Ghost Hunt – Timepiece I: The Inferno
Author's Note: Chants in Latin will be in quotes and be italicized. Like this:
"Mundus manifest um innaturalis, omnes advetus. Requiem aeternam."
Also in this chapter only, the Judge's telepathy is done with a bolded italicized font.
I should really respond to my reviewers so I don't look like a certain Narcissist… But, that IS how I am in real life though. I don't care. Now go away before I make you get my tea.
Mai, Miyuki, Masako, Naru and Isdefelt were sitting on a picnic blanket under a large blossoming Sakura tree. Naru looked very out of place in his full black ensemble while Masako had a purple-violet kimono decorated with a few flower patterns. Mai is still in her school uniform which made her one of more "regular" looking people on blanket. Isdefelt had on a plain white jacket, a white and silver blouse, and a pair of white-silver long boots that looks like the set that Miyuki wore in the last chapter…
Miyuki copied Masako in style and was wearing a lavender kimono with floral patterns near the bottom.
Mai is eating a vanilla cupcake daintily while Miyuki has a stick of strawberry flavored Pocky in her mouth.
Naru: So, what am I doing here anyways? I'm not needed here.
Isdefelt turns to look at the killjoy narcissist that was about to get up and holds on to his arm, preventing him from moving.
Isdefelt: No. You are staying here. Everyone needs you here.
Mai: *Swallows what she had in her mouth* It's just so beautiful here… watching the blossoming sakura trees is peaceful and a wonderful sight to see…
Miyuki continues on nomming her stick of Pocky happily, letting out a small moan of pleasure from the wonderful, strawberry taste.
Masako: I don't suppose I can have one as well Miyuki?
Miyuki turns to Masako and nods cheerfully, taking out a package of strawberry Pocky and offers the entire package to the kimono-clad doll. The doll in question gracefully accepts the package and both girls lifted a kimono sleeve up to their mouth, giggling.
Mai: …
Naru: …This is unexpected…
Isdefelt: She's acting too out of char…
Isdefelt gets cut off by the entry of someone else…
?: Hey, I didn't think I'd ever see you here Isdefelt.
Isdefelt: *Isdefelt's jaw drops* Edefelt O-Onii-san! W-What are you doing here?
Edefelt: Hmph. This is my story you know? I do all the writing and brainstorming, you're the one who plays the story out along with your friends here.
Mai, Naru, Masako, and Miyuki glance at the newcomer and stares at him. The girls that happen to be around the area that catch sight of Edefelt gapes and swoons, some of them causing their jealous boyfriends to shoot a glare at the mysterious Author.
Edefelt: Now, I won't show up anymore as I have lots of University work to do while working on this story. Maybe I'll come do a check later on, but for now, I do not want any more unwanted attention.
Edefelt walks away, along with several girls tagging along before the latter getting shot down. The girls all looked depressed and slowly walked away from the Author.
Mai: …well… while everyone else is dazed, There are no dreams in this chapter.
Chapter III – Identification Virtue
]~-~._.~-~[
After Miyuki finished recording all the fluctuating data and made sure that there was nothing new, the two investigators head off to check the surrounding areas. Miyuki looks out the windows, noting the dimming light from the outside world and checks her wristwatch. 7:24PM.
"The problem now is why this being is stuck here. The thing we could be sure about now is that the shadowy figure is definitely not a spirit. It is a Judge of Hell." Miyuki deduces after the readings of the data has been reviewed.
The readings of the hyperspectral video camera were the critical evidence that allowed Miyuki to finalize the result. The Shadow isn't the problem; it was actually a lost Judge that had been attracted to the physical plane due to the blood rituals done by a certain someone that does not exist anymore. If at all, the Judge accidentally wandered into the physical plane in a confused state, causing the – shadow-like appearance of the Judge – haunting. As the Judge is confused, it attacks anything that has more negative characteristics than positive traits. The death of Misaka Amane four months ago confirmed this suspicion along with the principal's reports of the student body. After the death of the alpha-bitch, there were no other students that even dared to misbehave out right. At that point, the Judge had stopped haunting and attacking students since no one was being 'bad' enough for the Judge to sense. After a while, people started forgetting and as a result of the increasing misbehaviour, the Judge started to reappear.
Stated by Miyuki previously; the only problem now is why the Judge is still stuck on the physical plane. Mai and Miyuki are currently stumped with no possibility of continuing the case until the final pieces of this puzzle was found and put into place.
"Luckily we are dealing a Judge of Hell and not demons nor malevolent spirits. At least there is not too much danger around most people. However, what worries me is that second dream, the one where the victim gets slaughtered." Miyuki pauses for a second to gather her thoughts, "the murderer drank her blood and…"
Miyuki shuddered and held a hand to her mouth. The two girls convulsed in disgust. This is something that would mentally scar anyone for life if they ever dwelled on this dream.
Mai shook her head lightly, "we should go check the surroundings for any clues as to why the Judge is stuck here. Dwelling on the past isn't good for our health."
The two girls agreed and walks out of the room to take a look around the school. The school itself is not that large at all; it contains only two stories but has an outdoor garden at the center, making the school look bigger than what it appeared to look like on the outside. While they continue to prowl around the school, Miyuki places small greyish-silver metal coins at key locations. The coins were modified Touch Pieces imbued with shards of her own spiritual power. These coins cause substantial Spiritual Separation and Condensation when entities not of the physical plane come into contact with the barrier region. This means that intangible spirits, demons other objects will be forced into the physical existence, disabling their immunity to physical plane sensations and objects. These coins, once placed, have very little 'presence' and regular people won't even notice their existence in the locations they are placed at, which lessens interruptions and accidental movement of the coins by unwary individuals.
"Do you think I could learn to work wards and barriers like you?" Mai asks Miyuki while finishing place the wards.
Miyuki frowns at this, thinking deeply before answering in an insightful tone, "I don't think you'll be able to do defensive spells nor use defensive powers…"
Mai tilts her head a little, continuing to listen to why she may not be able to come up with defensive abilities.
"First of all, your Astral Projection abilities are very powerful. This already says something about your psionic type." Miyuki places another coin while the two of them walked on while conversing.
"Psionic… Type?"
Miyuki nods, "First of all, there are different "methods" of abilities. The method is the "cause" of the ability, in which it is utilized by an individual to generate the effect. There are four known Methods in parapsychology. The first and the second most common Method is Energy Sourcing, which is the ability to draw power from sources of energy and convert them into different effects. Normally, most people with this Method can only draw energy from within themselves, such as your Astral Projection ability, Psionic Blasts and Naru's PK… err forgive me for using your ex-boss as an example. The rarer psychics may be able to draw energy from external sources, but it is generally more limited and weaker than from within the individuals."
Miyuki pauses for a moment, "Ah, these classifications aren't the only ones in the world, there has been many variations that have been proposed, but I feel this version is more accurate and clear."
Mai thought about this for a moment before asking again, "So how is the relevant to my inability for defense?"
As they continued through the school, Miyuki continued her information session, "I'll teach you more about the rest of them later. For now, from what you've told me about your powers, I'll explain how your abilities seem to work out."
Miyuki pauses for a moment to catch her breath before continuing, "You have so far shown to be very competent in Astral Projection ability, Retro-Cognitive Dreaming, and a nearly extreme level of Mediumship. These four belong to the Psionic Type; Supportive-Navigational Type. Your limited control over Empathy and Precognitive Visions and Dreams are also in that type. You cannot really do Telepathy and Psychometry at the moment, but you probably have some potential that has not been released yet, as you've rarely, but quite strongly used those while in extreme distress and panic before. Those two also belong to the Supportive-Navigational Psionic Type, with Psychometry being a Special Case and Telepathy being an extremely rare ability. Psionic Blasts, on the other hand… is an Offensive-Domination Type psychic power, and you've been able to use it at times. With this in mind…" Miyuki stops the speech as she place another coin at a key location and not a few steps later she frowned and returned to the coin. She removed the coin and then replaced it in another location before heading back to where she left Mai. Two girls begin returning to base while Miyuki finishes her explanation.
"To be an exceptional Supportive-Navigational Type with an offshoot of Offensive-Domination Type, you've practically broken past the regular human limits of psychic powers and you may as well be kept in a mental asylum."
Mai growls and swats the black haired girl on the head for that last comment while Miyuki runs back to base giggling and laughing out with her lovely, tinkly laugh. Mai chases after her, hollering at her to 'get back here and receive divine punishment from heaven'.
As the girls finally get tired of fooling around, the two of them flops down on to a couch. Miyuki goes to the screens and gets a shocked look. Mai notices her friend's face and wanders over slowly and the latter's face gets a copy and paste done, with the former's face as the object of the copy. There are two zones near the location where the Shadow appeared that had temperature fluctuations. Normally this wouldn't be a surprise as supernatural activity often causes temperature shifts. However, there wasn't any regular spirits here and the temperature was not just dropping; it was dropping and rising as if someone was turning on a flame, extinguishing it and re-igniting over and over again.
"This is…!" Miyuki turns her attention to another screen that displays the collective data. The real-time infrasound graph shows the amplitude and frequency noise that cannot be detected by the human ear. The wave's depiction on the graph is highly erratic; the amplitude and frequency varied with each passing second.
"Oh my…" Mai lifts a hand to her mouth, similar in motion to the kimono-wearing medium but in a unique elegant motion learned from her constant idol training.
Miyuki noticed Mai's slightly sarcastic reaction to the data and giggles.
"Let's go check it out," Miyuki replies to her sarcasm and heads off to the location of the fluctuations with Mai trailing along behind her. As the two girls neared the area, the brunette stepped into a "dark spot" that seemed more malicious than the rest of the hall. Mai gasped fell over, leaving Miyuki to catch the brunette and lay the girl's head on to the other's lap. Mai continues to gasp as if she is choking and Miyuki instantaneously puts a hand on the brunette idol's forehead. Miyuki then calls forth a small spell:
"Solis lumine caligo diluas istam prolem et serenat."
With that, Mai instantly calms down as the spell takes effect. The girl opens her eyes slowly and looks at Miyuki, whose own eyes are tinged with soothing light.
"I-I'm alright… thank you Miyu-chan." Mai weakly speaks out as she is still recovering from the incident. Mai then frowns lightly, "…the Judge is more and more confused by the physical plane. We need to find a way to fix this before another person gets hurt."
Miyuki nods and allows Mai to get to her feet slowly.
"Anyhow," Mai turns to Miyuki, "What did you do there Miyu-chan? I feel much better now; it's like this warm glow filling my body with light and radiance. It's so soothing and comforting…"
"Arcana Tarot cards aren't just fortune telling cards when one has psychic abilities you know." Miyuki said in a matter-of-fact voice, which earned her a sharp look of mock disdain from the recovering brunette. "Anyhow, I'm carrying the 22 Major Arcana cards on my person right now. I am able to invoke the meanings of the cards limitedly through channeling psychic power through the cards."
Oh yeah… Mai thought to herself, other than her psychic abilities, she is able to transfer and manifest special powers hidden in objects such as Tarot cards, "magical artifacts" and other ancient items by using her Amplification and Transference ability…"
Miyuki continues her explanation, "What I just did was manifest the power of The Sun, Arcana Nineteen's radiance into a healing and recovery power. Since your spirit and body are very in tune with The Sun, it has a prominent effect on you. I guess whatever that's at the location doesn't like us, come on, let's go."
The sudden change in topic was not lost to Mai and so the two girls quickly head to the location of interest. After a short walk, they two of them round the corner and spot a patch of darkness like fog at the same door as the one Mai had seen the dark figure lurking about. At that moment, two red eyes appear within the cloud of shadows and the cloud of shadows launches itself straight at the girls. Mai freezes monetarily, surprised by the quickness of the ward work and temporarily forgets to act. Miyuki, noticing this, calmly steps in front of Mai, takes out and flips a silver coin with a tree design engraved in it upward into the air. The shadow reaches the black haired girl and engulfs her, trying to consume her completely. However, the shadow could not get into direct contact with Miyuki. The black-haired paranormal investigation assistant already activated a powerful barrier around herself and Mai with the coin flip, protecting the two investigators against all spiritual attacks. Mai, with her heightened control over her emotions, unfreezes fairly quickly and tosses the Kuji-in "Nine Syllables" at Miyuki, or rather, the shadow trying to consume the normally blue-eyed (wearing brown contacts at the moment) girl.
"Rin! Pyo! Toh! Sha! Kai! Jin…"
At the sixth word, the red eyes suddenly focus on Mai but the entity is unable to act quickly enough to stop her. Not that it would be able to do anything while the barrier spell is active anyways.
"…Retsu! Zai! Zen!"
With the last seal, the darkness surrounding Miyuki vanishes with an agonizing scream, causing the two girls to wince. After the scream, however, the disappearing dark fog brightens and when it finally fades out completely, the fog ends up being white. Waiting for a moment to see if there are any more disturbances, Mai and Miyuki continue to stand still, listening and sensing the area around them. After half a minute, the two of them let out a sigh of relief. If the Mai finished the chant late even by a second longer, the barrier would've dissolved and Miyuki would've been shadow fog food.
"Sorry about that," Mai apologized to Miyuki, "I was surprised by how quickly your condensation wards worked this time around. Except whatever attacked us was not the Judge…"
"Don't worry about it Mai-chan~" Miyuki smiles brightly, "I know you are able…"
Miyuki stops short when the two girls reached the door. Inside the classroom was the shadow-like figure with demonic red eyes. However, this time, the figure had a silver crown-like headpiece on top of it and a silver cross pendant around the neck.
The Judge was sitting down on a table, waiting for the two girls.
I believe I owe you two a word of thanks…
Miyuki and Mai tilted their heads, realizing that the Judge is speaking directly in to their mind. It would've been adorable if not for the current situation.
Thank you for removing and purifying part of my confusion, I am able to communicate in the physical plane properly now that you two have removed part of the confusion surrounding my conscious.
"So the cloudy shadow like fog with beady red eyes was part of the embodiment of confusion?" Mai asks the decorated shadow-like figure.
There are still six more fragments… actually, these fragments are corrupt Virtues. Something has caused the seven virtues to become corrupt but I am not sure why and how… The one you've just cleansed is the Virtue of Kindness, allowing me communicate more easily to you two… Please help me rid the virtues of corruption and I will be able to return to where I have come from… I will wait for you two in this room for I cannot touch these fragments in the physical plane.
"Yes, of course," Miyuki answers lightly with a bow, "If this is the case, you must be King Minos, he whom judges and condemns spirits to their fate. It is an honor to help send you back to where you belong."
Mai gapes at the black haired girl, "Miyu-chan, you figured out…?"
"Yes, I've finally figured out his identity," Miyuki giggles and then turns to the Judge, "but one question, why have you taken to a humanoid form?"
The Judge seems to smile with his shadow-like features. I did not want to scare anyone and tried to take a form most physical plane denizens would not be frightened of… however… the corrupt virtues have forced myself into this shadow-like form as I do not have full control of myself… You should leave before my control slips and I end up killing you by accident.
"We will finish this as soon as possible, you can count on us," Mai says with a flourish as respect. The Judge only nods and closes his eyes, concentrating on purifying himself slowly.
The two girls head out of the classroom and heads back to base. Once they returned, Miyuki goes over to the laptop and instruments and digitally reprograms the sensors and cameras.
"At least we now know what's going on." Mai muses, "But what's up with that second dream…?"
Miyuki finishes the reprogramming and turns to Mai, "There must be something relevant with that second dream. But I'm not getting any ideas right now. Let's go hunt down these corrupt virtues while we think. I have reprogrammed the sensors and now we should be able to detect the exact location of those fluctuations. We will also be able to avoid those "dark patches" that you fell into."
Immediately after Miyuki finished speaking, a small beeping sounded out from one of the instruments.
"That was quick…" Miyuki goes over to take a look at the graphs and cameras and spots what the need to hunt. "Let's go: Camera two, sensor three. It's near one of the warding coins I placed. Watch out for the two dark zones on the left and right side of the hall."
The two girls hurry over to the location, avoiding the dark spots that may cause discomfort or worse to whomever that step into it. At the location, the two of them wait a moment and a dark fog appears in front of them, becoming tangible due to the condensation ward. Mai does not hesitate and quickly starts her chant.
"Rin! Pyo…"
This fog instantly focuses on Mai and the red glowing eyes target the chanting brunette.
"Oh no you don't!"
Miyuki shouts out and follows the shadow while it starts moving.
"Ut sint in testimonium, et disciplina, quod corrupta est antistes sacrorum."
The shadow, in mid lunge at Mai suddenly stops at the moment the sentence finishes and seems to struggle angrily at the invisible chains of power that holds it in place.
"…Toh! Sha! Kai! Jin! Retsu! Zai! Zen!"
Mai completes the seals and the shadow howls in rage and agony, the howling stops as the fog brightens and starts to fade out of sight. It disappears the same way as first one had.
"Whew… that was close…" Miyuki rubs her eyes a bit before looking at Mai.
"Two down, five to go." Mai announces and looks at her own wristwatch, "Oh… we should get something to eat before we continue. It's 8:30PM."
Miyuki rubs her own stomach lightly, "Yeah, I am a little hungry right now. We'll take a break in the base and I'll get Charles to pick up our favorite sandwiches and deliver them."
Mai perks up and looks at Miyuki eagerly.
"Really?! I love you Miyu-chan!~" Mai squeals out, rushing at Miyuki and tackling her into affectionate hug. Miyuki, being a physically fragile and weak girl even in comparison to Mai, falls over and the two of them ends up in a very suggestive position with Mai on top. Of course, this didn't faze either of them as they've been best friends since they've met. Their personalities crossed over each other and melded like they were the perfect twins in personality. Mai gets off of Miyuki while giggling, going over to the monitors to watch over the regions. Miyuki then gets up and goes over to her bag she left on the couch. The black-haired investigator takes out her smartphone and calls her butler.
Soon after, the two girls take a break and are chatting and taking small bites from their sandwiches. Mai reminisces of the SPR days and retells some of them to Miyuki, the ones that she was not comfortable with before. The Blood-Stained Labyrinth case was one of the most terrifying cases Mai ever been involved in and she can still remember the horror of the first, first-person death she ever faced. Of course, after completing several more cases within the seven months, Mai and Miyuki have developed a fairly strong resistance to the fear of death and being killed. Most of the cases had dreams that frightened if not outright traumatized the poor girls. Not only that, three of the cases nearly resulted in Mai and Miyuki's deaths. During one of the more brutal cases, the ghost kept on possessing those that entered the home, bent on causing both men and women to lose their ability to reproduce. Mai had been skewered by a not-so-safe ceremonial spear by an overly vengeful spectre. The spear tore through her lower abdomen, resulting in the brunette unable to carry children for the rest of her life… if she was not psychically connected to Miyuki. The black-haired girl nearly fell to the same fate; she was stabbed multiple times, twice through her lower belly, causing enough damage to render her sterile… if she was a regular teenage girl. Both Miyuki and Mai were out of the hospital in about two weeks, stunning the doctors and nurses by their amazing recovery speed. This is due to the psionic link Mai and Miyuki shares.
After badgering her friend about this enigma, Mai finally got an answer: Miyuki's psychic power has a strange effect on her body. The black-haired girl's body is able to recovery and heal itself faster than normal humans due to the powerful defensive and supportive psionic power she has. Due to the quick recovery, Miyuki is able to survive more severe wounds and has a better chance of surviving normally fatal wounds. The reason Mai was able heal just as quickly is due to the psionic connection they share. It also allowed Mai to have the same healing power as Miyuki. The injuries they suffered from could've healed in one week, but due to the power sharing through the link, the effect halved. Even then, it's still very quick indeed. The healing left their bodies flawless, without a scar.
Soon after they've finished their small meal (also the reason how they stay fit and lovely), the monitors beeped and the two girls takes a quick look at the monitors and sighed. Looks like they will not have more time for rest…. After a bit of consultation with the data, the girls head off toward the next sighting of a corrupted virtue.
Arriving at the location, which is one of the classrooms, Mai scours the entire area with her eyes to try to pinpoint the location of the next manifestation. The reason they manifest one-by-one is due to Miyuki's condensation ward. It causes the weaker of the corruptions to appear first. Mai was about to take another step forward when she felt a hand grab her shoulder, pulling her back. Mai turns to look at Miyuki and then realizes she nearly stepped on to a dark spot.
"Thanks," Mai smiles at Miyuki, "I wasn't careful."
Miyuki giggles, "aren't you always?"
"Hey! You've fell into traps nearly as many times as me!"
Miyuki pouts, "True…"
At that moment, a shadowy fog slowly appears to the left of Miyuki. Feeling the sudden change in the atmosphere, the two girls turn to face the corruption. Mai instantly starts the nine seals while Miyuki prepares for any counterattacks.
"Rin! Pyo! Toh! Sha…"
The darkness hurls a chair at Mai before she finishes, Mai quickly sidesteps and continues the chant.
"…Kai! Jin…"
The darkness seems to react badly to the chant and tosses a barrage of chairs at the brunette. At this, Miyuki steps in and stands in front of Mai, activating her own powers. The girl takes out another coin – this one is a bluish-silver one with a triangle engraved in it – and flicks it directly at the incoming chairs. Normally that would've seemed stupid, but as each chair passed the coin, the chairs fell straight down, as if all inertia affecting the chairs disappeared from the face of the planet.
"…Retsu! Zai! Zen!"
The fog turns and glowers at the two girls, uttering a shriek that caused the latter to wince. However, the corruption did not disappear like the other two. The beady red eyes fades slightly, but continued to attack the girls with flying chairs and now sending tables as well. The black-haired girl flicking coins at the shadow was hard pressed to keep up the defensive but the fog suddenly smartened up. It pulled up a chair from behind the girls and sent it at the brunette. It would have given Mai a concussion if not for Miyuki's supernatural intuitive sense; picking up on something but not sure what it is and realized this corrupt virtue is stronger and possibly smarter than the last two.
"Duck!"
The chair strikes the wall opposite to the two girls with a loud crash.
Mai looks at the ghost in shock, "What the… The chant didn't work!?"
"It did work," Miyuki states while tackling Mai out the door so that they will not have to deal so many chairs at once. "You've weakened the corruption, but it seems this one is more powerful than the last two. The second one was faster acting, but it had no other capabilities going for it."
"Well that sucks," Mai replies and narrowly avoids the next chair. Miyuki quickly pins Mai against the wall just beside the wall to dodge another flying chair.
"I'll distract the chair-flinger, do the nine seals again."
Mai quickly nods and prepares herself while Miyuki steps back into the room from the doorway, flicking coins at each wave of chairs to send them clattering down. With each heavy step, Miyuki gets closer to the corrupt virtue, which seems to move back, as if afraid of the seemingly fragile young girl. The girl in question did actually look like an avenging angel, her hair fluttering around her with the breeze of air created by her psychic power. Each step she takes increases the wrathful atmosphere she emits from herself. With Miyuki distracting the dark fog, Mai comes out of hiding once she finishes preparing and starts the Kuji-in again.
"Rin! Pyo! Toh! Sha! Kai! Jin! Retsu! Zai! Zen!"
At the first syllable, Miyuki stepped aside, letting the brunette finish what she had started. The virtue shrieks again, and this time, it brightens and fades out, finally disappearing like the last two did.
The remaining chairs that are still suspended in the air finally collapse on to the floor and the corrupted presence feels cleansed. Miyuki also collapses on the ground, panting hard. Mai slowly walks over to Miyuki and kneels down beside her.
"Ne, you okay Miyu-chan?"
Miyuki nods, still panting with the spiritual exertion taking a toll on her body now that the adrenaline rush faded.
"Just… tired…. Making a show of force using my spiritual power isn't exactly healthy…"
Mai frowns slightly, "This is the third corrupt virtue we've cleansed and there are four more left. There are four more left and you are already this spent. Can we really finish this by ourselves…?"
Miyuki takes a tired look at Mai, "Well, we'll just die trying~."
Mai's frown deepens, "Mou… You know we go through that in many of the previous cases right?"
"Well… isn't that what we always do? Do it right, or die trying," the tired black-haired girl gives the normally happy-go-lucky brunette a gentle smile, "we don't run from cases do we now?"
Before returning to base, the two girls do a walk around. While doing the walk around, Miyuki deactivates the coins for approximately eight hours so that they can sleep without the sensors on the equipment going crazy at any point of night.
Finally returning to base, Miyuki places five gold coins engraved with a double pentagram at a five separate locations around the base. This formed a twin layer barrier that keeps most spiritual entities out and blocked off spiritual powers affecting the inside of the barrier. This will allow the two girls to sleep in peace until tomorrow where they'll finish off the last four corrupt virtues. The girls both go to get changed into their nightwear. For Mai, it's a light pink nightgown with matching silk gloves. Miyuki has the same pairing as Mai but in a pale bluish-lilac color.
"We need to be well rested and refreshed to deal with both the corruption and prying students." Miyuki states, yawning cutely and rolls over. Mai, on the same large couch, grabs Miyuki's waist and drags the black-haired girl closer to herself, giggling.
"Well, good night Miyu-chan~," Mai says softly, her face in Miyuki's hair.
"Ninite…~," Miyuki echoes sleepily.
-The Next Day-
A brunette sleeping on the couch yawns lightly. She then turns her head slightly, getting her face out of silky, soft black hair and takes looks at the clock on the wall.
Hm… It's 6:00 in the morning… Teachers get here at about 7:00AM, classes start at 8:45AM. This school system starts fifteen minutes later than most public high schools.Mai sighs after she had that thought but quickly waves it away from her mind. The girl takes a look down and feels her face rub into the silky hair she left a while ago.
"Miyu-chan," Mai murmured to the sleeping girl the brunette was still holding. "Time to wake up, we have to get ready for the day."
Miyuki let out a small cry of frustration and opens her eyes.
"Mai-chan~ I'm s-still tired…" Miyuki stumbles over a word as she's not completely awake yet.
"Ugh… fine. Five more minutes and then we'll have to get ready."
"Yay…" Miyuki rolls over, snuggling up into Mai's body with a satisfied sigh.
The brunette smiles gently, petting the slightly smaller girl's head lightly. Miyuki is like a little sister to her, a gentle, elegant, refined yet adorably cute girl that takes both her cute beauty and Masako's graceful elegance and combines them into a neat little package. Not only is this girl similar to Mai in personality, behavior, likes and dislikes, the former's penchant for getting into trouble is as exasperating as the brunette herself.
The school is already informed of our, at least, my presence in the school. I think we can ask some of the teachers and students and investigate their views how this occurred and what they have experienced to get a better picture of the origin.
With that thought in mind and seeing the clock at 6:05AM, Mai shakes the sleeping girl lightly. The black haired girl moans and pushes herself away from Mai to get up.
"Alright," Mai whispers into the still sleepy girl's ear, causing Miyuki to shiver and cry out softly, jolted awake by the very intimate gesture. The brunette gets off the couch and shakes her head a bit to clear what's left of her sleepiness.
"It's time to get up, get ready and finish this case." Mai finishes off her sentence with a flourish and shuts the door to this room.
-Two Hours Later-
After a nice shower in the shower stalls, fixing up hair, putting on more suitable clothing for the day and having a hearty western-style breakfast of eggs, ham and toast, the two girls were up and fully ready to tackle the last four corrupt virtues. Before they finish the job, however, they'll need some more information in order to find the origin of this incident.
"Okay!" Mai happily skips about in a light pink cotton blouse, a mini jean skirt with a pair of white socks and brown boots. Miyuki, in a soft lilac dress, reminiscent of her nightgown, a pair of white boots, glided beside the happy-go-lucky brunette.
"Time to go pick up some more information about how this came to be," Mai finishes her sentence off and the two of them walk off.
-An Hour Later-
As some students have free blocks at different times, Mai and Miyuki decide to interview a few of the students whom have more contact with the hauntings. The first student is a short, feminine, auburn haired boy named Mikami Ayumu, whom acts like his looks; very gentle and soft. The three of them are in the investigator's base, with the two girls sitting on the large couch and the boy in a comfortable chair.
"So, there might be a connection between this… weird student and this haunting?" Miyuki is taking notes down on to her laptop while Mai asks the questions.
"…Yes," the boy confirms softly but firmly, "I do not like talking about others behind their backs, but if there's any clue to this…" He pauses for a moment.
"…supernatural incident, it might have something to do with him."
Miyuki continues to type on her laptop while Mai thinks for a minute, trying to compile everything in her head.
"So this weird boy, Matsuda Katsuo, has been seen stalking some of the students in the school but has not done anything, or at least, has not been seen doing anything though." Mai restates the conversation so that the girl on the laptop can confirm her own typing.
"Thank you for your cooperation Mikami-san, we really appreciate your help."
The two girls and boy stands up and shakes each other's hands and the auburn haired boy walks out of the base, closing the door lightly behind him.
"So we have a clue on how this started now," Mai mutters quietly, "We'll have to interview a few more students before we go on to this… Matsuda-san."
At that, Miyuki felt a jolt in her mind. But… I don't think this is as simple as it may seem. There's something else going on. It'll probably take at least one more day after today to solve the mystery even if we're able to send King Minos back…
Takigawa Houshou and his band were socializing in the VIP lounge in Veltier's Lounge, a night club famous for the celebrities, singers, bands and artists whom appear in this hangout. Kobayashi Jiro, the twenty-five year old hot-headed guitar player of the group is sprawled over a couch, sipping his from a glass. His flaming red hair matches his personality.
Jiro: Hey Houshou, you didn't forget to bring your bass right? We have another gig in an hour.
Houshou: Lay it off Jiro. Of course I remembered my musical gizmo. I'm not Masao. I don't keep forgetting important things. Seriously, who do you take me for?
Hayashi Masao, the person in question, shot a glare at the ghost hunting bass player. Masao is a fairly petite man at the age of twenty-two. He's slim but incredibly strong, able to lift just more than twice his own weight without exerting himself at all. Masao is an expert at all percussion instruments, and thus, is the band's drummer.
Masao: At least I don't get drunk at every bar I go to Jiro, get off your high horse and put the glass down. We need to get ready for the gig.
Jiro: Well, first things first, our two singers and our second guitarist ain't here yet and you'd better hope they don't come in late.
At that, the door to the VIP room slams open. With the terrible racket outside the lounge, no one outside the room will notice. Two people, a young women with a brown hair, tied up into a pony tail and a man with dyed ocean blue hair comes… rampaging in, yelling at each other about things most people would not talk about at the volume they're verbally fencing at… including sexuality, sex positions and motorcycles. The brown haired female had on a very gothic get up, black frilled skirt, black fishnet stockings, a black blouse with a small red rose design at the top left, and a mini top hat with a white lace ribbon tied to it. The man had on a similar black ensemble, changing the skirt for long black jeans with a silver buckle, black leather belt, swapping the blouse for a plaid black shirt.
Masao: Well what do you know? Our two singers are finally here. Hikaru, Takashi, only you two could start talking about flowers and end up yelling at each other with quotations from the Kama Sutra.
The black-clad girl's name is Kurokawa Hikaru, literally translating to "Black River Radiance" while the similarly black-clad man's name is Kurokawa Takashi, literally translating to "Noble Black River". These two black-loving individuals are siblings and are very close to each other. Some people mistakes the two of them as lovers due to the intimacy they share even though the two of them have no such thoughts. Sometimes, they use this mistake to their advantage and start screwing with unwary people's minds with the ever increasing demand for twincest.
Hikaru: Seriously, go put a sock in that broken record player of a mouth of yours. It's not doing you any favors.
Jiro was about to respond to the girl but is cut off by Takashi.
Takashi: No, you're not responding to that Jiro.
Jiro: Fine, but where's our second guitarist...?
Hikaru: Honoka's coming; the transit line was slightly delayed.
While everyone conversed about the gig later that night, Houshou, or as his friends back in Japan call him, Bou-san or Monk, reminisces about the time the dysfunctional but cozy and happy "family" were in cases, with Mai always getting herself into trouble.
Houshou: *Thinking:* two more weeks and I'm back in Japan… I wonder how everyone is right now… I've called in a few times with Jou-chan (Mai), Masako, and John… Masako's taking a world tour, Johns back in Australia, visiting his home… Jou-chan's still in Japan, and she says she's doing pretty well in school lately… I think I lost some respect for that… Oliver Davis. That nerve of his, and also breaking our Mai's heart like that. Although I do understand his reasons for hiding his identity, I don't see why he had to just… run off so suddenly and say something so… well, he IS Naru for a reason. I just hope Jou-chan is doing as well as she sounds on the phone… Please wait for us Mai-chan, we'll be back to see you as soon as possible.
Mai's Learning Corner! (!)
Mai is sitting on the teacher's desk in a classroom, fiddling with another book.
Mai: It's time for Mai's Learning Corner to begin! *giggles*
Mai: Anyways, in the previous chapter, there was a slight mishap I need to explain.
Mai flips a few pages of the book back.
Mai: Remember when I taught you about the "Iya"? There's two versions of this word I forgot to mention, it's "Iya da" and, "Dame". "Iya da" is like a refusal or a complaint when it is used. "Dame" is like saying 'stop' when someone's doing something outrageous. Well that clears up the last bit.
Mai flips back to where she had the book open to before.
Mai: There are a few things we have to cover today. The first one is the word "Onii-san". This is a very affectionate way of calling one's big brother in Japanese. It is more formal but just as affectionate. "Onii-chan" is the same as the previous one but now it drops the formality and adds another dose of affection and cuteness to it. "Onii-sama" would be the same as the previous two but instead of being more affectionate, it is more formal than the first one.
Mai: When I used "Ne" in the story, it translates to "Hey" in English. It sounds usually softer and used by females more often than males. Using this in different ways can alter the meaning of this particle. I'll explain in more detail when those times might come up.
Mai flips over a page.
Mai: "Solis lumine caligo diluas istam prolemet serenat." That is what Miyuki chants out when she helped me out of the dark spot. It translates to:
"By the sun's radiance, fill this child with brightness and wash away all darkness."
Mai: "Ut sint in testimonium, et disciplina, quod corrupta est antistes sacrorum." Is another chant Miyuki does, this one means:
"May the Hierophant be a witness and discipline this corruption."
Mai: You already know the Kuji-in, or the Nine Syllables from the anime, manga, or other fanfictions. I'll explain this more in detail when Ayako comes back.
The brunette flips over another page in the book.
Mai: Now, for some mythology lessons. First of all, "King Minos" is not really a king. He is just the creature that stalks the "dark forest" from Dante's Divine Comedy: Inferno; the first section of his work. Minos, is a serpentine creature that judges and sends souls to whichever circle of hell they are supposed to go by wrapping it's snake-like body around the soul the number of times the circle are numbered as. The author's made him into a king-like form to fit the storyline better than a talking snake. I suppose that supernatural creatures have the power to shape shift though, so it's not really surprising.
Mai closes the book and she is about to say something when Naru comes strolling in and cuts her off.
Naru: Mai, Tea.
Mai: *Looks nonplussed* …Fine… Well minna-san, nice to see you again and it's time for me to go~ See you all later~.
Mai walks out the door with Naru, the two of them bickering, with Naru wining in the verbal fencing match, again.