Teito Monogatari:
The Tale of the Imperial Capital
Part 2: Supernatural Babylon
Author: Hiroshi Aramata
Part 2: The Demon's Origin
Chapter 13: Vengeful Spirit
The winter of 1911 was exceptionally harsh and bitter. Day after day passed in a cold so painful it was almost sorrowful. When night fell, the north wind raged, and it became rare to see so much as a stray dog on the streets of the imperial capital.
And why was it that such an unpleasant chill enveloped the citizens of Tōkyō? This winter, the first phase of construction mandated by the Imperial Capital Improvement Plan was more or less completed. The streets from Marunouchi to Ōtemachi, and further from Hibiya to Nihonbashi, were transformed. The ground had been dug up and stripped of greenery. Rows of trees stood leafless, pale and stark. Newly built white-painted structures were too bright to look at without pain. The roads were frighteningly vast and empty.
Every one of these things was an unfamiliar sight to the old Edo townspeople. Their city's transformation became, in one sense, a source of pride—and yet, like the cold of that year's winter, it was an honor that only deepened their sadness.
On a night of that terrible winter, it became so bitterly cold that it might be better to die to take a single step outdoors. The wicket gate of the Ministry of Finance in Ōtemachi opened without a sound, and a shadow welcomed three people inside.
"You've come."
Even inside the gate, the cold did not relent. The wind cut through all layers of clothing, lashing at the rash people who had dared to venture abroad in this weather. The group of four headed toward the pond in the courtyard without saying a word.
These people were very odd. One kept stumbling and nearly falling. Each time, the person behind them reached out to support them, though they did so clinically and without compassion. The regarded one another as if they were total strangers, yet they traveled together.
After making it halfway around the pond, they climbed a low mound far from the main gate. It was the burial mound of Taira no Masakado's severed head.
When the four finally reached the top, they slowly sat down, battered by the winter wind. One sat formally on his knees; the other three folded their legs the same way and straightened their backs. One was an unusually tall man. Another had long hair. A third seemed to be a woman. The gender of the last was unclear. Judging from their slender build, they might have been a woman dressed as a man.
The group of four sat on the burial mound and went still, as if settling into meditation. Thirty minutes passed, then an hour, then another half an hour.
Suddenly, a will-o'-the-wisp flared up from the middle of the mound. This wisp took the form of a cold blue flame. The north wind howled madly around it as if it were angry. The blue light flickered but didn't go out.
The tall man spoke. His gaze was piercing enough to bore through metal. He formed a ritual mudra with his hands and chanted some sort of spell. His white gloves seemed to float in the darkness.
This was, of course, Lieutenant Katō.
At the same time, the shorter person beside him raised her face. This was Tatsumiya Yukari. She was very pale. Rin Kaku and Kō Hō boxed her in.
Lieutenant Katō kept chanting, and he was smiling now.
Yukari opened her eyes wide, then shut them again as she slipped into unconsciousness. The will-o'-the-wisp's eerie light illuminated her slackened features.
"Katō," Rin Kaku whispered.
"She's finally summoning the spirit, Rin! The past two years of effort are about to pay off," Katō shot back, glancing at the young man from the corner of his eye. Buffeted by the winter wind, the blue flame crept slowly toward the top of the mound. A rank, raw stench prickled their noses. It was the smell of death.
"As expected of an extraordinarily gifted medium, the likes of which are seldom seen. Everything is just as I predicted. She's finally summoned an ancient spirit. Listen, Rin Kaku. Do not take your eyes off Yukari."
Katō went on chanting.
Yukari didn't move.
"Spirit…"
A pained expression appeared on Yukari's face as the pale blue will-o'-the-wisp drew closer to the summit of the mound. Katō gasped for breath. His thin, pale lips twisted into an eerie grimace.
The flame came nearer. After trembling two or three times, it deformed into an ellipse and vanished into Yukari's mouth.
Yukari's eyes flew wide open. Her pupils were unfocused; she saw nothing. The spirit perceived the world through her eyes. The spirit's control of the girl appeared imperfect; her limb movements were jerky and uncoordinated like a marionette on strings.
Yukari rose to her feet, following the spirit's will. She was directly on top of the burial mound. The wind blew harshly all around her. She swayed on her feet, but she didn't fall. Blue-white fire blazed in her eyes.
Lieutenant Katō lifted his face and shrugged off the black cloak he wore, exposing his uniform to the night wind.
The spirit possessing Yukari flared with hostility and grew brighter. Blue light tinged with phosphorescence shot from her eyes. The irises glowed like cat's eye agate.
Rin Kaku shuddered as he watched her.
"Ancient spirit." Katō's voice was cold and sharp. "Answer our questions."
"Ah… uh, ah…" Yukari's lips trembled. She struggled to form words.
"Are you the spirit of this mound?" Katō asked.
"Ah…uh…"
"Are you Taira no Masakado, the vengeful spirit known to all the world?"
"Uh..." Hostility burned in Yukari's eyes.
"I ask you: what are you?"
Yukari--and the spirit possessing her--said nothing.
"Are you an Abito?"
"A… bi… to…?"
"So it is as I thought. You are one of the people of Katsuragi, aren't you, spirit?"
"Ah… ha…"
"Did you once dwell in Yamato's Katsuragi?"1
Yukari's lips twitched violently.
"Then are you from Minato?"
"Ah… ha…"
"Why do you curse the very heart of the imperial capital?"
Then the spirit spoke then in a clear, deep voice that was nothing like Yukari's. "I am the spirit of Aha."
"What does that mean, Aha? Are you a spirit of Aha?"2
"There is but one spirit of Aha," the spirit replied.
"Only one?"
"I am also the spirit of Katsuragi."
"You are also the spirit of Yamato's Katsuragi? Are you the god called Hitokotonushi?3 I ask again: why do you bring your curse upon the heart of the imperial capital?"
"Hitonokushi is a name that the people of Yamato call me. I took up arms against the imperial army."
"Then you are indeed Hitonokushi, the God of the One Word? As written in the Nihon Shoki, your people were short of body yet long of limb—an ancient race who dared to challenge the imperial host. The imperial army wove nets of kudzu vine and set them upon you, capturing you all at once and slaughtering you without mercy. Because of that, the land where you dwelled came in later ages to be called Katsuragi."4
"I left Ise and crossed over to Tosa. I went on to Owari and Kibi. I protect Minato."
"Kibi Province once lent its strength to Minato. You would not submit to the imperial army—those whom they called oni, demons. The Minato you speak of must be Mito, the original name of Edo. Edo, which enshrined Hitonokushi as the guardian deity of Minato, laid Taira no Masakado's vengeful spirit to rest in this mound, and deified at Hirakawa and Yushima the greatest of all vengeful gods, Sugawara no Michizane. Edo must have been the holy land of all who bear a curse, and a paradise for people who would not submit to the imperial army."
"I hate Yamato."
"I, Katō Yasunori, am descended from the dragon-god of Kishū, deeply bound to Katsuragi. I am of the lineage of En no Ozunu and Abe no Seimei."
"Ozunu..."
"That is right. En no Ozunu is the ascetic who captured you atop Mt. Katsuragi and sent you into exile on Shikoku. My father is a man from Kibi."
The spirit said nothing.
"Hitokotonushi!"
"Ah…"
"Hitokotonushi!"
"Ah…"
"Answer, spirit of the imperial capital! Why are you called Hitokotonushi?"
"Ah…"
"I shall answer in your place. Hitokotonushi is said to be a god who answers any wish or question as long as it is expressed in a single word. Why is that so? I will speak without reserve. It is because you were the god of a foreign people who did not share the same language as the imperial army of Yamato. Your native language is entirely different. And so, to wishes and questions whose intent you could not grasp, you always replied with the same word: 'No.'"
"How do you know that?"
"Are you curious about what became of Takeshi? Among the Yamato people, the emperor of the imperial army who massacred the people of Katsuragi is known as Emperor Yūryaku.5 Only the Koreans and the Chinese call him Takeshi. According to old traditions, one day Emperor Yūryaku encountered a strange-looking man deep in the Katsuragi Mountains--a man said to resemble him as perfectly as if he were reflected in a mirror. That stranger in the mountains was none other than Hitokotonushi."
"Yūryaku..." Flames of hatred blazed up again in Yukari's eyes.
Rin had been watching Yukari closely, and now he cried out in alarm. "Katō! She's getting worse!"
Yukari had already been weak before summoning the spirit. She was much worse off now that she'd summoned it and it had inhabited her body for so long. All color had drained from her face. Blue-black veins bulged on her white, slender wrists, and her lips were turning purple.
"We must perform the exorcism now," Katō said. He chanted again, this time choosing a spell that would eject the spirit from Yukari.
But the spirit, awakened from its long slumber, brought its full power to bear and refused to retreat. Instead of withdrawing, the spirit took steps to claim Yukari's body permanently. The girl's limbs jumped like a puppet's as Katō and the spirit attempted to gain control over her.
"Begone, vengeful spirit!"
"A… ha…"
"Begone!"
The vengeful spirit was extremely powerful, but Katō would never allow her to be offered up as prey to an evil spirit. He couldn't hand her over to a vengeful spirit. She was the most talented and gifted vessel he had ever encountered. He still had tasks for her to perform. Her role in this tale was not yet complete.
Katō pulled out a white handkerchief that he kept in his breast pocket. In its center, the Dōman Seiman was embroidered in black thread. Lieutenant Katō folded the handkerchief into a triangle and hurled it straight at Yukari's face. The handkerchief flew like an arrow, struck her forehead, then spread like wings to wrap around her face.
Blue light flickered through the cloth, and then Yukari shrieked and collapsed onto the mound that contained Taira no Masakado's severed head.
Lieutenant Katō had released a shikigami. Attacked by this invisible familiar, the vengeful spirit was forced to abandon Yukari's body. The north wind roared as it swept past the mound.
"That was close. Yukari still has work to do. I can't hand her over to a vengeful spirit yet," Katō muttered to himself. He lifted Yukari up and supported her on his shoulder. Then he walked away from the mound.
As he walked, he noticed that the Ministry of Finance was in flames. This was a result of the vengeful spirit's curse.
Rin Kaku had watched the night's events in silence. At the bottom of the mound, he turned and saw a faint blue flame burning on top of it. He shuddered as he passed through the gate once more and walked into the cold wind.
1 Yamato is the ancient name of
Japan.↩
2 Katō asks about two usages of aha (or awa); both are place names.
3 Hitokotonushi (literally "God of the One Word") is a deity
from Japanese mythology and Shinto lore. Enshrined primarily at Katsuragi
Hitokotonushi Shrine in Gose, Nara Prefecture, this legendary deity is
famous for a specific rule: he will grant any one wish, provided it is
expressed in just one word. ↩
4 Katsuragi primarily
translates to "katsura-tree ridge" or "arrowroot castle." ↩
5 Emperor Yūryaku (417/18 – 479) was the 21st Emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. According to the Kojiki, this Emperor is said to have ruled from the Thirteenth Day of the Eleventh Month of 456 (Heishin) until his death on the Seventh Day of the Eighth Month of 479 (Kibi). He is the first archaeologically verifiable Japanese emperor. ↩
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