Dark Water (8 page)

While Sasaki, meticulously prepared, was armed with camera, video, and sketchbook, Kensuke had brought hardly anything at all except a pair of waterproof boots, which he put on instead of his sneakers prior to landing.

Sasaki hopped onto the wharf and cried, 'Hasn't changed a bit!'

Kensuke, surprised, asked him, 'You mean you've been here before?'

'Only once. Ten years ago, on a survey like this one.'

Ten years ago… mused Kensuke. That was a year before Aso's death.

'Look at that.'

Sasaki pointed to a narrow gap in the embankment. Behind it spread a dim space overshadowed by the trees, while in front, where it was practically still the shoreline, what looked like a variety of parsley grew in profusion.

'Would that be parsley?'

'It's angelica.
Angelica keiskei.
Common on the Izu peninsula and Oshima island. Must have drifted no small distance! It was there ten years ago, too.'

Sasaki expressed admiration for the vitality of the angelica plant, whose seeds had washed ashore from who knew where and taken root and grown with such vigor. Sasaki repeated several times that the most amazing thing about Battery No. 6 was the variety and vitality of the seeds that found their way to it, and that the place was a natural treasure chest well worth investigating precisely because it was off limits to the public.

While Naito and Kano proposed that they first conduct a summary survey by circling the island once along the embankment, Sasaki clearly wanted to head straight into the center. In the end, it was decided that the team should split up into two, and Kensuke chose to accompany Sasaki. The captain and the crewmember were to remain on the wharf. It was also decided that each pair, Kano and Naito touring the perimeter and Sasaki and Kensuke venturing inland, would carry a portable receiver. It wasn't a large island, with edges only a hundred yards or so long; they'd be heard if they shouted. But they had the receivers and there was no reason not to use them.

'See you, then.' Naito and Kano waved to the others and got going, walking along the top of the embankment.

Sasaki and Kensuke stepped through the growth of angelica and headed into the dim interior. Every time Sasaki caught sight of a fascinating specimen of vegetation, he angled his camera, recorded it on video, or drew it in his sketchbook. There wasn't any plant Kensuke didn't recognize that Sasaki could not identify; the mentor was indeed proving himself a specialist of the natural sciences. The serious look in his eyes seemed to give lie to his usual jocularity, and Kensuke saw him in a different light again.

The soil, unused to the trample of human feet, was soft, and black liquid oozed out of the humus under their deliberate tread. If not for their boots, their feet would have been soaked completely a good while ago. Even the air was wet. Grasses and trees that were a rare sight in Tokyo thrived here, giving off an eerie odour for some reason and forming a hybrid copse unique to the island. When the sea breeze stirred the treetops, sounds fluttered down all around them, and from time to time Kensuke would not know where he was. He had pretty much forgotten about Yukari. The island was just too different from the site of his fantasies.

The deeper they went, the thicker the gloom - and Sasaki spoke less and less. He wasn't peering through his camera and video as frequently, either. Facing this way and that, he finally halted.

'How odd,' he muttered.

Kensuke, who'd been following Sasaki, also stopped. 'What's odd?' he asked.

Sasaki just let out a sort of grumble and didn't explain, lost in thought. They both stood still for some time, neither of them uttering a word.

'Are you all right?' Kensuke looked concerned as he broke the silence.

'The clump of angelica back at the landing looked just the same. But the further in we go… something's odd.'

'You mean, it's different than before?'

'I can't put my finger on it. Sure doesn't feel right though.'

Hearing this, Kensuke looked around him nervously. He thought he was getting bad vibes, too. Apparently, back in the '20s, Battery No. 6 had been rumoured to be a sort of haunted isle. Just recently, a windsurfer practicing at the Seaside Park had passed from view behind the island and disappeared for good, board and all - or so Kensuke had heard. Recalling such stories, Kensuke didn't feel too good.

'Let's go on, shall we?' urged Kensuke, intending to muster courage, but his voice trembled somewhat.

'No one's supposed to have come here in ten years Sasaki mumbled to himself, as though to confirm the fact, and resumed walking. Naito had told them aboard the cruiser that the Minato Ward Council was participating in the survey for the first time and that there hadn't been a comprehensive field investigation in ten years.

Kensuke remained silent.

Sasaki stopped again. Looking up, he cried, 'This forest's nurturing something!'

'Why not? Don't trees always sustain nearby life-forms?'

Sasaki pointed diagonally ahead. 'That's a persimmon tree. The one beyond it is a medlar. Last time I was here, there weren't any fruit-bearers.'

No sooner had he said this than Sasaki started running ahead.

'Wait!' cried Kensuke.

But Sasaki only gained speed, and it was all Kensuke could do to keep up. Dripping with sweat, he was about to give up the chase when the view changed suddenly and he found himself in a clearing about thirty feet wide.

The place seemed to be the centre of the island, the woods appearing equally thick on all sides. To the north the Rainbow Bridge towered against the sky. It was jarring to catch sight of a modern structure from the centre of an island that resembled an uninhabited jungle. It was as though the dimensions had come unhinged and Kensuke had wandered into an alien world.

The noonday sun drenched the grassy clearing with its rays. Cicadas chirped loudly. It wasn't hard for Kensuke to come up with a word to describe the clearing: it was a garden. Tomatoes, eggplants, cucumbers, and other summer vegetables had been planted in a neat configuration. It was impossible now to deny that there was some force at work here other than nature. These vegetables had been planted according to some will for some purpose. This wasn't a case of seeds washing ashore sprouting naturally on their own. Kensuke and Sasaki looked at each other and verified the impression with each other.

'Look, over there.' Sasaki jerked his jaw toward the east end of the clearing. Three slender strips of wood stood atop a mound of earth.

Walking over to take a closer look, they saw that the strips were tablets. Of the ink-lettered characters only two were legible, both of them what you'd expect on a tablet, while the others had completely worn off. What were the tablets doing there? Could they have come drifting to Battery No. 6, too? Why were they staked so firmly into the ground then?

'What do you think?' spoke Kensuke.

The mound of earth under the wooden strips suggested only one thing to both men.

Sasaki said it: 'It's got to be a grave.'

Ants were squirming in columns on the rounded heap of earth. A grave… It just couldn't be anything else.

Just then, the portable receiver that hung from Kensuke's shoulder sprang to life.

'Kano here. Do you read me? Over.'

'We read you,' replied Kensuke, his finger on the transmit button.

'We've spotted a small dark figure on the western embankment. It disappeared into the woods and must be heading toward the middle. Please exercise due caution.'

'What?'

'It was probably just an animal.'

'A dog maybe? A cat?'

'No,' Kano refuted him without pause.

'Why are you sure?'

'We're not sure. We tried to go after it, but it scrambled into the woods at an amazing speed.'

'Western side?'

'Yes.'

'Roger and out.' Concluding the transmission, Kensuke looked at Sasaki's face and awaited his decision.

'Come.'

Sasaki started walking toward the western woods, where the thing was reported to have vanished, and Kensuke followed closely behind. The two men stopped at the edge of the clearing and, taking care not to make any noise, scouted ahead. They couldn't hear anything yet, but the thing was coming their way through the thicket right in front of them. Kensuke held his breath and waited for something to appear.

A mosquito hummed annoyingly close to Kensuke's nose while he waited in a crouch. If he didn't move at all, he'd be feasted upon where his flesh was exposed. Having to stay in that crouch and make fidgety little movements at the same time was indeed tiring.

The grass in the bush ahead seemed to sway. Soon, the approaching presence became audible through the branches being thrashed away. And then, all of a sudden, a small black thing jumped out at Kensuke.

Before he knew it, he was lying face up on the ground. The impact of something hard striking his jaw from below had almost knocked him out, but his two hands had instinctively caught hold of the thing. A beastly roar went up next to his ear, and an instant later, he felt a searing pain in his arm. He had no idea what was going on. He felt a weight upon him, and when it lifted, he opened his eyes to see against the blinding summer sun a small dark silhouette that was flailing its limbs in Sasaki's arms. The creature that Sasaki had pulled off him was a boy perhaps seven or eight years old.

Kensuke managed to sit up but remained in a state of disbelief. The boy was howling, not in any human language, but like a wild beast. The shrieks contained a frantic appeal but were totally incomprehensible and filled Kensuke with terror. The boy had no doubt bitten him. There were drops of blood on the arm where he'd felt the pain. Kensuke stood up, pressing down on the spot with his hand. Just then, Kano and Naito came dashing out of the woods behind. No sooner had Kano caught sight of the boy in Sasaki's restraining arms than he fetched his receiver to get through to the captain of the cruiser.

'Prepare to depart… Contact the police…' The instructions Kano issued in rapid succession registered only as fragments with Kensuke.

He felt dizzy. He tried to reason out what had just happened. The boy must have been glancing behind him as he ran. Not noticing Kensuke's presence right ahead, he'd banged his head into Kensuke's jaw. But why a boy, on this island? Kano and the others were asking him for his name and address. Tossing his head wildly, he only let out inchoate shrieks and supplied no information. Hearing the cries, which weren't in Japanese nor any foreign language, Kensuke felt dizzy again.

The boy sat on the cruiser's deck floor with just his head poking above the side. He was gazing intently at the island. There was no expression on his face. Leaving your natal land usually elicited a special surge of emotion, but the boy didn't seem to know how to express such sentiments. The moment they'd taken him aboard the cruiser, he'd quieted down, and now for some time he'd sat there without once budging.

There was nothing to do but call off the survey. Their top priority was to take the boy back to the city and to hand him over to the proper authorities. Unable to conceal their excitement at the unexpected catch, Naito and Kano exchanged theories about the boy's provenance and stared unabashedly at him as at a wild child who'd been reared by wolves.

No one else had a clue. But Kensuke could paint a reasonably good picture of what had transpired on Battery No. 6 in the last nine years. One look at the child's face was enough to make everything clear. The refined small nose, the clear glacial eyes, the thin lips - though obscured by a mass of overgrown hair, all of the boy's features bore an irrefutable resemblance. It was in third grade that Kensuke and Aso had first met and gotten to know each other. The profile of the boy who sat before Kensuke now was the living image of his former classmate. Without a shadow of a doubt, this was Aso's son by Yukari Nakazawa.

Aso had lied. He hadn't stripped Yukari naked and deserted her on Battery No. 6. The absurd scheme of turning an uninhabited island nearby into a paradise on earth had no doubt been Yukari's suggestion; Aso, while horrified by the inanity of it, must have helped her out. How else could the vegetables and fruits growing on Battery No. 6 be explained? Moreover, the boy wasn't naked; they were rags by now, but he was clothed. The bare essentials for survival must have been prepared at the outset and brought to the island.

Where, then, was Yukari, the boy's mother? Probably dead and buried. If she were alive, she'd have to be somewhere other than Battery No. 6. In any case, she wasn't a living inhabitant of the island. Assuming Aso hadn't lied about absolutely everything, Yukari had become pregnant that summer nine years ago - and given birth the following year. That made the boy eight years old. If he'd been living with his mother for the whole time, he'd know how to speak. Instead he must have lost his mother when he was around five, and forgotten, during the solitary years that followed, even the little he'd learned from her. Whether Yukari had died on Battery No. 6 or abandoned the child and escaped alone would be clear if and when they dug up the mound under the wooden tablets.

Kensuke's hunch was that Yukari rested in peace under that mound of earth.

The satisfied expression on Aso's face as he lay at death's door… At long last, Kensuke understood. Aso had smiled to himself for secretly having disseminated his seed here on earth. The force that aided the strange seedling from afar didn't work for plants alone. Kensuke was looking at the proof.

Sensing that Kensuke was staring at him, the boy met his gaze. Almost no expression appeared on the boy's face as he turned it back toward Battery No. 6 shrinking in the distance.

There is an observation platform shaped like a five-needle pine at the tip of Cape Futtsu. A climb to the top reveals a panoramic view that encompasses Yokosuka and Cape Kannon. Hiroyuki Inagaki had brought his son with him to the observation platform for the first time in a while.