Session 5. (15/8/01)

We pick up this tale of the inept chasing the stupid in the same scene as we left off last week with the troubleshooters discussing the lost-and-now-found contract. Komako muses, "What is Tamagawa?", a name on the contract. Kimori remembers it from his tour of the 88 temples of Shikoku. "It's a place near Imabari and the name of the river running through it," he says. Emiko and Sugiyama hatch a plot to catch the thief by putting the document back in its hiding place and waiting for someone to collect it, but it is soon evident that the news of its discovery has spread throughout the castle as word is passed round to abandon the search (but this doomed idea would later turn out to have been a good one!) Emiko uses prana-yoga to search for any other hidden places but again finds nothing. The team waits for Kitagaki to arrive for his day's work at lunchtime, but to no-one's surprise he doesn't appear. So instead they head down into the city to search his house. On the way they stop at the police headquarters and pick up three doshin to help with the search. Sugiyama also hears the results of Michifusa's enquiries into possible travel papers filed by Kitagaki - there are none. Arriving at Kitagaki's house, Sugiyama puzzles over whether to kick the door in or pick the lock. Emiko tries the door and it is locked (no-one thinks to knock...). Wary of kicking doors after a previous unfortunate experience, Sugiyama gets one of the doshin to do the honours. Mizutani kicks in the door and takes the frame and part of a wall with it ("You're only supposed to kick the bloody door in!" mutters Sugiyama.) Once inside the search starts. Kitagaki is still not at home. Sugiyama says that he has not been here for several days, judging by the state of food in the house, and further deduces that Kitagaki left one morning and expected to be back the same evening because the breakfast dishes are washed and evening food has been set out ready for cooking. Emiko tries the prana-yoga again but clearly needs a lot more practice. Komako finds a bag with a Matsuyama Castle stamp on it and containing five gold pieces, far more that a scribe would earn in a year. And Kimori notices that there are numerous bundles of paper around the house, maybe 30,000 sheets in total. Sugiyama appraises it and announces that it is low quality paper, like the stuff Togama was importing. Emiko and Sugiyama develop a theory that Kitagaki was buying paper for the castle, getting cheap paper from Togama and passing it off as expensive paper and pocketing the difference. Just then, with the search unfinished, a runner arrives from the castle saying that Lord Chozo wants the troubleshooters to return immediately.

A brief scene-switch from the drama in Matsuyama shows Mariko enjoying the tranquility of rural Shikoku as she and her retinue pass sedately through the rice fields near Doi.

The troubleshooters arrive at the castle to find it in chaos, as a third of the guards have been taken ill during the afternoon. Immediately suspecting the food, the troubleshooters examine the eating arrangements. Food is prepared in two kitchens, one near the main donjon and the other in the Southern Approach Guard Post, and (for guards) eaten in barracks. Emiko tries to exorcise disease but it has no effect; Sugiyama examines the symptoms and concludes the guards have been poisoned with a disabling poison, confirming Emiko's findings. He immediately sends for his poisons expert, Kajitori. Kimori notices that all the affected guards ate in the various barracks near the south gate. They go to the kitchen there and Emiko again looks for hidden things, and finds nothing, while Kimori and Komako talk to the chef. He swears there is nothing wrong with his food. A search of the kitchens, the cook's quarters and all the barracks turns up nothing. The day is drawing to a close when Emiko has a brainwave and checks the well using prana yoga. For once it works and she detects poison in the water and a bucket used to get it there. Komako sits by the side of the well and dangles a hook on a line into the water, but gets no bites in the first half hour. Eventually, with the others shouting encouragement ("Free the Well One!" etc.) the bucket took the bait and Komako hauled it to the surface. Kajitori (in the guise of a doctor) confirmed the presence of a disabling poison, but the bucket was nothing special and gave no clues.

Meanwhile on the road to Tokushima, Mariko is jerked out of her daydream by a peremptory shout. The party is passing Kawanoe in Sanuka Province, where the road turns inland towards the east coast and Tokushima. For some reason a rude peasant is cursing the travellers. When Mariko emerges from her kaga, the peasant directs insults at her. Despite her obvious status, the peasant continues with his suicidal actions. Deducing that he must have a death wish, Mariko draws her tanto and grants his wish.

The following day dawns quietly in Matsuyama, but it wouldn't stay that way. Kimori looked for Lucky, his yakuza contact, but didn't find him so headed up to the castle where the others were. Sugiyama had placed guards on the wells, and Emiko quizzed Kajitori about the poison ingredients to see if there were any leads, but there weren't. Suddenly alarm bells ring out. Everyone rushes to see what is going on and find a fire in the kitchens across the courtyard from the main donjon. Kimori, Emiko and Komako immediately leap in and tackle the fire with water from the well. Komako is especially brave and earns budo and on. Kimori questions the cook, a seasoned professional, who says, "I was putting cooking oil in this pan when it just blew up!" Emiko smells something suspicious in the fumes and discovers the cooking oil has been spiked with brandy and a pinch of gunpowder. "Sugiyama should look into this," she says, at which point everyone notices he is gone. He is shadowing a guard moving suspiciously through the donjon. The guard goes up to the scribes room. He turns round and Sugiyama recognises him - it is the scribe Sano, disguised as a guard! Sano picks something up from his desk and suddenly bolts for the stairs. Sugiyama gives chase but finds the stairs full of smoke. He cautiously makes his way down and finds a smoke bomb, the item Sano had picked up, broken on the stairs. Past the smoke, he rushes out of the main doors of the donjon just in time to see Sano run out of the inner courtyard gates. He sets off in pursuit and is himself passing through the gates when Kimori, Emiko and Komako emerge from the kitchen and spot him. They join the chase. Sano has a twenty yard head start, and Sugiyama is twenty yards ahead of the others. It was a fairly even race (except for Emiko, who is a very slow runner), but the troubleshooters tired faster than Sano. Sugiyama got close enough to just using karumijutsu a couple of times, but architecture got in the way. Kimori ran well to start with but then got stitch, so he went up onto the castle walls and borrowed a bow to shoot at the fleeing spy. Unfortunately he broke a bowstring on his best opportunity. He got another bow and fired again, just as Sugiyama finally got his change to jump, as Sano turned a sharp bend off the castle mound, ten feet and a wall below Sugiyama. What actually happened was that Kimori's shot hit Sano in the hip, causing him to slow down, and Sugiyama caught his foot on the wall and tumbled headlong down the ten feet. Sugiyama ended up with a broken leg (why oh why couldn't the script writers come up with something different?) and Sano hobbled away. But Komako put in a big effort and caught Sano before he reached the main gates, got him in a choke hold and rendered him unconscious. Under the inducement of one of Sugiyama's potions, Sano admitted to the castle sabotage, hiding papers and lying about Kitagaki's whereabouts, but not where or how he was.

Meanwhile, in the Yoshino-gawa valley near Tokushima, Mariko's party was being attacked by four bandits. A very brief fight left both of Mariko's guards and all four bandits dead, Mariko's dancing tanto having disposed of two of them. After arranging for the burial of her guards, Mariko, her two porters and two kaga-carriers went on their way.

Reviewer's comments: Why do all these stories involve a clever plot degenerating into a chase in which inept, bungling heroes break their legs but nevertheless manage to catch moronic villains?

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