Ghost Hunt:Volume3 Chapter4

Status: Incomplete

40% completed (estimated)

   

Chapter 4 - Curse

1

The next day, although it's daytime, I had somewhat creepy thoughts in the conference room. Nobody came yet. I was waiting for everyone to show up.

The door opened, and I thought they finally arrived. But when I turned around, it was Taka and Kasai-san who peered in.

"Eh? You're alone again?"

"No one arrived yet." I was strangely relieved. That didn't show up in this room. Although I told myself that it was targeting Naru, I was still uncertain.

" 'Not yet,' you say? It'll be lunch soon, you know?"

"...Yeah. Everyone's tired. I myself don't want to look at the desk work and do it."

"Well... Did you make some progress in your job?"

I smiled vaguely. I was wondering if Kasai-san herself wasn't to blame in this mysterious phenomenon. After I recounted yesterday's incident, it didn't bother her at all.

"Did you eat lunch already? If you don't mind, would you like to eat with us?"

"...Oh, I didn't bring my own lunch."

"That's what I thought." Taka held out something wrapped with a table napkin. "I also made your share~"

"Eeh, no way!　I'm so happy~" I squealed, teary-eyed.

"Hehe. Kasai-senpai said, 'I wonder if Mai is eating lunch regularly.' Well, we talked about how you don't look like you're eating well. So I thought, 'Perhaps I'll make an extra lunch today.' ”

I-I'm so happy~ "...Sorry for always troubling you."

"It's an untold promise~ <3"

"I'll make lunch for you tomorrow." Kasai-san beamed.

"...That's not good..."

"It's okay. Anyway, I forgot to tell you yesterday," Kasai-san said while unpacking her lunch. "Kei-sensei said you should tell her if there's anything she could assist you with. I'll also help, so let me know whatever I can do."

"Wow."

"She was impressed, after I told her Shibuya-san is an onmyouji. He's an admirable sort of person after all~"

"Really?"

"Yes~"

Taka rose and said aloud, "For me, Bou-san is better."

I gripped my chopsticks, but didn't declare anything. "Gotcha. In fact, you like him as a musician as well, don't you?" I delved.

"Yeah~"

"As a bassist, he's better," agreed Kasai-san too.

"Yeah~ <3"

Yes, yes. That was a good reply.

The three of us ate lunch enjoyably and afterwards talked about foolish things while sipping tea. It was then that Naru finally arrived. Lin-san followed behind him.

"...Kasai-san?"

"Ah, good afternoon." Kasai-san raised a hand to Naru. After that, she and Taka stood and waved their hands to me. "Then, I'm leaving. I have PE this afternoon."

"Okay."

"Really, let me know if there's anything I can help you with."

"Thanks. I shall find a mountain of work for you."

"Idiooot." Kasai-san laughed.

Taka did the same. "Then, do your best~" she said, and the two of them bowed to Naru and Lin-san and exited the room.

"...Hehh. You've become surprisingly good friends with them." Naru watched the two leaving, looking strange.

"I guess so. It's due to my charisma," I said.

"Perhaps."

...Eh? Um... I was expecting a sarcastic comeback, so I'd braced my mind for it. And he merely gave a simple reply though.

Naru sank down to a chair.

Noticing his eyes were a bit reddish, I probed, "Your eyes are bloodshot. Didn't you get any sleep?"

"I didn't. Me and that guy were glaring at each other until morning."

'That guy' ... Don't tell me… "...That guy from yesterday?"

"Yeah. Your intuition was correct. Last night, it appeared in my room."

Lin-san regarded Naru as though it were the first time he heard of that. "You should have called me."

"Indeed... I thought of that. But I had a feeling that it would be dangerous if I looked away. So we glared at each other till morning."

Why is he talking as if it seems nothing?

"I would have heard you if you knocked on the wall. Why didn't you call out for me?"

"Yeah, well... I was a little curious...if something would happen. Isn't it wrong if I wake you up while you're in deep sleep?"

"Naru, if something had occurred, what did you intend to do?"

"Well, of course, if the situation worsened, I would call you. But it didn't come to that..."

...How rare. Naru and Lin-san were having a personal conversation. I wondered what made the latter anxious that got Naru feeling a bit impatient. "Hey, Naru?"

"Hm?"

"This is an irrelevant question, but are you and Lin-san living in the same place?"

"...That's how it is. What about it?"

...Well, it's nothing really. I see~ That's how it is~ I didn't know his address and telephone number. (Because there's the office, it served its purpose well enough that it's unnecessary for me to know other things.) I wasn't even sure where they're living. Hehh, I felt I'd come a step closer. "Ah, that's right. Kasai-san had said we should tell her if there's anything she could help with."

"She did?"

"Yeah. Ubusuna-sensei too."

"Amateurs can't handle the situation well when we have them help us..." Naru grumbled, looking fed up.

"They aren't amateurs, are they? Kasai-san is extremely well-informed at different kinds of things. Since she said her knowledge is from Ubusuna-sensei, sensei is even more well-informed."

"Hmph..."

"If you try talking to them, you'll discover that they're good people. I thought Kasai-san was scary when we first met her at the Biology lab, but at that time my nerves were considerably on edge." That's right. Saying things such as 'I'll curse you to death!' in the company of teachers—the teachers themselves were the ones who drove her to do that. "During all this dispute, both Ubusuna-sensei and Kasai-san appear to be having a really difficult time. Isn't Ubusuna-sensei admirable? Shouldn't the teachers nowadays protect their students and so on until their own positions are at risk? We can say the same even to subordinate teachers. But still they're not capable of doing that usually."

"Is Ubusuna-sensei from Yuasa?"

"Seems like it. It's said that that's how it is for almost all female teachers in this school. But you know..." After I trailed off, I said out of the blue, "Hey, Naru?" I tried saying what was bothering my little heart. "Kasai-san can never really put a curse on anyone, right?"

Naru looked puzzled. "I guess not. No matter how much PK she has, she can't possibly curse a large number of people like this. Not to mention, there's the fact that the spirits are appearing where their victims are..."

"About cursing straw dolls and such, they don't work, do they?" I asked.

"According to hearsay, superior psychics are superior spellcasters, but...that's probably not true. When you use a straw doll, you'll have to hammer a nail into it."

Uh-huh. That's true. "It should be painful at the spot where you hammered the nail after all, right?"

"...Yes. Such instances like spirits appearing due to straw dolls are—" Naru began, but jolted aback. He turned to Lin-san; the latter also looked like he had the wind knocked out of him. "Lin..."

"That is possible."

Eh? What is? I examined the two of them. What are they talking about?

"Why didn't I notice it until now?"

"Um... Hello, are you there?" I queried, and Naru glanced back at me.

When he was about to say something, we heard many footfalls.

It was the arrival of the group of psychics.

2

"I'm sorry~" Ayako started explaining while coming in, "This depraved monk slowed me down—"

Bou-san went to pick up Ayako and the others and took them here with his car.

Bou-san frowned. "It's not just my fault. It's because Masako was grumbling that she doesn't want to come..."

At his reprimanding gaze, Masako said, "I don't want to come here and be of no use."

She's absolutely still sulking.

"Even Matsuzaki-san right there took time doing her makeup..."

"It's the way a woman grooms herself."

"You should have finished grooming before we came over to get you."

"You're fine. You do not need makeup and such after all. But I am different from a young girl like you."

"The difference is in rawness. Haven't you thought that you've painted your face about one or two centimeters thick?"

"What was that?!"

With his cold voice, Naru suppressed the two who were glaring at each other. "Can't you two just cut it out!" His eyes were chilling and steely. "The present situation is now clear," he declared, and everyone's eyes rounded.

"...What did you say?"

When Bou-san moved forward, Naru said, "I said I know what's happening in this place."

Everyone fell silent.

"It is a curse."

...A curse?

"Somebody is casting a curse on people in here. That is the cause of everything."

"Hey, hold on a moment," Bou-san interrupted in confusion. "A 'curse,' you say...? Then, does that also mean somebody is using a straw doll?"

"It's slightly different, but it's almost like that."

In a dubious voice, Ayako also said aloud, "But then, what about the spirits?"

"They're not the problem."

"Saying they’re 'not the problem '... What is the connection between the curse and the spirits?"

Naru surveyed everyone. "The practice of cursing someone by driving a nail into a doll originally came from Onmyoudou. This influenced Shinto, Buddhism, and Shugendo and was furthermore established as folk magic."

"...That's true, but..."

"There are two ways to curse someone in Onmyoudou: 'Enmi ' and 'Kodoku. ' 'Enmi ' is a cursing method that consists of using either a doll or the belongings of the person you're cursing. 'Kodoku ' involves killing an organism, and that organism's malicious spirit will be used to curse one's enemy to death. Using a straw doll is a technique of 'Enmi.'

“Onmyoudou originated from the philosophy of eight Yin-Yang trigrams which came from China. From the beginning, both 'Enmi ' and 'Kodoku ' are ancient enchantments introduced in China... They're methods from 'Fukodou.' The Onmyoudou in Japan…is a mixture of eight Yin-Yang trigrams’ philosophy and China's ancient enchantments.”

"...Uh-huh. In short, since cursing someone using a doll came from Onmyoudou, it also came from China, right? Now what?"

"Usually when cursing someone by nailing a doll, the grudge of the person who hammered the nail reaches his or her enemy through a mysterious power, and thereby one would think that malice does harm."

"Isn't that how it is?"

"It isn't. The spellcaster... By driving a nail into the doll, the person casting the curse beseeches a god or a spirit to put a deadly spell on someone. Receptive to that plea, the god or spirit will direct the death curse to one's enemy. This is the original form of 'Enmi.' In other words, through the use of the 'Enmi ' method, the god or the spirit will be used as a demon in the end."

"...Hold on. Did you say 'demon '...?" Ayako raised her voice. "What do you mean by that? Are you saying that if you cast the 'Enmi ' spell, rather than a mysterious power, it is the god or evil spirit that will come to torment your enemy?"

"That's right." Naru swept his gaze over us.

...An evil spirit will come to torment the other person… "That's..." I muttered, and Naru gave a nod.

"I think what's happening in this school is undoubtedly caused by 'Enmi.' This is the aspect of the case: Someone cast the spell of 'Enmi ' against the people involved in this school. Because of that, evil spirits go to the location of the accursed party. These evil spirits don't have the power to kill those people overnight. They will lead them to their deaths by gradually tormenting them. When the spellcaster's power isn't enough, he may not be able to call a spirit to kill his enemy.

“Anyway, according to rumors, strange things are happening in this school because of that curse. Nervous people who are affected by these rumors start misunderstanding that supernatural things are happening to them. The extreme example will be that girl who was possessed by a fox spirit. That's how pandemonium broke out in this school."

"...I get it." Bou-san groaned. Then leaning forward, he asked, "Who the hell is doing this?"

He had asked Naru, but it was Masako who answered, "I know who's doing such a thing. ...It's Kasai-san, isn't it?"

...Kasai-san?

Ayako bobbed her head. "You're right. Her own psychic ability rejected her, and she was severely criticized. People who covered up for her also suffered severely. So isn't that why she said, 'I'll curse you to death ' ? She put her words into action."

"Kasai-san didn't do that!" I yelled unintentionally.

"Ooh, why not? Is there someone else who would?”

"Kasai-san isn't that kind of person. She wouldn't do that."

"Well, as they say, appearances can be deceiving."

"She isn't like that!" They don't even know Kasai-san. "Perhaps somebody else did it! There are probably a lot of people who bear a grudge against teachers and students."

"I doubt it. ...Well, call Kasai-san. If we question her closely, won't everything be cleared?" Ayako stated plainly.

"I won't let you do that."

"Mai, exactly what is up with you?"

"It's just that you can't do that. Are you going to apprehend Kasai-san without any proof just because she has a motive? She's already hurting due to severe criticisms about her psychic ability issues!"

The first time I met her, Kasai-san's entire body was on edge because of the distrust of others. Although she had finally calmed down a bit, something like that could happen again!

Naru peered at me. "Kasai-san is the one who's the most suspicious. Yoshino-sensei, one of the victims, is the very man who accused her at the morning assembly."

"...But you're wrong."

"Can you tell that for sure? If we leave her be, someone might end up dead, you know?"

...No way. I cast my eyes down. When he says something like that, I can't say he's absolutely wrong…

At that moment, an image crossed my mind. I couldn't describe it very well. It's kind of a colored shadow. I had a feeling that that unidentified thing was clearly telling me "No."

I lifted my face and returned Naru's gaze directly. There were spirits as I'd thought. Naru was being targeted as I'd thought. I will believe in myself. "It's not Kasai-san. I'm sure of that."

Ayako and Masako burst into sarcastic laughter.

"You look stupid!"

Naru's jet-black eyes gazed back at me. "...Are you positive about that?"

"I am."

"Is it your intuition again?"

"Yes, it is." ...Have any complaints?

Unexpectedly, Naru's eyes softened. "Very well. I'll believe you."

"...Really!?"

"I owe you a lot this time, so I'll put my faith in you here. For now we'll settle with the hypothesis that Kasai-san might not be the culprit, and we'll search for the very culprit himself."

...Yay! Thank you!

Ayako and Masako looked displeased.

"Naru, are you serious?"

"Of course."

Masako appeared even more displeased than Ayako. “Are you going to leave things be until the culprit is known? As things are, we do not even know if someone is dead."

"I'm aware of that. We can't leave the curse alone. Lin and I will look for the perpetrator. I want everyone else to search for the dolls."

Everybody went speechless.

"What?"

"There are two ways to break Enmi; it's either we return the curse to the spellcaster, or we look for the doll used for Enmi and burn it. As a rule of Enmi, one must bury the doll nearby the cursed person, such as in his or her house or workplace. If the culprit is connected to this school, then it's highly likely that the dolls are in the vicinity."

"And who will you have looking for them? Us?" Bou-san looked weary. "How vast do you think the school grounds are? If you include the planned construction site for the adjacent student center, do you know what a huge area that is? Are you saying we should dig up the whole place for that!?"

"At least, the culprit must have buried a doll of me on the second or third day. I think we'll know if it's still buried later."

Bou-san eyed Naru resentfully.

Naru gave him an icy stare in return. "How about you go home if you don't want to do it?"

"...I'll do it. I'll do it, okay?" Bou-san shrugged.

Naru turned to Lin-san and me. "Let's begin. Come with me."

40% Translated~

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