Chapter 3.1

And so it came to be that by the sin of slaughtering his little brother he was exiled to wander the wasteland. Never to return to that splendor, roaming the desolate earth, yet that sin followed him over the wastelands. His sin was the form of his little brother who had become a Shiki; it followed him, to make him suffer for an eternity.

No, where his brothers aims lied, he did not know. All the more did it pile onto his sufferings. As to why, it was because he did in his own way love his little brother, and he loathed his momentary impulse. His little brother was systematically favored. Deep with love, knowing compassion, like a vessel of splendor to others was his little brother. The people loved his little brother and longed for him. He, too, could not but. The people detested he who had fatally wounded the soul of such deep love but, he again in that same pattern detested himself.

His little brother's eyes of compassion turned on him endlessly cascaded his guilt and regret. His sadness at losing his brother, the lamentations over that death, his hatred of the deceased, his hatred of his own sin compounded his own unyielding selfloathing. Sadness and deterioration, sharper than the frozen winds, tore at him for infinity.

Seishin sighed and threw out the manuscript he had read. The mood wasn't coming to him at all. His pen strokes were superficial and repetitive, his consciousness idling back around to the memos.

Giving in and putting up the Japanese writing paper, he put it away into the drawer. Arranging it face down and placing a paperweight on them, in exchange he took out the notebook from another drawer. Gotouda Shuuji, Ohkawa Gigorou, Murasako Hidemasa, .... ten people. And newly added, Yasumori Nao and Ohta Kenji. Even now as he did this, it was spreading out somewhere through Sotoba. They were being slowly driven to a cliff's edge but Seishin and the others couldn't sense its movements.

(Is it all right to be doing this now?)

Seishin had no qualifications to investigate the situation. Unable to even allude to the situation, there was a limit to how much he could ask people in conversation. As expected, it was best to pass it on even a step sooner if possible to the appropriate source, wouldn't it? So he felt. Even Toshio might have been a doctor but he was not an epidemiologist Rather than an amateur doctor and a complete layman floundering about, he thought the obvious thing to do was quickly entrust it to a specialist in order to discern the situation and cope with it.

But, thought the other party.

If a specialist investigated the circumstances it would be fast work but, the probability that the circumstances would worsen was indeed high. If they knew it was a plague, the villagers would be uneasy. Am I, is my family all right? The uneasy villagers would, without a doubt, go to the Ozaki clinic. To get comfort from Toshio. The more people acted like that in tandem, the more the situation would spread. Not only would they have needless anxiety, they wouldn't be able to help drawing in unnecessary anxiety.

(No...)

To begin with, it wasn't yet even determined for certain that it was an epidemic. They didn't by any means have a solid handle on what was happening. There was the feeling it was a plague, the thought that it couldn't be, the unease that came from thinking 'if', and the irritation at being unable to confirm any one of those things.

As he stared at the notes in thought, the phone rang. Seishin looked behind him over the back of the office chair, pulling the phone on the office desk towards himself. On the other end was the bookstore's Tashiro.

"Ah, Masa-san."

It has been a while, Seishin tried to say as Tashiro interrupted.

"Seishin, have you heard? The resident officer Takami-san died, they said."

Eh, Seishin's eyes widened.

"--Takami-san? It can't be."

"That's, but it's true! This evening an ambulance came. Wondering what was up I went out to the front of the shop, and Takami-san was being carried out from the police sub-station."

Takami's wife, Hideko, had boarded the ambulance too. There were two children at Takami's place but when he asked them, Takami had suddenly collapsed they said. Since yesterday he had had a cold and was laid up in bed but he went to go to the bathroom when it seems he fainted. At any rate, unable to leave the kids alone, Tashiro Rumi stayed at the residential station to watch over them but not long after Takami Hideko returned. When asked what happened, she answered that Takami had died.

"Anyways, his wife seemed spaced out, ---like she was distracted, could you say? She wasn't in a state to ask her for details. I mean, I don't know the particulars but you guys have a deep connection with Takami-sam too, so I thought it'd be better to let you know."

Seishin swallowed down something bitter. "He had a cold and was bedridden?"

"Mm. Seems like it." Said Tashiro, his voice not inviting any particular unease. But, Seishi could feel the sweat rising up. ---A bad premonition.

"Those guys though, you know, even if they lived in the substation, they're not from Sotoba. They're not in a funeral group, I was wondering what we'd do."

"That... is true, isn't it."

"Either way I'd say we'd help if it came to it but, anyway for the time being, we contacted the family and the family said they'd take care of it. Probably they'll ask a funeral home in Mizobe and have him cremated, I guess, huh? Anyway, his wife herself was saying to leave her alone, so Rumi and me came back, but."

"Thank you very much. At any rate, I will contact his wife."

Yeah, if you could, said Tashiro, hanging up the phone.

Seishin immediately phoned the substation. But, listening to it ring fifteen times, there was no answer. Did they leave to go to the hospital? Hanging up the receiver, he made another call, to Toshio. He tried to the hospital---which after hours and on days off switched to the house line--but Toshio did not pick up. Hesitating a moment then calling the house line, Takae picked up and answered, voice nasal and stiff, that he was out.

"Would you happen to know to where he had set out?"

"I don't. There was a call at the hospital, and then he left. Wouldn't it be a house call?"

It was possible that it was a call conveying news of Takami's death. So he might have gone out to the substation. While hesitating on whether he should try going there, there was a call from Toshio.

In the background there were the sound of people making a fuss and he could faintly hear Dixie. It seemed he was calling from creole.

As expected, Toshio hurried to the substation. And when he did, there was nobody at the substation, he said.

"People from around said they say the wide take the kids in the car. They may have gone to get the body or to drop the kids off at her parents place, something like that."

Right, Seishin answered but, somehow he wasn't fully convinced.

"Anyway, I don't know any specifics. I won't until his wife comes back."

That's true, Seishin answered before lowering his voice. "---Do you think it's that?"

Toshio's voice lowered all the more.

"Probably, yeah."