Although Sakae was reeking of alcohol and seemed completely delirious-
Unexpectedly, almost the moment Taka stepped into the yard, he immediately woke up with a start.
"Who! Come to cause trouble for me again? Get out!"
Heavily drunk, Sakae stumbled to his feet, roaring in Taka's direction.
But when he saw Taka's calm and youthful face, he was momentarily stunned, yet still growled in a muffled voice, "What are you looking at! Come to steal? Get the hell out!"
Taka scanned the place expressionlessly and spoke calmly.
"Steal what? The straw mat?"
"You bastard...."
Seeing Sakae's anger about to flare up, Taka didn't want to cause more trouble and simply stated the purpose of his visit directly:
"I heard that Asano Shigeru, who lived here, died strangely. I want to understand the situation."
"Nii-san..." Hit square in the heart by the name Asano Shigeru, Sakae's body swayed involuntarily.
But the next second, a volcanic eruption of anger burst forth, turning Sakae's eyes bloodshot!
"None of your damn business! Who asked you to gossip about my brother's affairs! Get out! All of you, get out!"
As he cursed, whether he was sobering up or getting drunker, he actually charged headlong at Taka like a mad wild boar, reckless and regardless!
Although it looked rash, Taka could tell from his movements and trajectory… this guy dropped his shoulders, pressed his center of gravity forward, his steps were chaotic yet not without method, seeming to have had some training.
However, compared to Taka, the flaws in his movements were still too great.
Just as Sakae's body was about to collide with Taka, Taka merely sidestepped slightly while simultaneously shooting out his right hand like lightning, directly seizing Sakae's raised right wrist from his full-speed charge.
Taka pressed down hard, grabbing the tendons in Sakae's wrist, causing him to cry out in pain.
Before this numbing pain could spread through his body, Taka, with effortless ease, gave a casual tug, sending Sakae spinning and crashing awkwardly onto his back.
"Bastard! I'll kill you!!"
Watching the struggling, coughing Sakae, Taka spoke again:
"Calm down. I'm not here to laugh at you. On the contrary, I'm here to help you find the one who killed him."
"Killer?!"
Whether the cold ground had slightly cooled Asano Sakae's chaotic mind, or Taka's words had touched him.
He stopped struggling and cursing, instead looking at this young man with suspicion and vigilance, rubbing his wrist as he propped himself up....
"Let's talk inside..." After a long silence, he finally spoke slowly.
Through Sakae's efforts to recollect and some suspicious guesses, Taka gradually pieced together the situation regarding the first victim, Asano Shigeru:
Asano Shigeru, male, 37 years old, unmarried.
Originally a farmer in the town, he was introduced to work at a dyeing factory under the Sendai Dyeing and Weaving Company. He was an honest and decent man. His only family was a brother 11 years younger. No other relatives.
Last month, Shigeru returned to the town. His health had deteriorated, he coughed frequently, and even black threads appeared in his phlegm.
Later, Sakae learned that his brother's health had been ruined by chemical fuels and toxic dust in the factory, and the factory completely ignored it, instead firing him on the grounds that he could no longer work.
While recuperating, Shigeru, led by some assertive fellow workers at the factory, tried to unite and demand an explanation from the boss.
Unfortunately, a few days ago, Shigeru contracted the shadow sickness and died at home.
With his death, the shadow sickness began to spread. The townspeople believed it was a calamity brought by the Asano Family, so not only did they dig up his grave, but they also frequently came to his former home to make a racket.
Sakae initially thought Taka was one of those people, which led to the conflict.
"What exactly are the characteristics of the shadow sickness? Does a person die the moment their shadow disappears? Or are there other symptoms?"
"I can't say for sure... The feeling I got was that after my brother came back, his health was poor. Later, he got the shadow sickness, his health worsened until he couldn't get out of bed... The next day, he was completely..."
Sakae didn't want to recall how his beloved older brother died. He clutched his head in pain.
Their parents had died early, and Sakae was raised by his brother.
It was also to give his younger brother a better life that the older brother went to work at the Sendai Dyeing and Weaving factory. All the money he earned went to pay his brother's tuition at the army school, hoping only that he would make something of himself.
But Sakae, due to incompatibility with the extreme ideologies taught by the school, was not only ostracized by his classmates but was also directly expelled from the school.
After returning home, he was occasionally bullied by fellow villagers who were military academy students. He couldn't even manage small business or farming properly, eventually becoming a good-for-nothing, wallowing in despair until now.
But for his brother, he felt genuine guilt and grief. So when Taka said Shigeru was murdered, he wished he could find the killer immediately and kill them!
"I told my brother not to be foolish! How could such a heartless boss give him justice! He should have taken up arms and smashed that damn company! But he wouldn't listen!" Asano Sakae took another gulp of sake, his voice trembling.
"He always said, how would that be any different from those bastards who bully people... We have to follow the rules... What's the use of rules! Following the rules got him killed! What use was it!"
Taka interrupted Sakae's cursing and asked doubtfully, "You mentioned them uniting... Were there other workers with occupational injuries besides Asano Shigeru?"
"That's right... To save costs, the Dyeing and Weaving Company's protections for workers are very poor! And the government sides with them, so sick people can only wait to die at home. Of course, people aren't willing to accept that!"
"I heard that last year, in Russia, there was a rebellion led by workers. They even became generals and tsars! Now these things are being talked about in the factory too. People want to unite and confront the boss, but then this happened..."
'A coincidence?' Taka pondered.
Besides Shigeru, among the several victims in the town, there was also another person with occupational injuries who had worked in Sendai...
All the clues began to converge. Stories connected, forming a line stretching all the way to the Sendai Dyeing and Weaving Company. This led Taka to a bold hypothesis:
'Could it be that this demon was targeting Asano Shigeru and that other person? Could this demon be related to these workers? Could the others just be a diversion or innocent victims caught up in it...'
As for why the shadow...
'Flesh, blood, internal organs, bones… these things provide power for demons.'
'Perhaps because Asano Shigeru's body had become too polluted to be used for eating, the demon, when killing, had to create the so-called shadow sickness to deceive the public, its true purpose merely to conceal the fact that Asano Shigeru had died from having his life force drained.'
'Perhaps that was it.'
With the line of thought gradually becoming clear, Taka formed a plan.
"You said your brother and others were uniting. Are there other villagers with occupational injuries near the town?"
"...Yes!" Sakae suddenly looked up, trying hard to recall information in his mind. "...Should be... to the north, in Yamamoto... no, Marumori Village! There's a worker there who came back from Sendai with my brother!"
Taka stood up. Sakae also quickly stood up and looked at him:
"Where are you going? Marumori Village?"
"That's right." Taka nodded, placing his hand on the Nichirin Sword at his waist.
"If my guess is correct, tonight, he will be there."