Session 11. (12/6/09)

Spring of the Year of the Monkey (1464) is not like previous springs - an attack by a small group of Matsumae samurai from the fort at Lake Onuma was repulsed by arrow, sword, club, magic and illusion, but a much larger attack is now expected. Kachamaru, who received a critical injury in the fight, is resting in bed. A couple of days after the attack, during which the heroes (except Kachamaru) have been clearing up and burying the dead, a message is received from the tribe's leader, Koshamain: evacuate the women and children from the village to Sawara (up the coast and much safer). Miyoshi leads the evacuation organisation. As he regards his wife and children as distractions, he evacuates them first, sending them to the coast while he stays in Shikabe to get on with business: setting traps, fishing and hunting. Over the next few days the heroes (except Kachamaru) prepare for the expected attack. Mineo looks for places where he can light fires to blow narcotic or irritating smoke over the attackers. The others prepare traps and bottlenecks with shrubberies, thorn trees, bear nets, trip wires, archery hides etc. Yoshi has the idea to set up a chain of archery hides where they can fire on the enemy then retreat to the next hide, fire and retreat and so on. But Miyoshi's strategical expertise reveals a flaw in the plan: if the enemy attacks in large numbers (several dozens), then the hide will be quickly overrun or outflanked, leaving the archers no chance to retreat to the next hide. Consequently, only a single archers' position is constructed at the edge of the village. Mineo goes up to the foxes' bolt hole with some fish and to tell them of the impending attack, warning them to keep out of the way rather than trying to help. From his bed, Kachamaru plays his part by suggesting that if the village is overrun then they should escape by boat, a route the attackers will not be equipped to deal with, and thus also saving the village fishing boats.

One day, five days after the raid, one of the Ainu men returns from Sawara with a message for Haku. He says that Miyoshi's wife is ill and could Haku and his wife (the village shamans) come quickly to heal her. Haku quickly gathers his wife, children and possessions and sets off, the runner helping them with their load. The runner guides them to a longhouse just south of Sawara where the ex-Wajin's families are staying. The patient wife of Miyoshi lies in bed, hardly moving. She has no injuries, and Haku deduces it must be a virus. He casts Pure Blood twice, the most she can cope with. All the other ex-Wajins' families are there, slightly concerned but otherwise in good spirits, even merry. Haku doesn't see any incongruity there. Haku's wife, Turesh, examines Miyoshi's wife, Acahcipo, for snake bites, but finds no sign. Haku casts Detect Magic and finds definite signs of magic in the air. Using Magic Analysis he determines that some kind of illusion is going on, but he can't determine what it is except that it isn't from any spell he (or Turesh) knows. Suddenly paranoid, he wonders if the illness is just a trick to get him away from Shikabe, so, leaving his wife in charge of the patient, he changes to a hawk and flies back as fast as he can.

Meanwhile in Shikabe, Yoshi is interrupted from his work on defensive preparations by the sound of screaming from behind his house. He rushes to the back of his house and is amazed to see two women, both looking exactly like his wife, fighting over his daughter. Each has hold of an arm and a leg and they are pulling this way and that. Both women are shouting and the child is screaming. Yoshi tries to intervene but doesn't know which woman to support, if either. Taking a wild guess, he tries to break the grip of the woman on the right. The woman resists his move and shouts, "What are you doing? I am your wife!" Yoshi changes tactics and decides to pit his wits instead and asks, "Whose swords do I carry?" But one woman says, "I can't remember," while the other says, "I won't say, she might hear." Undeterred, and sensing that brain will be better than brawn, he asks a simpler question: "What is our daughter called?" Fortunately the daughter doesn't call out her own name, and the woman on the left says, "Akiko," as the woman on the right can only say, "A-... ak-... aki-... aaarrgghhh! Damn you!" Yoshi punches her in the face and she disappears, leaving only some small scratches on Akiko's arm and leg and a few strands of red fur.

Haku returns to the village and he, Yoshi and Mineo gather in Kachamaru's hut to swap tales. Yoshi tells of his wife's run-in with a kitsune and wonders why the foxes have apparently turned nasty, or are they just playing? Haku tells of the illusory illness up at the Sawara longhouse where all the wives and families are living, then does a double-take: how could he have seen Yoshi's wife up at the longhouse when she was down in Shikabe fighting with a kitsune? With a sinking feeling, Haku realizes that it wasn't just the illness that was an illusion. The kitsune really have turned. Mineo manages to figure it out. Since he went to warn them that the Matsumae were about to launch a massive attack, and probably wipe out the village, the kitsune have joined the other side, either by being bought off with better gifts than dried fish (Kachamaru's opinion, but not shared by the others), or they are simply playing the odds. Mineo, Haku and Yoshi, armed with spades, immediately head up to the bolt hole. As daylight fades they find that the bolt hole really it just than: no den, just a series of tunnels that lead to different locations in the forest to help a fox escape pursuers.

Soon after dawn, Haku changes into a hawk and flies back up to the longhouse at Sawara. Soon after, Yoshi sends his wife and family with two other Ainu families up to the longhouse for safety. But when Haku gets there he finds nothing but an empty field; the longhouse and all the women and children have disappeared. Casting around desperately, he spots his wife a short distance away, wandering aimlessly. He lands and dispels the hawk form, which startles Turesh, but she doesn't react any further. She seems bewildered, and part of this effect seems to be magical. Haku casts Pure Thought and Turesh snaps out of it. Now she is just confused, not befuddled. She thinks she is looking for her children, but she doesn't know why. Haku leads her to the main Sawara village and here they find everyone that was supposed to be here - except Haku's children. The families that were seen in the longhouse have no knowledge of the place - they have always been in Sawara village since evacuating. Haku sends a runner to Shikabe to explain the situation and also to intercept Yoshi's family before they try to go to the longhouse. Then Haku turns into a Hawk and heads for the hills.

Back in Shikabe there is also a frantic search. Mineo has gone missing and Kachamaru has worked out why he asked for a small sword and some paper. He is intending to commit seppuku due to feeling disgraced for causing the kitsune to become turncoats.

Flying high over the mountains near Sawara, Haku sees a region that looks suitable for kitsune and flies lower. He spies a human shape, swoops in and sees that it is Otopush Narumi, his middle child, wandering aimlessly. He lands, dispels the hawk shape, casts Pure Thought and asks where the other children are. Hearing that they are "somewhere close", Haku tells the girl to stay there, converts back to hawk and flies up. Sure enough, he quickly spots another human form which reveals itself to be his youngest, Simah Kinue, playing in a muddy puddle. He lands, changes and carries her to the other girl. Then he flies up again and over trees where he hears a girl singing. Haku swoops between the branches and finds Turesh o-Yumi, his eldest. He lands and leads her back to the others and thence to Sawara and their mother. Haku never found out why the kitsune should take his children then abandon them in the wilderness. He changes to hawk for the fifth time and flies back to Shikabe, arriving just as the others find Mineo. Fortunately Mineo is not very good at composing ritual poetry (he could not think of a rhyme for "kitsune") and spent a long time trying to press his kimono, and the others find him in his hut and persuade him to stop. Mineo apologises to everyone, but as they discuss the events of the past few days and who has learned what and how honourable their actions were, Mineo comes to realise that his actions, well-intentioned but unsuccessful, were compensated by all the other successful actions he made, so he really shouldn't feel any shame. Besides which, his family and the defence of Shikabe need him.

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