The Way Of The Sword (19 page)

‘No, but you have to admit it was rather sneaky of him.’

‘Well, I still don’t see why Jack got in and I didn’t,’ muttered Yamato, moodily poking at the snow with his
bokken
. ‘It’s favouritism if you ask me, just because he’s
gai
-‘

‘Yamato!’ exclaimed Akiko, glaring at her cousin. ‘Jack got further than any student in the history of the Gauntlet. He deserves to be entered.’

‘Sorry,’ said Yamato, offering Jack an apologetic smile. ‘I’m still a little sore about it all.’

Yamato pulled aside the jacket of his training
gi
to inspect the purple mass of bruises spread across his right side. Jack realized he must have been hit extremely hard during the Gauntlet. He also recognized his friend was hurting badly from the shame of failing in the trials. Jack let the insult go and hoped that their friendship wouldn’t be ruined by the turn of events.

‘I bet that hurts,’ Saburo said, giving Yamato’s side an explorative prod with his finger.

‘Oww!’ exclaimed Yamato, shoving Saburo’s hand away.

‘You big baby,’ teased Saburo.

‘Well, see how you like it!’

Yamato began to pummel Saburo with his fists. The others laughed as Saburo cartwheeled backwards off the veranda and into the snow.

‘You forget, Saburo, I went through all that pain and training for
nothing
!’ yelled Yamato, jumping down and grabbing a handful of snow before shoving it in Saburo’s face.

‘Leave him alone, Yamato,’ chided Akiko, worried that Yamato’s anger at himself was turning nasty.

‘That’s easy for
you
to say. You and Jack are in the Circle. I’m not!’

‘Don’t forget… Yori,’ spluttered Saburo under the continuing barrage of blows and snow.

‘That’s a point. Where is Yori?’ asked Kiku quickly, trying to divert Yamato from the escalating fight.

Yamato stopped his assault. ‘The ungrateful little genius is over there.’ He indicated the gnarled pine tree at the far end of the garden, its trunk propped up by the wooden crutch.

Yori was squatting under one of its snow-shrouded branches, listlessly pulling at the tail of an
origami
crane, making its wings flap. Despite their best efforts to console him, Yori hadn’t uttered a single word since the shock announcement in the
Butokuden
the day before.

‘Don’t be such a sore loser,’ said Akiko to Yamato. ‘Yori hadn’t entered and didn’t want to.’

‘So why should he get to go? The sensei had said only five students would be entered in the Circle. There are plenty of other students who would give their sword arms for that extra place. And
I’m
one of them,’ said Yamato, releasing Saburo and dusting the snow from his kimono in angry swipes.

‘But he did pass a trial, Yamato. And I’m sorry, but you didn’t.’

‘I know,’ admitted Yamato, slumping back down on the veranda. ‘But Yori wasn’t even tested in the physical trials. How do they know he’s ready?’

‘Are any of us?’ said Jack.

‘Well, you aren’t. You were only
just
accepted,’ Yamato was quick to point out.

‘Yes. That’s why I have to take extra tuition from Sensei Kano,’ added Jack by way of an excuse.

‘You’ll need it.’

‘You’re right. I will. And I’ll need your help too, if you’re up for it.’

‘What do you mean?’ demanded Yamato, turning to face Jack.

‘Sensei Kano said I needed a training partner. I was hoping it would be you.’

Yamato deliberated before answering and Jack thought he would refuse as a matter of pride.

‘Come on. It would be like our old sparring days in Toba,’ urged Jack.

Recognizing the gesture for what it was, his friend managed to muster up a half-hearted smile. ‘Thanks, Jack. Of course I will. You know I’d never miss an opportunity to beat you up!’

Later that evening, Jack heard Yori sobbing in his room. Deciding that his friend needed company, he knocked on his door.

‘Come in,’ sniffled Yori.

Jack slid back the
shoji
and stepped inside. There was barely enough space for him to stand, let alone sit down, not just because the bedroom was so small, but due to the fact that Yori’s room was littered with
origami
cranes. Despite this, Yori was still making more, and there was a feverish anxiety to his labours.

Jack cleared a space and sat down beside his friend. Yori barely acknowledged him, so Jack decided to help him in his task. After folding his fifth crane, though, he could no longer contain his curiosity.

‘Yori, why are you folding so many paper cranes? You’ve solved the
koan
.’

‘Senbazuru Orikata
,’ replied Yori sullenly.

‘What’s that?’ Jack asked, his brow wrinkling in puzzlement.

‘According to legend,’ Yori continued, tetchy at being distracted from his task, ‘anyone who folds a thousand
origami
cranes will be granted their wish by a crane.’

‘Really? So what’s your wish going to be?’

‘Can’t you guess…?’

Jack thought he could, but, since Yori was in no mood to talk, he let the matter rest. As all conversation died, Jack stood to stretch his legs and stepped over to the little window. He stared out over the courtyard and gazed at the snowflakes floating through the night. If he had the patience to fold one thousand cranes, Jack knew what he would wish for. It would be the same wish he had asked of the Daruma Doll.

His thoughts wandered to Jess. What would his little sister be doing now? He hoped she was getting up to have breakfast with Mrs Winters. He didn’t want to think of the alternative.

Not wanting to worsen the mood in the room with his own melancholic thoughts, Jack returned to the task at hand. He picked up a sheet of paper to fold yet another crane.

The pile of
origami
paper was soon used up, and Yori quietly thanked him for his help and said he would get more the next day. While he couldn’t quite muster a smile, he did seem less despondent about his situation and he had stopped crying, so Jack left and headed to bed. Sliding open the
shoji
to his own room, he stopped dead in his tracks.

His bedroom had been ransacked.

The
futon
was unrolled and ripped open; his ceremonial kimono, training
gi
and
bokken
lay discarded upon the floor; and the Daruma Doll and
bonsai
had been knocked off the window sill, the little tree now lying on its side, its roots exposed and earth spilt everywhere.

Jack’s first thought was
Kazuki
. It was exactly the sort of thing he or one of his Scorpion Gang would do. He scanned the room to see if anything had been taken. To his relief, he found Masamoto’s swords under the ceremonial kimono and spotted his sister’s drawing crumpled but intact beneath the
bonsai’
s pot, his
inro
carrying case discarded to one side. He then looked under the
futon
and realized what was missing.

Jack stormed up the now deserted corridor to Kazuki’s room and flung open his
shoji
.

‘Where is it?’ accused Jack.

‘Where’s what?’ replied an indignant Kazuki, who was in the process of polishing a gleaming samurai sword of black and gold that his father had presented to him upon the news of his acceptance into the Circle.

‘You know exactly what I mean. Now give it back!’

Kazuki glared at Jack, his left eye still swollen and discoloured by the bruising he had sustained during the Gauntlet. ‘Get out of my room!’ he demanded. ‘What sort of samurai do you think I am to steal from you? That might be something a
gaijin
would do, but never a Japanese.’

Then a malicious smile spread across his face as he saw Jack’s distress. ‘But if you do find out who did it, remind me to thank them.’

Jack cursed. Despite Kazuki’s arrogance, he seemingly had nothing to do with the break-in. Perhaps it had been Hiroto, getting his own back for Jack beating him in the trials. Jack glanced down the empty corridor and froze.

Creeping out of his room was a figure dressed head-to-toe in white. It held the leatherbound book in its grasp.

‘Stop!’ cried Jack.

The dark pebble eyes of the ghostly figure locked with his. It fled down the corridor as silent as the falling snow and out of the
Shishi-no-ma
.

Jack flew after it. He raced past startled students, who had emerged to see what the disturbance was, and out into the cold night air.

He spotted the figure sprinting across the courtyard and followed.

‘Give it back!’ Jack shouted, gaining on the intruder.

The figure reached the edge of the courtyard and launched itself at the school walls. Jack clambered up after the thief, his hands grabbing hold of the bottom of a white jacket. He wrenched back as hard as he could, but was kicked in the chest for his efforts and sent sprawling into the snow. Momentarily stunned, Jack could only watch as the intruder continued to scale the wall with cat-like grace.

Then, without looking back, the white-clad figure disappeared into the snowy night.

‘Do you really think it was Dragon Eye?’ asked Yamato as he helped Jack tidy his room. ‘It’s been a long time since he showed himself.’

Jack was smoothing out his sister’s picture and wiping off the earth that had fallen on to it from the
bonsai
. Since Jack usually kept the drawing hidden in his
inro
, the intruder had clearly been carrying out a thorough search of his room.

‘It had to be, but he sent someone else this time. Unless he’s managed to grow another eye!’ replied Jack sarcastically, remembering the two dark eyes that had peered at him through the slit of the ninja’s hood.

‘But who’s ever heard of a white ninja? It must have been a disguise. Are you sure it wasn’t one of Kazuki’s Scorpion Gang playing a trick on you? I mean, ninja always wear black.’

‘At night, yes,’ interrupted Akiko, who suddenly appeared at the doorway, dressed in a pink petal sleeping kimono. ‘But with the snow, they would stand out as if it was the middle of the day. Their
shinobi shozoku
is for camouflage and concealment, so they wear black at night, white in the winter and green in the forests.’

‘Where have you been all this time?’ demanded Jack, irritable she’d not been around to help.

It was now very late and, apart from Yamato and Akiko, the other students had got bored and gone to bed. No one else but Jack had seen the white ninja. That was fine with Jack. He didn’t want people asking questions. He had even told Saburo that Hiroto had wrecked his room, so that he didn’t have to reveal the existence of the
rutter
to another of his friends.

‘I was having a bath,’ replied Akiko, looking round the overturned room in shock. ‘What happened here? Has anything been stolen?’

‘Dragon Eye returned,’ replied Jack, gathering up his swords, ‘and yes, something was taken.’

‘Not the
rutter
!’ she exclaimed.

Jack shook his head.

‘No. Father Lucius’s Japanese dictionary. The one he gave me in Toba. The one that I was supposed to deliver to Father Bobadilla in Osaka when I got the chance. Looks like I’ll have to break that promise.’

‘Why would anyone want to take a dictionary?’ asked Yamato, his brow wrinkling in puzzlement.

‘I don’t think they were looking for the dictionary, do you?’ Jack replied, picking up the Daruma Doll and putting it back on the window sill next to the
bonsai
. ‘At a glance, Father Lucius’s book could be mistaken for the
rutter
. I left the dictionary under my
futon
as a decoy. Whoever took it wouldn’t have known the difference unless they looked inside. I must have disturbed them in the middle of their search.’

‘What? The ninja was in here with you?’ asked an incredulous Yamato. ‘Why didn’t you see him?’

‘He must have been hanging over my head,’ explained Jack, shuddering. ‘See those damp patches on the wall above the door. That’s where snow’s melted. The ninja must have wedged himself between the cross-beam and the ceiling.’

‘It’s possible,’ agreed Akiko. ‘Ninja learn from an early age how to climb and perform acrobatics. Supposedly, they’re taught how to hang on to tree branches with just one finger.’

‘How do you know all this?’ asked Yamato, amazed.

‘So where’s the
rutter
now if Dragon Eye hasn’t got it?’ Akiko continued, ignoring her cousin.

Jack hesitated. He couldn’t afford to take any more risks with his father’s logbook and was reluctant to tell them. When he had visited Nijo Castle with Emi, he’d managed to excuse himself from her company under pretext of needing to relieve himself. He’d been on his own long enough to hide it behind the wall hanging of the white crane. The
rutter
was safe for the time being. It was the perfect hiding place, but only as long as no one else knew about it.

‘Jack, you can trust us,’ insisted Akiko. ‘Besides we can help protect it, if we know where it is. Dragon Eye will realize soon enough that he has stolen a decoy and will come seeking the real
rutter
.’

Jack considered them both a moment longer. They were his friends. His closest friends. He had to trust them and Akiko was right. They might be able to help him. But he wouldn’t tell them everything – not yet.

‘You know I mentioned that I’d returned to Nijo Castle with Emi…?’

‘Yes,’ said Akiko rather coolly.

‘I’m sorry I didn’t tell you at the time, but I’m sure there are things you don’t tell me too,’ added Jack tetchily, allowing the accusation to hang in the air for the briefest of moments. ‘Anyway, I went alone with Emi for a reason. I’ve hidden the
rutter
inside the castle.’

‘In the castle? But why there?’ Yamato asked.

‘Daimyo
Takatomi has made the castle ninja-proof. Where better to hide the
rutter
from a ninja as devious as Dragon Eye?’

‘Jack, I can’t believe you’ve done this,’ Akiko snapped, glaring at him as if he’d just committed a terrible crime.