Young Samurai: The Ring of Sky (4 page)

Below, they heard the shouts of the patrol
drawing closer and, to their alarm, saw two more samurai tearing along the road from the
direction of the headland.

‘Your best chance of escape lies in
Beppu. Follow me, if you want,’ said Benkei, dashing off towards the town.

With little alternative, Jack hurried along in
his wake. Fleeing south, they crested a rise and Jack was greeted by a remarkable sight.
The town of Beppu lay at the foot of a mountainous slope, whose curving sides embraced a
broad inlet of the Seto Sea. But what stunned Jack were the clouds of steam billowing
skywards from the surrounding land. It was as if Beppu had been constructed atop a
smouldering bonfire.

Catching Jack’s astonished expression,
Benkei breathlessly explained, ‘Beppu sits … in the shadow
of … Mount Tsurumi.’ He pointed to a towering volcanic peak in the
distance. ‘What you see is the breath of the mountain’s dragon.’

They entered the outskirts of town. The two
samurai were close on their heels, the rest of the patrol not much further behind.
Double-storey wooden buildings with
washi
paper walls and sliding
shoji
doors bordered the streets on either side. Many appeared to be inns
offering accommodation.

‘That’s why Beppu’s such a
popular spa town,’ Benkei continued, leading Jack through the maze of steaming
streets. ‘The
onsens
here are truly magnificent … some of the
best in Japan …’

Startled residents and visitors exclaimed
their annoyance and alarm at Benkei’s haste as he upset a vegetable cart to slow
the samurai’s pursuit. Then several people cried out at the unexpected sight of a
blond-haired, blue-eyed foreigner running headlong through their spa town.

‘Noblemen, samurai,
merchants … they travel miles to rejuvenate themselves in these waters
–’ Benkei bowled into a passer-by, sending the man reeling on to his backside.
‘
Sumimasen!
’ he apologized, then sprinted on as the man cursed
him.

They cut down a side alley, hoping to lose the
patrol. But the samurai were familiar with the town’s layout and, despite his best
efforts, Benkei was having great difficulty shaking them off. At the same time, Jack was
struggling to keep up, his pack bouncing off his back and his swords rattling on his
hip. The angry shouts of the patrol relentlessly trailed them through the streets.
Shoji
slid open on all sides as curious residents peered out to see what
all the commotion was about.

‘The
onsen
owners claim the
baths work wonders on the body and spirit,’ explained Benkei. ‘Let me show
you one.’ He suddenly switched right towards a large wooden building with a
thatched bamboo roof and barged through a set of double doors.

Baffled by his companion’s mid-chase
tour, Jack nonetheless followed him inside. They skidded on the polished wooden floor of
the reception area and knocked over a display of perfectly arranged flowers.

‘This way!’ cried Benkei,
ignoring the protests of the bath attendants.

He led Jack down a corridor into a room
clouded with steam. Several bathers were relaxing in a sunken pool fed by a natural hot
spring. Shocked by the sudden intrusion, they sat gaping like wide-mouthed frogs in the
milky water.

‘Where now?’ said Jack, unable
to spot a way out.

‘Wrong turn!’ Benkei cried
apologetically, racing back to the door.

The first samurai entered the
onsen
. Benkei snatched up a wooden bucket full of hot water and threw it over
the warrior. The samurai gasped in surprise but kept coming, so Benkei threw the bucket
itself. It struck the warrior in the head,
stunning him. Jack finished
him off with Fall Down Fist, as the second samurai charged in, sword drawn. Benkei
grabbed a towel from a terrified bather. Twirling it, he threw the towel into the
samurai’s face. The momentary distraction gave Jack the opportunity to side-kick
the samurai into the steaming bath. He landed with an almighty splash among the
dumbstruck bathers.

‘Impressive kick,
nanban
!’ said Benkei. ‘Let’s get out of here.’

Returning to the corridor, they ran down to
the last door. Screams filled the air as female guests grabbed their robes.

‘
Sumimasen!
’ apologized
Benkei, pretending to cover his eyes. ‘Just passing through.’

Jack respectfully averted his gaze as they
dashed to the opposite side of the
onsen
. Sliding open a door, they emerged
into a well-tended garden with rock pools and waterfalls. Steam rose from a number of
natural stone
rotenburo
where more bathers soaked in the super-heated
waters.

‘Pity we can’t stay,’
remarked Benkei. ‘I could do with a bath.’

Leaping over a bubbling pool of pink-fleshed
guests, Benkei and Jack ran through the garden as cries of outrage and alarm followed
them. They clambered over a stone wall and dropped into a backstreet, before quickly
ducking into a deserted alleyway. From behind the shelter of a woodpile, they peered
out.

‘I think … we’ve lost
them,’ said Benkei, wiping the sweat from his brow.

Jack started to nod his agreement, when
there was a bellow from the other end of the alley.

‘Stop right there,
gaijin
!’ snarled the sour-faced samurai. ‘And you,
Benkei.’

The rest of the patrol, their swords drawn,
stood in formation behind their leader.

‘Then again, maybe not!’
admitted Benkei, holding up his hands in surrender.

6
 
 

‘By order of the Shogun, you’re
under arrest for treason,’ declared the patrol leader, striding down the alley
towards them.

‘
What?
’ exclaimed
Benkei in genuine shock. ‘I only hoodwinked the local magistrate.’

‘Not you, idiot. The
gaijin
.
But don’t think you’ll escape punishment. You’re an accomplice
now.’

‘You’d best arm yourself,
Benkei,’ Jack suggested, unsheathing his
katana
as the patrol
advanced.

‘You’re the one with the swords.
You fight them.’ Benkei began to back away. ‘My mother always said, when in
trouble … 
run
!’

Hightailing it up the street, Benkei left
Jack to fend for himself. Outnumbered ten to one, Jack decided that Benkei’s
mother might be right in this instance. Cutting the ropes binding the woodpile, he
shoved his shoulder into it with all his might. The logs rolled and clattered their way
down the alley. They caught the feet of the approaching samurai, causing them to stumble
and sprawl on the ground. In the confusion, Jack took off after Benkei.

He finally caught up with him near the
outskirts of town.

‘They’re still after us,’
cried Jack.

‘Of course they are,’ replied
Benkei, rolling his eyes. ‘You’re charged with
treason
against the
Shogun himself! I was better off buried up to my neck in sand!’

‘And I’d be long gone if I
hadn’t stopped to save your life,’ retorted Jack.

Benkei sighed. ‘Fair point,
nanban
. But don’t start thinking I owe you any life debt. I
don’t believe in any of that
bushido
nonsense.’

‘There they are!’ came a shout
as the samurai patrol made a reappearance further down the road.

‘Here we go again,’ sighed
Benkei in exasperation. ‘We’ll have to risk the Nine Hells of
Beppu.’

‘
Nine
hells?’ Jack
wasn’t reassured by the sinister-sounding name.

‘It’s our only hope,’
Benkei replied gravely, scrambling up a trail into the forested hillside. ‘The
nine
jigoku
are home to the demons of the volcano. No one goes near, unless
they have to.’

The path wound its way through the trees and
bushes, before passing beneath several red
torii
gates. As they progressed
deeper, the trees became sickly, their leaves blotched and limp, their trunks bleached
white as bone. Wisps of steam swirled amid the skeletal branches, lending the forest an
eerie and unearthly atmosphere. Jack felt as if he’d entered another world, one of
spirits, demons and dragons. The air was humid and thick with the tang of sulphur. A
ferocious hissing, like an angry nest of serpents, issued from within the veils of
mist.

‘Careful where you tread,’
warned Benkei, pointing to a
small fissure in the ground through which
scorching vapour whistled out. ‘The heat will as soon cook you as it’ll cook
rice!’

Jack kept close to Benkei as he guided him
across a hellish landscape. Through the swirls of roaring steam, Jack spied noxious
pools of bubbling mud and shimmering lakes in lurid hues. A pond, bright blue as a
cobalt sea, simmered like a giant’s cooking pot. Another flowed white like sour
milk. A third seethed with waters yellow as molten gold.

‘Fall into a
jigoku
and
you’ll be boiled alive!’ warned Benkei, holding a hand to his mouth against
the egg-like stench that filled their nostrils.

As they negotiated their way round the
different Hell ponds, they heard an argument break out among the samurai patrol.

‘I don’t care what demons or
dragons dwell in this place!’ barked the leader, his voice strangely disembodied
amid the steam. ‘The Shogun signed this
gaijin
’s arrest warrant
personally
. Now spread out and find them – or I’ll throw each of you
into a Hell!’

Hidden by the same mist, Jack and Benkei
silently made their escape. They passed a pool of hiccupping grey mud, large bubbles
rising like the bald pates of Buddhist monks until they burst with a
pop
.

All of a sudden the air cleared and Benkei
found himself face to face with a steely-eyed samurai. He barely managed to duck as a
blade sliced towards his neck. Jack withdrew his
katana
in a flash, blocking a
second strike aimed at Benkei’s midriff, and pushed him out of harm’s
way.

The samurai now swung his sword with deadly
intent at
Jack. Deflecting the blade easily, Jack countered with a
rising cut. The tip sliced within a hair’s breadth of the samurai’s chin and
would have made contact if Jack hadn’t been seized from behind. A second larger
samurai wrapped a forearm round Jack’s throat and began to strangle him.
Anticipating an easy kill, the first samurai charged forward to skewer their foreign
captive through the stomach. But Jack still had his sword arm free and managed to fend
off the attack. The samurai struck again. Jack deflected it – and the next strike – much
to the warrior’s frustration. But the other samurai was fast choking the life out
of Jack. Black spots were clouding his vision and Jack knew he was fighting on borrowed
time.

Where’s Benkei when I need
him?

Blocking another deadly sword thrust, he
front-kicked the first samurai in the chest, sending him staggering backwards. Then he
elbowed his captor hard in the gut, loosening the man’s grip. Dropping to one
knee, Jack threw him using
ippon seoinage
, a one-arm shoulder throw. The
samurai flew through the air just as the other warrior charged forward again, the tip of
his sword targeted at Jack’s chest. The two samurai collided. The blade impaled
the second samurai, while the first was knocked off his feet by the impact. As his
companion clutched his bleeding stomach, the first samurai teetered on the lip of the
boiling mud pit.

‘Help!’ he cried, his arms
flailing to regain his balance.

Barely recovered from his throttling, Jack
staggered forward to save the man, but was too late. A horrendous scream escaped the
samurai’s lips as he plunged into the bubbling
jigoku
. Covered head to
foot in scalding mud, only the whites of his eyes visible, the warrior floundered in the
Hell like some
primordial monster. He clawed for the bank, but quickly
disappeared beneath the surface, the pit sucking him into its foul depths.

Rejoining Jack near the edge, Benkei stared
into the mud pond with a mix of fascination and horror. ‘You can see where the
name comes from now. That really is one hellish way to die!’

7