sinnesspiel | Shiki Novel Translations 3.13.2

As he ate breakfast, Ohkawa's eyes turned countless times towards the second floor--towards the ceiling. Kazuko watched her husband in suspense.

Her husband was in a foul mood. It was because Atsushi hadn't woken up and come down. Seeing her husband's gradually mounting anger, Kazuko spoke up in a deliberately bright tone.

"That Atsushi, I wonder what could be wrong? He said that he was sick before, I wonder if he still isn't feeling well? Mizue, go take a little peek in on him, would you?"

Mizue, in her school uniform, nodded. As she moved to stand, Ohkawa himself stood up.

"You keep eating your breakfast. I'm gonna get him up."

"It's fine. I'll go. I think Onii-chan probably really doesn't feel good."

I've got it, Ohkawa spit back as he left the tea room. Whatever the case, saying he didn't feel good or whatever was obviously just Atsushi's excuse. He'd always been lazy, coming up with whatever excuse it took to skip out on work. Lately, he'd seen misfortunes and illnesses were continuing throughout the village, no doubt that he thought that if he said he was feeling sick too that they'd be easier on him.

Ohkawa went up to the second floor and opened the sliding door to Atsushi's room. Far from being in his futon, Atsushi was on the laundry hanging balcony outside of his room sprawled out like the kanji for big (大).

"Atsushi, how long you gonna just laze around sleeping?!" Ohkawa screamed in outrage as he stormed into the room, but his son showed no signs of being flustered or of moving. Going through the wide opened window, he went out onto the laundry balcony.

(Sleeping without a damn care in the world!)

That's what Ohkawa thought when he saw his son's face. Seeing that he showed no signs of waking when he called out to him, he gave him a violent kick. He thought that'd send him flying awake, but Atsushi remained sprawled out even as kicked.

Weird, he thought immediately. Ohkawa leaned over his son's side. Instead of his night clothes, he was in a jersey, heavy with the morning dew that it absorbed. He lightly tapped his cheek and found it chilled.

"Oi, Atsushi," Ohkawa called out, shaking his son. After holding his hand out in front of his nose, grabbing him by the nape of his neck and shook up, he finally realized that his son was dead.

---At last, it's come.

Ohkawa thought promptly. Spreading through the nearby houses, "that" had wiled its way in to plunder into the Ohkawa's family home, at long last.

Ohkawa went downstairs. An uneasy looking Kazuko and his mother looked at Ohkawa.

"Kazuko, have a look at Atsushi for me. ......It looks like he's dead."

Kazuko let out a shriek. Mizue and Yutaka all but fought to see who could step out of the room first. Namie followed after the both of them, flustered.

Ohkawa was overwhelmed with a bitter feeling as he took up the phone. He was so irritated it was as if his insides were going to boil over. Things that weren't supposed to happen, that something that went against the rules could happen to him was unforgivable. It was cowardly and unfair, said the resentment burning in his throat, but he didn't know who to unleash it towards.

Through his upset he called the Ozaki clinic. There was an answer right away, but when he heard a woman's voice he didn't recognize, he knew it meant they were closed today.

"Actually, it seems like our little punk's died. Could I have the doctor come by?"

That's just, the woman's voice on the other end of the phone said, bewildered. "The truth is we've had a misfortune here, too. The Young Madame has died. Today is the vigil......"

Ohkawa clicked his tongue. Saying his thanks to the one who conveyed their condolences, he hung up. Should he call for the emergency hospital in Mizobe or should he call an ambulance? Come to think of it, there was talk of a clinic in Shimo-Sotoba, wasn't there?

Thinking about it, he suddenly became uneasy. The Young Madame of the Ozakis---which meant the same Kyouko who had a shop in Mizobe. If Ozaki Kyouko was dead, the funeral service was going to be large scale. When the predecessor had died it was a very fine funeral too. It was possible the temple would have their hands full with it.

After some hesitation, he tried calling the temple. A man's voice that sounded like Mitsuo answered but when he conveyed that his son had died, he seemed similarly at a loss.

"Boss, I'm sorry to say this, but......"

"About Ozaki's Young Madame dying?"

"That's right. After all, it is the Ozaki family, and the Junior Monk really must go, which means......"

"Aa, that's true enough."

"There are also other memorial services. If we can shift the day, then I think that we can somehow make things work out, but."

"Naw, it's fine. Can't be helped since it's the Ozakis. They're a Parish Family Representative there and all too."

That's what Ohkawa said as he hung up the phone but the heat broiling over his insides was choking up his breath. He formed and raised a fist to let out his anger on something, anything, but unfortunately there was nothing to take that for him.

He knew the connection between the temple and Ozaki. Even so, Ohkawa couldn't escape the feeling that he was being made light of. Unable to let out his resentment, he called the Mourning Crew Regional Manager for the Sotoba community, Murasako Munehide. Munehide listened to the circumstances and was at a loss for words.

"It is the Ozaki's, isn't it?"

"You said it. That said, I can't just leave my son out here all pitiful like this forever, you know? And it ain't like the Temple's the only ones who can do a mourning service."

"That's true enough. ..... Now that you say that, a funeral parlor's been built in Kami Sotoba. Their director came around before giving his greetings, I've got his business card. You want to try giving them a call?"

"Aa, there was some talk about that. I'll give it a try. Sorry to be puttin' virtue aside like this 'n all but we can't really wait for the Temple to have an opening, you know?"

That's right, Munehide said, telling him the phone number to the Sotoba Funeral Parlor. At the parlor they answered the phone immediately. When he conveyed the situation, the man on the other end responded in a somewhat shrill voice.

"Are you certain that he is dead? You have not yet called for an ambulance?"

"No need to call 'em, no doubt about it that he's dead. He ain't been seen by a doctor, we don't got a death certificate yet but."

"Is that so, I understand. We will be right over to see about tending to your most honorable son. Oh no, don't you worry. We will also tend to washing and preparing the body for the service. At that time we will also discuss the particulars. ---Ah, there is also no need to worry about having a death certificate written. We will send out the Ebuchi Clinic. When he has the time, we will have the doctor come out to write down a few lines as needed. We will take care of every step including delivering it to the Town Hall, so please do not worry at all."

"That right. That's helpful," Ohkawa said, throwing down the phone to hang it up. He could hear the women's crying voices on the second floor.

"I knew my son was no good," Ohkawa said, his mouth twisting. "......But now it's gonna be done no good to the end with him."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I still can't fully understand if Daddy Ohkawa really is a shitty dad or just a gruff dad; if he really views Atsushi as a deadweight burden he now has to take responsibility for, or if he sees him as a son who's disappointed him but still loves him deep down.

Looking forward to your Shiki speech styles posts! I hope 2016 turns out better for you!

~*Spell Check Atsushi, at your service*~

husbands -> husband's

"I wonder if he isn't still feeling well?"
Should it be "if he still isn't" instead of "isn't still?"

suppsoed -> supposed

"It was cowardly and unfair said the resentment"
Comma after 'unfair'

"when he heard a woman's voice he didn't recognized"
Recognized -> recognize

Shita -> Shimo (right?)

predacessor -> predecessor

"A man's voice that sounded like Mitsuo"
Mitsuo -> Mitsuo's

doa -> do a

Thanks and corrected! I left Mitsuo as Mitsuo instead of Mitsuo's since it's the same difference and the Japanese isn't possessive.

My personal take is that Ohkawa's a good man and a gruff dad, though I don't know if I could honestly say I think he loves his son. It might say more about me than it does about Ohkawa that I don't think a good person or parent is required to love their child. I find myself thinking love because he doesn't have Ozaki's detachment from it. I assume emotion then justification for him. He's like this with other people such as Yasuzou, snapping at him to pull it together, but then going ahead and making the arrangements and phone calls for him because Yasuzou is so hopeless. Is that love or propriety?

It's hard for me to picture Ohkawa as having the same detachment as Seishin has and just acting on duty. My take is that he feels it's his duty because of the underlying emotions more than having the emotions due to an underlying sense of duty (which is how I read Ozaki). But maybe he loves his duty as much as Seishin hates it? Maybe it's justification followed by emotion for him? Maybe he's Seishin's opposite, loving his duty with little or no concern for the people (which is more how I read Ozaki)? We know Seishin has sincere concern for at least some of the people even if he resents his duty.

Ultimately such a degree of detachment would be psychologically abnormal, which I won't rule out as a valid interpretation but the most natural assumption, to me at least, is that this is Ohkawa's manner of love.

Hmm, no, I don't suppose love is required for a person to be a good parent. It's hard to say what a child needs in general while being raised since there's not an overarching formula that'll please EVERY child, but I'd say that while growing up children need an environment that makes them feel special and encourages growth (as well as the bottom tier needs like food and water) which parents usually try to provide. The thing is it's probably hard to provide all that for a child if you don't feel love toward the child. It's love that would drive someone, as a parent, to go out of their way to fulfill the child's emotional needs.

Atsushi obviously doesn't get this, though. It's a chicken and egg situation: what came first, Atsushi's delinquency or Daddy Ohkawa's contempt?

I never thought to compare Ohkawa and Ozaki, but they really are similar. Probably the main difference in my opinion is that Ozaki is a little more "head" and Ohkawa is more "heart". If Ohkawa's speech to Sunako in the church is anything to go by, we see this evidenced: he says that her disruption of the village's order is immoral/not right/cruel/all of the above, and he genuinely thinks that she needs to die to pay for her crimes. His emotions single out HER to pay for all of it, because he needs to feel like someone's responsible (and he's not wrong--it's totally her fault).

On the other hand, Ozaki doesn't worry about who's to blame more than he just wants the danger to go away. We spend so much time analyzing him that it should be easy to get an idea of his motivation of killing the Shiki: they're killing the villagers he's tasked with protecting, etc.

Contrast those two reasons for going after the Shiki, and it is true that Ohkawa's more of a feelings guy. His behavior doesn't really suggest detachment.

In fact...if Ohkawa was really detached, wouldn't he have been more coolly disapproving of Atsushi? Instead, he actively tries to get him working, getting him to bed on time, and so on. And his treatment of Yasuzou doesn't really suggest detachment either because he yelled at him in a burst of emotion. In contrast, Ozaki would have been calm and focused when talking to him.

Welp, that got long.

Shiki Novel Translations 3.13.2

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