Oni

Chapter Four

The nights, when the heat could dissipate, were short and the sun rose earlyto shine brightly over the mountainsides, warming them up.

Kunihiro Ritsukocame down the steep slope at a quick pace. The northern part of the village was nothing but slopes from the northern mountain. A number of kids were

behind Ritsuko, and with no mind for the slope, they would go up and downthem, passing Ritsuko by.

"Miss! Good morning!"

Ritsuko returned a "Good morning!" to them. The kids made it to the top ofthe hill, crossing over the slope towards yet another slope that lead to thelumber mill. They were probably going to do radio exercises.

With a light smile Ritsuko passed the street corner to the white building

ahead. The one with the Ozaki Hospital signboard was Ritsuko's workplace.

From the mountains that pressed in on the village, the breeze blew throughlike a lingering shade, carrying the smell of the fir trees with the voices of thecicadas. Their cries made the early summer morning somehow melancholy.

Turning her eyes to the eastern mountains, the freshly risen sun's rays werestrong, and she imagined it would be another hot day today.

Taking a shortcut across the parking lot, Ritsuko went around the back of thehospital. She came in through the staff entrance, straight towards the lockerroom.

"Good morning," she called out politely as she opened the door, though therewas nobody in the locker room. No other nurses must have arrived yet, as thewindow blinds were left closed, the air in the room stagnant with thelingering laziness of the weekend.

The Ozaki Hospital did have "hospital" on the signboard but for all practicalpurposes, they didn't take in-patients. If it was for observation orexaminations, a special case might be taken in for a night or two, but anypatients who required a longer stay than that were all sent to the hospital inMizobe. Thus if there was no night shift, there was no Sunday shift, and herfellow nurses would rotate shifts in order to have two days off per week.

Asthe village's only hospital there were emergency cases that would be taken ona Sunday but the hospital director who had inherited the position wasunderstanding and had staff on call in three week cycles, as it wasn't like theyreally needed to come in to work, and there was compensation for being oncall. --All in all, she found it a bountiful place to work at.

She choose the job because she liked it after all, and it felt worth doing. It

wasn't a bad place to work. And yet, on the morning after a day off, there wasthat listlessness, thinking 'here we go, another week.'

Throwing her bag into the locker, Ritsuko took out her freshly selected whitecoat. She changed into her white uniform, tied her hair up and put on herwhite nurse's cap. Funny how with just those preparations, it felt as if herposture improved.

It was going from her personal self to herself as a nurse. There was a strangedivide between the two. The listlessness after a day off might have just beenannoyance at crossing that distance between the two selves that grew thelonger a break was.

She checked herself out in the mirror and gave herself an: "All right!" She

raised the blinds and opened the window, a cool breeze and the voices of thecicadas blowing in. And, of course, the lively voices of children.

Behind the hospital stretched a narrow rice field and the Maruyasu

lumberyard. That was the spot decided on for the neighborhood's radioexercises. The cheerful shouts of the kids gathered there echoed through themountains near the lumberyard, flowing more loudly into the room than eventhe voices of the cicadas.

The nearby mountains were bountifully green. High on the mountain to theright, the main temple building could be seen. Shone on directly by the sun'srays, the large roof glistened like dull silver. From the temple grounds to thesawmill, the slope was sparse with trees that jutted out like teeth. That was

the temple's graveyard. As Sotoba didn't really use tombstones, you wouldn'tknow it was one just by looking.

There the mountains had horseshoe hollow, holding who-knew-how-many

lumberyards. Clean cut wavelets of the planted fir trees treetops basked in themorning sun. The mountains to the left were green with firs, too. From abovethat a pointed black roof top peeked out.

Ritsuko ended up looking up looking up at that house--that mansion.

Until recently, that was the Kanemasa mansion. It was a stately mansion

indeed, with its old stone walls, its countless ridged roofs, and garden trees.

And furthermore, the masters had long ago--before Ritsuko had even comecapable of awareness---changed residencies, so the mansion was oftenunmanned, and while there was at least upkeep, it wasn't what you would callstellar, so amongst the children it was known as "The Kanemasa HauntedMansion."

Ritsuko, during a middle school under the guise of some test of courage

game, had snuck into the garden. She remembered expecting it to be

unmanned only for an old man she supposed was the property manager tofind her and scold her.

That haunted mansion was torn down last year. Afterwards a strange house

was erected. It was called strange but it wasn't exactly the building itself thatwas strange. Yes, if it weren't in Sotoba, if it was a holiday home, that is, insome small village in another country, there wouldn't have been anything outof place about it. It was small, but it was like something you'd see in a movie--an occidental house.

That building, when compared to the village that was its backdrop, clearly

stood out. Another thing that made it weird was its bearings. That house

seemed to think it was there for a hundred years or more. It had an old stonewall, and the chimneys and windows looked as if they'd weathered the windsand the rains. It appeared they dismantled and rebuilt an older building.

The villagers were bewildered as to why someone would do that. They

demolished an old house and built a new one, regardless of whether it

blended in well with its scenery, overlooking a small village unlike any otherthat one could find anywhere else, giving off a feeling of greater age andhistory than any other home in the village. No matter how it seemed to beaged into place, there was an unshakably out of place feel to it.

(It really is a strange house...)

As she murmured that in her thoughts, the locker room door opened.

"Oh my, it's Ricchan!"

It was Nurse Nagata Kiyomi.

"Good morning."

"It sure is early," said Kiyomi with a smile, opening her locker. "What's

wrong? You look pensive."

Ritsuko shook her head. "Just thinking that the weather is nice. It looks like

it's going to be hot."

"You said it," said Kiyomi with both a sigh and a smile, stripping off her

clothes candidly. Ritsuko hurried and stretched a hand to lower the blinds.

"Oh, it's fine. We'll get a breeze if the blinds are open. It might be different

for a girl like Ricchan, but there's not going to be anyone peeking in to see

this old girl in her underwear."

"Wouldn't you say lady instead of old girl? About a woman at forty."

Kiyomi laughed as she put on her white coat.

"That's old fashioned. ---I've long passed forty. The only one who'd call meyoung and be happy to come see me would be the dead from the temple'syard."

Ritsuko looked at the graveyard on the slope with a laugh.

"What's this, age talk?" said Hashiguchi Yasuyo, coming into the lockerroom.

"Good morning."

"Morning. --Well dear me. Leaving the blinds wide open like that!"

"Like I was saying," laughed Kiyomi. "I'm at the age where it wouldn't evenbe bad to be peeked at."

"What are you saying! You, you're still ten years younger than me!"

"Maybe if I was ten kilos lighter I'd hide."

"Some people hide for shame, but there's a matter of modesty, you know.

Though if I were as young as Ricchan, I might flaunt a little."

"Matter of modesty, huh?"

"If a woman doesn't have that, it's all over for her! ---Even you and me aren'tsomething to scoff at, for a couple of old sea lions."

Toshio stepped out of the bathroom first thing in the morning with a cigarettealready in his mouth and headed to the dining room. The bright light camepouring in through the large southern window. There were two people'sshares of breakfast set on the table with a newspaper in Toshio's seat. Helooked at the sight and thought 'I see, Kyouko's gone back to Mizobe.'

Ozaki Toshio was thirty two and the director of Sotoba's only hospital, the

Ozaki Hospital. That is to say, Toshio was the only doctor in town. Three

years ago, his father died of pancreatic cancer, and so he quit his job at theuniversity hospital to return. His wife Kyouko was thirty and they had nochildren. Unable to stand life in the mountain village, Kyouko stayed in herapartment near an antique shop she kept in the more urban town of Mizobe.

She came back to Sotoba two or three times a month.

Toshio wasn't sure whether it was more appropriate to say she didn't come bymore often than that or that she came by that frequently. That she hated lifethere and left may have meant that they had a cold marriage but all that asideshe did come back on her own so that may have meant they had a goodrelationship.

"Good morning."

As he looked out the window, his mother Takae carried in miso soup. Hegave a half-hearted response. Looking at the weather forecast, it would be aclear day and the probability of rain was 0 percent. The daytime temperaturewas to be hotter than usual for this time of year, with temperatures to surpass36 degrees Celsius. It'd been that way this year since spring. There hadn'tbeen much rain and it was unusually hot. In the Tokai region, there was awide scale drought and severe damages caused by the intense heat.

Takae sat facing the table, taking in Toshio's T-shirt and jeans clad form witha critical eye. At the elegant and extravagant evergreen table were six chairsof elaborate and refined craftsmanship, the most ornate of which was empty.

It was once his father's seat, and according to Takae, that was the seat of thehead of the family, and Toshio was still lacking in the dignity to so much assit at that seat. Toshio didn't really care where he sat. He would be fine sittingin the lowest seat but his mother didn't understand that. It seemed she meantwithholding the family head's chair to be a punishment.

With a 'good grief' breath, he kept his eyes outside. Through the living roomwindow overlooking the spacious backyard one could take in the westernmountains at a glance.

The mountain side was a summer suited green andpoking out through one section of that was a slate black roof. The structurestuck out from above the gables. It was a curious, triangular roof, like apicture a small child would draw. It wasn't a house suited for Sotoba, but if itwere only surrounded by the fir trees and if that was all that were around it, itcould suit itself there in its own way. If it were covered in snow in the winter,

it may have been an interesting sight.

(It's a weird house...)

As he murmured that in his thoughts, Toshio caught sight of Takae, who let

out a low voice. "Do you have the time to be so leisurely?"

Receiving only a halfhearted answer to that as well, Takae looked out the

window for only a moment, herself.

"They haven't moved in, have they? I

wonder, have they no intent to live here at all?"

"It's probably not a holiday home. Not a house built up like that."

"How garish."

Toshio gave a thin smirk at the clear thorns present in Takae's words. To

begin with Takae's relationship with Kanemasa was not a good one. She didnot take well to being looked down upon by them. As the Kanemasas hadmoved out, at last the only ones looking down on the Ozaki family werethose at the temple, and now those whose faces she had never even seen hadcome to look down on her. For Toshio, it was something he couldn'tunderstand being so upset over but so long as he couldn't understand that, hewould never be allowed to sit at the seat for the head of the family.

"Everyone's got their circumstances. --Done with breakfast."

Mutou entered the hospital grounds and noted that the front door was alreadyopened. Through the glass pane, he confirmed that several patients hadarrived in the waiting room. Part timer Sekiguchi Miki was sweeping. With agreeting to him, Mutou turned towards the side door. As he stepped in theside door, he saw another part timer Takano Fujou was beside the spicketwashing the mop. They exchanged greetings and he headed into the lockerroom for his white coat. He drew out the changing wall, his legs dragging,then hurried to the reception desk where Towada was scrubbing the counter.

"G'Morning."

"Good morning." Towada gave a youthful smile and wave.

"I'm already finished here, so you're welcome to go to the break room first,Mutou-san. I will handle things here!"

"Sorry for the trouble."

Towada humbly dismissed that it was no trouble and turned to greet the

patients. Most of them had been getting treatment here for a while, so therewere many familiar faces.

Just as he was going to take Towada up on his offer and head to the breakroom, the director stepped into the waiting room from his own house.

Dressed in only jeans and a T-shirt.

"Yo, morning," Toshio said to nobody in particular, sliding his arm through

his white coat as he surveyed the waiting room. "Oi, oi. There's already thismany here? You old folks and your early rising."

One old woman replied to his idle comment. "Isn't it more that the youngdoctor is slow to rise? It's late, you know."

"Like that's the problem. It's because I have to meet with you all that businesshours have been pushed up earlier and earlier. Hope you're all at least eatingbreakfast before you come in."

"I always do."

"That's good. You don't have many years left you know, so you have to eat asmuch good food as you can so there's no regrets."

Thin laughter filled the waiting room. Mutou and Towada exchanged forcedsmiles. The director, Ozaki Toshio, was like this in anything and everythinghe did.

"There you go again with those thoughtless, cruel words..." Sighed Mutouquietly as he followed after Toshio into the break room.

"It's the gods' honest truth. ---What's up? You're dragging your feet."

"I'm just sore. It's from the mushiokuri."

"That right? Mutou-san was a yuge-shuu?"

"Yes, I was, but that aside..." Mutou gave Toshio a withering glare. "Since

you don't watch your mouth, I have to hear that the young doctor of the OzakiHospital is a no-good doctor, you realize."

"Is there any doubt I am a no-good doctor? If I was serious about being adoctor, do you think I'd come back to the country like this? What I left behindwas a modern ivory tower."

'Good grief,' thought Mutou as he forced a smile. The former Doctor Ozakihad been an exceedingly haughty man, and there were those, particularly theelderly, who came to the hospital longing for the gravitas of his predecessor,saying that his son was an impudent brat but as for Mutou himself, hepreferred the son to the father. He was verbally abusive, using it tointentionally provoke others around him, imprudent and light lipped. Wearinghis white coat over jeans and a T-shirt, he didn't command so much as anounce of majesty as a doctor but he didn't begrudge after-hours medical

examinations and if he was called, then regardless of the hour he would grabhis bag and go off on a house call without a second thought.

Last year he'dtaken out a significant loan to expand and remodel one part of the hospitaland bring in a CT scanner. The destruction of the spacious director's officebeloved by generations, indeed a splendid room, and the adjoining receptionroom that both faced outwards to an extravagant garden, for the sake of at CRscanner, spoke volumes about Toshio's temperament.

Toshio opened the break room door. Inside, Towada saw that all staff

members were already assembled. There were four nurses. First was the

eldest, Hashiguchi Yasuyo, with Nagata Kiyomi and Kunihiro Ritsuko

completing the list of those from within town, followed by the commuter,Shiomi Yuki. There was another worker who commuted, Isaki Satoko, butshe wasn't there today.

Towada supposed that since she wasn't here, it must have been her day off.

There was the X-ray technician Shimoyama, the office workers Mutou andTowada, as well as the part timers in charge of cleaning and general duties,Miki and Fujou, and that was all the staff there were to take care of each andevery patient in Sotoba.

"Good morning."

Seeing Toshio and Mutou, Kiyomi stood. In response Toshio indicated forher to get him a coffee and sat himself down at one of the chairs surroundingthe wide table. Mutou pulled out a neighboring seat when his movementscaught Kiyomi's eye as she was about to leave the room.

"Mutou-san, what happened? To your leg."

"I was just now telling the doctor how they're sore."

"Oh, Mutou-san was a yuge-shuu? Somebody doesn't get enough exercise,does he!"

"A little exercise wouldn't have warded this off."

Toshio snickered. "The festivities start off with bunch of guys jumping all

over the place like mountain tengu, after all."

"Exactly."

With a grimace he finally took a seat. He had tended to it all day yesterday,

but it still hurt. It seemed like he was going to be groaning every time he

stood or sat down for a while still.

At the window side table, the nurses dutifully prepared the gauze.

Shimoyama opened a manual filled with sticky notes. Before the hospital

opened staff was supposed to assemble for a morning meeting but it wasreally only a chance for staff to relay anything that needed to be known whileeveryone was assembled in the brief lull before medical examinations began,

and nothing more.

The sun's rays and a pleasantly cool breeze came in through the wide openwindow. For now they could get by comfortably enough without the airconditioner but this summer was hot. As the sun rose, the temperatures weresure to rise rapidly as always.

"The weather's so good it's annoying."

Toshio looked out the window,

lighting a cigarette. Toshio was a member of the heavy smoker class, anarchetypal example of a doctor not practicing what they preach, neglectingtheir own health.

"It really is!" Yasuyo stopped to look out the window. Already sweat was

forming on the rounded tip of her nose. "Day after day, I can't take this heat!

When you put on weight, heat becomes even hotter."

"Of course summer's gonna be hot. But still, this summer is hot. This

weather's going to clear the old folks right on out of here."

Mutou scowled at Toshio. "I'm begging you, please do not say that kind of

imprudent thing in public."

"---If I lose that many clients, at least Seishin will be raking it in."

Mutou let out a sigh; there was nothing that could be done about him. Theheir of the mountain temple, Muroi Seishin had been a classmate of Toshio's.

"...Come to think of it, someone from the Yajima National Health Institute

said that he had seen the doctor talking to a monk and found it strange."

As Yasuyo said that, Toshio gave a low chuckle.

"He could smell the conspiracy, I bet. When me and Seishin get together, younever know what we might be plotting."

"Please don't say that. When you say it, it doesn't sound enough like a joke."

While the fir trees isolated the mountainside and the houses in a sense, theywere at the top of the map near the Maruyasu sawmill's lumber yard and thedoctor and the monk had been friends since they were children. It wascommon knowledge amongst the villagers but it might have looked like andunusual combination to someone who didn't know.

"That's right, hey, back to the mushiokuri," said Mutou as he rubbed at hisleg. "Something weird happened."

"Something weird?"

"Yes. While we were burning the Betto, a moving van came by."

"Oi, oi. Isn't that in the dead of night?"

"Right, in the dead of night. There was a truck and two cars following it."

'Hnn' breathed Toshio as he exhaled smoke, looking to the window.

"Whatever the case, they seem to be pretty weird. The people living at

Kanemasa."

"Don't you think so? If a moving truck comes in you'd normally think that

they were finally going to move in to Kanemasa, wouldn't you? The house

had been built last June, but the owners themselves still hadn't ever moved in!As a matter of fact, that truck only came in half way, then turned backaround!"

"Eh?" It was Yasuyo who interrupted. "Are you sure it wasn't just a careless

driver who took the wrong road?"

"That can't be," said Yuki. Yuki drove in to work from a neighboring town

herself. "There's no road to mistake it for. The road's a different size! There

aren't any side roads around there besides the one coming into Sotoba."

"So I'm saying, maybe they had the wrong main road and were changing

course."

"If that was the case, isn't there the drive-in on the corner at the intersection?

The parking lot is big enough that the truck could have easily turned aroundwithout having to come all the way into town to back up and changedirections."

"Really?"

"In the first place, you wouldn't normally move in in the middle of the night,either."

"You might if you moved in from far away," Yasuyo said looking to Mutou.

"What was on the license plate?"

"No idea. It wasn't close enough that you could see the license plate."

"In cases like that, wouldn't you set out to arrive during the day time? It's

strange is what it is."

While Yuki was trying to push the story as strange, Yasuyo turned a

frustrated eye to her.

"Then there was probably some unexpected delay that made them arrive late,I'm sure."

"But isn't that boooring?"

Mutou and the others laughed at her whining way of putting it.

"Good grief. That's all it comes down to for this girl."

"I want to be entertained, since I'm still young," said Yuki as she leaned

towards Ritsuko, peering up into her eyes. "Since I don't have anybody to eatlunch with on Sunday in Mizobe, three doors down from the town hall at theItalian restaurant."

Ritsuko's eyes widened with a start, her face quickly going red.

"Yuki-chan," Yasuyo laughed. "What a concrete topic you've turned to now!"

"It's a maiden's dream! He would wear a green polo shirt, and I would dressto match him in a mint green one piece!"

"Oh, Yuki-chan, you!"

Toshio laughed as Ritsuko gave Yuki a light push. "Yuki-chan still hasn't

said who she was with, though."

"That's right, that's right!"

With a whine of 'No!' Ritsuko glared at Yuki as if angry, her face red.

Come to think of it, Ritsuko was twenty eight, wasn't she, getting to be aboutthat age, thought Mutou. It wouldn't be strange at all for her to be gettingmarried at that age, in fact by the village of Sotoba's standards she would be alate marriage. But it would hurt to have the good nurse quit. Even setting herquality aside, there would probably be a nurse shortage; he didn't think that

they could find a replacement so easily for a country hospital.

"If you're getting married, make it to someone who'll let you continue

nursing. If not, don't expect any wedding presents from me."

At Toshio's teasing, Ritsuko turned away, still bright red.

"It is not going to come to that!"

According to the Ozaki Hospital signboard, their specialty was internalmedicine but by request they could look into anything. It was technically ahospital, so patients could be admitted but in all the rooms there were 19beds, all of which had remained open ever since Toshio had returned. Even ifthey had the equipment, there wasn't enough staff to manage in-patientclients.

"I'd been planning to rely on Ricchan's little sister, though. Her working at a

day care was a miscalculation."

Despite being teased by Toshio, Ritsuko wore an unfazed smile.

"Don't you think she choose that instead because she sees how much I sufferfor work?"

"And so, we've got no choice but to count on Mutou-san's daughter."

"Surely you jest," returned Mutou. Kids nowadays wouldn't want to work atthe same place as their parents, and his eighteen year old daughter was still inhigh school.

"You're a cold guy. Then that leaves--" Just as Toshio was speaking, Kiyomi

returned from the kitchen with a tray. "Ah ha, Nagata-san's got a daughter."

Mutou and Ritsuko laughed, leaving Kiyomi to look at them with

bewilderment. "What is this? You've been badmouthing me, I see."

"Naw," Toshio laughed. "It's been unanimously decided that we will be

having Nagata-san's daughter coming to work here as a nurse."

Kiyomi gave an exasperated huff. "My child is still in sixth grade. ---Here,

your coffee."

Kiyomi sat a cup down in front of Toshio and Mutou.

"Excuse me, Doctor?" Towada opened the door and stuck his face in. "The

old man from the Ebata family's fallen off of his bicycle."

"It starts."

Toshio stood. Yuki and Ritsuko briskly prepared the gauze.

"Is he coming in?"

"Someone from the house will be bringing him. He's cut his head and his faceis covered in blood."

Toshio and Yasuyo half-hustled out, leaving the freshly brought coffee

untouched. It was still ten minutes until office hours officially began.