Editing Ghost Hunt:Volume 7 Chapter 5 (section)

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“Bou-san! The door!”

I pointed behind Bou-san; he turned around, shocked.

“Ai?”

Bou-san was momentarily stunned, and then he reached out to pull the door.

Then, as expected, the door already could not be opened.

“—what in the world?”

We descended from the stairs. Yasuhara and Masako, who were unaware of the situation, went forward; John, Bou-san and I pushed the door together. But the door would not move an inch.

“—it can’t be opened.”

“That shouldn’t be possible, we just entered from outside—”

Hearing Masako’s words I turned my head.

“It can’t be opened anymore, we’ve been closed in.”

“—Ai?”

“It was like this after you guys left. The windows couldn’t be opened; even the glass could not be broken.”

Wu – everyone was silent.

“—then this is troublesome!”

For good or bad, Bou-san spoke a line.

“What happened? How is it, that our headcount isn’t right-?”

Bou-san looked at us; I couldn’t help clutching my chest.

– Lin-san had vanished.

“Where are Lin and Ayako?”

– Ai?

I confirmed all the members: Naru, Bou-san, John, Yasuhara, Masako,

– Ayako wasn’t there.

“How can this be?”

Turning my head to look, John, too, wore a disbelieving expression.

“When did she disappear - ?”

“She was still there while we were in the corridor.”

“When we ran down she was still there too. During the disturbance everyone was knocked to the ground, after that we stood up –”

John lifted his head to look at the stairs.

“Mai also stood up—”

His golden hair had been gripped into a bundle.

“No, at that time I had already let go of her hand and went off first—”

“Then it’s not John’s fault.”

“But—”

“I also remembered we had to hold each other’s hands, but we got separated—”

What in the world actually happened? How did Lin-san and Ayako disappear?

In a moment, the feelings of regret came upon me in a torrent. Since the start of the investigation, the most painful thing is the moment one realizes how minute ones strength is.

“Things that have past can no longer be changed.”

“Bou-san… but…”

“Regrets breed regrets; it’s better to just do the things you have to do now. – What we have to do now is handle Ayako’s situation, right?”

“—Yeah.”

Bou-san looked towards Naru.

“What should we do? Should we search the first and second floors separately?”

“It’s better not to split up.”

“True as well. Then let’s start on the second floor.”

All of us walked in the direction of the second floor. We passed through the already door-less deviding wall, and just as we were about to ascend the stairs, Bou-san, who was walking in front, stopped.

“—What’s up?”

There was a wider space right above the stairs. (Looking towards) the right hand branch of the corridor, the left side of which was suddenly filled with colored paper.

“—!” 

I couldn’t help stopping in my tracks, looking at the wall.

“How could this be—?”

“This really is going too far.”

Bou-san spat out.

Streamers dangled from the ceiling; colored paper was cut up and joined in a flower chain. Many tendrils decorated the ceiling, and tissue paper flowers decorated a shredded gold colored paper.

On it was written – “Congratulations! Ayako-san!”