"Yes but there must be hundreds of bits of information like that, that will unlock the way to play them, and dominate them. We must learn everything, Ori, and then, when we're part of the new Bakufu we will set German against Russian against Frenchman against Ing'erish against American..."
Hiraga shivered remembering the little Tyrer had told him about that civil war, the battles and casualties, all the modern weapons and hundreds of thousands of armed men involved, and the unbelievable vastness of the gai-jin lands. "This evening he said the Inger'ish Navy rules the world oceans, that by their law is twice as big as the next two navies combined, with hundreds of men-o'-war, thousands of cannon."
"Lies. Exaggeration to frighten you. He and all of them want us cowed, you as much as any. He wants our secrets too!"
"I only give him only what I think he should know." Hiraga belched irritably.
"Ori, we've got to learn about them! These dogs have conquered most of the world--humbled China and burned Peking, and this year the French became overlords of Cochin-China and are set to colonize Cambodia."
"Yes but the French played native prince against native prince like the British in India.
This is Japan. We're different--this is the Land of the Gods. With all the cannon in the world they will never conquer us." Ori's face twisted strangely. "Even if they seduce some daimyos to their side, even then, the rest of us will slaughter them."
"Not without cannon and knowledge."
"Without cannon, yes, Hiraga-san."
Hiraga shrugged and poured for both of them. There were many shishi who shared Ori's zeal--and had forgotten Sun-tzu: Know your enemy as you know yourself and you will win a hundred battles. "I hope you are right, meanwhile I will find out as much as I can. Tomorrow he promised to let me look at a map of the world--he called it an "at'ras."
"How do you know it will not be false, made up?"
"That is not likely, not falsifying one. Perhaps I could even get a copy, we could have it translated--and some of their school books."
Hiraga's excitement picked up. "Taira said they have new skills in counting, taught in ordinary schools, and astronomy measurers called 'rong-tit-tude, 'ra-tit-ude,"
Hiraga pronounced the English words with difficulty, "that somehow guide them with fantastic accuracy on the oceans, a thousand ri from land.
Baka that I know so little! Baka that I cannot read English!"
"You will," Ori said, "I never will. You will be part of our new government--I never will."
"Why say that?"
"I worship sonno-joi, I have already thought of my death poem, and spoken it. I told it to Shorin, the night of the attack.
Baka that he got himself killed too soon."
Ori drained his cup and poured the last drops and ordered a new flask. He looked at Hiraga narrowly. "I heard your Lord Ogama will pardon any Choshu shishi who publicly forswears sonno-joi."
Hiraga nodded. "My father wrote to me about that. It means nothing to us--to Choshu shishi."
"There is a rumor that Ogama controls the Gates, excluding everyone else--even that there's new fighting between his troops and Satsumas."
"Many daimyos are misguided, from time to time,"
Hiraga said levelly, not liking the way the conversation was going, noticing that, in his cups, Ori was ever more quarrelsome. Tonight Raiko had again warned him that Ori was a smoking volcano. "We all agreed long ago not to be bound by the deeds or misdeeds of our hereditary leaders."
"If Ogama holds the Gates he could give back power to the Emperor and make sonno-joi a fact."
"Perhaps he will, perhaps he has already."
Ori drained the cup. "I will be glad to leave Yokohama. Poison is in the air. Better you come to Kyoto with me. This nest of liars may infect you."
"You will be safer on the road to Kyoto without me. Even without my hair I could be recognized."
A sudden gust tugged at the roof thatch and rattled a half-opened shutter. They glanced at it momentarily, then went back to drinking. The sak`e had loosened them but had not dispelled the undercurrents, thoughts of death and the net tightening around them, or of the planned ambush on Shogun Nobusada, of Shorin and Sumomo, and most of all, what about the gai-jin girl? Hiraga had not yet mentioned her nor had Ori yet asked about her but both were waiting, both circling this central issue, both impatient and still undecided.
Ori broke the silence. "When Akimoto arrives tomorrow how much are you going to tell him?"
"Everything we know. He will travel to Kyoto with you."
"No, better he stays, you will need a fighter here."
"Why?"
Again Ori shrugged. "Two is better than one. Now," he said it flat, "tell me where she is."
Hiraga described the place. Exactly.
"There were no bars on the windows or side door I could see." All day he had been wondering what to do about Ori--if Ori broke in to the house and killed her, whether he lived or died, the whole Settlement would be in uproar and their venom would first turn on every Japanese within reach.
"I agree she is a correct target for sonno-joi but not yet, not while I am accepted by them and learning so many of their secrets."
"Such a perfect target should be dealt with at once, Katsumata said to hesitate is to lose. We can get those secrets out of books."
"I have already said: I do not agree."
"At the same time I kill her we fire the Yoshiwara and thus the Settlement, the three of us, and retreat in the confusion. We do it two days from now."
"No."
"I say yes! Two or three days, no more!"
Hiraga thought about that, and Ori, very carefully.
Icily. Then again he decided: "It-is-forbidden."
The finality of the words washed over Ori. For the second time in as few days. Both times over her.
No sound in the room now. Both impassive.
Outside they could hear the wind. It had dropped a little. From time to time it crackled the shoji's oiled paper. Ori sipped, seething, implacably committed but showing none of it, knowing that if both his arms were as strong as before and he was as agile as before, he would be readying to dive for his sword to fend off the attack that, unless he surrendered, was inevitable.
Never mind. In a direct fight, even if I was totally fit, Hiraga would always beat me to the first cut. Therefore he must be removed from my path in another way.
With a will to match the new enemy who was determined to thwart him, Ori vowed he would not be the first to break the silence and so lose face. Pressure between them soared. In seconds it became unbearable, now cresting...