<standard disclaimer>
Ninja Scroll isn't mine.  It belongs to someone else.
</standard disclaimer>

Yojimbo fans should be able to see this one a mile away, but I thought 
it was a nice story, and one that suit Jubei very well.

C&C is always welcome.

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    The morning mists covered the ground like a thick feather quilt.  
The soft greyish wisps hovered delicately over the rocky floor of the 
pass.  The chill of the morning air was starting to dissapate as the sun 
peeked over the horizon.  It cast a warm pink glow over the tops of the 
surrounding mountains and hills, and across the small temple and farms 
around the base.  Stars hurried away from the light as the moon bowed 
and reluctantly ended the starlight festival of the night to the day.
    Jubei inhaled deeply of the crisp air and looked about with a smile 
and shifted the weight of his sword in his hand.  The monks from the 
temple below had said the pass was safe, but rarely used.  The steep 
climb and unusually heavy undergrowth made traveling up to the pass 
tedious.  No doubt the narrow paths and the steepness of the climb made 
it difficult for livestock and wagons.
    As he neared the top of the slope, Jubei noticed a wood and rope 
bridge spanning a twenty-some feet gorge.  He took a peek down below as 
he neared the bridge.  It was a steep drop down the gorge and the small 
river at the bottom looked more like a thin trickle of water.  Jubei 
paused for a moment and nonchalantly shrugged to nobody in particular, 
leaning up against a small fruit tree growing by the bridge for a quick 
rest.  He doffed the light woven hat he wore, and wiped his brow.  As 
Jubei looked up into the branches of the oddly placed tree, he noticed 
fruit ripening early.  He picked five, hoping to save a few for later 
on, and bit into one of the fruit.  It was still fairly early on in the 
spring season, yet the fruit tasted as if summer had already visited the 
pass.  Jubei smiled and savored the sweetness, walking slowly across the 
bridge to enjoy the fruit.  He donned his hat again, took another bite 
of the fruit and lazily strolled across the bridge.
    Halfway across the bridge a hand tapped him on the shoulder.  Jubei 
paused.  He hadn't heard anyone approach, let alone feel any weight on 
the bridge at all.  Yet, there is was again, a slow, but insistant 
tapping on his left shoulder.
    "Can I help you with something?" Jubei asked over his shoulder 
without looking.
    "Payment," a low rumbling voice said evenly behind him.
    Jubei turned around to look directly at someone's wide stomach.  He 
slowly looked up to see a monstrous cycloptic troll hefting a large 
metal club on one shoulder.  The troll wore tatterd clothes and appeared 
to have lacked proper hygeine during the pervious hundred years or so it 
must have been alive for.  Jubei idly wondered if the color of the troll 
was truly a mottled grey-brown, or if it was actually black underneath 
the grime.
    "What am I paying you for?" Jubei asked calmly.
    "I am the guardian of the bridge, and I have collected a toll for 
safe passage since this bridge was first put here," the troll said 
evenly.
    Jubei raised an eyebrows in curiosity.
    "I didn't know guardians were in the habit of collecting a toll."
    The troll didn't answer directly, shifting the club off the shoulder 
and twirling it around as if it were made of paper.  A hand was held out 
palm up as the troll blinked lazily.  Jubei blinked.
    "Oi, no need to get upset," Jubei said calmly.  He handed the troll 
all but one of the remaining fruit.
    The troll looked at the fruit calmly and gave a toothy grin after a 
moment of silence.
    "You may pass," the troll said evenly and jumped off the bridge.
    Jubei looked over the side, but the troll had vanished.  He shrugged 
and went on his way.
    At the other side of the bridge, he noticed a smooth stone set low 
into the side of the cliff that walled off the pass.  Dust and fine 
powder from rocks and boulders strewn along the path obscured the text.  
He crouched down to wipe the dust off, biting into the last of the 
fruit, when another tap on his shoulder got his attention.  This time 
the tapping was light and inquisitive, like a child, but Jubei heard 
nothing as before.  His hand decended slowly to hs sword as he turned 
around to stare a child in the face.
    "Oi, you shouldn't sneak up on people like that," Jubei chided.
    The small boy looked back sheepishly before blinking curiously at 
the swordsman.
    "How did you get across the bridge?" the boy asked.
    "I paid the toll.  How did you get across the bridge?" Jubei asked 
back.
    "I got here a while ago from the other side," the boy replied 
quietly as he squinted to look over the bridge.
    "What's your name?" Jubei asked politely.
    "Takeru," the boy replied softly.  His gaze fell to the lonesome 
fruit in Jubei's hand.  "Did you get that from the tree?" he asked.
    Jubei nodded.  The boy's eyes widened.
    "Aiyah!  That tree never grows enough for two trips.  Now my parents 
will never be able to make it across!" the boy cried.
    "Doushitan deshou."
    "I was supposed to meet my parents this morning, but now they'll 
never make it!"
    Jubei frowned.
    "I didn't know," he said apologetically.  "Is there anything I can 
do to help?"
    "Please help them get across safely," the boy implored.
    Jubei nodded.  As if on cue, a woman's sobbing could be heard as the 
sound crossed the gorge.
    "Stay here, and try to keep out of the way if anything happens," 
Jubei said firmly.
    The boy nodded and slipped behind a large boulder as Jubei ran back 
to the bridge.  The troll was already there, club in hand and appeared 
to be ready to beat the elderly couple in front of him.  The old man was 
babbling an apology and imploring the guardian to relent.  It didn't 
look particularly promising.  The troll didn't move as Jubei slowed down 
to a casual stroll as he neared them.  The couple didn't even notice 
Jubei behind the towering girth of the troll.
    "What do you want?" the troll bellowed over his shoulder.
    "I need to get across," Jubei said evenly.  "I decided the other way 
didn't suit me."
    "Then leave," the troll sid flatly.
    "Well, I certainly can't walk through you and the couple in front of 
you," Jubei said with a chuckle.  "Would you mind standing aside for a 
moment?"
    The troll simply grunted and went back to hassling the elderly 
couple.  Jubei stood there in silence, casually looking on.  After a 
moment, the troll turned around slowly.
    "What is your business here?" the troll asked irritably.
    "I just need to get across," Jubei answered plainly.  Out of the 
corner of his eye, he could see the couple backing away slowly.
    The troll glanced over his shoulder.  Without looking he swung at 
Jubei.  The ronin easily ducked the blow, but the force of the swing 
blew his hat off.  Jubei looked curiously out of the corner of his eye 
as his hat floated down the gorge.
    "That was my favorite hat," Jubei sighed.
    "You have cost me a meal," the troll growled.
    "So losing my favorite hat won't cut it?" Jubei asked in mock 
surprise.
    The troll slowly walked up to Jubei, and gripped the ronin's gi.
    "You have cost me a meal, swordsman," he said irritably.
    "Oi, can't you wait for lunch?" Jubei asked.
    The troll headbutted Jubei before he could react, sending him 
sprawling along the bridge.  Jubei rolled backwards and out of the way 
as the metallic club nearly brained him.
    "Oi, oi.  Are you that hungry?" Jubei asked.
    The troll growled and swung again with the club as if it were as 
light as a feather.  Jubei struck out with an explosive nuki, only to 
have the troll block it easily.  The troll was obviously strong, and the 
club wasn't much more to him than a toy.  Jubei idly wondered if the 
troll was as quick on his feet as he was with the club.  The troll 
didn't give him much time to wonder.  The grotesque guardian of the 
bridge charged towards Jubei wordlessly, swinging the club in a blurred 
barrage of swings.  Jubei blocked furiosly, getting shoved this way and 
that from the force of each swing.  One ill-placed block connected his 
shoulder with the club, nearly knocking him over the rope railing and 
sending his sword clattering by the troll's feet.  Another swift swing 
from the club sent Jubei back to the end of the bridge.  Before Jubei 
could even get to his feet, a second swing of the club slammed him 
against the ground.  Flecks of blood sprayed across the ground as Jubei 
hacked up blood.
    "This is pointless," Jubei muttered as he painfully rolled to his 
hands and knees.  "If we keep this up, one of us will regret it."
    The troll laughed.  Jubei tugged on the slim wire that was connected 
to the tsuka of his sword.  He slowly drew the wire in his hand, snaking 
the sword across the bridge and through the troll's feet.  The troll 
hefted the club above his head for a final blow before the light played 
off the wire.  With a roar the troll swung the club down.  Jubei rolled 
out of the way, and just in time.  The troll buried the club deep into 
the rocky ground.  Before the troll could wrench the club out of the 
ground, Jubei rolled to his feet and yanked hard on the wire.  He hopped 
up onto the club as the sword flew into his hand.  Jubei's sword flew 
out of the saya like lightning, and flew through the air swiftly.
    A moment of silence elpased as the troll's eye blinked slowly in 
confusion.  A small trickle of blood seeped down the troll's chest as 
Jubei hopped off the club to the side and collapsed against the wall of 
the cliff.
    "I apologize if that hurt too much," he mumbled as the troll fell to 
his knees.
    As the troll collapsed on the ground, the head slipped off the neck 
and rolled about ignominiously.  Jubei wiped the blood off his sword and 
sheathed it as the elderly couple hurried across the bridge.  They made 
it across in time to see Jubei heave the body of the troll over the side 
of the cliff and down the gorge.  With a final kick, Jubei sent the head 
with it's open and unblinking, solitary eye after the body.  He sat down 
heaily, wheezing painfully and started checking for broken bones.
    "We can't even begin to thank you for helping us," the old man 
babbled.  "If you hadn't come along, the guardian would have surely 
killed us."
    Jubei took a painful and waved a hand.
    "Iie, iie.  No need to thank me," he coughed in reply.  "If it 
hadn't been for your son, I never would have known to have come back."
    Jubei raised an eyebrow as the old woman and old man stared at him 
in shock.  A moment of uncomfortable silence passed before the old woman 
turned away and began to weep silently, offering a fervent prayer to the 
Bhudda.
    "I'm afraid you must be mistaken," the old man said sadly.
    "Well, a young boy by the name of Takeru told me to come back for 
you two.  Is he your grandson?  I might have heard wrong," Jubei said 
apologetically.  He slowly got to his feet and looked about for the 
young boy.  The old man put a firm hand on his shoulder to stop him.
    "Takeru is indeed our son, but he's been dead for quite some time," 
the old man replied.  "He died years ago."
    Jubei looked at the old man in shock and silence.  The old woman 
hurriedly brushed the silt off the smooth stone in the side of the pass 
and quickly pulled out incense from a small bag at her waist.  She lit 
it and placed some small candies on the grund in front of her and prayed 
silently, a muffled sob escaping her lips every so often.  The old man 
joined her in prayer after a moment.
    After the prayer, the old man finally explained how Takeru died.  A 
small rockslide had crushed the young boy as he hurried up the path to 
greet them as they came home from traveling to market.  The fruit tree 
had sprouted on the spot almost instantly.  The local priest thought it 
a miracle and decided a shrine should be built.  The moment the monks 
had erected a small shrine to the boy to warn travelers, the troll had 
taken residence at the bridge.  Only the fruit from the tree seemed to 
appease the troll and allowed travelers to pass.
    "The tree has given enough fruit every year for us to pass every 
year so we could bring candy to the shrine," the old woman said sadly.  
"Takeru loved candy, and we always tried to bring plenty for him 
whenever we had to travel away to the markets."
    Jubei nodded solemnly.
    "At least you won't have that problem any more," he replied.
    The old woman smiled and nodded.
    "You've done us an enormous favor.  Not only do we thank you, but 
Takeru thanks you as well," the old man said with a smile.
    
    Jubei refused payment for eliminating the troll.  The ghost of the 
boy was never seen again.  Jubei promised to return the following year 
to help bring candy and incense to the boy's shrine.  Jubei didn't fail 
to keep the promise and was the first to pray and offer candy, and the 
last to leave the shrine the next year.
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