Session 31. (6/3/02)

The episode starts with Sugiyama in the Dragon Cave, alone except for three escaped prisoners. The others have gone off to investigate the mysterious White Cave. A quick cut to Komako shows him languishing in Ishiyama Prison, when footsteps approach his cell and the door is opened by some very mean-looking guards who are not smiling. Back at the Dragon Cave, time passes slowly. In mid-afternoon a strange cloud of smoke appears over the horizon to the north west, but before Sugiyama has time to wonder about it he notices a figure coming up the track from the valley, darting from bush to bush in a sorry attempt at concealment. Sugiyama slips into the shadows and steals up on the newcomer, determined to show him how really to conceal oneself, but just when he is about to spring the surprise the escapees shout out, "Look, it's Yoshiie!" Sugiyama de-cloaks with as much dignity as he can muster, and introduces himself. As the new arrival recovers his composure, washes and eats he tells how he escaped with two others but they got captured, and it seems that the rescue scheme has been uncovered and Komako is due to be executed, possibly quite soon. We cut back to Komako being thrown into one of the solitary confinement cells and the guard laughing, "You're going to be executed in the morning!" Up at the Dragon Cave, Sugiyama organises the four escapees to move the camp and supplies to a hollow not far away and to keep a watch on the cave in case any more escapees turn up. Then he slips off to attempt a single-handed rescue mission. Sugiyama pauses on the track down to the Mimi valley and watches the castle. There are a lot more guards patrolling the inner and outer compounds than previously. He forms his plan then waits for darkness to fall.

Once dark, Sugiyama prepares poisoned darts for his blowpipe, dons black clothing and makes his way up to the back of the castle and waits by the wall of the outer compound until the patrolling guards have passed by. He skillfully climbs the imposing wall and sneaks across to the inner compound wall. Unfortunately he must have made a sound because the three guards in the outer compound rush towards him, swords drawn. Sugiyama blends into the shadows, but two of the guards evidently have keen eyesight and move closer, probing the shadows with their swords. Suddenly Sugiyama springs into action and catches one guard with a critical blow, knocking him down. The other reacts well and lands a hit on Sugiyama. Sugiyama hits the first guard again and is hit by the second guard again. The first guard gets to his feet just in time for Sugiyama to kill him, then turn his attention to the second guard. The fence a moment then Sugiyama scores his most devastating blow ever, slicing through the shoulder and arm of the poor guard, killing him instantly. The third guard, who had sneaked up on Sugiyama's blind side, froze with his sword about to descend, gibbered and ran off. Sugiyama quickly switched to his blowpipe, hit the guard with a dart of lightning paralytic poison and felled him in seconds. His true ninja nature starting to show, Sugiyama chops off the head of the paralysed guard and takes it with him for future use.

Sugiyama moves stealthily round the inner compound wall to a point just below the stables and climbs up. There is a guard nearby so he concentrates and imbues his hand with a lightning poison. Then he sneaks up on the guard and gets him in a jujutsu hold. The poison fails to work so he tries to choke the guard. However, the guard breaks free. Both quickly draw their swords and the clash of metal on metal rings across the compound. Sugiyama manages to finish the fight quickly, then pausing only to drop a fire pot into the stables, slips into the shadows. Suddenly the shouts of "Intruder!" turn to shouts of "FIRE!!" Sugiyama reaches the main castle doors and is about to carefully open them when two guards burst out. Fortunately they don't see Sugiyama and run across the courtyard towards the fire. Sugiyama, seeing the door open and the corridor empty, enters the castle and makes his way to the guard room door. He tries to trick the guards into leaving by shouting, "Fire!" but they reply, "We know, we've just sent people to help. Go put it out yourself." Changing to Plan B, Sugiyama rolls the severed guard head across the floor of the guard room and with a suitable battle cry attacks the shocked guards. The surprise is so effective that he gets a virtually free hit on the first and kills him in one blow, then with the second still staring at the head in horror, kills him likewise. Following up on this success, Sugiyama rolls the head down the stairs into the dungeon and makes it even more effective by using his scabbard to throw his voice and make it appear that the head is talking. "You are meddling with the spirits, release the prisoners," it says to the two credulous guards, who jump over the head and flee up the stairs. Sugiyama fades back and waits. The first guard runs straight onto Sugiyama's sword and is killed instantly. The second guard manages to draw his sword, but with Sugiyama's blows raining down on him, the shock of the talking head and the sight of his companion running on without a head, he drops his sword and runs back downstairs. Sugiyama follows and, with the poor guard fervently praying to whatever gods will listen, Sugiyama slices him in two.

Komako, in his cell, hears a very strange commotion, weird voices, running footsteps, then it all goes quiet apart from odd little scratching sounds and then suddenly his door is opened and Sugiyama is standing there. "I'm here to rescue you," he says, to which a razor-sharp Komako responds, "Aren't you a little dark for a bushi?" "Oh, the camouflage," replies Sugiyama, and explains how he sneaked into the castle and how he came by his lock picking skills (without mentioning ninja of course). Sugiyama shows off his skill by picking the locks of all the other cells with only one failure, where he manages to break a lock. Instead the already released prisoners manage to break the door between them. While this is going on, Komako detects a rumbling sound and the floor starts to shake. This gets more and more pronounced until there is a deafening noise. When everyone is released, Sugiyama leads the prisoners up from the underground cells to find that much of the front of the castle has been shattered by a rock slide. It seems that the doomed guard's prayers were answered by the kami of the mountain. To Komako's satisfaction, the remains of the chief torturer's body can be seen buried under a ton of stones. With the ground still shaking, Sugiyama locates three more prisoners in the main floor holding cells, releases them and leads the exodus as the rest of the cliff above the mountain breaks away and sweeps the castle off its knoll and into the lake. Although a few prisoners are bruised in the landslide, Sugiyama and Komako manage to outpace or dodge the rocks.

With no guards hanging around to stop them, the party reaches the Dragon Cave by daybreak and meets up with Mariko, Kimori and Emiko who have returned from the White Cave with their cargo of precious metal. And so, with smoke rising from the castle stables and the forests near the White Cave, the troubleshooters and escaped prisoners head back to Hinokage and safety.

Back in Hinokage the troubleshooters receive great praise from the commander, Koreyasu, and from the prisoners themselves. Mariko, Kimori and Emiko take their metal to the army's swordsmith who tells them that the metal needs very careful working (for instance keeping it under oil whenever possible), but that with care it can be made into a lightweight katana that will do fire damage when it strikes (as the surface of the raw metal becomes exposed), or it can be used at the core of a lightweight bo staff. However, only a master swordsmith/metal worker could do this, and he is, alas, not sufficiently good. Sugiyama and Komako are meanwhile catching up with the news. Koreyasu tells them that Nobeoka is on the point of falling to the allied armies, and already a few convoys are leaving with valuables to take to the safety of southern Hyuga. Actually, Lord Chozo would quite like to get hold of these valuables, so if the troubleshooters were to engage in a little legitimised piracy in return for, say, a tenth of the loot, would they go...?

Next week: Treasure-fest!

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