Year: 11
Season: Winter
Ib: Age 19
"Did you sleep well?" Junichi asked Garry that morning.
Sitting down at the table, Garry had to try very, very hard to look Junichi in the face and simply say, "Fine." He turned back to his toast and began to eat it again, before Junichi decided to ask anymore questions.
"It was hard for me to sleep." Aiko grumbled, "Yuki wouldn't stop reading until the crack of dawn!"
Rin, coming to sit down beside Junichi looked up in surprise, "Really? She seems to be wide awake."
"I don't know how she does it!" Aiko exclaimed.
Yuki sat next to Aiko with some eggs and toast of her own, "I get plentiful sleep."
"Somehow." Aiko mumbled, "Must be some pocket dimension you go into when you need a few extra hours to sleep."
"Where's Ib anyway?" Junichi asked, "I didn't see her come down the stairs."
"She went to take a shower." Garry said.
"Oh," Junichi nodded, "You did it too, I was surprised this morning when the bathroom was occupied so early."
"Yep. I did. I like to be clean." He said quickly, not daring to look any of them in the face.
"I'm sorry!" Ib said, coming down. She wore a blouse, and pants, since it was too cold out for anything else, "I just wanted to take a shower this morning."It was evident that is exactly what she did, since her hair was still shining a bit from being wet.
Garry shook his head. Trust Ib to act normally.
She practically skipped over to Garry's side, and picked up a piece of his toast and began to munch on it as she sat down beside him, humming a happy tune.
Ok... She was acting normal relative to herself at least.
"You seem pretty happy." Aiko said, "Get a good sleep?"
"Very good." Ib said shaking her head up and down, unable to hide her smile.
"I wish I could've done whatever hocus pocus you did last night to get to sleep." Aiko leaned back into her chair.
Garry coughed into his hand, "Um, anyway, is there anything you guys need to do today?"
"Not really." Junichi said, "Do you have more friends you want to talk to?"
"I only really just want to see one more." He shrugged, "I mostly just wanted to see Jin and Rei, since I've known them since I was a kid."
"Should we see Rei today then?" Ib asked.
"I was hoping to save that for tomorrow." Garry nervously stated, "She is probably going to yell at me and try to kill me, so I'd prefer to stay alive at least one more day."
Ib huffed, "Oh please, if she takes one step towards you, I swear I will break her legs."
"While I appreciate the sentiment, I would rather she not have to go to the hospital when I see her. I imagine her husband wouldn't take too kindly to that... Nor would my conscious." Garry said, "Anyway, I'm saving that for tomorrow, so for today It's up to you guys."
"You said something about a hot spring yesterday." Rin brought up, "Something about it being in the backyard?"
"Yeah, but by backyard he means out in the woods. There's a nice spring that me and my friends used to go relax in. I don't know whether it would be wise to do it in the winter though..." Garry explained.
"Oh, I had a building built around it a few years back actually." Jack said, entering the kitchen, "It's fine to go there for the winter. Plus it keeps animals out of it. Much more relaxing that way." He wandered into the kitchen, emerging with a cup of coffee and walking out into the sitting room with it.
"Oh, well then, I guess we could do that if you guys want." Garry said with a shrug.
"That sounds like fun!" Aiko cheered.
"Do you want to head into town at all?" Ib asked.
"I actually would." Yuki said, raising her hand, "Is there a library I may visit?"
"Yes, there is." Garry nodded, "It's a pretty old place. I can drive you there if you want."
"I'd appreciate that." She said.
"Anyone else have any requests?" Garry asked. When no one answered Garry nodded, "Ok then, we'll head to the library first, and then come back later for the spring."
"Libraries are so boring!" Aiko cried.
"Don't worry," Garry said, "We can wander around town if we get bored."
Junichi nodded, "That sounds fine to me."
Rin agreed, nodding along with Junichi.
"Ib..." Garry mumbled a few seconds afterwards, "Do you want your own plate of food, by any chance?"
The girl who had been happily picking from Garry's plate looked up and grinned, "You don't seem to mind all that much."
"Uh, I would prefer it a little if you'd at least get your own plate."
She grinned and stood up, "If it makes you happy."
As she skipped into the kitchen, Aiko glanced at Junichi, Rin, and Garry, "She seems way too happy."
"She had a good morning I guess." Garry shrugged, trying to act like nothing happened.
Yuki looked up at Garry for a bit, staring straight into his eyes, before she finally looked back down to the food she was eating.
"I don't know, she is acting kind of strange." Rin mumbled.
"It's probably nothing," Junichi said, giving Garry a wink.
"Junichi's right, it's nothing to worry about," Garry told the rest, gazing towards Yuki. Crap, the girl knew what he and Ib had done. Junichi knew that Ib was in his room, but Garry wasn't really able to tell if he knew what had occurred. Garry was truly thankful that it was Yuki who found out of the bunch, if it were anyone else, then the cat would be out of the bag before the day was over.
Ib came back to his side, her own plate loaded with eggs and toast, and she put a piece of toast on Garry's plate, "That's cause I stole one of yours earlier."
Garry nodded, accepting it from the smiling girl, returning her beaming smile with one of his own. He had to reassess his analysis from earlier: Ib was acting weird, relative to even herself.
And that was alright with him.
XxXxXxX
The drive to the library was rather uneventful. Aiko was back to her usual energetic self, and the story of the murder and the monster they had heard about the previous day was mostly forgotten by now. Yuki was still quiet in her position at the passenger seat however, her nose still buried in a book, and Garry would steal a glance at her every once in a while, wondering what she was reading. However, he didn't want to be rude and interrupt her, so he kept his idle curiosity to himself.
"This is the library?!" Aiko said, "It looks ancient!"
"It's at least seventy years old now," Garry said, walking up beside her after he made sure to lock the car up, "I've only been in it a handful of times though."
Ib held her scarf close to her as she looked around, clearly impressed with the old building.
"Is it open?" Junichi asked.
"It should be, it is a public library." Garry said, leading his entourage towards the entrance, and opening up the doors.
Books were everywhere – there were shelves and shelves lined up filled to the absolute brim with books. The further they looked, the more books they found everywhere. To the left there was a counter where an elderly woman was sitting, a book opened as she looked down, completely unaware of the group that entered the building.
"Hello?" Ib said, walking towards the woman.
"Oh?" The older woman looked up, "Ah, hello there."
Everyone greeted her.
"It's not often that I get visitors." She smiled, rubbing a bit of her whitening hair out of her face, "Are you here to check out some books then?"
"Just to browse." Yuki said.
"Ah, I see." The woman made a wide gesture towards all the books, "Please, look to your heart's content, but please don't take any of them out of here."
Yuki nodded, and got right to it, disappearing into the shelves of books within seconds.
"She might not show it on her face," Aiko mumbled, "But I don't think I've ever seen Yuki this excited before."
Garry chuckled, "No kidding, she just went right off."
"I'm going to go see what she's looking for." Ib said, wandering to go find the girl.
"Hm, Garry?" The old woman said, adjusting her glasses, "My... It's been too long!"
Garry looked at the librarian, "You remember me?"
"I remember everyone who comes into this building." She grinned, "Even if they are just little boys running around to play."
"Wow." Garry said, clearly surprised, "I think I only talked to you once or twice in my life. I'm amazed you remember me!"
"Do you have any good stories about Garry when he was a kid?" Aiko spoke up suddenly.
"Sheesh Aiko." Junichi mumbled, "You sure like to butt into Garry's life a lot, don't you."
"Oh be quiet." Aiko chided, turning back to the old woman.
XxXxXxX
"What are you looking up?" Ib asked as she finally found Yuki sitting down at a table with a large selection of books at her table.
"Local legends." She said.
"What?" Ib asked, sitting down next to her, "That thing from yesterday is still on your mind?"
Yuki nodded.
"Did it frighten you?"
"Not particularly." Yuki said shaking her head, her eyes still never leaving pages of the book she was reading, "May I ask you something Ib?"
"Sure."
"It's about you and Garry."
"Oh crap," Ib saw how intently Yuki was looking at her, "Did you hear us?"
"What?"
Ib blushed, "Crap, I thought I was being quiet enough, and I figured since you were in a different room..." She looked away from Yuki, feeling too embarrassed to even look her in the eye.
"No," Yuki said, finally catching on, "It's not about that at all."
"Really?" Ib asked.
"Really." Yuki confirmed, "I meant to ask about the time you guys were in the other world all those years ago. I don't really care what you did last night."
"Oh, um, ok." Ib said, clearly still embarrassed, "But before we go on... How did you know?"
Yuki stared at her for a few seconds, "You and Garry weren't very subtle this morning."
"Oh... I see." Ib said, coughing into her hand, "Anyway! What about the other world?"
"What do you remember from it?"
"I think I told you about this a long time ago..." She put her hand to her chin, "It's over a decade since then, so my memory of the place is a little fuzzy. I remember looking at this giant painting, and then it got dark, and then I went into this other world by going into this large pool of water."
"And in the other world there were things trying to kill you?"
"Right." Ib nodded, "All the art work came alive and tried to kill us."
"I see." Yuki mumbled.
"What's the matter?" Ib asked.
"I wonder if there's any truth to the legend that Garry's dad talked about last night, honestly." Yuki looked up from the book for the first time, turning to face Ib, "If you and Garry truly did go into a different world, then the idea of there being other forms of magic, curses, and such isn't implausible, is it?"
"I guess not." Ib said, clearly uncomfortable, "Garry and I talked about this a little bit last night."
"What did he say about it?"
"He said that he wasn't sure if what he saw was a big dog or the monster that his friend made it out to be from the legend."
Yuki nodded, "My line of thought exactly." She turned back to her book, "I'm trying to find a legend that talks about a giant beast-like creature from around this area."
"Can I help?" Ib asked.
"Yes," Yuki said, "Can you go find Newspaper articles dating from early December six years ago?"
"Sure!" Ib said, rushing away to go get what was needed.
She came back a few minutes later, holding onto a newspaper with the headlines widely proclaiming that there had been a death in the small town. Yuki looked at it once, and put aside her book as Ib put the paper down between the two of them.
"There is nothing new here." Ib said after skimming it, "She was mauled and they couldn't identify a killer or what their motive would be."
"No." Yuki pointed to the text, "It says that there were large chunks of flesh missing from her body, as if it was ripped off."
Ib looked queasy, "What does that have to do with anything?"
"I wonder if this beast ate her."
"Ate her?" Ib asked.
"Perhaps." Yuki shrugged, "Additionally, it says that she was out very early in the morning when the attack was estimated to have happened, which gives Jin's story of it some credibility."
"I see..." Ib nodded along, "So this means what exactly?"
"Nothing concrete." Yuki said, "But I think I found something that is similar to this beast."
"What is it?"
"The Kyōken." Yuki said, lifting up a book entitled, 'Little Known Japanese Myths and Legends', so Ib could read it.
"Rabid dog?" Ib said, "So what is it?"
"Apparently it comes out once a year to feed, late at night, preying on young women who are..." She paused.
"What?"
"Nothing." She recomposed herself, "It might benefit us if you don't know that."
"That is going to bug me all day now..."
"Trust me."
Ib sighed, "Ok. Can you tell me anymore about it though?"
Yuki nodded, "It preys on young woman. Every year it devours one person and then disappears. Since it's a creature of supernatural origins, it prefers to eat women who are at least affiliated with the supernatural. On the other hand, the only way it may be slain is by a supernatural cause."
"So we can't just stab it in the heart to kill it?" Ib asked.
"Correct." Yuki nodded.
"And it preys after women who had some contact with things supernatural? You mean..."
"Yes." Yuki nodded, "I was wondering if you and Garry would count as being 'affiliated' with the supernatural."
"That's not a very comforting thought, to be honest." Ib mumbled.
"I'm sorry." Yuki said with a single blink, "I honestly didn't think of it. Will you forgive me?"
"Yeah." Ib sighed.
Yuki nodded, and stood up to place all the books back besides the one she had in her hands relating to the Kyōken. She walked back to the table, "I'm going to ask the librarian about this."
"That might be a good idea." Ib nodded, "She seemed like a really nice old lady."
The two walked towards the front, where Garry was still chatting with the older woman. Aiko was bored and had her head down in her arms at a nearby table, while Rin and Junichi at least seemed a little interested in what they were talking about.
"Hello Garry!" Ib said, walking over to him, "What are you talking about?"
"Just about my childhood." He said, chuckling a bit, "Are you both ready to go?"
"Almost." Ib replied, and then she dragged Garry aside, "Can you take the rest out to the car?"
"What, why?"
"Yuki and I are going to ask her about the monster, and I don't want them to freak out again."
Garry frowned, "I thought we agreed not to think about that anymore."
"I know." Ib said, "But Yuki might have found something... It would make me at ease if we could at least get this out of the way."
He sighed, "Fine, I'll do as you ask."
"Thank you!" Ib said, giving him a quick peck on the lips and she ran back to Yuki's side.
"Alright guys," Garry said getting up, "Let's head out to the car while they check out whatever book they got."
"Thank god!" Aiko cried out, "I'm so BORED!"
Junichi and Rin, despite their polite smiles, also seemed pretty happy to be leaving.
As the trio walked out, Garry went over to Ib, "Please be fast about it."
"I will."
He then quickly trailed out after the rest.
"What book do you want to check out dear?" The old woman said, "You'll need to fill out a form for a library card, but..."
"I apologize." Yuki said, "I didn't mean to deceive you, but I actually want to ask you some questions prior to getting a card."
"Ok, I'll help you with whatever I can." She smile gently at the two of them.
"Have you heard of the Kyōken?" Ib asked.
Both girls immediately noted how still the old woman got, and her smile almost completely disappeared. She blinked a few times, and then took her glasses off her face and began to use a cloth to wipe them.
"Now what would two young women want to know about that?"
Ib frowned at the sharp voice she had used to address them, "Do you believe in it?"
"No."
Yuki took over, seeing that Ib was starting to get slightly annoyed with how the older woman was acting now. "We ask now because we are interested in the case that occurred here six years ago."
"Yes, I remember it."
"We just want to know more details regarding the case, the newspaper was very vague when it came to specific details." Yuki went on.
"There's nothing to go over." The old woman said, "That was a horrible tragedy, one that hopefully won't be repeated. That kind of attention on our poor little town does us no good."
"What happened?"
"Lots of shops closed up. The prolonged investigation talked to pretty much anyone who was near the site of the crime that night. They never found anyone who was suspicious enough to convict. The media had a field day coming here and chatting with us all." She shook her head in disgust, "It did bring tourist for the first few years, but nothing since then."
"Tourist? Because they believed it was a supernatural cause?"
"Of course." The old woman snapped, "You two brought it up – yes, people believed it was the work of a beast called the Kyōken."
"But it's nothing, right?"
"Stay indoors at night, and you'll have nothing to worry about." she said, "Now stop talking to me of this, I must get back to work."
She turned aside, clearly done with the conversation.
Yuki nodded to Ib, and the two walked out the doors.
"I can't believe how rude she was!" Ib growled, "What gives her the right to do that?"
"She forgot to give me a library card." Yuki noted absently.
"Oh crap, do you want to go back and get it?" Ib asked. She didn't want to go back and face that woman again, but she would do it for Yuki at least.
The older girl shook her head, "Don't worry about it." She reached into her jacket and pulled out a small leather-bound book.
"Yuki!" Ib said in shock, "I didn't think you had it in you!"
"She was being rude, after all." She showed Ib the title of the book.
"Charms, Curses, and Hexes?" She gave Yuki an uncertain look, "That is kind of odd."
Yuki shrugged, "Remember what I said earlier about how the supernatural might exist?"
"Yeah?"
"Well, might as well get to know it a bit more to see if there's any truth to it."
Ib laughed as the two finally reached the van, and opened the door.
"Took you long enough!" Aiko yelled.
As Yuki sat in the front, Garry glanced back at Ib, who mouthed 'later' back at him. He nodded, content with that for now.
"I have another request." Yuki said.
"Where to?" Garry asked.
"I want to see Mr. Kazama."
"What? Jin's dad?" Rin asked, turning to her, "Why?"
Yuki shrugged, "I wish to ask him some questions."
Garry looked to Ib and Yuki, noting the intense look both girls gave him, he finally said, "We'll go there since you both want to do so. I need to get Jin's phone number anyway."
"Might as well get something to eat while we're there." Junichi stated.
XxXxXxX
"My dad?" Jin asked, "Why do you want to see him of all people?"
"I just want to ask him a few questions is all." Yuki explained.
The group had gathered in Kazama's restaurant and everyone ordered food before Garry had gotten up with Yuki and Ib to confront his friend about seeing his dad.
"I guess you can? I'll go tell him you guys want to talk with him." Jin said, clearly confused.
He went in the back, and a minute later the man himself came out.
"Jin tells me you all wanted to see me?"
"Hello Mr. Kazama." Yuki said with a bow, "Is it ok if we talk privately?"
"Hm? What's this about? I have a business to run you know."
"It's about that thing we saw years ago." Garry said, "The giant dog thing."
"I have no idea what you're talking about." The main instantly said, "Now I really need to get back to work, if you'll excuse me..."
Ib reached out and grabbed the sleeve of his shirt, "Wait! You know something! That woman from the library acted the same way when it was brought up!"
"I don't have time to waste with myths!" The man said, tugging his shirt out of Ib's grasp.
"Mr. Kazama, please." Garry spoke up, "I've known you for years, can't you trust me?"
The man paused, and raised a hand to rub his mustache, "Garry... Just stay indoors at night..."
"Please, I want to know."
He groaned, "Ok. Fine. I'll tell you what you want to know. Though I will not speak of this openly out here, come in the back."
He led the three of them into the kitchen where they would be uninterrupted.
"Ask your questions." He said.
"Is it real?" Ib asked.
The man sighed, "Yes."
Garry's eyes widened, "So that night when me and Jin wandered outside?"
"Yes, that was it. Though it was the first and last time I saw it." He shook his head, "You two were foolish to go outside, I don't know what prompted you to do such a thing."
"You and the librarian knew about this." Yuki said, "How many other people know of it?"
"Anyone around my age would be aware of it. The city government is undoubtedly aware of it, which is probably why we don't get any national attention whenever it takes one of the girls away."
"Wait. What?" Garry asked, clearly startled.
"The Kyōken." Yuki said, "The Rabid Dog in other words. A spirit that seeks out young women to devour them. Supposedly it comes here every year at this time to feed."
"Wh – What?!" Garry asked, "You knew about this?!"
"We're aware."
Ib placed her hand on Garry's arm to try and cut off his fury. Unfortunately, it didn't work.
"You KNEW that there was some monster going around killing people, EATING THEM! And you did absolutely nothing to stop it?" His arms were shaking, "What kind of man are you?"
"You don't think we've tried?!" Kazama yelled, "Do you think we like the idea of losing one of us every year? The town is small enough as it is, without some damn demon coming around and killing someone each year! The years we did try to kill it early on resulted in more death!"
"So you're just content with sitting back and letting it murder someone each year?" Garry growled.
Ib frowned, realizing that this had hit one of Garry's berserk buttons – he absolutely hated it when someone refused to do anything to help people in need. She loved that trait about him, but right now they really didn't need an explosion.
"Content?" The old man slammed his hand on the counter, "Watch your words with me boy."
"Well then, why are you not doing anything?" Garry said, taking a step forward. Ib gripped his arm tightly.
"Garry, stop!" Ib said, "Calm down!"
"Mr. Kazama," Yuki said, stepping in between the two of them, "Has the town leadership done nothing to stop this?"
"They've tried." He stated, "But as I said before, every time we attempt to destroy it, it just kills more of us."
"I'd rather die than allow something like that to go on!" Garry cried out.
"Shut up!" The man yelled, walking forward and swinging his arm towards Garry. He didn't expect the girl standing next to him to suddenly move and slam into him, knocking him back into the counters. He let out a gasp as he collapsed to the ground. He looked up to see the red eyed girl glaring at him, "Ugh, what was that for girl?"
"You tried to hit my boyfriend, I won't allow it."
For a brief moment, Garry thought back to the reverse roles that Junichi noted upon, and realized that perhaps there was at least a little truth to that. Fortunately, Ib acting in his stead had done a lot to calm his nerves.
"Thank you Ib," He reached and touched the girl on the shoulder. He then reached an arm out towards Kazama and helped the man up, "I'm sorry for getting angry with you."
Kazama rolled his shoulder, "Your girl there has quite a tackle."
"Now that we've all calmed down, can we get back to what we were talking about?" Yuki prompted, "You were saying that the township has refused to try and stop it because more people died than was worth it?"
"I'm not happy with it, but yes..." He sighed, "I'm too old, and according to old legends..."
"You are unable to kill it unless if you use something supernatural, right?" Yuki replied.
"Exactly." The man let out a sigh, "We don't do what we do willingly. We do it because we have to."
"What happens to the girl that the beast... ate?" Garry asked.
"We bury the remains, and change the town registry records to reflect that she moved away, and if she was going to school, we make sure to alert the other children that she had transferred to a new school far off where they won't be able to contact her."
"That can't possibly work." Ib noted, "Not with today's technology. They have to get suspicious when their calls aren't answered."
"Yes. In recent years it has been getting more and more difficult to hide. It won't be long now before the younger generation learns of this." Mr. Kazama seemed to deflate before their very eyes, letting out a deep sigh and dropping his arms to his sides, "Perhaps you are right Garry, we are cowards for not trying to find new ways to stop it."
"I'm sorry." Garry mumbled, "I was out of line."
Kazama shrugged, "Now if that's all you need to ask, I must get back to work."
"That's everything." Yuki confirmed.
"And, please stay indoors. I don't wish for any of you to get harmed during your stay here."
The man walked back out front to continue his work, leaving the three of them there.
"We're leaving." Garry said, "There is absolutely no way I'm risking your lives here just so I can apologize to my childhood friend."
"What?" Ib said in surprise, "But your dad -"
"He isn't aware of it," Garry said, "He moved here too recently, so he probably never knew the truth or about the cover ups. That doesn't mean that I will stay to make him feel better. Ib, we're not going to be the stupid kids who stay in a town despite the dangers."
"I disagree, Garry." Yuki spoke up, "I think we should stay, I might be able to find a way to defeat this creature."
"No." Garry said, "I'm not arguing this."
Ib frowned and reached up to his ear and pulled, "Listen Garry! We're not staying because we're stupid alright!"
"Ow, ow!" Garry said.
"Yuki said that she might be able to find a way to stop it! You're seriously suggesting that we leave when we can be the ones to put a stop to the murders? Weren't you just going on about this to Mr. Kazama, how you detested that he isn't doing anything?"
"Let go of my ear!" He pulled away, rubbing the sore spot, "You have a point Ib, I'll give you that."
She smiled, "Exactly."
"That being said, you all are going. I'll stay here and put a stop to it myself. That way I won't have to worry about you all as I try to -"
This time Ib reached up and yanked his ear harder than before.
"Ow, Ow! Ib! That really hurts!"
"So you think it's ok to do it by yourself, and that it'll be all right because we'll be safe? Think about it from MY point of view! I'd be worried sick that you'd get injured, or the very real possibility that you might d – die!"
"I – Ib..."
"Shut up!" She said, glaring at him, "You think that by putting your life in the line that you'd be noble? You'd be even more stupid that Mr. Kazama! It's practically certain death if you go alone! With me and Yuki, you'd at least stand a chance! Yuki is really smart, and you know I will have your back! Now stop being an idiot!"
She let go of his ear and stomped off to the group eating outside.
Garry rubbed his ear again, "I said something really stupid, didn't I."
"Do you really need an answer to that question?" Yuki queried, looking at him, "However, she is right. None of us are leaving you to do this by yourself. We're all friends, and there is no way I would let you risk your life without me around. I'm sure the rest think the same way."
Garry smiled, "You guys are too good for me."
Yuki shrugged, and Jin came in from the front.
"What in the world were you guys talking about? I haven't heard my dad get that pissed in years! Then after he comes out, your girlfriend came out looking like she was ready to murder someone!" He shuddered, "Reminds me of whenever I got Miyako really angry."
"I said some stupid things." Garry shrugged, "By the way, before I forget, can I get your number?"
"Huh?" Jin noticed that Garry pulled out his cellphone, "Oh! Of course!"
After the two exchanged numbers, Yuki walked over, "Garry, there is one more place I want to go visit before we head back to your house."
"And where is that?" Garry asked, typing in the number Jin had told him.
"I want to revisit your school."
"Why?" Garry asked, Jin looked equally confused.
"I want to look at the school registry."
XxXxXxX
"You want me to show you guys the student registry?" Miyako asked Yuki and Ib. Garry had wandered off with the others, and was showing them around, leaving them to talk. It was probably for the best after all, since Ib was still a little peeved about his little rant earlier. It was by pure chance that Ib and Yuki ran into Miyako in the offices, and it was probably for the best, since she was at least aware of who all of them were.
She had led them back to her own office where Ib had been the previous day, and they all sat down – Miyako at her own desk, with Ib and Yuki seated across from it.
"Yes, please." Yuki said.
"It's not that big of an issue," Miyako said, "It's not confidential, after all."
"Thank you." Ib said.
"It's no problem. After what I said to your – uh – boyfriend yesterday, I needed to do something to make it up to you."
Ib frowned at the mention of his name.
"Oh? Did something happen?" Miyako asked.
"None of your business." Ib said quickly.
The older woman composed herself, "I suppose so. Just follow me to the records office and you can see the registry. There are some confidential files in there you won't be allowed to view though, so I will have to be there to supervise you around those."
"That's acceptable." Yuki said as she stood up, and both she and Ib followed the woman to the records office.
Upon opening the door, Miyako turned on the light, and Ib's eyes widened. There were several cabinets that looked to be nearly full to the brim with papers.
"We only switched to digital record keeping about a decade ago, so anything beyond then is still paper work."
"This is like a blast from the past." Ib muttered, opening a cabinet and seeing a row of folders filled to the brim with papers.
Yuki meanwhile went over to the computer, and powered it on.
"What is it you want to see anyway?" The woman asked, "Garry's graduating class or something like that?"
"No." Yuki said shaking her head, "I want to see all the students that transferred out over the years."
Miyako raised her eyebrows at that, "Really? What in the world for?"
"Research." Yuki said, which was quickly becoming her 'go to' answer whenever it came to this.
"Do you need me to show you how to do this?" Miyako asked as the operating system logo flashed across the screen.
"No." She turned to her, "Assist Ib in finding the transfers from thirty years ago."
"Thirty years ago?"
"Yes." Yuki nodded.
Miyako sighed, and went over to Ib and the two of them opened up a file cabinet that was annoyingly far back in the room. It took quite a bit of a pull, but they were eventually able to force open the drawer, causing a bunch of dust to fly around everywhere.
Ib wrapped her scarf around her mouth and nose, and peered into the dusty drawer, "These pages are barely legible."
"The school apparently has awful record-keeping." Miyako muttered, "I ought to talk to the principal able this."
Ib pulled out a school registry from thirty years ago, and the two girls walked over to a table and set it down, and opened it up.
"Let's see." Miyako said, looking through it, "Generally it's organized by which year the student is in. There should also be a section that details transfers." She delicately looked through the crumpled pages, and finally revealed one with the information they wanted. "In 1992 there was one transfer, a girl named Saigusa, Ami."
Ib frowned, "Do you want to know the next year, Yuki?"
"Yes please." She got up from her seat, "Every year for the past five years there has been a girl who has transferred out."
"Has there?" Miyako asked in surprise, "I didn't realize that."
Ib found the 1993 folder and pulled that out, searching through the files like Miyako taught her, she found immediately what to look for, "Another transfer."
"What?" Miyako read the name, "Kurugaya, Sakura." She then reach for the year 1994 without either Ib or Yuki to prompt her, and she found what she was looking for, "You've got to be kidding me. Another transfer student?"
"It appears that Mr. Kazama was telling the truth." Yuki said, "One person per year."
"What are you talking about?" Miyako snapped, "Why is there always a person leaving every year?"
"It's always a girl." Ib corrected, "A first year, second year, another first year..." She read through the papers they had gotten, "All of them very young."
"It's perhaps best if you're unaware." Yuki said to Miyako, "If you must know, contact Jin, he'll be more than happy to fill you in."
"Jin?" She blinked in surprise, "Why him?!"
Yuki looked over to her, "It'll give you a choice of whether you really want to get involved or not. If you just continue on as you are now, you don't need to worry about anything. If you look for more though, you'll learn some things you may wish you hadn't."
"You make it sound like it's involved in some cult or something..."
"It's close enough, really." Ib said, "Anyway, thank you for allowing us to look at these."
Miyako nodded a little dumbstruck, "Yeah..."
Yuki bowed politely, and even Ib did so, despite the fact that she didn't particularly care for the woman. As the two walked down the hall to go find the rest of their friends, Ib turned to Yuki, "Why Jin? He barely knows any of the story."
"You seemed to dislike her." Yuki shrugged, "So I figured sending her to him would make you feel better."
Ib noticed the faint smile on Yuki's face, and her mouth nearly dropped open, "Yuki... I already said that I didn't think you had it in you earlier, but I'll repeat it again: I didn't think you had it in you!"
XxXxXxX
Arriving back home, everyone was again, rather quiet. With the exception being, of course, Aiko.
"Let's go to the Hot Spring!" She yelled, jumping out of the car the instant Garry put it in park. "It'll be fun!"
Rin reluctantly nodded, "I agree with you, for once."
Aiko let out another loud cheer, and ran towards the entrance of the house, "Come on, let's go!" She ran inside, presumably up to her room.
Garry shook his head, "I seriously can't keep up with that girl."
Ib walked by Garry, and followed Rin into the house.
"What did you do?" Junichi asked, "She's pissed."
"Something stupid." Garry sighed, "I said some things that I should've just kept to myself."
Yuki came in between the two of them, "Don't follow us to the hot spring, ok?"
"Yeah," Garry nodded quickly, "Ib is already mad enough at me as it is, I don't really want to get her even more angry at me."
"What kind of perverts do you take us for anyway?" Junichi asked, clearly annoyed, "You know we wouldn't do that to you guys."
Yuki nodded, "Just as long as we're clear."
She walked into the house, leaving only Garry and Junichi outside now.
"So..." Junichi started, "What have you guys been doing all day?"
"Do you really want to know?" Garry asked.
"Well, that confirms it," He sighed, "It's about the monster or whatever that Jin was talking about?"
"Yeah," Garry admitted.
"Rin and I have been suspicious all day. You know you can let us in on it."
"I know," Garry sighed, scratching his head, "But with how scared Rin was about it last night, not to mention how much it freaked Aiko out, we didn't want to cause even more panic."
"I get that." Junichi nodded, "And I thank you for thinking of her."
"That's good to hear."
"I do want to know what you learned though."
Garry leaned against the van, and let out a large sigh, "What do you want to know about?"
"About the beast, what is it? Is it even real?"
"I'm sure you heard all the yelling at Kazama's." Garry said, "We were confronting Jin's dad about it, and he kind of exploded at us because of me."
"I remember that." Junichi said nodding, pacing in front of Garry, "What about it?"
"Well, I kind of got angry at him and -"
"Hold on," Junichi held us his hands, "You? Angry?"
Garry rolled his eyes, "It does happen."
"Is it the apocalypse?" He wondered, looking around, "No... No, it isn't. Nothing's on fire. In fact, it's pretty damn cold."
"Right," Garry chuckled a little bit, "Do you want to know?"
"Yeah, sorry."
"Anyway," Garry sighed, "It turns out that the town I grew up in has a nasty little secret."
"Ancient conspiracy? Nothing good can come from this." Junichi muttered.
"That's actually pretty close. It turns out that there's a spirit here that kills girls, and devours their bodies."
Junichi shuddered, "You're kidding me."
"Nope." Garry shook his head, "It has been going on for a long time, according to Yuki, she and Ib looked at the school registry information, and can confirm that it has gone on for over thirty years."
"How the hell can they get away with that?"
"That's the disgusting part." Garry spat, some of his anger surfacing, "They cover it up. If the girl was in school, she transferred away. If it was an older girl, she moved away."
"That's sick."
"No kidding."
"There has to be a reason they haven't stopped it..."
"They can't." Garry sighed, "He claimed that they tried a lot, but it always resulted in more blood shed and death, so the township eventually implemented policies and regulations on what to do whenever the attacks happen every December."
Junichi looked distinctly green in the face now, so he quickly leaned against the car beside Garry, "There's no way it's going to get any of the girls."
Garry smiled, "If it tries, it'll have to go through us first."
Junichi gave a firm nod, and he felt a bit better.
"So why is Ib mad at you?"
Garry sighed, "I told her that I would face the beast alone, and that the rest of you needed to leave."
Junichi gave him a sharp look at that, "She told you off?"
"Yeah. It made her really mad."
"As it should." Junichi nearly growled, "There's no way I would leave you alone to deal with that. None of us would."
"She said the same thing." Garry said.
He sighed, "So it got through your thick skull then?"
Garry laughed, "Yeah, it did."
Junichi sighed, and looked up to the sky, seeing the snowflakes falling he heaved himself off of the van, "It's cold out here, let's go inside and play a board game or something while the girls enjoy the hot springs." He held out his hand for Garry to grab.
"Sure." Garry said with a smile, reaching forward and clasping his hand in Junichi's.
XxXxXxX
Ib was still quite annoyed with Garry – furious even, but she constantly tried to tell herself that he was just doing what he thought was right, and that he meant no ill will. That didn't stop her emotions from going haywire though. She thought that he trusted her more than that, not to mention she was appalled at how selfish he was to demand that they leave so he wouldn't have to worry about them. Didn't he even think for a second how much she would worry for him if she weren't right there with him?
Wrapping a towel around herself, she did honestly feel a bit better when she dipped her foot into the very warm water, and she felt even better as she slowly slide into the spring. She couldn't help but let out a pleasured sigh as the warmth went up her body, and she leaned back, letting her emotions go for the moment.
"This feels so good!" Aiko said, vocalizing everyone's thoughts.
Even Yuki was at peace, letting out a small sigh.
Ib felt someone come in next to her, and opened an eye to see Rin had slipped in beside her. The girl looked hesitantly at her, before she finally let out a breath and asked, "Are you ok?"
"I am now." Ib said.
"I mean, earlier, you seemed mad. What was that about?"
"Garry was being an idiot."
Rin was quiet for a bit, letting out only a small, "Oh."
Ib almost was able to go back to that peaceful place in her mind again, until Rin again broke her out of her thoughts.
"What did he do?"
"Wanted to do something stupid without me." Ib said, "Idiot thought that he was being all heroic and noble, but he was just looking out for himself, he was being selfish and not thinking about me."
Rin nodded, "Ah... Junichi gets like that too sometimes, when he's so convinced that he's doing the right thing for both of us, and he doesn't confront me about it at all..."
Ib nodded, "Then you understand perfectly."
Aiko splashed over, much to Ib's visible displeasure, as a frown spread across her face, "Whatcha guys talkin about?"
"Nothing." Rin shook her head.
Aiko pouted, "Aw, you guys aren't letting me in on the good stuff!"
"What?" Ib asked, opening her eyes, mentally resigning herself to the fact that she wouldn't be able to relax fully in here.
"Boys!" Aiko cried, "You both got boyfriends, and you're leaving me out of it!"
Ib rolled her eyes, "It's none of your business."
"See! You're leaving me out!" She splashed over to Yuki, "They're leaving us out Yuki, I guess it's just you and me now!"
Yuki unexpectedly reached over and splashed some water at Aiko. Ib blinked a few times, and Rin seemed just as shocked.
"Y – Yuki!" Aiko sputtered, "I can't believe you did that!"
"I'm trying to relax." She said, "You were interrupting that."
"Yeah but..." Aiko looked over at the others, "I can't believe you did that!"
Ib shrugged, "She has a point, calm down and just relax."
Aiko let out a long sigh, but did as she was asked, going over next to Yuki, and leaned back. Honestly, it wasn't hard at all to relax in the warm water.
"So..." Aiko spoke up, "What's up with Garry?"
Ib let out a groan, "Does EVERYONE know my personal issues?"
"To be fair, Ib," Rin said, "You didn't exactly hide it very well."
"Not to mention Garry looked as lost as a baby deer without its mom."
Ib sighed, "I know he didn't mean what he said, but I'm still really mad."
"What'd he say?" Aiko asked, clearly intrigued.
"Typical tough guy stuff about being a hero and protecting me, and blah blah blah." Ib grumbled.
"Ah," Aiko nodded, "I know what you mean."
"Do you?" Ib asked.
"Of course!"
"I see."
"And I will let you know, that Garry totally didn't mean to offend you!" Aiko crossed her arms over her chest and nodded a few times, "It's so obvious that he feels bad!"
"I know that." Ib said, "But like I said, It just... Argh! How could he say that?"
Aiko came over and gave Ib a hug, surprising the girl, "Just sleep it off ok?"
"A – Aiko?"
The usually noisy girl smiled, "I don't like seeing my friends fight."
"Yeah..." Ib sighed, "You're right."
Aiko smiled then, "Now, it's have some fun!"
The resulting splash fight destroyed any amount of relaxation that the girl would have, and after a while, even Yuki joined in on the fun with a smile on her face. After an hour or so, the girls were ready to leave, and the building they were in fortunately had changing rooms so they could go back into their winter clothes, since the building was about a five minute walk away from the main house. Once all the girls were dressed, they began to walk.
"What are you going to do when you see Garry?" Aiko asked.
"I'll just tell him I'll feel better in the morning," Ib said, and smiled slightly, "As much as I hate how he acts sometimes, I do still love the idiot."
Aiko smiled, "Good."
A few minutes of walking later, Rin who was leading the group stopped, and looked to the left out in the trees, clearly startled by something.
"Rin?" Yuki said, getting up to her and placing a hand on her shoulder.
"I... I thought I saw something."
"What?" Ib said, her fists tightening as she looked over, ready for anything.
"Is it still there?" Aiko asked.
A few tense seconds passed, and Rin's shoulders relaxed, "No... It was probably nothing. You don't need to worry about it."
Even saying that though, the girls walked much quicker the rest of the way, and made sure to lock the door behind them quickly when they made it to the main house. No one had said anything, but getting inside relieved the tension quite a bit for all of them, and they visibly relaxed as they came to the main sitting room, where Garry, Junichi, and Jack were all sitting around the middle of the floor playing poker.
"Father. You're cheating." They heard Garry say.
"A gentleman doesn't cheat." His father replied.
"There's absolutely no way you can get a royal flush twice in a row. The chances of that are astronomically low." Garry pressed.
Junichi looked to be about to say something, but looked up and saw the girls entering, and smiled, "Ah, they're back."
Garry looked up, and locked eyes with Ib for a second. Ib gave a slight nod, to which Garry replied in kind.
"Your hot spring was amazing!" Aiko yelled, "I want one at my house soooo bad!"
Jack helped himself off of the floor, "It's good to see you all back, it was getting dark out."
Rin nodded, "Yeah, it's kind of scary out there at night."
"It's already ten?" Yuki asked, "I hadn't realized we stayed out for so long."
"I was about to send the boys out to fetch you," Garry's dad admitted, "But they were quite insistent that they thought you guys were alright." He let out a sigh, "Boys these days have no sense of adventure."
"Sorry sir," Junichi said, "But I wanted to live."
"Likewise."
Jack sighed again, "Well, it's getting late. I'm going to go turn in myself I think."
"I will too." Yuki said, and from the corner of her eye, Ib noticed that the girl had the book she had stolen from the library in her hands.
A little bit later, everyone started to head to bed.
As he was about to enter his bedroom, Garry saw Ib walking down the hall and going to her own. He opened his mouth to say something, but closed it and shook his head.
"She'll be better in the morning, surely." He sighed, and opened the door to his room.
XxXxXxX
She couldn't help but think that this painting looked so familiar to her.
It was a pretty woman in red, with a happy smile. Nothing bad about it really.
So why did she feel like something was horribly wrong?
She finally looked away from the painting, seeing the long, dark, and endless hallways. The lights above were only dimly lit, only enough that she could see a few yards in front of her and nothing more. The only thing of note though, was a door a little bit away from her. She had no idea where it led, or where THIS was either.
"Where am I?" She asked, blinking a few times as she realized that she sounded different.
Looking back to the painting, she saw that a mirror was now there beside it. Looking in it, she saw a little girl who couldn't be more than nine years old. She moved her arm forward, and paused, seeing the image do the same. She was a child? That didn't seem right...
"You're in Guertena's exhibit."
The girl snapped her head to the picture hanging on the wall, and saw the woman was talking to her.
"Who's that?" She asked.
"You don't know?"
She tried to remember, tried to think of anything. The name sounded vaguely familiar, but she couldn't pin point what it was about it that made her even have a sense of familiarity with it.
"I can see you don't." The painting said, sounding disappointed.
"What is happening?"
"Well, Ib," The painting said, "It has been so long since you last visited us..."
"Us?"
"Indeed," The woman in the painting waved to all the others along the wall.
Ib glanced around in panic – those weren't there a few seconds ago.
"We've waited so long..."
"I want to leave." Ib stated, "I want to go home!"
"You will not get out of here!" The painting screamed, "I will kill you! You little shit!"
Ib recoiled at the vile words the painting cried out, and covered her ears when she heard all the other paintings crying out in anger and despair. She had to get out of there now!
The painting suddenly fell to the ground, and Ib began to back up as a hand suddenly appeared and lifted the painting up, showing the woman in it dragging herself, "I will kill you!"
Ib ran to the door she saw earlier, all the while hearing paintings falling down. She slammed the door open, and not even looking in, she jumped in, shutting it behind her quickly. She let out a startled cry when the paintings starting banging on the door, their cries of anguish and anger scaring her more than anything.
"Ib?"
The girl turned around, "Mary?"
Mary darted forward and wrapped her in her arms, "It has been too long!"
"Too long?"
"Yes!" Mary nodded, "We're best friends, remember?"
"Best friends..." Ib said, rolling the words off her tongue, "I'm sorry, but I don't know you."
"Really? But you said my name!" Mary cried.
"I'm sorry."
The girl in the green dress laughed, "Don't worry! We can jog your memory!"
"How?" Ib wondered, allowing her eyes to wander the room. There were mannequin heads scattered all about, with what she hoped was red paint all over their faces. She noticed a few paintings up here too, displaying some very creepy looking blue dolls. She then noticed that there were many of the same dolls scattered across the floor all over, their red eyes looking at them.
"We'll be best friends!"
That jogged her memory. "Wait! Why am I here? Me and Garry escaped!"
"Garry?" Mary asked, "Who's that?"
"You tried to kill us!"
"I would never kill my best friend!"
The banging on the door continued, and Ib looked over to it, "Are they going to break in?"
Suddenly she felt something stab into her, and she glanced over at Mary to see that the girl had launched herself forward and stabbed her with a palette knife.
"M – Mary..." Ib muttered, feeling blood sputter out of her mouth.
"We can stay here forever! We can be friends forever!"
"No..."
Mary pulled the knife out, and raised it towards Ib's heart, "I just need to make it so you can't say no to me! Then we won't ever have to separate!"
"Stop!" Ib cried, seeing the knife coming towards her.
XxXxXxX
Ib opened her eyes, and let out a few startled gasps as she woke up.
"It was just a dream..." She muttered repeatedly, "Just a dream..."
She got up and sat at the side of her bed. It had been years since she had a nightmare involving Guertena's alternate world, or at least it had been quite a while since she had one she could so vividly remember. What brought that on?
"Must have been Yuki asking me about it..."
She looked over at the clock by the bedside, seeing that it was only three thirty in the morning. With an aggravated groan, she went over to the dresser and got some different pajamas out, since her current ones were wet with sweat, and quietly tip toed to the bathroom to take a shower.
She allowed the warm water to soothe her bodies, and tried to forget the nightmare even happened.
Feeling clean, she allowed her feet to go on auto pilot, and soon found herself stopped in front of Garry's door.
"Why am I here?" She grumbled.
She seriously doubted that he would want a visit at three in the morning.
She went to move away, but found herself walking back not even a few seconds later. She groaned, wondering why she was so weak.
"I don't need him to care for me, I'm not a baby."
"Oh?"
She jumped and looked to her side, seeing Garry standing there with a cup of water.
"You scared the living daylights out of me!" She cried, "Give me a bit of warning next time!"
"I'm sorry," He said with a smile.
She covered her beating heart with one hand, and let out a few stray breaths.
"Are you ok?" He asked.
"I had a nightmare."
"Ah." He opened his door, "Want to talk about it?"
Despite the fact that she didn't want to seem weak, or appear to need his help, she accepted his invitation, and entered the room anyway.
She looked down at the bed, and flushed a bit.
"Don't worry, they're different sheets. I made sure to wash them."
She let out a sigh, "Good."
The two sat down on the edge of his bed, Garry drinking his water, and looking expectantly towards her.
"I – I dreamed about the other world again."
"Oh?" He mumbled.
"It has been years since I dreamed of that place."
"Same for me," He said, "What brought it up?"
"It's probably because of the Kyōken. Plus, Yuki asked me about the other world today, when she was researching about other forms of magic."
"Magic?" He wondered.
"She claimed that since there are alternate worlds, and that this mythical beast is real, then there might be magic. She took a book of curses from the library."
Garry chuckled, "I see."
"I saw Mary again, and she tried to kill me... She wanted me to stay with her forever."
He nodded, placing an arm on her shoulder. She surprised him by leaning on him, "Ib?"
"I'm not mad anymore." She said, "I'm sorry about that, by the way. I shouldn't have been so rude to you earlier."
"I deserved it." He assured her.
She smiled, "Yeah, you did."
"What do you intend to do about the Kyōken?" Garry asked.
"I don't know." She groaned, "I agree with you that we have to do something, but I don't know what."
"Yuki is really smart," Garry said, wrapping an arm around Ib and giving her a firm pat on the shoulder, "She'll figure something out."
Ib nodded, feeling her eyes begin to droop a bit.
"Do you want any water?"
"Sure." She said, accepting the cup, and drinking the entire thing. She didn't realize how thirsty she had gotten. She blushed a bit as she handed him back the empty cup, but he said nothing as he put it on his night stand.
"Do you want me to escort you back to your room?"
"No." She shook her head, "I want to stay here."
He smiled, "I'm glad."
The two laid down on the bed, and Ib gave Garry a kiss, "I wish you'd have more initiative."
He shrugged at the random statement, "I'll try."
"I guess that's all I can ask for." She said, leaning her head into Garry's chest.
"Also Ib," He whispered, "Needing to see me isn't weak – far from it. Admitting that there's something wrong is probably the strongest trait a person can have."
She nodded, "Thank you."