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To Yamamoto Takuji (a reader), this wasn't a work I planned that would take more than two chapters. It was a test of mine from way back then, you supporting it even though my writing was in its infancy makes me smile. And I thank you for that. I don't know what will become of this story, though it is certain that this will be it's last chapter. It is not finished, I don't think I like it either. But I came only to revitalize one draft chapter after you gave this lack of a 'book' two power stones.
- Author
It was the next day. Not much happened, the dark chambers below were closed down but were instructed that only Judge Tamotsu and his companions are able to enter. "For they", As said by the daimyo who entered that evening, "Are people who are commended, even by our great Emperor."
Minamoto and Judge Tamotsu slept in the humble home of Nakamura (the same man who Minamoto had questioned about the ladders). His omoya was a leg's trip away from the main door, and was quaint. Nakamura's hospitality was much obliged. However, to their waking. Samurai yelled and knocked the front door. They shouted; "Judge Tamotsu! Your presence is needed!"
He walked.
"There are bodies floating on the river!"
He ran.
"What do you mean by this!?" He shook opened the wooden door with might to his voice.
"You must come and see it for yourself, Judge Tamotsu!"
They ran from Nakamura's home to the river beside the castle. And from the top looking below at the murky water. His eyes were horrified, there rose bodies with faces unrecognizable, dark, and dusted. The odor they emitted was of the same likes as a dead swine.
"When, did this happen samurai?"
"It happened by dawn's striking." He answered. "As one samurai observed a body on the river, he had reported it to be a drowning person. However as others came and he came back to the site of the floating figure. The bodies had multiplied, and they were ghoulish to look at."
Judge Tamotsu looked at the still bodies. "These bodies are not old, yet they look drenched and looked to have been put into the ground and dug out! What had happened whence I rested!"
"May I see Daimyo, Masako? I must ask him of the night before." Judge Tamotsu said to the samurai.
"I will do what is needed." He ran towards the castle.
A drunken-looking Minamoto came walking towards the crowd of samurai and people, not understanding why they were where they were. But as he soon neared the edge, had he then understood.
Looking at Minamoto's grim face, Judge Tamotsu commented as if Minamoto had spoke. "Yes, bodies. The mystery thickens, and we have very little evidence to thin it out."
( * )
Minamoto and Judge Tamotsu awaited outside the Daimyo's room. A samurai came out and gestured them to enter. And as they did, their eyes met with a wiry old man who had a gruesomely hard stare. They walked towards a small mat and performed Seiza, then bowing low to the ground, so low that their heads had contacted the cold wooden ground. They did not stop and awaited.
"Lift up your heads." Daimyo Masako's voice demanded order. "You have called attention and wished for a talk, with I, Masako Owari. Speak freely, what is it that you wish, Judge Tamotsu?" They lifted up their heads yet Minamoto kept his head at a low angle to avoid their eye's contact.
"I wish for the whole castle perimeter to be locked, and that not one samurai shall be able to leave."
The samurai that surrounded the room had grown a frown with twitches that had wriggled and clacked a little their naginata and katana. The room had grown a tense atmostphere.
"Why is that so…?" Questioned Masako in intrigue. "Do you think that one of Owari Tokugawa samurai have a different manifesto then does the clan? Do you think that the samurai here are traitors, and have killed those men floating at the river. Do you think that the samurai of Nagoya Castle killed their lord, Daimyo Naritakana?" His barrage of questions had humbled Judge Tamotsu, and had been stunned.
"My lord, as tensions grow with the south. I have no doubts that there are samurai here that are not as they seem. And are in fact, a spy."
The room eased, and it seemed as if the samurai surrounding the lord were laughing internally.
"So you think that the Yama clan will absolve pride and be so untoward as to imitate the warriors of a clan another?"
"Ye-"
"I will approve of this." The room went quiet, and angry like before, yet not one will ever try and object to the lord's ruling. "From this day on, not one man, not even I, shall be able to leave the perimeters of Nagoya castle! The presence of every soul of the castle will be written on my mind! Shall one of my men be caught tripping the field of the castle's perimeter shall that man commit seppuku!"
Minamoto sat in awe of Judge Tamotsu's tenacity, and the lord's accepting of this tenacity. "I thank you, O' lord."
"Then you may return."
They again put their heads at the bottom of the floor, and after five seconds or so, had slowly stood and left the room. Unlike Judge Tamotsu, Minamoto's heart raced. "You were rather direct towards the lord, Judge Tamotsu. It made my heart race in your place. What compelled you to such a wish?"
"A spy, is it far too stupendous a reason? Yet, even with my 'evidence' it is too far fetched to say that a spy, nigh even someone of our own clan. Would have any reason to do such a thing. Yet my accusing befell onto Hanako, the Onna-bugeisha. Her patrol is not something to gloss over. If one were to infiltrate the castle. One would need more than wit and sword. This was no work of a ninja, this was because of a group of samurai. A group that has kept its mysteries and has been guarded by pride and tradition."
"I see. Then what are we to do next?" Asked Minamoto as they too both walked out the castle gate.
"We will investigate the bodies."
( * )
The bodies were 'fished' towards the canal's bank by the help of samurai who were there and already was trying to fish the bodies out. Judge Tamotsu remarked that the men who floated were not samurai, they were ronin. As the bodies were settled onto the beach, Judge Tamotsu neared the bodies. He examined the neck, "Marks." Minamoto, intrigued of the Judge's comment, walked closer. "Presumably of a strap, this implies the fact that this person wore the sandogasa frequently."
He looked towards the other bodies who were being fished out of the canal. Noting, "Though this man does not bear one, the others bear a mino. Thus further confirming the fact these men… Are ronin."
"Ronin, Judge Tamotsu? From which lord do you think they are from."
Judge Tamotsu's eyes had turned slit, thinking that the question was foolish. "How would one identify their lord when these men haven't any more sigils of their former lord."
"I am sorry." Minamoto then looked at the mass amount of bodies. "But this much bodies, these ronin. Ronin are samurai who haven't any master. Ronin are men who do the jobs for any so what man who shall pay him decent fees. I have yet to hear that they roam in groups and too cooperating for this bigger conspiracy. We have yet to even know their motive, why would they… For lack of a better word, kill, the former Daimyo Naritakana. I think that they pose as ronin but really are not! What do you think Judge Tamotsu?"
Judge Tamotsu stood in silence, questioning whether that or whether this. For there was too many quandaries hidden in perplexing evidence. Why where there so many bodies in the first place? Why is it that the lord's body was yet to be discovered for three days! Judge Tamotsu had never ever countered such a perilous quandary. "I think that, your words may be true. Or may not be true. For samurai to be ronin even if they are still samurai? Wouldn't they merely send their best of ninjas to operate and figure out this plan? Why would they go upon the trouble of doing such complex operations? Castle Nagoya, is by no means a place that one could simply invade, however, I find it difficult that this operation would go this way…" He scratched his head in irritation.