Previously:

"It is kind of suspicious how she calls herself a miko..." Hitomi agreed reluctantly. Ayako did warn them that it might not work, though. But on the other hand, she didn't behave like any of the mikos at Harada-kun's family's shrine.

"Right? Does a proper miko assigned to a shrine tremble uncontrollably during an exorcism?" Bou-san said.

"Eh?" Mai said. "Do you mean…!?"

"She's a 'self-claimed miko' to the very end. I'd bet anything she's only a psychic who just wears the clothes of a miko."

"That must be it..." Mai said, sweat-dropping.

"At one point, she was mixing buddhist and shinto rituals. I doubt she's done proper studying. But if she doesn't really have abilities in the first place, why did you bring her along, Naru-bou?" Bou-san asked, turning around to face him.

"She may not be much of a miko, but she expelled the spirit, didn't she?" Naru reminded him.

"Ah, that's true..." Mai said.

"It may have been messy, but it's a fact that Eijirou-san is free of the spirit now," Hitomi agreed.


The Cursed House (Part 3)


"Wow, so all of that happened..." John said when they filled him and Masako in on everything that had happened so far the next day.

"It must be gone. I don't sense any malicious spirits here," Masako said.

"So, what's the plan for today, Naru-bou?" Bou-san asked.

"We got footage of the main wing and the room overlooking the cove," Naru said. "Let's check if there was any activity last night."

They rewound the footage and started watching from the beginning.

"Hazuki-chan's room… and what's this?" Bou-san asked, looking at the different monitors over Mai and Hitomi's shoulders.

"The first floor corridor of the main wing," Naru replied.

"Oh!"Mai gasped when they saw a few onibi show up in Hazuki's room. But then, they began disappearing one by one before their eyes. "… They vanished..."

"The same thing happened in the corridor," Ayako observed.

"Hey, check out the feed for the room overlooking the cove," Hitomi said, drawing their attention to that screen. There were countless glowing white orbs moving past the windows.

"… What are they? Lights?" Ayako asked.

"It looks like they're rising up from below," John said. "Are they apparitions?" Mai's eyes widened slightly.

'Rising from below...' she thought, recognizing the scene from her dream.

"How is the audio?" Naru asked.

"No audio. No vibrations either," Lin replied. "The other sensors are within normal levels. Except the temperature dropped five degrees."

KNOCK. KNOCK.

"Akifumi-san," Mai said when he opened the door.

"I brought you some coffee," he said, holding out the tray with a fresh pot and cups for everyone.

"Oh, sorry for the trouble," Mai told him. She paused in accepting the pot from him. "Um..."

"Yes?" Akifumi asked.

"About that cave below us… is there a walkway to the side perhaps? One that might have been carved into the cliff? They remind me of the stone steps on the side of the restaurant."

"Have you seen it?"

'Wow…! Maybe this is...' Mai thought. "Is there a small hokora shrine in the middle of the cave, after a bend in the passageway?"

"Impossible! Did you go down there? I wouldn't have allowed it. Those stone steps are dangerous," Akifumi said sternly.

"What did you do, Mai?" Bou-san asked.

"I… might have done something," she admitted, rubbing the back of her neck and laughing nervously.

"Huh?" the monk said.

—∞—

"—And then… human souls were being summoned from the sea into the cave," Mai explained. "They turned into spirits that looked like fish."

"Fish spirits?" Bou-san said. "What the hell!?"

"I know it sounds crazy! But it's true," Mai said defensively.

"Could that explain why the spirits floating up from the cove looked different from the ones in the house? They're animal spirits?" Hitomi suggested.

"There really is a cave like you described," Akifumi told Mai. "Salt-drenched corpses would wash ashore there. People who died in the nearby sea would float into that cave. … Not just people, but large objects, too. Including that hokora shrine. Our dogs washed ashore there, too."

Mai recalled dream Naru's words.

Since this… is where their souls were apparently summoned.

—∞—

"—I see," Bou-san said, looking over the fence gate at the carved steps in front of them. "Those must be the stone steps you saw in your dream, Mai."

"I believe those are extremely old. Built long before the restaurant was here," Akifumi said. "They've mostly fallen apart, so we can't use them now."

"Do you know when this restaurant was built?" Naru asked.

"I heard it was in my great grandfather's generation," Akifumi replied. "Apparently, they moved the restaurant here from Kanazawa. The main house was here before, and my great grandfather came many times. That's why they decided to relocate the restaurant."

"And when was the main house built?"

"Well, that would be… The oldest member in our family cemetery was born in the Ansei era, so before then… Would you like me to ask my grandmother?"

"Please do."

"By the way, when you said 'Ansei era', what year was that?" Bou-san asked.

"If I remember correctly, it was one of the eras during the Edo period. It's been a long time since I've been tested on that," Akifumi said, smiling wryly and rubbling the back of his neck.

"C'mon, you're going to high school now," Bou-san said, looking at Mai.

"M-My school is still on the Genji and Heike war!" Mai said defensively.

"How about Masako?" Bou-san said. "Aren't you in school for now?"

"What do you mean 'for now'? My class is still discussing Genji, too," Masako said.

"Masako, you're still in high school!?" Mai asked, surprised.

"It's a special school for famous celebrities," Bou-san explained, grinning.

"No way! How cool!" Mai exclaimed with sparkling eyes of admiration. "So, that means you're busy all the time? But you keep coming to help us. Ah! By the way, do you have celebrity friends?"

"I am busy..." Masako replied. "… But I'm still in supplementary lessons… I take supplementary lessons to compensate for my attendance record," she added, just to be clear. It had nothing to do with her grades.

"So you flew here to get a chance to see Naru?" Mai asked. "Hey, Masako, what do you wear to school?"

"A school uniform of course," she answered with a vein throbbing on her forehead. "Do you really think I'd go to class in a kimono?" Mai just grinned, sweating and laughing a little nervously. Yes. Yes, she did. The image in her head had been of Masako wearing hakama to school like in the olden days. "Un-Unbelieveable!" Masako huffed, correctly reading the expression on the other girl's face. "You should try to have a little more common sense."

"What did you say!?"

"What year was it?" Naru asked Hitomi.

"I think that era lasted from about the mid 1800s to 1860," Hitomi replied easily, making the other girls pause in the background.

"Hmmph," Masako huffed, turning away from her and Mai. Mai sweat-dropped.

"Is it possible to see the cove from here?" Bou-san asked.

"If you go over there, toward the tearoom—you can see the front of the cape," Akifumi replied.

"Whoa… It's exactly like my dream..." Mai said, sweat-dropping.

"Shall we go a little further?" Akifumi suggested. He lead them over to an area with nice wooden fence and unlocked its gate. They followed him through to stand closer to the edge of the cliff.

"Wow..." Mai said warily.

"There's no way to see what's on this cliff from below," Bou-san remarked. "Huh..."

"Don't lean over too far," Hitomi cautioned him. It was a long drop.

"Hey, young master," Ayako said, getting Akifumi's attention.

" 'Young master'…?" he asked, sweat-dropping. "I'm not the main family heir."

"Oh, minor detail," she said dismissively and pointed at five large rocks lined up near the edge of the cliff. "What are those?"

"I don't know," he replied. "Even my grandmother doesn't know. They look like gravestones. They've probably been untouched since they were placed there."

"Hmmm," Ayako said, holding their chin.

"Yoshimi-san, what's over here?" John asked. They walked over to stand next to him and looked down to see two rocks sticking up out of the water that were tied together with a sacred rope.

"That's Okobu and Mekobu," Akifumi answered. "Okobu is the large one, and Mekobu is the small one."

"Is that a sacred rope tying them together?" John asked.

"Yes, but I don't think it has anything to do with any shinto rituals," Akifumi said. "Because the local fishermen tie it there to mark the new year. It's said that a man and woman leapt into the sea from here."

"Huh?" Mai said, immediately paying attention.

"It's a local legend. Once upon a time, there was a princess who lived on this land. The princess had a lover among the fishermen living here. However, another man appeared before the illicit romance. This man was a son of a local noble who tried to forced the princess to marry him. The princess disliked the noble son and set out to elope with her lover. However, the noble son secretly replaced a message the couple had written, and the couple failed to meet as planned."

'I-I know this story from somewhere...' Mai thought. 'Was I dreaming of this legend!? … In other words...' she pictured a love triangle drawn with mutual love between herself and Naru and one-sided love from Akifumi toward her with a line labeled 'murder' drawn from Naru to Akifumi. 'Gyaaa! It must be!' she thought, blushing out of embarrassment.

"While the princess searched for her lover in the confusion, the lover killed the noble son. I think it was because the lover thought he was betrayed when the noble son came to the rendezvous instead of the princess. The couple realized their misunderstanding, but it was too late."

Mai remembered her dream of a similar situation.

When I came here, he was waiting here. I thought you betrayed me, Mai.

I would never do such a thing.

"So they leapt off this cliff into the sea below. The gods took pity on them and ensured that they would never be apart again. The story goes that the lover was transformed into Okobu and the princess into Mekobu. Is something wrong?" Akifumi asked when he noticed Mai's face was red.

"No, no, it's nothing," Mai said quickly. 'Argh… I had… the most embarrassing dream...'

"...Oh?" Bou-san said when he spotted something else. "What is that building over there?"

"That's a shrine. There are no priests anymore, it's just a small one," Akifumi explained. "Would you like to see it?" He led them over to it. It was definitely small and very old, which it showed; but it was also very clean.

"Wow! What an exquisite shrine," Ayako exclaimed. "But it could use a proper restoration."

"Exquisite, you say? My family's been looking after it… and cleaning it, for generations," Akifumi said, a little surprised by such an enthusiastic response.

'Isn't it rundown?' Mai and Hitomi thought, also surprised by Ayako's reaction.

"Young master, young master," Bou-san said, getting his attention. "What are those?" he asked about three stones placed together in a row off to the side.

"Those are the Tohachi mounds," Akifumi replied.

"Tohachi mounds?" Hitomi asked.

"That is 'tohachi' as in the 'eighteen' mounds. I don't know why, but another name is sanroku—or 'three-six' mounds. I think 'tohachi' is a pun," Akifumi explained.

"I think you're right," Hitomi agreed, smiling wryly.

"A pun?" Mai asked.

"Three times six equals eighteen, right?" Hitomi reminded her.

"Oh!" Mai said, understanding the odd joke completely.

"Now, why they're called sanroku mounds, nobody really knows," Akifumi continued. "But there are three of them here, are there not?"

"And there are only five at the other place," Mai said.

"Exactly right. So, I think there are supposed to be six on that cape, but one was lost. My grandmother said something like that."

"A lost mound, huh?" Bou-san said, holding his chin.

"But a mound, in this case, is a grave," John said. "Do you think this one oddity could have something to do with our Yoshimi family case?"

"That's it!" Ayako said excitedly. "Those mounds are fox graves. But they had to be moved when the restaurant was built. I'll bet when that happened, one of the six wasn't moved properly and it broke apart. That curse then..."

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves," Naru said, slowing her roll.

"I realized the same thing already," Bou-san added.

"What do you mean?" Ayako asked them, vein throbbing on her forehead.

"It dawned on me as we were walking earlier," Bou-san replied.

"What do you think, Hara-san?" Naru asked.

"… What we're calling a fox here is not really a fox..." Masako said thoughtfully, holding her chin. "I couldn't feel any animals spirits at the restaurant or at the mounds. There are many instances where the spirits deceive human eyes by appearing in the form of beasts. Also… I can feel the presence of many spirits. But I cannot tell what they are. My guess is that they are a kind of floating spirit."

"Masako… so for once, you don't know what these spirits are?" Bou-san said.

"Before, Hitomi described the 'fox' spirit as looking 'oily'… Have you seen anything like that or know what it could mean?" Naru asked.

"Oily?" Masako asked.

"Like oil being stirred around in water," Hitomi clarified.

"No… I have seen some spirits that were colorless… transparent… but they didn't seem to exhibit any kind of emotion." Masako said. "I… haven't seen this often. This is just a feeling, but these spirits seem to be what's called an 'empty spirit'..."

"Because there's no emotion?" Mai asked.

"Yes. This is a strange place. I don't sense anything good here, but I don't sense anything evil either."

'Eh?' Mai thought. 'Those words sound...'

"But you did feel something, right?" Hitomi said.

"I felt an odd power inside the house… but it felt like a swirl of something extremely evil and something extremely good," Masako replied. "I remember that feeling once before..."

"Was it... a sacred ground?" Mai asked. Masako's eyes widened slightly.

"… Yes… That's right," she said. "Before, when I was in America, I was on a sacred Native American ground. This feeling is very similar."

"Native American… Ah!" Hitomi said, lighting up with recognition. "That's the other reason that oily spirit felt familiar… I have seen something like this before!"

"Really!?" Mai asked excitedly.

"What was it?" Naru asked.

"I've been to a sacred ground, too," Hitomi said. "I couldn't feel the energy like Masako, but it was shortly after I got my first artificial eye… It was a school field trip, and I thought I saw a man standing on one of the rock formations. The air around him was wavy and distorted—and oily-looking. No one else saw him. It was hot out, and I didn't know I could see spirits yet, so we thought maybe it was the heat getting to me, and I spent the rest of the trip inside the air-conditioned visitor's center… Maybe I saw something after all?"

"Maybe," Naru said, holding his chin. "If thats' so… the 'oily' aspect of the spirit could be because it's sacred ground here."

"Whoa… So, Masako, you've been to foreign countries?" Mai asked, impressed. She knew Hitomi used to live there, but...

'That's the part she latched onto…?' Hitomi thought wryly, sweat-dropping.

"Just once… When I visited an exorcism conference at ASPR's invitation," Masako replied.

"ASPR?" Mai asked.

"The American Society for Psychical Research," Masako answered. "At that time, I was in an area that was referred to as a sacred Native American Ground. It was a holy place protected by the spirits of the dead. It was also the epicenter of a curse that brings calamity down upon dishonored people. Many spirits were floating about there. I'm feeling sensations that are strongly reminiscent of that place."

'A place where spirits and souls gather…' Mai thought. Just like in her dream.

"… Of course, we haven't even looked inside that cave yet," Bou-san said.

They followed Akifumi down the safer, more modern stairs that led down to the cave.

"There's another path to the cave from the coast," Mai said as they walked the path along the cliffside to reach their destination.

"We'll use this path," Akifumi told her.

"She sounds so certain," Ayako remarked.

"She must have seen it in her dream," Hitomi said.

"It's gonna be a little dark, so please watch your step," Akifumi cautioned them.

'It's just like my dream,' Mai thought, looking around. '… But I can see the hokora clearly now...'

"Do you feel something, Masako?" Hitomi asked.

"The same feeling as on the sacred ground I visited in America… Even as we speak, spirits are flowing in here," Masako replied. "Do you see anything?"

"Let me check..." Hitomi said, removing her eyepatch. "Whoa..." She stumbled a little.

"What is it?" Mai asked.

"Well, first of all, Masako is right about all the spirits flowing in," Hitomi said. "Second, the hokora is…."

"Warped?" Mai said.

"Yes," Hitomi answered, looking at her. "Extremely. Was that in your dream, too?" Mai nodded.

"Does the hokora look 'oily'?" Naru asked.

"It's a little hard to tell with how warped it is, but… no, I don't think so," Hitomi replied. "Oh, this is giving me a headache. I better put my eyepatch back on..."

"Do you handle the cleaning in here, too?" Bou-san asked Akifumi, moving closer to examine the small shrine. It looked perfectly ordinary from where he was standing.

"Yes. As well as the buddhist household altar in the main wing and the shinto household shrine in the restaurant… we can be pretty fussy," Akifumi answered. "We're quite stern with our children. They're required to assist in the cleaning. Unfortunately…"

"Hahaha. I know, I know," Bou-san said. "I come from a temple, too."

"Huh?" Mai said. "Ayako, your home is a shrine too, right? Is it hard living there?"

"Sorry to disappoint you… My house is not a shrine," Ayako told her, not sorry at all.

"I'm wrong!?" Mai said, taken aback.

"I don't have to help with any chores. Me, I was raised like a princess. As a spoiled, only child."

"Then, Ayako, what do you do?" Mai asked. So, she admitted it?

"Oh, I'm a doctor."

"What! A doctor? As in the filthy rich, prestigious kind!?" Mai was shocked.

"I work at a general hospital myself, so you might say I'm rich," Ayako answered nonchalantly. "A housekeeper does everything for me."

"Then how are you a miko..." Mai questioned, sweat-dropping.

"Hmm? Young master, what's this inside?" Bou-san asked.

"Is that driftwood?" Hitomi asked, leaning closer.

"It is. At least, that's what I think it is," Akifumi said, also moving closer. "We call it O-kobu-sama."

" 'O-kobu...' As in the kobu seaweed on that rock?" Bou-san asked.

"That's probably true. The Bulges look like a human head and hands. And look, can you see how it's making a gesture like this?" Akifumi said, holding his hands palms out, with one pointed up and the other pointed down.

"Oh, yeah, it is..." the monk and Hitomi said. His imitation was spot on.

"This pose looks like a buddha statue. I think that's why we enshrined it."