Chapter III
"The Use of Spies"
"The Art of War"
~by Sun Tzu~
Sensei Nokizaru was a good teacher, and over the next few years, a good friend. We were in a small, bare dojo somewhere in the bowels of Shiro Goemon, in the labyrinth. The labyrinth was a series of secret tunnels that ran beneath the city ranging from the Aobozu's woods, where I met Eita for the first time, all the way to the docks outside of town. There were many secret entrances for it throughout the castle and the town.
The series of stone rooms Sensei brought me to were a part of those tunnels. I found out later they were his personal dojo. He had brought the wooden floor in and built it himself. The dojo was stone and wood, quiet and moist. In all, it was a very peaceful and safe place.
At that moment I was more concerned with doing well on my immediate task. I started with all the kata I knew, beginning with Kara-Te. Once that was done I moved immediately to Koga Jujutsu. When I had finally finished, he approached quietly.
"Not bad, Hiro san." He was nodding. "You still have much to learn where Jujutsu is
concerned so we will focus on that for now."
I didn't get to see my friends or family over the next several weeks. Nothing but training. Sensei was surprised at how fast I picked up the martial arts he taught me.
"Hiro san, it appears that I shall have to pick up the pace a little." He smiled.
I was very honored. He moved on to tactics and stealth. I poured over many books.
The Dao
I was familiar with, General Sun's
The Art of War
the Koga edition, Ottomo's
Small Deaths
, Roko's
Winter Harvest
, and many more I had never seen. I learned to love libraries. They were peaceful and there was just so much knowledge to be had.
Sensei's personal library was very interesting. He had texts on infiltration, disguise, explosives, forgery, shadow work, and history. I learned from these books until Sensei was satisfied with what I had memorized.
Sensei gave me a small piece of advice one day, "to open my eyes," as he would say.
"Remember Hiro, just because they wrote it, does not make it so."
He shifted our hours to night while we slept during the day. He also shortened my sleeping time. There are twelve hours in the day, and most people get four of these for sleep. I only got three, from the midday to evening. It took a long time to get used to this. Between training and reading, I had no time for friends and family. My Sensei was not uncaring, he just had a goal to meet and he wasn't going to fail.
Eventually he noticed I was becoming a little worn down, so he came up with a few games for us to play. These were meant to continue my training but be a bit more fun about it. My favorite game was "Tag." He would hide while I looked for him. My goal was to get the drop on him. I usually failed, but he seemed to be pleased with my performance. We played that game everywhere: in the gardens, around the castle, it didn't matter. We would be walking somewhere and he would hit my shoulder. "Tag!" I would have to close my eyes while he went somewhere for me to find him and sneak up on him.
Sometimes, I would tag him. I wish my mother could have seen his face the first time I did that! To my surprise, I was much better at not being caught than catching him.
The training was so pervasive, and he wouldn't let me forget anything. He quizzed me on what I had read months ago. He made me continue to practice Kara-Te, Jujutsu, and anything else he taught me. Soon he had to set up a schedule throughout the month for me to cover everything. In one of his more "compassionate" moments he said,
"Poor Hiro. There is so much to learn." He put his arm around me. "Well. Do not fret," he said as he kind of shook me gently. "It is only going to get worse." He was smiling when I looked up at him, shocked.
After six months of this he was finally pleased with my progress in Jujutsu enough that he started teaching me Ninjutsu, the art of the assassin. Koga jujutsu is what samurai and nobles are taught, although some lords do teach it to their peasants as well. Ninjutsu is an art specifically for our assassins; also known as ninja or shinobi. Along with this came the work with all of the new weaponry. The Fukiya blow gun, Shurikan throwing stars, Shuko hand claws, Ashiko foot spikes, Ninja-to, which is a straight bladed sword, and sooooo many more. I loved them.
He made me learn to use these weapons along with everything else. Not hard to do since I looked forward to them. They were added to the list of things to do every few days. He also made me start wearing heavy metal plates in pockets sewn inside my shirt and pants. I wore the weighted clothing under my kimono where they couldn't be seen.
Another six months and New Year's was upon us again. I would be nine this year. Sensei did me the honor of letting me go home for the day to visit my family. My father wasn't there but I had a grand time with my mother.
"Sensei Nokizaru, told me to expect you, my son," She said when I arrived.
She was so happy to see me. I had always felt bad that she was left alone. My uncle Tozasu came by with his new wife, Pe. Apparently, the two of them made regular visits to my mother. I was pleased to see that Tozasu and Pe were still very happy together. We exchanged gifts and bantered about the Daimyo's son, Masao and how his wedding was coming up in a few months. He was engaged to one of the many sisters of the Shotoku family Daimyo, Yoshio. Her name was Kumiko and she was the fourth child of nine. She apparently was very intelligent and very beautiful. The wedding would be held in the castle of our city.
In the meantime, my uncle was very busy making ceremonial dress for every one of the nobles of Goemon Toshi and several nobles from other castles in our House who would be attending and had knowledge of his skill. My uncle was a mixture of flattered, honored and tired. My mother had been spending much of her time at his shop helping to fill his orders. I knew how much she still wished to be a seamstress and this looked to be helping her fulfill that fantasy.
Soon though, we all went outside to watch the holiday fireworks. We had a wonderful visit, but when it had grown late I had to return to my room at the dojo. It had always seemed uninviting, but tonight, with the noise of the crowds celebrating in the streets, and the smell from the fireworks, it was exceptionally gloomy.
I had been given a small room which had a hidden door to conceal it. Stone walls and ceiling covered the ten foot by eight foot space. I used it to sleep, read, and store all of my weapons and training gear. It had a small chest, a large chest, a futon, and a large mirror on the wall. I undressed and put on my training weights and clothing to prepare for whatever Sensei had in store for me that night.
After only a few months of Ninjutsu, Sensei started running me through tests against other people. It started by shadowing people in town, always at night. I dressed in black with a hood so as to blend in with shadows better. The first was my old friend Xi the jeweler. He was easy because of his age and the fact that no one had any reason to follow him. The targets got progressively harder after that.
One night I found myself tucked into a corner trying to follow my Daimyo across the gardens. I was sure this was a bad idea but Sensei insisted. It had started easy enough. I slipped out of the labyrinth just before the end of the court in early evening. There were plenty of dark areas in the castle and things to hide behind if no one had a reason to check. A little patience got me past the guards outside the court room and there was enough of a crowd left at the end of court to cover my finding a spot against the wall just inside the court.
I moved slowly and smoothly against the far wall while people filtered out so as not to attract anyone's attention. I had seen my Daimyo step into his small office near the dais a few moments before so I made my way there. Unfortunately, by the time I got there everyone had left the room, which was when the two stationed guards did their sweep. I had to hold fast a few moments for them to go past before I could tiptoe through to the office.
I could not go through the shoji screens as that would be too loud. I had to quietly hop up to the cross beam at the top of the dividing wall and slowly lift myself to the shadows in the rafters. The room was empty. There were only about nine ways out of it that I could see so I waited a few moments to figure out where to go next. Just then I heard what sounded like my lord talking to someone in the gardens so I moved to the exterior wall. I saw two samurai guarding the office door to my left so I would have to be very quiet when I dropped down from the rafters to the outside.
I moved to the corner of the garden wall near where I was and slowly lowered myself to the ground. I could see Tetsuya had just settled onto a bench while talking to several of his closest advisers. I eased up along the wall keeping low to use the foliage of the garden to help conceal me. When I was able to get about 10 feet from him I decided to move closer to get a better vantage point. Just then black smoke seemed to come towards me from out of a tree. A leg appeared from somewhere in the mist and tripped me to the ground. My right arm was pulled behind my back before I knew what was happening and there I was. Stuck. Face down in the dirt.
I heard the man behind me say, "My Lord? I have subdued a "
boy
" for you."
