Half-Empty, Half-full, Either Way it's Filled with Blood
A/ at the bottom
Warning: Slight Gore, Ghosts, The Spooks, Disturbing Images, Creepy Teenagers,
When Mai walked into HQ Kuroda was already there. Standing in front of the monitors.
"What are you doing in here?" Mai peered around the room, looking for Naru.
"Nothing really… Just looking around. Is Shibuya-san here?" Kuroda stared at the screens.
Mai began unpacking a thermos,"No, not yet."
Kuroda looked over at Mai before running a finger along one of the many buttons on the the computer. "How did it go yesterday, after I left?"
"Nothing new… At least as far as I could tell. Umm… I don't think you should mess with that Naru's pretty possessive of the equipment." Mai paused in the unpacking of her snacks to look at Kuroda.
In a instant Kuroda's arms were crossed defensively, "Anything else?"
Mai stared Kuroda down,"No… not that I'm aware of. As far as I know there are no spirits here" Mai smiled.
"There are," Kuroda snarled," I was just attacked not too long ago. I was walking in the hallway and something pulled my hair for behind. I tried to run away, but it started to choke I could have sworn I heard it say something"
Mai couldn't tell if Kuroda was lying. "Are you okay?", Mai rushed over to Kuroda. She tilted the dark haired girl's chin up turning to see her neck.
The closeness brought a blush to both teen's face.
"What's going on?" Naru decided to appear.
Kuroda pushed Mai back slightly and retold her story.
"When did it happen?" Somehow Naru already had a notebook out and was writing down Kuroda's testimony word for word in English.
"Just now." Kuroda's eye wandered to monitor.
"Then we can pull the footage, where were you?" Naru began clicking on videos.
"The second floor hallway." Kuroda pushed her glasses up.
Mai watched Kuroda enter the building and wonder around. Eventually she went towards the second floor hallway, but when she go there the footage cut out.
"Is… is it broken?" Mai resisted the urge to poke at the screen.
"Everything is operating as it should and the camera shouldn't be broken. This is very interesting." Naru scrutinized the buzzing static.
"Why?" Mai headed back to the table and continued pulling snacks out of her bag.
"When a spirit appears suddenly the machine stops working properly. I wonder if this was caused by a spirit, or trouble with the radio waves, or…" Naru didn't seem to be talking to Mai any more and just mumbling out his thoughts. Naru turned to Kuroda. "You said you heard a voice. What did it sound like?""
"It was female, but it was also really hoarse." Kuroda placed a hand to her chin in thought.
For a moment Mai felt she was lying, but the feeling quickly faded.
*Raro
Mai finished taking out the snack which cover a good majority of the table. "Didn't Masako say there no spirits?" Mai popped a milk candy into her mouth.
Naru raised an eyebrow and started to take note of what kind of food was there. "It's not uncommon for a female medium to have a bad day once in awhile. I thought I could rely on her talent, or… Let's say there really is a spirit here. Perhaps, Kuroda-san and the spirit are on the same wavelength." Naru plucked a bag of salted almonds from the pile,"Maybe that's why she can sense it and Hara-san can't."
Mai looked her peer there was something about Kuroda's face that made Mai stomach drop in trepidation.
When the other investigator showed up Mai shared the conversation Kuroda, Naru and she had had with John. John in turn told Houshou who let slip to Matsuzaki who insisted it was a Chirei or a land spirit. Matsuzaki also seemed to want to make a big deal about the exorcism she was going to perform because she had the principal and two other teachers.
Matsuzuki smirked,"Pay attention. I'll exorcise it, no problem."
"I wonder if she really can I guess I'll stay to check it out." Houshou made himself comfortable and leaned against a wall behind where Matsuzaki was playing Miko.
Naru popped a few almonds in his mouth,"I've never a shinto style exorcism. I guess I'll check it out too."
Matsuzaki began to chant some sort of of mantra. Waving what looked to be a stick with confetti tied at the end Matsuzaki looked rather ridiculous, but Mai was never one to be rude about someone else religion.
"What she saying?" Mai looks a Naru who is finishing off the last of his almonds.
Naru sent Mai a scathing look," Be quiet. Aren't you Japanese? Don't you know about Norito?"
Mai huffed and leaned into Naru's personal space." First of all, no, technically I'm not Japanese. I'm only half. Second of all I practice Catholicism and third of all I don't know what Norito is as I have never practiced any other religion beside what my dad did. My mom was an atheist. And these are my almonds." Mai hissed in an angry whisper.
Naru looked taken aback,"Norito is a ritual prayer offered to a Shinto God." he handed Mai the empty almond bag. "Do you want them back?" He grinned condescendingly.
Mai glared up at him."**Cabrón."
Naru's face scrunched up in confusion giving Mai a satisfied feeling. Then all the window in the room blew inwards. Kuroda began snarking off to Matsuzaki.
Feeling utterly useless Mai headed back to HQ. ***Puedo ver espíritus, pero no ir buscando a ellos. Cómo puedo saber si hay cualquier. She stared at the monitors helplessly watching the investigators argue among themselves. Naru entered the room.
"What's in the thermos?" he meandered over to the table.
Mai sighed and turned her head to face him looking incredibly bored. She stared at him, "It's black tea, but I'm pretty sure the leaves are old. It's got a weird favor or maybe I just let it steep too long…" Mai looked back at the monitors,"Wait… that chair wasn't there before." Mai leaned in closer to the monitor squinting at the offending furniture.
Naru came up behind her and leaned closer to using the chair Mai was sitting in to steady his weight. The rest on the investigators walk into the HQ.
Naru took a gulp of the tea. He wrinkled his nose."It's well made, but the leaves are definitely old." He turned the the group,"Did any of you go into the room in the far west corner of the building?"
The whole group gave some form of a negative reply. Naru began to viciously type of the keyboard, pulling up the camera's video and rewinding it until he get to the moments before the chair's mysterious movement. He presses play. There's the sound of glass shattering then the chair slides across the floor as if it was being pulled by some strange force.
"What was that?" Mai gaped at the screen unable to comprehension what had happened. She had seen spirit do things like that and sure for someone who couldn't see spirits that any activity caused by a ghost would look something like this. But Mai could see spirits and she didn't see one pulling the chair.
"It's a poltergeist,"Mai jumped she forgot Kuroda was with them,"I think it means loud make objects move and noises. Right Shibuya-san?"
"You're absolutely correct, except about one thing. This wasn't caused by a poltergeist. If it was the chair would register as abnormally warm on the thermal imaging cameras, but it doesn't. Also we're only hit two of the nine classifications of a poltergeist, moving objects and breaking glass." Naru looked over at Mai daring her to ask about the other characteristics; she didn't.
Mai bit her lip eyes flitting in between Naru and Kuroda. Her eye's finally settle on Kuroda's neck, a bruise still hasn't formed. As someone who got a lot of bumps, bruises, scars, and other sorts of injuries from encounters with the ghostly kind Mai knew that the should have been a ring of park purple bruising around Kuroda's neck. ¿Decir que Kuroda fue mentira?****
Houshou collapsed into one of the rickety chairs,"So, what do we do now?"
"Well...Masako-chan, what would you say?" John asked turning to face the medium.
"I would say she's paranoid." Masako stated simply.
Knowing what was coming Mai flinched.
"WHY DON'T YOU ADMIT IT ALREADY? THERE ARE Evil SPIRITS HERE!" Kuroda screamed at Masako.
Masako merely started to calmly left the room with a,"I'm going to check inside again."
Matsuzaki crossed her arms,"Why don't you admit you made a mistake?"
The teen spun around and with a venomous insistence,"There are not spirits here." before leaving down the hallway.
Ai began to snack on some salted and dried seaweed while Naru verbally smacked down Matsuzaki and to a smaller extent Kuroda.
¿Qué es ese ruido?***** There was a soft rapping noise that progressively began to get louder. Then cracks and fracture spread along the blackboard in the room. Just barely Mai was able to make a scream out from the rapping. Mai ran out of the room knowing the only person it could have been was Masako.
Mai looked her gut instinct to take over she ran out of the school building. Not too far from the entrance was Masako who it looked like she had fallen from the second floor. Mai whipped out her phone and punched in "119." Not too long after Naru appeared.
The ambulance arrived and Masako gripped Naru's arm,"It was my own stupidity. It was an accident. There are no spirits."
"I think she's just being stubborn. I still think there are spirits here or maybe worse." Matsuzaki insisted," Spirits that escape exorcism are as dangerous as a wild beast and then they become extremely violent."
"Then, isn't it your fault that Masako was injured." Mai glared at the supposed miko.
"WHAT!" Matsuzaki sent a glared just as strong back.
"Don't jump to conclusions," Naru rolled his eye once again looking at the snacks on the table,"As far as I can tell from the tape it was a genuine accident."
"Then… there has to be a logical explanation for all this. But because of all of this the building is still considered haunted or cursed. How did those objects move on there own? That's what doesn't make sense." Mai felt sick to her stomach and completely useless.
"That's exactly right. There's something fishy here that doesn't make sense. There's absolutely no reaction from our equipment." Naru face was scrunched up in thought," The temperature and ion counts are stable. The amount of static is normal. All of the data shows absolute normality."
"What about me getting attacked! The video getting cut off, glass breaking, blackboards cracking. What about that chair moving!" Kuroda made grabbing motion at her neck.
"When did you get attacked?" Matsuzaki scoffed.
"That's why I said it doesn't make-" Naru paused when his eye landed on Mai.
Mai was smiling rather beautifully," Kuroda," Mai practically glided toward the girl," the thing is…" Mai tilted the girl's neck up and run a finger along it,"You don't even have a red mark. By now your neck should be a rather splotchy red, but it's pale."
The group flushed at the sensual movement displayed.
Kuroda bulked back, trembling slightly," I… I don't know what you mean…"
"Hm… I suppose you wouldn't," Mai smiled her normal cheery smile, quickly removing her hands, "Never mind what I said. I'm sure that the bruise just hasn't formed yet."
The group was silent for a moment before Naru spoke again,"Houshou, what do you think it is?"
"Jibakurei, of course"
"And you, John?"
"I'm not sure, but I agree, it's dangerous."
"What about you?" Matsuzaki shot back.
"I'll share my findings later. I want to look at this from a different perspective. I need to go to the van. Mai, look after the equipment. That mike is connected to the van so if anything happens tell me." Naru gestured to a microphone slightly separate from the others.
"O..okay." Mai watched as her boss walked out of the room.
Houshou scoffed,"I'm not sure about him. His equipment looks expensive and all, but I wonder if he really knows what he's doing."
John smiled,"Well I…" he held up his bible.
"Oh! Are you going to preform an exorcism? Can I help?" Mai had stars in her eyes.
"No thank you, but once I start praying watch the screens. You may see some activity." John waved Mai off.
"...Sure…" Mai mumbled plopping down in a chair in front of the monitors. Static formed on the monitor screens. Mai scrambled for the microphone,"Naru! The screen is all static!"
Mai heard a sigh from a speaker," That's because it's getting dark. The cameras are switching over to night vision. How's everything else?"
"Well, John's about to start an exorcism."
Kuroda, Matsuzaki, Houshou, and Mai crowded around the monitor.
John began to sprinkle holy water and saying his prayers.
"What's he saying?" Kuroda asked.
Mai reached for the volume dial and turned it to the right. The rapping sound returned. Then Mai heard it, the sound of creaking floor boards. She booked it out of the room and into the lobby as fast as she could.
"Really, again?" Houshou groaned.
Mai skidded into the lobby "JOHN, HURRY! THE CEILING IS FALLING!"
The ceiling started creaking the wood bending. Mai didn't pause for a moment. She ran and pushed John out of the way just in time. Wood, splinters, nails and debris rained down.
Sorry about this being so late. Um… This chapter is okay my satisfied enough to post it so…
Me adding things that didn't happen? What? What's with seductive Mai? You'll see.
Translations
Raro*- rare (or weird I hope)
Cabrón**- dumbass
Puedo ver espíritus, pero no ir buscando a ellos. ¿Cómo puedo saber si hay cualquier?***-I can see spirits, but don't go looking for them. How can I tell if there are any?
¿Decir que Kuroda fue mentira?****-Did that mean Kuroda was lying?
¿Qué es ese ruido?***** -What's that noise?