Ginjiro began when the light was still gray.

Soma had arrived before sunrise — the hut in the low valley between hills, mist still sitting in the hollow, the smell of the hillside's early morning cold. Ginjiro was already awake, had been awake for some time in the way that Ginjiro was often already awake when Soma arrived. Whether he slept little or woke very early or simply did not sleep in a way that left visible evidence of sleeping, Soma could not determine with current data.

He sat down. Ginjiro sat across from him.

And began speaking without introduction.

---

"Seven years ago," Ginjiro said, "I was a chunin of Kuroishi clan. My function was information transport. Not evaluation — only transport. Receive at point A, deliver at point B, no questions about content."

Soma listened. Did not speak.

"One delivery arrived with partial damage — rain, inadequate container. I had to open it to assess the damage before deciding whether delivery was still viable." He looked at his hands. "I read what was inside."

"And that was what you weren't supposed to read."

"What no one was supposed to know existed." Ginjiro's voice was flat — the flatness of something said so many times in one's own head that it had been worn smooth. "A written agreement between the daimyo Nishikawa — who controls this region — and a Portuguese merchant named Rodrigues. The agreement granted Rodrigues exclusive trading rights through the southern port in exchange for weapons."

Soma processed this immediately.

Kenji placed it without effort: sixteenth century. Portuguese expansion through maritime Asia. Weapons meant firearms — arquebus or earlier variants. A daimyo who received firearms before other daimyo in the region had a strategic advantage that could not be compensated for by numbers alone.

"What type of weapons?" he asked.

Ginjiro looked at him — the brief evaluating look that meant he was noting something about the question.

"You know about the weapons the foreigners bring."

"I know they exist," Soma said. "Not from this world."

A pause. Ginjiro did not ask further. He had long since accepted the fact of Soma's prior knowledge without needing it explained.

"Firearms," Ginjiro said. "The kind an untrained person can use to kill a fully armored samurai at a distance. Nishikawa was buying enough to equip his entire force. Delivery scheduled in phases — some already received at the time I read the document. More to come."

"And you reported it to your jonin."

"That was the mistake." Ginjiro's expression did not change. "My jonin was working for Nishikawa. Not for the clan — for Nishikawa directly. I understood this three days after I filed the report, when I woke up in the forest with an arrow in my shoulder and no longer a member of Kuroishi."

Soma sat with the shape of what he was hearing.

"Kuroishi was subsequently dissolved," he said.

"Eighteen months after I was expelled. Nishikawa found a pretext — a territorial dispute, some manufactured incident. But the real reason was that they knew the routes, they knew too much about Nishikawa's information channels, and they weren't fully under his control."

"And the Mizuchi clan took their position."

"Mizuchi was built by Nishikawa to replace Kuroishi," Ginjiro said. "Not a clan with history — an organization constructed from the beginning to serve one master. That's why they expand rapidly — not because they're more capable than other clans, but because a daimyo is funding them from behind."

---

Soma sat with the shape of what he now held.

Nishikawa had a firearms agreement with a Portuguese merchant. Nishikawa controlled the Mizuchi clan as an instrument. Mizuchi was expanding to eliminate the remaining independent clans that could obstruct Nishikawa's long-term consolidation of the region. And Ginjiro was the only person still alive who knew the specifics of the original agreement — because everyone else who had known through Kuroishi was dead.

"How long until Nishikawa has received enough of the weapons to feel he no longer needs to be cautious?" Soma asked.

"I estimated three years from when the document was written," Ginjiro said. "But that was seven years ago, with information that was already partially outdated at the time. The real timeline may be shorter."

"Less than three years remaining."

"Possibly significantly less." Ginjiro looked at him. "You're processing the strategic implications."

"I'm identifying the Hayashi clan as the correct recipient for this information," Soma said. "They're the largest independent clan remaining in this region. They have both motive to act on it and the capacity to do so. A smaller clan can be absorbed or eliminated before they can convert information into action. Hayashi is large enough that informing them creates a genuine strategic problem for Nishikawa."

"Yes."

"But you've held this for seven years without getting it to Hayashi."

"Because the information network in this region is largely controlled by Nishikawa," Ginjiro said. "Any attempt to transmit to Hayashi through conventional channels would be intercepted by Mizuchi before it arrived. And appearing in person — as someone who has been hunted for seven years — gives Nishikawa the opportunity to present whatever case he has built against me before I can be heard."

Soma understood the problem's structure immediately.

"You need a courier who isn't in Nishikawa's network," he said. "Someone whose connection to you can't be traced through channels Mizuchi monitors. Someone who can make the initial contact without looking like what they are."

Ginjiro said nothing.

Which was the answer.

---

"There are three things I need before I can do this," Soma said. "Status — even minimal. Knowledge of Hayashi's network well enough to know who is the right person to approach. And survival long enough to build both." He looked at Ginjiro. "All three are currently absent."

"I know," Ginjiro said. "That's why I'm telling you now rather than after they're present. You need to understand what you're building toward before you can make the right choices about how to build."

"And if I'm not ready when the window closes?"

"Then the consequences of not being ready are the consequences." Ginjiro's voice did not change. "No timeline waits. You've already learned that version of that lesson."

Soma sat with the full weight of what had been placed in front of him.

It was large. Larger than anything he had been thinking about before today, even accounting for all the months of slow preparation.

And underneath the largeness was a person — a sixty-two-year-old man with a bad knee who had lived alone with this for seven years because there was no one to give it to. Who had spent those seven years not building toward anything because the building required someone he hadn't had.

Until a child had sat down at the edge of his forest and not left.

"One thing," Soma said. "The name Shiro — the way you used it within Kuroishi. Are there people in Hayashi's network who would recognize it?"

"There's at least one," Ginjiro said. "The jonin who currently commands Hayashi's operations in this area. He was in a position that would have given him knowledge of Kuroishi's personnel at the relevant time. Whether he remembers — I don't know. But if he does, the name carries weight."

"His name?"

"Mikage Daichi."

Soma filed that.

Mikage Daichi. Jonin of Hayashi. Father, presumably, of Ren Mikage — the boy he had observed in the tea house with the trained posture and the something in his left sleeve.

The shape of the path was becoming clearer.

Not a plan yet. Not enough elements in place for a plan. But the outline of a direction — and a direction was what he could work with.

---

"I'll need to build network knowledge," he said. "Who operates in this area, for whom, using what channels. That will take time."

"I can give you what I know," Ginjiro said. "Seven years old. Some of it will have changed."

"Outdated maps are better than no maps."

"Yes." Ginjiro looked at him. "We start that today. I'll tell you what I know about Hayashi's structure — who holds what positions, how decisions move through the organization, where the points of access are for someone without formal standing." He paused. "It will take more than one session."

"How many?"

"As many as I have," Ginjiro said. It was not a dramatic statement. Just an accurate one.

Soma looked at him.

"You're telling me because you know you won't be here long enough to see it through," he said.

"I'm telling you because you're the only person I've spoken to honestly in seven years and I am tired of carrying it alone." He picked up his knife and began to sharpen it. "That's the simple version."

Soma sat with the simple version.

Then pulled his attention back to what was useful and said: "Tell me about Hayashi's structure. Start from the top."

Ginjiro began to talk.

Outside, the mist in the valley hollow had started to lift.