~~~

Coming out from a nearby alley, the tallish man finished smearing the dark cream on his face, affected a hunch, slipped his right arm under uncountable layers of rags, and started scanning the street ahead.

There were a couple of tourists leaning on the bridge, both men, both mean-looking. A family by the Onbashira totem souvenir stalls, gormless enough, but there was a chance the young boy would attempt to pull at his rags.

Besides, parents were often overly-protective of strangers appearing near their children out of the blue. Like the sponge-animal salesman last spring, beaten to death for offering a sponge fox to a four-year old.

No, what he needed was someone alone, with a kind face, ideally without muscles or kids, or an inferiority complex…

He scanned further to the left, reminding himself that this was all just temporary and soon he’d be a respectable life insurance sales executive in Kyoto again.

If he could just get enough starting capital to open a storefront…even a basic one…perhaps hire one of the cheaper prostitutes to function superficially as his secretary...

His head stopped, so abruptly that his neck bone creaked.

Ah, perfect, he thought, eyes honing in on his next target: a young girl, on her tiptoes, peeking into that shrine woman’s izakaya. And alone too.

Giving his face one final rub, the man smoothly transitioned into a hobble and moved forward, yapping insanely about a brutal attack…in the alley…with all his belongings taken.

As he got close to the girl, he put phase two of his plan into action, feigning a trip on loose stones, making a ‘eeeeeeyyy’ sound and stumbling head first into the side of her waist.

Unfortunately, Aya had just begun to turn around at the same exact moment and was given just enough time to yell, ‘wah,’ as the beggar's face disappeared into the bottom half of her yukata.

‘What are you-…’ she started, then stopped as he collapsed to the dirt on the ground and held up his only functioning arm in apology.

‘My feet…a rogue stone…attacked by thugs…’

Aya frowned, then nodded and dusted herself down. Checked on her waist. Looked again at the gap where the man’s other arm should’ve been. Made a pity noise.

‘Didn’t mean to-…’

‘It’s okay. Don’t exhaust yourself. Relax. I understand.’

Out of somewhere in her yukata, she pulled a few coins and handed them to the man with mud smeared all over his face.

‘You are too kind, too kind,’ he replied, bowing like he was trying to snap his own neck off. ‘But all my belongings…gone…stolen…nowhere to stay…’

‘Err…I don’t know if I have anything else.’

‘No, no, of course. You have done more than enough. I’m sure I will survive the night…tomorrow night, maybe…if the weather is favourable.’

Aya looked down at the sorry figure and then back at the window she’d been peeking through. Reiko and the other, stern-looking woman were still talking, quite intensely it seemed. No drink break or impasse to give her a chance to go in and ask for help. If that was even a good idea. Looking at the tomato colour of Reiko’s face, probably not.

‘Arghhh…the nagging pain…’ moaned the man with only one arm, reaching an arm out for the wall as both his legs buckled. ‘Constant…non-stop…’

Aya glanced back, moving her hand out to stabilise him, when she noticed a fat mosquito land on his left cheek. In an instant, it was flattened by a miraculous right hand, a little pocket of blood mixing together with the dirt of his face.

‘Hey…’

Realising his mistake, the man quickly shifted his newly discovered arm back under his rags and tried to shuffle off…but Aya was too fast, grabbing the end of his robes and yanking him back.

He spun round with a dagger out, pointing it vaguely at her throat. ‘Back off, girl.’

‘Wah…’

‘I’ll stab if you make me.’

‘Stab?’

‘You heard it. Hey, a bit of distance, please. Come on, back off.’

‘Gods, you’re just like him,’ she muttered, mentally attaching a sketch of Akira to the dirt of the man’s face as she complied with his demand.

‘Right. Good. Now, I’m just gonna walk peacefully down this street and you’re not gonna follow, okay?’

‘Maybe worse. At least he didn’t pretend to have one arm.’

‘Fine, keep talking to yourself. I’m leaving. And no screaming out…or I’ll scream too.’

Aya shrugged, looking past the man’s shoulder.

‘What?’

‘Nothing.’

It could be a trick, he thought, maintaining a straight line of sight with his possible opponent, or it could be a bunch of ashigaru with their katanas out, self-appointed town security, ready to do their scummy little tactic of slashing the back of someone’s calf and…

‘Kuuuuuuusooooo…’ the man yelled, falling to the side, dropping his blade, snatching at the air around his left calf.

‘Is this man bothering you?’ asked the stocky ashigaru, blood-specked katana aimed downwards at the whimpering figure on the ground.

Aya turned instinctively back to the window, seeing both Reiko and the other woman looking over at her, clearly alerted by the sudden death cry.

‘He’s a thief…tried to rob me,’ she stuttered, backing away from the izakaya wall and trying not to register all the random faces staring at her.

‘My fucking leg…’ the conman cried, trying to stop the blood seeping out with his sleeve. ‘Gonna bleed out, do something, help me.’

The ashigaru stuck the tip of his katana in the dirt next to the conman’s stomach then bent down. ‘Would you like me to ease the pain?’

‘Yes…obviously…’ replied the conman, face scrunching up in sudden hesitation. ‘Wait, ease how? First aid?’

‘What do you think, young lady?’ asked the ashigaru, slowly turning, ‘mercy for the wicked thief who tried to steal from you?’

The words were soft, mildly threatening and, ultimately, futile as Aya had already gone.

Not completely out of sight…about halfway across the bridge, pinballing through the crowd so hard that she knocked a huge basket of mountain asparagus off a farmer’s head [that or a guy who really loved asparagus]…but far enough to make the ashigaru growl in mild frustration, and bark, ‘what?’ at the figure of Reiko appearing at the Izakaya entrance.

‘That girl…what did she say?’

‘Nothing of interest. Why? Do you know her?’

Reiko looked at the writhing thief on the ground, the katana standing upright next to him, the shrinking shape of Aya on the other side of the bridge, then said no and walked back to into the izakaya. Then came out again and grabbed a hypnotised Ichiko by the sleeve, telling her it was rude to stare.

‘This one time,’ the ninja answered, seizing back her yukata sleeve and sliding the door panel shut behind them.

‘What?’

‘But touch me again…’

‘Oh that. Forget it. Just part of the performance.’ Reiko moved over to the counter, pouring herself the last drops from a bottle of shōchū. ‘Probably should’ve chased after that little sneak. I’ll never get my money back now.’

‘Perhaps if you hired more trustworthy staff…’

‘Yeah, thanks for the advice, regional manager. Anyway, it doesn’t matter that much, not compared to the other issue.’

‘That has already been discussed.’

‘Yeah, and your solution is to do nothing.’

‘I am merely following the logic of the situation. To panic would be a grave mistake. A professional ninja waits for the right moment to strike, even if that becomes a decade. Though I will concede…it is debatable how much that applies to someone of Misora’s character.’

Reiko downed the shot of shōchū, then reached under the counter and opened up a new bottle. ‘Okay, fresh compromise. If she’s not back by midnight, we go and investigate.’

‘That would also be a grave mistake…’

‘Not attack, just moderate surveillance, see what’s happening around the castle. Gather some information. That shouldn’t be too frightening to a professional like you.’

Ichiko’s right hand went to the left sleeve of her yukata, with pretty clear mutterings of monster disrespect coming from her lips.

‘Yeah, call it what you want, you know it’s a fair plan. Besides, if Misora has been captured, then your two targets might get spooked and start talking. And then you’re in a whole new pit of trouble. Me too…all of us.’

‘Enough speculation. We stay here until the morning.’

The shōchū bottle tilted and Reiko poured out another shot. ‘Technically, 12:01 is the morning.’

‘That is my final decision.’

‘Final can often be a transitory word.’

‘Stop…adding….your nonsense asides.’

‘What’s all the commotion outside? Someone fighting?’ asked Kanae with zero leash on the volume, coming down the stairs two at a time in nothing but a semi-open kosode.

‘Nothing of consequence,’ replied Ichiko, sitting down at the table and folding her arms. ‘Where’s your yukata?’

‘Mine? Upstairs. I think. You sure there’s nothing going on out there? Sounded kind of like a fight. Woke me up from my nap too.’ Moving over to the counter, Kanae took the cup of shōchū that Reiko had just poured out for her, toasting it with another invisible cup in the air. ‘Hey, that reminds me. I just had the weirdest dream. Misora was at the castle, all drugged and woozy, and trapped in a massive shōchū barrel with the ashigaru guy, you know, our target, that guy, and the two of them were front on front, naked, and the main guard comes in and orders them to fondle each other. And the guard’s face looked like Lord Shingen’s…a little bit. And the whole thing was really weird, so detailed, so specific, like even the label had been scrubbed off the side of the barrel and the guards broke for lunch at one point and…yeah, it was weird, my mum always said dreams were connected to real life, so maybe it means she’s in trouble, Misora…been captured for real and…I don’t know, what do you think? Should we go and check, see if she’s okay? It has been almost a whole day.’

Kanae finally bowed to the limits of human nature and took a breath, then pulled an innocent child face as Ichiko rubbed at her yukata sleeve, glaring at the neck veins of her supposed comrade.

‘I think…you may have a point,’ replied Reiko, holding up her cup.

‘Great, so we better get over there. I’ll go upstairs and put on my dark gear, make myself a bit more shadow-like.’ She finished off her shōchū and headed back to the stairs, stopping halfway up and turning back to the two women. ‘Hey, you haven’t seen my dagger lying around, have you? Think I left it down here before…’

‘We’ll keep an eye out,’ said Reiko, smiling, somehow suppressing something much stronger.

‘Thanks, you’re so kind. And always in a good mood, too. Actually, if I weren’t in the ninja business, I’d probably ask if I could work here…seems so relaxing.’

‘Maybe after you retire.’

Kanae nodded to herself and continued on up the stairs, the footsteps morphing into an off-key whistle, possibly a melody of some kind.

‘I think…’ started Reiko, licking the rim of her cup, ‘someone in your recruitment division has a very perverse sense of humour.’

‘Suicidal…’ muttered Ichiko, still glaring at the stairs.

‘But her idea’s still a good one. Shall we get ready?’

‘No.’

‘It’s two against one.’

‘The rookie is irrelevant. We’re staying.’

Reiko tipped the bottle and re-filled her cup, plus one more to the side.

‘I’m not thirsty,’ said Ichiko, spreading her arms out across the table.

‘For me, not you.’

‘Two cups?’

‘To fortify my nerves for the night ahead.’

‘I told you, we’re not going.’

‘Sure.’

‘That is final.’

‘Under…stood.’ Reiko picked up both cups and downed them at the same time, slamming them on the counter as an exclamation mark. ‘How about a cup of flower water?’