Chapter 5

The next morning, Mai woke up to find that someone had covered her with a blanket some time during the night. She remembered Naru telling her to go to bed around 2 A.M. and her stubborn refusal. She also vaguely recalled hearing Yasuhara when he first got up that morning, but surprisingly, nothing else after that. She'd intended to start her day when Yasuhara got up, but apparently her body decided to betray her.

Mai slowly climbed to her feet before folding the blanket. "Ah, Lin-san, good morning," she said glancing around the room. "Where's Naru?"

Lin turned to look at her. "He's sleeping right now, but he should be up soon," he answered. "Yasuhara-san left a few hours ago to gather more information about this house and the area."

Mai looked a bit surprised at Lin's comment and glanced at her watch. It was already late morning.

"Aa. I'll go get cleaned up and make some tea," she said as she rushed off to grab some things from her bag.

It was almost twenty minutes later before Mai returned with a tray of sandwiches and tea. By that time, Naru was also up doing a quick check of the data collected while he'd been sleeping.

"I'm sorry, but I'm not very good at cooking, so I made sandwiches again." she said apologetically as she came in. "Ah, Naru, good morning."

Naru barely glanced at her before turning back to the monitors and checking through the data. Mai sighed slightly as she set sandwiches and tea next to him. Lin nodded his thanks to her as she served him. Mai then sat at the low table set to one side in the base and started eating.

"Mai," Naru said suddenly.

Mai looked up to see him looking at her from where he sat next to Lin.

"Go and talk to the residents along this street," he said. "See if anyone's heard of any strange rumours in the area."

Mai blinked in surprise. "Which way?" she asked. "Towards Yodo or towards Yawata City?"

Naru frowned slightly. "Go whichever way you like. Once you reach the next major intersection, go down to the train station and catch the train to the next stop and do the same on the other side."

"Ehhhh?! You want me to do the whole street?! Today?!?" she cried dismayed. "It's at least a 30 minute walk to the station and this street's over a kilometre long!"

"Then I'd suggest you get going," Naru said coolly. "And don't forget to take a two-way radio with you."

"Okay..." Mai replied despondently.

It was late in the afternoon by the time a tired looking Yasuhara returned to the house they were investigating. He glanced around the base noticing that Mai wasn't in the room. "Ah, Lin-san, where's Taniyama-san?" he asked.

Lin-san turned from the monitors he was watching to glance at Yasuhara. "She just checked-in after finishing speaking to the area residents, so she should be back shortly," he said.

Yasuhara nodded. "In that case, I'll go make some tea," he said.

Several minutes later, Yasuhara came back to the base to find everyone waiting for him. Mai had apparently just returned and was still wearing her jacket. Yasuhara served tea to all the members before opening his notebook to discuss the results of the afternoon's investigation.

Yasuhara cleared his throat. "Since it's Saturday today, I went to the local community centre, local library, as well as the main library in Kyoto," he said. "Hirota-san, are you aware that the crime rate in this area is higher than neighbouring areas?"

"Yeah, but I assumed it was because the race track was here."

Yasuhara nodded. "Normally, you'd think that would explain it. But we're over 30 mins walk away from the track here," he said as he flipped through his notes briefly. "I first went through the community newsletters and found that both this neighbourhood and the neighbouring city have a higher than average rate of crime. I then searched through past newspapers for incidents that occurred either in Yodo or Yawata and focussed on those incidents that occurred close to this house. Interestingly, this house seems to have a more violent history than the two murders would seem to indicate. However, it isn't just this house that seems to have a history of violence, but a number of incidents seems to have taken place in this area. I've only managed to go back several years, but the reported incidents are proving somewhat interesting."

Naru looked at Yasuhara.

"What's interesting is the crimes happening on this stretch of road. This area isn't exactly what you'd call a high traffic area, however, there seems to be a higher than normal rate of violent crime, especially physical assault," Yasuhara explained. "In any case, I'll start with the incidents that occurred in this house. In the case of the Sawadas – the second family to live here after the house was rebuilt – the wife had the husband arrested and charged with assault and filed for divorce. That led to their leaving this house. I also found the Takeda family being mentioned in the paper. Apparently the younger son had been badly beaten in what was thought to be a school bullying incident and the family immediately moved out. The beating was bad enough to warrant hospitalisation, but the rest of the details are pretty sparse as it involved minors."

He paused to take a sip of tea and grimaced. It had gone lukewarm while he was giving his report.

"As for the incidents in this area..." Yasuhara continued. "Oddly enough, I found that every house on this road has been mentioned in the paper as being the site of a break-in, assault, vandalism, something. As I said, I've only managed to go back several years so far, but there seems to have been quite a number of minor incidents as well as a remarkable number of more serious crimes in this neighbourhood. I wasn't sure if this was significant, but it seemed strange for this area to be mentioned so often. Here's a list of what I've been able to find so far as well as copies of the newspaper articles," Yasuhara said as he handed Naru a sizeable stack of papers. "The first page is a time line of all the different incidents that have occurred in this area so far."

Naru nodded as he took the stack of papers. He glanced at Mai. "Mai?"

"Umm... well, there aren't exactly many people living in this area," she started. "but I spoke to as many people living on this road as I could. There are six houses on the road between here and the next major intersection towards Yodo. No one was home for two of them. As for the remaining four, the Matsuda family lives in the house closest to here – maybe five minutes walk away. They've only been living in the area for about two years and the mother didn't know about any rumours about this house. She did say that the Nishimuras kept to themselves a lot but that they seemed like a nice elderly couple. They have a young girl, but she wasn't home when I visited," Mai said. "The Ikeda family lives further up the street, maybe another five to ten minutes beyond the Matsudas. Apparently they've been living in the area for around four or five years. They have a son but he wasn't home today either. Come to think of it, he might've had school today. Anyhow, the wife said that she hadn't heard anything concerning this house about hauntings, but was aware of the murders that occurred here. She also mentioned that she used to live in this area as a kid and that she and her friends used to believe or pretend that one of the other houses here was haunted. She couldn't remember which house it was as it was some time ago; perhaps 30 years ago or more."

Mai paused, frowning slightly. "As for the other two houses, an old woman refused to speak to me and chased me off the property – that was at the Sengoku residence – while the person at the fourth house was just leaving and didn't have time to talk. After that, I continued walking all the way to the station and caught the train to Yawata station. It's a good 45 mins walk from here." Mai said sounding a little tired. "It's probably about the same distance from Yawata station to here. There are four houses on the road between the next intersection and here from that side, but of the houses, one had no one home, one person was too busy to talk to me, and at the third house, the mother was out and their younger son was home alone. I decided against talking to him while his mom was out. However, the boy did tell me that the remaining house, the one closest to here on the Yawata side, is abandoned, so I didn't bother stopping there before coming back as it was starting to get dark out." Mai finished.

Naru nodded. "Hirota-san? Any news from Nakai-san regarding this house?"

Hirota frowned. "Apparently, as Yasuhara-san mentioned, there've been a number of incidents, not only at this house, but in this area in the past few decades. She said that it's been taking so long to work through the files because she's often running into incidents at neighbouring residents. As it is, she's still trying to track down details on one incident, but so far, she's dug up much the same incidents as Yasuhara-san just reported. I believe the other incident she's trying to get details on involves the family before the Nishimuras moved here, but it's taking a bit longer as minors were involved." Hirota paused for a moment considering the files he'd read earlier. "Otherwise, when I was going through the other incidents in this area, I did notice that there have been a number of other violent deaths in this area. I'm not sure how far back Yasuhara-san has managed to get, but at the very least, there's also been a murder-suicide, two other murders, and three suicides that I've been able to find that have happened on this street. These incidents happened in the past maybe ten years, so it may be that I'll find more if I go further back."

Naru looked at Hirota. "At least five murders on this one street in the last three decades?" he asked.

Hirota nodded unhappily. "And from what I read in the files, in the case of each murder, the culprit immediately turned themselves in to the authorities."

"Was there a suicide note left behind at the scene of the murder-suicide incident?" Naru asked curiously.

Hirota frowned. "I don't remember seeing one mentioned, but it may be one was left behind," he said hesitantly. "Are you saying that these other incidents are relevant to this investigation?"

Naru glanced at the stack of copies Yasuhara had given him. "I don't have enough information to determine if it's important or not yet," he said quietly. "However, I do find it unusual that there've been five murders here on a street with eleven houses. This road isn't popular with gangs or drug dealers perchance, is it?"

Hirota shook his head. "There's nothing but small farms and old houses out here."

"What about the search for the missing child? Are there any signs that it's related to the murders in this house?"

Hirota looked unhappy at the question. "Right now, the Kyoto police are treating the disappearance and the murder as two separate incidents rather than all being due to the father. While it's possible the father is refusing to acknowledge responsibility for doing something to his daughter, considering his frank admission of guilt to the other murders, the investigators are considering it less likely and are concentrating on looking for other suspects. As thorough a search as possible was done in the area with searchers concentrating on the fields and ditches as well as any accessible buildings, but no sign of the girl was found. Taniyama-san mentioned that there's an abandoned house along this street, and that place was also said to have been searched. While there were signs that people have occasionally entered the premises, there were no signs of the girl there. Quite frankly, given the length of time she's been missing, I think it's highly probable the girl is dead. In any case, unless the missing girl's disappearance has anything to do with this house or unless she's actually hidden here somewhere, determining her whereabouts and what happened to her is beyond the scope of your investigation."

"I have no problem with that." Naru agreed. "Lin?"

Lin turned away from the monitors he'd been watching. "There have been no signs of unusual activity since we arrived," he reported.

Naru nodded. He gazed at the copies Yasuhara had given him as he considered the next course of action.

"Yasuhara-san, I'd like you to continue investigating this area and find out what other incidents took place here," he said after a long moment.

"Yes sir."

"Mai."

Mai looked at Naru.

"Go out again tomorrow and see if you can catch the people you couldn't talk to today. Also, see if you can convince the woman who chased you away today to talk. I'm rather curious why she did that," he said.

Mai frowned. "I don't think I'll have any more luck with her tomorrow," she said as she considered the incident. "It seemed like she really didn't like the idea of anyone coming up to her house, and she wouldn't even let me say a word before yelling at me to go away."

"Try anyway," Naru said after a moments thought. He glanced at Hirota. "Hirota-san, did the police speak to the neighbours after the latest incident here?"

Hirota frowned. "I presume they did what with the missing child and all, but I don't remember anything specifically being said about it," he said after a moment.

Naru sighed. "Could you ask Nakai-san to check with the investigators if a similar thing happened to them?"

"Alright," Hirota said. "I'll call her and ask her about it."

"Mai, I also want you to go back to those houses where there were children. If you can, try to speak to them about any rumours about spirits or anything else like that in this area. Kids will often remember hearing about things like that while adults will dismiss such rumours and forget about them."

"'Ka~y," she replied.

Naru nodded. "In that case, let's get back to work. Mai, tea."

Mai sighed slightly as she slowly climbed to her feet and headed for the kitchen. Yasuhara started gathering the cups together when he paused momentarily. He looked mildly amused as he finished cleaning up the tea things before followed Mai out with the tray.

In the kitchen, Yasuhara got started preparing the evening meal while Mai put some water on to make tea.

"So, what's on the menu today, Yasuhara-san?" she asked.

"I'm afraid I'm not as good a cook as Matsuzaki-san, so we'll have to make do with some rice balls and miso soup," he answered apologetically.

"Hmm... I guess it's at times like this that I miss having Ayako when on an investigation. She's such a great 'Mom' and makes sure we're all well fed," Mai said laughing slightly. "Aa! Don't tell her I said that though. If she heard that, she'd probably yell and make a lot of noise."

Yasuhara laughed. "Don't worry, I won't tell. I agree, she can be pretty loud when she's angry."

"By the way, Yasuhara-san. Were there really that many incidents throughout this area over the past several years? Walking around here, you really wouldn't expect much. It's so quiet," Mai asked curiously.

"Umm... well, I have to admit that the entire area's crime rate isn't so much higher that it really sticks out, especially when you consider that the race track's in the area and all. But when you look at where all the crimes occurred, you start to wonder a little," Yasuhara replied with a slight frown. "Yes there's a bit more crime out towards the track, and yes, this area isn't exactly what you'd call upper class or anything, but there does seem to be a major cluster of incidents in this part of the community. I noticed it because I was looking specifically for cases involving this house, but ended up running into things that happened nearby. It might be interesting to map out where all the crimes occurred actually."

"Maybe," Mai agreed. "But... um, say there was something otherly involved in all these crimes though. How are we supposed to figure out where it's all happening? I mean, it doesn't really seem like this house is the cause, does it?"

Yasuhara nodded as he started chopping some vegetables for miso soup. "It could be rather difficult unless we actually managed to find something in common among all the perpetrators... or maybe all the victims. But I can't see us getting permission to talk to them. I really don't think it's our job either. It's what Hirota-san and Nakai-san should be doing if they're being loaned out by Tokyo's Zero Squad."

"Yeah... Still, it's a bit scary to think that something out there's making people do things like kill," Mai said looking troubled. "When a spirit possesses someone, can it really make them do something like that if the person really didn't want to?"

Yasuhara cocked his head slightly as he smiled at Mai. "Remember how Sekiguchi's spirit affected the Sasakuras in the last case. The Sasakuras seemed pretty intent on killing everyone in the Agawa home that night."

Mai frowned. "Tr...ue...," she agreed slowly. "But that seemed to be more... specific, I guess. I mean kosori – Sekiguchi's spirit – only really became so violent because Hirota-san asked Midori-san if she wanted to press charges which put a lot of pressure on the Sasakuras. And that pressure overlapped with the pressure Sekiguchi's spirit felt when he was cornered by... who was it? the Kawanabes? Anyhow, it was Sekiguchi's spirit that caused the Sasakuras to act that way because all the conditions from when he and his wife killed the Kawanabe family happened to be in place. The Sasakuras feared the Agawas would press charges even though Midori-san said she wouldn't compared to the Sekiguchis having been driven into a corner by the Kawanabes threatening to sue unless they rebuilt their outer wall since it was accidentally built on their property by the developer. Combine that with both incidents happening at the same time – in the days leading up to the anniversary of the Sekiguchis killing the Kawanabes – it made sense that Sekiguchi's spirit could make the Sasakuras attack the Agawas in trying to succeed at that fateful night so many years ago. But do we have that sort of similarity this time? I mean, Hirota-san said there was a murder-suicide and a lot of the cases you mentioned were beatings and stuff right? Even some instances of property damage. But that's quite the range in scale, isn't it?"

"No one has said that a spirit was involved in the incidents in the area yet either, Taniyama-san," a cold voice said from the kitchen entrance.

"Aa," Mai couldn't help exclaiming slightly in surprise at Naru's voice. She turned slowly to see him leaning against the door jamb.

"I thought I asked for tea," he said coolly.

"S-sorry," Mai said as she looked at the tea pot. The tea had steeped for so long she was sure it was completely undrinkable. "I-I'll... make a new pot right away." Mai looked down afraid of the contempt she would see in his eyes over screwing up something as basic as making tea.

She heard Naru sigh quietly before he left the kitchen.

"Taniyama-san," Yasuhara called her name when she didn't move for a long time. "Don't worry about it. He wasn't angry with you or anything," he said gently.

Mai shook her head. "But you could hear in his voice exactly what he thought," she said refusing to look up.

"Taniyama-san," Yasuhara said more firmly. "If you don't take him his tea soon, he might come back again. And you can bet you'll have more than just his tone of voice to worry about if that happens."

"...Yeah."

Yasuhara gazed at Mai. "...If you don't snap out of it soon, I'll start throwing rice balls at you... or at least once the rice finishes cooking," Yasuhara amended. "And then where will we be? We'll have to clean up the kitchen, and we won't have anything to eat either. Not to mention, you still won't have made him his tea. Do you really want to find out what he'd say if he discovered a sticky ricey mess and no tea in here?"

Mai finally glanced up at Yasuhara. She had a strange expression on her face. "Y-yasuhara-san..."

"What is it, Taniyama-san?" he asked smiling innocently.

Mai blinked then slowly shook her head. "......Never mind," she said finally before setting about remaking the tea.