Chapter 2
Gathering Ghosts
The tea shop was small and out of the way, half hidden behind a row of bamboo. It was called Crane Harbor.
Amon glanced around furtively, making sure there was no one there to see him walk in, then entered.
The interior of the tea shop was small, sparse, dim, and decorated with a few calligraphy scrolls. There were two customers inside, a man and woman at a side table.
"Sencha," he said as he took a seat as far from them as he could get.
The proprietress, an elegant woman in a dark blue kimono patterned with yellow butterflies, her black hair liberally streaked with white, brought the pot of tea to his table some minutes later and poured his first cup.
"Sunday, three o'clock," she mumbled.
When he lifted the teacup, he found a slip of paper under it, an address written in tiny, elegant handwriting.
The woman's name was Manharu. Yuji had described her as a dear old friend.
When he finished his tea, he walked to a convenience shop and bought a few food items, then walked through some side streets to the crumbling, pitted mountain road that would take him back to the cottage.
His thoughts, as usual, were on Robin. He had no fear, these times when he left the cottage, that she wouldn't be there when he returned. He knew she wouldn't run. Even knowing his job was to kill her if he had to, she wouldn't run. He had left behind everything for that duty, and the strange thing was how little it bothered him. He wasn't bothered by the thought that he would have to be with Robin until her death or his.
'Til death do us part, he thought, uneasily.
The sun had set and it was beginning to grow dark when he sensed someone following him. Acting casual, he continued walking to a bend in the road where a large tree blocked the view ahead. There he stopped, put down his bag of sundries, and drew his gun. He steadied his breathing, steadied his heart, and waited.
He saw nothing. Could he hear it? Something large, something dark, inexorable and coming closer...
He dove and rolled into the road, aiming the gun behind him.
It wasn't human. It was nothing.
He got to the cottage and found Robin in candlelight, sitting cross-legged with a large book in her lap. He recognized by its size that it was the Tale of Genji. The modern translation of the thousand-year-old novel was the largest of the books he'd bought. He paused to watch her read for a moment.
She self-consciously brushed a lock of hair out of her face, then looked up at him. "Good evening."
"Are you sure you're old enough to be reading that?" he asked teasingly.
"If I'm old enough to kill and to risk my own life, I should think I'm old enough to read a story about seductions."
She had a point, he conceded. He went about putting away the items he'd bought.
"Amon, do you mind if I ask you something?"
"Go ahead," he answered.
"Have you ever been in love?"
It wasn't an unexpected question considering her reading material, but for a moment he found himself unable to answer. "Perhaps," he finally said.
She watched him, something unreadable in her small face. "With Touko?"
"Perhaps." He wasn't in the habit of talking about anything personal, but he considered that he and Robin would be together for a long time, and it would be awkward to avoid talking. So he added, "Touko and I were together for a time, circumstances arose that...came between us."
"What circumstances?"
Kate. But he couldn't say that. He couldn't explain it. Not to her.
"Do you think you'll ever fall in love again?"
This too he couldn't answer.
She dropped her eyes. "Forget it. It's none of my business."
He accepted the withdrawal from the subject with a nod, but he wouldn't forget it.