The Tales of the Ninja Coder

I have returned safely from Clan Toyotomi's stronghold. As I said earlier in one of my briefer messages, the size and power of Toyotomi's army is most impressive. However, his people are polite and friendly, and I can see many advantages to enlisting in such a force.

I would, of course, have to adopt the Buddhist-style hilt-wrappings for all my weapons, which would take me some time to adjust to. But my recent stint with the Yaneura-gumi has shown me that I could make such an adjustment.

I may not have to. There was at least one kama maneuver that I failed to execute correctly, and a flaw in my performance of the Heavenly Enclosure kata with the manrikigusari. I think I did acceptably well, but not outstandingly well, and there are always warriors ready to join Toyotomi's army.

We shall see.

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 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.
 

 
I am spending all my time running back and forth between Heian-kyō, the ancient capital, and Nara, where some of our contacts dwell. Bearing these messages in and out of the cities is an important job, requiring a ninja's stealth.

Tomo just found me on the road, and let me know that there is unrest in Heian-kyō. "One of our contacts there has been slain," he says. "Strangled, apparently by a chain weapon. We will have to track down the perpetrator."

This will probably involve a whole lot of rooftop work. Normally, I like working on the rooftops... but have I mentioned how the architecture of Heian-kyō involves a lot of really sharply sloped roofs, and some very shiny and highly-polished tile? It's slippery stuff.

This is going to suck.