The cars moving along the highway had turned on their lights perhaps an hour ago. By the time they arrived in Uozu City
, Toyama Prefecture, it was already fully dark.
“Where are we now...?” Takaya asked from the passenger seat, rubbing his eyes and looking around. He’d fallen asleep, but had probably been awakened by the glare from the headlights of the oncoming cars.
“We’re finally in Uozu City. Are you awake?”
“Mmm, yeah...”
The ride had been so quiet that he had unintentionally dozed off. Naoe was driving a Celsior this time; he had evidently recalled a comment from Takaya about wanting to ride in one. Actually, Takaya had been hoping Naoe would come in the Benz, but the Tachibana family had apparently placed some stringent restrictions on his car usage after the wreckage of his Cefiro in Yamagata. Now he was barred from taking them even when he was traveling afar, Naoe lamented. Not, of course, without reason. Takaya certainly sympathized with Naoe’s family, so even while he harbored a secret desire for a ride in the Tachibanas’ Ferrari Testarossa, he’d made no complaints about a rental car.
Naoe glanced at the time and inquired, “You must be hungry. Shall we stop for a bite to eat somewhere?”
“I’m fine, unless it’s better to eat before getting to wherever it is we’re going?”
“Not really, but I believe it would be better to get there a little later... I do know of a wonderful restaurant along the way—shall we stop there?”
“Sure,” Takaya agreed, eyeing Naoe, who seemed more relaxed today than usual. He certainly had no objections to good food. Naoe appeared to know the area quite well, and navigated its roads and highways with easy familiarity.
He had invited Takaya on this trip to Uozu three days after their return from Nara. “Has something happened?” Takaya had asked anxiously, but it didn’t appear to be anything urgent. Naoe had only replied that he wanted Takaya to accompany him on a trip.
Toyama Prefecture, Uozu City. Called Ecchuu during the Sengoku Period, it had held deep connections to the Uesugi Clan as one of the provinces bordering Echigo. That was probably part of the reason Naoe had brought Takaya here.
There were people he wanted Takaya to meet—was all he had said.
They had dinner at the restaurant Naoe mentioned and finished at around eight-thirty. As they headed back to the car, Naoe said to the satisfied-looking Takaya walking next to him, “You seem to have enjoyed the food.”
“Yeah. I love sashimi. Matsumoto has its basashi, but since it’s in the mountains, fish is harder to come by...”
“Oh? In that case we should come again in December. The seafood is delicious enough to make you shiver. Toyama is famous for its trout sushi, but its fish and crab are simply superb. Shall I bring you back to try them?”
“Would you really? Oooh, lucky! Good food, a full night’s sleep—that’s when you really feel grateful to be alive, right?”
Chuckling at Takaya’s enthusiasm, Naoe started the car.
“Our destination is about five minutes from here. It’s a good time to head over.”
Takaya gave Naoe a blank look, recalling that he hadn’t yet heard the reason for this trip. There was no way they had come all this way to eat fish.
“Who are these people you want me to meet?”
Naoe answered, smiling, “You’ll know quite soon.”
Their destination turned out to be an elementary school near the Uozu Electric Railway Station. Alighting in front of the school, Naoe easily unlocked the gates with nendouryoku, and the two of them stepped inside. A stone plaque engraved with the words “Uozu Castle Ruins” stood in front of the entrance. Takaya’s sixth sense tingled at the change in the atmosphere.
“This is—”
“The former site of Uozu Castle. This elementary school was built right where the main citadel once stood.” Noticing Takaya’s wariness as he looked around at their surroundings, Naoe added, “You feel it, don’t you?”
“What the heck is this place? It’s crawling with spiritual energy...”
“Influence from the «Yami-Sengoku», I would guess. The onshou must be moving in the area as well, provoking the spirits here.”
“You mean the spirits of the people who were killed here?”
“Yes,” Naoe replied, beckoning Takaya towards the back of the campus. “This castle once belonged to the Uesugi Clan—the strategic base from which Uesugi invaded Ecchuu-Noto. Lord Kenshin would pay a visit to it during every campaign,” he explained, coming to a stop beneath the pine tree standing next to the gates of the school’s kindergarten building. Another stone plaque, this one bearing a tanka poem, rested at its roots.
“The warrior makes of his armor a pillow for his head alone: a solitary repose. The first wild geese cry nearby...” Lord Kenshin composed this poem here. He fought many fierce battles over Ecchuu, and at one time managed to bring the entire region under Uesugi control. But Lord Kenshin’s sudden death soon after, followed by the Otate no Ran, plunged Ecchuu into chaos and allowed Oda to slip through and begin its recapture."
Takaya grimaced. Naoe glanced at him and added, “Though that is probably a painful tale for you.”
“No... it’s okay. Go on.”
Naoe took up the story again at Takaya’s urging. “With your death putting an end to the battle for succession, Lord Kagekatsu took the field to recover Ecchuu. This castle became the all-important front-line base for both Uesugi’s control of Ecchuu and defense of Echigo. The Oda forces put everything they had into their assault against it.”
He looked at Takaya.
“Sassa Narimasa...was one of those commanders. He was ordered by his master Nobunaga to take control of Ecchuu, and appeared determined to drive the Uesugi out under any circumstances.”
“...”
“The Oda contrived to have Lord Kagekatsu receive word that Shinano’s Mori Nagayoshi had invaded Echigo, which left him no choice but to return to Kasugayama. Unable to send reinforcements to Uozu Castle, the Uesugi commanders and soldiers there were told to surrender the castle—but they refused, and continued to resist the besieging army.”
Naoe gazed at the dark shapes of the school buildings.
“Uozu Castle...fell. The three thousand soldiers of the castle garrison died in battle, and its seventeen1 Uesugi commanders committed ritual suicide in the ruins of the inner citadel... Ironically, this was the day before Nobunaga died at Honnou Temple.”
Takaya stared at him. Naoe’s eyes fell slightly.
“The Oda army withdrew with its troops in confusion, allowing Uesugi to recover the castle, though too late to save those sacrificed soldiers. Fate’s sense of irony is far too cruel; if they had endured but a few days longer, they may yet have been saved...”
Pale phosphorous lights began to dance in the dark courtyard.
“The souls of Uozu Castle’s three thousand fallen sleep here.”
Takaya froze. His breath caught as ghostly energy roused across the entire campus. He could hear the chiming of a bell.
“Naoe. That sound...”
“It is the ‘Bell of Spiritual Repose.’ She is coming.”
A human shape appeared out of a mist of smoke-dark spiritual energy. Its features gradually gained clarity as it approached them, resolving at last into a woman with long hair, dressed in a white kimono. She appeared before Takaya and Naoe with a small bell in her right hand.
“She is the tutelary deity of this land—we call her the 'Lady in White'.” She has pacified the spirits of Uozu Castle."
The ephemeral Lady in White stilled the bell in her hand and kneeled, bowing respectfully to Takaya.
“Please answer her greeting. You are her master. She, too, is a member of the Meikai Uesugi Army.”
“She is? But she’s not kanshousha.”
“The Meikai Uesugi Army is composed of all the spirits who have some connection to the Uesugi upon whom Lord Kenshin has laid his claim. We the Yasha-shuu could be called their commanders.”
“Then they’re also—” Takaya gazed at the host of countless wraiths filling the schoolyard. Behind the Lady in White stood the commanders who had committed seppuku in this place, Uesugi’s Thirteen Generals.
“They became onryou after their deaths. But they heeded the summons of Lord Kenshin, God of War, to join the Meikai Uesugi Army, and were thus reclaimed. They usually sleep quietly on this land, but once given the command, they will fight for us. You are the only person with the authority to lead them.”
Takaya gazed at the Lady in White kneeling gracefully before him, then at the spirits gathered in the courtyard all around him.
“We have many such people in place all over the land, a system of guardian spirits like the Lady in White who relay the movements of the local onshou back to us. They are the reason that we have an idea of the activity of the entire «Yami-Sengoku». But of late there have been many cases of formerly pacified spirits being agitated and roused by the maneuverings of the onshou. —Though the guardians of the land can usually keep them quiet, there have also been times when they can no longer keep the spirits under control.”
As Naoe had pointed out, Takaya could sense that the aura of these spirits was indeed much stronger than that of ordinary onryou. Realization dawned.
“So we came here to pacify them?”
“This is also one of our jobs. It is our duty to keep them from wrecking havoc in ordinary people’s lives.”
Takaya still looked uncertain. Naoe gave him a sideways glance, then approached the Lady in White.
“Then again, it’s certainly true that this area has always been known for its ghost legends. ...Now, Kagetora-sama.”
Takaya walked up to Naoe as one after another the Thirteen Generals exclaimed in wonder. He stood still within the crowd of spirits, opening himself to their fellowship, respect, love...
Terashima Nagasuke, Sanbonji Kagenaga, Takenomata Yoshitsuna, Yoshie Nobukage... Their names flowed one by one into his mind. And his heart heard, along with those names, their tales of valor in the ferocious Battle of Uozu Castle. With no provisions left and their wounded bodies on the edge of starvation, they had yet kept the onslaught of Oda soldiers at bay. They had fought like demons, surrounded by corpses and severed limbs and howls of agony, with blood soaking through the floorboards beneath their feet.
Under siege...All of them had wept at Kagekatsu’s letter carrying the bitter news that no reinforcements would come. Though Kagekatsu asked them to surrender, his letter only hardened their resolve to fight on. How could they possibly have capitulated, knowing what unspeakably deep pain Kagekatsu must have felt as he had written the words, Forgive me for abandoning you...
Standing silent and still, his eyes lowered, Takaya took in all their emotions. The «Yami-Sengoku» had revived their ancient regret, and they had waited. Waited for him, lost for thirty years, to appear like this before them. Waited for him as they had waited four hundred years ago for Kagekatsu, who had never arrived to save them.
He began the spirit-tranquilization ceremony. He had to put them to sleep for now, for a little while longer. Naoe handed him a charm of Dainichi Nyorai, which he placed gently on the ground. He pressed his hands together around a tokko vajra and slowly chanted the Mantra of Glory.
“On abokyabeiroshanau makabodara manihandoma jinbaraharabaritaya un.”
Takaya’s body began to glow with a pale light. His mantra calmed the chaotic spiritual energy around him. Naoe, holding a Buddhist rosary, chanted the Heart Sutra in counterpoint to Takaya’s Mantra of Glory. Pure air enfolded the space around them. Their sonorous voices almost seemed to meld together in a single song, resonating in the darkness of the Uozu Castle-ruins.
The ‘Bell of Spiritual Repose’ chimed.
The tokko in Takaya’s hand released a golden light as his voice swelled with the Buddha’s name. He held it towards the charm in a gesture of offering, and the charm slowly floated into mid-air. The Sanskrit characters written upon it glittered, then blazed with a gentle, pure light that fell like rain onto the spirits.
It acted as a kind of soporific. The generals absorbed that purifying light and disappeared one by one. They would sleep again until the day Kagetora summoned them.
“...Gyateigyatei haragyatei harasougyatei bojisowaka hannyashingyou...”
At the conclusion of their mantras, the Lady in White swung her bell three times. White fire soundlessly engulfed the charm, which fell to the ground in a scattering of ash. The spirit-tranquilization ceremony concluded, the Lady in White also vanished. Naoe ascertained that all the soldiers of Uozu Castle were quiet before parting his hands and turning to Takaya.
“They seem to have calmed.”
“Yeah...”
“The ghost disturbances should now cease as well. I believe there have been quite a few of them in the area lately, such as warriors’ spirits walking around the school and frequent ghost sightings... I’m glad you came. It would probably have taken a considerable amount of time to calm them by myself.”
Naoe lighted the incense bundle he had brought with him and placed it on the ground.
Takaya was still staring dazedly at the dark schoolyard.
“Shall we go, Takaya-san?”
“Ah...yeah...”
Takaya turned from the now-quiet grounds at Naoe’s urging and began walking away. But he could still somehow feel the sorrowful gaze of the Lady in White upon him. His feet stopped abruptly.
They had waited for him here...
“I—...” Takaya murmured softly, turning back to the schoolyard. “I will not abandon you...”
Naoe stopped and stared at him, eyes widening slightly. These were the same words spoken by Kagetora to the Uozu Castle soldiers each time he came here.
It was not the sutra-chanting or the spirit-tranquilization ceremony that comforted them; perhaps these few words from the heart were all that they really wished for.
The wraiths of the castle ruins settled into sleep once more, their minds at peace.
The elementary school stood by the coast, with the Sea of Japan only a short walk away. Uozu was the entrance to Toyama Bay, and on clear days commanded a view of the distant Noto Peninsula.
Takaya and Naoe drove to the coastline next to a fishing harbor. The wind carried to them the scent of the tide as they alighted from the car. Glittering stars filled the expanse of the night sky, and the dark ocean stretched out before them. High schoolers were setting off fireworks in the plaza of a warehouse-like building across the way.
“Delinquents getting rowdy, huh?”
Sipping from a can of juice, Takaya climbed onto the seawall and sat down with his legs extended out towards the sea.
“Be careful.”
“I’m fine, I’m fine.” Gazing at the waves breaking against the concrete tetrapod blocks, Takaya murmured slowly, “Ah... I wonder how long it’s been since I last saw the sea...”
Naoe stood quietly at Takaya’s side in the sea breeze, gazing out at the coast.
“I believe you can see mirages here from spring until early summer. They say that the buildings move from the opposite shore to the coast, but I have not yet seen it myself. I’ve heard that it’s somewhat confusing for those seeing it for the first time, so they often mistake it for the Noto Peninsula, but apparently it’s not possible to see the peninsula and the mirage at the same time.”
“Hmm,” Takaya responded with bright-eyed interest, “I’d really like to see that sometime. You can’t see it now?”
“It’s the middle of summer, so I’m not sure. Evidently it happens during the firefly squid’s harvest season... But you wouldn’t be able to see it at night in any case,” Naoe said, turning to the road at the sound of several car engines roaring to life. The group of kids from the warehouse raced off with horns blaring.
“Goddammit, shut the hell up already! Drive if you’re gonna drive, but at least do it quietly!” Takaya yelled, and Naoe smiled wryly. “What’s so funny?”
“Nothing. Just wondering if I should be saying the same to you.”
“Hey, I’ve got a muffler on mine! And who the hell would hang around a tacky crowd like that, anyway? Ugh!” Takaya’s lips twisted as if he were truly peeved. “The only time I rode with someone was...for a little while in junior high.”
He abruptly turned away from Naoe back to the ocean. “Stop making me remember stuff like that.” He gulped down the juice with frightful speed and held the empty can out to Naoe behind him.
“Beer.”
“Excuse me...?”
“Go buy some. And get some snacks while you’re at it.”
“What are you talking about? You know I can’t.”
“Oh come on, how often do we come to the sea?”
Sensing Naoe’s wry smile, Takaya turned crossly.
“See? You’re giving me that smile again. You keep treating me like a kid.”
“I don’t treat you like a kid. I treat you like someone who is still underage.”
“Same difference,” Takaya retorted, and turned again to glower at the sea.
Both of them listened to the sound of the waves for a while. Takaya seemed to be thinking of his junior high days.
“I guess I was pretty messed up...”
The mumbled words suddenly spilled from Takaya’s lips, and Naoe peered at him curiously.
“What’s wrong?”
“Ah, nothing, I was just remembering...” Takaya brushed his hair out of his eyes and wrapped his arms around one upraised knee. “In junior high I stole a motorcycle and took it joy-riding. I didn’t know much about traffic regulations, so I just went any which way I wanted. But it felt great, you know? One small rev of the engine was all took to put another few hundred kilometers of the world behind me. That kinda power gives you the delusion that you’re strong. Everything around me just blurred on past. I couldn’t see anything, since it was night, and that was great, too. I really thought that I might hit something and die right there on the spot, and I didn’t care.”
“...”
“’Cause at that point I couldn’t see any sort of future in front of me. I had no hope of anything. It was just like my ride: a headlong plunge into the dark. And I thought, if I hit something, it’d only take a second...”
Staring a little at Takaya’s face in profile with its mixture of nostalgia and amusement, Naoe’s emotions suddenly softened into tenderness. He wanted to see more of the true self of this young man called Ougi Takaya.
“Takaya-san, what sort of occupation do you want to pursue for the future?”
“Me?” Takaya hesitated, then answered haltingly, “Family court counseling...”
“Huh?” the startled question slipped involuntarily out of Naoe’s mouth. “Family court...?”
“Something wrong with that?”
“Not at all,” Naoe replied, looking completely nonplussed. Takaya career choice seemed rather drastically at odds with his projected image.
“Ah, but it’s probably totally impossible for me anyway. I’m too dumb for it... That’s the sort of job you’ve gotta have brains for...”
“I don’t...think that’s true...”
“Hmph, don’t force yourself,” Takaya returned peevishly, staring fixedly at the sea. Naoe wanted to ask him the reason for his career choice, but Takaya muttered to himself as if to forestall his question, “Though I guess this isn’t really the time to be thinking about stuff like that.”
“... Takaya-san.”
The waves murmured sweetly into their ears. Takaya seemed absorbed in his thoughts as he gazed out to the dark sea. But as Naoe was about to speak to him, Takaya mumbled haltingly, “Don’t you...think it’s odd?”
“Eh?”
With eyes downcast, Takaya answered, “Those people, is it okay to keep them there like that...?”
“Those people?”
“The people of Uozu Castle. Isn’t it painful for them to remain in this world? I was wondering if we shouldn’t send them to the next world as soon as we can...”
Takaya brushed the wind-blown hair out of his eyes. “I don’t get this Kenshin guy. He says stuff about spirits violating the natural order of the world, but on the other hand he’s forcing them to stay. It’d be better if he makes them pass on and be purified and reincarnated or whatever. If he’s gonna say anything about the natural order...” he muttered, his tone growing more forceful. “If you think about it, aren’t we the ones violating the natural order? The kanshousha keep living and living by snatching other people’s bodies—I mean, we’re the ones smashing the natural order all to pieces. Talk about contradiction. I think we’re a lot more unnatural than the onshou of the «Yami-Sengoku».”
Naoe was silent.
“Who the hell is this Kenshin, anyway? What authority does he have over who stays or goes? We should just perform «choubuku» on those people too! I don’t know anything about this Meikai Uesugi Army or whatever the hell it is, but who the hell are we to call them up at our convenience? If we’ve got the power to exorcise spirits, then let’s let them rest! Let them pass on to the other world, not sacrifice them! That’s what I think we should do, anyway.”
“Takaya-san...”
“That’s why we have this power, isn’t it? Who’s being self-serving here? I just don’t get Kenshin...” he trailed off, closing his eyes hard and biting down on his lower lip as if to hold back the rest of his words.
“I just wanna...let them rest in peace as soon as I can...”
A pang ran through Naoe’s chest. But he held it back from his eyes as he said to Takaya’s back, “It’s true.”
The lapping of waves against the shore rippled across the silence. “We all live within that contradiction.”
Takaya lifted his head and turned.
“... Naoe...”
“But I’m glad of it. If Lord Kenshin had not called me, I would certainly still be wandering as an onryou in the darkness, ignorant of all but my hatred. And—” his gaze went to Takaya “—if I had not performed kanshou, I would never have had the chance to come to understand you like this.”
Takaya’s eyes widened. Naoe’s quiet smile finally reappeared.
“If Lord Kenshin had not chosen me as one of the Yasha-shuu, you would never have been more to me than my ”enemy of the Otate no Ran. And I would never have been able to stand at your side."
“You...”
“I am grateful to Lord Kenshin for choosing as your protector.”
The sincerity in Naoe’s clear eyes disconcerted Takaya, and he turned away in flustered bewilderment.
“You...you’re really weird, you know that? Talking to you always throws me for a loop.”
“Does it?”
“That’s...that’s the kind of sweet-talk you’d feed to a girl, isn’t it?!”
“I am only putting my sincerity into words.”
“And how many women have you put the moves on with that sincerity of yours?”
Naoe thought about it for a bit, straight-faced. “Well, let’s see... How many has it been? I’ve lost track, really...”
“Geez, you know...” Takaya’s fist shook for a moment before he asked as if the thought had just struck him, “Speaking of which, you’re still single, aren’t you? You’re not seeing anybody?”
“...”
Why did he have to ask such a question with such innocent obliviousness? Naoe grimaced.
“I don’t...really have the time for that at the moment.”
“So so so! That means you did?”
Looking at the young man with eyes glinting in his curiosity about another’s private life, Naoe’s eyes softened.
“There have been several women I’ve spent a night with.”
“Huh?” Takaya looked at Naoe oddly. “You...don’t tell me you’re actually a wolf in sheep’s clothing or something.”
Standing in the night wind, Naoe smiled.
“But it never went beyond a practical arrangement for either side. Neither party was looking for anything deeper, so we took only what we wanted and went our separate ways, and that was that. I’m sorry to disappoint your hopes of hearing a sweet tale of love and romance.”
“Wh-who the hell wanted to hear something like that...?!”
Naoe laughed, and Takaya glowered, rather wishing that he hadn’t asked in the first place. There were some things about which Takaya’s views seemed unexpectedly puritanical; the glare he directed at Naoe held a trace of hostility. Perhaps he was yet at that age where he still reacted strongly against adult male-female relationships.
“You’ll understand someday,” Naoe said, looking out at the dark sea. “There are times when you cannot live without relationships whose only objective is each other’s bodies, when you seek the mutual, consensual physical act of love in order to forget... And that was necessary for me, then...”
Takaya, who seemed not to have understood the feelings Naoe described at all, was still glaring fiercely at him.
“But then again, I’m always sincere in my pick-up lines,” Naoe added half-jokingly, and Takaya abruptly turned his back.
“Yeah, whatever. So you’re a real ladies’ man. You’d better watch out, or the women you’re feeding those lines’ll totally take advantage of you.”
The smile hovering at the corners of Naoe’s mouth suddenly vanished, and Takaya, sensing it, stilled. Naoe murmured, his voice dropping, “I wouldn’t mind being taken advantage of.”
“...”
For a moment Takaya’s face was completely open; then—
“I am not a woman!”
Thinking that Naoe was making fun of him, Takaya tried to stand up too quickly on the seawall and inexplicably lost his balance.
“Uwagh!”
Naoe caught hold of his arm even as he cried out in alarm, and the firm grip saved him from a headlong plunge into the sea. A glance at the billowing waves below was enough for him to break out into a cold sweat. He looked up at Naoe.
“Ah, thanks...”
“...”
The words died on Takaya’s lips. Naoe’s gaze on him was disconcertingly intense. Realizing that the grip on his arm was more forceful than necessary, Takaya asked uncertainly, “Naoe...?”
Realizing it himself, Naoe’s eyes immediately softened with his gentle smile.
“Now you see why I can’t leave you alone.”
Annoyed, Takaya immediately began defending himself. Naoe, still smiling, listened patiently to Takaya’s rebuttals as they returned to the car.
The sound of waves lapping against the shore accompanied them.
A car’s engine rumbled on the wharf...