During one of their rests, Bond casually asked Kissy what she knew of the castle, and he was surprised by the way her face darkened. ‘Todoroki-san, we do not usually talk about that place. It is almost a forbidden subject on Kuro. It is as if hell had suddenly opened its mouth half a mile away across the sea from our home. And my people, the Ama, are like what I have read about your gypsies. We are very superstitious. And we believe the devil himself has come to live over there.’ She didn’t look at the fortress, but gestured with her head. ‘Even the kannushi-san does not deny our fears, and our elders say that the gaijins have always been bad for Japan and that this one is the incarnation of all the evil in the West. And there is already a legend that has grown up on the island. It is that our six Jizo Guardians will send a man from across the sea to slay this “King of Death”, as we call him.’
‘Who are these Guardians?’
‘Jizo is the god who protects children. He is, I think, a Buddhist god. On the other side of the island, on the foreshore, there are five statues. The sixth has been mostly washed away. They are rather frightening to see. They squat there in a line. They have rough bodies of stone and round stones for heads and they wear white shirts that are changed by the people every month. They ere put there centuries ago by our ancestors. They sit on the line of low tide, and as the tide comes up it covers them completely and they keep watch under the surface of the sea and protect us, the Ama, because we are known as “The Children of the Sea”. At the beginning of every June, when the sea is warm after the winter and the diving begins, every person on the island forms into a procession and we go to the Six Guardians and sing to them to make them happy and favourable towards us.’
‘And this story of the man from Kuro. Where did it come from?’
‘Who knows? It could have come from the sea or the air and thus into the minds of the people. Where do stories like that come from? It is widely believed.’
‘Ah, so desu ka!’ said Bond, and they both laughed and got on with the work.
On the third day, when Bond was as usual eating his breakfast on the doorstep, Kissy came to the doorway and said softly, ‘Come inside, Todoroki-san.’ Mystified, he went in and she shut the door behind him.
She said in a low voice, ‘I have just heard from a messenger from the kannushi-san that there were people here yesterday in a boat from the mainland. They brought presentos–cigarettes and sweets. They were asking about the visit of the police boat. They said it came with three visitors and left with only two. They wanted to know what had happened to the third visitor. They said they were guards from the castle and it was their duty to prevent trespassers. The elders accepted the presentos, but they showed shiran-kao, which is “the face of him who knows nothing”, and referred the men to the kannushi-san who said that the third visitor was in charge of fishing licences. He had felt sick on the way to the island and had perhaps lain down in the boat on the way back. Then he dismissed the men and sent a boy to the top of the High Place to see where the boat went, and the boy reported that it went to the bay beside the castle and was put back into the boathouse that is there. The kannushi-san thought that you should know these things.’ She looked at him piteously. ‘Todoroki-san, I have a feeling of much friendship for you. I feel that there are secret things between you and the kannushi-san, and that they concern the castle. I think you should tell me enough to put me out of my unhappiness.’
Bond smiled. He went up to her and took her face in both his hands and kissed her on the lips. He said, ‘You are very beautiful and kind, Kissy. Today we will not take the boat out because I must have some rest. Lead me up to the High Place from which I can take a good look at this castle and I will tell you what I can. I was going to anyway, for I shall need your help. Afterwards, I would like to visit the Six Guardians. They interest me – as an anthropologist.’
Kissy collected their usual lunch in a small basket, put on her brown kimono and rope-soled shoes and they set off along a small footpath that zigzagged up the peak behind the crouching grey cluster of the village. The time of the camellia was almost past, but here there were occasional bushes of wild camellias in red and white, and there was a profusion of these round a small grove of dwarf maples, some of which already wore their flaming autumn colours. The grove was directly above Kissy’s house. She led him in and showed him the little Shinto shrine behind a rough stone torn. She said, ‘Behind the shrine there is a fine cave, but the people of Kuro are afraid of it as it is full of ghosts. But I explored it once and if there are ghosts there they are friendly ones.’ She clapped her hands before the shrine, bent her head for a moment, and clapped them again. Then they went on up the path to the top of the thousand-foot peak. A brace of gorgeous copper pheasants with golden tails fled squawking over the brow and down to a patch of bushes on the southern cliff as they approached. Bond told Kissy to stay out of sight while he went and stood behind the tall cairn of stones on the summit and gazed circumspectly round it and across the straits.
He could see over the high fortress wall and across the park to the towering black-and-gold donjon of the castle. It was ten o’clock. There were figures in blue peasant dress with high boots and long staves moving busily about the grounds. They occasionally seemed to prod into the bushes with their staves. They wore black maskos over their mouths. It crossed Bond’s mind that they might be doing the morning rounds looking for overnight prey. What did they do when they found some half-blinded creature, or a pile of clothes beside one of the fumaroles whose little clouds of steam rose here and there in the park? Take them to the Doctor? And, in the case of the living, what happened then? And when he, Bond, got up that wall tonight, where was he going to hide from the guards? Well, sufficient unto the day! At least the straits were calm and it was cloudless weather. It looked as if he would get there all right. Bond turned away and went back to Kissy and sat with her on the sparse turf. He gazed across the harbour to where the Ama fleet lay sprawled across the middle distance.
He said, ‘Kissy, tonight I have to swim to the castle and climb the wall and get inside.’
She nodded. ‘I know this. And then you are going to kill this man and perhaps his wife. You are the man who we believe was to come to Kuro from across the sea and do these things.’ She continued to gaze out to sea. She said dully, ‘But why have you been chosen? Why should it not be another, a Japanese?’
‘These people are gaijins. I am a gaijin. It will cause less trouble for the State if the whole matter is presented as being trouble between foreigners.’
‘Yes, I see. And has the kannushi-san given his approval?’
‘Yes.’
‘And if ... And after. Will you come back and be my boatman again?’
‘For a time. But then I must go back to England.’
‘No. I believe that you will stay for a long time on Kuro.’
‘Why do you believe that?’
‘Because I prayed for it at the shrine. And I have never asked for such a big thing before. I am sure it will be granted.’ She paused. ‘And I shall be swimming with you tonight.’ She held up a hand. ‘You will need company in the dark and I know the currents. You would not get there without me.’
Bond took the small dry paw in his. He looked at the childish, broken nails. His voice was harsh. He said, ‘No. This is man’s work.’