ALL THERE WAS
PART 4
REFUGE
"Alright, so your friend fucking bit the bullet in those woods a couple months ago." Sugiura Ayumu hadn't hard started the car yet. She was waiting for Ritsu to finish the story.
"Could you please be a little more sensitive about this?" Mugi frowned, still incredibly shaken up from their ordeal in the forest. Even if they were out of it, they certainly weren't home yet.
"Right, right, shit, sorry." She apologized, sort of. "Anyway, let me get this all straight here. Girl you both know just disappears and her someone fucking goes to town on her sister with a knife. Then their best friend, who's also your friend shoots herself, but you two didn't know this until like yesterday. You said it was dreams that made you come here?"
"Yeah, I had dreams that made me want to come and check on Azusa." Ritsu answered.
"That's what happened to me too." Mugi added.
Ayumu nodded, "What were these dreams like?"
"Hard to explain." Ritsu had to think hard for a moment. "They were mostly dreams of our friend, Azusa being alone in the woods like these ones, and her needing my help. I had them a couple weeks ago, and made the time just recently to come and visit. I was too late of course. The big thing I remember from those dreams was how dark everything was, and how the sky seemed to sort swirl around too."
"And you?" The black haired girl glanced at Mugi.
"I'd rather not say." Mugi exhaled, avoiding eye contact.
"Why's what?" She probed.
"I just don't want to talk about it." The blonde answered.
"Look, I'm trying to fucking help so just indulge me." Ayumu frowned.
Ritsu then intervened. "Hey! If Mugi doesn't want to tell you, she doesn't have to. This is really personal stuff to just be telling a stranger, why do you want to know?"
"Aha! The million dollar question!" The lady in black laughed. "Ritsu, Mugi-san, you two are in the presence of someone who has been studying the local occult for a good six years now. These woods are a fucking hotspot for this shit with the laundry list of unexplained happenings, like the stuff you found in those obituaries. But oh no, no, no, it goes fucking deeper than that I'll tell you. Dig around a bit, and you start learning about some really crazy shit that happened in this area back when people thought the Emperor was a fucking god and village wide bukakke sessions on a single priestess were socially acceptable!"
"Okay, enough with the imagery." Ritsu scowled, blinking a brief mental image of a shrine maiden being basted with male spunk out of her head. She hoped against hope the same picture wasn't conjured in Mugi's mind. There were parts of her nation's old culture that Ritsu really didn't like.
"Well, back then there used to be this village in those woods." She excitedly told Ritsu. "I guess some really fucked up shit went down there. I'm talking little kids getting sacrificed to ancient pagan gods, oni spirits, and shit like that. Yeah, kids getting sacrificed, crazy suicides, cattle mutilations, and a lot of kidnappings from surrounding communities. Well, the fucking twentieth century rolls around, and right around the time that we're becoming buddies with our pals over in the Third Reich; the Japanese government decides it's had a fucking 'nough of this little creepy village. So, they give a town wide eviction notice and the whole place is burned to the ground. Problem is, none of that creepy shit happening around the over villages ever stopped. Your little friend Azusa looks like another in a long line. People thought it was because the people from that village just continued doing their creepy stuff in other places, but none of them were ever caught and there isn't any proof to support that claim."
"God... I don't… I don't believe this." Ritsu shook her head. "I mean, how come I've never heard of any of this stuff before? We live right by here, we should have heard about some of this."
"I don't understand either." Mugi sighed.
Ayumu raised a finger. "That, my friends, is because not many people fucking know about this. Back when that village got torched, the government wanted to kinda keep it under wraps. It was an isolated enough town that nobody beyond the real close communities knew about it, and the people who did know didn't care. People didn't talk about it, and were glad that this place was gone. I was in the woods because I've been trying to fucking find the ruins of that place for months now."
"Why! Why would you possibly want to find them?" Ritsu shouted in disbelief at her.
"Because I wanna see what it can tell me about the shit that goes on in those woods!" The black haired girl snapped at her. "I mean, fuck, you know what it's like there! People go in there alone, end up either dead or get these crazy ass audio and visual hallucinations and end up fucking kilometers away from where they came in within fucking minutes. That place is haunted, possessed, something, and I'm wanting to know what's causing it."
"So you can what, stop it?" Ritsu asked.
Ayumu shook her head, "No, I don't give a damn about that. I'm just curious, you know? This is crazy stuff that nobody else knows about but me and a few of the older priests in the local shrines. They were really cool with hooking me up with some documents from early 20th century, and even shit that's over a century old. Then one of the more influential priest guys decided I was a fucking demon witch or something and now I get chased away from those shrines and get cease and desist letters if I publish any information about this online."
"They're very sensitive about this stuff." Mugi spoke up. "Those priests I mean, and I kind of agree with them. I think this information is sort of on a need-to-know basis, and I'm starting to think Ricchan and I need to know. What else can you tell us?"
"Well, I covered the real fucking basics." Ayumu shrugged. "Look, like I said, I got a bunch of those docs back at my place. I'm talkin' letters, a few blurry pictures, telegraphs and even some fucking police reports from back then! This stuff is gold! If you wanna come over to my place and check 'em all out, be my fucking guest. You two seem cool, so you know what, I insist! I got this real fucking little cozy place all to myself."
"It's tempting…" Mugi placed a finger on her chin. "You kind of helped us out of a bind, Ayumu-san, are you sure this is alright? Wouldn't we be imposing?"
"Shit, not at all!" She happily and vulgarly assured Mugi. "I barely get to hang out with people, nonetheless people who know the same stuff I do. No, really, I insist."
"I don't think we can pass up this opportunity to learn more." Ritsu agreed. "I think… I think all these pieces to a puzzle are spread out, and we're starting to find them for the first time. If we can put the pieces together, and see what they make, maybe we can also undo this? I don't know, this is just off the top of my head. I've heard stories of spirits and demons being exorcized with holy rites. Maybe we can do something similar."
"That would be kind of a good idea, yes." Mugi smiled at Ritsu's suggestion. "It also seems very proper and Japanese. I like it! Wait, shouldn't you call your mother and tell her where we will be?"
"Oh, good thinking Mugi!" Ritsu gasped, and went for her cell phone in her pocket. She made a quick phone call to her mother, who was obviously curious to where the two girls had been for the last couple hours. Ritsu told her that they had met up with a friend from high school, and had gone out for drinks and were going to stay at her place. Mrs. Tainaka believed her story without question and told her daughter to have fun and stay safe before they said goodbye and hung up.
Stay safe. Heh.
One question that Ritsu may have been asked in this situation was, Hey Ricchan, why didn't you use your phone to call for help in the woods? Her fearful mind had caused her to forget that was an option. Even if she had remembered, who would she call and just how would they help?
Hey mom, I'm in the middle of the woods, completely lost, a dead friend talked to me, and thorns scraped me up. Can I get a ride home?
"Right, so where do you live, Ayumu-san?" Ritsu asked as she put her cell phone back in the pocket of her leather jacket.
"Hey, call me Yumi-chan. It's a lot more fucking feminine since Ayumu is pretty much a fucking dude's name anyway." She grumbled and put her keys in the ignition. "I live about fifty kilometers down the road here. My place is kind of in the sticks, not really in any town."
"You can call me Mugi-chan." The blonde keyboardist happily smiled to what she was considering her new friend. She outstretched her hand for Yumi to shake, and continued, "I can't thank you enough for helping us get out of those woods. You two are right, there's something definitely very bad going on, and I think we should everything we can to stop it."
"Heh, well said Mugi." Ritsu giggled.
Ayumu enthusiastically shook Mugi's hand, smiling the whole way, and replied, "You know what sweetheart, I think I'll help you two if you really fucking think you can make a difference. Plus, how could I disagree with a little cutie like Mugi-chan?"
The black haired girl shot Mugi a quick wink. The blonde instantly blushed, bashfully replying with, "Th-Thank you."
"Yeah, now you just sit back and enjoy the ride cutie." She sat back normally in the driver's seat and finally started the car. As she shifted it out of neutral she muttered, "Yeah, I can totally see why he chose you."
"Wait, what?" Ritsu asked at her staggeringly creepy and bizarre statement.
"Nothing, just being fucking weird." Ayumu laughed. "Say, you two like music?"
"You… could say that." Ritsu didn't feel any better. She glanced over at Mugi, who looked really bothered by what Ayumu had just said. It struck too close to home with all the unexplainable things that had just happened in the woods. Her face was pale, and her hands were trembling. Ritsu unbuckled her seatbelt and slid over to sit in the middle space of the back seat, right against Mugi. She put her arm around Mugi's shoulder, trying to give her some platonic comfort.
"Man, you sure you two aren't like-"
"Yes we're sure!" Ritsu snapped at the driver, struggling to maintain her cool. If this Ayumu didn't start keeping her comments to herself, Ritsu was going to see if she couldn't bust her for possession at a later date. The whole car smelled like pot smoke, and chances were her house would too.
Ayumu pulled onto the road and began driving, going slightly over the speed limit. As she continued down the straight and narrow road, she turned on the CD player to grace them with the glorious and renewing sound of death metal. The song that played, Cannibal Corpse's The Bleeding, seemed to play out like every last death metal song ever to Ritsu. It started off with an almost decent intro with some impressive musicianship then just plummeted into nonsense when the singer began his work.
Besides the obnoxious grunting of Chris Barnes over down tuned guitars and double bass, the trip through the dark was almost enjoyable. Mugi leaned against Ritsu, resting her head on her shoulder and spent most of the ride dozing off. The only time she paid any attention to the music was when the mix CD Ayumu was playing hit the band Children of Bodom's self-titled song, since they sample Beethoven's fifth for several measures. She found that part actually a little interesting with her soft spot for neo-classical music. Besides that, she just sat there contently against the warm body that was Ritsu's. The smell of Ritsu's leather jacket was like candy to her nose, and it made her consider picking up her own cool leather jacket next chance she got. She couldn't wear it at the same time as Ritsu though, because she didn't want to steal her friend's image, or take away from it. The drummer just looked so… so bad ass with that jacket. It made Mugi want to convince her to pose in cool ways with it later too.
By the time they arrived at Ayumu's little place forty-five minutes later, Mugi was already fast asleep and dreaming about her days in Sakuragaoka with her best friends. Ritsu gently nudged the girl to wake her up, and sleepily she followed the other two inside.
The house was a two bedroom little place surrounded by undeveloped property. Thankfully it wasn't forest around it, but knee high grass covering small hills. The grass on the lawn of her home didn't look like it had ever seen a lawn mower. The windows were dirty and smudged from the outside and covered with blankets pinned the wall from the inside. A little ways down the road there were a few other houses, but it was hard to tell if they were even occupied or not. No lights shone from any of them.
The inside certainly wasn't much better. Papers, books, and empty fast food and take-out containers covered every available surface. The only thing that seemed remotely clean was the computer desk and the absurdly expensive looking computer that resided on it. The black leather swivel chair –which no longer swiveled- in front of it looked well used, like it was where Sugiura spent most of her time. The surface of the desk was clean and polished as well, a staggering contrast to the filthiness of the rest of the whole. The air smelled like more weed, not to Ritsu's surprise at all, along with the smell of microwaved noodles and dirty dishes that were crying out to be cleaned from the sink.
"Don't let looks deceive you; I got all the important shit organized." Ayumu told them as she walked across the carpet in her shoes and dropped her car keys on her computer desk. Mugi and Ritsu slipped her their shoes next to door, and Ritsu hung up her jacket on a hook above an empty umbrella basket.
"Hmm, what a cozy little place." Mugi tried to sound pleasant.
"Hey, thanks." Ayumu walked back towards them from her desk. "So, bathroom's pretty big actually since this used to be a hostile or something like that. Uhh, you two hungry? I could fucking whip something up. Just let me open up the windows in the spare bedroom, since it's kinda musty in there."
"Yeah, food would be great, thanks." Ritsu hadn't realized how hungry she was until dinner was mentioned. Neither of them had eaten yet. The drummer nudged Mugi and asked, "Do you want to go straight to bed? You look tired."
Mugi smiled and shook her head. "No, I'm wide awake now. I uh… need to uh…"
Ritsu looked at her quixotically as she struggled to finish her sentence. "Is something wrong?"
"I…" She stopped there and nearly tackled Ritsu into a tight, squeezing hug. Mugi kissed her on the cheek with a loud, cute smooching noise before saying, "Thank you Ricchan. Thank you, thank you, and thank you. For all I know you could have just saved my life tonight."
"Heh heh, don't mention it." Ritsu blushed bright red as Mugi let go of her. She touched her cheek where Mugi's soft lips had kissed her. The sensation was still there, and it made her feel kind of giddy. She had to tell herself the kiss had been, of course, platonic. Trying to read deeper into it just because her friend was gay was unfair and insensitive.
Ayumu left the door to the spare bedroom open and she slipped into her own dark room and closed the door. From behind the closed door she called out, "Gimme a moment, I'm changing out of my clothes."
That made Ritsu realize something. "Wait, Mugi, we didn't think this over. Our clothes are filthy."
"Hmm, this is a problem." Mugi nodded.
The house was small, and their hostess was able to hear of their plight. She returned from her room, whose light never turned on, without any pants and a new, longer shirt than before. This time it was a band shirt for the group Alice in Chains which was miles better than her old one. Seattle grunge just had a much friendlier vibe than Greek black metal. Strangely enough, Ritsu could see that Ayumu used lotion on her legs, judging by how smooth her white flesh was. Yet her fashion sense and care to her outward appearance beyond that was minimal.
"I got some bathrobes you two can throw on while I run your clothes through the wash." She offered them.
"Wow, that sounds great, thanks!" Mugi exclaimed.
"Yeah, thanks. You're really helping us out here." Ritsu also thanked their hostess.
"Hey, don't mention. It's cool I can share my fucking research with some people finally." She was already heading off to go find those bathrobes. "Like I said, my bath is pretty big. You two okay bathing together, or does seeing another girl naked make you run screaming?"
"Is that okay with you…? Ricchan?" Mugi asked, blushing slightly. Ritsu couldn't see it, but Ayumu could, Mugi looked strangely hopeful.
"Yeah, of course. We took a bath together at my place, remember?" Ritsu answered.
"Okay, you two get all soapy, wet, steamy, and naked, and I'll make us something to eat." The black hair girl winked in their direction. Ritsu bit her lower, and was slightly embarrassed at that. Mugi didn't seem to mind. The drummer noticed this and did her best not to associate that with Mugi's sexuality. She had to remind herself that just because Mugi liked girls, it didn't mean she liked her too. From what Ritsu could tell from what Mugi said, the blonde seemed to be into girls who had a traditional sort of beauty. Himeko was a perfect example of this. Ritsu was a lean and mean tomboy; pretty much on the complete other end of the spectrum. Part of her was sort of relieved that Mugi probably had absolutely no attraction to her, because it meant their friendship wouldn't ever become awkward. At the same time, she kind of wished Mugi did find her attractive just for the pure gratification of being noticed like that.
Ritsu decided it was better just to not think about that stuff at all.
Ayumu left them two robes folded up on a shelf in the bathroom near the door. Both of which were unsurprisingly black. The two other girls stripped down to their underwear and their hostess took their clothes to wash; just before giving the near naked Mugi a creepy, predatory look. Mugi shivered a bit at it, and tried to just to equate it to Ayumu being more or less socially inept. She probably didn't even realize that the way she looked at her was even inappropriate.
Her comment on the home previously being a hostel made a bit of sense with the size of the bathroom. It was easily the largest room in the house, laid out much like a traditional public bath. Looking around, Ritsu couldn't help but wonder if this whole place hadn't just been an old sento converted into a full blown home. There was more than enough room for five people to bathe there with the single large bath. Her theory was supported further when she saw the shelves near the door leading in. They looked like they had replaced where a bandai once stood.
Once naked, and hair band gone, Ritsu went to start the bath. She turned the faucet for the hot water, but nothing happened; same with the cold water. With a heavy sigh, she walked over to the door and called, "Heeey, Yumi-chan, I can't get any water in here!"
After a couple seconds, the hostess replied, "Oh, yeah, shit, sorry about that! Uh, the plumbing over there is kinda fucked since the boiler on the other side of the wall kind of exploded!"
"It exploded?" Ritsu didn't believe this.
"Yeah!" Ayumu shouted back. "Uh, over on the shelves are some washbowls you can use. The fucking shower faucets still work, but no hot water since you know, the fucking boiler exploded!"
"Okay, thanks!" Ritsu called out, and turned to face the shelves. Sure enough, there were five or six washbowls stacked on the shelf beneath the one with the robes. She grabbed two and handed one to her naked pal.
"Wow, I haven't used one of these in years!" Mugi happily exclaimed. "This is so exciting."
"Eh, where are you from again?" Ritsu muttered under her breath, and also grabbed two wash towels that were near the robes as well. She had really looked forward to taking a nice hot bath instead of scrubbing herself with a cold, wet towel, but she decided she could manage.
"I think we should ask Yumi-chan if she has a first aid kit." Mugi said to Ritsu, her voice laden with concern.
Ritsu looked down at all the cuts on her legs and arms and shook her head. "Nah, they're pretty light and barely bled at all. I should be fine after washing up."
"I'm sorry you got hurt coming to get me." Mugi whispered as she went to draw water from the shower for her washtub. "I really don't know what came over me; I really don't know. It was just like this urge or calling that I had to-"
"Shh." Ritsu cut her off from beside her. "You don't need to apologize, Mugi. I know it wasn't your fault. I'd risk my behind to save you any day of the week, because that's what friends do. These cuts I got here? They stung at first but I can't feel them at all now. Don't worry about them, and just be glad we're both safe now."
"You're so sweet Ricchan." Mugi blushed. "I won't say sorry, but I will thank you again. It makes me scared to think of what could have happened if you didn't show up when you did. If… if there's anything I can do to really say thank you, let me know, okay?"
"Yeah, of course." Ritsu nodded, and then placed a finger on her chin. "Hmm… there is that new CD I've been wanting for a while now; but I can get that myself no problem. Wait, I know, there's that game that came out last year… and I could use a good pair of Iron Cobras since I'm trying to build up double bass endurance. Not that I plan to join a band that really needs that, I just want to be the most versatile drummer I can. Plus, doing Judas Priest covers for YouTube is always fun. Anyway, I'm trying to put together a really cool acoustic kit, name brand stuff across the board!"
"I could easily buy the whole thing for you!" Mugi happily offered with a smile on her face. "We can drive on down the music store that has it, or order it online with my debit card. Daddy gives me plenty of money, so it wouldn't be a problem."
"Oh, no-no-no-no-no, I couldn't make you pay for that." Ritsu said with a guilty wave of her arms. "The price online for this stuff was in USD, and it was close to three-thousand, which is nearly a month's salary for me in yen. I was just kind of kidding. How about instead of that, you have to treat me to dinner at a nice place… and then a movie!"
"Done and done." The keyboardist looked so happy she could burst. "I know a bunch of really nice places, places my parents would have company dinners at. I could rent the whole restaurant so it's just us!"
"You don't have to do that, really." Ritsu chuckled. "Let's just have a nice little dinner as friends and see what's playing. Please don't spend too much on me."
"How much is too much?"
"If the amount of money you spend on me could also be used to buy a new LCD TV, it's too much." Ritsu answered.
"But that's hardly any at all!" Mugi gasped.
"Different people have different ideas of what's considered a lot of money. If you spent a lot of money on me, I'd feel bad, so I'll tell you what's too much, alright?"
"Alright!"
With that the two of them went to bathing in the ice cold water they were forced to work with. It was starting to get late, but the oxymoron burn of the ice was enough to keep the two of them wide awake. Ritsu was shivering as she scrubbed the blood, sweat, and dirt off her body. She shivered and her teeth rattled like the double bass of an Amon Amarth song. As she finished rinsing the shampoo from her hair, Ritsu couldn't help but comment, "I can't imagine people having to take baths like this back before hot water was the norm."
"I'm sure they warmed water up in other ways. We're just kind of unlucky right now." Mugi was much more adept at hiding how cold she was. Over the last ten minute, she had been covertly sneaking peaks at Ritsu's naked body, silently admiring how slender and fit she was. There was a bit of jealousy in her too, since all she had done after high school was gain weight. She was by no means fat, but was long past the point where she could be considered slim. Mugi mustered up the courage to throw Ritsu a compliment over her body. "Wow Ricchan, you look really great, your body I mean."
'Great, she's going to equate that statement with my sexuality. I really could have said that better…' The blonde mentally cringed.
"Oh, you think so?" Ritsu was pleasantly surprised at the compliment.
"Yes, you look so fit and strong!" Mugi swooned.
The drummer smiled, and couldn't help but flex the slender muscles of her abdomen and arms. She had the body of a swimmer, skinny, lean, and tight; the kind that would look great in a swimsuit even if she lacked the curves that Mio and Mugi both had. "I'm glad you noticed! With drumming and the physical portions of the police academy, I have to be in shape."
"Was the police academy hard?" The blonde conversationally asked, and began rubbing her hand against Ritsu's flexed right arm. It was so smooth and strong, and it made her want to just rest her head against it.
"At… times…" Ritsu was a bit surprised by her gesture. "All the stuff they made me remember was tricky, and there's a seminar where you have to take a taser and pepper spray to the face. I can't understand how some officers can be so liberal with that stuff. Pepper spray is like Hell in a can, and being tased hurts so bad you just kind of fall to the ground."
"That sounds awful!" Mugi exclaimed.
Ritsu shrugged. "Yeah, it was, but I kind of see why they made us do it. I'm a lot less inclined to just start spraying this stuff at people now that I know how bad it hurts."
Their conversation tapered off into just catching up with each other's lives. Mugi was happy to hear about Ritsu's stories about becoming a policewoman as they dried off together. There wasn't much to say about her own life at the university. She didn't want to tell Ritsu how she had few friends, who she rarely spoke to outside of classes or labs. She didn't want to trouble Ritsu with her loneliness, and go on about how much she missed her and Mio. Even under these strange and chilling circumstances, Mugi felt strangely happier than she had been in a long time. Whatever they were facing, it was worth the risk as long as she could be with her best friend.
Clad in undergarments and dark bathrobes, the two of them rejoined their hostess in the main room. Ayumu had prepared a meal of microwaved take-out food, Chinese stuff, most of it still cold in the middle. Even if the taste and texture was enough to trigger Ritsu's gag reflex, she was too hungry to object to the meal. Mugi, on the other hand, didn't seem to dislike it in the slightest. She had never eaten anything quite so exotic, and it was all a very exciting ordeal.
"The stuff all over the place here, shit's not really important." Ayumu loosely pointed towards the stacks of papers and the like surrounding them. In her other hands were chopsticks which she didn't seem to be all that proficient went. Both Mugi and Ritsu found that a bit strange. "Out back, against the house, there's stairs leading down to the basement. Down there is where the stuff you fucking want is."
"I have to go down into… your basement?" Ritsu frowned, making her unhappiness towards that idea known.
"I've had like, four break-ins in the last year, I'm not keeping my shit where people can find it." The black haired girl told her. "Little shits don't check out the basement, because they probably think nothing's in there. Calm down, it's not some creepy ass sex dungeon that I'm going to lock you in forever. Here, I'll let you hold onto my car keys while you're down there."
"Why would I want your car keys?"
"As collateral." She answered. "And if you really feel that bad about going down there, just find what you need and haul it back up here."
"Yeah, I think I'll do that." Ritsu decided.
"Cool, cool." Ayumu nodded twice. "I got the two futons out in the guest room, so whenever you want to fucking crash, go ahead. I'm about to go fall asleep actually. The key to the stairs is on my key ring with the car keys. It's the biggest one. Oh yeah, and if you make off with my car or something like that, I'll fucking kill you. I know people, okay?"
"You realize I'm a policewoman, right?" Ritsu scowled. "Making death threats at me isn't exactly the smartest thing you could be doing, even if you're just kidding around." She paused and sighed. "Then again, you are kind of helping us both out a lot here. You sort of have the right to make creepy offensive jokes since this is your house and all."
"I'm glad we both fucking understand this." Their hostess stood up and stretched. "Bleh, I'm more tired than I thought. I'm gonna go watch a movie or something on my laptop then crash. 'Night you two."
"Good night." Ritsu waved her off.
"Sleep well, Yumi-chan!" Mugi gave her a pleasant smile.
Ayumu smiled back at the blonde, winking at her. "You too, sweetheart."
Ritsu ignored the obvious flirting and realized there was still a table full of fast food containers. There were plenty more laying around the house, so Ritsu just decided to leave what was left of dinner on the table. She couldn't even find where the garbage was supposed to anyway. It was completely beyond her how anyone could live this way. Mugi viewed Ayumu's home the same way she viewed their dinner. It was very interesting and exciting, but just a little too smelly…
"Are you going to go down into the basement?" Mugi asked the drummer as soon as they were alone. Her voice was quiet, a whisper, but she didn't really have a reason for keeping quiet.
Ritsu nodded. "Yeah, I'm a bit sleepy, but I want to check this stuff out while it's still fresh on my mind. Gonna come down there with me?"
"No, I think I'll make you some tea then go to bed." She answered.
"Oh, that's nice of you, thanks."
"No problem. Try not to stay up too late, okay?"
"Got it."
Outside it had begun raining again, but Ritsu was able to find Ayumu's dryer and retrieve her now warm clothes. Clad in warm, clean grab, she grabbed her leather jacket and went around back. Two slanted doors guarded by a padlock marked the entrance below. Fumbling a bit with the keys, Ritsu found the right one to bypass the lock and greeted by steep concrete stairs descending into blackness. She left the doors open and stepped down, one step at a time. There was a sense of dread building up inside her, one she couldn't quite explain. She felt like walking down those stairs was crossing some kind of threshold, a threshold she wouldn't be able to go back from. That was wrong though, she decided, because she had already crossed that threshold when she stepped into the woods earlier that evening. Had it really only been earlier that night? I felt like eons ago. Still, she had stepped past something and she couldn't ever return. The world, as her and Mugi knew it, didn't work the way they thought. There were things beyond what normal people saw. Black and sinister things that made Ritsu wonder how much of traditional Japanese folklore was based on truth. It made her wonder how many stories of monsters in the closet were real. Her perception on what was truth and what wasn't was now forever warped, for better or worse.
Stepping down to the last stair, she felt around for a light switch and found one. With a quick flick, she turned it on and brought light to the dark, barren chamber that Ayumu used to house her secretive research. Lit dimly by a single bulb, the basement was little more than a few card tables with neat stacks of papers and boxes beneath them. There were a few gardening tools lying around, but none of them looked to have seen use in years, or even possibly decades.
Ritsu took a deep breath and wondered if this was worth doing that night. A big part of her wanted to just go lay down upstairs next to Mugi and sleep all of this away. She couldn't though, she knew she had to do this while it was fresh on her mind; or at least start.
All of a sudden she felt extremely alone down there, like she had felt when she was in the woods. With the sounds of the rain outside and the cool spring chill pouring down at her back, she felt like she had never left the shadows of those tall, corpselike trees. It was a sense of loneliness that made her want to just ball up and cry, and she couldn't understand why she felt that way. Ritsu had to suck it up and be brave though, and push past this unknown and unwarranted fear.
She was in luck though; the stuff she started with was immediately relevant. The drummer sat back on an uncomfortable folding chair and began reading through everything she could. Ayumu had left sticky notes cataloguing and organizing stuff, which made it so much easier for Ritsu. She sat there for hours and hours, completely engrossed in the material. She wondered how much this stuff would be worth to scientists, historians, or a university. It seemed to document the region's history in a way nothing else ever had.
The first big thing she learned was that Ayumu was incorrect about the Japanese government torching that town. The government had taken responsibility for the fire that destroyed the village, but hadn't caused it. The fire had been started by a local who authorities speculated had been stockpiling gasoline for some time to help spread the fire. With how fast the conflagration had occurred, and how quickly the town had been reduced to ash, there had to have been some kind of planning and set up. The theory was that some arsonist had spread gas all around in the middle of the night and lit the place up in the morning.
That was what made the frightening occurrences and crimes related to this small, unnamed village even more chilling. The fire had resulted in a full blown massacre, with all but a few of the one-hundred and fifty residents being killed. Despite this, the problems that plagued the neighboring communities, the ones that had been blamed on the burnt village, hadn't stopped. People winding up dead through suicide, in such a way that commonly looked like murder, continued in that part of the woods and haven't ever stopped. Azusa, and those others, were all part of a long, unexplained line. Up until the late 80's, older authorities were convinced that these were not suicides, despite what any evidence suggested. They believed that these were murders committed by a secretive cult with roots in traditional Satanism as found medieval Europe around the time of the crusades and the height of the Templar's power. Eventually these members of the local authorities all retired or left the police force in some other way, and these theories disappeared with them.
This idea that the old villagers had been members of a satanic cult was supported by evidence found amongst the wreckage and ruins of the village. Several basements where cult practices occurred had survived the fire and were raided by the police of neighboring towns. They found evidence supporting human sacrifice, child rape, cannibalism, bloodletting, cattle mutilation, and a plethora of other unspeakable things. There were written documents too, detailing on how unholy rituals should be carried out. None of these survived though as the Japanese government had them burned to keep this whole thing quiet.
Amongst those documents were Latin verses that baffled police at the time.
In nonime satani...
In donime satani..
Maleus satani...
Ave satani...
These were clearly satanic verses, which had absolutely no place among this village. The rest of the documents suggested that the cultists followed local, pagan gods that were unique to them. The Bible was presumably unknown to these people, and the ideas of God or Lucifer should have been alien, Latin as well. Other investigators suggested that these were not in fact verses to Satan, being that the Latin word Satana translated into 'foe'. This meant that these could have just been hymns to their pagan gods who opposed traditional religious figures both eastern and western.
The pagan deities the cultists followed and committed atrocities in the name of seemed to all follow a variation of a single theme. The theme was pure suffering, and making others suffer in their name. The followers apparently believed by making other people suffer; they would achieve access to a sort of higher existence. This higher existence, which mirrored Heaven, Nirvana, and multiple other religions' versions of paradise; was mentioned many times in the destroyed documents. This paradise was supposed to be a world of dreams where nearly anything was possible. The world of dreams was said to span over countless other parallel universes, and there one could meet their alternate self if they knew how to do so. The only way to access this 'paradise' of the mind was through death, and this lead to more than a few suicides.
Upon reading this part, Ritsu could only wonder if all the suicides in the woods were because the victims wanted access to this paradise. She dismissed that thought though, because it somehow implied that Azusa was a cultist. That idea was both absurd and insulting.
The one thing that separated this dream world paradise away from other religious variations was that it wasn't completely perfect. It was expressly stated that people could die again there. What happened after that was a mystery though. If the person entering this dream world was ignorant to what it was like, they would surely meet their death or become an eternal slave to the chief deity known simply as the Entity of Suffering.
The other name for the Entity of Suffering was the Forest's Keeper.
"In the eyes of the forest's keeper, you've died a thousand times."
The world of dreams was said to span over countless other parallel universes, and there one could meet their alternate self if they knew how to do so…
Ritsu's hands began to shake, and suddenly she didn't want any part in this. She wanted to go home to her apartment and do enough drugs or something to just forget this all. She didn't want to piece together this puzzle, she just wanted to sweep all the pieces under the rug and forget about them. Her mind worked against her though, formulating theories as to what everything she learned meant. She wondered if this Entity of Suffering was the one who controlled the forest. She wondered if it was the one making people commit suicide, by making them suffer so much that they couldn't bear living any longer. If that were the case, she wanted to give it a swift punch to the nose for what it made Azusa do. If punching a god was too much, then she'd find some other way to get even.
"His time is coming." A hissing, female voice Ritsu didn't recognize said from the darkness behind her. Her heart nearly exploded out of her chest from surprise. She tried to look behind her, to see who had said this, but found she couldn't move. Blackness was slowly covering the lit parts of the room, like a strange kind of liquid darkness. The voice spoke again, this time to the left of her, still out of sight. "This time he'll come back and be bigger than ever."
"Who… who are you?" Ritsu's voice came out meek and strained from terror. She had to bite down afterwards to keep from screaming at the voice whispered in her right ear.
"I'm nobody." The stranger's breath was ice cold on Ritsu's ear. She moved again, completely silent, and spoke from behind. "I'm just a simple person who thinks it's funny how all six of you somehow managed to get involved in this."
"S-Six?" Ritsu squeaked.
She spoke again from the left, "The three Hirasawa sisters, the black haired Nakano girl, you and the absolutely lovely vessel, Kotobuki Tsumugi."
Three Hirasawa sisters? What is she talking about, Ui and Yui were the only ones. And why is Mugi a vessel? What does that mean!
The creeping darkness of the room was now crawling over Ritsu, slowly enveloping her from all sides. It was painfully cold, and no matter how much she struggled, she couldn't get away from it. Tears were spilling down her cheeks and she was worried her bladder was going to explode on top of all of this. Was this happening because she knew too much? If so, why was Ayumu still alive?
The girl talking to her finally appeared in front of her, sort of. In the darkness, Ritsu could see two blue eyes staring at her. Beyond that, she could barely make out pale, gray naked skin that looked absolutely dead. Even with how dark it was, Ritsu could tell this girl was dead. She lost her control, and finally screamed. Her open mouth invited in that crawling blackness, and her cry in the dark was silenced by cold molten darkness.
Everything went black.