How long have we been falling? Drina and Yuki had their eyes closed, but when I asked them why they simply responded with, "Relaxation." I don't really know what's so relaxing about falling down a bottomless pit for long minutes like these.
I floated over to David to feel some sort of comfort or camaraderie that the girls aren't giving me. It feels like they erected a wall around us at that point, "Well, big guy. How are you enjoying uh… this?"
"Lady Drina has thrown us in worse pits than this one. At least with this one we're not constantly battling the stink of flesh." He said matter-of-factly, as if it made the situation any better.
"Right," Well then, I should also try to relax my senses while I was here. I closed my eyes and breathed deeply, also kept my toes curled and my legs crossed. Much like what the others are doing.
This asceticism. Why was I doing it? It's not as though I had a particular reason. Perhaps it's because I found the act of loosening all my worries and throwing it in the wind indulgent. It is what I did before I got here after all. A change of lifestyle then, perhaps? That certainly explains a part of it, but not all of it.
I can make anything my mind can think of, yet it's only limited by my knowledge of how it works. I knew how guns work on a fundamental level thus I can reliably create one. Same thing with knives of various make.
I reckon if I applied myself, I would be able to recreate the greatest technology that this city had to offer. Perhaps I'll ask for some notes from Drina, she is the dean of a sorcerer's school after all. But once I do that, like always, I would stop myself from using it for indulgent reasons. Indulgence is the mind-killer, it is what got me into this mess, it is what will take me out of this world.
I breathed deeply and opened my eyes. A bright line shone over me, it was the lights of the empty station. At the end of it was the railways, before it was a rectangular boundary between the real world and the spiritual. Meant to keep one safe from the onset of a domain, it was made with a blessed yellow rope. And in its central points, hanging by a tape, were flashcards written with various symbols.
"You are…" There was a ghost near the boundary field but not inside it, clearly, it was unable to enter. As inside that boundary was someone I was familiar with, it was Laida! She sat beside a sewing machine and was clearly in the middle of work. There was an awkward tension in the air, as if we stepped forth in the middle of something, "Yuki!"
We stood up from our cross-sitting position, Yuki stood there all the more dumbfounded. This was the first time I've seen her like that, frankly I didn't expect to see such a face so soon from someone that remarked herself as the greatest sorcerer in all of Takamagahara. What is Takamagahara anyway? Eh, I'll find out soon, "Cornelius!?"
"Oh? Do you know him?" Laida asked, the hum of the sewing machine's mechanical movements echoing against the entire station. Still, they stood there in silence.
Drina stepped forward after she closed her friend's slacked jaw, "Cornelius, are you the one haunting Jiangshi station?"
"Oh, Drina! You're here too! Wonderful. And yes, I am the one haunting this wonderful station, even took one of your beloved employees. You'll hear me out, right?"
Drina sighed, "Of course we will. We just didn't expect something like this to happ-"
"No." Yuki interrupted, her eyes fixed on Cornelius, "We should've expected this to happen. We can't sit idly by anymore, Drina."
"Whatever shall we do? Dear Yuki?"
"Cornelius. Who did this?" Yuki asked, her hands were trembling as she approached the ghosts.
"Lady Yuki, I--"
Lady? Wait, "Hey, Drina," I whispered over to Drina, "Are they like… close? What's going on here?"
"It doesn't take a genius to figure it out. But seeing as you're new here, I'll give you some exposition dump." She fell back and hovered over to me, right beside my ear, she whispered, "Despite being only 21 years old, Yuki was actually an instructor at the NTSS. Cornelius was one of her students. He was a fluke, most of the time, and he was only there cause of his noble lineage."
"But I thought nobles are washed nowadays?"
"That may be true, but they still held a significant fortune that they kept hidden. I don't know much about the inner workings of the nobility despite being one myself. I am an exile, after all." She pointed at Cornelius who was talking to Yuki, his eyes seemed weary, as her entire being was as well, "But what happened with Cornelius wasn't a rogue incident, there's someone out there creating a… Helter Skelter."
I tapped deep into my mind for a certain trivia, and I succeeded. Helter Skelter, a word that means: 'Disorder', 'Confusion', and perhaps other related synonyms. Furthermore, it was the name of a plan to sow chaos and create a war between two races. Putting that together only means, "Someone out there wants to start a war between the nobility and the common people?"
"No," Yuki interrupted, she seemed to be listening to two different conversations at the same time, all the while the mechanical hum of the sewing machine remained, "No nobleman would want his child to ride the public transport. Whoever did this planned it ahead of time and was close to Cornelius' circle."
"But it is no accident, Lady Yuki! I assure you! I was not pushed, nor was I brought here on my own volition!"
"Do you recall what time it was when you were brought here?" Yuki asked.
"It was nighttime. I recall seeing the moon one final time before I was knocked out of my senses and maybe thrown into the rails."
"Were you a witness to your own crime?"
"No, Lady Yuki. When I woke up from being knocked out I was immediately a ghost. However I laid down on the rails, so I assumed that I died there. I was only aware of the date because the station itself showed it."
"I see. I believe it would be best to continue this investigation in the overworld, where we can look at things in a more factual manner, beyond the control of any spatial anomalies. Will that be alright with you, Cornelius?"
"That would be best, madam. However, can I have that in writing?"
"Writing?" Yuki looked at Cornelius, and her eyes glazed over to Laida, who looked at her with a smile, Yuki sighed. Whatever was happening to her, I supposed she was in some form of distress, "Fine. But, Laida. We need to talk."
"Whatever it may be, I wouldn't mind! Lady Yuki!" Laida responded. I looked around her and noticed four different cigarette butts strewn on the floor around her, and in her lips was the fifth one. She was an addict, through and through, "And I prepared the paper here, anyway." She reached into her duffle bag and pulled out a piece of paper.
Yuki walked over and took it, she read it intently. I watched as the boss's face turned from satisfaction to anger, to distress, "What the hell is this!? Laida!"
"It's mutually beneficial!" Laida stood up, absolutely livid as the two stood in front of each other, "And he agreed to it!"
"You did?!" Yuki went over to the noble ghost. She grabbed on the ghost's shoulders with her gloved hands, a feat that shocked the ghost itself, "Why?! And why did you make this deal in the first place!"
The ghost, looking somewhat dejected yet smug, "Ms. Laida over here told me it'd be mutually beneficial!"
"A GHOST! Marketing for us is NOT mutually beneficial!"
"It's Viral Marketing!" Laida answered back to her boss's gradual angering stature. I wanted to step in but Drina stopped me. David, however, stepped forward and tried to quell the rising tensions between the two.
"--I'm the Head of Marketing! I know what I'm doing!" Laida continued, as their bickering got louder and louder.
"Can I not--" I tried to speak my worries however,
"No," Drina interrupted, "It's more entertaining this way."
And so, their argument went on for longer than it should.
Eventually the ghost, Cornelius, and Drina allowed us to go outside. I must say, feeling the sun on my skin after spending an hour in such a sterile white environment does feel wonderful. The business of the street, the crowds coming to and fro, it feels as though I was in heaven out of purgatory, "Well, see you two later!"
Drina closed the door of the car. Driving it was David, who waved goodbye at me. Seated beside him was Laida who smugly waved goodbye at Yuki. She won the argument apparently, whatever it was. Though it seemed the source of the madam's annoyances was less the deal itself but more so that she lost the argument.
They drove off, as Yuki turned to me and said, "Well then, time to make yourself useful, assistant!"