Editing Ghost Hunt:Volume 5 Chapter 2 (section)

===8===

At 9 o’clock we all gathered at a room approximately 8 tatamis in size next to the Dining Room. A round table and quite a few stools had been moved into the room. Igrashi sensei and her assistant, Minami-san and Professor Davis and a lady assisting had already gathered there.

“Ah…”

The one who said that was Bou-san, who had turned bashful the moment he saw the Professor. Oh He He. He’s a really cute fellow.

Looking as though it was a matter of course, Minami-san was setting up the camcorder. Apparently he had said that he was going to record the proceedings of the séance. The camcorder in question was just a very ordinary camcorder for home use. Looking at the monitor, Minami-san said,

“It’s a little dark. Can’t we have a little more light?”

What is he saying? When Igrashi-sensei heard him, she momentarily glared, wide-eyed, at him.

“What are you saying about increasing the brightness? During the séance we will only be using candles.”

“Ee? Is that so?”

“This is a matter of course. Because spirits dislike bright lights. A single candle will be used, just that.”

“That really is troubling…”

“Don’t you have a night vision camera? I only requested your presence because you said you had a camera capable of recording the events as evidence.”

Minami-san said viciously,

“No, I just didn’t bring that this time…”

What is he chirping about?

Suddenly, Naru spoke.

“Boss, could we bring our video recorder over here? We still have some that aren’t in use.”

Naru addressed that to Yasuhara. Substitute Yasuhara, as a spectator, nodded very magnanimously.

“Ah ah, doing it like this will be great. If Igrashi-sensei doesn’t object…”

Igrashi-sensei smiled.

“Yes, I’m delighted if you could do that.”

“Then, we shall go and move that over. – Mai.”

… Yes~. I just knew it would turn out like this… Really.


Due to the big uproar, I moved the night vision camera and the automated chase camera that had not been set up over. This ‘automated chase camera’ is calibrated to the thermometer; it is something that will automatically capture the areas in the room that are at a lower than normal temperature during the séance.

“This really is some impressive equipment.”

Igrashi-sensei’s eyes gleamed at the sight of this; Yasuhara maintained a generous, witty expression throughout.

“Thank you very much for your appreciation.”

The equipment was finally set up at around 10 o’clock. Candles were lit on the round table, the lights switched off, and then the séance begun.


“Professor Davis, Minami-san, Shibuya-san, please take a seat by the table.”

The 3 persons mentioned by Igrashi-sensei approached the table. The Shibuya-san here refers to Yasuhara. Ah ah, it’s really complicated. Besides them there was also Igrashi-sensei and her disciple Suzuki-san. The summoning was to be done by these people. The rest of us hung back around the walls to observe.

Candles and white paper were arranged on the table; Suzuki-san wore a blindfold while holding a pen.

“Please hold the hand of the person besides you.”

The 4 people seated at the table other than Suzuki-san held each other’s hands, forming a circle of joint hands disrupted at Suzuki-san’s position.

“After breathing deeply please summon the spirit here. Summoning the spirit within this room…”

It was so silent that one could have heard a pin drop. There was the sound of the automated chase camera adjusting its mobile arm after finding a focus, the sound of the motor of the constantly running camera; the only sounds that could be heard were only these minute noises.

“To the ones living in this building, please borrow the hands of this girl and let us hear your inner voices.”

The silence was deep. Suzuki-san didn’t respond at all; her hand holding the pen was trembling slightly. Igrashi-sensei used a calm voice to call out a few times, and a long period of time elapsed. It was so long that it made us observers by the side frustrated.

… will spirits etc really come?

Just as I grumbled such, silently, a squeaking sound suddenly rang out. More intense than the sound, was the pen in Suzuki-san’s hand hit the paper. Everyone held their breaths; Suzuki-san’s hand moved in large strokes, writing black words on the B4 paper.

Everyone leaned forward. Igrashi-sensei lifted sheet after sheet of paper beside her. The pen continued to move. I couldn’t see the words on the paper.

Then, there was a sudden bang. It was as though the room was hit from the outside. A thin haze of dust floated down from the ceiling.

“… what’s going on?”

Minami-san stood up. Igrashi-sensei spoke in a severe tone.

“You can’t move now. Don’t be shaken, calm down.”

Despite that being said, we couldn’t help feeling unsettled. Only Suzuki-san and Yasuhara were seated at the table calmly.

The sound of ice shattering resounded through the room. It was a clear cut sound like ‘piack’. ‘Dong’, was the solid sound of one side of the table was lifted and set down again, wobbling. At the same time the candles were toppled and their faint light was extinguished. Although I felt there was someone at the table toppling a chair with the table’s intense movement, I couldn’t tell clearly who it was.

“There’s no problem. Please, don’t move…”

Igrashi-sensei lamented.

As though that sound was a sign, the room resounded with knocking sounds on the walls or the floor. Who amongst us was knocking? This wasn’t a possibility. It wasn’t a sound that could be made by one or two persons knocking on the walls. Five persons? How many? Perhaps many.

Suddenly there was a gentle pounding on my shoulder. Even if I turned my head there was only a pitch black room. I should be able to see something. That was the feeling of someone patting my shoulder. Following that there were a few more similar hits. With the lament of a man as the beginning, the room became filled with awkward shouts.

“Naumakusanmandabazaradankan.”

That was Bou-san’s clear voice. Then all at once the sounds stopped. The previous uproar was as though it hadn’t happened. Following that the lights suddenly turned on. It was Naru who turned on the lights.
 

“… What was that just now…?”

Ayako said. Minami-san was underneath the table, Professor Davies was also glued to the wall, and even Yasuhara was holding the edge of the table, wearing a stiff expression.

“It should be that the sprits were successfully summoned.”


Is it like this then, spirits? Then, that sound was a spirit noise. – Whatever, aren’t I calm? Because I’m already used to it.

Suzuki-san was still wearing the blindfold in a daze. Igrashi-sensei stood up and removed the blindfold. Suzuki-san looked completely ignorant of what had happened.

In the end, in the course of that disturbance, of those seated at the table only Yasuhara did not stand up, and the only ones who did not lament fearfully were us, the members of “Shibuya Psychic Research”. Our group are really calm after all. This couldn’t be because we’ve already gone through many dangerous experiences, could it?

Yasuhara picked up a piece of paper on the table, then passed it to Naru. Naru took the paper, on which was wrote,

“Please Rescue Me”.

There were only 3 words.

Gathering the papers which were scattered on the floor; only those 3 words were messily written on those papers.

“Please Rescue Me…?”

What did it mean? Was it written by a spirit? Whom was it asking help from?

“Hey.”

Bou-san showed me the paper he had picked up. On it was written the four words,

“I don’t wanna die” (tl/n: I’m just trying to fit “I don’t want to die” into 4 words.)

And it was even written in red lines. Just like blood.


Checking everyone’s hands, there wasn’t a single person who was injured. If that was the case, then who wrote those words in blood?

“Boss, let’s replay the camera footage taken just now.”

After Naru said that to Yasuahara, we returned to base. Igrashi sensei and Suzuki-san also came along. Minami-san and Professor Davies should have also left the room together with us, but they left without my noticing.

Naru and Lin-san expertly set up the tapes and discs containing the data. Very soon the scenario of the séance was playing on the television on the stand. Very strangely the picture turned white, and it felt like the size of the grains was a special artifact of the ultra-sensitive video recorder.

The time from the start until Suzuki-san’s hand started moving, although I felt that a long time had elapsed, was only 6 minutes, according to the clock on the picture.

“What type of sensation was that?”

Igrashi-sensei asked. Suzuki-san tilted her head.

“It was like my hand was pulled by the pen. If I let go of the pen I wouldn’t know where it would end up, it was approximately that sensation.”

An intense noise was projected by the loudspeakers. Simultaneously, the image of room and the ceiling from the thermo-integrator changed bit by bit into deep blue. The thermo-integrator is a piece of equipment that assigns a color to regions of the same temperature and combines it into an image. Places that were yellow had the highest temperature, places that were blue had low temperatures… Comparing the image to the scale on the side, it could be read that the temperature had descended to approximately 3 degrees.

In the image the table rose high and started shaking. Although the glow from the candles had been extinguished, the camera continued recording, depending on the ray of light that leaked in beneath the door from the corridor. 

Pieces of paper fluttered down from the table. Despite that, Suzuki-san’s hand continued moving. Depending on the momentum of the moving pen, the papers dropped piece by piece from the table. Looking at the recording, we could clearly see that it was Minami-san who had knocked over the chair, and it was Professor Davies who shouted and screamed. Yasuhara was motionless, as though rooted to the ground.

“Young man, you’re really the cool one.”

Bou-san said.

“He he he. Because I’ve got a delayed reaction.”

Whatever. Yasuhara puffed up his chest with an unreasonable arrogance. 

“Stop.”

Naru suddenly raised his sharp voice. Lin-san stopped the play-back.

“Rewind to the scene at 53 seconds and replay that.”

Lin-san rapped on the keys of the computer. The images appeared in reverse, and the piece of paper jumped back onto the table.

“What is it?”

“That piece of paper.”

Then, the picture stopped. The paper slowly floated down. It was a blank white paper flipping over.

“Ah!”

I couldn’t control my shout.

10:16:02pm. The blank white paper turned over, and when it turned back once more, a few words were written on it. Despite the grainy picture we could tell it was words written in a row; it was the piece of paper on which “I don’t wanna die” was written.

There wasn’t a scratch on anyone’s body. That was to be expected, because that wasn’t something written by a human in that room.