Chapter 16: Seeing is Believing(Part 1)

Natsuno gazed at the site where he left the torn postcard and note, and saw that both were gone.

"As I thought," he said to himself, "She came. However, I won't let you near her, Inferno. And I won't be killed so easily."

Dr. Ozaki couldn't leave the Murasakos in the dark any longer, "I'm sorry."

Munehide, "How could this..."

Chizuka was the most traumatized, "Hiromi! HIROMI!"

Upstairs

Masao was helpless; he had been bitten by the librarian, was now paralyzed, and couldn't call for help.

Ozaki Clinic

Dr. Ozaki discovered that the insect bites were a likely vector for infection.

He lost his patience when his latest patient's wife maked a diagnosis and treatment despite the seriousness of cyanosis.

When Seishin informed Dr. Ozaki of the bizarre goings-on between the deceased victims, Ozaki scolded his friend for checking out something not related to the illness, though it did concern him.

In all honesty, though he took his anger out on others, Ozaki wasn't mad at them at all—he was actually blaming himself.

Seishin was sitting, thinking about his friend's anger, when Sunako walked in.

"Mr. Muroi?"

"Sunako..."

"I saw the light from the window of my house, so... Remember the promise? I brought your book to have you autograph it."

He did, "This is kind of embarrassing."

"Thank you. I'll cherish it forever."

When she walked out, Seishin warned her about what was going on, "Sunako, you shouldn't go out so much."

"Oh, so you are bothered by having your territory violated."

"No, that's not it. With your illness, it's easy for you to catch infectious diseases, so..."

"Oh? You checked up on my illness? That makes me happy. But you don't have to worry about it. We have a live-in doctor at home since my mom has the same illness."

"I see. Then your mother needs to know this as well. I want you to keep it a secret, though. An unidentified disease is going around in the village right now."

"Unidentified?"

"Yeah."

"Is it a dangerous disease?"

"Yes."

"Oh, no...we came all the way to recuperate, but it's more dangerous than staying in the city, isn't it? These things do happen, though. After I was lucky enough to meet you... Is it all right if I come here once in a while?"

"It's not something that requires my permission. But do be careful."

"Are you feeling down again?"

"Toshio is feeling more down than I am. He's feeling impatient, frustrated, and angry for not being able to save his patients. I want to help him somehow, but I can't do much for him. He gets frustrated with me, but it's not really me that he's upset with. He's upset with himself. He normally doesn't let himself act like that. That's why it's so heartbreaking."

Sunako put her hand on top of his head, "Your feelings connect, huh? I feel sorry...for both Dr. Ozaki and you, Mr. Muroi."

Natsuno rented vampire horror movies to try and learn what he could on the undead—he could not, however, find anything on Soul Edge or Inferno.

He brought them to the Mutou house, as his own didn't have a TV. He was greeted by Aoi, "Good evening."

"Oh, Natsu. What is it?"

"Where's Tamotsu?"

"I think he's upstairs. Did you go to the wake for Masao?"

"No, I didn't." Natsuno walked upstairs.

"You are cold."

"I don't think he would've wanted me there, anyway."

Tamotsu questioned on the movies Natsuno brought. "Would someone normally rent a horror movie and watch it at the house of a family in mourning?"

"Would a comedy have been better?"

"'Draculady'? So it's a comedy? You like this kind of stuff?"

"No."

Tamotsu was confused for a moment, but then joked about it. "Then how about dead people coming back to life?"

Natsuno gasped.

"Ah, you took the bait? In this village, we call the living dead 'Okiagari'."

Natsuno turned his head towards Tamotsu while gasping again.

"Oh? You must be really intrigued now, huh? Since we bury the dead in the village, legend says the dead would rise up at night and come to punish children who'd misbehaved. When I was a kid, if I stayed up late, Dad would scare me by saying 'The Okiagari will come to get you!'"

Natsuno didn't listen after the "You must really be intrigued now, huh?".

Natsuno discovers that Seishin has been borrowing books on the same subject and visits his temple, but is told by Miwako, Seishin's mother, that her son is out on business.

Part-timers working at Toshio's clinic began quitting in fear of catching the disease.

Natsuno approached Dr. Ozaki, who failed to save yet another life despite all his efforts, "If I remember correctly, you're the Yuuki boy..."

"Yes. I have a question for you, Doctor."

"Oh?"

"About Megumi Shimizu... You examined her, right?"

"I did, and I was also the one who wrote her death certificate."

"Was she really dead? Well, there're sometimes cases of brain death, right?"

"It wasn't a brain death. It was a cardiac death. She also exhibited livor mortis and rigor mortis. If there were even the slightest possibility of her being alive, I would've treated her, even if her family tried to stop me."

"Then...Then there's absolutely no way that she would come back to life?"

The Doctor laughed it off, "If she came back to life after that, she'd be a zombie or vampire." that laughter was instantly replaced with horror, "What did I just say?"

Natsuno simply bowed, "Okay. Sorry for asking such a weird question."

"Hey! Why did you come to me to ask that question?" Though Natsuno turned, he didn't answer—the boy left.

As Dr. Ozaki was about to light his cigarette, he realized something; The insect bites were actually fang marks, and the symptoms, and everything else—even the stuff Seishin brought up—all tied together with it.

Kaori and her brother Akira snuck into the Kanemasa castle based on Akira's sightings of an already deceased villager heading inside. However, they were unaware of Tatsumi observing them from behind.

"Hey, did you really see him?"

"I told you I saw him, didn't I?! There's no mistake that Yasuyuki from the lumber shop, who should be dead, went into the Kanemasa residence!"

"Yasuyuki from the Ootsuka family..."

"Villagers die one after another because they're doing something!"

"But I'm still scared. Let's talk to an adult and get their help."

"I told you! There's no way adults would believe a story like this! There's no other way. We have to do it!"

From the other side behind them was Inferno, who was also observing the siblings, though for a different, far more sinister reason.

The two ended up being caught by Natsuno. "Hey!"

They almost jumped out of their skins.

"What're you guys doing here?"

Kaori tried coming up with an excuse, "U-Um, we were..." then Natsuno interrupted, "If I remember correctly, you're Shimizu's friend, right?"

"Uh, y-yes."

"Kaori, who's this guy?"

"Come with me."

The two reluctantly followed.

"Someone was watching you guys."

They were shocked by what Natsuno had just said.

Kaori, "We didn't even notice."

Natsuno, "What were you doing there?"

Akira, "Nothing."

Natsuno, "Carrying something like—Don't tell me you guys think there's something fishy about that house too?"

Kaori and Akira were surprised to hear this.

Akira, "No way... You do too?"

Natsuno nodded, then Akira dropped the bat he was carrying, and ran towards Natsuno with open arms while crying tears of joy, much to the surprise of the older boy.

Natsuno, "Wh-What the..."

Akira, "You're the first one! There's finally someone who believe me! No one listened to me! I saw it! I saw someone who's supposed to be dead go into that house!"

"Okay, okay." Natsuno managed to push Akira's grip off of him, "In any case, we shouldn't talk here."

Akira, "Yeah."

They were joined by Connor, who happened to be waiting for them. When he set his eyes on Kaori—though he didn't show it—he knew she had to be "The One".

Connor, "People call them Okiagari, right?"

Akira, "What?"

"In this village, that's what they call those who die and come back to life, right?"

"That's right, okiagari! Yasuyuki from the lumber shop died in August. He didn't seem like the Yasuyuki I knew. But he was always nice to me, so there's no way I'd confuse him with someone!"

Natsuno, "I saw Shimizu."

"What?!"

Connor, "Well, I already knew about her, but not this Yasuyuki."

Natsuno, "I know, I know."

Akira, "You saw Megumi?"

Kaori started to break down, and Connor attempted to comfort her."No way... Before she died, Megumi told that she saw Mrs. Kirishiki. Yasuyuki, too. But even so..."

Natsuno, "We need to find out for sure." Kaori picked her head back up, and turned toward Natsuno. "We'll dig up Shimizu's grave."

"What?!"

Connor, "Then we'll know immediately whether she rose or not."

Akira, "Th-That's right! That's what we should do!"

Natsuno, "Not you Connor."

Connor, "What, why?!"

"You're from Europe, where vampires legends are most well-known. You need to work on a cure from those legends."

"The thing that I'm missing is Japanese Bloodgrass; and I haven't seen any."

Kaori, "Did you look in the meadow north of here?"

Connor, "Huh, north of here?!"

"Megumi and I used to play there as kids."

Part 2 of this three-part chapter will come soon.

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