All semblance of stealth abandoned, the ninja and his companion drew the short, Chinese-style swords they had strapped to their backs, and started running toward the target. As he reached the woman, she half turned in surprise at the sound of running feet, and the young companion, who was several paces ahead of the ninja, struck her at the base of her neck with his open hand, Okinawan style. The woman immediately collapsed to the street.
The ninja was about to yell to his companion to slow down, because he wanted the men in front and behind the target to arrive at exactly the same time, but he saw it was too late to curb the impetuousness of youth. He would arrive a split second before the others.
The target used this timing error to his advantage.
He parried the young ninja’s blow with his sword. Then, instead of going on the offensive with the young ninja, he pivoted around and caught the lead ninja on the other side of him. This man thought he would have an easy kill while the target was engaged with the young one, but instead he was caught by surprise by the pivoting movement and the target’s sword slashed across his midriff.
The target didn’t stop his pivoting movement with the success of his attack, however. He spun completely around in time to have his blade parry a second cut from the young one.
Again, instead of going on the attack, he turned his attention to the other side of him and swung his blade at the other attackers, catching a ninja jumping over the body of his slain companion. Not waiting to see the success of his attack as the mortally wounded ninja fell to the ground, he turned his attention back to the young one in time to parry a third blow.
“Get back!” the ninja ordered. The young one obeyed orders and the remaining ninja on the other side did, too.
The ninja took out his knife. Ninja were known to be experts in all types of throwing weapons, and the ninja expected a fighter as good as this samurai to react. The samurai did react, but in an unexpected fashion.
Normally a samurai fought facing an enemy with both hands on his sword. At the sight of the knife, this samurai simply turned his body to the side, holding his sword in only one hand and presenting the smallest target possible. The ninja smiled. He was an expert and could hit something as small as a plum with a thrown knife. Simply turning to present a smaller target was not a good defense. It was the first mistake this target made in the fight.
With a quick motion, the ninja brought the knife back and threw it. The samurai stepped back quickly as the knife was thrown, and although it cut the kimono of the samurai, it did not strike home.
Surprised, the ninja realized that the samurai’s movement was not a mistake, but a brilliant defense. The human body was only as wide as a hand span. An expert knife thrower will aim for the center of the target, so one only has to move a small distance to have the knife miss a vital spot.
“Give me your knife!” the ninja called to his young companion. The other ninja tossed over his knife.
The ninja now had to guess which direction the samurai would move, forward or backward. If he guessed wrong, the knife would miss completely. If he guessed right, the samurai would be wounded or dead. The samurai stepped back the last time, so the ninja guessed he would step back again, because that might be the direction he found most comfortable for moving quickly. The ninja brought back the knife and threw it.
The knife grazed the back of the samurai’s kimono, but didn’t strike flesh. The samurai had not moved. The ninja realized that the samurai perceived that he would understand why his first throw had missed, and that he would compensate with his second. With the thrower expecting a moving target, the samurai had simply stood firm and let the throw’s compensation cause it to miss him.
It was as if the samurai could read his mind, anticipating his moves. For the first time in his life, the ninja became fearful of another man’s fighting ability.
Suppressing his emerging doubts, the ninja shouted, “At my signal!” The others knew what he meant, but so, apparently, did the samurai. He stepped back slightly, still standing sideways in the street, so his back was protected by the wall of the building behind him. This meant that the three of them would be approaching him from the front, instead of from both sides.
The ninja hesitated, to assess this new development, but before the ninja could shout his signal to attack, the samurai abandoned the defensive posture he had just adopted and moved to the offense. He stepped forward quickly to the younger one, using the young one’s body to block the ninja from taking a cut. The younger one took another slice at the samurai. The samurai blocked it, but this time he followed through, and after the parry he twisted his blade to one side and slashed the younger one across the neck.
Without wasting a moment, the samurai turned and blocked a blow from the ninja behind him. The samurai took a cut at the ninja, then a second and third. The third found its mark, and the man fell to the ground, mortally wounded.
As if he were moving to the choreographed sweeps of a dance, the samurai spun around and parried the last ninja’s cut, which an instant before had been aimed at the back of the samurai.
The ninja stood on guard, watching the samurai, waiting for an opportunity. The samurai did the same, his sword at the aimed-at-the-knee position, as if he was inviting an attack from the remaining ninja.
Suddenly, from behind him, the ninja heard a female voice calling, “Saburo!” The target’s name was Matsuyama Kaze, and the ninja was momentarily confused by the strange name being shouted by the woman, who had obviously recovered from the blow given her. He risked a quick turn of his head to see if this Saburo was coming up behind him. Convinced his back was clear, he turned to the samurai just as the samurai’s sword cut into his flesh. The ninja staggered backward, then fell to his knees as he felt his strength draining from the cut across his side and stomach. Even in his dying state, the ninja couldn’t help but admire his target, who had shown no hesitation between thought and action, between opportunity and conclusion. “Superb!” the ninja managed to gasp before dying.
CHAPTER 17
Infatuated
sighs and sad puppydog eyes.
Young love. A bother!
Saburo!” Momoko came running down the dark street, her feet making the characteristic shuffle sound of someone running in a kimono. She stepped around the bodies that littered the ground and threw her arms around Kaze’s neck.
Surprised, Kaze took one hand off his sword hilt and patted her on the back. “Don’t worry, Momoko. The ninja are all dead now. They can’t hurt you.”
Momoko pulled back. “I’m not worrying about them hurting me,” she said indignantly. “I knew you’d kill them! I’m just worried that you’re hurt.”
Kaze smiled. “You have a lot of faith in me. There were five of them.”
“They hit me and knocked me down, so I didn’t know how many of them there were, but when I regained my senses I could see you had already defeated all but one of them. You were fantastic!”
Kaze smiled. “Youthful enthusiasm.”
“I’m not that young,” Momoko said. Then, taking advantage of the fact that her arms were around Kaze’s neck, she kissed him fiercely. It was a clumsy, sloppy kiss, but what Momoko lacked in technique, she made up for with vigor.
Kaze put a hand on her chest and gently pushed her away. “Five men just died,” he said. “It’s frightening how youth can ignore death to indulge lust.”