It was the last day of the young shinobi’s three weeks of training granted him by the clan, upon completion of his introductory mission from the mountain village into the heart of the Takeda samurai clan's capital of Kofu. His group-- himself, Kaida (a shugenja), Fuma (another ninja (a.k.a. shinobi) and Minoru (also a shinobi ) had been sent to obtain and deliver a certain tea ceremony vessel from the grand residence of a newly-wealthy merchant. On the way from the Kumo clan's hidden mountain Village, they had encountered old, predatory oni of the mountains- and wisely outrun it and followed different route. And passed in disguise through Takeda samurai clan checkpoints at in the city. And avoided a battle with yakuza thug gangsters in dark backways of the city. They had penetrated into the interior of the merchant's vast mansion, and encountered the ghost of an ill-fated servant. But they had failed to take possession of and deliver the master craftsman's tea vessel. But in their Kumo clan's elders' eyes, they had succeeded. They had worked together, as an independent unit on its fledgling mission. They had found the objective (or at least its believed general area). No one had be lost death or capture and torture. And most important, no samurai or enemy ninja had been led back to the Village. For that, the young members of the clan were granted three weeks-- 30 days-- to train.
Tough Mozu-sensei*** with his weathered face said, Well done, Jinsei-kun. Today your last day of training. And then your nakama*** will leave the Village again. This time with no specific assignment-- other than to go and see and hear in Nippon and report back to the clan what you have observed. In other words, you have the freely-ranging Crow assignment. As you were told, you must report to the village at least once every month. In person, or by message. You weren’t told before, but messages should be sent to a tea house in Kofu called Uiguisu no Michi.***** The oiran****** there are members of our Kumo clan. Any messages to them should be in the form of a love-struck young samurai writing of his adventures to his lover.
Well. I’m sure you have heard that members of the clan have found a band of tengu deep in the mountains north of here. It’s believed that they may be guarding a giant cedar tree that is thousands of years old. Or maybe they are just attracted to it. It is kami, of course.
As you know, tengu are master swordsmen. There have been some humans in history who have claimed to be trained in kenjutsu by tengu, but only a very few. But there are many people who have encountered tengu and derived some benefit from it. There was an impoverished boy whom tengu gave a pair “one-tooth clog” to. Every time he fell down while wearing the clogs, a gold coin would appear. But the tengu warned him not to fall down too much or he would grow smaller. His greedy uncle took the clogs from him and fell down repeatedly. The boy went to his house and found a big pile of gold coins with a bug on it. He threw the bug away and took the coins home to his widowed mother. The bug was his uncle, of course.
So, if I were a young swordsman like yourself, I would go and try to meet these tengu. They are not necessarily hostile to humans, and they may provide some gift or boon. But you must remember that though they mayy look like humans and speak in the language of Nippon, they are not at all human. They are birds. Crows, to be specific. And they think like birds. They are quite intelligent like crows, but they do not at all understand how a human thinks. So they make give away something that has little value to them, but is very valuable to a human. Such as gold coins. On the other hand, they may think they are providing a human with help, when they are actually causing them harm to their situations-- or their health.
As I said, tomorrow will be last day of training-- for now. You have chosen kenjutsu as a skill to spend your effort and sweat and the limited and invaluable days of your life as a skill to work toward mastering. As have I. When I see you again, I expect you to have surpassed my skill with the sword. So you can be the teacher, and I the student. Good luck to you, Fuma and Kaida on your journeys as Crows.
*A uniquely designed multi-purpose ninja sword
**”Forms.” Set moving patterns of attacks, defenses, and counterattacks against an imagined opponent.
***"Shrike-teacher"
****A set group, a tight circle of insiders
*****”Nightingale Path”
******Professional female entertainers; courtesans. Direct predecessors of the geisha
