Here we are - another chapter! A great big Thank You to all who took the time to read this story up until now ^.^ I'm very grateful for your interest in my little hallucinations :D Alas, this case is coming to an end, as much as I enjoyed it, so this chapter is nearly the last one. Have fun reading ^.~
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It all happened so fast the team barely had time to react. Monk and Matsui-san were the first to run towards the ruins, Oliver on their heels. Lin stayed put, despite his worry. He still had Masako to take care of.
"What happened?" Naru demanded falling to his knees beside Mai and shaking the tiny girl by the shoulders.
"I...heard crying...children were crying in there, so I..." tears spilled down from terrified caramel brown eyes as she sat in the snow, looking at her boyfriend.
"Idiot! Takigawa, Matsui, how is he?" the boss yelled to the two men, who went straight for the ruins.
"We can't get to him!" Monk yelled back "The stairway is broken!"
Leaving Mai in the snow the young boss stumbled to look over the wall. At the bottom of a concrete hallway, over three meters down lay an unconscious Yasuhara Osamu with blood smear around his head. To make the situation worse, small purple will-o-wisps were floating around his body.
Out of nowhere a bright white blur sped past Oliver's head and jumped down to cover Osamu's body. Only when it stood still did they realize it was a large snow white fox with seven tails spreading out behind it. Blood red eyes glowed when the spirit growled. Every member of SPR froze in place. This was bad.
Surprisingly the fox growled again and started to bite at the purple flames, soon frightening them away. When Monk lifted his hands to form the "Seal of the Immovable One" Sawamura Makoto stopped him:
"Don't! It's Ayame's familiar, it's protecting him!" Not fully understanding what's going on Monk lowered his hands hesitantly.
"Nothing's going to protect him if he bleeds out on the floor." Tsuyoshi almost growled with a strange glint in his eyes. The silver haired man took a couple of steps back before running down in full speed and jumping over the chasm in the half broken stairs. Pain split his leg the moment he landed, but at least he was on the ground. Now the only problem was to get the...thing...to move away. When he tried to come closer the creature growled at him threateningly.
"Move aside!" Monk yelled behind him "I will try to exorcise it!"
Ignoring the other man Tsuyoshi took another step closer and reached his hands out, palms up, as if trying to tame a distrustful dog. "If you are protecting him" he said loudly to the spirit "Let me pass, he is mine."
The white fox craned its neck and sniffed one of the man's hands then bowed slightly and did the same to Yasuhara's neck. Without another second of hesitation it jumped up, out of the ruins and ran away towards the forest. Makoto dashed after it without a word. Though John and Oliver both looked startled by the strange decision they stayed put. Getting Yasuhara out of there was first priority.
Matsui was by the young man's side in a second, first checking his vitals, then vertebrae in the neck, just to be sure it's safe to move him. It all seemed in place, but his head and possibly leg might have sustained serious damage.
"Someone run to the house and call an ambulance. Keep them down the mountain, just in case." Tsuyoshi ordered, falling back to military mode "Find something to use as a rope. Scarf, belts...something."
The clear orders left no room for doubt so John sped down the mountain as fast as he could and Masako ran up to them with Lin to offer Makoto's long scarf as a rope. In less than five minutes Yasuhara was out of the pit and in Lin's arms. He ran down the mountain without looking back.
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When Sawamura Makoto slowly dragged himself down the mountain the sun was already turning red. He followed the spirit so far into the woods it was not easy to find his way back. Weary and clod he quietly dropped his half wet shoes and coat at the entrance and walked straight to the room ghost hunters seemed to call 'base'. Even halfway down the hall he could hear screeching. Upon opening the door it only got louder – a furious red haired woman was screaming at the boss.
"What do you mean 'We'll just have to do it'? Are you completely insane? Two hundred spirits...maybe more?!" she ranted pacing in front of the long table. Nobody had noticed him coming in yet, so the weary young man just leaned against the wall and resigned to hear the quarrel out to the end.
"I just arrived here an hour ago! Climbed maybe two miles of HUGE, SLIPPERY, SONE steps in HIGH HEELS and now you want me to exorcize couple hundreds of spirits? TOMOROW! " finally she seemed to get out of breath and just stood in front of the calm manager with her hands on her hips.
"Well, you didn't have to take the stairs, we parked just beside the temple..." he started and got interrupted instantly.
"Why nobody told me that!?"
"We had bigger problems at the moment. Yasuhara-san was on his way to the hospital and most of us followed him there." The black haired young man tried to keep patient, but to Makoto it seemed like his last straw might be not far away, so he chose that moment to speak up:
"How is your colleague, Shibuya-san?"
Instantly the red haired woman turned around to face him and stumbled a couple of steps back. Apparently he might have startled her. The boss, however, seemed almost glad to see him "He had a serious concussion and cracked the bones in his left shin, the rest are minor bruises and scratches due to the fall. He was very lucky. " Makoto nodded in relief. At least the fellow is not mortally wounded. Only then he fully noticed the changes in the team. Obviously the white haired man – Matsui-san – was gone, probably keeping vigil over his friend. The long haired monk was also not there, but instead the team gained two women – the loud redhead and another lady with long black hair. She sat quietly beside the tall man, Lin.
"Sawamura-san?" the manager asked and broke him out of his musings "You ran away into the forest ...did something happen?"
"Well something surely happened, but there is no need to worry, it's not bad." He answered and slowly sat down by the table. Soon a cup of warm tea was pushed in front of his nose. Looking up he saw large grey eyes of Hara Masako.
"Thank you." The young exorcist mumbled before gripping the warm cup. Warmth was something he sorely needed right now.
"Is it of any importance to this case?" Naru asked bluntly.
"So to speak. I told you I wanted to contact a certain spirit I knew and I ran into the forest to do just that. The white fox you saw is a minor god, her familiar, so I knew it will lead me to her. Ayame is one of the spirits of the forest, she must have been a powerful spiritualist in life – to get a god to willingly serve you is no minor feat. That's why I wanted to ask her for help, like Masako-san did with the medium girl, Kaiyo." Makoto explained, luxuriating in the warmth of the house. His feet were finally becoming less numb.
"Did it work? She agreed to help us?" Mai asked hopeful for some extra help...otherwise the situation seemed a bit dreary.
"She did. Apparently the fully aware spirits sometimes communicate amongst each other and she said she will ask all those sane enough to work as guides and lead the lost spirits to our ritual, so they could be purified. But, just like Kaiyo, that's all she can do."
"If we need guides, my spirits could also lead the ones unable to find their way. I could call up my entire bloodline, that's a lot of spirits." Yukiko interrupted for the first time.
"That's not enough!" Ayako spoke up instantly. "The trees here are old and strong, so the ritual will work...but there's too many spirits. I can't possibly send them all over by myself!"
"What technique do you use, lady?" Makoto asked bluntly.
"It's Matsuzaki Ayako and I'm a Shrine maiden, so Norito, obviously. Why?"
"What ritual do you use?"
"What do you care, boy?" She seemed annoyed beyond belief.
"This is a Shinto temple, miss Matsuzaki and I am the chief exorcist. If you tell me what ritual you intend to use I might find a way to strengthen it or at least assist you in some way."
The redhead stared for a few moments with clear doubt written all over her face, but still answered:
"I use a variation of the classical cleansing ritual but instead of my own energy I harness the power of elder spirits in trees to give strength to my ritual. Can you come up with something better?" She asked with a smug smile.
"Perhaps not..." Makoto answered thoughtfully "But I could come up with something complimentary. I'm familiar with the common version of the ritual. If you use spirits of the trees, perhaps I could find a way to adapt your ritual for myself, but instead of spirits of the trees I may be able to use the power of the old gods of the forest. They are nature spirits after all."
"Are you kidding, boy?! That kind of thing takes time and..."
"And practice. But we have nether at the moment. Still, the whole night is before us, so I might as well try. Shibuya-san, do you perhaps have a different plan?" the young exorcist inquired, just to be sure he is not intruding.
"I simply intended to repeat the ritual with Matsuzaki-san and Takigawa-san in several different locations of the mountain. Her ritual uses trees from around half a mile in range and nearly the entire mountain is covered in old trees, so it should have worked. It would have taken two maybe three times, however, and your offer is very intriguing. Are you sure you can do this by tomorrow morning?" Naru said not too happily. He could use Matsuzaki with Monk as backup, but his exorcisms are slightly weaker, so they would be stuck here for two more days...at the very least, and the museum opens tomorrow – their time limit is up.
"I can try and hopefully succeed. If it doesn't work, you can always go through with your original plan for several exorcisms. There are few scrolls in the library I need to take a look at. Matsuzaki-san, write down your ritual for me. Not just the words, but any differences in sequence of movement. I'll pick it up later, on my way to the Fire hall. For now, I'd better go and warn my parents I'm alive, before they start the searches." He said the last sentence smiling fondly. Despite the differences in perspective, the young man still seemed to love his parents.
"Fine." Ayako grumbled and snatched a pad and pen from a little startled Lin. He seemed to want to object, but Yukiko just squeezed his arm and shook her head no. It was not worth it.
"If you need anything else, please inform us, Sawamura-san." Oliver added when the young man turned towards the door. He received a firm nod in reply and the young exorcist opened shoji door to leave, but stopped in between.
"Masako-san, if you intend to come to sleep, do bring some tea." He added matter of factly and turned away leaving the team a little stunned...and Masako hiding her scarlet face behind a sleeve.
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Down in the valley hospital lights were gleaming throughout the night - it was one of the institutions that worked day and night with equal chaos in their walls. In one of the small private rooms two men sat silently watching the third. The plastic chairs were uncomfortable and the insistent beeping of the machines was enough to drive anyone mad, but the two observers were too worried to pay attention.
"Matsui." Monk said quietly after a long silence and the silver haired man barely lifted his head in acknowledgement "What happened there? That spirit just let you come closer to him after it sniffed you two and you said 'He is mine'. What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
"Not now." The other man answered clearly unwilling to allocate even the smallest amount of attention to someone other, than the young man lying in bed unconscious. Poor Yasu was almost as white as the sheets and showed no signs of waking up. The doctors told them all he will be fine, there is no threat to his life, that's why the rest of the team left, albeit reluctantly. However Tsuyoshi couldn't help but feel both concerned and angry at the same time. Osamu had a bad habit of rescuing other people in the expense of his own health – last time he nearly had a large stone thrown at his head while protecting Monk. Now he saved Mai and ended up three meters down on a concrete floor. What will come next? Tsuyoshi Matsui was terrified to even think about it. It's been only four months since they have timidly started their relationship and now he couldn't imagine his life without the sweet, bright and wickedly cunning young man. It took every fiber of self control left in the man's body not to take his young lover's hand. Not to brush that stray strand of raven hair away from his eyes. It was torture, but they have kept their relationship quiet up until now...and Matsui was sure Osamu wouldn't want his friends to find out this way. Or, perhaps, at all. The last thought hurt, but he still had to consider it, so Monk's prodding was more than unwelcome.
"Yes, now." Hoshou wouldn't let up "What's going on between you two? He drags you around wherever he goes, feels awfully comfortable around you lately...and now smells like you? I honestly hope you haven't done something to our young man!" the rocker's voice started to rise towards the end of his little speech and Matsui lost his patience.
"Stop yelling by a sickbed. Out." The white haired man ordered in a clipped tone rising from his seat and striding through the door without a backward glance. The other man will follow, he knew.
Luckily the corridor was empty and both men stood facing each other in silence for a second.
"Well, what is it you wanted to say? But keep your voice down, this is a hospital." Tsuyoshi spat out in a carefully controlled whisper.
"Yasuhara-kun is part of our team and we protect our own, so I honestly hope you don't have any schemes on him. He's a good kid...don't you dare ruin him, you hear me?" Monk whispered equally angrily. The rocker was seething. He remembered all too clearly how this strange man nearly kissed their boy on the first day they met and frightened him to death. Takigawa felt almost fatherly protectiveness for the young man as well as Mai, so, as much as he generally liked Matsui, he'll murder him if the man tries anything on Yasu.
"Are you implying I would do something against his will, Takigawa?" The dark eyes, usually sparkling with laughter, had turned deadly cold and reminded Hoshou he is standing in front of a battle scarred soldier, who knows all too well how to harm someone. That gave Monk a small pause, but he was too riled up to stop.
"You had nearly kissed him on the first day you've met! What guarantee there is you won't push it further next time?"
"Imbecile. I have never, and will never, do anything against Yasuhara-kun's will. Get that through that thick skull of yours. I also refuse to argue about something like that when he's still unconscious in the next room. If you want to know what it is between us, ask him when he wakes up...because it's obvious you wouldn't believe anything I say anyway." Without even waiting for an answer Matsui turned around and walked back towards the door, leaving a little stunned Monk behind. He thought this was just the older man hitting on their boy...but somehow it seemed far more serious than that, so he decided to keep his mouth shut for the time being. Sighing, the rocker scratched the back of his head and turned towards the vending machines. He needed coffee.
"Matsui..." Hoshou spoke up and the other man turned towards him with his hand already on the door handle "You want coffee?" he asked carefully, setting up truce for a while.
"Yeah. Next time I'm paying." The white haired man answered with weary eyes and walked back into the room.
When Monk finally came back with two cups of coffee something was wrong. Osamu was squirming in his bed and mumbling something while Tsuyoshi stood beside him speaking quietly.
"...shi...Tsu...yoshi..." Osamu whispered barely audibly, still unable to open his eyes.
"It's alright, I'm here... you're safe. Breathe and try to open your eyes..." Matsui spoke quietly and soothingly, tracking for any signs of relapse.
"Young man, can you hear us?" Monk came up closer, leaving the coffee forgotten on a bedside table. The university student paid him no attention.
"Osamu...shhhh, your okay...take your time and come back to us." Tsuyoshi tried again, this time hesitantly taking the boy's hand. The grey eyes opened slowly and drowsily.
"Tsuyoshi-san...where am I...?" he asked coherently enough, though his eyes still seemed a little unfocused.
"The hospital. You fell down the basement. Do you remember?"
"Uhn...yeah, Mai...they were dragging Mai..." he tried to put his thoughts in some resemblance of order, but it was still foggy.
"Young man, does anything hurt?" Monk piped in.
"My head..." he answered, turning slightly towards his other visitor.
"Soon it won't only be your head, idiot..." Matsui scolded half heartedly, but didn't dare to say much else. The fact Yasuhara woke up so soon was good enough for now.
"You're angry." Yasu said quietly, turning back towards the worried face of his lover.
"It can wait." The white haired man relented with a sigh and a weary smile "Now rest."
The door opened quietly and a small dark haired nurse stepped in. She must have noticed different data on the monitors.
"I'm glad to see you're awake, sweetheart. I'm Hana, I'll be around for most of the time." She checked the gadgets and wrote down some of the parameters, nodding approvingly. "All seems well. Do you need any more pain medication?"
"No, thank you, I'm good...for now." Yasu answered, trying to smile towards the young woman. It took effort.
"Right. Oh, one more thing, in case of decisions to be made when you might be unconscious, who should we consult?" she asked innocently, looking up from the document. Yasuhara paused a moment, then answered without doubt.
"My boyfriend."
"And which one is that, sweetheart?" The nurse asked without skipping a beat. Osamu just looked towards his left to meet stunned chocolate brown eyes.
"That would be me, miss. Matsui Tsuyoshi." The man answered, a little shocked by Osamu's openness. When the first wave of disbelief passed Tsuyoshi could feel warmth spreading in his chest and took Osamu's hand – without hesitation this time. Monk, on the other hand was left to stand there bright red and a little shell shocked...but couldn't exactly do anything about it.
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Back at the base Naru was concocting a plan. They had few chances to do it in one go, even with joined exorcism. He had never seen Sawamura in action, so the young exorcist will be an unknown factor. Scribbling down the schematics and order of action in his black notebook the young boss could already feel a headache coming on.
"Mai, tea." he said without thinking or lifting his head up. The phrase was so common now, but he knew it will bring him instant relief.
"Sure, sure." she answered a little annoyed, but not as much as she used to be. It was a pity in Oliver's opinion. Riling her up to see her flushed face used to be fun...then again, now he can make her face lovely shade of red through other means. Trying to stay on track and not get lost in the memories of Mai's burning face, gentle hands and soft lips, he spoke up:
"Tomorrow we will start early - before nine I want all of you to be ready. First, Hara-san, you will contact the spirit of Kaiyo and ask her how much help we can expect and also tell her to get ready. Then Kamishiro-sensei, I will ask you to call up some of your spirits for help, depending on how much aid we may need. Lin, keep your Shiki on call, just in case. Also I'll want you to film the exorcism ritual. If this new form of Norito succeeds, I want to have it on tape." The tall man just nodded and directed his gaze back at the laptop monitor. It was Ayako, who still had doubts.
"And when do I start? Before wonder boy, or after?" she asked Naru not too happily.
"As much as I understood it could be done ether way...but if at all possible I would like you to perform the ritual simultaneously - it may amplify the effect. If the rituals are incompatible, you start first, Matsuzaki-san, then Sawamura-san and eventually Takigawa. John, I'll want you on guard duty. Have plenty of holy water on hand, just in case some of the souls decide to step out of line. Good amount of them might be deranged."
"Got it, Naru, I'll make sure to keep my eye out for the poor souls." John nodded approvingly.
Mai got back with a full pot just a few moments later and already received new orders.
"Mai, call Monk and ask him to come back in the morning before nine."
"Jeesh, hold on a second! Or...you can serve the tea yourself!" the tiny assistant bristled and started to serve tea very slowly. Oliver had to shake his head in exasperation.
Masako took that as her cue to leave. She slipped away quietly and instead of their room went to the kitchen for another pot of tea. He did request her to bring some... Finding Yuuko in the kitchen Masako was nearly ready to run, but the woman noticed.
"Hara-san, is there something you need?" she asked sweetly.
"Oh...I...simply wondered if you would allow me to prepare some tea..." she said reluctantly, not willing to disclose who requested the tea.
"Your colleague just took a full pot to your rooms, dear." the elderly woman told her, seemingly to spare her the trouble, but it only left Masako with little choice but to tell her whom she intended to make the tea for.
"Actually...I intended to bring some to...Makoto-san...he requested it earlier." she squeezed out, feeling very uncomfortable. The older woman's eyes lit up instantly.
"Oh my...well, in that case come here, dear, I'll show you which one he likes best!" she smiled broadly at Masako, making the small girl want for the ground to swallow her.
After torturous ten minutes in the kitchen Masako left with a full pot and two warm blankets...just in case, as Yuuko-san put it. Stepping through the large wooden door of the Hall of Sacred fire she found Makoto on the floor with various parchments around him and small bells on a red ribbon in his hands.
"Masako-san" he acknowledged the girl instantly "Have you brought tea?"
Some similarities between the youngest Sawamura and one Oliver Davis nearly made Masako laugh. Now she understood why it bothered Mai so much.
"I have. And you should very well be grateful; it cost me over ten minutes alone with your mother. She seemed very pleased." Masako said, not trying to hide the sarcasm in her voice. Even from the door she could hear him snigger.
"Sorry about that, she can be a bit...well..." The medium just smiled and came to sit beside him. It will be a long night.
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That's it for this chapter and the next one will be the cleansing itself and conclusions to this case. I hope you enjoyed it so far and will stay with me for the closing of this Case file! The last chapter should come along pretty soon ^.^