1 SHIGERU
The Lamborghini flashed down the moonlit road. Hitoshi Shinsou was at the wheel, his hair flying in the wind. The road ran past the coast, and to his left the East China Sea stretched away, to the furthest horizon. To his right lay the port district of Dafeng, near Shanghai in Jiangsu, China.
It was the early hours of the night, and the road was empty. A lone tree flashed past, the marker for the end of the race. Shinsou slowed the Lamborghini, and scanned his rear view mirror. Presently he brought the car to a stop, at the side of the road.
After about a minute another car came flying along. It was a Maserati, and Shigeru Yanagihara was inside. The Maserati screeched to a halt next to the Lamborghini.
Shinsou was wearing his usual cold expression. He looked at Shigeru and said coolly, "I won."
Shigeru didn't seem to mind; he gave Shinsou his usual rakish grin.
"A good race, brother," he said, "luck was on your side."
"What happened?" asked Shinsou, "I was expecting you to catch up."
They had been competing to see who was faster, and since the road was narrow, Shigeru had been driving in the lane against the flow of traffic. A car had come along, going in the opposite direction, and he had been forced to move back into the other lane, behind Shinsou. Once the car had passed, Shinsou had expected him to draw alongside again, but when he next looked back, the Maserati had disappeared.
"One of my cufflinks fell off, when I swerved," said Shigeru, "I stopped to look for it."
Shinsou raised his eyebrows.
"It's a special cufflink," explained Shigeru, seeing his expression. "I've had it for over ten years. I've lost it," he concluded, gloomily.
"Buy another pair," said Shinsou, indifferently.
"Brother, you find the same pair and buy it for me, since I lost it because of you," said Shigeru, taking the remaining cufflink off and tossing it at Shinsou, "I'll keep it in memory of the good time we had together."
Shinsou deftly caught the cufflink. It gleamed silver in the moonlight, and was in the shape of a fox's head.
"All right," he agreed. He put the cufflink in his pocket.
"Let's go back," said Shigeru, starting the Maserati, "we'd better return the cars before the servants get up."
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Shigeru, like Shinsou, was an agent working at the Tokyo Intelligence Directorate. He was one of a group that had been monitoring events in China. Shinsou had recently completed the Directorate's ninjutsu course, which every agent was expected to take, at some point in his or her career. It was not, as Aizawa said, of much practical use, for it only lasted two weeks. Ninjutsu, like any other skill, took years to master.
Aizawa had told Shinsou that in his opinion Fujiwara, the Director-General, had initiated the course more as a matter of tradition, because shinobi, or ninja, had historically been Japan's first intelligence agents. They had first risen to prominence in feudal Japan, during the Sengoku era, and their functions had included espionage, sabotage, and infiltration. At the time, their covert methods of waging irregular warfare were seen as dishonourable and beneath the samurai caste, who observed strict rules about honour and combat. Samurai had a sense of ritual and decorum, where one was expected to fight or duel openly, but the unrest of the time created a demand for men willing to commit deeds considered disreputable for conventional warriors.
The Directorate course taught the history of the shinobi as well as some of their techniques. However Aizawa, who was Shinsou's supervisor, had discovered that Shigeru was descended from a ninja clan, the Iga, the families of which had lived in the province of Iga which lay in modern Mie prefecture. He had also heard that Shigeru's father, despite being a wealthy businessman, had been proud of their lineage and had subjected his son to ninja training when he was young.
Shigeru was not covering any cases at the moment, and his supervisor had recently retired, so he had been temporarily assigned to Aizawa. Since Shinsou was in between assignments as well, Aizawa had arranged for him and Shigeru to spend a few months together so that the latter could teach Shinsou a bit more about ninjutsu. He also wanted Shigeru to familiarise Shinsou with the situation in China, in case he ever needed to work on a case there.
Shinsou soon discovered that Shigeru wasn't a typical Directorate agent. He was older than Shinsou, in his forties, and had a decidedly rakish look, tall and lanky, with longish black hair and a short, black beard. His family was rich, rich enough that he could have lived a life of leisure and not worked at the Directorate at all. He liked the good life, and he liked women and wine.
He seemed to like Shinsou too, although they appeared to have little in common. He preferred being addressed by his first name rather than his surname, but he generally addressed Shinsou as "brother".
Shinsou didn't mind Shigeru, although he suspected that once Aizawa came to know the latter better he would probably deeply disapprove of him and his playboy tendencies. Shinsou had spent two months at Shigeru's family home in the mountains outside the city of Iga. The house was empty, for it was now used more as a holiday cottage, and the family resided elsewhere. Shigeru had borrowed a couple of horses and taught Shinsou to ride, and they had spent weeks camping in the mountains.
Shigeru had told him that ninja, like the samurai, were born into the profession, where traditions were kept in, and passed down through the family. They were trained from childhood, and had to study survival and scouting techniques. They also underwent physical training, including long distance runs, climbing, stealth methods of walking, and swimming. The family had lost touch with its roots, but Shigeru's grandfather had rediscovered them, and his father had been fired with enthusiasm and had subjected his son to shinobi training when he was young.
"I didn't mind it," Shigeru told Shinsou, "I liked it better than school. Of course, the training was nothing like genuine ninja training. My father managed to hire a ninjutsu instructor. But whatever traditions the family had were long gone."
He taught Shinsou whatever ninja techniques he knew, climbing trees and camouflaging oneself within the foliage, and climbing with spiked or hooked climbing gear worn on the hands and feet. They practised climbing with ropes and grappling hooks that were tied to the belt, or used a collapsible ladder which had spikes at both ends to anchor the ladder.
Shigeru actually had no need of any of these tools. He had an extraordinary Quirk; it enabled him to walk up and down vertical surfaces. Even so, he still enjoyed climbing the conventional way, and he enjoyed having someone like Shinsou around to teach.
He showed Shinsou a variety of weapons and tools used by the ninja, including the kunai, used for gouging holes in walls, and knives and small saws, also used to create holes in buildings, where they could be used as footholds or a passage of entry into the building. They also looked at swords. Ninja, Shigeru said, liked laying a sword against the wall and using the sword guard to gain a higher foothold. They also liked having a sword shorter than its scabbard, so that there was room for blinding powder to be concealed within, to be used for flinging into an enemy's eyes.
They sparred with the swords, for fun. Shinsou, after his first rushed assignment when he had commenced working at the Directorate, had eventually gotten round to completing the remainder of his basic training. And although he had by then already decided to deploy the whip as his weapon of choice, he had received training on a range of different weapons, including swordsmanship.
Shigeru's favourite weapon by far, however, was the shuriken, and he and Shinsou spent hours practising throws. These were blades that came in many different shapes, mostly stars, and there were several ways to throw them – overhead, underarm, sideways and rearwards, in each case the blade sliding out of the hand through the fingers in a smooth, controlled flight.
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Shigeru's main aim in life, Shinsou soon discovered, was to find his dream woman, or what he called his Ono no Komachi, a legendary Japanese beauty who had also dabbled in poetry. He was always on the lookout for her, he said, and he had had many women, but all of them paled in comparison to a girl he had once met at a pub along the river Tama near Tokyo when he was eighteen.
Every year during the first two weeks of spring he returned back to the same pub along the banks of the Tama, hoping he might see her again there. This year was no exception. Shinsou had just been assigned to train with him, and before they went to the country house in Iga, they had spent two weeks hanging around the pub, where Shigeru had told him the story.
He had joined the Directorate because his father, excited about their ninja ancestry, had wanted him to. His academic results had to improve in order to achieve that, and having a hero licence would be an advantage too, so his father had packed him off to one of the lesser known hero schools around Tokyo when he was fifteen.
In the evenings after school, he liked to frequent the small, open-air pub along the banks of the Tama river, and he met her there in his last year of school. Her name was Mitsuki, and she was seventeen.
"It was love at first sight," he solemnly informed Shinsou, "it was the first week of spring. She liked poetry, and since Komachi was also a poet, I called her my Ono no Komachi. We met every evening for two weeks, and at the end of that we took a walk up into the woods and I made love to her. And after that, she asked me to marry her."
"Did she," said Shinsou, amused, "I thought you should have been the one to do the asking."
"I was a fool," said Shigeru, pensively. He was into his second bottle of whiskey, and was becoming a bit drunk. "She said she had been planning to become a geisha, but she would give it up if I would marry her. But hell, I was only eighteen. Who thinks about getting married at that age? And after only knowing each other for two weeks? So, I said no. I said we could keep in touch, and that when she found out which geisha house she was going to train at, she could give me the address. She said it would be impossible for her to see me once she became a geisha. We quarrelled, and parted."
He took another swig of whiskey.
"You're getting drunk," said Shinsou, removing the bottle, "finish the tale first."
Shigeru looked crestfallen.
"Well, I never heard from her again," he said sorrowfully, "and I thought I would forget her after a while. I'd had other girls before. But I found that I couldn't, and that I regretted rejecting her. She showed me a poem once, and said it was a geisha song and that it made her think of me. It didn't make any sense to me, of course. I never understood poetry. But when she left, she said, 'I will remember Tamagawa River. And I will always wait for spring.' I remembered there was something like that in the poem."
He reached for the bottle, but Shinsou had removed it to a place out of his grasp.
Shigeru solved the problem by picking Shinsou's glass up and drinking deeply from it.
"Finish your story," said Shinsou, removing the glass as well, "Did you ever find her in the end?"
"Brother, give me back my whiskey," said Shigeru, "I'm suffering."
"I'll brainwash you into telling me the rest, if you don't comply," Shinsou threatened.
Shigeru looked mournful.
"No, I never saw her again," he said dejectedly, "she didn't answer my calls, and she changed her phone number soon after that. All I have is what she said about that poem. And we met during the first week of spring. So I come here during that time, every year, hoping she might appear here again."
"She'd be forty by now, probably looking nothing like what she did at seventeen," said Shinsou, "you should just give up and find someone else. It has been over twenty years!"
"Brother, I tell myself that," said Shigeru. His eyes were beginning to look bloodshot. "And I've been a-looking, I can tell you. I've found lots of 'em. But I can't forget her. I've got to see her again, even if she's fat and ugly now. Maybe I can let go then."
"Maybe she didn't become a geisha in the end," said Shinsou, returning the bottle.
Shigeru drained the bottle, before replying.
"It's likely," he said dolefully, "I must have searched almost every geisha house in Japan for her. In Kyoto and then Tokyo, and then all the smaller towns …"
He looked gloomily at Shinsou.
"It's good to be young," he said, "you haven't had your heart broken yet, have you, brother? I know I'll see her again one day. There must be a reason why I haven't forgotten her."
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After two months in Iga, Shigeru had decided that they would go to Shanghai. He had given Shinsou a folder of documents to read up on information about China.
"You don't need to read too much, brother," he said to Shinsou, "we've been doing the standard stuff … signals intelligence, counterintelligence … the Chinese don't spend years cultivating a few high-level sources, they like planting academics or students who will be in the host country for a short time to spy for them. Some of our group were keeping an eye on a couple of such individuals in Japan.
"Then there's tension over the Senkaku Islands. And cyber espionage. But when you're over there in China itself, you need to know the language, of course, and getting information is all about knowing people and making contacts. We only have two weeks, and I'm feeling lovelorn over my Komachi, so we'll just have a good time. We'll go over there and you can just get a feel of the place, and then we'll gatecrash some parties and meet people."
Shinsou went along quite willingly, although he doubted Aizawa would have approved of the parties. When they arrived in Shanghai, Shigeru introduced him to a few of the covert operatives based there, and then he somehow managed to procure invitations to a number of high society parties. He made sure there would be a large number of people attending, so that it would be easy to blend in with the crowd, since most people wouldn't know everyone else there. As Shanghai was quite a cosmopolitan place, he was also able to make sure there were enough people who spoke English there for Shinsou not to get bored.
Shinsou guessed that Shigeru would be having a good time wining and dining and talking to people, and then making off later in the evening with some love conquest. He had his own plans. His English was decent, since in Japan all students had to study it in school. He had spent the two months in Iga also picking up rudimentary Mandarin, enough to pass off as a waiter. Passing oneself off as a waiter would be more convenient, he reasoned, because it allowed you to move around quite a bit, and it also avoided the problem of passing yourself off as a guest and having people approach you and ask who you were.
Shigeru liked arriving late, when there would already be many people there, so that he could blend in with the crowd and the host would be too distracted to notice him. Shinsou preferred arriving early. For a party with so many people the host was sure to employ part-time staff, and Shinsou would hang around outside the premises, waiting for them to arrive. He would then brainwash them and enter the house together with them, and procure a waiter's uniform from them.
For a large party where the guests had come to talk business or socialise, the layout was usually buffet style so that people could move about and mix around more, rather than the typical Chinese dinner where all the guests were seated at fixed tables. Shinsou usually managed to brainwash the head server, or maitre D, into assigning him to only serve drinks. This gave him ample chance to say a few words to each of the guests, compared to if he were in charge of replenishing the food trays. He would then identify those guests who looked interesting, and brainwash them when they happened to be alone briefly.
He managed to have quite a number of entertaining conversations then. He brainwashed a high-ranking member of the People's Liberation Army, who told him in detail their plans to procure more fighter jets and build more aircraft carriers, as well as develop their own stealth aircraft. He brainwashed embassy officials, who informed him of confidential state visits that were being planned. Businessmen would tell him about their strategies for doing business in China. He also once had quite an interesting conversation with an archaeologist who was doing work around Xi'an.
Shigeru would occasionally pass by and suggest various individuals he might like to approach. Shinsou would observe him chatting up various ladies during the course of the evening. He would unfailingly also insist on trying to hook Shinsou up with a girl.
"Brother, that one looks nice," he would say, "I've found a cosy private room where the two of you can get to know each other better, too."
"I keep telling you, I already have a girlfriend," said Shinsou, "and anyway, I doubt she'd want to hook up with a waiter."
"Brother, we'll get her so drunk she won't notice," said Shigeru, "never mind your girlfriend. I have dozens of 'em at a time."
Shinsou usually solved the problem by brainwashing the girl and getting rid of her, or leaving the party early, since he knew Shigeru wouldn't come away for hours.
Whenever Shinsou struck up a conversation with someone, he would invariably ask them if they had any dealings with Japan. At the final party, before they were due to fly home to Tokyo, he talked to an elderly Chinese man, an avid antique collector who, it turned out, was also quite a high-ranking official in the Chinese Communist Party.
The man spoke excellent Japanese, and when Shinsou discovered this, they began conversing in that.
"I like Japan," said the man, "I have had many business dealings there over the years, and I even secretly became danna to a geisha. My Chinese wife died many years ago, and I wanted to marry the geisha, but she had an illness and also died. I quietly adopted her daughter … would you believe it, she had a child with a member of the Japanese imperial family, so the girl is a princess and has royal blood in her. I secretly married another Japanese woman, and we took the girl in. My wife and adopted daughter live in Kyoto. I plan to retire and move to Japan, some time. I must leave China … the President is purging many of the officials for corruption, and I know that I am one of those on his list. I plan to get out before that happens."
Halfway through the evening, Shigeru informed Shinsou that for once, he had plans for later other than making out with a woman.
"Brother, I found out from the host that three houses away, there's someone who has an entire fleet of sports cars," he whispered, "and the whole family's away on holiday. You haven't driven a sports car before, have you? There are high end motorcycles there, too. Meet me later, we'll sneak in when the servants there are asleep and I'll teach you how to get past a security system, pick locks so that we can break in, and how to hotwire the cars. We'll hotwire the whole lot, and go for a joyride."
Which was what they did. There were several expensive motorcycles there, and ten different sports cars. They took turns to drive all of them around the Shanghai area, once going all the way across Donghai Bridge which ran over the sea and connected the Pudong area to Yangshan port in Zhejiang. Shigeru then had the idea of them each taking a car and having a race, which they did. They made their way over to Dafeng, where there was a lonely and secluded road with few cars.
Two days later, they were back in their hotel room, getting ready to go to the airport. Shinsou packed his belongings and then, since it was still early, switched the TV on.
An interview came on air, and Shinsou recognised the antique collector – politburo member he had spoken to, two nights ago. He was being interviewed about his vast collection of antiques.
"Lin Wenjian," said Shigeru, looking up from his packing, "Saw you talking to him in a corner at the party the other night."
"Yes, I had quite an interesting conversation with him," said Shinsou.
Shigeru laughed. He had a loud, rather maniacal laugh.
"We keep an eye on him when he comes to Japan," he said, "He calls himself Ichiro Matsuyama there, and he has quietly taken a Japanese wife and daughter. But it's not known in China, of course. It's not good for a party member to have a foreign wife. He has a house in Kyoto, but pretends that it's not his, and that it belongs to relatives."
"He did mention some of that to me," Shinsou concurred.
"He has a reputation for being a thief but nobody has managed to catch him," Shigeru continued, "he likes giving interviews and mentioning he'd like to get hold of this or that well-known antique. And lo and behold, a short while later, the antique mysteriously disappears from whatever museum it was in, or from the owner's house. He'll always declare his innocence, though, and that he was joking, and the police will search his premises, but they never manage to find the antique."
"Hold on, let's see what he's saying, here," said Shinsou, listening intently.
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Interviewer : Mr Lin, I understand that a sizeable portion of your antiques are Japanese.
Lin Wenjian : Yes, I love Japanese antiques. I have relatives living in Japan, you know, and I visit them often. They have a house in Kyoto, and I have frequented the antique districts there for years … Furumonzen–Shinmonzen, and Teramachi-dori. I can spend hours browsing around the shops there … there are always so many interesting items to look at. I like Imari blue and white porcelain, and small, everyday items that come from the Meiji and Taisho eras …
Interviewer : So, when will you next visit Japan?
Lin Wenjian : As a matter of fact, I will be there next week, to attend a wedding.
Interviewer : Now that should be a joyful occasion! Tell us, then, which Japanese antiques you plan to acquire next?
Lin Wenjian : Well, there is an Edo period iron tsuba – you know, the hand guard mounted on a Japanese sword – that I have been eyeing. Quite a lovely piece, carved with dragons. Someone has been trying to sell me a samurai sword that he claims once belonged to Tokugawa Ieyasu. I think it is not genuine, of course. But I must say there is a thrill to think of owning something like that which belongs to history.
Interviewer : You seem to have swords on your mind, lately!
Lin Wenjian : I do, don't I? And with the approaching enthronement of the new Japanese Emperor, of course the sword that one tends to think of would be …
Interviewer : Kusanagi no Tsurugi.
Lin Wenjian : Quite right! The sword which the sun goddess Amaterasu gave to her grandson Ninigi to bring peace to Japan, and which was passed down to the Japanese emperors.
Interviewer : That would be any collector's dream to own, wouldn't it?
Lin Wenjian : Indeed it would! However I believe no amount of money would be able to buy it ... it is priceless.
Interviewer : You have a reputation for being able to acquire artefacts that you desire, though.
Lin Wenjian : (laughs) Those are all rumours. I must say, though, if I were to acquire this, it would be the ultimate acquisition ...
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Shigeru was scowling. "The cheek! Imagine any of the imperial regalia ending up in a Chinese official's collection."
"What are the regalia, exactly?" asked Shinsou.
"There are three," said Shigeru, "the sword Kusanagi, housed in Atsuta Shrine in Nagoya; the magatama jewel which is kept in the Imperial Palace itself; and the mirror Yata no Kagami which is at Ise Grand Shrine in Mie Prefecture."
"It's all myth, isn't it," said Shinsou, "about the sword coming from Amaterasu."
Shigeru looked serious.
"Some of these things are hard to say, Shinsou," he said – when he was serious, he generally forgot to call Shinsou 'brother' – "you don't believe in yokai, either, do you?"
"Spirits? No," said Shinsou.
"Well, they exist," said Shigeru, "I've seen them."
Shinsou laughed. "Where?"
"I'll show you one day," said Shigeru, resuming his packing.
Shinsou said nothing. He knew that Shigeru was superstitious. He would not step on the border of a tatami mat, believing it to be unlucky, and he also possessed countless omamori, which were amulets sealed in brocade bags believed to endow luck or good fortune. He kept these in various places, such as his suitcase and in his pockets, and even his keychains had omamori dangling from them.
They eventually went to the airport, and caught their flight home. They had landed and were in the taxi on their way to Tokyo, when the sky went strangely dark.
"Look at that," said Shinsou, peering out of the taxi window, "I didn't know there was supposed to be an eclipse today."
Shigeru was looking out as well.
"Let me check." He got onto the internet with his smartphone.
"There isn't." He looked out again. "And that's a very strange colour in the sky as well."
"What do you think it is?" asked Shinsou.
Shigeru was looking unusually serious.
"Shinsou," he said, "I think that bastard might really have done it."
Shinsou stared at him. "Who? Done what?"
"Lin Wenjian," said Shigeru, "That interview we saw was conducted when, probably a week ago? He'd be in Japan now, to attend that wedding."
"Surely you're not serious!" said Shinsou.
"I'm telling you, Amaterasu's angry," said Shigeru, "that's why the sun's gone out."
Shinsou laughed. "You're carrying superstition too far, Shigeru."
But Shigeru was scowling.
"The sword's sacred," he said, "falling into evil hands defiles it. And if it's true, there's trouble ahead. The current emperor is abdicating in order to let the Crown Prince take over the throne in a few months. The imperial regalia have to be present during the enthronement ceremony. If the sword is missing, there's going to be a huge crisis."
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AUTHOR'S NOTE
This fanfic takes place three years before the events in my other fanfic, Mindbender, meaning that Shinsou has already been working as a covert operative for Japan's national intelligence agency for four years, after graduating from UA. As I mentioned in Mindbender, he's a less combative and abrasive individual now, since he has already achieved his goal of obtaining a hero licence. He's also well on his way to becoming a consummate professional, having already solved one major case a few years earlier.
When I finished writing Mindbender, I had some thoughts that I might try working on the other two cases I mentioned Shinsou had solved, the Shiramine and Kusanagi cases. Mindbender was based on a cult. The Shiramine case, if I ever get it done, occurs when Shinsou first joins the Directorate, and part of it takes place outside Japan and has slight political overtones. In contrast, The Sword of Amaterasu deals with Japanese folklore, which is unusual for a case involving intelligence agents; but I thought it would be nice to have something different and give the stories in the trilogy a bit of balance and variety.
I've tried as much as possible to stay true to original Japanese folklore in the story, but I did change a few things. According to tradition, kitsune and tanuki are able to shapeshift and also possess people. In this fanfic I modified that a bit to allow them to merge with people and shapeshift them instead. Also, legend says that at the Ryugu-jo under the sea, each of the four sides of the palace has a different season; I changed that to the chamber of seasons, and added in rooms leading to mountains and beaches as well, because I wanted those who stayed there to also be able to experience these. Princess Toyotama is also often referred to as Otohime, but I chose to use Toyotama because I thought it sounded better.
I'd like to dedicate this fanfic to Naomi Ichikawa, who lives in Shimonoseki, where legend says the sword Kusanagi no Tsurugi once disappeared into the sea; and I'd like to thank her for all the help she's given me with these fanfics, this past year.
Starlight
December 2017