The Hand of Death Ch. 03

Tesaguri's home would actually be even easier. He had but one guard on patrol around his home, the other three slept until their shift.

We started with little things at first. We stole our way to the castle and my friends would boost me up till I could get a handhold. Then I would climb up to Tisada's window. When I was sure he was snoring, I would gently slide it open and take something. Usually this was a note or message his master had given him to hold for him until needed. Then I would sneak back out the window, close it and slip back down the wall to my friends.

Tisada kept these things in a small, locked, metal box. The key he wore around his neck. The problem with this was, I simply untied the ribbon and unlocked the box. Tying it back on wasn't any more difficult. Tisada was a courtier, not a samurai.

I did have doubts about what I was doing. One night as I scaled the castle I heard a noise. It sounded like someone crying. As I got closer to Tisada's window I realized it was him. I hung just outside listening. Normally I would have to do this while I waited for him to fall asleep but tonight it became more difficult to keep my grip on the wall. I think it was because I didn't want to. I heard him cry out to the spirits of his dead sons. Not for aid or revenge, but just because he missed them. He said he longed to see them again and asked their mother to watch over them for him. He asked them to forgive him for his failure to make their killers pay.

My eyes were moist by the time he finished. I had second thoughts. Was this necessary? Did he really deserve this? I didn't have to go through with it anymore. I could explain to my friends. They would understand. No one else knew about it...except Sensei... And then I remembered something he had said,

"Perhaps, my duty is to my House and my Daimyo."

And right then, hanging three stories off the ground, I knew. My Daimyo, Goemon Tetsuya, was fully aware of what I was doing. And he had certain expectations of me. The realization that I had better not let him down almost made me lose my grip on the wall. I could weep for Tisada later, but tonight I had work to do.

I slipped in, took the note, and slipped out. It was just that easy. My friends and I tiptoed out of the castle and back to our homes. In the morning, well, my morning, Sensei woke me up and got me started on my day. After the usual warm up kata and cleaning, he told me I would be training in a different school for a few months.

"Surely I have not mastered the Samurai school, Grandfather."

"Ha! No, but you've learned what you needed to. It is time to move on."

"To what?"

"The Koga Courtier School."

"Am I to be a courtier?"

"No, but you will need to know how they think."

I frowned. "What am I to be?"

He looked down at me. "Whatever I tell you to be. Now grab that bag and come on."

He pointed to a sack he had put on the floor near the door to the labyrinth. I walked over and picked it up. It was filled with blank scrolls and a writing kit. I looked up in time to see him leave. I hurried out the door and closed it behind me.

The Courtier school was housed in a building within the walls of our castle. Grandfather walked me there in silence. It was a three-story building with a great view of the Goemon gardens. The first floor was dedicated to large classrooms, while the second held offices for the staff, and the third held sleeping quarters for staff and students alike.

As we approached I could see several classes being held outside, it was a good day for it. There were several other students, or faculty, discussing things in smaller groups around the school. Grandfather walked me straight to a class on the far side of the building and spoke to the instructor there.

"Funashu san, this is my pupil, Shotoku Hiro." She bowed to me.

I nervously returned it. They had been in the middle of a lesson when Grandfather walked up and motioned for her. It was near the end of the day for them, so I was getting many stares. She replied to Sensei.

"I am honored to aid him in his training, Sensei sama."

Grandfather bowed to her with a smile and left quickly, while she motioned me to sit. When I found a spot to rest out of the way, I got my ink and paper ready. I took notes that evening. I didn't know why, but it was what they were doing.

I found out soon that most of these children were of very influential families. Most of them came from minor and major lords of the Koga, though one of them was from a family Daimyo in the Bandai House, a House to our northeast. I do not know how he got into the Goemon School but he was an interesting young man. I don't remember his name anymore, as I never saw him again after that first month. I think he finished and went home.

The school was interesting. We practiced conversation. It sounded stupid to me at first,

especially considering what I had been doing the past few years, but I did it and I found out it was a lot of fun. I wasn't the best at it but I could get by. You see, it wasn't just conversation, it was wheedling little details out of people, presumably, to use against them later.

That was when I started to have problems. What with my entrance and the reaction of their Sensei, which from her student's comments I gathered was very subdued compared to her usual attitude when being interrupted in the middle of the day, the students were very interested in who I was and where I was from and what I did and who my parents were and just what was it I was being "groomed" for exactly? That first day was hell.

On the up side, I did learn that "groomed" was the word for what was happening to me. On the down side, they "wheedled" from me that I lived in the tunnels beneath the castle and that, yes, I had in fact killed a man before.

Great.

After a month of this I was assigned to a more experienced class. Not because I had gotten that much better, but just because it was time to cover new information.

By this time we had caused about five items to be lost by Tisada, and Tesaguri became very angry with him. Even Tetsuya was becoming perturbed. One of the notes pertained to a Bandai spy that Tetsuya wanted to contact immediately. So Tisada was on the outs with his lord and the Daimyo. The next screw up was going to be his last chance. Tesaguri never had him assist in anything anymore. That's when things got good... or bad.

Goemon Tesaguri owned a mask. Let me say, it was a beautiful thing to behold. A phoenix all covered in gold and silver, not too gaudy, not too simple. A masterpiece. It had been in his family for generations. No one knew where or when they got their hands on it, though Tesaguri believed it was a gift from a friend in the Fujibayashi family, one of the wizard families of our House.

He was, as anyone would be, very protective of it and very proud. He would only take it out at night when no one was around to see it. He kept it locked in a black enameled box, on his worktable in the main room of his house. The key, he kept hidden under the lip of that table. He knew Tisada knew he had it, we had seen him show it to Tisada on one occasion. That's when we heard the story of where he thought it came from.

My friends and I crept to Tesaguri's home. Slipping past the city guards and finally,

Tesaguri's personal yojimbo. My friends kept a lookout for the guard while I crept into the home. I could hear Tesaguri and his mistress snoring lightly in the other room while I located the key and opened the box. I removed the mask and stuck it in my kimono, making sure to pin it securely between myself, and my obi. I re-locked the box and hid the key back where it had been. Then we slipped away from his home and on towards Shiro Goemon.

The castle was as simple as it had always been. But this being our last time, and we being so close to our goal, we were all feeling a little nervous. They helped me up the wall and I climbed to the window, but I noticed I didn't hear snoring from inside. Tisada was tossing and turning on his futon. I waited, my arms soon got tired, and I waited some more. Finally I heard snoring and I waited some more.

When I was almost too exhausted to move, I slid the window open, crept into the room and hid the mask. Tisada had a large chest he kept near the far wall. It was not locked. He just used it to store his kimono. On top of it he had set some of his personal items on a red swath of silk. I gently moved it all off and stuck the mask deep down near the bottom where it would be protected. I then put everything back as I had found it and went back out the window.

The next day, while I slept, Himi told the kitchen staff how Tisada was showing off some new mask he had bought. Cho told the same story to the stable hands, while Goruchi told all of the Komono, that is heimin policemen, who his father worked with for the Koga Machi-bugyo.

Komono work for a Doshin; a low ranking samurai policeman, who the Komono told. The Doshin work for a Yoriki; a high ranking samurai, who the Doshin told. The Yoriki works directly for the Machi-bugyo or Police Chief, who was informed of the story about an hour after we created it.

Tisada was committing the ceremonial suicide of seppuku in front of Tesaguri and Tetsuya before the sun set on the second day. It wasn't a great leap for everyone to believe that a simple man, like Tisada, would steal from his lord after being on such bad terms with him lately.

My friends got better work and I continued my training at the courtier school for another five months. That is, until one day when my master walked in.

"Hiro san? We are moving. Pack your things." I didn't have much to pack, mostly weapons. He started putting my things into a traveling pack.

"Where are we going, Grandfather?" I began packing.

"Shiro no Shotoku." Home of the Shotoku family Daimyo.

I was puzzled. "Why?"

He looked at me sort of stunned. "To continue your training."