Tanaka looked around at the three men and asked, “So, how are things in the area?”
A brief pause followed before Mikasa, knowing his role, broke the silence.
“Well, they ain’t goin’ great. Old Lady Matsuura died in an unnatural way. Her death was a strange one despite never steppin’ foot in the mountains.”
“That lady with the scary face, huh…? I see. And what about your father, Takeda?”
“He keeps sayin’, ‘I’m next.’ An’ he’s been holed up in his room ever since.” Takeda’s brow creased into a pained expression.
Tanaka couldn’t hold back his laughter. “Da-ha-ha! I knew it!” he shouted.
“Now, you listen! Someone died here! And it might well be ’cause you an’ that dang company of yours keep interferin’ in our affairs!”
“Well, I’d think having a large corporation push forward with development despite having no knowledge of the area would be more concerning…”
Tanaka didn’t remember the exact details, but he felt like the people from that other company had said something about compact city planning. If something like that had happened in Kubitachi, he couldn’t even begin to imagine what things would look like now.
“I wish you’d show a little gratitude to my ‘company’ for putting a stop to all that.”
Tanaka knew full well that Takeda, Mikasa, and Matsushima harbored a deep mistrust of his “company.” People in places like these already despised outsiders as it was. They couldn’t handle things that were unknown or unfamiliar—they were wary of those things and had no desire to bridge any gaps in their understanding.
“I’m just conducting a little research in exchange…”
Tanaka directed his attention to Mikasa, the head priest of Nisa Shrine, who adjusted his glasses and reluctantly nodded.
“You know how the Indous’ son went missin’, don’cha?” he said. “Well, I reckon their ritual failed. And that’s why somethin’ strange happened with…that thing…”
Tanaka had figured as much. He chuckled softly and placed the crossbody bag he had picked up on the mountain onto the table. “Well, I went to that mountain…and found this on the ground.”
The first one to react to the mud-stained crossbody bag was Matsushima. “That’s…the bag Kouhei used to use. So his son took it with him?”
Incidentally, Kouhei Indou had worked at Matsushima’s sawmill. And so, to make things easier, Tanaka handed the bag over to Matsushima.
“Open it and see what’s inside.”
Matsushima kept his eyes on Tanaka as he slowly unzipped the crossbody bag, then carefully pulled out the contents.
“What the—?!” he screamed. “The heck is this…?”
The object that fell from Matsushima’s hand was a black lump small enough to fit in his palm. It made a wet, almost squelching sound as it dropped and rolled onto the table. Tanaka picked it up and held it between his index finger and thumb.
“A black…stone?” Mikasa said, leaning in.
Tanaka showed him the “front” of the lump. It had two small, round holes and a crooked slit, and on its sides were two holes that appeared to have been gouged out.
“This probably used to be a human head, I think,” Tanaka remarked.
The other three men shuddered. Both Mikasa’s and Matsushima’s faces became frozen with fear, and even the combative Takeda took a few steps back on the tatami floor, saying, “What’s a thing like that doin’ in there…?!”
“Beats me! But it has powerful protective powers. Having this on hand prevents most of the nasty ones from getting near you. At first, I thought this little guy was the reason the mountain’s been cleared of its impurities…,” Tanaka explained with a chuckle.
“Wait…,” Mikasa cut in. “The impurities ain’t there no more?”
“That’s right. The impurities that used to permeate the entire mountain are no longer there. Now you can enter the area just fine, but it’d be a bit of a stretch to say it’s all because of this thing. Also, I went and set up a barrier of sorts at the shrine here on the Mikasas’ property. I wanted to create a safe space. When I went to check on it today, that barrier was pretty banged up. That’s not a good sign, y’know, seeing as it was quite the special barrier.”
Tanaka had come to Nisa Shrine partly because he’d wanted to check on the condition of the barrier he’d set up. The extent of the damage had nearly made him laugh out loud as he passed under the torii gate leading to the shrine grounds.
“So…what’re you sayin’?” Takeda asked.
Tanaka looked around at all three men’s faces.
Mikasa, the head priest of Nisa Shrine, which took its name from Mount Nisayama.
Takeda, a landowner and the leader of Kubitachi’s volunteer fire brigade.
Matsushima, the owner of a sawmill in Kubitachi, a place with flourishing farming, forestry, and lumber industries…or, to put it more accurately, the village’s only industries.
In front of these three men, who could be said to be key figures in Kubitachi Village, Tanaka made a declaration.
“Something’s come down from the mountain.”
This left the men completely speechless, but Tanaka pressed on.
“My guess is it’s hiding out somewhere in some other form.”
“What…should we do?” Mikasa asked, looking Tanaka in the eye.
Perhaps the reality of the situation still hadn’t settled in for Mikasa, or maybe he was still telling himself that this all had to be some kind of mistake.
But it wasn’t enough to just ask what they should do. Tanaka knew dealing with this thing wouldn’t be as easy as the villagers imagined.
“Well…,” Tanaka began.
He drank the last of his sweet green tea, and the gritty sound of the undissolved sugar in his mouth followed.
Some of the sugar had half-melted into a slurry that clung to the bottom of the teacup. The slurry formed into what seemed like a head, arms, a torso, and legs—the shape of a person.
Tanaka then snorted slightly and gave the three men a thumbs-up. “How about we smoke it out?”
END OF VOLUME 1