The salt-and-pepper guy cut in front of him. “Ii kara, ii kara,” he said, pushing Adonis back. That’s enough.
Adonis backed off, but continued to fix me with a hostile stare.
Salt and Pepper turned and walked over to where I was standing. He bore an expression of mild amusement that was not quite a smile.
“Next time, use a little more control when you put in a joint lock,” he said, his tone matter-of-fact.
The dark-complected guy writhed. Adonis and a couple of the others went to help him.
I shrugged. “I would have. But he told me ‘no rules.” ’
“That’s true. He’ll probably be the last guy who suggests that to you.”
I looked at him. “I like this place. You guys seem serious.”
“We are.”
“It’s all right for me to train here?”
“Between four and eight every evening. Most mornings, too, you can work out from eight to noon. There are dues, but we can talk about that another time.”
“You manage the place?”
He smiled. “Something like that.”
“I’m Arai,” I said, with a slight bow.
Someone brought a stretcher. The dark-complected guy was gritting his teeth and whimpering. Someone admonished him, “Urusei na! Gaman shiro!” Shut up! Take the pain!
“Washio,” he said, returning the bow. “And by the way, did you know that Ishihara-san died recently?”
I looked at him. “No, I didn’t.”
He nodded. “An accident at his gym.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. Is the gym still open?”
“Some of his associates are running it now.”
“Good. Although I have a feeling that, from now on, I’ll be spending more time here, anyway.”
He grinned. “Yoroshiku.” Looking forward to it.
“Yoroshiku.”
I stuck around for another two hours. Adonis glared at me from time to time but otherwise kept his distance. Murakami never showed.
Washio’s questions about Ishihara’s death were neither surprising nor particularly unnerving. The weightlifter’s death looked like an accident. Even if they wondered whether the truth might be otherwise, they had no more reason to suspect my involvement than they did anyone else who had worked out there.
Of course, if I received further inquiries on that subject, particularly any pointed ones, I might change my assessment.
I came the next day, and the day after that, but still no sign. That was fine with me. It felt good to be back in Tokyo and I thought I could afford a few days there if I continued to be careful. Besides, getting in a workout on the job is great. Not quite the wholesome life of an aerobics instructor, but it beats sitting in a van all night on surveillance, drinking cold coffee and pissing in a plastic jug.
On the fourth day, I dropped by in the evening. Three sequential occasions in the same place at the same time was as much as my paranoid nervous system will allow. I was surprised to see many of the same faces. Some of these characters worked out twice a day. I wondered what they did for a living. Crime, probably. Be your own boss. Flexible hours.
I exchanged greetings with Washio and some of the others whom I had gotten to know, then changed in the locker room. One of the heavy bags was open, and I started working it with knee and elbow combinations. Drills of one-minute attack, thirty-second rest. I used a small clock on the wall to time myself.
My speed and strength were still good. Endurance likewise. Recovery times aren’t what they once were, but a steady diet of liquid amino acids for the muscles, glucosamine for the joints, and Cognamine for the reflexes all seem to help.
During one of the rest periods, I felt people pause in their workouts, felt their attention shift. The atmosphere in the room changed.
I looked over and saw someone in a poorly fitting double-breasted navy suit. It had wide lapels and overly padded shoulders. The kind of suit that’s supposed to impart a swagger even when you’re standing still. He was flanked by two burly specimens, more casually dressed, with yakuza punch perms. From their size and deportment I assumed they were bodyguards.
They must have just come in. The guy in the suit was talking to Washio, who was paying close and somehow uncomfortable attention.
I watched, and noticed other people doing the same. The newcomer couldn’t have been more than five-feet-eight, but his neck was massive and I put him at about eighty-five, ninety kilos. His ears were deformed masses of protruding scar tissue that would stand out even in Japan, where such scarification is not uncommon among judoka and kendoka.
Washio was gesturing to various men who were training. The newcomer was nodding. It felt like a briefing.
The thirty-second rest was up. I returned my attention to the bag. Left elbow. Right uppercut. Left knee. Again.
When the one-minute sequence was done I looked over. Washio and the newcomer were walking toward me. The bodyguards remained by the door.
“Oi, Arai,” Washio called out when they were a couple meters away. “Chotto mate.” Hold up for a minute.
I picked up a towel from the floor and wiped my face. They came closer and Washio gestured to the man next to him. “I want to introduce you to someone,” he said. “One of the backers of this dojo.”
I already knew who he was. Per Tatsu’s briefing, the left cheek was flattened, with the opposite side exhibiting what looked like a golf-ball-sized fissure pocked with jagged edges. I imagined a dog getting hold of him there and hanging on even as he shoved the animal away.
Something told me the dog had come out the worse.
I felt the hairs on the back of my neck pop up, a fresh surge of adrenaline dump into my veins. My fight-or-flight reaction is finely honed, and this guy’s presence was making it sing.
“Arai desu,” I said, bowing slightly.
“Murakami da,” he said with a nod, his voice not much more than a growl. “Washio tells me you’re good.” He looked doubtful.
I shrugged.
“There’s a fight tomorrow night,” he went on. “We put them on from time to time. Most people pay a hundred thousand yen to attend, but members of the dojo get in free. You interested?”
A hundred thousand yen-I’d been in the right neighborhood about the economics of these things. And if this guy was comfortable issuing the invitation, someone must have checked me out. I was glad that I’d had Tatsu backstop the Arai identity.
I shrugged again and said, “Sure.”
He looked at me, his eyes flat, as though focused somewhere behind and through me. “The fight starts at ten o’clock sharp. People get there a little early for betting. We’re doing this one in Higashi Shinagawa, five-chome. Just across the canal from Tennozu Island.”
“The harbor district?” I asked. The area is part of Tokyo but wasn’t a place I ever frequented while living in the city. It’s in Tokyo’s southeast, the home of meat processing plants and sewage disposal, of steam power facilities and wholesale warehouses, all of it fed and fattened by Tokyo’s great port. I supposed the attraction was that it would be deserted at night.
“That’s right. The address is Eight-twenty-five. A warehouse with the character for ‘transport’ painted in a big circle on the door. Across from the Lady Crystal Yacht Club. On your right as you walk from the monorail. Should be easy to find.”
“It’s important that you not tell anyone about this,” Washio added. “Only people who are invited get in anyway, and we don’t want trouble from the police.”
Murakami nodded once, acknowledging Washio’s point as though it had been barely worth mentioning. I gathered that Murakami didn’t particularly care who showed up at these things, as long as there was a fight. Washio, on the other hand, was probably responsible for logistics and would be accountable if there were problems.