Pitch black darkness fell over the mountains. There was no moonlight to shine over the wood of the firs, nor did even the light of the stars reach the village. Tohru ran there as if to take refuge within that darkness. Following after him was a small figure.
"Did you not control him again? Why not!"
Tohru hurried up the slope keeping his silence. The child who followed after him snapped at him in a childishly high pitched voice from behind.
"I'm telling on you. Tatsumi-san's totally going to be mad at you! Then he's gonna have your place's Mom and Dad and your brother and sister brought to Yamairi!"
"...Natsuno won't say anything."
"How can you be sure enough to say that? You did it last night too. Even though I told you what to do that time too!"
Those who weren't used to hunting went together with one already used to it for a while. The one to put Tohru with Shizuka was Tatsumi. Shizuka was eleven, and from now on she would always be eleven. She looked young but she'd already had several times more victims than Tohru. She didn't seem particularly opposed to it. Rather, aware that despite being a child she was a hunter on par with the adults, she seemed to take a certain pride in it.
"I'm going through all the trouble to teach you like this. You've got to give them instructions or else, I said! You tell them to forget everything. Tell them it's a dream. If you don't, they'll do bad things to you and spread it around."
It was because Shizuka conducted herself completely like a child, Tohru thought. Right was whatever the adults said was right. She was praised for attacking prey, and if she attacked prey well she'd be praised by the adults. That was a twisted part of Shizuka---but all the same, it created a set of solidified values with no room for hesitation. Shizuka did not hesitate to attack people. Rather she seemed to enjoy it as some kind of game.
"To put it another way, start telling them to do it or else! Tatsum-san's going to be mad about it. Even I got scolded! I was told to take care of you right or it was bad!"
Last night Tohru attacked Natsuno. In the attack lead he forgot to give instructions to the victim. Driven the sheer desire to leave, he put Natsuno back into his house and left the scene. Until meeting at the rendezvous point with Shizuka and asked if he did it right, he didn't realize how grave of a mistake he'd made.
"Right now I'm sure he's making a big mess! They'll get together and talk about taking you out. They totally are!"
"Natsuno won't talk. If he was going to tell, he'd have started yesterday. ... In the first place, when he does tell, nobody'll believe him."
"Can you say that for sure? It's you're fault we're in danger like this. Tomorrow it's gonna spread around. Everyone's gonna know. Knowing we're coming, they'll be waiting there with stakes. That's why I told you you have to do it right!"
Tohru kept silent. His feet moved faster. Shizuka trotted along with him, picking at him.
He understood the danger. During the attack last night it wasn't the case but tonight he intentionally didn't do it. He was against erasing someone's will and making them into human puppets. If he did that, he wasn't Natsuno anymore. Natsuno probably wouldn't say anything.
"I'm telling Tatsumi-san. I'm gonna have him bring the people from your home to Yamairi."
Tohru couldn't do anything but remain silent. ---That prison.
The holding cell for sacrifices. Taken from their houses, sacrifices gathered up just to be killed. That was something nobody wanted to put their families through.
"It's already done. I'll explain it to Tatsumi-san." Tohru kept his eyes cast down as he climbed the mountain, coming to the narrow mountain road. The car came from the south of the western mountain and picked up Tohru and Shizuka.
At some point they came to where the northern and western mountains met. There were groups of three to five people gathered from the village.
Nobody brought a light but they came following the narrow road without seeming to watch their footing too closely through the underbrush. There were some moving quietly on their own but there were also those moving together. Those were the ones exchanging words in cheerful tones. When going down the mountain nobody spoke. Within the village they only left the sound of the grass parting, like the fall of a secret wave. And yet when returning everyone was in high spirits as if released from a binding. But Tohru didn't feel that way in the slightest.
Tohru quickened his pace as if to escape people's gaze---as if to escape Shizuka's rebuking.