At noon, Sakae was in his own yard, carefully feeding warm water to the worker who had had much of his life force drained by the faceless shadow figure.
The worker's name was Fujikichi. Like Shigeru, he had once been a worker at the Sendai Dyeing and Weaving Company and was heartlessly abandoned due to occupational injury.
Although the shadow sickness on him had disappeared, his sunken eye sockets and ashen complexion left it uncertain how much longer he could hold on.
"Sa... Sakae-san..." Fujikichi's voice was as faint as a breath of air, striving to open his eyes wide and look at Sakae. "I never imagined that Shigeru-san's death... was because of this monster..."
"Don't talk, Fujikichi... rest well..."
Sakae suppressed his grief, using his sleeve to wipe the cold sweat from Fujikichi's forehead. "Rest and recover with peace of mind. My brother won't have died for nothing. We will definitely seek justice for everyone!"
As he spoke, he turned his gaze towards the silent figure sitting at the doorway, Taka.
Since returning to the Asano residence last night, Taka had not slept a wink, rapidly and carefully investigating the demonic aura situation inside and outside the town.
The scene of deathly stillness and everyone fearing for themselves from yesterday seemed to have been blown away by the wind.
"My shadow... it really seems to have recovered?"
"Yeah, I felt much lighter when I woke up this morning..."
"Did you hear the commotion last night? Seems like that Asano kid brought someone, patrolled the village all night..."
When he returned, he also saw a few children gathered together, scratching in the dirt with sticks—
"Look! My shadow is black!" The children's smiles were innocent, completely unaware of the danger behind it.
Just as he had thought. After the shadow figure disappeared, everyone's shadow sickness was cured.
And now, he was taking advantage of the noon sun to catch a light sleep, replenishing his strength.
"This... young master, what do we do next?"
Sakae's voice sounded from behind him, but Taka didn't open his eyes, merely saying calmly:
"There is no 'we' next. I will go find the source of the shadow figure and resolve this."
"But you alone... don't you need help?"
"Help?" Taka slightly opened one eye, sizing up Sakae, who had recovered some spirit and was at least no longer a mere drunkard. "You should have seen the situation last night. You wouldn't be much help."
He tilted his chin towards Fujikichi lying in the broken-down house. "Your greatest use right now is to take care of him."
....Although Taka's words were very blunt, Sakae understood that while the words were harsh, the reasoning was sound.
'The opponent last night... was clearly not human! And this young master could handle it calmly. I really did seem useless, but....'
"No, I can help!" He insisted. "If those monsters' target is my brother and the others who wanted to unite and cause trouble for the Dyeing and Weaving Company, then I know where they'll go next!"
Taka listened quietly, wondering what insight this drunkard could possibly have.
"Harada Chuichi! They'll go to that man!"
"....Who is this person? Why are you so sure?"
Sakae rubbed his stubble-covered chin, trying hard to recall. "I remember my brother saying that Harada-san was also once a worker at the dyeing factory, but because he couldn't stand the treatment of the workers, he was starting some kind of union? Anyway, the idea was to stand up for my brother and the others!"
"The ultimate target of these monsters must be Harada-san! He's in Sendai. I can take you to him!"
'Sendai City... the faceless demon... the dyeing factory...'
Taka's eyes opened slightly. He took in Sakae's words and began to contemplate his next plan in his mind...
Thud!
Just as he was thinking, Sakae suddenly fell to his knees, executing a standard dogeza bow, knocking his head heavily against the cold dirt ground!
"I beg you! Please take me with you to Sendai!"
"I know I can't fight those monsters, but I know the roads in Sendai. At the very least, I know a few places where we can stay!"
"My brother's revenge must be had! I have to see with my own eyes those damn things destroyed! I beg you! I... I'll be your slave, do anything you want!"
Turning his head to look at this man who kept bowing, his voice trembling, Taka didn't know what to say.
Suddenly, he remembered his teacher's words:
'Taka, try to cooperate with your teammates! In this world, one always needs companions to move forward together, it makes things easier...'
"Companions... huh..."
He murmured, standing up lightly, not looking at Sakae's pleading gaze.
"Follow."
Taka's voice still carried no warmth, but to Sakae at this moment, it sounded like heavenly music.
He suddenly looked up, thanking him excitedly. But Taka didn't understand what there was to thank. After all, Sakae might be killed by a demon soon. He really couldn't figure it out...
Without any lengthy goodbyes, Sakae entrusted the injured Fujikichi to a familiar aunt next door, casually changed into some passable clothes, grabbed a bit of dried food and water, and hurriedly followed Taka northward.
After a day and a half of travel, following the Oshu highway north, the two of them saw from afar a massive city slowly rising on the horizon.
At the city's edge, factory smokestacks pierced the sky, rolling with thick black smoke.
Along the industrial zone, the roofs of the castle town spread out like dark waves, occasionally interspersed with some avant-garde designed, strikingly different Western-style buildings… banks, Western clothing stores, or tea restaurants run by the wealthy.
"Samurai-san, that's Sendai!" Sakae's voice rang out, carrying a subdued familiarity.
He pointed to the northwest of the city, where a stately complex of buildings stood on a small hill, glinting with a black-gold lustre in the afterglow of the setting sun, dazzling and brilliant:
"That's the Osaki Hachiman Shrine, the guardian shrine of our Sendai region! If you have time, you can go pray for protection. It's very effective!"
"Just call me Taka." Taka walked on, continuously probing the surrounding area with his Reiatsu, trying to find any feeling of wrongness.
The sky here was oppressive, and the air was filled with the smell of chemical agents everywhere, giving a very oppressive feeling.
The closer they got to the city core, the more pronounced the noise and bustle of the metropolis became.
The wide main road began to fork, crisscrossing in all directions. Drying laundry hung like a patchwork of flags above the alleys.
Boisterous sounds of drinking games came from small taverns. In front of public water taps, housewives washed clothes and vegetables while exchanging gossip, though the topic always circled back to soaring rice prices.
Square-headed iron monsters, which Taka had never seen before, continuously blared their horns with crackling sounds, often targeting the long lines of rickshaw pullers competing with them for customers.
Gentlemen in suits and leather shoes, merchants in kimonos carrying briefcases, countryside women with huge bundles on their backs, and young women in modern Western dresses but still reserved in manner....
All kinds of people converged and diverged here, together composing the living tableau of the largest city in the Tohoku region during the Taisho era.
"Which way now?"
To be honest, this was Taka's first time moving through a crowded metropolis.
Even in his previous life, he had never entered the central area of the Seireitei. This kind of scene was indeed somewhat unfamiliar to him.
"Let's go to Sanmonjiya on Higashi-Rokubancho first! It's an old bookstore where the workers often gather. The owner is a good person. Before... before, he even helped me a lot. We can contact Harada-san through him!"
Taka nodded slightly, signaling Asano Sakae to lead the way.
At the same time, his gaze shifted slightly towards the Osaki Hachiman Shrine on the high ground....
He always felt the atmospheric pressure there was strange....