Someone called to me.

“Yoshi! Yoshi!”

“Huh?” I opened my eyes. By the muted illumination of the banked lantern, I could barely make out the silhouette of someone just outside. I was reaching for my naginata as she came closer and knelt on the floor near my sleeping pad.

In the dim light, I recognized the high priestess. I blinked my eyes a few times to make sure I wasn’t seeing things, but it was still her sitting there beside me. “Your Highness? What’s wrong?” I started to sit up, but she gently laid her hand on my shoulder, pushing me back down.

“I am sorry to bother you, Yoshi, but I have to retrieve the mirror I gave you. Do you have it? There is no need to get up. If you will tell me where it is, I can get it myself.”

My mind wasn’t working well. It was still fogged with sleep. Stupidly, I repeated “The mirror?” Then, realizing what she was asking, I said, “It’s not here. I don’t have it.” It looked for a moment as if a flicker of irritation passed across her face. If so, it was gone almost instantly.

“Where is it, Yoshi? If you don’t have it, who does?” Her voice was soft and pleasant, but there was an undercurrent of urgency in it. Also, something about her bothered me.

Still, she had given the mirror to me only as a temporary token. It was only right she get it back if she needed it. “I gave it to Aoi-chan, Akiko’s daughter. It’s probably with her.” I remembered the children were sleeping over with Surei. “She probably has it in Hyacinth-sama’s quarters.”

“Thank you, that is a great help. Now, go back to sleep.” She gracefully stood and left the room.

I relaxed back into my sleeping pad.

It must be pretty important if the high priestess came here all the way from Isé just to talk to me—

My mind finally cleared and I sat up. The high priestess had never before called me “Yoshi” when I spoke to her. She was unfailingly polite and formal in her speech, referring to me always as “Inspector Minamoto.” The person I had been talking to was not the high priestess. I grabbed my naginata and dashed outside.

The intruder was halfway to Surei’s shinden. I shouted, “Stop, whoever you are!” and ran up behind her.

She whipped around to face me, and her figure blurred, bulking up, the shoulders growing wider and the chest enlarging.

Instead of the high priestess, I faced a short, powerful man with wild hair. “Jushichin!” I gasped.

He grinned evilly in the moonlight and brandished his tetsubou.

I took a step back in dismay.

What am I going to do? I can’t possibly beat him.

I almost gave up then, but he was headed to Surei and the children. I couldn’t take a chance something might happen to them. I stepped forward again, ready to fight.

“Well,” he said, “it seems Kuzu-no-ha has been spreading tales about me. That’s good. I’m glad you’ll know who killed you.”

He took a swing at my head. I stepped back out of range. In his desire to hurt me, he overextended. I sliced at his shoulder. He jumped back.

He was still stronger and faster than I was. The naginata gave me some reach, which helped even the odds, but I was at a disadvantage. I was holding him off for the moment, but I couldn’t keep it up. I wasn’t too worried because I thought I could keep him busy until Surei’s men came to my aid.

I settled into a purely defensive posture. It required less effort on my part and extended the time I could keep him occupied. His attacks were relentless and with his speed, he could switch his direction of attack more quickly than I could respond. I soon had large, painful bruises on my left shoulder and right leg from his glancing blows.

It suddenly came to me the only sounds I heard were the clash of our weapons and the regular night noises. I stepped back to get a bit of breathing room and shouted, “Help! Professor! Surei! Bandits!”

Jushichin grinned. “You’re wasting your time,” he said. “They’re all asleep. You can yell until you’re out of breath, and no one will hear you. Tonight, we’ll finish what we started, without any interruptions.”

He redoubled his attack. I parried his blows, but I could feel fatigue setting in. If I let him continue to set the pace of the fight, I was doomed.

I broke my defensive posture and flipped a quick strike at his eyes. He flinched and brought up his club to block, but he was expecting a trick as he saw me shift my grip on my weapon. I began to move as if to change to a chest attack and he dropped his tetsubou. Instead of going for his midriff, I finished the blow to his head. He threw himself backwards out of range of the blade, but I leaned forward and landed a cut on his forehead. It immediately began bleeding into his eyes.

His face a mask of rage, he launched an all-out attack. His tetsubou flicked out again and again, quick as a cat playing with a mouse. I managed to parry his strikes, but the sheer fury of his onslaught forced me back, step by step. My heel caught on a slight rise in the ground, and I stumbled back.

He delivered a solid blow to my left thigh and my leg collapsed underneath me. I caught myself with my left hand. Before he could take advantage of my fall, I frantically stabbed at his midriff, holding onto the naginata with just my right hand, then waving the blade of the weapon back and forth in front of me to keep him at bay.

I managed to get my right leg back under me, so I was situated on one knee, but I couldn’t feel my left leg at all. The leg still moved, so I knew it was only bruised. However, the strike had robbed the limb of its strength, and I couldn’t stand much less walk.

Jushichin stepped back out of range of my naginata. Now that I was hurt, he seemed to be in no hurry. He took a large cloth and used it to wipe the blood from his face, then tied it over the cut on his forehead to stop the bleeding.

While he was busy, I used the naginata as a support and struggled to my feet.

He stood there for a moment looking at me, a small smile playing about his lips. Stepping forward into range again, he flicked his tetsubou at me twice. I parried the first strike, but the second one hit me on the right wrist, leaving a stinging welt.

At this point, he stopped his attacks completely. With his eyes never leaving my face, he said, “Tell me, do you desire the Scarlet Hyacinth? Tonight, when I get the mirror, I am taking her with me. They promised me she would be mine to do with as I pleased.”

I felt a surge of rage and threw myself forward in a desperate attempt to run him through. The mujina stepped aside and I sprawled forward on my face.

Kneeling down beside me, he said softly in my ear, “How do you feel? Are you filled with rage? I’ll kill you, then pleasure myself with the Hyacinth.”

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

My rage turned to despair. I was completely at his mercy. I couldn’t even defend myself. Any attempt to rise would trigger an instant attack from my foe.

A shadow flickering in Surei’s house momentarily distracted me. Something moving had briefly blocked a lamp. The screen slid open a crack.

Jushichin continued, “When I’m done with the Hyacinth, maybe I’ll kill her. Or maybe I’ll give her to some friends as a plaything. But first, I’m going to enjoy her for a long time.”

With a deep thrum, an arrow sank into the middle of the mujina’s back. He screamed and turned to face his new attacker.

On his back was fastened a long strip of paper with the characters for “dreamless sleep” written in gold ink. The arrow had passed through the strip, tearing it in two. As I watched, both pieces of paper burst into flame and disappeared in a flash of fire and smoke.

Jushichin’s form blurred and where the man had stood was an enormous badger. The arrow fell from his back and only a small wound remained. With another blur, he resumed human form.

Surei slid the screen open. She had dropped her yumi and held a tachi in her hands. Her voice dripping with contempt, she said, “Do you think your tricks frighten me? I can kill a badger with no more effort than it takes to kill a man. I’ll cut your balls off and display them on a pole outside my front gate.”

The mujina bellowed his rage. “You will pay for that, bitch. Your punishment will have you begging me to kill you.”

During this exchange, I used the naginata to struggle to my feet. No longer numb, I felt pain shoot through my left knee. However, it bore my weight, allowing me to move.

Jushichin started towards the house. With his attention focused on Surei, he failed to notice my rise. I made a frenzied lunge at his back. My naginata bit deeply into the muscles of his right shoulder.

As I struck, I called out again, “Professor! Help!”

The mujina spun to face me and attacked. I desperately parried his deadly blows, slowly hobbling backwards to avoid his tetsubou.

Surei snatched up the yumi. Stepping to the side to get a clear shot at Jushichin, she loosed another arrow. He heard the release and dodged out of the way.

Behind me, I heard shouts and the clatter of men grabbing weapons and rushing outside.

“Now!” yelled the mujina.

I heard running feet behind me, and Professor stood at my side. We attacked in concert. It was Jushichin’s turn to be on the defensive. He backed away, keeping Professor and me between him and Surei.

A figure stepped out of the shadows into the light. It was Kamo. He held several slips of paper in his right hand and gestured with his left. Suddenly, the Spring Palace lay under a thick fog. I could barely make out Jushichin an arms-length in front of me. People began yelling as they tried to see through the mist.

A deep coughing noise followed by a terrible roar echoed out of the fog. The roar was met by answering roars from two different directions. Jushichin grinned at us. “I hope you like tigers,” he said.

There was a low-pitched growl followed by a blood-curdling scream.

I felt a jolt run up my spine like someone stuck a sharp needle in the center of my back. I had felt that before … I tried to remember. When Surei cast a spell! I heard her shout a word behind me. Jushichin and Professor began to glow faintly, their forms surrounded by a mystic aura. A slight breeze started up.

The mist began swirling as the air around it moved. I saw a large orange and black striped shape race past us in the fog headed up the path. “Surei! Tiger coming your way.” I shouted.

“What? Tiger—AACK!”

I didn’t have any more breath to spare after that because Jushichin attacked again. Even working together with Professor, the mujina was so fast and so strong he managed to keep us at bay, especially with the dense fog making it hard to see clearly. At least we kept him from attacking. With the two of us attacking in concert, he had to focus strictly on defense.

Screams and animal roars surrounded us. I wondered how our people were faring.

The wind reduced the mist to tatters and we could see again.

It was a scene of horror. As I watched, Knucklehead screamed his battle cry and charged a tiger, his tachi held high over his head. The tiger struck him with one enormous paw and threw him back against a building, his chest torn open by the finger-length claws of the animal. Groups of men and women were fighting tigers all around us. Despite the fact they stabbed and stabbed the tigers, their efforts had no effect.

I heard a growl directly behind me and realized Surei was fighting one of the tigers. I tried to turn and help, but Jushichin launched an attack that kept me completely occupied. However, he was so focused on me that Professor landed a deep cut on his left arm. Jushichin howled in pain, a sound more animal-like than human.

“These are spirit-animals! Blood your weapons!” Surei screamed.

Professor and I were the only ones who heard her over the tumult of the battle. I started shouting, “Blood your weapons!” but quit when Professor, in a booming voice the same tone and volume as the giant bells tolled by the Buddhist temples on Mount Hiei, began shouting, “Blood your weapons!” No one could have heard me over his voice.

Even over his shouting, I heard the sounds of dozens of armed men running up the path from the west gate. Jushichin looked behind me and his eyes widened. He bit back an oath.

His distraction gave me an opening. I slammed the blade of my naginata into his tetsubou, embedding it deep into the wood. He tried to pull it off, but I kept control of the weapon. While he fought to free his club, Professor stabbed at him.

Jushichin’s form shimmered again and a huge badger crouched on four feet in his place. Professor’s tachi whistled through the air above his head. The badger turned and ran for the wall. I tried to chase it, but one step forward reminded me of my damaged leg. Professor ran after the mujina.

I faced the noise and saw a group of bushi running up the walkway towards us.

Who are they?

I looked to see how Surei was doing.

Surei stabbed her tachi into the head of the tiger. It roared in pain, and dropped to the ground. The corpse turned to smoke, to be blown away by the same wind that had ripped apart the unnatural fog.

I gazed around to see how the others were doing. One group of men dispatched a tiger as I watched. Its corpse also vanished, leaving nothing but a piece of paper behind. Ryouji was between a tiger and Dimples, who was with two other women in their watch uniforms. He slashed wildly, but the tiger leapt forward and knocked him down. It sank its teeth into his shoulder and he screamed in agony. Dimples cut her upper arm with her tantou and then grabbed arrows from her quiver, smearing the arrowheads with her blood and handing them to her two companions. They shot at the tiger, one of the arrows lodging in its eye. With a roar of pain, the tiger clawed at its head and then fell to the ground. The carcass vanished into mist, just like the other two.

I looked to see whose troops had arrived to drive the onmyouji and mujina away, but there was no one there. Instead, Kuzu-no-ha was strolling up the path from the gate.

She saw me looking at her and said, cheerfully, “I thought you could use some reinforcements, so I provided them.”

Kitsuné had a reputation as illusionists and tricksters, but I had no idea their illusions were so realistic. It never even occurred to me the bushi weren’t real. I began to believe some of the more outrageous tales I had heard about the pranks kitsuné played on people who offended them.

Professor came walking up, angrily slamming his tachi home in its sheath. “That damned mujina just climbed the wall like a cat up a tree. No way to follow him. I never even saw the onmyouji.”

As more people came running up, Professor organized them and sent them out to search the grounds and make sure there was nothing dangerous left. Cook arrived with litter-bearers and they began taking the severely wounded to get them treated. I saw Ryouji being carried away. Dimples walked by its side, holding his hand and crying. White Ume bandaged those who had cut themselves to blood weapons. It seemed as though everyone was performing his assigned task with a minimum of fuss. The level of organization would have done a military unit proud. It was amazing in a group of civilians.

White Ume came up to me. “Do you need a bandage?”

“No. I’m fine.” I looked at her. “The lack of panic is impressive.”

“This is the Spring Palace,” she sniffed in disdain. “We don’t panic. We’ve handled unscheduled imperial visits. An attack by an onmyouji and mujina is nothing.”

Surei had her hands full helping with the badly wounded. I sat down on the steps to her quarters, favoring my weak leg.

From inside the building, Kuzu-no-ha said, “Yoshi, come inside here. Let me take a look at that leg. Besides, someone needs to take care of the little ones.” I looked into the building and saw Yoshi-kun and Aoi-chan peering fearfully through the door, visibly upset by all the commotion.

Professor stomped up and stopped in front of me with both hands on his hips. “I suppose you are going to tell me this was an accident, like the building burning the other night?”

I looked up at him looming over me. “I don’t know. Ask the onmyouji and the mujina. They might have some idea, but I certainly don’t.”

I levered myself to my feet with the naginata. “Come on children, let’s join your grandmother.”