Enjoy and please R&R.

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Entry Two

March 7th

We've been walking for two days. Misao claims it wont take to long be my feet are already killing me. Se says another thing is I wont be able to write often. I have to move fast and keep my eyes on the path ahead. She says once a week if I'm lucky I can open my book and write, or if there is something important that would be best in the book. We've left Osaka and we're almost to Nagoya. We're not taking any main road due to suspicion on my look. I refused to change it. Misao won't tell me why it's best to change, but she suggested it did. I did not this is my look. I'm not changing my style! Dam it! The skies show signs of rain! Misao says we'll have to head for the village and find somewhere to stay. It that all it does in northern Japan is rain?

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March 19th

In order to pay for our room and meals at this hotel I found, we have to work in the kitchen. At this rate, I'll never see my father before he dies of old age. Because it's Sunday, we get the day off from working. Last night I had the strangest dream. My father never left me and he was raising me in our old house. My mother was dead and we went to go visit her grave. I wanted to become a samurai just like my father, so he was training me just like his master did only not as ruff considering I was his daughter. In the dream he used his reverse blade sword and by the end of the dream gave me the sword. Through out the dream he called me princess and Kanji-Chan. Right before the dream ended, my surrounding went dark and all that was left was my father and I facing each other. Then slowly he started to drift away. I trying to run after him, but the closer I got, the further away he became. I woke up sweating and I had tears in my eyes. Misao was watching me from a distance. She said I'm a really brave little girl to be doing all of this at age ten just to see the one man who abandoned me when I was still a baby. I rolled over and did not go back asleep; afraid I would see him again. The only problem is, I never once saw his face. I saw his body, but where his head should have been was like a black spot with an x-shaped scar on the left side where his check should have been. I'm really tired due to lack of sleep. Misao says we will be heading off again soon. But now I'm having second thoughts. Do I really want to see him? After all, he did abandon me when I was a baby.

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March 22nd

We just left the hotel when we were attacked. People claiming to be some strange group took up and threw up into their carriage. We've been in this stinking thing for what seams like days. They let us out often to go to the bathroom but we are heavily guarded. The carriage is dark but luckily one of the things I packed was a small lantern. Misao says this is one thing I want to write about incase I ever decide to tell my dad I can describe everything in detail. All the members of this ground are men. I don't remember the name, not that I would have been able to spell it anyways. I'm only ten! Oh great we stopped. What if I'm not heading north anymore, what if we're heading south. I'll never find my father. Bathroom break! ~.^

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April 7th

I just got my bag back. I guess when we stopped it wasn't a bathroom break. We were at their place somewhere in Yokohama. We passed right through Tokyo I never knew it! I probably could of made some kind of noise or at lest called out my father's name. But, I guess the cloth in my mouth would have prevented me from doing that. Even though my hands weren't tied, the cloth was tied so tightly they had to cut it off when we got to the groups private abandoned temple. Well, wherever Yokohama is, it's near the ocean. I should of stayed in Nara. Whatever these men are planning to do, it involves rope, two heavy rocks, and the appearance of a skilled samurai from Tokyo. I guess if this samurai don't show up, Misao and I are going to become coral on the ocean floor. I would have sold everything I owned, including this here diary to find my father. Even if it means just seeing his face and telling him how much I love him just because he's my father. I have no food or anything of value left in my bag when they returned it. They stripped Misao and me of everything and anything we could have used to escape or buy our way out. I wish

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April 8th

Misao and I were just told we have three days until this samurai shows up. All these men want to do is fight him and get revenge on their leader's death. According to the youngest of the men, (I convinced him to spill) a guy named Lord Makoto Shishio was their leader and a samurai known as Anonymous Samurai X, defeated Shishio and had him captured by the police who then killed him. It the samurai does not show his face soon, we will drown in the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. The man told me that Misao looked familiar to them as a companion of this samurai their after and because I'm with her, I'm also a hostage so I don't go running to the cops. Misao was taken inside the temple where she had to write the ransom note. She's not allowed to return outside where I am. My resting place is in the back of the stupid, stinking carriage. I asked the young man if there was a way I could write a note to my father whom I was looking for and have it delivered anonymously. He asked his leaded and said no because even if they write it for me and leave out all the stuff about my location, my father might start looking for me and that could cause trouble. Below is a draft of what I was going to write…

Dear Father,

You probably don't remember me but I'm your daughter Kanji. Remember Tomoe your past wife? I'm you guy's daughter. You left me on the steps of a temple back in Nara one snowy December night after burning our house down. You've probably tried to forget, I'm sorry. An elderly woman found me and cared for me. That woman passed a few months ago and ever since then I've been looking for you. I still love you and I wish I could have told you face to face. I met your friend Misao who was helping me but she knows someone who killed this group's leader and now we are both hostages. I'm sorry. I really wish I could have seen your face. That's the only thing about you I can't remember. I have mom's picture in the round, golden locket that has my name engraved on the front. Remember? You left it around my neck. But your picture was removed. Maybe this samurai guy we're waiting for will come and spare us. Maybe I will see you. I love you daddy. I wish I did something different to make me be in your arms now instead of in the back of a dark, smelly carriage. Hopefully I'll see you someday.

Love, Kanji Himura

I felt that was perfect. But I'm no allowed to send it. The man I was talking to early read it and agreed that if I was allowed to send it, not only will my dad come after me, but also it will make him realize how much I love him. I'm hungry. The man went to go find some left over sushi. I think I just made a new friend, and bad person friend, but a friend.