Those who use fire as an aid to the attack show great wisdom.

—Sun Tzu, Art of War

Sai

I hurried from the Maeda residence onto the street. Maeda-sama might want me to go to the machi-bugyō’s headquarters right away, but I had business of my own to take care of first.

I flagged down a palanquin. “Take me to the theatre district as quickly as you can,” I said, handing them two silver monme.

“Three monme if you’re in a hurry. That’s the standard rate,” the palanquin bearer stated in a bored tone.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” I said. “Look at me. I don’t weigh half what most of your customers weigh.”

“No exceptions, or really big, nasty guys come visit us. You don’t mess with the associations. Now, we go slow for two monme or fast for three. What do you want?”

Growling, I dug out another monme. “Fast.”

I climbed inside.

“You are light. We go fastest,” the second bearer said.

They took off at a quick trot. Hanging on to the sides to reduce the bouncing, I considered my situation. If Maeda-sama was sending Yujirō a sword, he was planning on a fight. One I was likely to become involved in.

So much for quitting killing—that resolution didn’t even last until sundown.

The only way I could avoid more killing was to walk away. Samurai might not be able to leave Edo, but Kaguya, Hanae, Akiyo-sensei, and I weren’t samurai. We could be out of the city by nightfall. The twin dragons Maeda-sama had given me were worth hundreds of gold koban. If we sold the weapons, we could live well for years on the proceeds. That assumed Akiyo-sensei could travel, and she would be willing to leave.

I shook my head. She would never go. My mind went back to Yujiro’s niece and the memory of Yujirō bowing to me and naming me a tigress. I closed my eyes.

The respect of a samurai. True, he was only a ronin, but an honorable man and a true warrior. His respect was important to me.

And Akiyo-sensei, she was relying on me to complete this job. The Tiger in the Shadows himself had entrusted me with an assignment. I could not face her again if I failed.

With a sigh, I realized I couldn’t walk away either. I still had a job to do. But sneak into the machi-bugyō’s compound and steal his papers?

I don’t see how I can do this. It’s suicide. What happens if I fail? What happens if I am captured?

I need a diversion.

Yujirō killing guards would be a great diversion—until he got himself killed. That wouldn’t take long. He might do well against White Hilts, but trained samurai were a very different matter. I needed a diversion for my diversion.

I shuddered as I remembered the rogue shinobi Hajime’s scarred and twisted body. That would be me if I were captured.

No matter what, I will not be taken alive.

We arrived in the theater district. I thanked the bearers and hurried to the kimono shop. Kaguya was in the shop wrapping up a purchase for a customer, who stood by, waiting. Finally, she left with her package.

“How is Akiyo-sensei?” I asked Kaguya.

She gave me a worried frown. ”As well as could be expected. She has been sleeping. There is no fever, but she has lost a lot of blood.”

“Can she be moved?”

Kaguya stared at me, eyes wide and mouth open in astonishment. “Moved? That would be a terrible idea! Her wounds could open and start bleeding again. She is already very weak. Any more loss of blood could kill her. Why would we want to move her?”

I signaled Hanae, who I had spotted peeking at us from the back room. She joined us.

I took a deep breath. “Maeda-sama has given me a mission. It is very dangerous, and if anyone discovers our involvement, our lives might be at risk. If I do not return by morning, you must abandon the shop and find a place to hide. I don’t want to know where. If I am captured, they might torture me, and I don’t know how long—” I bit my lip. “You mustn’t be here if that happens.”

They exchanged glances and nodded wordlessly.

“Is there no other way?” asked Hanae.

I shook my head. I went upstairs and looked one last time at Akiyo-sensei. She was asleep with Nyan-dono curled up next to her. I sat down by her futon.

I petted the cat and lowered my head to look in his yellow eyes. “Are you taking care of her, Nyan-dono?”

The cat said “niao” and climbed onto my lap. I rubbed behind his ears.

“Sensei?” I whispered.

No response.

I hugged Nyan-dono against my chest. “I don’t know what to do, Sensei. I’m scared.” The cat purred. “If I don’t come back, you will give me a place in the butsudan, won’t you? You’ll show my tablet to the girls who come after me and tell my story, right? You have to recover so you can do that.”

She stirred lightly but didn’t open her eyes. The cat stood on my lap and bumped his head against my chin. Somehow, I felt reassured. I would find a way. I always found a way.

Kissing Akiyo-sensei on the forehead, I hurried back downstairs.

I hit the hidden switch and swung the butsudan away from the wall to reveal the armory behind it. I selected what I thought I might need. After a final hug for Kaguya and Hanae, I left the shop in search of another palanquin.

*****

Leaves blew across the deserted courtyard of the Edo Workers Association as the wind whistled mournfully through the trees. The tatami mats still lay strewn about in messy piles inside the academy classroom, the floorboards clearly visible. There was an eerie feel of desolation as I tried to find someone, anyone to tell me what happened.

I stuck my head inside the headquarters building and saw two old men perched on the edge of the firepit, playing go. There wasn’t another person in sight.

“Where is everyone?” I asked.

“Ha! Foolish move,” the one on the right chortled. He placed a black stone atop his opponent’s white stone and snatched the white stone up. “I have a new prisoner.”

“Excuse me, grandfathers,” I said, trying to sound respectful and keep the panic out of my voice. “What happened to everyone?”

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“Run off to be fools,” replied the white stone player. He picked up one of his white stones between his index and ring fingers. “Foolish move, was it?” He put his stone down with a clack and captured two black stones.

“Run off to be fools? What do you mean?” I said. My voice came out louder and higher in pitch than I intended.

The men both stopped playing and looked at me in disapproval. Shaking their heads, they turned back to their game.

“Young people these days have no manners,” the white player complained.

The black player laid down a stone on the board. “Marching on the machi-bugyō. Going to get killed. All of them,” he finally said.

“Marching … why? Was Hitoshi with them?” Panic was winning, I couldn’t keep it out of my voice.

“Who else would be leading them? Foolish boy. Full of crazy ideas. People with crazy ideas get hurt,” the white player said.

“Going to get killed. All of them,” the black player agreed.

I bowed to the two old men and backed out of the building. Once in the courtyard, I raced for the street.

What has Hitoshi done now? I thought he had given up any ideas of a chonin uprising.

Many shops along the avenue were closed, and traffic was unusually light for the middle of the afternoon.

Has everyone gone to the machi-bugyō’s with Hitoshi?

I was more than halfway to the machi-bugyō’s headquarters before I started encountering crowds. They were all headed in the same direction—toward the machi-bugyō’s headquarters. Thery were mostly young men, but there were some elderly, some women, even some with children. They yelled about the price of rice. Others called for justice. I wound my way through the throngs as the streets became more and more crowded. People talked and shouted, but the din made it difficult to understand what anyone was saying. I passed a constable box that had been pulled apart by the crowds. The constables were nowhere to be seen. Shopgirls, ronin, merchants, and beggars filled the streets.

I could see the top of the trees surrounding the machi-bugyō’s headquarters when I encountered a solid wall of people. Unable to push through the crowd, I wandered down side alleys until I found a place offering an easy climb up onto the roofs. Once above the crowd, I followed the ridges of the rooflines, leaping from building to building. Fortunately, in this part of town, the buildings were built very close together, sometimes even touching at the edges of the properties. Finally, I came to a wide avenue.

I was forced to descend into the chaos of the crowds to cross the road. I searched for another way up to the roofs and once more climbed above the crowds. From my new vantage point, I could see the walls of the machi-bugyō’s compound only a block away. Trees, some dead and drying out, towered over the tall walls. I ran along the rooflines to get a better view of the property. Down in the streets along the south wall of the headquarters, I saw Hitoshi in front of a crowd confronting a large group of policemen.

He is going to get killed! Hitoshi, you fool, why are you doing this?

I ran ahead, hoping to find a place to climb down. There had to be some way to stop him. Looking over the wall on the east side of the headquarters I caught a glimpse of the next avenue and my heart stopped. Ranks of samurai marched down the middle. They wore steel helmets and I glimpsed chainmail peeking out under their kimono. People were screaming and fleeing before them.

There were over fifty of them. All dressed in the gold uniform of the machi-bugyō’s guard. I raced on, trying to get a better look.

One old woman leaning on a cane stood her ground as they approached. When the samurai reached her, she raised her stick and shook it at them. A samurai in the front rank cut her down where she stood, the rest of them trampling over her body as they continued forward, ranks unbroken.

Was there anyone left guarding the compound? If everyone were gone, getting to Yujirō would be easy. It looked like Hitoshi was going to be my diversion for Yujirō’s diversion.

Now I needed yet another diversion to save Hitoshi.

People fled the oncoming samurai in terror. Any who did not move quickly enough were cut down as the samurai advanced steadily. The people on the street the samurai were on could escape quickly enough, but when they turned the corner to the street Hitoshi was on, the crowds were too tightly packed to allow escape. Hitoshi would be trapped. Hundreds of other people would be too. The samurai would not allow them to escape, they would be slaughtered.

I sank down on the roof onto my knees. I screamed in frustration. What kind of evil karma did I have that things ended up this badly? Akiyo-sensei was hurt and might die, Yujirō was in enemy hands, and now Hitoshi was leading a revolt and about to be cut to pieces by samurai.

I looked around desperately for anything to stop the inevitable. Anything to get the people who didn't know the samurai coming to run. My eyes fell on one of the dead trees near the wall of the machi-bugyō’s compound. Its dry, withered branches reached over the wall to scrape against the roof of one of the shops lining the street. A horrible, evil idea came to me.

The Flowers of Edo.

Before I met Yujirō, I was an assassin who killed people one at a time. Since I started working with him, I had twice been in battles where I killed three or four people in a single encounter. This time, I might kill hundreds, even thousands of people. The idea was horrifying, but I couldn’t think of anything else to do.

But it might work.

It was perfect.

I had to try it. I could think of no other way of distracting the samurai from cutting down Hitoshi and all the rioters with him. Otherwise, they would all be butchered the moment the samurai came around the corner and saw them.

I slipped over the rooftops to the tree hanging over the wall. Behind a noodle shop, a cooking fire burned not too far from a straw overhang. Normally, there would be people attending the fire. But not now. They were watching the riot. I pulled a scarf out of my obi and wrapped it around my face. Jumping down to the ground, I crept over to the fire and pulled out a piece of wood burning merrily on one end. I held it under the straw overhang, which caught fire. The straw burned with an evil crackling. The entire straw roof ignited almost immediately. The leaping flames soon spread to the dead branches of the tree.

I slipped back over the wall out of the headquarters into a small yard of a neighboring house and took off my mask. Screams and shouts sounded from the street as the flames leapt up to the dry leaves of the tree, setting it on fire as well. I snuck along the side of the building, trying to remain unseen in all the furor. Looking through a screen to the inside of the noodle shop, about half a dozen people—three adults and three children—lined up along the front windows watching the crowd in the street. None of them noticed as I crept through the shop and back to the street.

As I had hoped, the screams were the result of the fire. Panic was spreading through the crowd. Hitoshi glanced at the flames leaping from the tree and turned about and began shouting orders. The day laborers from the Edo Workers Association doubled as the fire brigade for their neighborhood, and Hitoshi had told me he was a leader of the fire team. He would be able to keep the fire under control. He had to. If he couldn’t, a good part of the city would go up in flames.

The street had been chaotic before, but it was much worse now. People trying to run were trapped in the panicked crowds. The local fire brigade was trying to reach the fire, but they were unable to make any headway against the human river fleeing the flames. Someone nearly knocked me over as I craned my neck to see what Hitoshi was doing.

Edo’s buildings were made of wood and paper. Once a fire started in the city, it spread quickly. The blazes were so common we called them “the flowers of Edo.” Nearly every part of the city burned down every four or five years. Just five years before I was born the Great Fire of Tenna blazed through the capital. One hundred thousand people died and most of the city burned to the ground.

I didn’t want to be responsible for that kind of death, so Hitoshi had to stop the fire. The flames had already spread to two more buildings adjoining the headquarters. The street was finally emptying, but I could see Hitoshi arguing with three men dressed in the firefighters’ heavy quilted jackets. I moved closer to listen.

“This area is the responsibility of our fire brigade. We’re not going to let some outsiders get our payment for fighting the fire,” said the tallest firefighter.

Hitoshi was frustrated and almost yelled, “Do you want this entire section of the city to burn down? Start working, and my men and I will join you. This needs to be taken care of now, before the flames spread.”

The man shook his head. “My men will be here soon. We don’t need your help.”

He was fooling himself. His men were trapped by the fleeing crowds.

By the time he does something, this entire section of the city will be nothing but smoking ashes. I don’t want people dying from a fire I started.

While Hitoshi and the firemen argued, two additional buildings had started burning. Smoke made the air difficult to breathe, my eyes were beginning to water, and I could feel the heat from the rising flames.

Yelling with frustration, I rushed up to the group. I pointed up the street to where the samurai were now rounding the corner. "Look there, you idiots! If you are still arguing when they get here the only way you will put out a fire is with your own blood. Now, get to work!"

Hitoshi began shouting at his men, directing them to start tearing down buildings to form a firebreak. The building’s owners were screaming and trying to prevent the destruction of their homes.

"Water", he yelled at the few bystanders left. "We need water. Bring buckets!"

The samurai stopped, eying the flames and the firefighters.

"Can you open the gates at the corner?" Hitoshi asked their leader. "We have to get inside the compound to prevent the flames from burning down the headquarters."

The leader made a decision. "Open that gate,” he yelled at the man next to him. "The rest of you, form a bucket brigade."

Hitoshi bowed and turned back to his men. Then he stopped and stared at the flames rising over the wall of the machi-bugyō’s compound. “Emiko!” he cried, a terrible sound of loss in his voice.

“I’ll get her!” I yelled. “Keep working on the fire.”

He gave me a quick nod and resumed calling orders to his men.

I headed for the gate to the machi-bugyō’s compound.

I can do this.