Disclaimer:I do not own Ghost Hunt.
Burnt Desires: Part 13
Day 3. 2:15PM.
Mai coughed as a cloud of dust blew past her face, hastily wafting away the lingering specks with her hand. "Y-You could have given me a warning," she rasped groggily, watching through bleary eyes as Naru handed the crowbar he'd been holding over to Lin before forcefully removing the cracked lid off the box he'd just assaulted.
"You shouldn't have stood so close, Mai." Naru retored, throwing her an unreadable look over his shoulder before delving his hand into the depths of the box.
Two hours earlier Lin had finally returned from his scout upstairs, having broken through the temporary seals on the stairs in order to do so. The omnyoji hadn't caught sight of any traces of the supposid active malouvant spirit on the first floor, and had found something else entirely; a room they hadn't searched yet.
The attic.
After much deliberation Naru said it would do them some good to check it out, to search what appeared to be this old, forgotten attic for any new information or leads that might be up here, and had sent Ayako and Monk to divert the client away while the three of them explored the attic space, armed with only two torches.
The attic was big, being double the size of the room Mai was currently sharing with Ayako –and that was big in itself. The cord for the light switch was too high for any of them to reach, having to resort to the weak lights from the torches instead.
"Find anything?" Lin asked, raising his torch higher to illuminate the area he was in.
"Hmm," Naru muttered as he leaned further into the box, shifting his hands through the stacks of papers he deemed unnecessary, and had probably been thrown carelessly into the box. "They're just blank sheets," he moved his hand around while the paper shuffled noisily, scratching against the sides of the box.
"Why would the paper be blank?" Mai replied, glancing blindly through the dark at the dingy surroundings, shining her torch at the ceiling. She grimaced. There were cobwebs everywhere.
"Perhaps the ink faded into the parchment," Lin suggested, moving closer. "The air is stagnant...and cold."
"Or it's a decoy for anyone who might be nosing around," Naru scoffed loudly as his fingers touched something cold. "Looks like whoever put this here was hiding something," he said and retrieved the item from beneath the sheets.
Lin focused his beam on the tin in Naru's hands. "Can you open it?"
Naru grunted, "Yes."
"What is it?" Mai questioned curiously, moving steadily across the dim floor as her feet carried her forward, producing short puffs of dust from the grimy surface which apparently hadn't been cleaned in a few decades. Even the air tasted stale.
"Mai, aim your torch higher," Naru instructed impatiently as she heard him rattle the tin.
"Yes, boss." Her tone dripped with irritable derision as she groped blindly for the button on the side of the light source, dishing out a stronger beam which flickered with a few adjusting blinks. "There," she declared, pointing the beam at the object.
With the pair of lights focused on the tin the outer carvings illuminated under the beams with a clear bottled green, covering the wide margins with curves and swirls across the linings. The box was bigger than Naru's hand but easily stayed balanced in his grasp, streching outwards another inch or two from his palm.
His narrow fingers pried the lid open, revealing a stack of pristine white papers. Naru grabbed the pile and placed the empty tin down on a nearby desk, swiping his sleeve across the top to clear away the dust and dotting his black jacket with speckles of white and grey.
"What are they?" Mai edged closer as Naru flipped through the stack.
"Documents..." He murmured attentively. "...A birth certificate," he paused, moving the paper further into the light, "for Yumi Hachimitsu."
Mai's eyes widened a fraction at the mention of the familiar name. "Yumi Hachimitsu?" She asked, astonished. "But wasn't she the daughter of the previous Hachimitsu family, the first ones?"
"Yes," Lin answered monotonously, running his gaze over the document. "We can determine now that Yasu's findings were indeed correct," he said before switching his focus back to the other sheets in the pile. "Is there anything else of importance?"
Naru shuffled the paper while Mai and Lin crowded round for a closer look. Something small and square slipped from between the sheets, and Mai caught a flicker of white as it dropped to the floor, going unnoticed by the other two.
She bent down to retrieve it, feeling a brief twinge of weight on her shoulders as she did so. The assistant winced from the strange sensation and shot an anxious glance over her shoulder to see if anything was there, but the space was empty. Strange, I thought something was-
"What's in your hand?"
Mai snapped out of her reverie at the sound of Naru's voice, unconsciously tightening her grip on the torch in her grasp. "It's a photograph," she handed it over, "it fell from the middle of the papers."
Naru flipped the picture over, finding a line of writing on the back. The ink was smudged but still readable. "Hidari, Jirou, and Yumi Hachimitsu, 1998." Naru read the inscription aloud, cocking a brow at the names.
Mai peered over his shoulder as he flipped the photograph around, showing a trio of people standing in front of a large oak tree. The trio consisted of a woman, a man, and what appeared to be their daughter, all producing the same cheerful smiles as they stared at the camera. The man, Jirou, wore a creased shirt with a pair of denim jeans, resting his hand on the daughter's shoulder. Yumi, the daughter, was wearing a plain black t-shirt and a pair of cotton overalls over the top, standing in front of a giant oak tree which held an unusual scar across the front of its trunk. Her blue eyes had a startling resemblance to Yurei's, bringing forth Mai's previous thoughts of the questioning connection between the two girls. She looked like a younger version of Yurei with her childish dimples and baby teeth.
The woman in the picture wore a simple white gown which Mai instantly recognised. It must have been the white tint she saw when it fell. Her eyes widened even more. "...The ghost!" She blurted upon realization, snatching the photograph from Naru's fingers for closer inspection.
"Ghost?" Lin repeated, shocked by the girl's accusation.
Mai paled, suddenly feeling Naru's gaze burn into the side of her face. "I...might have seen another ghost..." She trailed off, nervously fiddling with the edges of the picture.
"Why didn't you tell me sooner?" Naru asked displeased, crossing his arms across his chest with the grace of a prowling cat. A very unhappy cat.
"I thought I was seeing things." Mai scrunched up her nose distastefully. "It seemed harmless! I didn't sense anything coming from it." She tried to reason but Naru wasn't impressed.
"Whether you're hallucinating or not Mai, any type of information can be important." The narcissist replied, snatching back the photograph from her hands.
Mai, annoyed with her bosses attitude made an irritable noise with her mouth, spinning on her heel so that her back was showing to him as she huffed in annoyance. Narcissist, her mind grumbled cowardly, shining her torch elsewhere as a distraction from her foul mood. I spoke the truth and he still tells me off. He's so moody!
Naru moved around her, raising the picture in her line of sight before pointing at the older woman in the shot. "Is this the ghost you saw?"
Mai's brow twitched. "...Yes. She was wearing the same white dress that she's wearing in the photograph." She replied, staring at the collection of cardboard boxes sitting against one of the corners of the attic.
Lin shuffled closer, causing the light of his torch to bounce off the walls in an eerie way, making the strewn out cobwebs glow a crystal white. "Then the mother must have died here," he concluded solemnly, staring at the picture with blank eyes. "If we're going off the basis of Yurei actually being Yumi, then the woman in the photograph is Yurei's real mother and she has lied to us about her mother's real whereabouts."
Mai frowned, gaining a sudden tickling sensation run down her spine. The heavy feeling was back again, weighing her down. It was like having a toddler sit on her shoulders; an invisible one. "Yurei told us her mother was working abroad so it doesn't make sense for her to have died here."
"She must have passed here on the property."
Mai's frown deepened. "Or died abroad. The family might have had her body shipped over.."
Naru shook his head.
Mai sighed, wondering why he was so adamant that she died here. "But I didn't see any gravestones near the property, just that burnt out forest."
While the pair had been conversing, Lin had moved away from them and headed towards the box Naru had opened earlier, having reached inside with his torch shining into its depths.
Naru placed the picture on the table with the rest of the documents, waving their talk off with his hand while Mai puffed out her cheeks, not liking how he ended things. The narcissist signalled her over with a hurried hand gesture so that her torch light would flash across the pages. "Keep it steady," he muttered, squinting down at the writing on the paper.
Mai bent her arm inwards for a steadier hold, keeping her torch aimed in Naru's direction as she released a bored sigh, straining her ears to the sounds of rustling paper coming from Lin's direction. Naru rolled his eyes.
Behind Lin she noticed a large bulk, covered by a thick blanket. From the furthest end was a head– a horse's head to be exact, sticking out from beneath the material. Mai believed it was a rocking horse. The pastel colours had long worn away, leaving behind a few blotches here and there. Must have been Yurei's.
Lin's quiet gasp carried through the damp attic, piking Mai's curiosity as she craned her neck towards him, briefly disregarding the hidden childlike memories that would have revolved around the forgotten rocking horse.
"What is it?" She asked, pulling away from Naru who grumbled at the loss of her torch light.
"There's another tin," Lin answered as he pulled it from the box, awkwardly balancing his torch under one arm while carrying the tin in his other as he hurried over to them, putting it down on the table.
Naru took over while Lin shifted to the side, moving the documents out of the way before opening the tin and removing the items from within, using the palm of his hand to spread them out across the desk the way a magician would with a deck of cards.
Mai zoned in on the closest one to her– a letter– picking out a name they hadn't seen yet. Nise Furin. Her hand reached out and her fingers curled around the bottom edges, pulling it off the desk. Feeling the men's gazes bite into the back of her neck at her sudden movement, Mai forced her eyes to scan the scrawled message covering the page before reading it aloud.
"Yumi, this is your mother. If you are reading this then I am long gone from this world, and I am sorry. There is something I have been keeping from you all your life, something I didn't have the heart to tell you about when I was alive. Writing the truth down seemed easier as you were too young to understand then.
You see, I've been seeing another man-"
Mai cut off short, staring dumbfounded at the sheet in her grasp. Naru cleared his throat and drew her attention, nodding at her to continue with a blank face. But Mai's head was filled with questions that rattled against the confounds of her mind, scratching and clawing at the imaginary binds with their claws until she forced them back with a rough shove, telling herself she would come back to them at a later date.
She swallowed the lump in her throat and continued to read.
"-You see, I've been seeing another man, have been for sixteen years. The truth can be ugly Yumi, and I know you may think I've done wrong but I love him. Nise means the world to me. My husband, Jirou, I think he knows; maybe he knew from the start. I've been with your father for twenty years and yet Nise stole my heart at first glance. Perhaps I should have done the right thing and divorced him years ago, then I wouldn't have had to lie to him about me, or about you.
Jirou isn't your father, Yumi. Nise Furin is the name of your biological father, although he doesn't know it. I've been lying to everyone for sixteen years, but I don't feel an ounce of regret for any of it. I just hope you'll forgive me one day, and that when we meet again we can start over. No lies; just the truth.
Signed with love, Hidari."
...Mai couldn't believe it.
"...That was expected," Naru remarked, sliding the letter out from between Mai's fingers as she stared at him in disbelief. "Yasu's findings mentioned how the husband knew about his wife's disloyalty as he was the one who reported it to the authorities, suspecting her to have runaway with this so called Nise."
Lin inclined his head, "Bringing us back to the question of how the wife died."
Mai lowered her arms to her sides, tightening her hold around the torch as the burn on her hand rubbed painfully against the bandage, jostling her memories. Her last encounter with the client had been useful because they had concluded how Yurei's episodes were brought on whenever her parents were mentioned. And now this new information gave them an alternative look on the family's real relationship; it couldn't be a coincidence that the mother's death was linked in some way, nor the husband's.
Something dreadful must have happened to make Yurei want to forget it all.
"The wife, Hidari," Mai spoke aloud, "we've figured out she's the white ghost, but what about the other spirit?"
Naru shared a look with Lin, but there was something about the way their eyes met that made Mai's stomach churn with worry. She didn't like it one bit.
"What is it?" She uttered, suddenly becoming nervous as she watched Naru's mouth twist into a grimace. "Naru-"
"Lin and I believe the darker entity to be Jirou, Hidari's husband and Yurei's adoptive father." Naru spoke clearly, adjusting the hem of his sleeve. "But this poses another problem. The reports told how after the authorities had written off the wife's disappearance that the father and daughter later died in a house fire. Jirou's spirit is in this house with us," he paused, "and so is the daughter's."
It took a moment for Mai's mind to grasp on to the narcissist's meaning. "Y-You mean Yurei? Her spirit is here-?" She broke off in confusion. "But Yurei couldn't be a ghost, she's corporeal! We've all seen her Naru!"
"We can all see spirits too, Mai." Lin responded and she met his eyes, recoiling back at the sympathy she saw in them. The sympathy he held for her.
Mai shook her head, "N-No. I've touched her skin Lin. She felt real, as real as you or me."
"It's what she's making you believe," Naru moved closer. "Think about it Mai, her father is dead and resides in this house, so does her mother. Yurei should have burnt in that fire along with him." He advanced forward, shortening the gap between them as Mai felt the heavy feeling clamp down on her shoulders again. "Do you remember the first dream you had about the girl dying in the fire?"
Mai made no sound of acceptance to what he was saying, finding herself too shocked to answer.
Naru reached forward and grabbed her wrist, giving her a gentle shake. "The girl who perished in that fire is Yurei. That's enough proof to cancel out your opinions in this matter," he spoke sternly, hardening his eyes as Mai's gaze retreated to the floor. "You even said yourself how the girl in your dream suffered from the same eye-changing condition."
Mai sighed, pulling her wrist free. "I guess it does make sense...But why would her own father attack her?"
Naru shrugged. "Jirou knew about the affair, although he might have not known about Yurei having a different father at the time. Spirits latch on to negative memories. If Jirou learnt about the truth and came to resent his wife's disloyalty, then it's possible for him to want to exact revenge at his wife onto his daughter."
"That's so cruel." She murmured, feeling bewildered. "Hidari's death, too. It doesn't make sense. If she didn't pass away abroad-"
"Her spirit is connected to this house, meanings she died here on the property. The authorities called off the case after the husband mentioned her affair and never thought anything of it, however there are no death records for Hidari Hachimitsu, and that can only mean one thing."
The heavy feeling pressing down on Mai's shoulders increased, sending a sharp exhale from her mouth as her throat suddenly grew tight. She glanced behind her at the empty space, feeling uncomfortable. There's nothing there. "W-What do you mean?" Mai asked as her hands started to shake, confusing the assistant even more with what was happening to her. She forced herself to breathe as an odd sensation tugged at the back of her mind, and she pulled in a strained breath.
Lin who had been quietly observing the pair quickly transferred his gaze to Mai at the sudden feeling in his gut, sensing the appearance of a dark presence filter in behind her. His shiki twitched in anticipation.
Mai barely noticed Lin's worried expression for her own vision had grown startlingly blurred. Her mind whirled in fear, telling her of the being hovering behind here. She took a step back, hearing a dull buzz thrum in her ears. My energy is being drained again, just like the time I was caught in the fog. She thought pensively, feeling her strength begin to slip away. Was the spirit here with them?
Naru's voice broke through her thoughts as he answered the question they had all been thinking. "Hidari Hachimitsu was murdered in this house."
The weight on Mai's shoulders became too much as her legs buckled from beneath her and she collapsed to the floor, sending up a cloud of dust and grime into the air while Naru's words rang in her head. Murdered. Killed in cold blood.
Lin got to her first, placing his hands on either side of her face with urgency, drawing in a gasp. He only had to take one look at her pale face to know what was happening. "It's taking her energy!" He yelled.
Naru froze, something which Mai had never seen before as he contemplated which direction to go to; the documents or Mai. He looked lost.
"I've got her!" Lin told him and then Naru shot into action, hurriedly grabbing the documents from the desk and stuffing them into the tin while Lin wrapped his arms under Mai's armpits and pulled her backwards towards the wall, setting her down with her torch held firmly in her grasp for safety.
"Don't move Mai!" He told her before dashing off in Naru's direction to help, leaving a single shiki behind to protect her.
Mai would've laughed at his words, however she truly couldn't move. Her breath was coming out in short rasps and a cold sweat was beginning to break out across her forehead. Whatever was pushing down on her shoulders was dense, keeping her seated on the floor in an unmovable position.
A heavy presence skittered amongst the shadows, growing bigger by the second as it sapped at her energy. Mai tensed, struggling to raise her torch against the weighty being pushing her down, watching the streak of light catch onto something before her, something evil.
The apparition standing in the light of her torch manifested into a black silhouette, and Mai recognised him instantly. "J-Jirou!" She wheezed, feeling her own power hum in defensive. The aura he gave off wasn't too pleasing as it made Mai's insides coil into knots just from being in his presence. He had looked so happy in the photograph. She thought, recalling their content smiles. Had learning of his wife's disloyalty changed him into this aggressive being?
Lin's shiki shook above as the omnyoji appeared before her, his mouth pulled into a taught line as he asked her if she could stand, to which she shook her head. The spirit was holding her down. Lin called for his shiki with a high whistle, throwing his arm into a rushed arc as the shiki followed his directions, piercing through the ghost's translucent skin. The spirit threw out a counterattack but missed, releasing an enraged shriek before shrinking back against the wall and hiding itself amongst the shadows.
The weight instantly lifted from Mai's shoulders and she quickly stumbled to her feet, grasping onto Lin's arm for support as Naru joined them, scanning his eyes up and down her form in concern.
"The spirit doesn't appear to be happy with what we've found," he said with a wry smile, tucking the closed tin into the inner pocket of his coat.
The light from both Mai's and Lin's torches flickered in rapid blinks and a low rumbling filled the air, it's echoes sending a flurry of dust to the floor. Mai winced at the sound, hurriedly pivoting on her heel to escape it.
Lin's iron grip on her arm kept her in place.
The rumblings grew louder, causing strong vibrations that rocked the floor and walls surrounding them. Mai could have believed the attic was alive if she didn't know otherwise.
"It seems he doesn't like me mentioning it either," Naru said in a dry tone just as an inhuman shriek erupted in the air, signalling it was time for them to go.
Lin's shiki dispersed around them, leaving glistening white trails behind in their tracks as they went to distract the spirit in order for the three of them to escape. Lin took the distraction to whip Mai forward with a sharp tug, dragging her towards the attic steps and spinning her around before yelling at her to climb down to which she did, lumbering down the ladder two steps at a time as Lin sent Naru after her.
Mai's feet hit the floor with a loud thud and she moved out of the way just as Naru landed beside her, creasing his face into a scowl at the sight of her standing there panting.
"Don't just stand there, keep going!" He growled as Lin jumped down behind them, having completely disregarded the ladder in his midst of escape. Before Mai could see, the omnyoji's hand was already wrapped firmly around her arm once again and then he was pulling her down the hallway with Naru taking the lead up front, not giving her a chance to breathe.
Her lungs burned and her heart pounded against her chest, feeling the horrid taint of the spirit trailing after them, no more than a metre behind. Mai tried to keep her pace but Lin's urgent pulling's told her she wasn't running fast enough. He risked a glance back and cursed at the sight of the spirit, bringing his shiki around for another attack.
However this time they missed.
Jirou roared in triumph after blocking the shiki's attack, slicing through them as if they were mere scraps of paper and their energy splintered out.
Mai forced her eyes to look up front, and she was thankful that the stairs were in sight. Lin's shiki were lost somewhere behind but Mai's only focus was on getting to the ground floor. The creature must have read her mind as it too realised where they were heading, except he came up short at the nearness of their prize, zipping closer through the gap to stop them from going any further.
Mai lunged down the stairs with Naru and Lin flanked by her sides, jumping the last couple of steps in a fit of panic after sensing how close the spirit had gotten. Mai stumbled off-balance, catching herself with the help of Naru as they finally reached the bottom. She felt Lin's hand disappear from her arm and she turned to face him, watching as he drew out a bundle of temporary seals from his pocket before slapping them in place at the bottom of the stairs.
Jirou's spirit swooped down after them, only to pull back in disgust at the sight of the rectangular pieces of paper sealing him in. His eyes glowed in outrage, baring his sharpened teeth at the trio in displeasure.
Mai drew in a much needed breath, sliding back against the wall in relief. "He's trapped again, right?" she asked wearily, staring at the back of Naru's head whose gaze stayed fixated on the ghost.
Lin cleared his throat, answering for him. "For now."
That wasn't the answer she'd wanted to hear.
Mai angled her head, taking in both Lin and Naru before her. They look exhausted, she thought, rubbing her arm. Well, that wasn't so surprising with what they'd all just been through; especially Lin's shiki. Speaking of which–
"Lin, what happened to your shiki?" Mai spoke up, casting a quick glance in Naru's direction, but she stopped at the sight of something; or more like the lack of something. When had the spirit disappeared?
Lin rolled his shoulders to release his tension. "They're just recovering."
"OK," she nodded. Just three words? But that was Lin for you, he hardly uttered an explanation for things he didn't see fit to indulge in. So the assistant bit her inner cheek, mulling over what to say when she spotted something on Naru's sleeve. The white mark stood out against the darker tones of his jacket, something which was usually kept quite clean regardless of the situation. Mai typically ended up with a torn sleeve or a bruised wrist on every case.
Said assistant inhaled through her nose before using the wall as a grip to she climb to her feet, making her way over to Naru who seemed lost at the spirit's absence. "Hey Naru, there's dust on your sleeve," she uttered, feeling worn out from their run-in with the ghost.
The narcissist frowned and moved closer to her, holding her gaze for a moment before deliberately wiping his sleeve against her shoulder. "And there's dust on your backside." He retorted, choosing to ignore her annoyed look after using her shirt as a cleaning rag.
"W-What?" She mumbled, pulling away from him. The assistant craned her neck back to look at the mentioned area, noticing the grey streaks that were a mixture of dust and grime running across her trouser legs and bottom. She sighed mentally, feeling a red tinge seep into her cheeks. That must have been from when Lin dragged me away to safety, she presumed to herself, throwing a glare in Naru's direction. Why was he even looking in that area!? She fumed.
Lin clapped his hands, startling the assistant as her glare softened into a sullen scowl. "Mai, you can ask Ayako to help you clean your trousers when we get back to the base. But first we need to find everyone and pass on the new information we've learned." He spoke sternly, throwing a glance at the vacant stairs. He knew the spirit had retreated for now, but his presence still lingered from the aftermath of their chase.
The quicker they solved this case, the better.
Mai begrudgingly moved her feet into action, not liking how the two men could see the large dust stain running up her trousers from behind. So embarrassing. She just couldn't wait to find the priestess to help her clean up the whole mess.
Posting Date: 29th November 2015
Symm: Hi, long time no see. How's everyone doing? I've been caught up with college work, again. As if I haven't got enough to do already, I've been bulked down with all of my subjects; I swear they do this on purpose at the same time. That's why I've taken a while to update, but hey, you got a longer chapter this time which I'm pleased about. So much action in one chapter. Also, just to let you know in advance I'm planning to get on with rewriting my Christmas-themed fic so if anyone enjoys Soul Eater, keep an eye out. ᶘ ᵒ㉨ᵒᶅ So the next update for Burnt Desires might not come until after Christmas, but I'll try to get one up before then if I can. Thanks for your patience and for reading!
Thanks for reviewing D C JoKeR H S, MariaSakura2000, Fher34, Guest!
Thanks for following MariaSakura2000, Twilight Journey, RinsakiMei, animefreak205, alanawolf06, MissKiku, revrymetrlnce2, peaches-xenon, anime-4EVER44, wolfenrose14, Angenetta98, StrikeStorm7, DaadyGal26, BriBugg94, Wolfpup59, Gildra Evestar!
Thanks for the favourite raind2000, Ghost hunt er loves japan 77, MariaSakura2000, RinsakiMei, Checkmate6, MissKiku, Thelatestbuzz, BriBugg95!
Guest: Thanks for reviewing, I'm glad you like the whole 'ki' thing. Sorry about the wait, I hope you enjoyed todays chapter :D