"Yeah, that I can understand - sort of." Detective Lee walked to the bathtub and asked: "But this 'grudge collection', I am having a bit of a hard time understanding. What is this collected grudge even used for?"
"Just like how it is in horror video games, in horror games, grudge is a kind of extremely negative terrible energy, and can be used for terrible things." Aimee found a page on the manual which told her how to heal trauma to the mind and souls, but immediately frowned at what was documented: "As far as I know, it is a pretty dangerous and hazardous process. So as for who the hell would want to collect it and for what purpose - well, we're trying to find that out aren't we?"
"And … I have a question about your friend there if you don't mind." Detective Lee took a look at the door and lowered his voice: "This place, is this one of those secret hideouts? Like the place in movies where wizards and witches come and have drinks and food, and - and maybe cross over from our world to the magical world?"
"Not really, but this place DOES take in both civilian and magical world guests." Aimee dragged the man out of the bathtub and laid him on the side - it took her a bit of effort, but without the silver cocoon, the man in a grey T-shirt appeared to be surprisingly light and she almost threw him onto the shelf when she pulled too hard initially, "I can ask my mentor if I could take you on a tour next time - to be honest, I've never been only on one official tour myself - it was Christmas and we were there shopping for school supplies."
Detective Lee laid back against the wall and let out a long breath, then said: "Yeah, I would definitely love to. It's just that I am totally questioning my career choices now."
"Don't worry, we're still investigating the case." Aimee chuckled: "And we will still need your help getting into places and access to leads and other information."
Just this moment, Jason came back into the room: "Okay, I locked him up there, all chained up, padded walls and other suicide prevention measures - I think Rash really gets it. He's got the room almost completely ready."
"I'm not sure that's something to praise someone about, Jason." Aimee squeezed out a forced smile as she pulled green, blue and white bricks from the shelf and put them into the bathtub: "But we can talk about it later. We should plan on what to do next."
"I have an idea - please let me know if it doesn't sound right - do you have any means, like spells or some other power tricks to see if this 'grudge collection' has taken place at a crime scene?" Detective Lee asked while scratching his jaw: "We have a few other crime scenes that we believed were linked to the Drainer case. We could take a look at those and see if we could find anything. They're a bit older, but should be still locked up pending further investigation."
"I have some spells that could do that. But I haven't tested them in real situations before, so I think we'll need some extra stuff from Boss' basement just in case." Jason thought for a short moment and said: "I'll go check."
When Jason went into the basement, he noticed something unusual in the room - there were some faint and barely noticeable traces of energy signatures in the air, if it was anyone else who had not spent a lot of time practicing meditation and visualization in this room, they would have probably missed it. But not for Jason or Caroline, since this essentially what the room felt like, though to a much stronger degree, every time they completed their full visualization and meditation session.
With this suspicious feeling in mind, Jason found the hidden storage space under the altar, where Jianmen kept his sigils and incense sticks. He was looking for Illusion Breaking Incense, and Spirit Calming Incense, and some Demon Suppression Sigils. He was not planning on using these to help him with casting the spell - in fact, he did not think he would need the help at all. Instead, he would need these incense sticks and sigils to protect him, Aimee and Detective Lee from potential cases where it could backfire.
When Jason came out of the basement and blocked it down like it was before and was about to look for Rash to ask him if anyone had been to the basement, Aimee and Detective Lee already came out from the underground room through the door to the diner.
"I locked him in there, he should be in a state of coma until we know for sure what to do with him." Aimee explained: "According to the manual, we need to find out in detail HOW the mind and soul were damaged before trying to mend them, otherwise we might be creating false memories and even split personalities in a subject, or even erasing their memories completely."
"We have a scene that's around a 30 minute drive from here. " Detective Lee said: "Similar profile as the case we just sort of witnessed, a young couple who live alone far from families and with no friends."
"Sounds good." Jason asked: "But have you seen Rash? I have something I wanna ask him."
"No." Aimee shrugged: "I thought he went to help a guest? Check the parking lot?"
Jason nodded and rushed through the backdoor and into the parking lot, but Rash was not there either.
"Let's go check the scene out first?" Aimee asked when she caught up with Jason: "He's not going to go anywhere, I think?"
"Alright, let me leave a note then." Jason clenched his right hand, then threw a piece of silver paper back through the backdoor, which then landed on the reception's desk.
When their car drove away from the parking lot, Rash came out of the room rented by Natalie, Carmen and Kate with a serious look on his face. Behind him, was Natalie sitting on her bed, sniffling and wiping her eyes.
"Alright, I will tell Mr. Yu about this." Rash sighed and said to Natalie: "He's a kind and generous man, so I don't think he would be hard on you. But I'm afraid I can't allow you to leave before he comes back."
Natalie nodded, while Carmen and Kate were lying on their bed, still asleep as if nothing happened.
"I will bring you some food, some civilian soup perhaps." Rash said after a short moment of silence, "Please stay in your room, and call me if you need anything."