Jade Palace Vendetta (Samurai Mysteries)

by Dale Furutani

  As Kaze watched the figure, his exasperation turned to interest. In the moonlight he could see it was not one of the trio. Fascinating. He glanced back at the palace and saw Enomoto returning inside.

  The figure was a bit late, and he knew the Boss would chastise him for it. They were supposed to meet at the hour of the rat, but now it was almost the hour of the ox. He had been winning big at dice and kept staying to play just one more round. Finally, despite his winning streak, he realized he would never be able to make the appointed time, and he tore himself from the game. Now he was nervous and a bit frightened at what the Boss would say or do about his tardiness.

  He knew no guards would be patrolling the back of the villa tonight, so he hoisted himself over the wall and started slipping from tree to tree to reach the appointed spot. He had done this many times before, although he didn’t like the cold swim at the end. His movements were almost routine by now.

  He found shelter in the darkness of a large pine tree growing next to the lake and placed his sword in a hollow of the tree. He took off his kimono, shivering slightly in the late-night air in his loincloth, and put his rolled-up kimono next to his sword. He was starting to untie his straw sandals when he heard a sound above him. He looked up just as a man landed on him, flattening him on the ground and knocking the wind out of him.

  Kaze heard a satisfying “Oommph!” when he landed on the man, and he knew it would be several minutes before the man could muster up the wind to try to get away. He grabbed the man by the arm and dragged him into the moonlight, where he could get a better look at his face. He was surprised.

  “Well,” Kaze said, “if you’re going to be my regular landing cushion when I jump out of trees, then you’d better put some more meat on you.” Staring up him was the bandit with the scarred cheek he had jumped on the Tokaido Road.

  A half hour later, Kaze was sitting in a room with a sleepy Hishigawa and the frightened bandit.

  “I dare not tell!” the bandit said. “The Boss would slit my throat.”

  Kaze put his hand on the hilt of his sword. He gave the bandit a smile that made the half-naked man shudder. “If you don’t tell, I’ll start another process,” Kaze said menacingly. “I’ll start slicing you into thin shavings, like a block of katsuo-bushi. When you were a young boy, you probably watched your mother shaving the bonito block to get flavoring for soup. If you don’t tell Hishigawa-san what you told me, then I’m going to cut you into equally thin slices, and each cut will hurt.”

  The bandit looked at Kaze fearfully, not sure if the samurai was bluffing. He decided not to test this threat. “All right,” he said. “Enomoto-san employed us to rob Hishigawa-san of his gold.”

  “Enomoto-san?” Hishigawa was now fully awake, his eyes round with surprise.

  “Yes. I was part of the band that robbed you before. We would have robbed you again, but this samurai stopped us. We were told not to harm you, but we were also told to get the gold.”

  “But you killed my yojimbo,” Hishigawa said.

  “Yes. That was part of the plan, so you would never suspect Enomoto-san. When you were moving especially large amounts of gold, Enomoto-san would assign weak men to escort you. He knew they would die, but they were unaware of the planned attack. That way we could rob you many times and you would not suspect it was being arranged from within your own household.”

  Hishigawa was confused. He looked at Kaze. “What do we do now?” he asked.

  “We tie this scum up and then go to sleep. Then we talk to Enomoto-san in the morning. Before we do that, we make sure the household guards understand that they were used as sacrificial usagi, rabbits. They were destined by Enomoto-san to eventually have their necks caught in a snare and killed, so that he and his real men could continue robbing you.”

  Enomoto walked into the reception room of Hishigawa’s villa. He was annoyed because his man had missed their appointment, so he could not get the full story of how the ronin had foiled the robbery attempt on the Tokaido. He was even more annoyed that the love-besotted fool of a merchant had decided to have a meeting the first thing in the morning.

  He walked into the room and stopped immediately. The atmosphere of the room was charged with tension, and Enomoto’s swordsman’s eyes took in the scene at one glance.

  Hishigawa was sitting on the dais, like some nobleman. Next to him was the ronin, watching Enomoto carefully, with his sword worn at an angle from which he could pull it quickly. The old hag Ando was on the other side, her rat’s eyes looking at him with hatred. The household guards were standing in the room, glaring at him. They must know, Enomoto thought. And sitting in front of the ronin was his appointment for the hour of the rat. Tied, half naked, and no doubt singing like a kusahibari, a “grass lark,” the most popular singing insect that the mushi-uri, the insect seller, offered.

  “Well, it’s over,” Enomoto said before any accusations could be made. “I’m glad. I was growing weary of the farce of a man like me working for a worm like you,” Enomoto said to Hishigawa.

  Hishigawa had a suitable shocked look on his face, and the old harpy Ando actually hissed at him, like a snake expressing its anger.

  “You… you …” Hishigawa started.

  “Don’t bother,” Enomoto interrupted. “I’ll be going. Don’t complain to the authorities about the money I took or I’ll have to talk to them about our little secrets.” He turned to go, then stopped. He swiveled his head around to take one more look at the composed face of the ronin, Matsuyama Kaze. His gaze was met steadily by the ronin, who had a face that mirrored neither surprise nor concern. Forgetting his control for an instant, Enomoto’s own countenance darkened, like the angry skies during a typhoon. He said nothing to the ronin, but both men knew the depth of Enomoto’s hatred for the interloper. Enomoto turned and left, walking out the front door of the villa and past the startled guard at the gate.

  Well, that went well, except for the insolent tongue of that rogue, Enomoto,” Hishigawa said.

  Kaze made no reply.

  “I wonder if you would reconsider my offer to work for me,” Hishigawa said.

  “I will consider it,” Kaze replied. “I also have an idea for you to consider.”

  “What is that?”

  “I wonder why you move gold between Edo, Kamakura, and Kyoto.”

  “Well,” Hishigawa said patiently, as if lecturing a slow child, “the businesses in each city have different needs. Sometimes a business in one city needs gold and a business in another city has too much. So I must transfer the gold from one city to the other.”

  “That’s not what I mean,” Kaze said, ignoring Hishigawa’s tone. “I was wondering why you physically transfer the gold, running the risk of theft.”

  “How else would I meet the needs of my businesses in each city?”

  “There are other businesses that operate both in Edo and Kyoto or Kyoto and Kamakura?”

  “Yes, of course.”

  “And they have a similar problem, from time to time?”

  “Yes, I suppose so. I don’t see how any business can always stay in balance among the various branches in each city.”

  “Then why don’t you act as a broker and find these businesses? Then you need never transfer gold again.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Suppose you have a hundred ryo of gold in Edo that you want transferred to Kyoto.”

  “Yes?”

  “Then you find one or more businesses that have a hundred ryo of gold in Kyoto who want that gold in Edo.”

  Hishigawa looked puzzled. “What good would that do? Then you’d have two shipments of gold you’d have to transport.”

  Kaze shook his head. “No, then you’d have no shipments of gold to transport. First you collect the hundred ryo of gold in Kyoto that businesses want transported to Edo and you use it in your own business. Then you take the hundred ryo of gold in Edo and give it to the businesses who wanted the gold transported from Kyoto to Edo. All you have to do then is tra
nsport paper instructions from Kyoto to Edo, and no actual gold has to be moved.”

  Hishigawa looked at Kaze and exclaimed, “Brilliant! I can even charge a nice commission for my services, because the businesses in Kyoto don’t have to run the risk of transporting their gold.” Hishigawa was very excited. “You will make an incredible addition to my business!”

  Kaze did not point out he had not agreed to join Hishigawa. He just nodded and let the merchant get swept up in the power and simplicity of the idea. He exchanged several glasses of sakè with the merchant as Hishigawa talked about how he could set up the money exchange service. Finally, when Hishigawa was a little tipsy from the wine, Kaze said, “Enomoto said something about secrets when he left. If I’m to protect you, I have to have an idea about what those secrets are.”

  Hishigawa looked at Kaze shrewdly and said, “I won’t tell you all my secrets yet, but Enomoto was talking about the business I got into after Sekigahara. In addition to my other businesses, I deal in young girls.”

  Kaze had surmised as much from the girls he saw at the Jade Palace. They were too finely dressed and too bold to be simple maids to Yuchan. Dealing in human flesh was not the highest of social activities, but there was no particular secret involved with it that Kaze could see. “What is the secret in that?” he asked.

  Hishigawa smiled and said, “Right after the forces loyal to Hideyoshi were defeated, there were not only a great number of ronin created, but also a great number of families disrupted. Some of the young girls who came on the market at that time were not always properly sold, and many were from good families. Here was all this good merchandise available with no proper outlet, and many merchants in flesh were afraid to get into this trade. I started dabbling in it, supplying brothels in Kyoto, Edo, and here in Kamakura. We have to be discreet about this, because some of the families of the girls might take it into their heads to take revenge for my little business dealings with their daughters.

  “I constructed the Jade Palace during that time, to house the girls safely until I was ready to dispose of them. I still use it to store girls I’m transferring between customers, as well as for Yuchan.

  “The supply of young girls has dried up over the last year, so now I have agents looking for girls to work as maids. It’s much cheaper to buy girls as maids, and families seem to be more willing to sell them if they think they’re not going to end up in a brothel. Usually we bring them here to the villa and actually use them as maids for a time. When we’ve had enough of them, I let the guards break them in.” Hishigawa waved his hand. “A few are precocious, but most are still virgins because we buy them so young. I, of course, have Yuchan, so I don’t participate in raping the girls and preparing them for their lives as whores, but all the guards enjoy that. You’ll enjoy it too.”

  Kaze’s face was impassive, and he had to force himself to refrain from explaining to Hishigawa what he would and would not enjoy.

  CHAPTER 23

  A strong spirit is

  contained in a frail body.

  You are beautiful.

  I don’t like it,” Elder Grandma said. “I should be the one to talk to Yuchan.”

  “That’s difficult,” Kaze said. “You don’t even know if Yuchan is unhappy with the life she’s leading. She’s treated like a noble, living in her own palace. It’s best for you to wait hidden in the villa’s grounds until I have a chance to see if Yuchan wants to leave. After I find that out, I’ll come to you and we can plan our next action.”

  Kaze was once again in the tree by the lakeside. The water of the lake was a glistening sheet in the moonlight, and the gentle lapping sound of the water on the shore was restful and soothing. Kaze was relaxed but alert, watching the Jade Palace intently. Elder Grandma, her grandson, and her servant were safely hidden in a grove of trees on the villa grounds, waiting for Kaze to report on his conversation with Yuchan.

  The guard at the drum bridge seemed alert but bored, leaning against the bridge and walking about in fits and starts. Without a regular patrol schedule, the problem of getting to the island and the palace was harder. But with only one guard outside it was not impossible. Kaze had no idea how many guards were inside.

  The guard sat on the steps on the island part of the drum bridge and took off a sandal, rubbing his foot with obvious satisfaction. Kaze slipped out of the tree and made his way to the far side of the palace. Taking off his kimono, he used the kimono sash to make a neat bundle, tying his sword to his clothes.

  Dressed in only his fundoshi, he slipped into the cold water of the lake. The bottom dropped out quickly, and Kaze was soon swimming, holding his kimono and sword above his head to keep them dry. In military training, Kaze had learned to swim while in full armor. He had also learned to swim holding his armor and sword above his head, just as he was doing now. The light weight of the kimono was nothing compared to the weight of a full suit of armor. Kaze made his way across the lake smoothly.

  When he reached the opposite shore, he crouched in the deep shadows of the veranda that encircled the palace, making sure that the guard was not on one of his unpredictable patrols of the island. Satisfied that he was unseen, Kaze put on his kimono and replaced his sword in his sash.

  He stood on the veranda and walked to a corner. The back of the veranda had shoji screens opening onto it, and these shoji almost certainly opened up into a room. The room might be occupied. On one side of the palace was a door, but he would be seen by the guard if he tried to enter it.

  Kaze waited, showing patience until the guard retied his straw sandal and started on one of his patrols of the island. As soon as the guard disappeared around the corner of the palace, Kaze slipped through the door.

  He was in a hallway, with shoji opening into rooms on one side and what looked like a closet door on the other. Directly ahead was a wooden grate blocking entrance to the core of the palace, locked shut.

  Kaze looked at the closet and decided he would take a lesson from the ninja. He opened the closet door. From the moonlight spilling through the open doorway, Kaze could make out the ceiling slats. Standing on a shelf, he reached upward and pushed one aside. As he did so, the rock that was sitting on the slat to hold it in place slipped off the slat and started falling to the ground. Instantly, Kaze reached out and caught the rock in midair. In the silent palace, the sound of a falling rock could wake the inhabitants. He carefully put the rock on a shelf.

  Satisfied that the opening was large enough to allow him to fit into the attic, he closed the closet door and used the shelf as a ladder to enter into the space above the ceiling.

  He waited for several minutes, letting his eyes adjust to the gloom of the attic. Like that of the villa, the palace’s roof had lattice openings that allowed some of the moonlight to bathe the interior. Moving carefully from rafter to rafter, Kaze made his way to the center of the palace.

  There, using his fingers, he felt the ceiling slats, searching out the bamboo pegs that kept them in place. Taking the ko-gatana knife from the sword scabbard, Kaze removed the pegs, using his sense of touch as a guide.

  As he removed the pegs, warm yellow light from lanterns started peeking past the edge of the slat. Silently, carefully, Kaze pried up the slat and looked down into the room below.

  The room was dark and had a closed, fetid odor that assaulted Kaze’s nose. One corner of the room was occupied by a large metal cage. Sitting on a table before the cage was a tray of sumptuous food, expertly prepared and displayed. There was gomoku rice, fresh sea bream, a light soup, and a tiny sweet in the shape of a chrysanthemum.

  Next to the table was a beautiful silk robe, elaborately embroidered with peonies, and a mirror with silver mountings and a tortoiseshell comb. Except for the cage, the sparse furnishings in the room, a tansu chest and two lanterns with black lacquer frames, were elegant, tasteful, and expensive.

  Kaze was puzzled as to what kind of animal would be kept in Yuchan’s apartment. He carefully let himself down from the ceiling, dropping lightly to hi
s feet on the tatami below.

  Once in the room, he went up to the cage to see its contents. Inside, he was repulsed to see a plate containing the carcasses of two boiled rats. They had been gnawed on, and the pink flesh of the rats lay open like some disgusting flower bursting from a gray skin sheath. In a corner of the cage was a shapeless bundle of hair and rags. It took him a few moments to realize he was looking at a human being curled into the fetal position. His brows creased into a V, and Kaze could not make sense of what he was seeing. Was Yuchan some kind of monster, keeping some miserable human as a kind of bizarre pet?

  The creature in the cage looked up at him. Kaze wasn’t sure if it was a man or a woman because it had an emaciated face, with the skin stretched parchment-thin across the bones of the skull. Its frightened eyes looked out at him from a tangle of matted and filthy hair.

  “Why are you in this cage?” Kaze asked softly.

  “To break my spirit,” the creature croaked back at him.

  “Who wants to break your spirit?”

  “Hishigawa. And Ando. They have done this together.”

  “But why hasn’t Yuchan stopped them from committing this cruelty?”

  “I am Yuchan.”

  Kaze was stunned. This pathetic collection of rags and bones was the creature of ethereal beauty that Hishigawa rhapsodized about. For the first time, Kaze understood that Hishigawa’s obsession with the woman had slipped over to madness.

  “How did you know my name?” the creature continued eagerly.

  “Because I’m a friend. Your grandmother has sent me to see if we can get you out of here.”

  “Elder Grandma?”

  “The same.”

  Tears formed in the dull eyes of Yuchan. “I knew she would help me. I prayed constantly to the Buddha to have pity on me and to send Elder Grandma and the whole Noguchi clan to punish these monsters.”