Chapter 2.6

Night came to the village once again. Gazing out the window at the sight of the dark village night, he let out a breath and turned his back to it. Inside the nurse's station it was well lit, organized and coordinated in a practical manner.

Yasumori Setsuko seemed to be showing good progress. When Seishin came to visit her bedside she was well asleep but the color had returned to her face and her breathing seemed considerably calmed. According to Toshio it was a clear convalescence.

(Nothing happened... last night.)

Nor throughout all of today's clear autumn day. Setsuko continued to improve.

(It's quite an implication.)

Toshio faced the coffee maker, separating out its deep, dark contents into two cups. He set them out on the office room table.

"What do you think? Think they'll come to try to get her in secret tonight?"

Who knows, Seishin murmured. Paying Seishin's bewilderment no mind, Toshio drew out a book from the nearby cupboard. He had opened the book last night too but it didn't look like he'd gotten any further in it since then.

"I wonder how far their powers go. Think they can turn into animals or walk through walls?"

"Who knows..."

"In movies, they use crosses to repel them, don't they? Crosses and garlic, and they're not reflected in mirrors, and they're weak to sunlight. ---Sound right?"

Seishin breathed a sigh as he sat before Toshio, opening the notebook with the notes he'd taken for his own manuscript. "I think it's a matter of how you define a vampire."

"A vampire's a vampire."

Seishin softly shook his head. "What we generally understand as a vampire is a fictional construct. The original prototype lies in what Slavic peoples had called vampir, and it's thought that vampires were modeled off of them. That said, in actuality, vampir and vampires are vastly different, to the point where you could even say not even the fundamentals remain the same."

"Hnn..."

"Vampir are "The Risen." They're dead who should have been buried who revive from the grave and threaten the living. Those the vampir haunted became vampir themselves."

"It's that." Toshio leaned forward but Seishin smiled wryly.

"I don't know if we can say that much. There is a famous story regarding vampir.

"At the beginning of the 18th century, strange incidents occurred in a town called Meduegna, and a military physician dispatched from Belgrade wrote an investigative report. In this village over a period of about three months, ten or so people had died. The villagers claimed that it was a vampir. About five years before, a man named Arnold Paole died. While this man was alive, he said that that he had been haunted by a vampir. There was folklore amongst the Slavic people that those who were haunted by a vampir could take up and eat the dirt of the vampir cursing them, or take that dirt and smear it all over themselves to escape their curse. Paole did such a thing and escaped disaster that way, it was said.

"But this man named Paole died. About a month after his death, rumors that Paole was wandering about as a vampir spread. Actually, several villagers had died, and the people excavated Paole's body but when they did Paole's dead body showed no signs of decay, almost as if he were in fine health. His nails and whiskers grew, and he had even gained weight compared to when he was alive. His flesh had a healthy red glow, and in places old skin was coming off with new skin growing brightly back in place."

"That was exfoliation," Toshio said sounding annoyed. "That's a part of decomposition. The epithelium peels off and the dermis is exposed."

"Quite possibly," Seishin said giving a wry smile.

"It was called a red glow but wasn't that also decomposition? Once they decompose, the blood pigmentation leaks through to the tissue and stains them a night-soil red that presents as dark brown. With the gasses building up trapped in the body, it swells. With the highs and lows from that swelling pulling on the skin, that'd make it look plump and glowing. The infamous swollen look. ---And the nails and hair growing thing, the corpse gets dehydrated and the skin withers, so it just looks like it."

"Likely. But it's likely a matter of the fact that at that time, there wasn't as much knowledge about corpses like that. Looking at it in the present day it's recognized as simply a rotting corpse but at the time it looked to be quite alive. Even though it was dead, it appeared to be living, by their thinking. And moreover, Paole had fresh blood coming from his mouth and ears, and the inside of the coffin was smeared in blood. This was taken as proof that Paleo had no doubt become a vampir and drank blood, so just as village lore said they stabbed them in the heart with a stake. When they did, Paole let out an anguished scream, and a large quantity of blood flowed out from his corpse. The people burned Paole's corpse and buried the ashes."

Toshio sighed. "That's completely normal for a dead body. If the decomposing gasses leaked out after he was staked, the vocal chords would tremble, right? Even if they said fresh blood came out, wouldn't that just be the decaying liquids leaking out?"

"Probably so. --In vampir discussions, accounts of an actual victim with their blood sucked or witness account of blood sucking on sight are rare. Even so, it was often said that large amounts of a fluid like blood were sighted, and when struck with a stake, it overflowed. Observers couldn't explain where that quantity of blood could have come from. They didn't have an understanding of the human decomposition process. So there was no mistaking that it had been sucked into the vampir's body after death, it was thought. In other words, there was no doubt blood was sucked. And because of blood sucking, the body didn't rot, it in fact betrayed a lively form, they thought. Even in the folklore, it isn't a truth but conjecture even within the context of the legends themselves."

Toshio's brows furrowed as if thinking. "So this is how it is, in other words? At the time, they didn't have concrete knowledge about dead bodies. A body that swelled when it decomposed didn't mesh with what their idea of a "dead body" was. And furthermore this dead body's in the ground. The decomposition of a body exposed to the air decomposes much more quickly than one under the ground without exposure. They were sure it just rotted down to the bone, but that's not the case. Far from it; they can look more hardy than when they were alive. So that's why it became a story of strange happenings to them. They needed an explanation for why something so abnormal happened. The result of that was the birth of the monster called the vampir, you're saying?"

"That's probably how it went I think. They needed the word vampir to explain the abnormality of a dead body. In order to explain the blood flowing in the coffin, they needed to add on the characteristic of 'sucking blood' to the concept of a vampir. In order to explain how they looked healthy from the outside, they needed a vampir to slip out of the grave for nourishment. What came of all those needs is the vampir."

"Hmm."

"All of that aside, Paleo was disposed of, stabbed with a stake and burned, but in the village it was told that the victims killed by a vampir became vampir. Of course, neither Paleo nor his victims were still around. They were handled by the villagers. But folklore said that livestock eaten by a vampir would also become vampir. There was no doubt Paleo sucked blood from livestock. So those who ate that livestock would become vampir and once again the village would probably become infected, so it went. So with the military physician on hand, they dug up the suspicious graves and dissected the dead bodies. Inside of the corpses, there were signs their insides hadn't been decaying. All of the corpses seen in that state, thought to be vampir, had their heads cut off and were burned, the ashes spread into the river. The physician who had overseen the bodies dissections wrote a report on what transpired and presented it to his superiors."

"And you're saying that report still exists? As a matter of public record?"

"Right. The Europeans were shocked by the legend of the vampir and the gruesome customs. Information was compiled from here and there about the vampir but legends of "the revived" weren't limited to the Slavs. The Egyptians, the Romans and the Celts had them too. They're all across Europe, and they actually spread through Asia too. That's normal for a folk legend. But, while it had already been forgotten as a superstition, amongst the Slavic people it was spoken of as reality, and the customs that come with it were still alive."

"Hnn...."

"In the 16th century, Europe was invaded by the Ottoman Turkish empire. The Ottoman Turks seized control of Eastern Europe through the Balkan Peninsula, placing a siege on Austria. To Europe, the nation expanding in the east was a grave menace. They were close rivals for influence in the 16th century but in the beginnings of the 18th century that started to turn. At the start of the 18th century, Serbia and Wallachia seceded from Austria. They were reincorporated into Europe, the people of the occupied territories bringing their legends of the vampir and the strange customs associated with them. A reunion 200 years later, you could call it."

"Ah.... I see."

"But it wasn't something that only existed amongst the Slavs. People fear death. They fear the dead. Death is often epidemic in nature. So death is all the more greatly feared. That dread leaves its mark on the world in the forms of monsters and folklore throughout the world. For the Slavs it was the vampir.

"Something thought to be an abnormal corpse. Something they couldn't confer an explanation unto. Vampir rose from the grave and attacked people and livestock, sucking their blood---all of it was out of the necessity to explain an unusual corpse. Mistakes while alive, regrets in death, those who died too soon were cast as vampir----and so they had to explain how vampir were born. Alcohol, vices, demons, all manner of reasons were used and attached to it.

"Vampir's victims become vampir. That was how death was epidemic. Death was genuinely spreading one after another. In order to stop this spread, they crafted a type of exorcism ritual. Fragrances, sharp metals, black magic for expelling vampir, for destroying them. Certainly, those who hunted vampir said that the smell of garlic was effective. But couldn't it also be said that rather than being effective in driving them away, couldn't you also say that being weakened by garlic was a characteristic of the vampir themselves?"

Toshio breathed a sigh. "Similia similibus curantur."

Seishin nodded. "Right. Like cures like. A disease brought on by filth is cured by filth. Long ago, it was thought that foul odors were the source of disease. In truth, the vampir must have let off a terrible odor, I would think. So, they took to using a strong scent to counteract another strong one, saying it was a magic to repel the vampir."

"I see..."

"So it was said that garlic is effective towards vampir. You're saying that this brand of death occurring in the village is a vampire. Even if we grant that it's true for argument's sake, whether garlic would be effective towards those in the village is the question. As far as garlic being effective against vampir, there's no experimental or observational sign of such. Thinking that a strong smell should be able to overpower a foul odor is nothing more than a reflection of their sense of common sense at that time."

"But..." Toshio murmured, turning to face Seishin whose eyes were red from lack of sleep. "Legends often hide a grain of truth in them. There are stories all over the world of "the risen dead," you were saying right? That's right, this village has its own. Isn't that a universal phenomenon? Everyone experienced situations where the dead rise up. And where the dead bodies that rise up bring more death. So therefore that's why there are stories told about them. If that's the reasoning, then there should be methods to handle them in those stories too."

"Of course." Seishin sighed. "It is a universal phenomenon. There's no human who hasn't or won't die. Death and the dead body it leaves behind are real matters experienced the world over, happening in reality. Since vampir are nothing more than a representation of the fear of that universal reality, there are stories everywhere about vampir."

"But I'm saying..."

"Just as there are no people without a God, there are no people who don't fear death. Man is always afraid of death. Fearing death they wish for some existence to preside over it. Something that leaves no corpse and is not within society itself. And when remembering the dead people, they call to mind death itself, so those touched by death are a cursed existence. Man has always prayed for something to protect them from this curse. Every possible means of protection is taken up against the dead rising up, wandering out from the grave and return amongst the living, touching them with their death cursed fingers. That's precisely why in the Jomon period, the dead were handled in a crouched burial, with stones placed over the burial jars, as if to keep the lid down."

Toshio was silent.

"And death was in fact something that could start off a currant. Sometimes deaths are successive. All the more when it's a disease. Even without understanding it systematically, the knew that there was a connection between the fatal phenomena. That's why at first they explained it as the dead trying to draw the living in with them, so they staked the corpses, in order to end the chain of deaths."

Seishin looked to both of his hands. The fact that he himself existed there. As obvious and clear as his own hands made it, death could make that truth waver. So man could not but fear death.

"....People are born and die. Nobody can run from that. Knowing that, we can't ignore it. Even when they didn't have a medical knowledge of death, they didn't just not know passively, they explained it in various ways, filling in what wasn't known with these explanations. As a result, we have vampires, vampir, The Risen..."

So the legends themselves can't be considered proof of vampires. ----They shouldn't be.

"Toshio, you're saying that vampires exist. And it's possible that that is so. Vampires might be something that have continued to exist in secret since times immemorial, and in that case it wouldn't be strange for legends to remain of them. Those legends may have data gathered from real experience with them, so the means that are said in legend to repel them may be effective. But how would we know if this applies to your vampires?

"Vampir are risen corpses. And they suck human blood. Greek vampires are Vrykolakas. These too are revived dead bodies, but they aren't limited to only drinking blood. Another one is the female vampire called the lamiae. They're more of a demon that feeds on children's blood, it isn't a risen corpse or any such.

"Blood has always been made into the source of life. The connection between life and blood, or that causal relationship, could always be felt. Unnatural deaths and weakness were tied to heavy blood loss or blood contamination. And so onto the stage comes a blood sucking demon. This demon attacks people and sucks their blood. The victims whose blood was sucked become weak and die. An inexplicable death is explained with the demon substituted as the cause.

"On the one hand there is this "blood sucking demon", and "the risen dead" is another part of legend. People have always feared dead bodies. They fear it rising out from the grave and coming back. Because of that they cast spells and rituals over the corpse, performing spells and rituals so that they don't come back into the home. But still for various reasons they came back. While there are times when it's the dead body that returns, there are also times when it's only the spirit of the dead. Even if it's only the spirit that returns, it doesn't change much of the fact that the dead had returned to the living. The ghosts were a curse on the living. An intermediary between life and death, they were a threat to the safety of the living.

"The village's "Risen" are "the dead revived." But they don't have any substance. To put it another way, they're a cross between spirits without a body and the vampir who have one. It may just be a revived dead body, but they don't have the same vitality as a vampir. You could call them a translucent existence. And while they're at the boundary of life and death, they don't suck blood.

"What would you say the terms of your vampires are? Revived corpses like The Risen? In that case, they're demons that bring disaster even without sucking blood, and Toshio's vampires in question would have to override the established folklore. Even if they suck blood, if there's no corpse, it means they aren't vampires. Or do you mean to say the most important factor is the blood sucking? Or are you saying that it has to be both?"

Toshio was sullenly silent.

"There are legends of revived corpses rising up world wide. And yet, there are also stories world wide of blood sucking demons. If you're looking to use legends as references, first you'll have to make it clear what terms define a vampire. Additionally, if you don't ferret out any from the legends around the world that confirm to that specific definition, it's meaningless. But I still don't think that doing that in itself would mean anything. That's because vampires as they are in legends are nothing more than a form given to people's fears. The Risen are a metaphor for an epidemic. Even if they pass down prevention methods or ways to repel them, it never leaves the limited scope of warding off evil, it's nothing more than the common sense devised methods to avoid plagues that are borrwing the form of a legend."

"....But, what's happening in this village isn't a plague. Is it?"

This time it was Seishin's turn to fall sullenly silent.

"This isn't a metaphor or any kind of symbolism. There really exist a bunch bringing about human deaths by blood sucking. And those deaths are continuing. The rate of contamination is magnifying. If that's not it, then there's no way to explain the victims coming in waves just like in an epidemic. Each time a peak hits, the number of victims increases. It's clearly spreading. The victims they take become like them and become a part of the blood sucking peoples and the contamination amplifies. ---It's vampires. I can't think of anything else."

It happened just as Seishin sighed. A faint, hard sound. The muscles along both Seishin and Toshio's spines tensed in an instant, they whipped around. Just as Seishin was going to call out, once again it sounded. The very faint sound of something tapping against the glass. Toshio slowly stood up, turning towards the recovery room door. He peered through the glass window of the door, opening the door carefully so as not to make a sound.

The recovery room window was a fitted one, so while there was space enough for ventilation, it wasn't something a person could come or go through. Of course this was the second story so it wasn't as if a person could get to the windows easily but Seishin still couldn't help but think that there may have been somebody outside of the window.

With a high pitched tink of a noise, suddenly a strangely clear voice called out. There was no mistaking it: it was the voice of Setsuko who should have been asleep.

"I'm here."

Toshio snapped quickly into the recovery room. Seishin followed after. The lamp light was still on. In that light, Setsuko could be seen with her eyes gaping wide open at the ceiling. She showed no sign of noticing that Seishin and Toshio had come flying into the room.

Toshio glanced at Setsuko and then hurried to the window. He drew open the blinds.

Seishin also came to the window side, looking out. Just as Seishin peered out, a pebble came flying at and hit the glass but there was no sight of the person who threw it. From the window the yard could be seen. With no lights on that side besides the night light at the side employees entrance, it was pitch dark. Thick growing shrubbery and cover left nothing but the spread of the color of darkness. If there were indeed somebody lurking there, you couldn't see them.

"I am here," Setsuko said once again in that strangely clear voice. Toshio opened the ventilation window.

"This is my hospital!" Toshio shouted outside the window. "I won't just let you come in on your own! Get the hell out of here!"

The darkness drank in Toshio's voice. If gave no response. Tosio's words were like lines spoken to an empty theater. Just as an unthinkingly wry smile crept onto his face, a rustling sound in the leaves sounded somewhere in the darkness below. The sound of thick shrubberies swaying---and something faintly like the sound of footsteps.

Seishin's eyes froze. He had thought he had seen a black stain of a shadow, but it may have been a trick of his eyes. He had thought too that he had heard sounds going towards the causeway in the dark garden yard untouched by the light, but this too may have been his imagination.

After some time, Toshio let out a breath. When Seishin turned about, Setsuko was asleep with her eyes closed as if nothing had happened.

Was it because of what Toshio had said or did it simply flee in fear at the sight of anyone at all?

What was certain was that there had been a visitor.