For half an hour the battle raged. Kingyo-Sama kicked, Buta-Sama flipped, but always the thief was too nimble. Until suddenly, seeing his enemies tire, Akira stopped and knelt. He held up his sword, signalling surrender.
‘I am defeated,’ he said.
Akira took off his mask. Long dark hair tumbled to his shoulders. Kingyo-Sama and Buta-Sama gasped.
He was not a he … but a she!
‘The Lady Kiko,’ whispered Kingyo-Sama. ‘The shōgun’s secret sister!’
‘Yes.’ Kiko nodded. ‘It is I.’
‘But why?’ asked Buta-Sama. ‘Why steal his cuddly teddy?’
‘Because once it was mine,’ said Kiko. ‘I’d had it since I was a baby. But when my brother became shōgun, I became his slave, and my possessions became his. All I had left was my teddy. But my brother wanted it for himself. So he banished me to the Desert of Shi (death) and left me there to die.’
A single tear tumbled down her cheek.
‘And now you have come to take it back to him.’
Buta-Sama and Kingyo-Sama hesitated. Finally both kowtowed.
‘I cannot take this bear from you,’ said Kingyo-Sama. ‘The laws of Bushidō forbid it. It is against the samurai code.’
‘I cannot take it either,’ Buta-Sama said, yawning. ‘My tummy’s rumbling and I need to have a nap.’
Kiko looked up. She nodded. ‘You are both honourable men. Of course, if you do not take it, my brother will dangle you by your dongles in his deepest darkest dungeon. But men as brave as you will have no fear of that.’
There was a moment’s pause. A bat scratched. A drop of water dripped.
And then Kingyo-Sama and Buta-Sama dived for the bear.
‘It’s mine!’
‘It’s mine!’
‘It’s mine!’
‘It’s mine!’
They bit, they kicked, they poked, they flicked, they scratched, snatched, scraped and scritched. Until finally, clothing ripped and topknot twisted, Kingyo-Sama grabbed the bear and raced out of the cave.
‘Noooooooo!’ shrieked Buta-Sama, panting in pursuit.
Kiko watched them leave. ‘Idiots,’ she breathed. She had planned to lose the battle.
‘It’s over,’ Buta-Sama whimpered. ‘Kingyo-Sama cannot be caught. He runs too fast. His belly is too small.’
They had been chasing the samurai for many hours. ‘You must get there before him,’ urged Little Pig.
‘How?’ wailed Buta-Sama. ‘He is many miles ahead!’
Little Pig whispered in his ear. Buta-Sama grinned.
‘NINJA!’ he commanded. ‘LEND ME YOUR UNDERPANTS!’
Kingyo-Sama staggered up the steps of Edo Castle. He crawled past the hatamoto and collapsed in front of the shōgun. ‘I have brought you back Oguma-za,’ he croaked.
‘Yippee!’ squealed the shōgun. ‘My snuggle-wuggles, my cuddly-wump, my fluffety wuffety scruff!’ He reached out to take his tiny teddy. ‘Kingyo-Sama of the samurai,’ he squeaked, ‘I hereby make you ruler of the –’
Everyone looked up. There was something flying through the window. Was it a bird? Was it a plane?
No. It was Buta-Sama, pinged by a stretchy Pant-a-Pult, all the way from Ku fu Canyon.
He crashed to the ground, rolled to his feet and grabbed the bear’s left leg.
‘I found it too!’ he cried. ‘The prize belongs to me!’
‘You filthy fart-breathed fool,’ snarled Kingyo-Sama, tightening his grip. ‘The race is over. I won!’
‘It’s not over till I say it is!’ growled Buta-Sama, tugging on the teddy. Kingyo-Sama tugged right back.
Oguma-za was torn in two.
Everyone froze.
The bear’s insides burst open.
It was filled with stuffing and dust and …
‘ITCHING POWDER!’ screeched the shōgun.
The shōgun was right. Itchy-scritchy powder sprayed across the room. It went up everyone’s sleeves. It slid down everyone’s underpants. Eyeballs bulged, cheeks went red. The hatamoto howled.
‘Arrest them!’ screamed the shōgun. ‘Tie them up! Burn their bums! Tickle their tiniest toes!’
Kingyo-Sama and Buta-Sama raced from the room, a hundred hatamoto hot on their heels.
They sprinted through the city. They scampered into the hills. ‘We didn’t do it! It wasn’t us!’ they whimpered as they ran.
High on the castle battlements, a lone figure watched Kingyo-Sama and Buta-Sama run away. It was Kiko, dressed in black, a teddy tucked under her arm (the real Oguma-za).
She watched them trip each other up. She watched them fall. She watched the hatamoto dive on top of them. She smiled. Then she rose to her feet, silent as the wind, and disappeared into the night.
Deep underground, beneath the walls of Edo Castle, was a dark, dank dungeon.
The walls were wet. Rats and spiders scurried in the shadows.
It was cold and black and scary.
In the centre of the room, two dirty figures swung from side to side, dangled by their toes from the ceiling.
One was a ninja. The other was a samurai. Neither one of them looked pleased.
The samurai turned to the ninja.
‘I will get you for this, brother Buta,’ he croaked. ‘Mark my words. One day soon, I will have my vengeance.’
Glossary
baka idiot
Bushidō samurai code of honour
buta pig
Edo Period a time in Japanese history between the years 1603 and 1868
hatamoto shogun’s personal guard
kamishimo a traditional outfit worn by samurai during the Edo Period
kemushi hairy caterpillar
kimono traditional Japanese dress
konnichiwa hello
ku fu terror
mink-u-i buta ugly pig
ninja a covert warrior from ancient Japan
nodo no kingyo thirsty goldfish
sama a mark of respect put after someone’s name, normally used for a person of great importance
samurai Japanese warrior or knight
sayonara goodbye
shi death
shinobi shōzoku traditional ninja outfit
shōgun supreme military ruler of the Edo Period
shuriken small-bladed weapon
sumo a Japanese wrestler
zetsubou despair
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Version 1.0
Samurai vs Ninja 2: The Race for the Shōgun’s Treasure
Copyright © Nicholas Falk 2015
Illustration copyright © Tony Flowers 2015
The moral right of the author and illustrator has been asserted.
A Random House Australia book
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First published by Random House Australia in 2015
National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication Entry
Author: Falk, Nic
holas
Title: The race for the shōgun’s treasure [electronic resource]
ISBN: 978 0 85798 637 5 (ebook)
Series: Samurai vs ninja; 2
Target Audience: For primary school age
Subjects: Samurai – Juvenile fiction
Ninja – Juvenile fiction
Other Authors/Contributors: Flowers, Tony
Dewey Number: A823.4
Cover and internal illustrations by Tony Flowers
Internal design by Tony Flowers
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