Black Lotus

20

Abbess Junketsu-in stood at the open second-story window of the abbot’s residence, gazing over the Black Lotus Temple. Beneath a lusterless gray twilight sky, the precinct lay deeply shadowed by its trees and arbors. As temple bells tolled for evening rites, a cool wind wavered the flames in stone lanterns along the paths. The day’s pilgrims had already gone; the nuns and priests had vanished indoors. Biting her Up, Junketsu-in watched Sōsakan Sano and his detectives walking toward the main gate. Her nerves were still on edge from the questions he’d asked her earlier about her relationship with Nurse Chie.

“Do not be afraid of the sōsakan-sama,” High Priest Anraku said from behind her.

Startled, Junketsu-in closed the window and turned. Anraku moved so quickly and noiselessly that she never heard and seldom saw him coming; he just appeared, as if by magic. And he could always read her mind. Now he reclined upon a raised bed draped in a canopy of red and gold tapestry and heaped with embroidered cushions. His brocade stole and saffron robe gleamed in the light from brass lamps. One wall of his room was covered by a mural in which the Buddha lay in a jeweled, flaming coffin. An altar held a huge bronze phallus and smoking incense; curtained archways led to adjoining rooms. Anraku had designed his private chambers to imitate a palace he’d seen while his spirit traveled through India. At the sight of him, desire pierced Junketsu-in. She lowered the drape that covered her hair and drew herself up to show off her elegant figure.

“ ‘Fear is a destroyer of the spirit,’ ” Anraku quoted from the Black Lotus Sutra. “ ‘Insignificant men derive power from people’s fear of them. Resist fear, and the power is yours.’ ”

“But Haru has said bad things about me.” Fresh anxiety filled Junketsu-in as she remembered what Sano said the girl had told him about the abbess’s mistreatment of Chie.

“The sōsakan-sama doesn’t believe her,” Anraku said with a dismissive wave of his hand. “Nor did he believe her when she said that Priest Kumashiro argued with Commander Oyama, or that Dr. Miwa tried to force himself upon a woman who was also murdered.”

Junketsu-in had heard that Sano had also interrogated Kumashiro and Miwa today. Perhaps they’d told Anraku; perhaps he’d divined the facts upon which he based his opinions. She almost wished Sano would believe Haru’s tales about them. The doctor was a repulsive lecher, and Kumashiro treated her like filth; they envied her position close to Anraku, and she despised them both. Still, any threat to them also threatened her, and the entire sect.

“The fact that Sano is checking Haru’s stories disturbs me,” Junketsu-in said. Anraku frowned-he forbade his followers to challenge his wisdom-but Junketsu-in rushed on, compelled to warn him. “Sano has been here all afternoon, talking to people and poking around. If he continues this way, eventually he’ll find something to support Haru’s accusations.” Anraku didn’t like anyone to question him, but Junketsu-in ventured timidly, “What did you and Sano talk about during your meeting this afternoon?”

With a swift grace, Anraku rose and placed his hands on her shoulders. “I decide what you need to know, and I shall tell you if and when I choose.” He spoke in the quiet, menacing voice reserved for followers who displeased him. “What are the Three Great Laws of the Black Lotus that I have taught you?”

“You are the Bodhisattva of Infinite Power,” Junketsu-in stammered, fearful of his anger. “You alone know each person’s individual path through life. They who obey the Bodhisattva of Infinite Power will achieve Buddhahood.”

“Then accept my authority, or suffer punishment.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to offend you,” she apologized hastily, knowing too well that her position as his chief female official was tenuous. “I’m just worried that Sano will blame you for the fire and murders.” Whether he’d burned the cottage or killed with his own hands, wasn’t Anraku ultimately responsible for everything that happened here?

“Do you dare imply that Sano is any match for me?” Anraku’s expression turned ominous, and Junketsu-in cringed. “If your faith in me is so weak, I can find another woman who deserves the attentions I’ve bestowed upon you.”

“No! Forgive me!” Junketsu-in pleaded.

The pressure of his hands enflamed her desire and awakened memories of other hands that had touched her during the years when her name hadn’t been Junketsu-in but Iris. The first man had been her father, who’d owned a tofu shop in Ginza. At night Iris, her parents, and her two younger sisters had all slept together in the single room of their living quarters. When Iris was eight years old, her father crept under her quilt and began fondling her.

“Don’t make any noise,” he whispered.

While the rest of the family slept, he mounted and entered her. His hand over her mouth stifled her cries of agony. After he was done, he said, “If you tell anyone, I’ll kill you. Be good, and I’ll make you happy.”

The next morning Iris was so sore she could hardly move, but she heeded her father’s words and acted as if nothing had happened. Later, he bought her a beautiful doll. For the next few years Iris tolerated her father’s nocturnal attentions, and he rewarded her with toys, pretty kimonos, and sweets. He petted and praised her while ignoring the other girls. She was allowed to play instead of helping her meek, subservient mother with the housework. Iris enjoyed the power that the secret gave her, until her father stopped visiting her bed and her sister Lily became his new favorite.

Suddenly Iris was the family drudge. She hated her father for abandoning her and missed her privileged position. But she was now thirteen years old and pretty. While cleaning the tofu shop, she noticed men on the street eyeing her. One, a handsome young carpenter, stopped to talk.

Iris said, “If I let you have me, what will you give me?”

He gave her copper coins and took her in the alley behind the shop. New sensations stirred in Iris, who began to realize that sex could bring physical pleasure as well as material gain. Soon she had many lovers who paid her in money and gifts. When she was sixteen her father fell ill; right before he died, he married her off to his apprentice. Iris and her husband took over the shop. He was a weak man in thrall to her; she continued her affairs and used her earnings to build herself a luxurious home.

Unbeknown to her, she’d begun a journey that had brought her to the Black Lotus Temple, to this room where she now fell to her knees before Anraku.

“My faith in you is absolute,” she said, caressing his legs through the saffron robe. How she burned for him! How easily he could cast her off. “Your power and wisdom are supreme.”

To her relief, Anraku’s scowl dissolved into a benevolent smile. He grasped her hands, raising her. “Let us waste no more attention on trivial men like the sōsakan-sama when our destiny looms on the horizon.”

“The time is near, then?” Excitement filled Junketsu-in.

“Very soon my prophecies will come true,” Anraku replied in a hushed, dramatic tone. In the flickering light, he gleamed; his hands were smooth and hard and warm on Junketsu-in’s. “Every follower of the Black Lotus shall achieve enlightenment in a celebration such as mankind has never known. You shall be at my side when I rule a new world.”

Junketsu-in thrilled at the thought, but a niggling doubt disturbed her. "Everything will happen no matter what?” she asked, though afraid to offend Anraku by revealing her fears that the fire and murders might thwart him.

“Destiny waits for nothing.” Dreams swirled in Anraku’s eye. “No one can stop me.”

Still, Junketsu-in’s doubt persisted. Could Anraku not understand that Sano’s investigation and Lady Reiko’s meddling might ruin his plans? On rare occasions such as this, when Junketsu-in’s innate common sense resurfaced, she even had misgivings about Anraku’s supernatural powers. Granted, he exercised formidable control over his followers; however, his strength derived as much from their labor and the political clout of his patrons. Faith had inspired his visions, but human might and method would make them fact. Was he a fool not to know this? Or was Junketsu-in a fool who didn’t understand the cosmic forces driving his schemes?

As usual, her attempt at objectivity failed. She only knew she loved Anraku, and that she owed him her life.

One spring evening twelve years ago, police officers had burst into Iris’s house while she was entertaining a lover. They shackled her and dragged her out to the street. The police commander said to her, “You’re under arrest for prostitution outside the licensed quarter.”

It was Commander Oyama, although Iris didn’t learn his name until later. His strong build and arrogant good looks attracted her. With an inviting smile, she said, “If you let me go, I’ll show you how grateful I am.”

He considered her offer. “Unshackle her,” he ordered his men, then followed Iris into her house. But after they’d finished, he went to the door and called to the waiting police: “Take her to jail.”

“Wait,” cried Iris. “You promised to let me go.”

Oyama laughed. “Promises to a whore mean nothing.”

The magistrate sentenced Iris to work as a prostitute in the Yoshiwara pleasure quarter for ten years. She reveled in the sex, but hated the cramped quarters and the mean brothel owner who kept the money she made. She despised Oyama for using her, and plotted revenge against him, but first she had to escape the Yoshiwara.

After three years she attracted a rich merchant who promised to pay off the brothel for her keep and bribe the bakufu to commute her sentence, but soon another courtesan stole his affection. Iris was furious. At a party in the brothel, she attacked her rival, clawing the woman’s face to shreds. The magistrate sentenced her to a flogging. Her hatred for Oyama grew, as did her need for revenge. Shortly afterward, she was sitting in the window of the brothel, on display for the passing crowds, when a priest approached her.

“Greetings, Iris,” he said. “I’ve come for you.”

She gave him a disdainful sneer, because priests were poor and therefore no use to her. But this one was very handsome, with one eye covered by a patch. “Tell the proprietor you want me,” Iris said, intrigued in spite of herself.

The next thing she knew, she and the priest were riding through the Yoshiwara gate in a palanquin. The priest was Anraku, and he’d bought her freedom.

“But why?” Iris said. “Where are you taking me?”

“I am your destiny. We are going to my temple, where you will join the nunnery.”

A celibate life of prayer didn’t appeal to Iris, but desire for Anraku had already kindled in her, and she thought she could manipulate him into letting her go and giving her money to live on. Butt when they reached the temple, Anraku left her in the convent. There she joined other novices in a regimen of prayer, harsh discipline, little sleep, and no contact with anyone outside. The training confused her mind. She didn’t see Anraku again until ten days later, in a private audience.

“How does your training progress?” he asked.

By this time Iris was desperate for Anraku. “Please,” she murmured, reaching for him.

Anraku only smiled his enigmatic smile. “No. The time is not yet right.”

Iris endured a year as a novice. She lived for brief visits from Anraku. At last he initiated her, gave her a new religious name, Junketsu-in, and revealed the secret passage of the Black Lotus Sutra that was meant for her.

“The union of male and female fosters spiritual energy,” he said. “Woman is the fire, man the smoke. Her door is the flame, his member the fuel. Pleasure is the spark, and climax a sacred offering. Intercourse is a path to enlightenment. That is the path you must follow. I shall be your guide.”

That night he began teaching her the thousand erotic rituals described in the Black Lotus Sutra. Never had Junketsu-in known such fulfillment. Anraku became her beloved god; his words were fact and law to her. Anraku made her abbess of the convent, where she lived in luxury, waited upon by the nuns she ruled, and performing duties ordered by the high priest. Junketsu-in thought she would live happily until the day when Anraku’s prophecies were realized, but soon things began to go wrong, with results that imperiled her today.

Now Junketsu-in said to Anraku, “If the sōsakan-sama accuses me of the crimes, will you protect me?”

“You are protected by your faith in me,” Anraku said.

Yet she needed more than that. If Sano discovered the things she’d done, he might decide she was the only person with reason to have committed all three murders and framed Haru. The girl and the victims, who had come into the Black Lotus one after the other, like a parade of demons, had turned Junketsu-in’s life into hell.

The first demon was Chie.

Junketsu-in had known from the start that Anraku had many lovers; still, she’d believed that no one else could satisfy him the way she did-until Chie arrived. The humble, earthy peasant woman had exuded a powerful sexuality that had captivated Anraku. Junketsu-in argued against admitting Chie as a novice, but Anraku overrode her.

Jealousy plagued her as she spied on him wooing Chie the way he’d done her. She vented her anger on Chie, beating the meek novice, denying her food, calling her names, and spreading lies about her; she’d begged Anraku to expel Chie, in vain. Junketsu-in suffered the torment of secretly watching the pair engage in ritual intercourse. Anraku began ignoring Junketsu-in, while Chie became his new mate and chief nurse in the temple hospital. Junketsu-in had affairs with other priests, hoping to make Anraku jealous, but he proved indifferent. Then she learned that Chie was pregnant.

Anraku had sired children by other women, but Junketsu-in hadn’t cared because he paid little attention to his offspring; nor had she cared that she was barren. But watching Chie grow large with the fruit of his seed was more than Junketsu-in could tolerate. She poisoned Chie’s food, trying to induce a miscarriage. When that failed, Junketsu-in threw Chie on the ground and kicked her stomach. Hastened labor resulted in the birth of a son, Radiant Spirit. Though Anraku took no notice of the event, Junketsu-in ordered the nuns at the nursery to underfeed and neglect the child. While she was waiting for him to die and plotting how to regain her place with Anraku, into her life came the second demon.

Seven years had passed since Commander Oyama had arrested Junketsu-in, and they met again at the ceremony where the sect’s high officials welcomed him as a patron. After the ceremony, Oyama sought out Junketsu-in for a private word.

“So you’re a holy woman now,” he said with the derisive laugh she recalled too well. “Life has treated you kindly.”

“No thanks to you,” Junketsu-in said as her hatred resurfaced.

Oyama leered at her. “I shall enjoy renewing our acquaintance.”

“Not if I can help it.”

But Anraku ordered her to instruct Oyama in ritual sex. She objected to servicing her old enemy, but Anraku said, “It is my will, and you must obey or leave the Black Lotus.” Despite his cruelty, Junketsu-in still loved and desired him. She submitted to degrading encounters in the cottage with Oyama, who mocked her past even as he took his pleasure from her. Meanwhile, Radiant Spirit survived; Chie remained Anraku’s favorite. And along came the last demon.

Angry, rebellious, and lustful, Haru disrupted the orphanage, where she couldn’t get along with the other children, and the monastery, where she got along too well with the monks. Junketsu-in fought to discipline her, but Anraku fancied Haru; he adopted her as a sort of daughter and lover. Suddenly Junketsu-in had another enemy to blight her existence. Still, she persevered and schemed, and she gradually reaped success.

The murders of Chie and Radiant Spirit had removed them forever. Commander Oyama had gotten what he deserved. Haru had been arrested for the crimes, as Junketsu-in had hoped. Anraku had resumed his sexual alliance with Junketsu-in the day after the murders. She was again his mate, but she would not feel safe as long as Haru was still alive.

Anraku grazed Junketsu-in’s cheek with his finger. The heat of his touch stirred her as she recognized the onset of the sexual rite.

“Haru was arrested today,” she said, cautiously broaching a topic that she knew Anraku considered none of her concern.

“I am aware of that. “ Anraku’s finger dragged down her lips, parting them.

Junketsu-in caught her breath. As his finger moved down her chin and throat, she said, “Haru knows much about the temple’s business. Perhaps too much.”

“What is happening to Haru is part of the master scheme,” Anraku said, untying her sash. “She will play her role perfectly.”

Did he intend to do nothing about Haru? Panic tinged Junketsu-in’s thoughts. Then her gray kimono and white under-robe fell away, and she stood naked before Anraku. Arching her neck, she savored the rush of arousal. Anraku shed his garments, revealing sculpted musculature. Smiling beatifically, he glowed with inner energy and immense sexual power.

“Haru has been talking to the sōsakan-sama and his wife,” Junketsu-in said. Surely his desire for her would induce Anraku to listen to her. “She’s already spoken against me because she wants me executed instead of her. To save herself, she may say enough to destroy the Black Lotus. Please stop her before it’s too late.”

“She will say what she is meant to say and do what she is meant to do,” Anraku said. “She is crucial to the destiny of the Black Lotus. My vision has seen the path she must walk.”

Now he began the ritual of Divine Marking. His sharp fingernails gouged Junketsu-in’s neck, breasts, stomach, and buttocks with deep red crescents, lines, and swirls, like a mantra written in flesh. Junketsu-in exclaimed in pain and pleasure. Sensation drowned worry; she gave herself up to Anraku. She bit the tender skin of his armpits, around his navel, and behind his knees. Her teeth left dents where blood welled like tiny red beads.

“You are the fire. I am smoke,” Anraku murmured as they sank onto the bed.

Lying on her back, Junketsu-in raised her legs high, spread them wide. Anraku lowered himself between them and entered her. She swooned at the pleasure. Their bodies moved with flexible ease, her legs first clasping his shoulders then flung outward, his thrusts slow then fast, arms entwining and hands stroking in the most potent ritual of all: Igniting the Flower. Junketsu-in climbed on top, rotating her body around his organ inside her. Then she was crouching and he behind her, penetrating deeply. Now they were upright, she with her knees around his waist, he standing and supporting her. Still thrusting, Anraku began to spin.

The room swirled around Junketsu-in. Glinting jewels of light from the canopy and mural circled in the hazy incense smoke. Anraku spun faster. Junketsu-in laughed in giddy exhilaration. As her passion mounted, she saw in her mind a giant black lotus, the petals on fire. The image of the burning flower shone in Anraku’s eye. His face was fierce with desire. Then the climax took them. As Anraku pumped his seed into Junketsu-in and her body pulsed around him, they seemed to leave the earth and whirl through the stars. She screamed her joy. His moan echoed like thunder across mountains. The flaming lotus exploded in her head, and Junketsu-in tasted the ecstasy to come when destiny arrived and the Black Lotus sect achieved enlightenment.

Then Anraku-and she-would have power over the whole world.