Musashi - Eiji Yoshikawa [598]
As the evening sky grew darker, Otsū began to feel distinctly ill at ease. Dead leaves stirred by the wind came to rest in her lap. Idly she picked one up and turned it around in her fingers. Foolishness or purity—something made her the perfect picture of virginity.
A loud cackling came suddenly from behind the shrine. Otsū jumped to the ground.
“Don’t move, Otsū!” commanded a hoarse, scary voice.
Otsū gasped and put her hands over her ears.
Several shadowy shapes came from behind the shrine and surrounded her quaking form. Though her eyes were shut, she could clearly see one of them, more frightening and seemingly larger than the others, the white-haired hag she had so often seen in nightmares.
“Thank you, Mambei,” said Osugi. “Now gag her before she starts screaming and take her to Shimonoshō. Be quick about it!” She spoke with the fearsome authority of the King of Hell condemning a sinner to the inferno.
The four or five men were apparently village toughs having some connection with Osugi’s clan. Shouting their assent, they went at Otsū like wolves fighting over prey and tied her up so that only her legs were free.
“Take the shortcut.”
“Move!”
Osugi remained behind to settle with Mambei. As she fished the money from her obi, she said, “Good of you to bring her. I was afraid you might not be able to manage it.” Then she added, “Don’t say a word to anybody.”
With a satisfied look, Mambei tucked the money into his sleeve. “Oh, it wasn’t so hard,” he said. “Your plan worked just fine.”
“Ah, that was something to see. Frightened, wasn’t she?”
“She couldn’t even run. Just stood there. Ha, ha. But maybe … it was rather wicked of us.”
“What’s wicked about it? If you only knew what I’ve been through.” “Yes, yes; you told me all about it.”
“Well, I can’t be wasting time here. I’ll see you again one of these days. Come visit us in Shimonoshō.”
“Be careful. That path’s not easy walking,” he called over his shoulder as he started back down the long, dark steps.
Hearing a gasp, Osugi whirled and shouted, “Mambei! Was that you? What’s wrong?”
There was no answer.
Osugi ran to the top of the steps. She let out a little cry, then swallowed her breath as she squinted at the shadow standing beside the fallen body and the sword, dripping blood, slanting downward from the shadow’s hand.
“Wh-who’s there?”
There was no reply.
“Who are you?” Her voice was dry and strained, but the years had not diminished her blustering bravado.
The man’s shoulders shook slightly with laughter. “It’s me, you old hag.” “Who are you?”
“Don’t you recognize me?”
“I never heard your voice before. A robber, I suppose.”
“No robber’d bother with an old woman as poor as you.”
“But you’ve been keeping an eye on me, haven’t you?”
“I have.”
“On me?”
“Why ask twice? I wouldn’t come all the way to Mikazuki to kill Mambei. I come to teach you a lesson.”
“Ech?” It sounded as though Osugi’s windpipe had burst. “You’ve got the wrong person. Who are you anyway? My name is Osugi. I’m the dowager of the Hon’iden family.”
“Oh, how good to hear you say that! It brings back all my hatred. Witch! Have you forgotten Jōtarō?”
“Jō-jō-tarō?”
“In three years, a newborn babe ceases to be a baby and becomes a three-year-old. You’re an old tree; I’m a sapling. Sorry to say, you can’t treat me like a sniveling brat anymore.”
“Surely it can’t be true. Are you really Jōtarō?”
“You ought to have to pay for all the grief you’ve caused my teacher over the years. He avoided you only because you’re old and he didn’t want to harm you. You took advantage of that, traveling around everywhere, even to Edo, spreading malicious rumors about him and acting as though you had a legitimate reason to take revenge on him. You even went so far as to prevent his appointment to a good post.”
Osugi was silent.
“Your spite didn’t end there, either.