Ryuuji and Kannon arrived in the mansion around one in the afternoon. The SPR members were surprised seeing the green-haired woman together with the person they met at the party.
"Yo, Ren!" Ryuuji greeted in the doorway. "What's with the long face?" He asked, seeing the group's gloomy atmosphere, few of them have bandages on their bodies, the girl clad in kimono have it worst.
"Well -" Hakuren and Masako gasped. "Get down!" He yelled. Ryuuji and Kannon ducked their heads as he chanted the kuji-in.
"What the! You still haven't solved the case yet?!" Kannon exclaimed. "I guess the society was overestimating Oliver Davis." She dramatically shook her head. Naru gnashing his teeth, obviously pissed at himself for the failure.
"Let me introduce to you one of my talented teammates in Japan, Fushimi Kannon, she's a miko in Yasukuni shrine." Hakuren introduced her. Kannon smiled, waving at them.
"Whoa! Yasukuni shrine? Amazing!" Bou-san gasped.
"F-Fushimi...?" Yasuhara whispered. "That's a famous family of miko in Japan since Heian Period, I read that name in several times in textbooks."
"Nice to meet you~~" Kannon chimed.
Kannon put charms at the door when Ayako speaks up, noticing the familiar paper charms. "The ghosts here can still pass through that charm." She said with a warning. "Like my charms, they are useless."
Ryuuji and Hakuren snorted at the SPR's miko's remark. The green-haired miko blinked at her before smiling. "It's alright. You can trust me with charms."
"So? What goes wrong?" Ryuuji asked his leader while Kannon continue putting charms on the windows.
Hakuren chuckled. "They exorcised the wrong ghost."
"We didn't!" Bou-san objected. "According to our research, the husband is a violent man who killed his entire family and his servants!"
"Then who was that attacked us just now?" He asked the monk.
"W-Well..."
"Pfft! Hahahahahah!" Hakuren suddenly laughed out loud, which startled the SPR members but not the two in his team.
"What's funny?" Naru finally asked, irritated, not to mention slightly humiliated.
"Ryuuji." The man in mention handed him a brown manila envelope and handed it to Naru. "That's what my researchers got, read it."
Naru opene the envelope and read the contents, he flipped the pages, his eyes widened in shock. "No way..."
"That information is exclusive only at New Scotland Yard, where your two researchers failed to go, am I right?" He turned his attention to Yasuhara and Madoka.
"Y-Yeah..." Madoka stuttered. "It's because they said that it was –"
" – already a forgotten case. That the mayor wished for it to be completely forgotten." Ryuuji continue, smirking at her. "They told me the same thing too."
"Eh? Then how?" Yasuhara asked.
He grinned. "I find ways."
Kannon rolled her eyes. "You sounded like a bank commercial." Ryuuji chuckled in response.
"What's in the report, Naru-chan?" Bou-san asked the young leader.
"It's not the husband who murdered his family and servants."
"WHAT?!" They all exclaimed. Lin widened his eyes.
"If not him, then who?" Ayako asked in disbelief.
"One of the maids that he hired was an escaped from asylum." Naru informed them.
Ryuuji heard a collective gasped.
"But the maid's presence will sometimes left the house." Masako reasoned out, covering her mouth with a kimono. "She's not attached to this place."
"Of course, since the back of this house is the famous Dering Forest where many lost souls are gathered." Hakuren informed them, staring at the woods. "What's your plan, Dr? The maid is a strong ghost, she gathered lots of negative energy from the forest. Exorcism will be tough, since you need to exorcise all the spirits in the forest first, before taking her down."
Naru put his fingers on his chin, thinking for a way to solve this case.
Ryuuji heaved a sigh. "I wanna go home."
"Let's end this case today." Hakuren seconded. "Dr. I don't have any more time to waste, I'm taking in-charge." He said to Naru, glaring at him. "Kannon, get ready."
"Sure thing~~"
She took a white haori and a red hakama from her bag and wear them. She tied her hair into a ponytail with white and red hair ribbon. She took a rice straw for her purification ritual, and instead of the usual onusa - decorated with many zig-zagging paper streamers, she used gohei – which decorated only with two paper streamers.
"Where do you want me to perform the ritual? At the biggest tree as possible?" She asked her leader.
"Anywhere is fine." Hakuren answered.
"Then I will look for a suitable tree outside. I'll go ahead." She bowed before leaving the base, with Ryuuji following her.
Hakuren glanced at Naru. "If you want to film this, go ahead. Follow us and bring your camera." He instructed, before following the two.
"Oi, oi, Naru-chan, is this really alright?" Bou-san asked their young leader.
Yasuhara smirked. "The big boss is losing."
"It's because you failed as a researcher." Naru retorted sharply. Ha glared at Madoka. "You didn't research the property thoroughly."
"I think, Yomozuki-san already knew from the start that it was the maid..." John mumbled. "And he called his team here to help us."
Ayako scoffed. "He's just a show off, him and that miko."
"You're just jealous." Bou-san remarked beside her, which he receive a thwack in the head.
"Bou-san, bring a camera, let's follow them." Naru ordered.
The SPR team aside form Lin, followed the three. They saw Kannon tying the rice straw around the tree, and attaching several shide - the a zigzag-shaped paper streamers on it.
She poured a bottle of sake as an offering and a tamagushi.
Kannon bow once, bow twice with hands together, then she clapped three times and bow again with her hands together. Keeping hands together while raising your head, she recites the Amatsu Norito or Prayer of Heaven.
"In the divine spiritual world of infinitesimal but truly existing high energy particles
in the throne of heaven where the spirit of God is now manifesting itself as fire
by the power of the divine fire and water principles..."
"Hm? English?" Ayako wondered. "This the first I heard translating Norito in English."
"Maybe because we are in Japan." John said.
A gust of wind passed thru them after Kannon bowed ending the prayer. She gasped when they ground shook and several ghosts start appearing.
"Kannon, what happened?" Hakuren asked sharply.
"We got a miscalculation. Today is October." She announced, glaring at her leader. "It's kaminazuki, a godless month."
"Kamuhakari... huh…" Ryuuji whispered.
"I see. That's why no god answered your prayer." Hakuren concluded.
"Yeah." She yelped when several wind sickles cut her skin and robe. The ghosts are obviously targeting her.
"Kannon!" Ryuuji's eyes dilated when he saw few blood trails on her cheeks and arms. He clenched his teeth in anger.
The SPR members where fighting with the ghosts in the forest too. Sensing the sudden drop of temperature, Madoka yelled at Naru.
"Noll, stop it! Control yourself!"
"It's not me." He answered sharply.
"YOU! YOU! – " Ryuuji growled, glowering at the ghosts in the forest. Hakuren and Kannon widened their eyes, every leaves surrounding the man were elevating.
"Ryuuji! No!" She yelled. "Ren, stop him. He already used his kotodama earlier!"
"Sorry but my hands are full!" He exclaimed, referring to the ghosts he's fighting.
" – AND EVERYONE OF YOU! GO TO HELL!" Ryuuji sceamed on top of his lungs. The ghosts suddenly engulfed with fire, including the ghost of the maid who made disturbance in the Kent mansion.
Hakuren ran to where Ryuuji is and caught him as he collapse.
"Dr. Call an ambulance, the case is close." He ordered.
"Lin already took care of it." He looked at the camera, he knew Lin heard and saw everything what happened.
"And I don't want you to have a copy regarding today's unplanned exorcism. We don't want another stupid set of researchers to know Ryuuji's gift. Delete it immediately." He stated sharply before carrying the unconscious man back to the mansion, following the injured Kannon behind.
"I'm sorry..." She whispered. "It was my fault."
"Don't blame yourself. He knew the risk, but he let his anger overwhelmed him." Hakuren comforted her.
"B-But still... If only I was successful then." She mumbled before sighing. "We should call Mai and tell her what happen."
"Okay."
An ambulance already waiting for them when they arrived at the mansion.
"W-What was that earlier? I don't understand." John mumbled softly.
"Kotodama, or mostly known as power of language, or sacred sound." Naru explained. When SPR arrived at the mansion, Hakuren and Kannon already left together with the ambulance that Lin called in advance.
"So... Like... everything he say will come true?" Bou-san gasped in disbelief.
"There are limitations though, like they can't heal wounds or bring back the dead." Naru answered. "And it takes enormous amount of chi."
"Amazing... To think that Yomozuki-san has talented members on his team too."
"You are clearly beaten by him, Noll." Madoka teased. "His team members are equally talented as his."
Naru stared at the video tape. "Lin, make a copy on the footage in the forest, I want to study it back home."
"I don't think that's good idea, Doctor."
Everyone whipped their head at the doorway, a raven-haired bespectacled man leaning on the doorway, wearing a beige trenched coat and with grey turtleneck knitted long-sleeve shirt and black jeans.
"Sorry for my tardiness, Sato Aizen, the head researcher of Ren's POTU team." He introduced briefly. He approached Naru and reached out his hand. "Hand me the tape."
Naru stared back at him, glaring even. "I don't trust someone who suddenly barged in and asked for my stuff."
Aizen sighed. "Ren asked me to get the tape from you where Ryuuji used his kotodama. He told you to delete it, didn't he? But you are planning on making a copy on it." He smirked at Naru. "You can never be trusted, doctor."
"Oi, oi, Naru was just curious, you know. This the first time we encountered someone who used kotodama, and as a scientist, he wanted to study this new discovery." Bou-san stood up went between the two glaring men.
"I'm not talking to you." He retorted sharply at the monk, then went back his attention to Naru. "Hand me the tape."
Naru forcedly handed him the black triangular tape.
"Hm. This could be a fake, I want to watch it for myself if this is really it."
"Are you doubting Oliver Davis?" Madoka asked angrily. "Noll won't lie to you."
Aizen snickered. "You see, Mori-san... I don't trust a team that abandoned a colleague."
Everyone was stunned at his words. Aizen handed the tape to Lin for him to review. When he confirmed that it is indeed the one, he flicked his lighter and starts burning the plastic tape.
"Hey, what are you doing?!" Ayako exclaimed.
Aizen shrugged. "I'm just following my leader's order, burning the tape once I got it." After the tape already melted beyond repair, he blow the fire out, and wrapped it with cloth that he took from Kannon's bag.
After he made sure that he already have everything – Kannon's left over things and the destroyed tape, he waved at them before leaving the place.
"Bye bye, SPR."
Martin slapped the report on his table. He didn't like what he read, Madoka flinched while the two stoic men standing in front of his table was unfazed, they already expected him to be angry.
"You and your team ought to impress him Oliver, show him what BSPR is capable of, not the other way around. You exorcised the wrong ghost? Because you don't have medium that's on Gene's caliber. How many times I told you that you one trained medium in your group but you didn't listen."
"Hara-san is enough father."
"Her talent is not enough. If you still insist on having with just one medium then have her train!"
"Professor, it's not Masako-chan's fault~" Madoka chimed. "Yomozuki-san is really that talented."
Martin heaved a sigh. "And you too Madoka, next time, research everything thoroughly."
"Yes sir."
"I heard that one of Mr. Yomozuki's colleagues was hospitalized? I want your team to visit him."
"Yes father." Naru answered robotically.
"Ugh! Why are we here again?" Ayako grumbled, the whole SPR team were on their way to the information nurse station. The patients and nurses start whispering with each other, and they will silently squealed while blushing.
"We are visiting that kotodama guy." Bou-san scratched his head.
"Where's Suzui Ryuuji's room? We are his co-workers." Lin asked the nurse on duty.
The nurse blush before giving him the direction. "Second floor, RM 112."
"Thank you."
The group was on their way to the second floor when they heard a familiar voice, and familiar shade of brown locks.
"I'm not sure yet sir, but Ryuuji got injured." The nine members watched the young lady passed them, before watching her retreating back.
"... Mai ...?"
Naru whispered with a hint of shock and surprise.