Read Musashi: Bushido Code for Free Online Page A

intense and resolute, frightened Okō into halting her attack.
    Takezō felt his bones wobbling, his teeth rattling. Never had he encountered such a formidable adversary. Not even when he'd looked up at the horses galloping past him at Sekigahara had his heart palpitated so. He sat cringing in the corner of the room.
    "Go away, please," he pleaded. "Go back to your own room. If you don't, I'll call Matahachi. I'll wake the whole house up!"
    Okō did not budge. She sat there in the dark, breathing heavily and staring at him with narrowed eyes. She wasn't about to be rebuffed. "Takezō," she cooed again. "Don't you understand how I feel?"
    He made no reply.
    "Don't you?"
    "Yes, but do you understand how I feel, being snuck up on in my sleep, frightened to death and mauled by a tiger in the dark?"
    It was her turn to be silent. A low whisper, almost a growl, emerged from a deep part of her throat. She said each syllable with a vengeance. "How can you embarrass me so?"
    "I embarrass you?"
    "Yes. This is mortifying."
    They were both so tense they hadn't noticed the knocking at the door, which had apparently been going on for some time. Now the pounding was punctuated by shouts. "What's going on in there? Are you deaf? Open the door!"
    A light appeared in the crack between the sliding rain shutters. Akemi was already awake. Then Matahachi's footsteps thudded toward them and his voice called, "What's going on?"
    From the hallway now, Akemi cried out in alarm, "Mother! Are you in there? Please answer me!"
    Blindly Okō scrambled back into her own room, just adjoining Takezō's, and answered from there. The men outside appeared to have pried open the shutters and stormed into the house. When she reached the hearth room she saw six or seven pairs of broad shoulders crowded into the adjacent, dirt-floored kitchen, which was a big step down, since it was set at a lower level than the other rooms.
    One of the men shouted, "It's Tsujikaze Temma. Give us some light!"
    The men barged rudely into the main part of the house. They didn't even stop to remove their sandals, a sure sign of habitual uncouthness. They began poking around everywhere—in the closets, in the drawers, under the thick straw tatami covering the floor. Temma seated himself royally by the hearth and watched as his henchmen systematically ransacked the rooms. He thoroughly enjoyed being in charge but soon seemed to tire of his own inactivity.
    "This is taking too long," he growled, pounding his fist on the tatami. "You must have some of it here. Where is it?"
"I don't know what you're talking about," replied Okō, folding her hands over her stomach forbearingly.
"Don't give me that, woman!" he bellowed. "Where is it? I know it's here!" "I don't have a thing!"
"Nothing?"
"Nothing."
    "Well, then, maybe you don't. Maybe I have the wrong information. . . . "He eyed her warily, tugging and scratching at his beard. "That's enough, men!" he thundered.
    Okō had meanwhile sat down in the next room, with the sliding door wide open. She had her back to him, but even so she looked defiant, as though telling him he could go ahead and search wherever he had a mind to.
"Okō," he called gruffly.
"What do you want?" came the icy reply.
"How about a little something to drink?"
"Would you like some water?"
"Don't push me . . ." he warned menacingly.
"The sake's in there. Drink it if you want to."
    "Aw, Okō," he said, softening, almost admiring her for her coldhearted stubbornness. "Don't be that way. I haven't been to visit for a long time. Is this any way to treat an old friend?"
    "Some visit!"
    "Now, take it easy. You're partly to blame, you know. I've been hearing about what the 'moxa man's widow' has been up to from too many different people to think it's all lies. I hear you've been sending your lovely daughter out to rob corpses. Now, why would she be doing a thing like that?"
    "Show me your proof!" she shrieked. "Where's the proof!"
    "If I'd been planning to dig it out, I wouldn't