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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