The Way of the Fox (21 page)

“Some stories make the blood run cold,

While others bring a tear.

Some fold us up with laughter,

Or recount far off ancient years.

Oh there are many different stories

Told in valley, hills and dale.

But the most bewitching thing of all

Shall always be a fox’s tail!
”

She jubilantly took a swig from her canteen.

“
We got paid! We actually got paid! This Spirit Hunter thing is going to work!” She tossed her canteen to Chiri. “Kuno! A victory poem!”

Kuno lifted a considering eye as he marched. He nodded, feeling the inspiration come, and declaimed forth in a loud, heroic voice.

“
Floating head monster

With great sticky tentacles.

Burned up, and it’s gone.”

There was a moment’s silence as they waked on into the streets. Sura nodded her head and looked back at Kuno.

“
Is it too late to ask you to reconsider doing that whole ‘ritual suicide’ thing?”

On the gatehouse
battlements, Magistrate Masura stood with Commander Hijiya. Lord Masura watched the Spirit Hunters walk off through the town. They reappeared out on the river bridge, heading across the river and on to who-knew-where. Greatly pleased, he nodded to himself, then turned away to walk back down into the gardens.

“And so.
‘Spirit Hunters’
. A most interesting asset.”

Commander Hijiya looked somewhat sour. “
An asset is only useful, my lord, if it appreciates our needs.”

Magistrate Masura emerged beside the ca
stle gates. There, upon the edge of a railing, he found a tiny model fox made out of folded white and orange paper. He took it up and held it in his hands – cherishing it – then placed it carefully in his sleeve.

“
Quite so.” Lord Masura braced his shoulders.

“
Come, Hijiya san. There is much to be done!”

They walked off into the castle – past law offices where deputies were handling their paperwork – past
foot soldiers drilling in the ground. Onward towards the keep, where yet more work was waiting for them.

In the gardens behind them, the monk’s torso rang its bell, and the castle garrison bustled onwards with its day.

Second Encounter:

The Hungry Ghost

“And yet all is not lost; for on the wall a tall spear still hangs and armour with it; while in the stall a steed is tied. And if at any time there came from the City news of peril to our master –

Then, broken though it be, I would gird this armour on,

And rusty though it be, I would take up this spear,

And lean-ribbed though he be, I would mount my horse and ride

Neck by neck with the swiftest,

To write my name upon the roll.

And when the fighting began

Though the foe were many, yet I would be the first

To cleave into their r
anks, to choose an adversary

To fight with him and die.”

- Impoverished
Hōjō retainer

As recorded in the
Omurō Tsunemasa
, c.1240 AD

Chapter 1

T
hroughout a once idyllic land, an army swarmed.

The Raiden clan’s blood-
red lightning banners surged forward over shattered trenches and palisades. Thousands of foot soldiers stormed over the bodies of the slain: dismounted samurai waded forward while arrows flickered in shoals overhead. They swarmed up the steep walls of the Usagi castle, forcing their way across the battlements. The last defenders were overrun, dying where they stood. Above the assault, the castle’s towers burned.

The rabbit banners of the Usagi clan
were falling.

Inside the castle, the last defenders hurtled themselves into the attack.
Rabbit samurai and their human allies ploughed into the enemy, hacking at men who burst up and over the shattered palisades. Blades flashed and screams rang out through the chaos. Blood red light from burning homes lit the bottoms of the clouds.

The family apartments were in flame.

The massive, black-armoured figure of General Idē staggered back from the defence lines, burned and injured. Arrows jutted from his armour – blood trailed down his mailed sleeves. The huge human ran back to find the last few Usagi samurai, and sent them racing desperately to hold the line. Raiden troops – screaming men masked with blood – smashed into the line. The defenders were utterly torn apart.

Tall ears
topped a glorious silhouette in the gloom. Lady Usagi, wearing a breastplate and with a long naginata in hand, came forward with the last defenders of the castle – her sisters and the Usagi ladies in waiting. The women screamed like demons as they charged into the enemy. Long blades swirled and hacked, carving a bloody path into the Raiden. Heads fell – arms were severed. Dying women sliced at the feet of their adversaries. General Idē ploughed forward into the melee, tearing a man from the back of a mortally wounded woman and severing his head. He threw the head aside, finally reaching Lady Usagi as she cut down a Raiden officer. The Raiden troops fell back towards their lines as yet more of their men came clawing up over the battlements. A thousand attackers gathered by the walls, then came charging through the castle grounds.

Flames roared, leaping higher and higher about the towers.
Bleeding, Lady Usagi found General Idē amongst the wounded. Stern and beautiful, her long hair unbound, she gathered her women beside her.

A six year old girl sheltered behind the armoured maidens. She was small and beautiful – in her human form, her ears were still slightly tall, and a fluf
fy tail peeked from her robes. The girl was frozen with shock. Beside her stood General Idē’s own son – six years old, and trying to be stern. The little boy guarded his playmate with the ferocity of a tiger, keeping himself between the girl and harm.

Igno
ring arrow wounds, Idē roared out to Lady Usagi.

“My lady! If I
infiltrate the enemy lines, I might find Lord Raiden!” The general tore aside the snarling metal mask of his helmet; the face beneath was bloodied, and no less dark or savage. “We can still make him pay in blood for this treachery!”

Arrows flew
in a sudden lethal swarm. A woman screamed and fell, pierced through. The others instantly formed a wall between Lady Usagi and the incoming fire. Naginatas swirled and cut: arrows were sliced out of the air. But more and more Raiden assault troops surged across the walls. The missile fire swiftly became a storm, tearing into the survivors. Lady Usagi and her women were driven off the path and in to the shelter of a burning barracks. Hissing arrows ripped across the path, and the maid leading the children fell with two long shafts piercing her side.

General
Idē seized Lady Usagi’s daughter and whirled around, turning so that incoming arrows struck his armoured back rather than the child. The little girl stared in shock as an arrow point burst clear out of the general’s breastplate. The man snarled and snapped off the bloody arrow head, leaving the shaft in place.

A burning tower collapsed, cascading down in a shower of sparks to thunder to the ground. Flames blazed off, cutting Id
ē off from Lady Usagi. Staggering, he tried to fight forward into the flames.

“My
lady!”

The rabbit women were at the far side of the blaze. Lady Usagi turned – her voice clear as she called out to General Id
ē through the raging fire.

“
Idē! We are all dead here! Take my daughter. See to her safety!”

The general shielded his eyes from the vicious fires, keeping a tight hold upon the child.

“Lady Usagi! My place is to defend you!”

“
A samurai’s duty is loyalty! I charge you to protect the future of the clan!”
Lady Usagi gathered her women at her side.
“Go! She is the last of the Usagi! Go! Go!”

The child
still held her mother’s fan – a beautiful thing painted with a rabbit and the moon. Lady Usagi looked through the fires at her for a moment longer, then took up her naginata. As the Raiden samurai charged she plunged into their midst, her great blade whirling. She cut down an officer, and the man behind him – then staggered as an arrow struck her in the chest. Her maidens hurtled themselves into the Raiden, attacking in a frenzy, buying time for Idē to spirit away her daughter. Idē took both children into his mailed arms and ran, leaping up and over burning timber. He looked back only once, to see Lady Usagi fall. She had beaten back her attackers, but was struck by yet another arrow. Men were closing in to capture her alive. The rabbit spat into their faces and ran herself through, falling back into the flames so that her head would be lost to them as a trophy.

A samurai does not weep for the fallen – no
t when there was duty to be done. Blood spattering in his tracks, Idē ran into the gathering darkness, taking the children away from the twisting, soaring fires.

Raiden samurai caught sight of them fleeing.
Two men ran to intercept. Idē struck one down, taking both legs out with his sword and then pinning him to the ground. The next enemy ran straight towards them, sword raised, heading for Lady Usagi’s daughter. General Idē ran at the man head on, his own sword strike slamming home an instant before the enemy’s. Idē’s blade crashed down through the man’s helmet, splitting it in two. The old general kicked the man off the edge of his sword. He swayed on his feet, and then pointed the two children straight towards the castle wall.

“Run!”

The rear of the castle was deep in shadow. A handful of Raiden troops came clambering over the battlements, blinded by the firelight, heading for the blazing towers. General Idē took the children under his arms and threw himself flat. In the dark, his black armour simply vanished in shadow. Raiden troops thumped past in the gloom, the men waving swords in excitement. Idē arose the instant they had passed, racing the children to the edge of the walls.

The Usagi ca
stle had been formed by shaving hillsides into sheer slopes, and plating the facings with smooth layers of stone. The general kicked over the shattered palisades atop the walls. Off to one side, a broad bamboo ladder had been laid against the walls. Raiden troops were climbing up to charge into the castle. General Idē gathered the children into his arms and plunged straight down the wall. He slid down on his back, his blood-slick armour grinding and slipping on the stones, desperately keeping the children up and away from the walls. A man halfway up the ladder caught a glimpse of them in the dark, and shouted out a warning to the men below, but Idē skidded past, down, down into the darkness. He slammed home into the wrack and wreckage at the bottom of the wall.

T
he huge, grim old general raged to his feet, streaming blood. With one child beneath each arm he sprinted through the abandoned enemy siege lines, past wounded men and empty tents. A few men looked up as they passed, but the sun was far behind the mountains, and the fires on the castle hill were high above. Lurid shadows hid the fugitives from sight as the general carried the children out through the enemy camp towards the dark woods just beyond.

Raiden samurai had managed to slither back down the walls. Men yelled in
to the dark, demanding to know if fugitives had been seen. Idē ran staggering into the nearby forest just as an arrow hissed overhead and stuck thrumming into a tree. He blundered forward into the dark, dropping the children to the ground. He clung to a tree bole, bleeding, head hanging, then gathered himself and pointed his son towards a path.

“This way! Lead her ladyship!”

The man staggered, weakening. Blood ran freely down his arms. His son stared in shock at the gruesome black silhouette of his father.

“Father! You are bleeding!”

“No matter!” The general pushed his two charges on into the forest. In the camp behind them, he heard a hue and cry. “Hurry!”

“You might die!”

“In life or death, a samurai never fails in his duty!” Idē’s stern will was like an iron hand clamped upon his son’s heart. “It is our duty to protect the future of the Usagi clan!”

There were other rabbit spirits scattered
throughout the empire. The Usagi clan had other holdings scattered far and wide. Although the clan’s main lands had fallen and the ruling family had gone, a rightful leader might somehow rally the scattered families and start again. His Imperial Majesty could be petitioned, and this monstrous invasion by the Raiden clan could be declared illegal. There was still a future for the Usagi clan, if only the heir could be preserved.

They drove on into the dark forest. A steep path led down into a gulley filled with brambles, then on, on past a great dark hummock that loomed amongst the trees.
Idē’s son saw the great barrow mound in shock, and quickly led the little girl away into the trees.

The mounds were said to be the sites
of ancient burials – shunned and feared. On dark nights, the bones were said to rise and creep stealthily through the shadows. The children ran, with the general coming behind – bowed and weakening, but still driving himself onward, refusing to fall.

A steep slope lead back up,
across into another valley. They pushed onwards through tearing brambles – now seeing once again the light of the burning castle. General Idē heard distant noises in the darkness far behind, and he turned, gripping hard onto a tree.

“My son! My son!”

In awe of the vast strength of his father, the little boy could only stand and stare. The general drew his sword.

“
The Raiden clan has destroyed clan Usagi! My son! Go! Go to the river village. Bring horses to the old bridge. Hurry!
Run!”

The little boy turned and ran, speeding off into the darkness – racing along a path filled with roots and stones. Id
ē heard him go, and then somehow managed to release his grip upon the tree. He ushered Lady Usagi’s daughter onwards up the path. She moved swiftly, but came back to try and help her protector as he stumbled.

They battled their way up to the crest of the ridge, with Id
ē slipping to fall upon the path. Behind them there were now clear sounds of pursuit – men shouting in the distance, and others far closer, crashing their way up along the path. General Idē turned to listen, then swung about. He knelt and bowed to the little girl.

“
Akiko himē! You are the last of your clan! You must survive and take vengeance!” The stern old man rose to his feet, sword drawn, turning to face down the path. “I will guard your back! Follow the path. Run.
Run!”

The girl ran
, blank with fright. She fell, skinning her knees, hair flying out raggedly behind her. Muddy and terrified, she stood again then raced on. Far behind her, she suddenly heard the ring of steel on steel – men screaming as they died. General Idē roared, making the woods shake with the sheer force of his anger. Akiko ran onwards with the sounds of battle echoing through the trees.

She ran and ran, then fell s
crabbling down a hillside, tumbling, bouncing – slamming hard against a tree. She lost the path, and fled on into the forest, weaving through the trees – terrified by looming shapes around her. The little girl suddenly splashed into a shallow stream and halted, frightened of the water.