David Peace - Occupied City

their flesh to hang from the branches ,

their blood to drip from the leaves ,

IN THE oCcULT CITY .

But I am here, I am here, I am also here —

For I am stalking His steps. I am on His trail ,

through the forest, through the trees ,

for I will bring His carcass to this place ,

I will parade His meat ,

hang His flesh from the branches ,

drip His blood from the leaves ,

IN THE oCcULT CITY

IN THE oCcULT CITY, they will burn the dead today. So I walk up Shinobazu-dōri. I come to the Gokokuji Temple. The mass funeral begins at three. These temples are their sanctuaries, their last sanctuaries from Him. For here they are safe, here I am safe. In these temples He cannot see through the smoke, in here He cannot smile His evil smile. Not like in the shrines, the shrines He likes. For the shrines of Tokyo are now evil shrines. Magnets for evil, repositories of evil. The Evil Magick now victorious, the Holy War now lost –

The Holy War which began in 1873 when the Ministry of Religion forbade the practices of all exorcists, faith-healers, fortunetellers and shamans. The War which continued with the 1880 Meiji Criminal Code and its prohibition against our talismanic prayers, and then the Revised Criminal Code of 1908 which further criminalized and imprisoned, ‘Those who spread gossip and wild rumours or false alarms which deceive people. Those who without authority tell fortunes; or who conduct exorcisms and incantations; or who otherwise mislead people by conferring on them things resembling talismans. Those who conduct spells, exorcisms, and incantations for the sick; or who impede medical care by giving amulets and holy water…’ Those like me; Shimizu Kogorō, the Occult-Detective –

But their Holy War, their Crusade against the likes of me, found its bloodiest battlefield in the shrines of Japan. For their War, their Crusade sought to control all the shrines of Japan and destroy any that would resist their Crusade, their control and their codes –

For in their Holy War, in their Crusade, there could only be one winner, only one victor; the unbroken Imperial line, descended from Amaterasu, and enshrined at Ise –

And so began the shrine mergers of 1906 to 1912, and the destruction of the People’s Shrines, the rule of just one shrine per administrative area, and the birth of Yasukuni; Yasukuni –

The centre of the Six Points of His Evil Star…

From 1905 to 1910, the spirits of 88,243 War Dead were forcibly enshrined in the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo –

88,243 spirits who were thus denied a final repose with their ancestors, forbidden the memorial rites of the Buddhist dead, and robbed of their last return to their homes –

Denying, forbidding and robbing their families of the care and the company of their spirits –

Their spirits imprisoned at Yasukuni in Tokyo, hundreds and thousands of miles from their homes and their families, at Yasukuni, in the oCcULT CITY –

The oCcULT CITY which trembles with the spirits of these restless Dead, the oCcULT CITY which shook with the cries of these imprisoned Dead in 1923, and which trembles now, with so many more dead from so many more wars, and which will shake again –

Shake and fall again, unless I can free the Dead and fetter the Evil, the Evil that now runs amok in the oCcULT CITY.

For all their new codes and all their official shrines have given free rein to Evil Magick and its practitioners, outlawing the old Folk Magick and its old believers, the ordinary and the good –

Those like me; Shimizu Kogorō, the Occult- Tantei , with my pockets full of coins, coins full of holes, holes and only holes; my pockets full of holes, holes and only holes. For I am here to cleanse this city of all its shrines and all their evils, their curses and their spells, their magick and their murder. For I am here –

Here to liberate these restless Dead –

To free them from their chains –

The Dead, Dead, Dead.

IN THE oCcULT CITY, they have burnt the dead. The mass funeral has ended. They are safe now, safe from Him. But not me, never me. I leave the Gokokuji Temple. I leave this sanctuary. I walk back up Shinobazu-dōri. Here there is no sanctuary, no sanctuary from Him. Here I am not safe, not safe from Him. In His city –

In His city of shrines, the shrines He likes –

The Evil Magick victorious for now –

The Holy War lost, lost for now –

IN THE oCcULT CITY.

The oCcULT CITY is a séance ,

a city of cries, a city of pleas ,

of prayers and of whispers .

In this forest of broken bones and dead skin ,

among these branches, among these limbs ,

I listen for their voices .

I touch the branches, I touch the leaves ,

I taste their stains ,

their bones and their skin .

They are here, they are here, they are here now —

IN THE oCcULT CITY ,

and they are crying, and they are pleading .

But now they are gone, they are gone, they are gone again ,

for now He is here, He is here, He is here again ,

here again to parade their meat .

And I say, ‘If I die, I die …’

And He smiles, and He says, ‘You will die, you will die …

‘I promise you.’

IN THE oCcULT CITY, in the shadows of the shrine, the sound of their feet in the snow, the sound of their fists on my door. In their black hats and their white boots, they knock me from my chair and they drag me from my office. They push me down the steps of the shrine, they bundle me into the back of their car. They drive me to their police station, they carry me into their interview room. They sit me on a chair, they shine a light on me. They talk about conspiracies, they talk about coincidences. But they do not know there are no conspiracies, they do not know there are no coincidences. They do not know there is only Magick; Good Magick and Evil Magick; Evil Magick & Evil Plague. For they have forgotten and so they no longer understand. But I have not forgotten, so I still understand. For I know my destiny, I know my future. For I have seen my future, all our futures, from a fortune-teller, at a makeshift stall, in an ancient alley, a fortune-teller who smiled at me, and who told me, ‘You will save this city, Shimizu Kogorō. You will cure this city …’

‘Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha …’

And so I tell them I am Shimizu Kogorō, I am the Occult-Detective. I tell them I am only here to help them, I am only here to save them. Here to catch their Killer, here to close their case –

‘Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha …’

But they laugh at my words, and they slap my face. They knock me from their chair, they kick me down their stairs. They throw me through their doors, they leave me in His streets. In the snow and in the sleet, the echoes and the whispers –

IN THE oCcULT CITY –

‘Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha …

‘Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha …’

I can hear Him laughing at me, I can hear Him mocking me ,

but I have a new plan, so I will set a new trap ,

and then I’ll have the Last Laugh!