Twelve Lies I Told Shingen Takeda

Chapter One: Judgment Calls

My life changed the night I wrecked the timeline by shooting a sniper out of a tree.

I wouldn't discover I had bent the timeline for some weeks. But within an hour after sending an arrow into the hand of a bandit who'd been aiming a flintlock musket at a group of travelers, my familiar routine had altered for good.

Aki and I had been following a gang of bandits that were menacing the merchant traffic in the area around the mountain where Aki made his home. Our intention was to track them back their base of operations, then turn that information over to Ryoichi, the local Daimyo. Unfortunately, the bandits' path had first crossed another group of travelers, which meant that instead of simply following the bandits, Aki's plan morphed into a gig he called 'robber interruptus.'

Ok, that's a lie. I called it "robber interruptus." All Aki had said was, "here's what I want you to do..."

While Aki got into disguise as a drunken old man, I glided through the treetops to settle in the branches above where the travelers had camped for the night. My job would be to disarm the ones who were armed with muskets. Aki planned to use the element of surprise to scare off the rest. "Wait for my signal," he reiterated. "Katsuko, you are to stay hidden in the tree unless it's necessary."

I nodded. Aki wasn't terribly confident in my battle skills. While I ordinarily enjoyed a good practice bout, I had never been tested by the real thing.

As I waited for Aki to make his appearance, I took in the surroundings. The trees provided cover the bandits, though they were loud and clumsy enough for me to be able to pinpoint all of them. Twelve bandits, two armed with muskets, the rest with swords. They surrounded a campsite belonging to three travelers. The travelers' fire had died down, with only glowing embers remaining. Two lanterns, both attracting a party of fluttering moths, provided some illumination, enough for me to take aim at the man below me, who had his gun trained on the intended victims.

Twelve bandits against, three men. Not particularly great odds, even when I added in Aki's very good and my... dubious... fighting skills. Hence the need for the element of surprise. In the tree, I was a ghost, and perhaps a ghost slinging arrows at them would frighten the superstitious into running away.

I considered adding a ghostly howl to the whole deal, but... Aki hates it when I improvise.

I turned my attention to the travelers, wondering how much help - or hindrance - they would be. Ordinary travelers, merchants, usually, tended to panic in dangerous situations. But after getting a better look at them, I reassessed the odds: I recognized them, and these were not ordinary travelers.

The lantern light gleamed off the glasses of my friend Sasuke. He was a Ninja -- an asset in any fight. The man next to him gripped a spear with the ease of someone well used to battle – that was his friend Yuki, who was probably a spy or a soldier of some sort. The third man, I didn't know his name, but I'd once witnessed him successfully take on half a dozen sailors in a brothel in Sakai. If it weren't for the bandits with firearms, our help would be unnecessary. But, what's that saying? Don't bring a knife (or in this case a sword) to a gunfight.

An off-key singing filled the air, and Aki came stumbling along the path. I could smell him from where I was perched – he'd completely doused his clothing with sake. "Well, what's goin' on here? Is it a party?" Aki stumbled around, ricocheting off the bandits like a pinball in an arcade game, before spinning to a halt in front of the apparent leader. "Can I join the party?" He fumbled around some more, making sure to draw their attention to his coin purse.

Aki... is not subtle.

The bandits exchanged glances.

All going to plan. I aimed my arrow at one of the gunmen, ready for Aki's signal, then... something caught my eye. Something in a tree across the clearing... a sliver of moonlight catching a glint of metal... the spark of flint. Another bandit, hiding in the tree for insurance? Sniper? Whatever the reason, his musket was aiming toward Sasuke's group, who had arranged themselves back to back to back, swords out toward the tightening circle of bandits.