Suenagaku na Aki
Chapter 7
Meanwhile, in a remote location somewhere else,
Neuwindst looked around him in awe as Shingo lead him inside the base. "I never thought that your leader could have put together such a magnificent base of operation," he confessed. It was true that Orochi had an army larger than Shishio, he thought. And discounting the weapons he had supplied, he reasoned that they were also better equipped.
"It is because our group had a much earlier start than the Meiji government"
The German whistled. "You mean that your group has been around for hundreds of years?"
"Yes"
'Stupid fools. If I'm their leader, I would have ruled Japan for years now with this kind of resource' "So, where is your esteemed leader?"
Shingo lead him inside a small building. Inside, two men were talking to each other. They turned toward Shingo and Neuwindst.
"Welcome home, Shingo. I see that our foreign friend is coming here with an offer," one of the man said.
Neuwindst grinned. Any doubt he had on proposing an alliance with Orochi was put to rest. "You must be the famed Orochi" He bowed.
Orochi smiled. "And you must be Neuwindst that is well known for selling his mother for 1000 Pounds"
The foreigner's jaw dropped.
"I was only kidding"
"Oh!"
"I heard it was for a 100 Pounds"
"… Ha ha ha. Don't believe what you hear about me. All of those were nasty rumors"
Orochi closed the gap between the two of them. "And how about news about you wanting to join my army?"
Neuwindst put a finger under his chin. "Well, I would not use the word 'join'. Maybe 'alliance' is a better term for it"
Orochi walked around him, examining him as if he was an item on sale. "Very well. Now tell me, Neuwindst. Forgive me for being blunt, but your reputation for being an untrustworthy backstabber precedes you. Of course, you always keep up your bargain whenever you sell something, but it is also known that you had supplied weapons to two warring factions at the same time. What do you have to say to that?"
The German scratched his head. "Hmm. It is true, but I'm only a weapon supplier, not a peace broker. And I didn't sign any pledge of allegiance with any of them. Surely that part of the information hasn't escaped your notice?"
"Good answer. Now, what will you do to ensure that we can trust you?"
Neuwindst was prepared for the question. "Nothing"
Shingo was shocked. "Nothing? Why?"
"Why should I? In fact, maybe it is best for you to assume that I'm bound to betray you at any opportune moment"
Shingo was about to let him have a piece of his mind when Orochi motioned him not to do so. Then his leader extended his hand toward Neuwindst who shook it.
"I am sure we can work together", Orochi said.
"I sincerely hope so"
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Shingo followed after his master into the room. He had a lot of questions to ask.
"Yes, Shingo?"
"Master, tell me. Why do you trust him?"
"I did not say I trusted him"
"But you have accepted his proposal"
"After what he said? Is that it you wanted to say?"
Shingo nodded.
Orochi sat on the floor and began to open a book. "Despite the statement that he has made, he has spoken the truth. At least our relationship with him is defined early on. Anyway, what he had implied is that in any of our planning, we can take into consideration that he will betray us"
"I do not understand" said Shingo, as he stood next to Orochi and tried to puzzle out his actions.
"Simply said, we should not depend on him as if he is one of us"
"Then, why should we accept him in the first place?"
Orochi sighed. Patiently, he explains, "His knowledge of weaponry can be of advantage to us. And like I said just now, at least he has the honesty to admit that he is untrustworthy. Do you really think I would have accepted him if he made promises that he cannot keep?" He looked at Shingo to see his reaction before continuing, "Of course, it helps knowing that Neuwindst's base in Shanghai was destroyed by the German government yesterday"
"You mean…"
"Maybe he had foreseen it coming. So, either he joins us or the Meiji government. Surely, since you know him quite a bit, so you should understand why he made the decision"
Shingo thought about it. He could remember the foreigner saying something regarding the best place to test a weapon is on the battlefield, not at the training 'playground' where the tests and the results have to be tailored out to show only the positive sides. So, even if Neuwindst has approached the Meiji government to peddle his weapons, the government will take some time to make its decision. Hearing about the destruction of the weapon factory he had visited only a few days ago made him realize that for an illegal weapons manufacturer like Neuwindst, time is a luxury he doesn't have. That fact, and the fact that the 'righteous' Meiji government would not make a deal with someone with a background like Neuwindst openly left him with little choice.
Shingo smiled a bit. Although he still had misgivings about the current arrangement, at least he had seen the reasons behind his master's decision. Meanwhile, Orochi continued reading the book for a while until he noticed that Shingo was still standing at his place. Looking up from his book, he asked, "Just ask what you want to know about my attack on Oniwabanshuu"
"Very well, my lord. It seems that your attack has brought us another enemy"
"It is so, I hope"
"??"
"The same reasoning that applies to Neuwindst becoming our ally also applies to Shinomori becoming our enemy"
"But… but…, we could have made the plan by considering that he will also join their side later…"
"And that would have made him unpredictable, right?"
"Ano……"
"All right. Let us see it from another perspective. Before the attack, there is a possibility that he will stay in Kyoto instead of going to Tokyo, even after receiving the telegram the Meiji government sent to him right?"
Shingo agreed with him.
"And we cannot be sure whether he will go to Tokyo later, or not going to Tokyo at all. But by attacking his group, now we can be very certain that he WILL go to Tokyo, right?"
"Yes"
"So, to make it simple, now that he has become our enemy, it will be easier for us to guess his thinking. Before, the advantage was his. But now, you can say that we're even"
The standing man didn't fully comprehend what was said, but he still ventured with another question, "So do you mean this is like a game of Shogi?" By trying to compare his master's way of thinking with a traditional strategy board game, he hoped that at least he could understand the situation better.
"It's Just like a game of Shogi", Orochi confirmed. "You try to guess my move and I try to guess yours. And like in the game, once you made certain move, the enemy has no other option but to make the move that we wanted him take"
"I see. And Now I can understand about what Takuya said"
"Hmm?"
"Takuya did mention that you told Shinomori about you wanting to see whether all Ishinshi's and Bakufu's best swordsmen combined can stop us"
Orochi chuckled. "That's just an excuse for me to attack him. It would have been rude to attack someone without a good reason"
"Master, your brilliance amazes me"
"Thank you, but the idea is not mine"
Before Shingo could ask for clarification, Ukyo burst in the room, looking frantic. "Forgive me for being rude, but I have something important to ask"
"About your dogs?" Orochi asked him. "Their kennels were moved to the southern part of our base"
"No. I knew about the kennels shift"
"Then?"
"A… Asu… Asuka? Where is he?"
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Hajime Saitou smoked leisurely while leaning on a wall in the deserted alley. With Chou in Tokyo to take care of everything there, he only had one more thing to carry out.
"You can stop stalking on the Aoiya. I'm leaving for Tokyo now"
Saitou threw the unfinished cigarette on the ground and stepped on it while walking into the open. He cocked his left eye when he saw that there were two people waiting for him.
"Oh, it seems that the weasel is sending you off"
"No. She follows"
Even Saitou's stoic facade faltered a bit after hearing that answer.
"She has a task to perform"
Saitou looked to Misao. The normally talkative woman was unusually quiet. He took out another cigarette from his pocket. As if on cue, a stagecoach arrived and stopped near them.
"Get on board"
After they got into the coach and the coach started moving, he lit the cigarette. "Now tell me everything you know"
****************************************
Saitou looked toward the port from the ship's aft side as it began moving toward the sea. Next to him stood the famed leader of the Oniwabanshuu, it's Okashira. From the corner of his eye, he could see the weasel shadowing the man. He mentally scoffed at Aoshi's earlier suggestion of the woman having a task to perform, but the Mibu's Wolf was willing to ignore her as long as she kept her mouth shut.
In the stagecoach, Aoshi had told him of the man called Orochi who headed the Orochi shadow organization. Initially, Saitou listened with half little interest as the quiet man dwelt on the organization's legend, on how it was formed during the Sengoku Judai (The Warring States Era) to offer service to the samurai lords, from escort missions to assassinations. The group became well known for its very high success rate. What made its success rate more incredible was the fact that every time it accepted a mission, it would send out a declaration to the opposing side. Despite the early warning to their enemies, the Orochi ninjas normally were able to accomplish their task successfully.
Then, as the Tokugawa era began and the newly proclaimed Shogun began eradicating the ninja clans to ensure his seat of power would be ensured safe for those willing to serve under him, the Orochi group disappeared. Some said that it was the first group to be crushed by the Tokugawa while others said that all of its members committed seppukku in order to preserve their dignity rather than surrendering to Tokugawa.
"And so you're telling me this Orochi group is a fake?" he asked as a response.
"No. That's not what I meant," Aoshi answered while staring out of the moving stagecoach.
"What I have just told you are unconfirmed rumors. During the hundreds of years after the group disappeared, stories have surfaced regarding the existence of a shadow group"
"Heh! And you're going to tell me that those stories are also rumors?" Saitou flashed a sarcastic smile. "Let me make a guess; the Oniwabanshuu has a library containing local folk tales and lore"
"That is correct," Aoshi answered, ignoring Saitou's taunt. "Perhaps it's true that serving the Tokugawa Shogunate weakened us. However the Shogunate provided us with ample resources to collect information that may be of use"
Thinking about what Aoshi said as he looked at the port becoming smaller and smaller in his view, Saitou took out a cigarette and lit it. If what Aoshi told him was true, they would be facing Japan's greatest threat.
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Author's notes (revised 10 January 2004)
1. Sorry to disappoint all of you regarding the last chapter's cliffhanger. Well, at first, I thought of making a weapon cache, but the weapons would have been outdated by that time. A secret base? What's the use of a secret base if only one or two people using it? So, in the end the library prevails! Yay! It should make sense, as Oniwabanshuu was into information business.
2. Sengoku Judai (or Jidai) is the time before the Tokugawa era whereby it was free for all. You want land? Get you army to conquer it. You don't like the face of another land owner? Get it surgically removed by your ninjas. These should give you a general (pun not intended) picture of how chaotic the era was. It was also the time when the services of so-called 'men of the shadows' were used. At first, most of the land owner cried foul when the ninjas appeared. But, as the same time, some of them were making secret deals with the 'dishonorable dogs'. To make the story short, in the end, everyone used their service.
3. The ninjas from Iga province are known throughout the era.
4. Ninja clans had a chain of command something like this: Chunin (Upper man), Jonin (Middle man) and Genin (Lower man). Chunin is the leader of the chain of command, something like the head of CIA. Jonin collects the money and provide strategy planning, like a mission controller. Genin is your run of the mill, text book defined ninjas.
5. The part where the Tokugawa eliminating the ninjas was a bit off the mark. Actually, it was Oda Nobunaga who wanted to wipe out the ninjas, especially the ninjas in the Iga province. He sent his son to attack the province but he was beaten. Undaunted, Nobunaga sent a massive army to smash the Iga ninjas has succeeded. At that time, Tokugawa was in an alliance with him, so I'm not sure whether he's in the extermination process or not. After Nobunaga was killed, Tokugawa had to pass through a mountain in the said province. He signed an agreement with a Chunin for a protection. This is the start of the relationship between the Shogunte and the ninjas. Ironically, it slowly brought upon the death of the ninjas. Hired as gardeners in the Shogun's palace (I'm not joking on this one), they spent their days in peace and quiet, and as a result their skill waned. Some of the ninjas who didn't join the Tokugawa's army became paid assassins, but without the leadership of Chunins, they're just thugs in ninja garbs.
6. It has been quite a while since I make zany food comments, so here goes:
Fic Critic
----I just hope that the juice I painstakingly pressed out of the tiny grape doesn't turn into vinegar due to my own neglect
Jdog()
----I don't think I'll take the story down from Fanfiction. Ha ha. Sorry, I just couldn't resist making that comment
Anabella5
----While preparing a dish, one should take into consideration of how the food will look and taste like and how it will fit in the whole course. Sometimes a tasteful dish can be ruined by overlooking this factor.
This chapter was checked by Fujifunmum.