This is bad, I must have kept niisama waiting for such a long time.
Enju panted while running towards Bukemachi, the road of samurai residence. She was so worried that her cousin had waited for her for too long.
Finally! I have arrived. Now where is niisama?
Enju turned her head left and right, her hands in front of her chest, rubbing them slightly against each other because she felt nervous.
"You finally came."
A familiar voice spoke behind her small figure as the person revealed himself and walked towards her. It seemed he was waiting for her under the cast of the shadow under a big tree.
"Niisama, I am sorry to have kept you waiting."
"...That woman must have been glad to get back her lost wallet."
He said blankly and shut his eyes, since he normally would not comment something as off-topic as such, especially when he was in the middle of a mission, it sounded like a criticism.
That's... Niisama is... scolding me. Yes, he is definitely mad. But, was he watching me? I didn't even see him!
"You were watching?"
"...You are always like that, since you were small. You often do things that are unnecessary. You are really not like a shinobi, a normal shinobi would not act something meaningless as such."
He sighed.
It seems he is sick of me.
"I wonder why you tend to think extra things, why you always have so many emotions. Why you... always show me many different facial expressions..."
He muttered, at a volume Enju could merely hear. Enju pursed her lips tightly while looking at him apologetically with clear blue eyes. A moment ago, she was in a panic when finding him; then, she revealed a relieved expression after she saw him; and now...
She looks guilty. Like a puppy who just got scolded.
Just how many facial expressions could she show me in a minute? ...It is indeed quite interesting to observe them.
"S-sorry... I'm sorry."
Enju furrowed her brows and hung her head a little, she looked apologetic.
Although people do always change their facial expressions, Enju is a bit different. She is always so pure, so honest and kind whenever she is having a conversation with others.
Enju was still having her head hung.
I should still praise her for her ability of coming here all the day though. She indeed did a great job.
"Good job on getting here by your own efforts."
"..."
"See there is a huge estate on the opposite side right? That is Ishida-dono's."
"Yes."
"Let's head over there."
...
It was indeed a large estate. After I went into the room where it occupied a large space, I couldn't help but feel really nervous. But it seems niisama has noticed my anxiety, too.
"...Your breathing is unstable. Take deep breaths and calm yourself down."
I did what he told me. Okay, inhale... deeply. Then exhale... I must keep a hold of myself. I can't let Ishida-dono see me like this, or else it would be embarrassing. For I, am the daughter of the Kōga clan.
"I have kept you waiting."
A voice spoke as the fusuma opened.
"Long time no see, Ishida-dono. I hope you have been doing well."
Niisama greeted him.
"I guess it has been a year since we have met each other in person."
Ishida-dono gave him a slight smile.
"I feel assured knowing that you are on this mission, Chōjirō."
"Thank you for your kind words. As a Kōga shinobi, I, Chōjirō, would do my best to accomplish any task you appoint me to do."
"I see that only you and this girl came today. You won't tell me that you intend to carry out this mission with just the two of you?"
"Please do not worry. I have brought other shinobis who were chosen by the head of the Kōga, Kandō Ueno and me. They are now all waiting for orders at our headquarters in Kyō."
"I see. That's good then, because this job is too much for just two people. That being said, this girl you brought with you here is..."
"Enju Ueno. The daughter of Kandō Ueno. I would like to introduce her to you."
Chōjirō then glanced at Enju.
"Come, introduce yourself."
"Greetings, Ishida-dono. It is an honor to meet you. I am Kandō Ueno's daughter, Enju."
Enju bowed lightly to Mitsunari as she greeted him politely.
"I am from the Minister of Civil Administration, Mitsunari Ishida. I had heard that Kandō-dono had a daughter, but I did not expect she grew up this much already."
Minister Ishida smiled, but he furrowed his brows as he thought about something.
"Wait a minute. She is Kandō's daughter, that means... Chōjirō, who is the mother of this girl?"
"Hai. It's my aunt."
"I see I am indeed correct. That means, she has the blood from both the Iga and the Kōga. Her shinobi skills must be extraordinarily well-trained."
"No, that's..."
Enju started softly, but her voice was overlapped by Ishida-dono's.
"I am having high expectations of you in this mission."
Ishida-dono smiled.
"H-Hai! I will do my best."
Enju clenched her fist as she replied him with determination.
"Ishida-dono, may I know the details of this mission?"
"...Goemon Ishikawa. Do you know this name?"
"It is a name of a notorious thief's who has been causing trouble in Kyō recently. I heard that rumour when I was on my missions in other districts."
"I see. His name has even been spread to other districts too then. That's something troublesome to deal with. We must catch him before this bad news about Kyō has been spread even further. That is why, I wanted to borrow you Kōga shinobis, your power."
Would it be that our mission is to catch the big thief, Goemon Ishikawa?
Enju thought.
But from Mitsunari-sama's letter we received back in the village, it was a spy mission. From what he just said, it was a bit different...?
"Let me explain the details to you–"
But before Mitsunari could explain further, everyone heard the loud footsteps that were coming nearer to the room. The fusuma was opened in a rude way.
Bang.
"Is Mitsunari-dono here!?"
"!?"
His voice was raspy and loud. Enju jumped a little in her seat. The man walked into the room with a lack of manners. He was a big tall man, just by looking at the size of him felt intimidating.
"This is... Deputy Genyi Maeda. What brings you here in such a panicked state?"
"What do you mean, brings me here!? Is it true that you commissioned Kōga shinobis to capture Goemon Ishikawa?! Capturing Goemon Ishikawa is MY duty! The Deputy of Kyō! I won't allow these filthy shinobis to carry out this job!"
After his shouting, it seemed he finally noticed the others, who were sitting quietly in the room. He puckered his brows as he saw them.
"I haven't seen these faces before. I see, so you guys are the shinobis of the Kōga huh. Look, the capital is not a place you filthy people should ever come, scum. Leave immediately, now!"
He said we were filthy... why?
"It would seem that you have some misunderstanding, Maeda-dono."
Mitsunari spoke.
"Misunderstanding?"
"I asked these shinobis to come not because of commissioning them to catch Goemon Ishikawa. Their job is to find the next estate Goemon Ishikawa aims to steal from. With that information, the one who actually catches Goemon Ishikawa, is you Maeda-dono, the man in charge of our capital's peace, who I intended to leave this job to.
"I-I see. It's relieved to hear that. However, I don't think it is wise to borrow power from this type of people, right? I am also searching the next estate he is aiming next."
"Well, I have asked you to search this since the very beginning. Have you ever figured out which estate Goemon Ishikawa intended to steal from? If you have already solved this, he would not be still wandering around and stealing now, you know."
Mitsunari grinned slightly at him.
"...!"
"I have no intention to put the blame on you. After all, Goemon Ishikawa is not like any other ordinary thief. Which is why, I want to pass this investigation to these people who are also, not "ordinary". Maeda-dono, you should also know it is high time right now, I hope you can consider how much I want to catch Goemon Ishikawa immediately at rough times like this."
"...You're right. It is indeed rough times now. Sorry for getting so excited about this."
At rough times like this?
Enju pondered what that might mean.
"To be honest though, I don't want to borrow the strength from these people."
Genyi shot the two of them a disgusted glance.
"Of course. But just think of them as my guarantee, this is just my way of providing insurance in case anything goes wrong."
"...Hey you two, don't think you can do as you please in the capital just because Ishida-dono has your back. If you cause any trouble, I would send you to jail without mercy as Deputy!"
He shouted and clenched his teeth.
"I shall leave then."
Once he left, Mitsunari heaved a long sigh.
"Oh boy oh boy, Maeda-dono is really a handful. It was all because of him not doing his job well enough that I am now in so much trouble... Anyhow, we have got the details down. Chōjirō, your job is to pinpoint down the residence Goemon Ishikawa aims to rob next before he strikes."
"Understood."
"A month has been passed since he has committed robbery. It should be time for him to rob again. However it might be difficult for you even, to find that out."
Indeed, Kyō was a big city. There were too many estates to search for and it would be difficult for them to solve the case by themselves.
"I shall give you more directions and information regarding the estates Goemon had been stealing from. Remember, speaking this to other people is prohibited."
They had finished discussing with Mitsunari Ishida and left the residence.
"We have finally understood the details of this mission. We should head back our headquarters and explain this to everyone."
Chōjirō said bluntly and Enju followed him behind. But he noticed how her shoulders were slumped, she was feeling tired, maybe?
"Enju, what's wrong? You look down. Do you feel worried because this is your first mission after all?"
"No, it's not that I feel worried... But..."
"Are you thinking about the things Genyi Maeda spoke earlier?"
Enju widened her eyes after hearing him said that.
"! How do you know?!"
"I am your teacher, and your cousin. Of course it's easy to guess the things you are thinking about."
Am I really that easy to be read...? By niisama?
"The Deputy, Genyi Maeda. I know that man. He was once Nobunaga Ōda's subordinate."
"?! Nobunaga Ōda's...?"
Enju raised her voice. Hearing that name itself saddened her. After all, it was all because of that man that her dear cousin's home, Iga was gone. That man started the Tenshō Iga War. She had heard about Nobunaga Ōda's attacks, they were merciless. He burned down Iga's residential areas, the temples... women and children were killed too.
It had been seventeen years. Though, even if this topic, the Tenshō Iga War was mentioned, her cousin's expression did not change any bit. His face looked emotionless, just like usual. However, Enju thought she saw the tiny darkness casted over Chōjirō's eyes, his eyes told her he did feel something, something... dark and sad.
"Niisama..."
Enju started, she wanted to change the topic as she didn't want to make him feel sad, in case he was. But...
"I heard Genyi Maeda had participated in the Tenshō Iga War. He hates shinobis like us because he carries the same thought as his former lord, Nobunaga Ōda. Well, though it would seem normal for him to hate us as we appear to be stealing his job. And even if we disregard that, shinobis themselves are existences hated by the majority. If you wonder why, it's because people think they are mysterious and odd, a kind of existence no one knows. Like mysterious creatures."
"Odd..."
"Anyway, do not worry about what people say and do not treat them seriously. Remember not to put it in your heart."
"Yes... I understand."
"Let's go home. Everyone must be getting tired of waiting for us."
Enju pursed her lips and looked down.
Shinobis are existences hated by people. Mysterious creatures... I have never thought about shinobis like that. That's just sad.
Slowly, she followed him behind and they returned their headquarters.
Chōjirō told them what they were expected to do in this mission, their main objective was to figure out the next estate Goemon was going to rob, but not capturing him.
"Well that's boring, it'd be great if we could capture him instead."
Kuroyuki put his arms behind his back as he said.
"I share the same opinion with you Kuroyuki~ Hey Chounii, can't you let us catch him?"
Ennosuke asked.
"Do not try to conduct arbitrary actions. I believe I have taught you before, doing what you please would result in a mission's failure. Also, Ishida-dono wanted to leave the job to Deputy Maeda, who would capture Goemon. And that's reasonable, as capturing the thief by Kyō's constables would reassure the people."
Chōjirō also confirmed that in order to capture Goemon, they would need to find a letter, or a notice, the next residence Goemon intended to strike and the thing he planned to steal.
Mitsunari mentioned Goemon's targets were always the high-ranking officials. The difficulty for them to capture Goemon was that the officials did not want to make it known that they received a letter, because they were too proud of themselves, and it would be embarrassing if they could not handle a single thief. So they kept quiet and tried to catch him by their own means.
"That means, Goemon Ishikawa has probably already sent his letter to his target. But the recipient is keeping it as a secret. So we need to find out who got the letter, right?"
Said Kyara.
"Yes, that's why this mission requires infiltration."
Enju added.
...
After that, niisama told me to have some rests while the others would be starting their investigation from the afternoon. It's because I haven't had any rests today, but the others have already replenished.
The actual footwork will begin tomorrow, but niisama wanted us to go out and get a feel of the capital today, as well as listen to the various conversations spoken by the townspeople. So that we can grasp an understanding of the city.
Not for me though... Even though I told him I wasn't tired, he urged me to take a nap. Well, I swear I will do my best starting from tomorrow!
...Though, I also retorted to niisama that he too, has not had any rests. But what he answered me was–
"I am already accustomed to things like these. It is your first mission, so do not push yourself."
Then all the others agreed. Apparently, they have already taken a nap while we were out.
Before the others left, we finished our meal together. Food were supplied from the shinobi rations. It was a simple lunch. Onigiri and tea.
As I observed the others while eating, they all seemed to be really excited about the mission. We sat in a circle, Gekkamaru and niisama sat next to my left and right.
Occasionally, I glanced at my right to see niisama eating his onigiri silently while listening to our casual chit-chats. He was the fastest to finish his onigiri. To be honest, I worried he might not have had enough food. Usually, the faster a person eats, it means the hungrier he is. Isn't it?
Well... for niisama's case, another factor might be he just simply wanted to start his job quickly.
I sighed, mad at myself for not learning any cookery skills. Or else I could have made more food for niisama from the ingredients we got.
"Enju-sama?"
Confusion was heard in Gekkamaru's voice.
I shook my head and gave him a reassuring smile.
When we all finished eating our onigiris, I bid goodbye to my friends and niisama.