Nemasuka? Or not to Nemasuka?

It's dark. There is mist everywhere and as my nerves wake up one by one I become vaguely conscious that I am still on the shrine steps. As I slowly become cognitive of the wider world around me, I realise there something is strange going on with my senses. Not normal strange. But Wandarando strange.

I sit up and try to centre my thoughts. The buzz of the whiskey is still clouding my mind.

Then realisation cracks through my spinning mind. I can hear something. I don't mean that like I had gone deaf and have been miraculously healed. I mean that there is actually some ambient noise here in Wandarando.

'The hell...' I grumble as I sit upright, letting my spinning head slow. I must have woken up in the middle of the night. Or at least at a time that it is so dark I can barely see more than a couple of feet in front of me.

The mist is thicker than I realised. Even when I squint I cannot see the sakura trees. But I sure as hell can hear, and that sound is still cutting through the darkness and the alcohol like a knife through butter. It was a sound I had gotten all too familiar with when working at the Preschool. It was clearly the sound of a child screaming its lungs out.

I got to my feet, the wooden steps beneath me creak with exhaustion and my shoulders feel tight. I look around bleary eyed. The empty potato chips and candy wrappers surround me. The half empty whiskey bottle is missing its lid. I glance around, but if it is nearby I cannot see it. As for the cat – honestly who knows where cats are always disappearing too?

The point is I am on my own in this pitch black darkness. Well... me and this kid who is screaming bloody murder.

'Fuck...' I groan, realising that there is no way I'm going to be able ignore the shrill sound. I step down with a clumsy foot. There is a plastic scraping sound an I realise I must have stepped on something that ground against the stones of the shrine path. I move my foot and see the black plastic lid of the whiskey bottle.

'Well that's one mystery solved...' I mumble as I pick up the lid and screw it onto the bottle. For some reason I don't let go of the bottle. Instead I start to walk down the shrine path with it hanging loosely in my grip.

As I move forward it quickly becomes clear that the cry is coming from beyond the shine's borders.

'Double fuck...' I groan again. I'm in no state to go on a night hike through this hell-scape. I bite my tongue as I remind myself that I am no damn hero -- it feels like the thousandth time I've done that.

Even if it is a kid, what then? If it's in trouble then the safe thing to do – in fact the smart thing to do – is stay the hell away. Who knows who this kid is? He's almost certainly nothing to me! I feel a acidic bile bubble up in my throat at the very idea of such heartless logic.

This is a hopeless fight and I know it. I've already regained my footing and I naturally find myself wandering through the gloom towards the entrance to the shrine. I look to my left and through the darkness I see the shrine fountain My head is still a little groggy, so I walk over to to the softly bubbling water. I place he Suntory bottle on the stones to my side. Then scoop up some of the water, dousing my face and shocking my nerves awake. It's uncomfortable, but it gets the job done.

My mind awake, I crack my neck. The bones and muscles give and audible pop. I take a minute to let my body catch up with my now alert mind. My eyes slip over to the whiskey bottle that is sitting on the stones. 'Yeah, probably for the best if I leave that...' I grunt. I then step away from the fountain and start to walk towards the torii gate.

The screams are coming from my left. I've never actually been down that way yet... I frown as I try and think about directions, when facing away from the shrine, left is westward. I try and wrack my brain for any details that ate towards the west side of town but I draw nothing but blanks. I'm going blind into darkness. This isn't good. I start to consider staying in the shrine till at least dawn. After all it is insanely dark out there.

As if to pull me out of my moment of hesitation the screams from the child suddenly shift up an octive or two. 'Okay! God damn! I'm coming!' I call out and start to break into a run.

I surprise myself with the speed that I start to move. I mean just yesterday I was limping along on an injured leg. Yet now I am making pretty good pace. In fact the only real pain in my leg is a slow, throbbing, burning sensation.

I can't help myself. I have to look at it. I stop in my tracks and slide my jean leg up. My leg is fine... Well maybe not quite "fine". There is a lot of fresh, pink skin and traces of a graze. But I feel like this is what my leg should look like after a week or two of healing, not a couple of days? Is something weird about Wandarando actually working in my favour?

Another sudden spike in the screaming rips my attention away. Right! Brainstorming about my miraculous leg recovery can wait. I take off after the noise again.

What am I even going to do when I get there? I don't even have my hatchet... I realise as I run. Am II seriously going to get myself killed because hungover me is forgetful? Still the screams are getting louder and clearer as I move. I can tell I must be getting close, and I'm only a couple of hundred meters away from the shrine. Maybe I can get them back again? Except you have no money for the cats fee, says my internal critic. Maybe it will be cool about this time? Leniency for a repeat customer? Yeah... somehow I doubt it.

'But my legs are working!' I say to myself, trying to pull my mind away from negative thoughts.

I keep moving for about another hundred meters or so. The crying has gotten pretty loud now. Its hard to see in the darkness but I also get the impression that the suburban housing I've gotten use to in central Umbake no Machi has given way to small farming plots. There are no buildings on the street side. Instead steep drive ways, with dirt tracks run up steep hills and out of sight. I suspect even in daylight I wouldn't be able to see what is at the top of them without climbing.

Starrt to slow my pace. I don't want anyone to hear me before I the chance to see them. I have start to examin the sides of the road – looking for weapons and hiding paces. When the crying suddenly cuts off.

I snap my eyes forward. Then I frown. After all I had mentally prepared myself for a lot of things. Injured kids, wendigo monsters that bait people with mimicry. Another pile of fingers looking to gouge my eyes out – everything seemed reasonable to me. But instead of a nightmarish monstrosity, in front of me is Tire Iron...

He's crouched down and facing away from me. His injured hand is clutch tight against his chest with his healthy one. It gives an almost morbid silhouette in the darkness, akin to a child hugging a stuffed bear.

'Hey... Tire...' I say, feeling weird to call him that out loud. But it's not like I know his real name – if he even has one. 'What the heck are you doing out here man?'

Tire Iron doesn't answer me. Instead he continues to sob. It's a loud and sonorous noise that cuts straight through my concern and to my heart.

He is no more than three meters away from me. His hunched over skin-and-bone frame makes him look like some Igor-like creature out of a Frankenstein film. I step closer. Tire Iron shuffles a little, but stays in place.

'Seriously,' I say, confused. I mean he let me all but carry him to the shine and treat his wounds. so what's with the sudden "stranger danger"? I reach out to him. He whimpers and I pull back. Last thing I need is him running off on me.

I am about to speak again. But my attention is pulled away by a soft patting sound coming from my left.

I look over and the first thing I see is the Japanese woman I had seen in my dream when I first passed out in the shrine.

She is pale faced, expressionless, and standing so stiff that she looks more like a mannequin than a flesh and blood person. Her hands are extended a little in front of her as though she had just been holding a tray or something.

I spy motion in the bottom corner of my eye, and when I look to her feet I see a blue, rubber ball with a black print that makes it look like a soccer ball on it. It is bouncing at her feet causing and I realise this is where the splat, splat, splat sound has been coming from. I watch as the ball slowly rolls onto the road. I continue to watch as it grabs Tire Iron's attention.

He follows the rolling ball with his bucket head, fixing his metal gaze on it. Without fully realising it, I find myself doing the same.

Then the blaring roar of the lorry horn cuts through the silence of night.

Bwaaaaam! Comes the ear splitting honking. The sound fills my eardrums and at the exact same moment my eyes are flooded with light that is so jarring against the darkness it becomes painful to keep my eyes open.

That's when the bone white lorry comes speeding out of the jet black fog, heading straight at us! It is only about ten meters in front of us and it is speeding at a breakneck pace.

'Holy crap!' I scream, reaching to grab Tire Iron and to pull him out of the way. But it is too late... for either of us.

I hear a gut-wrenching crunch as the truck collides with Tire Iron, and then nothing.

The sweltering humidity and blinding light of the morning sun are bearing down on me. They wakes me with a jump so violent I feel like someone must have attached electrodes to my chest.

'Jesus shit...' I breath as I gasp for air. But why am I gasping for air? That's something alive people do... I was hit by a truck... wasn't I? Surely I should have died, or at least have been injured badly enough that I shouldn't be "waking with a start" should I?

My eyes are already open, and I can see a clear blue sky above me. I'm also conscious of stagnated layers of wood beneath me. That must be the shrine stairs. I'm back at the shrine? I also can't help notice that my organs don't feel like they have been bleeding internally either...

I rub my eyes. My head is spinning. But not "caved in skull" spinning. It's something more mundane than that... It's a hangover kind of head spin. Okay, I guess that makes sense, I think to myself as the pieces fall into place in my mind. I drank a bunch then had a weird dream where I got hit by a truck. A little weird, but explained with both real world and Wundarando logic. I sit up, stretch, then I look around.

Everything seems at peace in the shrine. The sakura is wafting in the breeze. The shrine shop still seems closed up – hopefully with a recovering Tire Iron inside. And my bottle of whiskey is still on the rocks by the fountain.

Wait... What was that last part?

I turn back to the fountain. Sitting on one of the stones – just to the side of the dragons spout – is a half empty bottle of Suntory whiskey. That bottle should be beside me, here at the shine. I'd passed out drinking it... I only moved it in my dream, that was clearly a dream. So therefore didn't happen. So how the fuck did my booze get over there?

'Oh what the fuck!' I exasperate, letting my head fall into my palms. Cryptic dreams I can deal with. In fact I dare say I am starting to create some theories on what they mean – even if I have very little idea about why I keep seeing it. But Cryptic dreams that seem to effect the reality I live in a very tangible way... therefore making me doubt them as being dreams at all? That is a whole different ball game and I am not ready for it!

I sigh and stretch out my legs. I remember my leg had almost fully healed in my "not a dream but also how could it not be a dream I was hit by a damn truck!" dream. Out of curiosity I roll up the leg of my jeans and inspect the injury. Yep, that is healing weirdly fast, just like in the "not dream".

'Meaow,' says the cat.

I turn to look at it. It's perched on the hand rail just to my left. It is sitting bolt upright, its head slightly askance and it is staring down at me with vivid blue irises.

'Yeah... I don't know what to make of it either...' I say to the feline. I sigh, knowing I'm not likely to get any answers any time soon either. Then accepting reality as far as I understand it, I hoist myself to my feet.

My muscles feel tired. I may have been sleeping but I don't think I have been resting – not properly anyway.

I then collect my various trash and shove it into my pockets. I feel leaving it strewn about at the shrine just seems disrespectful. I'll find a trash bag later. I doubt there will be any kind of collection service for the garbage in Wandarando, then I again maybe I'm wrong... I can probably dump it in the convenience store. I mean the plastic bucket heads seem to be out there every day restocking it... or whatever. They must clean it too considering how spotless it is. Not a bad idea if I'm going on a supply run anyway.

After than I walk over to the fountain and try to clean myself as best I can bu just throwing water on my sweatiest parts. I can probably do this better if I start using some of those sponges I scavenged yesterday – or maybe stole is the better word considering the plastic buckets seemed to be living in the supermarket and it's not like I asked permission. I try not to think about how, not just stealing from others, but then returning only to dump my trash on them is starting to like such a normal solution to my problems.

Instead I turn towards the shrine shop. After all I did one thing right yesterday... Or at least one "good" thing... I hope... I saved Tire Iron! That hasn't turned around to bite me yet. So I'll try and stay positive.

As I draw closer I notice that nothing seems to have moved. The door is closed and there isn't any sound from the small building. I approach the door and knock on it quietly.

Nothing.

'Hello?' I call out.

Still nothing.

I feel my stomach grow a little tight with panic. I have to check if he's alive, don't I? I mean I may have treated his injury as best as I could. But with days of potential infection and the beating he had taken... who knows if he even had a chance of recovering to begin with?

'Okay... I'm coming in... Speak now or forever hold your peace... I guess.' I take hold of the door handle and open it slowly. With the door now open a crack I realise I can hear something from inside. It is clearly coming from Tire Iron's throat, and it sounds oddly familiar. I lean in a little closer and realise what it is. It's the same crying I heard last night. Only it's a lot quieter than the blood curdling screams that woke me in my "not actually a dream" dream.

'Ah..." I say to myself, taking a beat to let that sink in. He most likely devastated after the injury. Not to mention being thrown out of his little "tribe". I get the vibe that "sharing your emotions" isn't a big thing here in Wandaroando. Now that Tire Iron has a moment to himself it has all bubbled over. Can you blame him? I sigh with understanding and slowly close the door again. I get the feeling in my gut that the grief he's feeling is probably better resolved with time rather than an intervention.

I walk over to the fountain, where my back pack is still lying and pull out a couple of tuna cans. I then refill two of my empty pet bottles. I leave on can and one bottle by the door to the shrine shop for Tire Iron if he goes looking for food. I'm still not totally sure if the bucket heads eat and drink like a human would. But it can't hurt to give him the option.

I then take the other meal over to the shrine steps and have a very awkward breakfast. It's as sad as it sounds. I at least have one of the forks to eat the tuna. But the cat isn't even there to keep me company. The mundanity of the situation makes the normally eerie silence of Wandarando feel more miserable than anything else. But with my leg healing, food in my belly and at least some sleep, I'm actually feeling better than I ever have – or at least better than since I arrived in Wandarando.

I managed to get a lot of useful stuff yesterday. I can feel good about that. However, it wasn't everything I needed. If nothing else I can feel the sudden urges that come with eating solid after semi staring myself for days. I need a bath room.

I find a shadowy spot behind a tree on the outskirts of the shrine to do my business. I'll save you the gory details. Let's just say it was uncomfortable.

After that I returned to my backpack and start unloading. I place the food, utensils and other supplies in a corner of the shrine's walkway area. I hope this trip won't take as long – or get as complicated – as the last one. But I want my bag empty before I go in case I find things I hadn't expected.

I then ready myself like last time – grabbing my hatchet and my map before slinging the backpack over my shoulder.

I briefly consider trying to communicate with Tire Iron that I am going out and I'll be back soon. But I'm not sure how I would even do that, so I leave him to his sorrow.

I then walk towards the torii gate and back out into Umbake Machi...