It has taken Junichirō the scout a few days to report back to me on the situation in Keishutsu. But, as I feared, he has found another nest of the Mōjin resistance. A powerful, dangerous group —he barely made it back safely.

This afternoon, Kento will join me as we go to see the situation for ourselves. The next few days are going to involve a lot of very unpleasant fighting against the Mōjin, interspersed with occasional trips to Nagoya. In the meantime, our campaign slips further and further behind.

Today is Akane’s birthday. I have plans to meet her at her favorite restaurant in Heian-kyō this evening. I must be careful not to get wounded by the Mōjin in Keishutsu.

お誕生日おめでとう、赤ねちゃん！ O-tanjōbi omedetō, Akane-chan!

Back at Castle Noriaibasha, bright and early as the new year starts. Last week, the castle was almost silent as people enjoyed their holidays and vacations. Today, everyone is back. The castle bustles with activity as people return to their old tasks.

I have much to accomplish in Ichimen. Seijun the samurai is clamoring for some neighborhood, any one, to be cleared of underworld elements so that he can bring in his troops and have Nayumi start her work. I think Keishutsu will be of the most use to them, if only I can remove the Mōjin fighters that still plague it; after that, I have hopes of liberating Ichibanyōshi from its gangs.

My previous plan had been to finish off the chain-wielding thugs in Kakunin Shiken first, because the Kakunin Shiken district borders Ichibanyōshi. There is much travel between the two neighborhoods, and I fear that the chain-fighters will try to step into the power vacuum left by my removal of the Ichibanyōshi gangs. But the samurai can’t deal with Kakunin Shiken at all. They can deal with Ichibanyōshi, once I’ve gotten rid of the gangs.

This means I may as well clear out Ichibanyōshi now, deliver it to the samurai, and then take care of Kakunin Shiken in parallel with the samurai’s Ichibanyōshi efforts. I just hope this decision doesn’t come back to haunt me later.

I have been busy in Ichimen, even as the winter becomes colder. The Keishutsu district remains solidly in our control, and the gangs of Miseru-Kakusu remain in disarray. I have moved on, to the neighboring districts of Kuraberu-no-Hako and Shiryō-no-Hako. I have also spent much time in meetings with Seijun and Rajan, the samurai who will be waging battle outside the city. We have agreed on how we will coordinate our efforts, and they have introduced me to Nayumi. She is another samurai who will be assisting them.

In the meantime, the nobles and priests continue to argue about what our strategies should be in those areas.

We are now fully committed to striking using the Bright Square strategy. But Jōichi’s plan involved capturing certain warehouses with the Floating Word technique. And Floating Word is completely incompatible with Bright Square.

There is consternation in the high towers of the castle, as the nobles are becoming aware that this campaign will probably not be done on time. I see messages going back and forth, as they ask Kento how we will capture the warehouses. “What tactic can we use, if Floating Word is not available to us?” Kento has just gone on winter holiday, however, and he will not return until next week.

In the meantime, I am sneaking through Kuraberu-no-Hako and Shiryō-no-Hako, trying to identify all the people I might possibly be asked to kill. As soon as the nobles figure out what to do and who the enemy is, I intend to present them with those people’s heads.

In Ichimen town, the district of Miseru-Kakusu is going to be of critical importance to our campaign. It sits in between Ichiban’yōshi and the Migaku region, and there will be a lot of to-and-fro happening there. It’s a rough, lawless place, where I’ll have to do a lot of interesting things with my manrikigusari.

Even the city guard don’t go there. Underworld gangs rule the area with a brutal hand. Clearing out such vermin is one of my chief pleasures in life.

If I can get this done before Akane and I leave for Ikaho Onsen, I will have cause to be very proud of myself. Especially since most of tomorrow is occupied with meetings inside Castle Noriaibasha. Any time I spend in meetings is time I can’t use to hunt down and destroy the Miseru-Kakusu gangs.

All is prepared. Early in December, Akane and I will go off to Ikaho Onsen, a very popular resort spot in the mountains of central Nippon. I have told Clan Noriaibasha that I will be away for just over a week. Akane and I are looking forward to enjoying the hot springs and the entertainment there. During our vacation, I doubt I’ll have the chance to do any ninja-ing at all. I will have little, if anything, to say here.

I will have to be extra-diligent in my scouting and sneaking and killing before and after this trip; we wouldn’t want the Teitōken campaign to fall behind schedule. For now, I have made great strides in the neighborhood of Keishutsu; most of our enemies there are gone, and I have a good knowledge of the back alleys and the best places to ambush anyone else that might get in our way.

Now, I’m ready to start working on pacifying the areas of Ichibanyōshi and then Miseru-Kakusu. This will require some intricate manrikigusari work, which should be quite fun. These neighborhoods will be a central part of our objectives, and they must be completely under our control before we can consider the campaign a success. Seijun and Rajan will be counting on me.

Two weeks ago, I had a lunch meeting with Megumi, the herald of the Shomei-gumi who secured me my position with Clan Noriaibasha. Her supervisor, a woman named Rīna, was also there. The two of them wanted my advice on some other warriors who might be of use at Noriaibasha… and Rīna also mentioned that they had been in touch with Tsukimi, the commander of the Keitai Team. Apparently they have heard very good things about me from Tsukimi — her instructions to the Shomei-gumi were “Please send us two more of Ichirō”.

I told them their words bring me honor, and I will strive to continue to bring honor to Shomei.

Last week, I received a message from Shomei, telling me that Megumi had left the group to seek her fortune with a new clan in Hikone. My new contact in the group is a man named Kaisei, who reports to Rīna as Megumi once did.

So we recently met at a bar in the capital, to get to know each other. He proves to be a friendly, convivial fellow, but also with a thoughtful side — he has spent time meditating on what it means to be a herald and why he enjoys it, just as I have spent time meditating on what attracts me to the Way of the Ninja.

Also, we have similar tastes in shōchū.

The Kanezukai campaign’s final battle has been fought and won. I arrived in the village we aimed to capture and found Risako, and the other Nichiren priests overseeing the campaign, already waiting. The major in charge of our troops said that most opposition was already quite disorganized, thanks to my work in assassinating key personnel beforehand.

After the first engagement, we spotted a few of the enemy’s scouts who needed to be taken out. I made short work of them, leaving them to bleed to death in the village’s alleys, and gaining more admiration from Risako and the major.

By noon, it became clear that our victory was assured. I went back to Castle Noriaibasha to prepare for my next tasks, and to relax in the knowledge of a job well done.

The only dark spot in today has been discovering that my boot-knife has lost its temper and will no longer hold an edge. Also, it would be enjoyable to relax at a bar on my way home today, and sip some well-earned celebratory drink… but dark storm-clouds are rolling in, and I’ll probably just have to run home before the rain drenches me.

Now that I have settled in at Clan Noriaibasha, I should describe some of the other clan members. I cannot describe them all, for Noriaibasha is a mighty clan of thousands, but here are the ones I work with most often:

My captain is Kento, a ninja who is climbing in rank, and may be on his way to becoming a higher-level officer. I report to him on a regular basis. He assigns me duties, and I carry them out.

I and Kento and everyone under him report to Tsukimi, a Nichiren priestess of pleasant demeanor. She is in command of a platoon called the Keitai Team, which is theoretically assigned to activities in Kusatsu and its immediate environs — but in practice, we members of Kento’s squad perform operations all over Kansai.

There are a great many rooms, halls, and dōjōs within Castle Noriaibasha, and each clan member is assigned to one or another. This gives us a place to keep our uniforms, weapons, and whatever other tools we need to carry out our duties. (Just as we ninjas need a place to store our black outfits, masks, and shuriken, the priests must have a place for their robes and incense.)

I am assigned to a chamber with four others. (Like me, the others are assigned to Noriaibasha by other clans.) Nearest me is Ginsaku, another ninja with urban fighting skills who started at Noriaibasha one week after me. There are also Fumiaki, a priest of the Shoshū Buddhist order, and Chifumi, who is a junior priestess of the Tendai sect. Finally, another Shoshū priest named Jōichi is assigned to our chamber, but is often away at his devotions, or conferring with abbots and nobles.

Two other warriors on the Keitai Team are Akinori, a seasoned samurai who is skilled with both long and short swords, and Riki, an enthusiastic and likable young fighter who is generally assigned to Kusatsu.

There are a great many other priests and priestesses who guide various campaigns, and my assignments keep me constantly moving among them. This month, I am most busy with the Kanezukai campaign, which is headed by a woman named Risako. As I have already written, she and I have similar ideas about Harmony and the treatment of peasants, and we already have a strong working relationship.

Finally, I must mention Taka, the servant woman who works with the clan’s supplies and organization division. It is a mistake to think that servants are of no consequence.

Without her, who would clean my soiled ninja uniforms after a hard day’s fighting? Who would supply the tea that do many of us drink in such quantity? (Truly, I have noted that Clan Noriaibasha has quite excellent tea supplies.) And when we need to send messages, who would bring paper, brush-pens, and inkwells?

The “lowly” positions are ones without which any organization would collapse in days, just as the peasants include the garners who produce the food that feeds everyone in Nihon — even the Emperor himself. The list of Noriaibasha’s people would be incomplete without mentioning Taka.

I awoke this morning to find the shimenawa at Amaterasu’s shrine broken, and the innards of the shrine scattered and disrupted. I shall have to stay awake some night soon, and do battle with the oni. This will not be an enjoyable experience, even for one who thrives on combat, as I do.

In the meantime, I am learning the ways of Clan Noriaibasha. There are a great many meetings, for the clan’s people need to coordinate their activities. Such a large clan can prosecute multiple campaigns simultaneously, and individual warriors split their time between the various campaigns. So unlike Clan Tenya, where I spent all my time clearing trails and supply lines to places like Kotobasatsuki, here I am constantly switching from one task to another.

And going to meetings to discuss each campaign I’m involved in.

Right now, the Rōba campaign has been taking much of my time, as I gut our enemies with my kama alone. But I have also recently been attached to the San-Nichikan campaign… and, in a meeting with Jōji, who is in charge of the Kirin project, I have learned more about the clan’s plans for the Kirin-dō kata that I have inherited from the departed mercenary.

There will be much for me to do. In the days to come, I certainly must describe these campaigns and the people of the clan.

But first, I must survive my encounter with the oni.

At Clan Iwinaga, a campaign would generally last 8 to 10 weeks. Maybe 12. Clan Nettobuku planned everything in two-week campaigns — though, admittedly, they took far less territory in any single campaign. However, Clan Noriaibasha never lets any campaign be less than six months long. Even if it results in taking no more than a single village.

Perhaps this is because of the large numbers of priests and nobles associated with any campaign. In Clan Tenya, we didn’t even have any priests until shortly before I left. This made it very easy for us to lose sight of the ways of Harmony and Righteousness. At Noriaibasha… I am currently involved in two campaigns. Each one seems to have more priests, of both the Nichiren and Tendai orders, than warriors.

But these things are not necessarily bad, as long as we have enough warriors to take the desired territories. Which we do.

One thing that I do find a bit worse: At Clan Tenya, I was in frequent contact with peasants and townspeople — the people most affected by our operations. Here at Noriaibasha, I’m not sure that I will ever have such casual conversation with the populace.

It is a price I can pay.

Also, at Noriaibasha, it is clear that I will have no input into the overall strategies of the operations I’m associated with. This is of little importance, however, because I found that even at the smaller clans, my input was frequently disregarded by the nobles anyway. At least here, they are honest about the fact that I will have few or no leadership opportunities.