Chapter 7.4

In the darkness the child, completely worn and thus docile, awaited Matsuo. The girl was about three years old and Masao did not know who she was or where she was from. The night before last he had tried asking Tatsumi but Tatsumi said "there's no need to know."

The same Tatsumi opened the lattice door within the door. A sturdy, brand new door and the lattice door before the room left no doubt it was a prison. It was in an old, worn down house, in an enclosure in a building that would be thought of as an abandoned house, probably an originally a storage room. Now with only three tatami mats spread out were growing fluffy, it was a deserted room with nothing at all inside. No windows, nor a single futon. Only a faint, single, bare light bulb hung down. In one of the walls that surrounded it was a hole broken in through the plaster. That hole that an adullt couldn't get to without crouching down continued along to a toilet nearby. There was only a single cloth on her serving as a blindfold. That more eloquently than anything told of the nature of this cage. 

In the room a rotting smell rose up. On the tatami were various sized blotted stains. Curled up atop that tatami, the child huddled like a beast in the corner. When Masao entered the room at Tatsumi's urging, she raised her face but unlike the night before last she did not sob. She was like this last night too. Rather than saying she was obedient, she was clearly weakened. Masao knelt down beside the child. Uncosciously his tongue pressed to the back of his front teeth.

There were four front teeth between the canines of the lower jaw--two on the center and two beside them, and on the backside of those two at the side, new teeth jutted out sharply. Sharper than canine teeth, these would stab into the upper jaw if one clenched their front teeth together. At that moment a type of bitterness would spread in one's mouth. At the moment they stabbed in it hurt but once one tasted that bitterness, soon the mouth would go numb and unable to feel pain. At the same time one would feel a gentle, drunken sensation. 

Grinding his front teeth several times, Masao pulled the child's arm. He pulled the unresisting body into his lap. The young girl's body was profoundly heavy and hot as well. Obediently being carried along under arm, the child's small mouth opened, repeating shallow, quick breaths. She might have really had a fever. After all even before the first time Masao attacked her she had seemed somehow completely exhausted. Maybe being in the cage for so long had taken its toll on her body. Actually, since the night before last to today, there were no traces of anything the child in the cage might have eaten.

He took her chin and had her look up. With her face being lifted, the child looked up with her throat exposed. On the nape of her small neck were two wounds. Last night Masao had inflicted those wounds. Last night it had looked to be a vivid and fresh wound as if stabbed with a nail but now it looked like the remains of an insect bite. It was faintly swelling and red with pus. A small and withering scab was at the center.

Masao's hand crept as if to seize the child's throat, stroking at that wound with his thumb. Beneath his palm her temperature was high, her breaths and pulse distinct. If he put power into his hand, he could cut off both of them. Thus at that moment, Masao quite literally had the child's life and death in his hands in more ways than one. 

Standing outside of the lattice door, Tatsumi did not hurry Masao. Masao ran his finger over that wound several times, and then he drew near to her face. The young girl's vacant eyes were left open, gazing in different directions. Far from putting up any resistance, she didn't even curl her body. Calming down, he did just as he was told, seeking her pulse with the tip of his tongue. Seeking out where the flesh seemed to have small convulsions, he then bit down forcefully at that spot. 

The moment his front teeth clamped down, there was a strange reaction. Along with the faint bitterness that spread inside of his mouth, the smell of blood spread out. His own blood had once had such a raw taste and yet somehow his victim's blood tasted sweet. It wasn't sweet in a saccharine sense but more of a fatty sense. It was smoother than expected, far easier to swallow than expected. That said it couldn't be said to be like water either. 

The blood flowing from the wound was rather forceful but not as if it were flowing from a faucet. Since it wasn't as easy to drink as water, that might have been for the best. 

The meal took quite a bit of time all things considered. During it once the child faintly curled her body, and now she let out a voice as if crying. When her weak voice began to sob, it echoed like an omen. After that she no longer raised her voice, nor did she move her body. As his hunger was satisfied, he'd realized the child's pulse had stopped. He couldn't feel the pulse with her tongue anymore. Masao lifted his face.

"Tatsumi-san."

Tatsumi may have sensed something in the echo of Masao's voice as he opened the lattice door to come inside. Peering into Masao's arms, he put his hand to the child's neck. And then he nodded at Masao.

"It's because she's small. Even before you had attacked her, she was on her way."

I thought so, Masao said thoughtlessly pushing away the body on his lap. It crumpled onto the tatami, the blood that hadn't been stopped yet splling onto the facing of the mats and adding another stain. 

For a time, Masao fixated on that dead body. Strangely so, it did not feel as if it were something he killed. After he fed it stopped moving. That was the only thought that welled up. Maybe it was because this child's body didn't seem to be injured in the slightest, maybe it was because it was still warm. It was possible that the act of vampirism was very different from the image of injuring somebody. 

"...Are you scared?"

At Tatsumi's question, Masao shook his head. "No, I feel less than I thought I would."

I see, Tatsumi laughed. "You might just be cut out for this. Congratulations, with this you are truly one of us!" 

Masao nodded and turned his eyes to the corpse. "What do we do with this?"

"For a while we'll leave it be and see how it goes. Since she may rise up after all, yes?"

"You think she will?"

Who knows, Tatsumi said picking up the body easily and motioning for Masao to step outside of the cage. "The odds are higher it won't work out. Her father and mother didn't rise."

"Both parents--they're dead? Were they from the village? Who were they from where?"

"You don't need to know," Tatsumi said, closing the lattice door. It had a key, but he didn't lock it. "There's no point worrying about the birthplace of livestock, is there?"

As they left the room there was a run down hallway. Tatsumi left the room still carrying the corpse and hanged the key on a nail beside the door. There was an aluminium framed sliding door on one side of the hallway but outside appeared a false darkness. On the other side of the window there was a storm shutter in place but it was boarded up even from the inside. 

Masao didn't know where this building was, what kind of house it was. Masao was not yet permitted to leave that building. Halfway down the hallway a door was installed and he was told not to go beyond that, plus it was locked. All of the windows were boarded up from the inside, with no cracks to peek outside through. Masao wasn't exactly boarded up in a cage but there was no doubt that he was a captive in some sense. 

Tatsumi walked down the hall still carrying the corpse. Partway he turned to face two doors. One was to the room Masao had woken up in, the other one was the room he was told to use last night. That room was twice as large as the one he had woken up in, and it also had some repairs and basic furnishings. Beyond that door the hallway was bound off.

Tatsumi used the key to open the door that bounded the hallway. He motioned for Masao to go.

"...Can I?"

"I said you're one of us now, didn't I?"

Masao was timid. He took a step beyond the door. The door closed behind Masao as Tatsumi locked it up and hung that key on a nail on the wall. --So then, Masao thought. On the other side of that door had been an institution for newcomers. 

As Masao turned to look back, Tatsumi opened another sliding screen. Within the living room and the apparent small room was a closed glass door, and beyond that was a kitchen. That said, that kitchen didn't really appear to have been used. The dust was thick here and there, with buckets capturing drainage and the stovetops were specked with stucco. There were three corpses laid out atop the floorboards. Tatsumi added the corpse of the child he was carrying to that collection.

"The bodies of the lambs consumed from the village are stored here for a little while."

"Lambs?"

Tatsumi smiled faintly. "The livestock, I mean," he said, peering at the three corpses. "We keep them here to keep an eye on them for a while but---No good, mm? The two furthest in have started to rot."

There was a middle aged man and a young woman's corpse. Masao didn't remember seeing either of them.

"What do we do?"

"Tell somebody and have them carried off. We bury them in the mountain. Just abandoning them in the area would be unsightly after all." Saying that, Tatsumi turned to face Masao. "Those like you who have the prospect of rising up are carried to the room where you had woken up. It's seldom, but bodies can take a turn partway through, but generally it means they will rise. After that, they're sojourned to the back room back until they've consumed their first lamb." 

"Why do you lock them in, though?"

"There are some in there who aren't happy about rising up," Tatsumi said while cutting through the kitchen back to the hallway. "That's why we have them kept in back until they're prepared. While for you it's only been three nights since you'd rise, fortunately you were quick to understand. Maybe it's a little quick but I think it's fine to let you out."

Rounding the corner, they came to another door. It seemed like every hallway lead to another door. 

"Why are there so many doors?"

"For shade," Tatsumi laughed. "It was originally an abandoned house. The building was in pretty bad shape, we couldn't be sure when something might give in and let the light in, yes?"

Masao felt something off. The uncomfortable feeling in his own skin had faded bit by bit. That said, he wondered if there was a need to fear the light that much. 

They continued on to the entryway. A wall as built up before the doorframe, another solid door closed here as well. Tatsumi opened it. Beyond the clay floor was a closed glass door patched over by planks of wood. The door was locked with a key from the outside, and this key too hanged from a nearby nail. Tatsumi took down the key and opened the glass door. 

"For now, you can use the shoes that are there. They might not be the right size but if you say something to a caretaker, they'll do something about it for you."

"There's somebody in charge of taking care of people?"

"There is! Those useless ones without the courage to go down into the village to attack people."

Tatsumi's voice was curt. The word 'useless' was one cloaked in disdain and Masao felt a tension in his back. Until now Masao had been special, a no good child. But being reborn he'd gained a second life. He was determined not to become 'useless.' 

"It can't be helped, so they subsist on the sheep snatched away here for them. In exchange for that we have them look after other people."

The cold night air spread out past the glass door. It was the dark of night. The building he'd just left was surrounded by rice fields and other buildings lined up. To the left and right of the gently sloping hill were houses and rice fields, all wrapped within the dark mountains, the heavens and sky above the lid. The reason this appeared dyed in blue hues was because of the change in Masao's vision.

"Where... is this?" 

Masao did not remember ever seeing this scene. He knew that it was a very small settlement in the mountains.

"Where do you think it is?"

Masao surveyed the scene. In the distance on the causeways betwen the ricefields in the pitch darkness he could see wandering human shapes.

"I don't know. Is it near the village?"

"Very near, yes."

Masao tilted his head then realized it. "---Yamairi!"

Tatsumi laughed. "Yes. The correct answer!"

In the early half of summer, some old people died. This was a community in the mountains whose inhabitants had died. The building Masao had come out of was at the very bottom of that community. One single house was faintly set off from the surrounding buildings but very nearby the ricefields were being leveled and concrete blocks were stacked. It seemed like they were trying to construct a building.

"A vampire village..." Masao murmured when Tatsumi gently corrected him.

"Shiki, it seems we're called. Not that what they're called changes the reality of the situation by any means, but those above hate being called vampires."

"Those above?"

Tatsumi nodded. "The people of the Kirishiki family."

I see, Masao nodded. There were the people doing labor and odd jobs at the lowest level of social strata and at the highest point were the Kirishiki family in this hierarchy, he understood. 

Tatsumi went ahead of him, climbing up a small hill. In the pitch darkness of the night, it was strange for human figures to be coming and going and being about. Without a single speck of light, black shadows wriggled within the blue darkness. They went along the roads swiftly as if they had business to attend to, and others came and left the buildings. 

"Unfortunately, we don't have the surplus to give each person their own room. Fundamentally each house is split between four who live together. We've obtained other houses and are taking means to make them livable but it's pretty hard to keep up, you see."

"Heeh..."

"If you're looking for someplace to stay, they'll surely tell you which buildings have extra space. It isn't as if there's no hiding houses beyond here but since you're quite new to us, I don't recommend it. It's safer to stay here for a while."

Masao nodded, and then ased: "What now?"

"What'll you do? You'll have to manage getting food for yourself, won't you? Are you asking what you should do beyond that?" Tatsumi smiled. "You don't have any particular responsibilities. All that we ask of you is basically to somehow manage to secure your own food rations. Well, as far as managing Yamairi, Yoshie-san has command of that. You'd ask her for anything more on that."

"Yoshie?"

Tatsumi pointed to a black, towering house in the darkness.

"That house. ---Originally, they were called Murasko too, weren't they, come to think of it. She's in that house with the cellar. That's used as the community assembly hall you see, it's where Yoshie-san and the people helping Yoshie-san live. When you wake up at night, it'd be good to show your face there. If you do that, if there's anything to be done, they'll assign it to you."

Masao nodded. 

"Otherwise how you spend your time is up to you. Do as you like. But at first you'll be working your hardest at hunting so I don't think you'll find you have much spare time. For a little while, when you go out hunting you're to move together with somebody. You still can't move on your own yet."

"I can decide who I attack?"

"It's not completely open, no. There's a few things to think about, as we do have long term goals and all. ---Was there somebody you wanted to attack?"

Masao nodded. "Someone I know."

"How old?"

"How old was he? A sophomore in highschool."

"If they're in high school we don't mind. We'll have to take certain measures to clean up after the humans who commute to school or work. What are they called---a friend of yours? Mutou Tamotsu, he was called?"

"Not him. Yuuki."

"So I see. ---But, that won't do."

"Why?"

"He's already being attacked. Another one of us is attacking him. Cutting in is no good. It gets harder for them to follow instructions, you see."

Masao felt irritation well up. "You said I could do what I wanted!"

"I also said there were conditions, didn't I? He's no good. In the first place, before you could even attack him, he'd already be dead. This is the third day or so? At that point he should be about there."

"Then let me give the finishing blow!"

"No go. Him, you see? He's a little unique. He needs to be handled delicately. I'm directly in charge of the attack on him. It's no good. You'll have to give up on him."

But that's, Masao said glaring at Tatsumi. Tatsumi looked coldly at Masao. "I told you, didn't I? You will not defy me."

Masao didn't reply, turning away. 

Even though he'd been reborn as expected everything couldn't go Masao's way. That was irritating. Masao was told that he was "special" to this point but this was only in a negative sense, not a single person was treating him as if he were "special." And Natsuno was seen as "special." The boy who transferred in from the city. The way he acted, the way he thought was different from the people of the village. His parents were like his friends, he was an only child. His grades were good, and he wasn't of a cooperative personality like Munetaka but even so he was popular. Even though he freely did whatever he felt like doing, the people around him treated him preciously, he was beloved. Without any worries, without meeting with any misfortune, living while looking down on thers--Yes, Masao knew how Natsuno was. 

When looking at Natsuno, Masao couldn't not feel that he wasn't even a little bit "special." Despite the fact that Natsuno was younger, Masao had always felt that he was looking down on him for no reason. 

---Even in all of this, he's so special?!

Masao was irritated. With a glance at the irritated Masao, Tatsumi went straight towards the house with the cellar. There were many figures about. Those people about bowed to him or fled in fear. He could tell that Tatsumi was a source of fear and awe here.

Tatsumi opened the glass door to the house. Looking from the outside, it didn't look like anything beyond a simple doorway to a dilapidated house but looking from the inside it was quite well lined. Beyond the clay floor, there was a door installed beyond the entryway frame, just like in the building Masao had come from. The only difference was that when the door opened, there was a light shining. 

Masao blinked when the light pierced his eyes. Tatsumi gave a low laugh. "We shouldn't really need the light though, huh? But strangely everybody wants the light."

When he could see again, the color had returned. Dark floorboards, white walls. And sliding screens. The walls were neatly plastered. They must have been painted quite recently, they were white enough it hurt the eyes. Was it because of that, or maybe it was simply because of the light? The hallway that stretched on widely was adrift with something somehow comforting. 

"It's an abandoned house but there's electricity."

"We have someone handy. They secretly wired it in from the aerial wiring."

They came out another door. They drew nearer to the sounds of people in conversation. Opening the sliding screens on the sides of the corridor, there were shadows of people in the rooms on both sides. They were comfortably at home around the low tables but it was strange. In the middle of what should have been a living room, a middle aged woman sat facing a desk. Noticing Masao and Tatsumi she rose up. With a rising smile she came out into the hallway. 

"You've already come out? You were fast, weren't you!"

Tatsumi turned to face Masao.

"This is Yoshie-san. --I'll leave him to you, Yoshie-san. Also, about the lower house. The two inside are no good. It'd be good to take them out and bury them."

Yoshie nodded. "I'll have people do it. The leftovers from the lamb?"

"I left them beside them. Though I don't think she'll be any good either."

I see, Yoshie nodded. She turned her eyes to Masao and grinned sweetly. "I have to have a little talk with Tatsumi-san. You've already finished eating today, haven't you? Then, go and have a talk with somebody for a bit." Yoshie motioned to the tatami room. "You can go outside too but don't go too far from the buildings. I'll call for you when we're finished talking."

Masao nodded. The living room screen was closed. With nothing else to do he peeked into the tatami room, but getting the feeling that it'd be hard for someone new to enter on in, he went outside. Isolated by the two door frames, once outside of the house he couldn't see the light inside at all. The house he looked up at just looked like a dilapidated house. It was rather big for being dilapidated, but that was all. 

At the corner of the property three girls were standing around talking. There was a single child playing at their side. There were also a gathering of people before the shed. It was entirely too normal of a scene. As the buildings were dilapidated houses, only the lack of lamplights took away from the ordinariness of the scene. It was all to banal, and yet fundamentally strange. And so for that it was all the more strange feeling. 

Masao timidly neared the shed. He noted a single man sitting down at the edge of the dried pond before the shed. The man noticed Masao and lifted his face that had been hung dejectedly. There were no lights but Masao would see what the other looked like.

"---Tohru-chan!" 

Tohru rose up dumbfounded, and then turned to face away. 

Masao hurried with a jog to Tohru's side. He thought he'd never see him again. He'd thought their literal eternal parting had come. But that wasn't the case.

"I see, Tohru-chan rose up too!" Masao smiled. But as for Tohru, without returning that smile, in fact looking as if in mourning, turned his face away. 

"...What's with you?" 

Masao asked, but Tohru only sighed. Burying his face in both hands, he spit out his words in a low voice. 

"Why did even you have to rise up?!"

"...Looks like my rising up is bad to you, huh?" 

Tohru looked up at Masao, his face distorting. "You, do you have any idea what's happened to you?"

"I know. I didn't die. But Tohru-chan's not happy for me, huh? It's like you think it'd be better if I'd died."

"That's not it."

That's not what I mean, Tohru rose as if to repeat it again. Keeping his face down and hidden from Masao, he dashed off from the property.

"What the hell... was that?" Masao watched Tohru head off angrily. "So, what, you don't like that I'm not dead?!"

Tohru didn't turn back. Watching him leave with a feeling of betrayal, there was suddenly a voice from nearby. 

"You shouldn't worry about that."

When he turned around a young girl around his age was standing there. He remembered seeing that face before.

"You.... Shimizu, was it?"

"Yup. You, you're the Murasako rice shop's son, right?"

Masao nodded sulkily. Megumi pushed up her hair. 

"Don't worry about that. That person's a little on edge right now. He regrets being reborn."

"Why?"

"Probably because of the prey he was assigned to. He was ordered to attack someone he knows, so now he's blaming himself."

"...Someone he knows?"

"Yup. Tatsumi-san's a bully. Since Tohru-chan's always been indecisive about attacking prey."

Now that Megumi mentioned it, he remembered that she used to have connections to the Mutou household in the past.

"Tatsumi-san has a tendency to bully those kinds of people. People who say they don't want to kill people? He'll go out of his way to make them attack people they know. Attacking someone you know is, even without everything else a little complicated, it's different from the usual hunting. It feels like you're killing someone."

"It can't be helped! We can't stay alive anymore if we don't attack."

That's right, Megumi shrugged her shoulders. "It can't be helped but it makes you feel guilty. Tohru-chan hated killing people to start with, so he went out of his way to make him attack someone he knows to make him murder. In the village, a bad, inconvenient person to have around popped up, so it was set up to make both sides not want to do it. He's the kind of person who loves that kind of irony, Tatsumi-san is."

"An inconvenient person to have around?"

"---A hunter."

Masao tilted his head. 

"It means somebody's realized we exist. If he'd have just cowered in his home, he ended up thinking he had to do something about the Shiki. So they're called a hunter. We can't have hunters. They can't be forgiven. They have to be regulated."

Masao furrowed his brows. "He... It can't be, Natsuno, was it?"

Megumi furrowed her brows. "Right. You know? ... You know don't you. You were coming and going from Tohru-chan's place all the time."

Masao nodded. So that's what it was, he thought with mixed feelings. Tohru was the one attacking Natsuno--for Tohru, that was a terrible cruel thing, he knew. But Natsuno himself probably woudln't care. Surely whether it was Tohru or anybody else for that matter he would calmly hunt them down, without a doubt. That was the kind of guy he was, Masao thought. 

"They do assign prey to people...."

"They do. And if you pick someone there're times they tell you no too."

"Even though they said you could do what you wanted, right?"

Megumi's face scrunched. "That's right, really that's not true at all is it!" Looking back at Masao, Megumi let out a self-derisive smile. "Us? We're just pet dogs kept on hand."

"Tatsumi-san said that we were one of them."

"Lip service. This's a habitat for keeping their dogs. If you want to own yourself, you'll have to go to Kanemasa or it's no good."

"Kanemasa...?"

"That's where the masters dwell."

That right, Masao said grinding his front teeth. His sharp teeth pierced his upper jaw and something bitter spread out. At the same time he felt a drunken, paralyzing sensation.

"You'd be better off stopping that." 

Told as much, Masao looked back to Megumi.

"You're stabbing inside of your mouth aren't you? If you get in the habit of doing that, you won't be able to stop. There are even people who grind on the inside of their mouth. It's like getting drunk, you lose your sense of judgement and end up useless. Once that happens the one of 'us' you'll be is the dolls."

"The dolls?"

"People who have to work to eat. That's what Yoshie-san calls them. They're like slaves."

That right, Masao said, mouth slanting. The high he'd felt from rising up, from being one of them had no withered away without so much as a shadow remaining. 

"There's nothing at all good about having Risen up. We're treated like dogs, crammed into small little houses. Every night, we cross the mountain roads over a long ways to the village to go hunting. Even the hunting's ordered every step of the way."

Megumi let out a low sigh. 

---This wasn't how it was supposed to be.

Megumi became the friend of the people from the mansion. The one to turn her into one of them was Kirishiki Chizuru. And yet Megumi's daily life was not one bit like those living in the mansion. Hiding in the mountains, pushing her way through the underbrush at nightfall, loitering around, eating a despicable meal. Away from human eyes, returning to the mountains, sleeping like the dead inside of a cramped building. 

(I want out of the village...)

But there was no way out anywhere. Megumi and the others were strictly monitored, there was no freedom to their movements. So, at least. 

Megumi had wanted to make Natsuno into one of them. If at least Natsuno were here, how nice would it be? And yet even who she attacked had to be on Yoshie's instruction. When hunting, Megumi would frequently visit Natsuno's house but if Tatsumi and Yoshie knew about even that much she would probably be strictly scolded. 

"Damn it... What the hell, just spitting out things that sound good! That bastard!"

"Better not talk like that. You're not to go against the people above. Especially not Tatsumi."

"That punk?" Hmph, Masao huffed through his nose. 

"He'll dry you out. You'll be closed up in a room and not given any food."

"Is that all?"

"It's better not to think too light of it. I mean, one night, two nights, you'll be fine without eating. But unlike people, our bodies now don't get limp and lifeless from hunger. Starvation once you've risen up isn't like when you were human. It's incredibly painful."

That can't be, Masao said looking at Megumi. Megumi gave a curt nod. Yup--It's painful, incredibly so.

"That's not all. He's pulled people outside while they're sleeping too. If sunlight touches our bodies, it'll burn and blister. Tatsumi's fine. He can be up in the daytime and walk around outside. The way you get burnt up, even if it does heal fast, it's like having your body set on fire. There's not a single person who's gone against Tatsumi after having that done to them."

"But that's... Then, isn't it like we really are their pet dogs?!"

"That's why I said it." 

Masao's face scrunched. His open mouth even now looked ready to spit out further complaints but Megumi stopped him. Shecould see Tatsumi and Yoshie coming to them across the lot.

"----Good evening."

As Megumi called out, Tatsumi nodded. His eyes went straight to her as he approached. 

"Right now, you're free it looks like?"

"I am free."

"Then I have a favor, if I could?"

"To attack somebody? Who is it?"

Tatsumi nodded. "There's a girl who's a friend of yours, a Tanaka Kaori, yes?"

Megumi's brows furrowed. "You don't mean... Attack Kaori?"

"Her father. If it's you, you'd know who her father is, rght?"

"I do know, but. ... Kaori, did she do something?"

Tatsumi smiled. "She's colluding with Yuuki-kun from the workshop."

Megumi's eyes gaped. "Yuuki..."

"Hand in hand, playing hunter together. That'll need to be punished."

Megumi clenched her fist. A darkness fell over her heart. She was threatened, her life as a captive was miserable. Even though that wasn't supposed to be the case. If she could take it all back, she'd want to return to being human right now. That'd be so many levels better. And then Kaori who was still human was snatching away what was Megumi's. She stayed in a warm house at night, taken care of by her parents, getting closer with Natsuno----.

"I'll do it," Megumi murmured.

Even though Megumi could never meet with or exchange words with Natsuno again.