Snippet #2430372

Having crossed the Tsugaru Straights, and having experienced her first ever ride in a rocking, unstable, sickening ship, Shinka praised the Eternal Buddha, all the Bodhisattvas, and all the masters of her lineage for the ground she now treaded on in Honshu. This exuberance to be on land after the admittedly short distance they had traveled by sea remained with her throughout much of her landbound travels to the lands of her southern friends and neighbors, the Yukimura's, the dread of the return trip occasionally springing to mind. She and Koemi had been trekking across the country without major incident for quite a while and had come within possibly a day or two's journey from the supposed meeting. Whether Shinka was early, late, or had completely fabricated the meeting in her mind didn't matter at this point. Hokkaido was filled with stress, as people who want one dead are wont to cause, and Edo was not only free from such things, but contained an actual friend.

Unfortunately, the uneventful travels of Shinka and Koemi had ended prematurely. While Koemi had been sent out on an errand of some kind, her master, meditating in the room the generous inn had provided for a traveling nun, had been stumbled upon by a drunk. Now the accidental opening of her door had not broken her concentration on the phrase floating about in her mind, and the slurred apology had mended any damage that had been done. What had caused the ruckus, at least from Shinka's perspective, was the drunk's friends coming after him who were interested in the nun's blonde, streaked hair. It wasn't that unusual of a quandary, as she had experienced many like it, but now was not the time for answering; she had put off these meditations for over a week now and didn't want her lack of discipline to continue.

Then one of them, curiosity overtaking caution, touched it, and so the unrest began. She would have forgiven it graciously, but she had received a cut on her palm from when she struck the man's face. And she would have forgiven that had she not broken her sandal on his hip. And, at that point, the group of men, sans the drunk who had continued on to his room, weren't exactly forgiving themselves, and she now had to overcome a mob before getting back to her meditations.

The first fell with a dislocated shoulder and two broken ribs. The second was flung to the ground and experienced a rather debilitating backache from his impact upon the floor. The third was knocked unconscious by a palm suddenly striking the left side of his head and tumbled to the ground. The fourth tried to escape, but only made it out of the door before five fingers wrapped themselves around his calf and flipped his entire body, causing him to land in the courtyard spread before the rooms, several bits of gravel digging their way into his face and torso.

When the staff of the inn, understandably startled by the commotion arrived at the room, they found Shinka dragging the last of the bodies onto the veranda so they could be taken care of away from her. She glared at all the spectators that had emerged from their rooms to see what had happened, and then reentered her room, sliding the door closed behind her so that she may return to her task. She returned to her full lotus position, knees touching the floor with hands rested upon them, and attempted to block out all the noise from outside her room by chanting the mantra.