Chapter 6

Ayako and I were sitting in silence and it was kind of awkward, so I started humming a song from an anime I like. "Aki, that's really creepy." Ayako muttered, interrupting me.

"Huh? Oh sorry. It's stuck in my head." I said grinning. She smiled.

"Don't worry about it. Where did you hear it?"

"Oh, well I heard it from an anime I've been watching." She snorted.

"You watch stuff like that?"

"Yeah, is that a problem?" I asked raising an eyebrow. She shook head.

"No, I just never thought you'd be the kind of person who's into anime." I shrugged.

"So what kind of warding spells was Naru talking about?"

"Remember this: Rin, Pyo, To, Sha, Kai, Jin, Retsu, Zai, Zen!" While she said this she moved her hands like she was cutting the air.

"Rin, Pyo, To, Sha, Kai, Jin, Retsu, Zai, Zen?" She nodded.

"There are nine. That should help you if you're alone and a spirit attacks you." I smiled.

"Thanks, Ayako."

"Anytime, but um, are you sure you don't want to talk about what happened? It's not good to keep it bottled up."

"Don't worry, I already talked it out with Naru." She snorted.

"With Naru?"

"Yeah, you'd be surprised. He's actually a good listener." I said shrugging. "I'm assuming Lin was listening from the kitchen."

"Well, Mai said your clothes were all wet when she got there this morning. Were you out in the rain this morning?" I sighed.

"Yeah, I don't exactly have a place to stay."

"So this has something to do with your family?" She asked looking at me through her peripheral vision.

"Yes, but like I said, I don't feel like talking about it." She smiled.

"Okay, I understand. What are you going to do about your living arrangement though?"

"I think I'll ask Mai if I can stay with her until I get the money to get my own apartment." I said thoughtfully.

"I'm sure she won't mind." Ayako said nodding. The rest of the way was spent in silence which was fine by me because I was still tired and my stomach was starting to bother me. "Ne, Ayako? Do you have any Tylenol or Ibuprofen on you?"

"Yeah, here." She said giving me some.

"Thanks." I didn't have any water on me, so I swallowed them dry. We were finally at the school. I met up with Naru and Mai. It looked like Mai was trying to get some information out of him and he was ignoring her. I chuckled. "So what's this test you were talking about yesterday?" I asked, causing Mai to jump. Wow, for someone who deals with a lot of paranormal cases, she startles easily.

"Basically, I'm going to hypnotize everyone and plant a thought in their mind."

"Like?"

"I'll tell them that a stack of lunch trays in the cafeteria are going to be sitting in front of the cafeteria tomorrow morning. If it works, then that means the poltergeist activities are being pulled off by a human and if nothing happens, then we're up against a spirit." Naru explained as we walked into the school.

"Oh, so how accurate is this test?"

"100%."

"That's a lot of confidence." I said chuckling. He sighed. "Well, I can safely assume that things will get more interesting from here on out."

"Why do you say that, Aki?" Mai asked curiously.

"Well, with that dark spirit and the possibility of someone from this school causing the poltergeist activities, it just seems pretty interesting to me. Then there's the fact that things could escalate and get pretty bad. I know for sure that things aren't going to go smoothly from this point on."

"Yes, I have to agree." Naru said frowning. Mai frowned too. I don't like being the downer in the group but I can't help it. I gasped and stopped walking at the sight I was seeing.

"What's wrong?" Mai asked worriedly.

"That spirit from yesterday is here. It's standing at the end of this hall."

"What is it doing?" Naru asked urgently.

"It's telling me, no warning me that we shouldn't go into the gym."

"Why?"

"It won't tell me. It's smirking at me." I glared at it. It's really pissing me off. "How do you want to proceed?" Naru frowned, looking thoughtful.

"Let's keep going. You two stay on your guard." We nodded and continued walking. I didn't like that we were walking towards the spirit, not after the look it was giving me yesterday, but I was willing to bet that this was the one doing the possessions. It didn't do anything as we passed it but it gave me the chills just being this close to it. I didn't like it one bit. When we got into the gym, I sighed in relief.

"It didn't follow us." I informed them.

"I wonder why it didn't want us to come in here." Mai said curiously. I suddenly felt the need to look up and when I did, I gasped.

"What?" Naru asked looking at me.

"Up there." I said pointing up. There was a noose hanging from the raptures in the ceiling and a student was at the end of it. I don't know how that person got up there or how that noose got up there, but I bet it was the spirit who did this. Mai gasped and slid down onto the floor.

"Go get Hideyoshi-san and Ishida-san, they'll want to know." Naru said to me and Mai. I nodded and dragged Mai to her feet.

"Come on Mai." I said softly and pulling her to the door. She didn't need to see this and honestly I didn't either. I'm glad that Naru said that. The spirit wasn't outside the gym when we got out of there. Mai and I took off running towards the office. "Hideyoshi-san, Ishida-san, you need to come to the gym immediately and you might want to call an ambulance. There's been... a death..." The two men stared at me shocked. "Please hurry." The two kicked into action. Ishida-san ordered one of the ladies in the office to call the police and send the students home. Then we took the two to the gym. Mai stayed outside the gym, but I don't blame her. I wonder where Ichirou-san is. We haven't met him yet, but he's obviously hiding something.

"What is this?" Ishida-san asked shocked.

"We're not sure how this student got up there, but this is what we saw when we walked in." Naru answered him calmly, but I could tell he was a little shaken too underneath his mask.

"We've called the police. They're on their way. I've had the students all sent home." Hideyoshi-san informed him.

"That's good." Naru said sighing.

"Has this ever happened on one of your investigations?" Ishida-san asked him, looking a bit mad.

"No sir and we haven't done anything to cause this if that's what you're about to accuse us of. All we've done is walk around and set cameras up, nothing else." This did seem odd to happen on the second day. I guess that just means that the spirit is worse than I originally thought.

"I see," Ishida-san said finally after a few minutes of silence. Soon sirens could be heard and we had left the gym. Naru, Mai, and I returned to base.

"What happened?" Monk asked shocked. "All of a sudden the students were being dismissed for the day."

"Yeah, what's going on?" Ayako asked frowning.

"A student committed suicide in the gym, a hanging from the ceiling. And what's more troubling it was in the center of the gym." Naru said as I got Mai some tea. She looked like she could use a good cup. She took the tea gratefully and started sipping on it.

"How? The ceiling is too high for them to reach." John said shocked.

"I think that spirit has something to do with it, but I don't think it's just any spirit." I said frowning. "It's definitely not normal. It's almost as if it's a..."

"A what?" Lin asked curiously.

"A demon," I said grimly.

"If that's the case, then there isn't anything we can do to stop it." Naru said frowning. "We don't hunt demons."

"So it's going to be like the case with that house that had a bunch of rooms in it." Ayako said frowning.

"We can't rule out anything yet. What have you got on sound and the cameras?"

"On the cameras there is evidence of kids breaking into the school and moving stuff around; like the lunch trays and the furniture in the library,"

"Well that explains that." Monk said frowning.

"I'm assuming they aren't from this school because they'd have known about the cameras."

"I'm kind of surprised they didn't try to take off with the cameras." I said frowning.

"So they can't be all that bad then." Ayako said sighing.

"Other than that, there wasn't really anything on the cameras, but something in the gym happened. Here," The video showed the gym where Mai and I sat the camera in the corner of the room to get a full view of the gym. For a few seconds nothing happened. Then the next thing we know, a kid walked into the gym (it happened to be the one who committed suicide) and he seemed off; like he was in a trance. He walked into the middle of the gym and looked up at the ceiling. The next thing we know, the noose shows up hanging from the raptures. Gasps went all around as the kid was being lifted into the air by something and the noose was put around his neck and soon he was being dropped like a rag doll. I covered my ears as he made choking noises as if he just woke up from the trance he was in. He looked so scared. I turned away when I couldn't look at it anymore. Mai was doing the same thing.

"We need to show this to the police." Naru said sighing.

"I wonder if Ishida-san is going to make us leave." Monk said while Lin made a copy of the video.

"I don't know. For now all we can do now is wait, he's talking to Ichirou-san as we speak." Naru informed everyone. Everyone nodded and took a seat around the long table. Is this what their cases are normally like? Naru sure knew how to pick them.