‘Absolutely,’ agreed Hosokawa. ‘One should be afraid when facing a ninja.’

Jack breathed a sigh of relief as the sensei retraced his steps along the line.

‘Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgement that something else is more important than fear.6 Jack here valued his loyalty to Yamato above fear. An ideal worthy of a samurai.’

Jack swelled with pride at the unexpected compliment and caught Kazuki looking thoroughly annoyed at the sensei’s praise.

Sensei Hosokawa continued, ‘Jack showed courage, conquered fear and so defeated his opponent. A fine lesson to start your training in the way of…’

He stopped mid-sentence. Nobu was hurrying across the courtyard, late for the lesson. He was tucking in his kimono as he went, his bokken shoved awkwardly under his armpit. The sensei strode across to the door and waited.

Every student knew exactly what was coming. Nobu kept running, oblivious to his inevitable punishment.

‘Owwww!’

Sensei Hosokawa’s shinai rapped Nobu so sharply across both shins that his feet went from under him and the boy fell flat on his face, his bokken clattering across the wooden floor. There was the sound of stifled laughter from the other students before Sensei Hosokawa cut them short with a stern look.

‘Get up! Never be late for my class again,’ Hosokawa ordered, kicking Nobu firmly in the rear. ‘And never present yourself like that in my dojo!’

Nobu scrambled to his feet, looking like he was going to explode with shame, and scurried over to the rest of them, bowing and scraping all the way.

‘Right, now that we’re all here, we can begin your training. Pick up your bokken, then line up in three rows down the dojo. Give yourselves enough space to swing your weapon.’

They all bowed and got to their feet, haphazardly forming themselves into three ragged lines.

‘What is this?’ screamed Hosokawa. ‘Everyone ten press-ups! Kazuki, count off!’

The whole class dropped to the floor and commenced their punishment.

‘One! Two! Three! Four! Five!…’

‘Next time, I say “Line up”, I expect you to run! And form ordered lines!’

Jack’s arms shook a little with the effort, but despite last night’s torture, two years of climbing the rigging had strengthened him enough to cope without breaking a sweat. Some of the students, though, began to miss out counts and several gave up completely. Kazuki continued unabated, not even out of breath.

‘… Eight! Nine! Ten!’

‘Now line up!’

Everyone got to their feet and sprinted into position.

‘Better. First, I want you to simply hold your bokken in your hands.’

Jack adjusted his wooden sword until it was positioned exactly as Yamato had shown him back in Toba.

‘Where’s your bokken?’ Hosokawa suddenly demanded of a small, mouse-like boy, who stood quietly at the back.

‘Sensei, I left it in the Shishi-no-ma,’ he said, cringing.

‘What’s your name?’

‘Yori, Sensei.’