Well, at long last, this case is finally finished. I hope you guys have enjoyed and I hope I haven't made the ending as obvious as I feel that it is haha. Enjoy. Review. And check out my new poll. :)
Chapter 6-Reveal
December Day 4, 4:57 P.M.
"Mai, are you okay?" the blonde priest asked, as Mai tried to process what exactly happened to wind up in the young man's arms. "Mai?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," she responded shaking her head, finally seeing another fallen bookcase behind all of her worried friends. Had she blacked out? All she could remember was the bookcase swaying and books falling, now here she was, lying on the floor in John's arms.
And that laugh keeps playing in my head, she complained to herself. She kept hearing the maniacal laughter from the tape earlier that week play over and over again. Like something was about to click. What happened?
She didn't dare ask that question aloud, she would have felt more like an idiot considering she basically figured it out seeing the scene before her. Luckily, Naru's phone rang, turning attention away from her. "We're on our way," was all he said before hanging up. He turned to the group. "Yasuhara's back, I think it's time we put an end to this haunting."
"Oh, you figured it out?" Ayako asked skeptically, Naru just put his phone in his pocket and checked his watch.
"I had a hunch from the start of this case, however, I needed evidence to prove my theory, which Yasuhara has been kind enough to find," he explained, he turned to leave. "Matsuzaki-san, Father Brown, I want you to go and keep Hamako company. Yuudai, you might want to join us."
"Well, I certainly am curious," the monk replied.
"You want us to sit on the sidelines, when you apparently solved the case?" Ayako scoffed, rolling her eyes in a most annoyed fashion.
"It wasn't a request," was all he said, he didn't have to say another word. His tone already set the mood.
Back at Base, Yasuhara was waiting for the group to return as he flipped through his notes and sighed. "This really isn't going to go over well," he muttered to himself as the door opened and the young man who asked him to do research walked in. Then his assistant. Then his petite assistant. Then the famous medium. Then Yasuhara's lover walked in after. And then the guest monk.
Without a word, the college researcher handed his folder to Naru, who looked at it and pulled out his phone. Everyone was still coming in and getting settled they didn't notice him calling someone, turning off the volume and placing the phone on the table. "So? You figured out a way to exorcise the spirits here?" Yuudai asked, sitting in the chair by the door.
"Exorcism is not necessary," was all he said as he opened the folder again.
Meanwhile, in the main office, Hamako was playing scrabble with her teacher, while John commented on how well she was playing. "Brown-san, why don't you play?" the girl asked, fixing her glasses much like her cousin.
"No, you already started this game with Nara-sensei," he declined, as Ayako came into the doorway of another office.
"John," she gestured for him to go to her.
"I'll be right back, Hamako," John said, but the girl was already trying to make another word. "What's going on?"
"Naru just called me," she said, putting her finger to her lips. "I'm sure he turned the volume down, but he's letting us listen in on what's going on in Base."
"So that's his plan," John nodded as they both sat down in front of the phone that was on speaker.
"Exorcism is not necessary…"
"What do you mean it's not necessary?" Yuudai was obviously confused. "You and your team have documented at least seven spirits here. At least a cleansing is necessary."
"It is not," Naru retorted. "While we did capture the voices of several spirits, when Hara-san would do her walkthroughs of the building, she could never see them clearly. While this has happened in the past, she never said that she could only see silhouettes until this case."
"I can't even sense specific ages or genders, but I do sense seven souls in this room," she said, peaking Mai's attention. She looked to the window and saw the exact same thing she had seen before. The same silhouettes that stared at her earlier.
"After having Yasuhara, Matsuzaki-san, and John do some research on the property, there was only one other death that was associated with the school. A retired substitute teacher who died in her home just two years after the school opened. With the paranormal activity starting only recently, there is no reason to believe that the teacher would be the one causing the attacks," Naru continued. "That still left us with more questions than answers."
"We still had no clue who the other spirits could be, a long list of paranormal claims, and a school full of children in danger of possible attacks in the near future, we needed more information about the haunting before I could do any more research," Yasuhara continued. "During the second E.V.P. session Mai held earlier this week, a book flew off the shelf in the library and flipped pages. Upon listening to the tape, voices could be heard saying numbers. Mai, you remember that, right?"
"Uh, yeah," she replied, caught off guard. "It was a code, the numbers were specific lines and words for the page that the book had been flipped to."
"Right, we had more information, but not enough for me to do any added research on the school," Yasuhara added, standing up and going to the wall of monitors. He pulled out a basket that had been hidden there. "Then, our very own Mai found a very important clue." He pulled out the hitogata with Kaede's name written on it. "After searching the school last night and today, we found a total of seven hitogatas. Seven different names written on each. And we documented seven different spirits for sure and a possible eighth."
"The names we found written on the hitogatas are Kaede, Takehiro, Minato, Amai, Daichi, Yuki, and Kaori," the two exorcists listened, following along as their researcher explained what they had learned. "Mai, what were the words in the book that the E.V.P. session led us to?"
"Maple, bamboo, harbor, sweet, chapter, snow and perfume," they heard the high school student reply.
"They were trying to tell us their names," John whispered in realization, Ayako nodded and sighed.
"I'm starting to understand why Naru wanted to keep us over here," she commented, looking back at the student who was playing the game with her teacher.
"You don't think someone put a hex on Hamako do you?"
"Well, if Kaede's name was on one of the hitogatas, it may have been why he got sick again."
"But what of the other names?"
"I don't know-shh!" the priestess shushed as Naru's voice came up.
"While I sent out Yasuhara for more research as to who these names belonged to, I learned that Mai had a few incidents today," Naru said, crossing his arms and leaning against the door. "Mai, what happened to your hands?"
Mai raised a brow, trying to figure out where he was going with this. "Well, I was at school heading to the front where Lin was waiting for me and a cart from the science wing fell down the stairs heading for me. When I jumped out of the way a couple of the scalpels must've fallen out and nicked my knuckles," she explained with a shrug. "It was a freak accident."
"And what happened when she finally headed out to meet you, Lin?" he asked turning his attention away from his short assistant.
"The gardener lost control of his mower and Mai didn't see it coming after her," he explained briefly. "I pulled her out of the way."
"And then when we were searching for the last hitogata the camera in the second floor hallway launched itself at her," Naru continued. "So, with her being targeted not only here but at her own school, there are several explanations. If Yasuhara could find a connection between the names and the school, then the hitogatas were used to curse those people and Mai very likely has one with her names hidden here somewhere."
"What if there wasn't a connection with the names?" Masako asked, holding her kimono sleeve to her face.
"Then someone sealed the spirits of those people to the hitogatas and was ordering them to attack Mai and perform the other occurrences that happened here. Luckily, since we have started our investigation the attacks toward the students haven't been an issue until tonight in the library," Naru added, earning a confused look from his researcher. "Which then ended with Mai being targeted again-"
"Isn't it possible that the second bookcase was unsteady already and when the first one fell, it caused the second one to become unbalanced and topple over?" Yuudai asked, interrupting the young manager.
"Normally, I would take that theory into consideration, however after the events of the past few days, I'm sure you can see why I would think otherwise," Naru countered.
The guest monk laughed. "I suppose you're right." Mai felt her stomach drop. She knew exactly where this case was going.
"Yasuhara, what did you find?" Naru asked, changing the subject.
"I wasn't able to find a connection between the school and the names of the spirits, no matter how hard I searched," he began, reaching for the folder on the table. "However I managed to find a connection between a couple names and specific person involved with this case."
Everyone held their breath for a moment before Yasuhara turned to their guest investigator.
"Yuudai-san, do you recall the name Nakahara, Amai?" he asked, catching the man off guard.
"Excuse me?" He raised a brow. "No, I have no clue what you are talking about."
"Nakahara, Amai was a little girl who died at the age of twelve due to accidental drowning. Her mother, Ami, lives in the next town over where her daughter had died. When I contacted her she told me how after her daughter's accident, she was plagued by the sound of her laughter and hearing her bedroom door open and close when no one else was home," Yasuhara continued, scanning through his notes. "She enlisted the help of a monk from Mt Koya to help settle her daughter's spirit and have her move on. Said monk's same was Yuudai."
"What? I don't recall any of this!" the monk was outraged at what he was being accused of.
"Wait, I'm not done," the college student stopped him. "Do you remember a Kobayashi, Daiichi?"
"Once again, no, I don't like what you are trying to accuse me of-"
"I'm still not fnished," the researcher responded, flipping a page in the folder. "Daiichi was an older gentleman, around his sixties when he passed away. His wife, Kimiko, was also plagued by her spirit and hired the help of a monk from the nearby shrine on Mt Koya." Yasuhara closed his folder and looked directly at Yuudai. "Are you sure you don't recall this case?"
"I can honestly say I have no idea who these people are," the monk responded, causing a great deal of déjà vu for the high school psychic in the room.
"Oh yes, well that would have been tragic. But if someone had died then maybe everyone would have learned a lesson," Ubusuna's voice echoed through Mai's head as she recalled that case.
"Is that all you have against me?" Yuudai asked, breaking Mai from her reverie.
"With all due respect, it's quite a bit of information to incriminate you," Naru countered, glancing toward the basket of wooden dolls. "Traditionally, a hitogata is used in hexes and other forms of voodoo to either take the place of the person whose name is written on it, such as with Yasuhara's high school. Or to place a curse on said person, such as what has happened at Yuasa high school. However, it is possible to seal a spirit to these dolls, though that is a rare form of this voodoo, similar to Lin's Shiki."
"It's the same concept of my Shiki, only it uses lesser spirits instead of demons or more power spirits. My Shiki are demons and spirits who had done harm that I managed to control and have work for me. With this form of voodoo, the spirits are usually spirits of lesser power that don't cause harm, but are forced to remain on the Earth to do their master's bidding. They can be forced into a hitogata during a false cleansing," Lin explained further.
"Which would explain why the activity has persisted so long since Kaede's cleansing," Naru finished. "That still doesn't explain why Mai was targeted. At least, not after the final hitogata was found and put in Base. With all of Matsuzaki-san's charms, the spirits would have been forced to remain in this room, even with the door open. So, why were there two attacks in the library not very long ago?"
"This is ridiculous, you have no proof I did any of this, yet you are accusing me of sealing spirits and forcing them to harm children!" Yuudai was not happy with where this reveal was going.
"Well, Mai did have four near death incidents, all of those attacks could have either seriously injured her or kill her, yet if the spirits were the true cause of it, being sealed in the dolls, why was she attacked at her own school?" Naru continued to press, noticing the other monk's reaction.
"Yuudai, I can't believe you would stoop so low," Monk practically growled as pieces started falling into place.
"Houshou! You can't possibly believe this shit! This is ridiculous!"
"Mai, do you still have that book from yesterday?" Naru asked, ignoring the small quarrel in front of him.
Mai nodded, "Yeah, it's in my bag."
Naru walked over to her bag on the table and pulled out the small book. "Where did you get this?"
Tell them. It's time. A little voice told her. With a sigh, she looked down at the ground and the pieces all clicked into place. "Yuudai gave it to me yesterday, saying that it was a book of warding magic that could help me with these cases," she explained as Naru opened it.
"Yes, I gave her the book, I know Houshou has already taught her some, but as a growing spiritualist with increasingly dangerous cases, she should have a book of guidelines," Yuudai explained, crossing his arms. "You aren't going to find anything in there."
Ignoring the monk's explanations, Naru flipped through the book, finding nothing until he came to the back cover. The paper glued to the hardback looked a little off. "Lin, a knife," was all he asked for and his tall assistant complied. Naru carefully cut along a seam that should not have been there. He removed the paper to find a piece of the back cover had been cut into a small square that could be removed. So he removed it, letting out a breath as his suspicions confirmed and Lin removed another hitogata.
Mai gasped as she saw what was written on the little wooden doll. "Are you sure you have no idea what we are accusing you of?" Lin asked, holding it up to reveal Mai's name, not written on it, but carved into the wood.
"This is an outrage! A set up!" Yuudai exclaimed, fed up with this whole reveal. He stood up and headed for the door. "You just want to get rid of me so you can claim the principal's money for yourself! I won't have it!"
"That is fine, however, you seem to have dropped something," Naru said calmly.
Yasuhara picked up another wooden doll at the feet of the monk. "So you decided to target a specific child in the school to make your next slave. Not just Mai did you target, but also my little cousin," the college student remarked, seeing a fire light in the monk's eyes. "Are you sure we do not have evidence?"
Finally, Yuudai just laughed a menacing laugh that sent chills down Mai's spine. She was sure of it. This was the laughter they caught on the E.V.P. but how? "Oh, you must think you are so clever, but I'm sure Houshou already told you all about me, right, Kazuya?" He turned to leave. "However, just know that his hands aren't stained either. There are reasons why he was banned from Mt. Koya."
"I'd rather be banned, Yuudai," was all Monk said as the other monk left the room.
"Matsuzaki-san, John, he should be heading your way, we have Hamako's hitogata so she should be safe, but stay by her side," Naru said, picking his phone back up and turning up the volume.
"Got it, are we taking down Base once he leaves?" Ayako's voice answered.
"We will, once I have a talk with the principal," he replied.
"Sounds good." They both hung up their phones.
Mai had a sad look on her face and a hollow feeling in her chest. Sure, she wasn't a fan of Yuudai, and Naru didn't seem too fond of him to begin with, and even Monk seemed on edge with his presence, but she wasn't expecting him to be the cause of all of this. And Monk is banned from the mount? He had always said he left because he was so in love with music and wanted to pursue a career. Was all of that a lie? Who had been telling the truth?
"Well, that went smoothly," Yasuhara commented after a moment of silence. "Has he left yet?"
"He just walked out according to the cameras," Lin answered. "I'll call the principal over, this isn't something that should be discussed over the phone, after that, I'll have John help me with the unsealing process and we'll dispose of the hitogatas. The haunting should cease once the spirits can cross over."
"Yasuhara, take your cousin home, she's been through a rough day," Naru ordered. "When she gets home tell her the game is over and give her this." He handed over a candy bar from his pocket.
With a raised brow, Yasuhara accepted the candy bar and nodded as he headed out. Perhaps he could bribe Hamako with the chocolate to not tell her mother what had happened in the library that night.
"The principal is on his way, he's like us to meet in his office," Lin said, Naru nodded.
"That's fine," Naru said, turning to the three remaining people of the team in the room. "Start bringing in the equipment, the case is closed, I want everything packed up and us out of here before eight."
"Understood," Masako replied as Mai could only nod. The equipment was broken down and organized, in silence.
December Day 4, 7:43 P.M.
The principal was shocked to say the least once Naru had explained the true intentions of the original exorcist that was hired. Lin then recruited John to bless the hitogatas to unseal the spirits and to release the hexes that were on Mai and Hamako. Masako had been recruited to observe and make sure the spirits did in fact move on. That left Naru, Mai, Ayako, and Monk to start packing the equipment.
They were just waiting for Lin and John to be finished disposing of the dolls, when Mai looked up to her brother-like friend. He had wandered off to the side trying to clear his head. Mai tried to figure out how she could ask such a difficult question. "What did he mean?" she didn't realize she had said the words aloud.
"What did who mean?" Monk returned, looking down at the younger psychic.
"Yuudai, when he said you were banned from Mt. Koya," she said after a breath. "He was lying, right? I mean you being banned from anywhere, there's just no way." She tried to laugh it off, but her friend just grew a somber look on his face as he sighed.
"No, he was right, me pursuing music was only a partial reason why I had left," he began, shoving his hands in his pockets to shield them from the cold. "Another reason was because my family no longer runs the temple. But when my family turned the operations over to another family who had worked there for them, it was found that they only wanted money. Yuudai's scam wasn't the first time I have seen corruption from the mount. In fact, Yuudai's father is the one who runs the temple now."
"So, this was something he learned from his father, is the whole mount corrupted?" she asked, crossing her arms.
"It wasn't at first, but then greed overcame most of the younger monks and some of the older ones too. There were a few who were not pleased with the direction that the new leadership was going and left the mount."
"But that doesn't explain why you were banned," Mai looked back up at him. She saw a sadness in his eyes that she had never seen before, the empty feeling in her chest turned into a heavy weight. "Why didn't anyone try to expose them?"
"Well, that's the reason why I'm banned," he shrugged, looking back up at the sky, the moon was almost full. "Back when my family ran the mount, we never charged anyone for an exorcism. Once Yuudai's family took over, they started charging a ridiculous amount for a simple cleansing. I tried to convince them to at least lower the rate, but Yuudai turned all of them against me. Saying I was just pissed that my family was no longer in charge. And after an argument turned physical, I was banned from the mount and forbidden from performing exorcisms in the name of Mt Koya."
"But wait, you have-"
"No, I just say I received my training from there, to show some credibility, all of my exorcisms have been of no charge, unless Naru deems it necessary to pay me for my services," he cut her off. "Part of the reason why your school was able to hire so many exorcists was because John and I don't have a price."
"Wow, I had no idea," she replied, looking down, the heavy weight in her chest changed to a burn. What Yuudai had been doing was diabolical at best. He sealed the souls of seven people, two of them were children, then used those spirits to attack a school filled with children. Then put a curse on Hamako that could have severely injured the girl. And put a death hex on the young psychic herself. She had been lucky, four times that day she could have died. She would have died had she not thought quickly or had her friends nearby. She should have died had the hex had its way.
It was days like this, she really wished she hadn't skipped running that morning. She was going to do double time tomorrow to counteract her nerves. "Mai?" the monk's voice broke her daydream.
"Yeah?" she asked, looking back up at him.
"Here comes Lin, it's time to go home, it's been a rough week, especially for you," he said, ruffling the girl's hair. "By the way, I like the new style, it's definitely you."
"Thanks," she said with a shake of her head and a chuckle.
Saturday, December, 5:07 P.M.
Apparently after they had finished packing up Base, Yuudai didn't go back to the school. Naru contacted the principal, who said he had tried to contact him to let him know that the case was finished and that he was no longer needed. However the man never called back to get the money he should have been paid had he solved the case. Hopefully, the monk had learned a lesson and wouldn't try to scam people again…
Well, now that the case was over, Mai ended up working nine to five at the office filling out paperwork, making tea, and other menial tasks that Naru could come up with. At least she was getting paid and she had a party to go to soon, which she was getting ready for at the office now that her shift had ended. She decided not to curl her hair (which will disappoint Michiru once she gets to the party) and was now fixing her makeup. Nothing major, a little power, eye shadow, mascara and some lip gloss, she looked at herself in the mirror, hoping her red sweater dress was on properly. She needed to have Naru invest in a full-length mirror, that would make this so much easier.
Another run of her brush through her hair and she determined that was as good as she was going to get. She walked out to see a small box sitting on her desk. Curious, she picked it up and opened it. There was another box, wrapped in red paper and green ribbon and a note taped to it.
Sorry I couldn't stop by in person, things came up, but I wanted Naru to give you this. Thanks for dealing with such a narcissist. He's come a long way in the last year. Hope you enjoy the holiday and (I hope) a few days off.
Merry Christmas, Mai!
Madoka
Mai ripped through the paper and opened the box. A charm bracelet was inside, a few charms were already attached. A couple of basic ones, like a running shoe, a dress, a book, and a charm that looked suspiciously like a chibi Madoka. Smiling, Mai put the bracelet on her wrist as the door opened, she turned around nervous yet slightly relieved when she saw Yasuhara's cheeky grin enter.
"Mai! Perfect!" he exclaimed, holding the door open for someone else to walk in. "We came to see if you needed a ride to the party."
"Hi, Mai!" his guest smiled, Mai hadn't seen her in almost two months.
"Hi, Kiko, wait, why do you know about the party?" she asked, slightly confused as she sat at her desk and changed out of her flats to some heeled booties.
"Michiru invited me and told me to bring a friend, so Kiko agreed to be my date," he explained, as she pulled out a wrapped box from one of her drawers. "What's that?"
"A present for Naru," she explained simply, heading for her boss's office.
"Ooh! Your boyfriend won't be happy that you're giving gifts to other men!" Yasuhara teased, earning a look from Mai and a nudge from Kiko. The door opened once again.
"Okay, so once John and Masako get here we'll head out to the rink and then-well don't you all look nice," Ayako said, walking in to see three well dressed teenagers. "You going on a double date?"
Mai just rolled her eyes and walked into her boss's office. "Naru, I ha-" she stopped as she realized that no one was in there. "Huh, he must have run out to the van to grab something." She shrugged and left the present on his desk. When she came back out, Masako and John were there.
"So, you got invited to Mai's friend's party? How did that happen?" Monk asked raising a brow.
"I've met her a couple of times and about two weeks ago she invited me to her party," he briefly explained.
"That was the most questionable explanation I've every heard," Kiko said raising her brow.
"Details are unimportant. What is important is the identity of this one's boyfriend," he returned pointing at Mai.
"Huh, I'm surprised Michiru hasn't told you," Mai commented, crossing her arms.
"Now, is this really that important? As long as she's happy there shouldn't be an issue," John piped up with a smile.
"Yes, it's important! You want some stranger taking our beloved Mai away from us!" Yasuhara was appalled at the notion. The door opened once again and Lin and Naru both came in, their heads covered in snow.
"Why is it, my office is your gathering place when you want to go out on your days off?" Naru commented, taking off his coat.
"Well, it is an easy spot to get to and for the most part none of us have gotten lost getting here," Masako commented.
"Now, back to the topic at hand," Yasuhara changed the subject, a suspicious gleam from his glasses certainly wasn't very settling to Mai. "What is his name?"
"It's not Arata, he's apparently going out with Setsuko, she answered me about Akifumi," Ayako answered.
"Maybe it's Orochu, nah, couldn't be," Yasuhara shook his head, dismissing the thought. "She'd never go for a guy with bleached hair, not her style."
"Hey, what about Riku? He was very happy that Mai helped save his sister," Monk offered.
"Well, the only one I can think of, if we are talking about guys from cases, would be Shouta, then again," Kiko laughed, crossing her arms. "I've only been on a couple of cases with you guys."
Mai ignored the their comments as her boss placed a wrapped box on her desk. She looked up and smiled. "Thank you," she said, opening it as he walked toward his office only to turn back around when she pulled out the present.
Her heart sank with annoyance as she held up a children's plastic cup. It was obviously for a young child who was just learning table manners, it even had princesses and unicorns all over it. It also had her name scribbled in English cursive. Her eyes narrowed as she looked at her boss. "Naru…" he toned held a warning as she spoke. Naru had a playful smile as she spoke.
"This way we have one cup you won't be breaking," he said, walking back into his office.
"You are so mean, Naru!" she exclaimed shaking her head. She slightly regretted getting him a mug that had a ghost and his nickname painted on it. Then she saw something in the cup.
She turned the cup over as her friends got a good laugh at the gift. A little charm fell into her hand. It was a little cartoon ghost that was the perfect size for the charm bracelet that Madoka had gotten her. Suddenly, the children's mug wasn't a bad gift anymore, in fact, she was thinking about using it for when she makes tea on Monday when she comes in.
"So, this is what your office looks like," a voice commented, no one had noticed the bell ring as the door opened and their guest had let himself in. "Wow, the gang's all here."
"Hey, Shouta," Mai greeted with a smile, walking up to him and kissing his cheek. "Well, congrats, Kiko, you were right."
"No, I was just lucky," she commented, nudging her date.
"Is everyone going to the party?" Shouta asked, ignoring the fact that his girlfriend didn't tell her friends they were dating.
"No, just Yasuhara and Kiko," Mai answered, grabbing her coat and purse. "Let's get going, Keiko is probably going nuts trying to keep Michiru calm with all the organizing." SHouta helped her with her coat as she turned back. "Naru! I'm heading out now, I'll see you on Monday-oh!" There he was standing outside his office, arms crossed and expressionless face showing. "I didn't realize you came out."
"It's fine, don't be late on Monday," he said, then his face softened as Mai turned to leave. "And Mai-"
"Yeah?" she turned her head back as Shout held the door open.
"Have fun at the party."
Mai had a huge grin on her face. "Thanks! I will!"
Kiki: Tada!
Mai: Wow...
Kiki: Is that a good wow?
Mai: Um...
Kiki: *narrows eyes*
Ayako: definitely an interesting chapter
Monk: *sighs*
Masako: Thank you all for being so patient with this case, it was a short one but took the longest to post. Kiki definitely appreciates it.
Yasuhara: Also, we won't be giving a preview to the next case this time.
John: The reason for that would be because there are going to be a couple of chapter before the next case.
Lin: We will give you a brief preview of the next chapter though. Naru, it's your turn.
Naru: Next chapter: Post Case: Michiru's party. Mai and Shouta have a blast at the party. *walks out*
Kiki: Review please!