GH: THE MISSING ARCHIVES II
Thank you, everyone, for your wonderful support.
I hope I can live up to your expectations. I will do my very best. Please enjoy this chapter.
DISCLAIMER: I don't own any of the characters from Ghost Hunt, or any concept from the games mentioned before.
File 001: Can you see me in the dark? #4
"Naru help me!"
"Mai!"
Suddenly I strong jerk woke me up and my eyes snapped open. The first thing I noticed was the chilly breeze that was hitting my face, and the second thing was something that was holding me by the waist. The smell of wet earth and the cold made me understand that it was not at the Base, but that it was somewhere outside. After my eyes got used to the gloom of the night, I realized that there was nothing in front of me. I was standing on the edge of the buff and the only thing beyond it were sharp rocks and a very painful fall.
"W-what?"
I looked behind me and to my shock I found Naru holding me. I could feel the blush crawl up my cheeks and I started feeling dizzy again. I was only lucky that it was too dark for him to see my red face. Naru pulled me away from the cliff and fell to ground trembling. I was wearing my pajamas, so the breeze was making me cold; I also noticed that I was wearing any shoes, which explained why my feet hurt.
"Idiot…" I heard Naru mumbled, as he took off his jacket and threw it over my shoulders.
"N-Naru?"
Naru stepped back. I could see he was panting like he'd been running; he raised his hand to his ear, and it was then that I noticed the flashing light: a wireless earpiece.
"I found her…" he said. "I'll head back. Please tell Matsuzaki-san to be ready."
Naru lowered his hand and turned to me. He crouched in front of me and his blue eyes locked with mine.
"Mai… can you hear me?" he whispered. "Mai…"
"U-uh…" I replied weakly. Between the dizziness and the confusion, I could barely articulate any word.
"Good, I am taking you back, now."
I nodded in response. Naru helped me to my feet carefully and with a gentleness that seemed strange from him; it almost reminded me of Gene. Being careful not to push me too hard, Naru led me back to the Shinzo family's home. Somehow it had ended up in the forest without even realizing it.
"What on earth?" Matsuzaki said horrified.
Ayako was in Base with Kei and Lin. Aki had stayed with the Shinzo. I gave my friends a weak smile, trying to ignore the burning sensation and the cold.
Now that we were in Base, under the bright light, it was easier to see my condition, and I would have lied if I said I wasn't surprised myself. My pajamas were torn, probably by the branches that had encountered on my way through the forest. Some of them had managed to scratch my skin, leaving superficial cuts that had already started clotting. My feet were the ones in worse conditions. I had run through the forest completely barefooted after all.
"Mai!"
"Mai-chan…!"
John and Bou-san broke into the room, panting and looking like they had gone through hell. Behind them, I saw Rei step in with a frown. The three let out a relieved sigh when they saw me.
"Thank goodness, you found her Naru-bou." Bou-san sighed. "Geez, don't do that, jou-chan…"
"I… I am sorry, but… what did I do?" I whispered, confused.
"You don't remember, Mai-chan?" John asked worriedly.
"Eh?"
"We were discussing the case when there was a blackout," Bou-san said. "We heard rapping noises, and the house was shaking like we were being hit by an earthquake. Then, as suddenly as it started… it stopped."
"When the light return, you were gone, Mai-chan," John said worriedly. "We searched all over the house, but you were nowhere to be found."
"What?"
How was that possible? I was 100% sure I was dreaming. I saw Chou-san and Gene. How did I end up walking into the forest without knowing?
"Then Shibuya-san sent us to look for you in the forest," John said quietly. "Thank god, he found you."
"Ne, Naru-bou. Where did you find her?" Bou-san asked.
"At the edge of the cliff. If I had been a little later, she would have fallen to her death…" Naru answered.
He was looking at something that Lin was showing him. His back was facing us and he didn't turn around when he spoke.
"What? That's dangerous!" Ayako snapped. "Naru, was this is the spirit's doing? It took Mai there?"
"No, it didn't take her. Mai went there on her own…" Kei replied.
"What? Why on earth would she go there? She's sick, she can barely walk and look at her. Do you really believe she would have entered the forest in her pajamas and without shoes? That's crazy."
"We have the footage of the night camera…" Lin said. "It shows Taniyama-san leaving the house."
"What? But Mai… why?" Ayako said, turning to me.
They expected an answer, but I didn't have one. As far as I was concerned, all I could remember was meeting up with Gene and Chou-san. How was I supposed to answer their question?
"Because it wasn't her who was walking…" Rei said, crossing her arms. "No surprise it kept slipping away whenever we were trying to exorcise it. It was using Mai as an entry…"
My eyes widened.
"An… entry?" John asked.
"The spirit partially possessed her. Now that we think about it, all the haunting activities happened when Mai was asleep, didn't it? It was using her sleeping body as a vessel to hide."
"So the spirit is in her?" Bou-san asked.
"Not anymore, at least not fully," Rei sighed. "Shibuya-san probably scared it away when he found her."
Naru had finally turned around. He was looking at the twins stoically.
"What do you recommend?" Naru asked.
"John can cleanse the remains of the spirit's presence. After that, we can perform a purifying sealing ritual. That should keep the spirit away from her."
Naru nodded. His eyes locked with mine, and I felt a sudden urge to throw up. The headache was back, I could feel it hammering through my skull. My thoughts were all scrambled and the surrounding voices sounded distant.
"Then, that is what we will do," Naru said.
I don't know what happened between them during the brief seconds that I closed my eyes trying to push away the sick sensation, but when I opened my eyes again, Rei was cowering in front of me. Her gaze was serene, her hand in a praying stance with two fingers pressing her lips faintly.
"Kami wa youkyou ni mimi o katamuke, tamashii nemurio motarasu, Kyu-Kyu Nyo Ritsu Ryo…" she said in a quiet whispered that almost sounded musical.
Suddenly my eyes lids felt heavy, and a comforting warmth grew all over my body. My vision became blurred, and I fell into darkness.
ooo OOO ooo
I felt light. As if suddenly a substantial weight had been lifted from me. My muscles were relaxed, and for the first time in days, my thoughts seemed much clearer.
I opened my eyes slowly, and the light dazzled me for a few moments. I was lying on the couch; the same one that had become my bed for the past few days. Sunlight streamed in through one window, and I saw the shadow of Lin's back in front of the screens.
It was daylight.
"Are you awake?"
Naru was sitting at my feet; his black notebook rested on his lap, and his gaze was fixed on me. I got up slowly, and to my delight, I didn't experience the wave of nausea that had been tormenting me for several days. Something was odd though, I noticed that I wasn't wearing my pajamas, but pale pink kimono instead.
"Uh… I am…" I replied, feeling a little confused. "A-no… this is… Rei's?"
"Uh, she dressed you for the sealing ritual last night," Naru replied. "How are you feeling?"
"I am… I am feeling great," I said, surprised. "The pain is gone…"
"Is that so? So it seems Kei-san's suspicion was on spot after all."
"Eh, hehe…" I chuckled. "Despite his attitude, he can be quite reliable, huh?"
"Well, he's usually more reliable than some people I know…"
"Oh… that's rude…" I pouted.
Naru picked up his notebook and stood up.
"You're okay now, so eat something. I want to hear your story about what happened yesterday."
As usual, workaholic. I didn't mind though. I just realized how hungry I was, and I could finally enjoy a meal properly without feeling like vomiting it back out. Aki was the one to look after me since Naru had sent Ayako to check on something. As I ate, Aki told me what had transpired the night before. Rei had used a sleeping spell to knock me down; while I was asleep, John had exorcised the rest of the spirit inside me, and then Rei had cleansed me to avoid future incidents.
By the time I had finished my meal, the rest of the team was back in Base and everyone looked relieved to see me awake.
"You gave us quite a scare there, jou-chan."
"Sorry about it…" I chuckled, nervously. "I still don't know what happened though."
"Kei and Rei already explained the situation, so… don't worry about it." Aki said.
"The important thing is that you're safe, Mai-chan." John smiled.
I returned his smile, feeling grateful for my friends.
"Yasuhara-san, did you find anything?" Naru's cool voice interrupted our warm scene.
Always straight to the point.
"Ah, actually, I did," Yasuhara replied. He retrieved a pretty large file from his bag and opened it. "To tell the truth, these were things I found earlier, in my initial search, but I ended up ignoring it since it didn't seem relevant to the case. But since we switched our approach, they began to shine under another light. "
"Proceed…" Naru said, opening his notebook.
"First, even though there hadn't been any violent deaths associated with this place, I noticed that there were a significant number of abductions. Especially of kids, however."
"Uh, I stumbled with that data, too. However, the culprit was found soon after, so I didn't think it was important." Naru said.
"Yeah, that happened to me, too. The odd thing about those abductions is that, despite the culprit being caught, the bodies of the kidnapped were never found. Strange, right?"
"They were never found?" John asked. "But with the culprit, shouldn't it have been easy to find them?"
"The culprits were usually ruled as insane, so they were never able to pinpoint the location of the bodies." Yasuhara explained, "now about other paranormal researches coming here, I actually found something."
"Eh?"
"Last year a group of paranormal enthusiasts came to this town to investigate the same house Shinzo-san asked us to."
"What happened to them?" Ayako asked.
"The group went missing in the wilderness," Yasuhara said. "One of the members was found 3 months later. According to the medical evaluation, he was in a severe state of psychosis. He died a month later in a hospital. Sometime after that, a tv program came to shoot a show about haunted houses. The crew also went missing in the woods, a month later they found the cameraman. He had to be taken to a psychiatric ward, as he kept saying he it was his fault everyone was death "
"Uh… aren't we seeing a pattern here?" Rei said.
"Eh? A pattern?" Yasuhara asked.
"They always find one survivor," Rei said. "Only one… but not the rest. No bodies, nothing. Just one single survivor blurting crazy things."
"You think this survivor might have killed the rest?" John asked.
There was a soft thud as Naru dropped the notebook on the table.
"Naru-bou, are you okay?"
"Possession…" Naru mumbled.
"What?"
"Possession…," Naru repeated. "The spirit possessed that member of the research team and the cameraman. It probably used that vessel to do kill than others."
"The spirit might have possessed the kidnappers as well," John said with wide eyes. "Made them abduct those kids and then kill them."
"So maybe it was trying to possess Mai so that it could kill us…" Yasuhara said with wide eyes and it horrified me.
"But it tried to kill Mai…" Ayako said. "You said it yourself, Naru. She was very close to falling into that cliff…"
"Uh, that's true…" Naru said, rubbing his chin.
It has been protecting you, but the spirit has grown stronger. The butterfly can't hide you for too long.
"Someone was protecting me…" I said, in realization. "Someone was protecting me all that time that the spirit tried to possess me. That's why the spirit couldn't take complete control of my body."
"So it tried to get rid of you?" Bou-san asked.
"No, maybe it didn't want her to fall into the cliff. It just couldn't control her body properly," Aki said. "What if the clash between Mai's ´protector´ and the entity caused it to lose control of Mai's body, and it accidentally took her there?"
"The entity didn't want Mai to fall, but since something was fighting it, it couldn't control where it went," Kei said, crossing its arms. "Well, that makes some sense. It would also explain why she was having such a bad physical response."
"Huh?"
"When a spirit is trying to possess you, but your body rejects it. It can look like an illness. That means Mai was under attack since day 1, but she lasted this long thanks to whatever was rejecting the spirit." Rei said. "You're lucky, Mai and maybe we are, too."
I smiled. Chou-san had prevented the spirit from possessing me all this time, and I had no idea.
"Who's that little guardian of yours, eh Mai?" Bou-san asked, curiously.
Naru was looking at me too. Maybe he thought I was referring to Gene.
"Chou-san…" I replied.
"Chou… san?" Ayako asked. "Who's that?"
"Well, it isn't its name. In fact, I don't even know its name. I just called it Chou-san because it is a butterfly." I replied.
"A butterfly?" Rei asked, tilting her head.
"Talk about original names…(3)" Kei snorted.
"Yeah, it is this… blue butterfly. It appears in my dreams and helps me. I've been seeing it since that case in the Kuze shrine. It protected Ruka and me when the Maskmaster attacked us back in Rougetsu."
"Oh, now that's interesting…" Kei said, resting his chin over his hand. "could it be her own Shiki?"
"I doubt it. If it was her Shiki, it wouldn't appear randomly. Besides, did you teach her how to make a contract?"
"Nope, did you?"
"Absolutely not, and I am sure Lin-san didn't either." Rei sighed. "It seems Mai just gained the favor of a spirit, and not any spirit if it is strong enough to fight against other entities."
I smiled nervously. Well, I should thank Chou-san the next time I see him.
"Ah, that's right. Yesterday, when all that was happening, I had a dream."
"Eh… Mai, you sure take the term ´sleepwalking´ to another level," Kei sighed.
"Hey, it is not like I do it on purpose…"
"Yeah, right? As long as you don't sleepwalk into my room with a knife one day, I am cool."
"It's more plausible that she sleepwalks into your bed instead," Aki smirked.
"Oh, my god. That was a mistake, I got the wrong room." I said feeling embarrassed.
"Ehem…" Naru said, irritated. "Mai, the dream…"
"Ah, right…" I said, turning back to him again. "Uh, there's an old abandoned shrine in the forest. It is ancient, and a little broken down, but I think it is important for the case."
"A shrine?" Naru said.
"Ah, is it a small one with a long set of stone stairs with lanterns on its sides?" John asked.
"Yes, yes. It has a tiny shrine. It is all collapsed and covered in weed." I nodded.
"We stumbled with it last night, while we were looking for Mai-chan," John explained to Naru. "It was dark, and we were worried about Mai-chan, so we didn't pay much attention to it."
"You think this shrine is relevant to this case?" Naru asked me.
"I am certain it is."
"Very well. We will go check that shrine."
"Wait, Naru…" Ayako said. "You'll let Mai go?"
"Oh, Ayako, I'm perfect now," I said cheerfully, trying to make my point. "Please, I need to be sure it is the shrine I saw."
"Ok, fine. But you're not walking, so let someone piggyback you or something."
"I'm sure Kei can do that. He's a fabulous horse…" Rei smirked.
"Hey, just because I used to piggyback you when we were kids, doesn't mean I am a good mount."
"Why not? If I remember right, you were my loyal mount in war."
"Just because I was a good brother…"
"Takigawa-san can carry Mai. Now let's prepare. I want to be back here before dark."
The way to the shrine was bumpy. I felt a little bad about Bou-san carrying me all the way, but he laughed it off, saying that I was thin, that Naru's cameras were probably much heavier than I was. The forest seemed less creepy during the day, and I could almost appreciate the fresh air.
"So… what was that about you getting into Kei-san's bed?" Ayako asked curiously.
"Oh, yeah. I was curious, too. Don't tell me you were doing naughty things, Mai…" Bou-san smirked.
There were a thud and a cry. John had just tripped with a rock and fallen flat on his face.
"Are you okay, John?" I said concerned.
"Y-yes…I am alright…," he answered.
"Don't change the subject, Mai."
"Ah, don't make such a big deal about it," I said annoyed. "It happened when I had just moved into their house. I came one day very late from school and I was dead tired, so I accidentally entered the wrong bedroom and fell asleep in his bed. It wasn't a big deal."
"Well, the important question there…" Ayako smirked. "Was he in bed when that happened?"
I let out an annoyed groan.
"He was sleeping."
"Well, I was, until suddenly some heavy monster fell over me," Kei complained. "I thought I was being attacked by some damn spirit."
"He screamed like a child and woke the entire house. I wouldn't be surprised if you stirred some of our spirits." Rei smirked.
"Well, excuse me but I had forgotten we had an extra roomie. How would you react if you woke up to some weird chick snoring in your bed?"
"Hey, I don't snore."
"Oh, you totally do and you drooled all over my pillow, too."
Bou-san and Ayako laughed loudly, earning themselves a glare from Naru, who was walking a couple of steps ahead of us.
"Oh, dear heaven. That look almost killed me…" Ayako laughed "Naru is probably about to explode."
"Yeah, I don't think Shibuya-san is in a very good mood right now." John smiled.
"If he didn't value your skills as an onmyouji so much, he would have killed you by now, kid…" Bou-san scoffed.
"Thank the gods, that I am an Abeno, then." Kei smiled.
We reached the Shrine after some walking and as soon as I caught sight of the stone stairs, my heart began to beat faster. It was the same shrine I had seen the night before. There wasn't much to see there. The honden was broken down and there were pieces of rotten wood scattered all over the place, but I was sure that something in this place was important.
"Shibuya-san, come see…" John called.
We all rushed to where John was crouched. He had pulled out some weed, revealing what looked like…
"A hatch…" Naru said. "Can it be opened?"
"Yes, it isn't locked. Do you want us to have a look?" John asked.
"Yes…"
The twins were the ones to go down with John. The hatch was small, and even though Bou-san wasn't exactly big, he would probably find the space pretty tight. John was small, and the twins were tall, but they were pretty slender compared to Bou-san, so crawling through the small space wasn't too difficult for them.
The minutes they spent down there felt like ages, and when they returned I saw that the three held some grim looks.
"What happened?" I asked.
"Uh, Shibuya-san…" John said. "I think we need to call the police."
ooo OOO ooo
The police arrived soon after. Since the town was small, it only had a tiny station, so we had to call the policemen from the nearest city. According to John and the twins, they had found numerous bones and two rotting corpses. The police later confirmed that they were a couple who had gone missing recently during a camping trip and were presumed to have been murdered by the daughter who had been found in the road, confused. It was a horrible discovery and part of me suspected - no, knew - that the bones belonged to all the people who had gone missing.
"Our spirit might be related to a Yama-uba," Rei said.
"Wait, a Yama-uba? But that's a yokai, not a ghost." Ayako said.
"Yes, and no. Yama-ubas can have mortal origins and depending on certain situations they are more ghost than actual yokai." Kei answered.
"Certain situations?" John asked.
"During times of famine or economic hardship. It was usual that it became difficult to feed everyone in a family, so there was a custom that consisted of removing one family member, to ease the burden so that the rest could survive," I explained "Usually, it would be either a newborn or the elderly. Some families would lead their senile mothers deep into the woods and abandoned them to die. Eventually, their souls would then become a yokai."
"That's horrible," John said.
"Well, in hard times, you'd do whatever to survive, right?" Keo sighed. "I'm not saying it was right, but their situation was difficult. Either way, those women would most likely die of starvation and exposures, and their souls would become something similar to a gaki. Hungry and with malicious intentions, eventually their soul would become a cannibalistic Yama-uba."
"Cannibalistic?!" Ayako said, horrified.
"The bodies had bite marks," Naru noted. "so that theory might be correct."
"But why under a shrine?" Ayako asked. "Shrines are holy land, how could a malicious spirit live there?"
"There was no kami in that shrine," Rei said. "The honden (1) was empty and I don't think there ever was one at all, seeing as the land isn't holy."
"They probably built the shrine to pacify a spirit. Maybe they thought it was an ara-mitama (2), and they were trying to enshrine it." Kei shrugged. "it wouldn't be rare for ancient people to confuse yokai with deities. It's probably why they gave this spirit human sacrifices. There were many skeletons down there, and many could date to ages ago."
There was a pause as everyone tried to absorb the news. I had read from Yama-uba before. Travelers and merchants, who traveled along mountain paths often encountered people in the mountains, so they had spread tales like those. Many of them would claim they had barely escaped the claws of a hungry Yama-uba, but to think that those stories could be true.
"So the townspeople have continued that tradition?" Bou-san asked. "Sacrificing people to the spirit?"
"I don't want to point fingers," Rei replied. "But I am inclined to say yes."
"Shinzo-san has been living here for less than years. But before he approached us, several people - all of them outsiders and young- had already disappeared. Isn't that a little fishy?" Kei said.
"There are no young people in town," Yasuhara blurted. "Could it be…?"
"Uh, they probably fed young people to the Yama-uba. I am no expert, but many of the bones down there were most likely young, judging by the size." Rei said.
"That means… We fell straight into the wolf's den!" Ayako groaned.
"Was the Yama-uba the one who possessed Mai?" Naru asked, and Rei shook her head.
"No, that spirit was certainly human."
"But you just said our spirit was a Yama-uba!" Ayako barked.
"No, I said, the spirit was related to a Yama-uba," Rei replied, shaking her head.
"Also, we said we felt spirit presences in town when we arrived," Kei said. "It was odd, so we figured they were random wandering spirits in the forest, but seeing what happened to Mai, something just came up to mind."
"What?" Bou-san asked.
"What if the spirits are hiding in living people? Just like that spirit was hiding inside of Mai?" Kei asked.
"That would mean the entire town is possessed," Rei said, tilting her head. "Could it be… Shinzo-san and his wife were in the process of possession when he called us. So when we arrived, the possession switched to Mai…"
"That's stretching it too much, but we can't say it isn't possible, right?" Kei nodded.
Naru was pacing around the room pensively. The rest of the group was watching his steps, waiting for him to voice his opinion.
"Matsuzaki-san, did you check what I asked you?"
"Yeah, I found some good trees nearby. Do you want me to perform the cleansing?"
"Let's go by what the twins say. If we assume that all the townspeople are possessed, your method of cleansing would be the most suitable. Even if their theory was wrong, you would still be able to exorcise any wandering spirit in the vicinity."
"Ok, then I will do it."
"But Naru, what happens with the Yama-uba, if it actually exists?" Bou-san asked.
"Uh… that yokai aren't part of my expertise," Naru answered. "Kei-san, Rei-san… what about you?"
"Uh, leave that to us. Yokai can't be exorcised, but we can seal it. Leaving a Yama-uba running free would be irresponsible."
"All right, then let's begin with the preparations."
Quick notes:
(1) honden: part of the shrine where the kami is kept.
(2) ara-mitama: rough, violent side of a spirit, particularly deities. It is the opposite of the nigi-tama which calm and benevolent. It is said that deities possess both, and when becoming a kami, it is necessary to pacify the ara-mitama.
(3) Mai literally calls the butterfly, butterfly (chou).
THank you all for your reviews. Some people asked me if Lin and Madoka were canon, well as far as I know from reading the novels, and from what Ono-sensei said, they're not canon. The only canon couple is MaixNaru lol. The only reference to Madoka x Lin is Mai saying that they get along, so rest assure LinRei shippers. It isn't a lost cause (?)
A lot of people preffer to DM me instead of reviewing. I find that cute. Sometimes it is easier to have a conversation like that.
I've been suggested to make a short that explains how Mai met Kei and the others. I will keep that in mind ;P
