Chapter 20 : The Scorpion Gang

'What do you want?' demanded Yamato, stepping between Jack and the

approaching gang.

The two groups of boys confronted one another.

It was getting dark in the school courtyard, the only light coming from

the entrance to the Hall of Butterflies. Other students passed by, oblivious

to the impending conflict, and there were no sensei in sight to witness a

fight.

The tension grew as Yamato waited for an answer, his eyes daring

Kazuki to make a move.

'Dinner,' said Kazuki cheerfully in response, before walking on past

with his friends, laughing.

For the next month, Yamato and Saburo stuck close by, but there appeared

little need. Kazuki and his gang ignored Jack as if he no longer existed.

Kazuki in particular seemed more intent on training for the Circle of Three

selection. Jack had spotted him several times in the Butokuden receiving

extra tuition from Sensei Kyuzo.

Although neither of his friends said anything, Jack sensed they were

beginning to doubt his story.

Even though Masamoto had returned to the school, Jack hadn't

managed to meet with him before he was called away on yet another

assignment for daimyo Takatomi. But with the apparent threat coming to

nothing, and Moriko not having been seen in the grounds since, there

seemed little point in meeting with him anyway.

'I'm going for a walk,' said Jack, passing by Yamato's room on the

way out of the Hall of Lions. 'I need some air before bed.'

'At this time of night?' observed Yamato, frowning. 'Do you need me

to come with you?'

Despite the offer, Yamato looked far from willing. He had already

settled down on his futon, it was cold outside and the Shishi-no-ma was

warm.

'No, don't worry. I'll be fine.'

Besides, Jack needed time alone to think.

Stepping outside, he wandered round the courtyard before perching

upon one of the beams that would eventually support the floor of the Hall of

the Hawk.

The new building was rapidly taking shape. The foundations had been

completed and the main wooden pillars were now in place. When finished,

the hall, although half the size of the Butokuden, would nonetheless be an

impressive addition to the school.

Like all the other students, Jack wondered what martial art he would

learn within it. That was if he was still around.

Although his fears of an anti-gaijin campaign were supposedly

unfounded, he couldn't help noticing that certain students seemed less

friendly towards him. He had always been isolated by the fact that he was

different. During his first year at the school, Akiko had been his only true

ally, but after his victory at the Taryu-Jiai most of the students accepted

him. Now, many had started to ignore him again, looking through him like

glass.

Of course, he could be imagining it. He was struggling with his

training and had lost confidence in making it into the top five in the

forthcoming Circle of Three selection trials. It had been getting him down

and this could be distorting his perception. But did he really have any hope

of entering the Circle and going on to learn the Two Heavens?

Jack looked up at the night sky for an answer, but this time the familiar

constellations his father had taught him offered cold comfort. The nights

were drawing in and autumn would soon give way to winter, signalling the

start of the trials.

'Eh, gaijin! Where are your bodyguards?' demanded a voice that made

Jack's heart sink.

He turned to face Kazuki. This was the last thing he needed.

'Leave me alone, Kazuki,' replied Jack, slipping off the cross-beam

and walking away.

But other students emerged from the darkness to surround him. Jack

looked towards the Shishi-no-ma for help, but there was no one around.

Akiko, Yamato and Saburo would be in bed, if not asleep, by now.

'Leave you alone?' ridiculed Kazuki. 'Why can't your kind leave us

alone? I mean, what do you think you're doing in our land, pretending to be

samurai? You should give up and go home.'

'Yeah, go home, gaijin!' echoed Nobu and Hiroto.

The circle of boys took up the chant.

'Go home, gaijin! Go home, gaijin! Go home, gaijin!' Despite

himself, Jack felt his face flush with humiliation at the taunts. He

desperately wanted to go home, to be with his sister, Jess, but he was

stranded in a foreign land that now didn't want him.

'Just leave… me… alone!'

Jack tried to escape the circle, but Nobu stepped forward and pushed

him back. Jack collided with one of the other boys who shoved him the

opposite way. He stumbled into the cross-beam and, as he fell to the

ground, Jack caught hold of a boy's kimono, ripping it open.

'Now look what you've done!' exclaimed the boy, kicking Jack in the

leg.

Jack was curled up with pain. Still he couldn't help staring at the boy's

exposed chest.

'What? You want another?' asked the boy, drawing back his leg for

another kick.

'Goro, I think he's admiring your tattoo,' said Hiroto in the same thin,

reedy voice Jack now recognized as belonging to the fourth person at the

irezumi ceremony.

'Look great, don't they? We've all got one, you know.' Hiroto pulled

back his own kimono, revealing a small black scorpion. Then he gave Jack

a cruel kick in the ribs.

He kicked him again for good measure and the Scorpion Gang laughed

as each of the boys revealed their tattoos and lined up to kick Jack too.

'Leave him!' Kazuki ordered. 'A sensei's coming.'

The boys scattered.

As Jack lay there, shaking with a combination of pain, rage and shame,

he heard the familiar click of a walking stick upon the stone courtyard and

Sensei Yamada shuffled up.

Leaning upon his bamboo stick, he looked down at Jack just as he had

done almost a year previously when Kazuki had first threatened him.

'You shouldn't play on building sites. They can be dangerous.'

'Thanks for the warning, Sensei,' said Jack bitterly, trying to hide his

humiliation.

'Someone giving you trouble again?'

Jack nodded and sat up, inspecting his bruised ribs. 'Some of my class

want me to give up and go home. The thing is I just wish I could go

home…'

'Anyone can give up, Jack-kun, it's the easiest thing in the world to

do,' Sensei Yamada cautioned as he helped Jack back to his feet. 'But to

keep it together when everyone else would expect you to fall apart, now

that's true strength.'

Jack glanced uncertainly at his teacher, but met only a look of

complete belief in him.

'I would ask you who it was,' continued Sensei Yamada, 'but it would

be of little consequence. You must fight your own battles, if you're to stand

on your own feet. And I know you can.'

Sensei Yamada accompanied Jack back to the Shishi-noma. Before

departing for his own quarters, he offered Jack one final piece of counsel:

'Remember, there is no failure except in no longer trying.'

Once he had gone, Jack considered the sensei's advice. Maybe the old

monk was right. He had to keep trying. The alternative was giving up, but

that would be exactly what Kazuki wanted him to do and he had no

intention of letting his rival beat him like that.

Gazing at the cold crescent moon that hung low in the sky, Jack vowed

to renew his training efforts. He would get up early in the morning and

practise his sword work. He would also ask Akiko for help with his archery.

He had to do whatever it took to be among the top five in the trials.

He had to learn the Two Heavens – if not to protect himself from

Dragon Eye, then to defend himself from the Scorpion Gang.

As he turned to enter the Hall of Lions and go to bed, Jack spotted

Akiko, dressed all in black, rounding the far corner of the Butokuden. She

was hurrying towards the side gate of the school.

Stunned, Jack now knew he hadn't been mistaken about the identity of

that first intruder. He had seen Akiko that night.

Jack ran across the courtyard in an effort to catch up with her, but

she'd disappeared by the time he reached the gate.

Luckily, the streets were deserted at this time of night and, glancing

left, he spotted a lone figure turn down an alleyway at the far end of the

road. This had to be her, but where was she going and why the secrecy of

night?

This time Jack wanted answers and hurried after her.