Yasumori Junko didn't know what kind of expression she should wear. Mikiyasu's funeral was to start momentarily. Tokijirou and Setsuko stood before the altar looking as if to waste away, their faces bowed down deeply. It was heart-wrenching, the way they clung to each other's hands as if they had nobody but each other to rely upon.
Junko's husband Kazuya was weighted with the grief of the loss of a relative he got along with so well. No, it was as if he were in a daze. Junko herself was in a similar daze, and of course was also sad. But, this was the third funeral for the contractors. The first was Nao's death, then from there was Susumu and then Mikiyasu went. When Nao died, Junko's whose voice rang out as she cried, was, on the third occasion that was today, more bewildered beyond her means than she was strictly sad.
Her father-in-law Kazunari was the same. From the antechamber he gazed at Tokujirou and Setsuko, his head tilting with a cool and distant expression.
"What's happening, these days."
I know, sighed her mother-in-law Atsuko.
"Three of them all in a row. I no longer know what to even say."
"You said it. But, don'tcha think there's something strange about this?"
Something, Atsuko blinked. Kazunari's face was all the more cold. "Don't you think it's too many in a row? Not just at my uncle's place. My old man, Yamairi, too. You don't think there could be some kind of bad disease going around, or something, huh?"
Junko's back stiffened as if worried about what others around would think at hearing Kazunari's low voice. Stop that, said Atsuko in an even lower voice. "Don't voice such terrible things like that!"
"But you know, before the Junior Monk came, asking a lot of questions about my old man. If he had get well visitors or not. That was probably what the Junior Monk had on his mind too, don't you think?"
"Please, stop it, I said. Please don't forget that we're at a funeral."
"I ain't forgot. Isn't that why I'm saying it? Adding in my old man's this is our fourth one. With this, that's four new graves built in the cemetery."
"Father-in-law didn't have some strange disease. If it was a disease that could spread to others, we who were taking care of him would have caught it long ago." Right, said Atsuko looking to her for agreement, though Junko only nodded, still dazed.
"The old man's case is different from the three of them."
"It was different. He had been ill for a long time after all. But, to others, they might not understand how different it was. If they start talking about some strange epidemic, they'll make it all Father-in-law's fault. That's why you shouldn't carelessly talk about such things."
But, groaned Kazunaru, trying to continue.
Junko compared him with Tokujirou on the other end of the altar. Yes, Giichi's condition was already poor, and it wasn't a disease which could spread to others. But, was there any way to explain the succession of misfortunes that they were experiencing?
Mysteriously, Junko remembered the night when Bon began, with the now deceased Nao at the lumberyard. Specifically, she remembered the feeling when they had met Kirishiki Seishirou. She didn't know why. The feeling she had done something she couldn't take back that chilled her spine. She had that same feeling. ---Yes, that something that couldn't be taken back was starting, that feeling.
At lunch time Kaori casually looked to the calendar and realized again that today was September 11th. September 11th, Sunday. The character for 11. Two ones. It was on August 11th that Megumi was missing. Since then, one month had passed.
She felt like something was tightening in her chest. Over summer break, it had been an incessant feeling. As they entered into September and a new school term started, she had finally been starting to forget that and yet at the slightest opportunity like this it was resurrected.
Feeling like something was lodged in her throat, Kaori swallowed what was in her mouth and set her chopsticks down. Her food wasn't going past her throat. ---Or rather, when she remembered Megumi, everything from eating to going to school to helping in the kitchen, such every day things all made her cowed. It was like, for example, being at a morning assembly at school and laughing when you weren't supposed to. It felt like she was doing something terribly imprudent. She felt a touch guilty.
Seeing that Kaori had put down her chopsticks, her mother Sachiko made a stern face. "Kaori, now, eat all of your lunch!"
When pressed she nodded but she felt like small bones were caught in her throat. It was always like this. Even if she was casually watching TV, she wondered if it was all right for her to be doing this. Even going to her club or taking classes, she couldn't run away from the thought that she was doing this even though Megumi was dead. Enjoying TV or a book or talking with her friends, raising her voice in laughter, realizing that she was enjoying herself, that she was forgetting that Megumi was dead, the absurd feeling that she was an unjust human being sprung up from nowhere.
Akira, who was scarfing down his lunch, gave Kaori a fleeting glance and said "cheer up."
"Mm...."
Sachiko, too, gave a light sigh. "It's just as Akira says. I understand that it was a shock but get over it and cheer up already."
That's right, Kaori murmured. But she couldn't forget. On the 11th, Megumi was missing. On the night of the 12th she was found. On the 13th, she paid a get well visit. That was the last time she saw Megumi. On the 14th, Kaori didn't know anything. She didn't even dream that Megumi was bad enough to die, and another trite summer day passed her by. Then was the 15th. Suddenly that phone call came.
"Even Megumi-chan would be sad if she saw you looking like that. You have to work hard for Megumi-chan's share, too."
Kaori cast her eyes downward. How many times had Sachiko said that to her now. Kaori's sadness was Megumi's sadness. In that case she couldn't relax and rest in peace to move on. Megumi's death was such a shame that from now on Kaori would have to live for Megumi as well. She said that the various joys Megumi couldn't have, Kaori would have to obtain in her place.
Is that right, she thought. Is that really what Megumi wanted or not? It sounded like an incredibly self serving excuse. There was no doubt that if it were Megumi she'd rather be happy herself than see Kaori happy. Even though she was dead, if she didn't even have a friend mourning her, that would be how many times more miserable for her? Sachiko's words sounded more like being told to clear away her mess. It was like being told not to hold on to her affection for the dead, to clean that up and throw it away. Kaori thought that that would be like betraying Megumi. The more Sachiko said that the more she thought that at least she wouldn't forget about Megumi, that she wouldn't 'clear it away', so she had to think to herself.
Lightly gripping her hand and raising her face, across the table her father was looking worriedly at her. Kaori smiled a bit and took up her chopsticks. It wasn't that she had no appetite but she was still resistant to continuing to eat. She had a feeling it was a part of 'clearing it away'.
"Speaking of that," Akira murmured to no one in particular. "Yesterday, somewhere in Shimo-Sotoba, it looks like someone died again. Mourning lanterns were out."
Sachiko's brows furrowed. "Oh dear, no. ...
Again?"
Akira gave a strangely serious nod. His father looked at that expression of Akira's, and then as if tasting something bitter, turned his eyes away.
"Something strange's going on, huh? There's Megumi, then after that the lumber mill's Yasuyuki-nii-chan. Before that too, there were the three dead in Yamairi, weren't there? Why're this many people all dying?"
"This kind of thing happens," Sachiko said, her tone blunt. "Death is something that comes in succession. Even so, I wish it'd give it a rest already. If it goes on like this, it's like a bad omen."
"That's the problem, huh? It's like, I got this feeling something bad's happening."
"Don't say such stupid things," Sachiko said with an overdone grimace. "The people in Yamairi were getting on in years. Yasuyuki-san and Megumi-chan died of illness didn't they? It isn't as if they were killed or something."
Turning his eyes to Akira as he said "Yeah, but," Tanaka swallowed what was in his mouth. He knew that it was Nakano Wataru. Nakano who lived in Shimo-Sotoba died. Yesterday, his death certificate came in and Tanaka turned over a copy of it to Ishida. Since this summer, the number of copies he had handed over like so came to nineteen. And now the pace was getting faster. It didn't take an expert to see that the situation was accelerating.
Even at the government office there were voices saying something was strange. The Ozaki Clinic's Toshio and Ishida were in contact frequently, do you think it's because of that? they whispered. Nobody would say it too loudly, fearing the gaze of the bureau chief. The head of the branch office wasn't from Sotoba. Appointed by the town hall, he transferred to the village. Ishida seemed to ignore the chief and worked with Toshio, something all members of the staff realized, while keeping their mouths shit. Sotoba had a system that kept things moving smoothly. The chief, who was an outsider to the village, had no place in the three pillar system of the village. Complete outsider though he was, the bureau chief had to save face as the bureau chief. Everybody knew full well that if they passed things through the chief, it would actually mean that things would no longer be able to progress smoothly.
And so things carried on its same manner as when it was a village. While it had been annexed into Mizobe, the village was still its own distinct entity, and had a tendency to refuse interference from the town. The town accepted that, and had a trend of lassez-faire. No matter what happened, it wouldn't be run by the bureau chief, and consequently it wouldn't be run by the town itself, and the chief was to be left out of affairs; treated as an outsider; such was the unspoken agreement within the government office. Doing it this way, it went through Kanemasa who put it through to the town, which was how it would come around to the bureau chief. Only after that did the bureau chief's involvement even begin.
That said, nineteen death certificates was too much for Tanaka's heart to bear alone. Especially when things were like this, when he was seeing his own wife make light of the situation, the sense of an impending crisis swelled. Akira was the one who was correct. Sotoba was strange. He felt an impatient irritation with himself for not being able to say it.
Taking a deep breath and raising his face, his gaze met with Kaori's. As if ahamed, Kaori cast her head down. She might have thought that he, Tanaka, was condemning her for being depressed. However clearly reluctant and unwilling it seemed, she began using her chopsticks.
He didn't think there was any need to force herself. It was sad for Kaori to have lost her friend. The feelings of sadness were something that naturally boiled up inside of her, so it wasn't as if she could just repress it through sheer will power, could she? If those around her told her not to grieve, Kaori would just be hiding it. He had the feeling that ordering her to cheer up like Sachiko was harmful, without benefit. But it was better that she ate. There was nothing more important than keeping up her physical strength. ----Tanaka thought as much, without daring to add it to the conversation.
Motoko left the house as always, and in the distance saw a funeral procession. The coffin rose on top of the palanquin, a great crowd carrying it towards Sue no Yama.
For some reason or other she gripped her thumb in her fist. Both of Motoko's parents were already dead, so there was no need to do that and yet whenever she saw a funeral procession or a hearse, she couldn't help doing it. Now that thumb may have been a symbol for her children, for her husband and her in-laws---for that kind of family.
[TL/N: Gripping your thumb in your fist
when a hearse or funeral procession passes by is a childhood superstition, similar to the one avoiding stepping on cracks to keep your mother from breaking her back in English. The thumb in Japanese is called the oya-yubi; oya is Japanese for parent(s) so it could be read as the parent finger. The idea is that you're hiding them from death]
Going to the highway, bearing the usual feeling of unease she headed towards Chigusa. Entering the store, she could see several people in mourning clothes. Mourners who weren't attending the burial services must have drifted here. Motoko felt a faint tightness in her chest. She was certain that when they entered the shop, they didn't spread salt or any such, did they? She couldn't help the feeling that they'd picked up something at the funeral that they had brought with them into the shop.
[TL/N: Japanese tradition calls
salt
a purifier. Salt is placed in piles in front of restaurants supposedly to ward off evil as well as to usher in patrons. These can be seen out front of many businesses.
Accepted a tradition as it is, if Chigusa had never had one before, it would be potentially offensive to suddenly put one out because so many patrons were coming in after funerals.
At funerals small packets of salt may be offered to throw in front of your house before returning to ward off evil spirits from following you inside]
As if to cheer up Motoko from such a state, Kanami smiled and waved lightly from the counter. Motoko nodded and went behind the counter, preparing to do her job and then blinking in surprise. In the corner of their work space, positioned where the customer's prying eyes couldn't see, there was a paper napkin spread out and piled with salt. Kanami does this kind of thing too, Motoko thought.
As Motoko looked to her wide eyed, Kanami noted the line of sight of the customers and gave an embarrassed seeming shrug.
"It's something at least. It's a matter of comfort."
"Isn't it?" Motoko smiled.
"I get the feeling they're coming in succession. I've gotten a little superstitious over it."
Come to think of it, she had heard that someone that Kanami's mom got along well with had died. There was the misfortune in Yamairi, and a regular customer's daughter had died. Her husband was the father's coworker, so they had gone to give condolences. Even given it was a summer hotter than average, that it was continuing on this long could certainly endear a person to a superstition or two.
".....I'm sure it's over now," Motoko said in a small voice. "The summer heat seemed like there was no end to it in sight but it has gotten cooler in the mornings and the evenings."
That's right, Kanami smiled.
"A funeral? Nakano's son? ---Well, my."
The elderly gathered around Takemura's store front just as they had for years on end. Hearing Ohtsuka Yaeko's announcement, Hirosawa Takeko let out a hysteric shriek.
"Even though it was the old man who was a drunkard falling down so many times..."
"That's just it! When I heard there was a funeral for Nakano, I thought the old man had finally drank himself under too, you know!"
Takeko nodded. "His liver was failing, and it even seemed like he had one leg in the coffin already, didn't it. And yet instead he's living a long life being a bother to everyone around him!"
No doubt about that, laughed the elderly whom Tatsu watched coldly. Honestly, what happy go lucky lot. Is this what this bunch thought of all these funerals were happening in a row here? As Tatsu grumbled in her mind, a black hired car drove before her eyes. Because it was such a fine car, she dared say it couldn't be Nakano's. Just before, a fine foreign car had passed by on the road towards the temple, she had heard. It was said that the contractor's funerals were at the temple. It likely belonged to a condolence caller attending that.
As she thought that, walking out in the still summer like rays of the sun, Ikumi Itou appeared. Ikumi watched the passing hired car and gave a pretentious grimace.
"Another funeral, I wonder?"
"They say it's Nakano's funeral."
"Nakano?"
Ohtsuka Yaeko nodded. "Right. The house on the outskirts of Shimo-Sotoba. The son there died. Even though he was in the prime of life."
Ikumi snorted a thin laugh. "This summer's been nothing but funerals. That's why I said nothing good would come of it."
"Oh you, don't you say that every year?" Satou Oitarou flashed his tabacco stained yellowing teeth in a smile. However stained it indeed was, his front tooth was his own. Oitarou bragged about that.
"That's a lie, that is. It isn't like I say it every year! This year is special. Why, all these funerals!"
"It can't be helped. It's nothing but old folks here," Takeko said, Yaeko laughing, too. Ikumi gave them a glare with chilling eyes.
"How nice you can laugh. Takeko-san's household just had a funeral, didn't they?"
"That wasn't us. That was the Sawmill. The Ohtsuka sawmill is indeed related to me, so I did go, though. Even though they are relatives, I've cut ties." Yaeko waved her hand. Takeko and Oitarou nodded seemingly knowledgable.
"They got up into some weird new religion, then had the nerve to come to us trying to convert us, putting us at our wits' end! When it came to the temple, they said they had nothing left to gain from them, so when their own grandson died, they weren't taken care of."
Oitarou nodded solemnly. "It's a punishment for the lack of respect shown to the temple. That's what I think of it, myself."
You've said it, Yaeko laughed.
Ikumi snorted. "Faith has to be faith in a proper God or it doesn't mean anything after all. Though, I worship at the temple and don't think I've profited for it. Well, even while the Sawmill's good for nothing, I'm sure they were tricked into it."
Yes, yes, Takeko said, interrupting Ikumi. If she let her go on like this, it was obvious she would have said something suspicious. "Well, it is true there are a lot of funerals. If it continues like this, I'm afraid next it might be my turn!"
"If it's you, you'll be fine. You're getting on fine somehow or another, aren't you?"
"I am, but still," said Takeko with a laugh, though Ikumi's gaze was fixed in place.
"It's been since Kanemasa moved in."
Tatsu opened her eyes.
"What is she even trying to say, this person, here. Kanemasa moved in after the misfortune in Yamairi!"
"But, since the house had been built. That place isn't good! She shouldn't have built there. And it doesn't have anything to do with Yamairi. That was a problem with the Murasako family, I told you. Gigorou-san simply got caught up in the Murasako's bad fortune. The funerals that have been continuing since after that, aren't they from after when Kanemasa moved in? A high school student in Shimo-Sotoba, died."
"Ah, Shimizu's Tokurou-san's place's grand daughter."
"Since then haven't they been on a roll? These funerals, and for some reason we're seeing ambulances coming and going! It's Kanemasa! Kanemasa. There's definitely something to them. That bunch summons in evil."
Tatsu sighed and shook her head. She'd gotten herself started again, she feared.
But it was a fact that there were many funerals. More than Ikumi thought, more than all of the old people gathered here thought; Tatsu had such a feeling.
(Something's happening.....?)
It might be, said a feeling stagnating in her chest. Something was off about this summer. ---No, lately, Sotoba was strange. She had the intuition that at least that much was certain.
Natsuno called out simply that he was going to Mutou's and left. There was a math problem he just couldn't solve. Mutou's older brother---and his younger sister Aoi for that matter---weren't terribly reliable as teachers but Tamotsu was a collector of crib notes. It was possible he kept some from when he was a first year, he realized. Their high schools were separate but fortunately the text book they used was the same.
The summer heat was still fierce. Fed up with it he looked up to the blue sky when the not-too-far off sound of bells were heard. Looking off the side of the road, a coffin draped in a white cloth was being carried out of a house by the roadside.
Again, thought Natsuno has he stopped. He didn't know which house that one was. It's pretty close, was all Natsuno had known. Yamairi, Megumi, and after that his parents had been involved in about two more Mourning Group tasks. Didn't that make for the fifth one? And in about one month.
Was it like this last year too, he thought. Natsuno moved in to Sotoba last year, though he didn't remember seeing any funerals then. Even though he'd seen zero since this summer, suddenly since August started, he'd seen a procession of funerals. If it was the fifth one in one month, that'd average out to more than one house per week having one. No matter how you thought about it, this was too many, but.
Cocking his head in puzzlement, he went to Mutou's. Going up to Tamotsu's room, he informed him there was a funeral, but it didn't seem to catch Tamotsu's attentions.
"Man, there's been a lot of funerals, huh?" Natsuno said, to which Tamotsu answered with a nonchalant "Have there?" while searching inside a cardboard box.
"Ain't that how it goes? Someone died, someone's about to die, you're always hearing something like that. ---Ah, found it. I've got some pretty good treasures myself, don't I? Be grateful."
As Tamotsu presented him with his crib notes, Natsuno gave him a sigh. "I'd be more grateful if instead of giving it to me like this you'd explain it to me, though."
"Depending on others's no good," Tamotsu laughed. "If you're planning on going to college, you'd be better off going to cram school."
"Like a college entrance cram school out in the country like this's be worth it. I'd be better off with correspondence courses."
"You're so un-cute." Tamotsu made an intentionally sulky face and crossed his arms. "That thing where you're all 'country, country' and making fun of us ain't cute either but the part where you'd seriously study through a correspondence course is the most not cute part about you."
"I have a consistent personality like that."
Well said, Tamotsu laughed. Natsuho laughed too and opened the note.
He didn't by any means like studying. To Natsuno this was the price he had to pay to get out of Sotoba. Whatever he had to do however, he wanted out of the village. If it was necessary, he'd do it. The thoughts of wanting out were urgent and so he continued was all it was.
(Even so, two more years...)
There was still that much more to go. Comforting himself with 'just two more years' was getting harder recently. Since Megumi had died. Imprisoned in Sotoba, Megumi was unable to escape---that was the needle prodding sharply into his back pressing Natsuno to hurry. If I don't hurry, something was going to wrap itself around him like a spider's web and he wouldn't be able to untangle it. It might not be too bad to live here, he could get to thinking, losing all direction until he thought there wasn't really a need to leave the village, was there?
---Then why can't that happen, a voice inside of him head. Adapt to the village, get comfortable; if you stop wanting to leave the village, wouldn't that be a comfortable situation in its own right? Yet Natsuno couldn't but abhor such a situation. It made him imagine an empty shell. As peaceful as it would be, all that would be left was a groundless version of himself. He feared it likely.
Shaking his head once, he tackled the problem. Incidentally helping himself to the Mutous' dinner, he finished the day's assignment after ten o'clock. Saying his thanks to Tamotsu's parents, he left the Mutous. Out of cigarettes, Tohru went with him.
"The night wind feels really refreshing, don't it?"
TOhru looked up at the western mountain. The sounds of the insects were vigorous. Even so, the wind that blew down from the dark bare surface of the mountain as if it were invited was thought of as chilly.
"Wonder if it's gonna be fall soon at this rate."
"Who knows? It's not Higan week again yet, after all. But, summer was hot, so this year winter might come early."
"What, is there a rule like that?"
"Nah. Just a guess."
That part of you, Natsuno said giving Tohru a poke. Tohru gave a light hearted laugh, then suddenly went quiet.
TOhru pointed ahead on the road. It came sluggishly down the road from the Western mountain, through the heart of Sotoba. Further down that road was one house's family on a plot of land without a fence or anything else in it, where the truck stopped.They opened the container of the truck and piled their luggage in.
"Moving? At this hour." Tohru said as if amazed.
"They might be running away into the night. Literally."
Tohru laughed. Natsuno simply shrugged his shoulders. Come to think of it, said Tohru, seeing off the workers in mover's clothes as he continued. "The wife at Sanyasu ran away, I heard?"
"Mm?"
"There's a family called that in Naka-Sotoba. They're officially Yasumori, but. They say that Sanyasu's wife disappeared, like. That in the morning when they woke up she wasn't there."
"She ran away from home?"
"Guess so. She was a younger wife but like it sounds like she didn't get along well with her in-laws. She was always disagreeing with her husband, then like that finally their love went cold and she walked out, the story goes."
"That happens even out here?"
Tohru gave a wry smile. "Don't make fun of the country. Even out here normal stuff happens in its own way."
"Well then, I underestimated the place."
Natsuno said, Tohru giving him a light nudge in the back and starting to walk. Natsuno turned back a moment a bit to look at the truck. They probably weren't running away into the night. Such an imposing, huge truck, was hardly going to hide them from anything he thought. Even so, he wasn't satisfied with just saying they were moving at night.
Suddenly Natsuno remembered that he had heard the words 'moving at night' a while before too. Right, that was when they were moving in. The owners of Kanemasa. They moved in at night and then---Natsuno tilted his head. He'd heard rumors that they'd moved in and that the owners had been seen but Natsuno had never seen the owners that were now living there. As Tohru said, it ended without any connection to him at all. So long as Natsuno could leave in two years according to plan.
"What's up?" Tohru turned back to look at him.
It's nothing, Natsuno murmured jogging to catch up. Tohru smiled.
"... Jealous?"
Natsuno's scowled.
"That's not it!"