"What are you doing here?"
The sudden and unexpected question made me blink, my vision adjusting to the darkness.
I had recognized the voice of Miss Iwakiri, the young employee of the boarding house; and after looking more closely at the strange apparition facing us, I realized that it was the young woman's face that we could see in the darkness.
She was holding a plastic lantern in her hand, whose weak luminosity illuminated only a small area around it, explaining why only her face and her right forearm were visible until now.
Then, as if to reassure Mr. Nakatsuki and myself one last time about her identity, the lights had suddenly come back on everywhere in the residence, revealing entirely the young woman to our eyes.
No ghost, then. Just a young employee as surprised as the person she had momentarily frightened a few seconds earlier.
Mister Nakatsuki was still shaking, while holding my sleeve, but this time more from shame and embarrassment, than from real fear. Curious faces had meanwhile emerged from several doors all over the floor, looking at us with incomprehension and even amusement.
Soon my senior apologized, and I even heard a few snickers coming from one of the rooms, which depressed my senior a bit.
However, the young woman was still calmly facing us, and was obviously waiting for an answer to the question she had asked us a few minutes earlier.
"Please excuse us, but Sakai-san asked us to get some extra lamps, do you have any that we can borrow?" I asked.
"Ah, extra lamps? We should have these on the first floor near the hall," replied Miss Iwakiri thoughtfully. "Follow me, you two."
She walked towards us, eventually passing us and starting to go downstairs.
Mr. Nakatsuki shivered slightly and embarrassedly let go of my sleeve as she passed right by us, and then we began to follow the young woman down to the first floor.
I could understand why he was afraid, facing such a terrifying and sudden vision in the dark. I really did. And I also understood that the whole scene might have seemed ridiculous, once it was revealed in broad daylight. Well, rather in the rainy and cloudy day, where the sunlight had very clearly diminished despite the still distant night.
The atmosphere had certainly not helped maintaining his peace of mind.
"So sorry for screaming like that," Mr. Nakatsuki apologized, running his hand through his hair.
"Don't worry, you're not the first, and certainly not the last," Miss Iwakiri said as she walked down the last step without even turning around.
"I see..." Said mister Nakatsuki, a little embarrassed. "Does it happen often, that you scare people?"
The both of us had just reached the first floor when the young woman turned around, and with a stern look answered my senior.
"People screaming for nothing are pretty annoying, but it's usually because they've seen the ghost upstairs," she said, frowning reproachfully.
Mr. Nakatsuki just smiled silently, the young employee's behavior having made him uncomfortable.
Miss Iwakiri then opened one of the closets in the hallway, revealing maintenance materials for the building, such as tape, pliers, various tools - hammer, screwdriver - and several lamps similar to the one she was still holding.
Power outages during storms must have been a regular occurrence for so many lanterns to be available.
However, I wanted to know more about this situation, but it seemed that Mr. Nakatsuki didn't dare to ask any more questions since the young woman's rather incisive answer.
So, I was the one who started the conversation again, while she gave us two lamps each.
"Do people see the ghost often?" I asked as I took the electric lanterns in hand.
"People think they see things, yes." She answered me with a blank look as she closed the closet. "But to say it's the ghost..."
"You don't believe it, then?" I questioned her.
She gave a suspicious look to Mr. Nakatsuki who was standing right next to me, then, crossing her arms, she turned her attention back to me.
"Not exactly..." She said as she lightly tightened her fingers on her arms.
She also seemed to regularly shift her weight from one leg to another, constantly changing her posture.
If I was to believe the expressions I knew, she was rather anxious.
Nevertheless, I decided not to speak, in order to force her to say more.
People had this annoying habit of hating silence in a conversation, and speaking to dispel the awkwardness and nervousness caused by this lack of human voice.
This was rather convenient in my case. I wasn't a very talkative person, and pushing people to keep talking - whether voluntarily or not - allowed me to gauge their behavior and emotions a bit more. It was like a trick I could use daily to avoid saying things that might offend or embarrass others.
Miss Iwakiri lowered her eyes to the floor momentarily, before deciding to say more.
"I didn't really believe it before I came to work here," she explained. "But since I saw it, I can't deny the evidence anymore..."
"You saw it?" Mr. Nakatsuki wondered; finally entering the conversation.
The young woman nodded with an expression I couldn't identify.
She was smiling slightly, perhaps to hide some embarrassment. But this smile, combined with her eyebrows raised on the inner edges could also mean regret.
The way she squinted her eyes also indicated sadness; as if she was sorry she had revealed this information.
It was far too confusing and unclear for me to understand exactly what her state of mind was; so, I was content to hand over to Mister Nakatsuki.
"I shouldn't be talking about it because the owner is very strict about it and doesn't believe in it at all," she apologized. "But I saw something, on the second floor..."
"Uwah, that gives me the chills!" Mister Nakatsuki exclaimed while rubbing his arms. "So there's really something on the second floor?"
Still with her arms crossed, Miss Iwakiri looked at my senior with a doubtful expression.
She must have had a very poor impression of him, given the scene earlier.
However, there was nothing wrong with being scared. It was quite normal in this kind of situation, and something I envied a little.
"Why won't the owner talk about it?" I asked casually.
Mr. Nakatsuki and Miss Iwakiri both looked at me with surprise, the question coming from nowhere unsettling them a bit.
But it was an obvious thing to ask. The owner, Mr. Yazawa, had agreed to the filming, even though he didn't believe in what he considered to be nonsense. A bit paradoxical, even to me. Did he want to take advantage of the publicity despite his firmness about the possible existence of a ghost?
"I wonder that because he still allowed a shooting here," I clarified.
"Ah, that..." She said not without a certain weariness. "He wants to attract a few more people, since business is a little bad right now..."
"Can you really say that?" Mister Nakatsuki wondered, before leaning towards me and whispering. "She can really say that? Won't she get yelled at by the owner?"
This little exchange annoyed the young woman a little, but she still took the trouble to answer.
"As long as it's not recorded and broadcast on TV, I can say whatever I want, right?" Said she, uncrossing her arms and frowning.
She seemed rather on the offensive now.
This revealed an unsuspected side of her personality. She was cynical, and rather abrupt in her words. Mr. Nakatsuki was a bit intimidated by this attitude, but I was not. This kind of behavior did not affect me, so I asked another question.
"In that case, there must be some tension because of the shooting, right?"
"Yazawa-san is indeed keeping his distance, because he doesn't want to take part in what he calls a 'sham,'" she explained. "But personally, I think this is a good opportunity."
"An opportunity?" Mister Nakatsuki repeated.
"Yes," she said, shaking her head. "A chance to find out once and for all if there really is a ghost or not."
So, she thought the owner would be put in front of the facts, if evidence was found during the shooting? That was a rather optimistic way of thinking.
Still, a ghost would have to really haunt the place.
"Do you really believe it, then? I asked.
Her next expression surprised me a little.
She seemed to be angry and sad at the same time, the way her mouth was twisting. She was clicking her jaw and gritting her teeth, convinced of what she had seen and knew about the situation.
She had also clenched her fists, a sign of hostility. But strangely, the latter did not seem to be directed at us.
"Do I believe it? I know what I saw." She said with her gaze hardening. "Someone died here, after all. And the apparition I saw was that of a hanged man."
"L... Like the previous owner?" Mister Nakatsuki asked with renewed anxiety.
He must have really been afraid of ghosts, and I suspected that a discussion on the subject must have participated in his current state of anxiety.
"I'm sure it was the ghost of the previous owner," she said, shaking her head. "I had seen a picture of him, and I recognized his face."
She then invited us to follow her down the hallway, passing between the two of us to turn back toward the entrance.
Then, she pointed to a frame hanging on the wall, among several photographs put under glass.
"Look, there he is." Said she, pointing to a person in the black and white photograph.
She had pointed to a man who must have been in his forties and who was holding a little girl by the hand. He had a rather thin face, and hollowed cheeks. His gaze, directed straight at the lens, seemed pensive but not without a certain sympathy. He seemed rather happy, and the little girl at his side was smiling with all her teeth.
Next to them, I immediately recognized the third man in the picture, who was holding a charming woman dressed in a kimono on his arm. It was Mr. Yazawa, much younger.
"Did the former owner and Yazawa-san know each other?" I asked, still looking at the photo.
"They were partners, before the former owner took his own life," she revealed.
She then looked at the photo, and her previously tense expression suddenly softened. Or more accurately, it became dull.
"Yazawa-san is apparently the person who found the body and called for assistance, that day..."