'Arisaka!' he called. 'We have to talk.'
For a moment, nothing happened. Then a movement rippled through the rebel ranks and the Senshi warriors parted as a group of three men moved through them – Arisaka, his face hidden by the almost demonic-looking red lacquered helmet, and two others. They stopped. On Arisaka's right was one of his lieutenants, a stocky Senshi nobleman, bearing a huge recurve bow. On the left was an older nobleman, also in armour.
Shigeru bowed to this last person. 'Lord Yamada, do you recognise me?'
The older man peered at the figure before him. He wasn't sure. His eyes weren't as good as they used to be and the person was some distance away. But he definitely looked like the Emperor.
'I was told an impostor had taken the Emperor's place,' he said, his voice uncertain.
Suddenly, the bowman on Arisaka's right moved, drawing back an arrow he had already fitted to the string.
'Death to the impostor!' he screamed as he shot. Shigeru stood, unflinching, as the arrow pierced his left upper arm, below the protective armour. Blood began to stream down over his white linen sleeve.
A roar of protest rose around the battleground, from friend and foe alike. The green branch of truce was sacrosanct. To breach it was an abomination in the eyes of the Nihon-Jan. But before anyone else could move, or the bowman could prepare another shot, Will whipped an arrow from his quiver, nocked, drew, sighted and released in one movement.
His arrow punched through the nobleman's armour like a hot knife through butter. The man staggered under the impact, his recurve bow falling from dead hands, then he crumpled to the ground.
The crowd grew suddenly silent, stunned by Will's lightning reply to the treacherous attack. Voices started to murmur again, uncertainly at first. But again, Shigeru stilled the crowd. Quickly, he took a scarf from around his neck and knotted it around the wound in his arm. Then he put his uninjured hand on Will's bow and took it from the young Ranger. His voice rang out once more.
'Enough! Enough bloodshed! Lord Arisaka, let's end this now.'
Arisaka's sword hissed from its scabbard. Once more, a murmur of strong disapproval rippled across the plain, both from his own men and his enemies. To draw a weapon in the presence of the green branch was a gross breach of the Senshi code of behaviour. Even Arisaka's troops could not condone such an action.
'This will only end with your death, Shigeru!' Arisaka screamed.
Yamada turned to him, the anger and shame he felt all too obvious on his face.
'Shigeru?' he repeated. 'Then you've known all along that this is no impostor? You lied to me and my men?'
Arisaka, furious beyond reason, tore the helmet and face piece from his head and hurled them to the ground in rage.
'He's weak, Yamada! Weak and dangerous! He will destroy everything that we hold sacred!' He glared now at Shigeru, his face flushed, his eyes blazing with hate. 'You want to destroy the Senshi class and everything it stands for! I will not allow you! I will stop you!'
'Arisaka.' Shigeru's deep voice was calm and reasonable by contrast. 'I will not destroy the Senshi. I am a Senshi. But for too long, the other people of Nihon-Ja have been repressed and downtrodden. I want to rule for all people. Like the Kikori here, and the Hasanu. The ordinary people have the right to have a say in our country. Tell your men to lay down their weapons now and let's live in peace. Let's live together in peace.'
'No!' Arisaka's voice was a shriek. 'My men will fight you. We will die if necessary! You may defeat us, but this will not be a cheap victory. Thousands will die here today!'
'That's something I cannot allow,' Shigeru said.
Arisaka laughed, a shrill sound that showed how close he was to snapping.
'And how will you stop it?' he demanded.
'I will stand down,' Shigeru said simply.
Arisaka recoiled in surprise, and exclamations of amazement went through the crowd.
'I will abdicate if that is the only way to stop this madness. Appoint another Emperor,' Shigeru continued. 'Lord Yamada, and Lord Nimatsu, I look to you to ensure that a proper choice is made. But I will not stand and watch thousands of Nihon-Jan, my people, lose their lives to preserve my pride. I will stand down.'
'You're bluffing, Shigeru!' Arisaka said. 'You won't give up the throne.'
'I swear that I will, if that will prevent thousands dying here today.' Shigeru let his gaze run round the faces of Arisaka's men as they watched this clash of personalities. 'I swear on my honour, before all of you here.'
Silence greeted his words as those watching realised that he was in earnest. Then Yamada's men began to mutter among themselves. They had come here under a false belief. They realised now that Arisaka had lied to their commander to make them break their oath to the rightful Emperor. If Arisaka ordered them to fight, their commander would refuse. And so would they. Now Arisaka could depend only on his own men.
Matsuda Sato was a low-ranked officer in Arisaka's army. He commanded a small group of twelve men and had led them in the service of his lord for seventeen years. In all that time, he had received scant recognition for his service or his loyalty. He had watched Arisaka brutalise his men, driving them mercilessly and punishing them severely if he believed they had failed him. Arisaka never rewarded good service, only punished that which he deemed to be bad. Sato, knowing no alternative, had always assumed this was the sign of a strong leader. Now he realised he was witnessing real strength – a man who would forsake the highest position in the land to save the lives of his subjects. This was leadership, Sato realised. This was a man to follow. Arisaka was exposed as a deceiver and an oathbreaker. Sato slid his katana, still in its scabbard, from inside his belt and dropped it to the ground in a sign of peace.
'Shigeru!' he shouted, raising his clenched fist above his head. The men around him looked at him in surprise. Then one of them copied his actions and joined him. Then another. Then two more. Then a dozen.
'Shigeru!'
The cry began to spread throughout Arisaka's men. The rattle of swords hitting the ground became continuous, like some monster hailstorm, and the voices swelled, another dozen, then fifty, then a hundred, then more.
'Shigeru! Shigeru! Shigeru!'
Then the Kikori joined in, letting their shields and javelins fall to the ground and adding their voices to the swelling roar of acclamation. And finally, the deep-throated Hasanu as well, till the mountains around them rang with the name.
'Shigeru! Shigeru! Shigeru!'
Wild-eyed, furious, goaded beyond reason, Arisaka swung his gaze around his followers. The chanting was now deafening and the sight of his own men cheering the Emperor was too much. His sword flashed and the man nearest him fell with a cry.
Matsuda Sato, commander of twelve men, looked up at his former lord, puzzled and wondering why he was seeing him only through a red haze. He felt numb where Arisaka's sword had opened the massive wound in his chest. Then the red changed slowly to black.
A horrified silence spread over the plain as men realised what Arisaka had done. He stepped forward and turned to face his troops, hurling abuse at them as they instinctively stepped back, away from him.
'You have betrayed me!' he screamed. 'You have shamed me! You defile my honour!'
'You have no honour!'
He spun round, the bloodstained katana still in his hand. The speaker, whose words had carried clearly to the men around him, was one of the foreigners. A young man, wearing a strange green and grey cloak. Arisaka's eyes narrowed. This was the one who had shot so quickly in reply to his lieutenant's arrow. But now the foreigner's heavy longbow was in Shigeru's hands and he was unarmed.
'You are a traitor and a coward and a man without honour, Arisaka!' the foreigner continued.
Arisaka raised his katana, pointing it at the calm young face. 'Who are you, gaijin? What do you know about honour?'
'I'm called Chocho,' Will said. 'I've seen honour among these Kikori warriors, men I've trained to fight you. They are men who understand loyalty and trust. And I see it now in your own men, now that they recognise the true Emperor of Nihon-Ja. But I see no honour in you, Arisaka. I see a crawling, cowardly, lying traitor! I see a man with no honour at all!'