Kyoto. The seat of power in Japan. A seat ripe for the taking for those who have the will and strength. Katashi, a general in the service of the great daimyo Oda Nobunaga, muses that his lord will soon be sitting in that seat.
Katashi has spent the last day in the city gathering intelligence, getting the lie of the land and listening for the movements of other warlords roaming throughout the countryside, enemies of the Oda who would take everything the clan has fought to build. Two names continue to rise the highest among the din: Takeda Shingen, the Tiger of Kai, and Uesugi Kenshin, the Dragon of Echigo. Both men aren’t to be underestimated and Katashi plans to deliver news of their movements to Nobunaga. As soon as he’s finished enjoying all the pleasures the city has to offer on his week-long stay.
A man of large appetites, the general struts through the pleasure district of Kyoto with his men, drinking their way through tavern after tavern. After a while, Katashi directs them towards a brothel and as they stagger into the place, the general calls to the madam to show him her wares.
As the girls are brought out, Katashi eyes them one by one, scrutinising every little detail. He’s a discerning man with a taste for a specific type of beauty that makes him feel something. He’s never quite sure what the feeling is, only that he knows it’s there. The rest of his men can settle for any old whore but not him. He will only accept the best.
His gaze settles on a slip of a girl with dark hair pinned into a bun, bright eyes and simple clothing. Katashi cannot put into words what it is about the girl that holds his attention. She could be the daughter of any farmer. Maybe it’s her eyes. It’s not the same dead-fish gaze all the others have. There’s still a spark of life in this girl’s eyes, a desire for something more that mirrors his own.
Katashi chooses the girl, and they spend the night together. The next night, Katashi returns to see her again and the night after that. The general is captivated by the uncomplicatedness of the girl, how she submits to hiswhims and passes no judgement as he drinks and rants about his wife not giving him the respect he deserves.
On the fourth night, after drinking more sake, Katashi lies in bed, ready to be attended to by the girl once again. As he calls for her, he feels a pain in his throat. He coughs and notices the room is starting to spin. He looks to the girl, who flickers on the edge of his vision, her lips pursed into a thin line. Katashi coughs again, the pain getting worse and he shudders in the bed, the poison in his body finally finishing him off.
The girl turns away from Katashi, steeling herself to death as she has done so many times before. Her name is Mochizuki Chiyome and she is no stranger to dealing death in the name of her lord and benefactor Takeda Shingen.
Taking a moment to recompose herself in the mirror, Chiyome rumi- nates on everything she’s endured to manoeuvre the Oda general into a position of vulnerability. The degradation of her body, the insults and propositions from faceless men, the squalor and filth of her lodgings, the identity of a commoner. All of it has been necessary for completing her mission, an acceptance she became comfortable with long ago. With Katashi dead, the Oda have lost a powerful warrior and her lord’s location is kept safe.
What concerns Chiyome the most is the safety of the rest of her spies in Kyoto, the girls she’s handpicked from war-torn battlefields and broken homes, who she convinced to seduce, infiltrate, steal and kill to make a real difference in Japan. To serve a cause greater than themselves and find pur- pose. For the thousandth time, Chiyome questions herself as to whether she spent enough time training and preparing them, whether she has any right to hold their lives in her hands at all.
Chiyome spares a fleeting glance at the dead general, recalling how poorly he treated his wife, how poorly all the women under her care have been treated and her resolve hardens again. This is the only way any of them will ever be able to have a voice, a say in what happens in the country.
She closes the door behind her, drops a coin pouch into the hands of the madam, leaves through the back of the building and disappears into the crowds. One more woman lost in a world of men.
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