Chapter 2.4

Toshio's worries bore out. The next day, in the middle of morning examination hours the phone call from Yasumori Mikiyasu came. Nao wasn't breathing, he said while crying. Told to come quickly, when he'd hurried to the contracting firm, Nao was gone. Her pupils were already dilated, and in her mouth the froth of a lung hemorrhage was visible. Pulminary edema caused by heart failure made choking the cause of death. August 17th, at 11:20.

The one Seishin received word of death from was Tamo Sadaichi. It was late afternoon, Seishin alone in the temple office with his manuscript spread before him, toying with superficial thoughts.

"The contractor's Nao-san has died!" Seishin held in his 'I knew it' at the sound of Sadaichi's voice at the other end of the receiver. Misunderstanding that silence, Sadaichi continued. "Mikiyasu-kun's wife. She was 26, or right around there. It's very sudden. It seems there was a problem with her lungs but, with things what they are, I will be taking charge of the assistants."

"Ah, ..... yes."

The contrators' Yasumori Tokujirou was Monzen's Mourning Crew mediator. During these cases where the mediator's family had a misfortune, the head of the assistants acted as the agent. The head of the assistants wasn't a specifically assigned position but each community had their own rankings of a sort, and who the head of the assistants were was determined with an unspoken sense of agreement.

"The heat is still severe but, as sorry as I am to pressure you, I thought we should try to do the all night vigil tonight. Tokujirou-san's family by blood and marriage live together in this area, so there's nobody who would have to hurry in from far away."

"Yes."

"So with that said, if you could do the bedside sutras as soon as possible."

"I understand. I will speak with the head."

In the same community of Monzen, the Yasumori industries weren't on a lot that far from the temple. The eldest son of the Yasumori industry's Yasumori Tokujirou was the Maruyasu Sawmill's second son. Tokujirou founded the independent Yasumori Contracting firm, going into real estate from construction, with a scope that spread out to public works as well. In the present, the position of successor to the contractor's firm was now Mikiyasu's, with matters of real estate falling to Tokujirou's little brother who lived in the city, and the baton of public works were passed along with the city office to Tokujirou's adopted son-in-law.

It was a country business, and it might not have amounted to much compared to other personal success stories but Tokujirou himself was on the verge of 70 and an ever vigorous person himself still. None the less, when Seishin visited, that very Tokujirou had seemed beaten down where he sat by his daughter in law's bedside.

"Tokujirou-san, in these trying times...."

When Seishin spoke out to him, he wordlessly bowed his head. He grieved as if he had lost his own true daughter. Sitting in the chief mourner's seat, Mikiyasu held the small child and kept his eyes cast heavily downward. He could hear hidden sobs. Facing him, Setsuko, with red eyes, patiently stroked him.

Nao was his daughter in law, not Tokujirou's daughter. Setsuko was his second wife, so there was no blood between Setsuko and Mikiyasu. None the less, Tokujirou's household was one that anybody could be envious of. Both Mikiyasu and Nao were both like their blood children, Seishin knew he had been told.

"Setsuko-san, Mikiyasu-kun," Seishin spoke to both, going blank when he met the child's gaze, at a loss for words. Nao's first born son was Susume. Indeed he shouldn't have been more than three years old. "--My sincere condolences."

Without understanding the meaning of losing his mother, probably not understanding what was happening around him, Susumu tilted his head; watching his simplistic demeanor, only perfunctory words could come forth. This very young child had lost his mother.

Tokujirou too, and Mikiyasu and Setsuko also seemed unable to let out their voices while holding in their wails. They gathered wordlessly, only bowing their heads deeply.

Seishin again could not make further words come. Seishin turned his eyes to Mikiyasu who let out a sob. His arms tightly holding onto the child were of course protecting the child, but there was something about it that also appeared as if he were clinging to the child in order to support himself. He'd seen an arm like that before. It was like that at the Shimizu house too. That had been tragic, and at the same time it looked foreboding. These people did not realize that something dangerous had entered into their own house.

---Where the children cry, the oni come.

In the village spread 'The Risen;---The legend of the oni were no doubt a metaphor for a plague. The oni had penetrated the Yasumori family. Those touched by the oni were infected with death, and death spread on out from there.

He felt like telling them to take care. I understand the feeling of wanting to mourn the departed. But, you mustn't cling to the body. Hurry, we have to put the body in the coffin and seal it up. He wanted to confess to everything, to tell them to take proper precautions, but.

But, reason whispered. If this is a plague, it's too late to warn them. Nao was dead. If this death was to continue then the Oni had probably already seized its next sacrifice.