Ghost Hunt:Volume 7 Chapter 2

Chapter 2 - 12th of August

1

“He’ll refuse anyway.”

“You should ask anyway; it’s not like we deliberately not make their share.”

Ayako was preparing breakfast on the first morning on the mountain.

“In the end they’ll want you not to make their share anyway!”

“Why?”

“If I go I’ll not only be teased but be taken as an idiot. I’d rather take the trash out; I can be of a little use like that.”

“Your words hurt my pure heart!”

“What a fragile heart; you can’t survive like this in this modern society lacking in human feelings. Only thick skinned people survive; stop sulking and go!”

“Can’t you go, Ayako?”

Ayako’s head tilted slightly upwards and she turned back to look at me.

“Do you know how to cook?”

“Ugh… I don’t!”

“Since that’s the case then stop throwing a tantrum. I don’t know whether those two ate dinner last night or not, it wouldn’t be surprising if they didn’t.”

“I know it already!”

Stepping on the green grass making a rustling sound, I thought it was still better to check on those two problematic men. At this point, someone had already arrived – it was Bou-san.

“I want to know what exactly is going on!”

That was Bou-san, standing in the vestibule.

“I don’t have time!”

“You bastard, you really are a narcissist no matter where you go. You have to let everyone understand you actions, don’t you.”

“It never crossed my mind to make anyone understand.”

“You…”

Naru, standing in the vestibule, suddenly turned his gaze towards me. Following that, Bou-san also turned and shot me a greeting. “Yo!”

This atmosphere was somewhat uncomfortable.

“That is… are you guys busy?”

“No!”

It was Naru who replied. I heard Bou-san sigh.

“Is there anything?”

Naru asked coldly.

“Ayako asks if you guys want to eat breakfast or not?”

“ – Can’t you just leave us alone?”

Yeah, I just knew he’d say that.

“Ah! – Got it! Sorry for the interruption!”

I hurriedly escaping that place with Bou-san following behind me.

“Do you have any business with them?”

“I wanted to ask, but Naru-chan did not appear to want to listen.”

– Why is Naru so headstrong? And so lacking in sympathy? And such a secretive person? And so ignorant of pleasing others?

(In the midst of my sulking…)

“Yeah…”

While I was mumbling to myself, I saw Lin-san walk over. Upon noticing Bou-san and I, he nodded slightly, before walking away without a word. For some reason I stopped in my tracks and looked at Lin-san.

Between the trunks of the pine trees I could see Naru standing at the small wooden hut and hear Lin-san’s voice.

“ – already set off within 2 to 3 days.”

– To come here?

“Contacting the professionals, they will send divers here as soon as possible. It should be afternoon by the time they arrive.”

– Divers?

I looked at Bou-san; Bou-san looked at me.

“What does ‘divers’ mean?”

“That should be people who dive into the water for work.”

“It can only be this!”

After Lin-san and Naru finished their conversation they shut the door.

“Why would he call divers here?”

“Because one needs a diving certificate to dive!”

“Diving needs a certificate?”

“Yeah yeah!”

– This… Does this mean that diving is a special skill that requires certification?

“It appears that Naru is looking for something over here.”

“That looks to be the case!”

“Does this mean that what he is looking for is in the water?”

“Yeah—”

For some reason, I felt a little unsettled.

“I’m going to stick my foot in!”

“Do you have a certificate?”

“I have, but I’ve never used it before!”

“But, Naru won’t allow us to take part.”

Thinking of Naru’s personality, Bou-san smiled bitterly.

“Indeed so!”

2

As expected, 5 divers arrived that afternoon, and started preparing to dive in the reservoir.

Because there wasn’t much I could help with, I could only watch from the shore.

The campgrounds were by the mouth of the river, the reservoir was most inside. This river wasn’t very deep nor very wide; pine forests lined both sides of the river, the small wooden huts in the forest and the tents in the campsite could be vaguely seen.

Following the flow of the river, the flow rate of the water gradually eased; in general one could swim across. However, the water was still very murky. One could see the soil at the bottom of the water from the shore. Furthermore, this place was high in the mountains, and the air was chilly. The water here should be very cold too. That’s why I abandoned thoughts of swimming.

Far from the shore, there was a stationary boat. I looked blankly at it. The people in diving suits could no longer be seen. There were only two people remaining on the boat.

On both sides of the river there were jetties – there were quite a number of boats lined up there; but the professionals used their own motorboat.

Today, a rather strong wind blew across the surface of the lake; the clouds in the sky were also strange; the wind blew and caused the little boat on the surface of the lake to wobble unsteadily.

Because this was a campground, we weren’t the only ones by the side of the lake. It was a rare sight to see so many people gathered by the lakeside, all looking at the small boat on the surface of the lake. Although some had left, the words that were spoken rode the wind into my ears.

“What’s going on there?”

“It’s not too clear.” These were probably a male and female university student.

“Come on, let’s swim.”

“Ne, I heard some unpleasant things!”

“What?”

“The lady from the convenience store said they were there to dredge for bodies!” The moment I heard that I turned to look at owner of the voice.

“Ah!”

“That’s a lie, right?!”

“I don’t know, I too only heard of it, somehow it makes one feel rather uncomfortable.”

“Faint! Isn’t that too disgusting?!”

“Then are we still swimming?”

– Body.

This is a person who died.

What Naru is looking for, the thing that Naru summoned the divers to look for, is it a body?

I suddenly felt tight in the chest; why was I uncomfortable? I didn’t know.

If I didn’t speak to anyone, I couldn’t tolerate this type of feeling anymore.

Hence I hurriedly returned to the little wooden hut; at this time I saw a black figure standing by the lake, looking at the little boat without any expression on his snow white face.

Slightly hesitant, I approached. Perhaps he heard my footsteps on the grass, Naru turned immediately. His dark gaze turned on me, but immediately returned coolly to the lake.

Although I was a little scared, and the thing I had to confirm was also rather frightening, I had to ask.

“Ne, it was you (Naru) who summoned those divers, wasn’t it?!”

When he heard this, Naru looked at me expressionlessly, wrinkled his brow slightly before replying me swiftly and simply.

“Yeah!”

“I heard you were looking for a body, is that so?”

Naru gently sighed, “has this already turned into a rumour?!”

“Is it true?”

“It’s true!”

“You’ve always been looking for this place, right?”

No reply.

“Does this mean the body has been found?” I had thought repeatedly about this, and hoped he would deny my words.

“…”

“Is it like this?”

“ – Yes.”

I momentarily widened my eyes.

“Then up till now, the incessant studying of maps, frequent travel and what not was all to look for a body?”

“Yeah!”

I hung my head. I had felt in the past that his travels were very strange, regardless of where he went he did not appear to go sightseeing. So this was the reason, his aim was not sightseeing at all.

“Can I know why you’re looking for a body?” Just as I thought he might not reply, I suddenly heard a cold voice.

“I can’t ignore it somehow.”

“That’s right – no!”

Why he would say it like this I don’t understand either.

“Is there any reason?”

How had the situation progressed? Why did he look for a body? Why was there a body here? Who was that body?

Masako had also said that running the office was also for this. Why did he specially open an office for the sake of finding a body? Could he not need the office any longer now that the body was found?

Naru wouldn’t work on jobs that he had no interest in. And I completely could not feel that he was in debt. Could the operation of the office be for a different reason? But why would he need to open an office just to look for a body?

When Naru didn’t speak, I was silent too.

“This has no relevance to you!”

I just knew he’d say this.

Gently sighing, I was just an unrelated person to be sure.

“That – does that person have any relation to Naru? Who is it?”

I asked, stuttering. This time, Naru’s reply was a single sentence, with two syllabuses.

“(Elder) Brother!”

3

When they heard my words, everyone was shocked.

“Body?!”

I buried my head, and felt like crying for no reason.

Bou-san was also shocked. “Naru’s elder brother is in this lake?”

“Yeah…”

“He’s dead?”

Mumbling to myself, I didn’t catch what they were saying clearly.

“Ai? What?”

“No, nothing.”

Bou-san appeared a little displeased, and made a face at John and Yasuhara. Ai?! Why was everyone so secretive?!

“There really isn’t anything!”

“I said, you guys…”

I was already a little angry; why don’t they tell me anything?

With Naru too, it’d have been all fine if he’d said it out loud. Never in my dreams did I imagine that Naru was actually searching for his brother’s body; every time he returned from his travels I had asked a heap of stupid questions.

Just as I was about to speak my mind I suddenly heard Bou-san’s voice, “Lin!”

Turning back I saw Lin in the vicinity of the balcony handrail.

“Have you seen Naru?”

“I’ve seen him, he’s by the shore.”

“Thanks.”

Bou-san restrained Lin, who was about to go back with, “Is Naru’s brother sunk in here?”

Lin asked, slightly shocked, “Whom did you hear this from?”

“Naru told Mai.”

Lin glanced at me before turning his gaze back to Bou-san.

“Is that so.”

“ – It’s really regrettable that the situation is like this.”

Lin nodded. “As to why he died here, can we know?”

Lin lowered his voice and replied.

“ – I heard it was an accident.”

“Accident?”

Lin shook his head, “As for the details, Naru didn’t even tell me; all I know is that he was murdered.”

All at once everyone became completely silent.

At this moment when any speech would have been unbearable, someone opened his mouth to ask,

“Murdered – then what about the perpertrator?” Bou-san asked quietly. Lin still shook his head; I couldn’t tell if he didn’t know or if he couldn’t say.

“Naru didn’t kill him, did he?” It was Ayako who spoke.

When Lin heard this he immediately glared at Ayako.

“Then why is the body in this lake?”

“I only know that Naru knows that it’s here.”

– ?

Could it be that Naru has some other complicated issues?

Just as I was considering that, I didn’t notice that the owner of the problem had appeared.

“So this is where you are.”

“Naru.”

“How are you?”

“I’m still good.”

“Really?”

We looked at Naru’s face, which was as white as it usually was, and thought whether we would be equally cold if we were in his shoes.

“It’s really very regrettable!” That was Bou-san’s voice; the reply was still annoyingly cold.

“Thanks.”

“Found it yet?”

“The visibility underwater is too low, it’s relatively difficult to drive the boat; there are also too many obstacles underwater.” Naru spoke as though making an investigation report; he replied without any emotion whatsoever.

“Perhaps it’s because it’s in the reservoir – it’d be good if it’s found soon.”

“I realized from the first that it’ll take a long time here, that’s why I wanted you all to go back first.”

“I’m really sorry for that.”

Naru shrugged his shoulders lightly, just as we prepared to turn back I saw 3 figures approaching.

They weren’t people we recognized – an old man, a middle-aged man, and a woman. I think I might have seen the woman before around the campgrounds.

The woman appeared to be saying something to the middle-aged man while looking at us; perhaps she was just giving them directions. The other two men, for some reason, wore complicated expressions.

“Could I ask if you are from Shibuya Psychic Research?”

I was slightly stunned; Naru looked suspiciously at the other party.

“That’s right.”

The elderly man used a handkerchief to wipe sweat off his forehead.

“Are you psychics?”

“More or less.”

Naru replied arrogantly; the younger man looked at Naru, a little troubled.

“I’m sorry, could I ask if you are -?”

“I’m the person in charge of Shibuya Psychic Research.”

The two men were immediately rooted to the ground.

“You’re actually so young…”

“I’m good; please explain your reason for coming.”

The two men exchanged glances, and the elder one spoke,

“I’m really sorry to disturb you while you’re so busy, but please help us.”

– What in the world… did they come with a request?

Naru considered for a moment before nodding; in a rare sight, Lin interrupted, “Naru, right now we’re…”

Naru raised his hand to stop Lin from continuing. “It doesn’t matter.”

“But…”

“We’re waiting anyway, and not doing anything. – Please tell us the details of your request.”

4

It couldn’t be; wouldn’t it be troublesome to work at this time?

We showed the two clients into the little wooden hut. I, too, sat down, troubled.

The elder man straightened his back several times uncomfortably, before hesitantly producing his name card.

“I am called Matsunuma(松沼) and I am the village chief here. This is my helper, Tsukudata (佃田).”

“I am Shibuya, the head of Shibuya Psychic Research.”

“In reality, there has been some trouble in our village recently. Everyone discussed whether we should look for psychics, at this time I heard my niece mention your company, which coincidentally arrived at this place, furthermore you appear to be experts in this field…”

So that’s how it went, that’s why we would suddenly encounter a client here.

“Is this the thing troubling you all?”

“This… how should I put it…?”

The village chief appeared to have difficulty verbalizing; he looked towards his helper.

“There is actually a vacant primary school nearby; abnormal things always happen there…”

Naru sighed.

“I’m sorry, if you tell me only something like this, I don’t understand what exactly happened.”

“Ah…”

Saying that the village chief rubbed his forehead; this time his forehead was really dripping with sweat.

“This…” The village chief who had difficulty speaking shrugged off his assistant and rose.

“I hope you can keep this our secret.”

“We do not disclose the details of our clients’ requests to outsiders.”

“A lot of people have said they have seen spirits in this abandoned school. The details aren’t very clear, but everyone says they’ve seen human spirits and some sort of haunting by ghosts and demons. As it is a building of some age, we want to demolish it. But people say the ghosts there would definitely haunt something if we did so.”

What the heck, it isn’t any major issue. – It is a case of scaring oneself.

“When did the school cease operation?”

“Five years ago; to be accurate it was May five years ago.”

“So that’s why.”

“Wait a moment! Is this alright?” Bou-san cut in.

“It’s a strange time to cease operations in a school, it was May, right?”

Yes, the helper nodded.

“Actually, it is as you can see, the development of this area isn’t very good. There aren’t many children around; although there was a school, the total population of teachers and students did not exceed twenty. There were discussions of a merger, but suddenly they decided to close the school because after the completion of the reservoir the majority of the teachers and students moved away.”

“Is it this reservoir?”

“Yes.”

The helper’s questioning gaze rested on me.

“Actually, there was a major plan for building holiday villas near the school, but because there was that dirty thing nearby it was a little difficult to build a tourist attraction. If there are rumors of paranormal activity there… that’s why, please help us keep this a secret, and help us really get rid of this problem. You’ve also seen that there hasn’t been any special development on this mountain, the golf course and the campsite are the only sources of income; this is a problem affecting our lifelihood.”

Naru smiled coldly.

“So that’s the case…”

Naru violently shut the file, “You said there are ghosts, are there any leads to follow?”

The helper shook his head, “None, if we knew we would be able to make some offerings.”

“Were there any accidents happen in this school?”

“No.”

“Then what about the people who said they’ve seen the spirits?”

“No… Although there is this rumor, as to who actually witnessed it I’m not sure…”

Naru smiled bitterly, the smiles were wiped off the faces of the people around me.

“It’s all rumors; it’ll do not to be so bothered by it.”

“It’s not wrong to put it like this, but just in case…”

“We will investigate it a little, but we cannot stay there. We cannot stay there because I have to handle the work here. If the investigation here at the reservoir is completed, we would probably cease investigations midway. Is this still alright?”

“It doesn’t matter.” Naru gently nodded.

“Then please collect the data and give it to us by the end of today.”

5

“Will there really be something there?” Bou-san said, following the departing men with his eyes.

Yasuhara counted off his fingers, “If there is, it should be a spirit of a person who died in the school… shouldn’t it? With this we have a lead to follow.”

“Yeah…”

“Or perhaps a person who died outside the school who had a connection to the school…”

Yasuhara guessed, “But, why is it the school?”

“What why?” I asked.

“Why would the spirit of a person who died outside the school appear in the school? Earth-bound spirits appear at the site of the accident, but the school isn’t the site of the accident.”

“Could it be that it is looking for redemption?” Ayako said.

“After people die they will turn into spirits; under normal circumstances they do not remain in this realm. But if it had unfulfilled desires or if it did not even know that it has died, it becomes a spirit that is unable to pass into the next world and drifts around this world, a drifting spirit. Spirits with regrets would go to their desired location; spirits who are unaware of their deaths would temporarily return to their homes.”

“Yeah yeah.”

“But living people are unable to see spirits, right? And they can’t interfere with the situations in this world; even if they returned home they wouldn’t be seen by their family. That’s why they would move to some other place, like a familiar school, a memorable place or something. There are also spirits that stay at a location and do not leave; if this is repeated many times it would turn into an earth-bound spirit.”

– Ai. Just as I was incredibly impressed, Bou-san interrupted,

“So there are people who think like this.”

“What’s the meaning of that?”

“That means there are still many different opinions in this world – isn’t that so, John?!”

Looking at John, his face was troubled. “Indeed it is so…”

“Where am I mistaken?”

“Not exactly mistaken. Because things concerning spirits cannot be clearly explained, that’s why I can’t say where exactly the mistake is.”

I didn’t understand either.

“Then what are the other theories?”

“You fellow, drifting spirits, earth-bound spirits or whatever shadow spirits, protective spirits, etc – all of these are unique to Japan, and are not used at all in Europe or America. Even if one talks about the spirit sightings, there are enormous differences between Japan and the west.”

“Ai…”

“In Japan we think that there are more mischievous spirits, and that ‘hauntings’ are caused by that.”

“Yeah, this is a spirit.”

“But in the west the defining borders are not like this; disregarding hauntings and the like, there are even fewer possessions etc.”

“Hei… is this so.”

Thinking carefully about it, there have really been very few stories of possessions, even after such a long relationship with them.

Bou-san looked at Naru, “What do you think, sensei?”

Naru shrugged, “Regarding research about spirits, it was originally the easiest of the paranormal phenomenon to be confused with, because spirits are things that cannot possibly be brought into a laboratory.”

“Wu… is that so?”

“ ‘Psychics’, is what we call the gifted in the labs; because spirits have to be tested in the laboratory, naturally the easily tested spirits became the targets of the experiments. The spirits called by mediums are called summoned spirits, otherwise poltergeists are relatively easy to observe.”

“Yeah… is that so.”

“In other things related to spirits, people collect the testimonies of people who encounter spirits by chance. While the methods of collection are simple, but it is impossible to determine how many percent are true. Whether it is Japan or the west, there are inevitably uncountable reports of sightings, but not all of them can be believed.

“Oh!”

“For example, spirits in Japan haunt, while spirits in the west do not. Does this way of putting it mean that there are differences between Japanese and western spirits?”

“Since spirits are spirits then there is no difference in their nature. It’s just like it doesn’t matter if it’s a Japanese cat or a western cat, cats eat mice, isn’t that so?”

“And the same reasoning applies to spirits doing bad things. The western countries call haunting spirits ‘evil spirits’ and the remaining, non-haunting spirits are called ‘ghosts’.”

“So that’s how it is.”

“In the end, this is also just a theory. There are other vastly different ones existing. For example, if a spirit appeared here, and a witness was afraid it would do harm, and coincidentally caught a cold at this time, he’d say his cold was caused by his sighting the spirit. Hence the entire situation turns into a rumor of a haunting.”

“That is indeed the case!”

“Yeah, with this it has turned into the theory that Japanese ghosts haunt while western ghosts do not. In actual fact it’s due to the psychology of the Japanese. – Just like that, once the situation is filtered by ‘people’, the truth of the situation will be unlimitedly twisted. There are numerous misunderstandings and hallucinations and mistaken confusion in the eye-witness testimonies; like this we are unable to tell what the truth actually was. Hence today’s research into spirits is such a mess.”

Ai…

“Because it is very difficult to do a systematic experiment, people have various different theories; some people believe that within a person’s body there is a ‘soul’, which remains even after death. And there are people who believe that the ‘spirit’ is a type of response between the living and the dead. And there are still others who believe that living things give off a type of unobservable ion, something just like a scent, the ion remains after the living thing dies, and becomes what people see as ghosts.”

“That description is rather fitting…”

“Actually, the terms ‘earth-bound spirits’, ‘drifting spirits’ or ‘protective spirits’ commonly used in Japan are not scientifically recognized terms. Neither do I know who started using these terms. Therefore as to what those terms actually mean, no one knows for sure, because there’s no way to confirm it.”

“Is this the way it is…”

“Neither their origins nor their meanings are clear, they are terms similar to slang. Without any suspicions, people picked them up and popularized them; this, too, is a difficulty in spirit research.”

“ – if it’s like this then doesn’t it equate to not knowing anything at all?”

I asked; Naru inclined his head and replied with a question,

“Do you want me to spell it out for you?”

“Yes!”

“Evidence that support the existence of ghosts – not one exists at all.”

– Ai?

“Then what have we all been doing?”

“What you’re doing are odd jobs.”

– That’s not so!

“What I do is collect statistics, record videos, sounds, and data from measuring equipment. For example, there is not a single tape which clearly records the appearance of a spirit, but there are many on which strange light and fog have appeared. I want to fully analyze what these actually are, but at the current level of scientific knowledge, it is completely impossible to explain what they are. I can only say they are new phenomenon witnessed in science. If I could collect them, then I might find their similarities, and from there make out the rules of their existence, and clear up how they actually exist.”

Ai…

“‘They’, whom I am looking for, are normally known as ghosts. Collecting and analyzing the data, and from there ‘hunt spirits’. This is what I am currently doing, in reality it is objectively collecting data, but this is only just a phase.”

“Then this is ghost hunt… then what about exorcisms?”

“The exorcisms are only secondary, in exchange for allowing me to conduct my investigations; the exorcisms are done to solve the other parties’ inconveniences, with this I could possibly get a clearer picture of the truth.”

“So that’s the case.”

But I did not completely understand, and asked, “But up till now we’ve encountered a lot of ghosts, everyone has seen them before. You’ve seen them yourself too; can’t these be considered evidence?”

“I’ve asked everyone once before: has everyone witnessed any experiences? Have I formally asked for evidence like this?”

“Ugh…”

“I have personally seen or felt spirits many times. That’s why I know and believe the things everyone sees. But I have no interest in the data collected by ‘man’; those things, regardless of the number collected, are incapable of being evidence to prove anything.”

Wu… my head started to ache, I sort of understood, but sort of did not understand; in any case Naru’s and my stands are completely different hence this situation.

“It’s cold…” Bou-san suddenly called out.

“As expected, it does get cold on a mountain.”

“Do you want the windows closed? You could have caught a cold.”

Ayako stuck her hand on Bou-san’s forehead. “There’s no fever.”

“Really? I somehow feel a little warm…”

Bou-san looked at Naru and said,

“It’s feverish, I’m about to start speaking nonsense.”

“You think that I’m talking nonsense?”

“ – As expected, you’re incredible. That’s my personal opinion.”

In any case that was what he wanted to say. Bou-san, you’re already an uncle-grade person and you’re still so sly.

John also nodded. “I think that Naru is very incredible as well.”

Naru smiled slightly.

“In that case – thanks for the compliments.”

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