Reburying Megumi's grave, it was dark by the time they remade the mound and repositioned the sotoba. A dim light was starting to linger within the forest. Driving away the dried brush with the hoe and the shovel, somehow or another they made their way down the mountain to the village at sunset, a rust color dying the village."Hey... What're we supposed to do now?"
"No idea," said Natsuno, his response blunt. In spite of that, he glowered at his surroundings with a rigid expression.
Akira sat down sullenly at the slope beside the hokora where they had met. Kaori, her strength spent, followed suit. Natsuno at last must have noticed that he still had his firty gloves on, taking them off and throwing them behind the hokora.
"Megumi... I wonder where she went?" Kaori said to herself. ---That's the problem, Akira thought, too.
"Kanemasa wasn't it, since Yasuyuki Nii-chan went into Kanemasa too, I'm sure that's their nest. We'll have to take everyone out there and finish them off after all."
He looked to Natsuno expecting agreement but Natsuno gave a curt "Can't."
"Why?"
"First, we don't know what they are do we?"
"Aren't they zombies? Since they're risen dead bodies. ---No, they might be vampires, huh? Megumi died of anemia, didn't she?"
"To start with, it's not clear what we need to do yet. If they are vampires, they can't walk around in the daylight. If you hit them with a stake they'll die. But that stuff's in movies and books and stories. We don't really know if that'll repel them or not, do we?"
"That right? ---And if they're zombies?"
"Then they could walk around in the daytime, and there's no choice but to cut off the head, at least in movies. But we don't know if that's really true or not either."
"Bet they can only walk around at night, huh? I mean, the Kanemasa bunch, I've never heard of anyone seeing them in the daytime. And Megumi died from anemia right? So it's vampires after all."
Kaori interposed. "But if they're vampires, aren't they in their coffins during the day time....?"
Natsuno nodded. "That's how it goes. But Shimizu wasn't there. She got out of the grave and went somewhere. Probably into hiding I bet. She might actually be at Kanemasa, and if that's the case, that's their haunt."
"So let's sneak in. In the daytime. While they're asleep, like."
"What about the younger guy called Tatsumi or something?"
"Huh? Come to think of it, he's the only one around in the day time."
"When you guys were spying on Kanemasa, he was behind you guys. If we figure Tatsumi's one of their bunch, then they've noticed that you guys are suspicious. In that case, their guard'll be up too, and they'll have Tatsumi moving for them in the daytime. If you snuck in carelessly, they'd turn the tables on you."
"Then, how about this?" Akira leaned forward. "In the evening or something like, and at daybreak we'll keep watch on Kanemasa. Then we'll get them when they're coming and going and deal with them. We'll use, you know---we'll get a bunch of crosses."
"I wonder if those kinds of things really have any effect?"
There's that, Akira murmured.
It was all sounding kind of complicated. If it was like in the movies they should have been able to repel them with crosses. But there wasn't any proof that Megumi and the others were the same as the vampires in the movies. Thrusting crosses at them--what if that didn't have any effect?
"If the bunch of them are gathered in Kanemasa, the odds of running into them in the evening or at daybreak are high. But that also means the danger level is high. While defeating one of them, if two or three of them come back it'll be hopeless."
"That right... to start with, we don't know how many of them there are, huh? Since this summer how many people've died from here?"
"Hmmm..."
Akira tilted his head to the side as Kaoru spoke in a small murmur.
"I wonder if the Motohashis' Obaa-chan will rise up too?"
"Motohashi?"
Kaori nodded. "It seems she died today. She's an old woman from the neighborhood."
Natsuno fell into thought. Right---as they spoke the number of dead were increasing. What if all of them rose up? There was the possibility of doing as Akira said and lying in wait around the Kirishikis' house and lessening their numbers one by one but if their enemies increased their numbers more swiftly than that it'd be meaningless. They had to stop them at the point of entry.
Natsuno turned to look back at Kaori.
"Do you know where that Baa-san's grave is?"
"I don't know---but, you can't!"
"I get it," Akira cried out with excitement. "We wait for her to rise up from the grave, then get her, right?"
"We'll take care of it before she rises up."
"But... that's."
"We don't have any other way do we? Like your little brother says."
"It's Akira, Akira."
Natsuno gave Akira a fleeting glance and a wry smile. "Like Akira says, it's not like we can just sneak into Kanemasa. So, when it comes to what we can do I'm at a total loss. While we're like this, they're adding to their numbers. So isn't this the only thing we can do?"
"That's true but... but, I don't know where the Motohashis' Obaa-chan's grave is."
"Tonight's the vigil.?" Akira said. "Then, the funeral's tomorrow isn't it? If we just follow the funeral procession it'll be easy."
"That'll work."
"Mom's out with the Mourning Crew, so we'll basically know what time the funeral starts. If we go nearby at that time we can follow after them."
"Mm," Natsuno said giving Akira a light poke. "Crafty, aren't you?"
"Heh heh."
Akira seemed happy as he laughed. Kaori somehow didn't feel into it.
"I'll call you tomorrow when Mom leaves. Nii-chan, what's the phone number at your place?"