Chapter 5

As Seishin changed clothes and headed out from the back room towards the temple office, he saw Miwaki making a perplexed face and turned around.

"Aa---Seishin, Sumi-kun hasn't called?"

No, Seishin anwered. Last night, after doing the business of which he could not speak, he returned to the temple and didn't do much beyond take a shower before taking a nap in the temple office. After the morning services ended he had gone back to the back room to take another nap, so he didn't have any opportunity to cross paths with Sumi..

"I wonder what's happened?" Tsurumi who was already there that morning tilted his head. Yasumori Setsuko's funeral was coming up.

"He isn't here yet?"

"That's right." 

Even though Tsurumi and Sumi commuted, since Sumi hadn't shown up, he had to break from their usual plans to come ahead. 

"When I'd tried phoning Sumi-kun's place, his mother said that he had left the house some time ago, but."

"I hope there wasn't an accident," Mitsuo interposed. "So, what'll we do? If someone doesn't go now, we'll be late for the appointment with the contractors." Mitsuo said while looking at Ikebe but Ikebe looked in bewilderment at the schedule board. While Seishin and Tsurumi were out, Ikebe would have to hold the memorial services. "Should we call them and see if we can have them change the plans for the memorial service? We could ask."

So Mitsuo said but Seishin shook his head. "We couldn't possibly do that. And this late into things, we can't ask any neighboring temples to assist either. I will speak with Tokujiro-san and convey my apologies. I will ask him to somehow make do with myself and Tsurumi-san given the current state of the village."

Mitsuo and Ikebe could only nod. Mitsuo saw Seishin and Tsurumi off, then he saw Ikebe off, then once again he called Sumi's house. Once again Sumi's mother picked up, and promised that if Sumi who had gone out did come back she would contact them right away. 

When Sumi did call, evening was dawning. At about the same time Seishin was tending to Setsuko's grave searching the graveyard for traces of the deed they'd commited, but for the time being there were no traces and nobody had said that anything seemed out of place and so he had relaxed.

The one who answered the phone was Mitsuo as usual. "It's you---Sumi-kun."

Mitsuo's voice held an unintended accusatory tone. Sumi replied with a dispirited apology. 

"What am I going to do with your apology? Think of other people why don't you. The Junior Monk had to bow his head and say some difficult things because of you."

Yes, Sumi said with his voice dejected and small.

"And so? What is it that happened? Was there an accident or something?"

"That isn't quite the..." Sumi grit his teeth and hesitated before saying. "I'm sorry but, I, I won't be able to come in for a while."

"Wait, Sumi-kun?"

"I'm sorry. Give my regards to the Junior Monk and the Madame."

Mitsuo sighed. "Sumi-kun. I know it'll be hard to look the Junior Monk and the others in the eye. I might've been a little too rough on you too. But, don't you think reacting like that's a little too childish?"

"....That isn't it," Sumi said his words further poorly enunciated. "It isn't because I feel bad..."

Mitsuo tilted his head and waited to hear what Sumi had to say. Sumi's noninflected voice had sounded like he was saying something pre-scripted.

"It is too busy. I am tired from having to hurry about so much. Sotoba is strange. So I do not want to. I do not wish to return. I hate going into Sotoba itself."

Mitsuo was at a loss for words. "Sumi-kun?"

"I am sorry. That is how it is. Please do not call for me anymore."

Without waiting for Mitsuo's response, Sumi hung up the phone. Dazedly holding onto the receiver Mitsuo gave Ikebe a puzzled look as he returned.

".....What happened?"

"Aa.... No. Welcome back," Mitsuo said hanging up the receiever. He wondered if he should try calling back. Ikebe watched Mitsuo as he wondered such. Before he could voice anything, Tsurumi could be heard returning. He must have separated from Seishin who stood in at the burial and returned before him.

"What is it?" Tsurumi said as he returned, sensing the atmosphere of the room and making a sullen face. "Another one?"

"No," Mitsuo answered. "It's.... Sumi-kun, it seems he's quitting."

Ikebe and Tsurumi let out wordless gasps.

"Quitting, at a time like this?!" Tsurumi's voice was tinged with anger. 

"He says he hates Sotoba. It's too busy, it's strange, he said. He said he won't be coming for a while but he probably won't come back at all with that, huh?"

"That, he just..." Tsurumi all but roared out but Ikebe only gave a weak murmur.

"I see.... Sumi-san, he's been scared away, hasn't he?"

"Oi, Ikebe-kun."

Ikebe sat in a chair looking at the schedule. Having had three memorial services since that morning, this was the first time Ikebe was actually free.

"A little before, I was talking with Sumi-kun. About how these numbers aren't normal. The Junior Monk said nothing's for certain it seems but without a doubt there's an epidemic. But none the less of all the houses we've gone to none have said there's been an epidemic disease. What the Junior Monk was saying was not that he didn't know if it was spreading or not but that they don't know what kind of spreading disease it is, wasn't it? It's already certain that it's spreading, and it's in full force about it. Even now it's growing stronger. But we don't know the name of the disease. 

They call it an emergent virus, don't they? There are sicknesses like those these days, aren't there?"

Mitsuo and Tsurumi fell into silence.

"To be honest, I'm scared too. I get the feeling, like, something terrible's happening. But, with this many dying, somebody has to mourn for them. So, it's not like we can run away huh, we'd been saying but..."

Right, was all Mitsuo said. It might not have been for nothing that they were afraid. Mitsuo himself was born and raised in the village. This temple was where he belonged, and from the beginning he'd had a feeling he would live and die in this village. Even if he tried to run he had nowhere to run to, but that wasn't so for Sumi and Ikebe. Sumi needed only not come to the village, and Ikebe had a home he could return to.

Tsurumi let out a heavy sigh, perhaps thinking the same thing.

"It's because I'm not a villager. Since I don't have anywhere to go, the idea of running away never even occured to me. ...That's right, it might be different for you guys, huh?"

"I don't plan on doing that, though."

That right, Tsurumi laughed. Mitsuo let out a sigh.

".....Just why did it have to come to this anyway. Nothing like this's ever happened before."

"It might be the people of Kanemasa."

The one to say it was Tsurumi. Mitsuo looked to Tsurumi in surprise. Tsurumi raised a brow as if wholly surprised by that surprise.

"It's been since that house moved in hasn't it? And they seem to be so well off, couldn't they have traveled overseas someplace, then brought something back with them, I wonder?"

"Hasn't it been since before they moved?" Ikebe said tilting his head uneasily. "Yes, it was from before. When the incident happened in Yamairi, they hadn't moved in yet. It was the night of the vigil for those in Yamairi wasn't it? That they moved in."

"It was, wasn't it?" Mituso frowned. "Don't just say that kind of thing carelessly. I'm begging you, don't breathe a word of that king of rumor to the parishioners. ....Well, since the Kanemasa family doesn't seem exceptionally interested in mingling with anyone from the village, they probably won't hurt or even register to them, but."

Ikebe gave a laudible nod but Tsurumi made an even deeper scowl. 

"....I see. That's how it was."

"Haa?"

"No, lately, the people from the village have been, well," Tsurumi said, his voice low. "It's been like there's a distance. No, not all of them, I'm not talking about the parishioners. But whenever I go out shopping or some such, there are people who seem to shrink away. Like they're trying to put a distance between us. Even if I ask for a delivery, they're reluctant about it."

Come to think of it, Mitsuo thought, his thoughts turning. When it came to having offerings or such brought to the temple, there were some bringing them by who were hesitant, if he thought about it.

"In other words, that's what it's been."

"I mean, it's a spreading disease. Nobody's saying it but they suspect it. Or maybe they just think that it's a bad omen, but we go right into the places where the dead are. We're in direct contact with the dead all the time. So, they probably don't want to mingle with us much."

Mitsuo let out a heavy breath. That's what it was then, he thought. When they put it like that, that was indeed how it'd been. When did people start avoiding the temple?

"It's not for nothing that Sumi-kun came to hate it, huh...." Mitsuo shook his head. "But, how are we supposed to tell this to the Junior Monk and the Madame?"

Tsurumi and Ikebe gave vague noises of agreement. Mitsuo rose feeling heavy. At any rate, they had to report it somehow or another to Seishin and Miwako.

Feeling nervous, he headed towards the kitchen. Miwako and Katsue were cleaning up the kitchen. Now that he thought about it, lately fewer parishioners were coming to the temple to help too. With no end to it in sight, it might have just been that they didn't have the time for it but there might have also been another reason to avoid the temple.

Mitsuo called out to Miwako, and awkwardly conveyed Sumi's resignation. Miwako had a hurt expression.

"That's.... Sadly, it seems that there are also those in the village who believe that it might be an epidemic. I don't want to think so, but."

Miwako's expression stiffened. "Mitsuo-san, that's."

"I think that it's just a simple rumor though. Well, that's the reason for Sumi-kun too but...."

"Mitsuo-san." Miwako took Mitsuo's hand, moving to sit at the entryway to the side room off of the kitchen. "....I wonder if Seishin is all right?"

"Madame?"

"It may be a plague, mightn't it? It surely is. No matter how I think on it, there have been too many to die. And furthermore Seishin has been meeting with Toshio-kun in secret and doing something, it seems. I wonder if it isn't because of that?"

"Yes.... That might be the case."

"I wonder if he's all right. Even without that, I don't know when that child is sleeping. He's running about from morning to night."

That's right, Mitsuo answered. If it was a plague, the village was in trouble. It was no time to be worried about Seishin individually but he understood Miwako's saying such a thing. To Miwako he was her one and only child. And furthermore a child that had come after some time. Until Seishin had been born, Miwako had been suffering under the pressure of the parishioners pushing her to hurry and have a successor. She had at last managed to have one son, it was a happy occasion, and her reputation had risen amongst the villagers but if she were to lose that son, just thinking about it would only naturally make her uneasy.

Mitsuo too felt a slightly different but similar uneasiness. He was the only successor. Seishin could not yet fulfill all of the duties of the head monk. In practical matters, Seishin was the head monk but Seishin had yet no wife nor child. Far from it, they hadn't had the ceremony for his transfer to the position, so he had yet to truly inherit the temple. The temple was central to the village. To the parish, the temple's continuation was a priority matter over all else. If something were to happen to Seishin. With Shinmei in his condition, if they weren't careful, then they would have no choice but to have a head installed through the kind offices of the head temple, one who they had never seen nor known.

"It isn't like that." The one to speak was Katsue, who had been silently cleaning the sink. "Madame, you needn't worry. A plague or some sort isn't what's happening."

"Mom, just saying that is...."

"I'm not jut saying it," Katsue said, ceasing to scrub as she turned to face Mitsu and Miwako. "Don't you understand? I understand full well. This isn't a plague at all. So the Junior Monk is fine. No worries."

"But... Katsue-san."

Katsue nodded as if giving her stamp of approval. "This is something the temple will get through. It won't be able to lay a hand on the Junior Monk or the Head Monk. Moreover, Mitsuo, you should be the one on guard."

"On guard?"

"Don't worry about your body. I'm telling you to have proper faith and live rightly."

"Mom."

Mitsuo intended to argue her explanation but Katsue shook her head. "If I say what I'm thinking, you'll just think me a fool. But I know it. I do, you know."

Leaving it at that, she silently cleaned up. Miwako looked uneasily to Mitsuo but Mitsuo only tilted his head.