Chapter 5

"Then, the three people in Yamairi died a natural death after all?"

Sumi said while changing his clothing in the room. Sumi had hurried in to serve as the staff for the overnight vigil and funeral services for Yamairi. Mitsuo, who was helping Sumi, gave a nod. 

"Seems so. The Junior Monk said so."

Sumi lived in Mizobe. His home was a temple of the same sect, and Sumi was their second son. The number of parishioners was not terribly large, to the point where the head monk his father as well as his brother the assistant head monk his elder brother were able to hold side jobs as instructors, so they didn't particularly need Sumi's help. That was why he sometimes came and did part-time work as a monk here. 

"Well, it's three of them, but all three were getting on in years."

"How old were they?"

"Just how old were they... I'm sure Gigorou-san was already about eighty or so, wasn't he?"

"Then, he enjoyed his longevity," Sumi sighed. "Our grandfather died at the age of sixty one, you know. My old man will be fifty six this year but, he's already complaining from morning to night that he hurts here and there, too."

"Yup, he lived a long, longevity filled life." Mitsuo forced a smile. "When you get near eighty, you're at the age for a peaceful death but, more than anything it's how things went. Somehow it doesn't seem like it was a peaceful death. An unexpected death, that's what it feels like."

"That's true, no matter how you look at it, it leaves the impression of an untimely, sudden death."

"Well, it's three people so all of them being cleared away in one go is rare but, things like this do happen don't they."

They do, Sumi nodded as he draped the stole over himself. "At our parish, in one month, a house of four were taken out one after another."

"Four people. That's unusual."

"Of them one of them was already over ninety, a grandfather already in the hospital, but starting with his son just over forty who fell to a heart attack, following right after was his father, his grandfather, and his mother, making four people. Come to think of it, that was in the summer, too."

"I don't like it," Mitsuo shook his head. "The deaths continue on don't they. We've had Shuuji-san followed by those three. I hope it doesn't carry on with this kind of vigor, don't you?"

"Wasn't Gotouda Shuuji-san after them?" Sumi pointed out, making Mitsuo blink.

"Really? The first to actually die were the three people who died in Yamairi? Shuuji-san was drug along as the nephew, then?"

"Pulled in," Sumi mused as Ikebe popped his head in. 

"Tsurumi-san has returned from the memorial service."

That's good, said Mitsuo with a smile.

"Somehow he was able to make it on time. I thought for sure he'd get held up. The old man Towada loves to talk, you know."

"So I've heard," Ikebe laughed, taking his own stole from where it was hanged. "---It seems they finally moved in."

"Moved in?" Mitsuo blinked, Ikebe giving a somehow triumphant smile.

"Kanemasa. Last night---Ah, this morning, I guess. Anyway, the truck apparently came in the middle of the night."

"Well then."

In the middle of the night, asked Sumi with his eyes wide. 

"They're some pretty strange people."

Mitsuo, seeming surprised again, gave a half nod. "You said it. ---And in the end, what kind of people were they, did they say?"

"It doesn't seem anyone's seen the master. Someone from Kami-Sotoba met with their help or some young part-time worker, though. They woke them up in the middle of the night, they said. To ask directions."

"Heh?"

"The full fleet was a big truck and two cars it seems. A grey four wheel drive and a white BM, it seems."

Mitsuo sighed and shook his head. Even now amongst the villagers the rumor mill was heavy with talk of the one who had his Meada Shigeki and ran having been the master of Kanemasa.  "What? Then, that foreign car didn't have any connection to Kanemasa after all did it."

"We cannot be sure, Mitsuo-san. After that, they may have changed cars."

"That's not something you can just do lightly." Mitsuo narrowed his eyes at Ikebe. 

"Either way," laughed Sumi. "At today's all night vigil, the talk will be too loud for the sutras."

"You've said it. The number of condolence callers is going to increase exponentially." 

Good grief, Sumi and Mitsuo thought as they exchanged looks. With this, the village would no longer be preoccupied with Yamairi. Having to go and hold an all night service and a funeral tomorrow, they'd determined that they would not be able to proceed with any austerity. 

As if reading their minds, Ikebe laughed. "Well, is it so bad? I mean, weird rumors had been flying about the Kanemasa mansion. Whether there were signs of people's presence on the grounds, or that they'd heard voices groaning inside the gates. With this, the ghost-story like rumors will probably die out."

There's that, said Mitsuo sad forcing a smile, when heavy footsteps sounded Tsurumi's approach. 

"Tsurumi-san, you have worked hard today."

Tsurumi lowered his head slightly to Mitsuo's voice, then surveyed the state of the room and glared at Ikebe. 

"What is this, Ikebe, you've already spread it?"

"Of course I did! From left to right..."

"If you're supposed to be a monk, you cannot be so light lipped."

"A reticent monk can't do his trade, can he?"

"Well, there is that," said Tsurumi, said with a laugh. "By the way, the Junior Monk is?"

"I saw him speaking with Fuki-san," said Ikebe. 

"He must be comforting her. Fuki-san has had so much misfortune herself. Her son and her brother, in succession like that."

"You said it. But, I wonder if the Junior Monk'll be okay without any sleep, too. I saw him before he left the temple, and his eyes were pure red."

Sumi lamented with a heavy breath of a sigh. "Another sleepless night?"

Looks like it, said Mitsuo with a forced smile.

"In the morning I recommended that he take a rest and at least entrust the morning ceremonies to Tsurumi-san and Ikebe-san though. With the memorial service today and the all night vigil, we all know how hard it is on him."

Really, Ikebe nodded.

"It's because the Junior Monk is diligent. Even though he could at least skip roughly a service or so."

Tsurumi knitted his brows.  "Is there such a measurement as 'roughly a service or so'?"

"It's a figure of speech. He looked sleep deprived yesterday too, didn't he? Even though our schedule was so full."

"It's busy until Bon passes, isn't it. It'd be fine if he took a break from his side job at least during this season, but. Well, that business is like being a monk, even if you have spare time, you're never resting, in that trade."

"That's true."

While half listening to the conversation with Tsurumi and the others, Mitsuo spread out Tsurumi's clothes on the clothes rack. Tsurumi and Ikebe were officially the disciples of the head monk, Shinmei. During the four years while Seishin was in college, Ikebe entered into the services of this temple. Tsurumi had been at this temple since before Mitsuo had started coming. Both of them had more experience as monks than the assistant head monk Seishin, and Tsurumi was much older than Seishin. To hear talk of other temples, these kinds of situations could breed all sorts of discord but, the man in question, Seishin, was mild mannered in all he did and gave full dues to Tsurumi and Ikebe, and in return Tsurumi and Ikebe acknowledged that the assistant chief monk was earnest, so there weren't any particular problems.

He bowed his head formally to even Mitsuo who was no more than an extra hand at the temple, calling him "Mitsuo-san" each time and giving him his own dues. Though Seishin wrote novels, which in truth he didn't know if what he wrote was any good or not but he was never boastful of his side job, even while writing those novels he was crammed up in the office, so he left a good impression of not neglecting his duties. 

In the end, it may have been because of the master of Tsurumi and Ikebe, the one who raised Seishin, Shinmei. ---Though he had no control of his limbs and was bedridden, even now the reverence to the head monk ran deep in the parish. Mitsuo himself was no exception. 

"But it'd do him some good to relax a bit, in the Junior Monk's case." Ikebe took a breath that seemed like a sigh. "Like right  now, even though getting even just a bit of rest would be good, he's been staying with Fuki-san for sooo long."

"He must be worried about Fuki-san," Sumi said with a smile. "The Junior Monk is a kind man."

Tsurumi nodded.  "It's because that man is a monk at heart."

While Mitsuo was setting up the clothing, he nodded in his heart. 

Since he was fifteen years old, Mitsuo commuted to the temple, supporting it from the shadows. Mitsuo himself certainly held no official, ordained post at the temple but, he thought of himself as a part of the temple and his love for it ran deep. The truth of it was that he felt that this temple was his own. Looking at it through the eyes of that Mitsuo who felt it his own, Seishin was a worthy heir to succeed the temple. Gentle and quiet, well mannered, his personality was clean and precise. His detached bearings suited the robes he wore well.  He had no imprudent qualities like the successor of the Ozaki Hospital. Nor did he sneer at his father's profession. He found the saying that he was a monk at heart to be very appropriate. As a successor, there was not a single flaw to be found. ---exempting a single old scar. 

"He really is," said Ikebe, his mouth distorting slightly. "So even so, why're there people saying such weird things..."

Mitsuo blinked at Ikebe's tone that seemed to really warp the mood.

"Weird things?"

Realizing his verbal slip, he looked about at Mitsuo and the other's faces, voice raising up. "Ah, no, ...that's..."

"Weird things, what might you mean by that?"

"Earlier, I overheard a group that was standing around talking," Ikebe hesitated. "I mean, a little while ago, there was the incident where a foreign car hit a child. They were talking about whether that kind of carwas actually there or not.."

"There or not, nothing," Tsurumi said, his eyes wide. "A child was hurt at the scene, wasn't he?"

"He was, but still. The Junior Monk was at the scene and wasn't he the one who had brought him to the hospital? So..." 

Understanding what Ikebe was hesitating and finding so hard to say, Mitsuo nodded. 

"Yeah. The Junior Monk was put up to it, if he put a story together with them,  that kind of talk, right?"

Those rumors had made their way to his ears. Mitsuo worked together with the parishioners households, so he had an ear for their rumors. 

"What do they mean by that," Tsurumi said, seeming to find it unthinkable. 

"There are people saying that kind of thing. It isn't as if they mean anything bad by it, they're just irresponsibly letting their imaginations run wild. After all, see, the all-important culprit ultimately went uncaught. A bunch of rumors that it was really the Kanemasa car, hidden on their grounds were going around. It's a part of those rumors."

"Even so, the way it is being said..."

"I'm saying they don't mean anything bad by it.  It was a freak accident that it turned into something this big, so maybe the Junior Monk might be covering for them, the neighbors are saying."

"What part of that doesn't mean anything bad?" Ikebe said indignantly. "That's bad will in itself! They should at least know the Junior Monk isn't that kind of---"

"Nowadays, the village isn't made up of just our parish, anymore," Mitsuo said lightly.

If they were temple parishioners, even with careless rumors they wouldn't imply that. At least, not where the temple had ears. In truth, when Mitsuo had heard those rumors he felt it was an insult to the parish itself. 

"It just means there're folks who only know the Junior Monk through rumors." Mitsuo deliberately, carefully brushed the dust from Tsurumi's clothing. "On top of that, the Junior Monk might be a little too delicate in some ways. His side job's a little weird, so there're probably some people who have a few strange ideas about him."

As if grasping what Mitsuo was trying to say, Tsurumi gave a sound that seemed slightly like a groan. Ikebe and Sumi didn't seem to notice.

"Even so, Mitsuo-san."

"In the past, the village was all made up of parish families who supported the temple. They weren't just parishioners, way back in the day, the fields and the mountains and everything was borrowed land from the temple. That was all the more reason for the people to need a two-stone handicap allowance from the temple but the people who came in after that had nothing to do with any of that. Especially since the non-parishioners all came in in the post-war period, in new houses. Looking at it from those bunch's eyes, the temple's a self-important institution revered for no real reason," Mitsuo said, raising his face. Forcing a smile, he nudged Ikebe and the others. "But more importantly, don't you have to be going? The over-night vigil is starting."

[TL/N: A two-stone handicap allowance - Ichimoku no nimoku mo oku - In the board game of go there are handicaps that can be given to weaker players in the form of stones placed at the opening of the game before the more skilled opponent. In the story context, it means the temple had a lot of leverage over the people and had to be respected as such]

[Note: Reader Question: Obaa-chan/Ojii-chan and variants of that get used an awful lot in this story. I'd been trying to translate them as Granny/Grandpa/Old Woman/Old Man and the like but there are times I'm not sure if my translation choice quite fits all the variations. Sometimes making it fit the character speaking is a stretch, too; Ozaki sometimes refers to people as just obaa-chan or something which works in Japanese but having him call them Granny seems off. Old man/old lady seems more his style, but I hesitate to translate the more polite Ritsuko calling them that even if she uses obaa-chan. I take issue with forcing my impression of the character voice over the text under any circumstances, including times like this when I think it's more a cultural nuance. English speakers don't tend to call people Granny/Grampy unless they're family or like family--while Sotoba is like one big family at times, Obaa-san/Ojii-san are standard in Japanese. I tried slipping an Obaa-san into one of the chapters here to see how it suits readers, but haven't gone back to revert all formerly translated bits into Japanese, and I can easily revert that one based on the final decision. Do readers have a preference between that being translated out or kept in Japanese?

Suzuki no obaa-chan; it's either going to be "The Suzuki Obaa-chan" or "The Suzuki's Obaa-chan" if kept in Japanese or, in English, "the Suzuki Granny" or "the Suzuki's Granny" and Suzuki Obaa-chan will either be Granny Suzuki in English or just left as Suzuki Obaa-chan. 

I will eventually put them all to one or the other, unless of course it's a familial reference. If someone is referring to their own or someone else's grandfather, then regardless of which direction I go with names, I will be keeping those with the English term, such as when the monks are talking about the family of four that died in Mizobe--The man, the wife, the son, the grandpa, etc. If someone talks about becoming an obaa-san or an ojii-san, then I'll still just keep it as talk about becoming an old man, etc. This is only a question of what to do with it as an extension of or as a replacement for a name]