Sowing Ghosts 8.3

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[Continuing chapter 8]

“My father was a captain in the service of Kōzai Motomori, who served Hosokawa Takakuni,” Inaba said, apparently not caring that he spoke with his mouth full. Shiro had brought millet porridge with stewed vegetables, a poor man’s food, but Inaba seemed not to care about anything but the quantity of the porridge.

“Never heard of him,” said Tetsuo. The four men, squatted around the fire-pit, which Inaba had kindled into life while they awaited Shiro’s return. Katsumi stood a little behind Inaba, observing the conversation but not participating yet. “His position was minor but my father was honoured to serve the Hosokawa, who had a great name.” He paused and sipped water from the bamboo bottle Katsumi had given him.


“My father was a very honourable man, but the man he served did not possess any honour. Hosokawa Takakuni is a coward and a pig and I will kill him one day.”

“What did he do?” Tetsuo, on his haunches, leaned forward as if to draw the next part of Inaba’s story from him.

“There was fighting among the men building a castle in Settsu Province, near here. Kōzai Motomori was the man supervising the work. Someone told Hosokawa Takakuni that Kōzai had started the fighting as part of a plot to betray Takakuni. Kōzai was killed and Takakuni forced my father to perform seppuku while I watched. I still have my father’s death-poem; I read it every morning as the sun rises. Then I repeat my vow to destroy Takakuni — and, if I can, the entire Hosokawa clan.”

“I’m surprised Hosokawa Takakuni let you live,” Tetsuo said, settling back again. “Gods know I wouldn’t have.”

“I did not give him the chance to turn on me,” Inaba said. “I left the camp in the middle of the night after my father’s death. I have been moving around the provinces surrounding the capital, living as you see me, ever since.”

“And that is why you attacked us?” Shiro asked. “Because of your father?”

“Tell us,” Hiroki said, “about this man who told you we were vassals of the Hosokawa.”

“He did not give me a name,” Inaba said, “but I would recognize him both by his voice and by his face. Though he wore a broad straw hat and tried to use it to shield his face from me, I sneaked a look at him when he wasn’t paying attention to me. And I saw that he bears a scar across his forehead. Like this.” He set down the wooden bowl from which he had been eating, and drew his right forefinger in a line from just above his left eyebrow to a point in the centre of his forehead and over the mid-point of his right eyebrow. “There is also a gap in his left eyebrow,” he added, “possibly from the same injury that created the scar.”

“How did you meet him?”

“He approached me. I have made no secret of the fact I want employment. I suppose I haven’t made much of a secret of my feelings for the Hosokawa either.” He paused a moment. “Though I am still surprised he knew that I would be eager to kill anyone associated with that clan.”

“A point we will have to consider very carefully,” Hiroki said. How many people have you told your story to? he thought. “For now, though, I will be satisfied if you can tell me how to find this scar-faced man as easily as he seems to have found you.”

Inaba flushed, even under his scrubby beard. “I cannot tell you what I do not know myself.”

“You hired yourself out to a man without having a way to be paid by him?” Shiro shook his head, appalled.

“I was to meet him at the Gion Shrine when I had completed my commission,” Inaba said. “As I have not completed my commission … “

“Perhaps,” Hiroki said, “you could pay a visit to the shrine anyway, and ask after him.”

“I have no real interest in completing the task,” Inaba said. “It would be wrong to take money from the man under such conditions.”

“I wasn’t suggesting you take money,” Hiroki said, wondering silently about  the peculiar ways in which a sense of honour could manifest itself. “I merely hope you can help me to find this person. I need to know why he is trying to have us killed.”

“If only so we can stop others who might not be as scrupulous as you,” Shiro added.

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Chapter 7    Chapter 8