Chapter VII

To Houjin

"Darn it! I think I forgot to pack my boxers!" Kuwabara grunted as he rummaged through his bag while sitting inside the already moving train that would take him and the others to the town of Houjin.

"Really? You really had to say it that loud?" Shizuru said, her eyes locked on Yukina who was sitting infront of her and beside his brother.

An unmistakable blush started forming on Kuwabara's cheeks which then spread on his entire face and Yukina, as always, hastily asked if he was feeling sick.

Shizuru rolled her eyes at the odd scene then she directed her attention back to the paper she was reading. Beside her was Kurama and he too had a reading material in his hands, a book about noted paranormal activities in Japan. But although the book was truly informative, what was in Kurama's mind was far from what was contained in the book. He was simply staring at it, turning the page every now and then so as to not make anyone suspicious.

On the other side of the aisle sat Keiko and Yusuke. They were facing each other but both of them were looking outside the window, watching the sceneries that were quickly passing by.

All things considered, even with Kuwabara's consistent display of ridiculousness, Shizuru thought that the train ride was going to be nothing but three and a half hours of complete drab, and the worst thing was that she couldn't smoke it off.

"My, my… If Botan was here." She said with a sigh after a few minutes. This did not earn any reaction from anyone at all so she set her eyes back on the paper she was reading looking surly. The company of the bubbly blue haired girl was one of the rare things she was fond of and with long boring trips such as the one she was in right now, Botan's loquacious disposition would have been the perfect distraction.

Little did she know that Botan was actually flying just above them, with two travel cases hanging at the end of her oar, she was slipping through the clouds, keeping an eye on the train that was swiftly chugging below her.

Based on the information that Nakatsu told her, Yusuke, Kuwabara and Kurama will take a train to Houjin at around seven in the morning. Once they arrive, she figured they'll check themselves in one of the numerous hotels inside the town.

From inside the collar of her pink kimono, she took out a pamphlet about the town of Houjin that she had secretly taken from a small travel guide stall at the train station earlier while waiting for Yusuke and the others to board. She was wearing a long, dark brown wig and a black short sleeved dress then when she almost gave away that disguise, walked up to Yusuke and gave him a good knocking on the head, seeing that aside from the boys, he also took Keiko, Shizuru and Yukina with them. With great effort she stopped herself from giving Yusuke a piece of her mind and she remained hidden and as the train began to depart, she took a quick review of the pamphlet and she finally somehow understood why Yusuke allowed the girls to come with them; it appears that the town of Houjin, which was the site of countless demon massacres, had been turned into a holiday resort.

Botan sighed, the hot sun was reflecting its light on the surface of the shiny pamphlet she was holding and the heat of it was starting to burn down on the landscapes below. Being in her spirit form she does not feel any of the sun's heat though and the reason she was sighing in hopelessness was because she now needed to hide herself from being spotted by six people. The first step to do that was to stay away from them as far as possible.

Upon arriving in Houjin, she plans on getting a room in one of the hotels listed in the pamphlet. It doesn't matter if it was expensive, which it probably will be, just as long as it's located somewhere that a chance encounter with Yusuke and the others was not possible. According to the colored map of the town that was illustrated in the pamphlet, the town of Houjin was bordered by rolling hills in the north, a small city in the east and by a lake in the west. The town was split into two by a main roadway which branches itself to the town's main attractions which were the hotels, the gardens, the amusement parks, the administrative buildings, the lake side houses, the museum and the old temples. At the very edge of the town, near the hills, a strange, high colossal rock was pictured and one of the smaller roads on the map appeared to go around this. In Botan's opinion, whoever proposed the development of the town of Houjin was not only determined to make the town as tourist friendly as possible, he was also trying to preserve the old sites, such as the temples and the woodlands.

Botan slipped back the pamphlet inside her kimono then she took out her trusty pen and notebook. She flipped through it until she found her checklist of the places she'll visit in Houjin where the Utagawa temples have already been noted as the first place she'd go. Nakatsu told her that the temples where she and the monks have resided still existed and would be the best place to start; she absolutely agrees to that, however, finding the current mayor of Houjin or the one who was managing the town's development, and then giving them a ghostly visit in their dreams was not bad either. The Spirit world may have completely erased the demonic events that occurred in Houjin from human history but Botan thought that a little information regarding the life of the people from the past might help her piece her previous life as well since she had no memories to look back to.

Time dragged on for both Botan and Yusuke's group as they traveled but soon enough, they did reach the town of Houjin.

The sight that welcomed them all was far from what they imagined and Shizuru, who has already consumed half of her cigarette, was grinning with satisfaction at how extravagant the town was. But as soon as she and the others entered the town through its huge archway which was an ornate Chinese paifang, an eerie feeling swept over them and they all stopped. However, the feeling vanished as soon as it came and they all looked at each other to confirm if they have sensed it too.

"What's the matter?" Keiko asked, looking at Yusuke.

"Ah-It's nothing." He quickly answered because he could not explain what the change in ambiance was either, it was too quick to come and go and he doubts that Kurama or Kuwabara could figure what it was or where it came from either.

"You guys… Are you keeping something from me?" Keiko said, sounding unconvinced. "Kuwabara, you look like you've seen a ghost, what is it?"

"Let's just say that a bunch of people really did die horribly in this place." He answered hesitantly.

Keiko nodded but she could not wrap her mind around what Kuwabara just said for everywhere she directed her eyes, all she could see were colors, smiling faces, and the guarantee of a great summer vacation.

"Wow., it looks like you guys should really get to work on that case of yours. After that, we partey." Shizuru said as she started walking to the administrative building on her left so that they can start looking for a place to stay.

The rest of the group followed her inside the building while Kuwabara mumbled something about her sister being like what he said before, 'unhelpful in Reikai cases', but no one heard this and they didn't notice that Kurama has remained standing outside, except for Yusuke who turned to gesture him to follow them.

With the usual calm impassive expression in his face, he pointed at something ahead of them. "We should get a hotel that's near that rock." He said and when Yusuke directed his eyes to the peculiar land formation, he understood Kurama's intentions.

Hovering above them, the death deity who has long been observing Yusuke and the others had also felt the surge of spiritual energy upon crossing the boundaries of Houjin. She looked at where Kurama was pointing at and she instantly sensed the beckoning feeling that the place was emitting. As the guide of departed souls to the spirit world, the feeling came to her as though hundreds of different voices where whispering at the same time, it was the same feeling that any death deity would experience if they are to pick up souls from a site where mass death had occurred, but the whisperings that were coming from the rock were weakened callings which meant they were old and if the voices were in fact coming from the souls of those who died seven hundred years ago, then it's possible that the voices were not from earth-bound spirits but from the memories or impressions that were left by those who died.

From where Botan was, it appeared to her that Kurama was proposing to get a place to stay near the rock and she silently commended him for that. She then watched as Yusuke's group exited the admin building and rode a van that took them northwards. After making sure that they're headed either to the lakeside hotels or the one beside the forest, she flew back at the entrance of the town, rendered herself invisible and landed on the branches of a lush green tree where she turned into her human form. She stripped off her kimono revealing the black dress she had underneath it and she put her brown wig back on. Carrying her luggage on each hand, she landed unnoticed on the ground then she headed to the administrative building as well.

There she was informed that all the hotels were already booked.

"B-But, where am I supposed to stay?" Botan asked the lady at the front desk hysterically. Out of the five hotels that were listed on the pamphlet that Botan was clutching with frustration, only three rooms were left and the lady just informed her that they had already been taken by a group of tourists who arrived ahead of her.

The lady looked at Botan apologetically. "I really am sorry for the inconvenience, Miss. All of our hotels are indeed fully booked. That is why we strongly advise our guests to make reservations prior to going here." She said while still trying her best to browse through the hotel data that are being constantly updated and fed on her computer screen.

Botan groaned at her misfortune and began imagining herself sleeping on her oar while hovering up the sky during her entire time in Houjin or going back and forth from Houjin to the Spirit world just to get some rest and sleep while tackling on her checklist.

"But we do have what we call our residential sites here." The lady said, waking Botan up from her desperate reverie.

"Huh? What's that?"

"Some of the old families here in Houjin are offering their houses to tourists. Mind you though, they can be very pricey and we're running out of those houses as well."

Botan positively lightened up. "Money is no object, please direct me to the nearest house!" She said energetically.

The lady sweatdropped, watching the enthusiasm the girl displayed and noticed that she may be visiting Houjin for the first time. Although unnecessary, she could not help but offer to call a house for her. She peeked through the brown haired girl's shoulder as she dialed a number and sighed inwardly at how she's going to handle the other six or eight guests in the lobby once she tells them that the hotels can no longer accommodate them or that there aren't any residential houses left as well.

"Oh, thank you so much!" Botan said beaming when the lady finally handed her a piece of paper that contained the direction to the house which she found available. According to the lady and based on the well sketched map she gave, the house is a couple of kilometers away from the administrative building and there weren't any roadway that led to it since the house was situated in the middle of a large estate that does not allow entry to any type of vehicles.

With a place to stay, Botan picked up her luggage and exited the building. She does not mind walking to the house, nor did she consider taking out her oar again to swiftly fly to the place; she had been flying for hours and a little walk would be refreshing.

She crossed the road to get to the other side of town, the Houjin archway standing tall on her right. Botan kept her eyes forward as she recalled something that Nakatsu said in the Reikai archives.

… she ordered Nue to go after her husband and her two aged in-laws and they were killed and eaten even before crossing the arc…

She felt a bit repulsed as she caught camera flashes in the corner of her eyes; seemed everyone who's visiting Houjin would not miss having their pictures taken infront of the archway. It was an architectural feat, it was beautiful and she could not blame anyone who would admire it.

Botan continued walking, focusing her mind on something else instead.

Upon reaching the other side of the road, Botan could already make out the wooden cottages and traditional Japanese houses that were being shielded by trees and topiaries and she fixated her eyes and attention there, noting how charming those houses were and she imagined how the house she'll rent would look like.

She needed to look for the Aramata residence.

As Botan walked further and further into the residential sites, she noticed that she was no longer seeing any cottages, rather, it looked like she was in the middle of a vast Japanese garden and she wasn't walking on a stone pathway anymore, but on a trail that was created overtime by people going through the same path.

She stopped, dropped her bags on the grass and checked the map the lady had given her. She was certain that she was following the directions correctly but she felt that if she were to continue taking the route as directed by the map, she would hit a dead end or she'd have plowed through that patch of land where the residential site was located. Botan sighed looking around. She could already feel the strain on her calves and hands due to all the walking and the carrying.

"Oh well." She said chirpily as she collected her bags from the ground and continued to follow the trail infront of her. "At least I'm sure that I'll have a house for myself tonight, I'll just need to find it." After saying this, she continued to muse over how the Aramata house would look like to keep her mind away from the fatigue that was slowly taking over her.

After a few minutes of walking and fearing that she may really be lost because trees were starting to narrow the path she was taking, she found herself standing infront of a well preserved traditional Japanese house surrounded by a picturesque foliage. Botan's heart welled up with happy approval and when she tore her eyes away from the house to look at the slab of marble on her left, her gleeful cry resounded around her.

On the marble, the family name Aramata was carved.