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| Barrier station in Arai |
29p
Chosuke, the father of Emoshiti Yatou who laid sick in his bed told his
son, "it is unfortunate that I am not going to carry out the private
promise between Oishi and me. However it is for lack of an alternative,
and you have to carry out my will." Then, he died. Emoshichi had
wished to be a part of the revenge, and he went down the Tokaido-Line
to meet his uncle who was a retainer of Daimyo in Shirakawa, Ohshu.
His intention was to take his mother there and put her in his uncle's
refuge. It was his first trip, besides he was only 17. When they got to
the border of Arai,he found out that he needed to get his mother a
female ID card, called Sekisho-tegata(a license to pass border).
Without it she wouldn't be allowed to pass. Without any other choice,
she followed the trail back to Ako to meet up with her aquaintantces
there.
Wondering whether she was safe, Emoshiti was determinded to go down
to Edo.
Chapter 6
Preparing for revenge
Some of the comrades who had formerly lived in Edo, were how living
separately and very busy gathering the detailed information of Kira's
residence at Honjo. They faked their identity,for instance, Maebara-
Isuke was selling rice and corn under the name of Komeya-Gohei at the
back gate of Kira's residence. Nearby was a grocery shop run by
Kanzaki-Yogoro, under the name of Azukiya-Zenbei. One of their
comrades had even been pretending to be a doctor.
30p
More than 50 of them had arrived in Edo when Kuranosuke settled down
in Oyamaya's house in November. They all changed their names and social
positions and were put up at fourteen separate inns. However, the invisible
tie that linked them, was that they were all secretly planning for the
mission.
From time to time, Kuranosuke had four groups of the younger men to
investigate the current situation of Kira and Uesugi's residence. From
October to November espesially at night, it was severly cold in Edo. In
spite of this, these people kept a fire in their mind, working hard for
the
mission behind their veil.
The purpose of their investigation was to find out when the subject,
Kozukenosuke is at home, how each rooms is located, how much new
comers are strictly searched when they go in and how much help the
Uesugis would offer during in a battle.
In Kira's residence, predicting a revenge attack by Ako Roshi, they
were getting more and more cautious each day. Since they moved into the
Honjo, this had become so extreme that they even conducted strict ID
clarification for all merchants at the entrance.
Horibe-Yasube and Ushioda-Matanojo had got hold of a map of the inside
of Kira's residence after a long effort. However they were not convinced
that the map was totally reliabe being wary of its age so. Therefore,
Maebara and Kanzaki who were positioned at the back of the palace were
making great efforts to see what was behind the wall. This attempt caused
them great pains. When they were called away due to a fire, they went up
on
the roof, and when it was very windy, they went out or to the laundry floor
to look down at Kira's residence. Thus they were able to correct the
blueprint of Kira's residence.
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