Teito Monogatari:
The Tale of the Imperial Capital
Part 1: Great Spirit of Tokyo
Author: Hiroshi Aramata
Part 5: A Preposterous Proposal
Chapter 21: Yukari, That Night
The girl's breathing evened out as she slept. Her pulse was regular and she'd stopped shivering some time ago.
Mori Rintarō gently placed the girl's hand beneath a heavy quilt. She was flushed, but her lips were no longer blue. That was a relief. He shifted his focus from the patient to the writer standing nearby with his arms folded.
"She's going to be all right, I think."
Kōda Shigeyuki smiled faintly. He was not a notably friendly man, but his sharp, narrow eyes softened slightly in the presence of the girl and Rintarō. His clean kimono suited him. He wore no under-layer when it was hot outside, which was frequently, and he was an unabashed lover of fishing.
"I see—thank you, Rintarō. I've gone fishing hundreds of times, but she's the strangest catch I've ever seen. I found her in the Sumida River. I wondered what on earth I should do, but in any case I thought the best course would be to carry her to a doctor. I'm sorry I caused you trouble. She's not awake yet, so allow me to offer thanks in her stead."
"It's no trouble," Rintarō said pleasantly. "Who is this girl, though? What was she doing in the river? She's more than half-drowned."
"I didn't notice her doing anything. She was just... in the river. Soaked through. I thought she'd drowned, at first. I looked at her eyes and checked her pulse. She was alive when I pulled her out, of course, but her eyes wouldn't focus and her pulse was erratic. I think she might be delirious. I have no idea what happened to her before I found her."
"Do you think she's a madwoman, then?"
"No." Shigeyuki's eyebrows rose sharply. “That’s not what I mean. It just doesn’t seem normal."
"It's not," Rintarō affirmed. "I gave her medicine and she finally calmed down, but I believe she is suffering from some kind of nervous disorder. Do you know anything about this girl's background? What is her name? Have you contacted her parents?”
“I didn’t have that kind of time. I was in a mad rush to pull the girl out of the river. It was like she was under a paralysis spell.”
“A paralysis spell?” Rintarō asked dubiously.
"Yes. I saw a water snake wrapped around her waist, holding her still. I drove off the snake and she collapsed into the water."
“I see—and then?” Rintarō asked, genuinely curious now.
"It's just--she couldn't move, and then she could. What would cause that aside from a paralysis spell? Just now, you changed her out of her wet clothes and gathered up her belongings. I found this in one of her pockets." Shigeyuki held out a handkerchief that was stained with mud.
"And? Women carry handkerchiefs," Rintarō said.
"It's very plain for a woman's handkerchief. And then there's this." Shigeyuki pointed to the pattern of a pentagram beside a grid. "Do you recognize these symbols? What do they mean?"
"I do, by some strange coincidence. In the Army, all the officers wear German-style caps, and a pentagram symbol just like this one is sewn into the tops of them on the inside. It's a talisman to ward against evil."
As he said this, Rintarō pointed to the German-style military cap hanging on the hat rack at the back of the room. On the crown of the flattened cap, bold lines created a five-pointed star.
“That talisman was adopted when the Army took up German-style equipment. At first, the military thought it was just a decoration, but it is a German defensive talisman. In Goethe’s Faust—a man of letters, Goethe, whom I hope to introduce to Japan—it appears again and again as a wondrous talisman against evil. If you like, I can read you some of the passages from Faust."
Shigeyuki shook his head. "There's no need for that." He rubbed his chin roughly. "I thought the same thing you did. In Japan, we call this the Doman Seiman. It is, as you say, a talisman to ward against evil. How strange that the Germans should use the same talisman for the same purpose! In our country, people sew it onto a baby’s swaddling clothes, or dye it onto the back of a child’s padded jacket.”
"Or embroider it into a handkerchief," Rintarō added, nodding down at the handkerchief in his hand.
"It's old world superstition. Even now, the folk of Edo keep the custom of hanging a basket under the eaves to ward away misfortune,” Shigeyuki said. He shook his head.
Rintarō frowned. "Come to think of it, the pattern that people sew or die into children's clothes is the kagome--a six-pointed star pattern, not a pentagram. They're slightly different."
Shigeyuki nodded. "That's so. I think the similarity is interesting."
Mori Rintarō stared at the young girl sleeping beside him, frowning.
"Why would this girl be carrying such a talisman?" Shigeyuki asked.
"She feared evil," Rintarō said. "You found her in dire straits."
Another nod from Shigeyuki. "I didn't mention this before, but when I rescued her, she threw up a strange orange lump. It wriggled like a living creature and crawled away into the reeds." He leaned closer, looking all around like he feared that he'd be overhead. "I think it was a harachūmushi, an evil worm endowed with magical power. That girl has run afoul of a malevolent sorcerer."
Rintarō's eyes went wide.
"What? What is it?" Shigeyuki asked.
"Second Lieutenant Katō carries a handkerchief with the Doman Seiman on it," Rintarō said softly.
Shigeyuki frowned slightly. "I don't like that man. When you introduced him to me the other day, he was collecting insects to curse someone."
Mori Rintarō rose to his feet and slid open the door of the room. He and Shigeyuki stepped out into the hallway.
“When I was in Manchuria, I once asked Lieutenant Katō about the pentagram on his handkerchief. He told me that it was the Doman Seiman, a talisman to ward away evil that was frequently used by people in the village where he grew up. He and this girl might be connected somehow."
Before Shigeyuki could say a word, Rintarō was rushing down the hall, calling for his steward as he went. “Send a messenger to the Shibusawa residence at once.” He handed the steward a note, folded his arms, and then went to check on his patient.
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