by Fuyumi Ono
"These days, the Junior Monk's been meeting face to face with the Ozaki's Junior Doctor over something or other. Putting aside his novel work to go for walks, he's been investigating around this or that. ....Isn't that what's been happening?"
"Then, Father, if you please."
With words of gratitude to his father from his sickbed bedside, Seishin left Shinmei's room. His mother who had come to clear away breakfast closed the door and breathed a sigh.
"Whatever could be happening, I wonder. This year has been nothing but funerals, it's hurting my head."
Yes, Seishin replied noncommittally.
"Is this what they call 'a lucky year' I wonder? You please be careful as well. Don't push yourself too much."
"I understand." Seishin said, separating from Miwako as she went towards the kitchen in the main wing of the house. Heading back down the hallway to return to the office, Mitsuo was waiting halfway there for him with an uneasy expression.
"Ah----Mitsuo-san, actually,"
Have you heard, Mitsuo said with a grave expression.
"Is this about Ohta-san's son, I wonder?"
"Yes. Ohta-san will be buried on our lots, so we will be depending on you. The funeral will also be handled by the temple, so."
Mitsuo nodded, then lightly took Seishin's arm.
"Junior Monk, what is happening?"
"What---?"
"Tsurumi-san was saying that things haven't been like this since the Asia Flu."
Seishin was stuck for an answer. Mitsuo couldn't go forever without noticing things were not normal. Of course, he was certain that he would eventually say to him that things were strange but he didn't think he would strike at the heart of the matter so quickly.
"I see... The Asia Flu...."
"Is it some kind of terrible disease? What you've been talking incessantly with the Ozaki's Junior Doctor abuot lately, is it..."
Seishin interrupted Mitsuo. "Mitsuo-san, may I have you keep this topic quiet for a time for me?"
"But,"
"To tell the truth, Toshio doesn't understand it well himself. It looks like a contagion but I was told by Toshio that it doesn't match the symptoms of any existing epidemic. Of course, we can't say that with that alone it is not an epidemic but we are investigating the matter now."
"Then---after all."
"We're trying to investigate whether it is an epidemic or not, so at this point we cannot say a single thing for certain. At any rate, we are thinking of ways to handle this, consulting with the health official Ishida-san and through Ishida-san the Health Department as well as Kanemasa, so for a time if you could not speak of this with the parish families."
"That's... If the Junior Monk says so, I'll stay quiet, but."
"Please. If it is truly an epidemic, if we idly stir everybody into a panic, the disease will spread all the worse. Until I say that it is allowed, please be sure not to spread word."
Mitsuo nodded reluctantly nodded, then in a sudden breath lifted his face.
"Acknowledged. I will tell Tsurumi-san and Ikebe-kun the same instructions. Please have peace of mind regarding this much."
Seishin lowered his head. He was thankful for Mitsuo's trust. Watching over Mitsuo as he left, 'still', a part of Seishin thought, with a lingering sentiment of guilt.
Neither Mitsuo nor Tsurumi could know the true death count. This was because the news of deaths of those not of the parish did not reach their ears. To Mitsuo and the others, Ohta made the ninth death. Yet all the same the true death toll was twelve. And furthermore out of those twelve almost all of them went to an acute onset. A few days before they looked to be in good health but, suddenly, death. Twelve cases and counting. He wondered if Mitsuo would smile at him like that if he knew.
2
And so it came to be that by the sin of slaughtering his little brother he was exiled to wander the wasteland. Never to return to that splendor, roaming the desolate earth, yet that sin followed him over the wastelands. His sin was the form of his little brother who had become a Shiki; it followed him, to make him suffer for an eternity.
No, where his brothers aims lied, he did not know. All the more did it pile onto his sufferings. As to why, it was because he did in his own way love his little brother, and he loathed his momentary impulse. His little brother was systematically favored. Deep with love, knowing compassion, like a vessel of splendor to others was his little brother. The people loved his little brother and longed for him. He, too, could not but. The people detested he who had fatally wounded the soul of such deep love but, he again in that same pattern detested himself.
His little brother's eyes of compassion turned on him endlessly cascaded his guilt and regret. His sadness at losing his brother, the lamentations over that death, his hatred of the deceased, his hatred of his own sin compounded his own unyielding selfloathing. Sadness and deterioration, sharper than the frozen winds, tore at him for infinity.
Seishin sighed and threw out the manuscript he had read. The mood wasn't coming to him at all. His pen strokes were superficial and repetitive, his consciousness idling back around to the memos.
Giving in and putting up the Japanese writing paper, he put it away into the drawer. Arranging it face down and placing a paperweight on them, in exchange he took out the notebook from another drawer. Gotouda Shuuji, Ohkawa Gigorou, Murasako Hidemasa, .... ten people. And newly added, Yasumori Nao and Ohta Kenji. Even now as he did this, it was spreading out somewhere through Sotoba. They were being slowly driven to a cliff's edge but Seishin and the others couldn't sense its movements.
(Is it all right to be doing this now?)
Seishin had no qualifications to investigate the situation. Unable to even allude to the situation, there was a limit to how much he could ask people in conversation. As expected, it was best to pass it on even a step sooner if possible to the appropriate source, wouldn't it? So he felt. Even Toshio might have been a doctor but he was not an epidemiologist Rather than an amateur doctor and a complete layman floundering about, he thought the obvious thing to do was quickly entrust it to a specialist in order to discern the situation and cope with it.
But, thought the other party.
If a specialist investigated the circumstances it would be fast work but, the probability that the circumstances would worsen was indeed high. If they knew it was a plague, the villagers would be uneasy. Am I, is my family all right? The uneasy villagers would, without a doubt, go to the Ozaki clinic. To get comfort from Toshio. The more people acted like that in tandem, the more the situation would spread. Not only would they have needless anxiety, they wouldn't be able to help drawing in unnecessary anxiety.
(No...)
To begin with, it wasn't yet even determined for certain that it was an epidemic. They didn't by any means have a solid handle on what was happening. There was the feeling it was a plague, the thought that it couldn't be, the unease that came from thinking 'if', and the irritation at being unable to confirm any one of those things.
As he stared at the notes in thought, the phone rang. Seishin looked behind him over the back of the office chair, pulling the phone on the office desk towards himself. On the other end was the bookstore's Tashiro.
"Ah, Masa-san."
It has been a while, Seishin tried to say as Tashiro interrupted.
"Seishin, have you heard? The resident officer Takami-san died, they said."
Eh, Seishin's eyes widened.
"--Takami-san? It can't be."
"That's, but it's true! This evening an ambulance came. Wondering what was up I went out to the front of the shop, and Takami-san was being carried out from the police sub-station."
Takami's wife, Hideko, had boarded the ambulance too. There were two children at Takami's place but when he asked them, Takami had suddenly collapsed they said. Since yesterday he had had a cold and was laid up in bed but he went to go to the bathroom when it seems he fainted. At any rate, unable to leave the kids alone, Tashiro Rumi stayed at the residential station to
watch over them but not long after Takami Hideko returned. When asked what happened, she answered that Takami had died.
"Anyways, his wife seemed spaced out, ---like she was distracted, could you say? She wasn't in a state to ask her for details. I mean, I don't know the particulars but you guys have a deep connection with Takami-sam too, so I thought it'd be better to let you know."
Seishin swallowed down something bitter. "He had a cold and was bedridden?"
"Mm. Seems like it." Said Tashiro, his voice not inviting any particular unease. But, Seishi could feel the sweat rising up. ---A bad premonition.
"Those guys though, you know, even if they lived in the substation, they're not from Sotoba. They're not in a funeral group, I was wondering what we'd do."
"That... is true, isn't it."
"Either way I'd say we'd help if it came to it but, anyway for the time being, we contacted the family and the family said they'd take care of it. Probably they'll ask a funeral home in Mizobe and have him cremated, I guess, huh? Anyway, his wife herself was saying to leave her alone, so Rumi and me came back, but."
"Thank you very much. At any rate, I will contact his wife."
Yeah, if you could, said Tashiro, hanging up the phone.
Seishin immediately phoned the substation. But, listening to it ring fifteen times, there was no answer. Did they leave to go to the hospital? Hanging up the receiver, he made another call, to Toshio. He tried to the hospital---which after hours and on days off switched to the house line--but Toshio did not pick up. Hesitating a moment then calling the house line, Takae picked up and answered, voice nasal and stiff, that he was out.
"Would you happen to know to where he had set out?"
"I don't. There was a call at the hospital, and then he left. Wouldn't it be a house call?"
It was possible that it was a call conveying news of Takami's death. So he might have gone out to the substation. While hesitating on whether he should try going there, there was a call from Toshio.
In the background there were the sound of people making a fuss and he could faintly hear Dixie. It seemed he was calling from creole.
As expected, Toshio hurried to the substation. And when he did, there was nobody at the substation, he said.
"People from around said they say the wide take the kids in the car. They may have gone to get the body or to drop the kids off at her parents place, something like that."
Right, Seishin answered but, somehow he wasn't fully convinced.
"Anyway, I don't know any specifics. I won't until his wife comes back."
That's true, Seishin answered before lowering his voice. "---Do you think it's that?"
Toshio's voice lowered all the more.
"Probably, yeah."
3
They were entering the calendar month of September but she didn't think that the lingering summer heat was abating in the slightest.
As Ritsuko left the hospital, a heat haze reflected off of the parking lot baking in the midday sun. There may have been some moisture in the air recently; it was sultry as if boiling.
"Uwa--, it's hot!" Yuuki said, hurrying towards her car, a toy like Forme. The car's window was left open. It wasn't like there was anyone who'd steal a car in Sotoba anyway.
"Ritsuko-san, it's hot, is that all right?"
"It's fine," Ritsuko answhered. When Ritsuko said she was going to go out to the shopping district a bit and would be back, Yuki had said that if that was the case, she'd give her a ride halfway there. The car that had been scorching in the parking lot was probably hotter than the road top but it was far better than walking beneath the scorching hot rays.
Gratefully getting into the car, she was taken to the edge of the shopping district. First deciding to have lunch, she opened the door to creole.
She took in a relieved breath at the soft sounds of piano and the air conditioned air. From here to the hospital didn't even take ten minutes by car. Due to that, the car's air conditioning didn't have time to start working, and in just that amount of time the back of her blouse was wet.
"Good day."
"Ah, Ricchan."
Hasegawa, almost as if he had been expecting her, raised his face eagerly. At the counter sat the book store's Tashiro. Haswgawa invited Ritsuko to the seat next to him.
"You came at a good time. Ricchan, have you heard from the doctor about what happened at Takami-san's place?"
"Takami-san---the resident officer? No."
She heard the story that Takami had died. With that the nurses felt all the more uneasy. But beyond that, she didn't remember hearing what happened to Takami.
"Really? The Junior Doctor is no the crime prevention committee and all. I thought you might've heard something, but. Coffee?"
"Iced. And a lunch special. ---What happened to Takami-san?"
That's, started Hasegawa exchanging looks with Tashiro. The one to talk was Tashiro.
"They moved, Takami-san."
Ritsuko tilted her head.
"I mean, at Takami-san's place, I haven't caught sight of his wife since then. Takami-san died, she came back from the hospital and said that. Then with that she took the kids somewhere at night and hasn't been back to the house. We were thinking if she needed help with the funeral or something, we'd lend a hand and all, and even if they didn't need help, we should at least light an incense stick for him, I'd thought. But since then we haven't seen her at all."
"My...."
"Then, last night, suddenly there's a light on in the house. ---Well, that's just what I'd heard from the neighbors when I got back to the house, but. Just when I thought they'd finally come back, there's a Takasago pine moving truck in front of the station, no sign of the wife and kids, and a young guy I'd never seen before."
"Were they a moving company? It can't be, they moved? At night?"
"That's right. And at a pretty late hour. It was Mori-san from the pharmacy who saw it, and he said we're talking around twelve o'clock."
"That late at night, was it?"
"Mm. That young guy---he's called Sasaki but anyway it looks like he's the replacement. Takami-san in the end seems to have gone back to his home for the funeral. So, his successor was picked and moved in. It seems like that Sasaki was asked by his wife to take care of the move. Even so, they moved out the clothes and the personal stuff but, like, the furniture was just left where it was. Sasaki-san said it was passed on for him to use, it seems."
"It's all so sudden, isn't it."
"Ain't it? No greetings to anyone around, it was a shock. We were all looked after by Takami-san, we were all waiting for a chance to see him off in a way, like."
And furthermore, said Hasegawa following up on Tashiro.
"This successor called Sasaki had a weird feeling to him. How to put it---his eyes were fixed, and he didn't have a very good countenance to him, it seems. So, Mori-san, for a moment, thought that talk of being his replacement was made up or something. At any rate, it seems he's single, he said."
Is that so, Ritsuko murmured. "I wonder if a replacement would be decided on this quickly."
While listening to Hasegawa say, that's right, in her mind, Ritsuko tilted her head. It wasn't completely random by any means. But still something about it was very queer. A sudden move, and in the dead of night. And Takami's family wasn't there, a stranger was standing in. Leaving the furniture, carrying out the luggage, boarding it on the truck----
Vaguely imagining the state of affairs, RItsuko spoke to herself.
"Takasago pine...."
There was a crest with that Takasago pine on it wasn't there? ---Takasago Movers. She remembered hearing that name.
"Hm?"
Urged by Tashiro, Ritsuko spoke. "Takasago pine, that's Takasago Movers, isn't it?"
"You know them? I guess they're a famous moving company."
"That isn't it.... In our neighborhood recently there was a move. It was in one day, so it was very sudden."
The mother and child Shinoda from Kami-Sotoba had
moved.
"It's a similar story. In the middle of the night, a truck pulled in, and suddenly, they had moved. Without any words of parting to the neighbors. It was so sudden, there were even people wondering if they were running away from something in the middle of the night."
"Heeh. That really is a similar story."
"That was Takasago Moving after all, I was thinking. The name is so auspicious, using it to flee into the night, we had been saying."