Chapter Two

Hōshō shoved the door open, his features concerned and alert. "What happened!?" He ran over towards the two female students sitting on the floor. "What's the matter!?"

One of the female students glanced up at the blonde haired monk, seeing more newcomers and even one of the few decent teachers, Yamaguchi-sensei. The presence of the kind woman allowed her to relax minutely and a tear slid down her cheek. "...The dog. It's that dog."

Naru and Hōshō turned to the classroom door, shoulders squared. "Wait... It's dangerous!" Although her words were obviously meant to be something of a deterrent, Naru opened the door, revealing a feral canine, whisps of smoke clinging to it's body.

"Grr….Grr!" And then it lunged at the duo.

"Huh!?" Comically, Hōshō's features twisted into one of fear. "Naru, get back into the hall!" Just in time, they managed to get out of the way as it leapt past them.

"It...It disappeared…"

"KYAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" At the end of the hall, possibly having heard the commotion, a group of students had formed and one of the girls screamed.

"What was that thing!?"

"Calm down."

"Return to the classroom…"

"Are you okay?" Mai asked, staring at Hōshō. "I'm fine." He assured her, preoccupied and lost in thought.

"But the girl…"

"Yuna-chan, let's go to the nurse's office." Speaking in a soothing voice, Suzume, rubbed the shoulder and back of the injured girl. "Do you think that you can get up on your own?"

"Oh, I can carry her." With only a small grunt of exertion, Yasuhara lifted her up and she wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Yasuhara-san, Yamaguchi-sensei, can you gather any students that were involved with psychic phenomena and divide them by incident?" Naru requested with the bare minimum of respect in his tone.

'Naru is a workaholic…' Mai thought to herself, internally rolling her eyes.

"A-ah, I'm sorry." Suzume bowed. 'Maybe he's not a phony. Maybe he really can help.' "I would like to, but I've got papers to finish grading after I make sure Yuna is in good hands with the school nurse." Leaning back up, she smiled and rubbed the back of her neck. "Please excuse us."

"Naru, what are you thinking?" Hōshō could practically see the wheels turning in the black haired boy's head. Predictably, Naru didn't tell him anything and he sighed, scratching his head. "What a great way to start our research case."

The SPR team, or rather, Naru interviewed the students while Hōshō wrote down what they said. Most incidents were similar in nature, but the one thing that stood out the most was that the majority of the teachers did not believe the students who were afraid to come to school and that Yamaguchi was the minority who believed the student populace.

"And someone said that they saw Sakauchi-kun. That they passed him in the hallway, or that he was standing in Yamaguchi-sensei's classroom."

"Sakauchi? Who's that?" Naru was curious.

"He's a freshman that committed suicide last September. Strange things started happening to our school around last fall. No, actually, ever since Sakauchi-kun committed suicide. I was wondering if any of these incidents had to do with that."

"Then that's why…" Naru flicked a page on the notepad. "It says here that you tried to get rid of the spirits on your own."

Slightly defensive but also determined, the girl being interviewed nodded, "That's right. We're not totally convinced this stuff is happening because of Sakauchi-kun's curse but we couldn't stand not doing anything, even though we didn't know how to fix it."

"Did you know him personally?"

"No, I didn't. I hadn't even heard of him until after his death, but anyway, his suicide note became well known at some point."

"A suicide note?"

"Yes, it said, 'I'm not a dog'."

There was a hush that fell over the classroom before Naru soldiered on with his normal businesslike brusque tone. "Do you know what he meant by that?"

"Yes. I think so, because even I feel that way sometimes when I'm at school. The school decides the length of our hair, and what color our belongings should be. We're constantly disciplined for how we talk and told how to behave. It's almost like training obedience for a dog. So I thought Sakauchi-kun must have held a grudge against the school."

'I'm not a dog…' It went through Mai's head in an unending loop and she felt a surprising amount of sympathy for Sakauchi.

"Holding a grudge against the school. Huh. I think I can understand that." Hōshō sighed and Mai half turned to face him, looking curious. "How?"

"Oh. You're a female student so you should have noticed. The school uniforms and hairstyles. Surprisingly, everyone seems to be following the rules. Not a single person has dyed their hair."

"I see, I see." Mai nodded, face mock thoughtful. "This isn't like going to school in the old days."

Hōshō crossed his arms over his chest. "Just how old do you think I am?"

The investigating continued well into the day, with students recounting instances about the strange odor in one classroom, the fire that happened every twelve days, etc.

"Lately, or actually since the second semester, Orikiri-sama, Gogen-sama, it basically is…"

"I have it here!" A female student rifled through her uniform skirt. "We haven't used this one yet. Look! This is very popular at school right now." She beamed happily as she held out a piece of paper.

"Huh? This…" Mai examined it carefully. "This is Kokkuri-san." Hōshō interrupted.

"Eh!? That's not right. Doesn't Kokkuri-san summon a fox spirit? Orikiri-sama summons God and guides us into relationships. Gogen-sama is…" The girl trailed off as Hōshō crumpled the paper up. "Oh no…"

"Gogen-sama, Hanako-san, Cupid-san, Angel-san, these are all different names for Kokkuri-san! Whatever the name may be, you're basically doing the same thing. You're just playing with the spirit out of curiosity."

"That's not true! I was told Orikiri-sama is God, so it's risk-free…"

"That is misinformation." He threw the paper away. "Even an amatuer can summon a spirit but you need to be trained to send them back where they came from. Don't ever try this by yourself!"

"You said it's really popular, so how popular is it?"

"Well, it's definitely all over school. There are more students that practice it than those who don't. I know for certain that Yamaguchi-sensei's class doesn't allow that. It's the one thing she doesn't tolerate in her class, or so I've heard."

"Why is that?"

"A-Ah, that is…" The girl looked down at her shoes, trying to avoid Naru's dark, "Sensei has a hard time believing in the occult, she says that everything has a logical reason and explanation."

'Sounds like someone we know…' Both Mai and Hōshō shared a secretive glance as they eyed Naru.

"But she wasn't always this way?"

The girl nodded. "Yes. I-I heard a rumor that Sakauchi-kun spent his lunch hours in her class and even after school. She stood up to Matsuyama-sensei several times for him as well."

"He was in love with her." Naru predicted.

"That's...that's what the rumors say."

I am truly apologetic that it took me almost half a decade to get around to updating, let alone saying anything about this story. My notebook, with ideas, was left at my old house. So I became discouraged. However, Ghost Hunt is an amazing paranormal manga series and I still love it years later, so I intend to continue this. Even better that there's even a sequel now! I haven't even begun to read that, since I want us, author and readers, to experience it together.

Please read and leave a review. I'd really like to hear your thoughts about this chapter.