James Clavell - Gai-Jin

Fujiko!

"Where's Fujiko?"' he had screamed.

Gasping for breath, Hiraga shouted above the roaring flames, "Quick, go down, she dead in room, Fujiko dead when find you... quick or you dead!"

He remembered that part clearly now. He had leapt out of the well and began to rush back, the fire worse than before, certain death ahead but he had to reach her to make sure and then he was flat on his face, a blinding pain in his neck, he tried to scramble up, the heat monstrous, and all he remembered seeing was the edge of a rock-hard hand driving for the side of his neck. "You... I was going for her but you stopped me?"

"Yes. No way save. Fujiko dead, so sorry, I saw. She dead, you too if go back so hit and carry here. Fujiko dead in room." Hiraga said it flat, still disgusted with Tyrer for risking both their lives on such a stupidity. He had only just had time to lift Tyrer onto his shoulder and clamber down, almost losing his footing to reach safety, saving his own life by a paper thickness from the flames. And he was thinking, fuming, even the most baka man must have known there no chance to find her, no way to survive with the whole garden, entire Teahouses afire, and even if she hadn't been dead then, she was dead fifteen times now. "If no hit, you dead. Is dead better?"

"No." Tyrer's grief swamped him.

"Sorry. I owe you my life again." He wiped his face to try, unsuccessfully, to stop the anguish. Fujiko dead, oh God oh God.

"Sorry, Nak--sorry Hiraga-sama, where are we?"

"Tunn'er. Near Three Carp. It go to vi'rrage, under fence, moat." Hiraga motioned up the well. "It day now."

Tyrer clambered painfully to his feet.

Once upright he felt a little better. Daylight at the well head was muted by billowing smoke, but he could see that it was about dawn.

"Dozo." With a smile Akimoto handed him a loincloth and a spare kimono.

"Domo," Tyrer said, shocked by the amount his own had been burned. There were some burn patches on his legs, nothing truly bad. Hiraga was climbing the rickety handholds to peer out, to be driven back by the heat.

Once more in the tunnel, Hiraga said, "No good. Too hot. Here." He offered him the water again and it was accepted gratefully.

"Taira-sama, best go that way." He pointed down the tunnel. "You a'we right?"

"Yes. Fujiko, she was dead? You're quite sure."

"Yes."

"What happened? I was asleep and then... was it a bomb? I can remember... I think I was blown the other side of the room from... from Fujiko. It felt as if a bomb went off below the house. Was it and why the fire, everything on fire?"

Akimoto touched Tyrer with a smile and said in Japanese, "Taira-sama, you were lucky.

If it wasn't for Hiraga you'd be dead. Do you understand?"

"Hai, wakarimasen." Tyrer bowed solemnly to Hiraga, adding in Japanese, "Thank you, Hiraga-sama, again in debt.

Thank you for life." Sickness went through him.

"Sorry, first rest little." Awkwardly he sat down. "What happen?"

"We speak Ing'erish. Why fires? Bad man have fire bomb. Set fire here, wind take fire to Yokohama and th--"

Tyrer was shocked into life. "The Settlement's gone too?"

"Don't know, Taira-sama. No time to 'rook but Yoshiwara gone, think vi'rrage too. Maybe Yokohama too."

Tyrer scrambled to his feet and went for the well.

"No, not up, this way." Hiraga lit another lamp. "You fo'rrow, yes?" In Japanese he said to Akimoto, "You stay here, I'll take him part of the way, I want to see what's happened, then I'll come back." Leading the way down the tunnel he said again in English, "Bad man have fire bomb. Want hurt gai-jin. South wind make 'ritter fire big fire."

At once Tyrer understood the significance of the south wind pattern: "My God, everything's so combustible, it'll blaze like nothing on earth.

My God, if..." He stopped, frantic with worry. Water was running down the tunnel wall. He scooped some up to cool his head. The cold helped. "Sorry, go on, a bad man?

What bad man?"

"Bad man," Hiraga repeated darkly, but disoriented, of two minds: he was both filled with fury that Takeda had taken the initiative and demolished his own safe haven, and at the same time delighted with the success of the fire bombs that he had seen. With the south wind and the Yoshiwara fired, the village had to go and the gai-jin's houses too. And with their Yokohama base gone gai-jin would have to leave as Ori, first, and then Katsumata had predicted. Sonno-joi had been advanced.

An hour or so ago he had tried to peer out of the Drunk Town well head to see for himself but the heat was too much and had driven him back. Perhaps the bricks had cooled enough for him to see the extent of the devastation there. He held in his hope.

Tyrer still had to be dealt with.

The success of his story depended on whether or not Takeda had been caught alive. It was a good gamble that Takeda had not been and then his version, mostly true, would be logical: "Bad man want destroy all gai-jin, drive away from Nippon. Man from Bakufu. Bakufu want all gai-jin away, Yoshi want all gai-jin gone. Pay spy to start fire, blame shishi, but man from Bakufu."

"You know this man?"

Hiraga shook his head. "A Satsuma man, mama-san say me."

"Raiko-san?"

"No, Wakiko, another Teahouse."

Hiraga said, inventing a name. They had reached the water. "Best take off c'rothes. Safe."

They stripped and, with the oil lamp held up, forded the barrier. And on the other side while Tyrer painfully re-tied the loincloth and put on the kimono, Hiraga elaborated on the theme that the Bakufu were evil, they would cast the blame elsewhere, on ronin, the shishi but they had planned and precipitated it, Anjo, the Elders and especially Yoshi.

To Tyrer it was very plausible. V. Again a Satsuma, one of Sanjiro's devils.

At the lip of the well, Hiraga pointed upwards. "Same as other. First I see." He handed Tyrer the lamp and climbed to the top, the bricks still hot. Warily he peered out. What he saw made his head reel. Where once No Man's Land was hemmed in, now he could see clear to the sea, past the space that was once Drunk Town, past the other space that was once the village, right up to the north end. Many gai-jin buildings there were untouched but that did not worry him. All in all Yokohama had ceased to be. He returned below.

"What's happened, Hiraga-sama?"

"You go see. I stay. You go now, friend.

Hiraga not go, cannot--samurai still search, neh?"

Tyrer saw the brown eyes watching him, this strange alien who had certainly risked his life to save him. And had saved him for the second time.

What more can a friend do than risk his life for his friend? "Without you, I know I'd be dead. I owe you a life. To thank you is not enough."

Hiraga shrugged, silently.

"What will you do?"

"P'rease?"

"If I want to see you, to contact you."

"I here. Taira-sama, not forget Yoshi price my head, neh? P'rease, not say about tunn'er. Bakufu and Yoshi want me bad.

If Taira-sama say, soon dead, can no where to run."

"I won't tell anyone. How can I get you a message?"

Hiraga thought about that. "Sun set time, come here, speak down. I here sun set time. Understand?"

"Yes." Tyrer stuck out his hand. "Don't be afraid, I won't tell and I'll try to help." Hiraga's grip was as firm.

"Phillip! Phillip, my boy, thank God you're safe!" Sir William's face was alight with relief and he hurried towards him to grip him on both shoulders. "The rumor said you'd been swallowed up in the Yoshiwara, come and sit down, you poor chap." He helped him to the best chair in his office by the fire. "Good God, you look terrible, what on earth happened, you need a drink! Brandy coming up!"

Tyrer relaxed into the tall chair feeling much better. After the initial horror of the damage and meeting a few people on the waterfront, seeing bandages and burns, no one spoke of deaths, seeing the Legations, Struan's and Brock's and important parts untouched--along with the army encampment and the fleet--all this took away most of his tension. No one seemed to know who was lost, or how many, so he had hurried here. He took a large swallow of the drink. "I was caught in the Yoshiwara all right. I was with, er, with my girl and, well, she died." His unhappiness rushed in again like a tidal wave.