Black Lotus

by Laura Joh Rowland

  “But why?” Iris said. “Where are you taking me?”

  “I am your destiny. We are going to my temple, where you will join the nunnery.”

  A celibate life of prayer didn’t appeal to Iris, but desire for Anraku had already kindled in her, and she thought she could manipulate him into letting her go and giving her money to live on. But when they reached the temple, Anraku left her in the convent. There she joined other novices in a regimen of prayer, harsh discipline, little sleep, and no contact with anyone outside. The training confused her mind. She didn’t see Anraku again until ten days later, in a private audience.

  “How does your training progress?” he asked.

  By this time Iris was desperate for Anraku. “Please,” she murmured, reaching for him.

  Anraku only smiled his enigmatic smile. “No. The time is not yet right.”

  Iris endured a year as a novice. She lived for brief visits from Anraku. At last he initiated her, gave her a new religious name, Junketsu-in, and revealed the secret passage of the Black Lotus Sutra that was meant for her.

  “The union of male and female fosters spiritual energy,” he said. “Woman is the fire, man the smoke. Her door is the flame, his member the fuel. Pleasure is the spark, and climax a sacred offering. Intercourse is a path to enlightenment. That is the path you must follow. I shall be your guide.”

  That night he began teaching her the thousand erotic rituals described in the Black Lotus Sutra. Never had Junketsu-in known such fulfillment. Anraku became her beloved god; his words were fact and law to her. Anraku made her abbess of the convent, where she lived in luxury, waited upon by the nuns she ruled, and performing duties ordered by the high priest. Junketsu-in thought she would live happily until the day when Anraku’s prophecies were realized, but soon things began to go wrong, with results that imperiled her today.

  Now Junketsu-in said to Anraku, “If the ssakan-sama accuses me of the crimes, will you protect me?”

  “You are protected by your faith in me,” Anraku said.

  Yet she needed more than that. If Sano discovered the things she’d done, he might decide she was the only person with reason to have committed all three murders and framed Haru. The girl and the victims, who had come into the Black Lotus one after the other, like a parade of demons, had turned Junketsu-in’s life into hell.

  The first demon was Chie.

  Junketsu-in had known from the start that Anraku had many lovers; still, she’d believed that no one else could satisfy him the way she did—until Chie arrived. The humble, earthy peasant woman had exuded a powerful sexuality that had captivated Anraku. Junketsu-in argued against admitting Chie as a novice, but Anraku overrode her.

  Jealousy plagued her as she spied on him wooing Chie the way he’d done her. She vented her anger on Chie, beating the meek novice, denying her food, calling her names, and spreading lies about her; she’d begged Anraku to expel Chie, in vain. Junketsu-in suffered the torment of secretly watching the pair engage in ritual intercourse. Anraku began ignoring Junketsu-in, while Chie became his new mate and chief nurse in the temple hospital. Junketsu-in had affairs with other priests, hoping to make Anraku jealous, but he proved indifferent. Then she learned that Chie was pregnant.

  Anraku had sired children by other women, but Junketsu-in hadn’t cared because he paid little attention to his offspring; nor had she cared that she was barren. But watching Chie grow large with the fruit of his seed was more than Junketsu-in could tolerate. She poisoned Chie’s food, trying to induce a miscarriage. When that failed, Junketsu-in threw Chie on the ground and kicked her stomach. Hastened labor resulted in the birth of a son, Radiant Spirit. Though Anraku took no notice of the event, Junketsu-in ordered the nuns at the nursery to underfeed and neglect the child. While she was waiting for him to die and plotting how to regain her place with Anraku, into her life came the second demon.

  Seven years had passed since Commander Oyama had arrested Junketsu-in, and they met again at the ceremony where the sect’s high officials welcomed him as a patron. After the ceremony, Oyama sought out Junketsu-in for a private word.

  “So you’re a holy woman now,” he said with the derisive laugh she recalled too well. “Life has treated you kindly.”

  “No thanks to you,” Junketsu-in said as her hatred resurfaced.

  Oyama leered at her. “I shall enjoy renewing our acquaintance.”

  “Not if I can help it.”

  But Anraku ordered her to instruct Oyama in ritual sex. She objected to servicing her old enemy, but Anraku said, “It is my will, and you must obey or leave the Black Lotus.” Despite his cruelty, Junketsu-in still loved and desired him. She submitted to degrading encounters in the cottage with Oyama, who mocked her past even as he took his pleasure from her. Meanwhile, Radiant Spirit survived; Chie remained Anraku’s favorite. And along came the last demon.

  Angry, rebellious, and lustful, Haru disrupted the orphanage, where she couldn’t get along with the other children, and the monastery, where she got along too well with the monks. Junketsu-in fought to discipline her, but Anraku fancied Haru; he adopted her as a sort of daughter and lover. Suddenly Junketsu-in had another enemy to blight her existence. Still, she persevered and schemed, and she gradually reaped success.

  The murders of Chie and Radiant Spirit had removed them forever. Commander Oyama had gotten what he deserved. Haru had been arrested for the crimes, as Junketsu-in had hoped. Anraku had resumed his sexual alliance with Junketsu-in the day after the murders. She was again his mate, but she would not feel safe as long as Haru was still alive.

  Anraku grazed Junketsu-in’s cheek with his finger. The heat of his touch stirred her as she recognized the onset of the sexual rite.

  “Haru was arrested today,” she said, cautiously broaching a topic that she knew Anraku considered none of her concern.

  “I am aware of that.” Anraku’s finger dragged down her lips, parting them.

  Junketsu-in caught her breath. As his finger moved down her chin and throat, she said, “Haru knows much about the temple’s business. Perhaps too much.”

  “What is happening to Haru is part of the master scheme,” Anraku said, untying her sash. “She will play her role perfectly.”

  Did he intend to do nothing about Haru? Panic tinged Junketsu-in’s thoughts. Then her gray kimono and white under-robe fell away, and she stood naked before Anraku. Arching her neck, she savored the rush of arousal. Anraku shed his garments, revealing sculpted musculature. Smiling beatifically, he glowed with inner energy and immense sexual power.

  “Haru has been talking to the ssakan-sama and his wife,” Junketsu-in said. Surely his desire for her would induce Anraku to listen to her. “She’s already spoken against me because she wants me executed instead of her. To save herself, she may say enough to destroy the Black Lotus. Please stop her before it’s too late.”

  “She will say what she is meant to say and do what she is meant to do,” Anraku said. “She is crucial to the destiny of the Black Lotus. My vision has seen the path she must walk.”

  Now he began the ritual of Divine Marking. His sharp fingernails gouged Junketsu-in’s neck, breasts, stomach, and buttocks with deep red crescents, lines, and swirls, like a mantra written in flesh. Junketsu-in exclaimed in pain and pleasure. Sensation drowned worry; she gave herself up to Anraku. She bit the tender skin of his armpits, around his navel, and behind his knees. Her teeth left dents where blood welled like tiny red beads.

  “You are the fire. I am smoke,” Anraku murmured as they sank onto the bed.

  Lying on her back, Junketsu-in raised her legs high, spread them wide. Anraku lowered himself between them and entered her. She swooned at the pleasure. Their bodies moved with flexible ease, her legs first clasping his shoulders then flung outward, his thrusts slow then fast, arms entwining and hands stroking in the most potent ritual of all: Igniting the Flower. Junketsu-in climbed on top, rotating her body around his organ inside her. Then she was crouching and he behind her, pene
trating deeply. Now they were upright, she with her knees around his waist, he standing and supporting her. Still thrusting, Anraku began to spin.

  The room swirled around Junketsu-in. Glinting jewels of light from the canopy and mural circled in the hazy incense smoke. Anraku spun faster. Junketsu-in laughed in giddy exhilaration. As her passion mounted, she saw in her mind a giant black lotus, the petals on fire. The image of the burning flower shone in Anraku’s eye. His face was fierce with desire. Then the climax took them. As Anraku pumped his seed into Junketsu-in and her body pulsed around him, they seemed to leave the earth and whirl through the stars. She screamed her joy. His moan echoed like thunder across mountains. The flaming lotus exploded in her head, and Junketsu-in tasted the ecstasy to come when destiny arrived and the Black Lotus sect achieved enlightenment.

  Then Anraku—and she—would have power over the whole world.

  21

  If one should harbor doubt and fail to believe,

  He will fall at once into the path of evil.

  —FROM THE BLACK LOTUS SUTRA

  “Haru-san?” Reiko called, walking down the corridor through the private quarters of Magistrate Ueda’s mansion.

  Night had fallen by the time she’d traveled from Shinagawa to Edo, and lanterns shone behind paper walls, but the chamber she’d given Haru was dark. Reiko, come to tell Haru what she’d learned today, slid open the door. She found clothes and sundries on the floor, but no Haru.

  “She’s gone,” said Magistrate Ueda.

  Reiko turned to see him standing near her. “Gone?” she asked, first puzzled, then alarmed. “Where?”

  Shaking his head, Magistrate Ueda regarded Reiko with somber pity. “Let’s sit in the parlor. We can have tea while I explain, hmm?”

  “I don’t need any tea.” His stalling increased Reiko’s alarm. “I just want to know what happened to Haru.”

  “She is in Edo Jail,” Magistrate Ueda said reluctantly. “This morning your husband arrested her for the crimes at the Black Lotus Temple.”

  “What?” Reiko stared in horrified disbelief.

  “Sano-san interrogated Haru,” he said, then described how Haru had railed against her husband and Commander Oyama, admitting she’d wanted them dead because they’d hurt her.

  “That’s not proof of her guilt,” Reiko cried, though she knew how bad it made Haru look even if it wasn’t exactly a confession.

  “There was sufficient other reason to arrest Haru,” Magistrate Ueda said. “She flew into a rage and attacked your husband and Hirata-san. Your husband received minor scratches on his cheek, but Haru managed to claw Hirata-san’s eye.”

  The girl who seemed so pathetic and harmless to Reiko presented such a different face to other people, and had now behaved in such a way as to reinforce Sano’s antagonism toward her.

  “Attacking my husband and Hirata-san was wrong of Haru, but it isn’t proof that she’s killed anyone,” Reiko said.

  Magistrate Ueda frowned. “If you were not so partial to Haru and hostile toward the Black Lotus you would see that her behavior indicates guilt rather than innocence, hmm?”

  Reiko did see, but the injustice of persecution based on prejudice and inconclusive findings alarmed her. “My husband’s haste will be our undoing. Why did you just let him arrest Haru?”

  “I concurred with his decision. As I told you before, I believe there’s a strong chance that Haru is guilty. What happened here today confirmed my opinion that she’s dangerous and belongs in jail.”

  “I can’t believe you took my husband’s side against me.”

  Now the magistrate’s expression turned sad. “I would do almost anything for you, Daughter, but I cannot shield a criminal. You must leave Haru to the law. Go home and make peace with your husband.”

  Upset and frantic, Reiko ran from the house. Her father had turned against her, but she couldn’t give up and let killers go free.

  When Sano rode though the gate of his estate with Hirata, they found Detectives Kanry, Hachiya, Takeo, and Tadao standing in the torch-lit courtyard. Kanry and Hachiya still sported the tattered kimonos in which they’d disguised themselves as pilgrims. Sano dismounted, and all four prostrated themselves at his feet.

  “Please pardon us, Ssakan-sama,” they chorused.

  “What’s going on?” Sano said. “You’re supposed to be at the temple.”

  Just then, the gate opened, and bearers entered the courtyard, carrying a palanquin. Consternation jolted Sano. Where had Reiko gone, and what had she been doing out so late?

  “The Black Lotus discovered that we were spies,” Kanry said. “There was no use trying to conduct a secret surveillance any longer, so we came home.”

  The bearers set down the palanquin, and Reiko climbed out. Her stricken eyes told Sano that she knew about Haru. She walked into the mansion, her back straight and head high.

  “Rise,” Sano ordered his men, who obeyed. Already his heart had begun pounding in anticipation of a scene with Reiko. “Tell me what happened.”

  “I had sneaked into the area of the temple where the clergy live,” Kanryu said, “when a priest suddenly appeared. He said, ‘I must ask you to leave,’ and escorted me out the gate.”

  “The same thing happened to me when I was looking for secret tunnels under the buildings,” Hachiya said.

  “We told the priests we wanted to join the sect,” Tadao said. “They put us in a room with twelve other men who also wanted to join. They asked us about ourselves, fed us a meal, then left us so we could meditate on whether we belonged with the Black Lotus. After a while, the priests came back and took Takeo and me outside. They told us we weren’t suited for the clergy, so we must leave.”

  “I could see in their eyes that they knew who we really were,” Takeo said.

  “It’s no coincidence that they threw us all out,” Kanry said. “They’d identified us all. They knew why we were there.”

  Suspicion troubled Sano. “Who else besides Hirata-san and myself knew you were doing surveillance at the temple?”

  “Just the detective corps,” Hachiya said.

  After dismissing the men, Sano said to Hirata, “There must be a spy among us who’s reporting to the Black Lotus.” That a trusted retainer would betray him disturbed Sano greatly. So did the knowledge that the Black Lotus thought it necessary to spy on him—and eject his spies from the temple. Could there be truth to the accusations against the Black Lotus? But if the sect was evil, wouldn’t it have killed his spies? Then again, perhaps it feared retribution.

  “We’ll have to find out who the spy is and get rid of him,” Hirata said, dabbing a cloth against his eye. It was red, swollen, and runny from Haru’s clawing. He said unhappily, “I thought I knew those men, and I’ve never had cause to question their loyalty to you. If the Black Lotus can corrupt a samurai’s honor, it must be strong—and dangerous.”

  “We’ll continue looking into the sect until we discover the truth,” Sano said as they walked toward the mansion. “But at least we’ve got the person who’s responsible for the deaths we were assigned to investigate.”

  Inside, they found Reiko in the parlor with Midori. The pretty maid O-hana was pouring tea for them. When Sano and Hirata entered the room, the women bowed. Midori and O-hana murmured polite greetings, but Reiko neither spoke nor looked at Sano. She sat rigid, her lips compressed. Sano braced himself for a confrontation.

  Midori gazed up at Hirata with a joy that turned to surprise. She exclaimed, “What happened to your eye?”

  “I got injured working on the investigation,” Hirata said proudly.

  “Let me see.” Jumping up, Midori leaned close to examine the wound. “Does it hurt much?”

  “Oh, it’s not too bad.”

  A peculiar expression crossed Midori’s face, and she flounced away from Hirata. “Well, don’t let it drip on anything,” she said, her anxious concern turned to coldness.

  Sano and Hirata both stared at her, bewildered. A muscle twitched in Reiko’
s cheek. O-hana hurried over to Hirata.

  “But of course it hurts,” she cooed. “Come to the kitchen, and I’ll make an herb poultice for you.”

  As the pair left the room, Hirata glanced over his shoulder at Midori. She hesitated, then hurried after him. Sano knelt opposite Reiko.

  “What’s the matter with Midori?” Sano asked.

  Reiko gazed fixedly at the tea bowl in her hands. She shrugged. Hostility radiated from her.

  “Where’s Masahiro?”

  “In bed asleep.”

  Her quiet voice was tight, and Sano saw on the surface of her tea the reflected lantern light quivering with the tension of her grip. Silence descended upon them, ominous as a coming storm; the faraway voices of the maids tinkled like wind chimes in a gale.

  “How could you arrest her?” Reiko said, still not looking at Sano.

  “How could you go to the temple and then to Shinagawa after I told you not to?” Sano said, offended by her discourteous manner and implied criticism of his actions. “You did go, didn’t you? That’s why you were out so late.”

  Reiko ignored his questions, but Sano knew he was right. “You didn’t even tell me,” she said bitterly. “Had I not stopped at my father’s house, I wouldn’t have known about Haru.”

  Sano forced down the anger that roiled in him. Although he thought Reiko should accept defeat with grace, he must be generous if he wanted to restore peace. “I’m sorry for not telling you, but I didn’t know what was going to happen when I questioned Haru, and afterward, there wasn’t time.”

  “You knew you were going. You could have at least told me that much.”

  With an effort, Sano ignored the rebuke, and his guilty notion that maybe he’d been unfair to his wife. “Do you know that Haru attacked Hirata and me?”

  Reiko nodded, unrelenting.

  “It was important to put Haru in jail where she couldn’t hurt anyone else,” Sano said. “If you’d been there, you would have agreed.”