Hishigawa looked at Kaze shrewdly and said, “I won’t tell you all my secrets yet, but Enomoto was talking about the business I got into after Sekigahara. In addition to my other businesses, I deal in young girls.”
Kaze had surmised as much from the girls he saw at the Jade Palace. They were too finely dressed and too bold to be simple maids to Yuchan. Dealing in human flesh was not the highest of social activities, but there was no particular secret involved with it that Kaze could see. “What is the secret in that?” he asked.
Hishigawa smiled and said, “Right after the forces loyal to Hideyoshi were defeated, there were not only a great number of ronin created, but also a great number of families disrupted. Some of the young girls who came on the market at that time were not always properly sold, and many were from good families. Here was all this good merchandise available with no proper outlet, and many merchants in flesh were afraid to get into this trade. I started dabbling in it, supplying brothels in Kyoto, Edo, and here in Kamakura. We have to be discreet about this, because some of the families of the girls might take it into their heads to take revenge for my little business dealings with their daughters.
“I constructed the Jade Palace during that time, to house the girls safely until I was ready to dispose of them. I still use it to store girls I’m transferring between customers, as well as for Yuchan.
“The supply of young girls has dried up over the last year, so now I have agents looking for girls to work as maids. It’s much cheaper to buy girls as maids, and families seem to be more willing to sell them if they think they’re not going to end up in a brothel. Usually we bring them here to the villa and actually use them as maids for a time. When we’ve had enough of them, I let the guards break them in.” Hishigawa waved his hand. “A few are precocious, but most are still virgins because we buy them so young. I, of course, have Yuchan, so I don’t participate in raping the girls and preparing them for their lives as whores, but all the guards enjoy that. You’ll enjoy it too.”
Kaze’s face was impassive, and he had to force himself to refrain from explaining to Hishigawa what he would and would not enjoy.
CHAPTER 23
A strong spirit is
contained in a frail body.
You are beautiful.
I don’t like it,” Elder Grandma said. “I should be the one to talk to Yuchan.”
“That’s difficult,” Kaze said. “You don’t even know if Yuchan is unhappy with the life she’s leading. She’s treated like a noble, living in her own palace. It’s best for you to wait hidden in the villa’s grounds until I have a chance to see if Yuchan wants to leave. After I find that out, I’ll come to you and we can plan our next action.”
Kaze was once again in the tree by the lakeside. The water of the lake was a glistening sheet in the moonlight, and the gentle lapping sound of the water on the shore was restful and soothing. Kaze was relaxed but alert, watching the Jade Palace intently. Elder Grandma, her grandson, and her servant were safely hidden in a grove of trees on the villa grounds, waiting for Kaze to report on his conversation with Yuchan.
The guard at the drum bridge seemed alert but bored, leaning against the bridge and walking about in fits and starts. Without a regular patrol schedule, the problem of getting to the island and the palace was harder. But with only one guard outside it was not impossible. Kaze had no idea how many guards were inside.
The guard sat on the steps on the island part of the drum bridge and took off a sandal, rubbing his foot with obvious satisfaction. Kaze slipped out of the tree and made his way to the far side of the palace. Taking off his kimono, he used the kimono sash to make a neat bundle, tying his sword to his clothes.
Dressed in only his fundoshi, he slipped into the cold water of the lake. The bottom dropped out quickly, and Kaze was soon swimming, holding his kimono and sword above his head to keep them dry. In military training, Kaze had learned to swim while in full armor. He had also learned to swim holding his armor and sword above his head, just as he was doing now. The light weight of the kimono was nothing compared to the weight of a full suit of armor. Kaze made his way across the lake smoothly.
When he reached the opposite shore, he crouched in the deep shadows of the veranda that encircled the palace, making sure that the guard was not on one of his unpredictable patrols of the island. Satisfied that he was unseen, Kaze put on his kimono and replaced his sword in his sash.
He stood on the veranda and walked to a corner. The back of the veranda had shoji screens opening onto it, and these shoji almost certainly opened up into a room. The room might be occupied. On one side of the palace was a door, but he would be seen by the guard if he tried to enter it.
Kaze waited, showing patience until the guard retied his straw sandal and started on one of his patrols of the island. As soon as the guard disappeared around the corner of the palace, Kaze slipped through the door.
He was in a hallway, with shoji opening into rooms on one side and what looked like a closet door on the other. Directly ahead was a wooden grate blocking entrance to the core of the palace, locked shut.
Kaze looked at the closet and decided he would take a lesson from the ninja. He opened the closet door. From the moonlight spilling through the open doorway, Kaze could make out the ceiling slats. Standing on a shelf, he reached upward and pushed one aside. As he did so, the rock that was sitting on the slat to hold it in place slipped off the slat and started falling to the ground. Instantly, Kaze reached out and caught the rock in midair. In the silent palace, the sound of a falling rock could wake the inhabitants. He carefully put the rock on a shelf.
Satisfied that the opening was large enough to allow him to fit into the attic, he closed the closet door and used the shelf as a ladder to enter into the space above the ceiling.
He waited for several minutes, letting his eyes adjust to the gloom of the attic. Like that of the villa, the palace’s roof had lattice openings that allowed some of the moonlight to bathe the interior. Moving carefully from rafter to rafter, Kaze made his way to the center of the palace.
There, using his fingers, he felt the ceiling slats, searching out the bamboo pegs that kept them in place. Taking the ko-gatana knife from the sword scabbard, Kaze removed the pegs, using his sense of touch as a guide.
As he removed the pegs, warm yellow light from lanterns started peeking past the edge of the slat. Silently, carefully, Kaze pried up the slat and looked down into the room below.
The room was dark and had a closed, fetid odor that assaulted Kaze’s nose. One corner of the room was occupied by a large metal cage. Sitting on a table before the cage was a tray of sumptuous food, expertly prepared and displayed. There was gomoku rice, fresh sea bream, a light soup, and a tiny sweet in the shape of a chrysanthemum.
Next to the table was a beautiful silk robe, elaborately embroidered with peonies, and a mirror with silver mountings and a tortoiseshell comb. Except for the cage, the sparse furnishings in the room, a tansu chest and two lanterns with black lacquer frames, were elegant, tasteful, and expensive.
Kaze was puzzled as to what kind of animal would be kept in Yuchan’s apartment. He carefully let himself down from the ceiling, dropping lightly to his feet on the tatami below.