The prospect, the theory, is more than a little unsettling. Even if only half of what Ito says is true, disaster looms. Machiko wants so much to face an enemy she may defeat with sword and fist she could scream with outrage. She had never known anything so frustrating as this elusive enemy who attacks from the north and from the south, down from the mountains and up from the sea. How can she fight such an enemy?