with painful lashes; she was a thoughtless, ungrateful –

Rin’s hand bumped into something yielding that lay right across the sliding door. A pile of clothes? She bent her head to peer at it and recognized the cedar scent of O-Chiyo’s wardrobe boxes. But the tidy wife wouldn’t have left the laundry here – she’d have put it by the outside door instead. Rin felt the bundle again. Heavy fabric and braid frogs, like... a traveling overcoat. A thrill prickled her skin and made her ears tingle; she glanced at the screens again. In the folds of the long coat, a fat paper packet that smelled like dried daikon and fresh rice. Rin snatched up the bundle, slipped through the door and walked as quietly as she could down the garden veranda in the remains of the night’s darkness.

“All the gods bless you,” said Rin under her breath as she eased open the garden gate. She bowed low towards the room before she closed it again.

Close to dawn. She felt a little fuzzy-minded, having slept badly, but her body was charged with tension and even excitement so that her steps were light and her vision sharp. The gate would open after the monks rang the morning bells to rouse the temple, and waiting pilgrims would surge both in and out of the grounds. Most people who arrived late in the day had to camp outside the walls until morning, so there might be a good crowd to confuse the eyes of any watchers. Rin meant to attach herself to a plausible travel group, perhaps other women or a family, and move with them until she had left the temple out of sight. Pausing at the corner of a shielding building, she unfolded O-Chiyo’s traveling coat and slipped it over her head. Made for a much taller woman, it nearly reached Rin’s ankles, but was all the better concealment for that. An oilcloth rain hood fell from inside. Rin caught it and put it on; its overhanging edges concealed her face from all but a straight-on glance. The day felt like a hot one brewing and wearing a rain hood would look funny without even a cloud in the sky, but she wouldn’t have to keep it on for long.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t much Rin could do now to disguise her sword, and she realized the rising sun would glint off the goldwork and possibly draw attention to her. She slipped the sheathed end out of the strap that secured it for carrying and pivoted the whole sword along her side to look less conspicuous. With a constrained step, she approached the open courtyard inside the main gate and looked around. A number of lone men and all-male groups – no good; pairs of women; a schoolmistress with a gaggle of yawning little girls much younger than Rin; a large mixed family with servants and a lot of baggage, noisily arguing about their best route to the next temple. Rin sidled along the edge of the courtyard, aiming for the family group.

High on the top of the temple’s largest hill, a great unseen bell began to toll as the bell-wardens signaled the dawn. In the watch-towers on the walls, gongs sounded in response. The deep bronze notes roused a couple of pairs of servants to lift the wooden bars that secured the gates and push against the doors. With a long, excruciating creak of iron hinges, the massive portal swung open. Two monks in crimson shouted and directed the incoming and outgoing crowds of pilgrims into lines on right and left, attempting to avert a jam in the courtyard as the opposing waves collided. Rin got in line right behind the noisy family. She’d stay with them as long as she thought safe, then choose her road.

Where to, exactly? She hadn’t considered that part...

“Good morning.” Anotsu rose from a seat near the gate, tilted back his broad basket hat and nodded to her. Rin’s eyes dilated.

He had dressed for walking travel just as she had, his green kosode's hem caught up to allow for a long stride on the road and his wrists wrapped in tekko gauntlets. He bent to pick up a bundle and the odd angular object that was his shrouded battle-axe.

Rin’s ears turned hot. No, he was NOT coming with her – the bloody nerve of him –

Just as she drew breath to set him straight, a burly crimson priest cut off her view. He moved down the outgoing line with an air of inspection, scanning faces. He examined the family, passed over her and almost immediately returned. “Young mistress! Asano Rin-dono?”

“Hah?” Rin scooted closer to the family matriarch, who gave her a puzzled stare. “No, holy father, it’s not me you want, for sure...”

“Young mistress, please step out of line.” The priest signaled to a temple servant, who took off uphill. “You’re not to leave the temple – I have orders from the abbot. I’ll take you to his quarters.” Rin backed up as the priest approached her, and then tried to move around his wide body. The family servants with their burdens on carrying poles formed inadvertent barriers. Over the priest’s shoulder, she glimpsed Anotsu watching, with a few curious pilgrims craning their necks. Anotsu looked neither tense nor relaxed, but his wrapped axe now occupied both hands.

“I don’t want to go to the abbot’s quarters. I want to go... home...” Her voice cracked. Home – to Manji. A straight road wherever it led her or how long it took. She missed him at that moment like she had been eviscerated. “I have to go!”

The priest put up both palms and bowed slightly. Rin realized with a start that she’d seen him before. Giving her a naked look of interest while she walked with Brother Joben, and then making love to a woman on a stone bench, the holy hypocrite! “Sweetie, the abbot only wants to talk to you and Yoritawa-san. I’m sure it’s nothing to be so upset about.”

“I am not upset! Let me pass, or I’ll... um, I’ll...” She darted to left and right, but the priest blocked her and beckoned to an approaching group of men, both monks and servants.

“There’s no need to make a scene, pretty thing. Calm yourself.”

“I am calm!” Teetering on the edge of panic, Rin looked all around her. Monks moved in to flank her, and some of the temple servants held poles. Fencing her in, like a police arrest? “This is crazy – am I a prisoner?”

“Buddha’s ballocks, of course not! Don’t get hysterical.” The priest grabbed for the strap of Rin’s shoulder bag and caught it in one thick hand. She gasped and tried to yank it back, but he easily kept hold. “Now come along quietly, there’s a good girl.”

Twisting and pulling away with all her strength, trying not to scream – her hood slipped off and her braids fell free. Just as the priest clamped his other hand on her sword’s hilt, Rin felt rather than heard a heavy thud. The impact shuddered through the priest’s body; his eyes crossed and his legs buckled. His grip relaxed and he toppled towards her, forcing her to skip backwards. He collapsed in a puff of dust and crimson robes, groaning.

Anotsu Kagehisa stepped over him and pointed. “Go.”

Rin gave him a horrified look and automatically scurried for the gate. With Anotsu right behind her, the flankers gave way. Higher up the main steps she heard yells and pounding feet: reinforcements. The whole temple was alerted now. Rin cleared the gate, shoved through the line of waiting pilgrims and palanquin bearers thronging the wide area before the gate, turned hard left and broke into a jog. Anotsu matched her pace and followed her down the road that paralleled the temple’s long boundary wall. He glanced back over his shoulder.

Half a dozen temple servants and crimson monks burst through the gate, all shouting at once. “Halt, thief! Kidnapper! Help, help, it’s murder!”

“Oh, now we’re in big trouble!” Rin gasped and held her side. “Wh-why’d you have to hi-hit that guy so hard? Oh, gosh...” She wheezed for breath, but kept running with irregular strides.

Anotsu frowned at her. “Can you keep going?”

“Uh... uh...” No breath for an answer. Anotsu briefly grimaced, then stopped and spun around. As Rin tottered on, looking halfway ahead and halfway back, Anotsu took a stance in the middle of the road and faced the pursuers. The men slowed down as they approached him, but their expressions looked belligerent. If they dared to challenge Anotsu Kagehisa –

Anotsu shook the wrappings from his axe.

Rin stumbled and stopped a little distance down the road, where the temple wall still loomed to her left. She bent over, hyperventilating and wondering if she were going to throw up. No way – this wasn’t going to work. She wouldn’t make half a ri before she collapsed, and she couldn’t run one more step.

She bit her lips, and as her dizziness subsided, she straightened up and looked at the early-morning sky losing its sunrise tints to deep blue. Birds hopped in the grass and perched on shrubs on the other side of the road, twittering and singing as the sun rose. Yes, a really nice day for traveling. Slowly, Rin turned around and walked back towards the gate, limping from the stitch in her side.

The servants and monks stopped and milled about in front of Anotsu, staying well out of his weapon-reach. A few with poles in hand tried sidling along the ditches, but he darted to left and right and drove them back. No one seemed to have a blade or bow.

“There she is!” A monk pointed and shouted. “The abbot orders it! Bring her back!” The men surged forward. Anotsu’s axe whirred through the air in a looping circle; everyone leaped back again. These weren’t fighters, not at all. But three servants conferred for a moment, then ran at him from different angles, whooping with their poles held out straight.

There was a wrenching crack of wood as Anotsu’s axe flashed. The poles lost three-quarters of their length and the broken ends rattled down to the road. The men dropped the stubs, wringing their stung hands and looking astonished at the odd weapon’s power. Anotsu whirled the axe over his head. And brought it down. All three men hit the dirt, crying out.

Rin screamed. As if in answer, the spectators’ shocked gabbling combined into a gasp.

Anotsu’s axe swooped and carved a divot in the earth only a handspan from one man’s head. And by the next man, and the next, leaving the marks of his perfect control like a signature between their untouched heads. He took his backswing and stopped the axe’s trajectory on his thigh.

The men cowered on the road, apparently expecting to see the next world and startled to realize they were still in the present one. They quickly returned to life and scrambled away on all fours, yelping like dogs. The whole group retreated, the mass of pilgrims and bearers hampering their return to the shelter of the gate.

“The next sally,” said Anotsu in a voice only slightly raised, “will feel the weight of my blade.”

“No!” Rin staggered up to him as more people poured out of the gate and from the smaller doors to each side of the main portal. Some joined the clumps of spectators, some forced a lane through them and moved up in ranks. Monks in black, all wielding heavy staves. More and more. “You can’t... please, no... don’t!”

“Don’t kill them?” He gave her a reproving glance. “I’ll only break some bones, girl. Though if they don’t fall back and let us go at that point, I may have to turn the cutting side forward.” He edged a smile.

Crushed limbs, smashed faces, scrambled wits? Rin shuddered – she’d seen exactly how he spared men’s lives. “But... but not over this!”

“You have an alternative?” Anotsu didn’t bother to hide his sarcasm as about thirty black monks formed a wide semicircle around them and took up well-trained stances. These were real fighters, with steadfast, confident expressions – and total ignorance of their opponent. “You’re too sick to run. I can’t help you and cover our retreat at the same time, the odds are rather lopsided, and if you’re seized...”

Rin gulped hard. Her fault, then, for starting what she couldn’t finish. “That’s it. I’m going back before anyone else gets hurt.”

“What?”

“You said the interrogators wouldn’t maim me or do anything awful. I can take it. I have nothing to tell them anyway!” She tried to walk past Anotsu and ran into his rigid arm.

“Don’t be a fool.” He sounded agitated – not for her sake? Rin looked at him in surprise, and then the light came. Anotsu wasn’t afraid she’d betray Manji – why would he be? No, he knew she could betray him...

He glared at her, looked back at the gates and stiffened. A murmur of voices rose, and then cries and calls. Rin followed his sight line and gasped. A lone man pushed through the crowds, gently shooing the spectators aside with nudges of his long staff. His freshly shaved head showed above all others, gleaming in the sunlight – his shoulders were huge and his robe saffron.

“Master Joben! Master Joben – thank goodness! You’re here! Stop that man – he’s kidnapping the young lady!” Rin gasped again; little Toto jogged right beside his sensei, also carrying his staff. He’d probably throw himself straight into danger if there were a fight, and this would be no training session!

“Well, well, well... what’s all the to-do? Such a fine morning. The Buddha’s holy peace be on you, brothers.” Joben greeted the black-robed monks with bows and a raised hand, and moved through their circle to approach Anotsu. “Alas, a drawn weapon? I certainly hope you weren’t planning further violence, my friend.” He stopped a judicious distance away and touched a snapped pole with one bare foot. “Though I won’t say I entirely condemn breaking Master Nori’s head for laying his rather impure hands on the young lady, this can’t lead to good ends.”

Anotsu bowed slightly, but Rin felt tension in his body. “I’m only continuing my journey, Joben-dono. As is Rin-dono.”

“She means to abandon the temple’s sanctuary, eh?” Joben leaned on his staff and showed his animal-white grin. “Against the wishes of her wise guardians?”

Rin pushed forward. “I don’t want a fight over this, Master Joben. I really don’t! But a sanctuary? I know I’ll be grilled and probably at least threatened with torture – ”

“No, you won’t be touched.” Joben nodded at Rin. “Not while you remain within the walls as a charge of Yoritawa-san. The abbot insists that he won’t allow Amida’s holy ground to be defiled. More to the point, Master Saicho can’t abide incursions on his personal fiefdom.” Toto stuck out his tongue at the name.

“Master Saicho?”

Joben raised one shoulder to acknowledge the irony. “He’s all for law and order. But he’s the one to deal with bakufu matters here, not some interfering Edo popinjay with a train and a big title. Or so he’d say himself, if he were given to plain speaking.” Joben looked at the clear sky, smiling. “There’s a wee bit of a power struggle going on at this moment in the abbot’s audience rooms.”

“C’mon, Rin!” urged Toto. “You can stay a while longer, huh? I can show you my hollow tree and the easy places to climb the wall and everything. Why were you gonna leave without saying goodbye?”

“I’m sorry, Toto... I don’t know what’s happening here. Everyone’s gone crazy!” She reached for Toto’s hand when he ran up to her. “I’m not going to leave after all. Let’s both go back inside, okay?”

“Stop,” said Anotsu in a voice that chilled her. “If you value your life, stay right with me!”

“What’s that mean, jerkface? You gonna hurt Rin if she doesn’t go with ya?” Toto dropped Rin’s hand and waved his staff. “Ahh, he don’t look so tough. Huh, Master Joben? Let’s whomp the skinny bastard.” He took a wide swing at Anotsu’s knees and missed by an arm’s length when Anotsu moved aside. Joben put two fingertips on Toto’s head and gave him a look; Toto retreated a few steps back to Rin.

“Why allow that child to follow you out here, Joben-dono? If you meant him as a shield...”

“Now, who’d imagine that bringing along this small terror would prevent a fight?” Joben gave Rin a wink. “In the first place, it’s better that he stay under my arm than slip out to join the fighting brothers on his own. Iron chains wouldn’t hold him back. In the second, I do mean to prevent serious harm to anyone, innocent or guilty, and if possible, by words of reason alone. How else but by example will the child learn not to make violence his first resort?”

“Joben-dono, your reason is a formidable weapon, but further words are fruitless. I will not return. I will not allow Rin-dono to return. That’s my final statement.”

“Hey! Since when do YOU decide that?” Anotsu ignored her.

Joben nodded with gravity. “I understand, though I don’t say I fully agree.”

“You understand?” Anotsu raised a brow; he might have been expecting a longer argument.

“You are resolved to go, you say. Yet these brother monks won’t let you leave without opposition.”

“So it seems.”

Joben swept the semicircle with his calm yet vague gaze, as if he focused not on the monks themselves but something that loomed beyond. “If you contend with them, there may be terrible injuries. Deaths.”

Anotsu looked at his axe. “...Many.”

“I can’t step back and watch such a tragedy happen. I must prevent it.”

“By what means, my friend? Words won’t persuade me.”

“Apparently not.” Joben puffed out a long, meditative breath. “In the affairs of a man who feels himself born to the sword, only one means can prevail in the end. A great pity...”

Anotsu squared his shoulders and waited.

“Years ago, I swore never again to use my strength against human beings. But now simple humanity decrees... that I break my oath of peace.”

Anotsu seemed almost saddened, though he eyed Joben’s steel-spined staff as if calculating his odds of deflecting its strikes. “...Must you?”

“Laid against the deaths of others, a broken oath is by far a lesser evil than pious negligence. I’m not a dogmatic man, as monks go. Though I have my convictions.”

“I’ve noticed.”

Joben brought his great staff into a two-handed grip. “So... I will block the way myself, to the best of my ability.” The black-robed monks surged forward several paces, taking up their stances again behind him. The semicircle closed into a circle all the way across the road – surrounded.

“Ooh!” Rin stamped her foot. “Why doesn’t anyone listen to me?”

“That’s your final statement, honored friend?” Anotsu kept Joben’s gaze, carefully scanning his long, heavy-featured face as if it were a document he meant to read.

“Indeed. If I’m to uphold the principles of my order and my own conscience...”

“Then I’m sorry to have brought this on you.”

“No, don’t apologize for fate. Perform also to the best of your ability if you wish to do me honor.”

Anotsu removed his basket hat and laid it over his chest for a moment, slowly shook his head and tossed the hat away. “So be it.”

Like a slow-rolling wheel carrying the weight of worlds, Joben rotated his staff over his head and into a downward striking angle; he held a statue’s pose. He resembled one of the colossal figures of warrior guardians that flanked the entrance to the temple’s main hall, though his expression still looked calm and impassive rather than fierce. Rin backed away, trying to drag Toto with her and out of the impending fight. This confrontation had the potential to cause legendary damage...

“Hey, Rin!” Toto seized her sleeve and gestured down the road. “If you’re going anyhow – then you guys can take ME with you! Yeah – let’s book it outta here!”

“Oh, Toto – !” The black monks grasped for her and Rin dodged. If she tried to give herself up to them, Anotsu would only fight to get her back. And what would Toto do in the melee? Joben couldn’t look out for his over-eager pupil and defend himself from Anotsu’s axe at the same time – no one could! Rin turned and darted from side to side, but she and Toto were trapped between the circle and the combatants – she could see no avenue of escape.

Anotsu whirled the axe twice around his head, gradually getting up speed, then swung his whole body around in a peculiar move. Rin huddled Toto to her chest, trying to shield him. Anotsu whipped the axe in a huge circle, pivoted with its weighty pull – and released his grip.

The axe flew past Joben and crashed sideways into the line of advancing monks. Two monks went down like nekki game sticks and took another compatriot to the ground with them. Rin cried out in shock. Throwing away his mightiest weapon at the start of a duel? Had Anotsu gone crazy too? Toto struggled from her grip and dashed for Joben. “No! Come back...!”

“May the gods give you speed, Anotsu-dono!” shouted Joben. His staff blurring through giant arcs, Joben turned and charged at the startled monks. Black robes fell aside and went flying, clutching at numbed limbs or tripped up by the sweep of the shaft. Splinters exploded from shattered staves, and one entire staff shot up like an arrow and hurtled down end first into the road. Anotsu dodged low and shielded his head from the shrapnel. In a moment he twisted around and bounded up again; heedless Toto collided with him at full speed and both of them sprawled on the ground. Toto’s foot caught Anotsu’s chin, Anotsu’s sheathed sword snagged Toto’s robes.

While the two of them kicked and wrestled to disentangle, Joben used the ringed end of his staff to catch his opponents’ staves in twos and threes and twist them from their hands. The other end jabbed and thrust, knocking men over with blows to the midsection. Rin stood astonished, mouth open as she watched the bloodless carnage dealt out in great swaths. The ground quivered with Joben’s leaps and the stamps of his huge unshod feet; the black monks scattered and broke their circle.

“Woo! Whoa! Yeehaw!” bellowed Toto. He rolled over and managed to plant the end of his bit of bamboo into Anotsu’s solar plexus when he pushed off from the ground. “Waste ‘em! Pow!” Rin didn’t hear Anotsu’s response, though he grabbed his midsection and crouched on all fours. Blood mottled his left sleeve; apparently he’d fallen on a splinter.

Two of the monks cut Rin off as she chased Toto again. They seemed reluctant to touch her with their hands and attempted to catch her between their crossed staves. One staff thumped across her chest and partly knocked out her wind; she staggered.

Anotsu finally made it to his feet, burst through another barrier of staves and sprinted straight for Rin. Bleeding from a cut to his chin as well as his arm wound, he kicked the monks out of his way and scooped her up in his arms: shoulder bag, sword and all. And ran.

“Hey!” Rin struggled and shrieked in a high whisper since she had almost no voice left. “Wh-what’s the big...”

“Hold on, idiot!” Anotsu gripped her tight, his spare body hard against her ribs. “Only until we reach... some cover...”

A logged clearing on the right side of the road, growing nothing but clusters of sprouts from stumps – small, scrubby, no concealment. On the left, the temple wall continued for about half a cho past the main gate and turned uphill. Once they’d passed the low postern gate at the wall’s far corner, the thick virgin forest blanketing the slope might serve to hide their retreat. Anotsu just had to reach it before anyone got past Joben.

Rin sucked in deep breaths of air and clutched Anotsu around the neck, queasy from his jolting stride. Blood dripped from his cut chin, staining O-Chiyo’s coat. Toto chased them, yelling incoherent threats – he seemed unsure if Anotsu were saving Rin or stealing her, and Rin felt almost the same doubts. Not much choice now but to let him try! Behind them, Joben still clouted and disarmed anyone who tried to pass him and pursue the fugitives, but the black monks’ ranks had drastically thinned. Anotsu veered to the edge of the road, searching for a good spot to cross the deep ditch and stream and gain the forested hill. Preparing to clamber down the man-high bank with Rin in his arms, he suddenly rocked backwards and halted. She looked up.

The postern gate in the corner of the temple wall slammed open. Only a stone’s throw away, three samurai in matching bat-winged kamishimo dress issued forth. One carried a curve-bladed naginata pole-arm; the other two drew their long swords in an almost simultaneous flicker of blue-white steel. Behind the samurai emerged a white-haired gentleman in wide-sleeved layers of even finer clothes, his twin hilts caked with gold and colored jewels and a stiff black court cap on his head. Rin stared at him: the popinjay bakufu official, beyond a doubt – but had she seen him before? Or someone very like him? All four stepped off the beaten path that led to the postern gate and advanced down the short slope towards her and Anotsu.

“You!” shouted the foremost man in kamishimo. “Stop – you’re under arrest by the Lord Councilor’s authority! Lay down your weapons and surrender – and give up the woman unhurt, or it’ll be the worse for you!”

“Rin-dono,” said Anotsu quietly. “I am going to have to put you down in order to draw my sword. Will you let go of me now?”

“S-sure thing...” She pulled her arms from around his neck, surprised at how tightly she had been holding him. Anotsu set her on the road and stepped in front of her, the ditch the only other barrier between her and the four armed men. Rin sank to her knees, her shaking legs unable to support her weight. Toto caught up and halted next to her, silent now but still carrying his little staff.

Anotsu grasped a stub of wood protruding from the rent in his sleeve and pried it out of his flesh with a grunt. He dropped the bloody splinter on the ground; his wounds seemed no more than scratches, but Rin grimaced at the dark stains all over the front of her borrowed coat.

“Is it she?” From his position higher on the slope, the white-haired man addressed the samurai closest to Anotsu. “Without doubt? There must be no question.” He tilted his head and narrowed his eyes towards Rin, apparently not able to focus well enough against the rising sun to make out her face.

“He does have a girl with him, Lord – a young woman. Was she well described in the report?” The samurai looked hard at Rin.

The official furrowed his brow and searched in one sleeve for a paper. He put it up close to his nose to read. “Ah... let’s see... a maiden of more than fifteen years but fewer than eighteen... under five shaku in height and slender in body, with a light complexion. Her hair of a length to touch the breasts, worn in braids. Good features, a red mouth and large eyes... hmmph.” He made a sound in the throat and put the paper away. “A pretty child, ehh? Unfortunate.”

“Lord, the description corresponds.” Was that a suggestion of heat in the samurai’s steady gaze? Rin shrank down as small as she could and hid her lips with her hand.

The official slowly picked his way down the uneven slope. Anotsu pulled out his sword and stood on guard, breathing hard through his open mouth. Stopping at the edge of the ditch, the official scanned Rin from closer range, raising a brow at her shapelessly oversized coat. He plucked a gilded folding fan from his wide obi and pointed the closed end at her. “You are she who is the younger sister of the assassin? The disfigured outlaw called Manji, who lived in a hut outside any village bounds?” Anotsu started at the word ‘sister’ and momentarily glanced at Rin.

“Well... I... I don’t know where he is! No matter what you do to me – ”

The official made a dismissive gesture with the furled fan. “In good time. We will have out of you whatever we wish to have. First, girl, I have another question.”

Rin’s heart thumped. Question? The name of this swordsman who had tried to escape with her? No matter what she said or refused to say about Anotsu Kagehisa, someone was going to suffer. The official signaled to his attendants and swept right and left with the half-opened fan held horizontally. In his splendid silks, he looked a little like a Noh actor declaiming an aria. Had Anotsu meant to imply that the laws against treating a samurai woman’s interrogation too harshly were sometimes ignored? Then how might a powerful bakufu councilor try to wring information from a generous merchant and his dutiful wife?

What had she done? Rin could not stop her shaking.

The three samurai nodded at each other, then rapidly redeployed: the one carrying the long naginata stayed with the official, the other two separated and moved along the edge of the ditch in opposing directions. The one on Anotsu’s right nimbly leaped the stream and emerged onto the road some distance away. The one on his left remained on the other side of the ditch, somewhat closer. The efficient, focused movements of all three made it obvious they were practiced swordsmen. One by one in turn, they pulled off their stiff, starched outer garments and discarded them on the ground, then tied back their loose sleeves before taking hold of their weapons again. Anotsu’s head jerked back and forth as he tried to keep them all in sight.

“Girl, be quick to answer me before any other person approaches.” The official snapped the fan shut and indicated the three samurai preparing for battle. “These are my body-retainers, whose silence is assured, and I wish no other ears to hear my request, nor your reply.”

“Hah?”

“What has become of the boy? If any living soul knows, it must be you.”

Rin looked at Toto, whose mouth hung open. “Um... which boy did you mean?”

“Which boy?” The official’s snowy brows clouded. “I speak of the seventh son of wakadoshiyori Tsukue Tadanosuke, taishin hatamoto! He who dueled your elder brother in your presence twelve days ago!”

Rin’s eyes grew enormous. Who was this imperious old man? Adorned with titles, rank and gold, but with tears glittering on his cheeks?

“That boy of nineteen took arms and a horse and gave chase to the outlaw Manji, hoping to capture him. For... to win his family’s forgiveness, and to be received back into the household with honor. Foolish, improvident youth...” The official’s voice broke. “Vouchsafe to me, girl, and ease a father’s heart. Where in this world, or the next, is my youngest child?”



Continued...