Shiki Volume 1 Chapter 4 part4

4

 The day that the notice came to Seishin that the bodies from Yamairi were being returned was August 8th, the day after Shuuji's funeral service. He was contacted by the manager for Yamairi which had declined in population, Yasumori Tokujiro, and the funeral schedule was put together. 

"There's no particular reason to rush. If it works for you, we could do the all night vigil tomorrow." 

Though Tokujiro was speaking from the other end of the telephone, Seishin tilted his head.

"Is that really all right?"

"It's just terrible. If only Hidemassan's eldest son-in-law didn't go and made arrangements on his own, but he didn't understand the way things are and went and had them cremated."

Seishin blinked, still holding the receiver. "Well---indeed, Hidemassan was---"

"You might say there's no other way to return those remains, that might be true enough, but. The truth is, the Boss Ohkawa is at the point he wants Gigorou-san cremated, himself. With that said, it's just terrible, having Mieko-san burned too. That son-in-law didn't know that we bury here, he should have followed up with what to do with the remains himself too. Honestly, it's just insensitive."

Seishin was silent. Rather than the son-in-law who had made arrangements being insensitive, it was likely more that Sotoba itself was unique in still burying its corpses. It probably couldn't be helped that people not of the village wouldn't put much weight on the custom and would take it lightly.

But, those in the village had a strong resistance towards cremation. Indeed, the dead were as dead as a corpse as they were ashes but those of the village held the view that cremating inflicted injury on the deceased body. 

 
"Since that's how things are, there's no use hurrying the funeral. Well, with Shuuji-kun's funeral having been just the other day, since there is some leeway, I thought tomorrow might be better."

"That it may."

"In the mean time, I'll go with the police to pick up the bones. I'll manage plans for the funeral once I get back, so tonight just take her easy." 

I will await your contact, said Seishin hanging up the phone. He thought a little, setting his eyes on the blackboard. There were several things entered onto the itinerary but, all of it were things Ikebe or Tsurumi could do. Seeing that much, Seishin stood up. He left a memo on the blackboard and exited the office.

Traveling the path he had become so used to traveling he descended the mountain to the Ozaki clinic back yard. Looking at his wristwatch, they were in non-examination hours. If there were no house calls, Toshio might have been in the waiting room or perhaps in his own room in the main house wing. Walking along the yard to peek into the waiting room, he could see him facing his desk and gazing over some paperwork from behind. He turned when Seishin lightly tapped on the sliding door's glass window. As Toshio made an intentionally sour face and motioned inside, Seishin opened the glass door and came inside. The air conditionedair was pleasant. 

"You picked up the stank of a rotting corpse right away and came running, huh?"

"----Eh?"

Seishin stared at Toshio who said that to him as soon as he entered the room.

"You came because you heard the bodies are coming back, right? When it comes to things like that, monks are a class of vultures."

Seishin gave a wry smile. "Vultures or hyenas, either way. Did the results of the autopsy return?"

"SUD."

"What's that?"

"It's what they call Sudden Unexplained Death. Anyway the situation was abnormal so it looks like the police did a thorough one as well but, the end result is cause unknown. It doesn't look like the culture labs and stuff are in here, so for the real results we're probably talking about three weeks but, anyway that's the conclusion for now."

"But that's...."

Even if you 'but that's...' at me, Toshio breathed. 

"More than not knowing the cause for old man Murasako and Gigorou-san, it's closer to say the the corpse wasn't in a good condition for determining the cause. To begin with in natural deaths, even with a full autopsy the clear cause of death can only be determined under or about half the time. On top of that this heat catalyzed the decay. The internal organs mollified and fused together muddily. So even if you tell us to get a clear cause of death.... Moreover it's not like we have a medical coroner like the ones in the capital or a metropolis. Around here there's no forensic pathologist to do the autopsies, just regular general practitioners. We're at our limit here." Toshio sighed. "Old man Murasako, anyway, is thought not to have had any external injuries while he was alive. The decay and post-death damages---these were mostly by insects too but---they were intense, so what the cause of death was couldn't be specified. Gigorou-san himself had advanced decay but on the parts discovered at least none of the injuries looked like anything that happened while he was alive. After he died he was preyed on and damaged by wild dogs, it seems is their story. There're parts that were never uncovered but if you think about it while looking at the way things were on the scene, you'd conclude it was sudden unexpected death."

"And Mieko-san?"

"Old lady Mieko too, didn't have any external injuries. It's sound that she died a natural death. When she was opened up she had some problems here and there it looks like. She had coronary arteriosclerosis, myocarditis, postmortem lividity in the lungs and abdominal cavity, and what was especially striking was the necrosis of the liver tissue. Might have been acute liver failure, acute hepatitis brought on by liver inflammation, something along those lines."

"Oh..." Seishin nodded.

"For the two old guys, they were dead perhaps five or six days. ----On the contrary," Toshio sait sharply, thrusting his mug towards Seishin. "Old lady Mieko was dead about thirty hours."

"There was no mistake about it, after all?"

"No mistake about it. Ain't that the craziest story? The old man died, and the old woman goes on living with the old man's corpse for days. Without a single word to anyone. Her futon was lined up nicely with his in the room. The old woman herself crawled out of the futon and went out to the yard to die, is how it looks."

Seishin accepted that. In the village, there were rumors floating that Mieko had followed after her husband. In these circumstances, such an interpretation was hard to avoid. 

"The old lady herself died a natural death. And furthermore it's certain she was tending to the old man, so there's no way he could have had an accident or fallen. If there was an accident, no matter what the circumstances, she should have called someone, called an ambulance. It looks like Hidemassan and Gigorou-san both died in their futons. Old lady Mieko came here before she died saying both were in bad condition. She came for Gigorou-san's medicine, though. He had chronic hypertension. It didn't seem like anything specific was bad in any specific way by any means, so she was saying it was probably a could, but."

Seishin blinked. Probably a cold---those were words he'd heard someplace else, recently.

"At any rate, that's how it's being laid to rest. Maybe it's possible they just died like that, so it goes sometimes. At least, if there was no incident, there's no case. Nevermind that the wife was in advanced age, she was under the pressure of tending to two sick patients. She probably didn't have time to eat, sleep or breathe. So when her husband died, a tense thread was cut and down she went."

"In other words, while Mieko-san was tending to Hidemassan's health, she was the one under too much strain to inform anyone of Hidemassan's death, as she already in such poor health herself...?"

"So we've got to assume right? But, she seemed well enough to at least make a call. Her husband was dead besire her, she herself was in such poor condition that just getting to her phone would be difficult; in those kind of situations, don't people become even more desperate to get to a phone? But then, she wasn't desperate at all. The phone was at her bedside. If she even just got up from bed, her hand could have reached the telephone stand. She didn't even have to get up.  She could have raised her body and stretched out her hand and made it somehow. But, the old lady for whatever reason decided instead of just reaching her hand out, to go two meters along the floor towards the outside for a few breaths of fresh air."

And furthermore, four or five days had passed since her husband had died, Seishin added on in his mind. Just what had happened to Mieko?

"Gigorou-san tended to have high blood pressure and was always getting medicine to lower that from us. So he might've had a cerebral hemorrhage brought on by high blood pressure or some cardiac disease. But, the old man from the Murasako's himself didn't have any illnesses hanging on him that could be called life threatening. If I try to think of a cause, all I get is that summer cold the old lady mentioned."

"Is a summer cold something that kills someone?"

Toshio let out a heavy sigh. "Even if it was a cold, when you die you die. Even among the viruses that cause summer colds, there's some scary ones. Influenza causes inflammation of the lungs but a summer cold causes cardiac inflammation."

"Then----"

"The possibility, at least, is there."

"Even so, three people are three people."

Even if we are all mortal, he tried to say, though Seishin swallowed those words down.

Toshio waved his hand.

"It definitely seems strange but, there's a  chance it could've happened. If we're only saying something's possible, there's the possibility Martians swept down and scared them to death too." 

Seishin gave a wry smile, Toshio himself giving another simmering smile.

"The three in Yamairi were getting on in age. True Hidemassan didn't have any especially chronic disease, but he had weak bronchial tubes; every time he caught a cold in the winder it became bronchitis. Maybe it turned to bronchitis this time too. Mieko-san at least seemed healthy but she couldn't get around like her body was brand new. And in the case of acute liver failure, there are times when liver failure leads to hepatic encephalopathy. Once hepatic encephalopathy occurs, there's a change in levels of consciousness, and that sometime leads to unusual behaviors. That could even be the reason for why she lied down for bed happily next to her husband's corpse. ----More to the point, there's no other reasoning to explain it, might be the way to put it."

"Oh....."

"But for the police what's more pressing than the three dead human bodies are the leftover animal body parts here and there. In the Murasako kitchen and in Gigorou-san's kitchen, something was chowing down. Heartily, too. 'Cause it was the kitchen?"

"So, wild dogs after all?"

Toshio drew back.

"Who knows? Putting aside wild dogs playing at having a nice sit-down dinner in the kitchen, the police suspect rabies. They didn't seem to find any signs of the rabies virus in Mieko-san for the time being but they were really persistent in asking if she'd had a the vaccine and gamma globulin or not. At first they thought she might have slipped into a psychosis but they can only think the people at least died normally, so it seems they threw out that line of reasoning."

"Is that so...." Seishin murmured. He naturally let out a breath. Maybe he was relieved, or maybe it was because of something else, he himself didn't know.

He looked up when Toshio gave a grandiose, overdone sigh. 

"---By the way, you, how long are you going to stay standing there?"

Yasuyo was taking a break in the break room when Ritsuko and Yuki brought in the tea.

"Tea ti----me!" 

Yasuyo looked up from her mail order catalog at Yuki's merry voice, nodding her gratitude. 

"Thank you."

"You're very welcome," Yuki said puffing out her chest childishly, then turning to look to the door behind her again. "Did the doctor say what he's doing? Maybe I should call him in. Or, would it be better to bring it to his waiting room?"

"Ah, you don't need to worry about it. When I peeked in earlier, it looked like the Junior Monk had come."

Oh my, Ritsuko raised her voice. "When did he.... I should have brought tea for the Junior Monk as well shouldn't I?"

"I brought it to him earlier."

"How weird," said Yuki sitting in a chair. "The Junior Monk, he's always coming out of nowhere like that. Even though he doesn't need to sneak in through the back like that, it'd be fine to come in openly."

Yasuyo smiled wryly. "Those two, they've been like that for a long time. It's because the Madame can't put on a good front."

"Can't put on a good front?"

"You see, no matter what other pretexts there are the Junior Monk is the son of the temple, isn't he? In this village, the temple is important. The most important is the temple, next is Kanemasa, and number three are the Ozakis, it's been that way for a long time, now."

"Despite being the doctor, they aren't number one?"

There may be those who don't get sick, but nobody doesn't die. There are other places to go if you're sick but because every family is a member of that temple parish, that is the temple that has to be used. If a monk doesn't say a requiem for someone, they can't go on to that world. To the village it's only obvious, but the Madame can't accept it. She's the type of person who worries about things like that, you know."

"Hmm."

"Since he was little, she would absolutely not let the Junior Doctor go to play at the temple. No matter what, the temple is important, so if one of the family went to play and was given a snack or drink the like, she couldn't get by without a single word of gratitude. She can't bear to humble herself and bow to them. That's why though, since he was the son of the temple after all, she couldn't just say don't play with him."

Yuki's eyes were wide. "That's how things are?"

"More or less. ---On the other hand, if the boy himself were to come over himself, she has no choice but to be hospitable, and anytime something were to happen, she would have to lower herself and bow her head all the same. So, she really doesn't want him to come. But, because he is who he is, she can't say "don't come." That's how it came to the point where she didn't care if he came and went freely from the Junior Doctor's room. As long as he does that, even if she knows he's come she can pretend not to have noticed, and no matter what happens she can go on saying she never new."

"That sure is complicated..."  Even though Yuki spoke seriously, Yasuyo smiled..

"Madames. On the temple side, with the Junior Monk being the way he is, neither the monk nor the Madame put themselves above anyone else. But our Madame's the one who decided on her own to let it get to her."

Yasuyo smiled bitterly. She was haughty, would that be an okay way to put it? Toshio's mother, Ozaki Takae was that kind of character. It seemed her own family was from some prestigious hospital, so the customs that placed the temple and village chief above the doctors was an exceeding affront to her dignity. She was called "the Madame" of the hospital--in the village those called "the Madame" were until recently only the wives of the temple, Kanemasa and Ozaki---and she made no moves to eradicate that which distinguished her from the villagers.

The predecessor had that sort of front, so until Toshio came back and settled in as the medical director, Yasuyo and the other's hardships were unending. Overall, they were made to help with things from making the family meal arrangements to the cleaning, they were treated like able bodied servants. Even while resting at home on a day off, the phone could suddenly ring and they could be demanded to come over and help rearrange the furniture or the like.

"We were made to come in on our days off and help with tea parties and things like that," Yasuyo laughed. "It used to be that way. Really, what a hassle it was."

"What was with that? If it were me? If they tried to make me do that, I'd quit!"

"Yuki-chan can say that because you've only known the Junior Doctor's generation. In the Big Doctor's time, he just didn't seem to think anyone was fit if they weren't of the village. When the generations switched, really, the hospital's atmosphere did a complete turnaround. Just three years ago, there was nothing as obliging as this break room. At lunch, we ate at the back entrance by the water, there were no tea or furnishings, we had to buy and bring in our own tea lives."

"...I respect the doctor just a little bit more now."

Yasuyo's voice rose in a laugh as Yuki seemed strangely emphatic. 

She used the hospital staff as able bodied servants. But when it came to the hospital, she had no connection to it; that was Takae's style. No matter how busy it was, she would absolutely never help (not that she had any qualifications to do so), and in an emergency or if there was someone seeking a house call, she wouldn't even answer the phone. Called "The Madame of the Ozakis," and other than attendance at mandatory meetings, she would never mingle with those of the village, and other than going to tea ceremony or Noh plays, she stayed closed up in the house. 

That Takae's son, Toshio, possessed a temperament that did not match well with either Takae nor the predacessor at all but as expected, Kyouko, whom he'd chosen as his wife, was a woman who would be said to be like Takae, which may have been a sign the son would ultimately never escape the mother.

Ozaki Kyokou did not cohabitate. When he first returned to the village, she was in the house at that time, and the tendency to say she was going out for lessons or the like matched Takae's patterns but, eventually, though she had the house, she became fed up with it and opened an antique shop in the town of Mizobe, living in a rental apartment. If she felt like it she'd return but, those times were becoming further and further apart. Takae could not suppress her discontent with such a wife and when she returned, there were no end to their quarrels (and, because of that Kyouko's returns became further apart still) but Yasuyo found them to be a similar mother and daughter-in-law. 

(.....Yeah, the Junior Doctor has it hard.)

Chapter end