The Tales of the Ninja Coder

Akane and I have returned from Ikaho Onsen. Life proceeds much as usual with Clan Noriaibasha: The Teitōken campaign is still moving, albeit slowly, and there is still opposition for me to vanquish in Ichimen town.

However, the high-level strategies of the Teitōken campaign are still being debated by some of the nobles. I understand from Kento that these delays are throwing the entire campaign into some jeopardy. The original plan was to have it completed by May; now that schedule may have to be pushed back.

The weather in Kansai is cold and wet, as usual for a Kansai winter. But after the days of relaxation and partying in Ikaho, I am fighting off an illness. I came to the castle today, huddled under my straw cloak, and now I am sipping some hot tea while I wait for yet another meeting to start. It will be good to be indoors, instead of lurking on cold, wet rooftops in Ichimen.

I see that in my last message, I was racing against time to defeat the gangs of Miseru-Kakusu. I was successful in that endeavor, even if I didn’t have time to tell about it before leaving on my trip. That neighborhood remains clear of enemies; I seem to have done a good job here.

By the end of Monday, I had done well in the Keishutsu region of Ichimen. As per the plan, I had wiped out the gang who meet in a hideout on Kochira Street. So I moved on to Ichibanyōshi and started scouting out the situation there.

This morning, I had a talk with Jōichi, and mentioned the gang on Kochira Street. “No, it should be Sochira Street,” he said. What? I looked at the campaign strategy, and there was bit of a smudge of ink over the first character in that word. And it seems there are both a Kochira Street and a Sochira Street in Keishutsu.

I must go back and find an entirely different gang to hunt down and kill.

Usually, I like this kind of thing. But in this case, we’re already behind schedule, and I feel like: “Didn’t I already kill these guys? Why do I have to kill them a second time?”

Over the past week or two, I have been slowly becoming more involved in the campaign that will take up my next few months at Clan Noriaibasha. It is called the Teitōken Campaign, and it will be a major push by the clan’s armies. Kento has instructed me to make it my highest priority.

I spent most of yesterday in meetings with a pair of samurai who will be handling our operations in the forests. One is Seijun, a warrior who I have heard good things about. The other is Rajan, a new arrival at Clan Noriaibasha. He says that he has no knowledge of urban tactics, and so he will be relying on my expertise for planning our city operations.

There is a single medium-sized city that we will have to capture in its entirety: Ichimen, which is composed of many neighborhoods that we’ll have to take separately. This will involve a good deal of rooftop fighting, which makes me happy. I have already started scouting the alleys and rooftops of Ichimen, and will soon be ready to take on the city guard on their own turf.

However, not all is well. Jōichi, who sits in the same compartment with me, has been involved in some of the high-level planning meetings with the nobles in charge of this campaign. At least one noble keeps insisting we use certain combat techniques — particularly the Bright Square tactic — even though Jōichi has repeatedly warned that this is not in Harmony with the terrain. Indeed, it is probably also not righteous, and may lead to problems with the peasants.

I do not know who this noble is. Even if I did, I understand she is adamant. I hope this will not lead to trouble for the campaign, but I suspect it will.