‘You mean like a teacher?’
‘That’s part of it. He is the Master of higaru-dashi, which is kind of a. . . combination advanced karate, Shinto and Zen. It’s difficult to describe in English. The words are misleading. Anyway, Kimura makes the final choice on everyone who enters the seventh level of the higaru-dashi. What’s known as the Plane of the Beyond.’
‘It sounds way beyond me.’
‘Only because you take the words literally. In Japan, nothing is obvious.’
‘He tells me you can stand on one foot for six hours without blinking an eye. Is that what you call the Plane of the Beyond?’
‘No,’ he said and smiled again, ‘it’s what I call painful.’ The waitress appeared. ‘Osake o ippai onegai shimasu,’ O’Hara said, and she nodded and left. ‘I ordered us sake,’ he explained to Eliza, ‘I think we can all use it.’
‘You seem very much at ease here in Japan.’
‘It’s my home.’
‘That mean you’ve given up on the States?’
He made a vague gesture, which he did not bother to explain.
‘And these people helped you just because they’re your friends?’
‘Is there a better reason?’
‘But it was dangerous.’
‘I was in trouble. A year on the dodge is a long time. Besides, the Winter Man tried to dishonour me. That was unspeakable to Kimura. And to Sammi. Here, a person’s honour is sacred. To steal it is like stealing your soul. It’s a despicable act.’
The waitress and Sammi both returned at the same time. They raised their warm cups in a mutual toast and sipped the hot rice liquor.
‘Tell me more about Kimura. . . Tokenrui-san? Does Kimura still teach? I mean, he seems so old. How old is he?’
‘Sammi?’
Sammi said, ‘Nana-ju-ni.’
‘Seventy-two,’ O’Hara said.
‘And he’s still active?’
‘He would never have taken that cut, tonight, you can bet on that. I’ll hear about it, too, all right, letting that dipshit get his blade into me.’
‘You were not prepared. Your head was with the fleas,’ Sammi said. ‘Your first two moves were an inch too wide.’
‘Yeah. I knew that when I felt his knife in my shoulder.’
‘And Kimura is faster than you?’ Eliza asked.
‘It is not the speed, it is the mind,’ Sammi said.
‘Tokenrui-san can catch a hummingbird in flight,’ said O’Hara. ‘The move is so fast, you don’t see it, you just feel the wind, from his arm moving. That wind is called okinshiwa, and it has different meanings to different people. To you, the wind could mean confusion; to me, because I am his friend, it can mean security. To his enemies, it can mean danger.’
‘And then he opens his hand,’ Sammi said, holding his arm out and unfolding his fist, ‘and the bird sits there and waits for him to blow on its tail and make it fly away.’
‘That’s the mystic part of it,’ said O’Hara. ‘When I understand that, I will feel that I have achieved the Plane of the Beyond.’
‘It’s all very difficult...’
‘That’s because it requires a different kind of thinking than you’re accustomed to. Kimura changed my life.. . no, he saved my life. If it weren’t for him, I’d probably be a headhunting punk like Little Ears.’
‘Doesn’t it seem strange,’ she said, ‘just a few years ago we were all at war. Was he involved in that?’
‘Involved?’ Sammi laughed. ‘I suppose you could say that.’
O’Hara said, ‘He hand-picked the officers — and this is the top staff of the Imperial Army we’re talking about — who were to enter the seventh level of higaru-dashi. He only selected twelve. They were with him for three years before they returned to duty — in 1942. Every one of them was a key man in the Japanese war machine.’
She sat quietly for a minute, letting it sink in.
O’Hara said, ‘You might say he prepared them to kick the shit out of us.’
And he and Sammi laughed, and then she laughed too. ‘And you feel the same way about him, right?’ she said to Sammi.
‘It’s not quite the same,’ O’Hara said. ‘Tokenrui-san is Sammi’s grandfather.’
Neat, Eliza. Next time, take your shoe off before you put your foot in your mouth.
‘I’m sorry,’ she said, ‘that was dumb, bringing up the war.’
‘It’s no secret,’ Sammi said, and went on talking fast and running his sentences together. ‘Anyway, it’s a natural question but many people wouldn’t ask, he will like it that you were honest enough to find out. There is one
