Eternity in Kyoto, page 7
Through the window, I saw a third man in front of the van taking out binoculars to watch us from a distance. The other two suited men were walking quickly toward the restaurant. Ignoring the white folder from the thug, I grabbed the black folder with Masa’s contract, and we headed for the door. The restaurant was completely empty now, even the staff had fled, but as we were about to step outside, the two suited men, tall and powerful-looking, blocked us.
Behind them emerged a figure I recognized immediately: Kamyu. He fixed his bionic eye on one of the suited men and, with a quick, silent movement from behind, strangled him until he fell unconscious to the floor. When the other man realized what had happened, he threw a punch that Kamyu dodged.
“Through the window!” Kamyu shouted as he kicked to defend himself.
While Kamyu tried to subdue the second man, Reiko and I escaped through a back window onto a rooftop. I took Reiko’s hand and we jumped from the roof to an adjacent balcony. From there, we ran down the emergency stairs to a fairly crowded pedestrian alley. But we hadn’t shaken off our pursuers. The person watching us through binoculars from the van had seen us escape through the window. Another group of men in suits emerged from the van and started running toward us.
We turned the first corner intending to blend in with the crowd. Reiko held onto my wrist and guided me. She seemed to know these cobblestoned shop-lined alleys by heart.
She walked as fast as she could barefoot, with her heels in her hand. Looking back, I realized that the van’s henchmen were getting closer. They weren’t running anymore to avoid drawing attention, but they were advancing with long strides, and were getting closer and closer.
“You stand out more than Kyoto Tower. Lower your head!” Reiko shouted as she pulled me to enter the shotengai shopping street where Smart Coffee was.
I never would have thought that being six feet tall was going to be a problem. I bent over to the height of the pedestrians around us and continued to dodge my way through the crowd with Reiko’s guidance. After passing by Smart Coffee, whose aroma perfumed the early-evening street, we made a ninety-degree turn and entered the garden of a tiny Buddhist temple. The light of a stone lantern glowed gently in the encroaching twilight.
Reiko guided me to some bushes. We crouched down behind them, and through the leaves, we saw the thugs briskly making their way past the temple. We waited in silence, the only sound the beating of our hearts, until we were sure the men had gone.
The danger seemed to have passed.
“Let’s go this way,” said Reiko, pointing to a gap in the back of the fence surrounding the temple.
“And Kamyu?” I asked, concerned.
“Don’t worry about him, he can take care of himself. Today’s stuff is a piece of cake compared to his adventures in Mongolia.”
Soon, we reached a main road and went into a 7-Eleven where we bought some bottles of water. Reiko cleaned her feet with a tissue and put on her shoes. Then we got into a robotaxi to which Reiko gave an address. After passing through several steep streets, we arrived at an area of large houses with gardens. The moonlight tinted the nearby forest trees with slivery hues.
The robotaxi stopped in front of one of the houses. Reiko said, “This is where you’ll be living. You’ll be safe here. Only Masa and his closest collaborators know this place.”
We got out of the robotaxi, and I opened the door with the key Masa had given me. Reiko seemed strangely calm after everything that had happened.
“Their ways are unorthodox, but there’s no need to fear them. They’re the minions of our competitor, Genji Corporation,” she said. “If we had ended up in the black van, Masa wouldn’t have taken long to rescue us.”
“Do you really believe that? Anyway, I don’t understand why everyone suddenly wants me,” I said.
Instead of answering, Reiko said, “The powerful have powerful enemies; the weak have none.” She lifted her chin, bringing her face close to mine. “Soon, you’ll be powerful too.”
She guided me to a room overlooking the nighttime cityscape. On a wall next to the bed hung a scroll with a poem signed by Matsuo Basho. The fluid lines of the Japanese characters seemed to have been created with a single brushstroke.
Reiko read it aloud: “Every moment of life is the last, every poem is a poem about death.”
Then she kissed me. At first slowly and gently, tentatively exploring with her small and restless tongue. Then she closed her eyes with abandon and grasped my neck with her delicate hands. As I embraced her and caressed her back, Reiko’s legs began to tremble.
My body also experienced a tremor at the prospect of discovering what lay beneath the blue dress that had hypnotized me since early that morning. I unzipped the dress, and she took care of removing her lingerie. Unable to believe what was happening, I lifted her up and carried her to bed.
The silver light of the moon illuminated her naked body, which radiated a beauty I had never seen before. Her skin seemed to glow against the bedsheets, like a mermaid with silver scales dancing in the sea.
I had never desired a woman so strongly, but I forced myself to take my time caressing the tender skin of her breasts and letting my fingers trace the warmth of her belly and hips.
Then I parted her legs with my hands intending to kiss her deeply, starting from those feet as white as snow. As my lips traveled along her legs the warmth turned into heat. I tentatively touched her with the tip of my tongue ,while holding her trembling legs with my hands, and she sighed with pleasure.
Her back arched, and her hands clung to the sheets as if she was trying to stop herself from falling off a cliff. As she vibrated with pleasure, she squeezed her thighs against my head as if she didn’t want to let me go.
Her interior was a warm home. In that moment, the past and the future ceased to exist, and the present stretched like a rubber band traversing the universe from end to end. I stopped kissing her to look into her eyes for a moment. It seemed to me that those eyes could see into my heart. As my own eyes closed in ecstasy, I suddenly remembered Mia’s smile in her last RealPeople photo. Mysteriously, that snapshot had ignited the spark that had brought me to Japan. I had the strange sensation that Mia, from somewhere, was watching us.
After, exhausted, Reiko and I lay beneath the Kyoto moon, which watched us through the window, the sole witness to our passion. Reiko rested her head on my chest and uttered a word I didn’t understand, but just the sound of her voice made me feel dizzy. Then she fell asleep.
With adrenaline still coursing through me, I was wide awake. I stared at the moon, and reflected on that second day in Japan. I was exhausted, yet I felt a certain lightness of spirit. It was as if new opportunities were opening up to me and I could let go of old baggage and escape from my boring and routine life of the past few years.
But I still didn’t know who I was associating with. I didn’t entirely trust Masa. Why were thugs from a company called Genji Corporation willing to do whatever it took to prevent me from signing with Taira Corporation?
All I knew was that it all started when my parents agreed to introduce genetic changes into my embryo. Did they intend for me to end up working with Masa? Why did they never want to explain the details to me? Were they trying to protect me from something?
I stopped gazing at the moon and focused on Reiko’s long neck. The rest of her face was hidden in the shadows. As I looked at her nape, I thought of Mia again. Reiko and Mia only resembled each other in one thing: the part of the neck near the ears had the same delicate and fragile appearance. I traced the skin, barely touching it with my finger, hoping to feel the mark I had glimpsed there this morning at Smart Coffee, but I felt nothing.
As I closed my eyes, trying to fall asleep, memories of my teenage afternoons reading novels with Mia flooded back.
12
THE INFINITE KNOT
I was woken by the first rays of the morning sun. Reiko was still asleep, her naked body bathed in a kind of aura from the timid early-morning light.
Finally, I could see what was hidden behind her ear. When I saw that it wasn’t a circle of freckles, I felt a mixture of relief and disappointment. It was just a simple tattoo, a kind of knot with no beginning or end.
Fascinated, I wondered why Reiko would have chosen that symbol to mark her body. Beyond the curves of the profile of her sleeping face, I admired the green hills of Kyoto. Among the branches swaying in the gentle breeze stood a solitary temple pagoda. It was the same one that had caught my attention the day before from the elevator of Taira Corporation.
I opened the window to let in the morning air and to gaze at the six-story pagoda that rose above the tall and slender Japanese cedars that surrounded it. Beyond that sacred place stretched a garden with pine trees pruned like giant bonsai and a pond with lotus flowers. Against the clear sky, I noticed a solitary cloud had paused over the roof of the pagoda.
I headed to the living room, which was so spacious that the Steinway & Sons grand piano in the middle of it barely seemed to take up any space. In front of the sofa was a window overlooking the garden. Beyond the landscaped area, the dojo building could be glimpsed and I could see the tiny figures of my jujutsu classmates performing their morning training. I could see Kamyu, huge among them. I wondered how he saw the world through his bionic eye.
I stood next to the window to exercise with my own stretches, push-ups, squats, and katas, enough to break a sweat before showering. When I had showered, I prepared breakfast with what I found in the well-stocked refrigerator of what was now my new home. After beating eggs with butter and cinnamon, I dipped several slices of bread in the mixture and put them in a pan. I put the kettle on, and while the water was heating up, I checked the messages on my phone. I had received one from Mia’s account:
How happy I am to see that you’re in Japan!
Sign the contract that Masa offered you and
we can meet again. Kisses from Kyoto Mythos.
I glanced at the black folder containing the contract that had been left on the kitchen counter the night before.
I know you like to joke around, Masa.
I haven’t decided yet if I want to sign
your contract.
I’m not Masa, I’m Mia. Don’t be fooled by
appearances, I didn’t commit suicide in the
traditional sense of the word. I just decided to start a new life elsewhere. Don’t you regret never confessing your love for me?
I respect all the success you’ve achieved, dear Masa, but your jokes are starting to tire me.
Do you remember the afternoon at the café, the first time I showed you my freckles?
I thought the genetic modifications you
introduced into me only allowed you
to read some of my dreams, but I see
you have access to my memories . . .
Intuitively, I brought my hand behind my ear to count my twelve little bumps and make sure I was awake.
A final message came that concluded the conversation:
I’ll be waiting for you on the
other side of the gate, Nathan.
I didn’t respond. Nervously, I ground the coffee beans and placed them in the filter. I slowly poured water over the fresh grounds. From the slightly spicy aroma that filled the room, I recognized it as an Indonesian variety.
At that moment, Reiko came in with a sleepy expression.
“How embarrassing,” she said, walking toward the living room sofa. “I don’t want you to see me without makeup.”
I smiled as I watched her cover her face. She made no attempt to kiss me, nor did she show me any affectionate gestures. It was as if nothing had happened between us the night before. She sat on the carpet to apply her makeup, with a small mirror balanced on her knees, while I set breakfast on the table in front of the sofa.
“Your boss, Masa, is sending me messages from Mia’s RealPeople account,” I mentioned.
“Even though I like to play around, I’m jealous. I already told you not to talk to me about other girls,” she replied.
“But I’m talking to you about Masa,” I insisted.
“You’re talking to me about Mia, and—” she began, as if she was about to reveal something, but she stopped.
To change the subject, I asked her, “And that tattoo you have behind your ear? It reminds me of an engraving by Escher—I really love his work.”
“It’s a Buddhist symbol. I got it when my father died.”
“I’m sorry.”
“You don’t have to be sorry. My mother and I were glad when he died. The bastard used to hit us.”
I was speechless. She kept putting on makeup, as if she was telling me something trivial. “Every morning, before going to school, I went to Nanzen-ji temple. I’d sit in front of a Buddha statue and pray for my father to die.”
I set the last breakfast plate on the table while Reiko put away her makeup. “My father was a popular man in Kyoto,” she said, after a few bites of toast. “No one could have suspected how violent he was when he was alone with us. One night, he beat my mother so badly that I thought he would kill her. I had just turned fifteen, and I escaped from the house by climbing out of my bedroom window. That night, I snuck into Nanzen-ji temple to wish for my father’s death again. I fell asleep on the tatami under the Buddha statue.
“And what happened?” I asked breathlessly.
“When I got home in the morning, my mother was just coming back from the hospital, where she’d spent the night. But she acted as though she’d only had some kind of little accident. My father had gone on a business trip to Mongolia. He never came back. That evening, it was reported on the news that a private jet full of businessmen had crashed in the Gobi Desert.”
“Your wish came true.”
“Yes, but then something unexpected happened. When I found out that my father had died, I started having a nightmare about him every night. In the dream I loved and missed him. But when he approached me, the love turned into repulsion and I ended up strangling him. That’s why I kept going to Nanzen-ji temple every morning to ask for the nightmares to disappear, for my father’s ghost to leave me alone.” She swallowed hard, as if that memory was still alive inside her. “One morning, a monk who had noticed that I’d been going there every day asked me why I kept coming. When he heard my story, he told me that my father’s death was not my fault, and that Buddhism is not meant for making wishes but to teach us to accept life. Then, he pointed to a metal candlestick with the Buddhist infinite knot.”
“Is that what your tattoo is?”
“Yes. After talking to the monk, I went to get the knot tattooed on my neck and the nightmares disappeared,” she said, brushing her hair aside so I could see it. “The infinite knot represents acceptance that all existence is subject to the passage of time and change. The infinite cycle of samsara is the only truth of the universe. Everything else is an invention of the human mind.”
Having said that, she took a sip of her still steaming coffee and gazed into its dark depths for a moment.
“How did you and your mother manage on your own?”
“My father worked for Masa—”
“Everyone works or worked for Masa,” I muttered resignedly.
“He was one of the executives of Taira Corporation. He had been setting up the Mongolian operation for years. When the accident happened, Masa employed my mother as manager of one of their geisha houses in Pontocho, here in Kyoto. They also paid for my philosophy studies in exchange for me working part-time for them. Later, they offered me the permanent job I have now. Somehow, the corporation became our new father, but better than the previous one. This new father pampered us instead of mistreating us.”
I glanced toward the pagoda, radiant under the morning sun.
I had only spent a day with Reiko, but I felt as though I’d known her forever. I remembered what Albert Camus said in his novel The Stranger—that someone who had lived for only one day would have enough memories to keep them from being bored during a one-hundred year prison sentence. Reiko took the last sip of her coffee and pointed to the black folder containing the contract.
“Masa jokes sometimes, but when he gives orders, they must be followed to the letter,” she said, her tone colder now. “Yesterday he told you that you had twenty-four hours to sign. You’ve hardly any time left. With each passing minute, Masa is closer to death, and only you can save him.”
After hearing the story of how Masa had helped Reiko’s family in difficult times, I felt a strange affection for him, mixed with pity. Despite his power, he seemed like a man with a good heart. I set the coffee cup aside, opened the black folder, and signed the contract with Taira Corporation without further thought. Reiko flashed her characteristic smirk, a mix of a smile and something more.
“Now you too are part of our infinite cycle,” she said. “Come on, Masa is waiting for us.”
13
THE DREAM OF THE RASHOMON GATE
When I opened the front door of what was now my house in Kyoto, a huge car with giant wheels was parked in the driveway. Its rectangular lines gave an almost military appearance. The windows were tinted such a dark black it was hard to distinguish them from the body of the car. Next to it stood Kamyu and the dojo caretaker, waiting silently. Both smiled and bowed as we came out of the house.
“Welcome to Taira Corporation,” they said in unison. “Welcome to our family.”
“I see news travels fast,” I said, surprised, glancing sideways at Reiko. It had only been a few minutes since I signed the contract, which Reiko was now carrying in her handbag.
