The shoya was waiting for him. Sensing the man's eagerness to learn what he had learned, Hiraga toyed with him, accepted the offer of a massage.

Then, relaxed in a proper yukata, and over a delicate lunch of rice, dried squid, morning fresh sea bass sliced paper thin with soya, daikon--horseradish--and sak`e, he said he had had talks with important gai-jin and they had answered his questions. He sipped his sak`e and volunteered none of it.

Important information needed encouragement.

Reciprocity. "What news from Kyoto?"

"It is all strange," the shoya said, glad that the opening had been given him. "My Masters informed me the Shogun and the Princess Yazu arrived safely and are inside the Palace.

Three more ambushes by Ogama patrols of shishi ... no so sorry, no details yet of how many killed. Lord Ogama and Lord Yoshi hardly move from behind their walls... But Shogunate samurai now guard the Gates, as in the past."

Hiraga's eyes widened. "They do?"

"Yes, Otami-sama." The shoya was delighted that the bait was taken. "Strangely, a little distance from all Gates, there are secret pickets of Ogama samurai, and, from time to time the opposing captains confer secretly."

Hiraga grunted. "Curious."

The shoya nodded and, like the good fisherman he was, struck hard. "And oh yes, not that it may be of importance to you but my overlords believe the two shishi I mentioned before, Katsumata, and the Choshu shishi, Takeda, escaped capture in Kyoto and are travelling on the Tokaido."

"To Yedo?"

"My Masters did not say. Clearly the news would be of no value." The shoya sipped some sak`e, hiding his amusement at Hiraga's attempt to cover his consuming interest.

"Anything to do with shishi could be of significance."

"Ah, in that case... although it's unwise to relate rumors," the shoya said, pretending embarrassment, judging the time ripe to land this fish, "they report there is a story around the Inns of Kyoto that a third person escaped the first ambush. A woman, a samurai woman skilled in the art of shuriken... what is it Otami-sama?"

"Nothing, nothing." Hiraga struggled for composure, a thousand questions ricocheting in his mind.

Only one woman samurai in Katsumata's school had ever gained that skill. "You were saying, shoya? A woman of samurai lineage escaped?"

"It's only a rumor, Otami-sama.

Foolishness. Sak`e?"

"Thank you. This woman, was there anything else?"

"No. Such a silly rumor is hardly worth reporting."

"Perhaps you could find out if, if such nonsense has any truth to it. I would like to know. Please."

"In that case..." the shoya said, noting the big concession of "please," his voice honeyed with a trace of humility. "Any service to you and your family, valued clients, the Gyokoyama is honored to do."

"Thank you." Hiraga finished his sak`e.

Sumomo had been in Kyoto with Katsumata... Where is she now, why didn't she go on to Shimonoseki as I ordered, what was she doing, if she escaped where is she?

In repayment, and with an effort, he put those and other questions aside for later, and concentrated. He took out a sheaf of notes and began explaining, partially parroting, what "Taira" and "Mukfey" had told him over the hours. The shoya listened intently, thankful that his wife was secretly overhearing them and writing it all down.

When Hiraga had rambled about loans, financing, and banking--unclear on most of what he had been told--the shoya, impressed with Hiraga's memory and grasp of what was so totally alien to him, said seriously, "Remarkable, Otami-sama."

"Another important matter." Hiraga took a deep breath. "Mukfey said gai-jin have a kind of market, shoya, a stoku markit where the only goods bargained for, bought or sold, are small printed papers called stoku or sheru that somehow represent money, huge amounts of money, each stoku being part of a kompeni."

He drank some tea. Seeing the shoya's lack of comprehension, he took another deep breath. "Say daimyo Ogama gave all Choshu, all land and produce of the land to a kompeni, the Choshu Kompeni, and decreed that the kompeni was to be split, by deed, into ten thousand equal parts, ten thousand sheru, understand?"

"I... I think so, please go on."

"Thus the stoku of the Choshu Kompeni is ten thousand sheru. Next, the daimyo, on behalf of the kompeni, offers all or any part or number of sheru to anyone with money. For their money the man or woman get this piece of paper saying how many sharu of the Choshu Kompeni he has bought. This person then owns that part of the kompeni and therefore the same proportion of its wealth. The money he and others pay into the kompeni then becomes its kaipit'r, I think this Mukfey gai-jin said, the money needed to run and improve the wealth of the kompeni to pay stipends, or reclaim land or buy arms, or seeds, or improve fishing boats, to pay whatever is necessary to increase and make Choshu prosper, to make the value of the Choshu Kompeni higher.

"Mukfey explained that... He said in any market, Shoya, prices change, in famine times often daily, no? It's the same in this daily stoku markit with hundreds of different kompeni, buyers and sellers. If the Choshu harvest is huge, the value of each part of the Choshu Kompeni will be high, if famine, low.

The value of each sheru varies also. Understand?"

"I think so," the shoya said slowly, understanding very well indeed, covertly afire with delight and questions.

"Good." Hiraga was tired but intrigued by these new ideas though at times lost in their maze. He had never, ever, bargained in a market, or an Inn, just paid what was asked, when asked, never in his life argued about the cost of anything or the amount of a bill--except since he became ronin.

Bills were always sent to whoever received his stipend, if you were samurai. If unmarried, normally to your mother. Buying and handling money was the job of women, never of men.

You ate what she--mother, aunt, grandmother, sister or wife--bought from your stipend, you clothed or armed yourself in the same way. With no stipend you starved, you and your family, or you became ronin, or voluntarily had to give up your samurai status and become a farmer, laborer, or far worse, a merchant. "Shoya," he said, frowning. "Prices vary in a food or fish market. But who decides the price?"

The guild of fishermen or farmers, the shoya could have said, or more likely the merchants who really own the produce having lent them the money to buy nets or seeds. But he was much too cautious, most of his energy spent trying to remain calm in the face of so much priceless information, however incomplete. "If there are lots of fish, they are cheaper than when there are few. It depends on the catch, or the harvest."

Hiraga nodded. Obviously the shoya was being devious, hiding the truth or twisting it. But that is only normal for merchants and moneylenders, he thought, suddenly deciding to keep any meeting between Mukfey and this man in reserve, and also to keep for later the last piece of kompeni lore that, for some reason he could not fathom, intrigued him more than the rest: that if you were the one who formed the kompeni, you decided how many stoku you reserved for yourself, without payment, and if the number amounted to fifty-one or more out of every hundred, you retained power over the kompeni. But why...

His head almost burst with sudden understanding: With no outlay you became the kompeni Shogun, the bigger the kompeni the bigger the Shogun... with no outlay!

When sonno-joi is fact, he thought weakly, we--the samurai council--we will recommend to the Emperor that only our council may form kompeni, then, at long last, we control all the parasites, the merchants and moneylenders!

"Otami-sama," the shoya was saying, not having noticed any change in Hiraga, his own mind agog with the marvelous information he had gleaned, "My overlords will be most grateful and so am I.