Session 37. (8/5/02)

Sugiyama's wits finally get his attention and he decides that meeting the commander of Hyuga Town, whom he met in enemy uniform when he was commander of the former Ishiyama Castle, is not a good idea. Sugiyama slips away. Going back to one of the barracks, Sugiyama gets a junior officer to take a note to the commander explaining that he is following a hot lead and will see him later. Then he looks for a quiet retreat to think of his next move.

On the way to the ruined house north of Nobeoka, Mariko, Emiko, Kimori and Komako stop at the village headman's house. He confirms the story of the brutal man that beat his wife, killed his father-in-law and died alone in the house the jizamurai recently moved into. This all happened many years ago, and there has been no trouble until servants started disappearing from the house. No other families have reported troubles. The troubleshooters continue on to what they have started calling the "haunted" house. Inside they search but find nothing, but then Emiko enters a trance and discovers a trap door in front of the family shrine. They open it and go down steep steps cut into the earth. They squeeze into a tiny room with a crumbling wooden door in front of them and four stone statues of warriors, two either side. Emiko has a premonition of trouble and attempts to placate any local kami, but this is ineffective. As Kimori pushes the door open, the others are startled by sudden movement in the corners of their eyes...

In Hyuga Town, Sugiyama has thought about his options, and the most appealing one is to assassinate the commander and make it look like the action of the spy he is supposedly looking for. He returns to his cache, dons his black clothes, picks up some useful tools and steals back to the building being used as army headquarters. His main problem is the number of people in the building that are still awake. He manages to sneak in and finds the commander's room. He has a small room, surrounded by offices which are all in use. Sugiyama decides to press on and slips into the room. Quiet though he is, the commander Toyonari wakes up and looks for his sword. Sugiyama gets in a free hit, causing a serious wound, and gets a second hit in as Toyonari picks up his sword. Sugiyama hits again but Toyonari gets a hit in return, cutting Sugiyama's chest. Then Sugiyama gets another hit that finishes the fight. There has been a certain amount of noise and now there is shouting outside. Sugiyama leaps to the ceiling and jams himself between the beams in a move copied in the new Spiderman film, which shamelessly used the popularity of The Stone to promote sales of this little-known work. The commander's assistant comes into the room, sees the body and calls the guard. Sugiyama, seeing his exit cut off, swings down from the ceiling and bursts through the paper wall into an adjacent office, to the great surprise of two officers. Then he jumps through the shuttered window and runs off down the street, leaving a trail of fretwork behind him. His speed quickly takes him away from pursuers and he disappears into the night. Then, cunningly, he goes to his cache to change clothes, binds his wound, and returns to the headquarters to help with the search.

Back in the "haunted" house, the troubleshooters are having to deal with four stone statues that have come to life. They are very tough, and carry very effective stone katana. Kimori at first evades, but it becomes obvious that the statues are hostile and the three fighters engage them while Emiko retreats up the stairs to start a trance. Mariko gets a critical hit and knocks a statue down while Komako hits another with his hajo. Kimori jumps on the fallen status and wrestles the stone katana out of its hand, discovering in the process that it has turned from stone to metal and suffers severe cuts to his hands. Mariko gets another critical hit against it, but it doesn't seem to be taking all the damage it should be. It gets up and starts punching Mariko. Kimori turns his attention to an armed statue and uses his Precision Strike to inflict extra damage on it, and soon its life force expires. Meanwhile, Komako is having a run of misses, evidently unable to cope with the cramped conditions, in contrast to Mariko who never seems to miss. However, her relatively light damage means that it takes 15 hits to kill it, during which time it punches her three times. Kimori takes on the fourth statue and eventually kills it, resorting to Precision Strike once he realises that ordinary hits are hardly affecting it. Komako has a stroke of luck when his opponent first falls over then breaks its sword against the wall of the tiny room. With Mariko's and Kimori's help, he finishes off the last statue just as Emiko completes her trance and discovers that the stone guardians were magical but, other than a general aura of magic, nothing else is particularly magical. Emiko heals the others then again attempts to placate any local kami. She senses that there are no kami to placate, but she has the feeling that she should be doing something of this nature… Kimori leads the way into the tomb. Here are urns containing the ashes of several family members. As Komako looks closer, the others are startled by sudden movement in the corners of their eyes…

The following morning, in Hyuga Town, Sugiyama goes to see the late commander's assistant, now acting commander. He spins a story that he saw the spy looking suspicious, chased him to a temporary camp a little way out of town, had a fight, was wounded and the spy got away. He really plays up the seriousness of his wound. The acting commander thanks Sugiyama for his heroism and orders him to return to Nango to report his story and carry a message with the other news to the commanders. He adds that there is a healer there who will help with his wound.

Sugiyama sets off immediately and arrives in Nango around midday. He goes in to see the commanders and tells the same story, handing over the sealed message. The commanders react favourably. After the meeting, one of the commanders takes Sugiyama to another room where a female gakusho is waiting. He introduces her as Takayama. She heals Sugiyama very effectively. Sugiyama tries to chat her up, but she is very frosty. On leaving the room, the commander takes Sugiyama aside and explains that Takayama is not to be bothered with small talk. She is an essential part of the Hyugan strategy. She has great powers of premonition. Every morning she rides out into Hyugan territory and looks for Iyo scouting patrols or incursions. When she sees them she reports back and an appropriately sized detachment is sent to ambush the Iyo soldiers. So far this ploy has had great success, but it is essential that this Hyugan "secret weapon" is kept secret!

Next week: What does the future hold for Sugiyama? Plus More Tales from the Crypt.

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