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[concluding chapter 10]
“I told you we should have killed that rōnin when the woman took us to him.” Shiro in a mood of helplessness was not a pretty sight, Hiroki decided.
“It wasn’t Inaba who fired at me,” he said, trying to be patient as he waited for the herbs to dull the pain. Both knees were sore, but the heavy weight of the porter and his load seemed to have twisted the left knee especially badly.
“You don’t know that,” Shiro said.
“Actually, I do.”
“Wait,” Tetsuo said. “You mean to say that the scar-faced man is at it again? Or is it, Amida Buddha help us, that there’s a second person who wants Lord Naitō dead?”
“I don’t think I mean either of those things, Tetsuo.”
“In that case, Shiro should shut up so that you can explain what you think happened to you this evening. Because I have no understanding at all.”
“That doesn’t surprise me,” Hiroki told him. “It doesn’t make sense to me either.” He knew that if he kept swallowing his concoction — which he had had to enlist Jiro’s assistance to make — he would very soon fall asleep. At the moment he didn’t care, and took a deep drink of the bitter liquid.
“First, though, I know the attacker wasn’t Inaba because I got a look at him. I’ll grant you he’d been clever, and put himself between me and the setting sun.
“But I could still see his shape against the sunlight, and the shape was that of a shorter, stocky man. He looked to be much more of your build, Tetsuo, than of Shiro’s — or Inaba’s.”
“But if it wasn’t Inaba who was it?”
“I wish I knew, Shiro. Because one thing is very clear to me: this was not an attack aimed at Lord Naitō.”
“How do you know — oh,” Tetsuo said, enlightenment on his face.
“You were alone,” Shiro said at almost the same time.
“So why in the world,” Hiroki asked them, “is somebody trying to kill me now?”
Next Characters Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6
Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10
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