The Whipping Boy || Kokuzan/Michizan Vers. ||

Revealing Michikatsu's plan to trick the villians.

Sanemi popped a clove of garlic into his mouth, and helped himself to a veal pie. "Nothing like garlic to clear the head and fend off the plague. Genya, give the boys a ration of breakfast".

The scrawny outlaw sliced off two thick pieces of coarse bread. He dropped a salt herring across each slice "Eat hearty, little ones."

"This disgusting stuff!?" Muzan glared at the bread and herring. "It's not fit for flies!"

"Why, we eat it regular, worms and all," said Genya, picking the bones of the pheasant.

"I'll starve first!"

"Suit yourself," Genya snickered. 'This is the first time we've feasted off the king's own table, and there's hardly enough for me and Nemi"

Michikatsu sat on the bed of straw beside the prince and contemplated his breakfast. He examined the bread closely, hunting for varmints. The prince, he knew, had never been starved enough to pick out wildlife from his meals.

"Eat," he whispered. "I can't find any crawly things in it."

"The bread's stale," grumbled Muzan.

"Stale enough to patch a roof, but I've had to eat worse."

Muzan began to nibble around the edges. Sanemi glanced over and grinned.

"Take a chaw of garlic, whipping boy. It'll improve the taste considerable."

Genya wiped his thin lips with the back of his hand. "Nemi, how do we know the prince hasn't laid out a trap for us in that message? He could have said one thing and wrote another. Where'll we find someone to read it off to us?"

Michikatsu lifted his chin to a regal height. "You doubt the word and honor of your prince? Isolent oafs! Curs! I'll have you horsewhipped."

Genya yanked Michikatsu to his feet. "Who are you calling names? I'll thrash your skin pink as salmon."

Sanemi pushed him aside. "Keep your wits. It's worse than common murder to lay hands on a prince. No need to break any more of the king's laws than we have to. If it comes to a whipping, there's his whipping boy.

Muzan's eyes widened and his face blanched white. The prospect of taking a whipping himself has never occured to him. "But, sir, it wasn't me who called you names!"

Genya gave a sudden cackle. "Sir, is it now? That's more like it. But tell the prince here to keep a civil tongue in his head."

Muzan shot Michikatsu a poisonous look.

The garlickly outlaw was leaning closer to Michikatsu.

"See here, Prince, it's not that we doubt your word and honesty. Not a bit! But all the same---- let's hear you read off the message."

Michikatsu turned away from the man's breath and began to read.

"No, no, boy. Let's have it from bottom to top. Read it backwards. I do hope for your whipping boy's sake you don't stumble and trip as if the real words aren't on paper."

Michikatsu shrugged. "It says.... 'Son Obedient Your.'"

"'Your Obedient Son,'" said Sanemi. "Keep at it."

"'Jewels and gold of cart full a of ransom a demand they.'"

"'They demand a ransom... of a cart... a full..." The outlaw himself began to stumble and trip over the words. "Alright, that's the ticket."

Michikatsu read through the message backward. And then a second time before the outlaw was satisfied.

"Now then," he said "All we got to do is get the message to the king without getting nabbed in the act."

"Simple," declared Michikatsu. "Send it to the castle in the hands of my whipping boy."