s
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things, and find my limitations.
In morning, I squat in my shrine I have built another in the city and
concentrate on as much of
Japan as I can. Then I take a train and go away from the city, which is very
much like Yokohama, to
Kyoto. And there I live, work, marry. Have a child. But nobody grows old. I
help design airplanes in a factory airplanes nobody uses, probably waiting
for war to come and find me. I feel that none of my workers or friends change,
become more worthy. Everyone stays the same. Soon I am bored. I think of other
things about heroic times, when there were ways to gain honor and live a
full life. I think of days after Japan was created, and of the Sun hiding in a
cave, and what happened to Her. I think of
Jemmu Tenno. But nothing changes outside it is just very deep night. I don t
know enough about such things.
So I think of a library. It is barely clear in my mind before I am wandering
through stacks of books and racks of newspapers, reading about all sorts of
things. I learn what has happened since I left. I find news about the war.
Real news? I don t know. But there is so much, so self-consistent, that I
decide I cannot have made it all up. My captors must inject some of real world
into my creation. I find English books about the war, and other subjects, so I
learn how to read and speak English. I don t need to rest, so I study for
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days, weeks, time no matter. I learn the war had gone badly. We had lost. And
surrendered. The emperor declared that the beginning of Japan was a myth, and
he was not descended from the Sun
Goddess, but was a mortal.
Emperor Showa, Carina interjected.
Yes, Hirohito when he was alive. That night, to soothe myself, I hang a
ribbon for Japan in my shrine.
Then I go to other parts of the library and find books on Japanese history,
besides traditional ones I have read in school. My thoughts about the past are
clearing. I decide first on nineteenth century, since I had heard a lot about
it from my grandfather, who was actual samurai. I learn about
Bushido
, the warrior s
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Beyond Heaven's River way. Next morning, I go outside library, and nineteenth
century is outside door. I go out to live as a traveling priest. That lasts, I
think, for many decades.
But after turn of century, as war with Russia grows near, I become unhappy. I
go to shrine and make it night outside. With that night goes two wives, one
who had died in childbirth, three children, many friends.
When day comes, I am in a Japan I have never seen before. I haven t created
it myself, not intentionally.
I decide it has been created for me by the kami
.
It is the twelfth century. I am a man named Tokimasa, a very important
adviser. I begin to see what the kami wish me to do. I am to examine Japanese
history, to find what has flawed us.
They told you that? Elvox asked.
No, never speak. Never show. But this is strong suggestion, no? I think
perhaps I will see how to change history, to bring Japan to enlightenment
before my time comes an experiment. To decrease pain and killing and
ignorance. I try to &
He stopped and looked down at the table. That is all my shame. From the very
beginning it is my shame, to be captured alive, to accept the destruction of
my land, to act so before the kami who are testing me.
You say there are things I will have trouble understanding. Well, you cannot
easily understand my shame.
Hoji Tokimasa was a member of the Taira clan, Carina said. He was given
charge of two Minamoto boys, Yoritomo and Yoshitsune, sons of Kiyomori, a
chieftain killed by the Taira. Yoritomo married your daughter & uh, Masa, but
you didn t accept the marriage until they had a child. When Yoritomo staged a
revolt against the Taira, you & uh, Tokimasa switched allegiance.
That is history, Kawashita said. And I was too weak to change it second
time around. When I created, what I meddled with it would have been better
if I had killed Masa in her bed as an infant. His voice was quavering with
bitterness, and his eyes brimmed with tears.
Elvox was impatient. How long before the Perfidisians left and everything
stopped?
I don t know. I try to change things, but everything snaps back. I try to run
away by making another world, but I have to return. Time does not mean much
under the dome. The last years, I advise Yoritomo after he makes himself the
first universal shogun
the first to establish the place of the shoguns in
Japan.
When did the trouble begin? Anna asked.
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Beyond Heaven's River
Kawashita shook his head. It was awful.
Storm s letting up, the pilot observed, entering the lounge. Anna, we have
a signal from the
Peloros
.
Two Centrum ships have entered orbit. They re waiting for permission to send
down landers.
Anna looked across the table at Kawashita. Well?
Yes?
You seem to be provisional owner. Can they land?
Of course.
The pilot handed a tapas insert to Elvox. And here s a message from the two
men you sent into the dome.
Yes. I have some questions about that. Yoshio, we measured that dome. It
couldn t possibly hold everything you ve told us about. How do you explain
that?
I do not know. He bowed to them. I will go rest now. Is it possible He
paused, his eyebrows coming together and his lips working. Is it possible to
destroy the dome and everything under it?
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