SHIGEKO'S DOSSIER: As I leave Ryoko Owari, I find myself thinking of Shortcut surprisingly often. He is thirteen as I depart - my successor will see him grow into manhood.
Shortcut first saw me during my fight with the Fire Eaters. He did not approach me then, but later he told me (in his childish, excited fashion) of his admiration for my swordplay. (He was then only eleven years old.)
I explained to him that swordplay is only the most superficial level of bushido, and he seemed fascinated. Seeing an opportunity to teach at least one child about honor, I told him my real strength came from the knowledge that I was doing a noble deed.
Imagine my surprise when, a week later, he came and told me about an extortionist threatening to sink ships in the southwest harbor.
From that moment on, Shortcut became my eyes and ears around the southwest piers. As he aged, he became well known throughout the Fisherman Quarter, where he now works as a messenger and courier.
If I had hoped to mold him into a miniature, heimin samurai I have certainly failed; Shortcut is too much a creature of the streets, too crafty and slippery and self-interested. Yet I have given him a sense that justice exists and that there are higher things than self-interest.
Perhaps I'm a fond old woman; but I can see in him a better future for Ryoko Owari. Perhaps he can be the first of a new breed - still cunning and self-interested, but without the brutal edge that has left its mark on so many in this city.