"Listen for my command! Tie your Do-maru Armor tight, put on your fighting helmets, and don't you dare charge in like reckless wild boars!"
The slanting sun hung its haze over the water, and the reeds swayed in the shore's halo. Monk Official Shiba Shin'i stood on solid earth, yet a heavy unease surged in his heart, leaving him adrift like a lone boat at sea. Wearing a helmet shaped in the Buddhist image of a Celestial Dog, he widened his fierce eyes and peered hard into the depths of the woods along the bank.
At that moment, he wished so desperately that a force of Sanda ambushers would truly emerge from the sparse Ezo mountain forest and prove the uneasy instinct he had honed through years of slaughter. As long as even one band of the Sanda Tribe showed itself, he could justly and openly announce a retreat at once and return to the safety of the Kan-style ships. Unfortunately, after delaying and watching for a long while, he saw not the slightest stir of wind in the grass. All that ill omen seemed, just as Master Juehui had said, to be an illusion born of his insufficient Dharma and the fear in his heart...
"Boom! Boom, boom!..."
"Exorcise demons and guard the Way, uphold the True Dharma!"
"Seize the gold and offer it to Buddha!"
The urging war drums sounded from the Kan-style ships behind him. Spurred by faith and gold, the Warrior Monks let out fanatical cries, like wild boars gone mad and impossible to rein in. Even if these Warrior Monks had been trained by his own hand, their true nature was still that of devout disciples of the Tendai Sect, not warrior vassals of the Shiba Clan. Monk Official Shiba Shin'i had no choice but