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explanation for Left Minister Konoe's symptoms occurred to Sano, he felt a sudden apprehension. This could be a complex, dangerous case.
     
     
"Did anyone report a very loud, powerful scream at the time of Konoe's death?" Sano asked.
     
     
Hoshina regarded Sano with surprise. "How did you know? People all over Miyako heard it; I did myself, all the way from across town. It was... unearthly." A shiver passed over the yoriki. "Whatever happened to Konoe must have been extremely painful to produce such a scream from him."
     
     
Sano had a different interpretation for the scream, which confirmed his suspicions. "Left Minister Konoe must have been a victim of murder by kiai," he said. Combat without physical contact; the ultimate expression of the martial arts. "The scream was a `spirit cry'-a burst of pure mental energy, concentrated in the voice of the killer."
     
     
Hoshina and the detectives stared at Sano in astonishment. That few samurai ever attained the ability to kill without weapons, by force of will alone, had made the practitioners of kiaijutsu the rarest, most fearsome and deadly warriors throughout history. The killer's presence, mighty and monstrous, seemed to darken the tranquil garden, and Sano knew his companions sensed it too.
     
     
Then Yoriki Hoshina chuckled. "I've never heard of anyone actually killed by a scream. That theory sounds like superstition to me," he said, expressing the modern skepticism that relegated amazing feats of martial arts to the realm of myth.
     
     
Sano had suspected that Hoshina might not be as compliant as he'd first seemed. Now he knew that Hoshina had a mind of his own; he wouldn't automatically accept the judgment of a superior. Sano wondered if the locals knew of the circumstances that had brought him here, and whether Hoshina might take advantage of Sano's shaky position in the bakufu. Many men rose to power by attacking vulnerable superiors, and while Sano had no particular reason to distrust Hoshina, he knew better than to think that Miyako politics were any different than Edo's. Aware that he must assert his authority, Sano rose to Hoshina's challenge.
     
     
"Toyotomi Hideyoshi's tea master, Sen-no-Rikyu, averted an attack from the great General Kato Kiyomasa with a single glance that took away his strength," Sano said. He himself had once thought kiaijutsu a lost art, but the murder of Left Minister Konoe had revived his belief that myths were based on fact. "Yagyu Matajuro, tutor of Tokugawa Ieyasu, could knock men unconscious with a shout."
     
     
"I've always thought those legends were invented by charlatans wishing to bolster their reputations." Hoshina's tone was deferential, but the fact that he dared to argue told Sano he liked to be right and wasn't afraid to take chances. "Certainly, there haven't been any recent, documented cases of death by kiai".
     
     
"The general level of combat skill has declined; there are fewer great martial arts masters today," Sano admitted. "But Miyako is a city with strong ties to the past. Someone here has apparently rediscovered the secret of kiaijutsu. The scream and the condition of the corpse indicate that Left Minister Konoe was indeed a victim of a spirit cry."
     
     
Pronounced by the shogun's highest representative, Sano's opinion became the official cause of death. Rather than pursue the discussion and risk censure, Hoshina nodded and said respectfully, "Yes, Sosakan-sama." Sano observed that he knew when to yield for the sake of self-preservation.
     
     
"Who discovered the remains?" Sano said, moving on to the next important topic.
     
     
"When the palace residents heard the scream, they rushed to see what it was," Hoshina said. "Emperor Tomohito and his cousin Prince Momozono were first on the scene. They found Konoe alone, lying in a pool of blood."
     
     
So the case involved at least two important members of the Imperial Court, Sano thought. "What time did this happen?"
     
     
"Around midnight," said