Ghost Hunt – Timepiece I: The Inferno
The reason behind being MIA for approximately half an year will be explained in the after-story section of this chapter. After searching up the timeline for the stories, I'm condensing the mid and late (Year 2) summer portion of the novels/manga. This means that Akumu no Sumu Ie is still out while the novel/manga versions of "Akuryou to Yobanaide and Akuryou Datte Heiki!" will be shortened timeline wise to fit in with the seven months period. Naru and Lin leaves at the end of May instead of whatever it was in the actual timeline, shortening the time to fit this fan fiction.
Just to clarify, the time skip is actually half an year, or six months, not seven. Mai thought of it as seven as Naru leaving at the end of May and the date now is January 2nd of the next 3rd year since the beginning of Ghost Hunt.
Isdefelt (Rachael), as her avatar in the pre-story, post-story and Mai's Learning Corner is always wearing a light pink blouse along with a mid-thigh length tawny brown skirt. She wears mid length white socks that reach the middle of her calves with matching brown buckle shoes. She has straight black hair that reaches just under her shoulders and large dark green eyes. Unless it is explicitly stated, she will be wearing this set of clothing as "default" style.
Mai will always be in her default look. The only thing different from her manga/anime appearance is her now long, flowing brown hair that reaches the middle of her back. This means that she continues to wear her standard school uniform seen in the canon anime and manga.
Marina: …Why does this always happen to me…?
Marina is sitting in a dark room, chained to the floor and wall. Iron chains and shackles clink with each movement the poor girl makes. The girl wiggles a bit, trying to get more comfortable on the very rough floor and wall.
Marina: …I'm scared… Someone… please… save me… I-I…
Another person enters the room; the tall, dark man is covered in black, caring a knife. Mai gasps and struggles against the chains holding her against the wall and floor.
Marina: N-N-No! Don't! I-I don't w-want to die!
The man continues moving towards the brunette and once in front of the girl, he raises the knife.
Marina: Iyaaaa!
The knife plunges down and disappears into the girl's chest. Marina gasps and cries out in pain before her head rolls to the side, soon after her body follows, limp and like a broken doll.
… …
… …
? ? ?: And Cut!
The lights from the ceiling turns on, revealing cameras, microphones and a several stage crew whom are working around the area, fixing up some of the equipment that need modifications. The man steps back and pulls the knife from the girl's body. The knife is not covered with any blood at all, not a speck. The man proceeds to poke at the knife blade's tip, the blade pushed into the handle…?
The "dead" girl in question suddenly springs to life, no apparent damage whatsoever, and her reddish-brown eyes dances happily.
? ? ?: That was a good take Taniyama-san! Alright, let's wrap this up and call it a day!
Marina/Mai: Haaa… I think I even scared myself with that scene. Oh, Director Date, do you know where Miyu-chan is?
Date Emiko: Ah, Shimiya-san is currently being 'tortured' right now in another dungeon.
Mai: Oh, she's not done with that scene yet?
Emiko: She would be done if the other newbie isn't screwing up so often.
Mai: Ah…
Emiko: Anyways, well done Hideyoshi-san. You can go take a break.
The dark, hooded man flips his hood back, revealing a sharply dyed blonde hair and emerald green eyes. The man nodded and took his leave.
Emiko: Okay! Everyone lunch break for an hour and a half, we'll go finish up the last two scenes after lunch.
Mai: Yay! I'm famished… …wait, um… guys?
Everyone had left the room, forgetting that Mai was stilled chained up to the wall.
Mai: …Why does this always happen to me…?
The girl slumps over as if she really is dead.
]~-~._.~-~[
Chapter IV – The Immortal Covenant
A sharp, but soft knock at the base's door signals to Mai that another student has come to be interviewed. This time, it's tall, muscular male student with spiked up blond hair. His eyes are a dark brown with a strange light in them that normally makes girls near his presence want to either run away in fear of their safety, or be charmed into fainting. The two girls in the room, however, are veterans at experiencing terrifying and life-threatening situations and they both have a fair share of experiences with boys. A single delinquent/bishounen (or both) won't be able to take down either of them and most definitely won't be able to cause trouble.
"Hey my pretties, I was told that you two want to get to know me better." The boy drawls charmingly. Most females would've either been scared stiff or been charmed into swooning.
Miyuki rolled her eyes and waited to type out the interview notes on her laptop.
"Yamazaki Hinata, before we begin, I do hope you can show your real self." Mai looks straight into the boy's eyes without a hint of weakness, completely professional, seemingly a female copy of a certain narcissist.
The blond boy in question raised an eyebrow and then a moment later laughed out loud. This put a smile on both Mai and Miyuki's faces as their own professional air vanished along with the act.
"You two are the only people I've ever met that are able to see through the act, now I have more faith that you two will be able to help us." Hinata's eyes went from a dangerous look became soft and gentle. His voice rises in tone by a little and smoothens instead of the edgy drawl he had made just a moment before.
"If we cannot tell truth from lie, at least up to a certain point, we would not have gotten far in any investigations." Mai responds to him in a gentle manner. At least this lightened up the tense atmosphere with the current haunting.
The boy looks more relaxed now and starts his side of the story.
"Yes, I do suppose there's a reason for everything. However, I do not believe there's a reason that can be explained by normal investigative means this time. If you two were students in this school, you would find a few of the students that study here are fairly odd."
"Including you?" Miyuki asks, deadpanning the question with an innocent look on her face.
A small and surprisingly delicate laugh emanated from Hinata.
"Yes, including me." The delinquent-look-a-like answered, which induces a giggle in Mai.
"Although I would still say I'm one of the more… welcome oddities in the school. Who would've thought that a delinquent in physical appearance would have such a debonair (Mai's Dictionary Entry #1 Debonair: of a man – confident, stylish, and charming) personality? Well this investigation isn't about me. Anyways, at this time, there's been a talk of a certain student that has gone even weirder during this incident. I think the previous student… Mikami Ayumu, already told you that Matsuda Katsuo seems a little creepy right now. Yes, he's been stalking a few of the students but I'm not too sure why. It's not like he is stalking a group of girls; the students he's following are the same four, three males, one female."
"The four students are…?" Mai takes a look at Miyuki, the latter looks up from the laptop to meet Mai's eyes. Miyuki nods to Mai and the brunette turns to look back at Hinata, nodding at him for him to continue.
"Sugimoto Arata, Tanaka Aiko, Okamura Noboru and Kawano Takuma are the four students Matsuda-kun is watching closely. Those four are a little unnerved by him doing this, but one of them looks a little agitated."
"Can you please tell me a bit about all four?"
"I will, Taniyama-sa…" Mai cuts him off for a second with a gesture.
"At least make it Mai-san and Miyuki-san, and we will call you Hinata-san. We aren't all professional here and us two like things more up close and personal as hauntings tend to have a poor effect on people involved. A strict, cold professional atmosphere doesn't really help to comfort those that may have been involved in a bad way… I'm not saying you're like that, it's just it helps us two feel better without stressing out."
Hinata smiles softly at first, then his lips move up into a charming and… suggestive grin.
"Up close, you say?"
Hinata stands up and goes over to Miyuki, whom stops typing and looks at him questioningly and he seats himself beside her. Miyuki raises an eyebrow and Hinata than wraps an arm around her waist. Mai tilts her head a little, amused. A moment later, Hinata frowns.
"Why are you letting me do this…?" Hinata continues frowning while asking the onyx-haired girl.
"You weren't going to do anything to me and it looks more like you're joking around right now." Miyuki coolly answers back. Now it's Hinata's turn to raise an eyebrow.
"Oh, Hinata-san, we both have a sharp and accurate intuition on both the supernatural and normal things, we can say it borderlines on limited clairvoyance. My intuition is switched on whenever there's something wrong around the area I am in. I guess it can be called something like a "danger sense". Miyuki's intuition is left permanently on, but she cannot feel everything, only small bits and pieces but everywhere at the same time. It can jumble her mind if there's something with strong thoughts or emotions around, but something like this is not too much for her to miss.
Hinata removes his arm from Miyuki and chuckles, "Sorry about that Miyuki-san, I'm also known in the school as "The Joker" and "The Lady Killer" for this reason." He frowns again right after saying that.
"Erm… I don't suppose you know what I want to do to you right…? Oh, I should've kept that to myself, oh wait… you would already know…" Hinata rambles on while laughing non-stop, continuing his joke, "Okay… I should stop joking around."
Miyuki and Mai both giggle and the former answers back, "I don't think I want to know what you were… …Oh my…" Miyuki pretends to look flustered and embarrassed.
Mai's giggles get louder as the onyx-haired girl follows up on the spiky haired boy's joke.
"Okay, okay, yes. It is time to stop joking around." Mai calls out so that she'll get the other two's attention.
"Yes mom!" Both Miyuki and Hinata answers and they both laugh.
"Mou… I thought I said to stop joking around…"
The giggles and laughter starts dying off and the three of them resume the interview in a more serious but comfortable mood.
"Anyways, the first one is Sugimoto Arata, a second year with dark greenish-black hair that strangely makes him look like a bowl of tossed seaweed salad. His close friends and his classmates affectionately call him Wakame-san but at least he doesn't take it badly and is cool with it. He's fairly likable and he even has a few girls try their luck with him. Tanaka Aiko is a small but fiery red-head with a hot-pepper like personality. She's a third year senior who will do anything to win except using underhanded methods. Aiko-chan is odd due to her love for putting strawberry jam into Italian pasta, other than that, she isn't really weird. Okamura Noboru is a tall and lanky guy that is fairly quiet and studious. He has short, spiky black hair that kind of stands out in crowds. He's… kind of too concentrated on one thing at a time… for example, when he's studying, he won't notice anyone calling out for him unless you get close enough to whisper in his ear… and then he'll jump – followed by you getting hit by a book over the head. Kawano Takuma is another black haired second year student same as Noboru. His hair though is not as spiky and falls over his face and covers his eyes a bit. He's pretty mysterious but there's nothing wrong with being the cool, aloof guy who makes girls fall for him."
"So is there anything going on around those four students," Mai pointedly asks as this was just general information. Miyuki is already at the laptop for who knows when, typing out notes.
The blond haired Hinata looked up at the ceiling for a moment to gather his thoughts before facing the brown and black haired girls.
"The first two, Arata and Aiko don't seem to have anything to do with this case, but sometimes they suddenly disappear from sight together. That just makes them a little suspicious… I believe Katsuo noticed this and he, an occult nut job like him, started investigating them. I'm not too sure what's going on, but it doesn't look like he found much at the moment. Noboru seems to act a little too jumpy at times but he's probably harmless, unless he's a good deceiver, which we do not have proof of right now…. Takuma may as well be mysterious and aloof, but since I'm fairly well acquainted with him, I know that he's actually shy around people and even shyer around girls. He's also kind and caring to the point he won't even step on an ant by accident."
The boy scratched his head for a moment before concluding his speech.
"…and that's about all I know."
"Hm… this seems very interesting," Mai mused while the other girl continued her typing.
Hinata looks around. "I guess that's it for now then. Anything else?"
"Nope, and again, thank you for your cooperation Hinata-san, you may return to class." Mai informs him.
"Ah, don't I get some compensation?" Hinata starts his seductive drawl again.
Both Miyuki and Mai giggle at that.
"What would you like?" Miyuki jokingly asks.
At that, the blond haired delinquent look-a-like strides over to the onyx haired girl, leans down and without warning, he kisses Miyuki's left cheek. After a second or so, he backs off with a smile on plastered on his face. Mai turns to look at the girl as the latter seem to have not much of a response other than daintily placing a hand to where she was kissed.
"You really do live up to your titles, don't you Hinata-san?" Miyuki says while tilting her head slightly with her cheeks tinted in a light rosy blush. "Fine, I let you get away with that one."
Hinata grins and then bows to the two girls and left the room holding a victory sign up just before he closes the door.
"Wow. You just got played Miyu-chan."
"Anyhow," Miyuki finishes up the final bit of the notes and opens a new word processing document, "ignoring him sexually assaulting me right there, his descriptions and perception of the others are very detailed and clear. It seems that he's more knowledgeable than what his looks make him out to be."
"Agreed," Mai confirms, "but it that's the case, then what we originally came up with is not completely correct then."
"Well that kind of contradicts what we have so far," Miyuki murmurs, "It seems like there might be something else going on and not just corrupted spirits and King Minos up here."
"Hm… and…" the black-haired girl pauses as she notices the next interviewee at the doorway.
"…ah, sorry about making you wait. Please come in."
The next student that enters has an aura of cool and sharpness that the two investigators could immediately sense. He, the student, has an "upper class" feel to him, his medium length greyish-black hair sweeping along with bangs framing his angular and slightly feminine face. This makes him give off a very prominent "pretty boy" feeling that many girls would swoon and chase after.
"Ah, it's fine."
The student answers with such a masculine tone it turns the Mai's head at once.
"Thank you for taking some time for us to interview you about this case. Kiriya-san, please make yourself comfortable," Mai says as she signals Miyuki to start the profile.
The pretty boy, Kiriya Azuma, nods politely and takes the seat opposite of the brunette.
"One question before we begin," Miyuki looks up from the laptop, "would you like it if we referred to you with your first name or last name?"
"Azuma is fine."
"In that case, Azuma-san," Mai picks up where Miyuki left off, "please tell us what is going on in this school from your perspective."
The student goes on a brief but fairly similar story to what the others have told while Mai explains to him what is going on so far. After a while, Azuma finishes his narrative.
"…and that's what's going on."
The black haired girl continues typing away on the laptop while Mai contemplates the story.
"I may not have experience in the supernatural," the student states out plainly, "but from what I've heard about so far and how other students are responding to this, there seems to be more than one incident that is occurring right now."
Mai raises an eyebrow slightly while Miyuki looks up again from the laptop.
"Well, you said that the corrupted spirits (Virtues) are causing the Judge to go insane but why did that happen in the first place?"
"Touché," Mai responds, "I guess we completely forgot about that question."
"Other than that, I must leave now as my next class is having a test."
"Alright," the brunette smiles politely, "again, thank you for your time."
"You're welcome," Azuma responds with his own smile, "If you have anything else you need, you can ask me later on."
"Okay, bye~" Mai says out while waving.
Azuma leaves the room while Miyuki finally finishes off the notes.
"So, it seems we completely forgot about the question of why…"
"Yep," Miyuki responds, "but at least we now have enough information to start sorting out what is really going on in this school."
"Alright, I think it's nearly time to end this investigation, so please call for the last interviewee."
"On it," Miyuki obliges and puts down the laptop and fixes her hair a little before heading out to get the last student for the last interview.
The third and final student to be interviewed is a taller individual, a girl with long black hair with a pair of medium brown eyes. She would've looked like Miyuki's older sister if not for the eye color difference… well, right now she does since Miyuki has her dark brown contact lenses on. The girl being interviewed has more mature looks, somewhat bring up the Yamato Nadeshiko feeling instead of Miyuki's cute style.
"Hello Soma-san, it's good to meet you."
"Like wise Taniyama-san."
The two girls greeted each other with respect. Miyuki opens another tab on her Word Document and gets ready to type.
"Soma-san, could you please tell us about what you think and some of your suspicions?"
The almost-Miyuki's-older-sister, Soma Hitomi, nods.
"I think it was after the death of Misaka-san, there were fewer disturbances for a while. Well, now you can see that that…" she pauses for a moment to think of what to call the shadow-like humanoid being, "…that figure is fully corporeal to other people's sight." Hitomi continues her speech,
"There are not many other things to clue in to what's going on, except this particular student that is kind of acting weird."
"Matsuda Katsuo, am I correct?"
Hitomi nods at the brunette's response.
"Yes, most of the students and teachers are unnerved by the haunting." Hitomi pauses, this time to take a breath, "Katsuo-kun is acting very weird; he's been stalking some of the students for a while now. I know his older sister, and she said to me that her younger brother is into the occult and supernatural; he loves these types of things and has many books on them. I know he may seem suspicious, but I doubt he has the heart to actually bring up something to hurt people."
"Interesting…" Mai murmurs out while thinking. Miyuki, with her laptop, continues on typing.
"On what basis do you conclude your last point?" The girl with the laptop pipes up, now looking at Hitomi. The girl being interviewed notices the genuineness of Miyuki's question and nods before answering.
"Katsuo-kun is a very smart and kind hearted student, although he's a little paranoid about cleanliness, but that just makes him even more likable. There was…"
A scream split the quiet conversation and the three girls in the room jumps up immediately. For the two veteran investigators, they both have their senses on hyper drive, ready for anything (almost), Mai dashes to the door with Miyuki right behind her, after the latter tells Hitomi not to come out the room until they have confirmed what happened and it is safe to exit.
The two girls rush down three hallways to reach the scene and find two shadowy silhouettes slowly advancing on a group of three students, whom were cornered at the end of the hall. Letting out a shout, Mai holds her left hand out with two fingers pointed at the corrupted figures and brings out a calligraphy brush with her unoccupied right hand. She quickly starts a cutting motion with the brush, alternating horizontal and vertical cuts with each syllable she shouts out. The lines each cut creates glow brightly in a bluish-white color before fading out.
Miyuki's eyes widened at this stops herself, nearly falling over due to inertia and the sudden stop she made, from getting in front of Mai.
"Rin!"
Both shadows whirl around as the first of the seals cut through with such intensity that the figures seems to stagger under the pressure.
"Pyo!"
The shadows screech with rage, trying to shake of the effects and attack back but are held fast due to the power put into each syllable.
"Toh!"
The screech and cry becomes louder and the figures start shaking. Miyuki stands her ground, preparing for if the corrupted virtues counterattack.
"Sha!"
The shadows seems to weaken at the forth syllable, but remain just as angry and wrathful. One of the figures managed to toss a chair nearby in the hall but it misses by a wide margin as Mai sidesteps while continuing her cuts.
"Kai!"
The shadows finally shake free of the hold and flies at Mai. Noticeably weaker and slower, Miyuki quickly murmurs her own chant to stop their movement.
"Ut sint in testimonium, et disciplina, quod corrupta est antistes sacrorum."
The two corruptions stops in midair like the other one that Miyuki froze from last time. They can struggle all they want, but it will be no use as they have already been weakened from the five cuts.
"…Jin! Retsu! Zai! Zen!"
Mai finishes the chant and the shadows let out a cry of rage and disappears. At that, Miyuki and quickly goes ensures the safety of three girls that are trembling with fright. Comforting and reassuring them, Miyuki glances around and notices two students running towards them. It was the flaming haired student council president and the petite vice president, Hitomiya Shizuka and Akari Sana.
"Oh my," Shizuka stated in a matter-of-fact way, "We'll help you girls take care of the students so you two can focus on your jobs."
"Thanks," Mai coughs out while regaining her breath from running and not resting enough before throwing her spiritual power out, "it will definitely help us concentrate on those… shadows. Oh, please also go to the base and tell Hitomi it is safe for her to leave and go back to class, we do not wish to take up more of her time for now."
Shizuka nods as the two of them, Sana and herself, lead the still trembling girls away, Miyuki turns to Mai, whom the latter is bent over at the moment, catching her breath.
"Seriously, did you have to use the kuji-kiri instead of the regular one? You know that this version takes way more power and you even increased its strength with the brush. What's up with you being reckless again? I thought you matured a lot around these seven months and it's like three days before your seventeenth birthday you know? Wait, it hasn't been seven months yet, since you told me your boss left at the end of May. But still, it's still around half an year and for some reason it seems like you've gone backwards."
Miyuki tries to put on an angry face but, like Mai, it ends up looking adorable. This causes the receiver of the 'lecture' to start giggling.
"Mou…" Miyuki pouts, "just because my angry face looks cute doesn't mean you should just laugh it off."
Mai stops her giggling and sighs, "I know, I know… but for some reason, I feel a more excitable for some reason. It's been happening since last week. Something's making me anxious and jumpy, but I don't think it has anything to do with ghosts and spirits. I…"
The two young investigators froze as they both senses something wrong .
"Miyu-chan, do you feel…" Mai starts to say but Miyuki suddenly threw herself at Mai, knocking them both to the ground. Several whizzing sounds shear through the air pass where they had been just a moment ago. There was also two consecutive thudding sounds and Miyuki let out a small gasp when they both hit the floor.
"What the…?" Mai turns and looks at the wall ahead of them and sees several pipes embedded in the wall.
"Mai-chan… are you alright?" Miyuki asks the brunette, looking a little pained.
"I'm fine, but you…" Mai draws a quick breath as she gets up to a kneeling position on the floor; Miyuki is lying on her lap, but that's not what surprised her. There are two metal pipes impaling her friend's body, one in the upper right shoulder and one in the lower right side of her abdomen. Crimson stains already spreading out from the lilac dress the girl is wearing.
"..M-Mai… don't worry about me, you know I'm not going to die from this." Miyuki reassures the worried investigator, stuttering only slightly from the pain.
"Stop that," Mai flicks the injured black haired girl in the forehead, "even if you won't die from this, it still saddens me to see you get hurt."
"Itai! Mou…" Miyuki complains, "While no one's around, get me to our base, pull those pipes out and patch me up before any complications show up, we don't want any distractions from this case or it's going to take longer than necessary."
"Already on it~" The brunette carefully pushes the injured girl off of her lap and then picks her up gently, carrying the onyx haired girl to their base without passing anyone else. Once they reach the base and Miyuki is lying on her stomach on a long couch, Mai pulls out a medical kit from one of the bags and opens up the box, revealing more than just a set of first aid equipment. This was originally a standard first aid kit but after several cases that resulted in severe injuries, the girls took to learning more than just regular first aid. They both have special issued emergency trauma treatment licenses that give them permission to do emergency field surgery and carry specialized equipment with them. The medical kit has sets of surgical equipment along with hypodermic syringes, several small vials of single use morphine, Midazolam, Propofol and Fentanyl. Although this seems dangerous in the hands of sixteen/seventeen year olds, Mai and Miyuki managed to get into a personal three-month emergency training course thanks to some of Miyuki's connections with high ranking medical personnel. With their psychic intuition and their memorization ability, the two of them managed to satisfy their instructor and were given their emergency trauma treatment license with a condition: do not perform the operation without permission. If the person is unconscious, then only do the emergency treatment and call 119 (fire and ambulance services – 110 is police in Japan).
Mai performs the operation with quickly and efficiently, having done so on a lot of injuries similar to this. The hardest part was the careful removal of the pipes embedded in Miyuki's body. A slip would further damage her body. Well, with Miyuki's strange recovery and regeneration, it would not make too much of a difference but being safer is better. After the treatment was complete, Miyuki continued to lie down on the couch. Healing sixty times faster than normal is certainly a huge advantage in this line of work. As a reminder, as Mai and Miyuki have a psionic link, they share the healing factor, meaning they both heal only thirty times faster than normal. Even then it's pretty quick. Miyuki's injuries normally take three weeks to recover now will completely heal in approximately sixteen hours and forty-eight minutes. Yeah, it's that quick and it even allows those affected by this power to regenerate up to a certain point.
"What time is it right now," Miyuki asks, "I hope this heals quick enough for me to continue. Oh, I know, Can you help me sit myself up at the monitors? I'll be able to work a bit even though I'm injured."
Miyuki pauses for a moment before continuing, "but on that note, those two corrupted virtues just had to send a farewell present to us... I hope it doesn't happen again."
"Oh right," Mai replies, "thank you for saving me from those pipes."
"We both save each other very often Mai-chan, it's mandatory for us to live so no worries. It also looks like the corrupted virtues are getting even stronger… I did not activate the condensation wards from yesterday but they still showed up, although they were not as strongly connected to the physical realm."
"Yep," Mai goes to take a look at the notes, "I have a better idea, Instead of helping you up, it's time we… well, at least, time I go take out the last two pre-emptively. Miyu-chan, I know you're injured, but can you please make me two spirit attractors, three replication charms and an amplification charm? I know it's going to tire you out and you'll probably fall asleep for more than eight hours, but can you do this for me so that we can get finish this case off tomorrow?"
The room quiets down as the onyx-haired girl thinks for a moment.
"Hm… I guess that would help." Miyuki replies. "Ah, in fact, please go visit King Minos if you can after you blow the last two corrupted virtues back to where they belong. I think we'll have what we need for tomorrow if you go there."
Mai brings the materials over to Miyuki and the onyx haired girl starts writing ancient symbols on a piece of blessed cloth with her left hand. Since she is ambidextrous, she is capable of writing neatly in both hands and she does so for the piece of cloth. Finishing off the temporary spiritual power amplifier, she takes five more pieces of cloth and creates the replication charms and spirit attractors out of them. In about five minutes, she completes all three and collapses, exhausting her power and strength.
"Thank you Miyu-chan," Mai gets down on one knee and whispers in Miyuki's ear, "I'll reward you for doing so well after this case is over."
"Hmphfff…zzz…" the girl in question answers sleepily and falls asleep.
Getting back up, the brunette takes the three pieces of cloth and heads out the door.
"Time to end this," Mai says to herself. The girl takes out the calligraphy brush she uses to strength her Kuji-kiri and heads to an empty classroom that is far away from any classes going on. Placing the two spirit attractors on two separate tables, Mai wraps the amplification charm around the brush and takes out a small pen knife. She pricks her second finger with the knife and let a small bit of her blood drop onto the two attractors. After that, she backs away and places two replication charms at the corners of the room. Just as she finishes preparing everything and gets into position, the final two corrupted virtues, much smaller but more malevolent than the others, are drawn to the now activated attractors and suddenly materializes in the room and move towards the two pieces of cloth. They appear to be studying the two charms that attracted them.
Mai whispers at the last replication charm the Kuji-in chant and then holler at the two shadows while sending the replication charm flying at the two.
"Hey midgets, this is for you!"
The two figures whirl around as if stung by a particularly sharp mantra and the replication charm falls to the ground, just in front of the two virtues. Mai completes the nine cuts without the two figures being able to do anything.
"Rin! Pyo! Toh! Sha! Kai! Jin! Retsu! Zai! Zen!"
"Restriction 201 released, replication activation sequence, break!"
In response, the three replication charms glows and the two remaining shadows disappears without being able to do anything.
"Ugh…" Mai falls to one knee as the exhaustion takes its toll on her body. Luckily, the replication charms did its job and tripled the effect of what she performed just now and it kind of overkill for her to do this, but it makes the job much safer and the last two virtues cannot send any farewell presents due to the suddenness and the sheer power of the triple-power kuji-kiri. After catching her breath, the girl picks up the charms and leaves the classroom, heading towards the room where King Minos waits.
On arrival, Mai gapes at the sight that beholds her: A shining medieval armored knight like man with a head of grey hair. The same silver crown adorned his head twinkles with Zircon gems. The same cross pendant around the neck now has a glittering blue topaz at the center. The face was old yet wise, the storm grey eyes shining with intelligence.
Thank you for removing the corrupted virtues. I believe they have been cleansed and sent back to where they belong. Now I remember everything that occurred.
"It was not that tough," Mai replies in earnest, "The Kuji-kiri did the trick."
The elderly King smiles at her.
Ah, the seals which cut through illusion. That is a useful tool in ridding the physical plane from those whom are not supposed to be here. Also, where is the other girl who was with you?
"Miyuki was injured after the fourth and fifth virtues were cleansed. The two of them sent us some… farewell gifts before disappearing and Miyuki was hurt saving me from the attack."
Ah, please give my condolence to her as I did not know until now.
"I will," Mai replies then think for a moment before continuing, "Hm… pardon my questions, but can I get some answers as to what is going on?"
Yes, of course young one. I am very sorry this happened. It all started when something called up an abnormal spirit. The virtues were dragged along with this spirit for some reason, possibly because of the unnatural strength that spirit has. Since I am a being deeply connected with the virtues, the corruption spread to myself and… I am sorry for taking the life of some of the students here, but I cannot undo this as even I am not all powerful.
"It isn't your fault," Mai states out kindly, "it was whatever that came up that caused this…. I feel sad for the loss of their lives, but there's nothing else we can do about it now."
I am thankful for your understanding. However, there is one more matter at hand. I must finish what I originally came up to do.
"Um… I have a request, King Minos, can you listen to it before you decide?"
The Judge looks at the brunette investigator with some interest and nods for her to continue.
"I wish for you give me the information to the spirit and what is happening right now. We, as the other girl with me before, and I, wish to take of matters in our realm instead of relying on external intervention if possible."
Ah, such a brave soul. Very well, I shall tell you what is going on and then return to my realm. The abnormal spirit was accidentally called up by one of the students here; I'm not too sure who as I have not found it yet. However, I came across the realm to bring the spirit back, but the virtues were corrupted by the abnormal spirit. In turn, that corrupted me. The spirit has possessed the student and continues to wish to gain immortality through the ritual sacrifice of pure maidens. Be warned; it is on its last sacrifice and I believe it is preparing for the last sacrifice and if it successfully completes it, then the spirit will become forever bound to this area and will causing many more deaths.
"I will stop this spirit at once," Mai answers, "I also have a good idea where this is happening."
Thank you for suggesting this, I am already very tired from behind left in the physical realm for too long. Before I leave, I have a gift for you and the black-haired girl.
The king took the silver cross pendant from around his neck and placed it around Mai's pale, slender neck. After a click, the pendant is now on the girl's neck.
The blue topaz is associated with courage and overcoming fears and obstacles. It is a traditional stone for writers, scholars, artists and intellectuals, since it is used to encourage higher thinking. It is said to ease mental anguish and promote fidelity, friendship, gentleness and integrity. I think you'll find this pretty useful.
The judge takes out a silver ring, adorned with a circle of small onyx gems with a larger tourmaline gem set in the middle.
This is for your friend. Tourmaline is said to strengthen both body and spirit. It is believed to attract inspiration, aid concentration, encourage balance and promote understanding. It is also thought to calm nerves, sooth grief, promote balance and build self-confidence. Black onyx is said to repel negativity and deflect the negativity of others. It is a gem thought to enhance determination and perseverance.
I must be off then. Please be careful.
Mai bows to King Minos, "Thank you very much; we will treasure these gifts very much. We will be careful."
The elderly king smiles and vanishes from the room.
Mai glances around after a moment later and mutters under her breath in a voice so un-Mai like anyone who hears it would look at her in shock.
"It's time to end this."
Matsuzaki Ayako is sitting on a sofa, taking a sip of hot coffee. The conference lasts for two weeks and there is only tomorrow left. Henry Astruc, a 33 year old world-renowned physician with short, cropped brown hair, is strewn across a single seat, eyes to the ceiling. Johanne M. Nightingale, a 40 year old military field surgeon famous for his quick, efficient performance in surgery, is talking to someone through his smartphone. His natural blond hair tied up in a small pony tail. Shiranui Asuka, a prodigal 25 year old doctor of neuroscience who looks more like she's 19, is twirling her mid-length midnight black hair around a finger while sitting beside Ayako.
Ayako: I don't know about you guys, but this conference is taking a little too long to my liking. Also, why was director of the board Markus absent today?
Johanne puts his cellphone away after finishing the call while listening in on her question.
Johanne: For the comment you just made, I agree. Two weeks are just too long for the little research material we've been covering. As for your question… don't ask. Director Markus is fairly eccentric, but his skills are quite outstanding. I assume there might be other business he needs to attend to that is more urgent than this conference.
Ayako: Hm… I guess we'll find out later on if we ask. Anyhow, there's not much more to talk about since there's only one day left of the conference. Is there anything important we left out?
Asuka glances at the clock hanging near the ceiling.
Asuka: Unless you count the topic and conclusion for tomorrow, then there is not anything that was missed.
Ayako: If only there is something interesting that will happen here…
Johanne: Yeah right, how about a terrorist attack that ends up blowing up half the building so we don't have to continue this annoyingly long conference?
Henry: Then we would have to stay over here for another three weeks for questioning and examinations while the police and the Special Forces work. So no, that tacky idea of yours isn't going to flow.
Ayako: *Thinking:* Ah… two days left until we finally head back to Japan. I wonder how everyone else is doing. I'm not too sure what Mai's been up to lately, but she does sound fine when Houshou and I make the calls to her. We all love her very much; she's like the sun in our entire group. However, she always keeps her troubles to herself, not wishing to trouble others. I dread the day that someday, a problem of hers is going to prove to be too great and break her. Ugh. No! Don't think of such things. Mai… be safe. We all miss you, don't do anything reckless…
Mai's Learning Corner!
In room 2A, Mai is flipping through a book, seated on a chair while Isdefelt is writing on a stack of papers.
Mai: Min'na-san!~ It's Mai's Learning Corner~
Isdefelt continues to write on papers while Mai turns to page 8 of the book she is holding.
Isdefelt: Oh yeah, there's an upgrade to the Learning Corner books. Now with Hiragana translations for those who wish to know and learn. Say, Mai-chan? Is there anything else you like in a regular meal if there's miso soup?
Mai: You know, I really do prefer a nice crisp seaweed salad before miso soup and a meal. And that brings me to the first word today~
Mai: Wakame (わかめ) is translated to Seaweed. And that's that. Pretty easy, right? Goma Wakame would mean Seaweed Salad (ごまわかめ). Another translation of Wakame into English can be "Sea Mustard".
Mai: Oh… just an interesting point, in Miso Soup, Miso is (みそ).
Isdefelt: By the way, the hiragana spelling of Mai's full name is Taniyama (たにやま) Mai(まい). Miyuki's full name is Shimiya (しみや) Miyuki( みゆき). Except in Kanji, Miyu-chan's last name in kanji is translated into "Death Shrine" or "Death Princess" (死宮).
Miyuki comes sauntering in but with a small frown on her face.
Miyuki: Seriously… I have no clue why my lineage has such name even though it IS a pretty accurate description.
Isdefelt: Whoa there, no spoilers.
Miyuki: Sorry~
As quickly she came, Miyuki skips out of the room and closes the door gently with a flourish. Mai stares at the door for a moment, a little out of it at the moment.
Mai: What did she come in for…?
Isdefelt: Beats me. Oh yeah, onii-chan is somewhere out there right now and he's not going to be back until he finishes his research.
Mai: Wait, what research is he doing?
Isdefelt: Well, over this past half year, Edefelt onii-chan has been wandering around Japan for about three months and improving his Japanese. The last three months he spent in Italy, learning about their culture and language.
Mai: So that's why we upgraded this section… He's becoming more competent at our native language~.
Isdefelt: YOUR native language. Onii-chan and my own language is English, like Naru, except we don't have any accents to discern from.
Mai: Anyways… this chapter has two main Japanese expression particles used. The first one and the ones I use a lot of as well is Mou. This can mean "Jeez…", "Come on!" or can just be used to express annoyance/frustration. Miyu-chan pulled one on me when I used the Kuji-kiri, which is like similar to another practice of the Kuji-in. In this story, it's more like an upgraded or more powerful version to make things more interesting. In reality, it is actually a form where, instead of using both hands, it uses only the right hand to emphasize the "cut" of ignorance of the illusions (meaning to dispel that which is not of nature). It also has some sort of ties to ninjutsu, or ninpo (which is martial arts and strategies/tactics used in unconventional/guerrilla warfare as well as espionage). And no, it isn't a Rasengan to the face like in anime/manga Naruto. It is due to the fact the people who were able to master it were extremely efficient and seemingly invincible at the time, that people soon made tales about how these "superhuman" ninjas are capable of the impossible.
She also pulled one more "Mou" after I flicked her forehead.
Mai turns the page over on her book and reads it for a moment.
Mai: Ah, here we go. The next word is itai (いたい). When used like this without any other words connected to it, itai is translated to "ouch" or "ow". This word, "itai" can be used in many situations. When it is used in a longer sentence, it translates as "hurts". For example: atama ga itai desu (あたま が いたい です), which means "My head hurts". Grammatically, itai is an i-adjective, which means that it is conjugated in the following ways:
itaikunai (いたいくない), meaning "It doesn't hurt" in present tense.
itaikatta (いたいかtた), meaning "It hurt" in past tense
itaikunakatta (いたいくなかtた), meaning "It didn't hurt" in past tense.
Isdefelt looks over at Mai.
Isdefelt: Wow… this sure takes longer than before. I wonder where onii-chan got all the information.
Mai: Probably through the internet and through his traveling. With the accuracy of this, I doubt it's from Wikipedia.
Isdefelt: Onii-chan hates Wikipedia; he says that Wikipedia is only good for short referencing. Anything that requires sources that need to be one hundred percent accurate is out of the question.
Mai: There's nothing else… so I guess that's it for today. It's also about time Naru called for tea…
But after several minutes of waiting, no one called out.
Mai: …Where is he?
Isdefelt: …
Mai: …
Isdefelt: …
Mai: …okay.
Mai snaps the book shut and puts it on a table. Signalling to Isdefelt, she leaves the room, intent on finding out what's going on outside.
Isdefelt: Well there she goes. I guess this I have to conclude this chapter.
Isdefelt gets off the chair she is sitting on and walks to face the audience. She gives a refined curtsy before smiling brightly.
Isdefelt: This concludes this chapter's Mai's Learning Corner! See you next time!
Isdefelt goes over to the desk and takes the pen and papers before skipping out the door and closes it.