The Psyche Diver Trilogy: Demon Hunters (21 page)

Hosuke and Biku provided Gensai with an outline of what they had learnt, including details of the ritual. When they finished he grunted, nodding as he cast his gaze back out to sea. “Interesting,” he muttered, standing now with his back to them. It was exactly the same tone of voice that Hosuke had used after Biku initially explained the job. “Truly fascinating. I have no idea what any of this means, but that is precisely why it’s so intriguing!” The three of them stood under a hot sun. The bright, coastal air suggested an indifference that made it difficult to absorb the weight of their conversation. Nonetheless, Biku carved a wry smile, born of the realization that he had almost agreed out loud with Gensai’s comment--it
was
fascinating.

“Have you made any progress regarding our discussion on the phone?” Biku asked.

“Hah! That was eight o’clock this morning! You know, you woke me up. It’s been, what, seven hours since then?” Gensai pivoted on his feet, swinging easily back to face them. He was wearing white cotton jeans. His disheveled white hair seemed to dance in the breeze. The man’s skin was still taught, making his age all the more incredible. He had traditional
geta
on his feet but had matched them with a gaudy yellow t-shirt. The somewhat youthful get-up seemed a good fit.

“So you haven’t discovered anything?”

“I didn’t say that.”

Biku waited in silence.

“Only the minimum necessary to secure your debt, of course. Indeed, I have researched the Panshigaru.”

“And you found something?”

“Oh yes. Do you acknowledge your debt?”

“Sure.”

“Okay then, I’d like your butt as payment.”

“My...butt?”

“Don’t tell me you have forgotten your promise of yonder, made in this very place?”

The words jogged Biku’s memory, he nodded. “Ah, that...”

“Indeed.”

“I’d forgotten all about it!” A smile traced across Biku’s lips.

Gensai scowled, making a tutting sound. “Ah the shit I put up with. For my part, I’ve been fantasizing about you night on end.”

“My apologies.” Biku dipped his head in a bow.

“Don’t let this old guy reel you in, he’ll bugger you if he can,” Hosuke broke his silence. “We’re plenty in your debt, Gensai. Hurry up and let it out.”

“Ah, Hosuke. A little blunt considering you’re addressing your master, no?”

“You’re such a pain in the ass old man. Fine.” Hosuke ducked his head, scratching at his scalp as he did so. “
Master
Gensai.” He put special emphasis on the title.

Gensai grunted in response, “So rude.” He reached into the back pocket of his jeans and pulled out a folded sheet of paper. “Hosuke, this much you could do yourself. I went to the Odawara library and, lo and behold, found a book on Panshigaru. The book’s called ‘The Hidden Sangha of India.’ I found a section on Panshigaru inside, so I took a copy for you.” He waved the paper so that it flapped in the breeze.

“Master, you impress as always.”

Another grunt. “It’s too late now!” Gensai put the paper back into his pocket. “I’ll give you the paper if you do me a favor in return.”

“Pay the copier fee?”

“I think I can manage that much. No, I’d like the two of you to face up--here and now.” Gensai flashed a grin as he finished speaking.

“Face up?” Biku repeated.

“In summary, I would like the two of you to fight. Show me who’s the strongest. That’s the real reason our meeting is all the way out here.”

Hosuke gave Biku a sharp look. Biku looked back at him, apparently unsure whether Gensai was being serious. “Biku, he means it.”

“I very much do. Unless you stage a proper fight to prove who’s strongest, you’re not going to see this.”

Biku smiled awkwardly. “
I’d love you and Hosuke to meet,”
he remembered Gensai’s words from before, spoken here at the Odawara coast. Only now he knew their true meaning.

“Looks like you got us. Or maybe I should just go to the Odawara library and look up that book you mentioned. I’m sure it’s there, we could go and have them show it to us.”

The man grunted. “I may have showed a little too much of my hand. Alhough, there’s more, another choice nugget.”

“And that is?”

“I’ll tell you once you’ve shown me the two of you facing up.”

“Looks like we have a problem,” Biku turned to face Hosuke.

Hosuke smiled, as though looking forward to an unexpected game. “How about it, Biku? I don’t work for you anymore, after all.”

“I guess so, why not,” came Biku’s smooth reply.

“Hehe.” Hosuke rubbed his nose and gave Biku a sly grin.

“Shall we decide the rules?” Biku asked.

“I’m sure you two have the rules internalized by now. Gouge out your opponents’ eyes, crush their balls...anything goes,” Gensai said. He had shuffled off to one side leaving Biku and Hosuke standing alone. Hosuke had his back to the sea; Biku stood facing him.

“It’s a good day, Biku.” Hosuke looked casually to the blue sky above them. He sucked some air through his nose, testing the wind. He did not look like a man about to launch into battle. “Whenever you’re ready, Biku. You can attack first.” Hosuke widened his stance in a subtle movement, both arms hung loosely at his sides. The two of them were only a couple of meters apart.

Biku stood firm, keeping his eyes trained on Hosuke. Like Gensai, Hosuke was dressed in jeans and a white shirt that showed off his thick, darkly-tanned arms. An azure sea spread behind him, glinting in the sunlight. The outline of Oshima Island was a blue haze on the horizon. A column of white clouds towered vertically into the sky behind his head. Apart from this, the sky was an unbroken blue. The coastline was dotted with occasional figures of fishermen and a few people swimming in the sea. A couple of fishing boats trawled further out beyond them.

Hosuke’s frame began to blend into the background. It was as though the energy given off by his dense bulk had just disappeared. Yet the man was not actively suppressing his aura. It had just become perfectly transparent. Hosuke was still visible to the naked eye, but his aura was gone. To Biku, it felt like someone had taken a Hosuke-shaped cutting out of the background and put it there before him.

Biku had witnessed the same phenomenon the first time he had met Hosuke that night in the mountains of Tateyama. On the one hand, it felt that it would be easy enough to reach out and knock him down, but Biku could not shake the feeling that his fist would simply travel through the man like he was made of mist. That, if he did, the energy of the thunderhead billowing up behind him would funnel itself through him and explode out towards Biku himself.

Biku was at a complete loss, it was like trying to pick a fight with scenery. In order to fight, he had to find a way of transforming Hosuke back into a physical entity, back from the background. Biku smiled faintly and extended his hands out towards Hosuke. He positioned his palms outwards and extended the index finger and thumb of each hand, linking them together to form a triangle. He positioned the triangle so that it framed Hosuke’s face then began to intone a Shingon chant; he cut his hands through the air, tracing four vertical lines followed by five horizontal, the shape of the
kuji
. He focused his spirit and pushed the energy through the triangle, out towards the form of Hosuke. The energy wave passed clean through Hosuke’s body to be absorbed into the casual expanse of the scene behind him.

“I see,” Biku murmured, letting his hands drop, “after you if you please, Mr. Kumon,” Biku continued. He raised his hands before his chest and clenched his right hand into a fist. He extended his index finger and wrapped his left hand around it. He had bound them together in the seal of the
Kongokai--the Diamond Realm
-- referred to as
Chiken’in
in the world of esoteric cults. Biku maintained the position and closed his eyes.

The two men stood without moving; the breeze gust through their hair, carrying the salt of the ocean. No one spoke. Neither was willing to commit to the first action. They held their respective stances for fifteen minutes.

“Ach,” Gensai finally spoke, muttering, “that’s enough. Just how long were you planning to keep that up for?” His tone broadcast his disappointment.

“Intriguing, indeed.” Biku unwound the seal.

“Hehe.” Hosuke scratched his head.

“I feel like I’ve been duped somehow,” Gensai clicked his tongue and sauntered back to where they stood. “Still, that was a good display, I haven’t seen anything like that in a while.” Gensai pulled the sheet of paper from his back pocket and handed it to Biku. “Take a read of that. It’s all about Panshigaru.”

4

Panshigaru,
derived from
Phansigars
: a mysterious fraternity also known as the
Thugs
.

Emergent in India between the twelfth and thirteenth century, the fraternity ritualized attacks on travelers, its members killing through a rite of strangulation. The term became popularized throughout Europe, and later the world, after Lord Conwallis’ occupation of the Mysore State in 1799. The word
‘phansigar’
has its origins in the Hindustani term
‘phasi’
(a snare, or noose), while
‘thugs’
is derived from the northern-Indian word for ‘deceiver’ or ‘con-artist’. The
‘Phansigars’
came to be referred to as
‘thugs’
due to their common use of deception to infiltrate groups of travelers. They would kill by wrapping
a ‘phasi’
, or snare, around their victims’ necks.

The Greek historian Herodotus described a people that would fight using only a dagger and a looped braid of wrought leather, Persians from the Sagartii who were (later) recorded to have entered India during the Islamic conquest. They moved in groups, killing their prey before looting the bodies. When planning their attacks, the
Thugs
--or
Thugees
--would dispatch scouts to ascertain the location of well-to-do travelers and prepare. The main group would then pretend to be travelers that had lost their way, entreating the travelers to allow them into their ranks; the
Thugees
would assume positions ahead of and behind the group. Those trailing the group would then wrap a strip of cloth called a
Ruhmal
around the travelers’ necks and pull. Another would push the traveler’s head forward while the third took hold of the legs. This is how they would manhandle their victims to the ground before killing them. Each time they killed, they would perform a ritual called the
Tapoonee
over the victims’ graves. Various estimates calculate that no less than a million people died at the hands of the
Thugees
. The
Thugees
worshiped the Hindu goddess Kali, one of the principal Hindu deities, the wife of Shiva and the goddess of death.

As Britain consolidated its hold over India and the various spoils of civilization such as railroads and telegrams began to spread across the country, the basic infrastructure that had supported the
Thugees’
modus operandi began to crumble. In 1830 the Governor General of India, Lord William Bentinck, issued an edict for the total extermination of
Thugees
throughout the country. In the modern day, the
T
hugee
cult is claimed to have been either completely wiped out or reduced to a mere handful of followers.

That was the extent of information contained in the copy Gensai had handed them regarding the
Thugees
and
Phansigars
.

“Okay then,” Gensai began, “perhaps there is a link between the
Phansigars
and Panshigaru.”

“It’s difficult to be sure, but that is most likely the case. I can’t imagine a word like ‘Panshigaru’ has many other meanings. And Hanko, the beast I mentioned, used something like a leather noose as a weapon.”

“Ahh,” Gensai made a child-like noise. He was beaming at them. “The author of ‘The Secret Sangha of India,’ the book I took the copy from, was a woman.”

“A woman, I see.”

“I took the liberty of copying her details. It seems the book was autobiographical, based off of her own walking expeditions across India and the Middle East. Her name is Miwa Ishibashi.”

“Ishibashi!?”

“Aha, that sounds like it rings a bell.”

“Had I not mentioned? We know that the Shinmeikai is somehow related to Panshigaru, and Shutaro Toyama’s secretary has the surname Ishibashi.”

“Indeed?”

“Feels like we’re closer to solving the puzzle,” Hosuke said.

“Then let me share another nugget with you, the extra-special bit I mentioned earlier. Have you heard of an organization called the L.L.S., ‘The Life & Light School’?”

“No,” Biku answered.

“It’s a new cult religion, they also call it the ‘Life & Light Sangha’. Miwa Ishibashi is the founder. Knowing this, I guessed that you might like to meet her so I took the liberty of doing a little more research. She runs the school with a partner, someone called Geshin.”

“Geshin!” Biku said, his voice suddenly sharp.

“Ah, you know him?”

“If it’s the same Geshin, he used to be in Mt. Koya. I’ve come across him before.”

5

I don’t want to die.

Senkichi Fuminari ground his teeth noisily in the dark. His arms and legs had been bound by thick strands of mountain rope. The rope was 8 millimeter thick nylon, the type used by rock climbers. They had forced him into a heavy wooden chair and twisted his arms around the back before using the rope to bound him. The rope was too strong, even for the considerable strength of his arms. Climbing ropes are placed under a staggering amount of stress when a climber falls. The exact levels of stress vary depending on the distance fallen, but generally the rope could be subjected to a force measured in tons. A climbing rope with a thickness of only 8mm is strong enough to weather this. Fuminari knew his attempts would be futile the moment he first tried to tear through the rope.

Hours had passed since he had been brought into the building. During the first hour or so he had been under the scrutiny of Enoh, Renobo and six other people; now he was alone. He had been lifted to another room while strapped to the chair. The new room was underground, the floor concrete. They had locked the heavy, iron door shut. There was nothing else in the room; Fuminari had noted this when they had left him here, before they had plunged the lights into darkness. The same darkness through which he had heard the lock click shut.