'You'll be sorry you disappointed me,' he said as she disappeared. 'I swear on my life, you'll be sorry.'
Masahiro followed Yanagisawa, Yoritomo, and Toda back to Edo Castle. He watched them walk in the gate, then waited until they were safely inside. What a relief they hadn't noticed him! But he dreaded going home. He would be punished for sure.
Hayashi, the soldier who'd been supposed to guard him, rushed out the castle gate, looking desperate. Although he was afraid of what would happen when Hayashi saw him, Masahiro took pity on the man.
'Hayashi-san,' he called.
'Young master!' Hayashi staggered with relief. 'I've been looking all over for you. Thank the gods you're safe!' He hustled Masahiro past the sentries, who nodded and waved them through the gate. As they hurried along the passages, he said, 'Where on earth have you been?'
'The Rygoku entertainment district,' Masahiro said.
'You went all the way there by yourself?' Hayashi looked stunned, then forlorn. 'I've been going crazy looking all over the castle for you. When your father finds out that you escaped during my watch, he'll kill me!'
Hayashi wasn't the only one Father would kill. Masahiro wondered how long he had to live. 'Does anyone else know I've been gone?'
'No. I wanted to see if I could find you by myself first.' Hayashi had obviously hoped to stay out of trouble. 'And your parents aren't home yet.'
'Then let's not tell anybody what happened.'
'All right,' Hayashi said, wiping sweat off his forehead. 'It'll be our secret. Pull that hat over your face. I'll sneak you into your father's estate.' He added grimly, 'I hope your little trip was worthwhile, because the next one will be over my dead body.'
But it hadn't been worthwhile, Masahiro thought unhappily. Although he'd heard everything that Yanagisawa and the old lady had said, he hadn't understood what it meant.
Father and Mother were right.
He was too young to be a detective.
31
The temple run by Joju the exorcist was recently built, in a spacious compound within Zj Temple district. Sano, Marume, and Fukida walked through a gate whose red columns gleamed with fresh lacquer. Inside the compound, the lavishly carved and painted pagoda rose above grounds lush with flowering shrubs. Crowds of people from all classes streamed in and out of the huge main worship hall.
A servant directed Sano and the detectives to a minor worship hall secluded by a grove of pine trees. Two men who looked like wrestlers disguised as monks guarded the door. They bowed curtly to Sano and his men.
'We want to see Joju,' said Fukida.
'His honorable holiness can't be disturbed at the moment. He's conducting an exorcism.'
'This is the Honorable Chamberlain Sano, and he disturbs whomever he wants when he wants,' Marume said.
The monks stood aside. Sano and his men removed their shoes and entered the hall, a large, cool chamber that smelled powerfully of sweet incense. It was dark except for a single lamp burning at the far end, illuminating a tall man. His saffron robe, his brocade stole, his naked arms, and his shaved head gleamed as if he were made of gold. He seemed to float rather than stand. His face was obscured by the shadows that filled the chamber, whose walls and ceiling were draped in black cloth, but Sano figured he must be Joju. Hands pressed together under his chin, fingers pointing upward, Joju gazed silently at the floor. As Sano's eyes grew accustomed to the darkness, he saw other persons present.
One lay at Joju's feet. A second knelt nearby. They and the priest occupied a dais, elevated above the floor on which Sano and his men stood. Below the dais, huddled figures sat.
'Want me to stop the ritual?' Marume said quietly to Sano.
'No.' Sano knelt behind the audience; his men followed suit. He was interested in what the ritual could tell him about the exorcist.
Joju addressed the figure that knelt by him. 'What is your name?' His voice was hushed, but so deep and so resonant that it filled the chamber.
'Mankichi,' the figure said in a voice that belonged to a man in his forties or fifties. 'I'm a moneylender.'
Fukida whispered, 'That figures. You have to be rich to afford an exorcism performed by Joju.'
Spirit possession was rampant all over Japan. People often attributed illnesses, mental problems, or bizarre behavior to evil spirits that had taken over their bodies. Exorcists enjoyed a flourishing trade, and Joju was in such demand that he could charge exorbitant prices for his rituals.
'Who is this you've brought me?' Joju asked.
'My wife,' said the moneylender. 'Her name is Onaru.' The prone figure was a woman swaddled in a blanket. Her body squirmed like a caterpillar trying to break out of its cocoon. She whimpered and grunted. 'She won't eat or sleep. She won't talk. She just makes those noises.'
Onaru's head tossed from side to side. When it turned toward the lamp, Sano glimpsed her face. Her eyes were closed, her features sunken. From the audience came the muffled sound of a woman weeping and other people shushing her. They must be relatives of the couple.
'Do you think she's possessed?' the moneylender asked fearfully.
'Do you?' Fukida whispered to Marume.
'I guess we're going to find out,' Marume whispered.
There had been a time when Sano had thought that most if not all people taken over by spirits were either faking or deluded. But then he'd gone to Ezogashima and witnessed an actual horrific case of possession that had changed his mind.
'We shall see,' Joju said.
He knelt beside Onaru. His face came within the halo of brightness around the lamp's flame. He had features so perfect, so handsome, and so strongly masculine that he looked like an idealized vision of a man. Sano knew that Joju was well over forty, but in the dim light he seemed ageless. His large, deep-set eyes glowed with wisdom and compassion.
Joju held his hands over the woman, palms down, just above her body. He moved them slowly up and down her length, not touching her. The air between his hands and the woman shimmered. The smell of incense grew stronger, the air thick with smoke. An eerie feeling rippled through Sano. His eyes, throat, and head began to ache. The detectives stirred uneasily. Onaru moaned as if in pain.
'I feel the presence of not one, not two, but three spirits inside her,' Joju said.
The audience murmured in consternation. The moneylender said, 'Please, can you make them go away?'
'I will try,' Joju said.
'This should be good,' Marume whispered to Fukida.
Closing his eyes, reaching toward the woman, Joju intoned, 'Oh, spirits within Onaru, speak to me.'
An orange light flashed to the right of the dais. The audience murmured. The light went out. Its afterimage burned into Sano's vision, trailing streamers of smoke. A blue light, then a red, flared in different parts of the room, then disappeared. A primitive fear crept into Sano. The audience sat in frozen silence.
'I hear them,' Joju said. 'Honorable spirits, tell me who you are.' He listened. 'They say they have no names. They are children who died before they were born.'
Amazement stirred the audience, even though everyone knew Joju was famous for communicating with the spirits of dead fetuses.
'Children, how did you die?' There was a pause; Joju frowned as if much disturbed. 'They were murdered.'
Horrified exclamations arose.
'Children, who was your mother?' Joju said.
Onaru gasped and groaned. She sounded as if his outstretched hands were extracting some physical substance from her body. A weird, tuneless music began. Hairs rose on Sano's nape. Fukida nudged Marume, who
