It had taken Jack a great deal of persuasion to convince Yamato to carry the sword, but eventually he had agreed, accepting it to be the best way to reconcile him with his father. Jack didn’t care about the honour of winning the Taryu-Jiai. Masamoto had shown him great kindness by taking him in to his family. Jack didn’t want to be the reason for the family breaking apart.

Yamato bowed once more and went down on one knee raising the Jade Sword above his head with both hands. Kamakura reached out to formally accept the offering and seal his triumph of the Taryu-Jiai, but before he could lay his hands upon it, Yamato turned and presented the sword to his father.

‘Father, I ask for your forgiveness and bestow to you what is rightfully the victory of the Niten Ichi Ryū. I was not the one to retrieve the sword. It was Jack.’

A moment of perplexed silence fell upon the hall.

Jack’s mouth dropped open in astonishment. This is not what they had agreed. Yes, he was to give the sword to Masamoto, but he was not to say Jack had retrieved it. That was to be Yamato’s glory. The proof Masamoto was looking for that Yamato was good enough to be a samurai warrior, worthy to be a Masamoto.

Akiko looked in wide-eyed wonder at the bowing Yamato and then at Jack, who was shaking his head in silent dispute.

Masamoto gave Yamato a dubious look. ‘Is this the truth?’

‘Yes, Father. But Jack insisted that I was the one to hand it to you.’

Ignoring Jack’s protests, Masamoto nodded once, the issue decided. He stood up and took the sword from Yamato’s outstretched hands.

‘The Niten Ichi Ryū are deemed the champions of the Taryu-Jiai!’ announced the equally baffled Imperial Court official.

The whole of the Buddha Hall erupted into a cacophony of cheers from the Niten Ichi Ryū. Raucous heckling exploded from the Yagyu Ryū side and Raiden stamped the ground in frustration, while Moriko bared her black teeth, hissing her disgust at Akiko. Kamakura’s face flushed red with fury and his throat quivered as if he was choking on an oversized frog.

‘This is an outrage!’ Kamakura eventually cried, shoving the official to the floor. ‘An outrage!’

Kamakura threw a curt nod in Masamoto’s direction then stormed out of the hall, his samurai hastening close behind. The official picked himself up and called for silence. Once the noise had finally died down, he deferred to Masamoto.

‘Students of the Niten Ichi Ryū!’ began Masamoto, ceremoniously brandishing the Jade Sword and raising it in a heroic salute. ‘Today we have witnessed what it means to be a samurai of this school!’

There was an explosion of applause. Masamoto held his other hand up for silence, stepped off the dais and walked over to Jack.