THE CURSED SWORD
Days later, Matsudaria travelled to an old abandoned temple at the base of Norikura-dake Mountain, which he had found many years before. He had chosen this place as the new dojo and had already taken the new students, Mihiro and Oryo, to start their training there. Lin was still at the house guarding it while they finished moving. Meanwhile, Matsudaria sent Kanami and Ayase to a nearby town to deliver some ordered katanas (swords) and to collect the payment. These swords were ordered by one of Matsudaria’s friends who wanted them delivered to this town to another person’s house, which was going to pay a great amo
NEW PUPILS.
One day a group of six girls between seventeen and twenty-two years old came to Matsudaria’s house. Kanami received them; she recognized two of the girls. They were two of the three girls she and her sister saved months ago from the ninjas outside the Kashiwabara village. One of the girls told Kanami that they wanted to talk to master Matsudaria.
Later, Matsudaria went outside to see what the girls wanted. The older girl told Matsudaria that she had a message from her father. It was a scroll with the message inside of it, and she gave it to Kanami. Kanami just took one of her training shoes off and grabbed the scroll with
LIN’S STORY.
It was three months after the old dojo slaughter. The rumours about mysterious ninjas without arms began to spread all over the Shinano Province. People started to call them “ude no nai ninjas (armless ninjas)”, but most people in the village referred to them as setsudankanjas (amputee) ninjas from their sensei, Matsudaria.
Mitsuyoshi Akagi had sent his men to find the two Kunoichis (female ninjas) that so savagely killed Akagi’s personal bodyguard Oushi. But after three months, he had not found them even though he was sure their master was Matsudaria.
Only some old friends of Matsudaria knew where he
THE ENEMY
The girls arrived back at the old dojo. The girls had already separately decided to let Jun go. But when they arrived there, Jun had already escaped. Only the silk ribbons remained on the floor. Both girls looked at each other, and Kanami signalled that they should retreat.
From the shadows, came a metal chain wrapping around Ayase's legs and dropping her to the floor. Kanami tried to help her sister but a huge shadow came from behind, swinging an enormous sword. Kanami dodged, and hit him several times with her boot blades but he kept coming after her. Ayase was trying to free herself from the chain as she watched her sister batt
RETURNING HOME
On their way to the village, they saw a fire in a nearby forest. They thought it was someone camping near the village, so they approached. But instead of a normal camp they spied something shameful--four shadow ninjas had kidnapped three teenage girls, and had tied them up. Even worse, one of the ninjas was touching and kissing one of the girls as she struggled to get away from him. “Come on let’s have some fun. Give me a kiss.”
But as soon as he put his lips together and closed his eyes the ninja felt pain in his mouth and saw a bright flash as he landed in the campfire fire. While he was trying to put out
SADNESS
Two weeks had passed since the day the girls had put their dresses on. The training had not stopped, but now they had more spare time to help Matsudaria in the smithy and with the daily tasks at the dojo. As the days got colder, Matsudaria gave each student an ankle long winter kimono made of silk to cover their legs and back from the cold weather.
Matsudaria began to teach the girls how to work the steel to make weapons. He wanted to make special weapons for them to use in combats and also to keep their minds occupied on other matters, especially Ayase.
Ayase was still depressed, because she hadn't received the same opportunity as