Edited
Lin, Oliver and Mai arrived at base around mid-morning the next day. Takigawa entered no more than 15 minutes after them. They discussed their plan of action for the day. The plan was to confront the culprit.
Not long afterwards someone knocked on the door. It was Yuuko and Kasai again. Yuuko giggled when she saw Takigawa, otherwise both girls focused on Mai hoping to have lunch together later.
"Sure! I would love that!" Mai agreed happily.
"You sure make friends fast, jou-chan."
"Heehee, just part of my charm, I guess." Mai winked at him.
"Actually, while you both are here," interrupted Oliver, "Would you be able to ask Usabuna-sensei to come here, for us? We have a few questions for her."
"We'll do it now!" The girls ran off, all too happy to avoid needing to get to class.
"Will she come?" Mai asked.
"Undoubtedly. She will probably try and place another hitogata. Lin make sure you watch her carefully."
Lin nodded and opened his laptop that was sitting in front of him on the table. He would be recording everything that was said during the confrontation. Mai sat down next to Oliver who grabbed her hand under the table. Takigawa sat on her other side.
Soon came another knock on the door as Kasai, Yuuko and Usabuna came in.
"Excuse me. You had some questions for me?"
Oliver stood, letting go of Mai's hand. "Yes, we did. Please take a seat. You too, girls. I need you for some clarification questions too."
Yuuko sat next to Takigawa. Kasai sat beside her. Ubasuna sat hesitantly next to Kasai. From her body language she was ready to run. It seemed she was aware of why they wanted to talk to her.
"Ubasuna-sensei, from what I can tell, you are apparently quite knowledgeable about parapsychology?"
"Y-yes, I am."
"Do you know what an Enmi curse is?"
"Well, of cause. It's a curse made through an effigy doll, usually a hitogata."
"Do you know what my assistant's name is?" Oliver asked waving at Mai to indicate which assistant he meant.
"Um, it's... Taniyama Mai, isn't it?"
"Right. It is. But at no point did we introduce her to you as such. So, where did you learn it?"
"Well... That... I overheard some of the students talking about a Taniyama-san who was with the investigators. They had apparently seen her kissing you in the hallway, Shibuya-san. It caused a bit of excitement. And then Kasai-san came in the other day talking about a Mai-san who was also an investigator here. Since she was the only female in the group, it wasn't hard to put two and two together."
Oliver nodded. "Where are you from originally, Ubasuna-sensei?"
Ubasuna looked confused. "Where?... I'm from Fukushima. Why?"
"You came to Tokyo for the first time after you became a teacher, right?"
"Yes, that's correct."
"Got it. Thank you. We can solve this case now."
"Excuse me. What do you mean by solve?"
"I figured it out. It was a zuso. More specifically an enmi, performed by using hitogatas... Which means we just need to get rid of the hitogatas. Well, we've done that part already, obviously. Now we just need to convince the Jusha to stop the zuso."
"What's that mean?" Kasai asked. "The reason you called us here... Is it to say that I'm the Jusha?"
"No way... !" Yuuko exclaimed.
"Kasai-san, you're innocent." Oliver interrupted. "The Jusha is Ubasuna-sensei."
"What?!" Kasai cried out.
"We've burnt all the hitogatas. You made those right, Ubasuna-sensei?" Oliver pulled out photos of all the hitogatas, taken before Takigawa had cleansed them.
"... What are you talking about." Ubasuna asked with an innocent smile.
"Please let me know if there are any more zuso items that we haven't already gathered so we can get rid of them too."
"I'm not sure what you're talking about."
"And please, promise me, you will never do this again." Oliver continued despite the interruption.
"... I'm not the Jusha."
"Yes, you are."
"No I'm not."
"There's no one else it could be. All of the victims didn't believe in Kasai-san's power which she demonstrated at morning assembly. I'm sure the Jusha's motivation is related to that some how."
"Really? Then shouldn't you be accusing Kasai-san of being the Jusha rather than me?"
"Kei-sensei..." Kasai covered her mouth in shock.
"Kasai-san didn't do it. Because she knew the first victim, Murayama-san."
"Is that right?"
"... Yes... In our sophomore year... We were in the literacy club together..." Kasai confirmed.
"If she knew the person who sat at that desk, she wouldn't have had to place the zuso on a random person who sat at that desk. She would only have to place it on Murayama-san. So the question is why the Jusha placed the zuso on the desk, rather than the actual person. And that's because the Jusha didn't know Murayama-san's name." Oliver explained.
" What nonsense... I could have asked someone what her name was." Ubasuna had a scary smile on her face. It was supposed to look innocent but it was much darker than that. Mai shivered on seeing it.
" At that time, many people didn't want to associate themselves with you and Kasai-san. Would you have felt comfortable asking someone what her name was?"
"Then it must have been someone else. We are innocent."
"It wouldn't make sense. Aside from the motives why would the Jusha place a zuso on Mai? Unless Mai was in the way. She was pretty adamant that Kasai-san was innocent the whole way through the investigation and she was helping Kasai-san to make friends, which meant she was no longer isolated, and reliant solely on you for support. Not to mention that others might start believing in her and becoming friends. And where would that leave you, if that happened?"
"Kei-sensei..." Kasai was crying now. She turned to Yuuko and fell into her arms. Yuuko rubbed her back in sympathy.
"As far as I can tell there's no one else the Jusha could be, but you, Ubasuna-sensei." Oliver continued.
"But what reason could I have to hurt all these people?"
"Because of Kasai-san's psychic power. Both of you were treated poorly. That was enough to cause you to want to hurt them."
"But that was Kasai-san's problem, not mine. It's true I did defend her but l only did that out of sympathy..."
"No. It was your problem too. You understand parapsychology very well. You're very knowledgeable and resourceful in the field... Which I found to be very interesting. However it seems that you had more than a curiosity in Kasai-san's psychic power.
I found that to be a little odd and began looking through old news articles and sure enough, I found some that had stories of you in them.
A little over 20 years ago Uri Geller came to Japan. Shortly after that, his followers, the gellerini, started. The gellerini were children who were inspired after seeing Geller bend spoons. They began to bend spoons just like Geller. Some of these children ended up in the spotlight of the paparazzi. Ubasuna-sensei, you were one of those children."
Yuuko and Kasai turned to stare at Ubasuna in shock.
"Along with the fall of Geller's popularity, psychic bashing began in Japan. Most of the gellerini were accused of cheating and some of them even admitted to using tricks... And some were even forced to say they were cheating. Ubasuna-sensei was one of the children who admitted to using tricks.."
"But I... I... I never cheated." Ubasuna cried out. "Really, I was able to bend spoons. But sometimes I just couldn't do it... But that one journalist said 'If you're truly a psychic, you should be able to bend a spoon, right now. I want you to show me.' So I got nervous and was worried that if I messed it up people wouldn't believe me. That made me even more nervous, so I tried a trick another gellerini member taught me. And that one time I cheated I was photographed..."
"You must be referring to an old magazine article called, 'Let's find ESP cheaters'. Oliver pulled out a magazine open to a page with a row of photos of a little girl using a chair to bend the spoon.
"I saw a series of photographs in it where you were caught bending a spoon by using a chair."
"Are you talking about... the same trick I tried to use?" Kasai asked horrified.
"I... Unlike Kasai-san, I didn't have anyone that would tell me it was a wrong thing to do... Nobody was there to tell me it was OK to say when I couldn't do it... No one was ever there for me..."
"For you... It was unfortunate that it happened when it did. Because at that time Japan depended on the media to decide the legitimacy of ESP. Japan had no proper ESP research organisation. There were no proper tests to determine your psychic ability. It should not have been left up to the media to decide. The paparazzi were more interested in creating a sensation, rather than presenting the truth."
"Kei-sensei..." Kasai looked saddened for the woman who had been her closest support for a long time now.
"I... I just wanted to... Protect Kasai-san's special ability as much as I could. However we, somehow, became the object of school criticism... And even other teachers started to attack us. They criticised Kasai-san's psychic power at various times even prior to that day of the morning assembly. They even criticised me and told me I wasn't being a proper educator."
"That's why you did it?"
"Yes, it was just a prank. I couldn't stand them." This time there was nothing remotely innocent about her smile.
"This is much more serious than a prank. Do you understand that enmi is a curse, placed on others to violently harm them?
Lucky no one has died yet, but it was only a matter of time.
With that desk, it's likely that the next person who sat there could have been dragged by the train and killed."
"That... would be unfortunate. But if that were to happen, people would finally start to realise, you know? In life there are things that take more than science to be understood."
"Bou-san. Please contact the principal. Let him know she'll be needing a counselor."
"How rude! You're a parapsychologist too. And you're treating me like a sick person!"
"... Ubasuna-sensei, you must be exhausted and you should get some rest... For zuso, it takes both physical and emotional energy."
"OK... You may be right."
And with that the investigation was over.
...
A week later the seating area of the office was filled by the irregulars. Takigawa was telling them about the case. Mai was just coming back with the requested teas and coffees.
"Why didn't call me?" Masako asked.
"Or me?!" Added Ayako.
"For what?" Mai asked. "There was no spirits involved, which means both of you would have been useless. The majority of the investigation required research work not exorcisms."
"So, what did you do that was so useful?" Masako said snidely with her sleeve over our mouth.
"Mai basically solved the entire case before we got there. She was the most useful person on the team." Oliver replied to her in his usual steelly tone when as exited his office to join them for his tea.
Taking his cup from Mai, he kissed her cheek in thanks. He sat down in the last chair, pulling Mai into his lap so that she had somewhere to sit. Masako's face went dark.
"That's basically true. All I really did was cleanse the hitogatas. Lin and Naru mostly did research. It was Mai who brought in most of the information though. Man, she could get those girls to talk!"
It was as Mai picked up her own tea cup with her right hand that Ayako suddenly noticed her ring.
"Hey, I've never seen that before. Let's have a look."
Mai put her cup down and leaned over to show off the ring on her hand.
"It looks old. And ugly. I don't know how you can wear things like that. It would freak me out." Masako remarked unkindly.
Mai ignored her, pulling her hand back before Ayako could attempt to pull her ring off and try it on. It really wasn't worth her temper.
"But, well cherished, and expensive. Is it a family heirloom?"
"It is." Oliver answered her, instead of Mai.
"Wait. Is it yours, Naru-chan? So, is the one on your hand also a family heirloom?" Takigawa asked.
"The one Mai is wearing, belonged to my mother's grandmother. Her husband gave it to her on their engagement. The one I'm wearing, was Mai's father's." Oliver explained. If one of the girls had asked the question, he would have ignored them. But Oliver quite liked Takigawa. He was observant and actually useful.
Masako froze. "You gave each other promise rings?" Promise rings had a serious connotation for meaning a serious relationship.
"We did. Naru gave me mine, for my birthday. And I gave Naru his, for his own birthday." Masako's face got darker. Oliver didn't give her anything for her birthday and she hadn't even known he'd had his recently.
"Oh, that's so sweet. Both of your parents must be happy about your relationship to allow you to use family heirlooms as promise rings like that." John commented.
"My mother was ecstatic." Oliver agreed.
Mai snorted. "That is kind of an understatement."
"What about your own parents jou-chan?" Takigawa asked.
"They're happy." Was all she said about it.
...
A little while later, Oliver pulled Mai aside to ask her if she would do a test for him. Mai sighed.
"Do you mean the one where I guess the flashing light? What result do you want. One where I miss them all or one where I hit them all?"
"I did this with you in the past life?"
"Yeah. The first time was directly after the case we just had. Because I was still wary of my powers, I managed to miss all 1000 of them and you declared me a latent sensitive with animal like instincts. A couple of years later, you made me do it again, and since I was no longer afraid of my powers, I hit all 1000 of them."
"I see... Want to try both? Miss the first 1000 and hit the second 1000."
"... If I have to." Mai groaned.
A few hours later a tired Mai faced a proud boyfriend/boss with an equally proud assistant, and several gobsmacked irregulars. Lin's shiki were constantly brushing against Mai proudly. 'For something that is supposed to be emotionless and hollow, they sure have a lot of character.'
"What the hell, Mai?" Takigawa yelled.
"I could believe the 1000 misses but the 1000 hits? Was that a fluke?" Masako joined in.
"No. It's based on my instincts. I'm a latent sensitive. The first set worked by focusing on self-preservation or classifying 'what is wrong'. The second set used a focus on classifying 'what is right'." Mai explained. "I can use one or the other depending on necessity but preferably not at the same time. It takes a lot of my psychic energy to keep it up like that."
"Instinct? You mean like a dog?" Ayako laughed.
"At least Mai's animal instinct has proven useful. What have you accomplished so far, Matsuzaki-san?"
Ayako virtually growled.
Masako laughed. "Yes, you have yet to prove yourself, Ayako."
"She'll prove herself when we need it most." Mai shot Masako down. "Ayako is more powerful than you think."
"I'll believe it when I see it." Takigawa laughed.
"You won't be laughing come summer, then."
"Eh, summer? What's happening then?"
"Nothing you need to worry about for now." Mai dismissed the question, getting up from the floor in front of the coffee table.
"Anyone for another cup of tea?"