The House in Which Nightmares Dwell 3.2

[touchturnfly]

2

Midori stood in the corridor before the room for a moment, and stared dumbfoundedly at the strange condition the inside of the room she was peering at had attained.

A rack made of steel was assembled with television-like things of various sizes were crowded in there, and the floor was covered by various cords.

After connecting and checking the transported equipment with the memo, Mai carried a clipboard and came to the corridor.

"Excuse me, Midori-san."

Mai watched and smiled at Midori who was gaping.

"I'm doing a preliminary investigation. Can you show me around the house, please?"

"Yes. -- From where?"

For some reason Midori turned her head to the back, while her feet faced the living room. Inside the room separated by sliding screens, there was no place for her feet to stand due to the equipment that was set up on the floor. The two leftovers she leaned over was joined by a type of cord.

"... ...Are all of these equipment?" Midori softly asked Mai.

"Yes. Were you surprised?"

"A little. -- I wonder if it would have been better if it was a wider room."

"Don't worry about it. It's fine, because there aren't that many camera's."

"Is that so --?"

"Yes. By the way, your cousin? He is living here now, right?" Mai asked, and Midori bitterly smiled.

"He's at work. Saki said that she would come check, so I think they'll come together," Midori said and opened the door of the living room.

"-- Here is the living room."

Mai looked out over the room and left a small machine, which she took out of her pocket, on top of the shelf. Then she took out the measuring tape.

"I wonder if it's okay to asked what you are doing?"

While applying the measuring lint to the wall, Mai answered without care, "Uh, I'm measuring the room's temperature and its size, because there is no blueprint of the house."

Midori remembered that the investigator Lin had told her, if there is a blueprint of the building's construction, I would like to have it. Unfortunately there was no such thing as a blueprint. There was no such thing inside the official papers that were handed over to her from the real estate agent either.

"We can't have no blueprint made."

She thought it was different from medium's way of doing things, but somehow she could understand it. Nevertheless, to Midori it was somewhat unexpected that they needed something like temperature.

"Does the temperature also have a relation to the investigation?"

"In places where spiritual phenomena occur, the temperature often drops. -- Simply put, this is just the planning of making an index of which rooms we will mainly investigate."

"Huh. ... ...This is perhaps rude of me if I said it like this, but this feels kind of strange, right?"

Mai smiled while she wrote down the wall's measurements on the board.

"Everyone says that."

"Is all that much equipment necessary?"

"It's for the investigation. ... ... But even if I say it like that, it's only accurate for half of it."

"What do you mean?"

Mai worriedly cocked her head.

"Well, in short. In our case, we also do something that is called exorcism, but our first goal is to investigate spiritual phenomena. One half of the equipment checks what is happening here and for reasons of collecting data for things like exorcisms, but the other half is, how do I say it? Equipment that is purely used for investigation. We try to investigate with all kinds of equipment, we research what ghosts are, that's how it seems in simple terms.

"Seems?"

When Midori returned a question, Mai put out a small tongue.

"Because I'm a good-for-nothing. To tell the truth, I don't understand those complicated things in that field. Even now I honestly don't know what half of that equipment is supposed to do."

"Is that so?" Midori broke into laughter. "So, you haven't done an exorcism yet?"

Mai showed a mischievous face.

"Before an exorcism, there's a long road that makes me feel fed up. I'm sorry for being a blockhead."

"No no," Midori muttered and looked over the living room. Midori has spent a lot of time here. It was because this room was the only one with a window where one could see the outside. In contrast, Reiko disliked being in the living room. It seemed that she felt that she was being watched from the outside.

"Hey, Taniyama-san?"

"Yes?"

From her brow Midori watched the girl's face raise up to look at her..

"Taniyama-san, you can also do exorcisms right? You're what would be called a psychic, right?"

"I wonder about that," Mai ambiguously answered. She had an expression that could be taken for both yes and no.

"Am I wrong?"

"Because I'm still a half share."

"... ... But, a half is still different from an ordinary person, am I wrong?"

"Well, I wonder."

"Is there something in this house after all? Does it have any strange points? A half is fine, so won't you let me hear it?"

Mai made a worried face.

"My boss is strict and scolds me when I say careless things."

"For me, that's what is currently troubling me the most. If it's a trouble that is harmless, and doesn't go beyond that, but if it's not the case, then I want to be prepared," Midori said and Mai was a little perplexed.

"Is my individual impression fine? As for me, I'm just really a half and I don't live up to expectations at all."

"It's fine."

Mai took a glimpse in the direction of the door to the living room.

"When I entered the house, I somewhat had a strange feeling."

"Strange... ... feeling?"

"Whether there is any meaning to it, I don't know though. When I got in from the entrance way, I had an extremely uneasy feeling. ... ... Somehow, it felt as if there wasn't anyone at all in this house."

Midori raised her eyebrows.

"Midori-san was right in front of me, and although you received us and even though your mother was there in the entranceway, for some kind of reason I had such a feeling. It felt as if I had gotten into a house where there was no one around. There were no people that I expected to be there and that gave me a feeling that made me extremely anxious," Mai awkwardly laughed. "I wonder why there wouldn't be anyone around. -- Strange, right? Even though Midori-san and your mother were right in front of me. ... ...That was a strange impression, so perhaps... ... was what I thought."

"Perhaps, there might be something here... ...?"

Mai nodded and then bitterly smiled.

"But I don't live up to expectations at all. The house is dark and it might be a bit insignificant."

After saying that Mai seemed to be worried.

"Perhaps, because your mother had a somewhat gloomy face, I may have gotten a bit anxious."

Midori breathed in. Remembering Reiko's complexion, naturally made her heave a sigh.

"... ... That's right."

Mai said sympathetically, "Um... ... I'll do my best."

Midori smiled at the worried looking girl.

"Thank you."

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