"Wah, I can't believe we have to be involved like this..." Said Mister Nakatsuki as he yawned loudly.
He had a plastic crate full of audio equipment in his hands, while I myself was carrying what appeared to be a portable video camera tripod.
"Since we don't have to supervise Osagawa sensei, I thought we could take it easy for a while, but here we are..." He despaired with a disappointed expression.
I just smiled slightly without saying a word.
We had nothing to do in the meantime, so we might as well help the production team.
All morning we'd been carrying equipment from one location to another, with guests being interviewed in turn in the large living room and then in their assigned rooms.
The young Kitta Kitta was the first to go in front of the camera, and very quickly, he talked a lot about the subject of the occult.
He had apparently taken a liking to urban exploration in recent months, and more particularly to ghost hunting. He had even made a point of showing the camera all the equipment he owned, which seemed so strange to me: a UV flash for his camera with infrared vision, a visual thermal sensor, a tape recorder to record what he called 'electronic voice phenomenons', or even an 'electromagnetic field detector'...
All strange terms with which I was not familiar. But according to the boy, this was the basic equipment of any serious ghost hunter.
I could see that he seemed totally passionate about this new hobby, but it was really not a subject that interested me. Just like my plain and quiet personality, I was a very down-to-earth person when it came to things considered supernatural.
It was something that, in my eyes, was not very interesting simply because I did not feel concerned.
Until now.
Meeting a woman who couldn't die was disturbing enough in itself to shake up any certainties I might have had.
However, what disturbed me even more than her strange power was that it was only in her presence that I could feel things. Maybe she had put a spell on me, come to think of it.
I really didn't understand why her closeness affected me so much. That' s why our separation bothered me so much, as did the times when we weren't together; even though I had only known her for a few weeks.
Was it a sudden fascination for others? Had our meeting impacted me so much that it left an unforgettable mark on me?
Yes, there were still many things I doubted, even at that moment, and nothing was ever certain, fixed and unchangeable. However, I could not deny these strange sensations taking over my body and my mind.
Mr. Nakatsuki let out a big sigh and cracked his lumbar vertebrae after having put the plastic crate in the entrance of Noel's room, and I imitated him by putting the tripod against the open door.
The four people of the film crew were already busy plugging in the audio and video cables that were strewn across the wooden floor like big black snakes, under the scrutinizing eyes of Mr. Sakai.
Mr. Sakai had already complained about the angle of view of one of the cameras, explaining that he wanted a front view to see both the young woman and the window behind her; and another on the side to have a three-quarter view showing part of the room we were in.
He also insisted that Mr. Yazawa be interviewed, but the owner strictly refused, as his participation was limited to the rental of the premises.
"Well, Noel-san, we'll start with the general questions," Mr. Sakai announced.
The cameraman - Mr. Harada, if I remembered his name correctly - then began to aim one of the cameras at the young woman, while the sound technician - Mr. Manabe - was busy finishing attaching the sensor of a wired microphone to the front of the guest's sweater. He had already clipped the device's portable battery to Noel's belt, leaving the black power cord running down her chest. He had finished hiding the cable by fiddling with the long hair of the person he was in charge of, folding long strands over the unsightly black line running through the sky blue sweater.
"So, first question: what made you interested in the occult?" Mr. Sakai asked.
"I'm not really interested in the occult, but I do think that ghosts exist, on some level..." Serenely replied the woman named Noel.
"So you're more interested in ghost stories in general?" Clarified the producer.
"I started researching it after my mother died last year," she said, nodding her head.
I could see the young woman's features twitch a little, the corners of her lips turning up in small twitches.
The subject seemed to make her somewhat uncomfortable to me, and she decided to quickly turn that little grimace into a businesslike smile.
"I always wondered if I could get in touch with her," she added quickly.
"Practically speaking, then, you're not that interested in the ghost haunting the place we're in, are you?" Said Mr. Sakai.
Noel shook her head.
"Maybe it can give me some leads for my own research, but indeed. I'm not really interested." She replied, tilting her head slightly to the side.
The wind continued to blow outside, the rain having gained in intensity coming from time to time directly to the window behind the young woman. It was as if the storm wanted to remind itself to these humans who were going about their lives trying to ignore it.
However, I suspected that the producer was more than happy with the weather, as it added an eerie atmosphere befitting a ghost story.
Personally, it didn't scare me at all. It was just there, nothing more.
This, on the other hand, was not the case with Mr. Nakatsuki.
He kept gesticulating nervously at my side, especially when the sound of branches rubbing against the outside walls of the boarding house could be heard.
"You know what?" He had even whispered to me at one point; "I think I'm gonna pass coming back after all, even for my wife. It's too scary here."
I had simply nodded without saying anything, which had prompted my senior to ask another question.
"But say, Nijima-san, aren't you scared?"
He had asked me that with eyes shining with concern, his eyebrows slightly frowned, and a few fine lines appearing on his forehead.
He was really out of his element here. And terribly nervous, given the number of times he blinked rapidly.
"Not really," I replied with a slight embarrassed smile, out of consideration for him.
"You seem like a very calm person, actually." He reflected with a whisper. "Chiba-san wasn't kidding when he said you were unfazed by anything..."
Because he and Mr. Chiba had talked about my behavior, before we left?
Calm.
Surely that was what the others saw when they watched me act.
But I wasn't mentally calm. In fact, it was quite the opposite. I was constantly analyzing what was going on around me; how people were behaving. What they were feeling, which was so hard for me to decipher.
I wasn't completely emotionless either. At least, physically speaking. I knew how to imitate smiles and appropriate reactions for certain situations. But... It happened sometimes that I got the tone completely wrong for my reactions...
"...So you hope to stay all night and not be afraid?" Mr. Sakai asked.
"Absolutely," replied Noel with a frank look. "I'm not afraid of this kind of thing. And from what I've seen of it, I think-"
The lights began to flicker rapidly and then suddenly went out, the room going completely dark and only the red lights of the cameras remaining visible.
"What's this, again?" Mr. Sakai complained.
There must have been a power cut in the whole house, because immediately, voices could be heard coming from the other rooms and the first floor.
"Hey! Who cut the power?! I was in the middle of a live feed!" Exclaimed a voice that I recognized as Kitta Kitta's, and coming from one of the adjacent rooms.
"The circuit breaker must have been tripped," shouted Mr. Yazawa so that he could be heard from downstairs. "I'm going to turn it back on right now!"
I heard voices in the room we were in, the technical crew checking the equipment for any damage from a power surge.
"We need to switch the cameras to battery power," said Mr. Harada. "We'll be able to avoid the lightning, if it ever comes to that."
"What about the footage we were filming?" Mr. Sakai became impatient.
"It's not corrupted, but we'll probably have to re-record the last question that was being asked," replied the cameraman.
I still couldn't see exactly what was going on because of the darkness, but I could still make out silhouettes moving in the dark; the dim, natural light coming through the window from outside revealing their outlines.
"Hey, Tokuma people!" Mr. Sakai exclaimed to us. "Can you go ask the owner for some extra lamps?"
He had been a bit direct, addressing us like that. Mr. Chiba would surely have said something equally rude back to him, if he had been there.
However, I also knew that the best way to avoid irritating even more demanding and severe people was to do things without delay.
Therefore, I was turning to leave the doorstep where I had been standing since earlier, when I felt something tugging on the sleeve of my suit jacket.
"W... Wait Nijima-san..." I heard Mister Nakatsuki say in a trembling voice. "I... I'm coming with you."
It was him who had just grabbed my sleeve with embarrassment, spotting my position by the rustling of my clothes for lack of being able to see me.
I patted his hand lightly twice, to make him understand that I had heard and understood him well, and that I would move forward slowly so that we would not be too far away from each other.
He had told me that he didn't believe in the occult and was not afraid of it, but I suspected that he was scared of being in the dark alone. Hence, he probably felt safe being in close proximity to someone, even without seeing their face.
Coming out of the room, I started to grope my way towards the end of the corridor and the stairs leading to the first floor, towing behind me Mr. Nakatsuki who was still clinging to my sleeve; the tension on the fabric remaining constant all the time.
With the sudden loss of vision that the power cut had caused, our other senses had suddenly become much more alert.
We could hear the voices and footsteps of all the people present in the different parts of the guesthouse, but also the wind whipping the foliage of the trees outside. I also heard that Mr. Nakatsuki's breathing became irregular, proof that the stress was getting to him more and more. A door slammed on the first floor, making him momentarily jump.
I almost thought he was going to rip the sleeve off my suit, pulling on it so violently; and I didn't really know how I could calm him down in that kind of situation.
To make matters worse, we were almost to the stairs when a door slowly creaked behind us, the noise more than noticeable in the silence rushing into our ears with ease. I ignored it - probably a draught - and continued to move forward, when I realized that I was held back by Mr. Nakatsuki.
He had stopped following me, also forcing me to stop my progress in the corridor, and before I had time to turn around, he screamed in fear.
The terrified tone of his voice made me look back quickly, to see a bright spot floating in the middle of the hallway.
A human face and arm illuminated by a dim light source levitated in the air.
I understood why Mr. Nakatsuki had screamed, and soon we heard the sound of shuffling footsteps coming from the rooms. His scream must have alerted everyone in the immediate vicinity that something was wrong.
However, after the first few seconds of shock, a voice was heard in the darkness.
"What are you doing here?"