Case 13: Spiritual Paths (6)

No—what was happening?

My heartbeat slowly returned to normal together with my ability to think.

Right now, I was sitting alone on a bench set up on the sidewalk along Itsukaichikaidō, with my hands clutching my hair.

Despite it being late at night, there were countless bikes and cars passing by on the road. There were students walking along the pavement laughing with each other. It was peaceful to the point where someone like me, trembling by myself over a ghost, looked comical. However, I was still worried about whether my head was functioning properly.

Slowly and gradually, I recalled the events that took place in that house.

I heard the whisper of an invisible young girl behind the hanging lantern in the courtyard. As if lured by her whispers, I entered that house.

The ‘Overlapping house’ – a metallic sound echoed there, a house where six spiritual paths overlapped. Countless pieces of junk had been gathered up inside, and who knows how many old talismans were plastered on the walls. There, I saw a strange pair of feet…or so I thought. On the second floor, it felt as if I saw a woman with her drooping hair covering the entire floor. Was I normal at that time? Was I not broken once again? Was it all a delusion, borne from being distraught with fear? Even the repeated metallic sound must have been an auditory hallucination, or the rattling of the house. That’s right, didn’t Krishna-san always tell me? That ninety-nine percent of ghost stories out there in the world are lies, delusions, or misunderstandings.

Thereupon, I recalled the words of the girl whose voice I could only hear.

It was when I was looking at the junk in the sink on the first floor, and looked back at the thing with the two right feet behind me.

The young girl said: 『There are still two more.』 That’s right, there was something on the second floor. It felt like it was a woman. But ’two more’…. Wasn’t that the end of it?

However, I recalled back that far, when a cold, chilling thought came down to me.

No—that wasn’t it….

The last person she meant… could it have been…

(Why did you climb up to the second floor?)

The moment that voice reached my ears once more, I jumped up.

“….Guwaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!”

I screamed shamelessly, managing to hold myself back from falling off the bench, and looked to my side to see—

That the presence of the girl from that time was markedly present next to me.

I was slowly brought to tears, and with my mouth half open,

(Say, why did you go to the second floor by yourself?)

I heard her voice once more, and clasped both of my hands together and raised them up in prayer.

“I…I’m begging you, please go to heaven… It won't do you any good to haunt me. Not at all.”

In response, a small gasp of exasperation escaped from next to me.

(I’ll only ask once more. Why did you go to the second floor?)

“W…why you ask…? You…said…above…that it was on the second floor.”

I continued to speak.

“I know already. You’re the third one, aren’t you? What are you trying to do by possessing me? If you’re gonna possess and kill me, then hurry up and do it. This slow way of doing it… have some mercy.”

In reply, the voice declared something unimaginable.

(I never said above, nor did I say that there was anything on the second floor.)

….Eh?

Thereupon, I realized with a shudder. Didn’t she just ask, 『Why did you go to the second floor alone?』

So that meant---Eh…?

(I was on the first floor. I was thinking about the association between the countless presences, the metallic sound that continued to ring out, and the direction of the affixed talismans. And then I understood. Those diverse items in the sink weren’t things that couldn’t be thrown away.)

“….What…?”

(It was the opposite – they were things that had been gathered to comfort a child.)

Those words—made goosebumps run all over my body for some reason.

A child…Yes, a child.

The online posts I read in my room also said that there was a child in that house.

And that you shouldn’t look at that child…

(That was the third—no, the most malicious ghost of that house.)

…..

(Did you catch sight of a child anywhere?)

In that instant—I remembered.

When I was crouching in the doorway of that house, I recalled a mother and child passing by me with their hands clasped together.

At that time, I felt something strange. That’s right, why were a mother and child walking together in the middle of the night?

“You can’t possibly mean…”

(You saw it, didn’t you?)

“No, I don’t know if that was it…but, I saw a mother and child in front of that house.”

(That's where the entrance is.)

“…”

After gulping down once, I asked:

“Just now, you said that you understood, but—just what is it that you understood about that house?”

(I believe it’s true that it is a house of overlapping spiritual paths. Because it is said that when the spirits pass through the walls, a sharp metallic sound rings out.)

“…..Ah.”

(But that’s not all. The people who lived there were struck by all kinds of inexplicable phenomena, going so far as to post talismans. However, you must post the talismans in a specific direction. In that house, all the talismans were all posted on the north side. That would make it impossible for the spirits to exit. Inevitably, they would accumulate in that house. You often see bait sold that’s used to lure cockroaches and keep them in place -- but this house was constructed similarly.)

“…Then, what was the deal with that child?”

(I don’t know.)

The girl spoke.

(They say there are times when ghosts merge with each other—but that was different. It was something originally not human, something that took the appearance of a child and existed there.)

“…..”

(In addition to being a house of overlapping spiritual paths, there was intense traffic of ghosts—Fearing that, the talismans were posted, but in the wrong way—the spirts accumulated —they continued to accumulate, continued to overlap, mere painful thoughts that continued to accumulate and thicken—that crystallization.)

‘However’, said the girl with a trace of happiness in her voice.

(It’s wonderful that such incomprehensible things still exist in this world.)

I was left dumbfounded by the innocent tone of her voice, when—

It felt as if the girl stood up without making a sound.

“H…hey.”

In a panic, I called out to her, but the girl’s presence gradually moved away.

“Hey, wait a minute. Just who the hell--”

Who are you?

The moment I was about to ask that, it felt… as if the girl stopped a little further ahead of me.

(I forgot to mention it, but you are not broken.)

Her voice was somewhat kind as it reached my ears, echoing in the silence of the night.

(Because – you can still ‘fear’.)