I couldn’t help but stare at his hands.
‘You want another drink?’ he asked, misreading my preoccupation.
‘No, I’m fine. Thank you.’ I took a sip from my glass to make the point.
‘You’ve been busy for a resting man,’ he said.
‘I have?’
‘I thought so. Haven’t you?’
This would get silly if neither of us committed. I tried to think what Takata was most likely to know. Sakura. I felt a stab of irritation. It was all very well her making big sympathetic eyes, but it wasn’t much good if she betrayed me straight afterwards.
‘Well, I did remember a detail I thought I should check on in Senzoku—’
‘And you thought your easy charm and your way with the flowers of the floating world would outweigh my influence? That she’d help you and not report back?’
That pretty much summed it up.
‘Well, no, I just thought it was something I should follow up on in case it could be helpful to us.’
He didn’t say anything, he just kept looking at me, waiting for me to reveal something else he already knew. I tried to decide what it was. It had to be Fujiwara – I’d taken too much care when meeting Tatsuzan. I wished I’d been more consistent in my subterfuge.
‘I spoke to Fujiwara Daisuke the actor as well. Tomoe once told me they were acquainted so I thought I’d see if there was anything I could find out from him.’
‘And was there?’
‘A little, but I think I got less than you already know. We had a slight falling-out – I had to leave more suddenly than I’d planned.’
‘I heard. You were better at escaping your protectors than you were at covering your tracks on the way. But your haste was judicious – Ginzo-kai men turned up shortly after you left.’
The thought of being caught by them felt like a stone dropped in my stomach.
‘Was there anything else?’ he asked, maintaining his eliciting gaze. I decided I wouldn’t bite this time.
‘No, that’s it – I had to get some rest in after all.’
His eyes danced. He didn’t believe me, but I don’t think he knew about Tatsuzan. I also think he quite enjoyed the fact. It was a challenge, something different from his day-to-day.
‘You’re becoming quite enigmatic, Clarence-san,’ he said with a slight smile before becoming serious again. ‘But we need to get down to business – your role in the KanEnCo AGM. You’ll find there will be sōkaiya at the meeting. That’s not something for you to be concerned about. They’re affiliates of ours and have been advised of your presence.’
I appreciated the fact I wouldn’t get a beating but I recoiled at the thought of being on the same side. My mind went to Eriko’s mother. How could I turn up with her enemies after she’d taken me into her trust?
‘I don’t believe it will be a particularly long meeting,’ Takata continued, and as he would be determining its length there seemed a good chance he was right. ‘And I think the protest groups may find it difficult to have their voices heard. I would like you to put a question to the board, however.’
He paused a moment and took a sip from his glass.
‘I’d like you to ask the president for the Ishikawa Report.’
I waited for further instructions. He took another sip.
‘Is that all?’
‘That’s it.’
‘What is the Ishikawa Report? Is it something to do with the planning process behind the plant?’
The point of my investigations, I didn’t say. The source of much of my pain.
He looked at me, his eyes probing.
‘Why do you want to know?’
‘It’s at the centre of everything. It unravels the whole affair.’
‘Maybe,’ he said. ‘Or maybe just some of it. But you haven’t answered the question. Why do you want to know? Do you intend to do something with the information? Or is it just curiosity that’s making you ask?’
I hadn’t thought of it in those terms. I’d focused on getting to the heart of things. I didn’t have a plan of what I would do when I arrived.
‘I can only answer that when I have an answer to my question,’ I said. ‘I can’t plan for what I don’t know.’
Something else came to mind.
‘Why did you have Kurotaki stop the plant chairman from showing it to me?’
‘It works to both our benefits for others to see you as a loose cannon I’m trying to rein in.’
I’m sure it benefited him but I didn’t see how it worked well for me – it sounded more like I was being used in a dangerous game. He didn’t offer anything else so I returned to his question.
‘Well, anyway, if it led me to Tomoe then yes, I’d do whatever I have to do.’
‘Of course, Chōshi-san,’ he said with a faint smile. I took it as wistful.
‘You weren’t … ?’
I blurted it out without thinking. He looked at me with sharp eyes.
‘I have a wife.’
‘Of course, I didn’t mean to suggest … It’s just … I’d heard that sometimes it isn’t considered cheating if it’s paid for.’
‘That’s not how I feel.’
His eyes were black stones. Any warmth or charm had disappeared from his voice.
‘To be frank you dishonour your girlfriend with your doubts. You make yourself unworthy of her.’
Had my fear allowed it, I would have felt piqued at the rebuke for doubting my girlfriend – the one who had sold herself for sex.
‘Your girlfriend was in a position that was not of her choosing. Yet she excelled in its cultural aspects and took only the most limited clientele in its more personal side.’
The words chimed with something I’d heard before.
‘What do you mean, “not of her choosing”?’
He looked surprised.
‘She didn’t tell you?’
‘Tell me what? We didn’t have much of an opportunity to discuss her job before she disappeared.’
He refilled my glass.
‘You’ll need to remain calm while we discuss this – no matter the provocation. I won’t accept any outbursts.’
It wasn’t a good way to start.
‘You know, of course, that your girlfriend is a lady of outstanding beauty.’
I nodded.
‘From the start of her career she was just as well regarded for her work in the arts. But there are shadows even in the floating world. Those who lurk in its dark corners were drawn to her light.
‘Tanzen was still new then and while the idea of reviving the tayūs was a good one, finding the right calibre of employee was hard. That isn’t to say that they hadn’t taken on some illustrious figures, but Chōshi-san was special and they were desperate to get her on board. However, as you are aware, she is a strong-willed young lady. She refused their offers however much money they dangled in her face.’
He looked at me carefully. I sensed there was something horrible to come.
‘Now her father—’
‘Her father’s involved in this?’
I still imagined him as a whistle-blower or some such.
‘Her father’s business abilities were at the opposite end of the scale to Chōshi-san’s gift for the arts. He borrowed money to make good on the losses he made, but good went after bad. If you follow the trail from moneylenders, you’ll find there aren’t too many degrees of separation from men like us.’
I had my qualms about being included in the grouping but I wasn’t about to interrupt.
‘The trail of money in Chōshi-san’s father’s case led to the Ginzo-kai, and as you know, the Ginzo-kai were backers of Tanzen.
‘You must realise it’s impossible for debts in our industry to be forfeited or else everyone would default and that would lead to the system’s collapse. But as a yakuza, one can benefit from being open to creative settlement. It was clear to the Ginzo-kai that in this case they owned a debt they couldn’t recoup. At the same time they were chasing an asset they were unable to gain. By bringing the two together they thought they could do the impossible and achieve two seemingly unachievable aims. So they offered Chōshi-san’s father a choice.’
I didn’t want to hear it.
‘If he didn’t make up the difference within a week he would be stripped of every asset he owned down to his last set of clothes. He’d be left to live his life in destitution, and at a random point in the future he would be killed. And it wouldn’t be a quick death. Alternatively, he could persuade his daughter to enter Tanzen’s employment.’
‘He sold Tomoe out?’
I couldn’t believe it. She was his daughter. She was all that remained of his dead wife. My mind jumped to the abuse I’d heaped upon her. She’d only been doing it to save her dad.
‘Yes,’ said Takata. ‘But it’s a bit more complicated than that.’
‘What do you mean?’
The question was instinctive. I wasn’t sure I could handle anything else.
‘Chōshi-san’s father was a weak man – I can only think her virtues come from her mother. He didn’t refuse the Ginzo-kai as a father should. But he didn’t have the mettle to tell his daughter of the price he was to make her pay for his own mistakes.’
‘I don’t understand.’
‘He went through with the deal. But he didn’t speak to Chōshi-san – he left her recruitment to the Ginzo-kai.’
‘But she’d already turned them down. Why would she suddenly accept their offer without a reason?’
‘She’d refused Tanzen. The Ginzo-kai employ more robust methods of recruitment. They persuaded her to join in the end.’
I closed my eyes. I had a horrible idea of what was coming next.
‘How did they “persuade” her?’
‘Ray-san, I think you know. I’m not sure the details will help.’
‘I need to hear them.’
‘They raped her.’
Visions of Tomoe I didn’t want to see forced themselves in front of my eyes.
‘They told her that if she didn’t work for Tanzen they’d send the pictures to her father, her employers, her friends – anyone she’d ever met and anyone she ever would. And they told her there was a threat to her father’s life, a threat she could negate.
‘But Chōshi-san’s father was a proud man, which is ironic considering how few of his life’s endeavours warranted pride. He insisted they didn’t tell her he’d agreed to it. But he was disgusted by what he’d done and what she’d become. His way of dealing with it was to cut her out of his life.’
His eyes became bottomless again.
‘There’s no need to mourn his passing.’
I sat without moving.
‘Dignity and rape aren’t concepts that can sit together,’ Takata went on. ‘But they were as respectful as it’s possible to be. The girls tricked over from Asia are gang-raped to break them in. With Chōshi-san there were no goons. I don’t know who was responsible for her initiation but I’m told he was more refined. She was to be their most valuable employee. They did what they had to to have her sign up, but they did it in a way that would cause the least harm.
‘But there was obviously a limit. They needed her to have sex with someone not of her choosing and they needed to have it on film.’
The clinically planned precision of a business rape.
‘Your Chōshi-san did her ancestry proud. She had to be subdued in the end. When she came back to her senses she bit off the man’s nipple. Unfortunately it wasn’t enough to escape the consequences of the day.’
He refilled the glass I’d just knocked back.
‘A tayū is not to be confused with a prostitute at any time, but you should understand Chōshi-san deserves disapprobation least of all.’
I didn’t say anything. There was nothing I could.
‘I’m sorry; I assumed she’d have told you, or that you’d at least know the gist. I’m aware it isn’t easy news to absorb, but I’m afraid you need to deal with it quickly. There’ll be a time to reflect but that time isn’t now. You can’t afford to look back. You need to focus on the future and on what you can do to help Chōshi-san now. The first step towards that is at tomorrow’s AGM.’
I sat slumped with my head in my hands. It was all very well saying I should reflect on it later, but that was like destroying someone’s home and telling them to think it over after a good night’s sleep.
‘Please don’t abandon me too.’
Tomoe’s words from our fight. The last time we spoke. Having discovered her father’s treachery, she’d gone wherever she was thinking I’d turned my back on her too.
‘Boohoo, the little pussy bitch is having a cry.’
I looked up from the sofa. The office had been empty, its inhabitants out tearing the legs off children or whatever they normally did. That’s where I’d slumped.
‘For fuck’s sake, he really is,’ continued Kurotaki. ‘Pull yourself together cocksucker – you’re a yakuza. It’s not a job for poofs.’
I wiped at my face with the back of my hand, hating him for intruding on my grief. It only spurred him on.
‘Hey, we didn’t finish our conversation the other day.’
I said nothing and made to leave.
‘The one about sluts. It reminded me of something. I know the guy who broke in your girlfriend. He said she moaned like a thousand-yen whore and was begging for more when he was done.’
The next thing I knew I was face to face with Sumida, his right arm pressing my left to my side, his left struggling to control my right. He’d intervened to deflect its swing. At its end was a heavy glass ashtray, the one I’d picked up from the table as I leapt to my feet. The weapon I’d swung at Kurotaki’s head.
Having been caught flat-footed, Kurotaki was starting to rage back, trying to rip away the sandwich filler that was Sumida as he attempted to restrain the fury on his other side.
‘Out.’
One word from Takata and Kurotaki was contained. He turned and stalked from the room. Something had snapped in me though and I continued to rail at the empty space.
‘Get a hold of yourself,’ ordered Takata, anger starting to rise in his voice.
I struggled a last time and then the fight left me as quickly as it had come.
‘Get him a taxi – and make sure he gets in it and the driver knows where to go. Then come to my office. I want to know what that was all about.’
Sumida bowed.
‘And you,’ he turned to me. ‘What did I tell you? Do you want to save your girlfriend or fight the people on your own side? Pull yourself together. How are you going to do what you need to tomorrow if you get yourself killed in a fight?’
He turned back into his office and slammed the door.
I tried to do as he said in the taxi home but I couldn’t cope, it had all got too much. A couple of months ago I’d been a normal guy with a normal job leading a normal life. Now this.
But it wasn’t just my circumstances. When I threatened Fujiwara I hadn’t been shocked by what I said, but by how genuine I’d been. And just now. If I’d hit Kurotaki flush with the ashtray it would have hurt him badly, maybe even killed him. I felt deep down I was the person I’d always been but at the same time something in me had changed. My actions were those of someone else.
My mind went again went to Tomoe. My beautiful girlfriend who had been defiled. The soulmate I’d betrayed in her hour of need.
Until that point I’d thought that if I could keep going things would have to get better, that they couldn’t get any worse. I was starting to realise this wasn’t necessarily true. The world in which I found myself had unlimited potential for horror and pain. I had a chance to claw my way out and that would start with the AGM. But I couldn’t help thinking that if things were to get better it would only be after they got much, much worse.