The shadow stepped forward. The moonlight, which had been obstructed by the curtains, now illuminated the man’s face.
It was an eaglelike face, with thick eyebrows that slanted upward; a hooked and protruding nose; glimmering blue eyes; and straight lips, no wider than a slit.
A count… His title meant that he was of the nobility, so that one might expect a man who merely lived off the family fortune and attended lavish balls night and day. However, he gave the impression of being an entirely different sort of man.
He had the face of warrior. Not of a practitioner of judo or kendo but of a man who had been attacked many times by swords—and had plunged countless others into the hearts of men.
There was no doubt that here was a man who could cross a river filled with the blood of his victims, while gazing up the moon.
“Um, um, um,” Takako said hastily. She was the one who had brought the key. If she wasn’t careful, this incident might involve her parents. “I’m sorry. We had heard you would be arriving tomorrow, so…”
“The ship arrived early.” The count came to the center of the room, as Takako and Akane naturally gave way to his imposing presence. “In any case, I live here now. I’d like you to leave.”
“Of course.” Daigo bowed. “I apologize again for intruding. We hope to call on you again at another time.”
“That won’t be necessary,” said the count. “I am a recluse. I have but one purpose in coming to this country. I wish to go home quietly just as soon as my business is concluded. I would prefer that you never return.”
“I understand,” answered Daigo, clearly entranced by this man.
So this is a real European aristocrat. His entire being exuded a power that made Daigo tense. He reminded him of the old samurai of his grandfather’s generation that he had heard so much about from his father.
Evidently the girls had the same impression.
As Takako stood captivated, Akane said, “My name is Kashiwabara Akane. I am the daughter of the owner of Renbei-jyuku, where Minazuki-san trains. We have many men and women of noble birth as our friends.” Akane had managed to finish without averting her eyes.
Daigo saw the count’s lips curl up into a faint smile. That’s when he noticed how red his lips were—red like blood.
“Thank you for the lovely greeting. But now you must leave.”
It was clear he had no wish to continue the conversation. Daigo headed toward the door, urging a reluctant Akane and Takako to do the same.
Outside, Daigo felt relieved to breathe the night air. Massaging his shoulders, Shirô appeared to be feeling the same way. The two girls, on the other hand, looked behind them several times before passing through the iron gate.
“Akane-san,” said Daigo harshly, “this can’t happen ever again.”
“I know,” she said crossly and looked away. “So he arrived earlier than expected, that’s all. Next time—”
“There is no next time.” His voice sounded so cold, so much like a winter night, that it made even the defiant tomboy gasp. “There is something sinister about that man Dracula. And the mansion seemed strange, too. You mustn’t go near that place. Please promise.”
It wasn’t just Daigo’s piercing stare that made her respond obediently. “Okay.” She had felt the same way.
Daigo nodded. “You, too, Saigô-kun. If by chance these ladies forget their promise, you have to stop them.”
“I understand,” said the judo prodigy, scratching his head. He seemed to regret agreeing to accompany the ladies in the first place. But then his face flushed, as he looked at Daigo with excitement and awe.
“But when you cut down that bat with your sword… it was amazing! It sent shivers down my spine.”
“I didn’t cut it.”
Shirô realized that Daigo had a wooden sword; it was more accurate to say he had struck the bat, rather than cut it down. But Shirô thought he had clearly seen the glint of a metal sword at that moment. Even the arrogant count had thought Daigo had cut the bat.
“Excuse me,” interrupted Takako. “Why is it so amazing to cut down a bat?”
Shirô answered, “Well, you’d know if you tried it yourself, but those bats can never be caught. It’s as if they know what you are thinking. They can evade any swing of a stick or just about anything else.”
Takako did not seem all that satisfied with this explanation. While it is now widely known that bats emit supersonic waves to detect prey and evade obstacles, people of this period could rely only on what they themselves experienced,
When they reached the street corner, they heard the sound of an approaching carriage. A black coach drawn by four horses appeared and passed them.
Looking behind them, they watched the coach stop in front of the Dracula mansion.
The driver in the black coat nimbly jumped down from the coach and headed for the iron gate.
“Let’s go.” Akane urged them around the corner, perhaps embarrassed by the whole incident. “Takako-san, what’s wrong?”
The pudgy girl continued to stare at the carriage.
“Hey?” Akane prompted again.
After a while, Takako shook her head and finally started walking again.
“Is there something wrong? Something about the carriage?”
“No, it’s nothing,” said the double-chinned girl. She tried to shake it off, but the look of suspicion still clouded her usually cheerful face and would not go away.
After reaching the road connecting the Kanda and Kôjimachi wards, Daigo parted company with the others.
When he returned home, dinner was ready.
“You’re late.”
Sitting across from Daigo at the table, Sayo ate her dinner with chopsticks as she listened to her taciturn son describe the day’s training at Renbei-jyuku.
“Did you meet a formidable opponent?” she asked.
“So—you know?” Daigo knew that his mother might cut a feminine and willowy figure, but she also possessed the keen eye of a martial artist.
“Your entire body is bursting with energy,” she said, setting down her rice bowl. “That hasn’t happened since you came to Tokyo. Who is this opponent?”
“Well, a nobleman from a foreign land. He called himself Count Dracula.”
“A foreign land?”
Daigo caught the change in his mother’s voice and face. Rarely since they had left their Aomori home— or even since he was a little child—had he seen his mother so shaken.
“Mother, what is it?”
“I’ve told you many times how we lost your father. Do you remember?”
“Yes.”
When mother and son had left their snowy home for the capital, they still had a man they could call husband and father.
Minazuki Shôichirô had gotten a job as a patrolman with the Metropolitan Police Department. With the outbreak of the Seinan War, however, he had headed for Kagoshima as a member of the Battotai brigade and had vanished.
“Your father was one of the bravest men, and he went to Tabaruzaka where the fighting was hardest. He was injured but only after he had cut down more than ten men on his own. He was on a boat with other injured men heading back to Tokyo, when the boat vanished. There were no reports that they had encountered rough seas. What exactly happened remains a mystery.”
Daigo nodded. When he remembered the day he was told his father had vanished, it felt like a wooden sword being plunged into his body.
One day, he had asked his father why he had fought in the shogun’s army in the Boshin War, when it had been clear that it was a losing battle.
And his father had answered proudly, “The enemy attacked us under the banner of the emperor. When that happened, many of the men from clans that were indebted to the Tokugawa turned their backs on the shogun and fought for the other side. We knew how it would all end. The times had changed in favor of the emperor’s army. Even so, I was proud to be a part of the Ou Allied Clans, which had fought loyally for the shogun until the very end. Whether that was a foolish choice or a wise one is a decision left to other men. I don’t think we will ever know which was the right decision, but our clan chose the old-fashioned notion of loyalty, despite the changing times. For my own part, I believe I chose well.”
This was the father who had vanished into the sea, bloody sword in hand. And Daigo understood now that when his mother had just heard about the man from the other side of the ocean, she had been overcome with a wave of emotion. Although she had said that his father had died honorably, she had probably held out hope that he was alive somewhere in a foreign land.
However, she picked up her rice bowl and went back to eating.
Embarrassed, she said, “Let’s forget about it, Daigo.”
“Yes.” It was all he could say.