by Fuyumi Ono
"They have moved? Sakaimatsu?"
"That they did. Their boy was called Takashi, did the Junior Monk know of him? If I recall, he was a wee bit older than the Junior Monk, but..."
"Aa---Yes. I do know of him."
"That Takashi-kun went flying out of here saying that he was transferred away at his job but, that was an outright lie."
"...Ha?"
"I'm saying that he himself said he had been transferred when he left with his wife and kids but after that we never heard back like they were cut off. Sakaimatsu's Yasushi-san was worried and called to contact his company but far from being transferred, they said that he had quit."
Seishin was instantly startled.
"Without a word to his family, he went and quit. That's what they call absconding, and Yasushi-san was red with shame. He came to me for advice but he had said that things being what they were to please keep it a secret, so I've kept it quiet myself.
"About when might this have happened?"
"At the start of September. ---And then, it seems Takashi-kun did make contact. I don't know what lead to it turning out like this but at any rate he said he was going to his son's place and the family all moved out. That was just recently on the 18th."
"...That is a strange story, isn't it."
"Inn't it?" Sadaichi said adding hot water to the tea pot. "What's more, one day, there was a truck stopped out in front ofthwer house, and when I asked the neighbor Morihiro-san's wife about it, that's how she answered. If the wife hadn't asked, did he plan to move without any goodbyes, then? Yasushi-san is a conscientious person but, he must have had quite the circumstances going on." Sadaichi refilled the tea cups, making a sullen face. "That's another story that happened at night. And then? Well, around the neighborhood, there's talk about how they might've been flying away by night, but. Perhaps Takashi-kun borrowed money from someplace scary, they said, and maybe he had to run away from that, they said."
Is that so, Seishin said looking into the face of the good natured old man that was Sadaichi. "Sadaichi-san, lately, have there not been any other households that have moved?"
Sadaichi looked at him blankly and murmured, let's see. "Come to think, at the end of August, the Kamiyasu's old woman moved, didn't she? Something about moving to start living with her son or something. I heard about something like that happening in Kami-Sotoba too. At Sadaji's place, his son-in-law said that, if I recall."
Sadaichi's younger brother Sadaji ran a super market in Kami-Sotoba
"....Looking at it like this, there are a lot aren't there? Recently." Sadaichi made a befuddled expression.
"It looks like it, doesn't it? I've heard how so many houses now have moved, just in Sotoba. And that's just lately. And so, Sadaichi-san, I am terribly sorry but since it has become an occasion on which I was able to meet with you, could I perhaps bother you to ask about indirectly how many have moved lately?"
"That's---I don't mind, but. What is this, is there something to it?"
"It is only something that is on my mind. I was thinking whether something was happening, so."
"Something?"
No, Seishin prevaricated, quickly faking the conversation in a new direction. "Uhm---wasn't it last summer, that the person from the research group had been coming to Sotoba frequently?"
Aa, Sadaichi nodded. "Now that you mention it, there was something like that. Building a resort facility or some such, he said. A golf ground or camp grounds, saying some kind of baloney, but hadn't that talk died out?"
"---Yes, I was but asking."
Hmm, Sadaichi folded his arms. "Certainly so. There are many coming and going, aren't there? I don't think it could be anything, but it certainly is interesting. I understand. I'll ask about indirectly."
"I am sorry, thank you very much."
Nodding, Sadaichi breathed a sigh. "What is going on, I wonder. ....Junior Monk, lately, do not you think it strange?"
Seishin was secretly in panic. "About... the movers?"
"There is that too. Somehow, I get the feeling there are many funerals. After good old Giichi, the wife at the contractors was next, wasn't she? Their boy passed on too, Mikiyasu-kun died too, the three generations of the contractors' family, even though they got along so good, are down to just Tokujirou and Setsuko-san all by themselves."
"Yes... that is true, isn't it?"
"The resident officer Takami-san died, too---come to think of it, the post office's Ohsawa-san moved too. Aa, and the library's Yuzuki-san also quit. Did you know that?"
Seishin blinked. "No. He has quit his job?"
"That's right, he has. It was another sudden story. It was already some time ago. Was it at the end of August, the start of September? Now Sumie-san who works at the nursery center is trying to learn to run the library, but."
Sadaichi lightly shook his head looking away. "Just the other day--about two days ago was it, the principal at the grade school quit too it seems. He'd had kidney failure, they were deciding whether to do dialysis or not, and that became worse and worse, and he had to resign in the middle of the school year. This is like... people are coming out like an old person's worn out teeth, is what it feels like."
Seishin nodded while feeling a faint, vague apprehension. The village was mostly made up of people who conducted their business within the village but there were my no means no people like Yuzuki and like the grade school principal who commuted to work by coming into the village. There were more who went out from the village to work.
(....Commute.)
Ohta Kenji, Hirosawa Takatoshi, Shimizu Ryuuji, Ohkawa Shigeru, Saeki, Takashima. Each of them worked outside of the village and resigned before they died. Yuzuki, the grade school principal, as expected they who quit commuted from outside of the village.
(Gigorou-san.)
Ohkawa Gigorou went out of the village and when he came back he was sick.
What am I thinking, Seishin thought while lightly furrowing his brows. What is this. It's like---it was like something outside of the village was closing in around the village.
An epidemic was spreading within the village. That's how it should have been. And yet, why was it that like this it seemed there was something outside of the village?
----Oni.
(....Such a stupid thought.)
But, it was clear as a picture. The triangle like the tip of a harpoon. The forest of firs that enveloped the village. Surrounding the village from the outside, oni were peeking in on the village from here and there.
The village is surrounded by death.
Seishin took his leave of Sadaichi as if intoxicated by something, returned to the temple and called Ishida from the town hall.
"Ishida-san, I am sorry but I'd like the register of names for those who have moved."
Ha, Ishida's bewildered voice sounded.
"A basic resident register or something along those lines, could you see if there is anything along those lines? ---I am depending on you."
3
Friday, Toshio received word from the National Hospital in Mizobe that Katou Yoshihide whom he'd had transported in had died late last night.
Before lunch time, Gyouda Etsuko from Kami-Sotoba came in to the hospital. She too had apparent anemia. He prescribed iron supplements and vitamins, an antibiotic, and just in case a full blood transfer. It was a literal shot in the dark.
"Lately it's like the doctor has become totally high-string."
The one to say that over lunchbreak was Shiomi Yuki.
"It isn't like I don't understand though," Yasuyo was the one to say. "It's busy isn't it, lately. And without anything to show for it."
That's right, said Kiyomi nodding. She opened her catered and delivered lunch box and sighed. "It's because the essential patients aren't coming in until it gets bad."
"But, that the doctor would shout at the patients, I was surprised," Isaki Satoko added with her own sigh. "Ah, it's making me so nervous now, I'd thought then."
"Katou Yoshihide-san? ....
That's right," Yasuyo nodded. "He was told that he was given a decoction because it was a cold... That'd just make him want to fall right over!"
"Is that how it is?" It was Towada who asked. Yasuyo shrugged her shoulders.
"The truth is there is no such illness as a cold. We say cold-like symptoms, these days. It's actually an upper respiratory inflammation. It's inflammation that occurs in the upper half of the respiratory tract. Cold air or allergies can stimulate an inflammation but most of the time it's viral inflammation isn't it? If that's the case then no matter how much you drink of any medicine, it won't help."
"Heh."
"In the case of a cold, there's nothing you can do but recuperate. Eat, sleep, and build up your strength. What they call cold medicine is something to help with that. Since there isn't any particular medicine for attacking a cold, taking it shouldn't be enough to put your mind at ease. But, the elderly especially tend to think it's something that can be cured by taking something. They say 'one shot of this will do it!' Even though you won't get better no matter how much medicine you take if you don't recuperate."
"That's right," Towada said with a forced smile. "There are things like that in every family. Old family remedies, they call them."
"Right, right," Yasuyo laughed. "Cooking egg nog or garlic; those are, well, at least useful for warming the body up and raising your constitution, it's not useless, but some of them have ridiculous things in them! The 'old family remedy' is by no means the panacea it's expected to be. But they think that whether it's a cold or a stomachache, it can cure anything and everything, don't they! Then when you take off the lid and see what it is, it's medicine for women's ailments!"
The nurses crumbled into laughter.
"Well, as long as it's not made of anything harmful, it's medicine for the mind, which can be a good thing in itself. But, that's only if you also have proper recuperation. It wasn't something that was fine with just taking medicine and resting; whatever his state, she should have seen that it had gotten worse than the day before, should have made sure he was eating well, she should have seen the significance in that and noticed, you would normally notice something was strange before cyanosis occurs, wouldn't you? Ultimately, I think it must have been that attitude: 'if you take this medicine it will all be okay' and dropping your guard that did it."
"I see, that'd do it."
"Even so, it's no use yelling at the patients or their families. But, as far as his feelings, I can't say I don't understand. Lately we've been so busy. On top of that, so many are dying off one after another like this, so isn't it all for nothing? If the patients at least cooperated and it was no good even with their help, we could move on, but."
"But really, they are increasing lately, aren't they? Not just the deaths but the patients."
Towada looked to Mutou. Mutou made a sullen face as he nodded. "In the end, everyone's uneasy. The number of deaths recently just isn't normal. It looks like it's becoming a rumor that there might be some kind of bad disease going around, so even if they'd normally sleep it off, they can't relax until they've been seen by the doctor, like, I guess."
"And on the other hand, we have the people who take a decoction and keep an eye on it."
"It's a tough one on all of us, this disease," Yasuyo brought her teacup to her mouth. "After all it looks like the ones affected go into a daze and don't make a big fuss. If the person complained that this hurts, if they answered how this or that was feeling, we know that it is what it is and don't need to worry. But, the person themselves doesn't seem to notice they're sick, do they? Thanks to that lately we've been able to tell by looking at their faces."
That's true, Kioymi nodded. "They look like it's somebody elses problem."
"Right, right. So we're depending on their families. People look but don't really see more often than you'd expect, even at their own family's faces."
"That's true."
"Do you think Gyouda Etsuko-san may have it, too?"
To Ritsuko's questions, Yasuyo nodded. "Probably, yes? She had that face."
Looming silence fell over the break room. For them the word 'it' meant a hopeless disease someone was presently suffering and couldn't be saved from.
"Kinda... scary, isn't it?" Yuki alone spoke, plunging them into a deeper silence. As they all let out a sigh, the phone rang. Ritsuko who was nearest answered it.
"Uhmm, this is Takano, but." The voice on the other end said. It was the part-timer Takano Fujyou. She had called first thing in the morning to say she would be taking the day off. "The doctor is out now, isn't he?"
"Right now he's with a patient. Shall I call him?"
"Aa... then, it's fine," Fujyou said, falteringly. "Uhm... Could you relay something to the doctor for me? ...I, was thinking that I'd like to be allowed to quit there, today."
"Fujyou-san?"
"I'm sorry, I really am sorry when you're busy. But, I just can't take it, being so scared, so afraid..."
Ritsuko had no words. Fujyou had always complained of her uneasine. And, with the situation increasing in scale, she showed no signs of coming to ease.
"So many people one after another are dying! When I think that, why, I might be next, I..."
Ritsuko didn't have any words to offer in return. She could by no means blame Fujyou. Even if she tried to forget the sense of dread from being on the front lines, it wasn't something one could forget. If that was the case for Ritsuko and the nurses, then it must be all the more for Fujyou who came to clean and do odd jobs.
"The doctor says it's all right but the truth is he doesn't know if it's all right, does he? When I take out the garbage or some such, I think, what if a needle is sticking out, and my heart just races! So..."
".... Yes, ma'am."
"I'm so sorry."
"I will inform the doctor."
Please do, Fujyou said, hanging up the phone. Ritsuko hung up the phone and looked over all of the faces, which were giving her a dubious look.
"It was Fujyou-san. ...It seems she has quit. She's afraid, she says."
Kiyomi breathed a heavy sigh. "It can't really be helped, can it? We can't say it'll be all right--that's an empty promise we can't really give."
Everyone nodded wordlessly. ---They could not do but nod.
4
On Saturday Toshio drove his car towards Kami-Sotoba. Searching for Gyouda's house with a vague memory, his car drove onto their property. A dried up, wrinkly old man in front of the shed stood looking surprised. It was likely Etsuko's husband Bungo.
"Junior Doctor!"
"How is Etsuko-san's condition?" Toshio asked as he stepped out of the car. Gyouda nodded, his back hunched.
"Haa..." Gyouda answered seeming bewildered. "Thanks to you, today she seems good..."
"Good?" Toshio looked at Gyouda's face. "Is she sleeping right now?"
"Who knows... just a bit ago, she was cleaning up after lunch, but."
"So she's in a state where she can clean up," he said, to which Gyouda gave a leisurely nod. "I'm sure I told her to come first thing in the morning, but?"
Gyouda blinked as if he didn't know what he'd meant. "Uhm.... but, today you are closed."
"Yes. Saturday's a national holiday. But still she was told to come. You didn't hear that from Etsuko-san?"
"Haa...."
Leaving behind Gyouda who seemed to be nothing but bewildered, Toshio started on his own towards the entryway. Heading inside he called out, and shortly after Etsuko had come out, looking as if doing so were troublesome for her.
"Oh my, Junior Doctor..."
"No, not 'oh my.' Why did you not come even though you had an appointment made?"
"But," Etsuko said sitting on the raised door frame, blinking. "I feel well today."
"That's not what it's about. I had said let us look at how it progresses, did I not? If you do not come as you are supposed to, it is a problem for me."
"Yes. Uhm... Pardon me."
Toshio was irritated. While Gyouda and Etsuko showed
no signs of any sense of impending danger at all, his own nerves were on edge. Enough to make him want to just tell them everything in one outburst. Etsuko had that very disease. Etsuko was without a doubt in an outbreak. And to day, none who had had an outbreak had been cured. Within a few days all of them were dead.
Rather than spitting out all of that, Toshio let out a sigh.
"-----And, you're feeling well, aren't you?"
