The Way of the Dragon Read online

  ‘Jack-kun, come away!’ ordered Sensei Yosa.

  Jack stumbled off the veranda, coughing and spluttering. He crouched down in the middle of the courtyard, drawing deep breaths of clean air as the other students continued to battle the flames.

  Through eyes stinging with smoke, Jack noticed a movement near the school gates. A huge shadow, distorted by the flickering glow of the fire, slipped along the outer wall. It shrank to nothing as a figure furtively approached the entrance and pulled back the bolts. Jack rubbed his eyes. Squinting, he saw more shadows enter through the open gateway.

  Ninja! thought Jack. Dragon Eye had finally come.

  But then Jack spotted the samurai swords, glinting in the firelight. How stupid to think it was Dragon Eye. The ninja would be more covert with his mission. This could only be daimyo Kamakura’s army. But how could he have got his forces here so quickly? They were supposedly still encamped on Edo’s borders, several days’ march away. Whatever, Jack knew the fire was a diversion and the Niten Ichi Ryū was under attack.

  ‘ENEMY!’ screamed Jack at the top of his hoarse lungs.

  But the fire of the Hawk roared so loud, few heard him.

  Jack ran back to Sensei Yosa, pulling on her arm and pointing to the invading force. Her keen eyes spotted the danger immediately.

  ‘Get your weapons!’ she ordered, before hurrying to inform Masamoto and the other sensei. Since they’d all been attending the formal celebrations, none of the students were carrying swords.

  Jack grabbed Saburo and Yori.

  ‘We’re under attack! Tell everyone to arm themselves.’

  Jack sprinted off towards the Shishi-no-ma to retrieve his daishō. Arriving at the entrance, he discovered the doors were jammed and he couldn’t get in. He kicked hard, but the thick wooden panels wouldn’t budge. What was going on? These doors were never barred.

  With dread horror, Jack realized the enemy had planned the attack in advance. Ensuring the Niten Ichi Ryū were unable to defend themselves, it was to be a massacre.

  Searching for another way in, Jack found an unshuttered window, but it was too high and too small for him to clamber through. Scanning the courtyard, he spotted Yori trying to warn the other students of the attack. Many were still battling the fire, unaware of the danger.

  ‘Yori!’ screamed Jack, beckoning him over.

  The little boy sprinted across, his face black with smoke and his eyes wide with fear.

  Jack hurriedly explained the situation. ‘I’ll lift you up. You climb through and open the door from the other side.’

  Yori nodded obediently and Jack hoisted him up until he was standing on Jack’s shoulders. Stretching for the sill, Yori wriggled himself through the opening and disappeared inside.

  Jack ran back to the entrance and waited for what seemed an age. Masamoto and his sensei were now engaged in heavy combat with the intruders, trying to break through the lines so the rest of the school could reach the Weapons Wall in the Butokuden. Many students, however, had been forced into hand-to-hand combat, relying solely on their taijutsu training to survive.

  The door scraped open and Yori’s face appeared. Jack burst in, pushing past him to retrieve his swords. But glancing down the girls’ corridor, he caught sight of a figure enter a room at the far end. A flame flickered in the darkness.

  ‘Yori,’ Jack whispered. ‘Get Yamato, then collect as many weapons as you can!’

  Yori, terrified by the sudden turn of events, could only nod.

  ‘Go!’ urged Jack and pushed his friend out of the door.

  Jack ran silently down the girls’ corridor. As he approached the last room, he slowed and peered round the door. Inside, a shadowy figure was bent over an oil lamp, about to set fire to the paper walls. Jack had discovered the culprit. Preparing to attack, he crept closer but the intruder spun round.

  ‘You’re too late, gaijin!’ snarled Kazuki. ‘The Scorpions have struck.’

  Jack was stopped in his tracks and stared open-mouthed at his rival.

  ‘Kazuki? What…? Why burn down your own school?’ Jack exclaimed.

  ‘As daimyo Takatomi said, the Hall of the Hawk should be a beacon of light in dark times,’ Kazuki mocked, imitating their lord. ‘And it’s now daimyo Kamakura’s time!’

  ‘But your father’s on our side!’ said Jack urgently.

  Kazuki laughed. ‘That’s what Takatomi is meant to believe, but my father’s always served daimyo Kamakura.’

  Jack felt his temper rising at the betrayal. ‘What about your loyalty to Masamoto-sama?’

  ‘He lost my respect the day he adopted you,’ spat Kazuki, standing to face him. ‘But he’s still the best swordsman in Japan, so my father ordered me to stay to learn the secret of the Two Heavens.’

  Grinning, Kazuki raised the oil lamp. ‘Now I know it. School’s over!’

  ‘NO!’ screamed Jack, lunging to stop him.

  He collided with Kazuki, but the lamp was already sailing towards the wall. It smashed open, spilling burning oil across the room. Jack drove his shoulder into Kazuki’s chest. They both crashed to the floor.

  Jack, having the advantage, landed a solid hook punch across Kazuki’s jaw. Spitting blood, Kazuki retaliated with a series of devastating body blows. Jack grimaced, trying to absorb the punches so he could stay on top. But Kazuki’s skill at grappling meant Jack was soon dislodged.

  They both scrambled to their feet amid the burning room. Smoke clogged their vision and Jack didn’t see the roundhouse kick until it was too late. It caught him in the ribs, sending him staggering sideways. A moment later, Kazuki front-kicked him in the chest. Jack flew against the burning paper wall and crashed through to the next room.

  Jumping after him, Kazuki aimed to land a stomping kick to the head. At the last second, Jack rolled out of the way. Turning back, he drove his body into Kazuki. Grabbing hold of his rival’s leg, he twisted it and swept him to the floor. Jack was up first, kicking Kazuki in the back as he tried to stand. It was only then that he noticed the sleeve of his kimono had caught fire.

  Panicking, Jack slapped at the flames to extinguish them. But the momentary distraction allowed Kazuki to recover. Flipping to his feet, he backfisted Jack in the nose. Then, grabbing Jack’s smouldering arm, he executed a seoi nage, throwing him through the next wall.

  Jack lay there dazed, staring up in a blur at the burning ceiling. The Hall of Lions cracked and creaked under the strain of the spreading fire. Kazuki stepped through the flames, his fists clenched, his eyes blazing with hatred. He looked down at Jack.

  ‘I’ve waited a long time to finish you,’ he said, kicking Jack several times in quick succession.

  Jack doubled up, trying to protect himself, but a kick to the head took all the fight out of him. Crippled with pain, he could only watch helplessly as the room became consumed in flames.

  Smiling cruelly, Kazuki gave the door frame an almighty kick. It splintered and snapped. The room began to collapse around Jack. A beam dropped from the ceiling and landed across his back, flattening him. Crying out, he tried to rise but the beam was too heavy.

  ‘Burn, gaijin, burn,’ said Kazuki, leaving Jack to his fate.

  33

  MORIKO

  Jack lay there, pinned beneath the beam.

  The flames grew more intense and the whole building groaned, threatening to collapse around him.

  He felt a wave of utter despair at the realization he’d never get to say goodbye to Akiko, or any of his friends. He’d never see his little sister again. Never set foot on English soil. After all the struggles he’d been through, all the lessons he’d learnt and all the challenges he’d overcome, he was to die alone. Burnt alive.

  He cursed Kazuki, his Scorpion Gang and everything he stood for. Jack had been right all along about that boy. Intense anger now replaced his despair. Kazuki would not beat him like this. Jack strained with all his might against the beam.

  But it refused to budge. He tried again.

  ‘Jack!’
shouted a familiar voice as he felt the weight of the beam lift.

  He crawled forward, his back scraping against the wood.

  ‘Hurry!’ urged Yamato. ‘I can’t hold it any longer.’

  Yamato dropped the beam just as Jack snatched his legs out from underneath. Getting to his feet, Jack stumbled with Yamato into the corridor now thick with smoke.

  ‘Where’s Kazuki gone?’ Jack gasped.

  ‘He pushed past me saying he hadn’t seen you!’

  ‘Kazuki’s a traitor!’ replied Jack as they burst out of the Shishi-no-ma and into the courtyard.

  Outside, the school grounds were a war zone. Blades flashed in the firelight. Battle cries of samurai and the screams of the wounded filled the air. A small group of Niten Ichi Ryū students were fighting in a tight circle beside Sensei Hosokawa and Sensei Yosa, fending off the intruders – the whole scene hellishly distorted by the blood-red glow of the buildings.

  Yamato was staring at Jack in shock. ‘Kazuki? A traitor?’

  Jack nodded. ‘Yes, and his Scorpion Gang.’

  Looking around, Jack noticed many of the intruders were actually young samurai like themselves. He recognized two of them by their immense size – Raiden and Taro, Kazuki’s hulking cousins from Hokkaido. Jack now realized the truth. The Niten Ichi Ryū wasn’t being attacked by daimyo Kamakura and his army but by the students and sensei of the Yagyu Ryū. That was how Kamakura had managed to launch a surprise attack without giving Masamoto any warning of their advance. The enemy had been residing in Kyoto all along.

  Akiko, Saburo and Kiku came running over.

  ‘Where’s Yori?’ Jack demanded.

  ‘We haven’t seen him,’ replied Akiko.

  A dread realization fell upon Jack. ‘He was getting our weapons.’

  Jack turned to run back inside the Hall of Lions.

  ‘NO!’ shouted Yamato, grabbing hold of him. ‘It’s too dangerous.’

  As if in confirmation, the roof over the girls’ section of the Shishi-no-ma collapsed, sending a huge cloud of sparks into the night like a swarm of fireflies.

  ‘Yori!’ cried Jack, struggling to break free from Yamato.

  They all looked on in desperation as another section of the roof gave way. Jack went limp in Yamato’s arms, as he realized his friend had no hope of surviving the blaze.

  Then a moment later, Yori came stumbling out, smoke and ash billowing around him. On his back he carried a large bundle of weapons, wrapped in Jack’s ceremonial kimono. Panting, his eyes red with smoke, Yori dumped the pile at their feet.

  ‘I grabbed everything I could,’ he gasped.

  Jack hugged his friend with relief. Yori, unaccustomed to such displays of affection, tensed his body in surprise.

  ‘Great work, Yori!’ said Yamato, snatching up his staff.

  Akiko picked up her bow and quiver. Jack spotted his own two swords among the weapons, the golden phoenix kamon glinting in the darkness.

  ‘Look out!’ Saburo shouted, pushing Jack violently to one side.

  An arrow aimed at Jack’s heart whistled past. It struck Saburo instead and he slumped to the ground, the steel tip piercing his left shoulder.

  Kiku was immediately by his side. ‘He’s dying!,’ she cried.

  ‘No, he’s only bleeding,’ said Yamato, ripping a strip from the spare kimono and applying pressure to the wound.

  ‘What’s she doing here?’ exclaimed Akiko.

  Jack looked over to see Moriko, the Yagyu Ryū girl, standing beside the flaming Hall of the Hawk with her bow in hand. With no sense of urgency, as if still competing in a Yabusame competition, Moriko reached for another arrow.

  Akiko hurried to string her own bow, but stopped to stare in horror at her arrows. ‘These are jindou!’

  ‘That was my archery prize,’ screeched Moriko above the noise of battle. She took aim at Akiko and fired.

  Dropping to one knee, Akiko drew back on her bow and released the blunt jindou. Moriko’s arrow skimmed past Akiko’s ear, catching a lock of her hair as it shot by. The jindou, however, didn’t miss. It struck Moriko squarely in the chest. She stumbled backwards under the blow.

  Akiko withdrew another jindou. Moriko, winded but unhurt, went to nock another steel-tipped arrow. Jack watched, powerless, as the two of them raced to shoot first. Akiko was ready a second before Moriko. She let loose her jindou. It flew straight and true, striking Moriko directly in the forehead. Stunned, Moriko reeled towards the blazing Hall of the Hawk before collapsing, unconscious.

  ‘No, it was my prize,’ said Akiko, allowing herself a smile of satisfaction at her shot.

  Before any one else attacked them, Jack grabbed his swords from the weapon pile, then passed Yori, Kiku and Akiko the three remaining katana.

  ‘It’s time we rejoined the fight.’

  In the far corner of the courtyard, Takuan and Emi were surrounded by enemy samurai. Takuan, weakened by his injury, could hardly lift the sword he’d found. Akiko immediately let loose a jindou, knocking his attacker to the ground.

  Yamato, staff twirling, hurried to their aid. Akiko was right behind him, stringing her bow as she ran. Jack was about to follow when he noticed Moriko getting to her feet. She swayed unsteadily as she nocked an arrow.

  Jack ran to stop her, but he knew he’d never make it in time.

  ‘Die!’ shrieked Moriko, targeting Akiko in the back.

  34

  HANGING

  The Hall of the Hawk finally surrendered to the flames. The roof fell in and the wooden superstructure disintegrated with a resounding crack.

  Moriko had little chance.

  The building suddenly collapsed sideways, consuming her in an avalanche of fire, blazing wood and scalding ash. Jack saw her pale face stricken with fear as her hair burst into flame, her blackened mouth opening in an unheard scream. Then she disappeared beneath the smoking ruins, her bow and arrow still in her hands.

  Beyond the remains, Kazuki stared in anguish at where Moriko had fallen. Through the haze of smoke and fire, Kazuki locked eyes with Jack. His face consumed with hate, Kazuki stormed off in the direction of the Butokuden.

  Jack would not let him get away this time. Leaving Yori and Kiku tending to Saburo, he skirted the remains of the hall, evading several ongoing fights as he made for the Butokuden’s back entrance.

  Peering in, he found the dojo eerily deserted. The light from the fires chased shadows round the pillared hall and the noise of battle echoed in the high-vaulted ceiling like the spirits of warriors past.

  Kazuki was in the ceremonial alcove. He was splashing lamp oil over the walls, clearly intent on burning the whole school to the ground.

  Drawing both his swords, Jack crept inside. Carefully stepping over a couple of weapons discarded by students in their haste to arm themselves from the Weapons Wall, he crossed the dojo floor and approached Kazuki from behind.

  Now was his chance to make Kazuki pay for all the bullying and harassment he’d suffered these past three years. In just a few more steps, he could run his rival through with his sword.

  But his hand was stayed by the memory of Masamoto’s words of welcome that first day at the Niten Ichi Ryū.

  The Way of the Warrior means living by the samurai code of honour – bushido – at all times. I demand courage and rectitude in all your endeavours.

  Jack realized the right thing to do here was not to kill Kazuki out of any sense of personal revenge. That was wrong. Jack had to bring this traitor to justice. Masamoto would want to deal with him personally.

  ‘Surrender, Kazuki,’ said Jack, placing the tip of his katana to Kazuki’s back.

  Kazuki slowly turned round and raised his hands above his head.

  Jack hadn’t expected Kazuki to give in without a fight.

  A devious grin spread across his rival’s face.

  Out of nowhere, a chain flicked through the air and wrapped itself round Jack’s neck. He was yanked backwards off his feet, both swords flying out of his hands. Hidden be
hind a pillar, Hiroto held the other end of the manriki-gusari. He began to drag Jack across the dojo floor.

  ‘Come on, good little gaijin dog!’ he squealed.

  Choking on the chain, Jack tried to force his fingers between it and his throat. He managed to get some slack and rolled on to his knees. But Hiroto wrenched the chain again, throwing him face first to the floor.

  Dragging him in the direction of a low beam, Jack realized Hiroto intended to hang him. Struggling harder, Jack clutched desperately at the polished wooden blocks of the dojo floor, but it was futile.

  Then his hand came across a discarded tantō knife. He snatched it up. At least he would die fighting.

  Moments later, he heard the clunk of the manriki-gusari being flung over the beam. All of a sudden, his head was yanked upwards. Jack gagged and had to stand on his toes to relieve the pressure. Hiroto, bracing himself against a pillar, hauled Jack off his feet.

  Jack could no longer touch the floor. He hung there, his legs kicking spasmodically as Hiroto laughed at his torment. The boy’s grinning face faded in and out of focus, Jack on the verge of blacking out. In a last-ditch effort, he threw the knife at Hiroto. The tantō struck Hiroto in the stomach.

  Screaming, Hiroto let go of the manriki-gusari. The chain came loose and Jack hit the ground at the same time as Hiroto. Jack heaved air into his oxygen-starved lungs. Hiroto didn’t stop screaming, horror-struck at the blood gushing forth from his wound.

  Jack crawled away, knowing he had to reach his swords before Kazuki saw what had happened and attacked him. He could hear the lumbering thud of footsteps getting closer. Only at the last second did Jack catch a glimpse of the iron-studded club. It came hurtling towards his head. He rolled to one side and the dojo floor exploded, splinters flying everywhere.

  Standing over him, Nobu raised the kanabō again.

  ‘I’m going to squash you, gaijin!’ he growled.

  Jack scrambled away as the club came crashing down a fraction behind him. He desperately needed a weapon, but the only thing close to hand was a discarded tessen. Picking up the iron fan, Jack stood to face his attacker.