Kazuki grinned when he saw Jack’s defeated expression. ‘As you clearly appreciate, the Fūma were eager to help me in my task – a task bestowed upon me by the mighty Shogun Kamakura. And even though my lord is dead, his dying wish lives on.’ Kazuki’s grip tightened round the hilt of the katana and Jack braced himself for the fatal blow. ‘I’ve colluded with ninjas …’ Kazuki went on, his tone bitter, resentful, ‘crossed half the world … scoured this filthy country … all with one purpose in mind: to kill you and restore my honour!’

Even in the face of certain death, Jack couldn’t believe the lengths his enemy had gone to. He’d been wrong to think that Kazuki’s spirit had been broken in Nagasaki. Like a shattered sword, Kazuki’s fury had merely been reforged and strengthened in a fire of hatred and revenge. Kazuki had demonstrated that he was willing to go to the ends of the earth to satisfy his bloodlust.

‘I only need your head to prove it,’ said Kazuki, swinging back the katana to decapitate Jack with one final savage slice.

Jack’s life flashed before his eyes, his thoughts consumed by memories of his sister and the cruel twist of fate that had cut short their long-awaited reunion.

Assured of victory at last, Kazuki couldn’t resist one final jibe. Pausing at the top of his swing, he snarled, ‘Vengeance is mine, gaijin!’

And in that moment of arrogant self-indulgence Jack pulled the shuriken from the fold of his obi and flicked it at Kazuki’s face. Kazuki howled in pain as the throwing star struck him in the eye. Jack grabbed his katana from the floor, at the same time unsheathing his wakizashi, and took up a Two Heavens stance.

‘Curse you, gaijin!’ snarled Kazuki, pulling out the shuriken. Half-blinded, he glared at Jack from his one good eye. Now more than ever, Jack’s school rival resembled his arch-enemy Dokugan Ryu, not only in the blackness of his heart but in his appearance too.

‘An eye for an eye,’ said Jack, his two swords gleaming in the firelight. ‘That was for murdering Sir Henry’s stable boy.’

Kazuki wiped the blood from his cheek. ‘I want you to know, gaijin, that once I’ve killed you, I’ll not only behead your beloved Akiko, I’ll cut your sister into eight pieces and feed her to the dogs!’

A surge of protective rage rose up in Jack. He roared a battle cry of kiai and launched himself at Kazuki. Blades whirling, he drove his enemy back with cut after cut. Despite his partial loss of vision and the obvious pain he was in, Kazuki managed to deflect and evade the onslaught. Retreating into the Gallery of Arms, he snatched a parrying dagger from the weapons rack with his claw of a right hand and took up his own Two Heavens stance.