Falling From the Floating World

by Nick Hurst

  But I think you appreciate the situation – I hope you do – and I know you’re capable of doing what needs to be done. Because you have the strength, the intelligence and the determination. You always did, you just didn’t know.

  You reading this letter means you know what happened. I hope it also means you’ve found a way to understand. I’m so sorry I couldn’t find a way to explain earlier so our last memories could have been sweeter.

  There are, though, still some details you won’t know.

  Before my mother died, we used to go to a small chalet at the foot of Mount Fuji. I was too small to remember, but I have flashes of nostalgia that make me certain it was a happy time. I’m sure it was the same for my father because we never went again after my mother passed away.

  When I found out what had happened to him and I got to the bottom of why, I went back. I knew he wouldn’t allow the events to go unavenged. Waiting for me was the letter I mentioned and the documents you will find enclosed with this.

  There is a report on the Kamigawa Plant that reveals the safety issues that were identified before construction began. Onishi is on the circulation list. There’s also documentation on the money he amassed from the sale of the land and his financial stake in the plant. If you get these in the right hands he will be undone. He’ll be the first to fall but Yabu will be left exposed and he’ll soon be toppled as well.

  Getting them in the right hands won’t be easy, though. Onishi is a powerful man and there are very few willing to stand against him. Unless you get the files to them, they won’t see the light of day and this will all have been a waste. I’m sorry to place such a burden on you but I ran out of time before I could find a suitable person to trust.

  One possibility is Takata of the Takata-gumi – the man you helped me track down. His men were responsible for the death of my father but in a strange way he’s not guilty of the crime. I know that sounds odd, but my father’s murder was initiated many years ago – to blame Takata would be to blame the gun rather than the man with it in his hand. That doesn’t mean he can be trusted – despite his charm he’s an extremely dangerous man. But I don’t need to tell you this. I know you’ll make the right choice .

  So now, instead of completing what I need to, I’m asking you to do it in my place. Because the net around me has closed quickly and I can only perform some last, hurried tasks before the Ginzo-kai track me down. Even getting this letter to you is complicated because I know they’ll have people checking your post.

  I’m putting you in danger again. Doing so has been the hardest dilemma in the many I’ve recently faced. But in the end I decided to go with my instinct, and my instinct told me you’d do what I couldn’t and put the final pieces into place. Like a gaikokujin samurai. My gaikokujin samurai who I can’t wait to meet again.

  So enough about danger and death – I was my happiest when I was with you so this letter should end with life and love. I loved you from the moment I saw you. I knew instantly you were the one for me. I think you loved me too – I hope you did – although perhaps you didn’t realise at the time.

  I know sometimes you felt uncomfortable, as though you were the lucky one of us both. But it was never like that. You made up what was missing in me. When I was down you picked me up, and when I was up you made me fly higher still. You made me happy and you made me feel complete. I loved you and I love you and I always will.

  Now I have to go. But there isn’t a goodbye for us, Ray-kun, so take this as a farewell. Because we will meet again and we’ll love each other just as we did. The same and much, much more.

  Forever yours, your eternal love,

  Tomoe

  ELEVEN

  I kissed the letter on the lipstick mark by her name and read it again. When I finished the second time I closed my eyes and felt at peace with the world for the first time in a very long while.

  The moment was fleeting. I opened them when I heard the receptionist call my, or rather Tokugawa’s, name. Beyond her a beast of fearful proportions, partially contained in a suit, was trying to squeeze its enormous bulk through the entrance door. It wasn’t Kurotaki and I’d only seen one other man in Japan that big. He’d almost ripped my arm from its socket, his accomplice had bludgeoned my face and shortly after I’d gone out the window of a moving car.

  ‘Hello, Ray-san,’ the monster of the Ginzo-kai called out as his face came into view. ‘Fancy seeing you here – it’s been too long.’

  I was on my feet and running down the corridor before he finished – I had no desire for a repeat of my previous experiences with him. A last glance in his direction showed the receptionist gamely stepping across him to block his path.

  Out of the reception area the place was a shoji-sided maze. I slid a door open at random and found myself in the toilets. There was a tiny window above the basins on the other side.

  It wasn’t difficult getting up to and partway through it, but they hadn’t been designed as emergency exits and I had a moment’s panic before a frantic wiggle of my hips allowed me to drop head first outside. I rolled to my feet with the momentum of the fall and looked around. Normally I’d have appreciated the ornate courtyard with its stone lantern and picturesque pond. At that moment I just felt trapped by the four walls of sliding doors. I ran to one opposite, slid it open and leapt inside.

  ‘Dōmo sumimasen, gomen nasai.’

  I fired a volley of apologies to startled diners as I hurtled through the tatamied room. From there I continued my direct line from the Beast, crossing a corridor and bursting in and out of a room on the other side. I found myself in another garden, just as beautiful and just as unhelpful, this one bordered by a high wall. I cursed with a profanity to make Kurotaki proud.

  I didn’t pause long. It was the wall or return the way I’d come for a match-up with Godzilla’s meaner twin. I rocked on my heels then bolted forward, throwing everything I had into the jump. There was a moment of gut-churning fear as my feet failed to get purchase. But then I found traction and managed to kick and clamber my way to the top.

  The fall was nothing compared to a first-floor hotel room and I dropped to a crouch, perfectly poised to spring down the alley and make good my escape. But as I was about to, something connected with my head. Something so brain-jarringly powerful that even after a month of cranial impacts it seemed to freeze time and leave my vision surrounded by the jagged edges of a comic book ‘BANG’.

  After delivering the stupefying punch, its owner’s other hand caught me as I collapsed to the floor.

  ‘You dumb fuck,’ he said, far less friendly than he had been when greeting me minutes before. ‘There are two ways out of this place, the front and the back. What the fuck good did you think it would do you running around inside?’

  He held me like prey in his monstrous claw and spoke into the phone in his other hand.

  ‘Yeah, I got him. Meet me round the back.’

  His turned his attention to me.

  ‘Try anything and I’ll stick a pen in each ear and smack them so hard they meet in the middle of your head.’

  It was almost a shame he had to be a rival to Kurotaki – they’d have got on so well.

  ‘I hope you’re not assaulting one of the Takata-gumi.’

  As though the gods had gifted me the power to will someone into being, his detestable voice rang out.

  ‘Or perhaps you’re just helping Ray-san up,’ Kurotaki continued. It was the first time I’d heard him refer to me without a curse.

  I heard footsteps from behind and knew the feet would reveal themselves as Knifeman’s. I lifted my head and saw Kurotaki twenty metres down the alley, aggression oozing from every pore. Sumida stood alongside him, looking as perturbed as one might on an afternoon stroll.

  ‘If that is the case, please accept our thanks,’ Kurotaki said with a faint nod. ‘Ray-san, why don’t you come over here?’

  Apart from the fact I wouldn’t have been able to stand, let alone walk, I didn’t move because of the flesh-covere
d vice that had me clamped by the scruff of the neck. The Beast gave no indication this situation would change.

  Kurotaki didn’t say anything else but he started to edge towards us. To my left, Knifeman’s feet shuffled into view. It was at this point, as everyone moved to their starting positions, the man-monster realised he wouldn’t win the impending fight with me in his grip and reluctantly tossed me to the side.

  I slumped against the wall and looked upon the scene. It was like a Western showdown picked up from the last century and dumped in the present-day East. Tokyo’s two most-feared men finally facing each other. Two freaks of nature about to discover who had inherited the more monstrous genes. Who would win, the East Asian tiger or the Japanese black bear? Kurotaki seemed confident it would be him.

  ‘I’ve got this,’ he said quietly, his gaze locked on the Ginzo-kai as he spoke.

  Sumida’s posture immediately relaxed. Not that he’d been tense in the first place, but he took a small step back.

  I felt far less at ease. I wanted to scream at Kurotaki. I didn’t care about his life, in fact I was sure the planet would be better without it. But his bravado wasn’t just a threat to him. If he was killed there wouldn’t be much time left in this world for me.

  But the situation was too tense to make a sound so I didn’t. Kurotaki continued to edge forward. And the two Ginzo-kai readied themselves where they were.

  The slow-motion showdown played tortuously on, seconds as minutes, minutes as hours. Kurotaki’s eyes remained locked on the Beast and rightly so. But I was also concerned about the man at his side; the man I knew would be carrying a knife. It was no good Kurotaki taking out his main adversary only to be caught by the weaker link.

  Still he inched forwards, now close enough for me to compare him and his double. Two monsters fronting as men, set well above their malevolent peers in meanness and power. It was possible they hadn’t met before. But they would have known the other’s reputation and had probably anticipated this day. Kurotaki would have been looking forward to it.

  Still he pressed on, so carefully you could hardly see him advance. He may have been confident enough to stand down Sumida but he wasn’t so stupid he didn’t know what was at stake. His body looked tense, but it was the tension of preparedness without being tight. When the moment came it was easy to picture it transforming, like a predator’s spring from its crouch, like—

  Kurotaki exploded into a blur. Blood splattered the wall opposite, accompanied by a sickening squelch and another streak of blood that slapped my face. I wiped at it, disgusted, but more than that anxious, desperate to see. I needed to know what was going on, who was winning, if I’d emerge from the next few minutes alive.

  I saw Kurotaki and his nemesis through a film of blood. They were clasped to one another, face-to-face. Both had expressions of frenzied intensity, but it was impossible to know whose was fuelled by adrenalin and whose by fear. Kurotaki’s elbow on the other side was raised unnaturally but his hand was out of sight. I couldn’t tell if his posture was aggressive or if he was disabled by pain.

  It seemed an age they stood there, but then the freeze-frame broke with another thunderous eruption of blood. Kurotaki stepped back and I saw its source – spraying from the neck of the Beast where Kurotaki had withdrawn his short sword. The precious blade was coated with human oils now, having been buried hilt-deep in the Beast.

  Kurotaki released his hold from its shirt. The Ginzo-kai monster collapsed to the floor like a film-prop filled to excess with fake blood. Beside him more pumped from the throat of Knifeman as he thrashed on the floor in the last throes before death. His hand was still reaching inside his jacket for the tool he hadn’t been fast enough to retrieve.

  I wiped at my face again in absent disgust. I was trying to piece together the flash of movement I’d just seen. One second all three had been standing; the next, two men were writhing in a river of blood.

  An imprint of memory showed Kurotaki reach inside his jacket and swing out back-handed to the right. The strike that had almost decapitated Knifeman with its razor-sharp, Kunimitsu-bladed edge. He’d used its recoil to drive back, thrusting the dagger into the Beast’s gaping neck. All at such speed they hadn’t stood a chance.

  I flinched as he seized the front of my top and hauled me to my unsteady feet. He let go, then grabbed me again as I tottered and started to slide down the wall.

  ‘Come on, Ray-san, let’s get you back.’

  He took a last look behind him and spat at the twitching mass of flesh and blood still struggling against its fate. He dragged me over to Sumida, who gave a brief nod of approval before he turned. We made our way to where I hoped would soon be a car, Tomoe’s letter in my pocket, the file still stuffed down my top. I think I then passed out because I don’t remember anything else.

  TWELVE

  I opened and closed my mouth to work up some saliva – it felt like someone had stuffed in a handful of sand. I started to move my head but stopped when bells started clanging and lights flashed behind my closed eyes. I opened them slowly. Then I undid my previous caution by sitting bolt upright with a start.

  The letter.

  A nurse hurried into the room and tried to restrain me as I attempted to get out of the bed. I was in such a weak state she had the upper hand even before a passing doctor saw the commotion and came in to help.

  ‘Clarence-san, please try to relax. You need to rest.’

  I looked at her. It was the same doctor who’d treated me before.

  ‘I had a letter. It’s important – I have to find it.’

  ‘The letter’s safe, don’t worry. You were railing about it when you were brought in so we kept it right here.’

  She opened a drawer by my bed. I scanned the letter anxiously to make sure it was the right one. I relaxed and folded it up.

  ‘When was that?’

  ‘Yesterday. You’ve been out cold since.’

  I gave her a weak smile through my aching head.

  ‘Aren’t there any other doctors here? Do you have to do heads as well as hands?’

  ‘I’m very happy sticking to hands,’ she said. ‘I just took an interest when I saw you wheeled in. So if you’re asking whether I’m in charge of your present treatment, no, I’m not. But if I were to make an unqualified diagnosis, I’d say your refusal to find new friends suggests mental rehabilitation is as important as physical therapy in your case.’

  She picked up the chart at the foot of my bed.

  ‘Based on this and the conversations I’ve had with your doctor, physically you’re going be fine – for now, at least. But if you keep associating with the same crowd you’re going to be back here again. That’s if you’re lucky. Next time it could be the morgue.’

  She looked at me unhappily. I tried to give her a reassuring smile.

  ‘Don’t worry.’

  She didn’t look convinced.

  ‘Honestly, it’s all over. Done.’

  ‘Now why don’t I believe that? Is it because I remember you saying much the same last time? Or because you’ve not even been here a day and one of your “friends” has already had to be treated again?’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  Before she could answer, there was an announcement over the tannoy. She gave a quick smile and told me she’d check back in. Then she rushed off.

  ‘I’ve got no idea,’ said the nurse before I could ask. ‘I just started my shift. But please, you’re not ready to get up. Just lie back for the moment. The doctor will be in to see you soon.’

  I did as she said and before I knew it I was out again.

  *

  I woke to the sound of voices, but these didn’t have the same professional tone. I opened my eyes a crack and closed them at the brightness. I had another go and two silhouettes took shape. The silhouettes then became people. They turned out to be Sumida and Kurotaki.

  ‘He awakes. Takata-gumi’s hero.’

  It had been enough of a shock to be called by my name in the alle
y. Kurotaki referring to me as a hero, even in jest, was a bit too surreal. I looked at Sumida.

  ‘Things moved quickly after you decided to take your little break,’ he said.

  ‘Hey,’ warned Kurotaki.

  I’d never seen him like this. His mood could only be described as bubbly.

  ‘We hit Yabu and his two lieutenants straight after we dropped you off,’ Sumida continued, unfazed. ‘Combined with the two you led us to, it means we’ve taken out the brains and brawn of the Tokyo group. They’re in chaos. We started moving on their operations the same day.’

  ‘What about—’

  He threw a newspaper at me before I could finish.

  ‘Onishi knew Kamigawa could lead to nuclear disaster’, I read.

  Then the subhead.

  ‘Construction forced through for personal gain’.

  I squinted at the body copy, my eyes still trying to find their place in my head.

  ‘Don’t worry about it,’ said Sumida. ‘In short it says he’s fucked.’

  He strolled around the side of the bed.

  ‘He’s done and Yabu’s dead. You got revenge for your girlfriend.’

  ‘And we got our city back,’ Kurotaki cut in. ‘After this, the Ginzo-kai will have to make do with scraps. We’re back in charge.’

  ‘What’s that?’ I asked, nodding at the swathe of bandages wrapped around his gesticulating left hand. He shrugged.

  ‘It’s nothing,’ he said. ‘Someone had to make a gesture to the Ginzo-kai bosses in Kobe – not that there’s much they can do now. But it’s best if we can agree recent events were caused by an overenthusiastic Takata-gumi sub-group. It gives them face and an excuse not to set up for war. The way things are with the authorities, that would be bad for us all.’

  ‘You need to be careful – for someone who had all ten fingers not more than a month ago you’re losing them at a worrying rate,’ I said unkindly. ‘You’ll look like a leper if you keep this up.’