Chapter 6

When the phone rang at Kaori's house, it was a little after dinner, just past the beginning of a nine o'clock TV program. 

Her mother who had picked up the phone spoke with the person on the other end, then called to Kaori who had been watching TV in the living room with a stern voice.

"Kaori, did you see Megumi-chan today?"

Kaori nodded. "When I was talking Love, I saw her."

"She says Megumi-chan hasn't come home yet. Did you hear anything."

Kaori blinked. "Not really..."

"So much for that. I wonder if she could have went to Mizobe?"

Megumi was dressed up, but that was normal for her, so she didn't know if she planned to go out or not. No, she didn't seem like she was leaving the village. After she talked to Kaori, she went up the hill after all...

Kaori took in the atmosphere. "We were in Monzen when we met, but..."

And then she went up the hill. Kaori hesitated to add that. Kaori was the only one to know that that hill was Megumi's secret. If you went down the slope partway up the hill into the village, you would come out to a house in Naka-Sotoba whose back yard was a mountain range. Since the year had started, Megumi had incessantly visited one certain house in Naka-Sotoba. In order to quietly watch over a single window from the back yard. 

Kaori swallowed her words. There was no way she could tell that to her mother. ---To anyone.

'I see', was all her mother said, turning back towards the receiver. Her little brother who was watching TV turned towards Kaori.

"What? Now Megumi's missing?"

Her little brother Akira was just a first year middle schooler and yet he spoke of not just Kaori but Megumi without any honorific.

"Don't say stupid things. I'm sure she's just late."

"Even at this hour?" 

At Akira's words, she turned her eyes to the living room clock. 9:17. 

Even if she was going to look in on Natsuno Yuuki's house as always, it was late. When she had met Megumi it was just past five, and she couldn't imagine her spending four hours from then, without even having dinner, in the bushes being bit up by mosquitoes looking up into that window. 

"Don'tcha think something happened?" 

The implications in Akira's tone made her raise her head, with rising uneasiness. The tragedy in Yamairi where the dead bodies were found was just a few days ago. While she had heard that it was nothing more than the elderly in bad condition who died---

Kaori's voice called out. 

"Mom, ... Megumi-chan was climbing the hill that goes up under Kanemasa."

Her mother fleetingly turned her gaze to her, nodded, and conveyed as much over the phone.