Chapter 2. The Shuriken Ki
Japan land of the rising sun, I had seen pictures showed to me by mother, but they were nothing compared to the beauty and wonder of the place. The people have not forgotten the past to make way for the new as both live side by side. At the airport Ozin is greeted by four men dressed in black, they carry swords like guns. A limousine is waiting and we drive from Honshu airport through the countryside.
I am blown away by the vast open countryside and all the farms and fishing villages. As the limo zooms by people bow to the limo and I notice the four point star with the dragon in the center on the flag as it flaps in the wind. I hold back my excitement because I am here to learn the secrets of the ninja from Ozin.
"Where are we?" I ask as we get out of the limo.
"Tono Valley it is under our protection…" He said in the accented voice. Another ten men are waiting for us with horses, it's a good thing I took riding lessons with mama… Mama! I want to begin my training now and kill that bitch! Then maybe I have a normal life, but what if BB comes after me. I urge my horse to Ozin's side. "What can you tell me about BB?"
Shit he gives me that look, "You will address me in Japanese…" I understood some of his words. He gave me some basics on that long ass flight.
I clear my throat, its an easy language to learn, but they are very big on pronunciation, "Hai (Yes), Nihon oshiete B… B…" I struggle to say, but he got my meaning.
He smiles and starts speaking to me in English, "Some of your words are correct… You learn quickly… BB as she is called lives off the grid… She graduated from college in just three years… Everything her mother knows she knows… She is estranged from her mother because of her father, but every year on Beatrix's birthday she visits her… She is often seen in different places around the world… Everyone who has tried to go up against BB and use her against her mother is dead…"
"Is she an assassin?" I ask intrigued.
"IIE… No… She kills to protect herself not for money… She is very well connected through her father with the CIA, Interpol, MI6 and other government agencies. She also has friends with the Yakuza and the Triads…"
"So if I kill Beatrix…" Owe, it happened so fast it took a minute to realize that I had been hit in the face and I was now on my ass in the dirt road.
"For a ninja there is no if… No excuses… Do you understand?"
I sneer at the son of bitch, but as he taught me I showed him the respect a student owes to her grandmaster, "Hai!..." I say yes in Japanese, "Forgive me…" I had to swallow my pride, "…Master." I get up and get back on the horse both literally and metaphorically, pun intended. "Tatsujin…" I call him master in Japanese as he told me on the plane. You learn by doing, "…When I kill Beatrixsan… I will have to face her daughter…"
"More than likely…"
We camp in the side of mountain we eat sushi and rice with corn, Hakiro as he is called is suppose to be Ozin's best student. The little cunt keeps staring at me, either he wants to see what I look like naked or he wants a fight. I'm kinda hoping he wants to see me naked, I don't want any enemies when we reach the Shuriken Ki compound. I sleep with my eyes open and all my senses are on alert. The next day we continue on to the Ki clan temple.
We arrive a week later, it's a well hidden fortress in the valley of Tono. "NINJA!" He screams in that voice only a Japanese man can produce. There was a shout and from out of nowhere the courtyard is filled with over two hundred warriors all dressed in black. In Japanese they shout, "GOD, CLAN, COUNTRY… MY CLAN IS MY FAMILY… HAI1"
I dismount my horse after Ozin and like trained dogs five women rush forward and remove his clothes and now he is dressed in the traditional armor of grandmaster ninja. "NINJA… VANISH!" As soon as the words leave his mouth they are gone just as fast as they appeared.
With a wave of his hand a girl rushes forward my Japanese is amateur, but he points at me, "Take this girl... bath and clothe her… you are her personal attendant now… Make sure she is comfortable…"
"Hai… Tatsujin… Boss Kimota is here…"
"Your training will begin tomorrow…" He says turning to me.
As he walks off I try my best not to grin like a chesser cat, the courtyard is covered in snow and the architecture is very old. "You… come I give you bath…"
I raise an eyebrow, "I will come with you, but I can give myself a bath…" I follow the girl and look back at Hakiro who still has the dirty look. "Can you tell me why pointy face there is staring at me?"
"Pointy face?" I nod to Hakiro, and she giggles, "He no like you… You outsider… You Bugai-sha!"
"Yeah well if wants his ass kicked keep staring bitch…" It was an idle threat.
"You no challenge anyone here… They kill you… They ninja…"
I like this girl, "What is your name…" I ask it again in Japanese, "Onamae wa nan desuka…"
"Apologies… My name… Sai Chi…"
We arrive at a private bath, "Where did you learn english?"
"I learn very young… Father gave me to ninja for protection against rival ninja clan…"
My first night in the clan temple I sleep like a rock and two hours before sunrise everyone is up doing whatever. Sai takes me to a large room where everyone is eating and talking. The room goes quiet as I take a seat in the corner, after the meal I met in the courtyard by Ozin, Hakiro, and a girl named Loa.
They speak to me in Japanese and if there is something I don't understand Sai translates for me. They had me stand in the same place for the next five hours in peaceful reflection as they call it. Then I stretch in my body in ways I didn't think were possible, Ozin has me arch my back flex stretch and pop my fingers any and everything on my body that can be stretched is stretched. Then I'm made to go into a full sitting split and sit there until the third hour after sunset. I am exhausted tired and I hurt everywhere, then they take me on a run to end the day.
"Every morning from now on you will run… and every evening you will run three miles…"
The Shuriken Ki are an ancient clan of Ninjas, they are one of five ninja clans that exist today. The Ki were actually thought to be destroyed over a hundred years ago, but Ozin one of the last surviving members of the clan rebuilt them in secret with help from his friend Bill. With Bill's help Ozin destroyed the rival ninja clan called the Shiroi Taiga or white tigers. The other clans accepted the Shuriken Ki and the peace was kept.
Grandmaster Ozin had the final word and these ninja his children as he called them would live and die at his command. Next to him was Hakiro who as Sai told me was next in line to be grandmaster. Ozin's own son had died at the hands of a Samarai warrior whose daughter had been dishonored, Hakiro showed bravery by killing the warrior and returning the body of the grandmaster's son to him.
Then there was the five blades, the deadliest swords in the Ki clan, they answered only to Ozin and Hakiro and were the clan enforcers, they fought and lived as one, where one went all went. They were so tied together that if one fell in battle the others would fall on their swords.