~~~AKEMI~~~
Kneeling on the rooftop floor was quite colder than she had thought, well directly facing the sky all day made Akemi thought it would at least hold some kind of warmth but she guesses here in the paranormal world, no such thing as temperature exists.
She is used to seeing it. The other side as she mostly calls it and only finds herself in that situation when she manifests herself to be. If Akemi recalls correctly, it works the same way as Astral projection. Astral projection is when their soul separate from their body and will be able to see a different perception of the world. Since the body lives in the actual living world, it is only able to see such thing yet the soul is something different and sees everything the body cannot.
Some other special people are an exception to this although not as special as Akemi's abilities of actually seeing it 24/7.
It has been a while since she saw what the actual living world looks like but Akemi still gets the idea from the visions of other spirits. Colorful and bright is what she knows of the side she lives in yet it always bothers Akemi to think that she saw things differently.
The Other side looks distraught, extremely dark that lacks any kind of light as though the sun never existed. The whole world looks cold but since Akemi is still connected with her body, she never felt the low temperature but now her soul is walking around without any shell, she felt every shivering chill that touched her glass skin. Akemi actually felt that she is inside the Other side, as though this were the real world because her body (when not astral projecting) assured her of her heart beating inside her chest or the touch and warmth from the people beside her actual body without that she felt kinda lost.
"Akemi-san," Alone in the Other side rooftop is what Akemi thought she was yet the voice behind her was similar to what she was used to hearing. This voice was more gentle compared to the normal straightforward authority she hears,
Turning around she was quick to know that the Naru in front of her was not Naru at all. "You must be Eugene."
Akemi says, more as a statement than a question and the male Mai continuously mistaken for as Naru let out a soft smile. Inside, Akemi was a bit startled at the sight— they were highly similar going on by Naru's words and Mai's constant belief that Eugene was Naru despite the contrasting personalities so Akemi automatically thought of the male in front of her is what Naru truly looked like.
'I didn't notice much of his appearance at the fallen well but they do look quite dashing...' Akemi thought to herself as she took note of Eugene's appearance. 'Good thing I'm blind as a bat if I ever see Naru daily my heart would have jumped out of my chest from how dashing he is.' Akemi tried to hide her inner squeal at the thought of Naru's cold mysterious persona and seeing it everyday with matching prince-like appearance is a no-good-for-the-heart.
Eugene widens his smile more naturally compared to Naru making Akemi know he is the smiley twin. "Shocked?"
Akemi lightly shrugs her shoulders, a friendly smile on her lips that almost matched his as she couldn't help but compare Eugene to his brother. "hm~? not really, just wondering who is the younger twin..."
Eugene lets out a laugh, it chimed at the quiet nether world. Despite the dark environment, everything between the two held a warmth of comfortable friendship waiting to build. "It's the mad scientist." Eugene answers quickly as though it was a fact and Akemi let out a hum of finally understanding everything.
"Ara~ so that explains it..." Eugene slowly nods at her words with a click of his tongue, the memories surfaced in his head and deep inside felt a disappointed acceptance. Both people (Akemi and Eugene) felt humorous at the thought.
"So," With her hands clasped in front of her, Akemi spoke out breaking the humorous occasion yet not the comfortable atmosphere. "Why did you call me?"
Eugene lets out a sigh as though finally giving out a breath of relief for the first time. "I need help," Eugene stated yet he wasn't finished. "And it wasn't me who called you."
"Then who?"
Eugene gave her a soft gaze, one that Akemi will always remember. "Your parents were a great company at my stay here. I never felt lonely."
"My parents...?"
~~~AKEMI AND MAI~~~
"Are you sure you are okay, Akemi-sempai?" Mai asks the heiress once more who walked beside her with a hand wrapped around her arm. The two making their way to the Biology Room when none were too excited to fetch the camera batteries.
"Not really..." Akemi admits, a short frown befalling her face before removing it from sight with a tight smile. "But I'm sure I would be after this case is finally finished."
After Akemi's separation from the crew earlier, they realized Akemi's lack of presence and went to find her only for the heiress to reveal herself walking down the steps with a hand on the handle to guide her way. Considerably tired and weak.
They only took a short rest, making Akemi learn of Mai and Masako's joint vision of Sakauchi's disappearance while she was gone. At the notice of that, Akemi remained quiet. The voice of Sakauchi's pleading still loud on her ears, but the memory of him were slowly going to a stop— making Akemi sure that he was fully devoured.
But that was not the full reason why she wasn't okay.
"You were pretty tired, huh?" Mai tried to change the glum atmosphere and maybe remove her slight fear with a light conversation; Akemi willingly followed Mai's direction.
"Well, spirits tend to use energy to connect to the living world— for their voices to be heard in microphones or moves things like poltergeist, spirits would need maximum amount of energy to be able to perform and as you and the others know, I have enormous amount flowing out of me."
"Is that what Naru meant by a moth to a flame?"
Akemi nods, "In a way they see me as a source of light in the dark— Yes."
"And what about the bee to a stranger thing?"
"Mostly those are for poltergeists or dark entities— but they see my spiritual energy as something deadly to them. Spiritual energy is what an exorcist needs and use when doing exorcisms it is what they exude every time which makes them so tired. In a way, its both a curse and a blessing..."
'To both parties I would suffice.'
"Ohh..." Mai hums, nodding when they finally reach the Biology room. "Here we are, sempai."
'It's just picking up a tape and bringing it back to the conference room! Sheesh! What would you do if I refused to do these odd jobs?!' Mai pouts suddenly remembering the avoidance of the whole crew present to checking the tapes.
CREAK—
"All right. All done!" Mai restarted the camera as soon as she fixed the batteries and memory, Akemi grew still and quiet beside the high school student but Mai didn't notice as she walked towards the room to leave but when Mai tried opening it, the door wouldn't budge.
"Eh? What? Now, just a minute!" The more Mai tried to force the door open the more creepy the air inside the room became as she grew into a panic fit. "Stop messing with me!"
"Mai? Is something wrong—!?" Akemi froze, as she looked around. "Mai we have to go." Akemi says as she felt her nerves pushing her to leave the room.
'This is too creepy. Gotta get out of here, ASAP.' "Ah! r-right!" Mai tried to pry the open once more but it just won't budge.
RATTLE— RATTLE — RATTLE!
"Hey! Bou-san is this one of your pranks again?!" Mai yells and Akemi decided to face where the door should be, taking her eyes away from the grouping wisps inside the room. "What the?! It doesn't even have a lock!"
"Hee hee hee hee..."
"They're... They're children..." Mai muttered to herself as she took a peak behind towards the class windows, seeing silhouettes of children their smiles widened to an impossible degree. "...But that doesn't make sense...here at this hour?! And we are on the third floor!" Mai lets out a yelp, little by little feeling the creeping shivers and fear engulfing her whole body and covered herself when the shelf inside the laboratory started making noises— making the high school student lose sight of the small children silhouettes by the window.
KUNK!
CLATTER!
KUNK!
CLATTER!
KUNK!
CRASH!
"Kyaah!" Akemi covered Mai as one of the shelves fell over, near them. A few shard of glass could be heard flying around but Akemi covered both her and Mai to avoid getting pricked in the eye. The experimented jars shattered from the falling action, the overwhelming scent of chemicals filling in the enclosed room. "The jars must have tipped over— it smells like formalin!"
Akemi straightened Mai, pulling her towards the door as the wisps started to take form. Akemi wanted to get out of here before they could fully reveal themselves but the heiress couldn't leave Mai defenseless. "Mai help me with the doors!" Akemi sensed Mai's anxiety, but didn't stop trying to open the door. "Mai do not panic-"
"NO—! Oh no!" Mai faces the jammed doors and stood beside Akemi with a beating drum for a heart, her fists clenched and pale started thumping the closed doors when it still won't budge.
Ignoring Akemi's words, Mai started calling out. "-Somebody! Somebody get us out! Help us! Somebody...help...us.." Mai couldn't finish her hurried words as little by little she started to cough, the chemicals invading her nostrils.
"Mai!" Akemi coughs, catching the girl in her arms making Akemi stop the mid chant she started while Mai was panicking. Without the chant, the children started lurking around her and Akemi slowly felt herself getting weak well weaker. Her energy being taken as the room started to shake like a mild earthqauke. They were using her energy.
Akemi thought it would be over, with Mai unconscious in her arms not wanting to risk getting her on the floor with the chemicals and the shards she couldn't see, but it wasn't until the children disappeared and the doors opened to reveal Naru and the others.
"Mai! Akemi!" Bou-san and Naru got inside the room and aided the two out. Bou-san taking care of Mai while Akemi let herself down the floor with the wall on her back to rest.
"My hero~" Akemi teases when Naru tried to help her get up but falls unconscious before she could say anymore as the energy really left her.
"You're finally coming to?" Were the first words Mai heard as she slowly lifted up her eyelids. Seeing it clear that it was Naru who spoke, her whole face blushing when she noticed how close his face was to hers made the high school student flustered and panicked.
"Ahh—! Urgh..." Naru sighs and sits on the end of Akemi's bed as Mai tried to sit herself up out of surpise only to find the room swirling around her the making her lie back down.
The heiress was already awake but bed ridden, keeping her belief of not sleeping in a haunted room.
"I fiiwl howwible...." (I feel horrible)
"Lie down for a while, Mai— the dizziness would lessen." Akemi says with a cold towel on her forehead.
"Don't you-" Mai slowly lies back down. "Oww!"
"Hey, take it easy." Ayako clicks her tongue, placing Mai's own cold wet towel hard on her forehead.
"Ayako...huh? Whoa everyone's here..." Mai says as Bou-san waved his hand and Yasuhara perched himself on the vacant bed behind John and Bou-san who asked Mai how she was doing, while Masako remained quiet yet concern could be seen in her gaze.
"Except for Lin." Akemi clears out and Mai slumped, indeed not seeing Lin. 'He must be alone in the headquarters to keep an eye on the monitors...'
"Where are we?" Mai slowly blinked her heavy eyes away, the dizziness slowly ebbing with the help of the cold towel on her forehead.
"You're in the Nurse's office," Ayako gritted out, crossing her arms as her mother rants started coming up. "Why were you guys wandering at the campus alone?"
"Well...." Mai looked at Akemi for help.
"We were changing the camera batteries as well as getting the tapes-"
"Huh?! Tape?" Ayako turns to glare at Naru who avoided her gaze making Ayako only shoot her stare on the back of his head. "What do you have to say for yourself, Naru?! You knew no one should go out alone!"
"But I wasn't alone!" Mai defends, "Akemi-sempai was with me!"
"And look at where that still got you two!" That shut Mai up. Ayako sighs, seeing Mai and Akemi's poor state. "We already figured out that this is a curse, you should have known better to be careful."
Mai's eyes bulged, not knowing this information at all. "Curse? What do you mean? Did you guys figured it out?!"
"It's ancient magical type of curse that originally came from China called Kodoku, but its use is pretty rare these days." Naru spoke as he made his sit comfortable by crossing his arms. Akemi wryly smiled at the sight of him on her clinic bed. "A curse usually employs an instrument— most of the time it's an object, like a figurine or charm but some curses employ a living creature and that kind of curse is called Kodoku. A common instrument for a Kodoku is an insect. An example, the insect known as Kinsan however, it can use other insects as well. Snakes, centipedes and so on. The conjurer of the curse would fill a jar with insects and bury it in the ground after some months, he would dig up the jar and nearly all of the insects would have devoured one another but always there was one remaining. That last surviving insect is the one they would use in the curse. The insect would bring great prosperity to the conjurer's house but at a price: every so often the conjurer would have to bring it a human sacrifice or else be devoured by the cursed insect itself."
'Gross!' Mai cringed both her nose and mouth at the idea.
"If the master couldn't take care of the insect anymore, he would cast into the street all of the riches it had brought to his house. This is the insect that's called Kakinsan or the Dowry Insect,"
"Ara~ intellect sure does look good on you, Naru~" Akemi teases with a chuckling grin. Just to spite her, Naru placed a newly cold towel on her forehead to replace the lukewarm one. His actions made the heiress let out a light gasp.
"B-but if all of those riches were just laying around in the street, couldn't anyone just take them?" Mai spoke a question, quite deeply attentive towards the curse.
"Anyone who tried wouldn't know about this curse and would himself be devoured. That's how some conjurers also used this curse to kill their enemies. They would send a cursed insect, along with treasures of silver and gold to the despicable person and clueless recipient wouldn't know how to care for the insect and the insect would devour him. So it must be Kodoku."
"Wait! Wait a minute! If the entities trapped here are devouring one another then the same thing will happen in this school?" Mai gaped when Naru didn't bother to answer her question meaning she already did know the answer.
Bou-san frowns right where he sat with Yasuhara, john and Masako on the vacant bed. "With spirits devouring one another instead of insects...Then that means when they've finished, what will remain is the most powerful spirit of all."
John asks, a concerned look passing his face. "What do we do?"
"I don't know yet," With only that as his answer, silence permeated the room. Uncomfortable with what they have uncovered,
"What did happen back in the Biology room?" Ayako this time spoke, wanting to change the topic and somehow direct their attention to somewhere else.
"Um, well..." Mai then told everyone what happened.
While Mai spoke, Akemi moved her head to face the ceiling before her eyes caught Naru's figure who stopped listening to Mai and glance at her when he noticed her stare.
"You should rest." Naru muttered and Akemi sent him a weak smile.
"I'm fine though~?"
Patting her wet towel, Akemi shut her eyes as Naru pulled it slightly down to cover her eyes. "Forget about not sleeping on a haunted case, you need rest."
"Mouh~ just say you're worried and that you care." Akemi teases but relaxes anyway when she heard him mutter the orders 'rest.' and went back to listening to Mai.
It didn't really bothered Akemi as to how quick she fell asleep, yet the nerves inside her of sleeping on such an active case didn't go quiet either.
[Back With Gene
Gene smiles, as Akemi and him walked side by side to somewhere she didn't really know. "They've been accompanying me once in a while... they are really proud of what you've become but hope you at least think of yourself once in a while..."
"What?" Akemi turns to look at him beside her only to see the two shadowy figures standing right there.
"They don't have much time," Gene spoke this time standing on the opposite side of her. At occasions such as this would fluster Akemi but her her heart broke to see the two shadowy figures turn into people she never wanted to see. "They've been trying to get to you but you keep avoiding them..."
"Because I don't want them to leave," Akemi whispers, her words made her parents let out a sad smile towards her. The sight of them made Akemi shake,
At such a young age, the moment of the 'accident' happened, Akemi has already seen her parents following with her. She didn't know what was wrong, all she knew was her parents were still there.
They were on a trip in America that time, Akemi really wanted to go there for a reason she had long forgot. The first one the authority calls were her father's parents and when they kept hearing Akemi claim that her parents were still here, that Akemi could still see their son— instead of explaining their fear to the poor girl and make her better, they made it worse.
Her paternal grandmother panicked and started trashing the plates and cups at Akemi's hospital room when Akemi said her parents were there with them, Akemi's paternal grandparents thought of her as different because of it and gave her series of medication. Mostly the painful ones.
Akemi thought they did that because they saw her guilty for killing their son. But she wasn't lying, her parents were there in her room with her telling her to get better.
The doctors and nurses thought of it as some trauma or a head injury from the car accident. Maybe a coping mechanism.
Her maternal family then took her in after learning of her condition, she learns Shamanism after seeing how her aunt resembled her mother greatly made Akemi clung to the woman everyday of the week and when Akemi realizes that she has to send her parents to peace,
Sitting alone in her room, Akemi hugged her legs closer and tighter to her body as her parents stood by the corner watching her lose her sleep. It has been months since her Aunt started training her after learning of Akemi's gift and it has been a weeks since she found out that her parents need to leave.
But she didn't want them to leave. It was all her fault. She didn't want them to leave her behind. She wants to keep them here.
"If I can't see them I won't cleanse them then they won't leave..."
Akemi whispered to herself, filling her head till she fell asleep. Whispering those words everyday every time she saw her parents, soon her mind got into the habit of actually not seeing them. She thought of them as monsters she should avoid and soon she did saw them as monsters, as shadowy figures.
Knowing that it wasn't enough, after her aunt and teacher died as wells he decided to stop and took the medication. It hurt at first. Headaches, migraines, dizziness yet in the end Akemi endured. It hurt to see a loved one, that idea hurts her even more compared to anything else.
Akemi's parents smiles as tears ran down Akemi's cheeks, opening their arms as they engulf Akemi into a hug that only felt cold but Akemi felt warm inside despite it.
Back to the Nurse's Office]
Akemi woke up just in time for Mai forcing Ayako to leave.
"See! Look! Akemi-sempai is awake, we can handle ourselves now go!"
With slight reluctance Ayako checks Akemi first and despite not knowing what was going on, Akemi said she was fine.
Ayako lets out a sigh before turning back to Mai only leaving after teaching Mai a few incantations.
"Mai, what's going on?" Akemi coughed, actually jot feeling quite well. Her energy was depleted earlier and she did regain some strength but she felt herself getting weaker again. Seriously?
"Mai, we need... to leave..." Akemi panted, sweat dripping down her neck.
"Eh? What do you mean Akemi-semp—" Mai must have felt what I dreaded, soon her eyes gazed towards the second bed beside me. Her eyes opening wide and the high school student turned pale.
"Akemi-sempai... Get out of there slowly...please..." Mai whimpers and without looking right where Mai kept her gaze, Akemi followed just what she said.
"Mai, head to the door." Akemi sternly said, her voice commanding the girl to do just as she said quickly.
Mai was about to step down her bed, lifting her hands to chant the incantations that Ayako taught her a few minutes ago while Akemi went to hold her bead necklaces but not a second earlier they were thrown to the sides,
"Kyaah!" The two women shrieked as the floor they fell down on started shaking and soon gave.
"No way... the room's entire floor has collapsed!" Mai screams, coughing out the debris around them.
Akemi was quick to go to her side and pull Mai towards the open door above, ignoring the jab of her ankle. "Mai there's no time, quickly while they're not here!" Akemi bends and kept her hands together and Mai was shocked.
"A-Akemi-senpai?!"
"Quickly Mai! you need to get up there and get out," Akemi hisses, already feeling the children on the biology room piling up and planning on coming.
"but Akemi-sempai should—"
SQUEEK—
SCRTCH—
The room once again started to shake and walls started to scratch, but Mai and Akemi were filled with adrenaline to notice.
"I can't let you be the one to stay down here last." Akemi says as she once again places her fingers together, planning to hoist Mai up.
'Is that a mouse?' Mai looks around when she heard a squeak but Akemi for once yells her name: "Mai!"
Mai hesitates before finally giving in after Akemi sent the girl a pleading look, Akemi gave Mai a boost, already feeling a bit weaker when the spirits tried using some of her dripping energy to make such poltergeist activity and the high schooler instead of running off, she turns to face Akemi and reaches out her hand. "Sempai! Quick!"
Akemi reaches out but Mai's arm was too short and Akemi can't jump that high with her leg. "I can't reach, and I also can't go with you— I think I hurt my ankle, I'll only slow you down. You should go call for Naru and the others! If I'm correct, he should be coming by now!" Not seeing the point Mai tries to look for something else to get Akemi out unaware that Akemi was slowly being surrounded by the child spirits.
"Mai?" Mai turns and sees Naru, hope comes back and she clutched on his arm, pulling him over. "Naru! Akemi-sempai! You got to help Akemi-sempai!"
"!" Naru peeks at the open door right to where the clinic should be and was shocked when it now opened to the lower floor.
Akemi meekly smiling below him.
"What happened?" Naru frowns as he knelt down and reached his arm. Having a long length, it was just enough for Akemi's hand to brush with his.
"You forgot about the spirit appearing on the second clinic bed." Akemi lightly scolds, hearing Naru mutter something under his breath as he tried pulling her up.
Akemi was being lifted but when she saw the children wisps clinging unto the ceiling, Akemi knew it wasn't good, she was already feeling tired enough as it is. Akemi went to try and warn Naru but the roof caved in before she could speak.
"Akemi-sempai! Naru!"
Akemi saw Naru above her, warmth surrounding them and she knew he used his ability. Feeling him so close, Akemi didn't know what to say but: "This is why I don't want to sleep on active cases..." before she faints from the use of her energy once more.
~~~
NARU
Soon after, Naru didn't wait a while above the unconscious heiress when the others soon came and helped the two get out.
Series of questions were asked of course, but Naru remained quiet as he didn't know everything; leaving it all to Mai.
Yet Naru did not have the patience to learn everything that occurred before he came as he gathered Akemi in his arms and headed back to the temporary base while making sure Ayako called an ambulance.
"Naru do you think this curse was done on purpose?" Bou-san asked as they watched the ambulance carrying Akemi away from the school building, Naru watched it leave with a blank look upon his face yet the slight wrinkle on his brow showed what he really felt.
Once the ambulance was out of sight, Naru turned back and stepped inside the school building, Bou-san following in tow. "I don't know, but if it was indeed done in purpose then the last living insect could be used as a weapon but if it was an accident— if it's just a coincidence that this school happens to be 'sealed off', spiritually speaking, from the rest of the world I can't say what will happen."
Bou-san hummed in thought, "If the most powerful spirit survives won't it still devour something even when it's trapped in the school? Every so often it has to feed on a human." Bou-san says just in time for the doors to the temporary base to open, revealing a troubled Ayako. First it was her friends now the whole school.
"Hold on! Then that's our immediate problem. If it's hunger can't be satisfied, it will turn on its master, right?"
"But who is its master...?" The monk's question silenced them all, Naru walking inside back to the main desk.
"It must be all the students who invoked the spirits." Naru says as he started filing the papers inside a folder.
"Then that's... that's impossible! What can we do? They're not even aware that it exists, right?! It will devour them all!" Mai sees Yasuhara quietly listening on the side. "Including Yasuhara-san! right, Naru?!"
"And there's nothing we can do."
"Wha-what?!" The SPR crew were stunned at the straightforward reveal from the boss.
"However," Naru turns to his other worker, who continued to type in his keyboard ever so often. "Lin?"
Lin lowers his headphones, facing the others. Already hearing the conversation that went pass by the microphones around the building, "It's true that a Kodoku is a pretty obscure curse even we haven't encountered one before but if this is a Kodoku, it would be no different than a regular curse. Defeating it will be easy though without unintended side effects. We have two options for releasing Kodoku: Transferring it to someone or agreeing to care for it."
"Right." Naru nodded and once again continued packing other papers inside a folder
'No way... we don't even know for sure that it is a Kodoku...' Mai lowers, her shoulders slumping in thought while the others watched Naru, curious as to where he was going with all that paper work.
"If this is a curse, Lin or Akemi will deal with it. We've barely started to examine it."
"Then why don't we review what we already know?" Yasuhara suggests and the others were shocked when Naru just decided to take a seat besides Lin.
"Okay, Kokkuri-san first became popular here around the time summer vacation ended. After that, spirits began flooding the school," Yasuhara starts.
"Right, the school happened to be located inside a spiritual barrier. That barrier trapped the spirits and like the insects in Kodoku, the spirits devoured one another." John adds.
"...." They were quiet while Ayako and Bou-san started bickering,
"Just an ordinary message game, right?" Masako speaks up, as the three John, Mai and Yasuhara sweat dropped on the stuck conclusion.
"I think so, but it seems our Orikiri-sama was different. The way it was conjured was unusual." The others paused to listen. "The incantations used in Kokkuri-san don't change that much from region to region but the drawing here is a little odd."
Yasuhara takes out the unused Kokkuri-san taken from one of the students. "It has the ususal fifity characters, the numbers and the words yes or no but there's usually a shrine gate in the center but instead it has some kind of figure or pattern there plus the word 'demon' scrawled over and over in a circle-"
"Lin!" Naru called over the tech monitor, who was stiff and stood up with haste at Yasuhara's words.
"A demon?"
"Lin-san, what are you-?"
"What kind of figure was it?" Lin continued to ask, ignoring the others' confusion.
"Wha- what kind?" Mai turns to Yasuhara who lifts the paper and shows it to Lin.
Lin read the paper, and muttered the written incantation he was looking for: "On orikiritei meiriteii meiwaya shimarei so waka..."
"Eh? What's that?" Mai frowned, her brows contorted. 'Was that even japanese?'
"I think that's the incantation when using Kokkuri-san, I did it too but it was only once." Yasuhara explains, though his explanation wasn't enough for Mai to fully understand what Lin said.
"And was this paper buried somewhere after it was used?" Lin once again asked, and Yasuhara nods.
"That's right, you can only use it one time. Afterward it must be buried at a shrine."
"Can we retrieve this paper?"
"Probably."
"Why? What is it Lin?" Bou-san and Ayako asked.
"This is a cursed charm."One Lin finally explains, " -that works by burying it underneath a shrine." What he said next sent chills down their spine, "It is a curse to commit murder."
Naru leaned back on his chair, his arms crossed as his face turned serious. "So this Kokkuri-san was being used as a tool to spread the curse with the unsuspecting students carrying it out. They did everything from making the charm to actually performing the curse with just this single sheet, you could kill anyone." Naru states, speaking out the mechanics he understood and learned. Lin ever so often nodding at his correct information. "It just so happens that this was used as a means of possession to gather spirits and as a result fulfilling an aspect of the Kodoku."
"That is what I suspect," Lin nods.
"Once the kodoku is complete, what will happen?" Naru asks
"This person will die."
"This person?"
"Hideharu Matsuyama-shi." Mai and the others froze at the revelation.