Session 8. (5/9/01)

The episode continued where it left of last week immediately after the fight near Shindate bridge. Sugiyama and Kimori are threatening the two captive yakuza, discussing different methods of torture and talking about doing it there on the bridge. Emiko left in disgust and returned to the Shrine of Shizari, where a surprise belated party was thrown to celebrate her reaching level 2 (OK, the GM finally got round to working out her mystically acquired shugendo). The remaining troubleshooters finally decide to take the prisoners back to the doshin house for interrogation where Kimori gets a sudden attack of squeamishness and goes out with Komako and three doshin (Mizutana, Nagashi and Sakakibana) to investigate a report of a body being found. Left alone with the prisoners, Sugiyama uses his status to cow the rogues and learns that they are from the Bull yakuza gang and picked on Komako and Emiko for a laugh (who's laughing now?!) Further information was not forthcoming, so Sugiyama starts to prepare a truth drug for further persuasion.

Out in the Yoshida ward, the little team has located the body. The doshin examine the body and find several tattoos and a smashed skull. Komako asks who it is, but none of the doshin know. They arrange for eta to deal with the body and return to the doshin house. On their return they ask if any other doshin recognise the description of the tattoos. Kosake Taneyoshi, the junior doshin leader, says it sounds like Bear yakuza tattoos and that Sakakibana is familiar with Bear yakuza. Sakakibana repeats that he doesn't know the victim, but Sugiyama detects that he is lying and decides to try out the newly prepared truth drug. Under its influence, Sakakibana admits to lying and having involvement with the Bears. He says the killing is part of a general turf war between the Bears and Bulls, possibly a tit-for-tat action. Asked about the scribes, he says they might be involved also but knows nothing specific. The corrupt doshin is sent for trial and Sugiyama gains budo. Later that day Sugiyama decides to interview applicants for the new doshin posts (to ensure his ninja infiltrate the doshin), but finds there are no applicants. He has also sent for medical help from "Doctor" Kajitori and "Nurse" Suganuma^*; when they arrive they tell him that no adverts have appeared for doshin posts. It seems that Ota, the most junior doshin who was detailed with this task, failed for some reason.

In the morning information rolls into the doshin house. First there is a report that a dance teacher has been beaten up. Komako and the doshin Onoko Michifusa go to investigate. Then a runner arrives with a note, addressed to Sugiyama. It is from Oshin, the kappa husband of the girl they had been asked to rescue a year earlier. The note says that there is a body in the river near their home and it is making the water stink. Sugiyama, Emiko and some doshin go to investigate. Meanwhile, Kimori has made an interesting discovery. Realising that the pupil who challenged him to a duel has never returned to the school since he slunk off, Kimori checks his possessions. He finds a letter from the old Daimyo telling him to do away with the sensei of the School of the Blade (Kimori), some armour with the mon of the old daimyo removed and 12 gold pieces.

At the dance studio, Komako and Michifusa talk to Sanada the dance teacher. She has several black eyes and bruises. She is too scared to talk, so Komako decides to stay and protect her while Michifusa returns to report. As a cover, Komako joins her dance class (and gains 1 in sacred dance). At the river, the body is hauled out and is identified as Kitagaki, the missing scribe. After a brief search, Emiko uses prana yoga to look for hidden clues on the body. She discovers that Kitagaki did not drown but dies from having his neck broken, and there are teeth marks on his neck. Sugiyama looks at them closely and discovers that the marks lie in a straight line, are unevenly spaced and have not broken the skin. Neither is able to think of an animal that would do this. Emiko returns to the Shrine of Shizari for enlightenment. She asks about animals with straight jaws and blunt teeth, but the head priest can't help. Then she gives the whole story and he smiles. "Animals are not the only things to have teeth," he says. About this time Sugiyama is coming to the same conclusion - the marks were made by a toothed weapon. But what? Asking around the doshin, Kosake Taneyoshi says that the broken neck is characteristic of Bull yakuza executions. So using his truth drug on the Bull prisoners, he learns that the Bulls have an enforcement squad, and the chief enforcer, Chiba, likes to kill his victims with an uchibo, a long-handled nunchaku, by wrapping it round their necks and breaking them. After every kill he cuts a notch in the handles, giving rise to the teeth marks. Sugiyama reports this to Lord Chozo.

Late in the afternoon two yakuza burst into Sanada's dance studio. Komako intercepts them and they drop their coshes and draw swords. Komako punches one but gets a sword in the back from the other. Ignoring the pain, Komako continues to punch until the first yakuza falls unconscious. Then he discovers why the second yakuza had been missing him - Sanada had been hitting him over the head with a picture frame. Komako turned, landed a couple of punches then finished off with a critical hit. Komako sent a runner up to the doshin house for doshin to deal with the prisoners, then sat and basked in Sanada's admiration while she tended his two wounds.

The following day there is a note from Lord Chozo giving clear instructions: "Arrest or kill Chiba for the murder of my scribe Kitagaki." After a great deal of debate between Sugiyama, Komako, Emiko and Kimori about how best to find Chiba, they set off and wander around known haunts and almost immediately find him and his gang. They draw their weapons, nunchaku or wakizashi, on hearing Sugiyama's command to give themselves up. Kimori reacts very quickly and hits the nearest yakuza with a devastating blow, killing him instantly. Sugiyama hits Chiba, who manages to stun himself, and Emiko also gets a critical hit, stunning another of the group. Komako uses his kawa-naga to hook his opponent and entangle him with its rope. The yakuza tries to break free but Komako winds more rope around him. Meanwhile, Kimori turns to help out Emiko who has been slightly damaged and between them (OK, mostly Kimori's second critical hit) they dispatch the yakuza. Komako gets a choke hold on his opponent and renders him unconscious. Sugiyama gets another hit on Chiba, but then Chiba gets a critical hit on Sugiyama and breaks his arm^**. Fortunately Kimori and Emiko are able to come to his rescue and combine for 31 lethal damage (Kimori) and 1 subdual damage (Emiko) to take his 32 hit points and leave Chiba unconscious but alive. The two surviving yakuza are hauled off to the magistrate for interrogation, where they confess to their crimes and are executed within the day. In the aftermath, Emiko returns to the Buddhist temple where she is learning herbalism, where the head priest gives her a Text of Healing by Karma-Yoga. Emiko donates 1GP to the temple and uses the text to heal Sugiyama's critical injuries (his broke arm and leg).

The episode again ended with a flash forward to future events in Awaji province where Mariko is puzzling over a missing map...

^* Kajitori: "I'm not really a doctor." Suganuma: "And I'm not really a nurse!" (giggles).

^** Well it makes a change from a broken leg, and at least this time it wasn't self-inflicted!

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