Chapter 8

"--Kyouko-san's what?" Seishin's voiced raised without thinking, when the call came from Toshio. "And? How is she?"

Not good, Toshio said, his voice low. It was a tone of voice he knew well to be one blaming himself.

"It means we're not exceptions, in other words," Toshio said, voice tinged with self-derision. "You be careful too."

"Yeah... Then,"

"Do you really get it? This morning I called Shimoyama-san, you know."

"The X-ray technician?"

"Right. It was about the day after Tohru-kun's funeral I think, he quit, suddenly. So I got the idea to call him up but."

Seishin was startled.

"...He'd died. Last month on the ninth. Looks like it was acute heart failure."

"I see..."

"So it's not like they're letting us go by any means. Keep your guard up. For yourself and the people around you too."

I understand, Seishin answered and hanged up the phone.

Kyouko had an outbreak. And he said she was in the late stage too. He was taking measures and hospitalizing her but even if he stayed up watching her all night tonight, having already entered the later stages, they couldn't be sure if her condition would change or not.

(And Shimoyama-san...)

Thinking that, Seishin suddenly realized.

"...Sumi-san."

The way he resigned was all too sudden indeed. He needed to make contact and see how he was doing. Even if he wasn't in time.

It was when he'd been thinking that. That was when the temple office door made a light thumping sound. When he turned about, an old women he didn't recognize was peering in at him. Seishin gave a light greeting. It was a face he must have seen somewhere but before he could place her in his memory the woman entered. Rather than glaring at him it was more like her hateful expression was growing worse, her small body coming to a stop before Seishin.

"I can't take it anymore!"

"...Uhm?"

"You, just what are you doing? This's why we can't count on organized religion! And you call yourself a monk?"

As he blinked, Mitsuo appeared in the temple office.

"Ikumi-san!"

At Mitsuo's surprised voice, Seishin remembered. This was Itou Ikumi from Mizuguchi. The eccentric weird---.

Ikumi stopped her foot loudly. "It can't be that you're going to try to tell me that you don't know what's really happening in this village, now are you?"

"Uhm.... I'm sorry, but."

"It's The Risen, isn't it, isn't it obvious!"

Seishin was at a loss for words.

"You all bury the dead bodies, don't you? It's your fault the dead are rising back up to us! The bunch of you all are worthless, no talent at all! All you think about is the money, can't nobody rest in peace! I know what's going on!"

"Ikumi-san, come now," Mitsuko tried to cut in but Ikumi pushed Mitsuo aside to cram herself between him and Seishin. She was a small woman, but she looked up so sharply at Seishin as if to jut her chin into his throat.

"Kanemasa's the ringleader. They're no good. Since that mess came in here the village's been cursed. The dead can't move on and are rising up, the misfortune's spreading out all over. Open your eyes already, how's about finally making yourself of some use to this village?"

"Ikumi-san, please wait a moment," Seishin raised his hands lightly to try to calm Ikumi but Ikumi smacked down those hands of his.

"Even when it's like this you're just going to watch are you? Well, to the lot of you, it's something to even be grateful for, all these dead people! Each funeral must have you laughing all the way to the bank, I bet. You sham of a monk!"

Mitsuo pulled Ikumi back. "Ikumi-san, what are you forcing yourself in here saying all of a sudden? Acting like you've got no manners, what is this about?"

"I'm only speaking the truth."

"Ikumi-san!"

Ikumi thrust a finger at Mitsuo. "Going to hit me? You were about to hit me weren't you? That's how the bunch of you do things. You pump the people of the village for donations, then kick back all comfy with your money! I'm shocked he can even be a monk. Can't do a damn thing in the role. Junior Monk my ass! We talk like he's so great helping out others, but when push comes to shove, you tried to hang yourself up didn't you!"

Mitsuo went stiff. Seishin felt the color drain from his face. He unconsciously gripped at his wristwatch. --Yes, everybody in the village knew. Setting aside the accuracy of the smaller details. It was just that nobody said anything.

"Are the only things you're good for writing incomprehensible dime novels and being spoiled? If you're supposed to be a monk, you protest against Kanemasa and do something about this village right now!"

"That's enough out of you, you!"

"...Please stop, Mitsuo-san." Seishin stopped Mitsuo whose anger was showing. Whenhe looked, he could see Miwako standing at the entrance to the temple office, pale in the face. 

Seishin turned his eyes to Ikumi and lightly bowed his head. 

"...It may be as you say." Saying that, he offered Ikumi a seat. "Please have a seat. I am terribly sorry but could I please have you explain why it is The Risen and why it is Kanemasa?"

Ikumi snorted. "That's something even a child would know, isn't it? It's so obviously the Risen. It's Kanemasa, I mean, it's happened since that house'd been built."

"You cannot pass judgment on others for speculation."

"Speculation? Isn't it the truth? I know. You just don't want to do anything do you? You don't want to do a thing but put up your feet and take it easy."

"I have no intent to do that. However...."

"Enough excuses," Ikumi spit out flatly. "Do you plan to do something for the village or not?"

"Of course I do."

"Then come with me. We'll call out Kanemasa. I'll show you how it's done."

"Ikumi-san, you mustn't."

When Seishin said that, Ikumi narrowed her eyes. Seishin desperately searched for the right words. 

He couldn't let Ikumi run wild. Blame based on speculation and prejudice would just have the opposite effect, turning the villagers against the idea. If Ikumi went screeching, then the more she shouted, the more the villagers would think the opposite of whatever she said. ---But, what Ikumi was saying was the truth. Her blame shot through the heart of the truth of the matter more accurately than Ikumi herself knew. 

"Please calm down. It is certain that misfortune is continuing throughout the village but what connection does that have with Kirishiki-san? Will persecuting Kirishiki-san bring an end to the calamity, truthfully?"

I see, Ikumi said looking at Seishin with open disdain. "You're rotten beyond helping, aren't you?"

"I hear you when you are saying that it is The Risen Ikumi-san, but can we show that there are those who really have risen? Has somebody witnessed such a thing?"

"That's enough." Ikumi turned away. Regardless of Seishin's voice calling to top her, she left the temple office. Seishin tried to follow after but Mitsuo and Ikebe stopped him. 

"You can't, Junior Monk. You can't get roped in with her."

"However,"

"If you get mixed in with her, they'll start saying and thinking weird things about you too. It'll be a mess if the temple gets thought of as the same as her."

"Mitsuo-san, that isn't a very proper way to..." Seishin tried to challenge, but Mitsuo shook his head with a stubborn expression.

"You can't. Junior Monk, please have some self-awareness. If the Junior Monk is thought of as the same as Ikumi-san, the villagers will support her and her action. The Junior Monk might not intend for such but you can't make light of the temple's influence."

"However," Seishin said as he and Mitsuo looked off in the direction Ikumi disappeared in.

"She has said that she is going to one-sidedly denounce Kanemasa. Once it's thought that the temple agrees with that, amongst the parishioners there will be those who will go along without thinking to denounce them together with her. Think about that, please, before you add any weight to her momentum."

Seishin was at a loss for words. Ohtsuka Takeyuki and Hiroko's smiling faces came to mind as he considered that the enemies of the temple were the enemies of the village. 

"...Yes."

Mitsuo breathed a sigh.

Ikumi took a glance at the mountain gate at spit disdainfully at it. Anyone and everyone were losing their sense of what was right and proper.Ikumi had come out of the kindness of her heart to show them the truth, but there wasn't even anybody listening to her. Far from it, Ikumi thought, unconsciously grasping the places on her body that ached. They blamed her, persecuted her. 

Ikumi raised her eyes to look up at the western mountain. Beneath a seemingly empty sky, she could see a black roof poking out of the deep green of the mountainside.The anger that had been spiralling within Ikumi was spurred on ever higher by a destructive feeling. If the temple was going to keep their silence then it was time for Ikumi, even alone, to do something about Kanemasa. --Yes, she would show them all, she would make it so that never again could they take her lightly.

Ikumi hurried down the stone steps, striking her hands against anything she could at the storefront of the town built about the bottom of the temple. 

"It's Kanemasa! Hurry up and realize it now, all of you!"

Noticing several people gathered around the palaquin's platform on her way home from the contractor's firm, Yasumori Atsuko came to a stop.

What could this be, she murmured to herself, as Itou Ikumi stood before about six men and women crying out in a shrill voice. 

"It's the Risen, you all have realized it too, haven't you?!"

For a moment, Atsuko was blindsided. Of Ikumi's words, only "The Risen" was clearly heard.

"My... What now?" Atsuko had tried to ask of the elderly forming the crowd but Atsuko herself knew what Ikumi was saying when she was talking about The Risen. It was "that" which had infiltrated the village. The something that was trying to kill off the people of the contracting firm. Almost like, a part of her had thought before, almost like Oni were about.

The old man in the group was Takemura Gohei. Takemhura Gohei shrugged his shoulders as if giving up. "She says the Kanemasa bunch are Risen."

"Well, my," Atsuko laughed. She could hear herself how forced her tone was. As if insulted by that tone, Ikumi's eyes stopped on Atsuko. Passing through the crowd she approached her.

"You, you're Maruyasu's Atsuko-san, yes?"

"Yes. Good evening," Atsuko said with a deliberate smile. "And who might you be?"

"You know, don't you? It's Oni. It's The Risen. Your place is being haunted by Oni."

"Well dear me, such terrifying things you're saying."

"It's true though, isn't it? Just go ahead and tell me how many are left breathing there at the contractor's firm!"

That's, Atsuko said feeling her smile strain. 

"Everyone at the contracting firm's been done in. Not just the contractors. Your place's Giichi-san's been haunted too. Once the contractors have all died out, next it'll be your place's turn. Will you be able to laugh then?"

"Please leave it at that, this kind of topic, it's unlucky..."

"Unlucky? It's the truth isn't it? You'll meet the same fate as the contractors. I know all about it. And next is going to be the lumbermill's turn. First will be the wife, then the son. Just like the contractors!"

"This isn't funny." Atsuko said cutting in and then turning away. Ikumi continued to spit out at her back. "Unless we kick out the bunch at Kanemasa, it's sure to happen! Why don't you get it?! Has a single person ever seen one of the Kanemasa bunch in the day time?!"

For an instant, Atsuko stopped, and then mentally closing up her ears she left.