Shiki Novel Translations 3.15.7

[sinnesspiel]

Kaori opened her eyes to the voices of birds in the middle of the night. The voices of the sparrows were mixed with the crisp songs of the kites flying high in the sky.

Kaori sat up suddenly. In a panic she reached for her alarm clock to confirm the time. It was already past nine. She flew up from bed to open the window, to open the storm shutters.

When she opened the storm shutters, the late autumn sunshine filled her room. Kaori quickly looked to her calendar. October twenty sixth. Wednesday. Of course it was neither a weekend nor a holiday.

"Oh no," Kaori mumbled, hurrying out of her pajamas, into her school uniform. She crammed her things into her bag and without a moment's waste set out, stopping only to turn back and look into Akira's room. The storm shutters were still drawn and the room dark, with Akira still fast asleep.

"Akira, you have to get up!"

Kaori opened the window and the storm shutters. Akira shifted into his futon as if to escape the sunlight pouring in. She pulled the futon away and shook him.

"I said to get up! It's already nine!"

Huh, Akira sprung up.

Akira asked why, but Kaori was the one who wanted answers. She was sure the alarm must have rang, so she was sure she must have turned it off and gone back to sleep. Lately she hadn't been getting much sleep, and waking up in the mornings was hard. She'd turned the alarm off and gone back to sleep so many times. As for Akira, he never did set his own alarm clock, but that was only because even if he and Kaori had both overslept, their mother was sure to come and wake them.

Akira got up and snagged his uniform, making a noisy affair of getting it on. While hearing him curse about their mother, Kaori hurried down the stairs. As she went down, she thought about how childish Akira was.

No matter how much it hurt to still be a child, they couldn't even set their own alarm clocks and get up in the morning without their mother's help. She wasn't any better, she knew. If her mother didn't come to wake her up, she couldn't get up at a regular time and go to school. She knew with that that she was far from being a reliable adult. No matter how much she struggled, she was still only a child. She wasn't independent, she couldn't make a living herself. That was why thinking her mother, who had not even had time to mourn their father's death, to be cruel for blaming their deceased father for her own worries about how they would get by was still not right.

With those complicated feelings she came downstairs. The living room was dark, and there was no sign of anybody yet in the kitchen. Rushing into the bathroom to follow up with some personal hygience, she then peered into the bedroom. The storm shutters were open but her mother was sleeping.

"Mom?" Kaori called to her. She did know it wouldn't be right to complain that there was no time to eat, to ask why she didn't wake them up. There wasn't anything to wake her up for, but even so she would feel bad for leaving the house without saying anything to her.

"Mom, it's already nine o'clock."

When she leaned over her, Sachiko opened her eyes. Behind Kaori, Akira ran loudly through the hallway. Sachiko blinked in annoyance and let out a long, heavy sigh.

"I'm going to school now."

I see, Sachiko nodded. Kaori tilted her head.

"Mom? Are you feeling bad?"

Not really, she said, but Sachiko's tone was weary and listless. She didn't show any signs of getting up, lying in her futon, her expression hollow and blinking her eyes again as if the light were dizzying. Kaori felt the her blood run cold. In an instant, Megumi, Natsuno, and her father's condition came to mind. She could hear Akira's cursing and footsteps as he was coming back.

"...Akira."

"What now? Even though she's always so pushy about 'get up, get up!'"

"Akira, look."

Akira passed the hallway sulkingly, but came back. He looked suspicious when he came into the room.

"What's wrong?"

Akira looked from Kaori's stiff expression to their mother. Their mother stared at the ceiling in a daze. She quickly closed her eyes. Just as he thought something was weird, Kaori gripped his arm with enough force to hurt.

"Akira, what do we do?"

From that force, her terrified voice, Akira understood the situation. It was the same something that attacked Natsuno. Whatever had taken their father from them had chosen their mother for its next victim.

Half certain that had to be it, half thinking that couldn't be it, Akira shook his mother.

"Mom, get up."

Their mother opened her eyes but as expected she had an empty face and remained lying down.

"What time do you think it is? Get up."

".......You just go on ahead." Sachiko turned back over to go to sleep. Her voice had no energy at all. "Mom's sleepy...."

When she turned her face away, on her neck were the same spots they had noticed on Natsuno. Akira stormed across the room to close the windows, to close the storm shutters. He made sure to lock them tight. Even while it was too little too late now, he had to do it. He also pulled the curtains shut tight.

"Akira......"

He took the hand of his older sister who was looking up at him and pulled her along. Outside the room, he pulled the sliding door shut.

"......We've gotta do something."

"Ne, this can't be happening, can it? Not Mom too. It's too...."

Akira shook his head. He moved into the living room and becan to pull at the bookshelves.

"Nee, Akira."

"It's gotta be Megumi. I bet she's decided to kill us all."

"That can't be!"

Kaori cried, but more than really denying it, it sounded like the lamentation of someone who didn't want to believe it. Mumbling that he didn't want to believe it himself, Akira opened the drawer, searching its contents. He couldn't find any ofuda or omamori anywhere. It was because they'd gathered them all up, as many as they could and brought them to put up around Natsuno's place. Of course there'd be nothing left now.

"Kaori, go to Mizobe."

Kaori looked on in bewilderment at Akira's words.

"Man, you're slow. Mizobe has Hachiman-sama. We went there for New Years before. They should have a shrine office there, and it should be open and selling omamori, right? The village's shrine doesn't have anything like that."

"But what about school?"

"This's no time to go to school!"

"We'll get in trouble."

"We're some sad kids who just lost our dad. On top of that, our mom's not doing well, so we have to go do some errands. If we say that, nobody'll have any complaints."

But, Kaori becan to say, only to nod in the end. Akira took their mom's purse from the shelf and held it out to Kaori.

"Omamori, Hamaya, whatever and however much you can get."

"......What about you?"

"I got something else to do."

Kaori didn't look fully satisfied with that answer, but she nodded and took the wallet and went out. That left Akira alone in the living room. He went out to the backyard. From the storage shed he took out his father's toolbox and drug out some lumber used for house remairs. Taking pains to cut them down to appropriate lengths, he began shaving them down with a wood working cutter.

Now it was their mother's turn. No doubt this was their revenge. Come to think of it last night he had thought he had heard Love's barking seeping into his dreams. After their mother, without a doubt it would be Kaori and Akura's turn next. Akira was sure it wouldn't end with just their mother.

He had to protect himself. He had to protect his mom and Kaori. And if that meant he had to drive a stake into somebody, he'd drive a stake into them. Whether that somebody be Natsuno or his own father. If Kaori couldn't do it, then he'd have to do it alone. If he lost his nerve now, there was no doubt even Natsuno would be disappointed in him.