Inevitability
Chapter 11:
An hour later everyone was lined up in the base like soldiers ready for battle. All the employees of SPR were dressed appropriately for the occasion with John, Bou-san and Ayako in their respective robes and holding their applicable equipment like vials of holy water for John and tokkosho for the monk. Naru was in his customary black ensemble and Masako was in a flower patterned kimono.
"Are we all clear on the plan?" Naru asked. "If anything goes wrong we cannot make another attempt because we will not have our bait anymore."
"The bait has a name, you know," Maaya retorted.
"I will take that as a yes. Yasuhara-san, leave this ryokan with Hara-san, Kudou-san, Yakumo-kun and the three other guests that are staying here."
It had been a concern that the ghosts would become violent and attack people who had no way of protecting themselves so it had been decided that they would be evacuated from the premises leaving only the SPR and the bait.
"Matsuzaki-san, you have told Maaya how to protect herself if no one can get to her in time?"
"Yes."
The narcissist nodded and stood in front of Maaya who was looking pale and apprehensive despite her claims to the contrary, a fairly normal reaction to being told that she was going to act as bait to lure out two very angry and violent ghosts that wanted to harm her.
"Maaya, we are all going to protect you as much as possible. Do not worry about anyone here getting hurt, they are all trained and experienced. Stepping in front of them to block attacks or yelling at the ghosts to stop will not do any good. Do you understand?"
"I understand, Naru. Pinky promise?" She held out her baby finger. Upon seeing his perplexed reaction she elaborated. "Shake my finger with yours. It makes it a sealed promise."
Clearly a variation on "cross my heart and hope to die, stick a needle in my eye, Naru noted to himself before holding out his shortest finger and shaking Maaya's, generating surprised looks from everybody.
"It's less trouble than alternative," he offered as an explanation before returning to the plan. "As we discussed we are going to the kitchen which contains the greatest number of hazards out of all the locations here."
The group make their way to the kitchen. It was still early in the morning and the sky was cast with grey clouds blocking out the sunlight, which set the scene for the exorcism.
Naru led Maaya into the centre of the kitchen and stepped back to check. She was in the trajectory of all the knife blocks ranging from meat cleavers to pastry knives as well as the fire extinguishers and a blowtorch for burning sugar, exactly as planned. The ghosts who were targeting her would be unable to resist such an opportunity for killing her.
The omnouji, priestess, monk and priest took their places in a circle around the amnesiac. Naru moved to he was behind Lin as he had promised the omnouji that he would stay out of harm's way.
"Is everyone ready?" he asked quietly.
Everyone nodded in synchronisation and focused their eyes on the bait who still looked pale and scared.
"Maaya, pick up a knife and hold it," Naru instructed.
As she did a gust of wind blew through the room, ruffling everyone's hair.
"They're coming. Get ready," he said. "Keep hold of the knife."
Maaya made a mewing noise of fright, but she stood her ground.
Her hair blew as the ghosts materialised above her revealing, that as suspected they were the lovers that had committed suicide, as they were holding hands. The woman glared ferociously at Maaya and dived for the knife block and grabbed a handful.
"Now!" Naru shouted.
"Naumaku Sanmanda Bazaradankan!" Bou-san chanted.
The woman glared at him and threw a knife in his direction. He dodged to avoid it and in the process of doing so, he stopped chanting.
Meanwhile the male ghost had approached Maaya and was standing behind her.
"Mai! Behind you!" the narcissist shouted desperately as John who was close enough began to read from his bible.
Maaya spun around and screamed at the sight. The spirit grabbed her by the neck and began to squeeze.
"Killing you is the only way we can have peace," she saw him mouth as her vision faded away into black spots and she distantly heard Naru shout her name.
Then a drop of holy water from John hit the ghost and he released her. Maaya crumpled on the floor, gasping for air.
"I'm sorry," she apologised between gasps. "I don't know what I did, but if you tell me I will stop it."
Both spirits paused and Naru saw an opening for a less violent exorcism.
"She will stop disturbing you after today, I know what she has been doing and she will stop," he said, stepping out from behind Lin. "But you two will have to leave here and pass on properly. If she could disturb you, then more people can and neither of you want to stain your hands with blood anymore. I know how you two died."
"If you leave now we will create a gravestone in the garden for you," Bou-san added to tempt them further. "Then no one will disturb you."
Everyone waited for a form of response with bated breath. The response was to drop a knife on top of Maaya which pinned her leg to the ground by catching on her trouser leg.
"Naru-chan, I think there has been a breakdown in negotiations," Bou-san shouted. "What do we do!?"
Another two knives pinned Maaya to the floor so she was spread-eagled with only one free arm.
"The nine cuts! I taught you!" Ayako screamed as the female spirit aimed another knife.
Maaya blinked in fright as she realised exactly what was happening to her. She reached out her free arm and did her best at attempting the nine cuts.
"Rin. Pyou. Tou. Sha. Kai. Chin. Retsu. Zai. Zen!" she chanted and made the appropriate slashing motions with her fingers as a feeling of familiarity swept through her.
The female spirit recoiled and she saw cuts appear on her translucent form.
"You two died to leave the living world together! Why are you still here?" Maaya demanded as she lay trapped on the floor. "If I managed to disturb you, then you never fully left this world. You will never get any peace if you remain in this world. In fifty years time this building will probably no longer exist. It could be a block of flats or a skyscraper, or an airport which would disturb your rest even more. If you really wanted peace, you would leave here."
She glanced fearfully at the spirits, afraid to see their reaction. Maaya had no idea where her speech had come from, the words had come out of her mouth without her really thinking.
The spirits' forms began to fade around the edges and Maaya knew that they had understood.
"Good bye," she said as the ghosts became more transparent than translucent and faded into nothing.
For a moment everyone froze and stared at where the ghosts had been. Then, everyone apart from Lin and Naru ran over to Maaya to pull the knives out so she was no longer impaled to the floor by her clothes.
Naru lurked at the back of the fray whilst the girl received tearful hugs from all of his employees. Lin pushed him forward and Naru turned to stare at him in surprise.
"Go on. She is the mother of your son," the omnouji said with a discreet smile.
The scientist glared at him, but he did as he was told. Bou-san and Ayako parted so he could bend down next to Maaya.
"Well done," he congratulated and ruffled her hair. "You took the initiative and persuaded them to leave by yourself."
"Thank you," Maaya grinned at him and readjusted her ruffled hair.
"I think reading that book must have helped you," he added with a smirk.
Maaya rolled her eyes along with everyone else. "Thank you for ruining the moment, narcissist."
The monk decided to employ some underhand techniques to improve the situation. "Hey Naru-chan, what's that over there?"
The moment Naru looked in the indicated direction, Bou-san pushed the narcissist so he was on top of Maaya, squashing her to the ground again. Both flushed a very bright shade of red as they stared into each other's eyes.
Naru became aware of how close he was to someone that he had slept with and he felt that he should probably move off her, but he also felt surprisingly comfortable with being in such close proximity to his former assistant.
"Um, Naru..." she said hesitantly and he felt her breath tickle his cheek.
"Yes?"
"I can't breathe," she huffed and pushed him off.
This reminded him that Maaya still wasn't his Mai so he stood up and rearranged his facial features so he had his default poker face, showing no sign of his emotions.
"Meet me in the garden in half an hour," he ordered and walked out the kitchen, leaving all the SPR employees staring after him in a daze.
Everyone except Maaya exchanged significant looks.
"Has he worked it out?" Bou-san questioned.
"...Confession?" Ayako guessed.
One chapter left to go!
Writing this fanfiction has renewed my respect for anyone who can write a decent haunting case and keep Naru in character.