If you do not enter the tiger’s den, you will not catch its cub.
—Japanese saying
Sai
I didn’t rest well that night. I knew that Akiyo-sensei was impatient to confront the renegade now that we knew where he was. My dreams were filled with images of Akiyo-sensei cut down by shadowy shinobi and left bleeding on the floor. She lay dying as I looked on, helpless to aid her. The dreams were so real that in the middle of the night, I bolted up from my futon screaming, “Sensei!”
Akiyo-sensei rushed in and knelt next to me, holding me. “Sai, what is wrong?”
I swallowed several times before I could get my voice back. I didn’t want her to think that I was a coward, so I just said, “Nothing, Sensei. Just some bad dreams.”
She looked at me uncertainly, then shrugged. “Go back to sleep. Tomorrow will be busy.”
After I woke up, I hurriedly got dressed and headed to the Maeda house. Yujirō was inside, ready to leave, but I stopped him.
“I need to talk to you, Yujirō-san. I have been thinking. Perhaps it was unfair of me to refuse you the chance to avenge your brother.”
He gave me a sideways glance then looked away. “No, you were right. They were merely a knife in the hand of the man who truly killed him.”
My eyes widened in surprise. “You have no wish for vengeance on them?”
He shrugged. “Well, it is a shinobi clan affair, as you pointed out.”
I clenched my jaw in frustration. When I had broached the idea to Akiyo-sensei the night before, this was not the way I had expected Yujirō to react to the proposal.
I saw the slightest crinkle around his eyes, and he had his lips pressed together to keep them from breaking out in a smile.
Oooooh! He thinks this is all just a big joke.
I tried to hit him in the chest. With surprising speed, he caught my fist with his hand and held it motionless. I pulled on my hand, but he had it caught fast. I swept my leg forward to knock his feet out from beneath him, but his stance was solid and unmoving. He started to twist my wrist, and I yanked my hand, forcing him to take a step forwards. Turning my back to him, I seized his wrist with my other hand and threw him over my shoulder. He landed on his shoulder and rolled back to his feet. He was laughing the entire time.
He stopped laughing and assumed a grave expression. ”Is there something you wanted, Sai?”
I stamped my foot. “You told me you would help me if I asked.”
He spread his arms wide. “You haven’t asked.”
And I thought Hitoshi was annoying.
I bit my lip.
“There are too many shinobi for us. Only Sensei and I can fight well. We need help.”
He nodded. The silence stretched uncomfortably. "If we fail, you will be unprotected". I could see a bit of anger in his eyes. He said, “I might consider it, but in return, I expect something from you.”
Afraid of what he would ask, I answered, “What?”
He startled me when he slammed his fist into the wall hard enough that I thought I heard wood cracking. “No more of those damned black beads!”
He lifted his hand to his jaw and waggled it back and forth gingerly. “I almost broke a tooth on that last one.”
Relief flooded through me. I had to fight the urge to begin laughing. “All right, I promise, no more black beads.”
Yujirō sat me down and made me go through everything I had seen at the shinobi house, and inquired about the plans that Akiyo-sensei and I had made. Then we went through it all again, but this time, he questioned me closely on various points, eliciting even more details. I was surprised at the attention to detail from a man who was ready to walk in completely unprepared the day before, but it gave me hope.
When he was finally satisfied with my answers, he said, “I have been discussing shinobi with Grandfather. He has impressed upon me with just how crafty they can be. It is good we didn’t just go out there yesterday.” He stood up. “Wait here, I have some preparations to make. I shouldn’t be too long.”
I watched him walk into the garden. As he was passing by the koi pond, a figure jumped out at him. I had my tantō out and was nearly to the door before I realized it was a boy.
I stopped, my heart pounding. Yujirō grabbed the boy, picked him up and threw him in the air. The boy shrieked with laughter. When Yujirō put him down, he grabbed a wooden training sword from a nearby rack and challenged him. Yujirō grabbed a wooden weapon of his own, and the battle commenced. As they fought, Yujirō hopped over rocks, spun about wildly, and performed several other unorthodox moves before finally dying spectacularly.
On the other side of the garden, an older man in spectacles had put aside the scroll he was reading and watched the fight, shaking his head and laughing. Yujirō and the boy left the garden together. The man returned to his reading.
I sat back down and waited. My mind drifted to the rogue shinobi and what they must be doing. Heart pounding, I sat up straighter.
They are shinobi, how could I have forgotten? They would not sit idly by—they would be watching to find out what was going on.
I went upstairs and found a room facing the road. The shutters were closed against the sun, so I opened them just enough to get a view through the slats. I watched the road outside the entrance gate. It took quite a while, but my patience was finally rewarded.
Shinobi train to hold still for long periods of time, but eventually, a bit of movement caught my eye. Leaves and branches of a nearby tree made him difficult to see, but a man wearing dark, nondescript clothes perched on the wall of a building across the street. He appeared to be watching the Maeda estate.
When Yujirō called from below, I hurried downstairs. He was wearing his old, ragged kimono and had a sugegasa on his head. The straw hat made him look like he was planning a long walk.
I hurried over to him. “Someone is watching the estate from across the street.”
Yujirō looked toward the window without approaching it. “You think he is one of the shinobi?”
“Almost certainly. I don’t think anyone but a trained shinobi could stay still as long as he did. He’ll probably try and follow us. If he sees where we are going, he could alert the rogue.”
“Do you think we can lose him?”
“Do we want to? Sensei says that not only the rogue shinobi but also all his followers must die. The ways of the shinobi must not be passed on to those outside the clan.”
Yujirō frowned.
I added, “If we kill him now, we will not have to fight him later when we are also fighting his brothers.”
He nodded. “Sound strategy.”
I sighed.
If I was a shopgirl, I wouldn’t have to do things like this.
Yujirō motioned for me to lead the way. I heard a dull clunk as he dropped his arm. Turning, I poked him in the chest and felt something hard under his kimono.
I looked at him, eyebrows raised. He shrugged. “Since we are likely to run into trouble, I decided to take a few precautions. A bit of hidden chainmail, a slightly stronger hat.” He whacked the straw hat he was carrying, but instead of rattling and shaking under his blow, it made a deep thunk sound. “I tied the sugegasa to a small metal helmet. I could wish to be better protected, but this will go unnoticed.”
Once out on the street, we set a brisk pace. I snuck a glance back and saw the shinobi hurrying after us. Before too long, our path took us past a number of large shops. I loved using this area for losing people. The shops were so big, each one covered half a block. A person could enter a store in the front and exit into a small street in the back. If the tail didn’t follow immediately, he would never see his quarry through the crowds as the target slipped out the back.
Well, he would never see anyone of normal height. Between Yujirō’s height and the conical sugegasa he was wearing, it was impossible to lose him.
Yujirō walked out the back door and down the alley. I slipped behind a large box next to the exit. I heard a gasp and then the quiet steps of someone running down the alley after Yujirō. I stepped out.
Same shinobi.
I threw my tantō into his back. It struck in the left center. He screamed and fell to one knee. Yujirō whirled around with his wakizashi in his hand. He struck just once, drawing his wakizashi across the shinobi’s throat. The shinobi slipped slowly to the ground, dropping his tantō as he fell.
I rolled him onto his back and studied his face. He was younger than I had realized when I saw him practicing with the other shinobi. He seemed no older than me, perhaps a bit younger. I stood up, staring at him.
Did he even know he was breaking shinobi law? Did his master warn him?
If I hadn’t killed him, my sensei would have. I couldn’t fail her that way. But was there even a reason? Some elders of the clan half a nation away made a rule, and then because this young man broke it, that meant he had to die. The shinobi were falling apart. That is what Sensei said. Why should we even care about their rules?
“Sai?” Yujirō bent down next to me. “Is something wrong?”
“I had no problem with killing Daichi. He was scum. But why this boy?” I shook my head. “I don’t want to kill people any more. Not without knowing they deserve it.”
“They are shinobi—they killed my brother.”
“I am shinobi too. I would have killed Maeda-sensei if I had been ordered to.” I remembered Maeda-sensei. His gentle smile. The time he took with the students. I thought of the boy I had seen Yujirō playing with today. Maeda-sensei’s son.
I pushed past Yujirō and back to the main road. I didn’t want him to see my tears.
Shop-girl. I wouldn’t have to think about these things if I was a shop-girl.
*****
Akiyo-sensei and I stood at the west side of the shinobi residence. Yujirō disappeared around the corner. He was going to wait outside the front gate and then provide a distraction once we got inside.
“Be careful, Yujirō-san,” Akiyo-sensei had told him before he left us. “Trust nothing about this house. It was constructed by shinobi. Every entry is a trap, every room a trick.”
I took a knotted silk rope with a small hook attached from my obi and threw it over the lip of the wall. It caught immediately and I climbed. Once near the top, I slowly raised my eyes above the level of the top of the wall to spy out the property. The dog that had almost revealed my presence earlier was sniffing around the corner of the house. We had made sure our approach was from downwind. Otherwise, he might have started barking when he caught our scent. The animal’s head suddenly came up, his body tense with excitement. He rushed off towards the front of the house, disappearing around the corner at a run. I wondered what had caught his attention—perhaps Yujirō.
With the dog out of the picture, nothing stood between us and the cedar tree next to the house except a short stretch of bare ground. I motioned for Akiyo-sensei to follow me. She struggled to get onto the wall, so I helped her get to the top.
“I am getting too old for this,” she grunted.
We dropped lightly to the other side. Akiyo-sensei held the hook and cord coiled up in one hand and a kusarigama—her chosen weapon for the raid—in the other. The kusarigama had a hooked blade sticking out of the top and a weighted chain, but the blade was folded down and hidden inside the haft, as was the chain.
We wanted to use the cedar to get into the house, but it had no branches at a level low enough for us to grasp. With the silk rope and hook, it was a matter of only a few moments before we sat in the cleft of the tree, hidden from below by the leaves and thick branches.
I was about to start out across the branch to the balcony when Akiyo-sensei touched me on the shoulder. “Be careful,” she said in an almost inaudible voice. “Don’t jump onto the balcony. It could be trapped. Try to stay on the railing.”
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
Walk on the railing? That wouldn’t be a problem. The railing was wide enough for me to easily walk on it.
Her warning prompted me to examine the branch more carefully before I ventured forth. I spotted a light green silk thread tied near the end of the branch and leading off to a hole in the wall of the house. Too much movement would set off some kind of trap. I backed up a short distance, took two running steps out onto the thickest part of the branch, then leapt forward, landing lightly on the balcony railing. It took me a moment to catch my balance. I must have made quite a sight, standing on the railing, arms flailing wildly. Once steady, I took a few steps to the corner, where I braced myself for stability. I signaled Akiyo-sensei.
She stood in the cleft of the tree. She had the hook caught high in the branches above my head, and now gripped the cord and swung out and away from the tree. I caught her just before she struck the side of the building, and helped her down onto the railing.
I pointed to the thread passing into the wall. She nodded at me and poked it with her metal baton. With a dry click, several darts flew from concealed launchers and passed through the space which someone walking across the branch would have occupied.
The balcony opened into an empty room. I moved to go inside, but Akiyo-sensei laid a hand on my arm. In the same barely audible voice, she ordered, “Look at the floor. Is it clean?”
Inspecting the wooden floorboards more carefully, I realized that the room was almost uniformly dusty, except footprints in the dust running from the balcony entrance to the doorway from the house. Instead of forming a straight line, the prints hugged the wall, never venturing more than an arm’s length into the center of the room.
When I described what I had seen, Akiyo-sensei shook her head. “The center of the room is trapped. Stay pressed against the wall as we go to the door.”
Many nights Akiyo-sensei had lulled us to sleep with stories of her childhood in the shinobi clan. This included descriptions of the clan’s stronghold. It was full of traps, hidden passages, hiding holes, and mazes. She had trained for months among them.
Traps made for exciting stories, but they weren’t much fun in reality. I felt overwhelmed by the unknown dangers in here. There had to be a better way to learn about traps.
After following the wall, I reached out to open the door. Akiyo-sensei laid her hand on my arm and motioned me to move behind her. She flattened herself against the wall and pushed the door open with the tip of her baton.
A heavy piece of wood disguised as a roof support beam separated from the ceiling and plunged directly in front of the door. It landed with a crash that shook the entire building. I looked at the enormous log and shivered. If I had stepped through the door, I would have been killed.
The doorway opened onto a balcony overlooking the bottom floor. Directly ahead of us stretched a staircase attached to the wall leading down. Several men were seated on the floor below. They jumped up and shouted in surprise when they saw us. Grabbing weapons from the wall, the ran for the stairs.
Shimatta!
Along the hallway to the side of me, faces popped out of the doors of three other rooms. When the men saw us, they ducked back inside. At the end of the hallway, a scarred, disfigured old man stepped out.
The door at the front of the house crashed open and Yujirō stepped inside. “Die, shinobi scum!”
The men climbing the stairs stopped and looked back over their shoulders, mouths open. The old man yelled, “You three, deal with the idiot samurai.” They dashed back down the stairs.
The old man turned back to us. He gave Akiyo-sensei a cold, malicious smile. “Chōei, Jin, kill the,” and here he almost seemed to spit the word, “kunoichi. The rest of you, come with me.”
Che!
I pulled out my sai and tantō and readied myself as two men carrying wakizashi moved in our direction. Akiyo-sensei flipped out the blade on her kusarigama.
A crash and yell came from downstairs. I glanced towards the lower level. Yujirō was sunk waist-deep in the floor, caught in some sort of trap. When he tried to climb out, the three men on the stair pelted him with shuriken to stop him. He put his head down and tucked his hands behind his back. The three men stopped in surprise as the throwing stars bounced off his helmet and hidden chainmail. After a moment, they screamed a battle cry, drew their swords, and leapt down to the floor, surrounding Yujirō. He snatched up his katana to defend himself, abandoning any attempt to climb out of the trap.
The men approached Akiyo and me cautiously.
Akiyo-sensei said, “Back into the room. Whatever trap it had is unimportant now.” She matched her words by moving just far enough into the room to make it hard for our opponents to get to her without tripping over the log in the doorway. I scrambled to follow her and took up a position slightly forward and to her right, just beyond the edge of the doorway.
The two shinobi hesitated at the entrance to the room. Their expressions grew unhappy as they studied our placement. Finally, the taller of the two hopped forward into the room, avoiding the wooden beam on the floor.
I took a single step forward, thrusting at him with both sai and tantō at the same time He pivoted to face me, but instead of following through with my attack, I stepped back out of his reach. He stretched forward, trying to land a strike on me. Her kusarigama just a blur in her hands, Akiyo-sensei slammed the butt of her weapon into the center of his abdomen. He doubled over in pain, and she swung the blade up and drove it through his temple. He collapsed onto the floor.
His partner stood frozen in the guard position, fear on his face. With a click and a rattle, Akiyo-sensei released the weight from the bottom of the kusarigama. It dropped to the floor, dragging a length of chain behind it. Taking the chain in her hand, she spun it in a tight circle by her side.
I would have thought the room too confined to effectively use a weight and chain, but Akiyo-sensei was an expert. She stepped forward, releasing the chain at the same moment. The weight flew straight at the shinobi’s face. Instinctively, he raised his hands for protection. The chain snapped tight and looped around, wrapping itself two or three times around the wakizashi and the shinobi’s hands.
Akiyo-sensei took a step back and yanked the chain towards her. The shinobi, propelled forward by the force of the pull, stumbled over the log as she dragged him into the room, his hand still hopelessly tangled in the metal links of the chain. I slammed the butt of my sai into his temple, and he collapsed to the ground. Dropping the kusarigama, Akiyo-sensei grabbed him by the hair, and a tantō suddenly appeared in her right hand. She yanked his head back and slit his throat with a single quick cut.
She straightened up and wiped the bloody blade on the kimono of the dead man on the floor, replaced it in her obi, bent over and picked up the kusarigama. She spent a moment untangling the chain from the corpse and tucked it back inside the haft.
We stepped back into the hall. There was no sign of the other shinobi. Downstairs, Yujirō was still stuck in the trap, defending himself with both katana and wakizashi.
“I’m fine,” he shouted. “Go take care of your rogue shinobi.” He didn’t even seem to be breathing hard.
Having no idea where shinobi might be hiding, I crept along the hall cautiously. On the left wall, I was coming up on a sliding paper screen door. I reached forward to open it, but Akiyo-sensei touched me on the back of the shoulder. I looked back and she motioned me to move behind her.
When I stood aside to let her pass, a board in the middle of the hallway gave a loud screech when I put my weight on it. Akiyo-sensei’s eyes widened and I thought I heard slight movement on the other side of the wall. I dropped to the floor. The screen door exploded outward and a sword passed directly through where I had been standing. With a smash, the tattered remains of the paper door flew across the hall. A shinobi stood in the doorway. He snapped to face Akiyo-sensei and brought his blade around in a vicious cut at her head. She blocked it with the curved blade of her kusarigama. I twisted around and hooked my legs around his ankles, and jerked his feet out from underneath him. His head struck the edge of the doorway as he fell, and he appeared slightly stunned by the blow. I sat up, leaned forward, and drove my tantō into his chest. He gave a convulsive jerk and died, still with a surprised expression on his face.
Shakily, I got to my feet. The room was empty.
“Listen carefully, they could be hiding anywhere,” Akiyo whispered.
“It’s empty,” I protested.
“It appears to be empty,” Akiyo reproved me.
How am I supposed to hear anything over the sound of my racing heart?
I stopped to take some slow breaths, trying to calm myself. The sounds of battle continued below. I examined each sound and discarded the ones that weren’t important as I walked into the room.
Breathing—above me?
I jumped backwards as a shinobi dropped from the ceiling, slashing at me with a tantō as he fell. Blocking with my sai, I stabbed at him, but he jumped backwards. Akiyo stepped beside me as the rustling of screens marked the appearance of two more shinobi.
Che!
The three men smiled confidently as they positioned themselves around us.
Akiyo released the chain from the haft of her kusarigami again and began swinging it over her head.
The three shinobi backed away slightly, wary of her reach with the weighted chain. One of the men glanced my way and slid one hand inside his kimono.
Shuriken!
I dove forward as three stars passed over my head. Doing a quick forward roll, I came to my feet directly in front of him and drove the blade of my knife up at a steep angle into his abdomen. He coughed and slumped forward.
A yell of pain and a loud crack of breaking bone came from behind me.
A whistling behind me announced the approach of the staff-wielding shinobi. I threw myself to the side, but his attack caught the cloth of my kimono and threw me off-balance for a moment. My opponent aimed a vicious thrust at my head as I whirled to face him. I dodged again.
I heard the thrum of the kusarigama chain sweeping through the air, and the weight and chain wrapped itself around his staff. Instead of trying to work his weapon free, the shinobi dropped it and fled the room.
“Shimatta, can’t you three idiots together take of one trapped samurai?” Hajime’s voice came from downstairs.
Stumbling over the man I just killed, I raced to the door. On the bottom floor Yujirō was just climbing out the hole in the floor and facing the approaching Hajime. The three shinobi he had been fighting were wounded or dead around him. The shinobi that dropped his staff and fled was heading down the stairs towards the two men, a tantō in his hand.
I raced across the balcony and leapt over the railing. It wasn’t until I was in mid-air that I noticed the table directly below me. I tried to roll away from it when I hit the ground, but hit my head on the table.
The world reeled and blackness closed in. I lay on the floor. Very shortly, my sight came back, and I sat up. Everyone in the room stared at me in astonishment. Apparently, the sight of my flying leap to disaster had been distracting enough to halt all combat.
Akiyo-sensei came down the stairs and helped me to my feet.
Hajime smiled at Akiyo. “It was very kind of you to bring the Sleeping Tiger here to me, I was beginning to believe I wouldn’t be able to collect the rest of my commission for killing him.”
Yujirō made a growl deep in his throat. “Let me take care of this.” He stepped forward, katana extended in front of him, and took a swing at Hajime. Hajime blocked the attack, then stepped close to Yujirō, standing almost chest-to-chest with him, their swords caught between them, making it impossible for either to attack.
Yujirō shoved Hajime contemptuously in the chest, but as a short distance opened between them, Hajime dropped his sword and made a lightning strike at Yujirō’s elbows with both hands.
I gasped. That move could cripple Yujirō. I scrambled to my feet.
Yujirō, a look of total confusion on his face, watched as his katana slipped from his grasp and fell to the floor. His hands dropped nervelessly to his sides. In the meantime, Hajime had retrieved his blade and now held it at Yujirō’s throat.
He looked over at Akiyo-sensei. “Drop your weapon or I will kill him right now and you will have failed your mission.”
“Don’t kill him,” she said, sharply. She dropped her kusarigama to the ground and placed her hands on her head.
Hajime gave Yujirō a hard shove in the direction of his follower. Yujirō stumbled backwards several steps and then fell on his back beside the shinobi, making no attempt to catch himself with his hands, which hung limply at his side. I could see him struggling to move his arms, but nothing happened.
“Ahh, the beautiful Akiyo. Age has finally brought you down,” Hajime told Akiyo-sensei. “Now I will finish its work. You took pity on me once, and I will see you have no opportunity to report my location to the clan this time, either. Come here, and keep your hands where they are.” She stepped forward slowly.
Despair filled me. “Sensei!” I shouted.
She turned her head to face me. “Sai, stay calm. You know what to do.” She continued forward.
Hajime turned to his last shinobi. “Watch that kid.” The shinobi came and stood by me, his tantō at the ready.
Hajime looked Akiyo-sensei up and down as she stood motionless before him, her hands still upraised. “You were a fool to try and kill me, Akiyo, and now you shall pay.” He raised his sword and struck at her.
With speed stunning in a woman of her age, Akiyo-sensei twisted to one side and Hajime’s blow missed. She grabbed him by the hair with her left hand, yanked back his head, and exposed his throat. A glittering steel needle suddenly appeared in her right hand and she drove it up under Hajime’s chin, burying the needle almost its full length into his skull.
He gave a single convulsion and then his body dropped to the floor, the weight dragging Akiyo-sensei along with it.
The last shinobi stood frozen, stunned by the sight of his teacher being killed. I jumped up and struck him in the chest, knocking him to the ground. As I landed on top of him, I plunged my knife into his heart.
Akiyo-sensei was struggling back to her feet.
“Sai. Could you help me up, please? I can’t move my arms.” Yujirō seemed rather embarrassed. I went over, helped him to sit up and then pulled on his shoulder to steady him as tried to get his feet underneath himself.
“What is wrong with Akiyo-san?” he asked.
Akiyo-sensei lay on the floor, crumpled atop Hajime’s corpse. With a gasp, I let go of Yujirō’s shoulder and ran over to see what was wrong. I barely heard his grunt of pain as he fell onto his back again.
I hurried over and knelt next to Sensei.
I pulled open her kimono and looked at the wound. It was a long, deep cut along her ribs, but I didn’t see any air bubbles, so it hadn’t penetrated the lung. With luck, she could survive. I fought back tears.
Yujirō had managed to get to his feet. He walked over and joined me. I pulled out a handkerchief and pressed it against the wound.
“We will get you back to the house. You will be fine,” I told Akiyo-sensei.
She grabbed my hand. “No, search the house. Maeda-sama needs evidence. But be careful, there could be more traps.”
As I tightened her obi around her wound to slow the blood loss, Yujirō said, “You search. I can carry her back.”
“How?” I asked.
“I am starting to be able to move my arms again. Perhaps, if you help me.” He tried to pick her up but couldn’t grasp her. “Dammit, what did he do to me?”
“Shinobi secret. It is a good thing you were wearing armor. That attack could have crippled you. But if you can already move your arms, you will recover in an hour, perhaps less.”
He tried to close his fists, but only moved his fingers a little. “This really hurts.” He knelt down. “Help me get her on my shoulder. I can carry her to the kimono shop that way.”
I helped Akiyo-sensei get up and Yujirō get her positioned on his shoulder.
He stood up and tried to reach something in his obi. He still couldn’t close his fingers to hold anything. “You have a nasty gash in your head and it is bleeding. Take my kerchief and wrap this around your head.”
I took the kerchief and used it to clean the blood out of my hair. Yujirō walked out the door with Akiyo on his shoulder.
I looked around the room. The bottom floor was a wreck. “Traps,” I told myself.
It took me some time, but I finally found the catches to the disguised ladder on the second floor. It led to a hidden storeroom in the roof. Inside the storeroom, I found a number of supplies. Metsubushi powder, torikabuto poison, weapons, armor, and other things. Curiously, there were a number of sealed packages containing noodles. Over on a small bench was a bowl, a grinding stone, and some silver-gray powder in the bowl. Beside the bowl was a chunk of grayish rock and some paper. Carefully, I sniffed at it. I wasn’t as good at poisons as Kaguya, but I was pretty sure this was arsenic. I folded some of the powder into a piece of paper and slid it into my obi. I would ask her later.
I took some of the torikabuto poison, a metsubushi tube, and one of the noodle packages, then ran out of the house to get back to the shop to see how Akiyo-sensei was doing.