Editing Ghost Hunt:Volume3 Chapter3 (section)

===6===


Bou-san looked at Taka and then at the darkness beyond the window. "Taka, you should be going home now. You too—" he started to say when he saw Kasai-san. As if to say, "Who's this?" Bou-san tilted his head.
 
I told him her name was "Kasai-san."

As though saying, "Oh, hello," Bou-san nodded. 

"This is Bou-san," I introduced him to Kasai-san next.

Kasai-san gazed at Bou-san solemnly. "...Aah, hi," she said in a barely audible voice and then stole a glance at Taka. 

Taka reddened slightly.

"You two should better go home.  I'll take you two up to the station."

"Just a bit longer." Taka looked up at Bou-san. 

She's like a dog.

"You shouldn't be here at night."

"...Because it's dangerous?" 

"Daytime is better than nighttime after all," persuaded Bou-san.

Taka's expression bore mixed emotions, but she stood up. She's happy to accept the escort, but her desire to stay longer was written on her face. Even so, she obediently picked up her bag and followed behind Bou-san. 

''I wonder if I'm a hindrance'', Kasai-san's face said, and yet she came after them.

''Wahaha! Good luck, Taka'', I murmured in my mind.

Ooh, come to think of it, I was also lucky. Wouldn’t it be just Naru and me?

Speaking of Naru, after watching the three leave the room, he began to go through documents.

''Let's have a chat, shall we?''

''Alright! I wonder if I should start up a conversation with a short joke.
''

That’s what I had thought, and yet I talked to Naru about trivial things such as Bou-san's band, which I'd heard from Taka earlier. Of course, I hid the bit about the supremacism of Taka's certain someone.

Naru did not seem to care when I chattered.

Somewhere in the room came irritating and unusual clattering noises. We looked up at the ceiling where the sounds originated. Thumping sounds continued once again; it's as if somebody were moving something hard on the floor above. 

—However, this was the top floor, so of course there's no floor above it.

All of a sudden, the light in the room dimmed. It wavered gloomily as if it were wearing down. 

Naru half-rose to his feet to apparently stand ready.

There were clunking sounds in the ceiling again. Soon, the seemingly exhausted light flickered. It was already dark outside the window. Whenever the light flickered, the ceiling would stand out faintly in the dim light before the bulb went out afresh. 

After it flickered many times, I noticed a handful of hair falling through the ceiling, as though it sprouted from there. It was about ten centimeters long.

"...Naru."

"Calm down. Don't move." Naru turned his darker-than-black eyes towards that which sprang out from the ceiling. 

The dim light turned off, and when it turned on again, that handful of hair was astonishingly two times longer.  It seemed to be about 30 centimeters in length now.

Captivated by it, I could not move. Every time the light flickered, it steadily lengthened. Before I knew it, Naru was standing in front of me. I stared at the ceiling over his back. When there was a flicker again, a hairline became visible—a hairline with a pale forehead.

''...Someone's descending through the ceiling...!''

My breath caught.

While Naru had his back to me and fixed his eyes at it, he said, "...Don't move. It will be all right. Hold still."

"...Yeah."

The light wavered. It went down, revealing its forehead up to its eyebrows. Another flicker, and closed eyes came in sight. It fell from the ceiling in every flicker, and before we're aware of it, its cheeks and jaw appeared.

...Before long, it turned into a woman's form dangling from the ceiling merely by her neck.

"Naru..." I called out when I could not bear it anymore.

The woman, whose face was pale as wax, opened her eyes widely in an instant. She focused on Naru with glaring eyes as though she were starving for something. She then lifted her thin bloodless lips into a smile.

"Naru...!" 

Naru clasped my arm with his hand behind him and held me to his back.  "If that right there is a spirit from this school, it can't do anything.  It will be all right."

As he was saying that, the light wavered again. The woman's body came down: her white-kimono-clad shoulders and then chest. Looking like she wouldn't stop soon, the woman leaned forward from the ceiling. Hanging upside down, she held a gruesome smile and watched Naru intently. The look in her eyes was brutal.

''...If it kept on descending like this…'' A shudder ran down my spine. ''...What would happen to us...?''

Surprisingly at that moment, somebody opened the door.

"Bou-san!" 

Pushing the door open and grasping the knob, Bou-san stiffened. He looked hard at the woman who was hanging from the ceiling and quickly linked his fingers. "Naumaku sanmanda bazaradan kan!" 

At Bou-san's voice, the woman's body slithered back into the ceiling. The light turned on at the same time as the tips of her hair vanished.

"What was that...just now?" Bou-san gaped in surprise.

In an extremely calm voice, Naru said, "It seems you arrived here swiftly."

''...Please don't speak like it weren't a big deal!''

"...With this, it's apparent that Hara-san is unreliable right now."

"Seems like it."

While listening to their conversation, I sank down to the floor.

Bou-san patted my head. "Are you okay? Were you scared?" 

"...Yeah..." Those eyes were scary. Their look, cruel and evil. The woman didn't look at me even once in the end. It's Naru whom her bloodthirsty eyes were riveted on. That's what I thought, and when I buried my face in my hands, an image abruptly flitted in my head: a will-o'-wisp burning at Naru's feet. "Oh..."

"What's wrong, Mai?" Bou-san peered at me.

"That was...after Naru."

"—What?" 

"This room isn't its target. It showed up for Naru. It's evil. Naru is in danger."

Bou-san and Naru stared at me, bewildered.

Then Naru crouched down to my level. "Why?" 

"I told you; it's because that was evil. There are will-o'-wisps in this school, and that was one of them. It's aiming for you." ''...I wonder how I could think like this. What am I saying?''

"...Mai, are you awake?" 

Although I thought I wasn't sure, my mouth moved on its own. "I'm awake. I'm not confused. I don't understand why myself, but I just know!" 

Bou-san and Naru exchanged glances. They told me to compose myself and had me sit on a chair, and as they asked questions, I told them about what I had seen in my dreams before.

Of course I didn't say Naru appeared in them.

"I don't know why, but the moment I saw the will-o'-wisps, I realized they were absolutely evil. They weren't spirits; they were demons. They're absolutely dangerous."

Naru got absorbed in his thoughts. He cast his gaze on the floor. I had the feeling that he was looking at where I'd seen the will-o'-wisp earlier.

There came sounds of a lot of footsteps and voices; they were the sounds of everyone returning.



<span style="font-size: 200%;"><center>* * *</center></span>



After listening to Naru and Bou-san's explanation, everyone similarly stared in puzzlement.

Masako went pale. Her exceedingly high spirit medium's pride appeared to be wounded. "That is impossible," she protested, her voice quaking. "It is impossible that there are spirits here."

"Well then, what did we see?" 

"...I do not know. But that was not a spirit. It is absolutely different." Tears brimmed in Masako's eyes. "If I’m wrong, then I have lost my psychic ability!" 

Ayako patted Masako's back. "You have affinity with spirits. You just don't get along well with the spirits here."

"...That sort of thing..." Masako covered her face with both of her hands.

Ayako's shoulders sagged. "Anyway, since we don't know the true nature of what we're up against, I think it's better to not be in this school at night. Let's go home, Masako."

Masako nodded with downcast eyes.

I got deeply uncomfortable. It felt like I had snatched Masako's most prized possession. Masako is a pro. Moreover, she's hailed as top-notch.

''This must be really shocking for her'', I thought.

Naru stood up. "Ayako is right. That will be all for today."


100% Translated~


{| border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" style="margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaaaaa solid; padding: 0.2em; border-collapse: collapse;"
|-
| Back to [[Ghost Hunt:Volume3 Chapter2|Previous Section]]
| Return to [[Ghost Hunt|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Ghost Hunt:Volume3 Chapter4|Next Section]]
|-
|}