Session 22. (29/12/01)

The episode starts with the Troubleshooters preparing for their first scouting mission into enemy territory. Emiko blesses the fort and troops then they set off down the road from the Sobo-Zan Pass. After a few miles they come to a crossroads where the pass road meets the valley road; another road heads down to the river itself. The group decides to turn left and head down the valley to the village of Kumino, which they can see in the distance. On the way they encounter a Hyugan patrol. Unable to produce identification or travel papers, combat inevitably breaks out. While the soldiers are drawing their weapons, Mariko sticks a knife in one, Komako punches another, Emiko hits one with her bo staff, and Kimori and Sugiyama both use iaijutsu to draw and strike in a single movement, Kimori with critical success. The soldiers move in to attack, but Mariko, Komako, Kimori and Sugiyama all strike again before one of them manages a hit (on Sugiyama). One of the soldiers turns and flees, only to be chased down by Komako. Meanwhile, Mariko, Kimori and Sugiyama make short work of the others. Komako stumbles while trying to tackle the fleeing soldier, but the soldier falls and is stunned. Komako grabs him and renders him unconscious. Mariko and the others hide the bodies, then wake the prisoner and learn that there are a couple of dozen soldiers billeted in the village. Mariko makes her plans and sends Komako back to the fort with a report and the prisoner tied to one of the horses.

The village is very quiet. Mariko sends Kimori and Sugiyama to cover the far end of the village in case any soldiers try to escape, then she and Emiko march up to the largest house in the village to see if there are a large number of soldiers inside. As they cross the square in front of the house a door opens in another house and eight soldiers rush out and attack them. Fortunately the first two soldiers miss and are dazed, but two others manage to hit Emiko. Emiko retaliates with a light blow from her bo, and Mariko picks one of the enemy and starts stabbing him. The fight continues in this vein with only critical hits by the two girls and critical failures by the soldiers keeping the fight going so long. Mariko eventually dispatches the first soldier, but there are seven more and already both girls are low on hit points. Meanwhile, Kimori and Sugiyama hear the sound of horses' hooves and an instant later there are 12 mounted soldiers flashing past. Without time to think, both heroes leap onto the backs of two of the horses, Kimori with critical success, Sugiyama using karumijutsu to land on a horse and knock its rider off. Then they are carried down the valley road at high speed in the middle of a band of enemy soldiers!

In the village, Emiko is forced onto the defensive while she heals herself. Mariko is still taking hits, and although she scores a critical hit on her next target, stunning him temporarily, another of her attackers manages to stun her, and she is defenceless for a time. Emiko bravely steps in, invoking her blessing and lashing out at the soldiers, keeping them off balance while Mariko recovers. Further down the valley, Kimori is having trouble wielding his no-dachi against an opponent sharing the same horse, and when he deals the killing blow they both fall off. The horse, Sugiyama and the other ten soldiers gallop on, leaving Kimori stranded several minutes' walk from the village where Mariko and Emiko are in desperate need of help. Mariko, oblivious to their predicament and the blows raining in, hacks away and dispatches a second soldier, but the odds are still hopeless. Finally realising this, Mariko tells Emiko to make a run for it while she holds off the soldiers, but before Emiko has gone ten yards Mariko collapses from her injuries. One of the soldiers chases Emiko and she dashes through the village looking for Sugiyama and Kimori. The soldier catches up quickly, but Emiko runs straight into Kimori, arriving breathlessly in the village. Moving Emiko gently to one side, Kimori draws his sword and runs the soldier through. Then they go back through the village in time to see the other soldiers drag Mariko's body into one of the houses.

Sugiyama meanwhile is not having a good time. His horse-control skill is holding up, but after dispatching one of the enemy riders the others close in and start hitting back. Sugiyama is hit several times, then hit in the eye and stunned, but he is so hemmed in he can't even fall off. When he recovers his equilibrium he slams on the brakes, dismounts and disappears into the woods while the soldiers are trying to turn around. Back on the road to the Sobo-Zan Pass, Komako is also having difficulties. Walking up the track, leading his horse with the prisoner tied to it, he startles a wild boar. The boar immediately attacks. Komako kicks and punches it and the boar is dazed, then killed, but the Nipponese boar is so stubborn that even death doesn't stop it and it gores Komako before finally succumbing to its injuries. Komako ties the boar to his horse and continues up the pass, a fine supper assured.

In the village, Emiko and Kimori plan their next move. Deciding that they have to rescue Mariko, Kimori first tries to taunt the soldiers out of the house, but they are too wary. Then he drops one of Koei's fireflash shuriken through a window and charges the front door. Inside, Kimori is surprised to find twelve soldiers instead of the five he was expecting, but fortunately several of them have been blinded by the flash. Kimori whirls into action against the five while Emiko sneaks in the back door to find Mariko. Mariko herself has regained consciousness, and though very weak grabs her belongings and head for the back door, meeting Emiko on the way. Emiko quickly heals Mariko and then they slip out of the house before any more of the soldiers regain their sight. Kimori, seeing this, kills one of the soldiers and runs out of the house having taken only a couple of injuries. The soldiers are too cautious to follow and he makes his way out of the village, meeting up with Mariko and Emiko in the woods a short distance away. Kimori fills them in on what happened with the riders and wonders where Sugiyama is and what happened to him. "Here I am, and I did not have a good time," comes a voice from the trees. Emiko heals Sugiyama's eye then Mariko sends them both back to the fort to report.

At the fort, Koreyasu instructs Sugiyama to sneak back past the village and scout down to Hinokage, a town halfway down the valley. Emiko decides to stay at the place where the ambush is laid, and after a night's sleep Sugiyama and Komako head back to the other. Once together again they decide to sneak past the village. Sugiyama, Mariko and Komako manage to stay silent, but Kimori is not so quiet and is spotted. Arrows fly past his head and he bolts down to the river. Three soldiers chase him and he jumps into the river, but it turns out to be shallow and slow. Kimori is in trouble! Sugiyama sneaks up on the soldiers and gets a silent kill, then kills another with a critical hit. Mariko and Komako finish off the other. Then they continue down the valley. Halfway to Hinokage they see about 50 troops heading up the valley. Sugiyama follows, overtakes and goes back to the fort to report, after a brief and painful encounter with a viper. While the others wait for his return, camped on a scree slope above the road, there is a major rockfall which engulfs Kimori and Komako. Bruised and battered, they look accusingly at Mariko who seems to have been untouched by the disaster. She notices that the rockfall has covered the road making it almost impassable. Komako is sent back to the fort to report once more. He meets up with Sugiyama at the ambush point, returning from his earlier reporting mission, and a runner is sent with Komoko's news. Then they together with Emiko head back down the valley. Of the large Hyugan patrol there is no sign; presumably they took a different road.

All together again, the troubleshooters walk towards Hinokage. They run into another small mounted patrol, and all are involved in dispatching the Hyugans except Komako who stuns himself in the first round. Then as they camp on the outskirts of Hinokage, waiting for daylight, four giant centipedes crawl out of the river, hungry for human flesh. The troubleshooters are quickly in trouble, with Mariko and Emiko taking poisonous bites, but the tables are quickly turned as Kimori finishes one with a critical hit, Sugiyama finishes another and a third is stunned. However, Mariko is fading fast and although Emiko manages to purify her wound, Emiko herself collapses from the effect of her own bite. The last two centipedes are killed, but the party is deep in enemy territory with their only healer in a coma.

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