Free Lord Oda's Revenge by Nick Lake Page A

that if the woman was truly a ghost, he would start to see a change in his neighbour’s face – the signs of death would appear upon it. It was possible, you see, that the man was possessed by a living spirit – such as that of a girl who was obsessively in love with him. But those cases are rarely fatal. In the case of a ghost, though, the effect is much worse. A man whose lover was a
gaki
would not live long. For the spirit of the living is
yoki
, and pure; the spirit of the dead is
inki
, and unclean.’
    â€˜And she was a ghost, of course,’ said Taro.
    â€˜Yes. Yusai returned to me a week later. His neighbour’s hair had greyed, he had lost weight. He rarely left the house.’
    â€˜What did you do?’
    â€˜I told Hayao that he was consorting with a ghost. He laughed at me – he said he had found his love again, and I wanted to take her away. He accused me of collaborating with the monk who had cheated him. I asked him to at least come with me to the cemetery where Tsuyu was buried, to clear up the matter.’
    â€˜Hayao was angry, but he came with me and the monk to the cemetery, which was planted all around with plum trees. It was not long before we found a relatively new tomb, one befitting a noble. On the tomb, no proper name was written – only the
kaimyo
name that is given after death. I stopped a monk who happened to be walking by, and asked who the tomb belonged to.
    â€˜He said it belonged to a young woman named Tsuyu, as I had known he would. He mentioned what a tragedy it was, that she had died so young of a broken heart. At that, Hayao became very pale. He told us what she had said, about moving to a small house among the plum trees. I took him aside. I told him that the karma that bound him to the girl was not a negative one, and that she was not feeding on him for revenge, but only because she needed him by her side. I told him it seemed likely to me they had been lovers in a previous life; I told him I accused him of no weakness. And I asked him to allow me to help.’
    â€˜Did he?’ asked Hiro.
    â€˜Yes. I lent him a powerful
mamoni
. It is a pure gold image of the Buddha – a
shiryo-yoke
that protects the living from the dead. I told him to wear it in his belt. And I gave him a scroll with a holy sutra, the Ubo-Darani-Kyo, the Treasure-Raining Sutra, which he was to read aloud every night. Also, a package of
o-fuda
charms, written on paper, which he was to paste to every window and door of his house. They are meant to prevent the dead from entering.’
    â€˜But it didn’t work,’ said Hana.
    â€˜No. The next week Yusai came to me again. It seemed that he had looked through the window every night, and every night Hayao had been speaking to his invisible lover. She had attached herself to him so firmly that even those measures would not work against her. Hayao, meanwhile, was so ill as to be lost. We tried to speak to him, but he didn’t even see us. He could see only Tsuyu. And the weaker he became, the stronger she grew. Soon she was with him constantly, not just at night.’
    â€˜Couldn’t you paint him?’ said Taro. ‘Or tattoo him? I mean, put the Heart Sutra on him so she wouldn’t see him.’
    â€˜Thinking of Hoichi again,’ said the priest approvingly. ‘But no. It wouldn’t work. That only prevents an unconnected spirit from seeing you – it doesn’t protect against one with which you have a karmic connection. The girl knew him, probably had known him in more than one lifetime. There was no hiding him from her.’
    â€˜But how did she get past the
o-fuda
in the windows? The scroll?’
    â€˜That,’ said the priest, ‘is what I don’t know. I intend to ask the monks on Mount Hiei – if anyone can help, it is them.’
    After that, Oshi fell silent. He was breathing a little heavily now, the cart weighing on him, and Taro offered to take over. He