Shiki: Volume 2

by Fuyumi Ono

  Kaori tilted her head. "I do, but."

  "And that's been since Kanemasa moved in hasn't it?"

  She stared blankly. Was that right? She wasn't sure but she was sure there were some before.

  "But still, Megumi suddenly got sick and died, and right before she got sick, like, she climbed Kanemasa, didn't she? Probably while there she met the wife."

  "Y, yeah."

  "And you, you met her on the thirteenth, the Kirishiki's wife. That was when she was with Yasuyuki Nii-chan, didn't you say?"

  Kaori gasped in a breath.

  That was right. She was with the Ohtsuka Sawmill's Yasuyuki. And----.

  "Yasuyuki Nii-chan is dead too, isn't he."

  Kaori couldn't move. Yes, it was right around here. In the lumberyard, Yasuyuki was explaining something or other to Chizuru. Suddenly Yasuyuki's health failed and he died.

  "Megumi must have met the wife. But, nobody at Kanemasa said anything about---"

  "Hey... Let's stop."

  "Kaori?"

  "I'm getting scared. Let's stop talking about that."

  Akira called after her, but she shook her head. She ran from that place and hurried towards the house.

  3

  "Huh, it's another move." Natsuno stopped.

  "Hn?" Said Tohru who came out to buy his usual cigarettes, stopping. "Ah, really."

  Just coming out of the Mutous house was a harvested field and across that field could be seen a truck easing in around a row of houses. Natsuno checked his wrist watch immediately.

  In coming home from school, he came back together off of the bus with Tamotsu. Since then he'd stayed close with Tamotsu going back to the Mutou's house, being fed dinner by them before going back to his own house. Just when he was thinking of leaving, Tohru's father had returned. It seemed lately the hospital was busy, with Mutou returning so late. Not just late, it seemed he was bringing work home too. He'd even caught sight of their mother Shizuko helping with it. He worked this late, he thought looking at his wrist watch and it was already ten o'clock. Just as he thought, the hand on his watch was passing eleven. No matter how you thought about it it was a late hour to be moving.

  "Takasago movers again." Natsuno said to himself, making Tohru tilt his head.

  "Again?"

  "Just last time there was a move at a weird hour wasn't there? That was Takasago movers too."

  "Did something like that happen?"

  "Are you already going senile, you old fart?" Sighing deliberately to be heard, Tohru's fist came flying out at him. Laughing at that, he dodged, separating from Tohru. While heading on the night road to his house, he'd thought that something was off.

  The summer of continuing deaths. When that about ended, now it was movings being sighted. No, maybe nothing had ended. Mutou's returning home so late the sun had set was proof of that. Anyway, it's busy, Mutou grumbled. Bust meant that there were just that many patients, that the number of people who were sick was increasing. Actually, he'd also seen a lot of funerals. He didn't know who all they were for but it was indeed proof people were dying.

  This was what happened when the village was exposed to depopulation. A lot of moves. ---But, he couldn't make sense of the fact that those moves were all separately at night. And then there was the fact that they were all with the same moving company, what was that?

  He returned home feeling unsatisfied. As he came in to the entryway and took off his shoes, his mother poked her face in bitterly, looking as if she were fresh from the bath.

  "Welcome back. The Mutous' again?"

  "Yeah."

  "Again and again, being treated to dinner over there. They're in the neighborhood so can't you at least come back for dinner?"

  Yeah, he gave as a half hearted answer.

  "Or at least if you came home once then went back out? Honestly, which family do you live with!"

  Which family nothing, Natsuno murmured in his heart. This wasn't a "family." They were the ones who refused to take on the form of a married couple, refusing to be a family in the first place, weren't they, he thought. This was nothing more than a place where two adults, a man and a woman, gathered together with a child. He didn't plan to criticize his parents way of life but he was disconcerted by the way they declined the obvious while at the same time being indifferent to the way they themselves demanded the obvious.

  Without looking at his mother giving idle complaints, once he tried to return to his room she called out to stop him.

  "Hey, a post card came for you." His mother pointed above the shoe rack.

  "For me?" Natsuno took the post card in hand. "---What is this?"

  It was a late summer greeting. Passing his eyes over the writing, once he knew it was Megumi, his brows furrowed.

  "Sending a late summer greeting now, that's weird, isn't it? Who is she, this Shimizu-san girl."

  "Don't read other people's postcards."

  "Oh my, but since it's a post card it can't be helped can it?"

  He stared at his mother coolly then lowered his eyes to the postcard.

  ---Shimizu Megumi.

  "Isn't it from Shimizu-san's daughter? That."

  "....Probably."

  "That's not good. Why is a post card coming now? It's creepy."

  "Probably somebody's prank," he said heading directly to his room. He turned on the light in his room and looked again at the postcard.

  Without a doubt, this is that "Shimizu Megumi," he thought. But, Megumi died in the middle of August. There was no reason for the dead to send him a post card, and no matter how he thought about it, it was too late for a late summer greeting card. Megumi might have written it before she died. And some kind of accident happened that least it it being delivered now, then?

  Somehow it still felt like something was going unaccounted for but he didn't think he needed to force himself to feel creeped out. Natsuno moved to throw it into the trash----for some reason, though, he stopped.

  He didn't plan to hold onto it and treasure it dearly. But, there was no reason he had to throw it away or whatever today, he thought.

  Tohru bent down to the vending machine and took out his pack of cigarettes. Pocketing the change, he turned around. While walking along the night road, something felt off, he thought.

  There were a lot of funerals, a lot of moves. ---Definitely a lot, he thought. There had never been this many before. He didn't want to jump to the conclusion that something that had never happened before happening was weird but he couldn't come to a satisfactory conclusion. Lately, something was strange in the village, he couldn't help but feeling. Like something was out of tune, like the wheels were turning without getting anywhere, like things had deviated terribly from where they should have been.

  Unthinkingly tossing his cigarette pack in the air, he caught it as it came back down. It then jumped from the palm of his hand onto the road surface, rebounding and tumbling. It tumbled before a young man. The man picked it up.

  "Ah, sorry."

  "No. Here."

  He didn't recognize the face of the man handing it over. He was probably a few years older than Tohru. It wasn't as if he knew all of the villagers by any means but he did indeed know those of his own generation. If it wasn't somebody he recognized, he could only think he was someone from Kanemasa.

  "By chance are you from Kanemasa?"

  That's right, the other smiled. "This's the first time I've met someone the same age as me. I am called Tatsumi. Good to meet you."

  "Hello, good to meet you too. I'm Mutou."

  "I had thought there wasn't anybody around my age in the village."

  "That isn't the case. There aren't many, so the odds of encountering them are low, I'd think, though."

  While answering, he thought, this is him. He was probably the rumored "young one from Kanemasa." The one who appeared at Masao's place.

  "---Are you out for a walk?"

  "I'm not out for a walk persay, more like loitering. It's boring inside the house but there's no place
to go. I wonder what the young people in the village do to pass the time every day..." Tatsumi said, Tohru smiling.

  "In the village, there's not much to do besides watch TV and sleep. Eating's about it. If you want to do anything more substantial while hanging out, there's nothing to do but go out of the village."

  Tatsumi blinked. "Then, there is no choice but to go to Mizobe as expected. By car?"

  "Yup."

  "But, if you go out by car, you cannot go drinking, can you?"

  "Well, that's what it'd be at face value."

  Tatsumi sighed. "I think that it is a nice place, but as expected with no place to go, there's too much time on your hands." Saying this, Tatsumi laughed. "That said, if I walk out in the daytime, I get the feeling I've become a rare beast!"

  Tohru laughed. "If you don't have someone to hang out with, there's nothing at all, in this village. That said, even if you take the trouble of going all the way out to Mizobe, I don't think there's any place you could pass the time having that much for yourself, but. Especially at night, yeah? If you go out to Mizobe, the night still ends early there too. Well, unlike the city, that's just how it is here."

  "That's how it is."

  "There's no major place to hang out but, even so if you like, next time, I could show you around."

  "Really?"

  "If you like, give me a yell on the weekend. I live in Naka-Sotoba. If you ask for the house of Mutou who works in the hospital office, they'll know right away."

  "Ah---you work at the Ozaki Clinic."

  "My old man does. I'm just a simple office worker, myself. It's a loud and busy house where it's hard to unwind but, if you want, come on by sometime."

  Thank you, Tatsumi smiled. He looked at Tohru as if with some implication.

  "I'm glad you offered. ---I will definitely visit you. Until then, best regards."

  4

  On the 28th, the end of Higan during which he couldn't tear himself from the constant memorial services, Seishin visited the household commonly known as San'Yasu---the Yasumiris. It was because he couldn't help wondering about the daughter who had suddenly gone missing.

  The San'Yasu's place was at the furthest southern point of Naka-Sotoba, in the vicinity of the bridge that spammed the small driver from the western mountain. Surrounded by concrete, it was more appropriate to call it a canal than a river. On the other side of that was Shimo-Sotoba.

  Seishin entered the San'Yasu property going straight towards the entryway but while approaching he noticed the sliding storm door shutters were closed. The time was approximately 2:00, it wasn't a time when the members of the household would be asleep, was it? It made him remember the Murasako household in Yamairi. Seishin stood before the glass door of the entryway with some feeling of premonition.

  As expected, the glass door wasn't open. Even pressing the door bell there was no asnwer. Just in case he went around to the other side but all of the windows were closed tightly, the storm doors were shut, the home was shut up completely.

  If someone were just walking out somewhere, nobody would close up. The only time one would close up the house like this would be if going out to somewhere far away.

  Confused, he returned to the front, looking across the road at the house facing this one. There was nothing but country land all around, the San'Yasus had no neighbors. The nearest house was just the Tamos across the way. They were one of two Tamo households in Naka-Sotoba. This one had the same house layout typical of a farming family like the San'Yasus, so he was able to see from the porch through the storm doors which were all open that there were people inside and to call out to them.

  "Excuse me."

  A middle aged woman whom he had seen inside, likely watching TV, turned to face Seishin who had gone as far as the front porch and called out to her. It was Tamo Yukiko.

  "Well my, it's the Junior Monk." Yukiko said as she stood, coming out to the front porch.

  "The heat is beginning to give, isn't it? How may I help you today?"

  "Pardon me. This is about the Yasumori's next door, but."

  Ah, said Yukiko. "You have business with the San'Yasus? Them, they moved, just the day before yesterday."

  Eh, Seishin's voice raised.

  "Well, do come on in. We don't have much, but there is at least tea." Yukiko encouraged enthusiastically, so Seishin gratefully accepted. The television lit up the living room, children's toys spread through the area, though there were no signs of children. As Yukiko returned from preparing the tea she hurriedly gathered them up as she said her grandchild was at the peak age of mischief. "He's finally old enough to walk, we can't take our eyes off of him. He's spreading his toys all over, crying out in a loud voice all day long, and a lot of trouble. His mother and grandmother have taken him out shopping, so I've just finally gotten a break," Yukiko said with a squinting smile.

  "Is his grandmother doing well?"

  "Well, thank you for asking. She's even healthier than I am! Grandfather died early, she she intends to live all that much longer, so she says, but it seems like she's really going to do it."

  "That is most wonderful to hear," said Seishin with a smile, continuing with by the way. "About the Yasumori's."

  Ah, Yukiko said looking towards the front of the house opening a bad of sweets. "They moved. The day before yesterday, or rather, that night."

  "They were moving about to move in the middle of the night?"

  Yes, Yukiko nodded. "Did they not go by the Junior Monk's place to give word. No, they didn't come to say their goodbyes here either. Anyway, we heard the car, and as it was time for going to bed, we looked wondering what it could have been to see a moving truck across the road."

  "Was it... Takasago Movers?"

  With a surprised beat, Yukuko nodded, Aa. "Come to think of it, there was a pine symbol on it. Was it such an ostentatiously named moving company? You're well informed."

  Well, Seishin dismissed, dodging the matter.

  With that moving truck in place, looking to be carrying out their luggage like, I was surprised and went over. When I did, they'd said they had moved. ---It was bizarre." Yukiko lowered her voice and hunched forward. "Junior Monk, did yo know that the wife over there had gone missing?"

  "I have heard a rumor about as much, but."

  "She went missing. At the end of August, it was. Was it perhaps that evening when Meiko-san from next door came to ask if I'd seen her, and when I asked what was happening, she hadn't been there since that morning. When they awoke she was gone, and while they thought she had gone out, she still hadn't come back. I suggested they hurry and tell the resident officer. Lately, we just can't know what's going on in the village, after all."

  You know what I mean don't you, was all Yukuko said exchanging looks with him. Seishin gave a vague nod.

  "That's when she said that she would surely return once it turned to night, though. In the end, she didn't come back the next day. When I asked Meiko-san the story, she said that Hinako-san's travel case was gone, along with some of her clothes. She ran out, Meiko-san said, and my was she mad. ---But, this might not be appropriate to say, but, I had a feeling it would come to that some day. Their relationship with the wife of the household was poor, after all."

  Yes, Seishin offered as sheer back channeling.

  "Back before, you know? When Hinata-chan and Kouji-kun were getting together, there was quite the fuss. Meiko-san did not take to Hinata-chan. But she was a good girl, very social---of should I say, she was a modern, energetic girl who went all out! And it was decided that Kou-chan was going to be married to her. When talk of the marriage came about, they had already decided on the ceremony. The two of them were going to go off somewhere abroad by themselves to have the ceremony. That had Meiko-san and Seiichirou-san mad, didn't it! How terrible doing it abroad, and to decide on something like that all on their own, they said. To start with they hadn't even heard that the two were going to be married, there's no way they could allow it, they said. Well, if it had been my own so
n, I'd have had a row, too, you know. I absolutely won't allow you to marry her, she's said, terribly threatening but the truth was by that time, Hinata-chan already had a bun in the oven, didn't she? It wasn't a matter of allowing or not allowing it."

  "She was with child?"

  "In the end, she miscarried, though. But since she was having a child, it couldn't be helped, Hinata-chan's parents couldn't keep quiet. Somewhere in there, everyone was making a stand, but somehow it calmed itself out and the ceremony was held in Mizobe. And once that was done, next time there was the dispute with Hinata-chan's own parents. I mean, the San'Yasu's oldest son left the home, didn't he? He was well put together ever since high school, and in the end he went to a good college in the city, and got hired a bit metropolitan bank. Never the less, Hinata-chan's parents said that since he would become like a second son to them they'd allow the marriage. But that doesn't mean living with them, that's another matter. Kou-chan tried to be slick like that, didn't he? Both families fought but all the while Hinata-chan's stomach was getting bigger, and Kou-chan, being Kou-chan, was as stuck on Meiko-san as ever. Ever since he was little, if his mother wasn't in sight that child would go around looking for her while crying, wouldn't he! In the end, while they said they weren't happy about it, they said fine to it, and in the end it was Hinata-chan's parents who had to fold, though."