spr | The House in Which Nightmares Dwell 3.6

Hirota shouted into the direction he was going to.

"Who is stubborn here!"

Hirota intended to express common sense. Even if he was insulted, it was impossible that he would understand.

There is no such things like ghosts. There had should be some appropriate reason for the strange phenomena which are occurring in this house and the person Midori should be seeking help from wasn't someone like a psychic. Anyone in this world relying on such a company would be taken advantage of.

Saki turned her head to Hirota expressing disdain.

"If you want to deny ghosts that much, isn't it better to go home? This place will only make you feel uncomfortable, right?"

"Nakai--"

Ignoring Hirota's voice Saki looked away, turned in a different direction and stopped in front of the inner room. Beyond the sliding screen that was left open, they could see the inside of the room. The four and a half tatami mat sized Japanese style room had transformed into some kind of laboratory.

Saki smiled at Mai who raised her head in puzzlement.

"These machines are incredible... ..."

"Ah, thank you... ..."

"Do contemporary psychics use these kind of things?" Saki said and entered inside the room.

"But, it has no value if anything."

"Is that so?"

'Isn't the real intention behind showing that they are a little scientific, to gain the trust of the victim?' Hirota cursed without saying anything. Indeed, the company's style, which had no typical psychic atmosphere, contributed in having attained Midori's trust at the present.

Saki looked over the inside of the room again. Monitors of various sizes, machinery and computers.

"Taniyama-san weren't you? Even though you're also an investigator, haven't you done an exorcism yet?"

"Yeah," Mai looked a little bored. Both the young boss and the investigator glanced at Saki for a short while and uninterestedly stared in the direction of the machines.

"Sorry about just now. Hirota-kun's really stubborn."

"Don't worry about it," Mai said and laughed worriedly as she looked from Saki to Hirota who stood behind her emitting angry thoughts.

"I intend to be a sensible person. I think of someone as myself who is not merely an obstinate person."

"Yeah," Mai once again said seemingly worried over Hirota who yelled 'Hey!' with an angered voice.

"So does it look like a poltergeist after all?"

Saki looked at the three people inside the room, and cheekily sat down next to Mai.

"-- Aah, or was it called RSPK?"

"... ...We don't know yet. The investigation has barely started."

"Do poltergeists really happen because of PK? So it's not related to ghosts at all?"

"There are also cases that haven't."

"When you do investigations like this, do you see stuff?"

"Involuntarily though," Mai smiled.

"I see. I'm also someone who has seen things."

"Is that so?"

"Yes, what impressed me the most was just after I picked up my driver's license."

It happened when she wentfor a drive with a friend. When they returned during the night she saw a woman standing at the place where she came out of a long tunnel. The woman absent-mindedly stood on the highway's car lane. Saki had turned the steering wheel in haste and evaded her. After she cursed, her friend next to her had asked, 'What's wrong?'. Apparently she had not seen that woman.

When she told that story, Mai muttered, "Hm."

"When I looked to the back I thought it was idiotic, there wasn't anyone there. The road was straight and there was no place to hide. -- I thought more about it and remembered that I went at high speed at that place."

"Wow."

"When I asked afterwards, that tunnel appeared to be famous for the appearances."

"There are such places like that, huh," Mai said appearing to admire her somewhat.

"Again?" said a voice from behind her back. At the entrance of the room Hirota had crossed his arms.

"You've imagined that kind of thing."

Saki turned towards Hirota.

"It wasn't my imagination, because I've seen it for sure."

"Well, you must have been half asleep."

"How rude, I was awake, because I was nervous to drive a long distance for the first time."

"A highway hypnosis, huh."

A quiet voice had interrupted and Saki looked blankly for a moment.

"Eh?" She turned towards the owner of that voice.

He watched over the monitors without interest.

"... ...What?"

"The highway hypnosis phenomenon. There's a phenomenon called like that. What you saw was an illusion."

The ones who were equally dumbfounded were both Saki and Hirota. They never thought that it would be denied by a psychic.

"That wasn't a illusion."

"For someone who has seen something called a illusion it is difficult to acknowledge that it was an illusion."

His voice was thoroughly cold.

"I told you you're wrong."

"Look what did I say?"

Saki and Hirota completely harmonized. Saki glared at Hirota and glanced back at the boy with the cold face.

"I have seen it for sure."

"Before you saw that woman, were you and your friend being silent?"

"... ...I suppose we were."

She remembered wondering whether her friend was asleep.

"It's cramped inside the car. When your field of vision is fixated to the front and in particular your fellow passenger asleep, you're alone in a state in which there is no change. To make matters worse there is no change in the highway scenery. The curves are also lenient and visual stimulus is limited."

"That's true, though."

"When the stimulus becomes monotonous, the human brain causes laziness and becomes unable to stay awake. Attention falters and the extent of consciousness narrows. The consciousness gradually undergoes a metamorphosis, falling into a state of some kind of hypnosis. As a result, one is attacked by illusions and auditory hallucinations. This is the phenomenon called highway hypnosis."

"But."

"Nakai-san was nervous because she went for a car trip for the first time, right? At the same time when you went home you had become tired from getting accustomed to driving. And wasn't it silent regardless of there being a fellow passenger?"

"That's true, but... ..."

"Moreover late at night, the flow of cars is smooth, the surroundings are dark and more than at daytime the stimulus of senses was limited. That is the cause of the illusion you saw."

"But, that tunnel is..."

"The sodium light that is lined up monotonously inside of the tunnel has an hypnotic effect. For that reason it resembles the flickering that is used in hypnotism. That's why there are many accidents in the vicinity of a tunnel's exit. That's all there is to it."

Saki was silenced. She didn't even say something like, 'But I saw it myself!'

"I don't admire blaming just about everything on ghosts."

"But, I've seen things. -- Generally, I can see them easily. I've been paralysed temporarily plenty of times."

"Things like that happen when you're half asleep," the boy said over his shoulder, "During REM sleep, the function of the descending system of the brain stem reticular formation declines and the muscles lose tension. When you wake at the time of this condition, it easily causes the so-called temporary paralysis, and because you're half asleep, you're literally in the condition of being half asleep and half awake and easily see illusions. It's only something like that."

"... ...Aren't you a psychic?"

"I intend to be a researcher."

"Then why, do you deny it like that? If you deny just about everything in such a way, isn't it like you're telling me that there's no such thing like ghosts?"

"If it gets to the point of being praised by curious onlookers who like ghosts, being denied is preferable."

Saki raised her voice.

"Enough is enough! Isn't Hirota-kun the one who was flaring up at you? Won't you stop having taking it out at me? I am your ally after all."

"Ally?"

The face that returned a question exposed a disdained expression. The cool eyes pierced through her. The words snapped out.

"Give me a break. Deniers are not my enemy, Nakai-san. It's not even particularly limited to people who are shameless or foolish, because they agree as long as there is evidence that doesn't state the existence of something. The ones we really have to fight against are people like you who blindly accept things. People who worship psychic phenomena without a foundation and who seem to put just about everything under the word mystery."

Saki bent the shape of her mouth.

"People who are as tolerant as us are those who support the existence of people like you. Don't forget that."

"If there were no people like you, paranormal studies would have made fifty years amount of progress. If Nakai-san was to stop her blind acceptance, if people around the world were educated, it would be proven."

"If I am a person who blindly accepts things, aren't you who religiously does something like research also not the same sort of people who blindly accept things?"

"I pursue scientific laws."

"Hey, don't think that science is almighty. It's arrogance that doesn't approve of the things that exceed the human intellect. Isn't something like science isn't just gnawing at physical borders. I don't applaud the looking down on psychic phenomena with those words."

"The science that you know is only the one gnawing at physical borders, right. Letting yourself be exposed to ignorance to anything related to science in such a way, is not an act that is admirable."

"In this world there are things that can't be measured with just science!"

"That's a cowardly view."

His stern voice was completely unforgiving.

"That's the opinion of a despicable person who does not live on part of his own responsibilities. You just want to force your own responsibility on fate or gods and so on."

"Excuse me!"

The one who cried out wasn't Saki, but Mai. Both Saki and Hirota looked blankly at Mai.

"If you were silent and just listened, it would have gone okay. Don't you have something like modesty, manners, or justice? Don't just talk down recklessly and say they're mean or cowards at another person with an opinion you can't agree with."

"Reckless? I just want to tell them my honest opinions."

"Where are they!"

Hirota unintentionally stared dumbfounded at Mai who had become seriously angry.

"I understand what Nakai-san is saying and I understand your point. When comparing the attitude of you two to me who cannot judge whether it's true or false, I have come to respect Nakai-san's opinion more. On the other hand you make an absolutely bad impression. Aren't you just digging your own grave with what you're doing?"

She was right, Hirota thought. Hirota was thoroughly a denier and thought of Saki's attitude as unpleasant, but seeing that he was talking down Saki even though he agreed with him, it didn't feel pleasant. But to be more frank, he unintentionally felt uncomfortable in wanting to become Saki's ally.

"Apologize to Nakai-san."

"I refuse. I wasn't wrong."

"Blockhead."

"Don't you call that a reckless remark?"

"For someone like you, even blockhead is too praiseworthy. -- If you have that kind of attitude all the time, one day you will regret the situation you'll find yourself in."

"That's what you wish for right. I was thinking of trying to regretting just once."

"Bastard! Do you think of yourself as the greatest in this world?"

"Isn't it like that?"

Hirota's jaw dropped.

-- This guy's arrogance was unusual.

Saki suddenly turned her heel in front of Hirota, who didn't know whether to be shocked or in awe. She returned to the corridor in a rough manner of walking.

"-- Nakai?"

"I'm going home," Saki curtly said and faced the living room. Quickly she took her bag, throwing a glance full of resentment towards Hirota and left through the entranceway.

A confused-looking Midori who came from the living room, made a worried face and looked from Hirota to the entranceway.

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