THE UGLY PRINCESS - Part 2

"See, Hiro-chan, he is awake.  Open your eyes, Hasegawa-san," said a clear,
girlish voice.  "You're quite safe, and you've been awake for a good five
minutes now."

The voice was somehow familiar.  He did as he was told, and was aware for a
second of a slight dizziness, the last traces of the drugs cleaning his system
as his sight focussed on cloudless blue sky directly overhead.  He was in the
open air, lying on clipped, clean-scented grass, a light breeze playing across
his face.  He let his eyes slide down, across the mountains fringing the sky to
treetops, then sideways, and blinked.

The girl kneeling beside him was Japanese, dressed in full formal kimono, peach
and pink, with an obi as blue as the sky.  Hasegawa's impressions were of
exquisite taste and vast expense.  She was possibly fifteen or sixteen years
old, with a pleasant but not striking face, still rounded and somewhat
childlike.  What had made him blink was her hair.  Pulled up into a tail on the
crown of her head and held by a skyblue bow, it was perfectly normal Asian
hair, thick, straight and glossy, except that it was the colour of polished
copper and that it was trailing on the ground around her.

He sat up and pulled himself to his knees, looking round to see who she had
been talking to.  They were in a walled garden, and some thirty or forty metres
away he could see a large, oldfashioned Japanese house with a wide verandah and
paper shoji screens opening onto an inner room.  Three figures were seated
inside.  The girl followed his eyes and said "The Ladies of the Household
Office would be honoured if you would join them, Hasegawa-san."

"Are you one of them?"

"I'm still in training. Just a very young apprentice."  The word she used,
maiko, was an archaic word that used to mean a trainee geisha, but Hasegawa
knew that wasn't how she meant it.  He hadn't taken ancient and classical
Japanese at school, preferring more practical subjects, but he had read widely,
and through Sachiko he had had a little contact with the formalities of the
outer circles of the Court.  Some archaic words had more than one meaning,
depending on context, user, even intonation.  He was moving in a circle so
rareified that he might - indeed, would be expected to - miss most of what was
going on around him.  Well, we'll see about that, he thought.

The girl got up, so he did the same.  She didn't reach his shoulder, and that
fabulous hair hung almost to her knees, sliding smooth as water across the
complex, beautifully tied bow that had turned the ends of her obi into a sky-
blue rose.  She moved across the grass, tiny steps in red lacquer sandals
decorated with little gold flowers, sandals that looked like four or five
months of Hasegawa's salary but were casually abandoned by the steps that led
up to the verandah.  He hesitated, unsure, but she motioned him to take off his
own shoes, so he did, slipping his feet into the soft slippers she produced.
Then she turned to the open screens, knelt, made a deep formal bow and said,
"Hasegawa Juzo-san is here."

He bowed, and followed her in, kneeling on the cushion she indicated.  It was
placed on a traditional, handwoven, vastly expensive tamati floor.  The room
was airy, almost bare except for an exquisite picture scroll of dragonflies on
reeds hanging in an alcove, and a single spray of blossom in a porcelain jar
before it.  The girl knelt alongside the three women who were studying him
intently as he studied his surroundings.  Two were dressed like her, in formal
kimono, one all in white, the other in deep purple.  One, to his surprise, was
in Western dress, a soft, clinging garment with a deep neckline that showed off
her impressive cleavage.  Did he know her?  He'd like to...  Hasegawa felt a
sudden stirring in his loins, and focussed on the other two, cursing mentally
as he made the best formal bow he could muster.

"Welcome to our Summer Palace, Hasegawa-kun." said the woman in white.  She
looked to be the oldest of the three, with grey in her soft, dark hair and
laughter lines around her eyes; her voice was low and firm and she was used to
command.  He tried to remember where he'd seen her before.  "I am sorry that it
was necessary to drug you before you came here, but we handle many delicate
matters and it is better that we have a few retreats unknown to the outside
world."

"The chaffeur said he was bringing me to the Deep City.  I thought I'd be
travelling along the private rail link into the Inner Palace."

"And so you did and once you were unconscious you were brought here."  She
showed no surprise at his words and went on.  "We knew that you were
researching the Household Office as thoroughly as possible.  It confirmed our
opinion of your determination and intelligence, but neither you nor your
people, nor indeed more than three people outside this Office, are aware of
this place, or could find it even if they were aware of it, or could get in
even if they could find it."

He kept his face impassive, but he was shocked.  He knew his team.  His
secretary was utterly loyal.  Goggle was about as good a hacker as you could
find, certainly the best in Japan, he had sworn he'd leave no traces, and any
of the others would have told him if they'd been detected.  The dossier he'd
locked in his desk before leaving the office last night was the most
information available anywhere on the mysterious body known as the Imperial
Household Office, and nobody who had not worked on it knew of its existence.
Now this calm woman was telling him she knew all about his efforts, and also -
subtly and gently - that he was her prisoner.

"Why am I here?  There's obviously more to it than formal mourning for my late
wife."  That was what the invitation had said, the heavy, deckle-edged paper
with its flowing brush calligraphy that had been laid ceremoniously on his desk
by an Imperial messenger three days ago.  A year since Sachiko had died, less
four days.  On the anniversary of the untimely death of a lady of the Imperial
blood, the Ladies of the Household Office invited her husband to join them in
three days of formal mourning and condolence.  It was the first time anyone in
the Department had ever received such an invitation; his political masters had
indicated there was no question of refusal.  He had cleared his desk, given his
orders regarding active files and ongoing investigations, packed a case and
been collected from his apartment by a correct old chaffeur in an Imperial
limo, who had listened but not responded to his probing and presumably flooded
the passenger compartment with whatever had knocked him out.  It could't have
been more than four or five hours ago; he had been collected at seven, the sun
was now straiqht overhead.  Unless they'd kept him out for a day - or more.
His mind was racing.

"Mourning for Sachi-chan is part of it.  I knew her quite well.  She was
younger than I, and in another branch of the family, but I was aware or her
trouble and sad that we could not help her.  We will hold a formal ceremony
tomorrow at dawn.  It should be on the anniversary itself."  So they hadn't
kept him out a full day.  The woman with the cleavage stirred slightly, and the
one in white checked herself and went on, "But I have not yet made formal
introductions, please excuse me.  May I present my sister, Kazeko Courtney-
Minowara, her sister, Melissa Kotonoi, and my daughter, Tokugawa Ai Himiko no
Minamoto no Achikaga no Fujimoto no Minowara.  I am known in the world as the
Lady Aijo."

Of course, that was it.  The ex-Emperor's widow.  He remembered the scandal in
the cheap press when the old man married, soon after his abdication, while
Hasegawa was in junior high school, there had been some sort of Imperial
intrigue, the girl had been intended for the new Emperor and was twenty to her
bridegroom's sixty.  She must be in her early forties now.  The one in purple
was perhaps a handful of years younger, the one with the breasts - he turned
his mind firmly away from lust, again - a little younger still.  So the child
with the roll of Imperial and Shogunate names as long as history on her birth
certificate was the daughter of an ex-Emperor and a noblewoman whose blood was
equal to his, with an aunt with a half-Western surname and an obviously
complicated family life.

"You could have brought me to the Palace shrine and held formal mourning
there.  You must excuse me if I wonder what else is involved."

"You mean, what do we want from you, Hasegawa-kun.  Please come with us and we
will show you."  All four women got to their feet, but Melissa Kotonoi shook
her head as she did so.

"This isn't my story, ane-sama.  I'll go and make sure that Hasegawa-san's room
is in order."

"As you wish Meri-chan."  Hasegawa watched her leave by another sliding screen,
aware of the grace of her movements; she was short, plump, and cervaceous and
walked in a way very few slender women could emulate, with an almost feline
grace.  He was vividly aware of the graduations of language; she had used the
most respectable and archaic form of 'elder sister' to the woman in white and
the formal 'san' to him, while the lady Aijo had addressed both of them -
entirely correctly - as inferiors, though with great affection to the woman.
The girl was holding open another door, and followed them after closing it
behind them.

They were on a little paved terrace on the side of the mountain. A small
parapet divided them from a drop of some six or seven hundred feet down sheer
rock into a silver river racing far below.  Wooded slopes rose on all sides and
the skyline was bounded by mountain peaks.  Hasegawa could not see a road up to
the castle anywhere.  The woman in purple, who had not spoken so far, answered
his thoughts.

"There's a road inside the mountain.  Otherwise you fly in."

"Inside..."

"This castle is only about two thousand years old, but the site has been a
stronghold since the dawn of time.  One day perhaps you'll see the cave
paintings in the lower tunnels.  They're very interesting."

"History isn't my forte."

"Its ours."  Now that he was closer to her he could see that, although her hair
was dark, it had crackles of fire where the light hit it, and that her skin was
a creamy shade just this side of sallow and her eyes were most un-Japanese,
large and a pale blue-grey colour.  She was small, and he could see her
resemblence to Melissa Kotonoi, but she and the Lade Aijo shared the same firm,
square jaw and short nose - neither of them classical attributes of beauty in
Japanese tradition, but not at all unattractive, he thought.  She smiled, and
he realised that she was aware of his scrutiny, aware that he was storing away
as much as he could for checking later.

"It will do you no good, kacho.  If you agree to help us, you'll never take any
of the actions you are contemplating.  If you don't you will remember
absolutely nothing of all this.  Nyan-chan, will you go and tell cook we'll
have lunch in half and hour, and see that everything is in order?  Ka-sama and
I need to talk to Hasegawa-san alone."

The girl bowed and went back through the sliding screen and Kazeko indicated a
low stone bench and sat beside him.  The lady Aiio had been standing by the
parapet, looking out into space; she turned and came to stand before them.

"As my sister said, history is our forte.  We live in it and by it; we are more
aware of it than most."  She paused.  "Hasegawa-kun, how much do you know about
magic?"

"I don't believe in magic."

"That was not my question."

He shook his head.  "I can't answer.  I know about conjuring, sleight-of-hand,
tricks; I know that some people believe in witches and ghosts and goblins.  But
I don't take it seriously."

"You should.  Oh, you should."  Kazeko's voice was low and cool.  "Listen,
Hasegawa-Kun, and remember, if you don't believe us, if we can't use you, you
will forget all of this and remember only a religious ceremony in a temple
somewhere in Tokyo - magic is real."

He shook his head.  "Ladies, I'm not fool enough to think that I can walk out
of here whenever I want, I know you want me for some purpose, and besides, I'd
like to know what's behind all this.  But please, don't disappoint me.  Magic
is for children and fools."

Kazeko laughed softly.  "How right you are, Hasegawa-kun.  How right you are."

"I think perhaps we should explain why we brought you here tirst - apart from
Sachi-chan's mourning ceremony, of course.  We have been watching you for quite
some time.  You first came to our attention when we had to investigate your
background and do a psychological profile before you married into the family.
It may seem strange," Aijo smiled ruefully, "that we would worry about the
psychology of anyone marrying into the family with children as damaged as
Sachiko already inside, but we had to know it you would damage her further so
that we could try to prevent the match."

He laughed, a short, harsh bark with no humour in it.  "But you didn't manage
it."

She laid a hand briefly on his arm.  "You were Sachiko's best hope.  If it had
been possible to save her, marriage to you might have done it; but she was bent
on her own end long before you met her.  When we realised that you had certain
interesting qualities and abilities, we kept your file active and kept an eye
on your subsequent career.  Then an event occurred which gave us - ah - rather
more information than we expected about you."

Kazeka continued, "While you were conducting a certain investigation, my sister
Melissa took what can only be described as an unauthorised interest in you.
She kidnapped you, drugged you and held you for several days in a variety of
hallucinogenic states before returning you to your office."

He didn't know how, but he was on the other side of the terrace, above the
abyss and he was shaking.  Aijo came over and laid a hand on his arm again,
drawing him firmly back from the edge.

"Meri-chan", she said with that same rueful little smile, "has always been
impulsive."

"Im - impulsive..."  He sat down once more, his legs trembling, unable to stop
shaking.  That time, those...  Swallowing convulsively, he closed his eyes,
gripped the edge of the stone bench, forced himself to slow his breathing, calm
down, stop shaking.  It seemed like a long time before he could lift his head,
both women were lookinq at him calmly.

"Do you know," he asked, unable to keep the tremor from his voice, "what she
did to me?"

"Oh yes.  We have all the files.  Video, audio, biofeedback, brainscan, neural
output, everything."  Kazeko assured him.  "It was very interesting."

"Of course, we don't for one moment approve of her actions, and we have let her
know it.  It was improper of her to play her sexual games with a non-consenting
partner.  The problem is, Meri-chan is rich and clever and bored, and we
sometimes can't prevent her from doing these things.  Are you quite well,
Hasegawa-kun?"  Getting no answer, Aijo struck her hands together.  A servent
materialised on the periphery of Hasegawa's vision and he heard her murmur an
order.  A few moments later a glass of brandy was pressed into his hands and he
downed the contents in one, then spluttered as the brandy burned in his throat;
but the chill left him and the last of the trembling stopped.

"I'm sorry; we did not mean to recall unpleasant memories.  But once we knew
what Meri-chan had done, and got her to hand over her records, we realised that
you were everything we had hoped for."

"I'm so glad.  I would like to leave now."

"Not until we have finished our story, and told you what we want."

"What you want!  Are all the Imperial women like her and Sachiko?"

"My sister isn't a member of the Imperial family," said Kazeko.  "She and I are
the daughters of John Courtney, but she's a bastard, born to his mistress after
our mother died."

"Our mother," continued Aijo, "was a Minowara princess who left my father and
ran off with Courtney when I was four years old.  The scandal broke my fathers
heart and my cradle engagement to the heir to the Ai Emperor; but it kept me
free to marry the Ai Emperor after his abdication.  Courtney was a good man,
but after our mother died he took little interest in anything but his work;
Meri-chan grew up largely alone, and although Kazeko and I did our best to keep
an eye on her, we were children ourselves when she was born and the protocols
of the Court and society kept us from looking after her as we would have
wished.  The bastard of a man who stole an Imperial princess... you know how it
is.  Only the fact that Courtney was so influential and such a good friend to
Japan and the imperial family kept them both alive - that, and the undying love
my father bore our mother.  Luckily Meri-chan loves Japan, she changed her name
to its Japanese form and took citizenship here when she came of age, and so we
are able to keep something of an eye on her."

"She's a remarkable talented chemist and has - ah, special skills of which
you're aware.  She could have joined the police force or the secret service,
but she prefers to use her skills purely for, shall we say, recreational
purposes."  Kazeko looked at him kindly, he suspected she found the whole
matter amusing.  I must be as crazy as they are, thought Hasegawa, stamping
firmly on the thought of what he could do with a talent like that on his force.

"How did she find me?"

"She's a consultant subject librarian at Oedo University.  It lets her keep up
with her academic interests.  She was working on a project when your path
crossed hers; it was chance and impulse, nothing more."

Chance and impulse.  The most awful, terrifying, incredible experience of his
life.  Nothing more.  "How can she look me in the face?"

"Ask her yourself over lunch," said Aijo.  "But forgive me if I return to the
point of this tedious tale.  Put briefly, Hasegawa-kun, the Imperial Household
Office is not simply a social and protocol executive arm of the Crown, though
we do fulfil that function well enough.  It is also the worldly form of a
sisterhood of priestesses descended from the Empress Himiko, which in its turn
is part of a web of magical and priestly alliances stretching across time and
place whose function is to strive to keep the cosmos in balance and prevent the
darkness from overcoming the light."

"Now I know you're all crazy."

"You may choose to think so, but please hear us out nonetheless.  Our line has
been carefully preserved down the centuries, sometimes at great cost and in
great peril, by descent, alliance, sometimes adoption; we try to keep our
activities secret because of the uses that could be made of them for
wickedness.  But on occasion we find that we need outside help, that someone
not of our line nor one of our allies has a particular gift which can aid us in
an hour of great need.  You have such talent and we need you.  No -" she held
up a hand to silence his outburst, "- I am not telling you you are a warlock or
a magician and never suspected it; it's hard to be certain but I would say you
have no such power, Hasegawa-kun.  What you do have is - well, in your terms it
is a gift for observation and detection which is almost beyond any I have ever
seen.  You can almost sense individuals and effects which will lead you to a
goal, and can track them down through seemingly impossible barriers if you with
to bring them to justice."

"I'm a good cop.  I know that.  What use is it to you?"

"You can home in on someone you want, almost like a guided bullet, and find him
out.  You are also a superb channel for psychic energies - strong, receptive,
intelligent and hard to break.  That's what we found out from Meri-chan's
experiments. That's why we decided to bring you in.  We want you to find
someone for us, someone with whom you have a strong connection, someone you
want very badly.  Once you locate him, we can bring him back."

He laughed harshly.  "All this trouble for that?  Why not file a missing
persons report?"

"It's a little more complicated than that, Hasegawa-kun.  We think he's in
Seattle."

"I can't believe you ladies have never heard of international policing."

A gong sounded on the cool blue air.  Kazeko stood up.  "We think he's in
Seattle several hundred years ago, and there's a barrier we can't shift.  Shall
we have lunch and continue this conversation later?"

Hasegawa got up, but did not immediately follow them to the door.  He stood
looking out over the mountains and the river, his face impassive but his mind
whirling at the absurdity of what he'd been told.  Suddenly a thought surfaced
from the whirlpool, a thought that had been nagging him ever since he woke, and
he grabbed at it, at one simple, rational question that could be asked and
answered.  He turned to Aijo.

"When I woke up in the garden - you were in the house, looking out?"

She nodded.

"Your daughter was speaking to someone else as I came round, but I couldn't see
anyone.  Where did he go?"

She smiled.  "She was speaking to her twin brother, Hasegawa-kun, and I'm
afraid you won't believe where he went.  He's been dead for three years.  He
and her grandmother died trying to protect her from someone, or something, that
wants to steal her and use her, and worse, use what she has the potential to
become; and that's why we need you to find your runaway hound Benten.  Let's
not keep lunch waiting, shall we go in?"