Case File One: A Samurai Dilemma Part Three
Day 4: Friday Afternoon
I sat at the wooden table with Naru and Lin, across from us one of the maids that had some of the strange occurrences happen to her. Everyone know what to do; Naru would interview her, Lin was assigned with typing her answer, and I have the job of emotional support aka refilling the tea.
'Why do I never get the useful jobs?' I looked up as the maid began to tell her story.
"I heard screaming and I woke up in my bedroom. After a while, everything fell silent. Curious I got up and opened my chamber door. I had noticed the door at the end of the hallway open, which is strange because no one occupies that room." She took a deep breath clearly shaken by what she saw.
"I peeked into the room to see who was in there and found a man standing in front of me, with his back turned, he was facing the balcony muttering under his breath I couldn't catch what he was saying. He then turned around and lunged towards me, I was scared so I ran back to my room and slammed the door shut and locked it. Only then did I realize he wasn't behind me, but I was too scared to go back and check it out. After a couple of hours, I managed to fall back asleep, but in the morning I had hand like bruises around my neck. This happened two days ago."
She then pulled off the scarf she was wearing to show us her bruises. They were a dark purple color, each finger making a distinct impression so you couldn't mistake it for anything else but a hands.
"I see" was all Naru said, before dismissing her. He then turned to the SPR team and spoke again, "What do you think we are dealing with here?" he asked everyone for his or her opinions on the case.
"It's obviously an earth bound spirit a simple prayer should dispel it and have the problem solved." Ayako popped in with her usual suggestion.
This caused Bou-san to laugh aloud "How many time have we heard that one before," he said sarcastically.
Ayako bristled at the comment, "Oh, then what do you think it is?" she challenged him. "I never saw you make any speculations."
"I don't know," he said after a moment before shrugging, "But I bet you ten to one it isn't an earth bound spirit, you wouldn't know an earth bound spirit if it came up and kicked you in the rear" he teased her.
sigh, there they go again. It was like this every time Naru asked for their opinions, sometimes I wonder if he just do it for the entertainment purposes of watching them fight. I rolled my eyes as their fighting escalated, and glanced over to John who was busy talking to Masako completely ignoring the argument. Lin was busy doing some type of research on his computer, and Naru just watched the proceedings.
Looking the chiness man Naru finally Naru spoke "Lin was there anything from the camra's or mic's last night?" he asked,
"No" came his response "though the temperature in the last bedroom dropped two degrees last night around ten" he commented, " But the temerature outise droped around the same time so its normal."
turning to the spirit medium, he asked "Hara-san did you sense anything while walking yesterday?"
"One very vague spirit I couldn't get a lock on it to tell what it was though," she responded.
"Looks like our spirit is very shy then, have you found anything new about the previous owners?" he asked Lin again.
"Nothing more than what we already know." Lin commented, "Just like Hokkaido-san said, very little was known about the people or why they died around that time seeing…" he broke off as high pitched female scream permeated the air them.
Ayako and Bou-san immediately stopped their fight. Both of them heading for the door along with John to see what the scream was about, meanwhile, Lin spun around to check the monitors and see if he could spot the source of the disturbance on one of the screens.
"Naru!" Lin exclaimed, pointing to the second monitors from the left, before taking off after bou-san and the others, leaving Masako and me alone with strict orders not to leave the base.
Curious I looked at said monitor wanting to know what all the fuss was about. What I saw caused me to gasp. There in the kitchen was the maid we had talked to this afternoon. She was hanging by a thin rope, swaying slowly back and forth. Her face a pale pasty white, her eyes open wide in terror. Behind her written in her own life's blood, was the word 'Traitor', in big capital letters.
All at once, the dream I had from last night came back to me, I had all but forgotten about it until now. However, once the dream sequence had played itself in my head again, it was followed by several images not from the original dream. These were all of deaths similar to this one. I stood there trembling, just staring at the monitor in shock, watching numbly as Naru and the rest of the team arrived at the kitchen, and escorted the distraught maid that found the corpse out, but I wasn't really comprehending any of it. I was trapped in a sea of images, without my notice tears began to drip down my cheeks, as Masako unsuccessfully kept trying to get my attention, and asking me what was wrong.
All I could hear were the screams of the ones that had died before I was born ringing in my ears. All of them demanding that something be done about their unjust deaths and showing me what happened to them. Their tormenting cries beating down on me, commanding my attention, commanding me to watch, but most of all commanding me to help them. I would not rest until I do as they bid. They vowed it, they would get their justice at last. I was to help them…
Masako P.O.V
I looked at the monitors in shock as the girl from earlier was hanged from the kitchen rafters. It was then that i realized that Mai was whimpering and seamed lost in her own thoughts, her back was turned to me so I couldn't see her face clearly.
'Is it possible she had a dream she hasn't spoken about yet' I briefly wondered, while I set about trying to get her attention.
"Mai" I called gently, shaking her shoulder lightly. When she didn't respond I shook her harder, and called louder but she still didn't respond. I put myself directly in front of her, and noticed tears streaming down her face. Her eyes had a faraway almost glazed look in them, she clearly wasn't in the room now, but off in some other area of the universe where she went for her strange information gathering, but it seemed different this time. The air felt cooler, somehow off around her. It was heavier and thicker, almost like she was surrounded by some unseen force, it made me reluctant to touch her again in fear of getting pulled into whatever she was enduring.
'What's going on here' I idly wondered, as i observed Mai's body start to shake slightly, her eyes glazing over further and her whimpers becoming more prominent.
'This is just great I have to play nursemaid and babysitter now' I thought, looking around I noticed that there was a hand-held radio in the room and it was on.
"Naru" I barked into the radio, praying that he had carried the other radio. When I heard an affirmative answer on the other end of the line I was somewhat relived I really didn't want to play nursemaid to the girl, besides what she saw could be important to the case. The sooner it was solved the sooner I could work on getting Naru to like me as well. I had already concluded that it would be hard to get said attention while he was working, so I decided to threw all of my efforts outside the work environment.
"There's something wrong with Mai, she's not answering me, but she keeps staring at the monitor and shaking, the air around her seems off. I think it might have sparked something." The radio buzzed again, and then Naru's figure hurriedly left from the camera. Which left Bou-san, John, and Lin with the task of removing the body and cleaning the area of the blood, meanwhile Ayako was left with the job of consoling the other maid that found the body.
Naru's P.O.V
I was in the kitchen trying to figure out why the maid I had talked to earlier would hang herself, and the meaning behind the word traitor. I was considering possession since she didn't strike me as the type of person to commit suicide, when Hara-san's voice cut into my thoughts. Mai was acting strange, and wasn't reacting to her voice or touch at all. This had me deeply concerned, after all if something happened to Mai who would make my tea. At least that's what I told myself as I rushed back to the base. I found her there staring at the monitor that was now void of the dead body.
The word Traitor was not that fresh and started drying on the wall, where Lin was busy trying to remove it, John was scrubbing the floor, and Takigawa-san was missing probably taking care of the dead body. Putting both hands on her shoulders, I forcibly steered her shaking form away from the monitor, to the nearby desk chair guiding her to sit down, before she could collapse. Hara-san was right, the air around her was off.
"Mai" I called softly making her look at me. Hearing her name, sparked a brief awareness in her eyes, her lips kept trembling as if trying to say something, but then her eyes glazed back again. I could feel a steady hum in the air around her which confounded me, whatever this thing was it had a firm hold on her and wasn't planning of letting go anytime soon, 'Time to try another tactic' I thought to myself after all this was familiar seeing as I had done it before.
"Mai, What are you seeing?" I asked putting some authority in my voice but keeping it soft so as not to startle her anymore.
Mai's P.O.V
I was vaguely aware when Naru came into the room and steered me into a chair of some sort. In fact, it didn't even surprise me when I saw his piercing gaze enter my line of vision and calling to me. I wanted to answer him I really did, but I kept seeing different flashes of images all jumbling around in my brain. It was hard to form a coherent thought let alone a sentence. I couldn't break free, they wouldn't let me go.
Then he called me again this time with a bit more authority in it. His voice forced its way into my jumbled brain compelling me to tell him what I was seeing and I responded without any conscious thought, I had to answer that voice. Answering would mean I could be free, answering would mean they would leave me in peace.
"So much blood" I whispered, my voice coming out ominously, not sounding like me at all.
I heard Naru's voice querying again, about what I meant.
"He killed them all," I said barely wispering, "He killed every last one of them, He killed them because he was betrayed, Traitors, all of them Traitors he believed, they didn't deserve to live in his eyes. He said that as he sliced them, he claimed that as he strangle, declared it as he beat and murdered them, he yelled it as he pushed them, all of them to their deaths" My voice shook as I uttered the last part, I was exhausted, I had no more energy, all I wanted was to sleep.
"He won't stop until he kills them all." I finished focusing briefly on Naru's concerned face, before I blacked out as the images I kept seeing finally stopped, letting me rest.
Naru's P.O.V
After she blacked out, Mai slumped forwards barely giving me the time to caught her before she hit the floor. The strange prescience that had surrounded her had vanished. Mind buzzing I keep trying to absorb what she had just claimed, while at the same time worrying about the girl in my arms. I picked her up absent-mindedly and carried her to the room she shared with the others. After i placed Mai on her bed, and pulled the covers over her I was finally able to calm down. I was so concerned about her well-being that I couldn't concentrate on anything else. But now even thought I might never understand what happened to her, I do know one thing, and that's if the spirits chose her as their messenger she won't be able to get any rest.
At that moment, she reminded me so much of my brother what's with the way she responded to whatever it was that she saw. She even responded to my voice the way Gene did.
A simple soft command was all it took and she had talked, and as she talked she calmed down and whatever that had a hold of her was able to let go satisfied it had got their message across. Tought, Until the shock wore off I can't use any of it to help us with the case, it was nothing more than a jumble of sentences, But the sooner I could solve the case the sooner she wouldn't be plagued with whatever just happened. I made a mental not to have Lin compile and review the history on all the male figures that lived in the house during the period of time before the attacks started.
One thing I was sure of though as I carefully brushed a few stray locks out of Mai's face was that I needed to solve this case very soon before whatever happened to her occurre again. And it would, whether Mai wish it or not, the spirits of this castle wanted their story told and they just found the vessel to tell it. Why her and not Hara-san, I had no idea. What I know is that if her ability start to turn out the way Gene's did that she won't be able to rest soundly for very long until the spirits were satisfied.
This could just be a freak occurrence though, so I wasn't going to worry about it too much until I could find some more evidence that support that idea. And If it turned out that way she would just have to be trained, it was as simple as that really. Reluctantly I got up to leave the room and inform the others of what had occurred. They would be wanting to know what had happened to Mai.
Mai's P.O.V
'Traitors all of them Traitors!' The thought kept reverberating around me stealing my peace and quiet 'Not this again' I moaned.
Brief flashes of jumbled images danced before my eyes yet again commanding my attention. I distinctly felt each of the blows to my body from the punches and kicks to the stomach, chest, face, and back. I felt big warm hands hold my neck and squeez cutting off my air supply while I clawed futilely at it. I felt the knife sliding over my skin slicing the delicate soft tissue of my stomach and watched as my life's blood began to drain out and felt myself go weak. I felt the knife digging into my neck pulling, tearing, slicing and sawing until my head rolled free. I felt the rope tighten around my neck as I swung back and forth trying to alleviate the presure it created. Not being able to take any more I opened my mouth and screamed, pleaded and begged for it to stop. Anything so long as the pain went away. It was then that Naru appeared before me, grabbing me and pulling me close to his body, shielding me form the images that surrended me. He muttered nonsense words in my ear in an effort to sooth and distract me and when I looked around me again the images had vanished.
"Are you okay?" dream Naru asked concerned, I had deducted it was a dream since Naru never showed his concern in real life.
"I am now" I told him, leaning back against him for support "What was all that?" I questioned him shivering, and was pleased when his arms came up to wrap around me "Don't worry about it, all will be revealed in time I promise you" he told me while gazing down at me softly.
"Naru" I complained not liking the way he was withholding information. He just smiled at me,
"Your powers are growing Mai, don't worry things will make more since later." He told me as if that should explain it all, "You need to wake up now though, your friends are beginning to worry" his hand gently touching my forehead, he smiled one last time "Wake up now Mai" he told me and the world again went black.
Gene's P.O.V
She was gone, I sighed, but she wasn't even supposed to be here this time anyways. I didn't expect her to start crying. I remembered rushing over to her, and sheltering her from the images the castle spirits had bombarded her with all the while feeling helpless since it was the only thing I could do. I was so glad that they went away at my presence and finally left her alone for now. I still hated the fact she called me Naru, but I couldn't tell her who I really was. I was bound against it. I couldn't speak of it until she had figured it out on her own or was told by someone else. Still though it hurt that she think I'm some short of dream, and if that wasn't enought she keep calling me a name that isn't my own.