again –
Shake and fall again, unless I can free the Dead and fetter the Evil, the Evil that now runs amok in the oCcULT CITY.
For all their new codes and all their official shrines have given free rein to Evil Magick and its practitioners, outlawing the old Folk Magick and its old believers, the ordinary and the good –
Those like me; Shimizu Kogorō, the Occult-Tantei, with my pockets full of coins, coins full of holes, holes and only holes; my pockets full of holes, holes and only holes. For I am here to cleanse this city of all its shrines and all their evils, their curses and their spells, their magick and their murder. For I am here –
Here to liberate these restless Dead –
To free them from their chains –
The Dead, Dead, Dead.
IN THE oCcULT CITY, they have burnt the dead. The mass funeral has ended. They are safe now, safe from Him. But not me, never me. I leave the Gokokuji Temple. I leave this sanctuary. I walk back up Shinobazu-dōri. Here there is no sanctuary, no sanctuary from Him. Here I am not safe, not safe from Him. In His city –
In His city of shrines, the shrines He likes –
The Evil Magick victorious for now –
The Holy War lost, lost for now –
IN THE oCcULT CITY.
The oCcULT CITY is a séance,
a city of cries, a city of pleas,
of prayers and of whispers.
In this forest of broken bones and dead skin,
among these branches, among these limbs,
I listen for their voices.
I touch the branches, I touch the leaves,
I taste their stains,
their bones and their skin.
They are here, they are here, they are here now –
IN THE oCcULT CITY,
and they are crying, and they are pleading.
But now they are gone, they are gone, they are gone again,
for now He is here, He is here, He is here again,
here again to parade their meat.
And I say, ‘If I die, I die …’
And He smiles, and He says, ‘You will die, you will die …
‘I promise you.’
IN THE oCcULT CITY, in the shadows of the shrine, the sound of their feet in the snow, the sound of their fists on my door. In their black hats and their white boots, they knock me from my chair and they drag me from my office. They push me down the steps of the shrine, they bundle me into the back of their car. They drive me to their police station, they carry me into their interview room. They sit me on a chair, they shine a light on me. They talk about conspiracies, they talk about coincidences. But they do not know there are no conspiracies, they do not know there are no coincidences. They do not know there is only Magick; Good Magick and Evil Magick; Evil Magick & Evil Plague. For they have forgotten and so they no longer understand. But I have not forgotten, so I still understand. For I know my destiny, I know my future. For I have seen my future, all our futures, from a fortune-teller, at a makeshift stall, in an ancient alley, a fortune-teller who smiled at me, and who told me, ‘You will save this city, Shimizu Kogorō. You will cure this city …’
‘Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha …’
And so I tell them I am Shimizu Kogorō, I am the Occult-Detective. I tell them I am only here to help them, I am only here to save them. Here to catch their Killer, here to close their case –
‘Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha …’
But they laugh at my words, and they slap my face. They knock me from their chair, they kick me down their stairs. They throw me through their doors, they leave me in His streets. In the snow and in the sleet, the echoes and the whispers –
IN THE oCcULT CITY –
‘Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha …
‘Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha …’
I can hear Him laughing at me, I can hear Him mocking me,
but I have a new plan, so I will set a new trap,
and then I’ll have the Last Laugh!
Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha …
For to catch a demon, I must become a demon.
So I will dress as a demon dresses, and I will do as a demon does,
and I will become His doppelgänger,
His double-goer.
Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha …
So I cut my hair short.