Editing Ghost Hunt:Volume 7 Chapter 6 (section)

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“It’s alright, it’s alright.”

Only when I heard John’s voice did I carefully open my eyes.

“Open your eyes, it’s alright, just look in a different direction and it’ll be fine.”

Encouraged by John’s gentle persuasion, I opened my eyes with fear; what appeared in front of me was John. John’s body just blocked the doorway – like this I couldn’t see inside, and I gently let out a breath.

– It stank! Masako and Yasuhara held each other’s hands and slowly retreated along the wall and also stood where they couldn’t see inside.

“John, take them to the entrance hall.”

Came Bou-san’s voice from inside.

“Right. Come on – let’s go back.”

John’s strange accent triggered my mixed sobs and laughs.

Holding on to John we went back to the entrance hall through the barricade. There were windows on the left side of the entrance hall facing the field; I stuck my nose through where the glass was broken and took a deep breath.

The damp smell of rain was so refreshing.


After a very long time, only after it had already turned dark outside the entrance hall, did Bou-san and Naru return. The moment the pair of them entered the barrier I smelt a mild stench. After such a long time, to see them both return, finally allowed me some peace.

“What’s the situation now?”

Upon hearing John’s enquiry, Bou-san shrugged.

“It’s still good; I think it’ll scare the young ladies to death if they had to pass by that area, so we used the gym mats from the next classroom to cover it.”

Gr—great – thanks, Bou-san.

“Is that, as expected – a body?”

At this point, Bou-san nodded his head tiredly.

“It’s already in that state, so it couldn’t possibly still be living. – It was an adult!”

This made all of us very surprised.

“Adult?”

Bou-san and Naru slumped exhaustedly onto the concrete floor.

“Water, -- right, it was an adult; it wasn’t just children who disappeared.”

“Takigawa-san, which is your cup?”

“The one with the dragon printed on it. – Because a child had disappeared, adults came up to this place to search. After that, a group, like ours, was sealed in. Amongst them one person disappeared, after which there was no meaning for them to continue searching. Hence the body was abandoned here. – the above is Naru’s theory.”

– I increasingly felt that that group was the lowest of the low; if they had told us beforehand then we wouldn’t be caught unprepared like this. Both the Village chief and that assistant were unforgivable.

Yasuhara poured the tea and handed the cups to Bou-san and Naru.

“Here, Shibuya-san’s is the cup with the fox right? – And then? What about Matsuzaki-san and Lin-san?”

“Because I didn’t see all the way inside, I can’t be sure, but it looks like they weren’t there.”

“– there was only the body? –” 

“I don’t think I saw a living person.”

What strange words. I glared at Bou-san.

“Does that mean that there was a living animal then?”

The moment the question left my mouth, Bou-san’s expression changed.

“To say what there was – I really didn’t see it clearly.”

“What?”

“What it was, I don’t know either; to say ‘what’–”

– What was Bou-san talking about—?

“Although I don’t know what it was, if I were to describe it with the vocabulary I can use, then what I saw was a ‘hungry ghost’.”

“Ai—?”

“—a ghost which was about the size of a child.”