Chapter Three
Congregation

>>>Night - April 30, 1583

The enticing smell of roasted wild boar drifting across the campsite did nothing to calm the nerves of Yamamoto Fuji. He sat cross-legged and fidgeting across the campfire from Jeffy-sensei and three individuals whom even after two hours of consciousness he still had no idea what to make of. At least two of those individuals were well-armed and looked very dangerous; it was due to this fact that Fuji had resisted the urge to question what exactly had taken place earlier that day. That trepidation, of course, hadn't prevented the apprentice from doing quite a bit of eavesdropping.

Outside the campsite, darkness had fallen on the world and enveloped everything in a near-total blackness. They were apparently still some distance from Komo Town, possibly in the very same forest where Jeffy had fought those "ninjas".

Fuji was still mentally kicking himself for going along with that farce. From the bits of Jeffy's conversation with a swordsman in a purple kimono that he had been able to catch, Fuji had determined that the everything following his arrival at the Tokaido Road had been some sort of planned test. It had become obvious over the course of the evening that Jeffy was the mastermind behind that particular scheme, since the other three seemed none too enthused at the prospect of taking the apprentice along with them.

Fuji looked up at the three newcomers again. They were an odd-looking bunch, especially the girl named Megumi. Long dark-brown hair almost covered the left side of her face despite the presence of a dark blue headband. An extremely large smile threatened to envelop her young face as her hazel eyes twinkled in the firelight, staring intently at the wild boar over the fire that was almost ready to eat. Her clothes definitely gave off the impression of a kunoichi, consisting only of a sleeveless gi, leg stockings, and arm-length gloves, all of which were the same shade of dark blue as Megumi's headband. Fuji felt his face flush as he realized once again just how much of the girl's well-toned legs were being revealed. No wonder he had earlier mistaken her for a female ninja; only kunoichi were known to dress in such a manner.

The apprentice had managed to glean the name of the other woman from snatches of Jeffy's conversation. This "Noriko" was definitely giving Fuji the creeps, even while performing such a peaceful task as tending the boar. Her looks were decidedly non-threatening; a thick brown cloak, green kimono, and plain gray hakama worked in unison to nearly drown out her femininity, but soft raven hair still made its way past her ears and down to her shoulders from beneath a worn straw hat. It was Noriko's eyes that kept the Shinto apprentice on edge. Even with the menial task of making dinner at hand, her eyes seemed to search everywhere for an enemy. No, perhaps enemy wasn't the right word. Fuji once again felt as if his entire being was about to fall into those emerald eyes that gleamed with only one solid intent. This Noriko lived only to kill.

Fuji forcefully shifted his gaze away from the swordswoman and turned his attention to the man with whom Jeffy was speaking. Something in the hushed conversation had caught his ear: "Takashi"? Was that the other swordsman's name? In any case, the apprentice felt much more relaxed gazing at this Takashi. The well-tanned man in the violet kimono laughed and joked with Jeffy as if he had known him for a lifetime. Jeffy's cursed sword lay on the ground between the two men. Was this the student that Jeffy had received the sword from? Jet black hair seemed to fray out in all directions but hung especially low over Takashi's solid white headband. The twin tails of the headband emerged from somewhere on the backside of the swordsman's massive scruff of hair and trailed down to a pair of hakama pants that Fuji found indistinguishable from Noriko's, except for the fact that they looked much rougher and well-worn through travel.

Jeffy suddenly stood up and addressed the whole group as if they had all been listening to his private conversation. "So you see, I need him for the purposes of my mission. If Fuji is indeed correct about the shrine at Mt. Gozaisho being abandoned, then he's my best chance at purifying this cursed blade."

Noriko snapped her fierce gaze to meet the old man's calm, gentle eyes. "You know that my objective takes priority, especially with Takashi."

Takashi folded his arms across the back of his head and gave a cheeky grin. "Jeez, didn't know you needed me that much, sunshine."

Fuji felt himself cringe as Noriko almost burst with annoyance. "Who said I needed your help! I was talking about your promise! I thought a man such as yourself would be more trustworthy than to abandon his word for some pretty sword."

Takashi lost the grin as quickly as it had appeared. "Hey, trust me, there's nothing pretty about that monstrosity. It was my responsibility to deal with that sword way before I offered to help you out." Takashi seemed to ponder the situation for a moment before continuing with a heavy sigh. "But, you're right. I did say that I would help you find the man who killed your father."

Fuji wondered why Megumi had remained so quiet. The girl seemed very agitated over the scuffle, almost in excess. Jeffy seemed to notice that as well.

"Hey, there's no need for an argument here. Takashi will fulfill his pledge to Noriko, and Fuji will assist me." He looked at Noriko. "If the guy you're looking for is in the next town then we hunt him down. If not, then we head in the direction of the shrine to look elsewhere. Does that work for everyone?"

Noriko seemed pensive for a moment before answering. "Can he defend himself at all? You saw his performance against Megumi; we don't have room for another combatively useless teammate."

"That's mean, Nori-chan." Megumi half-sobbed. "I try my best."

Noriko's expression changed to one of mixed exasperation and pity. "It doesn't hurt to state the truth, Megumi. You completely bungled the assignment from your clan to kill Takashi, and in every fight we get into along the road you're more of a danger to us than the enemy. I don't even know why I still let you carry those kunai; you almost killed me with them last time, remember? I'm sorry, but I just can't deal with that kind of ineptitude when our lives are in danger."

Megumi looked as if she were about to cry when Fuji suddenly rose to his feet. "I won't repeat that mistake I made earlier today."

Noriko gave Fuji a look that made him feel like an ant. "Is that so?"

The spotlight was suddenly on the apprentice and all eyes in the group turned toward him. Fuji made sure to respond with alacrity, hoping desperately that the warriors would not comprehend his anxiety. "Th-that's right. I didn't even know the first thing about fighting when I started on this journey, but Jeffy has taught me a lot over the past few days. I'll work hard to earn your trust in combat."

Noriko seemed to materialize on her feet, as if she had made no movement from a sitting position at all. A curious katana with grooves cut into the blade separated from its sheath at Noriko's waist and whistled through the air in dazzling arcs before stopping a mere hair's breadth from Fuji's face.

The swordswoman's eyes were even colder up close than from afar. "Understand this, apprentice. I trust no one in combat." She began pointing at the rest of the group with her left hand. "Not Takashi, not his sensei, not this former kunoichi," The sword was sheathed in a quick motion as Noriko glared at Fuji through a slit cut into her hat. "And most definitely not you."

Fuji found it hard to fight down a massive sense of awe at the exquisite swordsmanship he had just witnessed, but quickly swallowed his fear. Begging wasn't going to impress these warriors. They represented the safest passage to Mt. Gozaisho, and he had to find a way to at least tag along.

"Then I shall work even harder to be the first."

Noriko turned back just as she had begun to walk away. "The first?"

Fuji tried to stand straighter and made his best attempt at a defiant look, though it held more apprehension than he probably imagined. "The first to earn that trust."

Noriko's expression changed under the shadow of the straw hat. Fuji found it curiously unreadable. Relief washed over his body when a faint smile crept onto the swordswoman's face.

"Amusing." she scoffed before sitting down, removing the boar from the fire, and looking at Jeffy. "Take him along if you want, just make sure he stays out of my way."

"Alright!" Megumi exclaimed, though Fuji wasn't sure at first whether she was cheerful about dinner or about the fact that he had just joined the group. His suspicions disappeared when the former kunoichi sat down next to him. "I'll work hard to fight too, Fuji-san!" she beamed. "We'll train together, right?"

Fuji found himself strangely pleased with the girl's enthusiasm. "I don't see any problem with that. How about it, Jeffy-sensei?"

The sword master looked up from a steaming hunk of boar meat that had just come into his possession. "You're a bold man to interrupt a good meal for that ridiculousness, but I suppose I could give it a shot. Should be a bit easier now that I can see pretty well again."

Fuji and Megumi suddenly found themselves wrapped up in a joking embrace by Takashi. Fuji couldn't help but notice that there was no softness to his arms at all; every inch of Takashi seemed to be compact muscle.

"Alright!" the ronin exclaimed. "Now more students can come to experience the glory of the Jeffy-Yaen style!" He seemed to notice Megumi's involvement for the first time. "I'm not sure a woman could understand it, though."

Megumi shoved Takashi's arm off and glared at him. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Jeffy's voice arose from the meal at twice its normal volume. "Takashi! What is the central ideology of our school's teachings!"

Takashi seemed to jump at the chance to answer, but Noriko suddenly looked strangely afraid. "The Jeffy-Yaen style is also known as the 'Art of the Forbidden Sword'. That is to say, one's limits as a swordsman are parallel to his limits as a person. If a man can live without restrictions, such as morality, then he can fight without limitations."

Fuji, Megumi, and Noriko looked dumbstruck as Jeffy laughed uproariously. "And what are the sacred icons that reinforce the spirit towards that goal?"

Takashi's face beamed proudly. "Good food, alcoholic beverages, and morally ambiguous women!"

Noriko put a hand to her face in shame, uttering several desperate pleas to the kami that this was still all just a bad dream.

Fuji and Megumi shared the same state of confusion, but it was Fuji who spoke first. "How would those improper indulgences enhance one's ability to fight?"

Jeffy looked toward them knowingly. "Perhaps you will come to understand this in the course of your training."

"Sugoi!" Megumi exclaimed. "Truly, you are a man of untold wisdom, Jeffy-sensei!"

As the meal began in earnest, Takashi leaned over and whispered his thoughts to Jeffy. "I've never seen a female react well to the pillars of your teachings. What do you suppose that means?"

"It could be that she is a girl of unique vision, who has been through many hardships in life only do discover the truth of existence, just as I once did." Jeffy ruminated. "Or it could be that-"

Takashi looked doubtful for several uncomfortable seconds before speaking again. "That what?"

"That she's too dumb to be offended by unabashed manliness." Jeffy looked in Megumi's direction as she kept trying to shove copious amounts of food into Fuji's mouth. "If I were any kind of betting man, I'd say that the odds are good for the latter."

>>>Morning - May 1, 1583

Fourteen hours later, a clear and cloudless day allowed the full force of the sun's heat to simmer across the tall grass plains that stretched beyond the forest. Fuji was none too thankful for this as he and Megumi attempted to match strides with their newly appointed drill instructor.

"Keep up the pace guys; we're nowhere near finished!" Takashi shouted from a generous distance ahead.

Jeffy had woken the two new students out of slumber at the crack of dawn and allotted them the task of cleaning up the campsite. Both breakfast and cleanup were complete within an hour, but Fuji and Megumi soon found themselves dragged into a jogging exercise by Takashi, who had been put in charge of their fitness training. As Jeffy himself had put it, "Exhaustion is just another word for 'focus'."

Noriko and Jeffy traveled the road at a normal walking pace, but Takashi had been instructed to lead Fuji and Megumi in a continuous circular jog around the group. The exercise had now been going on for three hours, and Fuji found it hard to keep running in an exact circle around a moving center. That, in addition to the odd sing-along that Takashi insisted on using to unify their strides, had totally zombified Fuji's mind.

"I don't know what I've been told!" Takashi sung, waiting for the reply.

Fuji and Megumi would have sighed visibly if they'd had the time. "I don't know what I've been told!"

"I'd take cleavage be-fore gold, SING IT!"

Fuji cringed. "I'd take cleavage be-fore gold!" Perhaps "odd" was the wrong word for this melody. Something along the lines of "cruel and unusual" seemed more appropriate. Not to mention "tone-deaf".

Takashi smiled widely as he continued. "Jeffy-Yaen style is the best!"

"Jeffy-Yaen style is the best!"

"Beats the hell out of all the rest!"

"Beats the hell out of all the-"

The sweat that continually clouded the apprentice's vision prevented him from seeing Takashi's sudden advance before it was too late. Fuji made a hasty attempt to block the wooden sword strike with his fan, but the bokken made contact with his instrument before the apprentice had a chance to reinforce it with his left hand. As a result, Fuji's block fell easily, allowing Takashi to alter the path of the wooden sword and sweep the apprentice's feet out from under him. Fuji was actually kind of relieved when he felt the brief yet sudden absence of solid ground; that split-second was the closest thing to rest he had gotten all morning. The apprentice hit the ground in a heap, and Takashi lost no time taunting him as Megumi continued to jog in place.

"I didn't think that block could get any weaker, little man!" the swordsman grinned. "What's the matter? I thought you were going to work hard!"

Fuji panted raggedly as he pulled himself up off the ground. "It's . . . the sweat. (huff) I can't see your movements that well."

Takashi let loose a roaring laugh. "Observation is the key, Fuji! What do Megumi and I have that you don't?"

Fuji suddenly realized the problem as he rose to his feet. "Headbands."

"Too bad you didn't think about that before we started." Takashi leered. "It's not like we carry spares, so let's get going!"

The apprentice forced his burning muscles to work again and he slowly regained his former pace running alongside Megumi. After a couple of revolutions around Noriko and Jeffy, who were engaged in a conversation that Fuji found difficult to discern, he noticed something curious.

"Megumi-san?" he half-whispered just before the song began again in earnest.

"Up in the mornin' to the ri-sing sun!" Takashi shouted above their quiet chatter.

"What's up?" Megumi responded in a cheery, quick response.

"Up in the mornin' to the ri-sing sun!" the pair of trainees quickly chimed in.

Fuji gave her a disbelieving look. "You . . . you don't seem very . . . tired."

"Gonna run all day till the runnin's done!" the ronin shouted as his hand moved unnoticed toward the bokken at his side.

Megumi smiled almost ridiculously. "It's not really that hard for some reason."

"Gonna run all day till the runnin's done!"

The apprentice suddenly recalled what Noriko had said earlier. "It's probably because you've had ninja training, right?"

A disproportionately confused look crossed Megumi's face just before Takashi changed the beat.

"One-two-three-I love to be a sa-mu-rai!"

"One-two-three-I love to be a sa-mu-rai!"

Astonishment hit Fuji's face like a thunderbolt. "Wait, you were a samurai!"

The bokken swung towards Megumi faster than the girl could possibly form a block. The sudden attack seemed to scare the living daylights out of Megumi and she quickly recoiled. Takashi's strike cleanly missed, causing the ronin to overbalance and plant his face directly into Megumi's chest.

A moment of shocked silence passed before Jeffy called back to the group from some distance ahead. "How are they doing, Takashi?"

Takashi made no attempt to alter his position but gave a highly visible thumbs-up followed by a surprisingly loud reply. "A-Plus-ssu!"

A spinning katana sheath barely missed Megumi and thudded into the back of Takashi's head with a loud crack. The lecherous swordsman dropped in a heap as Noriko calmly strode forward to retrieve her scabbard.

"One of these days I'm going to throw the blade instead, Takashi."

Megumi, strangely unaffected by the recent turn of events, knelt beside the prone drill instructor alongside Fuji. "Are you okay, Takashi-san?"

Takashi seemed to be struggling both with a large lump that was forming on the back of his head and consciousness itself as he answered. "From this, you can learn one of the great lessons of Jeffy-Yaen style."

Fuji cocked an eyebrow. "At this point, I'm not sure I'd want to."

Takashi smiled widely and continued undeterred. "As long as you get what you want, the consequences don't matter at all."

Fuji assisted Megumi in helping their trainer to his feet as he replied. "That seems kind of extreme. I mean, say for instance that Noriko did throw the katana blade instead of the scabbard, wouldn't that consequence kind of matter?"

Takashi didn't miss a beat. "She wouldn't have."

"How do you know?" Megumi chimed in.

"Because I know Noriko a little better than that." Takashi responded with a little more stability now that he had regained his footing. "Besides, you're taking what I said in the wrong context."

"Indeed." Jeffy stated in a serious manner, seeming to materialize behind the group. "What my student meant to say is that one should never shy away from achieving a coveted goal because he is afraid of the consequences. It is far worse to not acquire what one seeks and than to suffer the retribution tied to it." The sword master sighed. "In any case, we're going to stop for lunch just over the next rise."

"Thank the kami!" Fuji and Megumi exclaimed.

"Not that I don't enjoy the prospect," Takashi began to inquire. "But why now? We've still got another hour or so till noon."

Jeffy called their collective attention to a clear set of tracks right in front of them. "We're being followed." Noting Fuji's suspicion, he added, "This time, it's for real."

(End Chapter Three)

Japanese Dialogue and Terms (in order of appearance):

chan - a suffix that denotes familiarity or affection. Can also be used to denote the difference between an adult and child, as in "Jr.".

sugoi - in this case, it translates as "amazing".

bokken - a wooden training sword.

ssu - it can translate as "sir", but it is used here to imitate a common mispronunciation made by Japanese voice actors using English words.