Chapter 9.3

Seishin first made arrangements and headed towards the Mutou home. Mutou's despondency was severe. Because he knew Mutou well, seeing him despondent was trying. To say nothing of how much worse it was for the fact that Mutou seemed to be blaming himself.

"Why didn't I notice..." Mutou's eyes were red from weeping so much. "On Saturday, you know? He said he was taking the day off. Taking off from work, not getting out of his futon... I can't have not thought that was strange."

Seishin meant to offer some words of comfort but the truth was the words just wouldn't come to him. Death came in a few days. Mutou overlooked this. He understood why Mutou couldn't

not

blame himself. If he were to try to sooth that, to say that even if he realized it before hand there would have been no way to save him, and that was the only thing he could say, he couldn't imagine it would do much to abate his grief.

"On top of everything he went and quit his job," Mutou said wiping his face as Seishin held his breath.

"....Quit?"

"Yes. I'm wondering if he knew it was coming. I didn't say anything in particular to Tohru but it's possible he realized it. That he was suffering from a disease there's no cure for. So he..."

That's not right, Seishin thought.

(Another one...)

Tohru commuted to Mizobe for work. The same as Shimizu Ryuuji.

Hesitating over whether he should say as much, unable to find a reason to let Mutou know, he kept his mouth shut. What should he say? Could he even say that it was a special trait of the disease? There shouldn't be any cause-effect relationship between them. Telling Mutou shouldn't have mattered.

Giving the bedside sutras and leaving the Mutou household, returning to the temple to make preparations for the memorial service, Seishin was terribly bewildered.

It looked like there was a relationship between the illness and quitting one's job. It also looked like there was some kind of connection to the incomplete moves. But at the same time, no matter how one thought about it, there shouldn't have been any kind of relevance between them. .

(Is it all right to keep thinking of it as a simple illness?)

All the same, if this wasn't an illness, what would you call it? Like Koike had suggested, could it be called somebody's plot?

What he did know was that these were no ordinary circumstances. It was an illness, so they sought the cause, looking for a way to prevent it from spreading, groping for some form of treatment. That should have been the proper course of action but would such an ordinary method really stop this situation, he wondered. Was this not perhaps something out of Toshio and Seishin's hands? Somebody with more power had to do something, if they didn't then this would all be an extravagant waste of time, wouldn't it?

Seishin thought and thought, and when he'd found an opening in his time he called Ishida of the Health Department.

"....Aa, Junior Monk."

"Uhm---It's about the case before but, how is it going?"

At Seishin's question, Ishida momentarily gave a pause as if he didn't know what he meant. "...How, is it going?"

"I mean how is it progressing with the data that you are compiling. That was to be to send to Mizobe, right? Has there been any response?"

Ishida seemed panicked as he muddled his words. "Uhhm.... Yes,... No."

"There has not been word that they will investigate, or any instructions?"

"Uhm.... there hasn't."

Seishin sighed. With this many people dead, what was the administration thinking, he wondered, his mood growing dark.

"This may be too forward of me but should we not push things a little or---should we not bring the topic up to Kanemasa, would it not be better to have things moving, I wonder? At this rate, I have the feeling that waiting until the city feels like doing something will not get us anywhere."

That may be, Ishida said agreeably, sounding as if worried about something about him.

"Ah, I'm sorry. Is there somebody else present?"

"Ah, no.... That's."

"Anyhow, I think it would be best to see to it that Kanemasa at least hears of it. It would be best if the situation were explained, so that he can push the matter forward."

"Haa.... Yes, it would be."

"Do you know the name of the official responsible? At any rate first, if you could talk with them personally," Seishin started to say when Ishida interrupted.

"That's..."

"---Is there something wrong?"

"No... Well."

Seishin frowned. Ishida's responses were indeed poorly formed, and he was clearly in dismay.

"Ishida-san, what has happened?"

"Ah, no."

"The data was turned in to your superiors, wasn't it?"

"Ha... Well."

A faint premonition fluttered through his chest.

"You did not?"

Ishida didn't answer. With a groan Ishida didn't put words to, Seishin knew he had hit the mark.

Why, he started to ask when realizing there could only be one reason.

"....Was it Toshio?"

Once again Ishida groaned. That was enough tor Seishin. He knew Toshio's disposition well. He didn't know concretely what Toshio was thinking, how he explained it away to Ishida, what instructions he gave---but even without knowing that, he knew the nature of the beast behind it.

"....I understand. I am sorry for bothering you during work. I will consult with Toshio, so please do not bother yourself with it any further, Ishida-san."

At Seishin's words, Ishida offered a small-voiced "I'm sorry" as his apology.