The most vital skill of a shinobi is acute observation skills.

—Gunpo Jiyoshu

Paulo

“What?” I gasped. “You saw his murder? Why didn’t you say anything before this?”

“No one asked me about the murder. Anyway, I didn’t actually see it,” Sai explained. “I followed him to the Chrysanthemum House. It’s a very exclusive restaurant so I couldn’t follow him in. I thought waiting and watching from the street would be enough, but he never came out. Later, I heard he was found dead in a nearby brothel.”

“How did he get to the brothel?”

Sai shrugged. “We will have to discover that for ourselves. We need to investigate the place, so we have to go there. Your grandfather can’t object to that, can he?”

I shook my head mutely.

“Good,” she said and stood up. Before climbing the stairs, she turned around and announced, “I am going as a woman. I will wear a proper kimono and put on make-up and a wig. People will think I am your concubine and wonder how you can afford such a fine one.” She lowered her eyelids demurely and mimed covering the lower part of her face with a fan. She looked ridiculous.

I rubbed my forehead. “I don’t understand why we have to do it this way.”

She stomped her foot. “Do you have to spoil everything? If you are worried about your reputation, you can wear a mask like some samurai do when going into the pleasure quarter. Come on, it will be fun!”

As she climbed the stairs, she called for the other shop-girls to help her get ready.

I sighed and slumped against the wall.

Oh yes, having a meal where my brother was killed would be great fun.

Apparently, putting on a “proper” kimono was a complex process that required Kaguya and Hanae to race up and down the stairs many times. Twice they even called for Akiyo-san to come up and lend her expertise.

I eventually ran out of tea and became bored of watching shopgirls. I wandered into the back yard. A man’s kimono in deep blue with stylized tigers painted on it was hanging on the line. I walked over to look at it more closely.

“Sai is not the only one who needs a formal kimono for the Chrysanthemum House. You should be better dressed for it than you are.” Akiyo-san’s voice came from behind me. “That one would suit you well.”

I stepped away from the kimono. “It’s a bit rich for my taste, and I am sure I couldn’t afford it.”

“It’s made from used silk. The unique color comes from the fact that it was once a pale green and has been re-dyed, so it’s not as expensive as you might think. Only one koban.” She looked at me expectantly.

I kept moving away.

She shrugged. “Or you could rent it for the night if you prefer. We do rent some of our kimono. Only one monme since you have been so considerate to Sai. You can’t know how much it means to her to be able to play the role of a beautiful woman. Of course, if anything happens to the kimono, we will have to ask you to pay for it.”

I hesitated. It was a beautiful kimono.

Akiyo-san took my silence for assent. She went to the line and pulled the kimono down. She slipped it on over my clothes.

“Hmmm. A bit tight in the chest. The length is good. We can take it out, and it will fit perfectly.” Taking the kimono with her, she hurried into the shop, calling for Hanae.

The kimono-fitting dummies caught my eye. They were of unusually sturdy construction and showed cuts from edged weapons. They were apparently used as striking dummies for weapons practice, as well. A careful inspection revealed other disguised training apparatus in the yard.

Clever, a hidden training facility right here in the middle of the theater district.

The heat of the sun drove me back inside. Someone gently cleared their throat. I looked to spy a young woman coming down the stairs.

Is that—

“Sai?” I asked.

She gave me a dazzling smile.

She wore two under-kimono, one with a gauzy collar of deep red, the other made of a dusky pink brocade. Her outer kimono was cream-colored with a pattern of pink clouds and willow trees painted on it.

Her hair was in a loose bun of a style that was currently fashionable among young women. It couldn’t really be her natural tresses, hers weren’t long enough to wear that way. On the other hand, it didn’t look at all like a wig. White powder make-up covered her face, neck, and chest. She had something on her lips that colored them blood-red.

“How do I look?”

“I am amazed at how much b—” I almost said, “better,” but then changed my mind. “—more adult you appear in that kimono and wig. You’re very pretty.”

She started to smile, then pulled out a fan and hid the lower part of her face behind it. She turned and wiggled her rear. “I put padding on my chest and butt so they would stick out more. Spun silk.” She patted her rear. “Do you want to feel it?”

Kaguya put her face in her hands.

Stepping back, I noticed that while she had two belts holding the kimono in place, her obi was looped over her shoulder.

“You’re still not ready?”

Sai pouted. “A customer came, and Kaguya had to take care of him. You hardly look ready. You haven’t shaved, and your hair is a mess.”

I heard a sharp hiss behind me as Akiyo-san came into the room and looked disapprovingly at Sai.

“Sai, remember your manners.”

Sai rolled her eyes. She bowed to me and said, “I mean, perhaps Yujirō-sama would like me to shave him and style his hair?”

Do I trust Sai to shave me?

Noting my hesitation, Sai asked with an evil smile, “Surely, Yujirō-sama does not doubt my skill with blades—er, razors?”

“Sai, stop teasing him,” Akiyo-san snapped. “I am embarrassed to have raised such a disrespectful child. Get over here and let me tie your obi.”

Kaguya returned to shave me and fix my hair. She was quite skillful and expressed sympathy at my bruised head. Her gentle fingers on my scalp and chin actually seemed to soothe the pain.

I wished that Kaguya could have been assigned to be my bodyguard, even though I knew that would have been impossible. She didn’t have Sai’s training.

Once we were suitably attired and had passed Akiyo-san’s critical inspection, we set off for the Chrysanthemum House. I had barely gotten to the end of the street when Sai called from behind me.

“Yujirō-san, I am sorry, but I can’t keep up with you.”

I turned to see her trying to catch up with short little steps. She couldn’t walk very fast with the kimono so tight around her legs. I should have realized that.

I walked more slowly to allow her to keep up. Fortunately, the Chrysanthemum House was only a few blocks away. I had been prepared for a fancy place, but I was surprised at the beauty of the establishment. It was one of the finest restaurants I had ever seen.

The main building had a small dining room, but the majority of the property was taken up by a garden containing tiny teahouses where the customers could enjoy an intimate, private dining experience. Each teahouse had a single room that would comfortably seat up to six. I wondered why Estêvão had come to a place like this. The Tax Office didn’t pay that well.

As we approached the gate, Sai leaned over and murmured into my ear, “I couldn’t see much from out here, but I do know that your brother ate in the teahouse closest to the rear wall.”

We went through the gate and entered the Chrysanthemum House proper. The proprietor greeted us enthusiastically. “Irrashaimase! Welcome to the Chrysanthemum House. Where would you like to dine?”

I was momentarily taken aback by his greeting. I was far more used to people trying to throw me out of fancy places than warmly welcoming me.

I realized that it was all a matter of clothing. I wished that I could afford to keep the kimono I was wearing. With clothes like that, I would be welcomed anywhere in the city I wanted to go. If I could afford the prices.

“I have heard high praise for the view from the teahouse at the back of the property. Could we dine there?” I asked the proprietor.

“Certainly, certainly!”

He gestured and a serving-girl in a red kimono led us along a graveled walkway that ran just inside the outer wall. The path passed behind the teahouses, each with a rear entrance opening onto the path. Our server opened the door and ushered us into our chosen dining location.

Sai whispered, “We are in luck. That girl also served your brother.”

The back wall contained the rear entrance to the building. Two side walls had screens that were only waist high. The front of the room opened onto a restful vista of the central garden. Strategically placed trees and bushes blocked all the other buildings from our view.

Sai looked around. “This is so beautiful. It’s like a dream.”

To maintain the illusion of isolation, anyone delivering food or drink traveled the same path we had taken and were invisible from inside the building.

We seated ourselves and our server poured saké into our bowls. Setting the saké container in the middle of the table, she ladled cod and kombu kelp soup into our bowls.

It chilled me to think of my brother sitting there only a few days before. I studied the floor.

No bloodstains. Is this where he was killed?

Then I remembered that he had been killed in a way that left no bloodstains.

When our server left, I tried to hide my unease by saying, “If one must be murdered, this is a very nice place for it.”

“Yes,” Sai responded, smiling. “It is an excellent place for murder. No one can see into this small teahouse. If the victim expects you, he will not hesitate to turn his back to you, and if he is not expecting you, he will probably assume you are a server and belong here. In either case, he is seated with his back to you. Perfect.”

Can’t she find something else to talk about? And does she have to be so enthusiastic about it?

“Of course you still have the problem of how to get the body to the brothel,” she mused.

She lifted her soup bowl and drank. “Oh, this is exquisite.”

I took a drink of my saké. “Yes, we were going to try to puzzle out how he got into the brothel, weren’t we?”

Sai looked all around the room, including up at the ceiling overhead. “Disposing of bodies is not an easy problem. There’s certainly no place to hide one in here.”

She got up and opened the back entrance. “I think that the brothel is just over the wall. It is closed down now. Let’s take a look.”

I tried to take another drink of saké, but my bowl was empty. I hurriedly drank Sai’s and then joined her outside.

She was looking at a two-story building located adjacent to the restaurant. The top of the second story was barely visible over the wall. “Give me a boost. I want to get a better look.”

I grabbed her around the waist and lifted her as high as I could reach.

“Yes, that’s the brothel. And a goodly portion of this wall runs along the edge of both properties.” She hopped down, landing lightly by my side. “All they had to do was get him over the wall. The problem is doing it without being seen.” Sai looked down the path. “Oh, more food.”

Our serving girl was on her way back carrying two trays. Sai and I hurried back into our teahouse.

We resumed our places on the floor just as the serving-girl entered. She put a tray loaded with food in front of each of us.

“Today, we have crane marinated in saké; abalone; sea bream; chestnuts; ginger; and a mandarin orange,” she said, indicating each dish in turn on the tray. Then, she refilled our saké bowls from a new bottle. “Is there anything else I could get for you?”

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“No, thank you very much,” I said. Leaving the saké, she slipped out the back.

Sai stared at the tray in front of her with a huge smile. “Ohhh, abalone! Crane!” She grabbed a slice of the crane and started to shove it in her mouth. Glancing up at me, she froze. Her face colored, the flush visible even beneath her powdered makeup. She put the crane back on the tray and gave an embarrassed smile. “I am sorry. I have been spending far too much time among young boys. My manners are terrible.”

She picked up her rice bowl and took three small bites. I drank saké and watched as she daintily partook from the dishes in the prescribed order. I couldn’t even remember the rules about eating at formal dinners, and here this chonin hoyden dined as if she was seated at the shogun’s palace. It amused me.

While Sai was busy worrying about her table manners, I enjoyed my meal in silence, mostly nibbling at the crane.

The taste reminded me of a New Year’s morning when I had been about twelve or thirteen.

Father had sold a book of translated “Dutch lore” to an Edo publisher, and with his advance money, had bought the best food he could afford for our New Year’s dinner. That was the first time I had ever tasted crane.

After the meal, the family sat together and played hyakkunin-isshu, a poem guessing game. Of course, Estêvão and Gracia always guessed the answers before I did. I always frustrated me that I could never remember the poems. Of course, it never frustrated me enough to try and memorize the poems before New Year’s.

With all my heart, I wished that I could have the opportunity to lose to Estêvão again.

Wanting something to distract me from this morbid train of thought, I asked Sai, “How did you become a kunoichi? Your brother told me you were sold to a brothel.”

“That is true, but I didn’t like it there. I was too young to service the customers, but I watched everything happening around me. The owner always told the girls they were paying off their contracts, but somehow, with what they had to spend on buying clothes and makeup, they rarely had enough money to go towards purchasing their freedom. In the three years I was there, the only prostitute that successfully paid off her debt was one who was too old and ugly to be of much use anyway. I suspect that the brothel owner just pretended she paid him off so he could throw her out and not have to feed her anymore. Although only the one girl paid off her contract in my time there, four others died of sickness or problems after abortions.”

She took a sip of her saké. “I had to get out, but we were in the Yoshiwara district, and no women are allowed to leave the district without a guard. That makes sure that none of the prostitutes or other girls run away. I got sent out pretty regularly to help the cook with shopping.”

Her face clouded. “One day, the owner told me I was being taken to get a nice, new, silk kimono. He had never given me a new one before, and never silk. I knew what that meant. He did that when he was going to give you to your first customer. Legally, I was too young for that, but there was one who liked the young girls and he had noticed me. He must have offered enough to make the owner ignore the law.” She shuddered. “I stole a kitchen knife and planned to kill my guard and run away.”

I choked on my food. When I finished coughing, I asked, “How old were you?”

“Eleven.”

“So, you killed an armed man at eleven years old?”

I was impressed. Even my grandfather hadn’t killed anyone before he turned thirteen.

Sai chuckled. “Well, no. I tried. That particular guard had a favorite saké house where he liked to stop and drink while we were out. We went in and I had to sit in the corner so I couldn’t leave without going past him. When he said it was time to leave, I got up, walked behind him like I was leaving, and stabbed him in the back.” She shook her head. “It was only a small knife, I wasn’t very strong, and I stabbed him in the shoulder blade. The attack didn’t do much damage, but it made him mad. He grabbed me and picked me up, but then I bit him on the hand and he dropped me. This time, I stabbed him in the leg. He screamed and fell over, so I ran. He couldn’t chase me very well with a knife in his leg.”

Sai put her saké bowl down and poured both of us some more. “I went to the etamura and tried to find my mother. It was a pretty obvious thing to do. Dumb, I guess.”

“You didn’t find her?”

“No.” She sighed. “No one had seen her for a couple of years. Someone said that she might have gone to the west.” She stared morosely at her food.

“Akiyo-sensei found me the next day. I was sure she wanted to bring me back to the brothel, so I shoved her and tried to run.” She gave a laugh. “Big mistake. She threw me to the ground and got me in an arm lock. I was terrified. She said that I had to hear her out. I could do it with my face in the dirt or sitting. It was up to me. I agreed to listen.”

She looked at me. “What choice did I have? She said that she heard about the incident. It was clear that I was not good material for a prostitute, but she thought I might make a good kunoichi. She wanted an edokko, but was hesitant to bring an innocent child in. But, if I was already trying to kill people, she assumed I wasn’t particularly innocent. She offered to buy out my contract and fix things with the police.

“Kunoichi sounded like fun, not having the police after me sounded good, and I figured I could sneak away from her more easily than the brothel, so I agreed.

“She took me back to the brothel. We stepped inside and that stupid guard grabbed a stick and came after me with a roar. Sensei stepped between us and the next thing I knew he was flat on his back on a table with a knife at his throat. He was so scared, he peed himself.” She giggled. “I decided at that moment I wasn’t going to sneak off. I wanted to know how to do that.”

I nodded. I understood how she felt. Father Hachiro told us, “The meek shall inherit the earth.” I didn’t see how. They certainly weren’t going to get Japan. “So, how long have you been training with your sensei?”

“Six years. My mother was an acrobat and trained me until I was eight, or I wouldn’t have had the flexibility to do some of the things Sensei taught me. She says I am a natural.”

I popped a slice of mandarin orange in my mouth and bit down on something hard. “Owww!” I spit out a black bead. “Damn it, Sai. I nearly broke a tooth!” I yelled.

Sai burst into laughter, “You weren’t watching.”

I picked up a slice of crane and examined it suspiciously before eating it.

She looked at her tray in confusion. “Did I just have the vegetable side dish or the rice? I lost track.”

“It doesn’t matter,” I growled in irritation.

She shrugged and picked up a slice of crane. She glanced out the door. “We should go outside and look at the wall again.”

“Why?”

“Did you notice any gate in the wall between the two properties?”

What is the girl going on about now?

“Ummm. No. Why does it matter?”

“Your brother was nearly your height and probably weighed as much as you do. It would be difficult to lift him over that wall. I certainly couldn’t do it.”

My stomach twisted, souring my appetite. I had thought myself sufficiently inured to violent death that this trip wouldn’t bother me, but it was my younger brother we were talking about. “Maybe they didn’t kill him here?”

I tried to tamp down my irritation at Sai for bringing the topic up again. After all, the only reason we were there was to find out about his murder.

“How would they get him to climb over the wall? There are people all around. If he protested or fought, their plan would have been spoiled.” Sai shook her head. “A skilled shinobi never gives his target a chance to fight. Much safer to kill him here.”

I considered the wall. It overtopped me by almost a head. “You would need two men,” I remembered trying to carry drunk or unconscious friends. “Strong ones.” I pictured two shadowy men throwing Estêvão’s corpse over the wall—like so much refuse to be discarded. I felt the slow burn of anger beginning. I shut my eyes, trying to block out the thought.

Sai nodded her head, her mouth full of crane. “Thwat wad—” she took a moment and swallowed her food. “That was my thought, too. At least two men.” She started to stand up and stopped, looking at my still nearly-full tray. “Are you going to finish that crane?”

“Crane?” I looked at it. Food no longer appealed to me. “No. You can have it if you wish.”

How can anyone that small and thin eat so much?

Sai wolfed down the remaining crane and abalone, then scampered out the back panel.

I joined her out on the walkway behind the tea house. Together, we regarded the wall.

“No gate,” Sai said.

“No.”

Sai went back to the teahouse, opened the rear entrance and mimed pulling something down the steps. “They would have had to drag him out like this.”

My rage flared at the thought of Estêvão’s corpse being manhandled by his killers. I kept my eyes fixed on the ground while trying to calm myself. At the base of the steps up to the teahouse, two furrows in the dirt led away from the building and then faded as they approached the gravel walkway. I glanced up.

Yes, only under the eaves.

“What are you doing?”

Bending over to look more closely at the ground, I said, “When I was in the Ainu wars, we used hunters to track the Ainu. The trackers could read an amazing amount of information from the ground.” Straightening up, I pointed at the marks in the dirt. “Look at these. It looks like someone was dragged away from the building towards the wall. Most of the tracks were washed away in the rain a few days ago, but the overhang of the roof protected these.”

There were no corresponding marks in the gravel. Undoubtedly, it had been raked since the murder. I looked along the edge of the path next to the wall.

I pointed to bits of gravel scattered away from the path. “See, these bits here are scattered in two groups. You might check if something was dragged over to the wall.”

There were no footprints out in the open, so I continued looking along the wall. At the rear corner of the grounds was a large tree hanging over into the next property. I searched the area under the spreading branches.

“Look at this,” I said.

Sai was still back at the building. She had squatted down and was trying to reach something in the dirt below the floor.

“What are you doing? There won’t be footprints under there.”

“No,” Sai responded, standing up. “But there is this.” She held up something long and narrow that glinted in the late afternoon sun.

I hurried over to her. It looked like an acupuncture needle.

“What’s that?” I asked.

“It’s what killed your brother.”

I took an involuntary step back.

Sai studied it, holding it to reflect the light of the setting sun. “This is an old one. It looks like one of Akiyo-sensei’s.”

I stared at her, trying to understand what she was saying. “You mean it belongs to your sensei?”

“No,” Sai said. “But it was not made in Edo. Perhaps Akiyo-sensei can tell us more.”

I looked at her dubiously. What could you learn from a needle? But then, I could learn quite a bit from examining a sword. Perhaps the shinobi had the same kind of lore for needles.

“Look at this.” I led Sai back to the tree. “Some tracks survived the rain. Two men, one dragging a body. See how one walks backward and makes heel marks in the ground?”

Sai pointed at round impression in the bushes a short distance away. “What is this?”

“Perhaps a cane?” There was one clear footprint next to the mark of the cane. The right foot. The left footprint was indistinct. There were quite a few of these prints. “A cripple of some sort. He stood here quite a while.”

“Forgive my rudeness?” Our serving girl stood on the path behind the teahouse holding more trays. Two other serving girls behind her stared at us in astonishment.

Sai clapped her hands in delight. “Oooh, dessert.” She hurried back to the hut.

I followed more slowly, considering what we had found. Two men and a cripple. That was more than we knew before, but it didn’t really get us any closer to discovering who killed my brother.

The serving-girl laid her trays on the floor before us. Buns filled with bean paste surrounded by slices of mandarin oranges and quartered peaches were artistically arranged on the plates.

It was time for some questions. “I had a friend who recommended this restaurant to me. Maybe you remember him? He was about my size, probably last ate here, oh,” counting backwards in my head, “nine or ten days ago.”

The girl’s hand shook as she refilled our saké bowls, spilling a bit. In a soft voice, she said, “No, I don’t think I remember anyone like that.”

She wouldn’t look at me as she cleaned up the saké. I pushed a little harder. “I’m sure you would recognize him if you saw him. He was probably wearing his favorite kimono…” I looked at Sai.

“A dark blue kimono featuring the family crest in gold. He wore a light gray jacket over it,” Sai supplied softly. “You might also remember that he never walked out, but just disappeared. Surely that doesn’t happen often.”

The serving-girl tried to answer, “No, I don’t—”

“You are lying,” I said, my voice low and threatening.

It occurred me that I had a paper in my wallet officially making me a member of the secret police. I started to pull it out of my wallet.

Sai threw herself between the girl and me. “Please control your temper, Inspector. I’m sure you won’t have to hurt her. She’ll tell us everything she remembers. I know she will.”

What is she doing?

“You are impeding a police investigation into the murder of a high-ranking samurai,” I growled, showing her my commission in the secret police.

The girl’s eyes widened and then she threw herself on the ground in front of me, burying her face in the floor. “Please sir, don’t hurt me. We are not allowed to discuss our customers. The manager will be angry. But I will tell you anything I know, just please don’t arrest me.”

Sai leaned forward and put her arms around the serving-girl’s shoulder and drew her up off the floor. “Don’t worry,” she said, gently. “Just tell us the truth, and nothing will happen to you. No one will know that you said anything.”

Trembling, the girl said, “I was so afraid. They told us that if we talked to anyone, we would be arrested and executed.”

“Who told you that?” I said, sharply.

“The policemen. When they raided the brothel, the police commander came over and talked to the owner and those of us who served that man. He said that if we spoke about that customer to anyone, terrible things would happen to us.”

“Tell me about this customer the police were so concerned about.”

She hesitated, looking at me and then at the door. “The man you described? He was here,” she finally volunteered. “But not for long.”

She took a moment to compose herself and gather her thoughts. “He came in, and I brought him back here. He ordered some saké. I went and got it, then he asked me to come back a little later to take his order. When I came back, he was gone.”

“Did you see him leave?”

She shook her head. “No. It was strange. I am sure I would have seen him go, but he was not here when I came back. I have no idea where he went.” She shrugged. “Perhaps I missed him.”

I sighed. “Very well, if that is all you know, that is all you can tell us.” I slipped two monme onto the table and slid it across to her. “Here, this is for you. We would like to be alone for awhile. We will be gone when you come back.”

She looked down at the monme and then looked up at me, hope filling her eyes. “You won’t tell anyone?”

Sai cleared her throat. “We do have one more question. Was there any disturbance while he was here? Something that would prevent the servers from doing their job for a while?”

“Just that beggar,” the girl answered.

“A beggar?” I asked. “Tell me about this beggar.”

“I don’t know how he got in, but he was at the other end of the path, near the kitchen. He made a terrible fuss. It seemed to take us forever to get him out of here. We didn’t want him bothering the customers.”

“Describe him,” I ordered.

“He was an old man. One leg was twisted, deformed. He was covered with scars. Missing fingers.” The girl shuddered. “He was horrible.”

“You can go, but don’t tell anyone about our talk—the inspector might change his mind,” Sai whispered to the girl.

“I’ll tell no one!” She snatched up the monme and hurried out of the building.

Sai sat back down and picked up her bun.

The sight of food turned my stomach. We now knew how Estêvão had been killed and even had some idea of what the killers looked like. The cold, calculated manner of his death stoked my building rage. He never got a chance to defend himself. We had discovered so much, yet we still knew nothing of value. I was going to take the men who murdered him and see them die slowly. But I had no idea of who they were.

“No man may live under the same sky as those who have slain his brother.” I promise you, Estêvão, I will find them and punish them.

“Don’t you want any dessert?” Sai stopped eating and looked at me.

“No,” I barked, getting to my feet. “Let’s go.”

Sai’s eyes narrowed. She slowly rose.

I turned away and left the building. It was getting dark. A man was lighting lamps around the garden. I watched him and forced myself to take a deep breath and unclench my fists.

It’s not her. She didn’t do it.

Deep inside my soul, a newly awakened tiger roared, casting about for its prey.