Chapter 2.3

Seishin wandered past the side of Chigusa towards the house peering in the entryway. Yano Tae who was watching TV in the living room soon noticed Seishin and called out 'Dear me!'

"Has something happened?"

"I had gone to the town of Mizobe, you see. I had thought to take a short rest at the shop, however, I then thought about how Tae-san may be doing."

"Please do come in," said Tae, then seeming to realize something. "Ah, it would be better to go into the shop. The Junior Monk would prefer coffee to cheap tea, would you not? There is also air conditioning there."

Standing before Seishin and putting on her sandals, Tae who motioned towards the shop somehow seemed thinner.

"Should it happen that you have lost weight?"

Tae looked back as they crossed the sun bathed garden. "It must be summer weight loss. Lately, meals just aren't very appetizing."

"It is not because you are depressed about what had happened with Fuki-san is it?"

Tae blinked as if something had struck her heart and gave a dejected sigh.

"...That isn't what it is, but. After all, I am at an age where it wouldn't be unusual for death to come pay me a visit, either. I am the same age as Fuki-chan, yes? We were classmates in school, you know."

"Is that so?"

"These kind of things are foreordained, yes? That's how I had thought, but. But, the day Fuki-chan died, I met with her, you know. She was sick, and I thought so many times that we should have the Junior Doctor come but Fuki-chan said she was fine, so. But, if I had called the Junior Doctor at that time or if I had called an ambulance, wouldn't that person have been able to live at least a little longer, I think, yes...?"

"If you think that way..."

Tae shook her head. "No matter what, I can't put it out of my mind. Why didn't I call, I think. Why didn't I do what I could, even if it wouldn't have done any good, don't you think I would wonder? It isn't something I can take back and fix now but, once it came to mind, at that time I, if only I'd done this, that's all I can think about."

Saying so while sounding lonely, Tae opened the door to the shop. There were no signs of customers in the shop. Noticing Seishin and Tae approaching, Kanami bowed her head from behind the counter. 

"Welcome. ---I thought I'd seen the Junior Monk's car."

"He had come to see how I was going," Tae said, earning a smile from Kanami.

"Thank you very kindly. ...Mother is really losing heart."

"Oi, oi, I'm getting used to it."

"That's how she is. Even if she is your friend, I don't want you to be pulled along with Fuki-san. Even if you don't rush, Fuki-san will wait for you, I'm sure of it."

Yes, yes, laughed Tae; Seishin saw she and Kanami in a very charming light. 

"Tae-san is in a good place now, able to be with Kanami-san like this."

"That's so true," she said, looking delighted. "I'm happy that she came back but I worry since she came back because she divorced."

"If you can be that smart mouthed, there's nothing to worry about, is there," Kanami laughed, putting an iced coffee on the counter and urging it towards him. 

"....In Yamairi, the Murasako-sans and Ohkawa-san were very lonely cases. They weren't quite what one would call estranged from their children, but."

Tae nodded sympathetically. "All of the children of the folks up there left the village, didn't they."

"As it was all so sudden, I suppose it's uncertain whether something happened or not. Therefore, I had thought to inquire to the bereaved families as to how the state of things when they were alive, however, nobody is well informed, thus..."

"Well, dear me."

"Fuki-san was the same with only a few minor differences. All alone, as the one that had stayed with her, Shuuji-san, had died. Of course, Fuki-san did have friends, so it was much better, but." Kanami's brows furrowed. "Somehow, it's like the deaths keep coming this year. They say that a lot at the shop you know, that it's a terrible arrangement of fate. Anyway, about Fuki-san's case. Her older brother and son went, then ultimately she herself went. Do you suppose some terrible disease is spreading, is what some are thinking too, you know."

Seishin secretly held his breath. Kanami was watching him intently , but, it seemed that she herself didn't believe those words. A bittersweet smile rose to her face. 

"You can't take even a summer cold lightly, huh? Gigorou-san was off, they thought, you know."

"---Ohkawa's?"

"Yes. Now when was that, I wonder? I caught sight of Gigorou-san getting off the bus. He looked sickly, and was wavering awkwardly, you know. I called out to him, but he didn't seem to notice. Then that news of what happened spread. I thought, I knew something was strange back then."

"When might that have been?"

"Wasn't that at the end of July, I suppose?" Kanami looked into the air as if searching her memory. "---Yes, at the end of July. After that, I'd heard that Gigorou-san and Hidemasa-san seemed sick, you know. It seems like it was Mieko-baa-chan who said that when she came down to do some shopping. Getting sick deep in the mountains like that, it'd be scary if it turned serious, I thought, then that's exactly how it went. It's unsettling."

"Can you remember approximately which day?"

Kanami tilted her head. "What day was it, I wonder? I heard that the two seemed sick, you know. That was when I thought, come to think of it... Just a few days before that, I'd seen Gigorou-san, huh, I thought...."

"It was the very next day that Gigorou-san left," Tae added. "First thing in the morning, he got on the bus saying he was going out somewhere. That next day he came back, so he must have stayed out somewhere overnight, and I remember wondering where he could have gone to."

"You'd said as much," Kanami nodded with a smile. "Mom gets up early. She happened to see Gigorou-san at the bus stop. She said he was at the bus stop headed for Mizobe. Then the next day he came back, she said, on--which day was that, now, I wonder? I heard that he seemed sick. They were talking about that in the shop...." Suddenly, Kanami's brows furrowed. "That's right, when he heard this, Shuuji-san suddenly said he would go to pay a get-well visit."

Seishin felt something had him by the heartstrings. "Shuuji-san did?"

"Yeah. Just that night, he came to drink. He'd already drank quite a bit, we told him to give it a rest, but 'I'm fine', he said. He called his house from here to say he was going to be late, since he was paying a get well visit. It was already pretty late, if you go to pay a visit at this hour, you'll just be troubling the patient, won't you, I had thought, but." Kanami said and gave a single nod. "Yes---That's right. Then it was six days later, that we had heard Shuuji-san had died. Shuuji-san hadn't come to the shop since then. It was rare for that person not to come for more than three days straight, so when we were wondering if something happened, it turned out he'd died."

Seishin stared at the grains of the wooden counter. The day Shuuji died was on August 6th. If it was six days before, then that would mean the 31st. On the 31st Shuuji went to Yamairi. But, the 31st---or around the early morning of the 1st was the estimated time of death. If they could believe police opinion, when Shuuji went to Yamairi, there was the possibility that Gigorou had already died. It was likely that Hidemasa and Mieko were also having their outbreak---.

Seishin felt unease. Shuuji ultimately might not have met with Hidemasa and Mieko. If he went into the house, he should have noticed that his uncle was in an extraordinarily poor state. If so then naturally he would have called somebody, right? On top of not contacting anybody, Shuuji must have come back without meeting with Hidemasa but, ---but, Mieko also didn't contact anybody. Her husband was dead beside her and yet she herself died without contacting anybody. 

(What is this, this similarity....)

Seishin was caught in his thoughts when Kanami raised her voice to say "That's right. I remember. The day before Gigorou-san went out, that was the day Motoko's child had the accident."

Seishin lifted his face.

"Right, the Junior Monk was at the hospital, weren't you? Shigeki-kun's mother."

"Aa....." 

Seishin recalled Motoko's neurotic, erratic state. 

"She was in my same class. She helps with the evening preparations. Motoko's child was hit by a car on July 27th, wasn't it? The next day on the 28th was when Gigorou-san went out, and he came back on the 29th. I heard that he was sick, and Shuuji-san went to pay a sick visit, that was six days before he died."

July 31st, Seishin nodded. "Had you seen Gigorou-san before that?"

"The time before that was---when was it, I wonder, when I saw him when he came back, I had thought it had been a while, so I don't think I'd seen him for some time."

"I wonder if Gigorou-san often went out traveling or any such like this?"

To that, Tae shook her head. "Not Gigorou-san. That person rarely left the village. After all, he didn't have any way to get around aside from his scooter. Hidemasa-san had a car but the only one who could drive a car was Hidemasa-san, so I'm sure it was a hassle for him to leave the village, wasn't it?"

"And Hidemasa-san?"

"That person, too, has a heavy bottom, you see. As far as traveling, I think it was pretty rare for him, you know. When was it? Once I met with Mieko-san at Fuki-san's place, and Mieko-san was saying how she'd like to go to a hot springs once in a while. She was saying 'how many years has it been since we last went on a trip', or something like that."

"I wonder if he had felt like taking a trip this July, or...?"

"He didn't, I don't think. There's the rice fields and the vegetable fields, after all. Those people were living on a pension, they had to cultivate the fields to eat, you know. Maybe if it were a season when farmers could slack, but this wouldn't be the season for them to travel, don't you suppose? And this year especially, see, there hasn't been any rain. They must have had to use the pump and water the fields, people couldn't very well leave their fields at a time like this."

That's true, Seishin thought. This year there was a heatwave and a water shortage. The day before yesterday, there had been rain enough but there was ultimately little effect on the river's water levels. It wasn't too serious a problem for the village but, downstream there wasn't enough water, and even in Sotoba they had to pump water from the rivers and lakes. The village farmers had to draw water from the swamp and wells to spread over the fields. Certainly with things being what they were, they couldn't have gone out traveling anywhere. 

Then, thought Seishin. The three were contaminated in Yamairi. Or else----?