Chapter 6- Possession
September Day 4, 6:33 P.M.
"It's-" Mai couldn't finish her statement as the light brown haired girl bobbed her way over with a smile.
"Mai! It's been so long!" she exclaimed, rushing over. "I'd hug you but I have all of this in my hands," she laughed gesturing to the folders and files in her arms.
The last time Mai had seen Kiko Kimura she had been forced to dress in outfits that covered just about her whole body. Now, she was wearing jeans, flats and a red dolman top with lace running across her shoulders, revealing her now mark free arms. Over two months had passed and Mai could see she looked healthier now, finally able to rest easy now that Shichiro was out of her life.
"Kiko! What are you doing here?" Mai asked honestly, bewildered at her friend's sudden appearance.
"I happened to find John at the library yesterday and offered him some help, next thing I knew I was on my way to Kyoto to help explain the history of this hotel," the girl explained as she, John, and the three other girls headed for Base.
"It's good to see you again, Kiko," Masako said politely. "How's your family?"
"Yeah, how's Satoshi doing? I know he must have had a brutal recovery," the priestess added, recalling how the boy had been stabbed.
"Everyone is fine, my dad's home and he noticed a lighter feeling in the atmosphere," Kiko continued, smiling. "Satoshi's doing fine, he has his last visit to the physical therapist next week, after that he should be back to playing sports."
"That's good, it's a shame he couldn't play soccer for the rest of summer, though," Mai stated apologetically.
Kiko shrugged. "He's more upset that he didn't believe that there was really a ghost in our house."
"How were you able to get the time off to come on this case?" Masako asked as they neared their destination.
"My school has several exams for the next few days, luckily, thanks to my counselor, I have been able to be exempt from them because I had already taken them," she explained just as Yasuhara came walking from the other direction with Ryouta in tow.
Wait! Does Kiko know that- Mai was unable to finish her thought as she had to act quickly.
"Hey Y-" Fortunately, Mai was able to jump over and whisper something in the other girl's ear. "Mr. Shibuya, I hope you don't mind, but I happened to find John at the library and offered him a hand, we figured it would be easier to explain the information we found if I tagged along as well." Kiko gave a slight bow as Yasuhara smiled back.
"Of course, Kiko," he replied. "We are happy to have an extra hand." He turned to the man next to him. "Ryouta, allow me to introduce to you a colleague of mine, John Brown, a Catholic priest, and a personal friend of mine, Kiko Kimura, a psychic."
"Nice you meet you sir," the Australian boy smiled and bowed slightly.
"It's a pleasure," Kiko added, bowing as well.
"I'm glad you're here," the man exhaled and bowed, remaining tightly wound as he turned to the priest. "Father, you will be able to help, right?" You could see the exhaustion in his eyes.
"I will do the best that I can," John replied somewhat stunned, his face became serious. "What all has happened?"
"It appears we have a demonic possession on our hands, Father Brown," Naru's cool voice cut in from the door to Base.
If it were possible, John became even more solemn. "When did this happen?" he questioned.
"Demonic possession?" Mai whispered to Kiko.
"It's when an evil spirit possesses a person," she explained.
Mai nodded and whispered back, "I thought so..."
"It happened only minutes before you came, or well-" Ayako tried to explain but the medium cut in.
"Miss Yoshiko was first possessed two days ago, but it appears that the spirit never left and she attacked Akahana just before you arrived."
"Father Brown, would it be possible for you to perform an exorcism tonight?" Yasuhara asked, the priest nodded.
"Of course, the sooner the better," he agreed as the group walked into Base. "Let me change and then explain everything that has happened."
"Ryouta, would you mind alerting Takigawa and Lin about John's arrival?" Yasuhara asked, the man nodded.
"Sure." He was gone in an instant. Naru closed the door.
"What's with that look?" the eighteen year old chided, doing her best to look innocent. She had already placed the files on the table next to the monitors.
"Why are you here?" he asked coldly, Kiko simply shrugged.
"I hope you don't mind, Naru, but I found John at the library yesterday and offered him help with reading any Kanji and due to the extensive amount of information we gathered it seemed to be a better idea if I tagged along and explained instead of just handing him my notes," she explained, then looked between the real ringleader and her friend whom had been in a dark suit. "Why is Yasu pretending to be you?"
"For publicity reasons," the college student replied, as John walked back into the room.
"Ready, John?" Ayako asked as the blond priest gripped his Bible.
"Yes, we need to do this as soon as possible," he said.
"All right, exorcise time," Kiko chimed as they headed for Yoshiko's room.
They walked down to the first floor, as the nearest and safest room to occupy the possessed woman was a storage room behind the client's office. Ryouta and Monk must have been standing guard along with Lin, when the group approached they heard voices. "Akahana! You should stay away from here!" Ryouta scolded from around the corner.
"I can't just sit around and wait! Everything that's been going on has me paranoid as it is, if I sit in some room and wait for your call to say everything is safe I think I'll go mad!" the man's wife's fiery retort came as the group edged closer.
"Fine, once the priest gets here, we will both go back to our room and you will relax and I will be with you so you won't go mad," he compromised. "However I feel that we should make plans for you to stay with your mother or your sister, in case the exorcism fails."
"Ryouta, I'm sure the priest is very skilled, there is no need for me to make that trip besides, they live in Akita, that's already a ten hour drive. If I leave to visit them I may as well stay for a week! I don't think it will take that long!" Akahana protested. "And you know my family they're tweakers, even worse than you, every little thing I do will need to be examined and talked over for an hour before I can even do it!"
"Akahana-" Ryouta stopped once he saw the group round the corner. "Mr. Shibuya, please forgive me if you heard any of that."
Feeling instantly awkward, Yasuhara shook his hands and head. "No apologies necessary, I wasn't paying attention to any of it, really," he said sheepishly and then introduced Akahana to John and Kiko.
"Thank you both for coming to help us," Akahana said, bowing slightly. "Welcome to the Suiren Yadoya."
"You're quite welcome," the two replied bowing as well.
"Please, excuse us," Ryouta said, placing an arm around his wife's shoulders. "We shall retire for the evening, with all that's happened I hope you'll understand."
"Of course," Yasuhara replied. "It is probably best that way."
"Thank you." The couple then left.
"Well, that was only slightly awkward," Kiko whispered to Mai.
"You can say that again," Mai replied as they all headed for the room.
Upon reaching the door guarded by SPR's tallest members, Monk ended up doing a double take. He immediately smacked his forehead. "Man! I knew there had to be something up with that food! Now I'm suddenly seeing Kiko standing between Mai and Shibuya-"
THUNK!
"Ouch! Damn it! What was that for!"
"You idiot! That is Kiko!" Ayako shouted at him.
"What!" Monk did another double take as he stuttered. "B-but-how!"
"Long story, I'll explain later," Kiko said quickly, knowing this wasn't the time for explanations. "It's good to see you guys again though."
"I believe it is time we let Father Brown conduct the exorcism before this spirit becomes more than we can handle," the cold voice lingered in the air and John stood in front of the door.
Everyone silenced themselves as John stood in front of them, his presence felt more like he were much older than the twenty-one year old he was.
"Before we begin, I must warn you," John began. "I haven't been here long enough to determine the spirit's power, however if it is as strong as you say, there is no telling what could happen or what it will do." His face was more serious than ever before as he continued. "It could cause the one possessed to try to scare us off with curses or even go as far as to possess someone else in the room. Be cautious and if things are as dangerous as I think they might be, I'll end the exorcism for today," he finished, glancing at everyone with a hard stare. "Is that understood?"
"Whatever you feel is best, John," Yasuhara said as the real employer nodded as well.
They walked into the room to see a lump underneath a blanket that was on the spare bed kept in the storage room. The priest nodded and Monk removed the blanket to find Yoshiko had broken free from her bonds and had contorted her body into a pretzel-like shape that Mai was sure not even the most skilled contortionist in Cirque du Soleil could pull off. John took a deep breath. "Yoshiko?" he called sweetly. "Can you relax?"
The woman's eyes rolled to the back of her head and she let out a breathy groan. Slowly her body untangled until her spine was almost straight and her arms and legs were each at one of the posts of the bed. The men in the room, minus John, each tied a limb securely down. The priest opened his Bible and began, "In the beginning was the word, and the word was...."
Yoshiko continued to let out breathy moans and groans as John continued the reading. His reading went on as the woman began thrashing against her restraints, mumbling something and growling along with it. The other girls in the room stayed back toward the door, knowing that at any moment she could break free of the rope and attack. What seemed like hours was probably only several minutes as John finally gave the last of his incantation. "In principio..." he splashed holy water on the girl as she tried to lift herself up only succeeding in arching her back and she let out a breath.
She fell back down instantly and began coughing and breathing heavily. "Yoshiko?" John asked her as she calmed down.
Tears fell from the woman's eyes and she was barely able to whisper, "H-help me..." before going back into a coughing fit.
"Miss Hara," Naru turned to said medium in the room.
"I don't sense the spirit at all, I didn't feel it leave so she could still be possessed-" she tried to explain only to hear a crackly raspy woman's voice interrupt her.
"Could? Ha! You're perceptive abilities could use some work," Yoshiko chuckled attempting to twist around in her bonds.
"Father Brown," Naru ordered and John began his blessing again as the woman laughed.
"This room is full of fucking idiots, none of you are any fun to play with!" she complained. "Maybe if I created a game you all would much more entertaining."
"Don't listen to what she's saying, she's just trying to scare us," Monk declared, his tokkosho in hand, ready for things to take a bad turn.
"Oh, aren't you smart! Considering that you fled the temple!" she laughed, spitting at him. "Such a failure they must call you and a selfish one at that!"
Monk gritted his teeth, but stayed silent. She was trying to bait him and he knew it, he also knew that it was working. "You gave up the life your family tried to give you to do what? Hunt ghosts! What a laugh!"
"She's trying to distract you Monk!" Ayako exclaimed, knowing that he must have been contemplating snapping at the possessed woman.
"You think I don't know that!" Monk snapped, knowing that he took out the slight anger he had on someone who didn't deserve it at that time, but there was no helping it now.
"And you, blondie," Yoshiko smirked, looking up at the priest. "You really think that bullshit is going to get rid of me? You know your limits and I'm fucking beyond them!"
"Limits..." Mai repeated in a whisper.
"As a Catholic priest, John can exorcise spirits and bless homes and properties, but he can't exorcise anything that doesn't fear God. As of right now, it appears that's what we're dealing with," Kiko explained and the brunette's eyes widened.
"This thing hates God..." Wasn't that what she determined? But just because it hated God didn't mean it feared it as well. There was something she needed to know. Something that would confirm her suspicions.
"What's your name!" Mai piped up, taking a step forward as several pairs of eyes turned to her. "Are you 'L?'"
Yoshiko simply cackled. "Bwahahahaha! I've gone by many names, child! 'L' is simply one of them! I've also gone by 'Queen of Demons' and 'Baby-killer' all of them true in their own way!"
"Nau maku san manda bazara dan kan!" Monk quickly began in an attempt to aid the priest.
Laughing maniacally, Yoshiko thrashed around with a sick and twisted smile on her face and rapping noises sounded around the walls. The banging shook the whole room and made the lights flickered. With John's incantations rendered useless and Monk's mantra seemed to help no one John finished his prayer, "In principio!" Nothing happened except force the spirit to cackle even more.
A vase was thrown across the room narrowly missing Ayako and shattered against the wall, forcing the group to come to only one decision. "Get out of here!" the priest ordered immediately, splashing the holy water. "Go! Now!"
Quickly and surely Yasuhara and Naru rushed the girls out of the room as Monk and John gave one final chance of an incantation and Lin managed to knock the woman out.
"In the name of Holy Jesus Christ, spare the innocent and release her from your grasp!" John shouted one last time as an ominous laughter filled the air.
They raced out of the room, while Monk used his tokkosho to seal the room.
"This spirit is beyond what I had anticipated..." Naru remarked as Lin set up his shiki to guard the possessed woman.
"Is...pant...is everyone all right?...Pant..." John asked them as he began to double over.
"Better question, are you?" Mai replied as the priestess caught him and steadied him.
"We should get back to Base, so Father Brown can rest and we can discuss the research gathered," Naru suggested-slash-ordered, no one was really sure what character he was playing at the moment.
"Good idea, Narumi," Yasuhara added and Monk and the priestess each helped steady the blond priest as they headed for Base.
Faintly, Mai could have sworn she heard a whisper behind her. "Narumi?"
Note to self: remember to explain to Kiko the whole Naru and his identity thing...Mai mentally noted as they reached the lobby.
"Really, guys, I'm fine you don't need to-" the blond tried to pull away and steady himself on his own, but nearly ran into a wall as they reached the stairs.
"You're not as fine as you think you are," Monk countered catching him.
"The exorcism took a lot out of you on top of that long drive," the medium commented from the back of the group.
"Mai, tea." Naru ordered. Normally Mai would have stuck her tongue out at the call, but seeing as he might have actually meant it as a request for John, she simply nodded and headed for the kitchen. "Kiko, go with her."
Instead of freaking out like she had done a couple days earlier, the petite brunette was happy that at least he ordered someone she could easily get along with. Upon reaching the kitchen, the girls quickly gathered enough water for the nine members of their team and set it on the stove to boil. "So what do you make of this place, Mai?" the girl inquired from the island in the middle of the least busy side of the kitchen.
"What do you mean?" she replied as the water boiled.
"C'mon, I know you have an opinion on what's going on here, so what is it?" Kiko asked, setting out the cups.
Mai thought for a moment trying to put it into words. "What I think is probably the obvious." she began, pouring the now finished tea into the cups. "That thing possessing Yoshiko is behind the majority of the activity, why?"
The girl shrugged. "I'm trying to figure out what's going on here like everyone else is." The two headed for base. "So, no other theories? Nothing that you think the others might have missed?"
Mai shook her head as they climbed the stairs. "Sorry, a lot's happened today, I can't think straight," she tried to laugh off, but there was that menacing feeling she had days ago that had returned. Now that John and Kiko had arrived the feeling was stronger than before.
"Something's bothering you," Kiko noted as they reached the third floor. "Spill."
Again the brunette shook her head. "It-it's nothing. I'm just over thinking things and getting paranoid over them," she attempted to laugh off again.
Even now, not much has happened really, no one has been hurt since John arrived, but... Mai thought as they neared Base, I can't help but feel-
Get out!
It was the same voice from when she first arrived! She stopped short, her face paled.
"Mai? What's wrong?" Kiko asked her when she noticed the sudden stop, but Mai just continued to listen.
There was something about the voice, the phrase. It didn't sound like an order. It sounded like a plea. Nothing came after that though, perhaps she merely imagin-
Get out! Go while you still can!
There was that voice again! That ominous feeling at the pit of her stomach only made her feel more uneasy as she shook her head and tried to ignore whatever else the spirit might be trying to tell her. "Yeah, I'm fine, sorry, I just spaced out I guess," she told the lighter-haired girl as they reached Base.
"If you say so..."
"Tea's arrived!" Mai tried to say cheerfully as the two walked into the room of gloomy faces of their team.
Naru took the cup of tea offered to him by his assistant, took a sip and said, "Let's begin, now that Mai won't be lost or ask idiotic questions." Mai glared at him but he didn't seem to notice.
Nor did she notice his slight smirk or amusement. Does he really need to pull that kind of crap right now? I mean we just had a failed exorcism-come to think of it I think it's the only time one of John's exorcisms really failed... Mai thought as she continued handing out cups of tea.
"Father Brown, what have you and Kiko found out about the property?" Naru continued as John accepted his cup, but only stared at it.
Finally, after a moment he shook his head and looked at the younger man before him. "With all due respect, Kazuya," he began, all his cheerfulness and innocence seemed to disappear from his expression. "I have a theory that I need to do a little more research and ask a friend of mine in Australia for his insight. It is becoming late as well."
Naru looked at the priest's eyes that gleamed a new determination that none of the SPR team had ever seen before. With a sigh he replied, "Very well, we will continue tomorrow with the history of the property. At this moment there is nothing I need any of you to do, so do what you will." He swiveled to face the wall of monitors, that showed nothing to be out of the ordinary. "If at all possible, Father Brown, I would like you to perform another exorcism tomorrow, after you have recovered."
"Of course." The young priest stood and left his untouched tea on the coffee table.
"If we're wrapping up for the night, we should probably check on the Ishikawas," Yasuhara suggested, standing as well. "Make sure they are alright after this incident."
"I'll go with you," Monk offered and they left.
The medium stood up next and turned to their guest. "Kiko, would you like me to show you to our room?" she offered.
"Thanks, that would be great," she accepted.
"I'll come, too, I'm exhausted," the priestess yawned heading for the door behind the two teenaged girls. She turned back around at the only remaining girl in the room. "Mai, aren't you coming? The doctor said we should change your bandages in the morning and at night."
Mai nodded. "I'll be right there," she said, suddenly noticing her employer gazing intently at his black notebook. As though something just wasn't fitting in the puzzle. "Go on ahead of me, there's something I need to do..."
"All right, if you say so." The priestess left and Mai walked up behind the swiveling chair her employer sat in as Lin left to probably quickly change a set of batteries in one of the cameras.
"Is something the matter, Mai?" he stated indifferently, then turned to face her. His eyes glanced at her wrapped up hands. "Are you all right?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," she said with a quick shake of her head, then muttered, "everyone's been asking me that lately..."
"Then what's wrong?" He closed his notebook and placed it on the table. "It has to do with that feeling you had when you told me not to call John."
It wasn't a question. After all, how many times does Naru really need to question her? She was like an opened book. "Yeah."
"You still feel uneasy..."
"That's right..." Really he must have been a mind reader or something. "I still think John's in danger. Now that he's here-I don't know what will happen..."
"You think this spirit will target him?"
"I know it will."
Naru let out a breath. "If that's the case we'll have to warn him to be wary of himself, and as for you," he crossed his legs as place his elbows on the arms of his seat, folding his hands to rest his chin on them. "Be careful."
"Not the first time I've heard that one," Mai sighed.
"But will it be the first time you listened?"
"That was uncalled for." Mai pouted and glared at him, but he looked serious all the same.
"Mai, the spirits here have made it very clear that they have pointed you out to target. They may only be warning you, but what if their warnings become dangerous?" Mai only crossed her arms across her chest at his lecture. "Spirits are attracted to you, you need to be wary of all of them, even the most harmless ones. Try not to be alone."
Mai gave a sigh and closed her eyes. "Okay, I get it." She shifted her weight making her hip cock out. "So what? Are you going to escort me to my sleeping quarters?" she mocked as he turned back around.
"I don't think that will be necessary," he stated, his eyes glancing at a specific screen that had been blank only moments ago. Mai could see Lin positioning it and checking the wires. "You're only down the hall and Lin has decided to take certain precautions."
"So Lin was the one who decided to put a camera outside my room?" Mai questioned skeptically.
"Interpret it how you wish." Mai shook her head and headed for the door. "Mai. Tea."
With a huff, she stomped over to where John left his untouched cup and placed it on the table next to the black notebook. "Here. John didn't drink any of it."
"It's cold..." Naru complained as Mai opened the door.
"Then you can go down to the kitchen and get another cup of tea, as of right now I have no one to escort me and it would be absurd for both of us to go down into the kitchen just to make you tea, when you can go down alone." She left a flabbergasted workaholic smirking in his seat. Not that she even witnessed the smirking.
***
Darkness once again seemed to engulf her. However this time, there was the purple glow within the blackness that put her at ease. She hadn't felt comfortable in the darkness in a long time, even on their last case the dark wasn't as calming excluding the one or two instances.
Come to think of it, she hadn't seen her dreamed up version of Naru in a long time, perhaps the sudden restful blackness was a sign that she just might see him again! She had quite a few questions that he should be able to help her answer. Now just where was he?
"Mai?"
That was definitely not Naru's voice, Mai thought as she turned around to see the unexpected.
"Kiko? What are you doing in my dream?"