Dlbn: As promised, here's another chapter for today! Wahoo!
Nbld: No Review Corner since we posted this with too small a time gap for anyone to review in. But we need to hurry up and get cracking on this so it's done by Halloween.
Disclaimer: I do NOT own Loveless or anyone in it. It all belongs to Yun Kouga. I make NO money off of writing this story.
Disclaimer 2: I do NOT own the song *** by ***, which this fic is based off of. I make NO money out of referencing it.
000
Ritsuka ran a hand through his hair as he sat in Soubi's office, waiting for the blonde to finish a conference call with a real estate agency in the next town about a house for sale in the midway that no one had been able to sell yet. Stupid Seimei following him to his job like a creep and getting offended when Ritsuka got annoyed. How else was the ravenette supposed to feel? He was being stalked and terrorized by a doll that managed to appear in photographs but disappear as soon as they were shown to anyone-that was Ritsuka's working theory, anyway. He could have just managed to disappear after the photos were developed-, and he doubted there was even an exact way to feel about this sort of thing. After all, it was insane and just sounded ridiculous when he thought about it or said it aloud. He really needed some answers beyond a superstitious old story told by the townsfolk to keep their children and confused newcomers in line. There was no way it was true, but that was happening to him had to be real, too. He heard Soubi end the phone call and stood up, making his way to the blonde's desk.
"Hey, Soubi?" He wondered.
"Hai?" Soubi looked up, paused in his writing.
"Is there anywhere around here that I could read up more about the history of this town? You know, beyond the story Kio told?"
"Well I'd start with the library." Soubi nodded out the window. "The records office is right next door if you want to try there, too, but they close in half an hour."
"Guess it's the library for me, then."
"Why are you asking?"
"That whole story thing just got me curious about the town. Like the people who came up with that story? Must have seen or done some pretty messed up things to come up with a story like that."
"Ritsuka…you saw the doll again…didn't you?"
"Seimei. His name is Seimei. And yes, I did. And I confronted him." Ritsuka nodded, puffing out his chest a little. "He's a stalker. And a half-backed one at that. Seriously, if I was a psychotic, possessed doll, I wouldn't be going into people's homes and stalking the person I live with. Way too easy to get noticed."
"He probably isn't afraid to get caught. Know why?"
"Why?"
"Because he doesn't exist, Ritsuka. I'm telling you, it's all in your mind. I promise." Soubi brushed away Ritsuka's bangs from his eyes. "Sukidayo, Ritsuka, but I swear you're imagining all of this. I know Kio's story is a little…out there…and can have a certain affect…on some people…but I swear, Ritsuka, this is all in your head."
Ritsuka brushed him away. "I wish it was, Soubi." He gathered up his things. "Thank you for the support, but I need to figure all this out on my own. I'll be at the library when you get off work. If you want to be seen with a nut job that is."
"Ritsuka, I didn't mean anything like that. Having an imagination is a good thing, a rare thing sometimes."
"Meant it or not, Soubi, that's kind of how it sounded."
With that, he left the office with a slam of the door. A couple employees roaming the halls looked at him curiously, but he held his head high and wandered out of the building. If Soubi thought it was all in his head, that was fine. But he knew it wasn't, and he would prove it. Back in Soubi's office, the blonde artist banged his head against the desk a few times before resting it on the edge of the desk.
"Nice going, Soubi." He muttered to himself. "You're a god damn idiot."
000
It had taken Ritsuka about an hour and talking to two different librarians to find the information that he needed. He had been given some reference books, a couple books from the town council office, some medical records from the health clinic, and some old leather journals; one had belonged to the 'Shaman' in town during the time of the story, another belonged to the husband from the first family driven mad by the child. He decided to read the Shaman's words first.
It was horrifying, that sight at the house on the hill. An entire family. Slaughtered in cold blood. There are not enough words in the Japanese language to describe the sight which I have seen on that night. Bloodied bodies lying in the bottom of a well, a child hanging from a tree. Was that mysterious stranger to blame? Hark, what was that noise coming from the tree? The boy! The boy was alive! It's impossible! He was hung from the tree by his neck, yet he lifted his head to look at the gathering crowd as if nothing had happened. There was no way that boy was alive. It just did not make sense. The man's writing was barely legible but Ritsuka concentrated hard enough to form some semblance of letters, let alone full words. His eyes. There was evil in his white-dead eyes. I cannot theorize a way in which those eyes were of anything of this world. Just what had come over the boy? What was I dealing with? It was some sort of demonic possession. My talisman worked wonders on that eve. A couple chants and rubbing of the charm caused a reaction to be dragged forth from deep within that boy's soulless body. That screaming, oh that horrid screaming! My ears still bleed from that wretched sound! As quickly as it began, it stopped, and we were able to gather our wits. He needed to be buried. Oh, but those fools! How I pity them and their stubborn, foolish pride! They did not heed my warnings! The boy was not buried on consecrated ground, was not buried deep enough. They think they know better, but they do not. I've seen this too many times in the old world. The living dead. Dead that come back to life. That boy will be a curse the likes of which this town hath not seen in a fortnight. The fools…shall never know the evil they hath unleashed upon this town.
Ritsuka sighed. This old Shaman was probably the origin of the story. Pissed off by the fact that they had not listened to him, his pride got the better of him and he distributed the story around town to make the locals fear and respect him more. Starting with the most impressionable group; the children. It all made sense now. But if the old man had died on the gravestone, then how had this entry been written? Perhaps it was from before the shaman's death. Ritsuka pulled up some records from the medical facility of the town to see if he could find anything about the so-called insanity that plagued the people who owned the house. One particular entry from a local doctor caught his attention.
The Yamaguchi family has suffered a strange case of delirium. They're the first people to own the house on the hill since that mystical incident in 1905. The case was first brought to my attention by the husband, Takuya, when he informed me that his wife, Sakura, had begun babbling in tongues and would not stop. He would speak to her in both Japanese and English, but she would only reply with that incoherent babbling. It wasn't until this mysterious case escalated that a clue as to what had come over this family had come to light. Takuya began wandering around town aimlessly at all hours of the day and night, screaming half-coherent sentences about a child terrorizing himself and his life. He began to grab onto passerby's in hopes of getting them to hear his pleas and assist him and his wife. I had no choice but to deem them insane and have them both shipped off. He began babbling about a child's revenge as they were carted off to the most local institution. A search of the home led to several disturbing journal entries about this so called 'child'. No such child was found in the home. The case of the Yamaguchi couple will go unsolved.
Ritsuka found another journal in his pile and leafed through it. When he noticed the signatures at the end of each entry read 'Yamaguchi', he became interested. The first entry about a child had been written four days after they had moved into the home and settled down.
This house holds more than we once thought. My wife saw him first. Just a glimpse of a black haired child. At first, I thought that perhaps she was letting delusions and her desire for a child overwhelm her. Ever since we lost our possible first born son two years ago, she has been seeing children everywhere. She has never really mourned for our lost child. Perhaps this child she has seen could be the answer to our prayers?
I have seen him. He came to us at dinner. The child with the raven black hair and the purple eyes. He's dressed in tattered rags, seems scared out of his mind. He's afraid the townspeople will find him and kill him. Again. He said. Kill him again. How could a living, breathing, walking, talking child have been killed before? It didn't make sense. Still, we have taken him in as one of our own. Perhaps this is the child we have longed for so long.
There is something not right with that child. He sits and stares, often talking to no one. Who does he think is there? Who or what is he seeing? We cannot figure it out for the life of us. He's always there. Just staring, watching, waiting, talking…I wanted to seek assistance from the town, but my wife encouraged me not to. Perhaps I will just let this play out and see how it ends.
Revenge. Revenge. The child wants revenge. He babbles about it constantly when he thinks we are not paying attention. He draws signs and symbols that I do not understand on the walls in blood. This child is evil. Do not let this child get to you. Beware the child! Beware Seimei!
Ritsuka almost dropped the book in shock as his blood ran cold. The entry was written in 1914. That meant Seimei was at least a hundred years old. But he was just a child. A little doll. Maybe the name was just coincidence? There were no more entries after that one. That must have been right before they shipped the couple off to the mental institution. He didn't have any more journals, but he looked into the coroner's records in the book that he had gotten from town hall. One from 1914 caught his attention. It was the autopsy report for the town sheriff; the man who had lost an eye in Kio's story.
Autopsy findings for Sheriff Kamiro Hideki. Left eye was ripped from its socket; weapon unknown. Appears that Kamiro suffered a heart attack. No witnesses to his death. Body discovered by townsman Yaguchi Aido. No foul play suspected.
Well, that part added up to Kio's story. Ritsuka read a few more evaluations of former residents of the house before deciding that none were worth the time. As Kio's story had said, most, if not all of them, had an instance of insanity run through at least one member of the family. What disturbed him was that in every case, the person who lost their mind would babble on about a child, revenge, and the name Seimei. Something about that doll had driven people insane. Ritsuka could understand, since he felt quite insane himself at this point. Filliping through an old catalogue of families living in the town, something familiar caught his eye. In 1965, about thirty years before he was born, there was a family that had moved into that residence for the first time in a good twenty or thirty years. He hadn't spotted a medical record for that year that had to do with some fit of insanity. Either the family covered it up, the record was lost, or…well, Ritsuka couldn't think of another reason that there was no record about it. He scanned across the page until he found some names. The last name, Shio, sounded familiar. It wasn't until he spotted the first names of the parents that Ritsuka's blood ran cold and he had to look away for a minute to gather himself. Shio Daichiru and Shio Yume were the names of his grandparents on his mother's side. The third resident of the home was named, as he had feared it would be upon seeing those names, Shio Misaki. His mother! His psychotic mother who had committed her own suicide and the murder of his father by fire! He frantically searched through records to find anything about that side of his family, anything at all, but came across nothing. A phone! He needed a phone!
"Excuse me." He greeted a librarian after having run through the building to get to her desk. "Is there a public phone I could use around here?"
"The closest one is in the Mayor's office, unless you want to go ask Agatsuma to use his work phone." She whispered back to him. "Are you alright? It looks like you've seen a ghost."
"Not a ghost, but something close enough. Thank you." He bowed before racing out of the library.
He could ask Soubi to use the phone, but his so-called boyfriend had already practically deemed him insane and said he was just having delusions. If he had asked to use the phone and then began talking to his grandparents about this, Soubi would probably interrupt, end the call, and send him off home to bed, saying he just needed more rest. That left the Mayor's office, Yayoi and Yuiko's shop around the corner, and Nisei's Inn. Since he was about ninety-five percent certain Nisei was involved, he couldn't go there. He didn't want the Mayor to think he was going nuts too and have him shipped off, but he didn't want to involve the antique dealers. He really didn't have a choice.
000
Yuiko was humming to herself as she cleaned the countertop near the register when Ritsuka came into the store.
"Oh, Ritsuka-kun, you're back." Her smile was clearly fake. "Anything new about the box?"
"No, nothing." He replied. "Do you have a phone I could use? It's really important."
"Sure." She handed him a rotary phone. "Hope you know how to sue it. I'll go help Yayoi so you can have some privacy." She practically dashed off as Ritsuka dialed a phone number.
"Shio residence. This is Yume speaking." The voice of an elderly woman greeted from the other end.
"Uh g-grandma? It's Ritsuka…" He greeted. "Aoyagi Ritsuka?"
"Oh!" She seemed surprised. "Ritsuka, it's been so long! How are you?!"
"I'm alright, grandma."
"Ritsuka?" His grandfather's voice chimed in. "You never call here. What's wrong? Need something?"
"I just had a couple questions." He replied.
"Shoot!"
"You guys…did you used to live in this little town out in the middle of nowhere?"
"Samura?"
"Yeah, there."
"Yes we did. Why do you ask?"
"Well…um…I just moved here and…I had a few questions about the…um…house on the hill…?"
The line went silent.
"Hello?" He asked after a few minutes.
"We're here. Why would you move there?" His grandfather wondered.
"I needed a place to stay, and family wouldn't take me in, and I couldn't live off my friends, but this was the cheapest place I could find." He scratched the back of his neck. "Can I ask you about the house?"
"Sure…" His grandmother began.
"Yume…"
"I think he's old enough now, dear, to know these things." She replied.
He sighed. "Fine. What do you need to know, kiddo?"
"There…um…there's this thing going around that the house was…haunted…and that people that lived there went…well…went crazy."
"Yes…?"
"But there's no record of that happening when you guys lived there." Ritsuka stated. "Was…was everything okay…?"
Silence.
"Hello?"
"It's…it's hard to discuss." His grandfather replied. "Your mother…your mother was always a rather…unusual child. She never really associated with anyone; kept to herself and didn't really have friends."
"We didn't think that it was strange when she began talking about an imaginary friend." His grandmother added.
"Imaginary friend?"
"She would talk to us about a young boy that lived in the house. She said he was older then he seemed. She called him…oh…what was his name…?"
"Was it Seimei?"
"Why…yes, I think so. How did you know…?"
"It's the name of the child from the town's legend."
"The Founder's Day Parade? Yes, we thought she had gotten the name from that. But over time. Things just got stranger…"
"She said Seimei was telling her to do things."
"What kind of things?"
"To kill people. Us in particular, because we tried to convince her that he wasn't real. She said he was angry and jealous, and wanted us to know that he wasn't made up. Like he was offended."
"I think it was her that was offended, honestly." His grandfather stated. "We didn't want her sent away, so we didn't tell anyone. Faked a family tragedy and moved to Kyoto."
"We thought all that nonsense was behind us. Your mother started to forget about Seimei. She started to be a normal little girl; making friends and talking to everyone she could talk to." Yume sighed. "We thought we were in the clear, but after you were born, she started to threaten your father. Saying that Seimei would come and save you two from him. That he was a bad husband, a lousy father, and that he didn't deserve either of you. She just kept going back to the idea that Seimei would come and find her and take her away. They fought a lot because of it."
Vague memories of his father saying 'no one is coming to get you' came across Ritsuka's mind. So that's what he had meant. She had thought Seimei would take her away, and he tried to convince her otherwise.
"Was that why they split?"
"It was. Your father began seeing another woman. And when your mother realized that Seimei wasn't coming for her…well…that's when the incident happened…"
He could practically hear his grandmother shudder.
"This Seimei creature was plaguing your mother's mind long after we left that Hell House." His grandfather prattled on. "A town's story had fractured your mother's already fragile mind so much that she had gone insane, imagined that Seimei was haunting the house, and ended up murdering her own husband."
"That house isn't good, Ritsuka. Stay away from the house on the hill…promise me…?" His grandmother wondered.
"Um…"
"You bought it…didn't you…?" His grandfather wondered.
"Yes…" He confessed. "I didn't know the story behind it. Soubi didn't tell me…"
"Soubi?" His grandmother sounded surprised. "Who is that?"
"The Real Estate agent." Ritsuka replied. "And…um…my boyfriend…it's complicated. Like really complicated." He shrugged. "Can I…um…can I ask you who the realtor was when you moved in?"
"Oh, what was his name…?" His grandmother wondered.
"Um…I believe it was Akame…"
"Akame…?" Ritsuka swallowed hard. "Akame Nisei?"
"Oh, no, no, Taguchi." His grandfather replied. "I'm pretty sure that was his name. He had a son named Tarahan, but I don't think that there was ever a Nisei with a relation."
"Akame Nisei runs the Inn here. He's not much older than me."
"Could be his grandson?" His grandmother wondered. "I don't know, darling, I'm sorry."
So Akame was involved somehow. Some kind of a family business to be associated with that house.
"Did you ever get a wooden box?"
"No."
"Oh. Akame gave me one."
"That's…strange…?"
"A housewarming gift, I think."
So how did the real estate business go from Akame to Soubi? Just what was the connection between Soubi and Nisei? Were they really former lovers? Then who the hell was Mimuro? Someone Nisei had left Soubi for? Nisei's accomplice? He was getting more questions than answers. He'd have to make a note of it to ask Seimei later if he remembered his mother.
"Well, that was nice." His grandmother stated. "I'm sorry, honey, but we don't know any more than that. I do wonder why the real estate business shifted from Akame to this Soubi fellow. Unless he's an Akame?"
"No, Agatsuma."
"Unfamiliar name." His grandfather stated. "I hope we were able to help you, Ritsuka."
"Oh, yes, more then you'll ever know."
"Ritsuka? Just tell me one thing?" His grandmother wondered.
"Hai?"
"Have you seen this…Seimei…character?"
Ritsuka paused for a brief second, hoping they hadn't caught onto it.
"No, I haven't."
"Good. Then you haven't been touched yet."
"Touched?"
"By insanity. There's definitely something strange about that town, let alone that house. I don't know what it is, but something just isn't right be careful."
"I always am."
"Arigato."
"Gomennasai for bothering you."
"Oh, no trouble at all, sweetie. Let us know if you need more."
"And be careful in that house. If you start seeing this Seimei creature to, get out of there before he destroys your mind like he destroyed your mother's."
"But…I thought he was just an imaginary friend…?"
"We don't know, Ritsuka. We don't know."
They bid their goodbyes and hung up. Ritsuka shouted a thanks to Yuiko. She and Yayoi walked out of the back office.
"Domashimashite, Ritsuka. Any time you need to use the phone, just ask." She grinned.
He nodded in agreement.
"Arigato to both of you." He nodded. "Hey, um, my grandparents used to live here, and they said that the Akame family ran the Real Estate office back then…but now Soubi does…is there a relation…?"
"None at all." Yayoi shook his head. "The Akame family was in control of it when we were kids, too. Until old man Taguchi died of a heart attack."
"Nisei's grandfather?"
"Yeah." Yuiko nodded. "His father wanted nothing to do with this town, so he left when he turned eighteen. He met Nisei's mom and they had him and I think two other siblings, but I'm not too certain. He came here with Mimuro after his grandfather passed."
"I don't know when they passed it onto Soubi, though. I think it was after Mimuro left. Soubi needed a job, so Nisei gave it to him."
"But why did Nisei leave?"
"He never wanted to get into real estate. Not his thing."
"But being an innkeeper was?"
"He didn't want to leave this town, hoping that Mimuro would come to his senses and return here. The Inn's owner died after he left the real estate office, and he took the job because the old woman didn't have any next of kin willing to do so."
"So if I get this right, Nisei's grandfather died, so he and Mimuro came to take over…but Mimuro left and Nisei gave up the company to Soubi…?"
"Soubi came a little before Mimuro left. I wonder if that's what drove him out? He was always so nice. He wanted to be with Nisei, everyone knew that, but it wasn't going anywhere. I think he ended up being jealous that Soubi got so much of Nisei's attention."
"Bringing us back to the 'Nisei and Soubi used to be a thing before they came here' theory." Yuiko giggled. "But we don't have proof of any of it. You should probably talk to Akame himself."
"Yeah, I should. He should be at the Inn right now, right? I'll head on over."
"Good luck." Yayoi nodded. "Let us know what you come up with."
"I will. Thanks guys."
They bid their farewells before Ritsuka left, the door shutting behind him with the ding of the bell. So Seimei had made his mother go insane. It sounded like his grandparents believed he was real, to some degree, since they had warned Ritsuka of him. And this shift of ownership of the Real Estate Company and alleged love triangle of Soubi, Nisei, and this Mimuro fellow was just peculiar all around. The only people who could answer on that were Mimuro-and Ritsuka didn't know how to get a hold of him-and Nisei and Soubi themselves, but he knew they weren't going to talk. That left one person. Seimei.
000
"My grandparents used to live here." Ritsuka greeted Soubi as he entered his office.
"Oh?" He wondered.
"Before I was born. Mom was just a kid. They said she went nuts living in that house on the hill, too, so they left. No record of her going mad was kept here since they kept it all one giant secret."
"How odd. And here you are years later, living in the same place." Soubi chuckled. "Listen, Ritsuka, I'm sorry about how our conversation ended earlier. I believe you, I do, but I just don't want it to affect you. I don't want you to go insane trying to figure all this out, when there's a logical reasoning for everything. I didn't mean to insinuate that you were insane."
'It's alright. I'm just so stressed out and disturbed that I over reacted." Ritsuka pulled Soubi into a quick kiss. "Gomennasai."
"It's quite alright I would be too if I were you."
"Hey, Soubi?"
"Hai?"
"Mom mentioned Seimei to my grandparents."
"O-Oh…?"
"Yeah. Eventually he told her to kill people, mostly them, because they tried to convince her that he wasn't real." Ritsuka gulped. "Minus the telling me to kill part, history's repeating itself with you and me and, honestly, I'm terrified."
Soubi puled Ritsuka onto his lap. "It won't happen. I promise you."
"I know…but…before my mom killed herself and my father, she kept telling him that Seimei would come take her away. He haunted her even after she left this town, grew up, and started her own life. What if…what if I can't escape it? It may be all in my head, but what if it follows me for the rest of my life? I just can't do it, Soubi, I just can't."
Ritsuka buried his face into Soubi's shoulder, letting out light sobs. Soubi whispered words of encouragement and rubbed small circles on his back as he glared at the little face with the plum eyes in the window. The face glared back before disappearing from sight.