Chapter 4: To the Rescue
(Aoshi)
This trip was the most foolhardy in his long experience of intelligence gathering. After discovering Misao gone, he hadn't waited to inform the others, only returned to his room, gathered his travel gear with consisted of he coat, an extra uniform, and his kodachi. There was only one road she could have taken, as he was sure that she could not have bought a train ticket on her own. Besides her meager personal stash, he doubted that the conductor would let her on due to her small stature and traveling alone. He would think she was a runaway. Aoshi almost allowed himself a small smile. Technically, she was.
He had borrowed a horse from a man he knew outside of Kyoto. It only took a couple of hours before he reached the main pass between the mountains. After searching through the small but popular tea shop and coming across only a street brawl, he moved on.
Arriving in Otsu, he felt the first stir of confusion. Why was he chasing her? It was clear enough her intentions - as wildly Misao as they were. But why was his first impulse to follow her and shield her from the world? She thought she could handle life, so let her learn on her own. Hadn't he had to learn first hand that reality was unforgiving? Yet, after reading her note, his instincts had taken over. He had to find her, though his reasons were not clear even to himself.
After riding in endless circles about the town, he found a room in an outlying hotel for the night. She had definitely learned while he was away. There was no trace of a young woman, or a small young man. A shadow of doubt began to haunt him. Maybe she had managed to purchase a train ticket after all. If so, he had better push on to Tokyo as soon as possible. He drew out the thin and musty smelling futon and began to meditate.
The instant he felt the flare of ki, he knew who it was. Misao's energy was charged with anger, calculation, and a trace of fear. Leaping to his feet, Aoshi snatched his kodachi from their meditative position on the hardwood floor and followed the sense to the other end of the sleazy hotel. Through the door of shredded rice paper he took in the remains of a violent fight.
The room was a mess with four figures littering the floor all dressed in the same color of gi. He ignored the man whimpering in the corner, holding that sacred place between his legs and only spared a moment for the unconscious gangster near the doorway. The lifeless body was worthy of a second glance. He rolled the corpse onto its back and inspected the stab wound. It was small, but deep enough to reach the heart. The cursing of the third moving person led to the greatest find. The man was cradling his foot and trying to stem its bleeding. A bloody kuni lay on the wooden floor beside him.
Aoshi narrowed his eyes. He knew those blades almost as well as he knew his own. It only confirmed and frustrated him further. She had been here - mere moments earlier - and gotten away. Her ki had faded without a trace the moment he had reached the door. She was gone again.
Misao woke to a pleasant purring in her ear and a warm weight on her chest. Kitai butted her sleek black head against her chin and meowed loudly at the signs of her mistress waking. Misao giggled and fondly rubbed the kitten behind the ears. The sun was creeping over the mountains and lighting the leaves of the maple they had slept under in various shades of brilliant green. Thankfully it was late spring, so camping in the open was rather simple. She yawned and stretched, dislodging her companion from her perch. When she rubbed her eyes, she yelped in surprise as pain blossomed over her left eye. Carefully she probed the tender spot and found a nice sized bruise that ran from the corner of her eye up to her hairline. The punk who kept swinging wildly at her the night before must have managed to land a blow. She shrugged. Perhaps it would add to her 'boy' costume.
Pulling out two rice balls which she had managed to sneak out of a kitchen window before leaving the Otsu, she broke one in half and gave it to Kitai and ate the other herself. Taking a quick glance around, she opened her bag and pulled out her dark blue ninja uniform. After the hair-raising close encounter with Aoshi, Misao decided it may be best to change her appearance.
Unbuttoning the western style shirt, she carefully rewrapped her chest. The uniform was tighter fitting and she couldn't risk any hint of her gender. She pulled on the dark blue pants and replaced her lighter gi with the black padded uniform top. It looked slightly odd with the white upright collar sticking up behind the uniform's neckline, but it was the best she could do. For an extra precaution, she took out the long strip of black cloth which was meant to cover her face at night and wrapped it loosely around her neck for easy access.
Repacking her bag, Misao picked up Kitai who played with a blue flower growing out of the roots of the maple tree. Taking a short walk further away from the road she quickly found a small creek. Upbraiding her hair, she pondered her reflection in the flowing water. Unbound, her hair fell past her knees when standing. After fingering the ends, she slowly pulled out one of her knives. Kitai found new playthings in the bunches of glossy black strands as her mistress trimmed off her mane to her waist. Rebraiding the remainder, Misao experimentally shook her head. It was much lighter and she could better pass herself off as a young man. With the growing western influences, it was popular for men to keep their hair extremely short, but surely no one would begrudge a wanderer his long hair. Misao giggled to herself at the thought. She had heard a few teasing remarks about Himura's hair but it didn't cut back on his swordsmanship.
Picking up the long strands of shorn hair, she pondered them for a moment. It was almost a shame that her one great beauty had to be sacrificed for her chance at independence. Eyeing the black kitten who continued to pounce on the slippery piles, she gathered a handful and began braiding it into a collar. A moment later Misao slipped the circle over Kitai's head, trimmed with a small blue ribbon. Kitai scratched at it curiously, but soon didn't object to the symbol of ownership. Giving the cat one more rub behind the ears, Misao picked her up and set her on one shoulder and slung her bag over the other.
The day was thankfully unexciting. The bruise at her temple tenderized that side of her face, but she took the pain with good humor. Her progress towards Tokyo was much slower due to traveling through the woods alongside the road. After last night, she didn't care to tempt Fate so quickly. Yet she found a productive rhythm of travel and training simultaneously. She would throw her knives at targets in front of her, then pick them up in passing. Kitai was rather helpful, easily finding the one which occasionally missed and bring it back by the handle, razor tip dragging on the ground. That task became less frequent as Misao continued. The other practice made use of the surrounding trees.
Hannya and Beshimi made good use of their slighter forms in darting through the branches. They had tried to teach her the basics, but her legs were simply not strong enough. She could leap from branch to branch in one tree, but had quite a few nasty spills when trying to go from tree to tree. Hannya had always caught her before reaching the ground. This time, she was on her own.
Kitai waited below to entertain herself for a couple hours as Misao refreshed her memory in a tall wild persimmon tree. To her surprise, it wasn't long before she had a rather accurate judgment of her limitations. Carefully, she eyed the distance between the persimmon tree and the next maple. Kitai meowed in agitation as her mistress launched herself away from security. Misao landed squarely on a thick branch and grabbed at the trunk. Taking a deep breath, she looked down at her worried pet and laughed.
"I did it! Did you see that? I would never had made that when I was younger."
Kitai meowed again, this time with a decidedly different tone. Misao blinked and then shaded her eyes at the sky. "Oh, it's past midday isn't it. I guess you're hungry."
Flipping easily to the ground, she opened her pack and split the remaining rice ball. "We'll have to figure something out for dinner. Maybe find a stream with fish or maybe frogs, though I don't really like frogs."
As she sat nibbling on her meager lunch, Misao found herself slipping into a sort of trance, watching the shadows of the forest floor.
When she woke, the sun had nearly faded behind the mountain ridge. She yawned and stretched, then screeched and leapt to her feet.
"What happened to me?"
How had she wasted an entire afternoon like that? She had slept well the night before, she hadn't felt tired... She smacked herself in the forehead in frustration.
"Great start, Misao Makimachi. Can't even stay awake in the middle of the day. What a moron!"
Pausing to take stock of herself and her things, she took a firm hold on her ki and picked up Kitai who had curled up next to her. Putting the kitten once more in her bag, she began jogging through the darkening woods.
She doubted anyone would notice her on the road at night and she had a lot of lost time to make up for. Taking the long black sash from her neck, she wrapped it across her face and over her head, tucking her shortened braid underneath. Slipping across the slight ditch on the side of the road, she warily began trotting towards Tokyo.
The faint sound of shouting and clashing metal weapons drifted through the rapidly growing darkness. Pausing, Misao tried to hone in on the noise. It drifted to her again from the left. The road must make a switch-back up ahead. Diving into the woods once more, she followed the sounds of fighting to a bend in the road where a merchant's caravan was under attack by a hoard of bandits.
About a dozen men were ransacking the five carriages and quickly disarming the guards with killing blows, or knockout strikes. The gang looked like regular hard-luck thieves with a collection of swords, daggers, and modified farm tools. Misao was going to let them finish their work and move on until one of the men dragged a young woman screaming from the third carriage.
"Hey look here boys! I found us a plaything!"
Another thief with a selection of silver utensils in his arms answered with a growl. "We can't take her, she'd slow us down."
The man who still held the screaming woman by the hair waved his knife. "Can't I have some fun before we go?"
The other who seemed to be a leader of some sort, shrugged and turned away. "Whatever, but you'd better make it quick."
The majority of the group began fading away into the woods. Misao sprang into a tree to avoid being caught. The stragglers were beginning to eye the woman who was dressed in an expensive silk kimono and wore expertly applied makeup. The brute who had destroyed the elaborate hair style reached for the tie of his pants with a grin.
Misao swung out of the tree and planted both feet in the man's back. The man crashed head first into the carriage behind the woman. Snatching a banner pole from the ground, she whirled it around to crack across the jaw of another bandit who was standing and staring at her in surprise. He fell without a sound. Another shriek from the woman made her turn. One man had crawled through the carriage and emerged on the other side. The woman was trembling in terror as the man held her by the waist with a knife over her throat. The massive thug waved his blade closer to the delicate skin.
"You move mister, and I'll kill her."
A movement behind her warned of a second man trying to plot an ambush. She dropped to her knees and struck out with the staff. The sound of crunching cartilage told Misao that he couldn't be running anywhere soon. The man collapsed with a scream, clutching his smashed kneecap. A newcomer charged straight at her, a katana in hand and death promised in his eyes. Misao waited. The instant he raised his arms to strike, she thrust the pole under his guard. He let out a wet gurgle when the end collided with his windpipe. The sword buried itself in the ground, quickly followed by its wielder. He would never rise.
Now Misao was left with a hostage situation. The young woman's feet dangled a good six inches from the road. Her perfect makeup was streaking from her tears. Misao's grip in the staff tightened. Keeping her voice low, she glared,
"Let her go. Your friends have left. You can still leave with your life."
The man only tightened his hold. "Since you robbed me of my money, I thought I might just take my fun from right here."
The woman thrashed in his hold at his implications and screamed, "No!"
Misao whipped out two kuni and threw. One buried in the back of the knife-wielding hand and the other dove deeply into the man's left eye. The woman was dropped in a heap as he howled. Misao immediately kicked him in the chest, using the pole to gain more momentum. Landing between the bandit and the victim, she paused to make sure she was still conscious.
"Stay down, lady." She turned to the badly bleeding man and nodded. "Before you go, I'd like my knives back."
The man let loose a stream of curses that could have burned ice. Misao drove the end of her staff into his foot and shook her finger at him. "It's not polite to used that sort of language in front of a lady."
The young woman behind Misao made a strangled sound when the thug slowly pulled the knives from his face and hand. Defiantly he threw them back at her but she deflected them with little effort.
"Thank you. Now please go on your way and leave these good people alone."
The man stumbled into the black forest. Turning, Misao held out her hand to the woman still kneeling in the road, hair and makeup now ruined.
"Are you alright? He didn't manage to cut you?"
The woman launched herself into Misao's arms and began crying hysterically. Awkwardly patting her on the back, Misao surveyed the remainder of the merchant train. The bandits had made off with some of the goods, but not everything. They only took what they could carry individually. Boxes once full of colorful silks spilled out their contents in brilliant pools. Smashed bits of pottery sparkled on the road, interspersed with packing straw. They were the goods of a wealthy family, the presents of a wedding dowry. Misao tried to pull out of the woman's grasp.
"Um, lady, I think we should see if anyone from your party are still around, or alive."
The woman released her and tried to gather her composure. A thin red line began trickling down the side of her neck. Misao tore a piece of fabric from her scarf and gently pressed it to the wound. The woman shyly bowed her head and said,
"My thanks to you, sir. My name is Hanabi Katatomi. My family was moving me to Tokyo to prepare for my wedding."
Misao wanted to laugh at being addressed as 'sir' but only helped her to her feet. "Katatomi-san, I am surprised you chose to travel at night. It is far more dangerous."
"My father wished to travel in secret. I see now that his caution was flawed."
"Why in secret?"
"Because my daughter is my beautiful flower. I cannot allow her to be harmed in any way." A rather round and elegantly dressed older man appeared from the shadows. Dirt, leaves, and grass clung to the western suit. Clutched in one hand was a mashed western hat. His hair was still black but a gray mustache gave away that he was near fifty. Trying to brush off the remnants of his hiding place, he approached Misao and held out his hand.
"I am Rikoteki Katatomi. Usually I would keep this a secret, but since you have just saved my daughter's life, I will give you the reason we travel at night." He cleared his throat dramatically. "I am a second cousin to the emperor's third aunt. My daughter is engaged to be married to the son of the emperor's second aunt. There are those in the royal family who do not wish such a union and seek to prevent it from happening."
Misao bit her lip behind her mask as she shook his hand. "I am Jiei. I am traveling at night because I like the silence."
Rikoteki smiled. "Well, I am most impressed by your courage and skill, young man. Those men took us all completely by surprise."
"How many were accompanying you?"
"We had a driver and five guards for each carriage."
Misao raised an eyebrow at that. They were carrying all those valuables and expected to make it to Tokyo with all of it? The guards were clearly not paid enough to stick around when danger came. "How many were killed?" She asked, eyeing the scattered bodies.
Rikoteki sighed. "We lost all the guards stationed on the first carriage. Two who were to protect Hanabi also were killed. The others were wounded. Now we only have ten fit men."
They certainly were clueless. Perhaps they thought that a smaller train would bring less attention, but with all their flashiness of goods, they would have been better off with a small army to protect it. Misao cast a sidelong glance at the young woman who still held the scrap of cloth against her neck.
"It seems that you are in need of help till you reach Tokyo. I'm on my way there myself. Would you like me to assist?"
Rikoteki's face lit up. "That would be marvelous! I will pay you, of course!"
Misao shrugged. "That is fine. But may I first help your men do a better job at hiding your fortunes? You are asking for another attack."
"Oh?" Rikoteki surveyed the damage for himself. "I suppose we are, now that you mention it. Certainly!"
Still laughing internally, Misao turned to Hanabi and held out her hand. "Lady Katatomi, I think it is safe for you to return to your carriage."
The young woman took her hand to assist herself into the curtained cart and quickly withdrew with a blush. "My thanks, sir." She whispered.
She was still badly shaken. Feeling badly for her, Misao went back to the tree where she had left her bag. Opening it, she released the curious Kitai and knocked on the side of the carriage. Hanabi cracked the curtain.
"Yes?"
Misao smiled behind her scarf and held out Kitai. "I have a companion here who is rather upset. Would you mind keeping an eye on her?"
Dark brown eyes widened and Hanabi giggled. "Of course! How cute!"
Misao left her kitten to the welcoming grasp of the young woman.
