Chapter 3: Psychic Procedures
I
“Now that we’ve gotten everything prepared,” Takara said, rubbing his gloved hands together. “Well get to setting everything up and try to capture this shadow that you’ve mentioned. First, we need evidence of its existence and if you would like to answer some questions about it, that would be most helpful.”

“Sure,” Minami said, nodding her head.

“When did you see this shadow? At what time?” Takara said. “Did you notice anything usual about the shadow, any details that could help us determine what supernatural entity it could be, ruling out hallucinations, delusions, psychosis, or mental illness? I apologize if this seems forward—in exorcism procedures, we’re supposed to rule out the fact whether mental illness contributes or not.”

“I think we’re in pretty sane condition of mind,” Minami said. “We know what we saw. We witnessed it about 11:00 AM when I was done confronting the bullies about taking Hotaru’s lunch money. We…went to an area that was secluded so that the bullies wouldn’t send their goons after us, and it was shortly thereafter that we heard a scream and saw the leader of the bullies running out foaming at the mouth and collapsing. We saw a shadow exit out of her mouth, which was the weirdest thing, and it bounced off of her and disappeared somewhere in the school.”

“Did you see where it went, the general direction? Did it coalesce with other shadows, or did it attach itself to another person, or is this bully that harassed your friend the only one you know of that has been affected?” Takara said with a crinkle in his brow.

“As far as we know,” Hotaru said. “She’s been the only one that has been affected. But we were hoping to investigate and learn more before other people were affected.”

Minami nodded again.

“We didn’t want there to be any more causalities.”

Takara wrote down more notes in his notebook, his violet eyes intent on the script he was writing out in a mixture of kanji, katakana, and hiragana as he scrawled illegible hieroglyphics that only he could decipher for himself.

“So now you’ve mentioned that this person that was bullying Hotaru was put into a coma afterward? After you witnessed this shadow getting into her and detaching itself from her?”

“We saw what happened,” Minami said. “The shadow went inside of her, then went outside of her in the general direction of the school where it’s probably hiding. We contacted the nurse of the Infirmary and let the librarian know about what happened to help make accommodations for this ghost-hunting team and also to let the parents of the bully know that their daughter has been harassing Hotaru.”

“You don’t have any ill intentions toward this person? You didn’t have any motive to do anything to put her in this unusual state of matters? Understand that this is standard procedure.”

Minami straightened, her back as erect as a pencil.

“I would never do anything so heinous to another human being. Not like that girl. But even so, despite everything, my friend feels empathy toward her bully and wants to help. And I don’t like that bully, personally, but I feel a moral obligation to help anyway because it wouldn’t be right to sink to her level and let her suffer, as much as some part of me would like her to stew in her karma.”

Takara smiled a bit at Minami before he scrawled more notes on his notebook. “Very well. Let me ask you this. Can we request that you work with us to investigate this shadow, and find it together? Because according this what I’ve gathered so far, I think that this shadow was trying to target someone…and it got the wrong person.”

Minami furrowed her brow. “Pardon?”

Takara smiled toward her, before saying, “We have reason to believe that the bully wasn’t the intended target, though the coma was an unfortunate side effect of the shadow, thanks to previous investigative efforts that we’ve had.”

“So far we haven’t seen any other unusual activity in the school,” Minami said, trying to keep the events straight in her head and give the most meticulous of records to work together with. “Though what are these previous investigative attempts that you are talking about?”

“Ah, pretty soon, you will see a demonstration of something that we don’t share often,” Takara said as he continued to smile. “But we believe that revealing them here would be important for the case, ruling out mental illness as a cause for witnessing this ‘shadow’”

Minami blinked.

“Don’t you need a psychiatrist or psychologist for something like that?”

Kaede, the blond-haired girl, smiled. “I already know that you, Hotaru, and the librarian are telling the truth of the matter and that your minds are in a sound state of mind. We will continue with the procedure and hopefully, we will catch this shadow so that there won’t be any more victims.”

Hotaru looked excited.

“Wow! You’re a psychologist at your age?”

“Yes, Kaede-chan is a hard worker who has a certain special expertise that makes her suitable for that profession,” Yukiko said with a smile as she got out a fan from between her sizeable bosom and flicked it open with an elegant movement of her wrist and held it toward her face, hiding her smile. “We may be young, but we are professionals, and you can trust our skills. We hope to demonstrate our technique and solidify your trust in us.”

“But how does Kaede know that we’re fine and to continue with the procedure?” Minami said with a frown. “What if we’re lying about being in the right state of mind to continue with the procedure.”

“Fortunately we’ve determined that you’re a natural forthright and honest type of character, Minami-san,” Takara said as he continued to put her at ease. “But besides that charming personality feature of yours, we will let you in on a little secret—the three of us are psychics.”

Minami blinked again.

“You’re kidding.”

Hotaru, her mouth agape, shut it again before her eyes sparkled. “Wow, psychics? For real? There’s a paranormal world that exists out there?”

“You can choose not to believe us,” Yukiko said. “But the work we do is genuine and we’ve had grateful clients that come to us when things go south.”

"Most people are skeptical at first,” Takara said. “Understandably so. However, there are those with psychic abilities and even normal humans who can see the world veiled underneath. It’s just that those in the normal world choose NOT to see underneath the underneath.”

Minami bowed her head. “I suppose that is true.”

“We will help out because we want to prevent more casualties,” Yukiko said. “And your sentiment is noble, Minami-san. Remember, however, that ghost hunting is serious business, and this may involve more than just a simple ghost-hunting routine.”

Minami looked toward them, scanning their faces for any signs of lying. She found none.

“So about this ghost…who do you think its real target was?”

Takara looked among his group before he let out a sigh and ran a hand through his hair.

“We have reason to believe that it has been trying to target you, Minami.”

Minami’s eyes fluttered in shock.

“Me?”

Kaede folded her hands together, as though in prayer. “We have reason to believe so. Which is why we will be doing a psychic scan for any abnormalities.”

“How does that work, exactly?” Hotaru said, barely containing her excitement for a real live demonstration of psychic ability and proving that the paranormal exists.

“Of course,” Takara said, handing out another sheaf of papers to them that Minami looked over carefully. “These are agreements about the usage of psychic or magical abilities in an investigation, and whether we have permission to do things like psychic scans, which are non-invasive forms of psychic ability usage on another person. A more involved process would be enlisting a telepathic/empathic user—like our beloved Kaede-chan here—to work on you individually and coach you through psychic sessions to find any abnormalities or aftereffects that this shadow has caused.”

“Think this through carefully,” Kaede said. “Because in my profession, telepaths/empaths are the most sensitive psychic mediums of them all. They feel your emotions, and your thoughts—they’re keeper of secrets. They hold onto many stories, lives, and memories from a deep dive into a person’s psyche and soul. And if a person is affected too much by a paranormal event, or decides to end their own life…”

Kaede tried to suppress her tears, though Minami knew that having to hold that burden must’ve been rough on the young psychologist.

“Are your psychic powers even needed on this investigation?” Minami said.

Takara smiled, before saying, “That’s a legitimate question, Minami. There are people without paranormal abilities who can solve the mystery of paranormal nature just as well as a psychic can, though a psychic simply has more tools under their tool belt to investigate a little more thoroughly. If that makes sense?”

“Hm,” Minami intoned, before shaking her head. “I’m sorry, can I take a moment to think please?”

Takara nodded. “Of course.”

Minami stepped aside with Hotaru and the librarian, before saying, “Well? What do you guys think of this PsiCo team? Do they seem legitimate?”

The librarian looked over the papers that the PsiCo team had written up, and she nodded. “It seems they have an air of professionalism to their paperwork and everything seems watertight in these. Though as an adult, I must advise you to think carefully about whether you want to go through the psychic procedure, which is working with a telepath/empath. I find all this a little hard to believe myself, but sometimes there are mysterious things in this world that perhaps we haven’t wanted to acknowledge.”

Hotaru thought for a moment, before saying, “I think…that the PsiCo team really want to help. I’m not sure if their psychic powers are really real or whether it’s mentalist tricks, you know, stuff like stage magicians do or things like that, though I’m interested to see how they operate.”

“The higher-ups invited them here,” Minami said. “Surely they’ve solved cases before which gives them validity?”

The librarian considered for a moment, before saying, “Why don’t I tell you this, then? Takara-kun is a young detective who solves paranormal cases, things that the police themselves normally wouldn’t handle, and hand off to him and his father’s business. Though in actuality, Takara-kun has made a solid case for himself by solving a few mysteries of his own.”

Minami looked at the librarian in awe. “I honestly didn’t believe he was that big of a deal.”

The librarian smiled again. “He is a modest gentleman, no?”

“Mm,” Minami said before Hotaru nudged Minami’s shoulder.

“Don’t tell me he’s your type, Minami-chan,” Hotaru said playfully.

“What?” Minami said, becoming flabbergasted. “No…I…Gr! This is frustrating! I’m not sure whether we should trust them or not, especially since they’re about the same age as us, too. How does that make any sense?”

“They’re amateur sleuths of sorts,” the librarian said. “Though they’re working on a self-made company that they made which involves solving cases and involving their specialized services for problems large and small.”

“Self-made company?” Minami said in wonderment. “You mean they have all that disposable income to do something like this?”

“I say that we help them, Minami-chan,” Hotaru said. “Besides, we have the same goal—catching the shadow and preventing more casualties!”

“Right,” Minami said with a sigh. “Well work together with them, though if I catch any sign of funny business from any one of them, I’ll take care of it.”

Hotaru giggled a bit.

“Remember, Minami-chan—no violence.”

They walked toward the PsiCo Team again, after having gotten the librarians’ confirmation that the papers and procedures they underwent weren’t harmful or shady in any way, before Minami said. “So if we sign the last few papers, you will be able to begin the investigation properly?”

“That would be ideal,” Takara said. “Though we’re always willing to talk out arrangements of any sort. That is what we do.”

Minami thought for a moment, before saying, “Takara-san, I was wondering…if we catch this shadow…if we can catch it…what is the procedure for doing so?”

“If we find that our methods of containment fail,” Yukiko said as she fluttered her fan toward her mouth. “Then we might have to take drastic measures. Though we hope it won’t have to come to that.”

Minami thought some more, before saying, “I will volunteer myself as bait.”

“Minami…” Takara said, concern shining in his eyes, while Hotaru huddled close to her friend, tears curdling in her eyes.

“Don’t do it, Minami-chan!”

“That thing is after me, right?” Minami said, clenching her hands into fists. “And I hate sitting around and waiting for that thing to show up. So I gotta attract it somehow and lure it toward the PsiCo team so that they can catch and contain it.”

“I suppose it is a plan,” Yukiko said, while waving her fan. “We will have someone from the PsiCo Team shadow you while you’re chasing after the shadow, and then another PsiCo member protecting the other vulnerable members of the team. I can set up some Onmyoujutsu spells to contain a spirit, though the barrier isn’t erect yet.”

“How long will it take to…activate this barrier?” Minami said, before Yukiko smiled.

“In my line of expertise, I will be able to create a barrier that is powerful enough to hold back the Devil himself. Though I’m sure that the Purification levels that are needed for this shadow need to be tested first.”

“Purification levels? “Hotaru said wonderingly. “So there are really Onmyouji in this day and age. Though I thought they were mostly astrologers and keep track of the dates and calendars.”

“That was one of their duties in the olden times, yes,” Yukiko said as she fluttered her fan. “However, modern-day Onmyouji take on exorcism duties and psychic abilities to deal with paranormal phenomena in this day and age. It is a bold undertaking, though it is something that I live for to help others.”

Kaede looked serious for a moment, before saying, “Minami…I know that you want to catch this shadow, worrying about the other students, but don’t you think careful, methodical procedures should take precedence first?”

“There will be another victim, if it’s trying to get to me,” Minami said, clenching her hands into fists. “I don’t want to be responsible for that ghost putting someone into a coma, no matter who they are.”

Minami then whispered in a low undertone that she wouldn’t let anyone else hear. “I promised that I would protect Hotaru.”

Kaede seemed to have a look of understanding towards Minami, to which Minami suddenly felt a sense of unease toward the telepath/empath. What if she could read minds and emotions like she said? Or maybe her ears were sharper than she gave the girl credit for.

Yet Takara eased the tension in the atmosphere, saying, “As leader of the PsiCo group, I will not put a lady in danger. I will draw the ghost’s attention, though it may involve a…unorthodox method.”

Minami’s ears pricked at that.

“An unorthodox method?”

Takara took out his hand from his glove, flexing his fingers experimentally, before saying. “I need you to hold my hand, please. I apologize if this seems unseemly, but.”

“Are you being serious?” Minami said with a raised brow.

“If you’re skeptical, it would be like putting your ‘scent’ on me for a dog, or in this case, the ghost, to catch,” Takara said. “I hope you understand.”

“Fine, if that’s all I gotta do,” Minami said with a sigh before she lightly pressed her hand against Takara’s hand. It felt surprisingly warm and smooth, though Minami did not blush. She was proud of that, no matter how handsome Takara happened to be.

“Okay,” Takara said. “The ghost will track me instead of you. However, this is not an entirely foolproof measure, as the person controlling this ghost can switch targets until it finds the right one. Hence, the guards.”

“I still wanna do something,” Minami said. “I don’t need to be…coddled and protected. I won’t get in your way. I promise. I know that you’re a professional and everything, but I know the layout of the school better than you do.”

“This is also a valid explanation,” Takara said. “Just remember—we bear a responsibility for other people’s lives. Can I trust that you will be careful, Minami?”

Minami nodded.

“I will.”

“Okay, good,” Takara said, before he went down one end of the hallway, while Minami went out on the other. “It certainly makes my job easier that I have a partner to do this with. Though remember, if you see any signs of anything unusual or sense an unnatural chill in the room, run toward safety where everyone is gathered. Yukiko should have the barrier erected and the ghost won’t be able to enter the library. Then one of us will be able to contain it by exiting from the barrier and catching it.”

"Okay,” Minami said, nodding. “I’m a pretty fast runner. Hope you are too, Detective.”

Takara quirked his lips into a half smile. “I’ve had narrow escapes myself.”

“Can you outrun your horde of fangirls?” Minami said with a grin, while Takara chuckled a bit.

“Oh, Minami, you wouldn’t realize how many people have asked for my hand before. However, if there is one thing about being the desired object of other people, it’s the fact that you have to find the one person that is right for you among the many people whom you choose to open your heart to. So, Minami-chan—who do you choose to open your heart to?”

“Why are you asking that,” Minami said with a slight flush now. “Jeez! We’re just doing some ghost-catching, this isn’t a romance route in an otome game!”

Takara chuckled, before he said, “Come now, Minami. We’re all having good fun while we’re catching this spirit. Have some levity—we’re going to make headway on this case and catch this shadow!”