Chapter 7: Obession and a Name
Jiei approached the new bodyguard the next morning dressed head to toe in roughly dyed dark cloth shirt mismatched with what looked like an old gi. A straight-bladed short sword was strapped within easy reach to the smaller man's back. His face was blurred behind a piece of thin fabric, but it did not seem to hinder any observations that he made about the road ahead. For a long moment the two walked side by side down the path at the head of the caravan.
"The ones causing mischief have not shown themselves for some time." Jiei finally spoke, slightly muffled and low.
"So."
"Extra caution tonight."
"I agree." Aoshi gave the strangely clad individual a sidelong glance. "You are dressed like one concealing something."
The other stiffened for a moment, then relaxed. "Perhaps."
"Why should I trust you?"
"They do - that is all that matters." Jiei turned his back and began walking to the rear of the carriages. "My name is Jiei, officer."
"And I am Shinomori - not an officer."
The veiled man paused. "Then what are you?"
"I was asked to bring this family into the city. I have my own business to attend there."
Jiei nodded and continued on.
What was he? Aoshi's face was shadowed as he turned to the lead carriage and climbed aboard. An interesting question that once was easy to answer. Not wholly a man, nor the warrior he once was. He was lost, and searching for something - someone. It seemed that he could not stop searching - that inaction would drive him mad. In a way, that is how he did go mad, two years ago. The belief that the Oniwaban had to be recognized by the world though it was left out of the Revolution drove him into partial insanity. He needed something to always follow, a reason, perhaps an obsession, to occupy his thirst for purpose.
Yet, what was he - that other stranger - who made him uneasy for some unknown reason. Jiei was small, but Himura was also undersized. Strength, Aoshi knew very well, came in many sizes. Perhaps he ought to keep close watch over him.
Misao returned to carriage carrying Hanabi, nerves strung like waxed silk thread. Pulling off her veil, she whispered,
"This won't work!"
Hanabi looked up from where she was practicing holding a kuni. "Why do you say that?"
Misao picked up Kitai who meowed her restlessness at being cooped in the small space all day. "I barely made it through that exchange. If we are attacked tonight, he saw me with your sword, and I don't know enough yet to actually use it."
Hanabi paused and frowned. "Did he give any sign that he knew you?"
"No, he was his usual antisocial self, short on words."
"Good, then I have an idea. Tonight, in preparation that we are attacked, I will don your cloths, and you will wear mine. Then it will be me he sees wielding the sword, but think it is you."
Misao stared at the noblewoman. "But you risk being killed!"
"I managed well enough last time. Besides, it is me they are after, and you are clearly more than able to protect yourself."
Realization dawned. "So if they do get past you, I can stop them, and no one will know the difference!" She slipped the sword over her head and handed it back. "But we must be careful. I will watch your back as best I can. If Aoshi-sama says anything, try not to answer with words."
Hanabi frowned in concern. "But I cannot wear the veil."
"Good - so if he does see your face, it won't be my eyes that he sees."
"But he has already seen my eyes."
Misao pondered that a moment, then smiled. "Then maybe he will think that Jiei is actually you. I doubt he will break your cover, but he may keep closer eye on you - or shall I say, us."
"But why would he not tell my father?"
"Because -" Misao paused. Because it is something I would do. "Because he is more considerate than that."
Hanabi studied her friend and again read something into what was not being said. She finally sighed and accepted the risk. "What then of our sizes?"
Misao eyed her. "You are taller, but in the dark I don't think it will be so obvious, not if you deliberately keep yourself low. Can you?"
"Yes."
"Good, then we have a plan. I have a feeling that tonight will be our first test."
They both heard the crunch of leather shoes approaching through the rattle of wooden wheels. Misao pulled an embroidered silk panel over her and Hanabi tossed on a few pillows before arranging herself in a leaning pose against the mound. Rikoteki's voice called out from the curtained doorway.
"Hanabi-chan, are you there?"
Misao heard her mutter, "Where else would I be?" She raised her voice demurely. "Yes, father?"
The curtain was pulled open and the accounter pulled himself up on the edge of the enclosure. Stroking his gray mustache, Rikoteki eyed his daughter.
"You do realize that I was trying to protect you. All these attacks were unexpected. I had hoped that traveling as we did, we would slip past those who wish to undermine my wealth."
Hanabi kept any implications out of her voice. "Any other reason never crossed my mind, father."
He only grunted, and continued, "This man you are to marry, he has three other wives. For you to keep favor, I expect you to conduct yourself properly and bring honor to your family."
"Yes, father."
He stared once more on her down turned face before straightening his western coat. "We will be there in two days. Then we will rest until called for by your future husband." He began to close the curtain.
Hanabi raised her head. "Father, if I may ask, what is his name?"
Rikoteki frowned. "I will tell you when I think it best for you to know."
She sighed silently, "Yes, father."
The curtain closed and Misao carefully peeked out from the cushions.
"Why won't he tell you who you're marrying?"
Hanabi shook her head, "I-I do not know. I have asked before, and still he will not say." Her voice caught in her throat. "I am afraid of who I will spend the rest of my life serving. Mother suffered, she was the second wife of my father, but she was more of an ornament than a person to him. He wouldn't look at me until I was nine, then saw me only as an asset to his income." She tried to hide her tears behind her fan.
Misao gently hugged her silently weeping companion. For a moment she thought about offering to help her run away, but knew that it would be impossible. Among the upper-class, the disappearance of a future bride would be an immense insult, and there would be executions involved. She could not ask that guilt on Hanabi's shoulders.
"I thank you, Misao-dono, and I thank Kami for sending you to me, even for just a little while."
Misao smiled. "And I am glad to have met you. I promise, that until you are actually in that man's bed, I will do what I can to make things better."
Hanabi giggled and wiped at her tears. "I suppose we ought to decide on what to do tonight. Since you are to be me for a while, I ought to show you how to properly use a fan."
"Why a fan?"
"You can say thing with only the movement or precise hold of your fan. One can flirt with or shame someone watching who understands the same language. It is vital you know this if you are to switch places with a noblewoman."
Misao groaned, "And I thought I had left all that behind me."
Hanabi raised an eyebrow, all business. "And you must tell me how to address this Aoshi-sama of yours, and what to expect from him, such as the questions he may ask and how I am to answer."
The rest of the afternoon was spend in whispered discussion.
The evening set in without any trouble, as did most of the night. Aoshi patrolled the camp, only encountering the mysterious Jiei twice in the dark. Both times they merely bowed to one another, and moved on. Then an hour before daybreak, a swarm of strangers spilled into the circle of carriages. They didn't give second glances to the wealth, only attacked the half-aware guards, and made a beeline for the sleeping Hanabi Katatomi. Aoshi cut them off, both blades drawn.
These were not the expected mismatched bandits. This bunch all wore uniforms and blackened faces. A lower class of ninja perhaps, but hired by who? Aoshi methodically parried and thrust, cutting down the first three men before the group realized that he was a greater threat then assumed. Surrounded with his back to the carriage, Aoshi heard the hiss of a chain cutting through the air. He parried the chain which punched into the wood behind him. He half-expected to hear a shriek, but there was only the fighting of the nearby soldiers.
One attacker charged him directly from the front, while another came at the left. Aoshi swept the descending blade from the first man to the side, then immediately turned his own and cut the man's throat on his return swing. The man on the left stabbed at his midsection. Bringing the blade still wet with his comrade's blood across, Aoshi snaked his kodachi around the incoming weapon and brought his right hand down to sever the arm at the elbow. Movement behind him had him leaping into the air. Flipping over the ninja who had attempted to impale him from behind, he took off the man's head with hardly a second thought. Two more came out of the pre-morning darkness welding spears. Letting them come within range, Aoshi reversed the sword in his right hand. When both thrust, he parried the first spear, and stepped past the second, severing the spear tip as the shaft slipped past his hip. But even as he put down the spear men, he sensed others moving past him to the carriage.
In a blur of silver steel, Jiei intercepted. He literally danced through the opponents, moving from one to the other, not giving them the chance to coordinate a group effort. The straight sword wove under and over the attempts of the opposition and found temporary homes in the arms or legs of the other men. Aoshi watched out of the corner of his eye as he continued to battle. Jiei seemed determined not to actually kill any of the ninja. Calmly, the slim man swept a katana past his head and struck the owner in the back of the head with the flat of his sword. Whirling, the bodyguard met an ax angled for his shoulder with the full weight of the opponent behind it. Jiei stumbled.
With hardly a second though, Aoshi raised his right kodachi and threw it, impaling the ninja through the neck. Jiei turned, wide-eyed.
"Do not waste your time sparing them. It is not your job." Aoshi took a running leap up on top of the carriage where two men had appeared. Viciously kicking one in the knee and hearing a crunch, he grabbed the sword arm of the partner and drove his own under the man's ribs. Pulling away from the dying man's body, he deflected the cripple's attempt to return his favor with a dagger to the back of the leg. The kodachi found rest in the ninja's heart.
An ear-shattering gunshot rang out. The remaining attackers immediately scattered into the gray forest. Rikoteki appeared from beneath one of the carriages and waved his arms frantically at the approaching five horses. Aoshi's eyes narrowed.
Saito was in the lead, the man riding on his left wielding the pistol. Without an audible word, the other three men leapt off of their horses and vanished into the trees after the attackers. There was a moment of complete silence. Bodies littered the ground but all were dressed in black. Aoshi wiped his blade clean on the body at his feet before climbing down and collecting the second.
Jiei, bowing low to the policeman, carefully cleaned his own sword before following the officers in pursuit. Aoshi found himself looking after him and asking,
"Is it wise to send only seven after a group of perhaps twenty-four?"
Saito smirked. "They have all been trained by me. They can handle themselves. That young man may be the one with trouble."
The memory of the surprise in Jiei's dark eyes replayed in Aoshi's mind. "Perhaps. Why are you here? I thought you could spare no officers."
Saito turned his horse to approach Rikoteki. "This is more than just helping idiots. I have new information on the men who keep attacking this caravan."
Rikoteki tried to straighten his suit once more, but only smeared the mud on his knees. Nervously putting on his hat, he asked,
"Who is it? I will complain to the Emperor when we arrive."
Saito gave him a glare. "I doubt the Emperor has times for such trivialities as yours. This is police business now. A man named Omura is looking for fast money and has created a robbery ring. You've apparently become his new target."
"Why is Omura looking for fast money?" Aoshi sheathed his kodachi.
"He is a new drug lord in the country. I suspect it is to buy off some politician."
Rikoteki bowed to Saito. "I thank you for your concern."
Saito pulled out a cigarette. "I have no concern, it is merely my duty."
Aoshi walked away from the Wolf and began inspecting a few of the bodies. There was no clan emblem on any of them, but clearly the group had known what they were doing. Yet, if they had been after money, why had they gone directly for the carriage? Leaving the corpses, he approached the personal carriage and saw the curtain move. He knocked on the small entryway. A muffled voice answered.
"Yes?"
"Lady Katatomi, the battle is over. Are you alright?"
"Fine, only shaken."
"The police are here. They will escort us into Tokyo."
"Please give the officers my thanks."
Aoshi paused, the image of Jiei's half-masked face returning to him with surprise in brown eyes. Could it be... "Lady Katatomi, are you uninjured?"
Inside, Misao smiled with Hanabi who had just managed to reenter the carriage without being seen. Hanabi raised her voice slightly.
"I am fine, Shinomori-san. I thank you for your efforts."
Aoshi was tempted to smile, but only replied, "We will leave in an hour."
