text: "It is regrettable you were not able to kill that person," Goemon said thoughtfully. "It will undoubtedly cause more trouble, and the Presence wanted the matter dealt with before any coal of discontent could turn into a full-blown religious fire."
  
  Jiro moved uncomfortably in his seat, his hands folded in his sleeves. "Had I known we had a commission, nothing would have stayed my hand."
  
  "Oh, stop your bemoaning, you two!" Okiku demanded sharply. "We can always take care of him later. I am glad we are united. What do we do now?"
  
  Goemon raised an eyebrow. "Return to Miyako, of course. There are official duties waiting for me."
  
  "Nonsense!" scoffed Rosamund. Jiro always wondered at her bluff ways, something no other woman displayed, at least publicly. "I'm tired of being cooped up in that mansion all day. Let's have a holiday."
  
  "A holiday?" asked Goemon, scandalized. "It is necessary to work hard. If a superior man minds his ways, his family will prosper. If the family prospers and attends to its business, the government prospers. If the government attends to its business, the country prospers. How then can a superior man engage in frivolities?" The sententious Confucian phrases rang readily from his lips. His face was held in humorless lines, black brows contracted under his shaven pate.
  
  "Oh, foof!" declared his blonde paramour, accurately if inelegantly, "If you don't take me," she pouted, "I'll get Okiku and Jiro to take me on a pilgrimage of Shikoku Island. That'll show you. You'll have to go without me for months!"
  
  He grinned. "I'll just have to lay Osatsuki. Or Oko, your delectable little maid."
  
  "Hmf," sniffed Rosamund. "You'll never hear the end of it."
  
  Okiku intervened before the argument could get more serious. "You can't return to Miyako yet, Goemon. You are supposed to be on pilgrimage. Breaking it off in the middle would be considered a bad omen. In any case, we cannot return to Miyako before the matter of Master Daisangyoja is settled."
  
  "Very well. We shall have to go to Yoshino to wait."
  
  "There is another possibility," Okiku continued. "Let us go down to Kumano, by the coast. There might be some news of Daisangyoja and his men. The yamabushi normally exit the mountains at the southern end, and we will hear news of them there."
  
  "We will go to Nachi," Jiro rumbled quietly from his seat.
  
  "Nachi? Why Nachi?"
  
  "I have always wanted to pray at the famous falls shrine there. Also, the Goki cast my fortune, and it was said I need visit the shrine. We are going to Nachi."
  
  Goemon shrugged. Jiro was always easy tempered, but there was a streak of stubbornness in him. Once his mind was made up, it was impossible to make him see reason. In any case, Goemon also felt the need to travel. Living the regimented life of a city governor with all it entailed was more than a bit tiresome. "Very well. Nachi Falls it is, then."
  
  "And no retainers," added Rosamund sharply. "I'm tired of the palanquin."
  
  "I have an idea," Goemon said thoughtfully. "We can go to Wakayama, on the coast. My retainers will wait there while I cloister myself in one of the temples. Goemon and his friends can then travel by boat to Kumano."
  
  Okiku clapped her hands joyfully. "Oh, yes! That's a wonderful idea. There are boats there for rent. And the time is just right."
  
  "Osatsuki can return to Miyako or wait for us in Wakayama."
  
  "She is afraid to travel alone," cautioned Okiku.
  
  "Besides," added Rosamund sweetly, "you do so want to lay her... Why, my love, you're blushing!" She laughed maliciously.
  
  "And wherever Satsuki goes, Midori is sure to come too," Okiku added. "They have sworn sisterhood, and Midori acts as Satsuki's apprentice."
  
  "Okiku, my dear, it seems we two are superfluous. We should let these four travel by themselves, and you and I shall find some pretty boys and have fun by ourselves." Rosamund was goading Goemon deliberately. He knew that; nonetheless his fist clenched on his thigh.
  
  "I see you are anticipating an entertaining time," Okiku laughed at her friend.