The Totemo Akarui-gumi's association with Clan Higatsuke is about to come its end. It seems Jinsei has presented Lord Jun with the first bill for our services, and Lord Jun is unhappy.

However, we may be able to recover payment from him anyway. I have been engaged in some long-running projects on his behalf. As a result, I am the only one who knows the flaws in the daimyō Tomodachi-no-Tasu's security. His security is quite substantial, and would be nearly impossible for any of Higatsuke's members to penetrate on their own. Also, I have made connections in the house of Lord Sutōpurei, and can kill him with ease.

And we have other leverage, if we need it. We hope it does not come to that.

In the meantime, the Clan Kuruma-no-Danshaku is starting an ambitious campaign, and needs us to clear a variety of enemies. And our old friends, the Daiyokaru Temple, still have their own needs.

It will be good to leave the town of Ningu behind... even if I was looking forward to the manrikigusari battle that awaited me today. And it will be quite good to be free of Lord Jun's frantic and ill-disciplined ways.

And finally, Jinsei has tracked down my own payment. The merchant house accidentally sent it to the home of one of Jinsei's other associates, a man who has been connected with our gumi in the past. This man will bring it to Jinsei, and I will have it tomorrow.

All is well, or will be soon.

We have gone back to another meeting with Clan Higatsuke. They are very active in the town of Ningu now, and establishing themselves as a major part of its power structure is crucial to their strategy.

This is unfortunate, because Ningu has very strict rules against carrying weaponry. They will allow the kama, because it is "merely a farming tool", and I have found that the guards can often be bribed to allow a length of chain and a grappling hook, if you wear a mountain man's clothes and claim to need it for survival in the nearby forested mountains.

Of course, with a length of chain and a grappling hook, one can get to the rooftops... and then, a great many things are possible. Even if one's opponent is an armed and armored samurai, dropping off a roof onto him with a kama can be startlingly effective.

Jinsei has observed something about Higatsuke's Lord Jun: "He always needs to be in motion, even if it is not towards the actual goal." If we needed to get to Edo (east of here, as we are near Heian-kyō), he would be unhappy if we debated whether to take the Tōkaidō or the Nakasendō, because we would not be moving... but if we set off to the west, he would be pleased with our progress.

However, his money is good, so I am willing to smile, nod, and go along with his plans. While I make a great show of "progress" for Lord Jun to keep him happy, Jinsei will work on getting him to look at a map and see the larger picture.

I have had my first meeting with Jinsei, the leader of the Totemo Akarui-gumi — my new boss. My first assignment is to do a job for a Shingon Buddhist temple near Heian-kyō. In this age of perpetual war in Nihon, even priests need fighters.

The enemies of the Shingon temple are many. To begin with, there is a small warlord of western Yamashiro, who must be slain. He is a suspicious man, and his security will not be easy to penetrate. I must spend some time learning his security arrangements, observing the movements of his guards, and learning the layout of his castle. There will only be one chance to strike.

The leader of the Totemo Akarui gumi has contacted me. He says he would like to meet with me on Monday. This is acceptable to me, and is a good thing: Such gumis often work with a wide variety of clans and armies, and can provide valuable experience.

All things considered, I would rather join up with the Badaijo clan, for their Way seems quite harmonious and righteous. Perhaps my friend Teruaki will be able to clear the way for such a thing, but I suspect it might take time.

It is possible that I will have to work with Totemo Akarui for a few months, and then leave them to join the Badaijo. I would not like to have to do that to the Akarui gumi; I recall when a fighter joined Clan Iwinaga for two months, then suddenly left us with no warning. It is not a very honorable thing.

But ninjas cannot hold too tightly to their honor, especially in the cold of a winter such as this one. And there is no guarantee that the Badaijo will find me worthy, in any case.

In the meantime, I am now dusting off my sansetsukon and setting up a small dōjō for Jōgesen work in the yard behind Akane's and my house. I am dismayed by how rusty I have become already.

The pace of things in Yagyū is picking up. This morning, I was able to send no less than four different messages to four different clans, in the hopes of finding one that needs my particular skills.

I then rewarded myself with some time in the village of Nibanseikatsu. I could try to justify this as "goal-oriented", for Nibanseikatsu is the home ground and territory of the Badaijo clan, who I very much wish to join. But I would be lying if I claimed that this particular visit would help me in that regard; I was attending a party at a tavern.

I returned to Henshukoku to find a message from Clan Shinga, inquiring when might be a good time for a meeting. I have also met (by previous appointment) with a man from the Bichiāsu gumi, who says he will soon let me know if there are further negotiations to be had.

If all goes well, I will speak with Clan Shinga's messenger later today. That would be useful, for they are another group from the hanamachi in Heian-kyō, where I already have experience dating back to my days with Clan Iwinaga. It is a pleasant place to work, and clans there are not usually so frantic as those of Izumi or Settsu.

I have not made a report for quite some time. As I wrote before, my time with Clan Nettobuku is done, and not by my choice.

I returned to Castle Nettobuku to inform Commander Kobushi and Lord Tai of my decision, and to take my leave of the other clan-members. Everyone seemed sorry to see me go. (Jimon was not there that day.) Daigo, in particular, seemed quite stunned and somewhat upset.

Kobushi and Tai were both pleased by my professionalism, and promised to give good report of me to any other clans that might ask. They say that the campaigns Nettobuku has engaged in, and the skills required of me, have been completely different from what I originally was told. As true as this may be, however, I feel that the ability to adapt to unexpected and changing circumstances is a necessary skill for a ninja. My failure to do so disturbs me greatly.

Shortly after leaving the castle for the last time, I became ill, and spent two weeks recovering. Since then, I have been in Henshukoku, practicing my skills.

I have reconsecrated the town's shrine to Bishamonten. I have cleared out some space in the yard of the house I share with Akane, and set up some practice dummies that I can use to practice strikes against. The yard now qualifies as a small dōjō of its own, set up for practice of both sansetsukon and ninja-to kata as well as the weighted chain. (I'm still in good shape with the chain... but I've gotten very rusty at using the Pirōto-style hook, which is far more popular than the Mūtou-style that Nettobuku favored.)

I have set myself a training regime, and I spend part of each day doing kata and drills. I have been converting one of my ninja-to kata into the Living Stone style, for a firm grounding in the Living Stone ryū is an absolute necessity. I have also been learning the art of poisoning my weapons, and adapting my kata to take account for the poison's effects.

And I go every day to Yagyū, to spend time in the inns and hiring halls where messengers from the martial clans and armies come to recruit skilled warriors for Nihon's never-ending battles and war campaigns. But right now, everyone is preparing for o-shōgatsu, so there are no messengers to be found. I can only hope that things will improve once the holidays are over.

This morning, Jimon interviewed another candidate for Clan Nettobuku's warrior corps. When Saimei asked him what he thought of the candidate, Jimon said he was "a brash young fellow... like the rest of us."

I think this is the problem I have with Clan Nettobuku. The others here are, for the most part, young and brash, and I feel that they have not been wounded enough times to appreciate their own fallibility. Only Commander Kobushi and Captain Tomo are older than I, and the others are much younger.

Of course, because I have taken very good care of myself, I look nearly as young as they — and because I came late to the ways of combat, they may actually have more experience than I do. And my worries about being fallible, and easily wounded, may just be my own insecurity and defeatism. In which case, it'd be stupid of me to project that onto the others, and hold back our progress.

But still, I worry.

 
I have written before about the steep and slippery rooftops of Nagoya, the city of woe. Today, my duties take me back to Nagoya, but I will not need to deal with the rooftops. Instead, I must do some work in the streets.

Of course, nothing in Nagoya is easy. The streets are small and cramped, and there is often no room to swing a chain or use a staff. Today, I am trying to get past the guards by carrying no weapons at all — only a kama, the scythe carried by so many peasants as part of their farming duties. It has very short range.

Daigo is having a bad day, too. He had hoped to turn the clan's yamabushi duties over to Ishin, the new addition to our numbers. However, Ishin has been quite ill of late, and so he had to leave us. Daigo is now going back to clearing the mountain trails, so that the Nichiren priestesses can meet with some merchants of Sakai to help continue to fund our operations.
 

 
In our morning meditation today, Saimei said "Yesterday was a frustrating day for me. But the nice thing about frustrating days is that they are often followed by breakthrough days."

Airi reported that there is trouble in the small town of Aikontō, where Bunmei was working yesterday. Bunmei is ill today, so I left the castle and went quickly to Aikontō. There, I found a couple of Ayamari that Bunmei must have missed when he was there yesterday. A few quick moves with my hooked manriki chain, and I was able to slay them.

And Jimon knows that I did something. I did something useful, and I did it quickly.

Maybe it's not just frustrating days; maybe it's also frustrating weeks. And maybe next week will be a breakthrough week for me. I pray to Kannon that it may be so.

 
We are done with our Hitotsu Nanako campaign. Astonishingly, all of the territory we planned to take... we have actually taken, successfully! Usually, there is some left over at the end of a campaign, but not this time.

Commander Kobushi is proud of us. I feel that my own efforts contributed very little to our victory. Practically every kill I made, and every target I slew, required far too much time spent in trailing, sneaking, and laborious covert-entry.

Tomorrow, we will have a day of meetings with the Nichiren priestesses and the high lords, to review what we have achieved. The next day, we will plan our strategies for the upcoming Hitotsu Hakko campaign. On Friday, we start combat operations.

In the meantime, today is to be spent practicing more acrobatic techniques and defensive rolls, in the Arusupekku style that Benjirō has just explained to us.

I must continue to study hard and increase my skills this winter. I am tired of feeling like an amateur.