Kiku's Prayer Part 38

Kiku wanted to earn at least one or two ryo for Seikichi before It returned to Tsuwano. She had the feeling that with her body this enervated, she would not live much longer anyway.

And for that reason- For that reason, she needed to muster the last of her strength and give her all for her love of Seikichi. Kiku was the kind of woman who simply had to give love.

She locked up the shop and left the Yamazaki Teahouse to accompany the yellow-toothed man. The sky was overcast, and the penetrating cold stabbed into her body.

"Looks like it might snow," the man muttered, looking up at the gray skies.

"I have to get back as soon as possible. The madam will be coming back from the Fire Festival soon, and then clients will be coming this evening. If they start arriving before the geiko are there ... that would be a disaster!"

"I know. I know!" With a knowing look, the man started down the Maruyama slope ahead of Kiku.

The ocean was dark today. Conspicuously black clouds pressed in from behind Mount Inasa.

Today's client was a young Chinese merchant with a slim figure and protruding cheekbones. He was impatient to get his hands on Kiku's body.

"," he exclaimed when he saw Kiku. He may have been correct in saying (What a beautiful woman!), but it was idle flattery for him to say (Such a charming outfit!) when she had come without even taking the time to change her clothes.

The Chinese man who was acting as interpreter lied and told the client, "She's one of the top two women of the quarter right now," to which the client voiced his grat.i.tude, "."

Large snowflakes began to fall outside the window. The cold grew even more intense. As she poured the drinks and joined in singing the Chinese songs, Kiku's body became feverish and she felt terrible. Seeing her red, feverish face, the Chinese merchant mistook it for intoxication and the flush of desire, and he quickly moved her into bed.

So sluggish. She wanted this laborious ch.o.r.e to be over quickly. While the slender Chinese man moved his body unremittingly above her, Kiku endured by imagining Seikichi's face. She struggled to remind herself that however much she had to undergo, Seikichi was suffering far greater pain. And she hoped that if there were a G.o.d, he would lessen Seikichi's suffering by exactly the amount of suffering she was subjected to.

The image that suddenly popped into her mind was the angelic face of the woman in the Nambanji. That Blessed Mother whom Seikichi revered and worshipped.

I don't care how much I have to suffer, please just make things easier for him in Tsuwano. With her eyes closed, she pleaded in her heart to that woman. It was less a plea than it was a prayer. As she repeated the prayer in her heart, the body of the slender man shuddered; she heard his heavy breathing, his face with its bloodshot eyes was directly above her, and the torrent of his l.u.s.t coursed powerfully into her body.

In that moment, Kiku coughed violently. It felt as though some object like a fishbone was caught in her throat, so she tried to force it out, with the result that a b.l.o.o.d.y liquid filled her mouth.

It was fresh blood. The blood spilled from her lips and stained the tatami.

The startled Chinese man wrenched his naked body away from her and shouted frantically for the man who was waiting for him at the bottom of the stairs.

The Chinese men were kind to her. They let her remain lying down and, before long, brought some warm medicine in a cup and had her drink it.

"It's a sedative and something to stop the bleeding," the man who was acting as interpreter, with a face whiter than a sheet of paper, explained to Kiku. The brown medicinal drink had a strong aroma, but when she drank it, she could tell that the tightness in her chest was gradually abating, and she no longer felt nauseous.

I have to go back. It must be about the time the madam will be returning. Those were her first thoughts, but her leaden body would not move. The medicinal potion they had given her must have contained a sleeping drug, since she fell into a light sleep.

Her dream was the same as usual. A gentle spring in Magome. Skylarks twittered overhead, and then the field carpeted in lotus flowers. She was playing with Mitsu and some other girls. Seikichi was there, too. And Kiku, excessively mindful of Seikichi's presence, was purposely standoffish, moving far away from him at times. When she did, Seikichi looked very, very sad.

She woke up. It was a dark, solitary evening. Outside enormous snowflakes were falling. The roofs of the houses had turned starkly white.

Kiku forced herself to get up and staggered slowly down the stairs. Three or four men, including the slender Chinese man, were drinking and playing a Chinese version of paper-rock-scissors.

"You should have slept longer," said the one who could speak j.a.panese.

"I'm sorry for all the trouble. I'll come back again to give a proper apology, but for today, please excuse me."

"You've got to take care of yourself!"

The Chinese merchant had paid her two ryo, but she tried to return one ryo to him as an apology for coughing up blood.

"Don't worry about it. Keep it," he said gently, shaking his head.

She tried to make her way back to Maruyama through the large flakes of falling snow. And she began pondering how she might make her excuses. She knew that she would be found out no matter how hard she tried to conceal her activities, and there was every possibility that the madam already had some vague idea of what Kiku had been doing.

She walked through the snow, her heart heavy. It was dark along the road and there were no other people to be seen. Her fever sent shivers racing from her shoulders to her back from time to time, and her head was extremely hot.

Again she felt like throwing up. She stopped and spit out whatever was caught in her throat. Bright red blood stained the snow.

Staring at the blood, she decided she could never return to the Yamazaki Teahouse. Maruyama was not so indulgent a place as to let a woman who could not work obtain her food and lodgings for free.

Could she go back to her home in Magome? Her pride would not allow it. It was too painful to consider the pain she would cause Granny and her parents when they saw her wasted body.

I don't think I have much longer to live. In that moment, she sensed the certain brevity of her own life. And she realized that there was really only one place she could go-the Nambanji at ura, where she could recall how Seikichi had looked when she saw him there.

Seikichi had always said that no place was more valuable to him than the Nambanji. And it was there he had worshipped that woman.

The dark ocean. The dark beach. Kiku walked along the deserted road toward ura.

The snow fluttered in the wind. The ocean was tinged a deep purple hue, and the road alongside the beach had already turned white. Kiku had no umbrella, so the innumerable snowflakes grazed past her hair and shoulders or landed on them.

Strangely she felt no pain. For whatever reason, her last strength came from the hope that if she could make it to the Nambanji in ura, she would find Seikichi there.

Panting for breath, stopping occasionally and coughing every time she stopped, she climbed the slope. Snow had already started to bury the slanting path, making it difficult to walk. She kicked off her geta and continued barefoot.

By the time she reached the crest of the hill, her energy was gone. She coughed violently and leaned against the earthen wall of the church to catch her breath. That earthen wall she leaned against has become a corner of the Tky Hotel today, but the church still looks essentially the way it did that day.

Through the white veil of snow, she could see the Nambanji directly in front of her. Enfolded in that veil, she was swept up in the illusion that Seikichi was waiting for her right now inside the church. Spring in Urakami. Young girls at play. Days filled with such joy. Wispy memories of Seikichi's clear voice as he sold his wares those mornings in early summer, and the brief opportunity she had to talk with him at this church.

Those recollections twirled inside her head like images in a revolving lantern.

She stumbled up the stone steps of the Nambanji. Looking very much like a porcelain doll, she pushed open the door and went into the sanctuary.

Tiny flames fueled by rapeseed oil glimmered at the spot where the Eucharist was laid out. When she had worked here, one of her jobs had been to refill the oil so that the flame was never extinguished.

She dropped at the base of the woman's statue and coughed. A spot of blood tinged the hand she held to her mouth. With wide eyes the statue of the Blessed Mother watched Kiku as she coughed.

Well, I've ended up here again. After all, you're the only person I can talk to about Seikichi. Between coughs, she murmured to the Blessed Mother. I hated you, you know. Seikichi thought more of you than he did of me. I was jealous of you and tried to draw his heart in my direction.

She coughed violently.

But it didn't work. I lost everything. Unlike you, this body of mine has been repeatedly, totally violated.

Tears poured from Kiku's eyes as she railed at the statue. They were the same as the tears she shed the day she was raped by It.

I can't ... I can't be close to Seikichi ever again. But I really did love him!

She coughed up blood and collapsed with her face toward the floor. It was quiet in the chapel, and outside the snow fell noiselessly. When the sound of her coughing ceased, her body no longer moved.

Translucent tears just like those of Kiku welled up in the large eyes of the Blessed Mother. The tears spilled down her cheeks and dampened her robes. She wept for Kiku, who lay facedown, motionless; she wept for this woman who had loved one man with everything she had; she wept for Kiku, who had given all for her lover, even to the point of defiling her own body.

I ... I really did love him!

The Blessed Mother heard Kiku's cry distinctly. With tears pooling in her large eyes, the statue of the Immaculata nodded in strong affirmation.

But unlike you, this body of mine has been repeatedly, totally violated....

In response to Kiku's moan filled with such sorrow and pain, the weeping Blessed Mother shook her head vigorously.

No. You are not violated in the least. Even though you gave your body to other men ... you did it for just one man. The sorrow and misery you felt at those times ... has cleansed everything. You are not the least bit defiled. You lived in this world in order to love, just as my son did.

Stretched out on the floor, Kiku's body was depleted of all energy and did not even stir.

This snow will probably continue all night long. This much snow will purify everything stained, everything foul. Ultimately the streets of Nagasaki will become a land of pure whiteness. And just as this pure white snow will conceal all the blemishes and lewdness and pains and sins of humanity, your love will obliterate all the filth from the men who have touched you.

Then the Blessed Mother urged Kiku: Come, fear not. Come with me....

Time pa.s.sed in utter silence. Outside the church, the large flakes of snow continued to fall.

When Pet.i.tjean came to the chapel to pray after darkness fell, he discovered Kiku collapsed on the floor directly beside the altar. The area around her down-turned face was darkly stained with the immense quant.i.ties of blood she had disgorged, and her body had already stiffened and drawn its last breath. The hemorrhaging from her lungs had suffocated her.

Pet.i.tjean summoned Okane and her husband and brought Laucaigne and the other priests into the chapel. Okane's husband hurried through the snow to notify the Nishi Bureau.

The candles on the altar were lit. Although Kiku had not been a Kiris.h.i.tan, Pet.i.tjean and the others priests offered the Kiris.h.i.tan prayer for the dead on her behalf.

"Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine. Grant her eternal rest, O Lord," Pet.i.tjean recited, moving his lips faintly. "Et lux perpetua luceat eis. Requiescat in pace. And may eternal light shine upon her, and grant her eternal rest." As he whispered the Latin words of the Requiescat in pace, an unbearable grief clenched at Pet.i.tjean's heart.

He knew that Kiku had loved Seikichi. He also knew how much she had suffered because Seikichi had been locked away in distant Tsuwano. And he felt as though he understood why she had died here before this altar, soaked through like a stray cat and coughing up blood.

But then he recalled the conversation he had held a few days ago on the beach with It, who had wondered what sort of meaning G.o.d would a.s.sign to all this death and suffering.

Late that night, several policemen carrying lanterns came from the Nishi Bureau, accompanied by an official sent to investigate the death. The official was It Seizaemon.

It looked down at Kiku's dead face, then fixed his eyes on the stains from the enormous amount of blood Kiku had coughed up. He stood stiff as a rod. The priests and Okane and Mosaku watched the wordless man from several paces away.

Since It said nothing, one of the policemen asked Okane and Mosaku, "Do you know this woman's ident.i.ty?"

"Yes, her name is Kiku, and she's from Magome in Urakami Village. She was employed here for a short time, but like the wife and me, she wasn't a Kiris.h.i.tan." Mosaku emphasized the fact that she was not a Kiris.h.i.tan, not so much for Kiku's benefit, but to protect himself and his wife.

"How was she hired here?"

"I'll answer that." Pet.i.tjean gave a summary explanation of how he first met Kiku that day in the sixth month and the circ.u.mstances under which he had brought her here. However, he adroitly avoided mention of the fact that it had been the same morning that Father Laucaigne had been entangled in the arrest of the Urakami Kiris.h.i.tans and had fled over the mountains.

"And why did she quit working here?"

"I don't know," Pet.i.tjean said, but Okane deliberately interjected, "I heard she went to Maruyama.... Because it's got to be more fun for a young woman to work in Maruyama instead of at a place like this."

"If she was in Maruyama ... did she become a prost.i.tute?"

"I wouldn't know. But since they said she was working in Maruyama, I guess she must have done the same things as the other women there, don't you think?" Because Okane hadn't been fond of Kiku, there was a note of derision in her voice.

"Then she was a wh.o.r.e, was she?" The policeman muttered with a sneer. "But why did she come all the way back here to die?"

Casting a glance in Pet.i.tjean's direction, Okane responded, "Once a girl gets this sick, n.o.body'll have anything to do with her. After all, at Maruyama the women disgrace their bodies every night with men, so once your body's no good, you're done for there."

Okane grinned obsequiously as she spoke, but suddenly It whirled in her direction and shouted, "Shut your mouth! What the h.e.l.l do you ... do any of you know?!"

He shouted with such rage that Okane and her husband and even the policemen looked startled.

"What in h.e.l.l do you know about this woman?! She ... she was not that kind of woman. Compared to her, you and I ... we're so much filthier than she was!"

He stopped, shocked by what he had just blurted out. A look of panic washed across his face when he realized what he had just admitted....

"Let's get out of here. Work with her family in Magome to make sure her body is buried with all proper respect. I said proper respect! Do you understand me? Proper respect!!"

Those were It's parting words....

1. Many Chinese residences were located in the Jzenji sector of Nagasaki.

GOING HOME.

THE MEIJI GOVERNMENT ultimately acceded to persistent demands from the foreign diplomatic community and launched an investigation into the treatment of the Urakami Kiris.h.i.tans who had been banished to various parts of the country. It was fifth month of 1871.

In the latter part of that month, an inspection team set out for Tsuwano, led by Kusumoto Masataka, an appointed official from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, along with Kat Naozumi and Uemura Yoshihisa.

The new leaves of early summer are beautiful in Tsuwano. It feels as though the color and fragrance of those young leaves adhere themselves to every feature of the scenery.

At the home of Yae Kan'emon, where the inspectors were lodged, Kusumoto and Kat received a visit from the men who were responsible for the handling of the Kiris.h.i.tans.

Kusumoto explained the reason for their investigation to Chiba, Kanamori, and other representatives of the Tsuwano domain. "As you know, gentlemen, our government is planning negotiations with several foreign nations at the end of this year to press for revisions in the unequal treaties that were forced on us. Should there be any mistakes made in the treatment of the Kiris.h.i.tans at this juncture, it could create difficulties for the negotiations."

There was neither reproof nor undue probing in Kusumoto's outline of the purposes for their observation tour. Harsh treatment of the Kiris.h.i.tans had, from the outset, been the Meiji government's approach to religion, one it had inherited from the Tokugawa shogunate. The att.i.tude of the investigating team was so relaxed that Kusumoto and his colleagues were up late into the night entertaining Chiba and Kanamori with food and drink.

The following day, the inspection team was scheduled to examine the prison where the Kiris.h.i.tans were being held. The only two locations they toured were the Krinji Temple, where those who had shown no intention of abandoning their faith were confined, and the nunnery that housed those who had apostatized.

"Have you inflicted any severe punishments on them?" Kusumoto asked the prescribed question of the officers in charge of the jails. It was obvious to him from a single glance at the children-so emaciated that their eyes alone appeared large, their arms and legs as thin as wire-how they had been treated.

"The Tsuwano domain has strictly prohibited anything even resembling harsh punishment," an officer responded just as he had been ordered to do. "But there is a possibility that some excessive coercion may have taken place outside our supervision."