Editing Ghost Hunt:Volume 7 Chapter 4 (section)

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“What should we do?” I asked. Naru shrugged.

Everyone temporarily returned to the entrance hall and sat down.

“We still don’t know the opponent’s goals –”

“Opponent?”

“Do I have to explain to you? – It’s the opponent who makes use of paranormal strength to seal us inside this place.”

“If that’s the case, then the opponent shouldn’t be human, right?”

“Based on common sense, we are currently in this type of situation.”

“– At least we’ve found out there really is something over here.”

“Yes, I didn’t expect there to be anything.”

“Indeed.”

But the unchanging fact was, the sound of the rain continued on outside, it felt as though there was a waterfall outside.

“Forget it; then aren’t we going to do anything?”

After sighing, Ayako said, “Bou-san and co who went shopping will come back soon. They might find a way to get in from the outside.”

“But if they can’t?” When I said that, Ayako’s face was filled with dislike.

“We’ll make them do a little something regardless; fortunately they can still send a little food and water in through the places where there is no glass. I think, like this, we can survive for a while in any situation.”

Naru laughed bitterly, “The problem is how much we can hope.”

“Yes.”

“Although we don’t know what our opponent is planning to do, I don’t think it simply just wants us to feel troubled or happy.”

Ayako was silent, John spoke, “Yes, it can’t be helped that we wait here, there’s nothing else we can do.”

– Yeah, it was indeed like this.

Naru nodded and looked at us. “Does anyone here have a lighter?”

“I brought one.” Ayako nodded. Naru took it from her, then glanced once more around the entrance hall.

“First use the shoe rack to set up a barricade in the corridor.”

“Are barricades any use against spirits? Isn’t it better to use the classroom?”

In response to my query, Naru shrugged his shoulders. “The classroom won’t do, we cannot get just a temporary reprieve, we must think of what might happen after the sun goes down.”

???

I felt confused, Naru immediately put on an arrogant look. “Do you want to wait around in complete darkness?”

Ah, I got it. And that was really very embarrassing, for me not to understand. With the lighter we could light a bonfire on the ground.

There were 2 footstools in the vestibule, and 2 shoe racks as well. The pieces were lined up 4 abreast – probably because there used to be many students originally. There were many more unused shoe racks piled up in the vestibule – a brief count showed there were more than 10 of them. We moved most of these onto the corridor.

“Because if anything happens, we can’t get to the other side either, so please don’t completely block it.” Lin said.

“If we don’t block it, then isn’t it pointless?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

We stacked the shoe racks on either side of the corridor up to the ceiling, with a gap in between for people to pass through. Slightly in front of that gap, we stacked up some more shoe racks. It was just like hiding the entrance with a screen.

“Is this alright?”

“It’s about there. Who brought the strap?”

“I have some – but they are plastic.”

I handed the strap to Lin; from the inner pocket of his jack, Lin took out a protective seal and stuck it side of the ‘screen’ made from shoe racks facing the corridor.

“That… may I ask a question?”

Lin didn’t reply but just looked at me.

“Why do you do this, does this not matter?”

“There is a popular believe that evil spirits can only walk straight, that’s why there’s the custom of placing a wall in front, or on the inner side of a door. It’s approximately similar to this false wall or screen.”

“Ai… is that so.”

“Although it’s only a saying that they can only walk straight, the false wall really has an effect – because the spirits perceive this as a real wall.”

“There are spirits that can pass through walls too, aren’t there?”

“There are. If we’re talking about spirits that can pass through walls, they can naturally pass through this setup easily. But if that’s the case, then blocking it totally would give the same result.”

Ah – so that’s the case.

“There’s also a door on the second floor.”

“Yeah, although it is very small.”

“Should we erect a false wall there to seal it up in advance?”