James Clavell - Gai-Jin

by Gai-Jin(Lit)

  "Sorry, Nakama, that's not the point. He says you are an irritant, an unnecessary complication, sorry, but he's right. The authorities will soon know you're here, if they don't already. Then they'll demand that we hand you over--we can't avoid that and eventually we'll have to comply."

  "P'rease? Not understand."

  It took Tyrer several attempts with simpler words to make his meaning clear, then he added, "Sir William told me to tell you it's best you sneak off, disappear while you can."

  Hiraga's heart almost stopped. Ever since he had escaped the trap in the village he had been frantically trying to devise a way to negate the inevitable results of the riot, and of being seen--the samurai officer would surely realize a shishi was loose in the Settlement.

  No solution had occurred except that he must remain in hiding here. To attempt flight now was even more dangerous. Samurai vigilance would be vastly increased, and if they realized he was

  Hiraga of the poster...

  He wanted to scream aloud, his mind disarrayed by the rushing events and the depths of the panic and fear he had endured since Ori's betrayal. Then his ears focused and he heard a key word in Tyrer's rambling on about "how sorry he was to lose such a valuable ally in his search for Japanese knowledge but there seems to be no way of avoiding it..."

  His head cleared. "Have idea, Taira-san," he said softly. "Bad for me go now, I sure die. Want he'rp Ing'erish friends, want to be va'ru'ber a'rry, very va'ru'ber friend. I know about Satsuma daimyo, know Satsuma secrets. Shoya give me mandy... sorry, give me many informations. I can exp'rain how make Satsuma obey, perhaps even Bakufu obey. I want to he'rp. Ask Sir

  W'rum: I give informations to keep gai-jin safe, you keep me safe and give me informations, fair exchange. Friends, neh?"

  Excitedly Tyrer thought through the offer: Sir

  William will surely agree, but only if the information is truly valuable, and only if it comes direct from questioning Nakama himself. That means... oh God I can't! "I'd have to let Willie in on the secret that you speak English. No way to avoid that, and I just can't blurt out that I've been hiding such vital info, I'd get sacked for certain. Can't risk that, not when Willie's in such a foul mood!" Better Nakama leaves before my head's on the block and he's an international incident. "Sorry," he said, in despair. "It's not possible."

  "Ah so sorry, perhaps have way," Hiraga said, and made a final gambit to give himself time.

  "Have message from Fujiko--eeee,

  Taira-san, you make great mark on her, now she thinks you very best friend. Mama-san say, so sorry but Fujiko yesterday begin woman's sick, month'ry sick so cannot receive you for one, two days." He had seen Tyrer's immediate disappointment, followed by resignation and anticipation in quick order.

  Weak with relief, he relaxed slightly, at the same time once again astounded that any man, let alone an important official like Taira would allow himself to show his inner feelings so openly to anyone, let alone to an enemy. These barbarians are beyond belief.

  "Here," he continued, offering him the fan with the calligraphy on it he had had prepared. "It poem, Fujiko writes: "Counting hours, very sad. Hurry hours when your sun shine on me, then no sad, stop time."" He watched

  Tyrer take the fan reverently, pleased with his choice of words though disgusted with her inadequate writing skill. Still, he thought, the effect seems to be perfect. "About Chief Gai-jin, have p'ran but first, meeting with Sh@ogun,

  Taira-san, the meeting was good yes?"

  A gust of laughter took Akimoto, so infectious that Hiraga joined in. "Eeee,

  Hiraga-san, brilliant to manipulate the gai-jin like that! Brilliant! Sak`e, bring more sak`e!"

  They were lolling in their isolated room in the grounds of the Three Carp, shoji windows closed against the night insects. Sprigs of autumn maple in a green vase decorated the alcove.

  Oil lamps. Their swords on racks beside them and when the maid had left and they had refilled their cups and quaffed them, Akimoto said, "What happened next?"

  "After little fish Taira swallowed the bait, we went to bow before the Great Grouper who gorged on both. I told him that unbeknownst to Taira

  I spoke some English that I had learned from

  Dutchmen from Deshima..."

  "And that's no lie," Akimoto said and replenished their cups. He had gone to the same school for gifted Choshu samurai at

  Shimonoseki but had not been selected for the language classes, instead he had been ordered to specialize in the western naval affairs, taught by a retired Dutch sea captain.

  "Baka that I never learned Dutch or

  English. What did the gai-jin leader say?"

  "Not too much. Taira pretended to be equally astonished as we had agreed. It was easy to divert the man with unimportant information about

  Satsuma, about Sanjiro and his fortress at

  Kagoshima, some of their history and so on,"

  Hiraga said easily although the meeting had not been easy at all. The questions had been probing and he had found it difficult to convince the leader his pretended sincerity was genuine. In his anxiety to get permission to stay he had told more than he wished, both about the political situation of the outside lords of Satsuma and Tosa but also about his own fief of Choshu, and even about the shishi.

  He felt a new heaving in his stomach remembering the cold blue, fishlike eyes staring at him that somehow had squeezed knowledge out of him, and the final, curt: "I will consider allowing you to stay a few more days. We will talk again tomorrow.

  Meanwhile you will move back into the Legation for safety."

  "Better I to stay shoya, Sir

  W'rum-sama."

  "You will move into the Legation tonight and stay with

  Mr. Tyrer, leaving only with his permission or mine. When you are on the streets you will be most careful to avoid inflaming any of our people. You will obey without question or you will be marched to the North

  Gate... at once!"

  Again he had feigned a meekness and most abject thanks but inside he had seethed at the man's lack of manners and was still seething, and more determined than ever to implement Ori's plan to burn the Settlement--at a time of his own choosing. All gods, if there are any, curse all gai-jin.

  "Sak`e?" Akimoto asked, a dribble sliding down his chin.

  "Yes, thank you." His face twisted with anger. "Ori! Baka that he's dead before I could kill him."

  "Yes, but dead, so is Shorin. Nothing but trouble, both of them, like all Satsumas. The men," he added hastily, remembering Shorin's sister, Sumomo, "not the women."

  "Satsumas are trouble, I agree,"

  Hiraga said darkly. "As to Sumomo, I don't know where to send for news of her, where she is or if she reached home safely--that could take her weeks, and more weeks for father to send word here.

  News would take two, maybe three months."

  "You asked Katsumata to watch for her. He will have spies out from here to Ky@oto. She can take care of herself that one. You'll hear soon."

  Akimoto scratched his crotch irritably.

  To see Hiraga so unsettled was disturbing. "You know we're almost locked in here. The Bakufu

  Enforcer patrols have been reinforced and they wander in and out at random. All the mama-sans are nervous and after the riot today, Raiko... she will not let us stay much longer."

  "As long as we pay we will stay. And as long as the tunnel is safe we can escape by sea if necessary. Curse Ori!"

  "Forget him," Akimoto said impatiently. "What should we do?"

  "Wait. The gai-jin will provide us with cover

  --Taira will see to it."

  "Because of Fujiko? Eeee, he is mad.

  What does he see in that drab? I cannot fathom that. She is nothing but a drab." Akimoto laughed and ran his fingers through the stubble of his hair.

  "Think I will try her one night, just to see if anything is special--even though she's polluted."

  "Try her tonight if you want, Taira won't be using her."

>   "Raiko will already have given her other clients-- she's rapacious."

  "Yes, but Fujiko's already paid for."

  "What?"

  "My new arrangement is that Raiko will not offer Fujiko elsewhere unless she and I agree first--so I can keep her available for Taira at a moment's notice, in case I decide.

  Try her if you want, she is cheap enough."

  "Good, I need all the cash I have left,

  Raiko squeezed a down payment out of me, rumbling about the extent of my credit."

  Akimoto grinned and drained the flask into his cup. "I want to bribe one of the fishermen to take me out to the frigate--perhaps I can talk myself aboard one of the warships, pretending to sell fish. I must see inside an engine room, one way or another."

  Hiraga's stomach heaved, thinking about his own visit. "Perhaps I could get Taira to take me again, with you this time. I can pretend you are the son of an important Choshu merchant, a shipbuilder, anxious to do business with them, but any business must be kept secret from the

  Bakufu."

  Secret? How long will we be secret here?

  A tremble went through him. "It's cold tonight," he said to cover his fear that once again Akimoto politely feigned not to notice.

  A few metres away in her own quarters

  Raiko had finished her makeup and was dressing for the evening. She decided on the new pink kimono. A large heron decorated the back, embroidered with gold filaments. For many months she had coveted it. Now it was hers, paid forwith part of the profit garnered from the hugely successful sale of the pearl earrings. They proved to be even more valuable than she had estimated.

  Eeee, she thought happily, the kami and gods that look after mama-sans were looking after me that day. A major business coup, all profit except for Furansu-san's part. Money for the medicine was hardly worth considering though she had put a substantial debit in her open set of books. She smiled to herself. The cost was nothing but the knowledge of which plant and who could harvest it, at what correct season and how to make the infusion, ah, that was worth whatever the market would stand.

  "The gai-jin princess will be a marvelous, long-term asset," she murmured contentedly, pleased with what she saw in her full-length mirror. It was the only modern one in the whole

  Yoshiwara, a present from a client, imported especially for her from England. A small frown creased her forehead as she thought of him:

  Kanterberri, the gai-jin who was killed on the

  Tokaid@o by those fools Ori and Shorin.

  Baka! He was a good client and most appreciative of my services in finding him the perfect mistress, Akiko, whose name is now

  Fujiko--very convenient for us that our Ing'erish gai-jin rarely share their women, prefer to fornicate in secret, with one woman, keeping her secret in our Floating World that is based on discretion and secrecy.

  Taira none the wiser, Fujiko a new life and new lover. Good for everyone.

  "Mistress? The gai-jin Furansu-san has arrived."

  "Good." Raiko made sure the medicine was correct and put it beside the table. When she had kept Andr`e waiting the precise amount of time, neither too little or too much, she sent for him.

  "Ah, Furansu-san, welcome to my humble

  House." She poured thimbles of her best sak`e and toasted him. "You're looking well."

  "Health! Ten thousand summers," Andr`e replied politely.

  She discussed the weather and the state of business and then came to the first point. "Your choice of earrings was more perfect than I thought, your share comes to a little over double what you asked."

  His eyes widened, "J@esus, so much?"

  "Yes." She poured more sak`e, filled with glee at her acumen on both their behalfs for, of course, once a business deal was finally agreed between them, it was a matter of face that it was honored exactly. "My bank, the

  Gyokoyama, found the client, a Chinese silk and opium merchant from Shanghai who was visiting

  Kanagawa." Another smile. She added delicately, "He indicated that he would be in the market for as many such trinkets as I could offer."

  His smile matched hers and he drained his cup and held it for a refill and toasted her,

  "To future trinkets!"

  "Next, the..."

  "Before next, Raiko. Why he pay so much?"

  "In bad times a wise man puts part of his wealth into tiny things he can carry in his sleeve.

  He's no fool--I considered holding on to them myself for the same reason."

  His interest quickened. "What bad times in

  China?"

  "He said that all China was in revolt, famine everywhere, gai-jin business in Shanghai less than usual, though now that the English fleet laid waste the Mirs coast and sank many of the

  White Lotus pirates, the sea-lanes would be safe for a while and trade up and down the

  Yangtze would pick up in the spring. Eeee,

  Furansu-san, I hear they sank hundred of junks and massacred thousands, many villages now in ashes." Her fear was open. "Their killing power is terrible."

  She shuddered, knowing that though Japanese despised Chinese as weaklings, they shared the same great phobia: fear of gai-jin and an obsession to keep them forever out of their lands. "Will gai-jin fleets come against us when they return?"

  "Yes, Raiko, if Bakufu not pay reparations money. War yes. Not here, not

  Yokohama. Yedo."

  She studied her cup for a moment, wondering how she could further protect herself and turn this to profit, more than ever convinced that she must, somehow, quickly rid herself of Hiraga and Akimoto before it was discovered that she was implicated in the Ori disaster by harboring him and them, however righteous sonno-joi was. A wave of apprehension went through her and she fanned herself, complaining about the strength of the sak`e. "Karma," she said and shrugged off what "might be" for what "is." "Now, some more good news: There is a girl I would like you to meet."

  Andr`e's heart seemed to skip, and then, when it started again, it was more weak than before.

  "Meet when?"

  "Do you wish to see her before we discuss business matters, or after?"

  "Before, after, no difference. Will pay what ask, if like." Again a Gallic shrug and the stark, naked desperation.

  It touched her not at all. Why should it, she was thinking. The Yang's hunger for the Yin is the essence of our world and without it our Floating World would float no more.

  Strange that the Yang's obsession to join with the

  Yin--in and out, battering at the gate, more pain than pleasure, desperate to end, desperate to continue, if to end never enough, if not to end moaning in the night--is all so transient, the Yin never so grasping. In that women are blessed, though the gods, if there are gods, have dealt all mortals a cruel hand.

  Three times I have tried to go onwards, always because my Yin craved the possessor of a particular

  Yang--when a Yang is always more or less the same--always useless choices that brought nothing but misery, with no future and twice my passion unrequited. How foolish! Why? No one knows.

  Never mind. Now the yearning of the Yin can be quenched so easily, and for a mama-san, toyed with.

  Easy to employ a Yang, or harigata, or to invite one of the Ladies to your bed. Fujiko, for example, who seems to enjoy the diversion and whose kiss can be celestial.

  "Raiko know me, yes?" Andr`e was saying and she thought, Indeed I do. "I know Raiko,"

  Indeed you do not. "We old friends. Old friends always help old friends." True, true, but you and

  I are not old friends--not in its special Asian sense--and never will be. You are gai-jin.

  "Furansu-san, old friend," she said. "I will arrange a meeting, you and this Lady," she said.

  He felt weak and tried to hide it. "Yes.

  Thank you."

  "It will be soon. Last, the medicine." She reached down beside the table. The small package was carefully tied in a square of russet silk as invitingly presented as an expensive gift.


  "Listen carefully." Again her instructions were explicit. She made him repeat them until she was sure he understood.

  "Raiko-san. Please, say truth, medicine dangerous, yes, no?"

  "Eeee, truth? Am I not a serious person? I am Raiko of the Three Carp. Have

  I not already told you? Of course it could be dangerous and of course not dangerous! This is an ordinary problem that happens all the time to all girls and the cure is rarely a problem. Your princess is young and strong and so it should be easy, with no problems."