"Trivial matters are nothing but that," he said. "Whenever they're investigated, they'll be cleared up." The only thing that did make him unhappy was the thought that with every passing day, the anti-Nobunaga coalition was getting stronger: the powerful Mori clan was building up its defenses, making plans with the Honganji, calling on the faraway Takeda and Hojo in the east, and inciting the clans of the Japan Sea coast. How strong these forces really were could be understood by observing the fact that Araki Murashige's castle in Itami, which the central army was presently besieging, had still not fallen.

What Murashige was depending on, and what the Bessho clan was stubbornly hold­ing on to, was not only their own strength and their own castle walls. Soon the Mori army will come to our aid! Nobunaga will be defeated soon! That was it. Generally, the worst state of affairs was not in the enemy Nobunaga faced directly but in the enemy waiting in the shadows.

The two ancient forces of the Honganji and the Mori were quite correctly Nobunaga's enemies, but it was Araki Murashige at Itami and Bessho Nagaharu, at Miki Castle, who were grappling directly with Nobunaga's ambition.

That evening Hideyoshi suddenly decided to have a bonfire lit, and was warding off the night cold, when he turned to see the carefree young pages drawing up close to the fire. They were half naked even in the cold of the First Month, and were making a noise over something that seemed to be amusing them.

"Sakichi! Shojumaru! What in the world are you two in an uproar about?" Hideyoshi asked, almost envious of their lightheartedness.

"Nothing at all," answered Shojumaru, who had recently become a page, and he hurriedly dressed and adjusted his armor.

"My lord," Ishida Sakichi interjected. "Shojumaru's embarrassed to talk to you about it because it's disgusting. But I'm going to speak up, because if we don't tell you, yc might get suspicious."

"All right. What is this disgusting thing?"

"We've been picking lice off each other."

"Lice?"

"Yes. At first someone found one crawling on my collar, then Toranosuke found one on Sengoku's sleeve. Finally, everybody was saying that everyone else was infested, and in the middle of it all, when we came here to warm ourselves by the fire, we found lice crawling all over everyone's armor. Now they've started to itch, so we're going to massacre the entire enemy army. We're going to purge our underwear just like the burning of Mount Hiei!"

"Is that so?" Hideyoshi laughed. "I guess the lice are also worn out from being besieged in this long campaign."

"But our situation is different from that of Miki Castle. The lice have plenty of provisions, so if we don't burn them out, they'll never give up."

"That's enough. I'm beginning to itch, too."

"You haven't taken a bath for over ten days, have you, my lord? I'm sure the 'enemy’ must be holding out all over you in swarms!"

"That's enough, Sakichi!" To the delight of the pages, Hideyoshi rushed over and shook his body at them as further proof that the lice were not swarming over them alone. They laughed and danced around.

Just then a soldier peeked in from outside the camp enclosure at the happy, laughing voices and the billowing warm smoke.

"Is Shojumaru here?"

"Yes, I'm here," Shojumaru said. The soldier was one of his father's retainers.

"If you're not busy with some errand, your father would like to see you."

Shojumaru asked for Hideyoshi's permission. Since this request was not ordinarily made, Hideyoshi looked surprised, but quickly gave his assent. Shojumaru ran off, accompanied by his father's retainer. Fires were burning at all of the small encampments, and every one of the units was in a cheerful mood. They had already run out of rice cakes and sake, but some of the New Year's spirit remained. This evening marked the fifteenth day of the First Month. Shojumaru's father was not in camp. Despite the cold, he was sitting on a camp stool that had been placed at the crest of a hill far from the makeshift barracks.

There was no shelter from the wind, and it stung the flesh and almost froze the blood. But Kanbei stared out intently into the dark expanse, as though he were a wooden statue of a warrior.

"Father, it's me."

Kanbei moved slightly as Shojumaru stepped to his side and knelt.

“Did you receive your lord's permission to come?"

"Yes, and I came right over."

"Well then, sit on my camp stool for just a little."

"Yes, sir."

"Look at Miki Castle. The stars are not out, and there's not a single lamp lit in the castle, so you probably can't see a thing. But the castle will appear dimly out of that void as your eyes get accustomed to the darkness."

"Is that what you wanted me for, sir?"

"Yes," Kanbei said, as he yielded the camp stool to his son. "For the last two or three days I've been watching the castle, and somehow I get the feeling that there is movement going on inside. We haven't seen a bit of smoke for half a year, but some is rising now, and perhaps that's evidence that the grove that envelops the castle—and the only thing that screens it from the outside—is being cut down and used for firewood. If you listen very carefully late at night, it seems that you can hear voices, but it's difficult to say whether they are crying or laughing. Whichever it is, the fact is that something unusual has happened inside the castle over the New Year."

"Do you really think so?"

"There's nothing that has actually appeared in form, and if I made a mistake and talked about it carelessly, it might cause our men to become tense for no reason. That could be a serious mistake on my part and create an unguarded moment the enemy could take advantage of. No, it's simply that I sat here on this camp stool looking at the castle last night and the night before, feeling that something was going on. Not just looking with my eyes but with my mind's eye."

"This is a difficult watch."

"Yes, it is difficult, but you could also say that it's easy. All you have to do is calm your mind and get rid of delusion. That's why I can't call any of the other soldiers. I want you to sit here instead of me for just a little while."

"I understand."

"Don't doze off. You're right in the middle of a chilly wind, but once you get used to it, you'll get sleepy."

"I’ll be all right."

"One other thing. Inform the other generals as soon as you get even a glimpse of something like fire in the castle. And if you see soldiers leaving the castle from any point, light the fuse of the signal flare and then run to His Lordship."

"Yes, sir."

Shojumaru nodded as he looked calmly at the flare that had been planted in the ground in front of him. It was a natural battlefield situation, but his father did not once ask him if the task was difficult or painful, nor did he ever try to soothe the boy. Shojumaru understood quite well, however, that his father was always teaching him the common sense of military science, according to the event or time. He could feel an inward warmth, even in his father's gravity, and considered himself to be extremely lucky.

Kanbei picked up his staff and limped off toward the barracks. But instead of entering the camp, he seemed to be continuing on alone down the mountain, and his attendants asked nervously where he was going.

"To the foothills," Kanbei answered simply, and even though he was supporting

himself with the staff, he began to hop down the mountain path almost with a lightness in his step. The men who had been accompanying him, Mori Tahei and Kuriyama Zensuke, bounded down the mountain after him.

"My lord!" Mori called. "Please wait!"

Kanbei stood,folding his staff for a moment, and looked back toward them. "It's you two?"

"I'm surprised how fast you're going," Mori said, panting. "With that injured leg, I’m afraid you'll get hurt."