I'll be honest. I took a damn long time. So I'll come clean on why, and try to keep in short and sweet while I am at it. For a long while, I more or less knew I had depression and anxiety because of course I would have both, but my guardians more or less refused to acknowledge it and have me diagnosed. Surprise surprise, ignoring a problem doesn't make it go away, something they fail to grasp. They (as in depression and anxiety) double teamed on me and kicked my sorry hide for a while until said guardians finally realized that I wasn't being overdramatic or making it up and the doctor almost smacked one of them for not acknowledging it sooner. I got into therapy and started all that. So that's why the updates got slower and slower until they reached this point. Plus, my schedule really did keep getting busier and busier and I really AM I klutz and—anyway.
Anyway.
Long story made slightly shorter, I now have some more motivation back about this story (and my plans for it which I'm still slightly scared about because I have no idea how well you guys might actually like it) and am now ready to get back to writing again!
So yeah. Sorry it took so long. I can't promise that I won't go downhill again and not update for a while. In fact, that probably will happen, but it won't be for lack of trying on my part. I'm not asking for sympathy or anything, just patience and maybe just a reminder every now and then that people really ARE waiting for me to update with as much patience as they can have and that they really DO want to read it. It means a lot, trust me on that. I really don't like disappointing you guys and with how big this story got—especially compared to the one-shot I wrote on an iPod at one AM like literally three years ago—it can get a little intimidating starting on a new chapter. Enough with those excuses though, this chapter is (freaking finally) here!
I got this out in time for guest reviewer ciabha's birthday, December Fifth. Happy birthday! Also, I got it up in time to meet up on Gryffindor Rat's challenge of updating before Christmas. Suck it mental illness! Also, if my mother were still around, her birthday would be December Sixth, so I suppose that's another deadline I beat! Yay for finally doing this thing!
Ah… Let's see… Oh yeah. I do not own Ghost Hunt.
Without any further ado… And also I'm so sorry Mai this story should be called Mute instead of Blind at this point…
ENJOY!
BLIND
Slap!
My head snapped to the side, cutting my scream short. I could no longer see again, and I embraced because, if I was still blind, then I was still alive, right?
I took a moment to shakily sense around me, only to find Ayako sitting on the bed and Masako standing and leaning over, both watching me. Ayako's hand was lifted… she slapped me out of that dream, didn't she…?
Almost immediately I felt myself start to cry, so I shot myself into Ayako's arm because I had just felt myself die and… and…
"Mai," Ayako said, shocked but still wrapping her arms around me. "What's wrong?"
I couldn't bring myself to stop sobbing long enough to answer her.
I was so scared… I really thought I was gonna die…!
A series of loud knocks came from the door. "Hey, open up!" Monk's muffled voice came through. Masako walked over and opened the door. "Is everything okay in here?" Monk asked as he rushed in, followed closely by Yasu and John, all three immediately noticing my current state of distress. "What happened, Mai?"
I collected myself, at least a little, and leaned out of Ayako's arms. "… A dream… Actually more of a nightmare," I said, fairly certain my voice was slightly but understandably off.
"You scared us…" Monk sighed, probably relieved that no one was physically hurt. "So was it… one of those dreams?"
I nodded. "Yeah, I think so." A scary thought, really, if you think about it, being able to have dreams where you could die. It had to be a psychic dream, though, because it felt too real to be anywhere near a normal one…
"Can you tell us what happened?" Yasu asked softly.
I thought back to the too fresh, too real dream. "I dreamt… that I was being killed… Two men came in," I sniffled. "And they dragged me to a strange room, covered with tiles…" Tiles, and tiles, and that weird bucket, and that tub, all covered in blood… "And then…" A knife. "And then they cut me… it felt like there was thin trail of ice over the skin on my neck… blood-"
A hand placed itself on my head, stopping me. "That's enough," Monk said, rubbing my head as Ayako hugged me again. "We didn't mean for you to relive it."
It was silent for a moment. Then the door creaked open. I turned, and… Naru…
There he stood, in pajamas of all things, with what I suspected was either Lin's or his own coat draped over his shoulders. Lin was the one who opened the door. He had to be, because while one of Naru's hands had to keep the coat in place, the other balanced a teacup on a saucer. The little blob darted towards, strangely comforting as it bobbed around my shoulder. Heck, even the blob that normally hung around Naru seemed mildly concerned (or at the very least, not as agitated in my presence as it usually was), and I'm fairly certain it hated me.
Naru completely ignored the others, crossing the room over to me. He held the tea out, and, after a moment, I took it. There was a shocking amount of nothing going through my mind, which was welcomed at the moment. This tea smells so good. I took a sip. Chamomile. Just like when I first made him tea on the Dollhouse case…
Somehow, the thought of Naru coming into the room with only pajamas and tea was a little funny, which was a grand contradiction to the horror I was feeling just seconds ago.
I feel much better now.
"Are you okay?" Naru asked, face stony as always.
"Yeah, I'll be fine," I smiled, and I would be. I knew it. "Thank you. Sorry for the scare."
Naru gently let out a breath. "We'll get a full account of your dream in the morning. Am I right in assuming it was psychic?"
I nodded. He nodded back.
"We'll leave you be, now, if you'd like," John said, already backing towards the door.
Hopefully I'd at least get a little sleep after that dream…
BLIND
April
Day 5
I did not.
Save for Naru and Lin, we all sat at breakfast, though none of the other groups seemed to be present. Naru and Lin had already gotten all the details they could on my nightmare before I went to breakfast, per my request. I spent the rest of the night focusing on it, and I had hoped that if I said everything about the dream to Naru, I might be able to think about anything else…
Oh, I was wrong.
"Are you alright, Mai?" Monk asked. "I'm sure if you wanted to stay in bed, even Naru might give you at least a few minutes."
I shook my head. "No, yeah, I'm alright. It's better for me to walk around and stuff, you know?" Monk didn't look all that convinced. "It's just… I can't stop… thinking about that nightmare," I admitted.
"What does everyone think about this theory," Yasu said. "We know there's a chance that Suzuki and Atsugi have passed on. Could your dream have been an accurate representation of what they suffered at the hands of this unknown killer?"
"A dream that's… telepathic?" John questioned.
"If that's the case, then they've both been murdered, right?" Ayako said.
"This may sound crazy," Monk said, giving side glances to some of the staff by the door, "but is there any chance the people working here are up to something?"
"Huh?" I turned to face Monk.
"Just look at the situation," Monk faced me fully. "The employees have been working here for a full week and nothing's happened to them, yet we've been here for three days and two people have already disappeared."
"Now that you mention it, no one directly associated with the house has disappeared," Yasu pointed out.
"So only outsiders are the ones being affected," I said. "Hm." Although, I'm not sure any of the staff here really did anything…
John seemed reluctant to believe the staff did anything either. "What about this," John said. "Is it possible the spirits prefer people of a certain age…? All of the staff are of the older persuasion, yet everyone who's disappeared has been younger."
Suddenly, it's like something snapped into place within our minds. Only younger people are being taken.
We rushed breakfast and immediately ran to tell Naru and Lin our suspicions. Mostly Naru.
Naru gave some thought to it, the blob that liked him circling around his head protectively, before he looked up at as all again. "Nice work," he said. "Yasu, Mai, make sure you're never alone while in this house." We both nodded. This wasn't the time to argue it. I was hotheaded, not an idiot... I noticed the blob that liked me started doing circles around my head like Naru's was to him.
Naru turned to Ayako. "Priestess, how much faith can I entrust in you?"
"What do you mean by that?" Ayako asked.
"It's become very dangerous here and Yasu is unable to defend himself," Naru said, sounding a hint irritated. "I need people I can rely on to protect him under any circumstances."
"Okay, I understand," Ayako said.
"So to what extent can I count on you?" Naru asked.
"… Just some warding magic," Ayako admitted reluctantly.
"That's not good enough. Ms. Matsuzaki and Miss Hara, you two cannot leave each other's sight," Naru said. He turned to Masako. "I know you focus mainly on being a medium, but you can at least protect yourself, right?"
"… I can," Masako stated.
"Monk, John, the two of you will protect Yasu," Naru ordered.
"Got it," John nodded immediately.
"Right!" Monk agreed.
"But…" Masako said. "Who will protect Mai? Unless…"
"Lin will be protecting Mai," Naru said.
Lin stopped typing and immediately stood up to face the younger. "But Naru! Who will be look out for you?" Lin began crossing the room. "Don't forget, you can't perform warding magic."
That's right… We've discussed the abilities of Oliver Davis before… Wow. I guess Naru does have impressive PK abilities… but without his brother, he can't use them, and I don't think his psychometry would be all that useful in defense… so right now, he's not really much of a spiritualist, only a paranormal researcher in a dangerous mansion.
"What are you gonna do?" I asked him.
"I'll manage," Naru answered simply.
"You're out of your mind," Lin said. "You need to have some protection. Takigawa will cover Yasu and Father Brown will be protecting Mai, alright?"
"Monk can't handle it alone," Naru said sharply.
"Hey, man, I'm not an amateur!" Monk protested.
"I don't think you understand the danger here." Naru seemed to be getting a little more irritated now.
"Then send one of them away," Lin said. "I cannot allow you to be alone in this house. If you were to come to harm while on a job, how would you expect me to explain that to the professor?"
The professor?
"Think about how your parents would feel if that happened," Lin continued scolding Naru.
Wait, Naru's parents are professors, that's right!
"Lin, if you don't like how I conduct my investigation then leave," Naru said firmly.
"How quickly you seem to forget," Lin halfway scoffed. "My main objective here is to protect you at all costs."
Protect him? Wha- Oh, right, after what had happened with Gene, Naru's parents didn't want their remaining son alone while in Japan, thus having Lin act as Naru's bodyguard.
"I'll volunteer," Yasu raised his hand and broke the tense atmosphere. "I'm supposedly the head of Shibuya Psychic Research… We'll just say I had other business to attend to and that I left the case in the hands of my wonderfully attractive team of investigators, should anyone notice and ask where I've gone."
After that, things settled as Yasu escaped Madoka-styled out of the window to meet up with the said insane teacher of Naru to help her out on the outside while we got back to the investigation inside the house.
BLIND
"This house is built up higher at its center," Lin reported. Night had fallen, and it was time to compare notes and theories and everything else we had on the case. "The floors on the first level slope upwards towards the center, leaving it about two meters higher than the perimeter of the structure. Judging from the placement of the windows, it looks like the owner added rooms and increased the overall size outward from the center. That's about everything we know up to this point."
"What we don't know is what's inside this empty section," Naru said, shuffling the papers in his hand.
"If it's a hidden room it's gigantic," Monk commented.
"But… we've searched all over. There doesn't seem to be a way inside," John said.
"What if the way inside doesn't actually exist?" Naru suggested. I wasn't the only one with a faint 'huh' hummed under their breath as Naru put his papers down next to Lin. "What if this area wasn't originally intended to be hidden but was sealed later."
"Why would they do that?" I asked.
"If we assume the structure was built from the inside out, it must've had a purpose at some time." Naru began pacing with his hand on his chin. "I can't see a logical explanation of why they would continue to build on top of the room if they didn't want to hide it."
"Yes, you're right," Ayako drawled.
"But what could they be hiding?" I wondered out loud.
"We'll find out as soon as we open up a few of those walls," Naru said, facing one of the walls in the room.
"Can we even do that?" Monk asked.
"I'm sure we can get permission… if not, this house is large enough to hide a broken wall or two…" Naru stated.
A knock against glass interrupted any further discussion on it. The window creaked open somewhat quietly.
"Hey everyone," Madoka greeted softly as she popped up.
"We have some new information for you," Yasu stood behind her.
"Yasu," I greeted as they both came in and made themselves comfortable on two of the table chairs.
"I thought I told you it was too dangerous to come here," Naru scolded almost immediately.
"Don't worry about me, I'm just here to assist," Yasu reassured.
"He's an absolutely fabulous detective, today was very productive. You should take him on more cases… And, besides," Madoka said, "it's perfectly safe outside the house. They've even got a little playground out there."
"Really? A playground?" I was seriously questioning this decision. Hey look at this creepy old mansion no one actually lives in oh what should we do with the land? Oh I know let's let our young children play out there. Marvelous.
"Yeah," Madoka smiled. "The backyard for this house is huge. Before all these incidents started happening, the kids in the neighborhood would use it to play soccer. But none of those children ever went missing, proving the danger only lies within the house." Madoka was being very smug about being right about this against Naru…
"Oh, I noticed something strange about the house from outside," Yasu said, reaching over and grabbing a large folder, taking its contents—laminated paper? Photos?—out while talking. "It's the number of chimneys. When we were investigating the place earlier, I believe we found either ten or eleven fireplaces."
"There are eleven," Lin spoke up without turning even the slightest.
"But if you look here," Yasu continued, "there are twelve chimneys."
"You're right, there's an extra one," John said as he leaned over to look.
"And as you might be able to see, the extra chimney is round, much thicker, and made of brick instead of plaster," Yasu described, probably mostly for my benefit.
"That's right above the part of the house with the hidden space," Monk realized.
"There is definitely something there," Naru said.
But what? I was suddenly reminded of the tiled room, of that horrifying nightmare… A chill raced up my spine… If that's really what's waiting, maybe I should have just stayed home…
"We also have more info about Kaneyuki," Madoka reported. "We interviewed a lot of the neighbors, the older ones if we could help it… Apparently his health condition had been quite fragile ever since childhood."
"When he was young, he was told the chances of him living a full life were slim," Yasu picked up. "He then traveled extensively abroad and had foreign doctors examine him for second opinions."
"Also," Madoka continued. "Soon after Kaneyuki moved into the house, he kept two employees with him at all times."
Two of them…? Like last night… they grabbed me… dragged…
At some point, Yasu pulled out a small pocket notebook. "At the time, there was room detached from the main house. The two were connected via a complicated maze of hedges…" My heart thudded in my ears. "The gardeners that maintained the grounds said the maze was so creepy they avoided working there as often as possible." The maze… the hedges I was dragged through… creepy… I grabbed my arms… No no no… "They also said the detached room had a putrid smell and that the staff was constantly changing."
"Did you find out anything about the relationship between Kaneyuki and Urado?" Naru asked.
"As a matter of fact, I did," Yasu said, setting his notebook down into his lap as he looked over to the side, where the portrait was. "'Urado' was an assumed name he often went by."
This was shocking news, to everyone, we thought they were two separate people, but my heart was thudding too loudly and I just felt so unimaginably scared and I think my breath was labored but I was far too terrified to care. I don't want to hear anymore.
"What, you're saying Urado and Kaneyuki were the same person?" I faintly heard Monk ask.
I can't…
I can't take it anymore!
"You okay?" I heard Yasu said, but I couldn't concentrate.
The room was too small and too big and I was scared terrified run now and I didn't really know where I was and who are these people why are they here…? Help me help.
"Mai," Monk stepped forward, wait who was Monk? Is he who I'm scared of?
He was stopped by Masako—who? . "Wait," she said. She stepped slowly over to me, I don't think she's going to hurt me, but who is she? She needs to run. "Not this person," she said calmly. "She's incapable of saving you." Her hand landed lightly on my shoulder. "Remember, you're already dead. Now, come out, don't be frightened. Just look for the light and walk towards it. And then you will find some peace."
I felt calmer, suddenly. All the panic was gone. It… wasn't even me to start with, was it? "Thanks," I told her.
"Since we were talking about them, one of the spirits trapped in the house possessed you," Masako explained. "I believe it was one of the staff members we were just discussing."
"She was the one," I said, tears in my eyes and not entirely sure how I knew, a headache just behind my eyes making itself known. "The one who was killed by the two men in my dream last night."
"You saw the spirit's memories?" Monk questioned.
"She must've been so scared," I said. "Being murdered like that…" I certainly was… That's about when I started crying, again. In a rare show of compassion, Masako gave me a sort-of hug in comfort.
"So the spirits of those murdered in the same way are still wondering the house," Naru concluded.
I tried to gather myself and remembered the pages upon pages that Suzuki wrote, of all the messages of help and the one that said 'I don't want to die'…. Those really were the voices of spirits…
I heard a loud click of a houseful of electricity shutting off. Did the lights go out? I think the heat went out…
That's when the screaming began. Horrified, terrified screams, all at once, all one voice. Sobbing, crying, screaming for help that never came. It surrounded us, muffling everything. I felt muted. I couldn't sense anything, the sound of it all was just so loud… and there was that awful noise in the background that I didn't want to know the origins off, but it sounded an awful lot like blood dripping, pooling, bloody footsteps, bloody bodies, a bloody knife…
What's happening?! I've never heard anything as horrible as this before…
"Naru?!" I called, hoping for some sort of direction because the voices of murder victims was NOT in the job description. Fairly certain your exact words were 'just office work'!
"Don't move," Naru instructed calmly, his voice relatively quiet.
The sound of the electricity coming back on echoed, and the voices stopped. Something had to have happened, so let my senses out to find out what….
Writing… on the wall… it was everywhere….
"Is… that blood?" Ayako said as everyone assessed the room.
It was… unsettling, to say the least. Help, I'm scared, It hurts, I don't want to die… the words covered the walls and ceiling.
"It's everywhere," someone stated the obvious, Ayako I think, but I was a little busy being horrified to really take note.
"Did the spirits do this…?" I asked. If it was a prank, it wasn't funny… Wait, what was that? "Naru." He turned. "Urado's name is there…" I said, pointing it out on the wall.
"Look, it's over here too," Ayako called from another wall.
Now that I was aware of it, Urado's name was actually written quite a few times all around the room…
Running footsteps could be heard coming from the hall. "Who's that?" Naru turned to the door.
"Come on Yasu, let's move," Madoka whispered as she got up.
"Right," Yasu followed right after her.
"Be careful guys," Monk whispered to them, and Madoka waved as both slipped out the window and gone in seconds.
Right as the window closed, the door burst open to reveal Mr. Ohashi. "Everyone okay? It looks like this room has got it as well," Mr. Ohashi said in a hurried breath. At the questioning looks, he explained further. "I don't know how it happened, but this strange writing just appeared on the walls… It looks like blood…"
"Just how many spirits are in this house?" Ayako wondered as she looked around at the new terrifying décor as Monk took to checking the walls for any tricks.
Naru knocked three times on the wall next to the name Urado, one of the many throughout the room. "The name 'Urado' appears to be more important than I originally thought. I doubt it's a simple alias." I could sense Naru's gaze on the wall narrow into a glare. "If only we knew what it meant." He paused for a moment before turning to Masako next to me. "Miss Hara, do you feel up to performing a séance tonight?"
"Yes, of course," Masako immediately answered.
"Wait a minute," I protested. "You're talking about allowing a spirit to possess Masako aren't you? You can't do that! What if she has to go through the same kind of terror I experienced?"
To be fair, Naru kept his answer cool and collected. "Miss Hara is a professional."
"I'm not going to let anyone experience someone else's death if I can help it! A scary experience like that… I'm not going to let her to do that! Not if I can help it! I'm sorry but I won't allow Masako to take part in a séance, not here! So…"
Naru seemed to go into thought for a moment, probably of all the different ways to tell be to buzz off. He sighed. "You leave me no other choice. We'll have to try something else." Wait what. "You want to take a shot at it, Lin?"
"Yes I do," Lin responded.
"… You sure?" I asked Lin.
"Don't worry Mai," Lin assured me. "What I will do is called 'shoukon', and it can only summon the spirits."
"What is this shoukon?" John asked the far more appreciable Monk. *
"It's a method derived from Chinese ruku shamanism. I believe you need to have certain information about the spirit you want to summon, such as their name and birthdate," Monk explained.
"I can only summon Suzuki and Atsugi now," Lin said. "That is of course assuming if they have indeed passed on."
"Sounds good. Now let's go," Naru turned to go start getting things ready, Lin following straight after.
Naru's actually humoring me on this… I wonder… if that has anything to do with his psychometry? It's possible, I guess, that Naru's had death visions too… did I offend him? No, I don't think that's quite the case…
Naru and Lin went off to prepare for the summoning while the rest of us got another room ready for it, as per Lin's instructions. I personally felt like an idiot scattering salt everywhere and cleaning the floors and counting how many times I cleaned the table with a fresh rag, but I wasn't Lin and I wasn't going to argue against him on the matter.
"So, is this shoukon common for an omniyouji?" I asked Monk.
"Not particularly…" Monk shrugged. "There's two different methods of summoning spirits. There's the type where you get possessed, which is what Masako does. That's called 'possession' or 'spirit absorption', and is the easier of the two. The second type is 'speaking to spirits', or 'calling spirits back from the dead', also known as 'setsukon', which is much harder to do. 'Shoukon' is the second type of summoning. If Lin is really doing shoukon, then he might not actually be an omniyouji, but instead a Taoist priest practicing Chinese curses. In which case, something like shoukon should be fairly easy to him."
I tried really hard not to imagine John and Lin as priests together. I really did. I knew that a Taoist priest had to be different from a Catholic one. Technically, John seemed to be an exorcist and Lin still seemed to prefer omniyouji in any case…
"So, wait, does that mean Lin is more powerful than Masako?" I asked.
"Maybe," Monk guessed.
"If Lin can do all that, then why bother with Masako at all?" Ayako looked over to said medium.
Masako huffed at her. "I can still see spirits without summoning them, that's why."
"Lin can't just summon any spirit he wants," Monk said. "Like I said before, he has to have certain info, like names and birth dates. That's why we can only possibly summon Suzuki or Atsugi. If they have passed, then they're the only ones who have died in this house that we have information on."
"So it'd be useless to try it in just any house we were investigating," I said.
Monk nodded just as Lin and Naru entered the room. "Let's get this set up and begin," Naru said.
And so we did.
BLIND
The camera set up was awful and I had no idea what they were burning in the incense holder. The blobs were circling around his head in a very drifty manner, not straying even slightly from Lin as they did so.
"What about the date of death?" Lin looked over to Naru from where he sat at the low table.
"The day after she disappeared," Naru supplied. "That's my best guess."
Lin nodded. He placed the paper onto a blouse belonging to Suzuki that Naru brought in earlier. Naru better not have performed psychometry on it so help me…
Lin lit the two candles on the table. It was a quiet, solemn feeling. No one spoke even a whisper, and I'm pretty sure we were all holding our breath very carefully. Lin tilted his head back before… was that… whistling? It sounded like a flute… Like a song…
Wow, what a pretty sound. Is Lin really doing that?
I heard rather than sensed the candle flame flicker, and it sounded like someone giving out a faint breath…
Something just blew on that candle!
Lin seemed to notice too. A white-blue light materialized a few feet away on the other side of the low table. It warped as it grew bigger and bigger before finally defining itself into the shape of a woman. Despite not knowing her well nor ever actually seeing her, I knew…
Suzuki… she did die…
"You are Naoko Suzuki, right?" Naru questioned.
Suzuki nodded.
"You are no longer of this world. Were you aware of that?"
Suzuki looked over at him, confused and surprised. She doesn't realize that she's dead…
"Do you know why you died?" Naru continued on.
She shook her head no.
"Did anyone commit a vile act against you?"
She nodded.
"I see," Naru said. "Was it Urado?"
Suzuki seemed distressed at this, shaking her head his way and that, curling into herself, then grabbing her head and leaning back like she was screaming. She seemed pained.
"You know him, don't you?" Naru pressed.
Suzuki tried to point somewhere, or maybe write something in the air. She tried to speak, but no words came out. Some of the wispy light coming off of her seemed to evaporate.
"Naru, the day was wrong. She can't speak and we're out of time," Lin stated.
"One last question," Naru said. "Can you tell me where you are now?"
Suzuki held her throat, unable to talk, and pointed to the far wall towards the inner parts of the mansion before disappearing in a wisp of smoke-like light.
It was quiet. Naru walked over to light switch to turn it on, but I had already noticed something amiss.
"What's that?" I asked. It said… It said 'Vurado'. "Did Suzuki write that?"
"So, I guess Urado's real name is Vlad," Monk said.
"Urado is Vlad?" I asked. I mean, I could kind of see how 'Vurado' could be Vlad, now that it was pointed out. The more 'seasoned' members of our team—in other words 'everyone but me'—seemed a little disturbed. Monk even put his hand over his mouth… "So what? I don't get it."
"I believe the name 'Vlad' is referring to the vampire Dracula," John said.
Wait, vampires? "Dracula? Do you mean the guy who sucks people's blood?!" This was DEFINITELY not in the job description! "Wait, does that mean Urado sucks people's blood too?"
"Mai, relax, there is no such thing as blood-sucking people," Naru said, probably completely done with me in general at this point. "Vampires only exist in books." I calmed down. "However," oh damn it, "the story of Dracula, which Bram Stoker published in the eighteen hundreds was based on an actual historical figure. He was Vlad Tepes, or, with 'Tepes' translating to 'impaler', 'Vlad the Impaler'. He was the king of Wallachia, now known as Romania, during the fifteenth century. After the defeat of the Ottoman Turks, he was deemed a hero while simultaneously feared as being the 'son of the dragon' or 'child of the devil'."
"That sounds scary," I said.
"Vlad's father was named Vlad Dracul. The word 'dracul' had two definitions in Wallachia at that time, both 'dragon' and 'devil'. The word 'dracula' mean 'child of dracul', or in other words, 'child of the devil'. To the people of Turkey, he was often referred to as 'the Impaler Prince'."
"… How come?" Note that I was intensily hesitant to ask. Note also that my mouth asked before my brain caught up to why someone just might be called anything involving the word 'impale'.
"Vlad was meticulous and brutal," Naru continued. "His favorite method of disposing of his enemies or anyone who betrayed him was to impale them."
Meticulous…
"This Kaneyuki guy was very meticulous. He fired an entire family that worked for him when one of them was caught embezzling." That's what Madoka said earlier, right?
"Vlad and Urado," Monk rubbed the back of his neck. "They do have some similar traits."
"By the time Kaneyuki traveled abroad, Dracula had been published years before. I would find it odd if he hadn't known of it," Naru said. "And then there's Elizabeth Báthory, a Hungarian Countess in the seventeenth century who's often associated with Vlad the Impaler."
Ayako spoke up then. "There are countless stories of Elizabeth being so obsessed with her fear of growing old that she would kill young women and drain their blood. She would bathe in it, hoping it would restore her youth."
Wait, that bathtub… just like in my dream…
"Kaneyuki must've grown to hate his frail body and, like Elizabeth Báthory, he may have thought he could reverse his chronic health issues by sacrificing young people and using their blood for nefarious purposes," Naru said.
"It would explain why the staff kept changing so often," I realized.
"I imagine so," Naru seemed to agree on that much.
"Now we can decipher what was written on that five-yen bill…" Monk said. "'Everyone who has come here is dead. I heard they were killed by Urado. Run away.'"
"So it was a warning for the next person who came here," Ayako said.
"But wait," John seemed troubled. "The coat that the five-yen bill was found in belonged to the Miyama Charity Hospital. Why was it there…!"
We all seemed to realize the disturbing truth of it.
"No way, all those people in the shelter?!" Monk yelled.
"Unbelievable." I think I was physically shaking. "How could he kill those people just to keep himself alive?!"
"Hold on," Ayako spoke next. "Isn't it a possibility that Hiroyuki knew what his father was up to in here?"
"Sure is," Monk said. "And in order to hide his father's dark secrets he kept building onto the mansion to seal them deep inside."
"But, Kaneyuki died a long time ago," I said. "Why would people still be disappearing today? Also, before, what did she mean when she pointed to the wall?"
Naru began walking across the room, speaking as he walked. "Kaneyuki didn't live a full life which is obviously a major disappointment for him. He killed others in an attempt to stave off death but still died sooner than he wished." Naru stood in front of the writing. "Urado's still here, inside this house. And he's far from being finished with his sacrifices…"
BLIND
Day 6
The following day we decided to find out what was on the other side of that wall, where the extra chimney and the hidden space were.
John and Monk got the glorious honor of getting the only two pickaxes and got to be told where to start destroying walls by Naru and Lin. Supposedly, Naru and Lin would substitute in for Monk and John respectively if they got tired. Lin and John had already switched twice, with John currently being the one at work, while Naru simply looked over the diagrams and maps we had made. Surprisingly, this just made Monk more determined to open the wall rather than get tired and give up.
We were in the part of the house with no electricity. I wasn't bothered by the dark for fairly obvious reasons, but I was stuck holding a flashlight that I didn't need. Lin had carried in a radar and, thinking about how it worked, I couldn't help but compare my sensing things to it… Although, try as I might, I really didn't know which wall was the weakest, which is what the radar was for in the first place. Maybe sonar or echolocation was a better description of what I was able to do…? Even then, though, it wasn't quite right…
Finally, the two busted open a head-shaped hole in the wall.
"Stop for now," Naru instructed. Monk and John complied, instead opting to rest a bit next to their stuff, Monk playing with his flashlight all the while.
"So, who wants to look into the creepy hidden space?" Monk panted from where he sat.
"Mai, what do you see?" Naru asked. I blinked. Hadn't expected that. I started to the roughly head-shaped hole in the wall and clicked my flashlight on.
"Oh, your flashlight's not working," John said. He got up slowly and walked over, switching out my flashlight for his when he got to me. "It's turned on," he whispered so only I could hear.
"Thanks," I whispered back, letting him get back to resting. I pointed the flashlight through the hole and stuck my head next to it, trying to sense what all was in there. I was momentarily distracted by the awful smell of the place, but I tried to ignore it.
"… Well?" Naru prompted.
"It's a sorta large space," I reported. "Looks like the outside of a school's incinerator, actually, incinerator and all. There's also some doors and windows, like the outside of a house or something like that. I can't quite make out all of it, though." Which was true.
"Is that all you can find?" I nodded, stepping away from the wall. "Alright, then let's break it open and get a closer look," Naru said, motioning for Monk and John to get back to work.
Monk groaned but picked up the pickax, John following with far less complaint. They worked on chipping at the edges of the hole until, finally fed up, Monk threw his arms back, yelled, and completely busted the wall the rest of the way.
Naru clicked on his flashlight and walked to the new entrance. "Let's head in," he said, leading the way as usual.
"What is that smell?" Monk said, covering his mouth and nose. I had to agree, it smelled awful in here. I opted to hang out with Ayako and Masako beside our entrance point, where it wasn't as bad, letting everyone else fully explore the place while I just sensed around where they each were exploring.
"There's a door," Naru said, his flashlight pointing right to it. He walked over and pulled it open rather easily. "… It's blocked."
"It's blocked in over on this side, too," Monk said, pointing his flashlight this way and that at the different windows.
Suddenly, John gave a frightened yell from over where he and Lin were searching, by the incinerator.
"What's wrong?" Monk shouted, heading over to where they stood with Naru following him over. "What'd you find?"
Naru took a few steps closer, peering closer into the opened incinerator. They were silent, all four of them, seemingly shocked. I couldn't quite sense around them to find out what they found, and I wasn't particularly inclined to. I had a bad feeling about whatever it was.
"…Well?" Ayako asked. "What is it?"
The four stood still for a moment before straightening up and looking away. "We need to go inform Mr. Ohashi as well as the police... We'll explain on the way." Naru said as he started towards our entrance point, the others following close behind.
The bad feeling from before got worse.
BLIND
We called Mr. Ohashi and the others for a meeting. They needed to hear this, too. This terrible news we just found…
Since Yasu wasn't there, Naru took his usual place of explaining our findings.
The others seemed just as shocked as we were about the body we found.
"It's most likely the body of one of the people that disappeared two months ago," Naru said.
"That's awful," Mr. Ohashi said shakily. "Please excuse me, I need to contact the Prime Minister." With that, he left the room in a near-run.
"With the discovery of this body, there's little hope… that we'll find any of the others still alive," Naru said. He seemed just as disturbed as the rest of us, but he managed to keep it mostly to himself.
Ms. Igurashi seemed even more horror-stricken. "Are you saying that… Suzuki is probably dead?"
I think everyone on the SPR team was vividly remembering seeing Suzuki's ghost during Lin's summoning.
"Yes," Naru said. "Same goes for Atsugi."
"But wait," Ms. Igurashi said. "You said the body you found in there from two months ago. Couldn't she have just gotten lost?"
"The room was completely sealed off from the outside," Naru explained. "Unless human beings have adapted the ability to pass through walls, I can only guess they were taken there, through a rip in the space-time continuum."
Ms. Igurashi just about started crying, her hands shaking just short of her face.
"Have you any idea how much power it would take to accomplish that?" he continued.
Mr. Minami stood up then, slamming his hand against the table. "Look! I'm leaving!" He began to walk over to the door, his partner following him. "This is too much. My own life is in danger!"
"Please don't leave," I said, running up to the table but not fully crossing the room. "Aren't you going to help us search for Atsugi?"
The two paused, looking over their shoulders to me. "He's probably dead," Mr. Minami said in a rather uncaring tone.
"That's horrible," I said. Even if he was, shouldn't you at least care a litte? Try to find his body at least? He was with you!
Ms. Igurashi got up as some point, walking over Mr. Minami's partner and clasping his hand. "Please sir, I'm begging you! You have got to help us find her! Doctor Davis, please, I'm desperate!" Right, this guy is supposed to be Oliver Davis.
I totally forgot about that, in the middle of all this news about finding a body in a sealed room and Lin summoning the spirit of someone we vaguely knew of when they were alive.
The man tore his hand out of Ms. Igurashi's grasp. "I can't do this!" he said his first words the entire investigation. "I'm not who you think I am! It was all his idea!" he shouted, pointing to Mr. Minami.
Naru seemed to expect this, his body tone completely changing to that of someone saying 'checkmate'.
"What?" Mr. Minami said, looking nervous. "That's ridiculous…" He laughed nervously. It was very obvious he was lying.
"I admit it, I'm not Doctor Davis!" the man shouted in English. Oh, thank goodness for tutoring... "My name is really Raymond Wall. This man is fooling all of you!" He again pointed to Mr. Minami as he shouted.
"You should be ashamed of yourselves," I said.
"I had a feeling something was going on," Ayako said. I nodded in agreement.
Monk slumped over, like a kicked puppy. Unfortunately for him, Ayako noticed.
She hit him hard on the back. "Hey, snap out of it, will ya?" Ayako smiled.
"I'm sorry but I don't want to be a part of this charade any longer!" Mr. Wall said, glaring at Mr. Minami as he walked towards the door. "Now good day!"
"Hey wait!" Mr. Minami shouted after him, chasing him out the door. "Come back here! You've got some nerve embarrassing me like that!" His voice faded as he got too far away to properly hear.
Ms. Igurashi sat down, dejected. The door slammed shut.
"I think it would be best if you left now, Ma'am," Naru said. "We are leaving as well."
"What?!" I asked. "We're gonna leave? How come?"
"Because," Naru said, tapping his finger against his other hand, "exorcism is impossible."
It's… impossible?
What does he mean by that?
This… doesn't seem to be good.
The sick feeling came back once again…
BLIND
And that's a wrap! Man, some of the scenes in here from the anime were awkward and hard to watch, nonetheless write out… Especially that argument over Masako doing a séance, which I edited since Mai knows about Naru's psychometry in this version… Yes to less-upset Naru… Anyway. I'll keep this short and sweet, so here's my questions that I've actually been wondering for a while that, screw it, I'll just go ahead and ask.
(Man, I didn't have to do any of those * things I'm so happy you don't understand.)
One, how did you find my story? By chance, by suggestion, a message in the sky… etc etc. I really want to know! Two, if you met another person who enjoyed the story IRL, would you talk to them? What about? Three, if you met me IRL, what would you do or say? What questions would you ask? Would you buy me a cookie because seriously I love sweets waaaaaay too much? And finally, four, if you suddenly and inexplicitly became in charge of this story in some way (as the sole writer, as a co writer, editor, personally in charge of what I do and what ideas to write, etc) what would you do? How would you take charge from here? Would you take my notes and give them thought or just throw them out?
You guys don't have to answer any of these, but I'd love to know! And, as always, if you wish to write a story where Mai is blind, go ahead! Let me know if you do! I'd like to check it out sometime!
I love all of your reviews and suggestions and I do take them into consideration when making plans on the story, so if you have an idea you really, REALLY like and would like to at least bring it to my attention, leave a review or a PM and I'll definitely read it! Who knows, it might just show up! (In other news, I had to skim through older chapters and… man. Why do guys read this story again? Anyway the tea moment—or vase moment, if you remember what happened—was waaaaaay back in chapter 4.)
… I'm using a lot of exclamation marks today, huh? I guess I'm just excited because I got this out and I so got my sister the better gift this year. I hope. Actually I don't even slightly know what she got me…
Whatever. Next up, we try to save a certain someone from being sacrificed to a bloodthirsty demon-ghost. Ask yourselves, are you sure who it is…?
HAPPY HOLIDAYS LOVELIES!
UNTIL NEXT TIME, FRIENDS!