spr | The House in Which Nightmares Dwell 4.3

After Hirota carried the equipment to the second floor, Mai began to connect that equipment to each other.

"-- Just what are you guys about to do?"

"A suggestion experiment. -- Please keep this a secret from Midori-san and her mother, okay?"

Hirota frowned.

"Why?"

After sensing Hirota's somewhat prickly manner of speaking, Mai blankly looked up at his face and made a faint, strained smile.

"Well, after this we're going to do the suggestion experiment. We're going to investigate whether RSPK is happening in this place. We are going to watch whether making a suggestion has an effect on Midori-san and her mother. Apparently, if the people themselves know what the purpose of the experiment is, there will be no effect."

"-- Suggestion?"

"It won't be a weird suggestion. They'll be told to move something in this room this night."

"Excuse me but," Hirota was bewildered. "Is there any meaning behind this?"

"Um, well. RSPK is a phenomenon that is unconsciously caused by a person. That means that there is always -- though it's a bad word to use, an offender. Therefore, when making a suggestion, it will happen in the way that it was suggested."

"You're saying that either Midori-san or her mother is the offender?"

"That's why," Mai grimaced. "I know I used a bad word. It means that we try to confirm that it was someone's unconsciousness in order to test whether it's RSPK. I understand that if the suggestion doesn't succeed, it at least means there's no relation between Midori-san and her mother and the strange things that have happened in this house. In this way we're trying to eliminate any ideas one by one."

"Hm," Hirota hummed. He still wasn't satisfied.

"Isn't suggestion something like hypnotism? Who's doing it? Isn't it dangerous?"

"Naru will do it. It will be alright, Naru-chan has properly studied under the guidance of a specialist. During cases like these experiments will definitely be done. You'll get used to it, so please don't worry."

"... ...Understood. Then? Why is there so much equipment here?"

While wiring the camera, Mai pointed out an equipment placed in the corner of her room with her gaze.

"First of all, please put that machine in the centre of the room."

"This?"

"It's a machine that transmits stuff like vibrations. On top of it we're going to place the thing we use for the suggestion. It's often something like a vase."

"Is here fine?"

When Hirota placed the steel-made machine down fifty centimeters from all four directions down, Mai nodded.

"Can I please have the small machine over there? The one with the number 2511."

"The one with the maker's name Brüel & Kjær?"

"There are two machines right? Please put one on top of the other. It's the vibrometer. One more group consists of two identical ones."

"This one?"

"That one. That's the angle meter. Please establish it in a similar way and place the cable of the vibrometer and the angle meter over here."

He passed the cord over as he was told to do and Mai connected it to the machine below the camera.

"After that, that large equipment. It's the place sensor. Please place it near the edge of the room and give me the cable."

After doing that Hirota looked at the room. He had placed one machine at the centre and arranged some machinery surrounding it. No matter from where the wiring spread, it was connect to the machine that was placed below the camera on an angle decided upon by Mai.

"-- Lin-san?"

Mai faced the infrared camera, calling him.

"The cursor wire isn't settling in at all. -- It's fine? Is it alright? -- Understood, I'll keep it disconnected."

"What is it?" Hirota said, and Mai grimaced.

"The machine isn't working well. The noise on the infrared camera is terrible. I worry for the machines, because this house is very troublesome."

"I see. Even though you're a girl, you're knowledgeable about this kind of stuff."

"It's not like I'm knowledgeable about machinery. It's practice, just practice. Because a demon-like teacher worked me hard."

Hirota wryly smiled.

"To work under him must be tough right. -- And?"

Hirota looked over at the equipment that was arranged in the center of the room.

"-- Ah, that? Um, on top of that one we place the target object. But the place sensor and the camera are observing it. Normally we have the room hermetically sealed, but with the breaker falling out the we can't trust the house's electricity, so we had to pull the electricity from below. Since we can't completely seal the room, this is just the simplified version.

"Hm."

"After that we just leave it alone for one night. If the target object moves, it will be recorded on video and the sensor. No one can enter the room, so no one with a bad intention can move it, right? If there was an earthquake, it will be recorded on the machine. As well as if the target object was somehow moved by an unseen force"

Hirota hummed again.

"How to say this -- You guys really aren't like mediums at all."

"Right."

After Mai smiled, she scowl a little at Hirota.

"It's better to not to speak of mediums in front of Naru. You'll be a victim of sarcasm. He himself has not the intentions of a medium."

"But, aren't mediums just mediums?"

"He wants to be called a ghost hunter. I think he dislikes the word medium."

"Why?"

Mai smiled indifferently.

"Well that's, naturally, because they're suspicious, right. Even if you changed our name, it's not like it will change that we're suspicious."

Hirota wryly smiled.

"Taniyama-san, you just recognized that you guys are suspicious."

"Because I think there isn't anyone who are suspicious like us. An investigator is like this, and the boss is like that."

"So you know that you're seen like that from an outsider?"

Mai smiled.

"The payment for the part-time job is very good."

"I don't understand young girls. Do you really want money that much?"

"That's because I'm an orphan," Mai explained. "I'm paying for my own expenses, so I need money."

Hirota turned completely bleak.

"... ...I, I'm sorry."

"You don't have to apologize. If you apologize, you'll make it very uncomfortable."

"I see, I'm sorry."

Mai laughed at Hirota's unintentional second apology.

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