by Fuyumi Ono
(And he worshiped that will.)
---Even though it ostracized him?
(To him, the hill was a place that should be loved....)
At the center of that spire shone on by the splendor, drawing concentric circles, spreading out and downward towards the outside, a single hill's mound was shaped.
Surrounding the spire was the temple where the sage lived, and around the temple was the stone paved town. The surrounding outskirts of the village were lined in sprawling forests. The beautiful and quiet forest of beautifully linked branches was itself enveloped in the blueish greens of the fields.
The green fields expanded without end, eventually the greenery being mixed at intervals with white stones and red clays. At the ends of the lands of gently undulating hills which green draped over like a moss were gigantic castle walls.
(Gigantic walls... Obstinate,
The sturdy ramparts, as if to shroud from the eyes of those who dwelt outside of it,
as if to reject the sinners exiled for eternity,
spread out, and then, at that eastern block, a small closed gate.
so that they could never return again...)
Seishin sighed hugely and abandoned his pencil. This is no good, he thought. His thoughts were slipping. He couldn't stop Ohtsuka Takayuki and Hiroko's faces from flashing faintly through some part of his mind
Sotoba was firmly united. On the other side of that unity was an obstinate tendency towards exclusion. Those who weren't parish families of the temple were, to the village, foreign substances. Rather, those who were formerly parish families that had defected from the temple would only naturally be seen as enemies more than foreign substances. They had cast off the faith that managed the villagers and took their leave for another faith of their choosing. Even when considering people's tendency to form groups, they couldn't help ostracizing those who those who were separated out like that.
But, Seishin thought. Why did groups of people have no choice but to act this way? Faith's foundation was of the heart, was it not something that brought about public peace through people's hearts? That it was separating people, becoming a just cause for ostracizing people---and that nobody had misgivings nor shame about that, Seishin had a difficult time standing.
Gentle smiles for those who were internal, and while showing that affection and love, showing those on the outside cold indifference and cruel conduct. That two sidedness could be felt most bleakly. Or was he the only one who struggled with such things as this?
With a disheartened breath, Seishin piled up his manuscripts. He wanted to continue with it but his writing just wasn't flowing. All the more self-conscious of his struggles, he gave up and returned the manuscript to the drawer. In exchange he took out the memo pad with the notes he'd gathered but, he didn't even feel like opening it. Having given up on even that, Seishin stood. Leaving the office, he took the flash light off of the shelf in the entryway in hand and went outside.
The presence of fall hid within the winds that blew through the fir trees. The voices of the insects were, different from their summer timbre, sounding somehow lonely. He took a glance at the sleeping village and crossed the temple grounds. Pushing his way through the mountains, he knew that fall, hiding within the forest and its underbrush, was looking to come out of hiding. Walking quietly, he headed straight to the abandoned building. Nowhere in the village, trying to live secluded out here, in this sanctuary that was naturally looked upon as an enemy to the system and order of which the temple was a nucleus, the one drug out of here was---him.
As if to note the recluse's biter mortification, the sanctuary inclined, falling into ruin. Entering within, there was the voice of one single cricket echoing desolately. The lonely chirping faded, then as if realizing that it had faded sounded again.
Seishin himself didn't remember when he lit the lamp. If he was just going to be spacing out doing nothing, he wouldn't need lamp light. None the less, he realized when he heard the sound of the sanctuary door opening that he might have remembered in his subconscious that Sunako had appeared once saying it was because she had seen the light.
When he turned his head, Sunako was walking down the short nave of the church. Brushing lightly along the backs of the benches lined up on one side, light footsteps approached.
"Good evening."
"Hi," was all Seishin returned.
"I'm just saying this for your benefit, but this is the first time I've come here since the last time. I've been behaving well in my home, you know. So, do somehow overlook it this time, won't you?"
Seishin smiled and nodded.
"And for the record, I had applied bug spray before coming, and as you can see I've worn long sleeves with closed cuffs. I'm wearing two layers of stockings, you know. I do hope that with this Muroi-san understands that I am not trying to disregard his warnings?"
"....I know."
I'm glad, Sunako murmured, taking a seat on the bench directly in front of Seishin. She sat little kit on the bench, both of her elbows on the back of the pew.
"Ebuchi and mother were most grateful. Of course, they absolutely won't leak it to the outside. ---To begin with, they wouldn't have either way, but."
"I see..."
"Is it the same as ever? You look depressed."
Seishin smiled bitterly. "I see.... I guess it is as usual. It looks like things have gotten a bit worse. But I can't see any solution."
Sunako nodded as if to urge him on, so Seishin briefly expressed that he'd been looking for common points amongst the victims but, regardless, hadn't been able to find any clues.
"With your duties to the temple, even while you have a job as an author, it must be hard. And yet with no results, it's a given that Muroi-san would be making such a face."
"Do I look that depressed?"
"You do. The same as last time. You look down." Sunako said with a small laugh. "Every time we meet here, it is certain that Muroi-san will be depressed, isn't it? Is it possible you run away to here when you are depressed?"
Seishin blinked. "Ah.... Indeed. You may be right."
"You weren't aware of it?"
"I guess I wasn't. That's right---it does certainly seem to be like this more often, overwhelmingly."
"It's better not to be too discouraged. After all, Muroi-san is not an epidemic specialist."
Seishin smiled faintly and shook his head. "It's not as if I'm particularly down about the lack of results."
"Then, why? Did some one pass away again?"
"No---. I've been following the victim's footprints, you see, and it's more than I'd come to know some not-too pleasant things."
"Not too pleasant things?"
Mm, Seishin looked out into the half destroyed interior of the sanctuary.
"Sotoba is a good place. There are many good tempered people living here, and it makes for a peaceful cycle. But because of that, the power to push aside any foreign substances is strong."
Sunako tilted her head, and then nodded as if understanding something. "I think that I understand. To be warm to those close to you means to be cold to those who are not. ---Is it like that?"
Right, Seishin nodded. Sunako put her chin in both of her hands, resting on the back of the pew. ".....And so, Muroi-san has come to hate the villagers?"
"No. That isn't it."
"You've come to hate the village maybe. So while you're suffering for the village's sake, you're sickened by it."
"That isn't what it is. Because I think that the power to gather people also being the power to exclude is an unavoidable providence. Surely that's the kind of being humans are. So I don't condemn it. But, I do think it's a little bit of a shame."
"If that's the case, then you'll have to cheer up. You have to investigate it properly and hurry up and solve what's happening. If the disease spreads like this, the villagers will end up noticing, and then Muroi-san will experience something even more painful."
That pricked at Seishin's heart. Gazing seriously at Sunako's
face, he understood that that was true.
Indeed, it was so. If the situation kept worsening like this, eventually, the villagers would notice the existence of the sickness. If they did that, what would happen? The unions that were protected by going so far as to exclude others would be cut. Be they members of the same parish, be they bound by blood or regional bonds, fearing contamination, they would begin to ostracize each other. There was no way to avoid it.
"....It's just as you say."
"Isn't it? People are fragile when cornered. They're very weak beings."
Seishin nodded. ---Yes, this was no time to be down. He didn't have the time to struggle with something like this.
And, in his own heart Seishin felt shamed. It was no time for escaping into his manuscripts either. Even if just a moment sooner, he had to find a way to stop this calamity. Before the village brought about its own end from within.
Chapter Five
1
"Boss, it has been a while."
Called out to by Seishin, Shimizu Masaji who was working in the plantation spread out behind his house turned to look. "Ah--Junior Monk!"
"You are putting your energy into work, I see."
The old man stood up, taking his hat in hand and bowing his salt-and-pepper haired head. At Masaji 's feet were a line of green seedings for some sort of plant.
Shimizu Gardening also did landscaping and took part in wholesale sales of young trees. If asked by villagers, he would also sell them directly. Seishin's own mother Miwako sometimes came to buy seedlings for the garden.
"It is still hot these days, isn't it. What may I do for you today?"
"Actually, the other day, I had belatedly heard that Ryuuji-san had died."
Ah, Masaji's expression clouded. "That's, well, thank you very much." He put down his plow in the bucket and motioned towards the house. "Well first, please, do come inside."
Seishin bowed his head slightly and followed after Masaji after he stood.
"I was surprised. The last time I'd seen him he seemed healthy..."
You said it, Masaji said while climbing up onto the porch with a sigh. As guided Seishin entered into the tatami room and continued in front of the family altar. The altar was decorated with a new photo and mortuary tablet. His son Ryuuji was according to the records 41, and worked, he believed, at an accounting office. As he offered the incense and folded his hands together, Masaji brought in the barley tea.
"It isn't much but, please. You'll have to forgive me, today my daughter-in-law is out. I thought we had had some snacks somewhere, but."
"Please don't fuss. ---You must be depressed as well, Boss. Have your feelings settled?"
Masaji gave a forced smile. "It hasn't connected with me yet. He really was a healthy fella, after all. I went out to work like always, then there was talk that he collapsed at the office. When I rushed to the hospital, he'd already lost consciousness. And then he never opened his eyes since."
"I had heard that there were heart problems, but?"
Masaji shook his head, saying not at all. "During his spring check up, he was fit as a fiddle. The heart failure was so sudden. ---No, he did have signs he wasn't well, come to think of it. It's just, it only seemed he was out of it at the time. I wondered if he'd stayed up late or was hung over and it came to this. Honestly...." Masaji trailed off. "It's only something I remember because it came to this. It's something I only remember now that you mention it, looking back. I didn't think anything of it the day I saw it, just going out like always into the fields, not even taking a good look at his face."
"Then, he wasn't especially bedridden or anything of that nature?"
"He wasn't really bedridden. ....No, this whole year, my son's health hasn't been something I could really sum up. He might have been sick but it wasn't enough for even my daughter-in-law to notice, so I didn't think anything in particular about it at all."
Is that so, Seishin murmured. Whether Shimizu Ryuuji had it or not wasn't clear. Dying within a few days of his family noticing was customary but Ryuuji was a few days faster than that. It might have been that his case progressed exceptionally fast, or it might have been completely unrelated to the relevant matter. Seishin couldn't ascertain which it was.
"But... As this was truly something sudden, it must have been difficult."
"More than on me, it's his wife. I shouldn't say this, but these things do happen. It's just, I feel for my daughter-in-law and grandson. All said, I've lost my spouse, so without my daughter-in-law and grandson, I'd be alone. That grandson come next spring will graduate from high school and go on to college and to get a job, so once he's out of the house, it'll just be two old people with no blood relatives left. I told her she could go back to her own family, but. Shuuji isn't here anymore but still having her there to water me on my death bed makes me feel sorry for her." As Masaji spoke, an unaffected but forced smile floated up onto his face. "In the past, I would've said 'well she married into this family now so' but the times have changed, so."
Is that so, Seishin thought. In the village, parents and children lived in mutli-generational households as a matter of course. But, the concept of family was indeed changing. A yet incomplete transformation. It was... jarring.
"...Still, she said she couldn't by any means abandon me on my own but I'm sure it's weighing on her. Even though having her spouse go on ahead of her is calamity enough, having head-ache inducing problems that she does makes you feel for her. He's being paid his retirement sum, she'll at least get that, but."
Seishin tilted his head. Masaji's smile became all the more wry. "The day my son collapsed, you know? On that day, that Ryuuji, I don't know what he was thinking but it seems he suddenly put in his retirement notice. Me and my daughter in law didn't know about it, don't know what was in his heart at the time. His office didn't process it but that Ryuuji said he had to stop that day, shouting caustically that he didn't need severance pay or his pay check. He was fighting with the accountant, then suddenly collapsed, it seems. When we heard that as the hospital, his wife went ghostly pale. We still need that money to raise our grandson, and all."
"That's..."
"Still, the accountant was compassionate, he made like it never happened for her. He died in the office but it's being handled as if he retired, which is a big help. Really---That son of mine, what was he thinking?"
The old man looked up at the photo of the deceased.
"When they get to that age, we're as good as strangers. Even if we live together, that's because this is the country; if it were the city, he'dmove out and have his own home at his age. It's a matter of appearances. He can't go on asking his father for advice about everything. So, even while it's obvious...."
That's true, Seishin murmured. "Then, was Ryuuji-san no longer offering his assistance to you as the Boss? In the past, I had seen you working together very many times, hadn't I?"
"Nah, not lately, I guess. In the past he didn't unless we were really needing the help. We do landscape gardening, but that isn't what we focus on, so we don't have many hands on deck for that kind of work."
"Then, he did not have any intent to inherit the business to become the next Boss, I suppose."
"I don't think he did. I don't think he was of a mind for it. I didn't intend for him to either, after all."
And so it seemed that Masaji didn't come and go to many places throughout the village. While he thought of it, he asked about Masaji's working arrangements. He asked about whether he'd come and gone from any homes, whether he'd gone to Yamairi, or how about the Maruyasu sawmill, whether Ryuuji had ever gone to such places with him. He had intended to ask indirectly but Masaji himself apparently hadn't gone to Yamairi or to Maruyasu, so it seemed Ryuuji had no connections with them either. Nor did he go into the mountains. Masaji's household didn't own any mountain lands. Masaji and Ryuuji both lived in Sotoba but they made their livings almost entirely in Mizobe, so as far as interacting with their neighbors it seemed they had no such ties at all.
"We do have relatives in Monzen, though," said Masaji with a strained smile. "In the past, any time anything happened, we'd be coming and going from each other's places often but since my cousin died, our ties had been cut. This isn't an age where you go to visit your dead father's cousin as a relative anymore, is it?"
That's true, was all Seishin answered.
Leaving Masaji's house, Seishin went towards Naka-Sotoba. He visited the elder Koike, the funeral manager. Hirosawa Takatoshi who died on August 11th had been a resident of Naka-Sotoba. As Seishin had no connections with that Hirosawa household, for the time being he would try visiting Koike, who could be called an influential man in Naka-Sotoba but it seemed Koike didn't know them very well either.
