Young Samurai: The Way of Fire (short story) Read Online Free Page A

attempted the Way of Fire, but not all had made it unscathed. A few were suffering bad blisters on the soles of their feet.
    ‘That’ll teach you to forget your meditation exercises!’ replied Yamato, shaking his head.
    ‘I’m just glad it’s the end of the
gasshuku
,’ Saburo groaned, grimacing with each painful step.
    ‘I don’t think it’s over yet,’ Emi interrupted, glancing back over her shoulder. ‘There’s still tomorrow and I heard the sensei talking about one more final test.’
    ‘But surely the Way of Fire was more than enough to prove our courage as samurai?’ said Jack.
    Akiko suddenly stopped in her tracks. ‘Quiet! Something’s not right,’ she whispered, her eyes darting around the shadowy forest.
    The students came to a halt. They could feel it too. There was an unsettling stillness to the trees. Not quite a calmness, more a deadness. The misty track they followed suddenly seemed haunted with the spirits of a thousand dead samurai.
    ‘We
are
in a graveyard,’ said Saburo, staggering on. ‘No wonder it feels creepy.’
    ‘We should go back to Sensei Yamada,’ said Akiko, a note of urgency in her voice.
    ‘But why? I can hardly walk,’ complained Saburo.
    ‘
That’s
why,’ said Akiko, pointing into the darkness.

Ambush
     
    From behind the moss-covered tombs, shadows were rising out of the mist.
    The students huddled closer to one another, terrified by the nightmarish apparitions.
    Suddenly three ninja, dressed head-to-toe in black hooded
shinobi shozoku
, sprang from the forest. They landed among the students, their weapons drawn.
    Jack realized this couldn’t be a random attack. The ninja had been waiting for them, which meant only one thing to Jack: Dragon Eye must have sent these assassins. His nemesis had somehow discovered he’d left Kyoto and the safety of the
Niten Ichi Ryū
. Beyond the protection of his guardian, Masamoto, Jack was an easier target. Now would be the perfect time to attack.
    The young samurai scattered. The lead group sprinted off in the direction of the
shukubo
, but their way was blocked by the first ninja. Another group drew their
bokken
to face the second assassin, while the last ninja turned to confront Jack and his friends.
    Before they could reach for their swords, the ninja flung out his hand, a long chain whipping out with a heavy weight on the end. It struck Saburo in the gut, knocking him to the ground.
    Yamato, his
bokken
now drawn, rushed forward to protect his injured friend. He sliced down at the ninja’s head. The ninja, retracting his
manriki-gusari
with a flick of the wrist, spun its length round Yamato’s wooden blade. Wrenching the sword from his grasp, he pulled Yamato off-balance and side-kicked him in the chest. It happened so fast Jack could only watch as his friend crumpled against a tombstone.
    Akiko flung herself in front to defend Yamato, but the ninja ignored her and bore down on Emi instead. The
daimyo
’s daughter threw up her guard as the assassin blasted her with a devastating combination of punches and kicks. She managed to defend herself against the onslaught, retaliating with a desperate roundhouse to the head. But the ninja blocked it, capturing her leg with one hand and sweeping her to the ground.
    As Emi rolled away between two gravestones, the ninja wound up his chain for the killing blow. He launched a weighted end at her. Without regard for his own safety, Jack jumped between them and cut down with his
bokken
. The chain wrapped round the blade, causing the lethal weight to stop short of Emi’s heart.
    Before the ninja could whip the
bokken
out of his hands, Jack thrust it between the two graves, jamming the weapon into place. Caught off-guard by the move, the assassin struggled to untangle his chain. Jack seized the opportunity and launched a spinning hook kick at the ninja’s head. Disorientated from the blow, the assassin stumbled into the mist-laden undergrowth and disappeared.
    ‘Let’s go!’ urged