Chapter 2.2

"Kaori, how long are you going to sleep?"

Her mother Sachiko pulled open the small flower pattered curtain. The white rays of the sun shone directly in Kaori's face, making her roll over in her sleep on top of the futon.

"Hot..."

"It's because you're sleeping so late. It's already ten o'clock! Get up and eat breakfast. It hasn't been put up yet."

Kaori sighed at that distant voice. Sweat clung to her body all over, weighing her down. She didn't have an appetite but if she said that she didn't want it she'd be scolded to 'think of the person who went through the trouble to make it for you!' which she would be without a doubt, so with no other choice she rose. The light summer towel-like blanket stuck to her body, an unpleasant feeling.

It was now August and there was still no rain. With the end of a rainy season that was a rainy season in name only, the frustratingly clear weather continued. The days of a consecutive heat wave heated the air itself, and the nights couldn't clear away the heavy heat by the time the sun rose again. It felt like the heat was only building up in the atmosphere day by day.

"I want an air conditioner..."

Kaori brushed up her sweat drenched hair. Kaori's room had good ventilation. In the mornings it was cool, so there had never been much need for an air conditioner before but this year's summer was special. She couldn't sleep well until late at night, then the sun rose and she'd wake up hot. She clung to the bed sleepily, but she wouldn't be left to sleep as she liked.

"Stop saying such spoiled things, how about waking up while it's still cool in the morning instead?"

With a mumble of "Yes'm," Kaori watched her mother leave the room. Sluggishly getting dressed before heading downstairs, she was feeling just a little bit cooler. She washed her face and went to the living room where only her serving of breakfast was still sitting out. As she wearily began to eat, with a thump thump came the boisterous footsteps of her little brother Akira.

"What? Kaori, you're just now eating breakfast?"

Akira was two years younger than her and had just entered middle school, putting him in the prime age of cheekiness. He even addressed Kaori without any honorific.

"You're perky today. Even though it's this hot."

"I don't have as much fat on me weighting me down as Kaori does."

"Yes, yes," Kaori muttered. Akira's body heat raised the room's temperature. She couldn't get into the mood to fight with him.

"Hey, want me to give you a chill?" Akira made a face as if planning a prank.

"No thanks. I'm sure you're not thinking of anything good."

"It's not like that," Akira said, his mouth tapering to a sour point. "I heard the family moving into Kanemasa's shown up."

Thinking 'no way', Kaori looked to Akira's face. "Shown up nothing, there's nobody living there is there?"

"Right. Even though no one's living there, people've seen people's shadows they're saying. From the window, all looking out."

"So they have moved in?"

Akira's shoulders sank as if drained of strength. "That's not what I'm talking about at all. Look, in the old house, something had to have happened. I'm talking about ghosts hanging around, and sometimes, they look out the window!"

Nibbling the end of her chopsticks, Kaori tilted her head. "...That'd be weird."

"Why?"

"Because, that building looks old but it was just built recently. Nobody could have lived in it yet, could they? That house couldn't have had anyone die in it."

"That's 'cause I'm talking about them haunting the Kanemasa property. Or, that house was rebuilt? Then it had to have been where it was built before. Something that happened then."

'Is that right', thought Kaori, not satisfied with that. That something unfortunate happened in a house and the ghosts of the dead haunted it was a common enough story. She'd even heard ghost stories about their inhabitants being afraid and tearing down the building, then building up a new one only for them to come out again after all. But.

"If the house moved too would the ghosts move with it? It sounds fishy."

As if his fervor had been sliced down, Akira put his chin in his hands.

"You argue about the weirdest things. But I'm telling you they come out. There're people who've seen it, so that's how it is."

"Didn't they just misunderstand what they saw?"

"They said it's definitely true. And there's more, from inside the wall there was a groaning voice, one guy said he heard it. From inside the fenced in part was a grating, scratching sound, and someone groaning, they said."

Kaori's brows knitted. She didn't like these kinds of stories. "That's just a rumor, I'm sure."

"That might be the case, sure. ---That's why we should go check it out!"

"Don't want to! It's creepy." Kaori gathered the half uneaten breakfast into her rice bowl. "As for me, I don't like that house. It's old and gloomy, it feels strange."

She went to put her bowl in the sink, Akira following her.

"That's why it's great! It's like it's gotta have a story. ---It'll be all right. It's the middle of the day, nothing that scary'll happen."

"Then there's no point in going either is there? If you want to go, why don't you go by yourself at night, Akira?"

"You were the one saying it was just a rumor, weren't you Kaori? We're just going to check it out and see if it feels like that kind of place or not. If we do that, we might see the people from the house by chance too."

"They haven't moved in yet."

"There was talk of the truck that came wasn't there? C'mon, let's just check it out a little."

Kaori breathed a sigh. Akira wouldn't listen to anything she said. He'd follow her around annoyingly all day until she agreed, she could tell by the look in his eyes.

"We'll take a walk by the front of the house but that's it."

Akira broke into a grin. "Okay!"

Going outside, the heat assaulted them from every direction. Going to the dog house by the back door, Love had half of his body in the hole he had dug in there, looking exhausted. Even when Kaori pulled out the leash, he turned away. Love was a mutt with some long haired breed, and chubby. That only seemed to make him feel hotter.

"Look, Love doesn't want to go either," Kaori tried to say but Akira paid it no mind hooking the leash to his collar. As if to say there was no choice, he was going to be drug along, Love lifted his backside. Dejected, Kaori followed after.

The road was baked white and a heat haze shimmered off of it. Akira triumphantly started forward as if chasing after a mirage. The fields were green, and the voices of the cicadas raining down were hot in her ears. Maybe because the asphalt was hot, Love chose to walk in the roadside bushes as he followed Akira.

Kaori's house was in Shita-Sotoba, so it was some distance to the Kanemasa house. There was at least the shade of the trees on a path that came out from the base of Sue no Yama, End Mountain at the west end of the village, so they took an unnecessarily roundabout path. At the foot of the mountains indeed the wind blowing through the firs was pleasingly cool, but with the voices of the cicadas all that much louder, it felt unnecessarily, increasingly hot to her. As she was beginning to regret being drug along by Akira, they came to the intersection of Sue no Yama and the western mountains. A hokora stood on the path that ran along the western mountains.

"Huh?"

Akira who had been leading the way stopped. When she asked what it was, he pointed to the hokora.

"Kaori, look."

Kaori and Love peered into the hokora where Akira pointed. Due to the sun shining blindingly off of the asphalt, the inside of the hokora was at first dim.

In that small hokora, three adults could fit inside though they'd be cramped. In the fenced in interior were an old stone pillar, so worn down it was hard to tell what it was besides a stone, and an offering box. ---No, that was what should have been in there.

"No... What happened here?"

The stone that should have been standing there prominently was thrown back on a bed of concrete. There were many things broken and scattered inside. The stone that should have been in the center was broken in the middle, its offering box smashed, coins scattered on the floor.

"This is Koushin-sama right?"

[TL/N:- Koushin-sama :- Something of a lost folksy god derived from blending Buddhism, Shintoism and Taoism, Koushin is a Taoist god who is believed to prevent worms in the body from sneaking out every 60th night and telling higher order gods about people's bad deeds, which would lead to punishment. The three monkeys covering their eyes, mouths and ears represent how he won't allow God or the worms to hear, see or speak of people's evil. He's also a god of agriculture who blesses harvests and crops on those 60th days.]

"Nn," Kaori nodded. At the very least, with the coins still scattered about, it probably wasn't a thief after the offerings. In the first place, more than looking like the tumulus was destroyed in an attempt to break the offertory box, it was more like the goal was to smash up whatever could be reached within.

[TL/N:- Tumulus/Tumuli - Memorial sites, mounds of dirt or rocks raised up over a grave-site. Often used to commemorate local legends, there are usually markers such as plants or statues or the like. Maintenance of them is considered a good deed and holy work. They vary in size; no image as they're generally just, well, mounds.]

"This's bad, man. It's all busted up."

Kaori shrunk back a bit. Ever since she was little, she was taught not to play around in hokoras or tumuli. She was told if she did something bad she would be punished. So, seeing such a sight, she had the feeling something that must never happen had happened.

"Say... Akira, let's go back."

Akira turned with a shocked look, asking why.

"It'd be better to tell someone! About this."

For some reason or other, she couldn't leave it like this. What little drive she had to take off in this heat for a long walk was completely whittled away.

Akira stubbornly looked off towards the north of the western mountains but maybe it was still weighing on his mind, because with an obedient nod he tugged on the leash.

"We're going back, Love. We'll scout it out next time."

"Listen to this, Tatsu-san."

Takemura Tatsu was tending to the store, feeling listless when Yaeko and Takeko came hurrying up. They eagerly beckoned her closer with a hand motion.

Tatsu was making use of the fan, turning an indifferent eye towards them. Yaeko and Takeko came rushing off of the baked village road into the shop.

"Have you seen it?"

"Have I seen what?"

"The Jizo statue there!" Yaeko pointed towards the Third Bridge. "His head has fallen off, his head!"

Tatsu scowled, narrowing her eyes against the sun's rays as she set her gaze towards the bridge. What she saw was Oitarou leaning over and inspecting the inside of the small hokora.

"Across the bridge, we met Oitarou-san. Why, he said the hokora at Mizuguchi is broken too. Smashed all to bits. We were just talking about what a bad sign it was, so imagine our surprise when we crossed the bridge. The Jizo's head had fallen off!"

"Oh?" Tatsu murmured. So that was what the fuss was this morning, she thought. When she woke up and looked outside that morning, she had seen a number of old people gathered near the bridge. Tatsu herself didn't have the laudable habit of going to the hokora first thing in the morning but a group of the elderly in the neighborhood would wake up and head straight to the hokora to put their hands together and clean it up. One of them must have seen it and called for the others.

"At any rate, it looks like it was broken sometime at night. All about the head and shoulders is just a mess. Now who could do such a sinful act!"

"Really, who!" said Takeko with an exaggerated grimace. "It's a terrible story! Perhaps it was Ohkawa's son, he's committed a few juvenile, rowdy crimes of that nature and all."

Might have been, Tatsu thought. What would even be the purpose in destroying an old worn out Jizo like that? Of course it was probably destruction for its own sake but she didn't think there was anyone who would sink so low as to destroy that.

As she thought this, Ikumi's face appeared in the shop front. Yaeko snapped up from her stool, voice ringing out.

"Listen Ikumi-san, you, have you seen?"

Ikumi gave a thin laugh. "I know all about it. Mizuguchi too, right?"

"Right. Mizuguchi too. And Kami and Shita, both of them."

Takeko voiced her surprise. "Both of them? The one by Second Bridge and the one furthest down, both of them?"

"Right. This morning I found the one in Shita. After all, it's our own neighborhood. It bothered me so I did a full lap of the neighborhood. Second Bridge's hokora was desecrated, and the one across First Bridge on the coast's Koubou-sama was desecrated too. Kami-Sotoba's furthest one north as well."

[TL/N:- Koubou-sama - Buddhist monk Kukai, founder of the Shingon or "True Word" school of Buddhism  One of Japan's most famous holy figures, he was important in literature, religion and government in his day. Was given the title Koubou Daishi after death, Koubou translating as "spreading or teaching Buddhism." and Daishi as "Great Teacher." ]

Both Yaeko and Takeko's jaws dropped.

"Why... then, all of them along Mizuguchi and the village road?"

"So it seems. Might there be others beyond even that desecrated, I wonder?" Sounding somehow triumphant, Ikumi lowered herself onto one of the folding stools.

"They protect the village, you know. Something wicked's going to happen, here soon." Ikumi said with a thin smile. "You can bet on it. This summer will be inauspicious one."

Shimizu Megumi walked down the road that the sun's light began to slope towards.

Weaving between the rows of houses and fields she headed north. Just as she passed the bridge over the small brook, she'd had a run in with an old woman she'd known in passing. "Oh my, Megumi-chan, aren't you gussied up. Are you going out?"

"Eh," Megumi dodged. She didn't even want to talk with the elderly.

"You've gotten so big. You're already in high school? You've really come into your own as a young lady."

Megumi thought to snap back that she'd heard that line the last time they talked, but it never left her lips. If you made any kind of talk with them they'd never let you go. She'd learned that much.

"Oh, say, say," the old woman said, being cut off by Megumi insisting she was in a hurry and leaving. Whatever it was, it was probably just about the Koushin hokora anyway. There were already two old people who had brought that story up to her since she'd left the house.

It seemed the tumuli and stone monuments here and there in the village were broken last night. The deeply superstitious elderly fussed about it like a crime had been committed but, Megumi couldn't help thinking 'Isn't it just a bunch of rocks?' The bigger oddity was that people nowadays still cleaned and made offerings at them.

(How dumb....)

Megumi mumbled as she hurried ahead. Going from road to road, her goal being north, she walked, drawing nearer and nearer to the western mountains. When she entered the Monzen community, she was at the edge of the western mountains.

Megumi came to the corner turn in the street and looped up the slope that lead up the western mountain. The mansion looked like it came out of a foreign movie. The road from where Megumi stood was a slow rising slope, a slightly elevated ridge that wrapped around to the back of the lumberyard mill in Monzen, but from Megumi's position a private road that continued to the house could be seen. At the end of the leisurely rising road was a somewhat diagonally closed gate. The doors of the gate were made with antique wood, with black metal finish. Were the gate posts brick? The reddish hue was fresh, and the white fence that enclosed was radiantly new. Atop the tall fence were pointed iron rods.

From where Megumi stood, all that could be seen were the fence, those freshly placed, delicate seeming spearheads, and the roof. Blackened grey stones made up the wall that had a similarly darkened window frame and a door crammed in. The entryway was to the right, and a little further in on the left hand side was a complicated bay window jutting out.

But still, that was all she knew. From the start, the construction site had been surrounded by a tall fence, and while there were places along the outer wall where one could peek, Megumi had no way of knowing what the inside was like. What kind of rooms did it have, what kind of interior design, they were all things she really wanted to know, she thought.

Since June when it had finished until this very day, there was no talk of the owners making to move in. Just when would the master show himself? Even though she'd been waiting for so long for them!

(I'd like to see the inside of the house.)

What kind of rooms would it have? What kind of furniture, and what style of curtains and carpet furnished it? She bet there were paintings on the wall, weren't there? Flowers arranged in flower vases, she assumed.

(I wonder what sort of people live here?)

Did they have a daughter Megumi's age? If they did, she wanted to become friends. What would her room be like? At the least, it would have to be western style to fit in, with large, superb furniture and a plush bed in the corner, three layers of box springs high, it was sure to be completely different from Megumi's room. There would be precisely crafted furniture and patterned, lush carpets, an adult looking desk and dressers, and if she could be allowed to peek through her closet she was sure it would be so much fun.

(I wonder if they have a boy.)

A boy just a little older would be so great---- as she thought that, embarrassment hit her. In the desk she'd used since primary school, hidden in the depths of a pull out drawer was a photograph. It wasn't like she'd confessed to him or anything like that yet but hiding that photo while thinking of the boy who resided in the mansion made her feel guilty towards the one in the photo.

But yes, if he could be like a kind older brother! The only child Megumi had always wanted an older brother. What she especially wanted was a gallant one. One who could be her confidant, who could do anything, who she could brag to anyone about, an older brother to be the envy of all the girls in her class. How about if she got along well with the boy from that house and was able to go to his room, being line his little sister? ---But he definitely couldn't come into her room. Everything everywhere and anywhere would be dyed with a warm brewed scent, in such a home.

(May they have high school aged children.)

How many times had Megumi said such a prayer since last year when construction began? If they didn't have children, they were sure to be stately old people living there who would spoil her like a grandchild, or alternately a middle aged couple who could treat her as a daughter would be fine too.

(I want in that house.)

If only she could be intimately invited into that home and to be familiar every nook and cranny of it as if it were her own.

(Why can't I be a child of that house?)

Even though it'd be so great if she could. Not the child of a stiff father, not the child of a nagging mother, not the grand child of old grandparents who griped from sun up to sun down.

(I want to go there.)

Megumi started up the slope as if being drawn by something. After only five meters, her feet stopped their ascent. As she would only feel more pitiful if she went any further, and so she couldn't go any closer. She stared up at that unbearable house, where the gate stood in her way, tightly shut as if to reject Megumi.

"Take a good look, here," Ohkawa Tomio showed to customers on each side of the counter.

The Ohkawa liquor shop had a short counter. On the register side there were some chairs so that customers could sample drinks but it ended up becoming a perch for more general drinking. Ohkawa showed his scabbed arms to the group who had gathered seeking pre-dinner drinks. They were the remnants of the injury from day before when an outsider's car drug him along and flung him into a barrel roll.

"Damn, what a son of a bitch," one customer sympathized with a nod. "If it was outsider driving around a luxury car, then we know nothing good's going to come from them. You don't think he's one of them Kanemasa newcomers, do ya?"

"Who knows? Takami-san didn't think so but. Anyway, that's how it all ends. I don't remember his plates, and no one's seeing them around now."

"There's a chance, maybe it was the same guy." An old man with his face flushed red with liquor said. "You know, the Buddhist statue broke by First Bridge last night."

"What?" Ohkawa's eyes flared widely open. "What an abomination! The only ones who'd do that would be outsiders. Outsiders don't got no respect for those kinds of things at all!"

Many customers wholly agreed but there was a customer who had said "I wonder." That old man quietly eyed the one organizing the shelves, Ohkawa's son.

"Don't think it was him do you?"

At the customer's coarse tone, Ohkawa Atsushi looked up.

"Might've snapped and broke them all up, don'tcha think?"

"Trying to swipe the offerings, probably," said one customer laughing at Atsushi. "He's had a sticky fingered habit all his life."

A conspicuous rotten expression rose on Atsushi's acne-scarred face. He made eyes at the customers, then turned away.

"What's with that attitude?" said Ohkawa. "Don't you get cheeky. Don't think you can be cocky like that just 'cause you've grown big."

Atsushi said nothing, eyeing the shelves. He roughly crammed the canned snacks into place on the shelf, then took the empty cardboard box in hand and stood.

"Oi, Atsushi. Do a neater job of that!"

"I did it," Atsushi answered shortly, taking the box and leaving the store. Behind him he heard Ohkawa grumbling to the customers that in twenty years he'd never been satisfied with how the shelves were sorted.

"The high school passed him out of pity too from the looks of it. Even if he kept going he wouldn't get nowhere with it. He's old enough now but don't got no brains for nothing but trying to act tough. How'd I end up having such a good for nothing brat?"

Atsushi went around to the back side of the shop, throwing out the empty box. He stomped it down with all his might then slapped it onto the mountain of boxes.

Fuck you, Atsushi spat out in his thoughts, leaving from the back of the shop. Like he knew anything about any old stone statues. When he was a kid it was true he'd stolen from the offertory boxes but in the present he wouldn't be happy about the five or ten yen out of an offertory box. They kept dragging out stories from when he was a kid, and he didn't like how they could just write it off as his fault somehow.

Taking the road by the shop, he came out in the shopping district but he didn't really have any place to go. At times like this he was sure running wild in a car or a motorcycle would be just the thing to refresh him but Atsushi had neither a bike nor a car. In high school he had friends who would loan him theirs, but once he graduated and was sucked into the village, his ties were cut. The shop's car and bike's keys were under his parents watch. His mother who was stingy in all she did was cautious about Atsushi wasting gas and refused to hand over the key unless it was for a delivery. If he had his own money it'd be great but Atsushi was made to work in the shop all day without receiving any kind of salary. His parents told him that since they paid a little to feed him of course he'd be expected to help out in the store.

Atsushi didn't like how they said that about everything. He didn't have anywhere to go or a way to get there, to hang out and fix his sour mood. Not having even one car at his age was so pathetic he couldn't face his friends. He could go by bus or ask them to come pick him up but he couldn't get on board with exposing what a failure he was. By the time he knew it, he was cooped up in these mountains, unable to get out. The elderly were always keeping an eye on him to pull off the mischief he got into as a child, and people his own age drew a line between themselves and him. His parents and younger brother were there but he was the black sheep of the family, and they all looked down on him.

He didn't like it, it wasn't fun, anything and everything was making him mad. Atsushi stormed down the street with all the anger smashing down on the soles of his feet. Stomping around aimlessly, by the time he noticed evening was falling, he'd ended up at the base of the western mountain.

The heat was steaming and the cicadas' voices sounded in the twilight. The villagers were all hurrying to their homes, not a one sparing him a second glance.

---Like he cared. If anyone called out to Atsushi, it'd just be some old person acting like they were so high and mighty in talking to him. Don't just loiter around, your parents are going to worry, stop sponging off your parents and pull yourself together, follow your little brother's example why don't you, he imagined they'd say to him. If not that, they'd act like they were interrogating him for a crime, unabashedly harassing him.

(Bastards making a fool outtah me...)

Atsushi was at times seized by the need to race through the village like a hurricane, to cast away from the place. But, why would Atsushi leave the village like that? If he disappeared, it'd be even better for the village than for him. Atsushi spat at the side of the road, as if trying to spit out something bitter, but that bitterness clung to the inside of his chest, in the back of his mouth, unable to be released.

Just a ways ahead was the pathway that lead up the western mountain. The slope went towards Kanemasa. There wasn't any special meaning in climbing it but halfway up the hill taking in the sight of that majestic mansion, an unexpected, new thought arose from Atsushi's chest.

It was a mansion built before the summer, its inhabitants having not yet appeared. There were rumors that they'd moved in, and stories about seeing people's shadows and hearing voices but it seemed like the truth was indeed that nobody was there. The house built by outsiders. There was something solemn to it, different from the village. It carved itself into the village to look down at them---to look down on Atsushi.

Atsushi stood before that firmly sealed gate. The mansion stood creepily against the madder red sky, naturally devoid the presence of people. Atsushi casually surveyed the surroundings. Of course, there was no sign of anyone.

Nobody's here. ----Nobody's looking.

From there, Atsushi looked up at the affecting gates.

(Nobody would know if I snuck in.)

He put a hand on the wooden gate about body height, eyes shifting side to side.

He could go into the grounds, into the mansion itself. Even if he smashed in a window and smeared mud all over the inside, nobody was watching to know it was Atsushi's handiwork. On the contrary, because nobody lived there, if something like that were done, it would happen without anybody knowing it even happened. He didn't know if the owner would move in, but as soon as they did, they'd see the inside of their home laid to waste.

(Not a bad idea.)

Atsushi's mouth warped into a smile. Those bastards moving in would sure be surprised. They built up an exaggerated mansion like this, planning on looking down on the villagers but, this cheeky little snot would literally be slinging mud at them, and just thinking about it made some of his built up frustrations lift.

"Alright," he lightly voiced before clambering over the gate. Leaving footprints on the newly painted tawny gates and the brand new black metal fixtures was fun. He went up the gate with a deliberate kick. Twilight fell on the broad courtyard, and in that isolation a desolate feeling arose. He jumped down into that isolation. Without knowing who the target was, he thought 'serves you right.'

Where to sneak in from---thought Atsushi as he looked up. The wall had a pretentious stone pattern, and there was a window to the right of the massive and intimidating front of the building. Curtains were smartly hung, and through a small crack in them, peaked the darkness coiled within.

'Should I break the glass there to get in?' he thought. The window had a thin frame in a shape he couldn't get through even if he'd broken the glass and, in the first place, that was boring, he now thought.

He didn't want to do something that flashy. He should infiltrate more stealthily. If he did, the people moving in wouldn't notice until they entered their fine house that the inside that was all laid to waste.

With a thin smile Atsushi followed the outer wall around towards the back. Atsushi didn't know specifics but it was definitely an extravagant building. The walls were certainly dignified, and the roof was high .The aged stone walls precisely closed in an enormous amount of space. Within them was sure to lurk that darkness seen before through the crevices in the curtains.

Passing around the front to turn the corner to the side, he came into the building's shadow. Right at the side was a thin path wedged between the building and another building that appeared to be a garage. Its brand new white coated shutter was drawn.

Atsushi looked about his surroundings, confirming that he was completely surrounded by the wall and the building, removed from the outside view. He kicked those shutters twice, three times. The scream let out by the metal reverberated through the garage, against the nearby outer wall, a startlingly loud echo. Without thinking he cowered. Too much noise made him unsettled.

(No one's here...)

Or no one should have been. The building was isolated in the western mountains with no neighbors. No matter how much of a riot he raised, it shouldn't have reached anyone's ears. Even knowing as much, he couldn't help looking around. Feeling like any minute now someone would demand to know who was there, Atsushi was a little afraid. He'd intended to kick the shutter enough to dent it but seeing a scratch was good enough. ---Right, his goal was to infiltrate the inside of the building.

Between the house and the garage wound a very narrow pathway. It was already cloaked in a thin darkness making it so that he couldn't see it clearly. It appeared to be a dead end but at the end there might have been a door or a window facing the pathway. Keeping his eyes on his surroundings, Atsushi stepped onto that dimly lit path looking for a route further back, for a way in as he walked.

There were fewer openings than he'd have thought. There was one window facing the road but it was about Atsushi's height and closed with a wooden door. There was no place to get his footing and it didn't look like he could get in through there. At the end of the pathway was nothing more than a wall in his way. It was just a pathway connecting the garage to the building. Atsushi clicked his tongue. As he turned to go back, his body stiffened faintly.

Suddenly, there was someone behind him, he could feel it. Why he felt that way, he himself didn't know. He was there, deep between the darkness of the stone wall and the garage in that narrow alleyway. Someone was behind him, watching him from behind. He had a premonition of someone standing in his way at the entrance of that pathway.

(No way...)

That shouldn't have been. Nobody lived here yet. Atsushi gradually looked behind himself. He saw beyond the dark pathway to the garden bathed in the remaining afterglow of twilight. Of course, between Atsushi and the entrance, there was no hint of anyone to be seen.

Just as he was going back along the path, thinking that it was his imagination and embarrassed at his own mistake, at the halfway point, again, Atsushi stopped. This time, from the depths of the alleyway instead of at the entrance, he felt a gaze. It was from where he had just walked away from, behind him, no---just above him.

With a start Atsushi looked up. Above the melancholy hue of the outer wall was one second story window. Outside of the glass was not a wooden door but an iron lattice of bars in place.

This is bad, he realized. No one should have been there, yet he had the feeling that he was being watched from someone. That window. Someone was there looking down at him.

They had moved in, there were rumors about it. Maybe without anybody knowing, the master had been able to move in.

No---Though Atsushi. He'd heard an even stranger rumor. Here there was a master here who should not have been, it said. It was a ghost story for children.

(Couldn't be.)

Even while thinking as much his feet sped up. He came off of the pathway into the garden but he still couldn't fight the feel of being watched. Atsushi looked up at the house. That house with a strangely intimidating aura, that dark house.

As he thought about what an unsettling feeling he had, just then, from the end of that pathway he'd just come out of, he thought he heard something. A sound like somebody stepping on the gravel spread out in that alleyway.

That shouldn't have been, there was no door out to the pathway. It was certain there was nobody there. But he felt someone's footsteps were creeping, that someone was coming closer.

Atsushi raced back to the gate. He left a scuff on the garage; he'd call that enough for the day. Looking behind himself so many times, he climbed over the gate. The surrounding mountains he looked over were covered in the forest of firs, the deep shadows of those trees beckoning the night to fall on the village that much more quickly.

Jumping off of the gate, Atsushi ran down the hill. That was when, at the sides of the hill, from within the underbrush summoning down the evening, he heard a rustling sound. He turned away from the source of the sound, hurrying his legs faster. It was clearly rushing after Atsushi. As Atsushi went from a jogging pace to an all-out run, it followed after him into the village.

Atsushi, without any concern for the way he flailed as he ran, rushed down the slope. He came to a corner when the sound cutting through the underbrush ceased. As he looked back at that, after what seemed to be a moment of hesitation, he returned to the slope above where the sound had been heard. In the undergrowth, he thought he'd seen a glimpse of what looked like dog hair.

(A dog....?)

Atsushi sighed. Come to think of it, he'd heard there were a lot of stray dogs about recently. That's all, he thought, relieved, only to immediately become angry with his own relief. It was a blessing that no one was looking. But to be scared of a dog and change his mind to run away! While he'd finally managed to sneak onto the grounds, he ran back only leaving a mark on the shutters.

He couldn't contain his frustration with himself, who would do such a thing. It was disgusting, that he was the type to let himself take such a bumbling action. He hated it all. --That slope, that house too, really, just every last thing.

The children's playground was a confined space. It was the riverbed of the mountain stream; the Shinto shrine was on the opposite side of the bridge, the place of the Otabisho where the gods' palanquins resided during festivals, that place in the shade of the fir trees.

[TL/N:- Shinto Temples - Shinto temples are denoted on maps by the arch gates that mark their entrance, and the general entrance into holy areas. There are no doors on them, they're really more of a flat-topped arch called a tori than a gate.Buddhist temples may also have these, but more commonly (or in addition to the arches) have gates  Near the entrance is a fountain for purification/hand washing. 

Otabisho - The place where the god's palanquin, or portable shrines, rests during festivals. Usually still on shrine grounds. Gods don't leave their shrines other than during festivals, when they're put in portable shrines and carried about, for example during the Shinkousai for celebration. They may be left out for only one day or for several days, during special celebratory periods.]

Yuusuke crossed the bridge in front of his house, going towards the Shinto shrine. As the sun set, the shrine grounds were abandoned. He knew that nobody was there. At the corner of his house was the bridge, and he'd seen the children return from the shrine across it. He was crouched with his newly bought miniature car but nobody paid him any attention or called out to Yuusuke.

Katou Yuusuke was the neighborhood's only first grader. The oldest of the children younger than him was Makoto, three years old, and there were a group of three third grade students who were the closest to his age out of those who were older. He'd been born in an area without many kids. So Yuusuke was alone. The kids younger than Yuusuke each had their own playmates. He'd seen them coming and going across the bridge with a ball and bat looking happy about something and while it seemed like there might have been something really fun over there, the shrine was just a shrine.

Still gripping his miniature car, Yuusuke stood in the shrine's archway. In that wide open space was the closed main hall and the open Kagura hall. One building had its doors firmly shut as if tightly holding something inside; the other building, in contrast, was wide open, a gaping space without walls. In the corners were small Inari harvest gods, withered banners, and the sacred trees, dark and condescending.

[TL/N:- Kagura Hall is an open stage originally used for Noh plays and musical offerings to the gods.

Main Hall - The Main Hall where the shrine god, represented by a statue, mirror or other symbol, resides. It remains consistently closed to the public. As the main hall is off limits to the public, public worship takes place in a 

worship hall - This is where the bell ringing and general worship take place.

Inari - Gods of harvests, usually rice specifically, represented by foxes that tend to serve as Inari's messengers or workers. There are many stories and legends surrounding them, and several different gods that are associated with Inari. I don't remember where this came in but it's in my notes for things to culture note. I'll just stick it here:

Household/Family Shrines

 - Not just limited to roadsides, homes often have Shinto shrines meant to house gods as well. Charms known as Ofuda are stored in them and prayers are said at the house-bound shrine where offerings of food and drink are to be set out.] 

He came to this Shinto shrine often. His grandmother Yukie brought him every morning to clean. Being at the shrine in the mornings was, to Yuusuke, like being in another's tatami room. There was nothing there, but it seemed there was, and it made him feel prickly. At midday, the shrine was like another's tea room or kitchen. It was a place Yuusuke couldn't enter, a place it disappointed him a bit not to be able to enter.

"House sitting."

Yuusuke looked over the shrine after the sun had set and summed it up thusly. Being at the shrine at dusk was like house sitting. Full of empty crevices and corners he knew well, it still seemed like an unfamiliar place. There were recently many people here due to the festival, so it only felt all the more like that.

Yuusuke set his mini car down and in exchange picked up a stone. He tried to do like the older kids and throw the stone over the top of the shrine arch but it wasn't even a little bit fun. Why were those kids in such high spirits? Realizing the car was better than the rock, he gripped it tightly. But with that said, it wasn't as if it'd be more fun because he was gripping a model car either.

He kicked a stone a little ways, and it rolled into the darkness of the thicket. Suddenly the wind blew and the branches creaked. The cicadas could be heard crying as if they were jumping to their feet in surprise by something.

This wasn't any fun. It was a creepy place.

Yuusuke retreated. Even with that said, going home like this gave him the feeling that he was overlooking the most fun place. Though of course there wouldn't be anything fun there, because there was nobody else there.

While caught up in his worries, he compared what he could see of the darkness of the trees shadows with the bridge beyond it. At the front of that bridge was a storefront with a light. That electronics shop was Yuusuke's house. His father was always busy with something called 'deliveries' and 'construction' and going off in his car, and his grandmother tended to the shop. Yuusuke went to school, came home, and played alone. Yuusuke had no mother. He'd seen pictures and had seen the gravestone and grave for one called his mother but he'd never actually, practically had one. His father said that she died when Yuusuke was young. As for what it meant to die, Yuusuke didn't really know. He thought that it was probably akin to being captured by one of the Oni that crept down from the mountains.

'Oni', he thought with a fright. He mustn't be out walking once the sun had gone down. Even if his father was late with a 'delivery', so dinner would be a ways off, even if his grandmother was in the kitchen so it would mean having to watch TV all by himself, he had to be in the house by dark. Because the Oni would come.

Gripping the miniature car, prepared to throw it as soon as an Oni appeared, he gradually stepped back. Once he was under the shrine archway, he pivoted about towards the bridge and dashed. Once halfway across the bridge, he saw the light beyond the pane of glass in the shop, so he stopped. He looked above his house where he saw the light shining. On the western mountains, a black shadow stretched out.

(I know the truth.) Yuusuke totteringly crossed the rest of the bridge. (That's where the Oni are.)

Granny may have said that they came from the grave but obviously even an Oni wouldn't want to be in the ground. So they were in that creepy house. They hid in there and waited for the night. And that was where they brought everyone. That was obvious.

Because he was catching his breath, he surely wouldn't miss what happened on the mountain slope he was looking up at, one small light flickering on, which Yuusuke did not overlook. Much further west then the mountain temple, and in a place higher than the Ozaki Clinic or the lights shining from the row of houses in Monzen, it was there.

(There...)

Before Yuusuke's very eyes as he watched, two, three times it flickered, then that light disappeared.

Yuusuke thought that it was a sign of something scary. He nervously crossed the riverbank roadway and then took off running back to the shop.