Girl Takes The Oath
Page 29
Ozawa bowed again on hearing Emily speak. “He died well?”
“Yes, Ozawa-san,” Emily said. “He came to my aid at just the right moment, and fought nobly before he fell.”
“I am pleased to hear it,” the Princess said.
“I understand that he accepted public disgrace in order to protect me. I look forward to being able to restore his good name.”
Ozawa shook his head and the Princess replied: “I am sorry to say that it will not be possible, Tenno-san. Kano-san’s name cannot be recognized in public without compromising my husband’s position.”
“Is there nothing we can do, some consolation we can offer his family?” Emily asked.
“He understood the cost of taking on this task,” Ozawa said. “Kano would not wish to embarrass the Crown Princess.”
“One of General Diao’s aims is to topple the current government, and embarrassing the Prince is a way to accomplish this,” the Crown Princess said.
“I didn’t realize the government depended so directly on the Imperial family,” Yuki said.
“Ordinarily it does not,” Ozawa said. “But the succession crisis has made the Prime Minister’s position precarious.”
“Ah, the new law allowing Princess Toshi to accede to the throne,” Yuki said.
“Yes. If it does not pass, this will be taken as a failure of confidence in the government.”
“I don’t know why this would interest General Diao,” Emily said. She paused to consider what it might mean that Diao Chan knew of her grandfather’s work, but seemed less interested in her DNA than in the idea that the Crown Princess thought she was a Genji. “I think you may have a mole in the Imperial Household,” she said.
“Kano thought so, too, as does Ozawa,” the Crown Princess said, and Ozawa grunted his agreement. “What is your reason for thinking so?”
“After our last meeting, my friends and I were attacked by Chinese special forces. At the time, I thought someone in the US State Department had informed them of our route. But General Diao’s interest in the succession crisis suggests a different source.”
With a nod, Ozawa fixed his eyes on Emily, a tremulous expression on his face. “Please forgive me, Tenno-san,” he began. “There are many in the Imperial Household who disapprove of you, and of the access the Crown Princess grants you.”
“You mean because I am hafu?”
“Yes, and it makes it difficult to recognize the mole, whoever it may be. There are many in Japan who feel that the Crown Princess is an unsuitable consort, that she is too untraditional, that she meddles in diplomatic matters. The succession crisis has only enflamed passions, and given dangerous ultra-nationalists cover and public acceptability.”
“I beg your understanding, Tenno-san, if I can no longer grant you an audience,” the Crown Princess said. “I regret the injustice to you, and Toshi will feel it deeply if she can never see you again.” She bowed deeply to Emily with these words, and when the others saw it, they fell to their knees before her, Ozawa first, and then Emily and her mother.
“I am grateful for the time you have granted to me and my mother, your Highness,” Emily said. “I am pleased to be at your service.” As she said these words, Emily remembered the confusion of loyalties she felt during this past year, and wondered if she had finally understood how to sort out her loyalties, how to set her heart in order.
“There is one service you can perform on my behalf,” the Crown Princess said, taking a moment to write on a card, which she tucked into the wrapping on a little box. “Please take this token of my esteem to Kano’s widow and convey to her my gratitude and condolences.”
On the drive back to the embassy, Yuki couldn’t resist opening the Princess’s present.
“What is it?” Emily whispered in the back seat.
“A hatpin, I think… with the Togu crest on it.”
“Is that supposed to be symbolic or something?”
“In a way, Chi-chan,” Yuki said with a laugh. “The Princess can’t give gifts of any value. This gift matters because it’s a mark of her recognition.”
“Yeah, but Mom, Kano’s widow won’t ever get to show it off in public… isn’t that what she meant?”
“Maybe, but a few decades from now, when all this is history, her grandchildren will probably be able to sell it for a fortune.”
“Or maybe display it as a sign of their grandfather’s dignity?”
~~~~~~~
Getting to the Tabata neighborhood from the embassy takes some thirty minutes, and Emily preferred not to use an Embassy car. She hoped not to draw any more attention to herself than her dress-white uniform made inevitable, and maybe the idea of having a moment out of the hands of any institution other than Tokyo Metro appealed to her.
The card on the box bore the kanji for a name: Kano Rumi. Emily thought the given name meant “flowing beauty,” which struck her as ironic, since the family name seemed to mean something like male strength. Of course, it was an accident of sorts that these two names had come together. Perhaps as a young woman, Rumi had reminded Kano of something else Emily thought might be implied in his family name—a river god.
Ridership on the Nanboku line in the early afternoon was light, and Emily sat by herself on one end of a nearly empty car. An elderly woman sitting across the central aisle stared at her and scowled. Was it the uniform, or the fact that she seemed so tall? With her cover under one arm, she helped the woman carry her parcels off at Komagome Station.
A ten-minute walk through residential streets, past markets and dentist offices, and she found the address, a modest, three-story townhouse across from a Buddhist temple with a red-tiled gate. The woman who came to the door stared at her in disbelief, one hand covering her mouth.
“You must be…”—she struggled to speak, eyes moist and voice quaking. Her shiny, black hair, so long and elegant, hung over a shoulder, one white hair defying her youthfulness, presaging more to come.
“Tenno Michiko, ma’am. I have come…”
“How strange your name is, Tenno-san. Now that I see you, I think…” Mrs. Kano stopped to look at her. “Please come in. My husband spoke of you often. When he left, on what he called a sacred mission… Were you with him… when he died?”
“Yes,” Emily said, stunned by the misleading sound of that woeful affirmation. She followed the widow into the kitchen and watched her pour warm water for tea. “He fought to keep me safe. That’s what the Crown Princess sent him to do. I’m so sorry I couldn’t keep him safe in return.”
“Why did she send him? Surely you must know.”
“Hasn’t Ozawa spoken to you?”
“No one from the Togu Palace can speak to us, because of his disgrace. Would you have some tea?”
The fact was unsurprising in itself, since Ozawa had made it clear enough earlier, though to have the widow say it in her own hearing made it seem uncanny. She took a seat at the kitchen table with Mrs. Kano, a sedate act between two people with nothing between them besides a dead soul.
“The Crown Princess fears for her daughter’s life, and she thinks the same people are targeting me as well. I don’t know what the connection is, but I will do what I can for her.”
“You sound just like Kano,” she said, with a rueful smile. “He was always balancing debts and duties.”
“Her Imperial Highness asked me to give this to you, with her condolences.”
Mrs. Kano stared at the card, with its hand-written characters. “She wrote this. I recognize her hand.” She opened the box and touched the pin. “Her Highness is too kind. Will you see her again?”
“I think she can not afford to recognize me in public either,” Emily said.
“I’m sorry,” Mrs. Kano said. “My husband said you created quite a commotion in the Imperial Household.”
The sound of the front door caught Emily’s attention, and she turned to see a burly young man standing outside the arched entrance to the kitchen, strong and silent, wearing the uniform of the JDF. She couldn’t he
lp noticing the insignia of the First Airborne Brigade with a Ranger badge.
“This is who her Highness sends… some hakujin? Are we still beneath her dignity, then?”
“Takeishi,” her mother cried out. “Your rudeness embarrasses us. Do not shame your father’s memory.”
“He’s dead, Mom. He feels no shame. Though perhaps he ought to for running off to America on some fool’s errand, and dragging our family name into the gutter.”
“She has sent a token of her esteem in the only way she can. Your father would not wish her to do more.”
“What is it? A comb? Or a fan? Perhaps a shoelace? Don’t you understand, Mom? He lost his pension when they drummed him out of her household. How do you expect to keep this place? You don’t have the money.”
Emily stood and looked at Kano’s son, and turned to Mrs. Kano. “I’m sorry to have had a part in your troubles. Perhaps I have overstayed my welcome.”
“No, Tenno-san,” Mrs. Kano said, glowering at her son. “Please don’t leave yet.”
“You,” he snorted. “And just what part did you play in all of this?”
“Your father died protecting me.” She would have said something about his courage and honor, but she could see his son was in no mood to hear it.
“What is so important about you that my father should lose his life for?”
“Nothing,” Emily said.
“Please, forgive my son. He’s lost faith in the old ways, and in his father’s code of honor.”
“What kind of code can it be if the household he died serving can’t even bring themselves to honor him in public? He was an old fool, and you can go back to her Highness and tell her I said so.” With that he took Emily’s elbow and brusquely guided her toward the door.
“The Crown Princess can no more recognize me in public than she can your father,” she said, and peeled his hand off her arm. She could feel his resistance in the strength of his fingers. He wanted to hold on, to strong-arm her out of his mother’s house, and perhaps he was surprised to find how strong she could be. “I’m sure you know why.”
“Oh,” Takeishi said.
When she put her hand to his cheek, she saw his pupils suddenly dilate, allowing her to peer directly into him, to see the combination of pain and shame, anger and regret that tormented him. When he looked away, unable to bear the pressure of her gaze, she whispered in his ear.
“Your father was no fool. I would gladly have died for him.”
He looked at his mother with his eyes wide and rushed from the room. Emily made her goodbyes to Mrs. Kano, and returned to the embassy.
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