Session 4. (8/8/01)

We rejoined the action at the end of week 16 with Sugiyama's contract to kill the Chief of Police, Nitta Otondo. Sugiyama decided he needed some of his ninja to infiltrate the yakuza gangs, and was delighted to discover that Nishina and Kudo already had yakuza personas, with connections in the Scorpions and Sharks gangs respectively. Sugiyama sent Nishina to spread discord in the Scorpions, getting one of their gang drunk and making inflammatory statements like "This Chief of Police, he'd be easy to kill, I could do it on my own," listening out for signs of disagreement but hearing none. Deducing that none of the yakuza gangs supported Otondo, he began his preparations. He sent Kudo to organise a diversion by starting a yakuza brawl near the doshin post to lure out the cops, then arranged for Iga to pose as a "flower seller" (prostitute) and get picked up by Otondo. Unfortunately, reports from Sugiyama's spies watching the house said that Otondo had already returned home with another "flower seller" - the same one as he had last night, and come to think of it, the night before. Just as Sugiyama is working out what Plan B is, Kudo starts the yakuza brawl and two of the four doshin are lured away. Sugiyama sends Iga to tell the other two doshin that her lord has been mugged, but this only draws one more away (and even then very reluctantly). Sugiyama and Nishina prepare to enter Otondo's back garden and notice for the first time that there are three guard dogs. Nishina climbs up the wall and attempts to silence the dogs with poisoned darts, but slips and bends his blowpipe (this brought tears to the eyes of half the viewers!). Switching to Plan C, the two ninja creep round to the front door and pick the lock. They sneak inside but discover just in time that the hallway is all nightingale floor. Sugiyama scatters some sand over it to prevent it moving, though with the amount of noise from "flower selling" they probably wouldn't be heard anyway. Sugiyama decides to enter the bedroom the usual way - through the wall into a cupboard - and starts to cut through with his knife. Again he discovers just in time that there are trip wires running through the wall. This guy takes security seriously! Switching to Plan D, Sugiyama climbs up into the roof void, but finds out, not quite in time, that it is liberally decorated with poisoned spikes. He manages to shrug off the poison (it was weak because it hadn't been renewed for some time) and climbs down again. Finally he unrolls his obi (padded sash) and spreads it out down the hall. He and Nishina sneak to Otondo's door and, implementing Plan E, burst in and attack him with swords. Otondo reacts quickly (even quicker than the "flower seller's" scream reflex, and defends himself with a sword. Despite odds of two to one, and being Armour Class zero (though a satisfactory agreement had obviously been reached on the sale of flowers) Otondo puts up a brave fight, and manages to nick Nishina's kneecap and send him to the floor, where one of the guard dogs is obviously delighted to be able to pick on someone its own size! Sugiyama eventually dispatches Otondo and turns to help out Nishina. The camera cuts to the "flower seller's" face, which turns away as there is a sound of a dog whimpering, suddenly cut off^*. Sugiyama turns to the "flower seller" and says, "And if anyone else annoys the Scorpions they'll get the same," and helps Nishina out of the house and back to camp to tend to their bruises, cuts and teeth-marks.

Week 17 dawns and at the School of the Blade Kimori is still learning iaijutsu. One of his pupils, who is also learning iaijutsu, challenges him to a duel with bo-ken. Kimori agrees, and the two square up. They draw the wooden swords together, but Kimori misses while the pupil, Hideharu, strikes Kimori and knocks him down. "In your face!" screams Hideharu, standing over a seriously embarrassed Kimori. "Best of three?" suggests Kimori. "Oh, you want more of that?" says Hideharu, and the two square off again. This time Kimori gets a hit while Hideharu misses, and Hideharu suffers severe bruising. Quite heated now, the two set up for the decider. Kimori draws fractionally faster and lands a heavy blow that sets Hideharu back and leaves him dazed, but the tip of his bo-ken catches Kimori's head and gives him a black eye. "Let that be a lesson to you," says Kimori, but Hideharu replies, "What do you mean, I won." "No you didn't." "Then let's have another decider - with real swords." Kimori boldly decides to think about it for a while.

Komako is having a quiet week, waiting for his leg to heal (with help from the temple) and studying divination. Emiko meanwhile makes a grizzly discovery while walking down one of Matsuyama's quieter streets. It is a severed arm. It is heavily tattooed and also has one finger missing. There is no blood trail, and a thorough search of the area reveals no more body parts. Emiko, not wanting to touch the hideous object for fear of pollution and general ick factor, makes a drawing of the tattoos to show to the other troubleshooters.

Kimori has had time to think, and Hideharu has not cooled down. Kimori has decided to fight Hideharu to first strike under the supervision of Kozo Tsudaze. The two participants and the adjudicator immediately set up for the duel. Kimori takes some deep breaths, concentrates, focuses his ki, then at Tsudaze's word of command draw his sword and strikes. Hideharu is hit, while he fumbles his draw and misses Kimori. Kimori says, "And now it is settled." Hideharu stares at Kimori and looks for a moment as if he will continue the fight. But then he throws his sword to the ground and stalks off.

In Masaki village, Mariko is going through the accounts to see if there is any embezzlement going on. Unfortunately she doesn't understand accounting at all, and is none the wiser. She also secretly follows Kono the Foreman around (quite difficult with peasants prostrating themselves at your feet all the time) but he doesn't seem to do anything suspicious (not that night anyway). However, her plans for business development finally made it off the drawing board with a sudden increased demand for paper in Matsuyama, particularly the low grade paper made from reeds, one of Masaki's crops. Furthermore her drive to bring artisans into the village turned up trumps with a paper- and card-maker arriving. All this she explained to a meeting of the peasants, who had gathered to gripe about pay. Although they didn't understand her "Jam next week" message, she had a chat with Kono and gave him gifts, and he was able to clear things up with the peasants. Shortly afterwards Mariko went to see the priest in Matsuyama and learned that she was pregnant. She immediately declared a feast in Masaki village and invited the other troubleshooters and Lord Chozo.

At the feast, Lord Chozo announces Mariko's happy news and tells her to return immediately to her husband. He will appoint an overseer to look after the village in her absence. While the troubleshooters are together, Emiko shows them the drawing of the tattoos from the severed arm. None of them recognises it. Then Komako practices his skill in divination and is totally confident that Mariko's child will be a boy. Meanwhile, Lord Chozo has a private meeting with Sugiyama and offers him the recently-vacated post of Chief of Police. He will have good pay and be expected to manage the 30 or so doshin, tackle corruption and head any important investigations. As an extra incentive, Lord Chozo says Sugiyama will still have time for his other affairs (ninja clan) and will receive extra funding for them, provided he gives a guarantee that they will not disrupt the running of the province or attack trade convoys in the mountains.

It was a good party.

^* No dogs were harmed in the filming of this episode, though a few may have been eaten during an "End of Episode 1" party at a Vietnamese restaurant.

With episode 1 finally completed, episode 2 starts in the customary way with a meeting between Lord Chozo and his troubleshooting team. Emiko is very nervous at her first face-to-face meeting with Lord Chozo, and bows and scrapes pathetically. The others are much more nonchalant. Lord Chozo says, "A very important paper has gone missing. If it falls into the wrong hands it could cause a great deal of trouble. I want you to help investigate this matter and return or destroy the missing paper."

Kimori asks what the paper is. "A contract," says Lord Chozo, but won't be drawn on what it is a contract for. Sugiyama inquires whether it is the piece of paper or the information on it that is them problem. Lord Chozo says, "A good question," and doesn't elaborate, but Sugiyama, bravely (in Emiko's opinion) presses Lord Chozo for an answer. Eventually he says, "It is both. The information could be very damaging if it fell into the wrong hands, and I am greatly distressed by the fact that an important document could be lost or stolen in the heart of my castle."

The meeting breaks up and the four troubleshooters go to the Scribes' Room. At this point it becomes evident that Mariko is absent. She has evidently left to travel back to Awaji Province and her husband. In the scribes' room there are two female scribes, Hatano and Terazawa. The other scribes, they quickly ascertain, are off duty and probably at home. Kimori and Komako decide to pay them a visit. Emiko uses Prana-yoga to try to find the paper, but senses nothing. Then she questions the two women about the missing paper, but neither admits to knowing anything other than it was last seen a few days ago and would have been kept in a strongbox in the scribes' room. Sugiyama meanwhile examines the room for signs of illegal entry, but finds nothing. Emiko then looks at examples of the girls' calligraphy and confirms it is in the local style. Then she asks more questions about the paper and feigns a trance, hoping they will believe she can detect lies and become nervous, but nothing more is learned. Eventually she leaves to meet up with the others.

After leaving the castle, Sugiyama goes to the main doshin house to take up his post as Chief of Police. He learns the names of his staff and is presented with a sort of badge of office - a stone with a hole in it through which is passed a length of cord. Michifusa, the senior doshin, tells him the story. It is said that many years ago, the city police were given a stone magically imbued with life essence (ki). Unfortunately they were greedy and fought over the stone and it was smashed into many pieces. To their surprise, they found that the larger pieces still retained some of the magic, and if carried would boost their own life essence. Now all the regular doshin carry a piece (giving a bonus of 1 ki); the Chief of Police (Yoriki) has an official stone of office (giving a bonus of 2 ki) worn on a piece of string hanging from the belt. Thus the doshin are known locally as the Ki Stone Cops^*.

Down in the city, Kimori and Komako pay a visit to Kitagaki, the head scribe, but he isn't in. They leave a note and go to see Sano, another scribe. They question him in an aggressive style (bad cop/bad cop, though neither is a cop) but he admits nothing, and they find nothing suspicious in the house. Asked about Kitagaki, Sano says he has gone away to see relatives. He doesn't think Kitagaki would have stolen the paper, though he could have had the opportunity. Moving on to the last of the scribes, Otani, they find him at home. He seems to know even less, claiming that he had never even seen the document in question. He disputes the suggestion that Kitagaki has gone away. "It was just his day off yesterday. I don't know where he is today." The troubleshooters get together again and Sugiyama details a doshin to see if Kitagaki had travel papers. While doing this there is a message from the castle that the missing paper has been found. They head up to the castle to learn that one of the female scribes has found it is a secret compartment hidden in the scribes room. No-one admits to knowing anything about it. The paper itself is even more mysterious. It is a contract to supply twelve "baaku" between certain dates from a company in Imabari. The trouble is, no-one has any idea what "baaku" are.

Find out what "baaku" are in next week's installment of The Stone.

^* At this point the chronicler barely escaped with his life!

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