Session 6. (22/8/01)

The story resumes immediately after the capture of the spy Sano, part way through the interrogation. After Sugiyama has had his leg set and healing rate boosted by "Doctor" Kajitori, Sano is forced to admit that he was in the pay of former daimyo Lord Keji. Sugiyama searches him looking for signs that he is a ninja. He finds only a key, which turns out to be for Lord Chozo's safe. Sano is taken down to the cells to await execution, the usual punishment for a first offence.

Emiko meanwhile pays visits to the homes of Sano and Kitagaki (Lord Chozo's head scribe) to look for hidden clues using her prana-yoga, but fails to achieve a trance in either place. She returns to the Shrine of Shizari to ask the priest if she is cursed or polluted.

During the night, a runner comes up to the castle where Sugiyama is convalescing to say there is a disturbance in the city. Sugiyama rides a horse (slowly!) to see what is going on and finds evidence of a major yakuza gang fight, but no bodies or witnesses. He returns to bed.

The following day dawns and Emiko and Komako head once more for the scribes' homes to continue the search. When they arrive at Kitagaki's house they disturb burglars, taking advantage of the broken door to steal a few personal possessions and a lot of paper. They rush the two trouble shooters with clubs, trying to get past and escape. Emiko defends herself with her staff, hampered by the fact that she is not really strong enough to wield it effectively. Komako attacks with his bare hands. He makes short work of his opponent, taking only one minor hit; Emiko is hit once but thereafter fends off her attacker and manages one hit before Komako is freed up and downs her assailant. They tie up the criminals intending to take them to the doshin post after their search. Emiko sits on the floor and enters a trance...

Meanwhile, Sugiyama is woken by the arrival of another runner, a junior doshin from the city, and told of the disturbance in the night ("I know. I already visited the scene.") and of a locksmith, Hisamatsu, who had been beaten up by thugs who came into his shop. Sugiyama surmised it was probably a yakuza protection racket.

At the School of the Blade, Kimori was doing an early morning tour of the school buildings when four yakuza burst in and demanded money. Fighting talk! Kimori drew on his new skill in Iaijutsu, drew his sword and drew a blank. The four attackers responded in kind with four misses, one stunning himself in the process as they tried to squeeze into the hallway to get a shot at Kimori. Kimori's big chopper then got to work, with three strikes on one unfortunate assailant, the last an enormous critical hit cutting him in half! The other hapless yakuza were able only to get a single hit on Kimori, before his mighty blade cut the next two down in four immense blows. The last yakuza, recovering from his self-inflicted daze, felt the sharp edge of Kimori's blade twice before running away, faster than Kimori could chase, having rather more incentive! "Come back if you want some more!" shouts Kimori to the fleeing figure.

Out on the road to Tokushima, Mariko has met a Buddhist gakusho. He is polite and helpful. They exchange information about dangers on the road, and Mariko tells him of the bandits she encountered two days earlier. The gakusho offers to treat Mariko's wounds, and his basic healing powers restore Mariko to full health. She gives him a donation of 1 gold piece for his temple, an honourable act. Only six more days to Tokushima now.

Back in Matsuyama, Sugiyama has decided what to do. He asks for an audience with Lord Chozo...

Episode 3 begins just minutes after the end of episode 2, with a meeting between Lord Chozo and, for once, just Sugiyama. Lord Chozo says, "There is much crime on the streets and much corruption among the doshin. Tackling these are to be your main tasks. But first there is the question of the missing scribe, Kitagaki. My scribes see much important information, and though no one sees too much, this is a particularly crucial time. I want you to find him."

Sugiyama starts by telling Lord Chozo of the key they found on Sano. Lord Chozo says it looks like the key to his safe. Calling the scribes on duty, they open the safe and check the contents. Hatano sees nothing missing, but Terazawa notices that a map she worked on is not there. Sugiyama asks what the map is of, but neither Lord Chozo nor Terazawa will tell him. Lord Chozo however is insistent that it is found. Sugiyama searches the scribes' office and, in defiance of the traditions of generations of detectives, manages to find a clue. It is a burned fragment of a map. Terazawa confirms it is the missing one. Sugiyama goes looking for other maps to try to identify the location.

At Kitagaki's house, Emiko's visit to the shrine pays off as her beefed up prana-yoga sliced through layers of concealment like a hot knife through butter, and a critical success was just the icing on the cake. She finds two notes partly hidden in his desk. One is in an unknown code and the other is in kanji, but Emiko is unable to translate it fully. Komako finds the burned remains of some other notes. Then Emiko notices that Kitagaki's tastes obviously run to valuable art works and jewels. She leaves Komako to guard the house and the prisoners, visits the doshin house to report the capture of the thieves, fetches Kimori, and goes to the castle to report to Sugiyama.

Up at the castle, Emiko uses gnana-yoga on the coded message and manages to decipher it. It is an instruction to pick up illegal drugs several weeks ago in a district controlled by the Bear yakuza gang. Emiko having been unable to interpret the kanji on the other note, Kimori has a go and works out what it says, which is simply, "Sake house, dusk, day 5 of week 19". The most likely place referred to is a bar frequented by Bear yakuza and definitely not a safe place for outsiders. Flushed with his success, Kimori has a look at the burned map fragment. His superior skills in recognition and memory allow him to identify it immediately as the north east of Hyuga province (visited in Series 1), and shows boats landing in two places no-one remembers as being ports. With this extra information the trouble shooters head into the city to relieve Komako and remove the artworks from Kitagaki's house to a place of safety. Sugiyama decides the doshin house is a safe place, and he can also use them to see if any of the doshin are corrupt enough to steal them. Sugiyama will sit with his foot up watching the paintings to see if the trap is sprung, as in the old Matsuyama saying, "Set a thief (a known vicious and competent killer, head of the police force and secret ninja, sat watching a number of tempting valuable artworks, in the middle of the police headquarters) to catch a thief^*." While at the doshin house he sees if any of the doshin can identify the yakuza's arm that Emiko found and sketched. Shibata, Toyotomi, Ota and Chikusa profess ignorance, but finally Nishina (the doshin) recognises the tattoos as belonging to "Lucky" (not so lucky now!). Kimori really should have spotted this, but his inferior skills in recognition and memory let him down once again.

Switching back to eastern Shikoku, we find that Mariko has reached Tokushima without further incident, but has a strange and exciting adventure crossing the hazarous sea channel to Awaji island.

In Matsuyama, the trouble shooters return to Sano's house where Emiko's run of success with trances continues. She locates Sano's tanto, a bottle of poison (which Sugiyama identifies as a level 3 lightning narcotic poison), some money, a gem and some art works. Next they head off to Kitagaki's house to question his neighbours. The first two that Sugiyama visits are very hostile and refuse to help. But the next two are much more friendly. The first of these doesn't know Kitagaki; the other has never spoken to him but occasionally sees him walking to or from the castle. Sugiyama has an idea. He inquires with the doshin whether Kitagaki's route takes him through a Bear yakuza district. The answer is no, but near where he would cross the Shindate Bridge over the Ishite River is the stronghold of the Bull yakuza gang, the other big players in the city.

Sugiyama is on the track of something. Where will his bloodhound nose lead him? Will his pot leg hold him up? Find out in next week's "The Stone."

^* Undoubtedly only a very stupid thief.

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