David Peace - Occupied City

Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha …

For to catch a demon, I must become a demon .

So I will dress as a demon dresses, and I will do as a demon does ,

and I will become His doppelgänger ,

His double-goer .

Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha …

So I cut my hair short. I dye my hair grey .

I tattoo two brown spots to the left side of my face .

I buy a brown lounge suit. I buy a spring rain coat .

I buy burnt-orange rubber boots .

I buy a white cloth band to put upon my left arm —

‘LEADER OF THE DISINFECTING TEAM’

Now I stand before the mirror. Now I laugh before the mirror —

Ha, ha, ha … Now my plan is laid, now my trap is set;

now who’ll have the Last Laugh ,

Ha…?

IN THE oCcULT CITY, it is Wednesday 4 February 1948, and it is almost light, and the moon and the stars have all gone to sleep now. But I do not sleep, for I cannot sleep. In the oCcULT CITY, in my Civil Investigative Headquarters , in the back of the Nagasaki Shrine, I stare at the map I have pinned to the wall of my office. I stare at the points I have plotted on the map; the three points to date — the Ebara branch of the Yasuda Bank, the Nakai branch of the Mitsubishi Bank, and the Shiinamachi branch of the Teikoku Bank — and I trace the three points to come. To come , for there will be three more points to complete the Six Points of His Evil Star. And I have mapped these three points to come. And so today I will stalk the steps of the Killer through the oCcULT CITY. Today I will track His trail through this oCcULT CITY. And today I will catch the Killer in the oCcULT CITY. For today is Wednesday 4 February, 1948 –

And today is the day of Setsubun –

The festival marking the end of winter and the beginning of spring, according to the old lunar calendar, the cleansing away of all the evil spirits of the former year, the driving away of all disease-bringing spirits for the year to come …

In my brown lounge suit, in my spring rain coat, in my burnt-orange rubber boots, with my white cloth band upon my left arm –

‘LEADER OF THE DISINFECTING TEAM’

With my hair cut short, with my hair dyed grey, and with the two brown spots tattooed to the left side of my face, I leave the office of my Civil Investigative Headquarters , I leave the Nagasaski Shrine, and I leave Shiinamachi. For I have stared at the map, I have plotted the points, and now I know where He will be today.

Today I take the long roads through the oCcULT CITY, the long roads of the oCcULT CITY which were once its rivers and its canals, but the rivers and the canals of the oCcULT CITY have all been filled in with the ashes of the Dead, so where once there was water, once there was life, now there is only ash, now only death –

Death and the Dead, the Dead under the ground –

The Dead, the Tokyo Dead –

The Tokyo Living Dead –

For I can hear them scream, scream from under the ground, the Tokyo Living Dead, who scream this day, every day and every night, from under the ground. And I can see them now on every street, on every corner, at every junction, at every station, the Tokyo Living Dead, the war-wounded in their white-wear, on every street, on every corner, at every junction, at every station, with their blind-eyes and their deaf-ears, their burnt-skins and lost-limbs, they come up from under the ground, up from out of the ground, to lean on their sticks, to squat on their mats, their caps on the floor and their hands outstretched, on every street, on every corner, at every junction, at every station, I hear them and I see them as I take the long roads –

The long roads, in my brown lounge suit, down Yamate-dōri, in my spring rain coat, along Mejiro-dōri, in my burnt-orange boots, up Shinobazu-dōri, with my white cloth band upon my arm, right on to Kasuga-dōri, with my hair cut short and my hair dyed grey, on the long roads through the oCcULT CITY, with my two brown spots tattooed to the left side of my face, till I come to Kanda –

For I have stared at the map and I have plotted the points. And so I know where He’ll be today, today He’ll be here –

‘Demons be outside! Fortune be inside!’

At the Kanda Myōjin Shrine –

‘Oni wa soto!’

Here among the crowds, the crowds who have come, come in their thousands, in their thousands to exorcize the evil spirits of the old year, to ward against the evil diseases of the new year, in their thousands and in their masks, their masks of demons –

‘Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!’

Demons with their pictures of Him –

‘Oni wa soto!’

And now the crowd sees me, in my brown lounge suit, in their thousands, in my spring rain coat, in their masks of demons, in my burnt-orange boots, with their pictures of Him, with my white cloth band upon my left arm, now they see me, LEADER OF THE DISINFECTING TEAM , and they grab handfuls of roasted beans, with my short hair, in their thousands, my grey hair, in their masks of demons, my two brown spots on the left side of my face, and now they throw their handfuls of beans at me, handful after handful –

‘Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!’

In their thousands, in their masks –

‘Oni wa soto!’

Handful after handful, my face stung, swarm after swarm, my face bleeding, in their thousands, they are putting their arms through the arms of my brown lounge suit, in their masks, they are lifting my burnt-orange boots off the ground –

‘Oni wa soto!’

IN THE oCcULT CITY, I am flying now, past the mid-night, through the blue-sky, the moon and the stars all out tonight and they look good, so good tonight, and now they put me down, down where the tall grass grows, down among the branches and the leaves, the sky a dirty yellow now, the moon a bloody red, in this forest of broken bones and dead skin, He is coming now, shuffling through the forest, He is here, shuffling through the trees, He is here, He who has brought my carcass to this place, to this defeated city, here to parade my meat, in the occupied city, my flesh to hang from its branches, my blood to drip from its leaves, to stain the trees, the branches and the limbs of the oCcULT CITY, in this place where the flies begin to gather now, this place where death will come as a wasp, a wasp in the Wintertime, in its light that sheds no light, with its sunfall and rainshine, where I will be but shadow, shadow at the side of the road.

And now He lays me down, and He stretches me out, and He smiles and He says, ‘This city is no séance. This city is a mirror.’

And He holds the mirror up to my face, the nails to my hands, my hands to His door, and now He laughs,

the Last Laugh, ‘Ha!’

Beneath the Black Gate, in its upper chamber, the door falls, the medium falls, and now the fifth candle is extinguished,

another candle, another life, out, out, out,

and once again you are alone,

alone in the occult circle,

alone in the light

of its seven

candles,

with no new words and no new book, among the rivers of ink and the mountains of paper, the bonfires and the ashes,

you crawl, in circles, on your hands

and on your knees, you crawl, through old words and old books, and you pick up the books and then you drop the books, drop the books and then pick up your pen, pick up your pen and now you write, write more and more insincerities, again and again, more and more lies, day after day, the same insincerities, the same lies, over and over, day after day, again and again,