While the village emotionally healed itself, Miyuki set to work healing Jack’s wound. Crushing up herbs she’d taken from a winter garden and mixing them with a fine powder she carried in a small container on her obi, Miyuki cooked up a thick green paste. She applied this to Jack’s blistered skin as he lay on his bed in Sora’s farmhouse.

Jack cried out, ‘Ow, that stings!’

‘Still the big samurai baby, I see,’ she teased, covering the rest of the wound.

Biting his lower lip against the pain, Jack asked, ‘How bad is it?’

Miyuki examined the injury, then replied gravely, ‘You could lose the leg.’

Jack swallowed in shock, his face going pale at the thought.

‘But don’t worry,’ added Miyuki, ‘Yuudai’s offered to cut it off cleanly with his nodachi.’

Jack glanced fearfully at the formidable sword on Yuudai’s back, before catching the smirk on Miyuki’s face.

‘Another ninja joke!’ he said, forcing a laugh as a wave of relief flooded him.

‘It should be fine in a day or so,’ Miyuki revealed, smiling warmly at him as she put aside the medicine. ‘The cold snow from the avalanche reduced the swelling. And with these herbs, there won’t even be a scar.’

Kneeling by his side, she clasped her hands together, her fingers interlaced, the index finger and thumb both extended. Closing her eyes, she began to chant softly.

‘On haya baishiraman taya sowaka …’

Her hands hovered over his wound, moving in a figure-of-eight pattern, and Jack felt a familiar warm tingle beneath his skin as the Sha healing ritual did its work.

‘What’s she doing?’ muttered Saburo, eyeing Miyuki suspiciously.

‘Kuji-in … Ninja magic!’ whispered Yori reverentially. ‘Sensei Yamada told me about it, but I’ve never seen it in action.’

Yori watched rapt as Miyuki went deeper into her trance, channelling her healing energies into the wound. Jack noticed his friend copying her hand position and silently mouthing the mantra as he tried to commit the words to memory. Always the most diligent student among them, Yori loved to learn such mystical techniques and Jack made a mental note to ask Miyuki to teach his friend some more.

After an hour, Miyuki opened her eyes. She looked exhausted from the intense healing session.

‘You still have healing hands,’ said Jack, sitting up. ‘I can feel my leg getting better already.’

‘It’s never any trouble … for you,’ she replied, wearily getting up and heading for her bed. Within moments, she was fast asleep.

Saburo and Hayato came over.

‘Does it really work?’ Saburo asked dubiously.

Jack nodded his head. ‘Have a look.’

The wound had lost much of its red rawness and the blisters beneath the green paste were starting to disappear.

‘The ninja possess some unique talents,’ said Yori admiringly as he continued to practise the hand sign, moving it in a figure-of-eight through the air.