Shiki Novel Translations 3.15.2

[sinnesspiel]

When Megumi finished her "feeding" and returned to Yamairi, she saw a man sitting dumbfounded on the Murasako land.

Megumi peered through the darkness and smiled. I see, so he's finally risen, she thought.

"...Oji-san." Megumi approached the man whose head was hung in dejection. The man raised his head in puzzlement. "You came, huh? I heard that you'd Risen, but."

"Megumi....-chan."

The man was Tanaka Yoshikazu. Tanaka had Risen. And had attacked his first caged victim. Attacked---killed.

"You just never came out, so I wondered what happened. Good for you."

"What are you thinking?" Tanaka's face scrunched. "There's nothing that can be called good about this! It's horrifying!"

"I mean, it's not like there's any choice. If we don't eat, then me and you both would starve to death? Or, what, Oji-san, are you telling me to die? Are you telling me to starve to death?"

"You, I'm the one you...."

"It's hard to bare through, right? Isn't that why you attacked, too?"

That's, Tanaka mumbled. Indeed, Tanaka no longer had the right to scold Megumi. At first he hesitated, he refused, but the hunger was painful. It's not like I'll kill them, it's not like I'll be violent, I'll just take a little blood and that's it, he had tried to tell himself, but in the end, a young girl and a child were both dead. After finishing up with the two who were considerably weakened, it was the first time Tanaka was let out. Tanaka still did not approve of this murder by any means but he was already one of them now.

"I wonder... who that was?"

Tanaka didn't recognize either the woman or the child.

Who knows? Megumi lightly dismissed. "I don't think they're villagers. They don't bring villagers there."

Tanaka looked up at Megumi who tilted her head, looking bored.

"There are houses where we store villagers we swept up but those are for the useless deadweights who can't go hunting. I guess maybe the thrill of attacking someone you know would be too much for someone who just rose up. Isn't that why? The ones they bring to that first house are people brought in from the city."

"The city..."

Megumi shrugged that off as well. "If you use the expressway you can go and come back in one night. I haven't been able to go out there yet, but a car goes out every night. There are times they don't come back too so seems like they've got a hideout there too."

Is that so, Tanaka mumbled without any energy. So something like this invaded the village, he thought, over and over again. Since last summer, Tanaka's own hand had taken in so many copies of the death certificates. This was the truth of it.

"So Oji-san, what'll you do tomorrow?"

Eh? Tanaka looked up.

"I'm asking you. Tomorrow you've gotta get a meal for yourself, right? Were you assigned someone?"

"No... But."

"You can't not attack. Say 'but' all you want but it's gotta be from the village. Mizobe's off limits. You can't just attack people from there. It's gotta be people from the village, or people from the city far away. So I'm asking which."

But that's, Tanaka started to say when Megumi leaned in.

"I think your family'd be good."

Tanaka stood up. Megumi wore a suspicious smile, stepping back two, three steps.

"After all, Oji-san rose up. That means the odds of your family rising up are high. You don't know that? Aren't you worried about them? Don't you miss them? Don't you wish Oba-san or Kaori and them were here too, like?"

"....You're."

"If you don't wanna, then... But, if you don't attack them, someone else will. I might end up going. After all, if it's Kaori, she's nice, I think she'd let me in. If I beg and cry a little."

"That's just...."

"You can't stop it. Soon enough, for sure, someone's going to attack. So attack them. It's your family, right?"

"......Did you attack yours?"

Megumi made an unpleasant face at that.

"Like I'd go and do something like that. I don't want them to come here. I just finally got my freedom," Megumi said, turning aside to leave. She let out a light laugh. "Tomorrow, when I get up, I'll invite you. Give it some thought until then."


"You're a cold one."

At the laughing voice, Megumi turned around. At the south of the settlement was a river that carved up the mountain. From here to the western mountain's road was a foot path. It was a woodcutter's path alongside the river. In the past it had been cut and cleared away, at last forgotten, and overgrown, hidden beneath weeds and underbrush, and then trodden down again by their allies into a thinner still path of the dead.

"Women are scaaaary." Masao grinned, receiving a cold look from Megumi. Masao kept his faint smile as he continued standing beside her. "You hate the Tanaka kid that much? Weren't they your childhood friends?"

"None of your business."

"Girls really do like empty guys like Natsuno who just put on airs, huh. That your jealousy over him would go this far, I tell you, it's downright scary."

"The only one jealous here's you."

Masao's smile retracted. "---What do you mean?"

Figure it out, Megumi huffed as she turned away. For some reason she ended up together with Masao a lot, but she didn't like him at all. He didn't bother her that much at first, but the more he was around, the more everything he did got on her nerves.

"Jealous? who are you even saying I'm jealous over? You've got to be kidding, I'm not the one with problems with him and her and everyone."

"Oh. But, I'm not really jealous of Kaori or anything."

"I wonder."

"I'm not." Megumi stopped walking. "It's not jealousy. It's anger. Isn't it natural? She got him killed. If he didn't get himself wrapped up in anything weird with Kaori, he wouldn't have had to be killed."

"Didn't Natsuno get her wrapped up in it?"

"That doesn't even make sense. He wouldn't normally even acknowledge her. She's just an all around country bumpkin."

"You sure?"

"Unlike you, he's a city man, it's obvious he wouldn't have anything to do with some unfashionable city girl. Kaori got him wrapped up in it. She wasn't looking to get revenge for what happened to me. She's that kind of girl. She just decides and acts like she's your best friend all on her own and keeps forcing that friendship on you. She just acts like such a timid little mouse! But she even went right on after Natsuno. Even though she knew how I felt about him, the traitor."

"So that means you are jealous."

"I'm mad that Kaori betrayed me. And because in the end he ended up dying. It's like she killed him herself! This is righteous anger. It's completely different than your jealousy."

"What does that even mean! I didn't even know that Tanaka girl. Why would I be jealous?"

"If you were jealous over a girl being taken, that'd be healthier than what it really is. I mean, being jealous over that, that's just human. But yours isn't even as decent as that."

An dangerous expression clouded Masao's face. "What was that?"

"You wanted to be like Yuuki-kun. You were jealous, weren't you?"

"You've gotta be kidding, why would I--he's nothing, some cheeky punk!"

"Oh? Well how nice for you, that he didn't Rise. If he rose up, you wouldn't have a leg to stand on."

"What's that?"

"Your entire behavior's proof you're a small-fry. He wouldn't act like you; screaming in hysterics, wouldn't need to threaten people. If he had risen up, he'd have already long been called to the mansion. That's the kind of person he was."

Masao's increasingly dark expression glowered at Megumi, then warped into a smile.

"Maybe so. And you'd be left behind."

"Me?"

"You think Natsuno would bring you with him? He isn't that kind of guy. The Tanaka girl's not the only one, he obviously wouldn't acknowledge you either."

"What does that mean?!"

Megumi found herself on the verge of punching him when there was a light push at her back. Move, a low voice said, a human figure with his head hung low passing through. Masao turned his face away. With a passing glance at that, Tohru continued up the mountain, his despondent expression unchanging.

Megumi and Masao, for a few moments, held their tongues as they saw him off. They had heard that Tohru had been called to the mansion. It made sense, they both thought at the time. Tohru very openly hated hunting. It was going to come to this sooner or later, a part of Megumi had thought, apathetic and cool, and Masao couldn't understand why Tohru would do anything to draw that kind of negative attention to himself. ---But when he came back, Tohru wasn't punished, far from it, he was transferred to the main house where Yoshie was to assist her. He could have his pick of the sheep culled from the city, so there was no need for him to descend into the village anymore. Just now, his trekking along the pathway was not for hunting, but to go to the mansion, or to meet with Tatsumi, or to do some other errand for Yoshie.

"I don't get it."

Megumi stared at Tohru's back. Megumi worked hard. She did whatever she could to accommodate Yoshie, and yet Megumi never was given any favor for it.

"....It's totally unfair. Tohru-chan had just went against Tatsumi-san and yet."

"I can't understand what the people above are thinking at all. And then there's Tohru-chan, looking like he totally hates it, don't you think? Just be honest and go ahead and look happy about it! But there he goes looking so unwilling."

"I hear you. And plus, me and him, we used to be good friends, it wouldn't hurt him to be a little warmer now. Like, put in a good word with Yoshie-san for me or something. But lately, every time we meet, he looks the other way, doesn't say a damn word to me."

"Same to me. He's so looking down his nose at us."

Hn, Masao snorted through his nose. Side by side with Megumi who began to climb the road with a puffy faced pout, Masao began to walk as well, with a matching pout of his own.

---Megumi and Masao, in the end, were a lot alike.