Disclaimer: I do not own Ghost Hunt.
"In the depths of the mountains, who was it for the aged mother snapped one twig after another? Heedless of herself, she did so for the sake of her son."
VI-Ubasute
"Mai!" Ayako screamed.
Mai lay silent, her eyes clamped shut, her face pale and her lips bluing. The dreadful situation wasn't getting any better. Mai and Masako both lay beside each other, cataleptic. Ayako turned her head towards Naru. She stood up to him and looked at him ruefully.
"Now can we go back to the lodge?" She asked caustically. He looked at her, still unshaken. He glanced at Lin who was not pleased at his attitude either. He looked at the paling body of Mai. He sighed and nodded at Ayako.
"We can't carry both of them back to the lodge. We'll wait in a warmer place and when one of them wakes up, we'll leave." He dictated.
"What! Naru, you don't get it, do you?" Ayako exploded.
"Ayako, calm down." Bou-san placed his hand on her shoulder comfortingly. "It'll be difficult for us to travel with the two of them unconscious. Plus, we are far away from the lodge. Naru is right."
"Matsuzaki-san." Naru started. Ayako looked at him, displeased. "I'm the boss."
Knocking down the leaves and small plants, Lin guided the team through the forest in search of a warmer place. With no luck, the team found nothing but snow. Bou-san carried Mai on his back while John with some efforts, managed to piggyback Masako. Ayako helped John in keeping Masako stable.
"We'll have to go for firewood." Bou-san mumbled.
"Lin and I will go look for some dry firewood. Bou-san, Matsuzaki-san and John can find a suitable place for resting." Naru ordered. "I don't want you to wander around."
"We won't." Ayako scathed. "I heard there are wild animals here."
"..."
"Go on. Now, don't waste your time glaring at me." She continued.
Lin muffling his chuckles headed behind the young narcissist as he went in a search to look for some dry firewood. Taking a pocket knife with him, Naru placed a compass in his pocket. He once again looked back at Ayako and the others. Narrowing his eyes, he took a clear look at the place. He struck his knife against a tree in front of him. Marking it for reference, he stepped in a direction different from that of his team members. Lin followed closely behind Naru.
"Stay here." He reminded once again. Bou-san and John nodded, Ayako huffed.
"I hope he gets eaten by a bear." She muttered under her breath.
"I know you don't mean that." Bou-san laughed.
Ayako glanced at the disappearing figure of Naru and Lin. She lowered her eyelids. She knew she didn't mean that. After all, she wouldn't want to find a dead body anywhere soon.
"Get them warm, will you?"
...
Aimless, she wandered around, glancing ephemerally at the lush green trees now and then. Haunted by the thoughts that flooded her minds on seeing the huge, foreboding, contorted trees, Mai sobbed silently. She had been drawn into something ominous. Surrounded by darkness in all directions, Mai stumbled upon overgrown roots and creepers as her feet took her to someplace unknown. Keeping her back steady, the girl wept unstoppably. She felt fey, just as Masako had told her, but not in a happy mood. The overwhelming feeling of the impending evil kept her mind in a state of chaos.
Suddenly, her feet wouldn't move. They had halted on their own accord and now were immovable. Her sobs becoming louder, Mai stood paralyzed as she saw the tree which she could recognize anywhere. The twisted mass of branches above her head swayed with the howling winds. The distorted limbs of the trees haunted her vision. Taking a step back, Mai felt her vision being blurred by the sight she witnessed. Her chest constricted, she let out a whimper. She saw the same tree, same branch on which a noose hung. Only the noose wasn't empty anymore.
Screaming along the howling winds, Mai knelt down, covering herself with her arms. She continued sobbing as she recognized the person, whose body was now limp. Unmoving. Dead.
"Keisuke-san...Keisuke-san..." She cried. Wiping her tears away, she looked once again at the hanging body of Keisuke. "No..." She whimpered and sobbed, wiping her overflowing tears with her cold fingers. Fear was engulfing her. Neither could she scream nor could she walk. She felt remorseful.
"Ayako, Bou-san, Naru..." She wept.
Suddenly, she lost her balance as something caught hold of her leg and pulled her with a strong grip. She screamed and struggled as more hands reached for her. Pulling on her ankle, her thin arms, her hair, the hands pulled her into the snow, unmercifully. The cold, lifeless hands pulled her inside. A hand successfully covered her mouth, muffling her screams. Mai forced herself up, but she couldn't break free of the hold. Finally giving up, she let herself be buried, deep inside the snow.
It all went white for her.
...
Mai screamed, struggled and knocked off the blanket over her. Still screaming, she felt a forceful slap on her cheeks. Coming back to her senses, she looked around wide eyed. Immediately, she heard a gasp for breath. Turning her head sharply, Mai saw Masako lifting herself from a state of unconsciousness. She shook her head, her cheeks having red fingermarks too. She immediately turned her glance towards Mai.
"Did you feel it too...?" She asked softly. Mai nodded.
"I felt it..." She suddenly burst out into a violent fit of sobs. Mai felt a pair of warm arms wrap around her without any delay. Bringing her back to reality, Ayako felt sorry for the girl as she continued sobbing. A tear streaked across Masako's cheek silently.
"Nakazawa-san is dead." Masako declared with a remorseful face.
A sudden silence engulfed the surroundings. Mai eyed everything around her. Naru stood tall in front of her, Lin beside him. Bou-san was sitting right beside her and Ayako was hugging her. Masako had her hand in John's hand. A small campfire was set in the middle of the circle. Mai stopped her hysterics at once and calmed herself down.
"W-What do you mean?" Bou-san stuttered.
"He is dead." Mai confirmed.
"It was his spirit that had shown us the occurrence of the tragedy." Masako informed. "In short, it's a sign of confirmation, that his soul has left his body."
"H-How?" Ayako asked, stuttering.
"We saw him hanging from a tree. He was dead." She continued. Mai fell silent on hearing the word that she dreaded. She fought back the urge to cry. Biting her lips, Mai buried her face in her hands. Bou-san immediately cloaked the girl with a blanket. He handed over one to Masako, who gladly accepted it and moved closer to the fire.
"M-Masako," Mai began. "Were you pulled away by several hands, under the snow?" Masako stared at her, evidently puzzled at the question Mai had managed to put forth.
"No." She answered.
"No?" Mai seemed surprised. "But I thought you saw the same vision...?"
"I did see Keisuke's-" She stopped abruptly. Mai nodded at her understandingly "But I was not pulled in. Did you experience so?"
"Yes." Mai paused.
The silent, cool breeze hit Mai. The forest had grown a little warmer than earlier, or so she thought. The campfire added to the pleasantness of the weather. She sighed unhappily. One thing had been confirmed - Nakazawa Keisuke was dead and that he was in the forest somewhere. Her stomach growled untimely. She blushed on realizing that she had become the center of the attention.
"I bought some biscuits. Want some?" Ayako asked smilingly. Mai nodded.
"You sure are well prepared at all times." Bou-san commented.
"Yes. One has to be when one cannot possibly rely on another." She muttered.
"Ha!" Bou-san retorted.
Mai feasted on some biscuits that Ayako had offered her. Parting the number of biscuits equally among everyone, she finally took a bite from the few number of biscuits that she had managed to secure. Nibbling on them slowly, Mai savored the taste. Devouring each biscuit, Mai finally let out a satisfied sigh. Looking at Ayako gratefully, Mai glanced at everyone. Masako had finished whatever she had received within seconds, Naru and John had constrained themselves from devouring them while Lin managed to eat some on account of being hungry. Looking at Bou-san as he slowly ate them, Mai quirked her eyebrows.
"Is there something that has been troubling you, Bou-san?" Mai inquired. He came back to reality with a jerk. He looked around confoundedly before sighing. He glanced at Mai and smiled.
"It is not much of a thing to be worried about - er, but it is a little troubling." He muttered.
"Yes?" Naru interrupted.
"I have this little thought of mine, something over which I've been pondering for a while." He stopped abruptly and looked around to check if he was being paid attention to or not. Noticing that all eyes were on him, he continued. "I thought about what Mai had said. She told us that she had experienced being pulled inside the snow. It just struck me that Aokigahara is a place where Ubasute was a common practice."
"Ubasute?" Ayako inquired. "Do you mean Oyasute?"
"Yes," He continued. "That is also a way of referring to ubasute."
"What does it mean?" Naru inquired. Penning down whatever her heard in a notepad was a common practice of Naru, so he equipped himself with a notepad and a pen.
"It means, abandoning an old woman or old parents. Most usually old woman." He informed. "It was a common practice during famines. An elderly relative was carried away to a mountain or any remote place for that matter, to be abandoned so that they would die of starvation, dehydration or whatever other causes."
"And why was it done?" He asked.
"It was done because people considered old people to be a burden. They thought they were unneeded." He responded.
"That's very cruel..." John whispered.
"Yes it is." Bou-san continued. "There is a Buddhist allegory which revolves around ubasute. It's a story of a young man who carries his mother away to a mountain to abandon her and while going up the mountain, the mother keeps stretching her hands to catch hold of twigs. She then scatters them on their path so that the son would be able to find his way home."
"Motherhood is being selfless." Ayako commented sadly.
"..." Naru remained silent. Problems were piling up for them and he remained without having a solution to them. Sighing and fixing the notepad back in the pocket of his coat, he slumped himself on one of the huge rocks surrounding the campfire. Remaining unconscious to what was happening in his surroundings, Naru lost himself deep in thoughts.
"It's getting more dangerous than I thought." He said that aloud, unknown to himself.
"By the way, how long have we been unconscious?" Mai questioned.
"Practically, the whole day. See, the sun has set?" Ayako mocked.
"Are there any more legends?" John inquired. Ayako nodded.
"I've heard of one." She responded. "It's about the compass needle going haywire or something. They say there are huge number of magnetic rocks in Aokigahara which confuses the compass and people get lost rather easily over here."
"Then, what about Keisuke-san?" He asked.
"Nah, he must have been here plenty of times. After all, his wife said that it was usual for him to take a stroll in Aokigahara." She mumbled. "Shouldn't we be hurrying up in finding his body and getting out of here instead of waiting for something to come attack us?"
"Like wild animals?" Mai shivered.
"Yup." Bou-san replied.
"We have a fire, it should ward off them." John suggested.
"Will spirits be warded off by a fire?" Ayako then inquired sarcastically. "Shouldn't we be getting back?"
Entrapped in silence and rising tensions, Mai looked around, her eyes wide. She gulped as she realized the point that Ayako was trying to make. Naru narrowed his eyes, deep in thought. Masako shifted uncomfortably and John seemed surprised. Lin remained usual while Bou-san scratched his head. Mai parted her lips in an attempt to make the words flow that she had been meaning to say.
"A-Are we lost?"
A silent answer, enough to confirm Mai's fear.
"Sadly, yes."
An uncomfortable, tense atmosphere surrounded the team. Mai stared at Bou-san as he answered to her not so confident question. Turning her head to and fro from Ayako to Bou-san, her eyes only widened more in the process. Masako covered her mouth tensely, John tried to remain calm but it was evident that he was panicking too. Naru sighed, Lin had nothing to say. Ayako shook her head, rubbed her forehead with an annoyed expression and growled, making the situation seem even more worse. She threw a twig which she had been rolling in her hands, for the past few hours, into the flickering campfire. Bou-san ruffled his hair, bit his lips, shrugged his shoulders and then crossed his arms against his chest.
"Should we go back? Or at least try to go back?" Ayako rolled her eyes. "I can't spend the damned night here."
"Agreed." Mai commented.
"Well, having these distorted trees hovering over my head makes me feel uncomfortable." Masako opined.
"Damned snow." Ayako cursed.
"Can we go back?" Mai asked.
"Will you all shut up!" Bou-san lost his temper. Taking a deep breath in, he calmed himself, huffed and looked back at the circle formed around him. Naru and Lin were disinterested in his dictatorship, which affected him a little, probably. Rolling his eyes, he pointed at Ayako and parted his lips threateningly.
"You keep your trap shut!" He ordered. Ayako snorted, Mai giggled and Masako displayed a cynical smile. "We are here in a grave situation-"
"And I'm in a ear deafening situation." Ayako cut him off. Mai burst into fits of laughter while John displayed some uncomfortableness when he saw Bou-san's angered face. He looked at Ayako reproachfully.
"Let's try and maintain peace-" Again, he was cut off.
"I'm getting some sleep." She faked a yawn.
"We might as well." Naru commented, interrupting the cold war between Ayako and Bou-san. "It isn't safe to travel in the forest."
"At such a time, in such a weather." Mai completed his unfinished sentence. She pointed towards the snow filled ground and then pointed towards the dark sky overcast with clouds. "We can't tread in such a weather, can we? Plus, we are tired."
"It looks as if it is about to snow." John agreed.
"Yeah, but we can't sleep here!" Ayako retorted. "We have no provisions or anything to support us!"
"Selfish." Bou-san muttered under his breath. She decided to let the comment go unheard and unattended.
Forming a perfect circle around the disappearing fire, Mai sighed. Looking at the flickering light, she yet again remembered the ghastly scene. Keisuke, was dead. She didn't have the courage to believe so but Masako had confirmed her fears. It was Keisuke's spirit, so she said and Mai had no choice but to believe her. No one knew the spirit world better than her. She shivered and wrapped her arms around her shoulder. Looking at Ayako as she offered her a blanket that they seemed to have brought along with them before their expedition had begun, Mai smiled thankfully.
"Shouldn't someone be keeping a watch?" Mai asked, most probably suggested. Staring at her, a displeased Bou-san displayed a frown.
"You think anyone would want to?" He asked a rhetorical question.
"No."
"Then? Would you volunteer?" He asked.
"No."
"Then? Would anyone volunteer?" Before Mai could answer once more, Lin parted his lips.
"I'll volunteer." He said, in his deep, stolid voice.
"Great! It's decided then!" Mai smiled.
Lin remained taciturn to the ensuing riots. Another problem arose when the shifts were to be decided. The ladies were decided as incapable, which did anger them to some extent, and the shifts were finally divided between Bou-san and Lin. Naru was declared as young and John too soft, hence incapable of protecting the team. John apologized for the inconvenience and decided to sleep the guilty feeling off. Naru decided to ponder over a few facts jotted down in his notepad while Ayako and Masako looked for a suitable spot to serve them as a bed for the rest of the night. Mai decided to lay down wherever she could. She chose to lay down the blanket on the ground which covered with nothing but chilling snow. Mai could neither view the muddy ground nor the lush green grasses, usually present in a forest. All she saw was nothing but huge trees hovering over her.
"We've a long day ahead." Mai whispered.
"It's better if we get some sleep." Ayako whispered back.
Lin took his position as the night-watcher, sitting on a nearby rock after clearing the small amount of snow on it with his boots. Covering himself with the blanket which Naru had provided him with, he remained alert. As he saw Bou-san lay himself down on a blanket spread over the snow-laden ground, he looked far away into the dark night. He had to spend a great deal of time in darkness before he could get some decent sleep.
A/N: Alright! Done with this chapter. Next chapter; next week. Oh! By the way, how is the improved summary? More attracting? I think I'm a little bad at chapter endings, as it has been pointed out by some people, so tell me if this one was better? I must apologize if things get confusing. The next chapter will be a little longer, so keep waiting for it! Thanks Hodgeheg, Dunhaveaname, yes i have one, Pileofcrap!