Free Blood Ninja by Nick Lake Page B

marry.”
    Kira bowed. “Indeed. Let us hope that he makes the choice wisely.”
    Hana’s calligraphy master cleared his throat. “Sir Kira—did you wish me to end the lesson?”
    “No. I merely came to inform Lady Hana that I am departing on a mission for her father, a very dangerous mission to recover a lost asset. It is a great honor, of course, that I have been entrusted with a matter of this magnitude.” Preening proudly, he ran his fingers through his greasy hair, which in the samurai way was long and tied back .
    A man who boasts about his honor, thought Hana , doesn’t have much of it. But she said, “What is the … asset which you are sent to recover?”
    Kira put a finger to his lips. “It is some-something Lord Oda wished above all to possess. But those he sent to find it failed him. I will not. And when I return with it … who knows? Lord Oda will no doubt wish to reward me, his loyal servant.” He bowed once again to Hana and fixed her with his milky eyes. “Maybe, when I come back, our relationship will be set on a closer footing.”

 

    CHAPTER 11
     
    Black clothes floated into the hut, apparently moving of their own volition.
    Taro stared as the clothes dropped to the ground. Then, shocking him, a pair of eyes appeared suddenly in the air.
    “You don’t see me?” said Shusaku’s voice.
    “I s-see your eyes,” stammered Taro.
    The eyes bobbed up and down.
    Taro stared blankly.
    “Oh, I apologize,” said Shusaku. “I was nodding.”
    Taro continued to stare. Hiro turned to him. “What’s going on? You don’t see him? He’s right here. He has black writing all over his body. Kanji.”
    Taro shook his head. “No, I don’t see him.”
    He saw the disembodied eyes turn to the pile of clothes. A pair of hakama trousers rose into the air, followed by a cloak. They floated into position around a pair of legs and a torso, which Taro now saw clearly, beneath a pair of eyes that hovered in empty space.
    A long, black scarf now drifted up into the air and wrapped itself around the invisible head several times, until what stood in the hut before Taro was again a man dressed all in black, with only his eyes visible. He knelt by Taro and gripped the arrow in his shoulder. “This is going to hurt,” he said, before pushing the point right through and out the back. Taro gagged, just as he did for the second arrow. But again, on looking at the wounds, he was amazed by how quickly his flesh healed over.
    When the pain had died down, he looked hard at Shusaku. “Why couldn’t I see you, just then?” he asked. “Is that a ninja trick?”
    “Not quite. It’s a trick against ninjas.”
    “How does it work?”
    Shusaku narrowed his eyes at him. “You can’t guess?”
    “The tattoos,” said Hiro. “They protect you.”
    Shusaku nodded. “Did you read them?”
    “No. I can’t read.”
    The ninja shook his head, as if disappointed. He turned to Taro. “And you?”
    “No.”
    “A disgrace.”
    “I can’t see your tattoos,” said Taro. “And anyway, none of the villagers can read.”
    “Precisely,” said the ninja. “The villagers are uneducated peasants.” Taro wondered what the man expected—he and Hiro were peasants too. Shusaku sighed, then rolled up a sleeve. The effect was disconcerting. For Taro, the man’s arm simply disappeared.
    But Hiro could obviously see something. He leaned forward, as the ninja traced a gloved finger along empty air.
    “ Shiki fu i ku, ku fu i shiki, shiki zoku ze ku, ku zoku ze shiki . Form is emptiness and emptiness is form. Form is not different from emptiness, and emptiness is not different from form. It is the Heart Sutra. An old teaching of the Buddha. For spirits, it acts like a spell. It reminds them that form and emptiness are equal—andso it conceals my form. Evil spirits, like good spirits, are incapable of denying Buddha’s truths.”
    “But I’m not a spirit,” said Taro.
    “You’re a vampire now,” the ninja explained. “And