Editing Phenomeno:Case 02 (section)

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"Krishna-saaan? Are you there--?"

It was about ten hours since I had left that creepy hospital.

I was knocking on the doors of the ‘Ikaigabuchi’ headquarters, the Beatnik Research Club.

"Helloooo?"

I knocked several times, but there was no response.

"That's odd. She's always in at this hour."

I peered into the dark room through the frosted glass attached to the door, and stifled a yawn.

In the end, it was dawn by the time I arrived back at my Musashino apartment from that hospital in Hachiouji.

I had planned to take a voluntary leave of absence today and get as much sleep as possible, but there was a reason I had diligently arrived for first period at university like this.

After walking back to the highway from the hospital, we then walked all the way to Hachiouji train station. The moment we hopped onto first train on the main line, exhaustion finally caught up and we both fell asleep. I regained consciousness just in time for the Mitaka announcement and hurriedly jumped off, but for some reason Yoishi hopped off as well. After that, she wobbled half-asleep, and followed me to my apartment, and in the end collapsed in in the corridor. Of course, I told her. Come on, wake up, go back to your home. I even tried pulling her cheeks, but she just stopped moving, as if her batteries had run out.

Thus, I had no choice but to let her sleep in my apartment, giving her the only futon I had -- and I myself came to university like I'd been kicked out. I went to my not-so-important first-period lecture for "Introduction to Law" to get some sleep, but when I thought about what happened last night, I had trouble doing so. No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn't figure out what was going on with that hospital. The mystery of the vanishing member hadn't been solved, and I didn't know what Yoishi called "pathetic" either.

As my mind went in circles over such those things, I lost my chance to sleep. I had no choice but to attended my next class, but I couldn't sleep in "Second Foreign Language" either. And so, without a wink of sleep, I came here when the lunch bell rang.

"Helloooo? Krishna-saaaan?"

I knocked again, but there was no response.

There was no response, but I thought I heard something from inside.

"Seriously?"

Come to think of it, I remember seeing a post on the student bulletin board about there having been a lot of clubroom vandalisms recently.

I was worried and placed my hand on the doorknob, and found that it wasn't locked. I became more and more suspicious, and made up my mind to enter.

I took a deep breath —— and flung the door open.

And when I saw what was inside——

I recoiled.

And completely took a step back.

Inside was a girl with a lit candle attached to her forehead using a headband.

She was dressed in a white robe, in her left hand was a straw doll, and in her right was a wooden mallet.

Long nails were also carefully placed in her pretty lips.

"Hoo haw."

Said the white-robed girl.

Or rather, she probably meant to say "you saw."

However, it didn't sound that way because of the nails in her lips.

"K- Krishna-san, is that you?"

I asked, and the red-framed, white-robed girl -- Krishna-san took the nails away from her mouth, glared at me, and said "You saw." It was a beautiful voice, like the ringing of a bell.

"I knocked."

"Aah, I noticed."

Krishna-san ranted and raved in exasperation.

"But unfortunately, I had nails in my mouth. That means I can't respond. I thought 'Whatever, I'll ignore it', but then the door opened anyway. Thanks to that, my secret experiment is ruined. Who opens the door when there's no response, anyways? Only a thief would open the door, so are you a thief?"

Yes, this petite girl who was so eloquent was ——

Shiina Kurimoto-san, or Krishna, the administrator of the largest occult site in the country.

Incidentally, even though she looks like a middle school girl working part-time as a shrine maiden, she's older than me. She was a twenty-year-old, third-year university student, so you shouldn't be fooled by her loli appearance. Her incredible knowledge and charisma with regards to the occult made her a supremely respected figure on the internet.

"I'm sorry, I just wanted to ask you something." I began to speak, when—

"I have nothing to say to you." She simply replied.

"I told you not to come here anymore, didn't I? I said the same thing to you yesterday, and the day before that too, but you don't have the capacity to learn, do you? Or is this some kind of harassment?"

"Neither."

I bowed down for the time being and let myself into the room.

I looked around the clubroom once again and was dumbfounded to see how it had transformed. Blackout curtains covered the windows, and there were even shimenawa<ref>From wikipedia: lit. 'enclosing rope' are lengths of laid rice straw or hemp rope used for ritual purification in the Shinto religion. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shimenawa</ref> adorned on all sides of the room. Salt had been piled in all four corners, and in the center flickered a single, large candle.

"I'm not sure, but ——"

I looked around at all those things and asked.

"Were you trying to curse someone to death?"

In response, she ripped the candle off her forehead and shouted.

"Fool! Do you think I’m someone who'd mess around with curses? This is an anti-cursing prohibition ritual. It is for returning curses, so to speak. 'Ikaigabuchi' contains a number of dangerous ‘Kotodama’<ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kotodama</ref>, depending on how they are used. I'm gathering all of those malicious intents within this doll and burning it —— in other words, I'm grounding them. It's a ritual that can't be seen by anyone else, but because of you --"

"Can't be seen...? What happens when it's seen?"

"The person who sees it gets grounded themselves."

"... Huh?"

Krishna-san silently grabbed my hair and pulled it toward her. She then grabbed what seemed to be a wooden stick with some runes on it from her desk and relentlessly pounded my back with it. It seemed to be an exorcism staff.

"... Ow, ow, it hurts!"

"I'm the one in pain. I had to figure out the date, time and direction of the sun, then gather expensive ritual equipment. Do you know how much time, money and effort went into preparing for this day!?"

Then don't forget to lock your door when you're doing something that important...

I wanted to say that, but I felt blessed, being able to experience Krishna-san’s voluptuous breasts up close, even as she whacked me relentlessly on the back with a stick. I thought her breasts were big, but when you're this close to her as she's grabbing your head, you can really feel their size. I wanted to enjoy the soft sensation a bit more, but after twenty-some odd strikes, she abruptly let go of me.

Huh? I raised my head and saw Krishna-san looking at me suspiciously with furrowed brows.

"You've been somewhere suspicious, haven't you?"

"....... What?"

"Strange. There should only be the two of us, but I can sense the presence of several people."

"Wait... please don’t say such creepy things."

"Where did you go?"

Krishna-san began sauntering over.

Her big eyes through her red glasses, which had slipped down a little, were right up to my nose.

"Don't tell me you're still seeing that Yoishi girl."

... Oh crap.

Ever since the recent incident, Krishna-san had held a grudge against Yoishi Mitsurugi. Well, it wasn’t surprising since she'd given me an answer that was unrelated to ghosts, and Yoishi had gone and made all of her effort come to naught -- but after that, she kept lecturing me on and on about not getting involved with Yoishi.

I thought about coming up with a story to get around this, but--

This person's intuition was terrifyingly good, and I was bad at lying to begin with.

"I won't get angry, so just tell me."

Krishna-san did an about face and smiled broadly, causing me to immediately loosen my tongue.

I told her how Yoishi and I had gone to the rumor-laden abandoned hospital in Hachiouji last night. About how the rumor that the number of people would change was a fact that Yoishi and the others had experienced. And how I found a notebook in the basement reference room, and saw the same large handwriting on the wall. Of course, I omitted the fact that she was sleeping in my apartment like a corpse, but I explained everything else in complete detail.

"... I see."

After I’d finished confessing, Krishna's smile turned hard.

"So you went to that hospital."

"... Yes."

"And with Yoishi Mitsurugi, of all people."

"... Yes."

"And you saw something and ran back home."

"... Yes."

"You are such—"

Articulating every syllable with feeling, she declared:

"…A hopeless ‘’idiot’’."

I was suddenly grabbed by my collar and slammed into a chair. Krishna-san picked up a pen and paper that was lying on the table, and drew a single line down the middle.

"Alright, listen carefully. This side of the line is where we live. In other words, this side of the Sanzu River. And the other side of the line is the other world, or the other side of the Sanzu River. When you try to learn about the other side, you cross the line. If you peek from this side, the other side will also always be able to see you."

She told me this every time we met, and I hung my head and listened.

"See, they say if you come close to someone with spiritual powers, your spiritual powers grow stronger as well, right? Well, that saying isn't quite right. When you view a paranormal incident, it means you're peering into the other world, and the sense of 'knowing' that comes with that is dangerous. If you know, then you'll always end up getting involved with ghosts, and that is a painful thing. It's like having someone stare at you up close all the time. In contemporary Japan, there is very little scientific research on this, and there are no organizations that will help you. You'll continue to suffer alone, eventually grow tired and choose to die."

Even as chilling thoughts ran through my head, I looked at Krishna-san and said:

"But... if that were to happen, you'd help me, right?"

"You--" Krishna-san blushed bright red and spat. "Idiot! Don't think of me as some superhero on TV. All I can do is acknowledge the existence of the other side, and warn people. If a paranormal disturbance actually occurs, all I can do is request help from those trained in that area, so in reality I can do almost nothing. Anyways, forget about that hospital. Also, you shouldn't see that girl again for the time being. And don't come here anymore."

Krishna-san said, trying to the end the conversation unilaterally. However, I wasn't one to agree and back down that easily.

"Then, tell me one thing. Was Yoishi really the reason for that incident six months ago? Even though she's the one that disappeared, why was it Zippo-san's acquaintance that was hospitalized?"

And then Krishna-san stared at me with a serious expression.

"... So that's how it is."

She mumbled, then let out a long sigh. She then sat in a chair, leaned back as she stared at the ceiling, scratched her bobbed hair, and finally spoke.

"You're trying to clear Yoishi Mitsurugi’s name."

"Well, um, how should I put it?"

To be honest, that wasn't the only reason. The irrepressible main ingredient of my personality: of wanting to see scary things, was probably also a factor. But I did notice the winds had shifted a bit in my favor, so I decided to keep the conversation going.

"In any case, I can't imagine Yoishi was the reason. But the writing on the wall, the disappearing people, and the word, 'pathetic' Yoishi had said —— I don't understand any of it."

Krishna-san nodded in agreement.

"I don't understand anything about that hospital either."

I was stunned as the occult site administrator, dressed in a shrine maiden outfit, explained:

"That place has too many stories about it. Even though this is a common trend for abandoned hospital-based haunted places, but even so, the rumors surrounding that hospital are too diverse. There are have been sightings of wheelchair-bound ghosts. There are inexplicable sounds. There are ghosts of nurses, ghosts of children. There are some that got lost, only to be hospitalized after their return. And now, people vanish entirely — the more information you get, the more inexplicable it gets... To be honest, I've never seen this pattern before."

Come to think of it--

Yoishi said something similar.

That this situation was rare, that her head hadn't come up with an answer yet.

"I understand lots of rumors crop up around eerie places, but the pattern of haunted places generally ties everything together with a single line. For instance, at the famous Hachiouji castle ruins, there are many sightings of samurai spirits due to the tragic tale of the castle’s fall<ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hachi%C5%8Dji_Castle</ref>, and near Married Couple Rocks, the ghosts of young men and women are often reported due to tragic love stories.<ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meoto_Iwa</ref> In other words, there's always a root behind the rumors. But the abandoned hospital lacks that. Instead, it's like a wild tree, with each branch growing as it pleases —— and the speed of its growth is frightening. I've seen lots of haunted places, but even ''I'' don't know the truth to that one."

Even this person has things she doesn't know.

It was a somewhat fresh surprise, and I once again felt how profound the world of the occult was, when——

"Nevertheless..."

Krishna-san furrowed her brows.

"Those words on the wall are bad."

"Bad? Why?"

However, Krishna-san didn't reply, instead abruptly asking.

"First of all, what do you think ghosts are?"

"Ghosts?"

I went "hmm", and conveyed the first thing that popped to mind.

"You know, the ones that are often depicted in paintings and so on, having a grudge with their hands hanging down."

"I see, the triangular hood with the burial clothes, is it? Well, that’s pretty typical, but--"

Krishna-san stood up and took out what looked to be an old album from the bookshelf.

"What does this look like?"

A third of the photo on the page she flipped to was a vast expanse of land, and the rest was a clear, blue sky that cut through all the rest. It was probably somewhere in Hokkaidou or somewhere. A concrete-paved road stretched on, and densely packed areas of grass fluttered on either side of it. The rest was white clouds and a blue sky. It looked like a pleasant landscape photo that could be used in a tourist brochure.

"What does it look like? —— Welcome to a summer in Hokkaidou, that sort of thing?"

"Look carefully."

Krishna-san's cute fingers pointed at the blue sky.

A cumulonimbus cloud parallel to the ground, and a cirrocumulus cloud far above—

"Huh?"

... Do cumulonimbus clouds and cirrocumulus clouds appear at the same time?

When I realized that, I felt goosebumps.

...Wrong.

This wasn't a cirrocumulus cloud — it was a face.

Countless, white, hollow faces floated in the sky.

"... Eeeep!"

Krishna-san gave me a slight smile as I jumped back and as she slammed the album shut.

"According to the person who is my teacher, it is said that people who die with lingering regrets in this world stay behind in some form or another. Sometimes with just an arm, and sometimes with just an eye. In other words, it's rare for them to retain their human form. Moreover, after some time, they end up forgetting what it was they regretted in the first place. In short, they become just hollow, floating matter — however, this hollow, floating matter can combine."

"Combine... like, together?"

"Yes. Be it dogs, cats or humans, ghosts that just float aimlessly combine. And they expand without end. My teacher said the largest he'd seen was the size of Mount Fuji. A giant mass covered with painful expressions throughout was just wandering above the ocean."

I was horrified at the thought of that scene.

A giant mass formed only with countless dog, cat, and human heads. Countless negative emotions stretched out across the sky. Then the sky I was always casually looking up at — was full of such things floating around? Could it be that the clouds I'd been looking up at weren't even clouds at all?

"Who knows. Whatever the case may be, that floating matter slowly disappears over time. There are those who've seen ghosts of warriors, but I've never heard of sightings of Jomon ghosts<ref> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C5%8Dmon_period</ref>. Apparently, there are reasons for that, but it takes a significant amount of time, like hundreds of years, for them to disappear. In other words, there are still countless, enormous globs of ghosts floating around this world — and here’s the problem: when they get caught in some kind of spiritual magnetic field, they stop there. For instance, enormous sacred grounds areas, or murder scenes with tremendous amounts of hate — they have a tendency to stay at those places. So, in other words, that’s—"

Ahh, I finally understood.

In other words, that’s what’s called a haunted place.

The presence of countless people I felt yesterday in that abandoned hospital. Countless stares.

Recalling those presences, which still lingered on my skin, I once again felt a chill crawl down my spine.

"And, the problem goes back to the words you saw on the wall."

Krishna-san pushed her glasses up and continued.

"I don't know what kind of idiot made their prank, but it continued the words from the notebook, 'Please fix my sickness' with 'I'll do whatever you ask if you fix me.' It became context. In short, it created meaning."

I swallowed, and Krishna-san asked.

"What happens when you give meaning to a place where a collection of ghosts floating aimlessly, gather?"

I felt something cold down my spine.

"They desperately seek meaning. They must seek meaning because they’re existence is so weak."

I suddenly imagined a mass of floating thoughts turning to look towards me at the same time. That collection of countless faces was probably imagined them from the photo I'd just seen — and suddenly, those blank stares overlapped with Yoishi's glass bead-like gaze.

"You wanted to clear her name, I can respect the intent behind the action."

Krishna-san, muttered with a somewhat distant stare.

"But there are some things people shouldn't see."

I felt my heart freeze.

"In reality, this shore and that shore are designed to be separate. That girl Yoishi, easily crosses the boundary. And that is an extremely dangerous thing. Her words and deeds include things that people must not know. No — something that people inherently know, but because they have chosen to forget, they remain people. Yet her words contain them."

Her words—

I felt like I had solved the mystery of why Yoishi's words bewildered me so.

I felt that even if Krishna-san said the same thing, I would only be excited, but when she said them, it felt like the something would shift out of place. As if the walls of common sense I’d believed in were crumbling — I’d feel uneasy, as if I didn't know where I was standing. That's what I experienced last time, and this time as well.

"Unfortunately, though, it's very difficult to save children like that."

Krishna-san looked somewhat lonely—

And I thought.

She must have tried saving people like that with all her strength in the past. But she was unable to in the end. Maybe Yoishi resembled someone in her past, and even if I were wrong--

I'd lost the will to keep asking questions.

I somewhat understood what my own limits were. My mental strength, my assertiveness, my knowledge about ghosts, they were nothing compared to the baby-faced administrator in front of me. Yoishi too, would continue jumping into the paranormal even if I were to try stopping her. And I, a stranger, can't keep following her every time.

To clear Yoishi's name—

Was something way beyond my powers, I realized.

"... Thank you very much, for everything."

As I stood up weakly, hoisting my bag over my shoulder, Krishna-san handed me a white bag.

"This is coarse salt purified by Susanoo no Mikoto from the Imamiya temple. Place this by the entrance to your room for a week. If something odd happens, let me know immediately."

"Yes," I answered, as I opened the door.

"Oh, yes."

Krishna called me from behind.

"You didn't take anything out from that hospital, did you?"

I laughed as I stepped out into the hallway.

"I'm not that reckless." I said, and closed the door.

I went out into the hallway, and proceeded down the dark concrete path — as I clutched my head in my hands.

I wanted to tell her everything, but I was unable to, due to my stupidity.

I opened my bag and took out a notebook.

It was the notebook with ‘Please fix my sickness’ written in it.