Chapter 8.7

"Good evening?" 

Tama poked her face into the entryway as the man called out. When she opened the door, a middle aged man's faced poked in.

"I wonder if Ikumi-san might be here?"

The moment she was asked that, Tamae drew back. Her mother had caused that commotion today. She knew because those in the area came by telling her as if doing her some great favor by warning her. This was bound to be a grievance related to that. 

Would you put a stop to her, your mother's a nut, get out of this village---Tamae had always feared that at some point, somebody would likely come and say that to her.

"Mother is out. ...What business do you have with her?"

"She's out? Would you know where she's gone?" 

Tamae didn't recognize the face of the man who was asking. It seemed like he was a villager but he was at least not likely to be somebody from the neighborhood.

"I don't know," Tamae murmured, looking at the man. "If you're making a complaint, save it for my Mother please. It's only a bother for me."

The man's eyes widened. "Complaint? No, no, I didn't really come to place any complaints. I just want to talk with Ikumi-san a bit." 

Tamae stared at the man after he spoke.

"...I wonder if I could wait inside?"

"That would be a problem. Please leave." Tamae's clenched fist shivered. The man seemed disappointed but she was far from caring about that. "Something is wrong with my Mother. She's not well. Please leave her alone."

"A daughter can't say things like that. If Ikumi-san heard that, you'd make her cry!"

"Leave me alone!" Tamae spat out. She took the door in her hand and slammed it firmly shut. And then pitiful tears began to flow. Ever since Tamae was little everything revolved around "that mother of hers." The people around her made fun of her, kept their distance, keeping Tamae isolated ever since she was a child without her having any say in the matter at all. The surrounding people's gossip, their warnings done as if for her sake, their eyes turned towards her with interest and disdain---even though none of it was Tamae's fault. It was her own mother. She knew that. A lone mother and lone daughter, it wasn't as if she could abandon her, nor did she want to abandon her. But she at least wanted to be given a break from it all and to live a quiet life. With everyone about making fun of it, her mother had grown furious. This fanned on the people around them who went even further with it. She wanted them to stop fussing over the two of them. She didn't wish for anything more than that. Because if the people around them could just let it be, Ikumi herself wouldn't take such extreme measures either.

"Say, Itou-san?" 

There was the sound of a knock on the door. Go away, Tamae shouted. He didn't want him to blame her mother, much less stir her up.

(Everyone, just forget about us.)

"Itou-san, isn't there some kind of misunderstanding? I didn't come to attack your mother or anything. C'mon."

"Please leave."

"Don't be like that. I camebecause I have business with your mother. Do you have any right as her daughter to drive me away? Anyway, if I have to shout like this, I can't help if it draws indecent attention. I'll listen to your complaints too, so please, couldn't you let me inside?"

Tamae couldn't bear it any longer and opened the door. She pushed at the man whose hand was raised to knock again on the door.

"I told you to leave!"

"Now, now. There's no need to be violent..."

"Please stop bothering us!"

Tamae was trying to drive him away, and the visitor there was struggling with her. That was the scene that Ikumi had returned in the middle of. 

With a bag in one hand Ikumi had returned to the side of the house when she's heard Tamae's irritated voice. It was the third time Tamae had screamed "Leave!" The man was trying to calm her down from that. 

She didn't know what was going on but while Tamae was trying to drive him away it was clear the man was resisting. Ikumi stuck her hand into the bag of incense and stepped out.

"Could you please not do strange things to people's daughters?"

She threw a puff of incense at the two who turned in surprise to face her. Tamae raised her hands and turned her face away but the man had a strange reaction. With a panicked voice he jumped back, as if he were set on fire, smacking at his body to brush it off. Ikumi understood.

"...You."

She threw the last of the incense towards him. The man let out a strange scream, twisting his body, waving his hands as if to brush it off. 

"What did you come to do? You disperse this instant. Impure beings like yourself won't come near this house!"

Ikumi took out her juzu beads. The man desperately writhed, rushing out onto the night roads. Watching the man run off brushing the remains off of his body, Ikumi was quite satisfied.

--Retribution. 

As expected Ikumi had hit a sore spot on them. That was why the lot of them had come to get revenge. No doubt about it.

"He must have come to see me."

"Yes... That's right."

As I thought, Ikumi murmured. 

"Listen, Tamae. Even if a customer comes for me, you're absolutely not to let them into the house, all right? Especially night time visitors." As she spoke, Tatsumi and Seishirou's faces floated to mind. The brazen ones from the bunch who wandered about in the daytime. "No, even during the day. If somebody comes by while I'm not in, you can't let them in. You shouldn't talk to them either. Close yourself up in the house and ignore them. Got it?"

Tamae tilted her head, bewildered, and then nodded.