Kimono Code Read online

  EJ took the sushi CHARM from her bracelet and twisted. As people walked by, she pretended to nibble on the sushi as she moved closer to one of the trees. When she was sure no one was watching, she reached up and poked the test-stick into one of the lower branches of a cherry blossom tree, piercing the bark. A little red light flashed on the side of the sushi. EJ waited. When the light flashed green, she removed the rod from the branch and then connected it to her phone socket. Her phone screen flashed.

  Her phone beeped.

  A new message from SHINE had come through on EJ’s phone.

  The test was negative. That was good, it meant that these trees had not yet been infected with Blossom Block, but EJ knew they were under threat. Had Agent CC12 from the Surveillance Division found out something? EJ checked her map and saw she wasn’t too far from the temple. She continued along the path and turned left. Ahead of her was a huge wooden gateway; two large pieces of timber, painted orange, stood nearly four metres high on either side of the path with two long beams of black timber lying across the top. The beams were covered with ornate engravings of cherry blossoms.

  EJ walked through the gate and up a long set of stone steps. Tall bamboo plants flanked the steps and led up to a large, stone-paved courtyard. At the back of the courtyard was a large wooden building, the temple. Intricately detailed engravings, painted red, white and gold, adorned its front, and red lanterns with black Japanese symbols hung from beams while two large stone dragons guarded the doorway. There were many visitors at the temple, and EJ realised that it was important to respect the temple customs. She watched to see what people did as they entered its grounds.

  EJ saw people come to a long stone tub basin at the entrance to the courtyard. Resting on a wooden rack across the basin were bamboo ladles, cups on long sticks. People took the ladles, poured water onto their hands and took a sip before rinsing the ladle and resting it back on the rack. Then, some people approached the temple, bowing before they entered, while others walked to the wooden stalls that lined the temple courtyard.

  EJ washed her hands carefully and walked over to the first stall. There, an old lady, white hair pulled back off her face and wearing a simple white kimono with a yellow belt, stood behind a cabinet displaying small cloth amulets, envelope-like pouches no larger than two fingers wide. They were all of different colours, each with different symbols and patterns sewn into the cloth.

  ‘Omamori,’ said the woman. ‘Blessings, charms inside for good fortune.’

  EJ looked over the bags pinned up on the board. Thankfully, under each was an English translation. There were blessings for health, for family, for road safety, even blessings for good luck in exams.

  I wish there was one for success in dealing with mean girls, thought EJ as she walked to the next stall, or finding agents. Where is CC12?

  At the next stall, there was a high, wide wooden chest with rows of small drawers, each with a knob and a Japanese character painted in black on the drawer. On the ledge in front of the chest stood a plain metal canister. To the side was a wooden frame with metal wires. Hundreds of strips of paper had been tied in knots across the wires and were fluttering in the breeze. EJ watched as a woman first put a silver coin through a slit on the ledge, picked up the canister and shook it, tipping the canister upside down until a bamboo stick came out of a hole at the top. The woman looked at the stick, opened one of the chest drawers and removed a piece of paper. She frowned as she read, and then tied the piece of paper on the wire before walking away. EJ approached the ledge and saw a notice in Japanese. She took a photo and translated it with her app.

  She pressed the link for more information.

  I could do with some good luck, thought EJ, as she put a silver coin through the slot and shook the canister. A bamboo stick fell out.

  EJ matched the symbol on the stick with the symbol on a drawer. She smiled as she counted—it was number 13—and opened the drawer, but her smile faded when she saw there was nothing there. She pulled the drawer out and then jumped back as she saw two deep blue eyes staring out at her.

  ‘It’s okay, EJ, it’s me, CC12!’ whispered CC. ‘Hey, I like your black hair!’

  EJ relaxed and stepped closer to the drawer. ‘Thanks, CC,’ EJ whispered, ‘but how did you get in there?’

  ‘I’m very flexible,’ replied CC, grinning. ‘And it’s a perfect surveillance position. I have a spy-hole at the back of this chest, and I’ve been on watch since the first message was intercepted here.’

  ‘Have you seen anything?’ asked EJ.

  ‘Nothing unusual as far as I can tell,’ said CC. ‘The preparations for the hanami are underway. A special geisha tea ceremony has been announced for later this evening, ahead of the blooming that should begin tomorrow.’

  ‘I’ve tested one of the trees here,’ said EJ. ‘It hasn’t been infected with Blossom Block, at least not yet.’

  ‘But SHADOW has been busy,’ said CC. ‘The Japanese Government has received a new message saying the blossoms of each major city will be struck and the ransom will go up one million yen for each city until it is paid. SHINE has upgraded our phone-maps, showing which cities have been infected. Black means “infected and no blossoms”, brown means “no blossoms but not infected” and pink means “have blossoms”. The red line shows where in the country blossoms should be blooming. Everything below the line is late.’

  ‘Yes,’ agreed EJ, looking at her map. ‘Everything below the line is black, and everything above it is brown. They seem to be striking just before the trees are meant to bloom. I need to stop them blocking any more blossoms, and I need to find the antidote. The last city infected was Osaka in the south.’ EJ checked her map. ‘The next major city after Osaka is Kyoto. That will be their next target. I need to go there now.’

  ‘Don’t forget your fortune,’ said CC, passing EJ a piece of paper. ‘Push the drawer back, and good luck, EJ.’

  ‘Thanks, CC,’ said EJ, taking the paper and putting the drawer back. She read it using her phone and translator app.

  Flowers will bloom, repeated EJ as she folded the paper. ‘It’s just random,’ she said to herself. ‘It’s not really true.’

  Pushing the paper into her pocket, she rushed out of the temple gates.

  As the long white Bullet Train sped silently out of the city and into the Japanese countryside, EJ’s thoughts were rushing almost as fast as the train.

  We still don’t have much to go on, she fretted. We know the kunoichi are moving up the country, infecting the trees of each major city just before they bloom. But we don’t know who the kunoichi are or how they are infecting the trees. And are they already in Kyoto? Will I get there in time?

  The sight of a majestic mountain outside the window interrupted EJ’s thoughts. Almost a perfect cone, the mountain seemed to stretch up from nowhere into the clouds, its peak capped with snow. It was Mount Fuji.

  Mount Fuji is said to be the home to Konohanasakuuyahime, remembered EJ, the goddess of cherry blossom in the message. Is that a clue?

  But if it was, EJ couldn’t work it out. She was still trying frantically to crack the code as the train pulled into Kyoto Station and she stepped out onto another busy platform. Everywhere were tourists with backpacks and suitcases getting off trains, consulting maps.

  ‘They are all coming to view the cherry blossom,’ murmured EJ. ‘I hope they will be able to.’

  There were tour groups everywhere, with tour guides holding flags of different colours leading their groups out of the station and off around the city. As EJ checked her map for the key cherry blossom areas, she could hear many different languages being spoken, including English.

  ‘This way, please,’ cried one tour guide, a girl with long, curly blonde hair and blue eyes. ‘Over here please for the “Shine a Light on Kyoto Tour.” Oh, excuse me, you there,’ the guide called out to EJ. ‘I think you might be on this tour.’

  ‘No, thank you, I’m not,’ replied EJ, a little startled. ‘Thanks anyway.’ />
  ‘Oh, but I think you are,’ pressed the guide, looking hard at EJ. ‘And you must join us, it really is an A1 tour. I think you will find it very illuminating. We stop at all the best cherry blossom sites.’

  A1? Illuminating? Is the tour guide an agent? EJ remembered the agent identification exchange she had learned. She came closer to the guide. ‘Have you taken any good photos of chocolate bars?’ EJ asked her.

  ‘Oh, yes,’ replied the tour guide. ‘I must show you my jelly crunch pictures.’

  The tour guide had answered using the SHINE agent exchange. EJ smiled at her and whispered, ‘I’m Agent EJ12, Code-cracking and Field Division.’

  ‘I know, EJ,’ said the guide. ‘I’m EW12, Surveillance. I’m glad you’re here. Most of the trees are in Gion, the old part of town. I can take you there now with this tour.’

  EJ nodded and went to the back of the group. Walking along, she listened as the guide chatted happily to everyone about the history of Kyoto. They hadn’t walked far from the station when they came to a bridge over a wide river. Cherry blossom trees grew along both sides of the river, but their branches were stark and bare.

  ‘Across this centuries-old bridge,’ said the tour guide, ‘is the old town of Kyoto, the district of Gion, home of some of the most beautiful cherry blossoms and the mysterious geisha.’

  ‘But when will the trees bloom?’ asked one tourist, a little irritated. ‘Shouldn’t we be able to see them now?’

  ‘Well,’ started EW, shooting a nervous look at EJ, ‘we are expecting them to bloom at any time.’

  While the group walked across the bridge, EJ stayed back to take a sample from one of the trees. She sent the data off, and within a few minutes, a message came back from IJ12: the trees were not infected. EJ let out a sigh of relief. She had arrived in time, but had the kunoichi arrived as well?

  EJ hurried to catch up to EW’s tour group again. Walking through the small and winding, stone-cobbled streets of Gion was like going back in time. The houses, smaller and narrower than modern ones, were made completely from wood and were painted black. They had small square windows with brightly coloured flags strung across them and lanterns hung from doorways. It was more than a little magical.

  Suddenly, one of the tourists in the group cried out. ‘Look!’

  Ahead of them, at the end of the street, was a group of women wearing striking white make-up and dressed in kimonos. They walked across the road in wooden sandals, their faces partially hidden by their rice-paper fans.

  The tourists gasped in excitement and rushed up the street, taking photos.

  ‘They are geisha,’ confirmed EW. ‘Dressed in the traditional full kimono with elaborate hair and make-up, the geisha are part of an ancient Japanese tradition of artists and entertainers. The geisha can sometimes be seen walking to and from their tea-houses. We have been lucky to catch a glimpse of them.’

  EW took EJ to one side. ‘It’s strange,’ she whispered. ‘The kimonos of those geisha were very dark. They are usually much more brightly coloured.’

  The geisha crossed the road, but by the time the tour group reached the corner, they had vanished. The street they had turned into, lined with bare cherry blossom trees, was empty. EJ nodded to EW, who led the group towards a small souvenir shop while EJ tested one of the trees. She waited for the result from the SHINE laboratory, which arrived a few minutes later.

  The kunoichi have been here, thought EJ. Her phone flashed as another message came through.

  EJ looked at the screen in disbelief. Just three minutes ago? How was that possible? EJ walked over to where EW12 was explaining about souvenirs.

  ‘And here,’ explained EW, ‘you might like to buy a souvenir of your time in Kyoto. Perhaps a geisha hair comb or fan, some chopsticks or a maneki-neko, the fortune cat that is so common in Japan. These lovely ceramic sculptures of a cat beckoning with an upright paw make a lovely gift.’ EW saw EJ’s worried look, so she hurried the tourists into the shop ahead of her.

  ‘These trees were infected with Blossom Block just minutes ago,’ said EJ.

  EW looked stunned. ‘But how?’

  ‘I’m not sure,’ said EJ grimly. ‘It happened just before we got here. SHADOW, the kunoichi, were just here—and we missed them!’

  ‘That’s terrible,’ exclaimed EW.

  ‘Yes,’ agreed EJ.

  ‘What do we do now?’ asked EW12.

  ‘I think I know where they’re heading,’ said EJ, her throat feeling dry as she thought of the trees by the river.

  ‘You have to stop them then, EJ,’ said EW. ‘Good luck, and if you need more help, Agent JV12 has been positioned at the kimono shop near the bridge.’

  EJ started to run as fast as she could back towards the river. She was nearly out of breath when she reached the bridge. She took out the sushi CHARM and re-tested the tree. As she waited for the result, she had a sinking feeling in her stomach that she already knew it.

  EJ wished she knew.

  It was another message from SHINE, this time from A1. EJ gulped.

  EJ sat down on a bench under the bare cherry trees and looked at the message. It was short. Immediately, she recognised the fox symbol in the corner. She clicked her translation app, and the English words appeared on her phone screen.

  ‘The fox symbol tells me that this message is from the same person who sent the ransom message,’ muttered EJ to herself. ‘But, this time, it’s to the kunoichi. It’s an instruction, but what’s it telling them?’

  EJ thought hard. The capital must mean Tokyo, the capital of Japan. That must be their next target. I need to alert SHINE. She sent SHINE a message.

  EJ gulped and sent her reply.

  Then, something hit EJ on the head. It was a hair comb, a beautifully carved wooden hair comb, similar to the geisha combs she had seen in the souvenir shop window. Engraved along the top of the comb was a picture of a fox, holding a branch in its mouth. Was that a coincidence? EJ remembered the SHINE motto, “Coincidences are clues waiting to be caught”. She tried to think what the clue was. But who had thrown the comb? EJ looked up and into a pair of large black eyes, surrounded by a light-brown, fuzzy-haired face. It was a little monkey sitting in the branches of the cherry blossom tree. It was a Japanese snow monkey.

  ‘Hey,’ she called up to it, ‘are you throwing things at me?’

  The monkey screeched and jumped down from the branch, onto EJ’s lap, and then to the ground. It looked at EJ and scampered down the street.

  ‘Hey, where are you going? You might get run over!’ cried EJ, leaping up and running after the monkey. As it raced around a street corner, EJ followed. There was the monkey, and there, just ahead of it, was a group of geisha. Immediately, EJ recognised their dark-coloured kimonos and fans. They were the same geisha she had seen when she was with EW12 and the tour group.

  They must have been near the trees when they were infected, thought EJ. The kunoichi are expert in disguise. Are they disguised as geisha?

  The snow monkey was certainly interested in them, and EJ decided to follow them too. The geisha turned down another small laneway, and EJ followed, making sure to keep back. They turned into another street, and then another laneway, but EJ never lost sight of them. She noticed that their fans were open the whole time and they waved them as they walked. Then the geisha turned down yet another small laneway, but when EJ reached the corner, they had disappeared. Again, like last time, when she had also turned only a minute or two after them, EJ was standing in an empty street—with another row of bare cherry blossom trees. With a sense of dread, EJ took out her sushi CHARM and took a sample from a branch. She didn’t have to wait long for IJ to send her the test result.

  EJ needed to find those geisha.

  EJ ran down the street, down another small alley and onto a wider street, just in time to see one of the dark-kimono clad geisha turn into a tea-house. EJ followed her.

  ‘Ticket, please,’ said a friendly voice.

  ‘Um, ticket?’ asked EJ.r />
  ‘Yes, please, ticket,’ repeated the woman. ‘Geisha tea ceremony is about to begin. Please pay for ticket and leave your shoes at the door.’

  EJ paid, took off her shoes and slid open the rice-paper screen door into a room where a group of tourists was already sitting on the bamboo-matted floor. There was a low table at the end of the room, and behind it, a wall with two painted panels. A small white maneki-neko, like the ones in the souvenir shop, stood on a table to the side. On the lower table stood a black pot of steaming water, a bamboo ladle, a bowl with a straw brush, a small black-lacquered container and a wooden teaspoon. A row of ceramic cups had been set to the side. While she waited for the ceremony to begin, EJ looked at the painted panels. Each panel seemed to be a scene in a story. The first panel showed Mount Fuji in springtime with cherry blossom painted all over the panel. The next panel showed a winter scene: a snow-covered Mount Fuji looming over fields of bare-branched trees.

  EJ was leaning forwards to take a closer look when a bell sounded and the panel slid open. A geisha entered, dressed in a bright yellow, white and pink kimono that was decorated with birds and flowers. EJ took out her phone and flicked to her camera. She wanted to be ready in case something happened.

  ‘No mobile phones in the tea ceremony, please,’ said a woman behind EJ.

  EJ put away her camera. But, when the geisha offered the guests a rice biscuit and chopsticks, she had an idea.

  ‘No, thank you, I have some,’ she said bowing her head as she took the chopstick CHARM from her bracelet and twisted. She was holding a pair of chopsticks. EJ pushed gently on the top of the chopstick to start filming as the geisha in the bright kimono knelt on the floor behind the low table and bowed. The tea ceremony was about to begin.