Suddenly he lifted the blade, and swack! Down it came, chopping off the first finger of the ronin's right hand. The digit fell to the dirt. Bending, he lifted it up and with a snarl flung it into the face of the Master, who of course dodged it with ease.
"Then without waiting, the ronin dropped to the ground-whereupon he opened his belly with his own blade."
Remo nodded. "Hara-kiri."
"No, seppuku! Hara-kiri is what ignorant whites call it. You are not white, although you are sometimes ignorant. The ritual suicide is called seppuku."
Remo sighed. "So the samurai died?"
"Do not dignify the wretch with that honorable term. He was but a ronin. And yes, he died, but not before leaving Master Kang in his debt."
Remo looked puzzled. "When did that happen?"
"The removal of the finger and the flinging of it, this is very Japanese, Remo. It signifies that the ronin acknowledged his powerlessness to avenge the insult against his person. Loss of the finger meant he challenged Kang to redress the wrong done to him. But the seppuku denied Kang that opportunity forever. Thus, the ronin died. Thus Kang lived with an unpaid debt hanging over his head."
Chiun leaned back. Remo waited, watching carefully. Was Chiun done? He looked done. But he had seemed done before. Remo wasn't about to be mousetrapped again.
"What have you to say, Remo?"
"You done?"
"Of course I am done!" Chiun flared. "Now, what have you to say?"
"It's a heck of a story?"
Taking his cloudy puffs of hair in hand, Chiun wrenched at them as if driven to utter distraction. "No!"
"Don't get upset. Don't get upset. Okay, the ronin chopped off his finger. Now, someone chopped off your fingernail. They connect, right?"
"Correct. They connect."
"Okay, I see where this goes. A descendent of the defingered ronin is after you."
"No. It is the same ronin. He has come back."
"From the grave?"
"Wherever it is that ronin come back from. I do not know. I am no Nihonjin." Seeing Remo's blank look, Chiun added, "A Nihonjin is a man from Nihon, which the English call Japan."
"You're telling me that a ghost samurai chopped off your fingernail?"
"Not a samurai-a ronin. He had no substance except when he wished. He had no face. He was not of this world. Therefore, he is of the next. For what other worlds are there?"
Remo looked Chiun square in the eye. "A dead ronin has my APC?"
"Yes. But he will not be satisfied until he has purchased redress."
"He got your fingernail. What more does he want? I mean, isn't that enough? A finger for a fingernail?"
"No. He desires my life. Possibly yours. My Master is dead, so he cannot take that from me. Therefore, he will make you, the next in line, masterless, thus doubly depriving me."
"This is all over fingers?"
"No. This is about face. Have you not been listening? Kang was deprived of face."
"That meant the ronin won. Shouldn't Kang be chasing him through the Void?"
"Is this white logic I hear? Are you flinging white logic in my face?"
"Has this guy ever bothered the House before? Since he died way back when, I mean?"
"No. That is why the story was not handed down. It was believed that he sought no revenge other than the unpayable debt. But now he is back."
"That doesn't make sense. Where has he been all this time? Where did he come from?"
"He came from the water. I heard him emerge, at first making sounds but later none and wielding a katana that had no substance yet bit like steel."
"You saying he walked all the way from Korea?"
"Yes."
"Wouldn't it have been easier to walk across the Bering Strait and take the land route via Canada? I mean, if you were a ghost, why would you take the long way? The poor SOB had to walk all the way across Asia and Europe, then cross the freaking Atlantic. Lot quicker to just walk the Pacific, don't you think?"
"Are you inflicting more white logic upon me?"
"No, just common sense."
"The answer to your idiotic question is as simple as it is obvious. The ronin became lost in his wanderings and came the wrong way. This explains why he was so many centuries before haunting us."
"I don't buy it."
"There is more." And Chiun extracted from his wide kimono sleeve the mangled manufacturer's plate from the Japanese bulldozer struck by the Merchant's Limited. "Behold. The crest of the four moons. This, Remo, is the crest of the Nishi clan."
"How do you know those are moons?" asked Remo.
"I know because I know moons."
Remo rolled his eyes moonward. "So in addition to walking the entire Atlantic seafloor, he dragged along the clan bulldozer?"
"I did not say that," Chiun flared.
"Okay, let's say to avoid an argument we have a phantom ronin on our tailbones. What do we do about it?"
"We must return to Sinanju."
"What!"