Young Samurai: The Ring of Sky (33 page)

‘It’s covered in thorns,’
she cried, blood dripping from her palm. ‘This place is a death trap!’

‘Six against twenty,’ said Jack.
‘That’s better odds than when we fought those bandits in
Tamagashi.’

‘But that time we had a whole village
helping us,’ Saburo argued. ‘And these
ronin
are trained
samurai.’

‘So are we,’ reminded Yori. He
bent down and took an arrow from the dead archer’s quiver. He snapped it in half.
‘A samurai alone is like a single arrow.’ He now took six in his hand.
‘But together we’re strong and unconquerable.’

The significance wasn’t lost on Jack
or Akiko, both of whom recalled Sensei Yamada’s morale-raising lesson prior to
the Battle of Osaka Castle. A slight trembling in Yori’s hand
betrayed his true feelings, though. Jack grasped the six arrows with him and steadied
his hand.

‘Where there are friends,
there’s hope,’ he said, repeating the same words he’d used to comfort
Yori moments before that terrible battle on the Tenno-ji Plain.

Yori smiled bravely up at him. Jack had to
admire his friend. Out of all of them, Yori was the most afraid of fighting, yet he
displayed the greatest courage in overcoming that fear.

Akiko now held the arrows too. Her gaze met
Jack’s, their heartfelt vow passing silently between them.

Forever bound to one another.

Saburo placed his hand on top and looked at
Jack. ‘Only twenty samurai, you say? I agree, far better odds.’

Miyuki joined Jack at his side. She clasped
the arrows just below his hand. ‘To the death!’

Benkei was the last to grab hold. ‘I
hate
to feel left out,’ he said, even managing a nervous grin.

They all knew what had to be done. As the
samurai closed in on their dead-end alley, they threw the arrows into the air and let
out a mighty battle cry. Then, drawing their weapons, the six young warriors charged out
into the street.

53
 
 

Taking up a fighting formation across the
road, Jack and his friends confronted the enemy head on. Their boldness brought the
advancing samurai to a halt.

‘This is your last chance to
surrender!’ shouted Miyuki. ‘Put down your weapons and we’ll spare
your lives.’

The samurai turned to one another,
incredulous at such an absurd demand. A low chuckle rose from one of the
ronin
.
He was soon joined by the others as he exploded into a bellyful of laughter.

‘
Surrender?
’ he
guffawed. ‘Are you serio–’ His amusement was cut short by a
shuriken
piercing his throat.

‘Deadly serious,’ said
Miyuki.

The laughter from the other samurai quickly
died as their comrade collapsed to his knees, blood spurting from his torn neck.

‘Nineteen left,’ said Saburo.
‘The odds are improving.’

The band of
ronin
roared in anger
and thundered forward. Jack took up a Two Heavens ‘Rising Sun’ stance, both
katana
and
wakizashi
held high and wide. The seemingly open and
unguarded posture was actually a powerful offensive
technique, drawing
in the unwitting challenger before destroying them in a double sword swipe. Two samurai
rushed Jack at once, but their sword attacks were no match for the Two Heavens. Nor were
the quality of their blades equal to the steel forged by the legendary swordmaker Shizu.
Jack’s red-handled
katana
and
wakizashi
scythed through his
opponents’ weapons, shattering their blades. The two samurai stared in shocked
disbelief at the sword stumps in their hands. Jack side-kicked one of the men in the
chest, cracking his ribs. Then he whipped round, striking the other in the jaw with the
brass pommel of his
wakizashi
. The man was knocked out cold in an instant, not
even aware of hitting the ground.

Akiko fought furiously, the rush of combat
flooding her with adrenalin and masking the pain in her shoulder. As nimble as a dancer,
she wrong-footed her first attacker and drove the tip of her sword into his left
shoulder.

‘Now we’re even!’ she
said, before spin-kicking him in the head.

Miyuki was faced with a mighty warrior
wielding a battleaxe. Twice her size, he loomed over her.

‘Don’t hurt me,’ she
pleaded, cowering to the floor.

The warrior grinned maliciously.
‘Don’t worry, you won’t feel a thing,’ he promised. ‘Well,
not after I’ve finished with you.’ He raised the axe to cleave her in
half.

Snatching a handful of dust from the road,
Miyuki threw it into the warrior’s eyes. Blinded, the man didn’t see Miyuki
leap to her feet and aim a front kick squarely between his legs. With a high-pitched
yelp, the warrior collapsed in an eye-watering heap, before dropping the axe on his own
head.

‘You were right. I didn’t feel a
thing,’ Miyuki replied, wiping the dust from her hands in triumph.

Without a sword, Yori valiantly kept his
opponent at bay by repeatedly thrusting the iron tip of his
shakujō
. After the
third successful strike against him, the
ronin
grew furious and frustrated.
Yori hit him again, but this time the
ronin
was prepared for it and grabbed the
staff, wrenching it out of Yori’s grip.

‘What are you going to do now, monk
boy?’ he laughed.

‘This,’ replied Yori, sucking in
a deep breath and yelling. ‘
YAH!
’

For a moment, the
ronin
simply
looked stunned. Then he keeled over backwards as if he’d run into a stone
wall.

Jack tried not to laugh as his friend
nonchalantly retrieved his staff from the comatose man. Yori had clearly perfected his
kiaijutsu
to a fine art. Sensei Yamada would be proud of his protégé.

‘Eight down, twelve to go,’
shouted Saburo, despatching another
ronin
.

Benkei stood behind everyone, the knife in
his hand, boldly threatening anyone who got past Jack and the others. Not that any did.
With the adjusted grip suggested by Shiryu, Jack was wielding his swords as fluidly as
ever. No attacker could get near him without lethal consequences. At this rate, they
would soon conquer the
ronin
and leave this fateful village far behind.

Then a second wave of samurai appeared:
twenty in front and at least that many again behind them.

‘We’re surrounded!’ Yori
cried in alarm.

‘Time to get out of this death
trap,’ said Miyuki, checking between each of the buildings as they drove the first
wave of
samurai back up the street. But every alleyway and path had
been blocked off with spiked fences. Behind, the samurai were closing in fast. In
moments they’d be overwhelmed.

‘Down here!’ called Benkei,
beckoning them towards an open alley he’d spotted.

Disarming his attacker with an Autumn Leaf
strike, Jack raced over to Benkei and the others. The route led to the village pond.
They charged along the narrow alley, Benkei leading the way, Miyuki taking up the rear.
As they fled out the other side, they passed beneath an overhanging section of roof
spanning the alley. Jack didn’t think anything of it until it was too late.
Without warning, a bamboo grille dropped down and Miyuki was cut off, leaving her to
face the samurai alone.

54
 
 

Sheathing his swords, Jack ran back to help
Miyuki raise the grille. Straining every muscle, he cried, ‘It
won’t
move.’

Saburo and Yori now joined them. Even with
their combined strength, they couldn’t shift the bamboo frame.

‘The grille’s locked in place
from above,’ observed Akiko.

Miyuki glanced up, seeking another way out.
The bamboo bars met flush with the overhanging roof and building walls, leaving no gap
to climb through. She was boxed in like a mouse in a trap.

The samurai now entered the other end of the
alley, one by one. The
ronin
in front was a bearded monster with a
battle-chipped
katana
. He took his time, knowing that his quarry had nowhere to
run to.

‘
NANBAN!
’ shouted
Benkei, suddenly realizing the others weren’t following. ‘We have company.
Lots of it!’

Looking over his shoulder, Jack saw that the
second wave of samurai had doubled back and was now at the lower end of the village pond
near the river. Strewn with clumps of reeds and a couple of willow trees hanging from
its banks, the large expanse of muddy water blocked any direct route to the fields
beyond. They’d have to run round it. And, with the samurai
charging up both sides of the pond, they had no time to lose.

‘Get out of here,’ said Miyuki.
‘Save yourselves while you can.’

‘No, I won’t leave you
behind,’ Jack replied, still desperately trying to lift the grille.

‘You don’t have any other
choice.’

Saburo and Akiko prepared to engage the
frontline of attackers in a brave, but ultimately futile, attempt to hold off the tide
of samurai. In the alley, the first of Miyuki’s assailants closed in.

Miyuki looked intently through the bamboo
bars at Jack, her midnight eyes resolved to her fate. ‘I always knew what
sacrifice I might have to make for you, Jack. And I do so with all my heart.’

She tenderly touched Jack’s hand,
savouring one last moment of goodbye. Then she turned to confront the first
ronin
.

‘NO!’ said Jack, shaking the
bars as Miyuki clashed blades with the first of her attackers. ‘
No one
should sacrifice themselves for me. We’ll find a way to save you.’

‘Come on!’ urged Benkei, heading
along the bank towards a large rice barn and the fields beyond.

Jack felt Yori’s hand on his arm,
pulling him away. He resisted.

‘Don’t let her sacrifice be in
vain,’ said Yori, his voice breaking at having to make such a harsh choice. Like
Miyuki, he recognized everyone’s chances of survival were rapidly dwindling the
longer they delayed. And, with no realistic hope of rescuing her in time, they
had
to leave her behind.

Yori dragged Jack away, but Jack despised
himself for every step he took. He felt he was betraying his ninja friend, abandoning
her to her fate. Miyuki was swallowed up by the mouth of the alley, his final glimpse of
her a flash of steel as she fought to the death.

‘GO! GO!’ cried Akiko, running
up behind them.

‘Where’s Saburo?’ asked
Yori.

‘He’s holding off the
samurai,’ she panted.

Jack looked further down the bank to see
Saburo swinging his sword in wide defensive arcs. Eight samurai tried to fight their way
past him, but he held his ground.

‘We can’t let him fight
alone,’ protested Jack.

‘He said … the odds were
good,’ replied Akiko, but the sorrow in her eyes told another story. ‘And as
soon as we reach that barn, he’s promised to join us.’

They sprinted up the bank, realizing every
second counted. On the opposite side of the pond, the other samurai were racing to head
them off. Just as Benkei levelled with the rice barn, they heard Saburo cry out. One of
the
ronin
had got through his defence and shoulder-barged him to the ground.
They were both locked in combat, Saburo throttling his attacker who was trying to plunge
a
tantō
into his heart. Rolling over and over, the two of them tumbled down the
bank into the pond, before disappearing beneath the water with a huge splash.

‘Saburo!’ gasped Yori, stopping
in his tracks.

Jack waited a beat for Saburo to come back
up – but neither he nor the
ronin
did. Only an ominous pool of blood rose to
the surface.

‘No! NO!’ sobbed Yori,
struggling in Jack’s arms.

‘It’s too late … to save
him,’ said Jack. With the samurai hot on their heels, it was Jack that now pulled
the distraught Yori along with him. But he was no less distressed. The cruel loss of
another
loyal friend was like an iron punch to the gut – one that Jack
didn’t think he would ever recover from.