Chapter VI
"There are roads which must not be followed,
armies which must not be attacked"
"
The Art of War
"
~by Sun Tzu~
Shiro no Nokizaru is the family castle of the Nokizaru family Daimyo, Nokizaru Daiki. Also, my uncle, Shotoku Kagi, lived here and I looked forward to meeting with him. The castle is difficult to find, tucked into the Honshu mountains like it is. Winter was just setting in so the path up was covered in two feet of snow. Our progress was slow. The escort had been administering light doses of some sleeping agent to our prisoner to keep him sedated for the journey, so there had been no trouble from him.
When we arrived at the gates, the eight of us stood patiently in the snow outside the town. One of the mononofu had commented that the Daimyo, Nokizaru Daiki, was rumored to have killed his own father after the man retired just so he wouldn't have to hear his voice. Just then, the gates opened and four Nokizaru samurai came out to greet us. A Taisa, that is a Captain, approached us once they had positioned themselves to defend the gate against us if the need should arise.
"My name is Nokizaru Nanto. I am here to escort you to my Daimyo. Follow me."
He turned and walked into the town. My sensei gave me a quick glance and urged the pony on through the gates. The four Nokizaru fell in behind us while the twelve gate guards closed the gates behind us.
The Nokizaru family does one thing and they do it well, they make Onmyoji. What their Onmyoji specialized in I didn't know, but I felt that I would find out soon enough though. The officer walked us straight up to the main hall inside the castle. Sensei and I got down from the cart, and just before entering the hall he said to our mononofu, "Gunso." Stated Grandfather.
The Sergeant replied, "Yes, Sensei sama?"
"You and the men stay with the cart. I do not wish to antagonize Daiki by bringing too many men into his court at once."
The Gunso bowed sharply to him.
We entered the court behind the officer. There were two men at the shoji screens who opened them for us in a sprightly fashion.
I could see Daiki at the end of the hall. He was an older, bald man with two large tattoos on his face. Along the right side of his left eye was a large kanji of "Truth" while his right eye looked through the middle of the kanji "Secret." He had a long mustache that hung several inches from the corners of his mouth and he wore a black kimono with the Nokizaru crest over his heart, and a red wakazashi short sword was tucked under his red and blue obi. Overall, he was a very frightening man.
We followed our escort to the Daimyo's dais. He stepped to the right while we knelt and bowed, almost touching our foreheads to the floor.
"My Daimyo, this is Sensei Nokizaru and his pupil, Shotoku Hiro." The man bowed when done with the introduction, took a step back, and knelt. Daiki eventually returned our bows after watching us for a long time. When we sat up he spoke.
"Saibankan, it is very
gracious
of you to finally return to your home. To what do we attribute this
wondrous
gift?" The man was not happy.
"I have not been away by choice,
my
Daimyo. But as for my return, Daimyo Yoshio,
would like the interrogation of a prisoner conducted by one of your specialists, my Daimyo."
"And why should I help that weakling? He should have his own people! Am I to run every errand for him?"
"I am sure Daimyo Yoshio does have his own, my Daimyo, but everyone knows yours are the best." Daiki showed obvious pleasure at Sensei's flattery.
"Who is this you have with you?" Sensei looked at me. Daiki knew who I was, he heard my introduction when we came in.
"This is my pupil, Shotoku Hiro, my lord." I bowed to Daiki. He watched me for several moments again, before returning it.
"Hiro... What do
you
think I should do, boy?" I remember thinking how I really needed to
stay away from nobles but then I remembered something.
"My father once told me that if you find a Koga in need, you must help them. And if you are in need, a Koga will help you."
"And why would I ever need a coward, like Yoshio's, help?"
"I would think it could never hurt to have a man in your debt. Even if you never need his aid, my lord."
He thought on that for a moment. "...You do not
act
like a coward, Hiro. I wonder..." He waved the officer closer, and whispered something to him. The man got up and started to walk back out. "Follow the Taisa. He will take you where you need to go, Saibankan."
Daiki waved us away with his hand like an old man to bothersome pests. I rose and followed my sensei out of the hall. Daiki's spitefulness was so overpowering I honestly couldn't remember what the main hall looked like, but I couldn't get his face out of my mind.
We picked up the men and cart along the way, the Taisa never slowed down. He walked us to a section of wall behind the castle and had us open the cart. The Gunso's men pulled the prisoner out while the officer triggered a hidden door. We walked down the stairs that appeared and the Taisa closed the door again behind us. He led us through several twists and turns until we came to a section where two halls crossed.
A samurai on duty there stood and retrieved some keys from the wall. Then he and the Taisa exchanged a few whispers after which they took us to a barred door with a lock on it. Yoshio's men chained the ronin to the floor inside the small, dark room, and then we left. The samurai closed the door while the officer led us back out.
Once we got back on the cart we followed him to a lovely little house in the samurai district of Castle Nokizaru. It was intended for a family of three. The problem was that the six Mononofu from Shiro no Shotoku would be staying with us. We did have a servant though, Goemon Santo. An old man in his sixties I think. Sensei gave the man the cart to deal with and once he was gone addressed all of us.
"Well, at least we will not have a shortage of guards." The men laughed.
Grandfather housed three of the samurai in one room while he and I shared the other with
the Gunso. The two remaining samurai he placed in the main room with Santo at night. The men would stay with us until the interrogation had been completed. Then the six of them would walk back to Shiro no Shotoku. I fell asleep thinking about one happy thought. Grandfather's name was Saibankan.
A servant arrived in the morning while I was practicing my katana. The woman had brought a letter from Daimyo Daiki. Sensei looked ill as he read it. When he looked up from the note I could tell it wasn't good.
"Daiki wishes you to study with Nokizaru Xai while you are here, Hiro san."
"I do not understand, Sensei sama."
"Nokizaru Xai is Lord Daiki's best interrogator. He will be the one working on our ronin friend. Xai awaits your presence in the dungeons of Shiro Nokizaru."
It took me a while to realize how badly I did not want to do this. I had heard stories about
interrogations and none of them were happy stories. I went inside and cleaned up. Once I had eaten I headed to the castle. I found a samurai waiting for me at the entrance to the main hall. We took a back way down to the dungeons.
Nokizaru Xai waited for me at the crossing of the halls where the guards are posted. He was a short stocky Onmyoji with a tattooed face like his Daimyo. He had no hair, large muscles, and looked to be in his early twenties. I noticed that he carried a large cylindrical bag in his left hand. It was about the length of a man's arm and as wide around, well, as me. He nodded to me and motioned for me to follow him. He led me back to the room where we had locked the ronin.
He unlocked the door and hung the keys on a hook outside. When I walked in he motioned for me to sit opposite him with the ronin between us. The ronin had a great look of fear on his face. He had a better idea of what was going to happen than I did. Xai unrolled the bag.
I saw more gruesome instruments in there than I would see anywhere else for the rest of my life. Everything was hooked, with barbs and sharp edges, and it all shined like it had been polished. Xai removed three candles and lit them. One he placed just above the man's head, the other at his feet, and the third he placed between myself and the ronin. Once that was done, he took out a long white cloth, and laid it on the floor next to him. He then would reach into the bag, and pull out his instruments to lay on the cloth. When he had laid out all of the ghastly devices into neat rows, he spoke. He had a light soft voice that sounded almost compassionate.
"I do not suppose you wish to choose now as a time to tell me what I want to know, Wajima san?" He was looking at the ronin. "You do realize I am going to find out anyway."
The ronin wouldn't speak. Xai nodded to him. He reached back into the bag and pulled out a small bottle with a calfskin cover on it. He then retrieved a needle and removed some of what was inside the bottle with it. Xai calmly stuck the ronin in the neck; the man grimaced a little. Xai removed it and put the bottle and needle away.
"That was 'Fathers Blood', Hiro san. It will help to prevent our friend from lying for a while." I nodded hesitantly. "Oh, it will not make him talk, but if he chooses to, he will have to fight to be deceitful." He smiled at that point.
I found this quiet man very unnerving. Xai kept checking the man's eyes, he seemed to be
waiting for the drug to work. After what felt like an eternity he said,
"There we are."
He sat back and pulled a scroll from the bag. The ronin looked nervously at him while he read over the scroll for several moments before setting it aside. When he spoke next it was an odd sort of guttural noise. It was Giapanese, but it flowed with an odd accent. He began to move his arms about in what looked like some sort of pattern but I couldn't tell what. He would glance at the paper from time to time but he never stopped moving or talking. I understood the word Kitsune, meaning fox, just before he stopped chanting. All of this took only a moment, then he put the paper back inside the bag.
When he pulled his hand back he said something short and curt. This time it didn't take long. A small Yosei fairy appeared over the ronin. She and Xai had a quiet conversation and she disappeared into the ronin's chest. Then Xai spoke to the flame of the candle at the ronin's head. It was a different high pitched accent this time and suddenly the ronin's clothes caught fire. The ronin screamed as they burned off of him. It took only a few moments before he lay there nude and burned on the floor.
Xai then picked up a large blade from his cloth on the floor. He cut the man from his chest to his navel, just enough to open the skin.
Ronin
screamed.
I
almost threw-up. And
Xai
calmly reached for another tool.
He turned back around with some kind of clamp. I was feeling a little faint, when I saw
him place the device into the incision. It was not a clamp. It was a spreader. He spread the skin wide open for a clear view of the man's internal organs. The ronin fainted. I started to get up, to run out, but Xai stuck his hand up at me.
"Sit."
I stopped in my half risen position and somehow got myself to sit back down. Xai removed another drug. He put it in front of the man's face before removing the cork stopper, then waived it under his nose. The man came to, groggily at first, and then screaming. Xai put the drug away, and came back with a long jagged needle.
"What is your name?" He got no response.
He then prodded one of the man's organs, and the man screamed.
"What is your name?" Still nothing.
He prodded again, the man screamed again.
