Session 10. (15/3/06)

The Troubleshooters wend their way through the tracks of north-east Shikoku visiting temples numbers 72 to 88 and, due to the configuration of the roads and numbering scheme, 10 to 1 and 11 to 17. They arrive in Tokushima expecting to meet up with Mariko, but instead are greeted by a young samurai messenger. He introduces himself as Tai Sung and hands over a message from Mariko to Kimori. Kimori reads it out, Emiko helping him on some of the longer words: "Please accept my respectful apologies for being regretfully unable to meet you in Tokushima. The Shogun has moved troops up to the ports on Honshu that serve the ferries to Awaji, and are harassing travellers and traders. I must remain here to organise our army in case the Shogun tries to invade. I will rejoin you when I feel the situation here is safe. Until then please accept the services of this messenger;" - at this point Sung's eyebrows try to join with his top-knot - "he is loyal, well-versed in kenjutsu, and an excellent horseman. Return him with the message of the successful completion of your mission. Please regard me kindly. Ito Mariko." A wax seal with the Ito mon closes the letter. Kimori searches the others' faces for reaction, sees none, shrugs, welcomes Sung to the party with a nod of his head and leads them off towards temple 18. After visiting this temple, which is within Tokushima City, the party rests for the night before leaving for temple 19, "Temple of Arising a Bay", the next one on their quest.

Arriving at the temple Emiko immediately enters a trance to foresee the future, but goes too deep and falls asleep. Komako tries to use divination but fails. While the others pray, Kimori sees the abbot to use his rhetoric to try and obtain the buddha statue. Evidently their prayers fail because as soon as Kimori mentions the statue and their boss's grandfather's deeds the abbot becomes so enraged that he rises from his comfy chair and strikes Kimori. Kimori is surprised, in fact both surprised and shocked, no, surprised, shocked and inhibited at hitting the holy man back and hesitates for quite some time. Several other monks appear and set about the rest of the party, who weren't expecting a buddhist inquisition. Sugiyama, Sung and Emiko wait to see what Kimori will do as the blows rain in on them, but Komako has no inhibitions and lays about the monks with abandon. Poor Sung is kneed in the buddhas and Emiko receives two bruises. Komako is halfway through the first monk when Kimori, pleading for calm, manages to get the abbot to stop and listen. He calms down but is clearly in no mood to hand over any magical statues. Kimori and the party back out of the temple and decide to go on to the next temple and return here in a few days when tempers have cooled. They ride straight down to temple 23, "Medicine King Temple", after a brief overnight stop for rest and for Emiko to look at Sung's testimonies, healing him for eight points.

At the temple Emiko again enters a trance and foresees the future, which doesn't seem to hold any further disaster. Komako uses divination to learn that they will need patience at this temple. Sugiyama has the bright idea to use the magical properties of the statues as they find them to help them obtain the rest. The Troubleshooters all go in and pray and this time Emiko talks to the head priest. He is fairly friendly and agrees to let the visitors see the magical buddha statue, but unfortunately he can't remember where it is, nor even what it looks like! His general manner suggests one who is chronically forgetful. The party look around but there are hundreds of buddha statues in all sizes and shapes. Sugiyama starts looking at them anyway. Kimori and Sung go to pray while Emiko and Komako go to find another member of the staff to ask them. When they find one he tries to be very helpful but is similarly forgetful. Starting to see a pattern emerging, Komako, Emiko and Sugiyama organise a methodical search of the statues, looking for ones that are hollow and in two pieces. Kimori prays but gets no answer. Sung goes to find a third staff member, but to his lack of surprise the result is the same. The others have identified 20 candidate statues and start examining them closely. They eliminate the first three. Sung draws a blank with the fourth monk on the staff while the others eliminate three more statues from their enquiries. Sung finds the last of the monks on the staff and concentrates on using his best honorific language and impresses the monk so much he almost gets a crush. The monk eagerly joins in the search and, with a critical Wit throw, picks out the magical buddha from the Troubleshooters' identification parade. Sung asks his new chum if they can have the buddha; the monk says he will have to ask the abbot. The abbot is also won over by Sung and lets them have it. The party give their thanks and offer prayers and donations.

That evening, stopping in a village on the journey back to temple 19, Emiko enters a trance and declares that the statue, a small lacquered paper (papier-mache) figure of a very old buddha will cause a target person to become sad, forgetful and dejected when the buddha's head is rubbed. While there, Kimori and Emiko write a letter to the abbot to apologise for the earlier altercation and explain their mission. Later they go to see the village headman to ask about the temple, but Emiko's rhetoric is so refined that the headman is too bemused to give any useful information. However, Sung goes to the village tea house and talks more like the professional traveller that he is and learns that the temple staff in general and the abbot in particular are famed for their volatility and bad temper. Meanwhile, Komako has been fishing, and although his only bite got away (it was THIS big!), he learns from another fisherman that the famous buddha statue is large and made of bronze. At the same time, Sugiyama has been scouting round the temple in case they need to sneak in and steal the statue.

In the morning the Troubleshooters approach the temple. They go as a group to see the abbot and hand over Kimori's letter. The abbot seems neither pleased nor displeased with its contents. Covering all options, Komako readies the buddha statue that induces sleep and Sugiyama prepares to slip into the background. The abbot finally speaks, grumpily accepting the apology, but refuses to hand over the statue. Kimori suddenly has a bright idea and says to the abbot that the statue is having a negative effect on the priests by causing permanent bad moods. The abbot is intrigued by the idea but points out that they can't do without a statue of the Buddha. Kimori says he will pay compensation and get a replacement statue. In fact they won't leave until they have commissioned and paid for a new statue of cast bronze. The Troubleshooters carry the half-life-size statue of the scowling buddha outside where Emiko analyses it and discovers that it will cause a target person to become angry and frustrated when its lined forehead is rubbed. Then the party goes off to the nearest town in search of a metalsmith - and a packhorse!

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