blown by the wind. The ronin gave a heavy sigh and hung the gourd around his neck. “Well, shall we get going?” he muttered. “I’m going to need a lot more sake if I’m going to keep traveling with the pair of you.”
* * *
We reached Yashigi just as the sun was going down, casting long shadows over the valley and turning the river the color of blood. The long wooden bridge over the Hotaru Kawa teemed with people entering and leaving town; merchants with carts, ronin, peasants, a few mounted samurai, all mingled together, hooves, wheels and sandaled feet thumping and groaning as they crossed.
“So many people,” Yumeko murmured, gazing around with wide eyes. “Even more than Chochin Machi. I’ve never seen so many people in one place.”
Beside her, the ronin chuckled. “This is nothing, Yumeko-chan,” he told her. “Just wait till you see the capital.”
An imperial magistrate, flanked by two mounted guards, clopped down the center of the bridge on horseback, parting the crowds before them like waves. Discreetly, I moved to the side of the road, keeping my gaze averted and blending into the passersby. The magistrate and his guards passed without pause and continued across the bridge, though I did notice the ronin eyeing me with suspicion when they were out of sight.
Across the bridge, a wide main road cut through the center of town, branching into dozens of side streets. Rows of wooden buildings with blue-tiled overhangs lined the sidewalks, rectangular cloth signs fluttering in the breeze. Despite the fading light, people still milled about the streets: women in kimonos, samurai sauntering through the crowds, merchants standing outside their businesses, enticing customers to enter. A tofu seller jogged past us, two large wooden buckets balanced from a pole on his shoulder. A trio of boys clustered around a stall selling cooked eel, watching as the vendor pulled live eels out of a barrel, drove a nail through their gills to fillet them and placed the skewers on the grill.
As they’d been in Chochin Machi, Yumeko’s eyes were wide, her gaze never still, as she took everything in. As we moved down the sidewalks, the ronin was all too happy to point things out and to offer an explanation on whatever questions she had. I said nothing as we wove through the foot traffic, keeping a firm hand on Kamigoroshi and scanning the crowds for danger. The girl and the ronin remained oblivious, but I had felt eyes on us the moment we crossed the bridge. There was no doubt in my mind; we were being watched.
“Man, I’m starving,” the ronin stated, pausing at the entrance of a restaurant, blue curtains hanging over the door. A fat tanuki statue wearing a straw hat and clutching a sake bottle stood beside the entrance, beckoning travelers inside. “What do you think, Yumeko-chan?”
Yumeko blinked at the statue and crossed her arms. “I don’t think this is a proper representation,” she stated in a serious voice. “I’ve never known any tanuki to have that big a scrotum.”
The ronin made a spitting noise and turned away, coughing and beating his chest. “He means food, Yumeko,” I explained, as the ronin gasped and waved his hand at us in agreement, leaning against the wall. “This is a restaurant, if you want to get something to eat.”
“Oh,” Yumeko said, and frowned. “Well, of course. I’m fairly hungry myself. Though I still think the statue is all wrong.” She sniffed and passed it by, wrinkling her nose. “How would one even walk with those dragging along the ground? I would think they’d get horribly chafed.”
I managed not to wince as I followed her through the door, but just barely.
“Welcome, sir, welcome!” the host greeted as we came into the room. Though I brought up the rear, he looked only at me, ignoring the ronin and Yumeko entirely. “Will you be dining with us tonight?”
“Three of us,” I told him, earning a brief, puzzled look as he glanced at my companions. It wasn’t every day a samurai sat down to eat with a ronin and a peasant girl. Under my flat stare, however, he quickly bowed and ushered us to a low table in the corner. After explaining that our waitress would be right over, he bowed once more and left.
A young woman arrived soon after, and both Yumeko and the ronin enthusiastically placed their orders, while I tried not to think of how this would deplete the last of my coin. After the waitress