Chapter 8.4

Ikumi scaled the hill in one go. She was pushed on by the determination that it would be none other than she herself who would show the village their salvation, she would no longer be made the fool of. The gates were closed tightly as they always seemed to be. Having a gate door like this to obstinately block out the outside world like this was in itself proof of something underhanded. The fence was high, bathing white in the sun's rays, with even an iron railing quite perfectly fitted along the top. Far from discouraging her, thinking who would go this far, she could only feel her conviction strengthening. 

Ikumi knocked on the gate with the bow of a sacred tree held in her hand a few times when she noticed the intercom and pushed its button. After pushing it several time, a young voice was heard. 

"I know what the bunch of you are. Get out of the village right now!"

A doubtful voice could be heard. Ikumi looked up at the gate and raised her voice. 

"Even if you play dumb, you've been seen through. You might have been thinking that there were nothing but idiots who don't know what's what but that won't fly! It's all your guys' fault. If you want to say I'm wrong, come on out here and show me your defense!"

To Ikumi the situation was all too clear. It was since this house had come here, that's when the misfortune came to the village. A great many people were dead. Even more had left as if in fear but this too was obviously also because of this group kidnapping them. Nobody had noticed but Ikumi could see through it. That was because Ikumi had been granted a special power. If one had such a power, then they would have the ability to drive out the lot from the mansions, and there was no doubt that just her coming to them like this would put the fear into them and send them running. 

(Right about now I'm sure they're in a panic!)

Ikumi smiled. The dread must have been settling in on them right about now, there was no way out now that Ikumi had brought along the villagers to expose their evil before them, ---That was how Ikumi saw the present situation. The bunch inside would flee with their tails between their legs and the villagers would say their thanks to her. The temple and the Ozakis would both lose face. There would be nobody who could look down on Ikumi any longer.

Ikumi's mouth twisted as she hurled abuses towards the master of the house. No, to Ikumi herself, she was solding them, only crying out in a booming voice. And then the side service entrance opened.

The one who appeared as Tatsumi. Tatsumi was, to Ikumi's eyes, openly bearing his fright; to the villagers eyes, he was peeking with his body half out of the service door surveying the scene with confusion. 

"Uhm... I terribly beg all of your pardon, but what might this fuss be?"

"Shaddup!!" Ikumi waved the onbe. To Ikumi it looked like Tatsumi was showing disgust, taking a step as if to run away, but to the villagers it looked like he drew himself back out of fear of being hit in the face with the onbe. Tatsumi looked to Ikumi with eyes seeming to be filled with fear of something. Ikumi thought that what was in his eyes was a fear of her power but as for the many the villagers, they interpreted it as simply fear at having a run in with someone as strange as her. 

[Onbe - A wand made up of a rod with two zig-zagged usually white paper streamers (called shide) used by Shinto priests or other religious professionals in blessings or purification rituals.]

"What might this be? Could one of you good people explain it in a way I might understand, please?"

Tatsumi looked out over the people gathered before the gate. Before anybody could answer, Ikumi shouted that he was an Oni. As she firined off a rapid succession of accusations and questions, waving the onbe, Tatsumi fled back inside the side entrance. Ikumi tried to fallow after but the arm she managed to get a grip on shook her off and the door closed at the tip of her nose.

"Running away? Scared you good, did I!" Ikumi turned to face those behind her. Facing the villagers, she pointed towards the closed service entrance. "Look now, didn't he just run away? If there wasn't something shady, would he run? There's your proof!"

Yuuki scowled from within the crowd of people. Ikumi's frenzy brought on an unpleasant feeling. He surveyed the crowd thinking that somebody should stop her already but it didn't look as if anybody was there who had the least intent to stop her. Behind the gatherinf og people, he could see a number of people coming up the hill lead by a figure in a white coat. Did somebody really call the three pillars?

That was when Toshio who was at the front of the group entered the mob. The sound of the gate opening caused Yuuki to turn back to face it. It wasn't the service entrance, it was the front gate this time that opened. As the door was pulled open, the form revealed was Kirishiki Seishirou. 

Ikumi stepped back as if faintly recoiling, while the surrounding pack of villagers themselves took about two steps back. There was a faint opening about Seishirou. Approaching upon the white concrete, basking in the rays of the fall sunshine, Seishirou stood casting down a black shadow. He looked over the mass gathered before the gate with an exceedingly calm face. 

"What is this ruckus?"

Seishirou's voice echoed low, very clear. With no trace of timidness to be felt, majestic---a voice in which one could feel resolution, determination. "Suddenly intruding before a house in a great mob, bawling out as if you've gone mad, is that a custom in this village?"

"Gone mad, you say?!" Ikumi's shrill voice rose, starting towards Seishirou. She waved the onbe giving a glottal prayer chant but the target himself, Seishirou, merely furrowed his brows and gazed at Ikumi was all the more disdainful eyes. 

"Let the evil be gone, let the sworn enemy be gone, let the---" 

Taking hold of Ikumi's hand as she shouted such, Seishirou took the onbe from her. 

"I'd like to have this foolishness come to an end now if you would."

"You plan to go against me?!" 

Seishirou did not answer Ikumi's cry. He looked out over the people surrounding. 

"From what I can see, what we have here is a gathering of well established adults who should have their wits about them but. Are you good folk here to support this sort of behavior? Or are you merely spectators?" Saying as much, Seishirou took notice of one within the crowd of people. "The Doctor of the Ozakis appears to be here as well, does he? ... I must say, I am shocked."

Receiving Seishirou's glace, Toshio could feel a cold sweat forming. The time was just past high noon. The sun was all but directly above, and there wasn't a single cloud in the autumn skies. The sun light pouring down was downright radiant, shining on his neatly coiffed hair and his majestic stature. 

(That... Shouldn't be)

Without noticing Toshio's confusion, Ikumi's shrill voice rang out cryptically. She took something out from her bosom and flung it at him. At that moment the scent of perfume flowed through, so it was likely incense powder. Seishirou brushed it off as if it were indeed a terrible burden but he didn't show any signs of recoiling. Even as Ikumi rang out a chant resembling the Heart Sutra, he only showed open disdain rather than the expected response. 

"A little birdie has told me of the misfortunes continuing throughout the village but what are you trying to say we have to do with it? If you want to suspect something, might I suggest you suspect poisoning or an epidemic?"

With a nod, Toshio cut through the crowds. 

"Precisely. ...my apologies for this, Kirishiki-san. Please don't think that we're here as spectators. Some of us were called saying that it was becoming dangerous, so we came running."

"Don't you misrepresent the situation!" Ikumi cut in. "That young'un loiters around in the day time too doesn't he? Don't think just because someone comes out in the day that the story'll fly that you're not Oni!" Saying that Ikumi turned to face Seishirou. "If you're going to say you're not afraid of me, bring out your wife and daughter too why don't you!"

"I humbly refuse," Seishirou said flatly. "My wife and daughter's conditions are fragile you see. They suffer with an incurable disease. Even coming to this village was for their recuperation. I'm terribly sorry but I myself suspect an epidemic. It appears some sort of epidemic is spreading through the village, so I simply can't allow direct contact to be had with all of you. I do not mean to say that you all are unclean but my wife and daughter have compromised immune systems. Even a mild, trifling infection could become fatal." Seishirou said, looking out over the gathered people. "There are circumstances requiring the family remain shut away in the house. Perhaps there are those who cannot grasp this? This is entirely like a witch hunt. Or must all outsiders, regardless of whether they are vulnerable and have unique circumstances, be subjected to such treatment in this village?"

There was a voice that tried to insist against it, to make an excuse. The crowd of people grew timid, retreating, beginning to disperse. Ikumi's voice only grew more shrill but several men took hold of her from behind beginning to drag her off. 

"Your displeasure's understandable," Toshio said bowing his head to hide his own dismay. "There are a few different superstitious folk tales in the village. Most people understand that they're superstitions but there are some obstinate believers too. That's what you'd expect from a small, backwards village, as they'd say, so could you find it in your heart to forgive us?"

Seishirou wordlessly nodded. 

"There's a folk tale in the village of something called The Risen. The dead rise up from their graves, an intermediary between life and death they're thought of. Ikumi-san is suspecting that you good people are The Risen."

"Do I look dead to you?"

"You don't, do you?" Toshio said, lightly licking his lips. May I go ahead and confirm it? If I do as much, I think that even Ikumi-san will accept it."

Seishirou's face showed no signs of changing. "Please do."

Toshio nodded and took Seishirou's hand. Feeling for his pulse, he easily found a regular pulse beat. Touching his neck he likewise found a normal beat. Peering at his face, he used his hand to form a shade over Seishirou's eyes. In response to that his pupils did slightly enlarge. Moving his hand away they shrunk down. He couldn't spot any abnormality. 

"We can all be at ease now can't we?" Toshio was aware himself of a faint emptiness to his voice. "It seems his pulse, his breathing and his body temperature are all normal. Of course he also has pupillary reflexes. No matter what standard you use, it seems there's no way that a doctor could issue a death certificate."

Thank you, Seishirou smiled. Toshio turned to look at Ikumi with a bleak feeling. 

"Ikumi-san, Kirishiki-shi is not a dead man. He is human just like you. You get it now right?"

Held back by several men, Ikumi grit her teeth and glared at Toshio. She seemed like she was going to say something, but the words didn't actually come. Toshio turned back to Seishirou. 

"Ikumi-san is likely satisfied with this as well. I'm sorry for the trouble."

No bother, Seishirou answered, looking out over the people before the gate who had troubled him and turning. The gates once again closed. Nobody here could think to condemn such a behavior that seemed to reject the outer world. 

"Yuuki-san, let's go." 

Urged by Tashiro, Yuuki returned to himself. Ikumi was shouting something to the men holding her, but even so she was being brought down the hill. The crowd broke apart and started to flow down the hill. 

--He himself had come to keep an eye on Ikumi, it wasn't as if he by any means believed the ridiculous things Ikumi spouted. 

Even saying that to himself, he couldn't help feeling a certain tinge of something resembling self-loathing. He felt he'd been complicit in a foolish behavior. ---He felt he'd looked like an utter fool 

Seishirou was right to be angry, he felt. All of the people who had gathered before the gate must have been thought to more or less come believing in Ikumi's rash remarks. If he were being honest, could Yuuki himself say he didn't believe it at all? If he thought about it coolly, Ikumi was just a woman touched in the head. That woman flung brash accusations and stormed the Kirishiki house but if Kirishiki had ignored her, if he'd taken it seriously, if he'd felt pressed and contacted the police to handle it, this would have been a comedic case file, he realized. None the less, Yuuki had thought that it would be a disaster at the time. Looking back now, he didn't know why he had thought that way. 

(There's no way, I'd thought....)

There was no way that The Risen could exist. If he really believed that, he should have tagged along on Ikumi's antics with a smile. Did he believe it somewhere in his heart, was that the reason he couldn't do that? If so it was all the more reason he'd felt it was important to think about it with a clear head and put an end to it. 

(... That might be true.)

Yuuki thought. Of his laid out son, of the protective arrow at his pillow side. Did that not indicate something of this nature? Even while knowing something like that could never happen, Yuuki might not have been able to help thinking, could it not even happen to his own son?

(...How stupid.)

It really was foolish. Waving his hand at Tashiro, as he headed home he felt a self-derisive smile on his face. Really, it was so stupid he couldn't do anything but smile. 

While Toshio went with the flow down the hill, he bit back something bitter. Everyone around him was laughing. Half of that was to hide their shame, half in self-derision as well. And possibly--Toshio thought. They were thinking "Did you see that?" in regards to Ikumi. Of course The Risen didn't exist, that was obvious, they laughed, and a part of himself too wanted to laugh and believe as much. 

(But, Ikumi-san was right...)

She was too severe, he thought. Now if Toshio himself likewise said "It's The Risen," his credibility would be about zero. That wasn't all, Ikumi's actions ruined the chance for the bunch in the village to think that it might be The Risen or that it might be vampires on their own. Now nobody was going to think that and look into it seriously.

(...Why?)

Why could Seishirou come outside, no matter how he looked at it, he wasn't dead. Or were Shiki that kind of living being in the first place? If so then why had they only come out at night until now? Why were their victims deaths concentrated around dawn?

Caught up in thought as he returned to the hospital, Seishin was waiting in the waiting room.

"...Yo."

"Ikumi-san?"

"Who knows. Dragged off by someone I guess. They probably brought her back home."

Seishin's voice was low as he asked "How did it go?" Toshio shook his head. 

"Kirishiki-shi came out and that was the end of it."

Seishin's eyes widened. "That can't be."

"But he did come out. He didn't seem to mind the sun especially. Incense powder, chants, onbe, all had no effect. Just in case I took his pulse too but his pulse and all that was normal. He was in a hell of a bad mood. Is this a village custom, he said, even."

"Then, was it our misunderstanding?"

"No way," Toshio spit out lowly. "It just means it's not like the folktale. There's Tatsumi's case too. It's possible there's something special about them. But the ring leader's in the Kirishiki family. That's the one thing there's no mistake about." 

Seishin looked down. "Is that really true after all? That we're not under some major misconception in our guesses?"

"We're not. Thinking about what we've confirmed to this point, there shouldn't be any major mistakes."

"But, it isn't as if anything's been proven..."

Toshio threw himself down on the sofa. "I thought Ikumi-san'd give us some proof. So why was that punk able to..."

Come out in the middle of the day? If he could do that, why hadn't he come out even once during the day before? About to say that, Toshio realized he'd made a verbal slip. When he promptly looked up at Seishin, Seishin's color had changed.

"That. What did you mean by that?"

Ah shit, he thought, but it was too late.

"Ikumi-san will give us proof? Don't tell me that you used Ikumi-san for that reason?"

"No, that's not what I..."

"Ritsuko-san had said that Ikumi-san had come to the hospital. That she had been addressing the patients in the waiting room for a while. She said that you turned her away but don't tell me that you..."

Toshio sat up. His confession came with a sigh.

"...Yeah. I stirred her up just a little bit. I thought Ikumi-san might give us some proof."

"Why would you do such a thing?"

"Why? Do you think Ikumi-san can be persuaded to stop? That person completely believes it. Whether I stirred her up a little or not, sooner or later, she was obviously going to go up that hill to call out the bunch at the Kirishiki household. Either way she couldn't be stopped. So I made use of it."

"Why---You did such a...."

Toshio glared at Seishin. "Sorry to say, I don't care that much about appearances. I get it, you're a clean and tidy guy. You probably see me as using dirty means. But is this the time to be talking about things like that? The bunch of them are using way more meticulously dirty means than the likes of me!"

"Toshio, that kind of..."

"Kirishiki's master came out in the middle of the day. He'd been able to move in the daylight from the start. None the less, he never showed himself during the daytime until today. We were suckered in. He never showed himself just for today. They're meticulous. Absurdly meticulous."

Seishin was silent but by his expression it was clearly not because he accepted what Toshio was saying.

"Probably, the bunch in the village had some vague doubts about the Kirishiki family. A hunch doesn't need any basis. None the less, that was straight up denied. The people in the village are probably laughing at their own doubts. They're all probably believing less and less in the Shiki. They'll drop their guard and bury their dead. ---Do you know what the point of that is?"

"You brought it on." Seishin's voice was low. "You, without thinking of the consequences, brought on this result by spurring Ikumi-san on. ---Am I wrong?"

"I'll admit it was imprudent. They were a cut above me. They're more meticulous than I thought, they've made appropriate preparations for their actions. And if they can even act in the daytime, if magic doesn't have any effect on them, they have even fewer weaknesses than we thought. You could even say they're multiplying by the hour. If you want to disparage me I'll take it but what we need to do right now is think of what to do from here."

Seishin said nothing. He kept his eyes down with a severe expression, turning away. As the waiting room door opened, he could hear a deep sigh. Toshio saw him off, hanging his head.

"..... Do whatever you want."