The head of the funeral procession carried the flag solemnly towards the mountain. Before Kaori's eyes as she watched from a distance, they went up the forest path towards Megumi's grave.
"Let's go, Akira."
Following after Natsuno who took off running, Akira was full of vigor. Kaori followed behind them more reluctantly. As Kaori and the others reached the base of the forest path, the tail of the processin was just rounding the curve. Natsuno motioned for them to go into the woods. Pushing their way through the already withered underbrush, the processin turned towards the curve and had already begun to climb the face of the mountain.
Without using the path, and while trying not to stand out, making as little noise as possible, it was difficult to keep her posture low and follow after the procession. Already her feet and her knees hurt, her clothes were being torn and covered with dead leaves, her limbs being scratched up.
(....This is so stupid), Kaori increasingly thought switching the heavy hoe between her hands.
Why was she even tagging along? Akira had hit it off perfectly with Natsuno and they pushed the conversation along on their own as if they didn't intend to invite Kaori along at all. Climbing up the mountain, digging a hole, if they were doing things like that, they could just get together as boys and do it. Akira had always had a habit of making fun of Kaori, and she had no intent of copying his strange way of looking up to Natsuno.
While Kaori thought that there was another side within her as well. The voice asking her how she could think such careless things. Megumi wasn't there. She rose up.
(What's wrong with that?)
Wasn't that much better than being dead and rotting, she thought. If she rose up it meant Megum hadn't really died. If Megumi was still alive somewhere, Kaori wanted to see her again.
(....Really?)
Megumi was an Oni. If Kaori and Megumi were to meet, that would be when Kaori was captured by the Oni. Putting aside whether she could prove that she definitely wouldn't capture her, if that weren't the reason then they probably wouldn't meet. Kaori didn't want to become an Oni. Dying and rising up might have been different from dying, yes, it might have ultimately meant not being dead but just going through death as the bunch of them did once was scary.
But, for example if Megumi had become an Oni, as long as she didn't come to capture her, wasn't that fine, she thought. If Megumi didn't come to capture Kaori, it just meant that Megumi was "still alive" and nothing more. She thought she died. She thought she was lost, no longer of this world. If that wasn't the case, then she should only be all the more happy to hear it.
(....Really?)
Kaori herself didn't want to become an Oni. If so then Megumi too was probably not very happy about becoming one herself. She didn't want to be an Oni. If Megumi was the same, then this was terrible for her.
(Is that really true?)
Of course it was true. That was all the more reason Kaori hated the people of the Kirishiki household. Whether she rose up or whether she didn't, Megumi was dead. No doubt death was a painful and terrifying thing for even Megumi. And yet she died. The Kirishiki household attacked and kileld her. If so, she couldn't forgive them she had thought but now that it came to it, she didn't know what she would do with her lack of forgiveness towards them.
She probably meant to get revenge on them (that isn't something I can do). Or did she want them to acknowledge their crime and apologize (that isn't something they can do). Or had she just wanted to lay the blame on them (and what good would doing that do?).
Kaori couldn't sleep last night. Thinking that Megumi was there outside the window, or thinking that she might have come into the house, she was terrified, afraid, she couldn't stand it. Kaori had longed for Megumi, she mourned for her death, and she wished for Megumi to come back any way or any how and yet when she thought that Megumi might have risen up from her grave, that she might appear before her, she was so terrified she couldn't stand it.
(Do I want Megumi to be dead? Or do I want her to be alive?)
She didn't know which she wanted. She didn't know how scary it would be for Megumi to have risen up. In the first place right now was Megumi dead or was she alive? That much wasn't clear, so she didn't know whether it was terrible or not for Megumi.
So just let it go, a part of her thought. Let's say Megumi isn't dead. Isn't that enough, she thought. On the other hand, another part of her said that they couldn't just do that. Just as Natsuno and Akira said, as it was as somebody died, the Oni increased in numbers. If it went on adding up like this, what would happen to the village? And to those who lived there, Kaori, Akira, Kaori's parents?
That was dreadful. So somebody had to stop it. Thinking that, her thoughts cycled back around to the first point.
(But, if you rise up, isn't that the same as being alive?)
As Kaori was spaced out, she almost bumped into Natsuno who had stopped a short ways before her. As Kaori let out a small voice, Natsuno motioned for her to be quiet. The funeral procession was going along the curve of the small pathway. They were going up rather far past Megumi's grave.
From the forest path that went up along the western mountain, the procession turned about back towards the tail. Making sure the last of them had gone around the curve of the small path, Natsuno stepped out onto the forest path. Continuing towards the entrance of the small path, they entered into the forest just beyond it.
There were already footprints in the forest, and nearby the sound of the funeral bells ceased. They had left the graveyard. The procession worked its way out from the grove of trees, and seeing them gather around the hole, Natsuno pointed to the forest path.
"What's wrong? We're stopping?"
She heard Akira's voice coming out onto the forest path. Natsuno started to climb further up the forest path.
"We can't wait there, can we? We're going to check on the grave, so we'll have to kill some time."
"Ah, that's right."
As Akira nodded with a strange air of admiration, an opening was found a bit ahead on the forest path. It was a plaza for trucks to stop at. There was a piling up of planks of trees that were cut down, though why they were left was unknown.
The birds sang. The wind blew, and a voice could be heard chanting the sutras. When that voice silenced it meant the funeral was over. Kaori listened carefully. The voice was a worn and raspy one. It wasn't the permeating, well-carrying voice of the usual Junior monk. The temple was busy, so the Junior Monk wouldn't come, Kaori's mother had said. Normally when there was a funeral, there were several monks. It seemed like it wasn't often that there was only one but not only did the Junior Monk not come, only one monk came. It meant that with funerals and services, they just didn't have enough staff. The funeral services was late to start too. This too was because of the temple's circumstances. They'd never heard of it being like this, just what is going on, she heard her parents saying as if it were their matter to be indignant about.
(So many funerals....)
If she thought about it, a lot of people had died since summer. Just out of those Kaori knew, with Megumi and Ohtsuka Yasuyuki Hashimoto Tsuruko was the third. And it seemed the three old people from Yamairi had died too, and without a doubt many more people than that had died.
Quite some time passed the time until the sutra chanting voice died out. Natsuno looked at his watch countless times. Not only was he aware of the time, he knew well that the shadows were gradually growing longer, that dusk was approaching the grove of the trees and that night was coming on.
At last the voice reading the sutras ceased, and by the time they heard the voices of those involved in the procession going down, the color of the sky had changed.
Kaori and the others hurried to the graveyard in the woods. When they took a peak, there were still several men left behind cleaning up afterwards. Waiting in the bowers for the men to go down the mountain, at last when there was no sign of anybody, the shadows had coiled about everything.
"What should we do...?" Akira asked Natsuno as he looked around uneasily. Within the woods, they couldn't see through the depths of the underbrush. The sky at least still had traces of red but the graveyard within the tree groves was already faintly dark. There was the piled up mound, and the characters on the mounted wooden sotoba's corners couldn't be read without going right up next to it. Without a doubt if they started to dig up the grave now, it would be too dark to see by the time they got to the coffin.
"Might be better to do this another time, huh? Look, at least we know where the grave is now." Akira said as Natsuno stared fixedly at the Sotoba. And then, resolved, he turned around to face Akira.
"That's enough from you guys, you go home."
"What about you Nii-chan?"
"I'm going to do what has to be done."
But, Akira and Kaori said at the same time. Natsuno distinctly shook his head.
"By tomorrow they might not be here anymore." Natsuno didn't say who. "I have to finish this up tonight."
"Even so, they probably won't rise up tonight." Akira said looking at their surroundings.
"Why?"
"Why? Well---I just figure."
"That's called wishful thinking. You just mean it'll be good if they don't. Things happen that don't go according to plan often enough." Natsuno said while taking the Sotoba in his hand. Unlike Megumi's, this one didn't fall over with just a little shaking.
"Nii-chan, it'd be bad."
"It's fine. You guys go back. If you don't hurry then by the time you get back it'll be dark."
Akira looked to Natsuno with upturned eyes. "No.... If Nii-chan's going it, I'm gonna help too, naturally."
"It's fine, I said go home."
Natsuno began to dig around the Sotoba. Akira continued. "Just so you know, it's not like I'm gonna get scared and freak out if it's in there."
"That isn't what I'm saying. By the time we finish doing this the sun'll set. I'm telling you to go back because it's dangerous."
"It's dangerous for Nii-chan too."
"I'll make it somehow."
"Then we'll make it, too."
But, Kaori started in. "Ne... Let's do it tomorrow."
"If you're scared, you go home. I'll come back when I'm finished helping Nii-chan."
"I don't need you," Natsuno said while digging. The sotoba was starting to waver. "More importantly, you take your sister home. You're not going to send a girl back home alone when it's this dark right?"
Akira gave Kaori a fleeting glance. "She'll be all right. Kaori's not weak, she's got a better constitution than me, actually."
"That's not the problem. There's some people not fit for this." Natsuno stopped, pointing to Kaori. "Your sister, she's already shaking. If something happens, obviously she's going to freeze up and won't be able to move. You said you wouldn't get scared and freak out right? What'll happen if she doesn't have someone like that there."
"If you're gonna put it like that, then Nii-chan can bring Kaori home. You do that and I'll work here by myself until Nii-chan comes back."
"Akira..."
Natsuno sighed. He watched with annoyance as Akira picked up the shovel obstinately.
"I'm all right," Kaori said, gripping the hoe as she did yesterday. "I'll be all right."
So Kaori said but of course she was only acting tough. She was afraid of the dark. It seemed like somebody could already be hiding in the dark, and she tensed every time the wind rang through the branches. And furthermore in that hole---in that coffin, there was sure to be a dead body laid out. To be digging that out, when even just thinking about it was terrifying. But Kaori didn't want to go home alone. She coldn't stand to return home on the dim mountain path where shadows startled her and she tensed at every noise. If it came to that, then it was better to be here with three people even in the dark. It was better to be together at least until they got to the houses with street lights.
Natsuno sighed and began using the shovel. Kaori began using the hoe desperately. The guilt of the sin of digging up a grave all fell to the wayside before the fear that drove her to want to return to her home safely even one minute sooner.
The ground was softer than it was even when they were doing Megumi's grave. Digging along wasn't so hard, and it was taking less time than it did with Megumi's. Even so the sun was setting fast. The color of the dirt was deep and dark and when she rose her face to wipe at the sweat, the forest around them had grown dim, the view of the cemetery more hazy as if coated in layers of dark ink.
How many times had she looked up? Kaori thought that she'd heard a noise in the nearby underbrush. It was jumbled with the sonds of digging but she thought she had certainly heard the sounds in the thicket. She looked about her surroundings but she couldn't really see through the groves of the trees. She couldn't even see the expressions on Natsuno and Akira who were working next to her.
(Am I imagining it....?)
Kaori looked around several times. Again there was a faint sound from somewhere. She tried to determine where it came from, but she couldn't be sure.
"...What's up?" Akira looked up. She couldn't see his expression but his voice was colored with unease.
"I heard something..."
It was when Kaori said that. Suddenly, the bushes to her right rustled, a figure came rushing at her. Kaori couldn't make a noise, couldn't even prepare herself.
It was a man. Someone she didn't know. A hand stretched out to grab her. A thought flashed across her mind. She should have gone back, she should have run away, she was going to be caught, she was going to be killed. The hoe in her hand, her feet wouldn't move---.
She was pulled back from behind. The man's hand swiped at emptiness. As Kaori fell on her backside, somebody was standing in her place, and the man was falling over face up. She heard a dull but violent noise and smelled something sour.
The man completely collapsed, unmoving. Natsuno was before the fallen Kaori, his shoulders rising and falling with his breath. He gripped his shovel with both hands.
"What... Hey....!"
Kaori struggled to move. At her side Akira was standing frozen stiff. The man wasn't moving. Kaori grasped Natsuno's arm.
"You.. You hit him? Is he all right?"
Still breathing wildly, Natsuno freed himself from Kaori's grasp and went towards the man. Both hands still gripped the shovel. Peering fixedly at the man's face, he eventually knelt at his side. Still looking even more closely at his face, he took one hand from the shovel to feel it.
Kaori came terrified to his side. Akira gripped at Kaori's hand.
"....Nii-chan."
Natsuno pulled off his work glove with his teeth. He touched the man's face with his bare hand then brought it to his nose. In the next instant he felt his neck. The sour scent rose up.
"Hey.... What's wrong? Did something happen?"
"Nii-chan, who is this person?"
"I don't know." Natsuno's voice was cracking.
"That person, is he okay?"
"....He's dead."
Kaori stiffened. She felt violently dizzy. It was like she had stepped into a nightmare. "No..."
"He's not breathing."
Akira let go of Kaori's hand and rushed to Natsuno's side. "Nii-chan, you killed him?!"
"....Might've," said Natsuno, putting his ear to the man's chest. "---No good. He's definitely dead."
"You've got to be kidding! Right!?" Kaori drew closer, then swallowed her breath. It was a face she didn't know. If nothing else she was certain it wasn't somebody she knew. The hair above his left ear was strangely jagged. It looked like it was stained with blood but already the colors were lost to the darkness.
The power was sapped from her legs. She realized what an affair it had become. Who was this? Why did they come to a place like this? To come flying out like that!
Collapsing to her ankles, she felt something cold touch her. Strangely limp, it was the man's hand. In an exceedingly normal shirt and pants, there was nothing that stood out about him at all.
"Nee-chan, what should we do?" Akira asked gripping her arm.
"How should I..." How should she know? Who was he? Were they caught digging up the grave? Was that why he came rushing out?
"It's not Nii-chan's fault. I mean... He came rushing out. You hit him to protecto Kaori. So."
That's right, thought Kaori. One shouldn't just jump out at somebody, they should call out first. The way he did it, Kaori thought someone scary was attacking her, so they couldn't blame Natsuno for hitting them to protect her.
--But, should they explain that to the adults? If they tried to, they would have to explain why the three were there, what they were doing there.
"Self... It was self defense. It's not Nii-chan's fault!"
Natsuno stared at the man's face. Breathing out a sigh, he turned to face Kaori and the others.
"We've gotta do something about him."
"Something?"
Natsuno looked at the hanlf-dug hole. Kaori's spine went cold. He wasn't possibly going to say they should bury him like this, was he?
"No, we can't do something like..."
"He's cold," Natsuno said with a frightfully calm voice. "There's no body heat at all."
"He's dead. ...But, even so, we can't hide him."
"That's not what I mean. He's cold, already."
Eh? Kaori murmured. She remembered the temperature of the man's hand when she touched it.
"His body heat shouldn't have faded this fast. How many minutes has it been since he went down?"
Kaori stared seriously at the man, then reached out her hand and tried touching the man's. It really was cold. Edging closer she touched his face. Akira did the same and looked up at Natsuno.
"He never had any body heat to start with."
"That can't be..."
Kaori was fixated on the man.
"I think so. I'm sure he's dead but if nothing else, he definitely didn't just die a minute ago."
---That was.
He looked like a completely normal human. There was no difference between him and Akira or Natsuno. Besides not having any body heat.
"Ne..." Akira timidly voiced. "....If that's the case then, like, is he really dead?"
Kaori was startled. He had no body heat. He was already dead. ---Then right now, when he wasn't breathing, when he had no pulse, could he be called dead?
Natsuno looked back at Akira, then gripped the man's arm. Letting go of the shovel and gripping with both hands, he gestured to Akira to take his feet.
"Let's put him in that hole."
"Y... Yeah." Akira took the man's legs and made an unpleasant grimace. "Then what'll we do?"
"There's nothing to do is there? Anyway, we'll have to leave it at this for today." Saying that he took him to the edge of the hole and then rolled him in. "Let's cover him with dirt."
"What about the old Motohashi lady?"
"....I don't know," Natsuno said with a heavy sigh. "I can't think right now. Once I've calmed down tomorrow I'll think it over."
"Yeah, that's, that's right."
Akira gripped the shovel and began scooping dirt. Kaori followed suite.
"Just a little's fine. We'll be back tomorrow."
"But what if he's found like this?"
"As long as nobody knows we did it, does it matter? In fact, if he does get up, I'd be grateful if he was found by an adult."
That might be true, Kaori agreed in her mind. Whoever this man was, he had to be somebody who was already dead. The adults would find a grave that was exposed and there would be somebody there who should have already been dead. Someone who should have already been buried and returned to the earth. If that happened, the village might know that something was happening, might be able to understand it.
Anyway for the time being just enough dirt to hide his body was piled on. It was the dead of night by then.
"---Let's go." Natsuno said, Kaori and Akira following.