Jade Palace Vendetta

CHAPTER 18

Kaze walked through the streets of Kamakura methodically checking each neighborhood to see if there was a nine-year-old girl that fitted the circumstances of the Lady’s daughter.

As he walked down a wide side street, a dozen men walked out of an inn. They were wearing black armor, and several had banners in their hands. The banners were black with a white diamond, surrounded by eight bent bamboo leaves. It looked more like a spider than what it was supposed to represent-a square well surrounded by a bamboo grove. They were Okubo’s men.

Kaze stopped to look at the merchandise in front of a vegetable stand, slouching his shoulders and trying to look like a henpecked samurai husband shopping for dinner, a job usually done by the wife. The stand had small purple eggplants, large white daikon radishes, and green leafy vegetables of all types displayed in shallow wooden trays. Kaze lifted a few vegetables to examine them, all the while keeping a watchful eye on the soldiers coming out of the inn. He was trying to blend into the background instead of calling attention to himself.

The merchant came out of the shop, bowing obsequiously and saying, “What can I get for you, Samurai-sama?”

Kaze pointed to a few small purple eggplants, then hunted in his sleeve for a copper coin. As he did this, the vegetable merchant took some rice straw and expertly tied it into a sling to hold the eggplants. Merchants had special ties to hold all sorts of vegetables, fruits, and produce. There were even special slings to hold one, two, three, or four eggs, all twisted from rice straw when the merchandise was selected.

As Kaze paid for the eggplants, more of Okubo’s troops came out of the inn, including some officers. Catching a glimpse of the officers, Kaze realized he could no longer rely on playing a part to masquerade his identity. He turned and started walking away from the inn, negligently swinging the eggplants from one hand.

“You!” One of the officers was calling to him. Kaze didn’t turn around. He kept walking, not increasing his pace, but not slowing down, either.

“Get him!” The officer commanded his men. The officer shouted Kaze’s real name. He had been recognized.

Kaze started running down the streets of the neighborhood, keeping one hand on the hilt of his sword to steady it. Behind, he could hear the sound that came from men running in armor, the metal plates of the armor, sewn to a leather backing, banging against each other.

The street was narrow but straight because they were in a part of the city laid out in a grid. This made following Kaze easy for his pursuers and made it harder for him to elude them. He cut down a side street, then ducked into an alley. He ran behind a shop past a privy occupied by a man. Although the privy had only a half door, made of woven reeds in a bamboo frame, the man ignored Kaze, as if he weren’t there, and Kaze did the same. Kaze briefly thought how convenient it would be if he could actually make himself as invisible as Japanese etiquette demanded people act they were when presented with potentially awkward situations.

Emerging from the alley, he continued down a street. He looked over his shoulder. Although he had outpaced the men chasing him, he had not lost them. He turned down another side street and had run half its length before he realized it was a dead end, terminating at the gate of a large cooper’s yard instead of at another street.

Quickly glancing around, Kaze realized he would not have time to escape out of the cul-de-sac without being caught by Okubo’s men.

The cooper’s yard was large and bustling. At the gate was a large piece of wood with a picture of a painted barrel, a sign easily understood by both literate and illiterate customers. At the front of the yard, just inside the gate, several men were busy finishing large barrels for bulk sakè storage and manufacture. In the back of the yard, pre-made barrels of all sizes and shapes were stored, waiting for shipment or sale.

Kaze ran up to a large, burly man who seemed to have an air of command. The man looked at Kaze with a raised eyebrow, curious about a ronin bursting into the yard carrying eggplants.

Kaze said just one word. “Toyotomi.”

It was a calculated gamble. Tokugawa Ieyasu had been ruler of Japan for less than three years, and he had been ruler of the Kanto area for only a dozen years. Ieyasu had been given the Kanto, the rich area around Edo, as a reward and ploy by Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Ieyasu’s hereditary fief was Mikawa, the province of the three rivers. By offering him the richer Kanto, the wily Hideyoshi had simultaneously rewarded his most important ally and moved him to a new base of power, which would temporarily weaken him as he gained control of his new domain.

Although they had ruled the Kanto for a dozen years, Ieyasu’s men still referred to themselves as Mikawa-bushi, Mikawa warriors. They lacked deep ties to the Kanto, and Kaze was gambling that the feeling was mutual. Toyotomi Hideyoshi, on the other hand, had a special place in the hearts of peasants because Hideyoshi had been a peasant himself. He had come from nowhere and ascended to command based on his intelligence and ability, not his family.

Hearing “Toyotomi,” the man in charge of the cooper’s yard understood the situation immediately.

A few moments later, Okubo’s men thundered up to the gates of the cooper’s yard, panting from the exertion of running in armor. Sword drawn, the officer in charge walked into the yard and looked around. The men in the yard seemed to be going about their business, making barrels or tying them up for transport. The officer looked behind him and satisfied himself that the street was a trap. The man he was looking for, Lord Okubo’s enemy, must be in the yard. Dreams of reward flitted into his head, blanking out the thought that this man, a renowned swordsman, would be dangerous when trapped.

“Who’s in charge!” the officer shouted.

A burly man walked up to him and bowed.

“Where is he?” the officer demanded.

“He, Samurai-sama?”

The officer gave the lout a cuff with the back of his hand. The burly man staggered from the blow.

“The ronin,” the officer shouted. “Where did the ronin go?”

Holding his cheek, the burly man pointed toward the back of the yard with his chin. “He went back there, Samurai-sama. I thought he was looking for a barrel to buy.”

The officer snorted and motioned to his men to fan out and search. They took out their swords and formed a long line that covered the yard from side to side. They moved forward cautiously, not sure if the quarry would bolt from behind a stack of barrels or attack in a desperate, suicidal attempt to evade capture. Their quarry’s ability with a sword was well known. All of them knew the story of how their Lord had been crippled with a wooden practice sword by this samurai.

Suddenly, one of the soldiers stopped by a large overturned barrel. At the foot of the barrel was a small purple eggplant. He waved to his comrades and his officer, putting his finger to his lips to demand silence.

The troops quietly gathered around the barrel, weapons at the ready. The officer approached, and the soldier pointed to the egg-plant. The officer nodded his understanding.

He waited until his entire contingent of troops had surrounded the barrel. Looking at their faces, he saw anticipation, anxiety, and flashes of fear. The officer approached the large barrel as quietly as possible. He lifted one foot and placed it on the side of the barrel. Then, in a sudden move, he kicked the heavy barrel on its side, jumping back out of harm’s way.

The barrel toppled over with a clatter, forcing the encircling troops on that side to leap back. There, on the ground under the barrel, was the straw sling and the rest of the eggplants.

A few streets away, two men were walking with the rolling gait of palanquin porters. The reason for this peculiar walk was a thick bamboo pole resting on their shoulders. Suspended from the center of the pole was a large covered barrel. The men turned into an alley and put the barrel down. After looking to see that they weren’t being observed, they knocked on the top of the barrel. The top was shoved aside and Kaze popped up.

“Thank-you,” Kaze said to the burly head of the cooper’s yard. “Any trouble?”

“No. Once they thought you were hidden in the yard, they completely ignored us.”

“Do you want to know why they were chasing me?”

“No. I just want to deliver this barrel.”

Kaze smiled and got out of the barrel.