Ghost Hunt 
by No. 13

“It could. But we know far too little right now.” Yumiko said. “If you don’t mind using some unconventional methods, we could try to find out a little more.”

“I don’t mind.” Ayana replied immediately, and Yumiko reached for a deck of tarot cards that had until then rested unseen on the edge of the sofa table. Tezuka raised an eyebrow in question, looking at his mother’s face in order to gauge her reaction, but if she was taken aback, it wasn’t showing on her face. In fact, she looked as solemn and serious as before, only a tad tenser, perhaps.

Was this a good idea, Tezuka asked himself, should they … dabble in the occult concerning such an important issue? Rely on such an insecure, school-girlish source of information, when people had died?

Glancing contemplatively out into the cold, rainy night, he realized, that even though his logical mind was protesting vehemently, demanding for him to immediately distance himself from such utter nonsense, his gut held no objections. This was not logical. But right.

When he turned back to the conversation, his mother was leaning forward and the room appeared darker than before. Fuji’s laboured breathing was almost drowned by the rain outside, but Tezuka still flashed a worried look into his friend’s direction, before redirecting his attention to the older sister.

“Hm. Let me try to summarize everything we know.” Yumiko spoke while beginning to shuffle the cards. The low sound did little to dispel the tension hanging in the air.

Ayana’s knuckles were white where she was twisting them into the folds of her skirt, unconsciously waiting for something to happen.

“The ghost is ancient, and was maybe involved with the process of the house’s building.”

The rain, all of a sudden, sounded so much louder, now, that practically everyone was holding their breath.

“The ghost has been killing inhabitants for a long time. Not only inhabitants, but also passer-byes.”

Ayana nodded, swallowing past a lump in her throat. Now was not the time for grieve or passion, there’d be enough time later on. Now was the time to make sure, nothing like that would ever happen again.

“The killings however remain the appearance of natural death or accidents. It is also possible, that the ghost is unable to kill outside of the house.”

Fuji’s eyes wandered over to the window.

“Those killings however, are committed for a certain cause; … a ‘vow’ given to a ‘beloved’, one that ‘soon’ will be fulfilled.”

Tezuka shuddered, feeling cold suddenly. With overwhelming dread he recalled the black roses at school earlier today, the ones he had yet to mention, the ones he’d called a school-girl’s overdramatic revenge for a rejection. Perhaps…

“Let’s begin with some simple questions.” Yumiko announced, suddenly and Ayana almost flinched “Tezuka-san, you first.”

“The girl that drowned…” she whispered, “What was her name?”

Yumiko’s eyes flashed in the half-light, she turned a card and gave her brother a half-smile. “No answer, yet an answer.” she replied, while Ayana watched the card in astonishment.

Fuji seemed to have expected this. “She wasn’t the only one, ne?”

The next card showed a clear ‘yes’. And as Fuji dissolved into another fit of coughing, Ayana took up the questioning once again.

“Is the ghost identical with the builder?”

“Yes.”

“Why does he kill all those people?”

“Wrong… the question…. Rephrase it, the answer would be ‘no’, but that…”

Suddenly suspicious Tezuka shot in. “Why did he kill all those people?”

The light in Yumiko’s eyes darkened suddenly and she froze for moments. Suddenly, she slumped forward, cards tumbling out of her hands and she groaned. Holding her head she looked back up at a worried Ayana.

“We already know the answer.” she stated grimly.

And for a moment, everything ground to a halt. Thoughts – jumbled and half-formed – flashed through Tezuka’s mind, pictures, memories, noises. The writings, that shapeless lump of grey, a female’s voice – but he couldn’t put everything together. He just couldn’t find the answer, no matter how much he tried.

After they’d sat in silence for a while, listening to wind and rain filling the darkness outside, it was Tezuka who took up the word once more.

“Would that mean the ghost doesn’t intend to kill anymore?”

Yumiko spoke as herself, not as the oracle in reply. “I’m not sure about that. That were all intentional killings, but there’s …” Her eyes saddened here, but she was just as quick as her brother at smoothing over expressions of hurt and sadness.

“I just don’t trust that ghost.”

And that wasn’t the whole story, Tezuka instinctively understood, seeing Yumiko exchange glances with her younger brother. Were they hiding something?

Was there something they knew?

Dimly, he remembered his father raising the point, that the ghost had always been malevolent – tried to kill Tezuka after all – yet Fuji had escaped alive. Twice. And when they’d arrived tonight, Yumiko had already known about the dead girl. Not to mention, she’d arrived at the mansion’s doorstep just like this last night – and nobody had called her, nobody had even known that Tezuka and Fuji had gone there after school.

Perhaps it was high time he started to take her clairvoyance seriously. Though, that in turn would mean – did she already know, what was going to happen in the end? Did she know how this story would turn out?

“We still don’t have any leads on the ghost’s motive, besides fulfilling that nebulous vow.” Ayana diplomatically intervened, before Tezuka could start raising questions.

Yumiko heaved a sigh. “Not… exactly. We could play a guessing game, or…”

“It’s okay, nee-san.” Fuji nodded, pale-faced but smiling, “We should try it before somebody else dies.”

Yumiko didn’t look too happy, but couldn’t deny her brother’s reasoning. “I suppose so.” she declared in defeat, before turning to the two Tezukas present.

Ayana frowned, already slightly weary of the coming suggestion, but Tezuka couldn’t help feeling intrigued.

“This might strike you even more strange than the card reading.” Yumiko announced looking in disdain at the cards stills strewn across the floor. Tezuka dimly wondered why she hadn’t cleaned them up yet, but her voice drew his attention away.

“What we’ll try next isn’t … well, there’s no common term for it. We’ll try to get a look into the ghost’s head – or rather into the head of said ‘beloved’. It might be more like an emotional printout anyways.”

Seeing two confused (or stoic) faces opposite her, she smiled slightly. “Sorry, but it’s difficult to explain. Syusuke got possessed by that ‘beloved’ for a couple of moments. Basically, I will be trying to make him relive that situation and hold it. Then we can ask that ‘beloved’ questions, but not necessarily everything will be answered. We’ll only get a reading of whatever knowledge was ‘activated’ during the period of possession – we can’t access the rest.”

Yumiko smiled. “Compare to learning a foreign language. There is such a thing as words you ‘actively’ know, meaning you can use them when speaking or writing, and on the other hand you have ‘passive’ vocabulary, words you’ll recognize when reading something.”

Ayana blinked, comprehension dawning on her like ice crawling over her body. “So basically.” she began, while her son starred out into the darkness, lost in thoughts, “Once you were possessed, you can recall the spirit’s thoughts. … would that also be possible for the ghost himself?”

“Certainly. If he possessed somebody …”

“There’s also another possibility.” Fuji suddenly spoke up, looking serious enough for Tezuka to frown.

His sister immediately glared at him. “And no way in hell we’ll do that one.”

“Even if it might prevent another death?”

Tezuka’s eyes widened slightly. Judging by Yumiko’s shiver, the hard glint in his friend’s eye and their cryptic words there was a lot that hadn’t been told yet. And – his heart stuttered at the thought – another death?

Had Yumiko foreseen anybody else die? Even if the ghost had claimed not be actively killing any further?

What…

“That’s not certain yet.” Yumiko replied icily, “I refuse to take unnecessary risks just for a mere possibility.”

“Nee-san.” Fuji sounded slightly exasperated, before coughing. His eyes were tearing up when he turned to Tezuka and Ayana.

“We can try to reconstruct a ghost’s state of mind with an item out of his personal possession.” he explained.

“What are the risks?” Ayana asked, looking at Yumiko.

“The risks are hard to define. It’s quite a drain on all persons involved. Besides that, the side-effects depend on the spirit and the experience recalled.” she shrugged callously and stated with a surprising air of detachment.

“I did it only once before, some ten years ago when I was much too young and hadn’t had any idea of what I was doing. I ended up in the hospital with exhaustion and counselling sessions for the next two years. Syusuke was lucky he survived the ordeal at all.”

When Tezuka glanced at his team mate in askance – he’d never heard of this before and dimly wondered if Eiji actually knew – but Fuji had his head bowed down.

“That’s absolutely out of question then.” Ayana firmly announced, pale after she’d heard the tale.

And then something in Tezuka’s mind made the connection. His grandfather had mentioned a case, ten years ago, a gifted child’s help – and how everything had come to a nebulous ending. If now …

It had to have been Fuji Yumiko. His grandfather wouldn’t have known about her extraordinary talents otherwise. Had he, perhaps too, recognized Fuji, then? As some boy who had been involved in a case years ago? One that he had barely survived?

Maybe, just maybe he could approach his grandfather about that one, and with that resolved his mind turned back to the conversation at hand, with the ever-falling rain as their background music.

They decided – after Yumiko had only somewhat successfully convinced Ayana that the other method was harmless – to try it at once. Perhaps it was getting late, and though Tezuka had training next morning, he’d survive with a little less sleep than usually. And Fuji might have been sick, but he refused any further delay firmly.

He left the living room together with Ayana – her to freshen up, Fuji to change out of his pyjamas. Tezuka glanced moodily out of the window, before he noted Yumiko’s reflection starring down at the wildly strewn cards on the floor.

The Fool grinned up at him, his card covering the one of the high priestess. The Devil a short distance away, next to Lovers. The Wheel of Fortune on its head.

“What are they saying?” .Tezuka questioned, astonishing himself with his audacity, yet Yumiko’s sorrowful expression had piqued his curiosity.

She glanced at him wearily. “I’m not certain, actually. It’s not good if it’s saying what I think it is, but perhaps I’m jumping at shadows after that poor girl died.”

He nodded, recalling the odd gifts that he’d never even tried to understand. Yet, contemplating them, he wondered how she was able to make sense of all that ambivalence in the end. Visions of the future, card readings and who knew what else she did – it was more than obscure to Tezuka. But there was one question he’d wanted answered.

“Forgive me if this is impolite.” Tezuka asked, trying hard to keep his voice from quivering, “But I wondered…”

Yumiko’s questioning gaze, filled with weariness, almost made him abandon his quest.

“Yes?” she prodded, eyes mysteriously hooded.

Tezuka swallowed. “Forgive me, but did you know… that this girl was going to die?”

She turned away, heaving a sigh – as if she had actually anticipated this very question. Gazing out into the rain-filled night, she said nothing. The wind’s howl was the only noise to fill the silence for a few, oppressive moments, that seemed choking to Tezuka’s frantic heart.

“Yes.” she eventually replied, tearing her gaze away from the raindrops sliding down the windowpane, “I saw her death.”

The weariness filling her eyes at that moment made Tezuka shudder. And when those world-wise brown orbs came to rest on him, he didn’t dare to breath.

“I saw her death, Tezuka-kun, and I didn’t do anything…” she chuckled humourlessly, “Say, did my brother ever tell you how our grandparents died?”

Wordlessly Tezuka shook his head, taken aback by the sudden change of subject – and yet thrilled beyond imagination. He sensed the connection, even if his logic failed at establishing it. But he could feel the puzzle pieces forming a picture in his mind, one that would leave him horrified and breathless once it became clear.

“Ah, well, in that case… To make a long story short, that was when Syusuke and I learned that knowing the future is essentially … useless. You know what is going to happen in all its gory details, but you can’t do a thing. You can only wonder whether you should tell the people or not.”

Tezuka froze, feeling completely speechless. He’d not… never … never imagined Fuji Yumiko’s gift to be this horrifying. Whenever Fuji had mentioned tarot readings, visions and dreams, he simply put it aside as the typically esoteric talk young women seemed so fond of nowadays. He hadn’t…

“Excuse me, Tezuka-kun, I am talking too much.” she added, eyes closed into the classical Fuji smile. A mask hiding emotions, hiding the bitterness he had seen rearing its majestic head.

What must it feel like, he wondered, to see something happening – an accident, the death of a beloved – and to be powerless to prevent it? He imagined seeing his parents die in an accident… and eventually firmly chased the thought away. The intensity left his fingers trembling, even though he knew he hadn’t half understood the true extend of what Yumiko lived through in those visions.

It would be enough to drive anybody insane.

On to Chapter 10~