'Uh, Shun, may I speak to you for a minute?'
I hesitated for a moment, before I nodded.
'I'll be outside.'
Turning away, the ginger-haired boy went back the way that he came.
I turned to face Tsunan, unable to hide my nervousness.
'Do you want me to come with you?' he asked, and I lowered my eyes, feeling a bit stupid over my own behavior.
'If you don't want to...'
He made a small movement.
Panicking, I grabbed the sleeve of his shirt tightly with both hands, bowing my head.
'Alright. I'll be just behind the door.'
At this, a small smile came to my lips.
'Thank you,' I whispered.
I went to join Katsuya outside in the yard on the side of the ryokan.
The ginger-haired boy was sitting on a huge boulder, scrutinizing the line of trees at the end of the clear open space. He got to his feet when he saw me arrive.
I noticed that he was carrying a sort of file in his hands only when I reached him. He handed this to me.
I stared at him for a minute, before I took the file from him and began consulting it.
It was a police document on Hazuki.
My throat tightened.
After the rescue, I had been unconscious for almost two days and ever since I had woken up, I had been avoiding the subject Hazuki because I didn't feel ready yet to think about the terror I had felt.
'His full name is Hazuki Kaburagi. During our first encounter, he told me a story that happened in the past.'
Katsuya began recounting it to me.
'The girl and the boy in the story were his sister and him. Her name was Haruna, Haruna Kaburagi. After the assault, she committed suicide by hanging herself.'
My stomach clenched.
That was why he hanged the cadavers of his victims.
'I-I see.'
I handed the file back to Katsuya.
'Shun, I wanted to ask you...'
He seemed to hesitate.
'When I informed Master Kagami that I'm leaving the organization, he told me that it's not up to me, or even him, to decide about that; the decision is in your hands. Why didn't you accept that I leave the organization?'
I could read confusion on his face.
'The master has faith in you, otherwise you wouldn't have become a member of the organization,' I replied, sincerely. 'And I trust the master and Tsunan more than anyone else in this world. Also, without your intervention during the kidnapping, I would have most probably been dead right now.'
He stared at me without speaking, still seeming very confused.
As I began to turn around to get back indoors, he called out my name suddenly, causing me to pause down to look at him again.
'Shun, that demon- Tadashi...'
My eyes went wide, my heart fluttering at the mention of that name.
'When I talked about it with Ayame, he told me that it wasn't the first time-'
'Enough of your questions, Katsuya!' interjected Tsunan, in all of a sudden, as he showed himself up, making his way towards us. 'Come, Shun! Let's get back inside!' he told me, ushering me away with him.
Without taking a glance at Katsuya, I followed Tsunan, keeping my head lowered.
Once indoors, the doctor inquired, 'Are you alright?'
'Yes,' I whispered, before I looked up and met his eyes, thanking him for his intervention.
He responded with a tender smile.
We went to join the others after that.
The ryokan proposed games like table tennis and everyone had grouped around in the game hall to watch Master Kagami and Yama-san dispute a match.
'Hold on tight, Yama! A game is a game! Don't expect me to go easy on you!' warned the master, his racket in hand.
'Kagami, how can you be so mean with me?! You're breaking my heart!' moaned Yama-san, as she crouched down and rubbed her eyes with her fists, shedding fake tears, letting out a few sobs.
This caused the master to get off his high horse on the spot and he rushed to her side to console her. 'Sorry, sorry, sorry, Yama! I give up. You win.'
She grinned maliciously, and I chuckled to myself, amused.
A short while later, I went to take a dip in the onsen and Yama-san and Gakkuri joined me. After the bath, we went to find the others in the game hall again and Master Kagami proposed another kind of game to spice up the night: The Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai.
The didactic parlor game was popular during the Edo period. While its origins remained unknown, it was believed to have been played first amongst the samurai class as a test of courage.
It was played using three separate rooms at night fall. Participants would light up one hundred andon in the third room and position a mirror on the surface of a small table in preparation and when the night was at its darkest, participants would gather in the first of the three rooms and taking turns, they would orate tales of supernatural encounters and folkloric tales, which were known as Kaidan.
At the end of each Kaidan, the story-teller would enter the third room to extinguish an andon, look in the mirror and make his way back to the first room. The room was said to slowly grow darker and darker with each passing tale as the participants reached the one hundredth one, creating a safe haven for the evocation of spirits.
Fearful of invoking the spirits they had been summoning, many participants would choose to stop when the game reached the ninety-ninth tale.
'The setting is absolutely perfect!' exclaimed the master. 'We're in the middle of nowhere with dense forest for kilometers round and the weather is becoming stormy outdoors. This calls for some scary stories!'
Everyone exchanged looks with one another, thrilled with excitement and at the same time, with apprehension.
All the rooms of the ryokan were adjoined by a sliding door.
We all gathered in Master Kagami and Yama-san's room which was on the upper floor and which became the first of the three rooms for the game.
We sat down on the wooden floor in the form of a circle; the only light in the room coming from the petrol lamp sitting in the middle.
Tea and some snacks had been brought for collation.
'Let's begin!' declared the master.
'If no one has any objection, I'd like to start first!' stated Tsunan, putting a hand up.
Ours eyes became glued on him and we were filled with anticipation.
'The story I'm going to recount to you is a story that my father has recounted to me when I was a kid. It takes place in a museum. Every night, without exception, after the closing hours, when all the lights are switched off, the noise of someone walking around in an armor could be heard inside of the building.'
'But every time the watchman on duty would check for an intruder, he wouldn't find anyone; and in the morning, nothing would seem to have moved in the museum. The strange sounds couldn't be explained.'
'One by one, all the watchmen who have worked there have ended up resigning, believing that the museum was haunted. And then, one day, a young man of the name of Nobuyuki obtained the post of watchman there. The moment he heard the mysterious sounds of a walking armor, he began inspecting the building with the help of his lamp torch, even if he knew- as from what his predecessors had attested- that he wouldn't find anything.'
'Just as he was turning around to regain his post outside, out of the blue, Nobuyuki was shocked as he found himself face to face with a person in a Nanban dō gusoku who was standing right behind him.'
'Scared out of his wits, Nobuyuki's hand went for his gun and he shot the armored person directly at the head. The helmet fell off upon impact with the bullet, only to reveal- to Nobuyuki's utter stupefaction- that the armor is empty!'
The poignant chute took our breaths away.
'It wasn't the museum that was haunted. But the Nanban dō gusoku which was exposed there. It was possessed and would come to life at night.'
I gulped.
'I- I'm not sure that I want to continue with this game!' gibbered Heihachi, and Hatsu encouraged him, 'Come on! We're just getting started. We're still at the first tale. There are ninety-nine more to come! You're not going to back out this soon! Anyway, no one is allowed to leave the game before we have reached the ninety-ninth tale.'
'Wha- What happens if we leave the game before the ninety-ninth tale?' I stammered.
'Something atrocious,' replied Hatsu, in the scariest tone I had ever heard in my life; his expression no better.
Heihachi and I flinched.
We didn't need to hear anything more for us to obediently carry on with the game.
After the ninety-ninth tale, many of us wanted to stop, but the master cowed us to continue the game as he promised to anyone of us who would stop to be sentenced to one of Burabura's pranks.
Since we were sixteen in number, each one of us had orated six Kaidan in six rounds; at the end of the sixth round, ninety-six Kaidan had been orated with four Kaidan left to be orated for the completion of the game.
And since I had been the fourth participant in the order of story-telling, I ended up being the one to orate the one-hundredth Kaidan.
I didn't feel reassured at all.
'Should I expect Aoandon to appear?' I asked after I had told the last story.
Aoandon was the spirit that appeared during the Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai after the hundredth story was told. It appeared as a human with a blue complexion, sharp teeth and and twin horns from its brows.
'Don't be silly! Aoandon is only a legend!' asserted Hatsu.
Getting to my feet, I made my way to the third room to extinguish the last andon.
The blue light gave the room an eerie look.
As I blew off the light, the room became plunged into darkness and it made me even more jittery.
But soon, my eyes grew used to the dim light coming from the window.
I expected Aoandon to appear but it never did.
Taking a look into the mirror, I began to hurry my way back to the first room. But at each step that I took, came the echo of what resembled the footfalls of a person in a metal armor on the wooden floor.
Every time I paused, the sound would pause equally.
Breaking into cold sweat, I accelerated my pace and half-ran to the first room. I slid the door wide open to stare at the others frantically.
Apart from me, no one seemed to have heard anything and they were busy talking to one another.
'What is it, Shun Shutsuki?' teased Yanagi. 'You look like you've seen a ghost! Or maybe, it was Aoandon!'
Unexpectedly, the sounds came again, this time in the corridor and on the roof.
And this time, everyone heard them.
Jerking to their feet, all color draining out of their faces.
Some of us stared at the door that opened onto the corridor, while others at the ceiling.
'Wha-Wha-What's going on?' gibbered the Gothic-Lolita, as the sounds became louder and louder, but then, unexpectedly, they ceased.
Everyone exchanged looks with one another, before their eyes settled onto me where I was standing in the doorway, their expressions horrified.
Why do I have the impression that there's something behind me?
I stood frozen for a minute, before I slowly turned around to have a look behind me and what greeted my sight was a tall metal armor- a Nanban dō gusoku, if I wasn't wrong- standing upright there.
My heart jumped to my throat and I let out a startled yelp, stumbling backward and falling down on my behind.
Automatically, Hatsu pulled out his gun and he shot the armor at the head.
And just as we dreaded, we discovered that the armor was empty!
The girls, Heihachi, Gakkuri and I screamed in horror, while the others were transfixed with shock.
Thank you for reading!
Glossary
Andon - a Japanese traditional lighting equipment; it is a lamp composed of paper stretched over a bamboo/ wooden/ metal frame
Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai - lit., A Gathering of One Hundred Supernatural Tales
Nanban dō gusoku - armor based on western-style armors