‘Jack is my friend and I’ll defend him, whatever the cost.’

Jack couldn’t believe his ears. Akiko had declared her loyalty publicly. The significance of her pronouncement was not lost on any of the others present either.

She helped Jack to his feet.

‘Don’t be a gaijin lover, Akiko! I cannot promise to hold back next time you stand in my way,’ warned Kazuki.

‘Harm him and I will tell – the choice is yours.’ Kazuki faltered.

Jack guessed that he couldn’t afford to gamble on Akiko’s threat. Being thrown out of the Niten Ichi Ryū would be a permanent loss of face, a highly inappropriate circumstance for a boy of imperial blood.

‘I do not wish to see you disgraced, Akiko, so I will make you a promise in return for forgetting this night. I’ll not fight the gaijin again within the walls of the Niten Ichi Ryū. Agreed?’

Akiko looked at Jack before nodding her acceptance.

‘Gaijin!’ snarled Kazuki. ‘You and I are not finished. Our war has barely begun.’

32: HANAMI PARTY

32

HANAMI PARTY

A glorious butterfly with iridescent blue wings rested on the pink blossom of a cherry tree. It sipped on the sweet nectar of the flower, gaining nourishment and growing strong. Its antennae twitched as the breeze shifted.

Out of nowhere a heavy iron bar came crashing into the blossom. The butterfly flitted away, escaping death only by a fraction of a second. A giant red demon came thundering out of the undergrowth, maniacally swinging the bar, intent on catching the butterfly as it settled upon each blossom.

The butterfly effortlessly avoided the blows time and time again. Sweat rolled down the face of the red demon, frustration etched on its brow. The demon, boiling with rage, thrashed again and again at the butterfly, until it collapsed on the barren earth, defeated by its own efforts. The butterfly, with its iridescent blue wings still intact, fluttered away…

Jack’s eyes fluttered open.

A languid trail of incense smoke curled its way to the ceiling of his tiny bedroom. The red Daruma Doll sat perched upon the narrow window sill next to the bonsai tree. The doll’s solitary eye fixed Jack with an innocuous stare.

Jack breathed heavily, reeling from the clarity of the vision.

Jack could regularly attain the third ‘View’, a pure mind, during his morning meditations. It allowed him to think clearly for the rest of the day, but he had never experienced a vision like this before. What had made him see a demon and a butterfly? What did it mean, if anything at all? This was far beyond anything he had been taught. He would have to speak to Sensei Yamada.