sinnesspiel | Shiki Novel Translations 3.17.2

Kaori turned on the bright lights and gripped at her mother's somehow cold feeling hand.

It was past six o'clock in the morning. Her mother was fast asleep and as for Akira, ultimately he had not returned.

"Mom..." Kaori tried to call out several times. Her mother seemed to let out a forced sound but she did not open her eyes. All that came from her slightly ajar mouth were some distant rumbling, faint sounds, mixed with her sleeping breath.

She called 'Mom' out again, feeling on the verge of tears as she gripped her mother's hand. Despite having nothing else left, it was lacking in warmth, and furthermore lacking in the strength to return Kaori's grip.

Akira had left saying he was going to Mizobe. And yet he came right back and went up to the second floor to do something. He came right back down and left just before noon. After that the sun set without his return, night came, it passed, and it became morning.

She wanted to scream for Akira. But she couldn't talk. If she were to open her mouth to speak it, she felt like she would break down trying. And once she did that, she had a feeling Akira would never come back again. So she couldn't cry. If she began to act as if something had befallen Akira, it would become true. It would surely become true.

That was why now she, coming apart at the seams, needed the support she found in holding her mother's hand. How much salvation would it provide her if that hand of her mother's were at least warm, if her fingers could squeeze.

A limp hand, a cooling body temperature, a thin sheen of sweat, but even that sweat was cold. There was no warmth in Kaori's hand. She gripped hard enough her own fingertips were white.

".....Mom."

No matter how many times she called, her eyes wouldn't open. Until yesterday, she would awaken if called, would sometimes say she wanted water, until last night, after some point when Kaori had nodded off and awoken to find her out of her futon, found sitting at the back door; since then, even those responses had ceased. Even if she shook her, clinged to her, the most she would do was grumble out a wet sound, meaning Kaori was alone, completely deserted in the house.

Her mother's condition was off. Clearly it was getting worse, worse than normal. Kaori didn't know what she should do. She knew she had to do something about her mother, but there wasn't even Akira left to consult. At the end of the night, he still hadn't returned. Even though someone had to do something, her mother just slept, unable to save her.

"What am I supposed to do? Please!" Kaori pulled and shook her mother's hand but as expected there was no response. In her desperation, the hand slick with sweat slipped from her grip and fell, hitting the futon. Kaori curled onto her side and broke down sobbing there.

She had to do something herself. Her father was gone. Her mother was unconscious. Akira didn't come back. Kaori was truly alone.

While trying, she went down the hall towards the living room. She took the phone off the hook. Her trembling hand gripped the receiver but she didn't know who she should call.

Both of her parents relatives had left the village. Her grandmother went to live with their uncle in a town far away. Kaori had no relatives near enough that they could come quickly with just one phone call.

But it would be best to call them. But might somebody scold her about doing so now? When she told them her mother's condition, that Akira hadn't come back, wouldn't she be yelled at, as to why she didn't contact somebody sooner? --And actually, Kaori had thought to call them for advice several times, but when she hesitated over whether or not to do so, the situation had become more complex. She couldn't round up the resolve. She heard Megumi's voice once, and there was a pressure on her telling her she must not tell that to anyone.

This situation was, from the very beginning, something beyond what Kaori could handle. And from there, as time went on, it became a problem even more impossible to resolve. At her slightest hesitation, more and more exits were cut off, and now she realized she was without any place to go.

Still gripping the phone, Kaori who could do nothing but son heard her neighbor's door opening. It was only the faintest sound, but Kaori looked up. Tripping over her own feet, she stood up and flew outside.

Ohtsuka Hiroko opened her storm shutters to find, to her surprise, the girl from the neighboring house behind hers running towards her. --It was Kaori Tanaka.

"Well my, Kaori-san." She had been about to say good morning to her, when Kaori's face made her stop.

"Oba-san----"

Kaori rushed to Hiroko and then began to weakly cry. Her husband Takayuki poked his face out asking if something happened. Hiroko shook her head, saying that she didn't know, but for the time being urged the crying little girl into her house to soothe her. She tried to soothe her, to calm her, to pick out what words she could from her broken speech to understand the situation.

"Mom, sick..."

With what words she could make out between the sobs, Hiroko had at first thought that Tanaka Sachiko had died. It would hardly be out of place. Hiroko's own son had died that summer and since then, the deaths had continued in the village. Kaori's father had died. It now felt like it wouldn't be strange for anybody at all to die.

But when she tried to listen more closely, it sounded like Sachiko was still breathing. The problem was the boy from next door---Akira, hadn't returned yet.

"Oh my...."

Hiroko had compassion for the sobbing girl. Having just lost her father, her mother being laid up, and on top of that her brother hadn't returned. She must have been absolutely crushed by her worry, and thinking of what a long night it must have been for the poor little girl, her tears welled with sympathy.

"You poor thing. It's alright. ...I'll come and have a look at your mother now." Hiroko said, looking to her husband. Her husband nodded, eyes looking about the living room as he called to his father in law.

"I'll go and talk to the neighbors. ---It's gonna be okay, Kaori-chan. Go be by your mom's side. I'll go and look for Akira-kun."

Kaori's face was a mess, clinging to Hiroko's apron as she continued to cry for some time. Takayuki likewise watched over her with a sympathetic pang in his chest.

The 'something' that took Takayuki's son from him. It was something unknown to Takayuki and Hiroko. There was a rumor that it was an illness but Takayuki didn't believe it. He didn't have a basis for it, he just thought that it was something else. What else, he didn't know. ---At least, Takayuki believed he didn't.

'Something' he didn't know. It stole his son, it stole away the father from the girl in front of him now, and now it was trying to take her mother. And it was definitely possible that it had ended up taking her little brother too. It stole Takayuki's son, and was now swooping in on the neighboring house. It was seeking conquest over the entire village.