Girl Rides the Wind (31 page)

“I can’t believe how dangerous this is,” Perry said, after he’d complied. “Am I the only one who’s noticed all the police cars with flashing lights and sirens passing us?”

“Fortunately, they all seem to be going the other way.”

Emily conveyed Perry’s concern to Kano, who turned to the old man. “Okamoto-san, is it safe to meet Heiji-san in this way?”

“The police have already searched the estate several times in the last day or so. They will not think to search there again, at least for a few hours.”

“What can we possibly do for her… or should we even interfere at all?” Perry asked.

“I imagine the only person we can do anything for is little Haru-chan here.” Emily kissed her hand again, and then released it to allow the girl to touch her face and hair, tug on the insignia pinned to her uniform, examine her eyes, and ask where she came from.

“
Watashi wa Amerikajin desu
,” Emily replied.

T
he long drive
to the main house was impressive enough, even if it had begun to show signs of neglect. Emily couldn’t identify the trees that formed an avenue – they resembled maples in their habit of growth, though the leaves seemed more tropical. A few branches drooped down as if they would brush the top of the car. Around one bend, a fallen bough had blocked the road, and when the old man got out to pull it to the side, Emily elbowed Perry to help.

“Do you play in these woods?” Emily asked Haru-chan, but she was too nervous to answer. “I used to run all day in the woods behind my house. There were birds and squirrels, and snakes and loads of bugs… and sometimes I would even see bears.”

Haru-chan’s eyes widened at this news. “Where are your woods?”

“They are in Virginia.” It took a moment to figure out how to pronounce this name so it would make sense to the girl in Japanese. “My woods look a lot like your woods.”

“There’s a dragon in my woods.”

“Does he breathe fire and fly across the sky at night?”

“Not anymore. His fire went out, and Auntie Go-Go and Jiji-san had to dig a hole for him.”

“I’m sorry to hear that. But, you know, sometimes you can hear old dragons snoring under the ground.”

Once the way had been cleared, Okamoto-san pulled the car the rest of the way up the drive. Around the last bend, the house emerged from concealment behind a stand of bamboo. It was a sprawling, wooden structure, probably four or five centuries old, with a curving, pagoda-style roof gracing the two-story central section, and wings that fanned out on either side, suggesting an enclosed courtyard.

A lawn rolled off to the west, not as well-manicured as it must once have been, but an ornamental garden to the left of the main approach seemed to have been tended more recently. Haru-chan’s woods stood close by on the other three sides. The trees may even have crept closer to the house in recent years, and Emily recognized the invitation they offered to the old, wooden structure to rejoin them.

Raised voices came from the house, discernable as they approached the front entrance. Emily had to remind Perry to remove his shoes in the portico, which took him longer than the others because of all the laces. She waited for him, and listened as the mood lightened when Haru-chan entered the house. Emily noticed how she’d approached the door with some trepidation at first, as if not knowing what to expect inside, until a woman’s voice called to her.

“You should have worn slip-ons,” Emily said to needle Perry. She craned her head to hear what would happen inside. Tears were audible, in that tone of bittersweet sorrow peculiar to last words.
Could Haru-chan understand what the future must hold in store for her family?
Emily charged up the steps and slipped in through the front entrance, too impatient to wait for Perry any longer.

“You remind me so much of your mother.” Gyoshin pressed Haru-chan’s head against her chest, crouching to be able to kiss her hair. She held the girl away from her body to look into her face, then leaned close again to kiss her eyes. “I have to go away for awhile. Will you take care of
Jiji-san
and
Obaa-san
for me?”

Tsukino paced across the room, unable to find a suitable place for himself in the mansion. He moved as if to enclose both Gyoshin and Haru-chan in his arms, but then pulled back. When his eyes found Emily, they were on fire with sorrow and frustration. If he could have allowed himself the liberty, he’d have wept by now.

“Okamoto-san,” Gyoshin said. “Will you take Haru-chan outside? I need to discuss some things with these people.” But she couldn’t quite let the girl go, clutching at her hand, and then reaching for her head, she kissed her again on the eyes.

The old man took the girl’s hand and led her past Emily just as Perry entered. “Will you show my friend, Perry-san, your woods?” she asked, taking his hand and placing it in Haru-chan’s. “Let her show you around outside.”

Perry craned his neck to catch a glimpse of the fugitive, and Haru-chan tugged on his hand until he followed her out more obediently.

“Tenno-san, you must tell her,” Tsukino blurted out, once the girl was out of earshot. “She doesn’t have to do this.”

“What would you have her do?” Kano asked. “It’s only a matter of time before the police find her.”

“I’m not hiding,” Gyoshin said. “Then can have me whenever they get here, if there’s anything left of me.”

Emily found it difficult to imagine what someone like Heiji Gyoshin would make of life in prison. A public execution would be preferable… and was perhaps more likely, given the circumstances. Soga Jin had taken her own life. What would she do?

“It doesn’t have to be like this,” Tsukino wailed. “It’s not right.”

“It’s tradition,” Kano said.

“Not like this. She doesn’t just mean to swallow a handful of pills, or open a vein in her neck.”

“There is no one left in my family to do the right thing. My brother took the pills, as you say, and
Ojii-san
is already dead. Who’s left to salvage the dignity of the family? What else can I leave for Takako’s daughter? She deserves better from me.”

The nature of the conversation she was hearing left Emily feeling almost dizzy. Were they actually discussing the appropriate way for Gyoshin to kill herself… and was she thinking of it as a gift to her little niece? A glance around the room confirmed it: a white robe, and a dagger had already been set out on a nearby table. Did she have a sword somewhere in the house? Tsukino was right – for her to take her life in the old way, slicing open her abdomen with a
tanto
was definitely not traditional. Samurai wives had recourse to gentler methods.

Kano cleared his throat and glanced at Emily, the same doubts reflected in his eyes. “Tsukino is right, Gyoshin-san.”

“Do not shame me with talk of tradition. Perhaps you would prefer to see me dangling at the end of a rope. The only question for you is whether you will help me or not. Shall I ask the old man to be my
kaishakunin
?” The question silenced the men. Would they continue harrying her until the police arrived, bearing a decidedly less honorable fate in their shackles? “Tenno-san, I must speak with you in private.” Emily would not resist, of course, but the depth of sorrow in Gyoshin’s face shocked her.

Upstairs, in a little room overlooking the courtyard, Gyoshin explained her dilemma. “I don’t have the right…”

“You don’t have to do this.” Emily didn’t quite know what this troubled woman wanted from her, and tried to forestall her, before things became too uncomfortable.

“It’s not that, Tenno-san, and I apologize for imposing on you like this. But I didn’t have a chance to prepare myself, and those men downstairs are useless to me.” She paused to take a breath, her face looking flushed.

“What is it you wish me to do?” Emily tried to brace herself for the worst, that Gyoshin wanted her to decapitate her at the end of the ritual. She’d done such things before – had Gyoshin recognized that about her? – and dreaded having to do it again.

“It’s about my clothes. I don’t have suitable undergarments.” She undid the top few buttons on her blouse to reveal a lacy brassiere, and Emily breathed a sigh of relief. “This is not how I want to be found, wearing this. I’m afraid the police will shame my body.”

“Don’t you have anything else here, in the house?”

“No, I’m afraid not… and the housekeeper’s clothes wouldn’t fit me. I’m embarrassed to ask, and I apologize for the imposition, but we’re about the same size, I think… and I just have this feeling about you…”

“About me?”

“That you might wear something less… intimate?”

How strange, the feeling that washed over Emily. She was used to worrying that people could see inside her, that they could weigh her sins just by looking at her face. Yet, here was this poor woman, struggling to prepare herself for something dreadful, and all she saw was a tomboy standing in front of her.

“Oh my god,” Emily said, already undoing the top button on her uniform blouse. “Why didn’t you just say so? You really had me worried for a second there.” Without further ado, and wincing a bit, she pulled the shirt over her head, leaving most of the buttons still fastened. “I think this will do.” She gestured to the sports bra she had on.

Gyoshin nodded, and blushed, then turned away to remove hers while Emily did the same. Once the exchange was complete, she watched as Emily pulled her shirt back on, and reached out to touch one of her scars.

“I’m sorry about these, if I caused them. I didn’t want to…”

Emily placed a finger to her mouth, and looked at her sternly. “Don’t apologize for what you did. It was terrible, and you are seeing the consequences. But you were hardly the worst villain.”

“My grandfather pressed me… and I went along. I tried to persuade myself that it was better for my people, but I always new how wrong it was… so many times since, I tried to convince myself that I would enjoy the power, that I would be able to protect Haru-chan, that events would persuade people to forgive me.” She paused to consider Emily’s face, and the disapproval she couldn’t help reading there, no matter what false smile might cover it. “I admire you, Tenno-san, for your resolve, your clarity. Once I’d involved myself with Soga Jin, there was no turning back. I knew she would have me assassinated within the year, sooner if she realized my grandfather was already dead. From then on, I mainly thought of how to keep Haru-chan safe.”

“But you were willing to have Princess Toshi killed. Was her life not worth as much as Haru-chan’s?”

Gyoshin’s face fell at these words. Whatever glimmer of noble pride she still possessed flickered out. “I am ashamed of nothing so much as that, and I am grateful to Captain Kano and his men for rescuing her, and saving me from the guilt of the deed. I am content to pay this penalty, and even worse things… if only Haru-chan is not also destroyed by my folly.”

“What about Kiku-san… I mean Lieutenant Otani? She was yours, wasn’t she, assigned to shadow me, and ultimately to betray me? Was her suicide part of the plan?” When Gyoshin was unable to answer, Emily continued her interrogation. “Am I right to assume that you also intended to kill me, and to use my dead body to deflect responsibility for the attack on the Imperial Family?”

“That was indeed part of the plan, Tenno-san.” Her voice had shed its apologetic tone, now sounding almost elegiac. “I deeply regret underestimating you. I should have recognized what you are sooner.”

“What I am?”

“When we met the first time, that day outside Chiba City, at Camp Narashino… you defeated Kano with his favorite weapon… I should have recognized you then.”

“I don’t understand.”

“You are followed by ghosts, that is easy to see, but you are no
yokai
. You are much more. When we met at Sasebo… do you remember?... I saw it in your eyes. If only I’d acted then, and sought your blessing instead of a curse.”

What she said sounded absurd, or at least it should have. But Emily had felt the ghosts often enough, and maybe this woman who’d already consigned herself to death had a sharper sense of such things. Should she deny it, or would that be false to something that mattered so much to herself?

“People have mistaken me for a demon before.”

Gyoshin pulled a white kimono over her shoulders and tied a cloth belt around the waist, her eyes locked on Emily the whole time. She retained the dark pants of her business suit even though it didn’t quite fit the ceremonial attire, another concession to modesty. “We may not be pretty, you and I, but we are acquainted with death… and we know not to fear it.”

Emily searched Gyoshin’s face, after this cryptic remark, hoping to find some clue to the mystery of death in this woman who had already consigned herself to it. What could Gyoshin know that she didn’t, even after risking herself so often, and having stripped the life from so many others?

“I suspect there is at least one person downstairs who wishes you were less concerned with the demands of honor… and perhaps takes a different view of your looks.”

“
Y
ou looked out for him
, didn’t you?” Gyoshin whispered halfway down the stairs, with a gesture towards Tsukino, as he waited with the others in the front room. “It had to be you. None of the
Jietai
would have taken the trouble, and Kano would not oppose you, not after…”

“I get it,” Emily said, more than a little irritated by the direction Gyoshin’s remark seemed to be taking.

“Thank you for not letting him suffer the consequences of my sins.”

For his part, Tsukino had gone quiet, as if he no longer knew how to process the events swirling around him. Gyoshin stood at the edge of the cloth she’d spread out on the floor, and hesitated for an instant before she sunk to her knees. With her forehead pressed to the floor, she muttered some sort of prayer and her shoulders trembled.

“Forgive me, Hiroki-san.”

Tsukino turned his face away. “There is nothing…”

“I should have been brave, like Takako. I should have been more like her. I didn’t have to listen to Grandfather.”

She grasped the
tanto
, a long knife with a handle wrapped in silk, and reached for a sheet of parchment paper.