I wiggled in my seat, getting ready for all the gruesome details that weren't about to come.
"Foreignor killing. In this case, any outsider can be considered a foreigner. In the old days, a village was a closed society. All the people on the village were relatives and neighbors. So let's say a merchant happens along. The merchant has no blood relation or territorial connection to the villagers. He is completely different from the villagers, meaning he is an outsider." He said simply. "And there are many folktales in various areas about killing this outsider, and these murders were called foreigner killings, and the foreigners in the old days are smaller in range. Usually the ones killed were Marebito."
"WAIT! Back up a little." Mai interrupted, a little panicked. "What's a Marebito?"
"Oh, sorry. A Marebito is a term used by Shinobu Origuchi. Oh, I guess I shouldn't go into that." Yasuhara grimaced as he struggled to communicate with people with average IQs. "Marebito is 'a god who arrives'. They come to villages and bless the villagers or advise them. So, expanding on that idea, people who come to a village and act as gods are called Marebito."
Mai nodded slowly. "Substitute...so that person comes to bless and advise? Like a god would?"
"That's right. And they also have supernatural powers. They can communicate with gods and Buddhas and nymphs, so they do that, too. They make predictions or wish for a good harvest. They can make it rain, get rid of bad luck, other times they'll drive away apparitions or perform exorcisms."
"Huh?" Mai's eyes widened. "So that means we're also Marebito? We're outsiders and we perform exorcisms."
"Yeah! That's it. So miko and traveling monks were referred to as Marebito, and there are many folktales about killing those Marebito."
"Good thing I'm not a Marebito." I said cheerfully.
Ayako and Bou-san glared at me. Lin eyed me and motioned towards Naru's room, hinting that it was just about time for me to shut my mouth and do something useful. I obeyed, mostly because my feet had fallen asleep and waiting any longer would make walking a billion times more painful. Naru was still snoozing happily (or as happily as possible for Naru), so I hurriedly dished out a bowl of porridge from the thermos Akifumi had provided me with and carefully dripped it into his mouth.
It took a while, so when I returned I found that Bou-san was already on his feet, his game face on. "Then I guess we'll take care of the numerous ones first. We'll start with the five from the riot."
He had barely finished speaking before a BOOM resonated throughout the building, vibrating down to our very bones as it was immediately followed by clattering in the hallway. "What? The hallways?" Mai cried out. "Is someone running there?"
I edged my way to Lin's side. I couldn't put my finger on it, but I had a bad feeling. The kind that made you sort of trembly and break out into sweat and then wish that humans were born without sweat glands, because no one likes smelling like stress and intense workout. No one.
He glanced at me, but a sudden flurry of numbers on the monitors caught his attention. "Takigawa-san, the temperature is dropping." He called out over the rapping as he watched them flicker out, ERROR replacing the different spots of the Yoshimi house we'd been monitoring. "I can't see it. All the thermographs are crashing."
"The monitors!" Ayako cried out. We all whipped around, watching in stunned silence as the last monitor of the monitors fizzled out into static.
"I guess they attacked first." Yasuhara said as calmly as possible.
"Just when we think of going, they come visiting instead." Bou-san agreed with a sigh.
"Well, that's our gain, no?"
"If it's a pretty lady, yes."
"I see. If she's ugly, then it's just unpleasant."
"And usually those are the persistent ones."
"Spoken like an experienced playboy."
"Hey..." Mai and I said simultaneously. I was about to add a quip just as growls filled the base. "Dinosaur sleeping." Mai murmured.
The furrow in Bou-san's brow deepened. "No. Listen carefully."
I did. At first I still heard the dinosaur, but slowly I began to hear a rhythm to the growls. Almost like someone was talking, or chanting, or...
"These are sutras?" Mai guessed.
"It'll make sense if it's the Rokubu. So the culprits are the three. Okay, you girls stay here." He said, already halfway out the door with John. "John and I will go take a look."
To our surprise, Ayako made as if to follow. "I'm going, too."
Mai's eyebrows shot up. "Ayako?" She asked, voice shrill with disbelief. "He told us to stay. If we go, we'll just get in the way."
"Are you okay?" Lin's quiet voice cut through their cat fight. His grey eye was watching me steadily.
"Nervous. Scared, actually." I managed a hoarse laugh. "Things are going to get bad real quick."
Almost as if waiting for my prediction, the lights went out. Masako shrieked. "Look..." She whimpered, pointing towards the glass sliding door.
An arm dangled down, its sleeve moldy and the skin dark from decomposition. The arm pulled back to grab the top of the doorframe. There was a pause, and just when I thought it was leaving, a rotting head peered inside, eyes askew and mouth gaping. Immediately other rotting bodies began to swarm the balcony, covering it with the dead flesh of adults and children, women and men. It was, to be frank, every zombie nightmare I wish I'd never had.
To make it worse, they began pounding on the glass.
I was vaguely aware of Masako and Yasuhara moving towards the back of the room as Lin moved to shoo me towards Naru's room. "Get in there and don't come out unless I say so."
"Is it really wise to open the door while we're being spiritually targeted?"
A sharp crack rang out. We whipped our heads around in time to see the glass spiderwebbing rapidly before shattering and letting in the zombies. They moved far too fast for my liking, launching themselves inside as elegantly as their decaying bodies would allow them.
Which wasn't very elegant at all.
Lin lunged in front of me, shielding me as he let out a strident whistle. Light flashed, sending the zombies flying. Masako's prayer hummed in the background. Ayako belted out the Nine Cuts, but it still wasn't enough. "Mai!" Ayako snapped as she readied her hand again, panting from the force of her shouts. "Those are the dead, so go ahead and attack!"
"Okay!"
Rather than being all go get 'em tiger, Lin gestured me towards Naru's room with a glare that told me that he wasn't about to discuss this with me. I was just scuttling towards Naru's room when something small and damp pressed against my ankle.
"Rin, Pyou, Tou, Sha, Kai, Jin, Retsu, Zen, Gyou!" Lin barked. I felt a burst of pressure shove past me, sending a little zombie girl flying. My relief was temporary: when I glanced behind me, I blanched as I saw most of the undead advancing on me.
Well, advancing on Naru's vulnerable body. But I was in their way, knees locked from terror.
Ayako shrieked. Blood trickled across her arms. Lin's shirt was splashed with growing splotches of crimson, and as I looked over Mai flinched as cuts grew over her arms in numerous places. The fight faded from her face and was replaced with desperation.
Thunk!
"On. Kiri kiri bazara bajiri manda manda unhatta. On sara sara bazara hara kyara unhatta." A tall figure brushed past Mai, and as he strode towards the open door an invisible force began pushing the undead back. "On ami rito do hanba unhatta. On biso hora daraki sha bazaar han jara unhatta. On asan magini unhatta. On sha ugyarei maka san maen sowaka!"
Bou-san ripped the vajra free from the floor and slammed it down into the window frame. He doubled over, wheezing and gasping. "Try...getting past...this!"
They did, only to be propelled by some unseen barrier. Everyone heaved a sigh as Bou-san and Lin moved to shut the sliding door's screen. As they worked, they spoke. "Where's Brown-san?" Lin inquired.
"Leading the young master and them. They'll be here soon."
"Did something show up there, too?" Mai piped up anxiously.
He grimaced. Our eyes having adjusted to the dark, I could see blood and grime smeared on his face. "That's an understatement. It was an army of drowned corpses. It was like a zombie movie."
Just lovely.
A child's scream rang out. Bou-san and Ayako dashed out and were followed by Mai, who was clearly not used to doing important things like protecting people. Despite the blood soaking through the cloth of his shirt, Lin set to work setting up lighted candles around the base. "Are you alright?" He asked briskly.
I let out a wheezy laugh. "First fires at Ryokuryou, now zombies at a resort. Why does this series play on my worst fears?" I plopped down in the middle of the floor, my knees unable to hold me up any longer. "What next, skydiving? Glitchy escalators?"
"We could make something happen." Yasuhara offered, surprisingly unfazed and probably desensitized after his school and the Urado case.
"I hate you."
I had just pulled myself together when the entire Yoshimi family was led inside by Bou-san, Ayako, John, and Mai. Everyone mimicked my noodle legged flop, though Bou-san went all out and lay eagle spread on the tatami mats. "I'd pay a million yen if I could just fall asleep right now." He gasped, looking like an utter mess. Blood stained his shirt, and when I glanced around I saw that several members of the Yoshimi family were also injured.
Grunting, I hobbled to my feet and staggered in to step next to Lin, who was patrolling the base's perimeter with a candle in hand. "Where are the first aid kits?"
"There should be a few under my table."
There were two, both of which I handed off to Masako and Yasuhara before resuming my walk with Lin. "You should get your wounds treated, too."
"I'm fine."
I raised my eyebrows. "Look, I know you're macho, but we're all friends here. You can let the image fall long enough to slap on a few bandaids, right?" When he didn't respond, I sighed. "Look, I'm really concerned. That's a lot of blood."
"I'm fine." He was momentarily distracted by Bou-san's pained yelp. "Besides, Takigawa-san lost far more than I did."
"You can't let me be concerned, can you?"
He allowed himself a small smile. "I..." He began, and without warning his head snapped up. I squeaked, startled.
"What's up?" Mai inquired.
"My shiki came back. Now I have all five. Takigawa-san can sleep now."
Mai blinked, confused, "I didn't see anything."
Masako, on the other hand, looked up at Lin. "That was your shiki?"
"You can feel it?"
"Yes. And now I understand. I know why the spirits in this house were so empty." She looked worried. "The spirits possessing the children and Naru. The ones wandering in the house. Because they are familiar spirits of another. They're not acting by their own will. Someone is using their resentment, their resentment so painful they're restless and using them as shiki."