A Scandal in Edo

Toudou-sensei was still up when Suzaku paid a call. He was also fairly bored, for he accepted Suzaku’s offer of a drink. His housekeeper told--implored Suzaku secretly to make sure Toudou-sensei did not overdo it. His mentor apparently did not hold his liquor that well.

They had to head west toward Edobashi in order to find establishments that were open at this hour. After about three cups, Toudou-sensei was already talking about having Suzaku spar with him to see how far he had progress.

“See? The thing is--the thing is, you don’t know what you’re fighting for,” Toudou-sensei was saying. “When that happens, you lack the edge. That’s what determines if you win or lose.”

“But, Sensei, there’s no-one to fight. There are no wars, no invasions--”

“Many changes can take place within a man’s lifespan, Suzaku. I do not wish for war, but change is ever constant.” Toudou-sensei looked rather morose at that moment and Suzaku tactfully suggested that they should make a move.

Outside the small shop, the streets were not entirely deserted at this hour given the nature of Edobashi. What Suzaku was not expecting to see was a familiar figure on the street ahead.

“Jino?” Suzaku squinted and looked harder. There was no mistaking Jino, who was unusually tall and stood out in the almost empty street like a signpost. “Jino!”

“Suzaku! What are you doing here?” Jino asked, obviously surprised.

Suzaku groaned inwardly. Not a horse trough. A dunking in the moat might be in order. “What are you doing out here without a bodyguard?”

“I told you to take the night off. And it was just a short trip to the Yoshiwara. To see a sumo wrestling match,” Jino said, not very convincingly.

And when were you interested in sumo wrestling? Suzaku almost asked, then thought better of it. He was in no position to talk. Not tonight. He managed a brief but sufficient introduction between his charge and his former teacher. Then he was faced with a dilemma.

“I should go with him--“ Suzaku was torn between doing his duty and escorting Jino back to his residence and fulfilling his earlier promise to see that Toudou-sensei made it home in one piece.

“It’s all right, Suzaku, this old warhorse can take care of himself,” Toudou-sensei said.

“You should see your teacher home, Suzaku, we’re already very close to the castle,” Jino said, encouraging him to be respectful to his mentor.

“Or we could all walk back to the Castle first. A longer walk might clear my head.” Toudou-sensei was prompting him to do his proper duty.

Suzaku had to accept his mentor’s offer. Just as long as Jino did not spill everything about this night in front of Toudou-sensei. Lord or no lord, someone could “accidentally” wind up in the moat.

The streets grew emptier as they headed for the Castle. It was already past midnight and Suzaku was not expecting to find anyone aside from the odd merchant closing up his shop front and drunks meandering their way home from the pleasure district. Certainly not the small group who hurried out from a side street and headed right for them. Suzaku had his hand on his short sword before he realised that they were four women.

“Luluko-san?” With two other women he recognised vaguely as geisha from that night at the Yoshiwara. And his cousin.

It occurred to Suzaku that he could drop himself into the moat and be saved the inevitable mortification.

“Oh, isn’t that the girl--” Jino clapped a hand over his own mouth, proving that he was not that oblivious and had some sense of self-preservation.

“Suzaku! We’ve been looking for you for almost an hour!” Kaguya said as they came to a halt in front of him. She managed to make it sound like an accusation.

“Kaguya, what is the matter?”

“I should let the one who insisted that we find you tell the story,” she said, nudging Luluko.

“Suzaku-san, on the way back, I overheard some men talking to Yoshida,” Luluko managed to say despite her breathlessness. “They mean to wait for you on the way back to the castle.”

“What kind of trouble are you in now, cousin?” Kaguya asked. “The waters in Edo are pretty rough, you know?”

“But I haven’t--”

“He doesn’t actually notice,” Jino said. “It’s a sad failing in a samurai of his station. Before we go on, I’m Jino and Suzaku here is very grateful that you took the trouble to warn him. Right?”

Suzaku was much too distracted to notice that Jino’s grin was directed at one person in particular. “How many men and what do they want?”

“About half a dozen. And I don’t know what they wanted with you. It just sounded bad.”

“Honest men do not lie in wait for others at this time of night,” Toudou-sensei added. “I suggest we turn the tables on these would-be assassins.”

“Capital! So what’s the plan, Suzaku?” Gino asked.

The look on the faces at least three of the four women present could be summed up quite succinctly as Men. Suzaku could not, in all honesty, fault them. He was ready to march around the long way to the Great Gate on the north side of the castle to deliver Jino back home. A noble had no place in an ambush or street brawl. Nor did his mildly inebriated mentor. Or the four women, one of whom was the only relative he was actually fond of and another was--

“We get you back to the castle, my cousin and her friends back to where they live and Toudou-sensei back home, Suzaku said. It was going to be a very, very long night.

“But what about you? I mean, you’re the one who is being targeted, cousin,”

“When you were younger, you would have had no qualms about charging in,” Toudou-sensei said reasonably. The effects of the sake were wearing off. “I understand your concerns, but should you not try to find out who has it in for you and what they want?”

“We’re armed and we expecting them,” Gino said. “Doesn’t that mean the advantage is our side?”

“Three against half a dozen is not a fair fight. And I mean we’re at a disadvantage.” Suzaku was less concerned with their own state of preparedness and more worried about what a band of footpads would be bearing. While they had their blades, even a good katana could easily be broken by iron staffs or clubs. In the decades of relative peace, samurai had drawn their swords less and less often. The blades that they carried were basically antiques.

“Since Suzaku here has finally learned a bit of sense, then we should be going now,” Kaguya announced. “No need to see us home, cousin. We’ll manage.”

Suzaku did not fail to catch that arch look she shot his way. Alone, he would have done what Toudou-sensei had accused his younger self of.

But fate had decreed that things would not go his way that night. Off to the street on the left, there was a sudden commotion. Shouts were heard.

“Oh no,” Kaguya muttered. “We might have found you, but the others might have found trouble.”

“Eh? There are others? Well that should even out the odds,” Jino said. A sheltered life could be the only explanation for why he looked so excited to get into a scrap.

“They’re actors, not soldiers,” one of the other dancers said, immediately moving off in the direction of the noise. “Naruse is an idiot when it comes to things like this--”

To Suzaku’s surprise, the other women followed her lead. And so did Jino.

“You may be outnumbered this time, Suzaku,” Toudou-sensei said, nudging him gently in the ribs. “You’ve got to watch your friend’s back and defend your own honour.”

“Yes.” When this was over, Jino was going to have to learn to swim in full armour in the moat. And he would drag his cousin back to Kyoto on foot if he had to.

Suzaku was in an unpleasant frame of mind when he arrived at the scene on Jino’s heels. One street away, there were some men being chased by a pair of men wielding short mental truncheons and when they got closer, he could see that some were clad in the garb of entertainers and were not carrying weapons. Those were the ones being chased.

The taller dancer stepped right in and tripped up one of the pursuers by aiming one clog-shod foot right at his kneecap. There was a sickening crunch and the man fell over. Which brought his head in range of her lacquered clogs.

The other armed man turned belatedly at this new threat and found himself next to the other woman.

In a movement that was too fast to follow, she had whipped out a long hairpin and stabbed downwards, doing the damage that no amount of rhino’s horn or dried antelope testicles would cure.

“Oh ow,” Jino muttered in sympathy as the other man keeled over screaming. From the buildings around them, one light and then another appeared behind screened windows. They had woken up the neighbourhood, but people were unlikely to come out and involve themselves in a brawl.

“I told you we could manage,” Kaguya said from where she and Luluko were standing by the side and clearly not getting involved.

“Stay there,” Suzaku growled, scanning the side streets intently. There were supposed to be half a dozen men. The element of surprise was gone now unless they mistook the screaming for one of the actors they had been chasing.

“Naruse, what in the world did you do?” the woman with the dangerously long hairpins demanded of one of the men who had been running.

“Well, I might have unwisely challenged them when I spotted a few familiar faces,” the man named Naruse began.

“You idiot! What about the others?”

“Er, they should be running this way soon. We split up to confuse them,” Naruse said. “Speak of the devil--Tamaki! Over here!”

Another bunch of runners appeared at the end of the street. Their pursuers looked to be around the correct number to complete the set.

“Finally, we get a turn! Suzaku, our manhood is at stake here!”

“Jino, they’re carrying iron truncheons, unless you can get the first strike in--”

“What, you mean this sword is no good?”

“Oh, I see! Here you go, young man!” Naruse said, tossing over his sword. It was a kabuki sword meant for the stage, Suzaku realised as he caught it instinctively. But it was made of reasonably sturdy and dense wood. This would do. Suzaku had no intention of killing anyone and he should, by right keep, them alive for questioning, but it did not mean that he was going to go easy on them.

He muttered his thanks and adjusted his grip on the wooden blade. It was the right weight. Almost like a practice sword.

“That’s not fair--” Jino was heard to protest, but Suzaku had already started his attack. The lead runners had the sense to dodge around him or throw themselves to the side, leaving the way clear for him to meet the first assailant--

--Who could not bring his short iron staff up in time to defend himself. Suzaku’s wooden blade caught him across the chin. Then he swung back, striking the man solidly in the side. One down.

The others were more prepared for him and they spaced themselves out around him. They looked like rough men as Luluko and Naruse had said. And honest men did not mask themselves with dark cloth and lie in wait with iron truncheons. Toudou-sensei was stating the obvious.

They did try to distract him while one of their number attacked from behind. Narrowly dodging a blow from a staff that would have brained him, he struck out and connected with an arm. Its owner reeled away, cursing. These were not trained fighters, but they knew their way in a street brawl. And this was rapidly disintegrating into one--

“Suzaku, you glory-hog!” Jino had waded in, laying about him with his still sheathed blade. “Don’t go off to a fight without me!”

“Only if you can keep up!” It was probably useless to keep Jino out of the fray, Suzaku thought as he deflected a blow from an iron staff. He could only keep him from getting his head bashed in now--

“Suzaku!” Kaguya’s voice cut through the other noises and Suzaku immediately turned to track it. “There’s another one here--”

There was a man in front of him. In his way.

A scream rang out in the night air. It was definitely female.

Suzaku’s focus narrowed as he dashed forward. There was just one moment to draw and--

He did not even look at the man he had struck down as he ran towards the scream.

At the mouth of the narrow alley, Kaguya was pulling herself up with the aid of the wall. She looked like she had a close encounter with the ground.

“Suzaku, hurry!” she gasped, gesturing frantically behind her. “Luluko--”

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