The Psyche Diver Trilogy: Demon Hunters (38 page)

“What’s on your mind?” Yuko asked suddenly, her head still resting on his chest.

“Oh, nothing important,” Hosuke replied, still gazing at the moon.

“What will happen to us, after this?” Her voice was faint, almost inaudible.

“Who knows?” Hosuke’s response was brief, almost sharp.

“…”

“Look…I don’t know, but I’ll get you out of this okay.”

Hosuke unfolded his arms behind his head. He brought one around Yuko’s shoulders and pulled her into him. She clung to him, even harder than before. She was utterly dependent on him. She tensed suddenly, twitching in his embrace. There were footsteps in the grass, someone approaching from the darkness off to one side. Coming closer. Hosuke noticed the scent of a woman on the wind. Different to Yuko’s, the girl in his arms. The smell of a fully-matured, adult woman. The footsteps stopped.

“Mr. Kumon.” The voice was low and husky. Like air that hissed somehow, seeping through a gap.

Hosuke lifted his head from the grass. He saw a woman, an inconspicuous dark shadow. She was dressed in a loose-fitting black robe, her face hidden under a veil draped over her head. Only her eyes peered out. Her body was impressive, even hidden under the robe. Her breasts pushed up against the cloth, causing it to swell. The damp moonlight reflected in her black eyes as she gazed at them.

It was Jakou’in.

“You have something to say?” Hosuke asked. Yuko was trembling.

“I thought you might be bored. That we could shoot the breeze.”

“I am very far from bored.”

“I see.”

“Look, if you want to fuck me just come out and say it. I’d be happy to share a bed with you, if Yuko doesn’t object.”

Jakou’in responded with a thin, hissing laugh. “If it’s a man to share my bed, I’ve already got one.”

“I had thought as much,” Hosuke replied, looking oddly satisfied.

He had suspected her relationship with Hanko to be more than mere friendship. Hanko, supposedly obedient to Enoh alone, had showed similar tendencies before Jakou’in. He had even seen Hanko taken her word over Enoh’s. It was more than wild fancy, they stood out when they were together.

There was something about Jakou’in he found hard to gauge.

“How are they?” Jakou’in asked.

“How are who?”

“Your friends, are they doing well?”

The question was completely unexpected. “I’m not sure. I’d imagine your people know more than me. If you’ve left them be I’m sure they’re just fine. Not that they’re the type to curl up and die, even if you have tried something.”

“Very true,” Jakou’in answered, voice like a distant ache. The branches of the birch tree rustled above her head.

The shape of a diminutive old man appeared behind her, coming from nowhere like an apparition. There had been no sound, no warning. It was as though the darkness had suddenly congealed, falling naturally into a human shape. It was Enoh.

“Enoh! Huh,” Hosuke muttered.

Jakou’in had not noticed him until that moment. She turned, and shuffled to one side. Enoh slipped forwards, moving quietly into the space she had vacated. The two men regarded each other.

“What is it?” Hosuke asked irritably, still lying on the ground.

“Something has come up that requires me to take leave for a while.”

“Leave?”

“Quite. Hanko too. I’m afraid I must escort you back to the residence.”

“You’re gonna lock me in that room, huh?”

“I can’t leave you with free reign of the place, not while Hanko and I are away.”

“Hmm.” Hosuke raised his upper torso so that he leant against the bark of the larch tree, Yuko still in his arms.

“No grudges, I hope.”

“None at all. Enoh, you’ve actually turned up at the perfect time.”

“…” Enoh gave him a curious look.

“Heh.” Hosuke smiled, looking abruptly sheepish. The expression transformed his thirty-something features into those of a child. “There was something I wanted to ask you.”

“Ah.”

“Yeah, about Kukai. You think he’s alive?”

“Well then,” Enoh’s eyes narrowed in anticipation.

Hosuke brought his left hand up to scratch at his scalp, then back to massage his chin. His face was already covered in stubble. His hair was a tangled mess. He seemed the most relaxed this way.

“I don’t mind particularly if he is alive or dead.”

“You’re not interested in all this crap about immortality?”

“Oh, I’m not disinterested. But I’ve never really wanted such a thing.”

“You don’t want to be immortal?”

“Not particularly.”

“Why?”

“We’re all dust in the end. For us to persist and live without growing old, without death. Such ideas do not sit well with the providence of our universe.”

“I never thought I’d hear an old man like you talk of providence.”

“I’d take a hundred years, thereabouts, but I draw the line at eternal life. Besides, I don’t believe it exists anyway.”

“What about Kukai, his
sokushinbutsu
?”

“And where’s the fun in living like that?”

“Huh, I guess.”

“Even if Kukai’s mummy turns out to be alive, it’s nothing more than it is. It’s been a thousand years, a couple of hundred on that. I suspect he will turn to dust too, as do we all.”

“And this kind of talk doesn’t get you in trouble with Kurogosho?”

“Master Kurogosho is Master Kurogosho. I am myself,” Enoh replied.

The man’s tone made him sound aloof. A wind had picked up. The branches whispered in the air above. For a moment, the two men seemed lost in the sound. Jakou’in, for her part, stood in complete quiescence; even her soft breathing was muted.

“Do you understand the
mikkyo,
the esoteric religions?” Hosuke asked, following a silence punctuated only by the breeze.

“I have picked my way through the Rishu Sutra, at least.”

“‘
Myoteki shojo-ku, kore bosatsu no kurai nari
’, that stuff?” Hosuke recited the first line from the Rishu Sutra.

“I think it’s a good approximation of how things are.”

“It was a revelation, to find out what
all that shit
was about.”

Hosuke was referring to the living mandala of orgiastic male and female bodies in the Tanzawa mountains. Enoh responded with a sly grin, understanding the reference.

Myoteki: Myo
is incomparable pleasure
, teki
is the joining of two distinct bodies into one.
Myoteki
in Japanese,
Surata
in Sanskrit.
Surata:
the state of a man and a woman joined in sexual union, oblivious to everything but pleasure
. The Rishu Sutra draws a comparison between the lusty pleasures of sex and the pure elation of Buddhahood. For this reason the sutra was locked away from the public eye, thereafter fading into the annals of history as one of the hidden texts of Esoteric Buddhism. It was feared that the layman would misunderstand the ideas contained within.

The purity of exquisite bliss is the stage of a Bodhissatva

The purity of the arrow of desire is the stage of a Bodhissatva

The purity of touching is the stage of a Bodhissatva

The purity of the bond of love is the stage of a Bodhissatva

The purity of natural sovereignty is the stage of a Bodhissatva

The purity of seeing is the stage of a Bodhissatva

The purity of rapture is the stage of a Bodhissatva

The purity of love is the stage of a Bodhissatva

The purity of pride is the stage of a Bodhissatva

The purity of adornment is the stage of a Bodhissatva

The purity of mental abundance is the stage of a Bodhissatva

The purity of the purity of light is the stage of a Bodhissatva

The purity of bodily bliss is the stage of a Bodhissatva

The purity of form is the stage of a Bodhissatva

The purity of sound is the stage of a Bodhissatva

The purity of smell is the stage of a Bodhissatva

The purity of taste is the stage of a Bodhissatva

And why is it so? Because all dharma in their self-nature are pure, the Prajna-paramita is pure.

So it is recorded in the Rishu Sutra.

It describes the
yokusen—the arrow of desire
—comparing the lust born in someone witnessing a member of the opposite sex to a soaring arrow. The text argues that such desire is worthy of a Bodhissatva. That physical touch is worthy of a Bodhissatva. That loving and even bondage, is worthy of a Bodhissatva.

It outlines the proper form of the relationship between man and woman, how it is worthy of Buddha when it is completely unfettered and defined by lust for the other sex. The Rishu Sutra continues to describe sexual ecstasy, self-beautification through decoration, and indulgence in the five desires of sight, sound, scent, flavor and touch—senses traditionally eschewed in Buddhism—as being pure and existing inside the realm of the Boddhisatva. The fundamental assertion is that all matter is created in a state of purity.
Within the stage of a Bodhissatva
.

“Don’t ask me anything difficult now,” Enoh put on a stern face.

“I thought it was telling us that we’re free to live as we please. Even to rape, commit murder… It’s fucking crazy, man.”

“As long as you’re having fun, right?” Enoh said.

“Now you sound like Gensai for fuck’s sake.”

“Gensai?”

“Gensai Sakuma. My teacher in the ways of women.”

“Your teacher…of women?”

“Yeah, mostly.”

Enoh let out a strained laugh. Then his face tightened, serious again.

“Perhaps it is my turn to ask you a question.”

“Sure.”

“A-grade Psyche Divers, are they all like you?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Your ability to obscure your aura, for example. And I suspect you are fairly accomplished in the martial arts.”

A wave of energy extended from Enoh’s frame, brushing over Hosuke like a tongue. Hosuke let it lap over him before he answered.

“Not particularly.”

“Don’t play ignorant, Hosuke.”

“Uh huh, okay then.” Hosuke mustered energy in his voice, looking again at the sky. “You know the best way to train the mind?” he asked.

“What?”

“Train the body,” Hosuke said simply.

“Quite so,” Enoh agreed.

“Most A-grade Divers undergo physical training until they reach high levels of proficiency. There are exceptions, of course.”

“But I suspect there’s more to
you
than mere training.”

“…”

“I believe this man you mention, Gensai Sakuma, was responsible for showing you more than women alone.”

“No shit…”

“What was it? What did he teach you?” Enoh’s eyes glinted in the darkness.

“
Gendo
, that’s all.”

“A branch of
Sendo
,
”
Enoh said.

“Okay, that sheds some light on things. More than before, at least.”

Enoh nodded. The first chapter of Ge Hong’s Daoist work, the
Baopuzi
—‘He Who Holds to Simplicity’—is entitled
Changxuan
. It contains the following passage:

Gen [xuan] is the founder of nature, the Great Source of all.

Deep enough to be clouded and dark. Thus it is known as slight, or bi.

Distant enough to be hazy and nebulous.

Thus it is known as faint, or
myo
.

Considered in terms of color,
Gen
is black; in Laozi’s writings it is referred to as a pre-state, existing before the creation of our universe.
Gendo
is the path of learning
Gen,
of adopting it as one’s own.
Gendo,
also known as
Sendo
—
the way of the transcendent
. Hosuke had just told Enoh that he had learned
Sendo
from Gensai. A look of understanding spread over Enoh’s features.

“Perhaps we have spent too long talking,” he said, narrowing his eyes as he collected himself. “It is time for me to be going,” he said.

“Where to?” Hosuke gathered himself up to sit in the grass. Yuko did the same.

“To guard Mistress Renobo and Akio Ishibashi.”

“Guard them?”

“We’ve just heard that your friend Fuminari ambushed Toyama at his girlfriend’s apartment. He killed the man’s bodyguards, then escaped. He does like to keep it interesting. Quite the entertainer.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Toyama died. He was caught in the spray.”

“Hoo.”

“His death will be dressed up as an accident. I believe Master Kurogosho will have taken steps to make it so.”

“And so you and Hanko were called into action?”

“That same night the Director of the home chapter of the L.L.S. was abducted—Jotaro Itsuki. It would appear that this was the doing of your other friend, Biku. At this rate they will most likely discover where Renobo and Akio Ishibashi are. That is why we are going out.”

“And this is okay?”

“Meaning?”

“To tell me all of this?” Hosuke said, causing Enoh to smirk.

“Oh I think we can get away with a little.”

“It feels more and more like I’m not gonna get out of here alive,” Hosuke said, ogling the moon. There was something oddly detached about the way the words came out. He extended both arms upwards, stretching broadly.

“Perhaps we should discuss why you have not dived yet,” Enoh suggested.

“Ah yes, Kukai.”

“None other. If Master Kurogosho were to grow impatient…you might not even last the night.”

“You’ve found another Diver?”

“Juta Busujima. The man has quite a reputation. He apparently takes on even the dirtiest of jobs, as long as there’s money and women involved.”

“I’ve heard of him. Isn’t he in Brazil these days?”

“Quite. If not for that fact, you might be dead by now.”