Six weeks later…
Aki was late.
Not the normal lateness common to people living in an era that didn't have clocks – that I was used to. No, he was over a week late to meet me in Niigata. For the past nine days, I had been holed up in an inn, basically counting the lines on the floor (twenty-four), playing both sides of a game of shogi (to a draw), and teaching myself to juggle. The fact that I could now easily manipulate five makeshift 'bean' bags (wood shavings and gravel sewn up in fabric) said everything about my boredom. Aside from one kunoichi who stopped in to wait out a rainstorm, there had been nobody interesting to talk to (granted, she had been really interesting).
While I would have said that Aki could survive anything and everything that life threw at him – nine days late was an ominous sign. Sure, he'd always been prone to disappearing for long periods of time. He'd also had a knack for reappearing on the exact day he'd promised.
Something's wrong.
It was possible that he would eventually show up at the inn, but I couldn't continue to hole up indefinitely – for one thing, inns cost money. I had paid for the 10-day "week" in advance – did I really want to commit to another week of this?
I need to be looking for him.
If Aki had been around to ask for advice, he probably would have suggested I return home, to the The Mountain, and wait for further communication. But that would just guarantee that Fume would put me to work scrubbing floors for the rest of the year. Hm…. I could continue south, and go to Azuchi. Aki maintained a bookstore there, but that was a front. In truth, it was a message drop for his couriers and spies. If anyone had seen him recently, then Takauji, who was currently manning the store, would know of it. And, if not… well, I could at least leave him a 'where the hell are you?' message while I figured out my next move.
Once decided, I wasted no more time and headed out into a cool late summer morning. The air had a bite to it, and the breeze carried the smell of harvest fruits. If I hadn't been so preoccupied with wondering what happened to Aki, I might have enjoyed the journey to Azuchi. But happy as I was to be on the move, my mind was consumed with images of all the disasters that could have befallen him. Maybe he'd gotten caught up in a petty squabble between neighboring daimyos. Maybe he'd been injured or taken suddenly ill somewhere.
Maybe he simply got tired of you and never planned to return.
Ugh! Mental doomscrolling wouldn't do me any good. Ok. Positive thinking. Instead of worrying why he was lost, figure out how to ensure he was found. Though Aki's system of couriers and spies wasn't nearly as vast a network as some others, like the Takeda mitsumono, there were still a lot of us. If we all worked together, we'd run him to ground… somewhere.
By the time I arrived at the bookseller's in Azuchi, I had nearly convinced myself that finding Aki would simply be a matter of legwork. I could do that. I'd been criss-crossing the country on my own for years now. I had contacts in every city. I could do this… I could d-
"Thank the Gods you're here." Takaugi greeted me, not with his customary vague hello-and-can-you-take-over-so-I-can-go-piss, but a frantic announcement. "Francisco sent a message that Aki is missing, and I don't know what to do."
There is a reason why Takauji is often the one getting stuck in the old man disguise here. He has no initiative.
I dumped my pack on the floor behind the low counter. "Has anyone else heard from him?"
He shrugged. "You're the first courier to come through since I received that message."
Like I said. No initiative.
I put my hand out and after a momentary pause, Taka realized what I wanted and plopped Francisco's note in it. I scanned it quickly, then slowly, but Taka had indeed given me all the available information. It simply said that Aki had missed a scheduled meeting and Francisco was concerned. But then he had likely needed to pay someone to write it for him, as he barely could speak Japanese. Writing it was far beyond his abilities.
Shit… if Francisco was worried too, something had to be terribly wrong. But… I couldn't freak out in front of Takauji. Someone needed to take control of the situation, and I appeared to be the only candidate at hand. Taka wouldn't listen if he saw me panic.
"Alright. Let's first send out messages to all his couriers – we'll have them search the corners of the country." Which had basically been my plan anyway.
Taka simply gaped at me (literally, unhinged jaw). "What should I write… exactly?"
It deserved its own hashtag. #Takahasnoinitiative. I bit the inside of my cheek to avoid snapping at him. He couldn't help it. Maybe he had been dropped on his head as a child. Daily. "I'll write the first one. Then you can copy it." I grabbed my pack, plus some paper and writing supplies we kept behind the counter and started to head for the private courtyard behind the shop. Then, I turned back to Taka. "Oh, and don't tell anyone he is missing. Anyone who isn't one of us."
It shouldn't have needed to have been said… but Taka doesn't think either.
Once safely in the courtyard, I allowed myself a moment to have a private breakdown. I could feel my throat and chest tighten. What if Aki never came back? What would we all do? He'd spent years building his network. Would it disintegrate without him?
Ok. Breath.
Breathe.
I flipped myself into a handstand to center myself… focusing on the physical to cleanse the mental. One thing at a time. Listen to the wind, alert to when it chang-
At that moment, what I heard instead of the wind, was the sound of a packet being slapped onto the counter. This was followed by a voice that almost made me topple over. "I have an urgent message for Akihira."
Mitsuhide.
He sounded about fifty percent less calm than the last time I had heard him speak, and… why am I upside down again? From where I was, as long as I kept still, I wouldn't be visible from the front, but I couldn't change positions without potentially alerting him to my presence.
Hopefully, Taka would remember not to mention…"He's… he's errm. I'll m-m-make sure it goes out with the next courier." Good. Though Taka had stumbled, most normal people would not have noticed.
Then again… this is Mitsuhide we're talking about. He's not normal. He might not even be human. Of course, he noticed. "My, my, that was quite the stutter. Is there a problem? You keep looking toward the-"
"Don't go back there!" Taka sounded like every guilty toddler on the planet.
Footsteps.
Sandalwood and cinnamon.
That prickly feeling shot through me again, destroying all the focus I had just worked so hard to achieve.
Before I could react, my view was impeded by Mitsuhide's legs. I tilted my head to look upward, meeting Mitsuhide's eyes halfway. Then he crouched so that we were nearly face to face. "How very interesting, child. One might almost be convinced that this is your preferred …position. Perhaps you are part bat?"
Thank goodness I hadn't yet started writing the 'Aki is missing' messages. Mitsuhide would definitely have noticed those. "Oh, you know. I'm just hanging around."
No response.
Tough crowd.
It was tempting to stay upside down and force Mitsuhide to continue to crouch, or potentially get a crick in his neck, but today I was Aki's representative and there was no reason to further antagonize him, even if he was the most aggravating man in this era. I flipped back to my feet with an artistic flourish. "Not to worry, I will make sure that Aki receives your correspondence the moment I see him."
Neutral professional tone. Don't give him anything to react to. These are not the droids you are looking for.
His posture shifted, just a little, just enough for me to register his skepticism.
Ok. Jedi mind tricks don't work on kitsunes. Good to know.
He let me stew in silence for a moment before asking, "what are you not telling me?"
Seriously? We're doing this again?
"You know, sometimes I think you say things like that not because you believe the person is holding back information, but because you hope they are. It's a fishing expedition." And I am not going to bite him. Anything. I'm not going to bite anything.
His eyebrow went up. "After a single meeting, you've determined this about me." Sarcasm dripped into the air and plopped down at my feet.
"I'm very perceptive." Which is true, as far as it goes. But something about Mitsuhide short circuited the connection between my brain and my mouth. And with my worry about Aki, my shields were low anyway.
"Perceptive… If you say so, Brat." The heavy pause mid-sentence made it clear that he had other preferred adjectives for me. "I have not forgotten out last meeting."
Neither had I.
I made a point of smiling at him. Ok, it was a fake smile, and I'm sure he was aware of that. "Perceptive and memorable."
Eyebrow.
Distract, distract, distract!
I took out my juggling bags and tossed them into the air. "Dexterous too. There was nothing I could have told you anything that you didn't already know – or that you didn't learn soon anyway."
Although I hadn't personally witnessed any of this past summer's conflict between Nobunaga's forces and the Ikko-Ikki, my friend Sasuke (and his friend Yoshimoto) had later filled me in on the details – not that they had been part of the battle either, but instead were part of the diversionary tactic that led up to it.
Mitsuhide fluidly reached over and took over my bean bags – juggling them as effortlessly as I had. "You cost me time." He let go of the bags and before I could return to the rhythm of the trick, they all fell to the ground.
Plop. Plop. Plop. Plop. Splat.
The fifth one landed on its seam, and burst open, scattering pebbles and wood shavings across the courtyard.
Mitsuhide stared down at the jumble of bean bags at my feet. "Interesting. It appears you aren't as skilled as you believed you were. It would behoove you to learn, and quickly, that recklessness and overconfidence are quite a fatal combination." He patted me on the head – patronizing, not affectionate. "See to it that Aki receives my correspondence." He bowed. Polite but distant, then, without another word, Jareth-with-better-teeth strolled out of the shop.
I hate him.
That had been even less pleasant than my first encounter with him. I felt like someone was jamming an ice pick through my sinuses. Maybe I'm allergic to sandalwood. Or cinnamon.
Maybe I'm allergic to Mitsuhide.
"Did I do that correctly?" Taka peered nervously into the courtyard. "And… he's not going to come back and kill me, is he?"
You? No. Me? Jury still out.
It would take me years to explain to Taka the art of misdirection. Easier to simply say, "you did fine." Then I took Mitsuhide's message out of his hands. Without a second thought, I opened it to read—
"You told him you were taking that to Aki." Taka scratched his head. "You shouldn't read Aki's mail."
"I always read Aki's mail. In fact, he once told me I should. Anyway, what I told Mitsuhide was that I would give Aki the message as soon as I saw him, which, of course, I will. But since I don't know when that will be, if this is important, then I'd better see if there's something that I can do to help." I did… owe Mitsuhide that much.
His letter was coded, which made sense, but Aki had made a point of teaching me all his codes, not just the ones he used for his correspondence. We had even created a special code together, but that one was only used between the two of us. In retrospect, this was an ominous sign… maybe he had already been worried about his future.
I made myself comfortable on the ground and started to decode the message. "Go back up front, Taka, this is going to be a while."
"Can I go take a piss first?" Taka was already heading through the back exit en route to the city's cesspits.
"Sure," I called to his retreating back, then got back to the message. Friend. Have you had any knowledge of who might be interested in smuggling Nanban weapons out of Sakai or the western ports? Or at least, would you be able to point me to the daimyos most likely to be stockpiling them?
Hm, if Francisco was to be believed, Aki had been headed to the port of Sakai the last time anyone had heard from him… Was it possibly that he had already been looking into weapon shipments? If so, that was the sort of information that Aki kept to himself, and none of the rest of us had much experience with smuggl—
Except me. I had had experience with them.
"Once they load the crates on board," Iekane gestured to the other crates, "you ought to be able to climb out at night and track down your brother." He showed me where there was a latch on the lid, and I tested the escape mechanism.
"The ship isn't planning to leave for a few days." He handed me my bow and arrows. "Light one of these on fire and shoot it into the air. I'll wait on the dock with our horses. Goodbye… well, good luck, I mean."
I lay back down in the crate and my world became dark as Iekane closed the lid. A few moments later, I heard another voice. "You there! What are you doing with my … shipment?" Footsteps came closer to the box. I held my breath. Now would not be a good time to be discovered. Hopefully Iekane wasn't in trouble either.
"Final inventory check!" Ooh, that was a good bluff on Iekane's part, since he couldn't know what was in these boxes.
I heard the lid on another box open, and the dull heavy clank of metal – but the only metal that would be imported these days would be Nanban guns. Crap. Of all the crates to pick, we'd somehow gotten mixed in with someone's weapon smuggling outfit.
"Wait 'til they get a load of these, heh heh." The clunk of that lid. I prayed that this guy wouldn't inspect every box.
Another voice, this one with a European accent that I couldn't place through the walls of the crate. "I'm happy you approve, Motonari. You, boy, help us move these."
"Of course." That was Iekane's voice.
I felt the box being lifted. The motion was soothing, almost like being rocked in a cradle, and in spite of my anxiety, I felt myself becoming sleepy. But after about half and hour or so, my crate's journey ended with a thunk. And then more thuds – oh the other crates.
The jingle of coins. "Pleasure doing business with ye!"
Even after over five years, memories of that near-death experience still gave me nightmares. I couldn't go into small spaces without having a panic attack… but that also meant that I had very clear memories of exactly how to find that warehouse in Sakai, a warehouse that had at one point been used to store Nanban weapons.
Still, it had been five years… the warehouse could have changed hands, the weapons could be coming to an alternate location now. Was this enough information to pass along to Mitsuhide? Maybe I should check it out on my own first… especially since I had another reason to make that trip. Aki had been planning to meet Francisco, who lived in Sakai. I could go to Sakai myself, check things out, and question Francisco. Then if I learned anything interesting, I could bring that back to Mitsuhide, with a mea culpa for reading his mail.
It's better to ask for forgiveness than permission. Or… something to that effect.
By the time I dropped three stacks of messages into Taka's hands, my fingers were sore and cramping. Originally, I had planned to have Taka make the copies himself, but I didn't trust that he would complete them, or avoid a transcription error that would spill over into all of them – this was too important to trust to a Takauji version of "telephone" in which "Aki is missing" turned into "Go to the province of Aki to look for a missing letter."
"Give these to Ryo, Kinshiro, and Heitane when they pass through." Each of them would distribute their stacks to Aki's spies, who were scattered across the country.
"Are these for Aki, or for Mitsuhide's request?" Taka looked at the store's entry, clearly worried that speaking his name out loud would cause the man to manifest.
Don't worry, Taka, you must stand in the middle of a pentagram and say the name three times for that to happen.
"This is for Aki. I'll deal with the other on my own." At my words, Taka sighed, in what I presume was relief. "Um, do you mind if I bunk with you tonight?" There was a set of rooms for the bookseller to use above the storefront. The quarters weren't terribly big, but for one night, it wouldn't be so ba-.
"Must you?" Taka frowned, as he glanced at the position of the setting sun on the horizon. "Er, normally I wouldn't mind, Katsu, but there's a woman and…"
"Say no more." Did this woman realize that under the old man disguise Taka was about thirty years old? Or… not? Maybe … you know what. I did not need to speculate on Taka's love life. I could find a cheap inn. "If Mitsuhide comes back, all you need to tell him is that I took his message to Aki."
"What if Aki comes back looking for you?" Taka carefully stored the messages under the counter. "Are you heading back to The Mountain?"
Hm, it probably would be a good idea to tell someone where I was heading, just in case. It would be better if I could tell a useful someone, someone with initiative, but I had to work with what I had. "No. Sakai. I'm going to Sakai."
The shops in the castle town were all in the process of closing for the night, but a few merchants were still willing to sell their wares, even as the sun set. If I was going to be in Sakai, I would need a decent wicker or bamboo hat. Otherwise, in the warmer coastal weather my hood would stick out like a sore ninja. While I waited for the woman in front of me to decide between two different decorative obi cords, as usual paying attention to everything and nothing, the conversation between the woman and the merchant caught my attention.
"Weren't Lord Hideyoshi and Lady Mai supposed to have returned to Azuchi by now?"
Mai… that's Sasuke's friend… the one who works in Azuchi castle.
I'd never met her, but she and Lord Hideyoshi had figured prominently in Sasuke's tales of this past summer's battles. I turned a woven hat upside down, examining the inside, pretending to be concentrating on its weight and not her response.
"Um. Well. Yes. But. Um. They are having such a nice time together that they decided to extend their trip. In fact. Mai sent a nice note to all the seamstresses telling us about how pretty it is in Sakai and the weather is lovely there so they are not yet coming back." The woman's hands were shaking.
She's lying.
One of the rules of lying? Keep it short and simple. The more you talk, the more you have to keep track of.
Proving my point, the seamstress continued, "Of course she also said that Azuchi has the best fabric merchants, so I'm sure that when she and Lord Hideyoshi return, she'll come here immediately… because our orders are piling up."
"I look forward to seeing her again," the merchant said while he wrapped up her purchases (she bought both ties).
After the woman took her package and left, I quickly paid for my hat… clearly, I had some additional research to do…
Later that night, when I was holed up at yet another inn, I jotted down what I had learned that afternoon. Mai and her fiancée Hideyoshi had taken a trip to Sakai, and they had neither returned when expected nor sent a message announcing a delay. This was atypical behavior for Lord Hideyoshi (per a couple of Oda's vassals who probably shouldn't have been talking that loudly in a public restaurant). Item number two – Mitsuhide was concerned enough about weapons smuggling and smugglers to send a message to Aki.
Were these two items connected?
Meanwhile, Aki had also disappeared, sometime before he was due to meet Francisco in Sakai.
And though I did not know where Aki had been specifically going prior to intending to meet Francisco in Sakai, that was enough of a confirmation to me that all roads led to Sakai.
I hadn't spent a lot of time there myself, but I knew enough to get around. I knew the blind alleys and the rooftops. Even better, I was certain that Francisco would be willing to trade lodgings for in-house translation services. I could take my time and investigate this properly.
'Case log' begun. Travel plans solidified. Hat acquired. Time for sleep.
Time to attempt sleep.
Time to stare at the ceiling again.
Sleep never comes easily for me – I have to chase it, tie it down, hug it to me, and hope for as much rest as possible. Unsurprisingly, when I finally dropped off, I was haunted by the memories of the crate, the weight of full boxes pressing down, the voices of the weapons smugglers checking their stock.
Likely these dreams were summoned by my plan to return to the scene of the so-called crime.
But maybe in doing so, I would finally put some of those ghosts to rest.