Editing Ghost Hunt:Volume4 Chapter1 (section)

=== 7 ===

At this time we spread out and visited various classrooms, getting hold of any remaining students, and asked if and how many times they have done Kokkuri-san.

The main aim of the investigation was to determine the popularity; the proportion of students who have done it; estimate the frequency of the practice. The investigation was more or less complete before sundown, so we returned to the meeting room for tea. 

As the meeting room did not have any facilities, Yasuhara brought utensils for making coffee from the student council room. After using an ancient heating plate to boil water, I added the instant coffee. I scrubbed the old fashioned western styled enamel tea cup, and appreciated the retro feel. It must have been used through many generations of student councils.

"How is it?"

After serving the coffee to everyone, Yasuhara seated himself. Then he surveyed us.

Leaning on the chair's back, the monk stared at his pile of notes, sighed a huge sigh before placing them on the table.

"This thing is huge, god help us."

"Is it very serious?"

The monk nodded his head, frustrated.

"All the students in the school are doing Kokkuri-san."

His sight fell on the pile of notes.

Those were the results of the investigation done with the help of Yasuhara and his group. Of all the students, more than 90% have done Kokkuri-san at least once, and since September, most of them have done it every break time.

In November and December, before the strange incidents started the volume was still low. Despite this, with continued repetition, who knows how many times spirits have been successfully summoned in the school?

"... is the fault of the spirits that were summoned. Exactly how many spirits are there wondering in the school? Maybe not just thousands, maybe tens of thousands."

The monk let out another huge sigh and turned to Naru.

"I say, Naru-chan, are you really serious?"

Naru, also looking frustrated, stared out of the window, and made no reply.

"I say, why don't we just give up and leave. In any case it is the responsibility of the students, so they should just exorcise the spirits themselves and the case would be closed." - said like a child throwing a tantrum. 

"I can't stand it. Doing Kokkuri-san and the type would call out some unmanageable spirits."

Yasuhara said "relax, relax," to sooth.

"I understand your feelings. Please."

"Right-o. I'll teach you the ways of exorcism, and you will do it."

"That..."

Yasuhara's face was troubled. I chided the monk, saying,

"That won't do, monk! The principal has asked a favor of us."

"For me, I dislike this school's principal."

"Ah, so you're being difficult because you were bullied by Matsuyama."

"Shut up..."

I ruffled the monk's hair.

"Poor monk. Your pure soul has been hurt."

"Exactly. To be so blatantly treated as a conman; although that does happen quite often. It's really a difficult job to be a psychic power user."

The monk pretended to cry.

"If that's the case, this will do. Collect all the various wondering spirits and have them concentrate on Matsuyama, that'd be fun."

"Oh, not a bad idea."

En, the moment Matsuyama is mentioned, the monk pays attention. 

"I'm really sorry that Matsuyama is that sort of fellow."

No, that's not something you need to apologize for, Yasuhara.

"From the students’ perspective, issues involving that fellow are completely ignored. Everyone tries not to have anything to do with him, because it's not like he'd listen to the opinions of others. It is the students who are more mature in having to tolerate him instead."

I can't help feeling Yasuhara said some incredible words...

The monk raised his head.

"Yasuhara-kun, are you all right?"

"What?"

"That is, with you helping us at our request? Did Matsuyama say anything to you?"

"No worries. Because my grades are good." - completely unmockingly, Yasuhara said that smiling.

"In the past he has said a lot. I'm not sure when, I wrote that my goal was to enter the Literature and Economics Department, he suddenly stopped criticizing me. People who abuse their power are weak in the face of power."

So it was like this.

Uncovering the truth, the Monk and I were impressed. I don't know if Naru was listening, he was staring motionlessly out of the window.

"What's up? Still thinking of something deep?"

Naru remained deep in thought.

"...yeah. It's not like there's any deep, I'm just a little concerned."

"Concerned? What about?"

"As Matsuyama mentioned, the Japan of today appears to have popularized the occult."

"So it appears. So what?"

"Within Japan, the schools where Kokkuri-san is popular, how many do you think there are?"

So it is. "Why would such strange things only always happen in Ryokuryou High School?" is probably what he is trying to say. 

"I understand what you are saying, but don't you think the volume here is exceptional?"

Hearing the monk's words, Naru's expression became even more complicated.

"Untrained people do not always succeed in summoning a spirit even if they try. In other words, the number of successes is very low. Is this school a special school for psychics? Even then, I don't believe that the situation would progress so smoothly."

"Perhaps."

"Furthermore, there is the current situation. Even if all the strange stories are all simple lies, what about the child in the LL classroom? The black dog? The fires? We are clear that playing Kokkuri-san will summon wondering spirits, and amongst these spirits there some that are powerful, and incidents where they cause harm is not unknown. But, if this is the case, the numbers are also abnormal."

"That..."

I said. I wanted to ask the monk some basic questions. In these scenarios, Naru is basically useless. (Note: even if I asked he would not answer...)

"Would Kokkuri-san really summon spirits?"

"That should be, if it was a psychic."

"It would not happen with non psychics?"

"No. To start, that's too arbitrary."

"To tell the truth... I have done Kokkuri-san before."

"Heh. Even Mai can do such bored things."

"It's what you call the ignorance of youth. Kokkuri-san was very popular in Junior High. And then, that time the spirit came... or rather, the 10 yen coin moved, and really correctly predicted a lot of things. How would you explain that?"

"En... how should I put it..."

The monk looked at Naru; Naru shrugged.

"Mai, try placing your finger on the table. Like when playing Kokkuri-san."

I placed my finger on a point on the table.

"Your finger is shaking. Don't move."

I did not deliberately make my finger tremor. But looking at my own fingertip, my hand was indeed shaking, albeit slightly. 

"Even if you say that..."

Even if I tried to be still I could not stop.

"Get it yet?"

"Huh?"

"The human body is just like that."

Ah, it is.

"When there are many people doing that together, under the influence of each person's shaking, the coin moved. Kokkuri-san and the Ouija Board (note: Ouija Board - used in communicating or summoning spirits as a divining or prophetic board, similar to the Japanese Kokkuri. Using the Latin letters and numbers, Yes/No etc on the board, the planchette would move under the direction of spirits, or spell out some deep message.) etc... the theory behind these are all similar. Everyone is moving unconsciously. Because the movement is unconscious that's why the resulting movement is unexpected."

"En."

Once I knew that I felt it was uninteresting.

"But, it really predicted a lot of things accurately - what was that?"

"Usually, people who think like that would also think, ‘it'd be great if the coin moved’, right?"

"Yes - it'd be more interesting if it moved."

"People would also think, ‘if the answers to the questions were correct, that would be more interesting.’ ‘How old is Mai this year?’ someone asks. Everyone knows the answer. 16 years. Subconsciously everyone is thinking, ‘if it moved to 1, then 6, it'd be incredible’, this hope within the players' subconscious caused the coin to move. And so it moves to 16."

"It also predicted something that only I knew." 

"Like?"

"It predicted the current contents of my pocket."

"En. That was due to everyone's subconscious inference. The contents of a girl's pocket: handkerchief, comb, mirror... everyone's expectations are all different. All the participants are thinking on their feet. An item starting with "ki" - key holder (キーホルダー)? Then it follows to move to ‘ー’ (‘i’ sound). It would finally make up the word 'key holder'."

"Exactly."

Unbelievable.

I took the key holder out of my pocket.

"Idiot. It has been making noise from the start."

"Ah, is that so?"

"When playing this sort of game, there will appear answers that are right simply because it is common sense, and answers that are wrong. What is interesting here is the human mentality. For example, I ask ‘what is the name of the monk's mother’. And the answer that appears is ‘Ayako’... monk, the answer is?"

"It is Masayo."

"Didn't get it right. Furthermore, because somewhere in the human mind, we think that it'd be more interesting if it got it right, he would carelessly say it. 'Although it didn't get it right, I do know someone called Ayako. How would it know that?'"

"Ah, so that's how it is..."

"If the answer was 'Ayayo', although it is wrong, but only the 'yo' was right; or if it was 'Masako', the 'Masa' alone would do it. If we are asking if it got the right answer, in this situation, by right neither of them should pass. But humans would incredibly have the feeling that it 'got it right'. Furthermore, even if it was completely wrong, one would think 'ah, as expected, it was wrong'. Because one would be surprised if it were right, that would leave a lasting impression on anyone. In a real experiment, when asked about 24 questions, only 3 were answered correctly, and these were not even strictly accurate answers."

"Listening to what you say, that might be the case..."

I think I felt like that when I was playing.

The monk looked suspiciously at Naru.

"What?"

"After listening to your speech, based on what you say, you don't believe in Kokkuri-san."

"Perhaps... Personally I don't believe in Kokkuri-san."

"Eh?! Is that so?"

"Why do you say so..."

"Everyone thinks that spirits are all knowing. Like, Mai's future, the monk's thoughts, the object hidden secretly in my pocket, everyone thinks that spirits would know these things as a matter of course, but is that really the case?"

"Ah."

The monk and I said simultaneously.

"If Mai dies and turns into a spirit, do you believe you would know these things?"

"No."

"Exactly. I personally think so too. Basically the only things that spirits know more than man have got to do with 'death' and 'the world after death'."

En... So it was like this... only with things associated with 'death'; it's not something one would understand without experiencing it firsthand. 

"So, unlike the monk, I think Kokkuri-san is only a harmless game."

Yasuhara, who had been listening quietly to us, interrupted.

"But, if there was a powerful psychic present? Wouldn't they really summon a spirit?"

Naru shrugged.

"It is possible. But this hypothetical psychic would be able to avoid evil spirits. He would be innately able to avoid summoning evil spirits."

If he could not, he would not be a psychic.

"That... is this not wrong."

"Anyway," Naru restlessly ruffled the mountain of notes. 

"Summoning a spirit is similar to adjusting the frequency of a radio. ‘A crowd gathered and summoned spirits, resulting in the school being filled with wondering spirits’; on this opinion of the monk's I think there must be a certain degree of truth. If we exorcize but fail to find a cause, we can only assume that to be the cause. Until everyone gets here, we can only exorcize the spirits as they appear."

Naru sounded like he was deeply frustrated.



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