"Why should I wish to be sole Regent?"
"When Ishido attacks I can help you to conquer him. When he breaks the peace," Yabu said.
"How?"
He told them his plan with the guns.
"A regiment of five hundred gun-samurai?" Hiro-matsu erupted.
"Yes. Think of the fire power. All elite men, trained to act as one man. The twenty cannon equally together."
"It's a bad plan. Disgusting," Hiro-matsu said. "You could never keep it secret. If we start, the enemy would start also. There would never be an end to such horror. There's no honor in it and no future."
"Isn't this coming war the only one we're concerned with, Lord Hiro-matsu?" Yabu replied. "Aren't we concerned only with Lord Toranaga's safety? Isn't that the duty of his allies and vassals?"
"Yes."
"All Lord Toranaga has to do is win the one great battle. That will give him the heads of all his enemies - and power. I say this strategy will give him victory."
"I say it won't. It's a disgusting plan with no honor."
Yabu turned to Toranaga. "A new era requires clear thinking about the meaning of honor."
A sea gull soared overhead mewing.
"What did Ishido say to your plan?" Toranaga asked.
"I did not discuss it with him."
"Why? If you think your plan's valuable to me, it would be equally valuable to him. Perhaps more so."
"You gave me a dawn. You're not a peasant like Ishido. You're the wisest, most experienced leader in the Empire."
What's the real reason? Toranaga was asking himself. Or have you told Ishido too? "If this plan were to be followed, the men would be half yours and half mine"
"Agreed. I would command them."
"My appointee would be second-in-command?"
"Agreed. I would need the Anjin-san to train my men as gunners, cannoneers."
"But he would be my property permanently, you would cherish him as you do the Heir? You'd be totally responsible for him and do with him precisely as I say?"
"Agreed. "
Toranaga watched the crimson clouds for a moment. This planning is all nonsense, he thought. I will have to declare Crimson Sky myself and lunge for Kyoto at the head of all my legions. One hundred thousand against ten times that number. "Who will be interpreter? I can't detach Toda Mariko-san forever."
"For a few weeks, Sire? I will see that the barbarian learns our language. " "That'd take years. The only barbarians who've ever mastered it are Christian priests, neh? They spend years. Tsukkusan's been here almost thirty years, neh? He won't learn fast enough, anymore than we can learn their foul languages."
"Yes. But I promise you, this Anjin-san'll learn very quickly."
Yabu told them the plan Omi had suggested to him as if it were his own idea.
"That might be too dangerous."
"It would make him learn quickly, neh? And then he's tamed."
After a pause, Toranaga said, "How would you maintain secrecy during the training?"
"Izu is a peninsula, security is excellent there. I'll base near Anjiro, well south and away from Mishima and the border for more safety."
"Good. We'll set up carrier pigeon links from Anjiro to Osaka and Yedo at once."
"Excellent. I need only five or six months and-"
"We'll be lucky to have six days!" Hiro-matsu snorted. "Are you saying that your famous espionage net has been swept away, Yabu-san? Surely you've been getting reports? Isn't Ishido mobilizing? Isn't Onoshi mobilizing? Aren't we locked in here?"
Yabu did not answer.
"Well?" Toranaga said.
Yabu said, "Reports indicate all that is happening and more. If it's six days then it's six days and that's karma. But I believe you're much too clever to be trapped here. Or provoked into an early war."
"If I agreed to your plan, you would accept me as your leader?"
"Yes. And when you win, I would be honored to accept Suruga and Totomi as part of my fief forever."
"Totomi would depend on the success of your plan."
"Agreed.
"You will obey me? With all your honor?"
"Yes. By bushido, by the Lord Buddha, by the life of my mother, my wife, and my future posterity."
"Good," Toranaga said. "Let's piss on the bargain."
He went to the edge of the battlements. He stepped up on the ledge of the embrasure, then onto the parapet itself. Seventy feet below was the inner garden. Hiro-matsu held his breath, aghast at his master's bravado. He saw him turn and beckon Yabu to stand beside him. Yabu obeyed. The slightest touch could have sent them tumbling to their deaths.
Toranaga eased his kimono and loincloth aside, as did Yabu. Together they urinated and mixed their urine and watched it dew the garden below.
"The last bargain I sealed this way was with the Taiko himself," Toranaga said, greatly relieved at being able to empty his bladder. "That was when he decided to give me the Kwanto, the Eight Provinces, as my fief. Of course, at that time the enemy Hojo still owned them, so first I had to conquer them. They were our last remaining opposition. Of course, too, I had to give up my hereditary fiefs of Imagawa, Owari, and Ise at once for the honor. Even so, I agreed and we pissed on the bargain." He straddled the parapet easily, settling his loincloth comfortably as though he stood in the garden itself, not perched like an eagle so far above. "It was a good bargain for both of us. We conquered the Hojo and took over five thousand heads within the year. Stamped him out and all his tribe. Perhaps you're right, Kasigi Yabu-san. Perhaps you can help me as I helped the Taiko. Without me, the Taiko would never have become Taiko."
"I can help to make you sole Regent, Toranaga-sama. But not Shogun."
"Of course. That's the one honor I don't seek, as much as my enemies say I do." Toranaga jumped down to the safety of the stone flags. He looked back at Yabu who still stood on the narrow parapet adjusting his sash. He was sorely tempted to give him a quick shove for his insolence. Instead he sat down and broke wind loudly. "That's better. How's your bladder, Iron Fist?"