David Peace - Tokyo Year Zero

Senju stops laughing. ‘And I really need some names.’

Fujita. Hayashi. Fujita. Hayashi. Fujita. Hayashi …

‘You give me a name and I’ll give you your Calmotin.’

‘But how much can you get me?’ I ask him. ‘I really need as much as you can give me. Please…’

‘Don’t worry,’ laughs Senju again. ‘You give me a name and you need never wake again.’

‘Thank you,’ I say, over and over. ‘Thank you. Thank you.’

‘Red apple to my lips, blue sky silently watching…’

‘But don’t dare come back here without a name.’

Hayashi. Fujita. Hayashi. Fujita. Hayashi …

‘Thank you,’ I say again. ‘Thank you.’

‘Or I promise you, you won’t wake again.’

*

From Shimbashi to Atago. Up the stairs to the office –

No Fujita. No Fujita. No Fujita …

But Ishida is here; Ishida with his head down on his desk –

I shake him. I pull his hair. I whisper, ‘Where’s Detective Fujita? Quickly! Come on! Where is he? Tell me! Quickly!’

Ishida shakes his head. Ishida starts to apologize –

I shake him again. I slap him. I hiss, ‘Tell me!’

Ishida apologizes and apologizes –

Bodies stir. Bodies wake …

I push him away –

I run again.

*

From Atago back through Shimbashi. From Shimbashi through Ginza. Through Ginza to Hatchōbori. The city getting darker and darker, the lights fewer and fewer . Through Hatchōbori and across the Kameshima River. Across the Kameshima River to Shinkawa. Through Shinkawa and across the Eitaibashi Bridge. The city getting flatter and flatter, the buildings getting fewer and fewer . Across the Eitaibashi Bridge into Monzen-nakachō. Monzen-nakachō up to Fukagawa, the dark burnt field where Fukagawa once stood –

Air raid! Air raid! Here comes an air raid!

The endless burnt field where now stands but a lone chimney here, a lone chimney there; the bathhouses and the factories but rubble and dust. Red! Red! Incendiary bomb! The hull of a hospital, the shell of a school, the rest is all ash and weeds. Run! Run! Get a mattress and sand! An endless field of ash and weeds –

Air raid! Air raid! Here comes an air raid!

This is where Fujita’s house once stood –

Black! Black! Here come the bombs!

His house gone. His family gone –

Cover your ears! Close your eyes!

Fujita has nothing left to lose –

I stand before the ruins of his home, before the scorched stone steps and the charred tree stump, panting and sweating, itching and itching, and now I begin to weep as a gust of wind raises the thick, brown dust that covers the lot where his house once stood and bangs the loose sheets of iron on the neighbouring shacks, drowning out the sound of my sobs, of my scream –

Get off your knees!

Tokyo, 89°, cloudy

I have walked all night through fields of ash to find him here; Detective Fujita sitting in the early morning shade on the steps of the Atago police station with his face to the sun, his eyes closed, a new Panama hat in one hand and a freshly lit cigarette in the other –

I stand over him. I block out the light. I say, ‘Good morning.’

‘Good morning,’ he replies but he does not open his eyes –

I tell him, ‘Let’s go for a walk, please. We need to talk.’

‘Talk about what?’ he asks me, his eyes still closed –

‘Hayashi Jo,’ I say. ‘Matsuda Giichi. Senju Akira.’

Now Detective Fujita opens his eyes. He gets to his feet. He wipes away the dust from his trousers. Now he says, ‘Lead on.’

My eyes ache. My head aches. My belly aches …

In the old grove across the road, among the cedars and the bamboo, we stand in the shadows and the sunlight, black and white patterns across our clothes and across our faces –

‘They missed you yesterday,’ I say. ‘Adachi and Kanehara. They were both asking where you were…’

Fujita bows ever so slightly and says, ‘I’m sorry. It couldn’t be helped. I had to meet someone…’

‘I hear you met Hayashi from the Minpo …’

Fujita laughs. ‘Minpo, Minshū, Akahata …’

‘What did Hayashi want?’ I ask him.

‘Blackmail. Extortion. Money.’

‘He tried to blackmail you?’

‘Not only me. You too.’

‘Me?’ I ask. ‘Why?’

‘He knows things.’

‘Things about you and Nodera Tomiji?’ I ask him. ‘Things about you and the murder of Matsuda Giichi?’

‘All lies,’ hisses Fujita. ‘All lies.’

‘Is that what you told Hayashi?’

‘I didn’t tell Hayashi anything,’ says Fujita. ‘I just wanted him gone and now he’s gone and he won’t be coming back.’

My stomach aches. My head aches. ‘Really?’

‘I paid him to go. To not come back.’

‘How much did you pay him?’

‘Forget it,’ smiles Fujita.

‘No,’ I say. ‘How much?’

‘Forget it!’ he snaps –

I nod. I bow to him. I thank him. Then I ask him, ‘But do you know where Hayashi is now?’

‘He’s running,’ says Fujita. ‘Running from Tokyo. Running from this life. His turn to change his name. To change his job. He’ll not be back, I promise you.’

I tell him, ‘Senju Akira wants a name from me.’

‘Whose name does he want?’ asks Fujita.

‘The name that set up Nodera Tomiji.’

‘Or what?’

‘Or he’ll make things difficult for me.’

‘So give him Hayashi’s name,’ laughs Detective Fujita. ‘Hayashi doesn’t need it any more.’

‘But how do you know he won’t come back?’

‘I just know,’ he laughs again. ‘Trust me.’

‘But how do you know…?’

Detective Fujita steps closer. Fujita whispers, ‘I told him I’d kill him if I ever saw him again.’

*

I have vomited in the toilets of Atago police station. Black bile . Now I stand over the sink. I spit. I wipe my mouth. I turn on a tap. I wash my face. I look up into the mirror. I stare into the mirror –

No one is who they say they are…

I stand up in front of the First Team, the Second Team and all the uniforms from the Atago, Meguro and Mita police stations as Chief Inspector Kanehara reviews the progress of the investigation to date; the searches of the two crime scenes in Shiba Park have been completed; the statements of the witnesses have been taken; the autopsies have been conducted; the initial stages of the investigation have been successfully completed bar the identification of the bodies, which is scheduled for later this morning; then the second stage of the investigation will begin –

I swallow …

‘All reports must be completed and submitted to Headquarters this morning,’ Adachi is now telling the First Team, the Second Team and the uniforms from the Atago, Meguro and Mita police stations. ‘Following the completion of the identification process, there will be a second meeting later today at 4 p.m.’

‘Attention!’ shouts one of the sergeants –

‘Bow!’ the sergeant shouts –

‘Dismissed!’

I run back to the toilets. I vomit again. Brown bile . I walk over to the sink. I spit. I wipe my mouth. I turn on a tap. I wash my face. I look up into the mirror. I stare into the mirror –

No one is who they say they are …

In the upstairs corridor I wait for Nishi and Kimura. I take them to one side. I ask them, ‘Have you written up your reports?’

They both nod. They both say, ‘Yes, we have.’

‘Then I want you to go to Toshima Ward,’ I tell them. ‘I want you to go to the ward office. I want you to ask again about this Takahashi of Zōshigaya, Toshima…’