In this chapter, the team finally investigates the hatch that Ayako and Monk found. It goes downhill fast.

.o0o.

Somehow, Lin couldn't comprehend the fact that he was once again staring down the woods, about to enter them. Not once during his ordeal had he ever gone into the woods. From what Ayako and Takigawa had reported, the spirits inside were dormant, but not in a good way. Logically, he knew that they had to be sealed inside the trees, plugged up or something. But the part of his brain responsible for keeping him safe and alive didn't give a flying feather about logic. His mind was of two halves: follow the group, or lie down and let his soul flee for its very existence.

"It's hard…"

Lin turned at hearing Mai's voice. The girl was clutching her head.

"What's wrong, Mai?" Monk asked.

"It's Weiguó. He doesn't want to go in."

"Of course he doesn't," Naru said. "But he's not in control. You are."

Lin took a quiet breath. I am in control. He took a step forward off the road, feeling his weight transfer onto soft earth. So far, nothing had leaped out of the bushes or rose from the ground. Once both feet were off the road and in the dirt, he took a deep, grounding breath and extended his hand out to Mai. Both he and Mai flinched when they saw the cuff glisten in the sun. Right, Lin still had that thing on his wrist. Both of them, in fact.

"Uh, want me to get rid of those for you?" Monk asked, reaching out for the bolt cutters, which Mai gave him.

Lin wordlessly turned toward Takigawa, who gingerly inserted the cutters between flesh and metal. Because they didn't have the key, Takigawa had to make two cuts to break them off. They fell to the ground, and Lin began to rub the irritated skin they left behind.

"Thanks," he said.

"You're welcome," Takigawa replied.

Lin turned back to Mai and extended his hand again. "We'll be here the whole time," he said. "We'll put an end to this." And in Chinese, he said, "A little trust is all I ask."

Something—or someone—in Mai shifted. The fear evaporated from Mai's face. She took Lin's hand with an uneasy smile and stepped off the road.

"Thanks. He wouldn't stop screaming at me. What did you say to him?"

"I just asked him to trust us for now."

Mai paused, her hand still resting in Lin's. Her eyes were fixed on his palm. Surely, she could feel the shaking. "But you… you're still afraid." She met his gaze, her concern readily apparent.

Lin nodded. There was no point in denying it. "I won't let that stop me from doing what we need to do." His tone left no room for protest or argument, even though it was clear that Mai still had reservations. He let go of Mai's hand, and she let him. With a nod at Takigawa, the monk took the lead.

They were fortunate that, in their haste, Fusei and Hattori did not remove the duct tape X's that Takigawa left earlier. It got them all the way to the rooted overhang where Monk all too gleefully informed the gang of his and Ayako's emergency make out session.

"Do that again, and I will kick you where the sun don't shine," Ayako said loud enough for the whole group to hear.

Monk pulled out his phone, scrolling through the images that he took of their landmarks. He didn't look sure for long.

"I can't tell!" he eventually shouted.

"Then what was the point of taking photos?" Ayako said.

"It was a good idea at the time. I just didn't think it'd be this hard." Monk looked at her. "Why don't you lead? You're the one who was dodging and weaving yesterday. You found the hatch, not me."

Ayako shrugged. "I was just travelling. I didn't have a destination in mind."

"Think you can replicate what you did?" Naru asked.

"I doubt it, but I can lead us somewhere. Who knows, maybe we'll find something else interesting?"

"Let's keep moving, and keep an eye out for anything unusual."

Ayako took the lead, and she picked up the pace considerably. Lin looked back at Masako, who had dressed in a sweater and long pants. Running in a kimono wouldn't be ideal at all.

"Do you sense anything?" he asked.

Masako shook her head. "Not yet."

"You should be at the front."

"I don't know where we're going."

"Behind Ms. Matsuzaki, I mean."

"Everything all right back there?" called Monk, stopping the group.

"I'm coming up to the front," Masako said, passing Lin, Mai, John, Naru, and Yasu. She stopped between Ayako and Monk. "Lead the way," she said. "This way, I can see what you can only sense."

Ayako nodded.

"Good thinking," said Takigawa.

"It was Lin's idea."

"Good thinking!" called Takigawa.

The group kept moving. Ayako picked up the pace, and Masako predictably had to huff and puff to keep up. Lin kept up the rear. Fire, his last remaining shiki, was remarkably quiet. Not in that it didn't speak—Fire was only a little less reserved than him—but here in these woods, Fire was keeping its entire demeanor quiet. If it wasn't tethered to Lin, Lin wouldn't even know it was there.

"What do you sense?" Lin asked.

Fire had been so quiet that Lin could feel its ears perk up against his neck. "It feels like I'm at a funeral. Idle chit chat is not appropriate."

Lin recalled what Mai had said. This was sacred ground, so naturally, outside spirits would find it hard to be here.

"This is not idle," Lin replied. "I need you on lookout."

"Yes, Master."

The tone was flat, as though Fire was devoid of any personality. Lin knew better, but a twinge of worry still pinched in his gut.

"I see something!" crowed Masako from the front. She was pointing slightly off to the right. Ayako walked in that direction as Naru inquired as to what exactly Masako saw.

"A clump of spirits… up in the trees."

"In the trunks?" Monk asked.

Masako shook her head. "In the branches." She paused. "But over there, the spirit bodies are gathering in the trunks. But only because the branches are full."

And this was why having a medium was so important on cases.

"I see the clearing!" Ayako called. Lin and the rest of the group followed her outstretched arm. And indeed, Lin could see a break in the woods, where the trees gave way. He knew already what was going to be over there—a hatch bolted to a concrete chute. But that was why they brought the hardware, in case they found something like that that needed some busting open.

At this point, his lizard brain was an endless cacophony of screeching, telling him to get out. He had been fighting that by taking up the rear. As the one most on alert, he would be most useful in the back, keeping an eye on the team and the big picture. As he examined himself thoroughly, he realized to his own discomfort, that he was becoming too used to stamping down his survival instinct.

The group approached the clearing. Masako was trembling even harder than Lin. It wasn't surprising; she could see the spirits crammed into the trees. It must have been nothing short of horrific. Most of the group passed her at the edge of the clearing. Only Mai and Lin stopped behind her, noticing that she wasn't going in.

"The spirits… they're pressed all up against each other, trying to push higher and higher into the trees, but there's no room. They're suffocating each other, and they can't get down!"

Finally, the rest of the team stopped and turned their attention to the medium now shaking in Mai's arms.

"Can't get down? What do you mean, like a cat up a tree?" Ayako asked.

Masako nodded, eyes trained on Mai's sweater. "Like a bear escaping a fire by climbing a tree, but then becomes trapped."

"So they're trying to… stay off the ground?" Mai asked. "What, is the floor lava?"

"It just might be," said Monk, drawing their attention with his voice, and subsequently the sound of metal striking metal. Everyone turned to him. He was holding the shovel they had brought, and he had unearthed the hatch, and a little more of the surrounding chute, letting the lip protrude from the ground. As before, the door was still bolted shut. Monk leaned on the shovel. "Hey Mai, didn't you mention in one of your earlier dreams that underground things were important?"

Everyone could see the metaphorical lightbulb going off over Mai's head. "Oh yeah! Gene pointed down at the floor and walked through it! I guess I've been having so many useless dreams that I forgot the important information in one of them."

"Then it's only fitting that we bust that door open," Naru said.

"Sounds about right," said Yasu, holding out the pickaxe for Takigawa to take.

Takigawa stared at the tool with an incredulous look. "Hey, why am I getting all the intense labor?"

"Because everyone else here is a nerd," said Yasu, wiggling the handle in Monk's face.

Monk relented and took the pick. "Whatever."

"It's best if you aim at the surrounding sconcrete, as opposed to the metal," said Naru.

Monk nodded, and the swinging commenced. While working, he made eye contact with Lin. Lin saw a small wince of sympathy. Lin would have helped if he could have, but his ribs wouldn't tolerate much work. It was certain that Monk knew this, hence neglecting to recruit him for help. And also, they only had one pickaxe.

While Takigawa worked, Yasu watched his back. The rest of the team turned their attention to the trees stuffed with spirits. Masako squatted down and scanned the roots of the tree. Ayako did something similar to one nearby.

"If something is plugging up the trunks, then it stands to reason…" the miko trailed off as she became absorbed in her own thought process.

Meanwhile, Lin and John looked up into the branches.

"How is it that they're trapped inside the tree?" John asked. "Can't spirits pass through things?"

Lin didn't answer. Instead, he sent a message to Fire. "Inspect the tree bark. Report any barriers you find."

Fire lifted away from Lin's neck, demeanor somber. It circled the nearest tree, working its way up the trunk. "I am no tree expert," Fire began. Wood would have been the better choice, had Wood still been around. Neither master nor shikigami wanted to say it. "I would want to try and feed on the tree to see if there is a problem."

Lin nodded.

Fire rubbed its claws together. "Master, please order me." At Lin's confused pause, Fire elaborated."In essence, you are asking me to defile a mass grave."

Oh. Well that was an unpleasant thought. Lin considered his options. Option one was to order Fire to feed on the tree, perhaps freeing the spirits, and also perhaps unleashing dozens of angered ghosts into the wilds for desecration of a resting place. Kind of. On the other hand… well, there really wasn't an other hand. Lin wished he could know what the spirits would want, and then he wondered if it was worth asking.

"Miss Hara," he said. Masako looked up at him. "I'm going to ask something in Chinese. Would you please be on the lookout for any response?"

"Yes, of course," Masako said. "But I doubt you'll get a response. They are unconscious, as if under anesthesia."

Lin didn't respond to her. In Chinese, he asked the tree, "Is it all right if I try to free you?"

They waited for several seconds, at the ready for any inkling of movement. Half a minute later, Masako shook her head. Lin sighed. It was worth a shot. He prepared to give Fire the order, when a crash caught his attention.

Everyone turned to Monk, who had finally broken through the concrete enough to dislodge the metal hatch. Said hatch was sent flying off its hinges, thanks to a powerful golf swing from the pickaxe. It landed several feet away, cushioned by dead leaves.

Lin joined Naru and Takigawa at the mouth of the chute. The light from above allowed them to see the metal rungs that made a climbable ladder. Disappointingly, there were several slabs of broken concrete on the floor at the very bottom, obscuring whatever was beneath it.

"This can't be it," Mai protested.

Naru, predictable Naru, began to drop his legs over the lip of the chute. Lin immediately grabbed his arm, ignoring how the strain of holding back an eighteen year old man sent a jolt through his ribcage.

"Don't even think about it," he bit out.

"Lin, let go," Naru returned.

"Look at that ladder. How much maintenance have those rungs had in the past forty years? If one of them came out of the wall—"

"You'd come down and get me," said Naru.

"No I can't," Lin said. "I can't carry you in my current condition. I can't even carry something a quarter of my body weight."

Naru stiffened as Lin's reality check hit him. Still, he wasn't ready to concede. "Then Monk will get me."

Lin shot Naru a glare and a curled lip. Was this idiot really going to—

"Better idea, how 'bout I go first?" Monk interjected. Lin and Naru their frustrated glares toward him.

"Better idea," said Ayako, swinging the shovel over her shoulder. "We test the rungs before flinging an actual human person down there." She swung one leg over the edge, straddling the concrete lip. She held out one hand at Monk, who realized what she wanted and grabbed it. Now with a proper counterbalance, Ayako lowered the shovel and banged on the rungs, one by one. The sound echoed through the chute like a bell. The sharp noise was an unwelcome disturbance. Lin knew where it was coming from, but to him it was too loud. It was attracting too much attention. Had he not known where the noise had come from, he would not have been able to stave off the panic.

"Rungs appear fine," Ayako said.

"Why not send Mai down there?" suggested Yasu, to the ire of everyone present. He backed up, putting his hands in the surrender position. "All I mean is that Mai's the lightest of the group. She'll put the least amount of stress on—"

"Are you saying I'm fat?" Ayako interrupted.

"What? No, I'm—"

The sound of cracking concrete cut their bickering short. It was fortunate that Monk was hanging onto Ayako's forearm, as the concrete she was straddling collapsed. Monk tightened his grip and hunkered down. Ayako slammed knees first into the side of the wall, letting out a pained cry.

"Ow! Shit! Pull me up! I think I cut something."

Monk wasted no time in hoisting. Yasu scrambled up beside him and grabbed hold of Ayako's other arm. Ayako let the shovel fall all the way to the bottom. She clambered up to the dirt and flipped onto her back. Half the team recoiled at seeing the blood leaking from a rip in her left knee.

"Ayako, are you okay?" cried Mai, scurrying to her side.

Ayako sat up and inspected the injury. "I'm fine. I don't think I'll need stitches, but…" She motioned over to the left, at the backpack she had put down a few feet away. "I brought my first aid kit here."

Thankfully, Lin could still lift that. He brought it over and fished out the first aid kit. Hissing, Ayako rolled up her jean leg, giving Lin access to her cut.

"If the structure is that unstable, then we shouldn't go down there," Masako said. "Who knows what all that debris is hiding?"

Lin silently agreed. He sent Naru a knowing look, and Naru turned away.

"It was only the lip," said the stupid idiot. "Monk was the reason it collapsed, not its structural integrity."

"You are not going down there," Lin said.

Naru shook his head. He swung his legs over the edge.

Lin straightened. "Naru, don't you dare!"

Naru descended, the sound of his steps on the ladder getting fainter and more distorted as he went further.

"Oh for fuck's sake," Lin muttered. Masako gave him a slight stink eye for language, but other than that, nobody tried to stop him as he tried to stop Naru. He heard Naru pick up the shovel, metal scraping on the concrete. Then he swung himself over the concrete lip and descended with him.

"What about us, Lin?" came Mai's voice.

"Stay with Ms. Matsuzaki. Keep working on the trees!" Lin shouted.

"Gotcha!"

That taken care of, Lin finally joined Naru at the bottom of the chute. Thankfully, the ladder rungs were still relatively smooth, and there were no surprise nails sticking out, pointy end up. Naru was crouching on the pile of concrete debris, peering into a tiny tunnel that he couldn't even crawl to get into.

Lin took two steps toward him and grabbed hold of his shoulder. Naru was forced to turn around and stand up, looking him in the eye.

"What the hell are you thinking, Oliver?" Lin barked. "You left your team with one injured to come into an unknown location, with unknown hazards, material and spiritual. Not to mention your budding plan to wage war with whoever is behind this. I know you to be a reckless idiot, but I've never known you to be so callous with your friends' wellbeing!"

"If you need a break, Lin, go take one," Naru snapped.

"I'm not talking about me, and you know it. Now tell me what this is all about, or injured or not, I will knock you out and drag you back up to the surface, you understand?"

Lin and Naru stared each other down for several seconds. They were a mere two feet apart, as the chute was not exactly large. Lin was well aware that all Naru had to do was land a solid blow to his chest, and Lin would be unable to do much in return. Naru was in such an inscrutable state that Lin was half sure the boy would dare to strike him.

After a moment of nothing happening, Lin said, "Well?"

The team on the surface was quiet, giving the two men the illusion of peace. It hadn't escaped Lin that they could hear every word he said, to Naru's displeasure. Naru opened his mouth. Then he closed it. Lin softened his stance and his expression. In English, he said, "Come on, Oliver. Talk to me."

"I… This isn't my fault!" said Naru. He dipped his head, not meeting Lin's eyes. Lin was about to retort with a long list of missteps the boy had made in just this past week, but Naru kept going. "Ever since Mai told us about her first vision, I did everything in my power to avoid getting us into a mess like this. We get rid of ghosts. Literal ghosts. Not the ghosts of some decades-old cover up that could spark international war!" Naru finally met Lin's eye, all but spitting fire as he breathed. "I did not agree to this. I didn't agree to this, and now I'm stuck with it, and I'm so damn furious that I don't know what to do with myself!"

So this was rebellion for being manipulated? Lin pondered that. The answer seemed cold. Then again, Naru didn't have a good record of saying what he meant when it came to his own vulnerabilities. But Lin hadn't spent a decade of his life with this man to not be able to read him. He put his hand back on Naru's shoulder and tilted his head down, trying to catch Naru's eye again.

"You're right. This is not your fault. What happened to me is not your fault. You've been saddled with a situation that is the farthest thing from fair. But that's all the more reason that we can't have you falling apart on us."

"It's my job to keep the team safe." Naru spoke so quietly that his voice didn't travel up the chute. "How can I do that when people whose crimes I had nothing to do with want to get rid of us?"

Ah. So it was helplessness. That was the core issue. Naru was grasping at every straw he could find, hoping that pulling it out would peel back the curtain and reveal the cure-all answer.

Lin took in a breath. "Oliver. Last night, I was more afraid than I had ever been in my life. And as you know, we've been through more than your average person. I was bound, blind, and at the mercy of someone with a desire to do me harm. He…" Lin paused. No, Naru didn't need the grisly details. "Do you know why I'm here and coherent right now?"

Naru stared at him. He clearly caught the abrupt trail off, but he didn't comment on it. He merely stared, waiting for Lin to finish.

"You brokered a deal for my freedom. You got me out of there. You did, Oliver. You and your quick thinking saved my life and my sanity, I have no doubt."

"And I'm doing that now." Naru gestured up the chute. "For them!"

"Except they're not tied up in a cell, cut off from all communication. They are right here, right now, as am I. You don't have to make decisions on their behalf. You don't have to endanger yourself on their behalf. You can call on us to help you, and for all our sakes, Noll, I wish you would." Lin ran a hand through his hair. "How some people do this for a living, I'll never know."

Naru's brow furrowed, confused. "You do this for a living," he said.

Lin realized his implication. "Not ghost hunting. Therapy."

"You'd just as soon as place a karmic curse on your patient than speak to them for an hour."

"How's it going down there?" came Monk's voice. Lin wondered how much of their conversation John was goaded into translating for them.

"Fine," Naru replied, switching back to Japanese. "I still think we ought to investigate down here. How is the tree investigation where you are?"

"Not good," Monk said. "Yasu helped Ayako with her cut, but I don't think she can do much by way of legwork. And the rest of us have found diddly squat about the tree problem."

A muffled, "I'm fine, you old man!" sailed over the chute.

"All right," said Naru, picking up the shovel. "Someone toss the pickaxe down here. We should see what's underneath all of this, if there's any clue that might provide answers about the trees."

There was a pause as Monk looked behind himself. "Toss it?" In hindsight, it was a good instinct to listen to. There was hardly any clear space for a pick to land, besides someone's head or foot.

"If you're so worried, deliver it yourself," came Ayako's distant voice.

"Is there room though?" Monk asked.

"Just toss me the pickaxe, and don't hit us!" Naru barked, impatience winning over caution.

"Oh for crying out loud," Mai grumbled. She took the pickaxe and strapped it to her back, using the rope that Monk had brought. Then she squeezed past the overprotective monk and made her way down the ladder. Naru was at her side as soon as she got far enough to reach. With hands on her waist, he guided her safely down. With the three of them, they were inches apart from being shoulder to shoulder.

"One pick, boss," she said as she undid the rope around her torso. The pick fell. Naru picked up the pickaxe and began breaking debris into smaller chunks. Then with the shovel, he pushed the stuff out of the way. Two things became apparent very quickly. One, they were running out of standing room. Two, they were running out of space to put all the debris. Naru was working at stacking the debris close to the edges, pushing it out of the way of the hole he had found, as well as digging deeper so that they wouldn't have to crawl. He hit the floor sooner than any of them expected. The strange hallway he had found was only as tall as his groin, maybe even lower.

"What is it?" Mai asked as the two of them crouched around the entrance. Lin kept himself alert, should anything dangerous decide now was a good time to strike.

Naru, the idiot, put his hand on the roof of the hall. When he pulled it back, his hand was covered in ash. He rubbed his fingers together, a tense look on his face. He turned to Mai. "Flashlight."

"Oh, I didn't—"

"Catch!"

Lin looked up just in time to catch the flashlight that Yasu had tossed down. He had half a mind to scold the youngster for nearly clocking him in the head, but he decided quickly it wasn't worth it. He handed the light to Naru, who shined it under the low overhang.

"If I'm not mistaken, this is a crematorium."

Both Lin and Mai snapped their heads to Naru. Up on the surface, Monk blurted, "What!?" and repeated Naru's find to the rest of the team.

"Well that explains the ash," came Ayako's voice.

"Is that what all this is?" Yasu exclaimed. "Eeeww!"

"That makes this a chimney then," Takigawa said. "A really… big… chimney." Monk clearly didn't like the implications of that, and neither did Lin.

Naru continued to ignore his team's rambling. He turned off the light and faced Mai. "Do you think you can get to that door on the other side of the furnace?"

"What? You want me to climb in the people oven!? No way!"

"It hasn't been used in ages," Naru said. "According to Weiguó, it's been forty years."

"Yeah, since he died. Not since this all stopped. And excuse me for not wanting to lie down in ashes."

"I will be too. We have to go one at a time, but I want to see what's on the other side of that door."

"Uh, are all of us going to come with you?" called Monk.

A valid question. Naru stood up and turned to him. "No. There should be a team on the surface and a team underground." He paused as he pondered. "Mai, go back up. Take the shovel. I doubt we'll need it more than the surface team. John and Yasu, I want you down here, and bring the bolt cutters, crowbar, and a radio. Should there be a problem with the radio, both Lin and Mai can communicate through incorporeal means, so she needs to be with the team that Lin isn't on."

Mai breathed a sigh of obvious relief at being excused from furnace duty. She strapped the shovel to herself and started making her way up, rungs clanking as she did so. Once she was up, Yasu and John made their ways down. Both of them wore backpacks. The four men made for a very crowded chimney. Lin was nearly touching shoulders with both Naru and John.

"I guess… I'll go first?" John offered.

"I'll go first," Lin said. "My shiki can scout ahead."

The other three men got out of his way as best they could, and he dropped to a crawl. He could manage on his hands and knees, just barely. It was a roomy furnace, if furnaces could ever be called roomy. It was clearly built to burn more than one body at once. When he got to the furnace door, he instructed Fire to poke its head out and scout.

"I sense no danger, Master," said Fire.

Lin nodded. He touched the door. It gave to pressure instantly, and it swung open with a biting squeeeeeaaaaak. Lin did have to lie down to pass through the door, as it was designed to only allow one body in at a time.

He landed in a room no bigger than Naru's office. The walls were in major disrepair from what he could see, with cracks running from the floor to the ceiling.

"All clear," Lin said, prompting the other three to come through. He helped them as best he could through the door, which wasn't much, considering that attempting to lift anything heavier than the shovel made his ribs rather angry.

Once through, Naru fished out the flashlight and handed Lin the radio. With a click, the room was visible. Lin could only describe the room as having exploded. Debris was lying in chunks. There was nothing left that wasn't fireproof—no files, no books, nothing like that. Chunks of wall laid strewn about without care. It looked like someone had set off a stick of dynamite in here.

There was a doorway leading into a long hallway. The door it used to hold was lying flat, broken in front of the passage. The hallway was full of dust and likely mold, and there was a door all the way at the other end, leading into another room. Naru shined the flashlight on a few doors that dotted the long hall, no more than three. Like the room before it, the hallway looked like it had been blown up. Debris was everywhere, and the doors were distorted and barely hanging off their hinges. Pipes ran along the ceiling corners, but disrepair had broken them in several places.

The team began their walk down the hallway. Naru carried the backpack, leaving Yasu, Lin, and John to handle the pickaxe, bolt cutters, and crowbar.

Yasu tried the door on the left. It just barely opened, stopping because of some debris in the way. The door clinked on the rocks and concrete blocking it. And then it fell off its hinges, causing Yasu to leap back with a startled cry. The bang was startling for sure, but it was the second bang that rattled them. It hadn't come from the door, as the door had stopped moving. A third bang rang out, followed by a fourth, then a fifth, so on and so forth. It was loud and deliberate, like a strike on a bass drum, picking up speed as time passed. At first, Lin thought it was coming from all around them. Then he realized, it had a very specific origin point. The door at the end of the hall. Something was banging on the door at the end of the hall, and the echo was carrying through the tunnel.

The whispers came next. The team looked around, trying to parse out the words, but they all meshed together in an incomprehensible jumble. Lin stepped in front of Naru and Yasu, putting himself between them and the door.

"Father Brown!"

John quickly got the message and joined Lin at the front. He had his crucifix out, and he was uncapping his holy water. The banging continued. The whispers became more clear, but only to Lin. In Chinese, they said, "A way out! There's a way out!"

Lin turned back to Naru. "The spirits are trying to get out!"

"Should we let them?" Yasu asked.

Lin didn't know. He was at a loss.

"In there!" Naru shouted, pointing at a nearby door. Yasu ran over to it and pushed it open, ignoring Lin's shout of protest. Thankfully, the door did open, and there were no feral spirits behind it—just cleaning supplies and solutions.

"Lin, pull the plug! Everyone, into the closet!"

Lin whistled. Naru and John dashed into the open room. His shiki smashed through the door, breaking the thing off its hinges. Lin pivoted and lunged for the closet, just as a storm of shadowed spirits blasted down the hallway, faster than a high-speed train, hotter than a live forge. As the last one in, he pushed John, Yasu, and Naru against the wall, shielding them with his body, should any spirits happen to enter. None did. They all sped like rushing water through the hallway, into the crematorium, and up the chimney. Their mad cries thundered the whole way, only stopping when they were gone.

Once it was quiet again, Naru pushed away from Lin. Lin winced as Naru's hand landed on a sensitive spot on his chest. Naru was too distracted to notice. He flung the door open and ran back toward the crematorium, talking into the radio.

"Surface team, are you okay? Respond!"

Lin exited the room next, looking after Naru, but his instincts told him to turn the other way. At the end of the hall, standing in the smashed open doorway, was a familiar dark ghoul. Its head was fused into its shoulders, leaving its white eyes and toothy smile to float around its upper body. Its hands were still spindly like tree branches, and its legs were thin like tights hanging on the drying rack.

"Are the others okay?" John asked from somewhere behind Lin.

"They saw the spirits. They went straight up like a cloud of gas and disappeared," Naru reported.

"Naru!" Lin barked.

Naru turned around, spotting what Lin had locked in a staring contest.

Lin reached backwards and touched Naru's shoulder. "Back away, slowly," Lin instructed, still staring down the apparition. "Don't break eye contact."

"Are we sure it's hostile?" Yasu asked.

John responded with a lick of common sense. "Probably best not to find out."

The spirit began to stalk forward, head ducking low like a big cat on the prowl. Its smile grew toothier. It raised a twiggy hand, brandishing its claws.

Fire raised its hackles, meeting the challenge. "I've been waiting for this rematch!"

Lin whistled once more, and Fire lunged. The spirit slashed at the incoming shiki, but Fire wasn't the most experienced of Lin's soldiers for nothing. It nimbly dodged out of the way and struck the spirit in its toothy face. Lin made a point of ignoring the way Fire crowed, "Payback, sucker!" Fire then slithered out of the way of the spirit's counterstrike. Rotating around the spirit and diving in to bite kept it confused, at least until Yasu decided to open his mouth.

"Why is it attacking us? Does it think we're allied with its killer?"

Somehow, the sound of an external voice seemed to ground the spirit. Its focus jumped from Lin's shiki to Yasu. It extended one of its clawed arms like a spear, straight sideways, straight for Yasu. John reacted fastest, jumping in the way and splashing holy water on the hand as it grew too close. The entity lurched back with a shriek before swatting John aside like a baseball. John's cry of pain accompanied the sound of his back crashing into the wall, hard enough to leave a dent. John fell face first onto the coarse floor.

Yasu called John's name while Lin whistled once more. Fire hissed and charged at the outstretched limb. The offending arm swung toward Fire, but Fire was ready. With a slash of its fiery tail, it severed the limb in half, dissolving the hand into nothing. Now disarmed, Fire redirected its charge toward the entity, slamming headfirst into its face. Lin felt the pressure on his forehead as the two beings collided. The entity fell backwards. Just as it hit the floor, it dissipated into thin air. Job done, Fire returned to Lin.

"Good work," Lin said. Fire nodded in acknowledgement. Lin turned his attention to John, who was lying on the floor, struggling to breathe. At the very least, the wind had been thoroughly expelled from his lungs. At the worst, he would have to worry about a plethora of broken bones and ruptured organs.

"Oh God, John, speak to me!" Yasu yelled, hands hovering over John's body.

"Don't touch him!" Naru barked as he and Lin joined the two.

"I'm going to check your back, all right?" Lin said. John was coherent enough to nod. Lin lifted John's shirt, revealing the heavy bruising and few open wounds dotted over the priest's back. With a light touch, he ran his hand over the berry-colored flesh. John hissed as his already injured skin was disturbed further. Lin nodded to himself and then spoke. "Nothing appears broken. How do you feel?"

John attempted to rise to his hands and knees, gasping and crying out as he did so. Lin offered a hand, which John took for support. Once sitting up, John coughed several times. He croaked something that didn't quite make it out, but he pointed toward the door where the spirit had disappeared. Lin got his meaning.

"Were you able to kill it?" Lin asked Fire, to which Fire shook its head.

"It wasn't destroyed," Lin reported. "It likely retreated to recover."

"How long will that take?" Naru asked.

"Depends on a number of factors."

"Sorry," said John with a gasp, drawing the group's attention. "I didn't expect it to counterstrike so fast."

"Anyone could have been caught off guard by that," Yasu returned.

"I just need a minute. We can keep going."

"That's up to you," Naru said, glancing at Lin for approval.

"It would be better for you if you went back up," said Lin. After all, with John hardly able to move, what use could he be?

Naru clicked on the radio again.

"Naru, what happened?" That was Mai's voice. "You cut off so quickly—"

"John's down. We need you to come back and retrieve him," said Naru. Yasu leaned under John and helped him to his feet. They began to walk back through the hallway, toward the crematorium.

"Is he okay?"

"I will be. Don't worry about me," John said. "Really, I don't need to go back up. Besides, I don't think I'd be able to crawl through the furnace."

"Okay, we're here," Monk said. The group turned to the oven, as they heard his voice from both the radio and the chimney. "Does he need to be carried out?"

"I don't—"

"Likely," Lin said, interrupting John.

"I'm coming down then," said Monk. And then came the loud series of crashes.

"Monk!" Naru exclaimed. He ran over to the oven and yanked it open, just in time to see slab after slab of concrete come falling down, filling in their only light source from the outside. He heard Monk shouting in alarm, with the rest of the surface group frantically scrambling up to him.

"Pull me up, pull me up!" came Monk's muffled voice, though it was still loud and clear over the radio.

"Hang on, Monk!" that was Mai again.

There was silence. And then:

"Holy crap, that was close," said Monk.

"Is everyone all right?" Naru asked through the radio.

"Yeah, I'm good," Monk returned.

"The whole ladder just caved in," Masako observed.

Monk scoffed. "Not the ladder, the whole freaking wall."

And sure enough, one of the pieces of debris that had fallen within Naru's view from the furnace had a ladder rung on it. It was still securely bolted to the slab of concrete it fell with; it was the concrete that was weak, probably not helped by the swarm of ghosts that had just funneled out of the chute like a geyser.

"It looks like we're going to have to find another way out, or at the very least somewhere to shelter if the place collapses," Naru said. "I don't think we'll be able to dig our way out, not with the structural integrity of this facility."

"What about our hostile husk back there?" Yasu asked, jutting his thumb at the open doorway leading to the hall where they had fought.

"We'll deal with it if it comes back," Naru replied.

"And how do you know there's another way out?" Ayako questioned over the radio.

"We got in through a crematorium, so it stands to reason that there's a way in and out that living people are supposed to use."

"I meant intact."

"That I don't know." Naru lowered the radio and turned to John. "How are you doing? Can you walk?"

"Yeah. I feel better all ready," said John. "Really, I'll be fine. But Yasuhara, I could use your shoulder for a while longer."

"You got it," said Yasu, who still had John's arm slung around his neck.

"Are we ready?" Naru asked, turning to each of his teammates present. After getting a nod from them all, he began to walk back toward the hallway. That was, until Lin stepped in front of him and gave him a silent look.

Naru dipped his head with a huff, understanding what Lin wanted. He let Lin take the lead through the door, while Yasu supported John in the back. They had to move much more slowly, as the pain in John's back impeded his ability to walk.

"Do you think you could bind it?" Naru asked. Lin easily picked up on the change of subject. He knew Naru was referring to the spirit that had just mopped the floor with John, which Lin had subsequently sent packing. He also knew that Naru knew that he drew a line at binding human spirits. He was pretty sure this spirit was a human, or at least used to be a human. Knowing all of this, he trusted that Naru had something in mind.

"It would be difficult," Lin said. "Capturing a hostile spirit is like asking me to shoot but not kill the target."

Naru kept his eyes trained on the uneven ground, cracked and damp. "I know you dislike the idea of enthralling humans."

Lin nodded.

Yasu (and subsequently John) crept closer to Lin. "Are you trying to say that you don't like keeping humans as pets? Or that you prefer nonhumans as pets?"

And then, Lin bristled. "They aren't pets. Never have been. I am their commander, and they are my soldiers."

"Then you can command people," said Yasu. "What's the problem?"

It wasn't just commanding them, though. "If it were just as simple as that, there wouldn't be a problem. There is a tether. There is still a binding. There's no way around the slavery implications."

"Then what about…" Yasu gestured at Lin, obviously referring to his shiki.

"We entered a mutual contract," Lin said. "Understanding of the power difference, our roles, and the terms of their servitude. Mostly built on trust. I couldn't do that with this spirit. I would have to fully bind its will, considering how feral it is." Lin turned toward Naru. "Why did you ask me about this?"

Naru shook his head. "The case with the driftwood demigod," he said. "It used all of the spirits it caught as its shiki."

Lin saw where this was going. "You are asking if I can do something similar with the spirits trapped here?"

"Temporarily, at most," Naru said.

"Just in case we need to fight back," Lin said, echoing Naru's downright dangerous plan B that he unveiled in the van. "Yes, that is something I can do, but only on an idle spirit, for a single action. One command. Then the enthrallment wears off, and I must wait before I can cast it on the same spirit again."

"Oh, so like, you can only hypnotize the bystanders to do a single thing for you?" said Yasu. Lin exhaled. Leave it to Yasu to make his practice sound like a carnival trick. The wheels in Yasuhara's head kept turning. "But then after you rope them in, they stop being bystanders, so you have to wait for them to go back to neutral. So like… Naru, are you saying we should raise a spirit army?"

"I'm just considering all our options," Naru said.

They finally made it to the door that Lin had blasted open. It had rotated back to an ajar position, so all Lin had to do was give it a slight push. He did so, and the door fell off its hinges.

A much larger room welcomed them. Like the incinerator room and the hallway, it too appeared to have had a nasty encounter with a stick of dynamite or twenty. It was clear to Lin by now that this place had been hastily exploded to try and destroy it, or at the very least, destroy the evidence inside it.

There were pieces of wood on the floor, glass strewn about, metal poles and charred fabric all over the place. A broken lighting fixture lay on top of a pile of debris in the middle of the room. What gave away the room's purpose was a tiny metal scalpel that had survived the blast. This had to be an operating room of some kind. Considering what they knew about the occurrences in these woods, it was more than certain that a handful of people were murdered in this very room. The thought of that, combined with the effects of the woods that Lin could still very much feel, nearly froze him on the spot. It was only because of Fire on his neck that he stayed present.

A glance at Naru revealed that the boy had come to the same conclusion.

"We shouldn't linger," Naru said. Yes, Lin very much agreed. Once again, Naru made for the next exit—a set of double doors leading out of the operating room. Lin, once again, stepped ahead of Naru, refusing to let him walk into danger headfirst.

These doors were stiff and heavy, but they hadn't come out unscathed from the demolition operation. A simple jostling with the crowbar was enough to get them open. The hallway that it led to made an almost immediate left turn. The smell of rust and mold was much stronger here. Looking down the turn, the group saw rows and rows of doorways, with their corresponding doors collapsed on the ground, or at least broken in some way. Even this hallway hadn't been spared the blasting, and it was at least four times as long as the hallway to the crematorium.

Lin looked at John and Yasu. John winced, but upon sensing Lin's eyes on him, he looked up and gave him the thumbs up.

They began the walk. The first pair of doors was open. Lin made the mistake of glancing inside. The room was tiny, with a single bench, and a drain in the middle. It was identical to the room that Fusei had put him in. He told Naru immediately.

Naru froze in place. "What?"

Even Yasu and John stopped, concerned faces pinned on him.

Naru went up to the room and pushed the door out of his way. With the flashlight, he scanned it. Lin was right behind him the whole time, on guard for anything that might come flying through here. The cell, thankfully, was empty, save for some mold and musty smelling air.

"Master, to your right," said Fire.

Lin turned. Something pale blue and glowing fizzled into existence before fading. "Naru, we have activity," he said.

Naru turned. More and more blue humanoid lights began to flicker, but none of them stayed visible for more than a few milliseconds. It was obvious they were staring at spirits, but the spirits had such little energy that they couldn't stay present for long.

Lin watched carefully. There was an immense difference between these phantoms and the one that had attacked them. Were they like Weiguó? They didn't act hateful. These spirits seemed afraid. Then again, the two emotions were not mutually exclusive. Perhaps the bolder ones had already left, in that large swarm that flew out the chimney.

"Who are you?" Naru asked.

The spirits vanished like roaches under a light. Naru began to advance, but Lin held up his hand to stop him.

"Perhaps a different language would be best," he said to his charge. Naru nodded. In Chinese, Lin said, "Hello? We aren't here to harm you."

A few of the braver timid souls flickered back into existence. The whispers started up again, all in Chinese. Lin recognized a few phrases here and there in the mess of speech. "Another prisoner?" "He's alive." "What does he want?" "Japanese!"

"They aren't malicious," Lin said. "They're my friends. They are not responsible for what happened to you."

"Traitor?" "Prisoner!" "Schism."

"Forty years have passed since this facility was last used. Things have changed. We're here to help you pass on and find peace."

The souls flickered in and out. A few of them faced each other. Their expressions were too far away for Lin to make them out. And then they began chanting.

"Revenge. Revenge. Revenge."

Lin got ready to fight. John was in no condition to do so, and Yasu was not a magic user by any means.

"What's going on?" Yasu asked.

"The spirits want revenge," Lin said.

"Not on us, right? We didn't do this to them!"

"I told them that. I don't know if they want to listen."

"Lin, are you ready?" said Naru.

Lin nodded. He didn't want to have to destroy these spirits, who had already been through untold amounts of suffering, but he would if they forced his hand. The chanting shook the foundation. The walls began to rattle, causing dust and debris to chip off and fall. At this rate, the spirits would have to do little more than jump up and down to seal the four men's fates.

"Please stop!" Lin pleaded. "I don't want to harm you, but I will if you threaten us!"

The spirits were now all chanting in unison. "Revenge! Revenge! Revenge!"

And then one shrieked. It was a sound of terror. The spirits echoed the scream and scattered, all of them retreating to hide. Lin had only enough time to turn around before a large, ghostly arm pushed Yasu, Naru, and John against the wall. John cried out as his back was subjected to more harsh treatment.

The arm that held the three men was long, and it held its large hand in a fist. The arm extended back down the hallway and around the bend. There was no mistaking that this belonged to the hostile, melted apparition, which had now recovered. Lin whistled. Fire flew from his neck and aimed for the creature's wrist. Before it could reach, the creature's hand dissipated, thus dodging Fire's attack. Had it learned to recognize Lin's whistle?

The hand reappeared, reaching out at Lin this time. John shouted a warning, opening his bottle of holy water and splashing it in a line between Lin and the hand, which stopped it just before it reached Lin's face. The hand turned toward John, who had neglected to splash the holy water saround his own feet. Its palm was big enough to grasp John's arm from his wrist to his bicep, which is what it did. John screamed as the hand yanked backwards at an odd angle. Lin whistled once more, and the ghostly arm dissipated, dodging Fire once again. John fell to the ground, still wailing in pain.

"My shoulder! It dislocated my shoulder!"

Lin dropped next to John. He gave an order to Fire. "Keep look out. Call me if you need to strike."

Fire perched on Lin's head, ears erect, looking toward its master's left. That was where the bend was. That was where the hostile was lying in wait.

Lin hovered his hands over John's shoulder and bicep. "I'm going to set it."

John had just enough time to nod.

Lin pushed and pulled. John screamed yet again.

"Master!"

Lin was halfway between turning around and putting his fingers to his mouth when the apparition's claw reached across his body and grabbed his right wrist. With a violent jerk, it pulled him towards the bend, causing him to rotate around his shoulder and fall forward. He landed on his chest, sending shockwaves of pain through his ribcage. An even sharper pain on his front brought the realization that the apparition was trying to drag him away. He tucked his legs under him and pulled back, grabbing his right arm with his left. With one forceful jerk, Lin was again sent tumbling forward. The apparition raked him across the ground and debris, back to the operation room.

Naru gave chase, stopping just in time for the apparition to slam both double doors in his face. Naru pounded on the door, first with his bare hands, and then with the crowbar. The doors did not move. Lin realized that the spirit was holding the door shut, as most spirits were able to do.

The spirit itself was missing one of its hands, its left one, courtesy of Fire's handiwork not half an hour ago. It clearly could still do damage by itself. Its working hand was still connected to both of Lin's, essentially rendering him helpless. Well, he could still whistle. It wouldn't be as loud, and therefore his ability to manifest wouldn't be as strong, but it was better than nothing. He took a grounding breath. The spirit didn't let him do more than that.

With a hearty swing, the ghost slammed Lin into the nearby wall. The wind knocked out of him, Lin couldn't move even if he wanted to. To add insult to injury, the spirit was still holding onto both of his arms with its single, abnormally large hand. Fire hissed and barked, all but begging its master for orders.

The apparition maneuvered the stunned man onto his back. It kept his arms pinned over his head. With its stump of a remaining arm, it reached back toward the scalpel. It never once broke eye contact with Lin, its toothy smile growing wider as Lin realized what was about to happen. The sound of Naru banging on the door faded in and out of focus. Oliver was shouting something, but Lin couldn't hear it over the sound of his own heart. Perhaps at this point, he was too exhausted from his series of ordeals, or his body now treated the terror inflicted by the woods as its new baseline. Either way, his mind was flushed with serene dread, locked in place, unable to do anything to try to save his own life. It was just him and the monster.

In even-toned Japanese, Lin asked, "You're one of the doctors, aren't you?"

Somehow, the sadistic entity had enough room on its face to smile even wider. It hovered the scalpel over his stomach.

Fire was howling at him. "Master, snap out of it!"

His team was calling for him from behind the door.

The scalpel touched the exposed skin on his solar plexus, where his shirt was still missing its button.

It pushed down. Fresh blood welled up. It drew a slow, thin line toward his navel.

The combination of the cold metal and the sting of cut flesh brought Lin's mind back to the present. He was suddenly reminded of the fact that he did indeed want to live.

Lin shouted. "Somebody whistle!"

Somebody whistled, as though they were calling a dog, rather than Lin's shrill and extended technique. All that mattered was that it was loud enough for him to hear, which meant it was loud enough for him to use as a channel.

Fire launched off of his chest and latched onto the apparition's face, biting, tearing, and burning with all its might.

Hands still bound, Lin had to whistle with just his mouth, but it was enough to send a critical command to all the by-standing spirits in earshot. Several bursts of bright blue light appeared just behind the door—just behind Naru and Yasu, who had joined the attempt to open them. Following Lin's orders, the timid spirits pushed on the doors, their combined energies neutralizing the barrier that the doctor's ghoul had erected.

Naru and Yasu pushed the doors open, calling Lin's name.

Spirits flew in, circling around the ceiling, wailing like banshees.

The apparition flailed first with the stump arm holding the scalpel, aiming for Fire. When the swarm of spirits entered, it let go of Lin's arms to swat at them with its clawed hand. That was its big mistake.

Now free to move, Lin propped himself up on one elbow and raised two fingers. He gave a quick order for Fire to get back, and then he spoke.

"Rin! Pyou! Tou! Sha! Kai! Jin! Retsu! Zai! Zen!"

The power of Lin's nine cuts was enough to send the ghoul flying in pieces, and also leave a grid of gouges in the wall ten feet behind it. Everything in Lin's line of fire went flying. Debris, glass, metal, and the scalpel with his fresh blood on it.

The wailing spirits above them faded from the material world. Lin was unsure where they had gone. Maybe out, maybe back into the walls. He also had no idea whether the doctor's spirit was the only hostile one present. Either way, he was getting lightheaded. Naru and Yasu ran up to him. Naru pulled him up to sitting. He could barely feel Naru's touch. His voice was just as out of focus.

"…ou okay? Lin, stay with me!"

Lin touched his hand to his stomach. It came back smeared with blood, and yet, Lin's alarm bells were silent as ever. He realized his body was crashing. It wasn't fatal, but he was definitely about to faint. He swore in his head. Of all places to be down and out, especially when there could still be danger. No, not here… Not when they still need me…

A pair of hands cushioned his weight. His mind fell. Everything went dark.

Honestly, I hadn't planned for the husk to turn out evil. But there were too many inconsistencies between victim spirits and this melted abomination, so I pivoted. Hopefully there aren't any glaring plot holes...