Free Gai-Jin by James Clavell Page B

try to ease the pain there and in his head. Katsumata’s blow had stunned him. “When we were before Lord Sanjiro I thought we were finished, I thought he was going to condemn us.”
    “So did I.” As he spoke Ori felt sick, his arm throbbing like his heaving chest, his face still afire. With his good hand he waved absently at a swarm of night insects. “If he … I was ready to go for my sword and send him on before us.”
    “So was I but the Sensei was watching very closely and he would have killed both of us before we moved.”
    “Yes, you’re right again.” The younger man shuddered. “His blow almost took my head off. Eeee, to have such strength, unbelievable! I’m glad he’s on our side, not against us. He saved us, only him; he bent Lord Sanjiro to his will.” Ori was suddenly somber. “Shorin, while I was waiting I … to keep myself strong, I composed my death poem.”
    Shorin became equally grave. “May I hear it?”
    “Yes.
    “Sonno-joi at sunset
,
    Nothing wasted
    Into nothing
    I spring.”
    Shorin thought about the poem, savoring it, the balance of the words and the third level of meaning. Then he said solemnly, “It is wise for a samurai to have composed a death poem. I haven’t managed that yet but I should, then all the rest of life is extra.” He twisted his head from side to side to the limit, the joints or ligaments cracking, and he felt better. “You know, Ori, the Sensei was right: we did hesitate, therefore we lost.”
    “I hesitated, he’s right in that, I could have killed the girl easily but she paralyzed me for a moment. I’ve never … her outlandish clothes, her face like a strange flower with that huge nose more like a monstrous orchid with two great blue spots and crowned with yellow stamens—those unbelievable eyes, Siamese cat eyes and thatch of straw under that ridiculous hat, so repulsive yet so—so attracting.” Ori laughed nervously. “I was bewitched. She is surely a
kami
from the dark regions.”
    “Rip her clothes off and she’d be real enough, but how attractive I … I don’t know.”
    “I thought of that too, wondering what it would be like.” Ori looked upat the moon for a moment. “If I pillowed with her I think … I think I’d become the male spider to her female.”
    “You mean she’d kill you afterwards?”
    “Yes, if I pillowed her, with or without force, that woman would kill me.” Ori waved the air, the insects becoming a pestilence. “I’ve never seen one like her—nor have you. You noticed too,
neh?”
    “No, everything happened so fast and I was trying to kill the big ugly one with the pistol and then she had fled.”
    Ori stared at the faint lights of Yokohama. “I wonder what she’s called, what she did when she got back there. I’ve never seen—she was so ugly and yet …”
    Shorin was unsettled. Normally Ori hardly noticed women, just used them when he had a need, let them entertain him, serve him. Apart from his adored sister, he could not remember Ori ever discussing one before. “Karma.”
    “Yes, karma.” Ori shifted his bandage to be more comfortable, but the throbbing deepened. Blood seeped from under it. “Even so, I do not know if we lost. We must wait, we must be patient and see what will happen. We always planned to go against gai-jin at the first opportunity—I was right to go against them at that moment.”
    Shorin got up. “I’m tired of seriousness, and kami and death. We’ll know death soon enough. The Sensei gave us life for
sonno-joi
. From nothing into nothing—but tonight we’ve another night to enjoy. A bath, saké, food, then a real Lady of the Night, succulent and sweet-smelling and moist …” He laughed softly. “A flower, not an orchid, with a beautiful nose and proper eyes. Let’s—”
    He stopped. Eastwards, from the direction of Yokohama, came the echoing report of a ship’s signal cannon. Then a signal rocket briefly lit the darkness.
    “Is that usual?”
    “I don’t know.”