Musashi - Eiji Yoshikawa [344]
Not only had he not lost his fondness for the good sake of Nada, the pretty girls of Kyoto and a number of other things, he still believed the city was where he would get his lucky break. Who could deny that one morning he mightn’t wake up with everything he’d ever wanted? “I’ll never go back to that piddling village,” he vowed silently.
Osugi, again lagging a good distance behind, cast dignity to the winds. “Matahachi,” she wheedled, “carry me on your back, won’t you? Please. Just for a short while?”
He frowned, said nothing, but stopped to let her catch up. Just as she reached him, their ears were assaulted by the shriek of terror that had jolted Otsū and Jōtarō. Faces blankly curious, they stood still, listening keenly. A moment later, Osugi uttered a cry of dismay, as Matahachi ran abruptly to the edge of the cliff.
“Wh-where are you going?”
“It must be down there!” he said, and disappeared over the edge of the cliff. “Stay there. I’ll see who it is.”
Osugi recovered in no time. “Fool!” she shouted. “Where are you going?” “You deaf? Didn’t you hear that scream?”
“What’s that got to do with you? Come back! Come back here!”
Ignoring her, he rapidly made his way from tree root to tree root to the bottom of the little ravine.
“Fool! Numskull!” she cried. She might as well have been barking at the moon.
Matahachi again shouted to her to stay where she was, but he was so far down that Osugi barely heard him. “Now what?” he thought, beginning to regret his impulsiveness. If he was wrong about where the cry had come from, he was wasting time and energy.
Though no moonlight penetrated the foliage, his eyes gradually became accustomed to the dark. He came upon one of the many shortcuts crisscrossing the mountains east of Kyoto and leading to Sakamoto and Ōtsu. Walking alongside a brook with tiny waterfalls and rapids, he found a hut, probably a shelter for men who came to spear mountain trout. It was too small to hold more than one person, and obviously empty, but behind it he spotted a crouching figure, face and hands starkly white.
“It’s a woman,” he thought with satisfaction, and concealed himself behind a large rock.
After a couple of minutes, the woman crept from behind the hut, went to the edge of the stream and scooped up some water to drink. He took a step forward. As though warned by animal instinct, the girl looked around furtively and started to flee.
“Akemi!”
“Oh, you frightened me!” But there was relief in her voice. She swallowed the water that had caught in her throat and heaved a deep sigh.
After eyeing her up and down, Matahachi asked, “What happened? What are you doing here at this hour of the night dressed in traveling clothes?” “Where’s your mother?”
“She’s up there.” He waved his arm.
“I bet she’s furious.”
“About the money?”
“Yes. I’m really sorry, Matahachi. I had to leave in a hurry, and I didn’t have enough to pay my bill, and nothing to travel on. I know it was wrong, but I panicked. Please forgive me! Don’t make me go back! I promise I’ll return the money someday.” She melted into tears.
“Why all the apologies? Oh, I see. You think we came up here to catch you!”
“Oh, I don’t blame you. Even if it was just a wild impulse, I did run away with the money. If I’m caught and treated like a thief, I guess I can’t really complain.”
“That’s the way Mother would look at it, but I’m not like that. Anyway, it wasn’t very much. If you really needed it, I’d have been glad to give it to you. I’m not angry. I’m much more interested in why you left so suddenly and what you’re doing up here.”
“I overheard you and your mother talking tonight.”
“Oh? About Musashi?”
“Uh, yes.”
“And you decided all of a sudden to go to Ichijōji?”
She didn’t answer.
“Oh, I forgot!” he exclaimed, recalling his purpose in coming down into the ravine. “Were you the one who screamed a few minutes ago?”
She nodded, then quickly stole a frightened glance at the slope above