Young Samurai _ The Way Of The Dragon - Chris Bradford [5]
‘Can’t you hear it?’ she insisted, before whispering, ‘Hold your breath.’
Mouths closed, they all looked at one another.
Someone could still be heard breathing.
The sensitivity training Sensei Kano, their blind bōjutsu master at samurai school, had taught them paid off once again. Jack immediately pinpointed the source of the sound and crept towards it.
Suddenly Orochi exploded from the thicket, barely five paces ahead of Jack. He’d been hiding beside them all along.
‘Come back!’ shouted Jack, his cry disturbing a bird high up in the canopy.
‘Go on!’ Akiko urged, too weary to give chase. ‘I’ll look after the bags.’
Yamato threw down his knapsack and hurried after Jack, who was already racing after Orochi. Then the man ducked down again into the thicket.
Jack kept going. He wouldn’t be fooled this time. As he hit the spot where Orochi disappeared, his feet went from under him and he tumbled head over heels down a steep slope.
Rolling back on to his feet at the bottom, he found himself on a forest track. A few moments later, Yamato joined him. Forewarned of the danger by Jack’s cry, he’d managed to avoid falling down the slope himself.
‘Which way did he go?’ asked Yamato.
‘I don’t know. I was too busy working out which way was up!’ Jack replied irritably, brushing dead leaves from his hair.
‘Right, you head that way and I’ll go in the opposite direction,’ Yamato commanded. ‘Shout if you find him.’
Yamato sprinted off.
Jack was about to do the same, when he heard the sound of snapping bamboo. He spun round.
‘I know you’re there,’ said Jack.
Orochi got unsteadily to his feet with the help of his crutch and emerged from the undergrowth.
‘Ah! You understand Japanese. That’s good.’
He gave Jack a pitiful bow and hobbled towards him.
‘You wouldn’t hurt a cripple, would you?’ he pleaded, his misshapen right hand outstretched in surrender.
‘You’re not lame!’ exclaimed Jack, studying the man carefully. ‘Wasn’t it your left hand that was deformed before?’
Orochi smiled his crooked smile.
‘True. But I had you all fooled, didn’t I?’ he replied as he straightened his leg, stood to his full height and unclasped his twisted hand.
With lightning speed, he pulled apart the shaft of his wooden crutch, revealing a jagged steel spike.
Orochi drove the deadly weapon at Jack’s chest.
2
BLOW DART
Only Jack’s samurai training prevented him getting skewered.
He twisted his body sideways, the spike passing within a hair’s breadth of his heart. Without hesitating, Jack whipped the knife-edge of his right hand straight into his attacker’s neck.
Choking on the blow to his windpipe, Orochi staggered backwards against the bamboo. As he fought for breath, Jack went to finish him. But Orochi lashed out again with the spike and forced Jack into a tightly knit grove of bamboo stems. Confident of victory, Orochi launched the sharp end of the spike directly between Jack’s eyes.
Hemmed in on either side by bamboo, Jack had nowhere to go but down. He dropped to his knees. There was a sickening crunch as the metal spike pierced the bamboo stem where his head had just been.
Orochi swore in frustration, his weapon now stuck. Jack punched him hard in the stomach. Orochi grunted but refused to let go. Jack then grabbed the back of Orochi’s ankle in one hand and rammed his shoulder into the man’s gut, sweeping him off his feet.
Orochi crashed to the ground, winded and dazed.
Jack seized the opportunity to put the man into an arm-lock, but he hadn’t counted on Orochi still holding on to his weapon. Jerked free of the stem, the man was now swinging it towards Jack’s ribs. Jack blocked the strike but was knocked aside. In an instant Orochi was on top of him.
‘No escape this time, gaijin!’ spat Orochi, raising his weapon for the fatal blow.
As the spike plunged towards his head, Jack scrabbled at the earth to get away. His fingers came across a loose piece of bamboo and he snatched