Previously:

"Hmm… Then, any day you want to skip school, you can say you have work..." Ayako remarked.

"Yep, yep. I take breaks only when I need to…" Mai said.

"You..." Ayako and Hitomi said, staring at her.

"Huh? Why do you look so serious!?" Mai asked them, taken aback, sweat-dropping.

"Hmm. I've figured you out…" Bou-san said confidently with a straight face, crossing his arms. "You're only doing this so you can skip school."

"You're going to grow up stupid," Yasuhara concluded firmly also standing with his arms crossed, sounding exactly like their favorite narcissist.

"That was mean! You're just like Naru!" Mai exclaimed.

"Pfft!" Hitomi laughed, covering her mouth. The impression was spot on!

"Oh really, now?" Bou-san said with a devious smirk, deciding to attack next with tickles.

"Hya! Hya! Hya!" Mai screamed through her fits of laughter. No fair!

Naru sighed. It was noisy again, and everyone seemed to have also forgotten their work again.

"Anyway..." he said, getting their attention. "Set up the night-vision cameras and thermographs at five locations, then set up condenser mikes in the same places. When that's done, Bou-san, John, and Yaruhara-san, would you three measure the dimensions of all rooms and corridors? We need to draft our own blueprint. But since the sun is setting, we'll do that later. Hitomi and Mai and the rest, please adjust the equipment." He was gratified when they actually did as they were told and continued to work diligently to get it done without any further distractions.


Case 7: Bloodstained Labyrinth (Part 4)


Later that evening, after the girls had retired to their shared room and settled into bed, Hitomi found herself awoken by a faint sound.

Dripp... Dropp...

'What's that? Water...?' she wondered, rubbing the sleep from her eyes as it continued. It sounded like it was coming from the bathroom.

Dripp... Dropp...

She sighed in annoyance and shuffled out of her bed to take care of it. 'I could have sworn Mai turned off the faucet...' Hitomi tried to open the bathroom door quietly, but it still made a small squeak. She paused to spare a glance at the others to make sure she didn't disturb them. Mai's brow had furrowed a little in her sleep, so she must be dreaming about something, but no one else seemed bothered. Hitomi slipped quietly into the bathroom and crossed the tiled floor to check the sink. 'Hmm... It's turned off, just as I thought...'

Dripp...

Hitomi realized it was coming from the tub.

"..." She stared at the closed shower curtain around it, suddenly recalling every shower scene from every horror movie she had ever seen while standing in that small dark room. 'N-No way...' she told herself, eyebrow twitching. 'Pull yourself together...!' she scolded herself, shaking away the image of a masked serial killer hiding behind it with a bloody butcher's knife. What would Naru say if he could see her now? It wasn't like her to be scared of something like that, even under these circumstances, but she just couldn't completely shake the feeling that something ominous was hiding behind that curtain. 'Come on, Ayako and the others are right outside the door...' she reminded herself, raising one hand to prepare to chant the Nine Cuts while reaching out with the other to grab the shower curtain.

SHHHHNNNNG!

"!" Hitomi gasped, taking a deep breath and exhaling a sigh of relief at the sight of the empty tub. 'Man, that was unbelievably nerve-wracking...!' she thought, sweat-dropping, as she turned the faucet tighter to stop the drips. She was about to close the shower curtain again, but thought better of it when that eerie feeling threatened to rear its ugly head again. 'Better leave it open... just in case...' she decided, not liking the idea that something could hide behind it even, in her imagination. She quietly slipped back out of the bathroom and crawled into her bed again. "..." she stared up at the ceiling. Her expression deadpanned after a few moments, when she realized she wasn't getting back to sleep after that. 'Great, just great...' she thought sarcastically. 'At least it seems like it's pretty close to morning already...?'

But she wasn't alone for long.

"!" Mai suddenly gasped loudly in alarm as her eyes shot wide open.

"?" Hitomi sat up and looked at her, concerned when she saw the faint gleam of sweat on the younger girl's face. "Mai...?" she said, her concern growing when she didn't respond. Hitomi got up and moved to stand over Mai, wondering if she should try to shake her out of it. Was she sleeping with her eyes open, or was something more serious happening? Either way, it was startling to see her like that.

"...?" Ayako said, rolling over and squinting at them. "What about Mai?" she asked drowsily.

"She just gasped and opened her eyes... She isn't moving or responding to my voice..." Hitomi replied quietly with a frown, furrowing her brow. "Mai? Are you in trouble? Can you at least blink?"

"Eh? What?" Ayako said, immediately getting out of bed to join her. "Hey, what is it? Your eyes! Snap out of it!" she snapped at Mai, also worried after seeing the odd state she was in. Mai finally blinked and looked at them. "Oh, you scared me," Ayako told her as she and Hitomi sighed with relief.

"Um... Good morning..." Mai said weakly, sounding a little shaken herself.

"It's not morning yet!" Ayako told her, sweat-dropping.

'From the look on her face... she seems to have had a nightmare,' Hitomi thought. "Are you alright, Mai?"

"Y-Yeah..." Mai said, though it wasn't very convincing. She could barely hear herself over the rapid thumping of her own heart. She clutched at her pajama shirt over her aching chest as a bead of cold sweat rolled down her face. '... I just had the most horrible dream...' she thought, recalling the terrible face she saw staring up at her from the bloody tub in their bathroom. Her dream had started out normal with her getting out of bed to check on the leaky taps, but then... 'Why do I feel so spooked...'

—∞—

Day 2

Later that morning, after the team had reunited to finish breakfast and start working, Mai was recording the latest set of numbers Bou-san had just read to her from the measuring tape for the rooms Naru had asked them to survey for their map. Hitomi and John were with them that day. It might seem excessive to have so many people in one group, but thanks to that they could take turns with the work and move more quickly without tiring out as fast. And there was always at least one person who remembered the correct directions.

"... Huh? The measurements are off somewhere," she observed.

"Oh?" the monk asked, sweat-dropping. That didn't sound good.

"Are you serious?" Hitomi asked, also sweat-dropping.

"Strange... According to the measurements taken from the outside, this room should be rectangular," Mai said, scratching her head. But according to the tape measure and their own eyes, the room was most definitely square on the inside.

"Urk. Not again..." Bou-san grimaced, sweat-dropping. "Damn, this should've been simple." He sighed, rubbing the back of his neck as he headed for the door again. "John, you measured it, right? Let's go."

"Okay," John said, following him out again with the tape measure to redo it. Mai frowned a little dubiously while she and Yasuhara stayed where they were and watched them go.

"This is getting ridiculous..." Hitomi said, feeling sorry for them. How many times had this happened now?

"That is odd... we've already measured this several times, right?" Yasuhara remarked as the door shut behind them. "And we were more careful after the first time... We even double-checked the measurements..."

"Hmm..." Mai said quietly, tapping the end of the pencil against her mouth while she stared at the odd numbers on her clipboard again, feeling a little troubled. She couldn't understand what kept going wrong.

"Maybe it has something to do with the way this crazy house was built?" Hitomi mused wryly, starting to feel a little fed up. She really wished the people building it would have done a better job documenting its blueprints, so they wouldn't have to go through this. With all the architectural abnormalities they had already seen the previous day, she wouldn't be surprised if they had purposefully left gaps in the walls between the rooms just to confuse people. If so, it was definitely working.

Mai, Hitomi, and Yasuhara stood there, waiting. So long, that Mai couldn't help yawning. It felt like forever.

"Oh!" Mai said, perking up when the door opened with a creak and the monk returned.

"We got the same measurements for the outside," Bou-san reported.

"Huh?" Mai said, surprised, while Hitomi sighed tiredly. "Something must be off. Our measurements have to match the room's actual size."

"But we measured the outside again," John said, also rejoining them. "In fact, we did it twice."

"Right," Bou-san agreed.

""Huh? Then why is it still off by three meters!?" Mai demanded incredulously/dubiously, tapping the wall. This was nuts! Someone had to have messed up somewhere.

"That can't be. We definitely checked for errors."

"I wonder if there could be another possibility?" Yasuhara mused, holding his chin.

"Like a secret room?" Hitomi said. Again, she wouldn't be surprised if this wacky house had rooms that had been purposefully sealed off with solid walls. She was becoming increasingly more certain that common sense simply didn't apply here.

Everyone's eyes widened slightly at the suggestion.

"Arrggggh! Of course!" Mai groaned in frustration, holding her head in her hands. "Kiiiii! Urgh!" she moaned, messing up her own hair.

"That's it. I say we tear down the wall! It's the only way to be sure," Bou-san said with a vein throbbing on his head, on the verge of actually snapping, as he raising his foot, preparing to the give the offending wall a good kick.

"Ah!" John gasped, and quickly moved to hold him back.

"I understand how you feel, but...!" Hitomi said, sweat-dropping, rushing over to help the priest.

"Ack!" the monk said, surprised when he was forced to stop short of his attack before any serious damage could actually be done/his foot could connect. "Arrrgh!"

"Cool it! This isn't our house, remember?" Hitomi chided him, sweat-dropping again. "What do you think the client will say if you destroy it? Do you want to end up paying for damages?"

"Wait! Why don't we take a break here and continue later?" John suggested while Bou-san continued to growl at the wall, also sweat-dropping. "We'll probably figure out what the difference is."

"That's right," Yasuhara agreed calmly.

"Sounds good to me," Hitomi added, relieved when the monk and Mai seemed to calm down after hearing that.

However, even after the break...

"But... what?"

They all collapsed to their knees with a combination of fatigue and emotional exhaustion. They had been working so long that it was starting to get dark, and their current room didn't have any of its own light fixtures. They'd completely had it with this room. Even after Hitomi and Yasuhara switched with the monk and John, there was still no change. It definitely wasn't human error on their group's part. No matter what they did, it was always the same.

"Why is it when we measure, we measure a gap?" Mai moaned miserably.

"I've had it," Bou-san groaned.

"It's like we've wandered through the looking glass..." Hitomi mused dryly, feeling a little like a frustrated Alice in Wonderland. Everything was topsy-turvy.

"Hmm... Well, this must be the center of the house," Yasuhara said thoughtfully, taking another glance around. "That's funny..."

"What is?" Bou-san asked.

"There's an airflow, isn't there?" Yasuhara asked.

"Ah, you're right," Hitomi said.

"This place is full of who knows how many strange rooms," he added.

"Hey, in the last room, there was a window that opened into a wall," she reminded them. "Perhaps there really is a secret room, and that window used to open into it, until they walled it up and closed the space off.

"Huh? Why would anyone do that?' Mai asked, sweat-dropping. That made zero sense, unless their goal was to screw with people.

"There have been lots of 'features' that serve no purpose for someone living here," John pointed out.

"It's like this place was purposefully built with the intention to disorient others," Hitomi added with a sigh.

"Huh. I'd say so..." Mai agreed, realizing they were right.

"But the former owner didn't ever actually live here," Bou-san reminded them, pointing their large flashlight near the ceiling. "Look over there."

"Huh?" Mai said, sweat-dropping again. Up above the normal line of sight, there was a random set of shutters.

"This room has a window, too."

They all stared at this latest anomaly.

"Let's check it out!" Mai said suddenly. "The suspense is killing me!"

"You said it!" Bou-san said, giving her two thumbs up.

"We have to move on at some point," Hitomi agreed with a wry smile, also curious.

They left the irritatingly inconsistent room and stepped back out into the hall to explore the one next door that should have been connected to the wall with the window.

"Wow, it's bright!" Mai said, squinting at the brightness that greeted them when Bou-san opened the door, rubbing her eyes. Hitomi blinked while their eyes adjusted. There was another window facing them on the opposite wall in the hall, on the side of of the house that was still receiving the strongest sunlight, and there was also light from the ceiling fixtures that ran the length of the well-lit hall.

"Hmmm. You're Shibuya Psychic Research, right?" an elderly voice asked. They all turned their heads to look in its direction and saw the old monk they had briefly met on the first day when they were introduced to the other psychics/ghost hunters. "Was there a reason for bringing children here?"

"Good afternoon," Yasuhara greeted him brightly with a polite smile, despite the rude remark.

'Oh, he's putting on his 'business' face,' Mai and Hitomi thought.

"Children can be mediums as well as adults," Yasuhara told the old monk, maintaining a polite tone.

"Who's that guy?" Mai whispered to their younger monk and Hitomi, sweat-dropping.

"I think he's that monk, 'I-something-or-other'," Bou-san replied in a low voice with his brow furrowed. He was an adult!

"Imura," Hitomi quietly corrected him.

"Ah, right! That's it," Bou-san agreed.

"You're really good at remembering names, Sempai," Mai complimented her.

"When did you become a medium?" Imura questioned Yasuhara rudely, incorrectly assuming that he had to be a psychic to be there. "You still look like a schoolkid."

"Me? I turned 243 this year," Yasuhara replied mildly. John, Hitomi, and Mai sweat-dropped and smiled wryly, while Bou-san froze with a half smirk on his face, doing his absolute best not to laugh at the priceless expression on the older monk's face. "My family has lived long lives for generations," Yasuhara continued naturally, rubbing the back of his neck with a slightly bashful smile, as if he were embarrassed. "But we don't brag about it. Ahahahaha," he added humbly and laughed good-naturedly.

"Eh—Do you take me for an idiot!" Imura shouted incredulously, turning red in the face as a vein throbbed on his bald head. "When were you really born? Tell me!"

"Um, in the year Houreki 8 (1758 A.D.)... Incidentally, it was a tsuchinoe tora year," Yasuhara replied smoothly, without missing a beat. The old monk nearly fell over in shock. "You young people today are so fearless," Yasuhara continued with a cool smile that sent chills down Mai's spine, as if he were speaking to an especially naughty child. "If I asked an elderly person those questions when I was young, I would have been slapped senseless."

'Oh, wow!' Hitomi thought, sweat-dropping and smiling wryly again, while Mai flinched in shock.

"Speaking of when I was young, I still remember the Tenmei Famine. It was devastating... People today have no idea what a famine is. They only think they know from family stories. Such arrogance... But then, my parents were born during the Kenmu Restoration, and they were always giving me an earful about the Onin War."

Hitomi bit her lip, shaking a little from suppressed laughter as Yasuhara yacked on and on about his fake family history, while Mai and Bou-san covered their mouths to muffle the sound of their own and hide their amused smirks. John smiled a little wryly, not entirely sure he was getting the full joke since his knowledge of Japanese history wasn't as strong as theirs, and hoping they weren't taking things too far.

"And even that must have been nothing compared to the Genpei War that my grandfather on my mother's side went through. For my great-grandmother on my father's side, the Jinshin War was huge. I heard my great-great-grandmother on my mother's side burned to death during the downfall of the Yamataikoku. Oh, poor Himiko was a beauty, I'm told."

The old monk had also begun to shake, but not from laughter. His fists were clenched at his sides.

"And then there's my great-great-great grandfather on my mother's side... Oh? Imura-san, where are you going?" Yasuhara asked when the monk turned on his heel and started stomping away, still beet red with another vein throbbing on his head. "Imura-saaaan? Hey!" Yasuhara called after him as he quickly disappeared around the corner in a huff, clearly embarrassed and upset that they had gotten the better of him. All laughter stopped for a moment as the young ghost hunters stared after the old monk. John sweat-dropped.

"Pfft! Yasuhara-san, you're awesome!" Mai laughed. She couldn't believe the guts it took to pull that off! "Eheehee!"

"Ahahahaha! Well done, shounen!" Bou-san praised him, also erupting in laughter as he gave him a pat on the back.

"You're terrible!" Hitomi told him with a devilish smirk of amusement, coughing a little to keep herself from laughing too loud. "He-heh, you guys are laughing too much!"

"You're laughing too, Hitomi-sempai!" Mai retorted between giggles.

"Stop laughing..." John told them, sweat-dropping again, feeling a little bad for their completely outmatched opponent. It wasn't nice to tease the elderly too much.

"Maybe I overdid it a little," Yasuhara said wryly. He placed his hands together in prayer. "Forgive me for making fun of the elderly."

—∞—

Having calmed down and finished their measurements for the day, their group returned to the base to turn over the data they collected, which Lin then used to render an outline of the convoluted mansion's floor plan.

"This is a sketch of the area we investigated today," Naru said as they all gathered around to have a look at the image on the computer screen. "Lin, how many rooms are there?"

"Including the attic, 106," Lin replied.

"One hun—! That many!?" Mai asked, shocked.

'No wonder we're all so tired...' Hitomi thought wryly. She had lost count along the way, but she hadn't quite realized just how extensive the ground they had covered was.

"What's this line?" Naru asked, pointing to a thicker line that surrounded the entire structure.

"That's the outer perimeter of the building," Lin answered.

"It doesn't match at all, does it?" Naru said, looking at his two female assistants.

"I don't care what it says," Mai retorted shortly. No way was she taking grief from him after all the work they put in. "I don't care what it says, we measured it properly!"

"We quadruple-checked," Hitomi added, backing her up. "Believe me, we were very careful."

"In addition, there's too much empty space between rooms," Naru added.

"So! Don't blame us for the measurements!" Mai snapped, angry that he was still doubting them. "Could the measuring tape be inaccurate?" she asked crossly. 'Why don't you just go measure it yourself...!'

"This place doesn't follow the normal building conventions," Hitomi added more calmly. "There are a lot of things that don't make sense. There could be parts that were added to the house that we simply can't see because they were closed up or hidden. This place has been built onto so many times in so many strange ways, that this distortion of proportions may have even been done on purpose."

"As Matsumoto-san said, we rechecked the results several times," Yasuhara agreed. "So maybe there are secret rooms?"

"Yeah, maybe," Bou-san said, scratching his cheek.

"This is a troubling possibility..." Naru mused. "Let's verify the measurements again tomorrow..."

"Huh! All the rooms!? O-Only if you give us laser range finders!" Mai exclaimed, flinching in shock.

"You already have a measuring tape," Naru retorted calmly.

"If you really don't believe us, you're perfectly welcome to go measure it for yourself," Hitomi challenged him smartly with a bright shit-eating grin. All 106 rooms.

'H-Hitomi-sempai...' Mai thought with wide eyes, amazed that she had actually said it out loud, without blinking. She was officially her hero.

'So brave!' Bou-san thought, hoping it wouldn't be her undoing.

"If you have the energy to make jokes, perhaps you would rather do it tonight?" Naru countered coolly. He correctly suspected it was hunger making her irritable. "You should go eat something before your mouth gets you in trouble."

"No, thank you," Hitomi retorted dryly, sighing as she turned to head for the dinning room. Food sounded extremely good at the moment.

—∞—

"It's up to us, isn't it?" Bou-san asked with a heavy sigh while they were eating dinner together that evening. Masako and Ayako had joined their group for the meal, but Naru and Lin were still finishing up at the base. "Sheesh, have a little sympathy for the elderly. Oh, my back hurts..."

"I we're not careful, we might slip up," Yasuhara said with a smile. Hitomi smiled wryly and sweat-dropped in agreement, glad they had the dinning room to themselves at the moment.

"Excuse me... Are you Shibuya-san?" an elderly woman asked politely from behind them. Hitomi turned and recognized her as the woman who was introduced as 'Igarashi-sensei' by Ohashi. She seemed much nicer than Imura-san.

"Someone's calling you, 'president'," Hitomi said, subtly reminding Yasuhara of his role.

"Ah, yes!" he said, quickly turning to face the older woman as he stood up from his chair.

"I'm sorry... You're in the middle of dinner," she said. "Is it all right if I interrupt?"

"Please do, um, I-Igarashi-sensei," Yasuhara responded with equal politeness.

'Oh, this might get complicated...' Mai thought, while Hitomi calmly sipped her tea.

"Well, actually... I have a favor to ask, and you don't appear to be shady like certain other mediums," Igarashi-sensei began.

'I wonder if she's talking about Minami-san...?' Hitomi wondered.

"I'd like to conduct a séance tonight..." Igarashi-sensei continued. "And I'm hoping you and the others would assist me, if you can, Shibuya-san."

"Ah," Yasuhara said. So that was it... he wondered what he should say in a situation like this? Was it okay for him to be making a decision like this on his own? He sweat-dropped. "Okay, I see... Uh—" Fortunately, at that moment, he spotted Naru and Lin entering the room. "Narumi-kun..." he called, getting the real president's attention. The others had to hold back and hide their grins at the odd occasion of hearing someone call their high and mighty narcissist 'kun'. It made him sound like such a 'nice kid'.

"Yes?" Naru asked, giving him his attention.

"Igarashi-sensei was inquiring about holding a séance tonight," Yasuhara explained. "I'd like to participate, but what do you think?"

"I see. I would like to participate, too," Naru said after pausing for a moment to think. "However, we can only arrange a small séance tonight."

"Then would nine o'clock in the next room be okay?" Igarashi-sensei asked.

"Yes, that would be fine," Yasuhara replied.

"Yasuhara-san is quite an actor!" Mai giggled when she was gone.

"But I got nervous for a moment there..." Yasuhara admitted a little nervously. "Thanks for your help, Hitomi-san."

"No problem," Hitomi said brightly. "You can pay me back with a raise," she teased.

"I think a paid vacation would be better," Mai quipped with a grin.

"If you want a reward, then fix those awful measurements," Naru retorted bluntly.

"Don't ask the impossible," the two girls told him, sweat-dropping.