"Are you planning to start monitoring tonight?" Mai sat cross-legged like a monk on the tatami floor. Her eyes still taking in the traditional rooms despite the modern technology they've already brought inside and currently being arranged. 'No matter how many times I've looked, I still can't believe I'm here right now with Naru!'. Mai giggles in her thoughts,

Squeal~!

She asked this particular question to the boss of the case and to the very man in her thoughts, Naru who sat on one of the single chairs situated next to the wide-open window that presented the night lit ocean. It's crystal waves pleasant to the ears to those who intended to sit by and just listen while he, himself, focused on the papers in front of him. A tin of biscuits placed just near his reach. And in front of his single chair was a small coffee table (that is where the tin biscuits are) with another single chair across from it, one that Akemi is currently occupying with her ankles crossed and hands placed on her knees as she kept her eyes closed and listening to the sea, its been a while since she has been to one. Well, she had been on the sea in many occasions, though those are occasions that concern the SPR cases, not the usual ones where the reason is vacation— like the mansion situated near a cliff case. Akemi could still remember that case with the two lovers reuniting, it always placed a smile on her lips—

'Lips... Didn't the two lovers requested her about something that time? What did they request about...' Akemi felt like she was forgetting something— or not actually forgotten... Just ditched on the back of her mind.

Akemi opens her eyes, placing an elegant smile while her head tilted just slight in question. "Shouldn't we?" Akemi asks, pertaining to Mai's question before letting her eyes gaze outside as the as the stars soon shined. 'Hm...'

The sound of papers being stacked came crisp to Akemi's ears, Naru having compiled what they already had and knocked them together on the table for it to align. "Usually, there are more clues to investigate but we'll try going to the local library in the morning, Bou-san, Akemi, do you have a protective charm for Hazuki-chan?"

Mai blinked, confused on who he will send to the library when it seems everyone is busy. "Who's going?"

Akemi kept it to herself and almost sent a wry smile towards Mai's way, if Naru ever continues his plan— there's a low chance Naru would send Mai or might call for back-up— although Akemi thinks that the latter is incredibly possible all because Naru wouldn't trust the girl to actually do research with how she uses her brain. That was harsh, but Akemi could already feel what Naru would think about and this is exactly what he would think about. Surely he couldn't send her, Akemi isn't able to read with her condition. Lin is too busy as their technician— either Naru goes himself or employ somebody else to do it.

And he'll definitely employ.

Bou-san nods towards Naru's question unaware of Akemi's thoughts. "Of course, and I set up a spirit barrier around the room, boss."

KNOCK KNOCK—

"Thanks for your hard work so far. Do you mind if I come in? I brought some tea." Akifumi slid the door open, in his hand was a kettle filled with brewed tea— one of the reasons Akemi only handed biscuits, knowing that the place would hand out organic Japanese tea.

"Akifumi-san! Wow, you brought the pot too!"

"Please have some." Akifumi smiles, handing out tea to everyone. Mai being the first one given as she was closest and looks to be more excited,

"Thanks a lot! Any place that serves tea from time to time has got to be good!"

Akifumi looked around, checking their equipment before he civilly started a conversation. "Did you enjoy your meal?"

"It was very satisfying!" Mai paused, placing her cup down to her lap. "Speaking of which, your family sure is quiet when they eat. Your brothers barely said a word the whole meal."

"I'm sorry," Akifumi sighs. "They're usually quite lively, but lately they've been moody. It can't be helped."

Mai shook her head, sending Akifumi a small smile of encouragement as she saw the worried gaze of Akifumi. "They're worried. Eijirou-san seemed to be in particularly bad mood..."

"You're right, I wondered what happened all of a sudden..."

Akemi stopped herself from taking a sip and looked to the direction where Akifumi would be. "What do you mean?"

"Oh! Right, you we're not present earlier... um— Kazu-niisan and Eijirou-niisan help out at the restaurant. Originally, they had great manners. Good social manners are fundamental to the service industry. This was the first time I saw that odd expression on Eijirou-niisan."

Naru lets out a humming thought, "So you've never seen that look on Eijirou-san's face before? And the same goes for Kazuyasu-san?"

Akifumi nods, "That's right. Kazu-niisan has also been tense the last two or three days. Yazu-niisan used to be a cheerful person. In fact, my mom and dad used to scold him for being too cheerful."

And the series of questions began, "When did you notice a change in Yasutaka-san's personality?"

"I'd say ever since my grandfather's funeral, but I couldn't say why."

"Has anyone else's personality changed?"

It didn't took a while for Akifumi to list down their names, their shift in personality awfully distinct. "Yes, Youko-neesan's also— but the ones whose personality changed the most are the children."

"As in Hazuki-san?" Mai unconsciously furrowed her brows, couldn't bear to imagine if Hazuki was anywhere different to the current along with her wounds, Mai felt awful thinking of the possible contrast.

"No, there are two more children besides her." Akifumi clears up, while Akemi's sights turned to the closed sliding doors of the room. With a curious look, she excuses herself without waiting for any permission and leaves outside. Not forgetting to take a camera with her, Naru having designated her for camera duty to film everything in case she catches something.

Only when did the doors closed behind her did Naru remove his sight on his papers, pausing mid-way to glance at the closed doors before returning to ask further questions.

"Kazu-niisan has two children, Katsuki and Hazuki... and Tezuka-neesan has one child, Wakako—" Akifumi fiddled with his fingers. Full concern plastered on his face, worried on what was going on with the innocent children. They were just children after all, joined in the mess. "Katsuki and Wakako are the one's who have gotten strange. Until now, they were perfectly normal but..."

"Recently they've been clinging on to each other. On top of that, they've been secretly talking nonstop to themselves."

"And if you try to hear what they're saying they exchange looks and run off."

Naru took note of it, his pen tapping at the edge of his notebook. "When did this behavior start?"

"Around the time of Grandfather's funeral, of course." Naru remained quiet, trying his best to focus but something lingered in the back of his head, his eyes once again glancing at the closed door before shaking it off and giving out a sigh.

"If I'm not mistaken, they are close here... somewhere," Akemi stepped inside the dark hallways. Oliver no longer beside her as soon as she found out of the dead animals, she sent him right back to her home. She was not taking any chances, and she knew it was an idiotic move having to venture the halls by herself when she has trouble navigating but something— someone? it felt like a someone— was urging her to go alone. She was not too worried though, she felt no malice on the invitation, just an urge to see what— or who was calling.

It took only a few steps before she stops. Turning to look behind her with an inviting smile. "Why hello, what are you doing inside those children?"

Akemi kept a good aura around herself as she stared at the texture of the spirit possessing the children. It looked close to what she saw back at Yasuhara's school case. Though instead of mist like auras, this clay-like aura was thick— Akemi could just feel its oily texture just by looking at its dark color. There was a hint of bitterness spite and pride surrounding it, though unlike Yasuhara's school case, she can only smell incense. This was not a work of a person calling forth spirits.

Akemi can only hypothesize that all this is caused by human beliefs, an item or maybe a person that once was idolized and fed with spiritual energy— giving it an ability of its own. Akemi couldn't fully describe Naru's explanation word for word, but from what she could understand to explain the different beliefs of people, was that some of non-religious objects gain spiritual energy due to one's belief. Naru continues his explanation by adding Law of Attraction theory to the mix, where ones thought, negative or positive brings forth its coinciding energy. If let's say, a wooden stick declared to be a holy relic for luck, with the belief it is luck— spiritual energy of the person feeds the ordinary stick of positive energy which brings forth positive results. However, if the stick was declared as a wishing stick for war and violence, then it can only be used by people who wishes for war and violence, feeding the stick of unfortunate events and thereby bringing what it is filled with.

Seeing how the clay-like aura around the children was dark and filled with bitterness, with no evidence of any human tampering just incense, Akemi so far can tell that they were dealing with a spiritual being. Though it doesn't hold the same powerful aura as spiritual creatures she has seen, so she can only theorize that this is a work of human beliefs.

"You're pretty..."

Akemi kept her civil smile, not wanting to invoke wrath on a neutral (yet) spirit. Even if she has some theories, it doesn't mean Akemi can go right ahead and fight it. "Oh, why thank you. Can I ask who you are?"

The spirits turned to each other, though their eyes remained staring at Akemi. They started whispering to themselves, and Akemi tried her best to make sense of their words, but she wasn't even able to get a glimpse of it.

The two spirits finished their conversation, tuning back to a normal tone they spoke to her. "You're perfect..."

"Perfect?" Akemi frowns, the more she stayed with them, the more cautious she was becoming. She didn't particularly like the way they stared at her. "Perfect for what?"

The spirits brightened at the question, "You're the perfect bride!" Akemi stiffened, eyes blinking in questioning shock. "B-bride?"

The two spirits laughed at her expression, once again conversing to themselves. "Think you can run off by yourself, dont'cha?"

"She thinks! hihi~ though they did try..."
"They did try..."

"But he's been waiting for you~"

"Been waiting!"
"That's right, that's right!"

"That's right~!"

Akemi takes a step forward, her brows furrowed but shoulders determined, ignoring the peculiar way they spoke. "Who's been waiting?" the two spirits turned to look at each other, for once removing their gaze from Akemi and snickered to each other before turning to run away with hands clasped together.

"Wait!" Akemi planned on following, her hands reached out to catch them but a scream coming from the end of the opposite corridor straightened her up and lose focus of the children, looking back to seeing they were gone.

She was left alone in the dark hallway. Staring at the empty halls, Akemi glances on one of the open windows that views the wide ocean, the scent of salty sea breeze went to her nostrils. Her eyes staring at the dozens of orbs mindlessly floating up to the sky, having planned on telling this to Naru later before turning to the opposite corridor to find out what was going on. 'I'm the perfect bride...?'

"AGHHHHHHHHHH!"

"Mai!"
"Bou-san did you hear that scream—"

"Yeah, I did! It came from the main wing!"

Naru and the others rushed from the base, all of them hurried towards the main building and as they got closer, the uproar rapidly increased as violent sounds of voices shouting and things breaking were growing louder the sooner they got closer to the room. As they rushed in, they were confronted with the figure of Eijirou-san's enraged expression, his hand tightly grasping a kitchen knife widely swinging in the air.

He looked completely rabid, his face trickling with slight blood. A deep cut coming from his forehead, staining half his face however, Eijirou didn't seem to notice or particularly mind for that matter as foam clouded the corner of his lips and kept shouting in rage. The knife he holds had its tip broken, the broken tip sticking out of the TV frame which resulted to a sigh of relief as it meant no harm was given to his wife as they pulled her closer to the group to keep her safe from Eijirou's unhinged rampage with his broken knife.

"Hey! What's goin-!" Bou-san didn't get to finished when Akemi just in time reached the room and Eijirou's wild sight came unto her.

"You—!" Eijirou broke free from the clutches of his family, the knife being let go in the process and spread his arms towards Akemi, he was quick in his movements that it surprised the others frozen in place. It was only when the touch of his hand reached Akemi's shoulder did the men of the SPR quickly intervened.

Naru took hold of the bloody hand of Eijirou that touched Akemi's shoulder with, grabbing his wrist and twisting it to pin on his back, Lin took over to lock Eijirou on a hold though this seemed to enrage Eijirou once more as his teeth soon bared and menacingly glared, even when he kept his eyes set on Akemi like a prey, the woman could tell he wasn't enraged towards her but more towards those who made him captive. When Eijirou took a deep breath planning to escape with wild actions, Lin raises his hand in a chopped position and hit the back of his neck with an excessive force that made Eijirou pass out and fall on his backside.

Lin expressionlessly looked at the audience that were left flabbergasted at his amazing set of skills. Skills that he had clearly learned overtime. With a blank tone, Lin suggests: "I think it would be better if we tied him with something." with his suggestion, everybody started fluttering around the room. Few of the family members left to get some rope, those who had witnessed the whole thing, particularly his wife, was left behind with them for the SPR group to interview.

"He is possessed," Akemi speaks up, her eyes narrowed and focused at Eijirou's unconscious state. The thick oily aura present around him, and like the two spirits she saw— it was filled with bitterness and spite. "And so are the two other, the children Akifumi spoke about before I left."

Naru nods, turning his gaze away from Eijirou and towards Akemi's when he fully convinces himself that Eijirou won't suddenly wake. "And you got all that interaction?"

Akemi raises a brow that conveyed 'You think I'm five?' from his need to be sure, one that Naru in turn used the aura around him to state, 'Just answer the question.'. The corner of her lips twitched up, though this was not the right place to feel butterflies and so Akemi stuck to her professionalism for once. "I did, the camera was fully recording everything from the moment I left the room."

Naru nods at her words before he who calmly spoke, "What exactly happened?" his question directed to those who witnessed the events.

"It was because of his moodiness at mealtime today, I just asked him the reason why." Teruka-san spoke in a trembling voice, Mai beside her tried her best to comfort the shaking woman, whose main subject of the topic was being dragged to the corner of the room, to place some sort of distance from them. "He insisted it was nothing, so in a moment of anger I said 'If it was nothing, then why did you have such an expression?' but he whispered something, I couldn't hear it clearly but he kept repeating it over and over again 'She is finally here,' he said and I asked who he was talking about but then he suddenly stood up and left the room. Just when I thought he had immediately come back, he was carrying a kitchen knife... then started shouting 'You won't take my bride away from me!'."

At the mention of her words, Akemi flinched this went unnoticed as she took steps near the walls. "-then he started rampaging all over the place, I was certain that he had taken leave of his senses. What was he thinking?!"

"Do you have any idea why Eijirou-san was in a bad mood? Aside from what you mentioned?"

Teruka-san shakes her head at Naru's follow up question. "I don't know. He was normal before the meal. Even in the itaba..."

"Itaba?"
"It's the kitchen," Akemi translates for him, and at her words, Teruka-san nods.

"That's right. My husband is a chef with my father, the pair always prepared the dishes, they completed the preparation from start to end, then he left saying he was going outside for some fresh air. When he returned, he was already like that."

Akifumi came back in time, with a first aid kit and a cargo rope clutched in his hands. They all kept watch while Ayako helped tend to Eijirou's injuries. When Ayako opens the kit, Bou-san spoke out his thoguhts. "So it's a spirit possession..."

Naru nods, not once uttering anything and from Akemi's silence, Bou-san continued his words. "Looks like we'd better call John or—" no, it would take too long.

Naru looks at Akemi, "Akemi, can you expel it?"

At the question, Mai's eyes brightened. Akemi on the other hand, hesitated. "I can, though from the looks of Eijirou's situation— my method of exorcism would give him a painful extraction unlike John's since this spirit fully intends to stay. This would need most of my energy. Would that be alright?"

Naru hummed in thought, turning his attention to Ayako, it was better to know his options. "How about you Matsuzaki-san?"

Ayako perked at the call of her name, "Me?" when Naru nodded, she gave out a thought. Her words not entirely confident. "I'm not incapable but... it's hardly my expertise."

Naru sighed, disappointed— Ayako scoffing at his attitude— but before the Miko could scold, Naru already directed the question to Bou-san, who shared it would be a first for him. Which was a risky territory to try as every exorcism he had tried were only to possessed objects, which all resulted to wreckage of the inhabited.

Once again another disappointed sigh came from Naru, a bead of sweat falling from Bou-san, "Sorry to disappoint you, your majesty." Bou-san huffs muttering the words under his breath in hopes Naru wouldn't hear, the monk crossed his arms and pouted on the sidelines as Naru turns back to Akemi, whose hands were clasped in front of her, her head tilted as she waited for his orders.

"Yes?" Akemi blinked,

And once more, Naru sighs though instead of it conveying his disappointment it was more a breath of knowing there were no alternatives available. Eijirou-san needed to be exorcised, for the safety not just of the Yoshimi family but for them all.

They had to perform it, with or without John.

A/N: to be edited~!

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So, I'm back... please don't kill me! HAHAHA , I'm actually contemplating on whether I should bring Akemi's sight back or not... what do you guys think? There's just a lot of pros and cons to when Akemi has her sight or not. And this is one of the reasons why I haven't posted this because I'm stuck on this! huhu...

Should I? or should I not?

Anyways, hope you guys enjoy!

The next chapter is already on the works, hope you guys like it~!