'You killed my friends!' Jack seethed, clenching his katana handle so tightly his knuckles turned white.

A fiendish grin lit up Kazuki's face as he delighted in Jack's torment. 'I promised that I'd destroy you, gaijin. That means not only killing you but anyone who's helped you and in particular those you love.'

He sneered at the word, then clicked his fingers. The inn's main shoji overlooking the garden slid open. Akiko was on her knees, bound and gagged, a wooden block in front of her. Hiroto stood behind, wrenching her head back by her hair, a knife held to her throat. The hulking Raiden was beside them, his formidable nodachi sword unsheathed.

Jack glared at Kazuki. 'You vowed not to harm Akiko, remember? In return, I saved your life.'

'That's true, gaijin.' Kazuki stroked his chin thoughtfully. 'And I'm a samurai of my word. That's why I won't lay a finger on her.'

He nodded towards Raiden and Hiroto.

'But I can't say the same for my companions.'

Hiroto cut the rope binding Akiko's right arm. Seizing her wrist, Raiden forced her hand on to the block and held it firmly in place with his foot. Despite her obvious pain and discomfort, Akiko's expression remained defiant.

'A hand for a hand that's fair, don't you think?' said Kazuki, massaging his black-gloved claw.

'Stop!' begged Jack, throwing down his katana. 'I surrender. I'll do anything you want. I'll even commit seppuku. Just leave Akiko alone.'

Kazuki laughed. 'What I want is for you to watch, gaijin.'

Raiden raised his nodachi over his head to sever Akiko's hand. Akiko screwed her eyes shut, bracing herself for the agonizing cut ... There was a flash of steel and a sickening howl of pain. Raiden's nodachi clattered to the ground as he clasped his bleeding face in both hands. Between his fingers, the sharpened point of a shuriken gleamed.

Snatching up his katana, Jack charged along the walkway to rescue Akiko. His surrender had been nothing but a ruse to allow him to grab the shuriken he'd taken from the archer's body. In one fluid movement, he'd slipped the star from his obi and flicked it with deadly accuracy at Raiden's right eye. As he now dashed across the garden past the cypress tree, Akiko held up her hand, signing for him to stop. But it was too late. A blade scythed out of nowhere. On instinct alone Jack ducked, the sword slicing so close it shaved off a lock of his hair.

'Not so fast, gaijin,' Goro snarled, his blade coming round for a second attack.

Jack blocked it with his katana and the two blades sparked off one another. He kicked Goro in the chest. Goro stumbled backwards but kept his feet. He slashed low with his sword. Jack jumped the blade and brought his katana down on to Goro's head. Goro's sword met the katana halfway. The two weapons jammed, and Jack and Goro became locked in a power struggle through the garden.

As Jack fought for his life, Akiko drove herself upwards and threw her head back. There was a dull crunch as Hiroto's recently healed nose imploded once again. He collapsed to the floor, sobbing with pain. Akiko seized his knife with her free hand and drove the blade through his shoulder, pinning him to the floorboards. Hiroto writhed like a harpooned fish.

Half-blinded and maddened with pain, Raiden now tried to stamp-kick Akiko where she lay. Still bound by the ropes, Akiko was in no position to fight off the monstrous young samurai. She frantically rolled across the inn floor, trying to free herself before Raiden could land one of his skull-crushing kicks.

'Leave the gaijin to me, Goro,' Kazuki ordered, leaping from the tea house. 'Go and help Raiden kill Akiko.'

Goro immediately disengaged and headed for the open shoji. Jack chased after him, but Kazuki blocked his path.

'Revenge is long overdue, gaijin,' he declared, pointing his black-handled katana at Jack. 'But it'll be all the sweeter for it.'

57.

Revenge As his rival advanced on him, Jack drew his wakizashi and took up a Two Heavens stance. He realized this would be a fight to the death. No more running. No lucky escapes. Their feud was destined for a bloody end, one way or the other.

'Can you still do the Two Heavens with a fingertip missing?' Kazuki smirked.

'Why don't you find out for yourself?' challenged Jack, impatient to reach Akiko before it was too late.

Kazuki's cut was so fast that Jack barely had time to deflect it with his katana. The razor-sharp steel whistled past his ear like a lightning bolt. As Kazuki pulled back, Jack felt a bee-like sting across his cheek.

'Clearly not,' gloated Kazuki, flicking Jack's blood from his blade.

A thin red line ran along Jack's face where Kazuki's blade had caught him. The cut wasn't deep, the pain yet to fully register, but first blood had been drawn and laying claim to the opening victory meant everything in the battle to come.

'I'm going to bleed you like a stuck pig,' Kazuki declared. 'Cut by cut.'

Then he attacked with a vengeance, his blade slicing in a series of deadly arcs. Jack had to apply all his skill just to defend against them. Although he had the advantage of two weapons, Kazuki was a supreme swordsman. Even with his injured right hand, Kazuki had adapted and become more lethal. Moreover, he knew how to evade and counter every Two Heavens technique. Whatever Jack tried Running Water strike, Lacquer-and-Glue, Monkey's Body Kazuki foresaw and retaliated with devastating consequences. He cut Jack across the forearm with a switchback slice. Then he avoided Jack's attempt at an Autumn Leaf strike, feigning a thrust and turning it into a diagonal cut to his shoulder. Jack drove forwards to deliver a Flint-and-Spark strike, their blades scraping fiercely against one another. But Kazuki masterfully deflected the thrust and sliced through Jack's kimono, leaving a nasty gash across his chest.

Wincing in pain, Jack was forced to retreat. He was exhausted from the previous battles, worn out from their frantic escape, and his strength was further sapped with every cut Kazuki inflicted.

This wasn't how he'd envisaged their final duel.

Kazuki prowled towards him, his sword dripping with Jack's blood. 'You seem distracted, gaijin. Didn't Sensei Hosokawa teach you fudoshin?'

A samurai must remain calm at all times even in the face of danger.

But how could Jack remain calm and focused when Akiko was in such peril? He glanced anxiously in her direction. She'd managed to shed her bonds, but was now cornered by Goro and Raiden. Weakened from her arrow wound and without a weapon, she was doomed to die.

Kazuki smiled. His ploy had worked. With Jack's attention briefly on Akiko, he clenched his gloved hand into a fist. The secret blade inside his kimono sleeve shot out. Rushing forward, he drove the deadly weapon at Jack's heart.

Realizing his potentially fatal error, Jack leapt away. The steel tip ripped through his jacket, just missing his skin by a whisker. He smashed the blade aside with his wakizashi and retreated once more.

'You don't catch me twice with that trick,' Jack panted, recalling the first time Kazuki had revealed his secret weapon.

'How about a third time?' replied Kazuki, cocking his head to one side.

A pair of meaty arms clamped down on Jack from behind and held him like a vice. Jack struggled, but Nobu's grip was crushingly strong. Kazuki held up his secret blade and gave a triumphant grin.

'Time to gut you, gaijin!'

He drew back his arm to thrust the razor-sharp steel into Jack's defenceless stomach. At the same time Goro and Raiden closed in for the kill on Akiko. Jack fought wildly to free himself, but deep down he knew all was lost.

The end had come.

Then there was a crash of doors as a dripping wet Saburo burst through the inn's main entrance. His arrival was followed by a yell from above that made Jack, Kazuki and Nobu all look up.

Plummeting down like a multicoloured angel of death, Benkei dropped from the tree. Stood directly beneath, Nobu panicked and let go of Jack, who dived aside as Benkei crashed on top of Nobu, flattening him like a pancake. Nobu groaned weakly, then lay still. Benkei rolled off and got unsteadily to his feet, one ankle still tethered to the snare where he'd cut it with his knife.

'Thank goodness for a soft landing!' said Benkei, patting himself down for injuries.

While Benkei dropped from the tree to save Jack, Saburo had rushed to Akiko's aid. He'd charged at Goro, their swords clashing, and driven him backwards into the half-blind Raiden. His surprise attack had given Akiko the opportunity to steal Hiroto's katana and she was now battling Raiden and his nodachi.

Sensing his long-awaited revenge slipping from his grasp, Kazuki roared in rage. 'You will die, gaijin!'

It was now Kazuki who'd forgotten the principle of fudoshin. 'It's your fault! All your fault my mother died,' he spat. 'Gaijin are a disease. A plague that must be wiped from the face of this earth. And I will destroy you!'

His anger consumed him, his hunger for revenge overwhelming all rational thought. His katana and hand blade became a whirl of steel as he attacked Jack with the brutal fury of a man possessed.

Jack fought back with equal passion. Encouraged by Saburo's miraculous survival and Akiko's fighting spirit, he'd regained his warrior's sense of control. The two of them battled through the garden, their blades ringing like deathly tolls as the steel struck, blocking and countering one another. Neither could break through the other's defence.

Panting from exhaustion, Jack and Kazuki circled one another, their eyes locked in a battle of wills. Jack had drawn upon all his reserves to fend off his rival, but he knew Kazuki was the stronger in this duel and so did Kazuki.

From within the inn, Raiden cried out as his nodachi rolled across the floor and he clasped what remained of his severed hand. With one eye gone and an arm disabled, Raiden had had enough and fled from the inn. His desertion didn't go unnoticed by Kazuki. Although he didn't break his stare, Jack spotted the tip of Kazuki's sword tremble ever so slightly.

'Suki a break in composure and concentration. That is your opportunity to attack,' the Shodo master had said.

Realizing his opportunity, Jack flipped his wakizashi in his hand, deftly swapping to the reverse grip he'd mastered with Shiryu. Spinning on the spot, he knocked Kazuki's sword aside with his katana, then drove the tip of the wakizashi backwards. Caught totally off-guard by the unconventional technique, Kazuki was skewered through the side. The blade penetrated all the way through, pinning him to the trunk of the cypress tree behind.

Kazuki gasped in agony, his eyes widening in shock. 'That wasn't the Two Heavens!'

Disbelief registered on his face as he looked down at the shaft of steel piercing his right-hand side, just below the ribs.

But Jack wasn't finished with him. Letting go of the wakizashi's handle, he followed through on his spin, whipping his katana round, ready to decapitate his rival and end their blood feud for good.

58.

All in Vain 'NO, JACK!'

The blade stopped a hair's breadth from Kazuki's neck, Jack's killing stroke stayed by a voice from the grave.

'Revenge has no more quenching effect on the emotions than salt water on thirst,' said Yori, entering the garden.

Jack couldn't believe his eyes. Yori's robes were singed at the hem, the tip of his shakuj charred black, and he walked with a slight limp. But his friend was alive. 'Yori ... you survived the fire! But how?'

Yori smiled serenely up at him. 'The same way we survived the Way of Fire at the gasshuku the Heart Sutra meditation. Part of the barn wall burned down and I walked out through the flames.' He lifted a foot, the skin of his sole blistered red raw. 'But I admit I've yet to perfect the technique.'

Kazuki groaned in pain, a bloodstain blossoming where the wakizashi impaled him to the tree.

Jack still held the katana to his throat, the urge to follow through almost overpowering. After the years of torment and suffering Kazuki had inflicted upon him and his friends, he surely deserved to die.

'Let him live,' said Yori. 'There's no place for anger or rage in bushido.'

'But Kazuki's responsible for Miyuki's death!' argued Jack, his sword hand trembling in its desire for justice.

'Completing your journey would be the best revenge,' Yori replied calmly. 'Honour her sacrifice not through hate and killing, but through triumph and mercy. Remember, the Way of a Warrior is not to destroy and kill, but to foster life. To protect it.'

Jack was struck by Yori's words. They were exactly the same as Sensei Yamada's three years before, when his Zen master had spoken with him about his desire for revenge against Dragon Eye. 'But why should Kazuki survive? If I'd been the one to die, Miyuki wouldn't hesitate to end his life. I owe it to her.'

'Then you must decide whether you're a samurai or a ninja, Jack.'

Yori turned his gaze upon Kazuki. 'But think on this: a far greater punishment than a quick death would be a long life lived in the knowledge that his efforts were all in vain. That he'd failed in his duty as a samurai to the Shogun. The loss of face would be unbearable.'

Kazuki scowled at Yori, the truth of his words cutting deeper than any sword.

Jack pressed his katana against Kazuki's throat, drawing a thin line of blood. It would be so easy to end this feud. But would he be any better than his rival if he killed out of revenge? Sensei Yamada's counsel came once more to his mind: Rectitude, your ability to judge what is wrong and what is right, is the keystone to being samurai.

Kazuki glared up at Jack, daring him to push harder.

With immense willpower, Jack withdrew his blade. He of all people knew that revenge didn't heal the wounds of the heart. The death of Dragon Eye had brought him little comfort; he still deeply missed his father and no day passed when he didn't think of Yamato. So why would executing Kazuki be any different? Whether his rival was dead or alive, the loss of Miyuki would haunt Jack forever.

But, by showing compassion at least, he could hold his head high and know his rival suffered too.

He pulled out his wakizashi with a sharp jerk. Kazuki collapsed to his knees, clutching his wounded side, blood seeping through his clasped fingers.

'I despise you ... gaijin,' he spluttered, pure malevolence in his eyes.

'And I ... forgive you,' replied Jack, the words hard to say, but even harder for Kazuki to accept.

The bitter shame of defeat and Jack's unexpected mercy crushed him. In a last-ditch attempt to save face, he turned his secret blade upon himself. But Jack stamped on the steel, snapping it from its fixings, and kicked the blade away into the bushes.

Curling up in a ball, Kazuki sobbed in frustration, 'You won't even let me die an honourable death! Curse you, gaijin!'

From inside the inn, Goro spotted Kazuki at Jack's feet, bowed and defeated. Immediately he broke off his fight with Saburo and bolted out of the inn's entrance. Akiko stood over the pinned Hiroto, his katana clasped in her hand.

'Please ... don't kill me,' he pleaded.

Bending down, Akiko pulled the knife from his shoulder and, with a kick to his rear end, sent him on his way. He blundered after Goro.

'When the tree falls, the monkeys scatter,' observed Yori with a wry smile.

Saburo and Akiko joined them beneath the cypress tree. Although Akiko looked pale, their victory had given her renewed strength and she strode over without help from Saburo.

'You arrived in the nick of time, Saburo,' said Jack.

'But we saw you die,' said Yori, overjoyed to find his friend safe.

'Then I must be a ghost,' he teased, wringing the water from his kimono sleeves.

'So how did you survive?' asked Akiko.

'As we rolled down the bank, I managed to twist the tant round. The ronin impaled himself on his own knife. I knew the other samurai would slaughter me if I surfaced, so I used the ninja method of breathing through a reed, just like Miyuki had once shown me ...'

He trailed off, keenly aware of her absence, and a deep grief consumed the five surviving friends.

After a moment's silence, Akiko asked, 'But how did you both find us?'

Saburo managed a smile. 'I spotted Benkei hanging from the tree!'