Editing Ghost Hunt:Volume 7 Chapter 2 (section)

===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.”