683The Bleeding Mountain, part 6
The Climb
Snow fell innocently down from the sky, gently coating everything in a fine layer of white. The mountain was beautiful. The wooden hotel looked postcard perfect. But inside the hotel the mood was tense and difficult. Ayako was drinking vast amounts of coffee whilst John tried to keep her calm. Bou-san dozed on the sofa. Lin and Naru were pouring over maps and muttering to each other.
In Tokyo Yasuhara rubbed his eyes hard and tried not to let his mind drift. He'd been awake for over 30 hours now and it was taking its toll. He'd been scouring the files piled before him endlessly, trying to find some little detail he'd missed that might be the clue. Past cases, old maps, even tourist accounts. Anything. But the wealth of information was becoming too much to hold.
"I think you need to rest Yasu." John's peered at him worriedly through a laptop camera.
"No. I can do this." Yasu barked back. The initial few hours it had felt surreal, like it wasn't really happening to them. But now it had sunk in. They could lose Mai. Actually lose her. They couldn't let that happen. Not only would it destroy SPR, it would destroy them.
"Not sleeping isn't going to help you find her. We can read it for you."
"I can do this John."
"I know I know," John said reassuringly. "But it wouldn't hurt to let us help would it?"
Yasuhara was about to retort something and then sighed. He took his glasses off and set them on the desk in front of him, stretching back and shutting his eyes.
"I guess you're right." He opened his eyes and looked at the pixilated priest blearily. "I'll send you which files I think are most likely to be useful. Bou-san and Ayako can take the tourist stuff. You can read the police reports with Masako and Madoka when they get back. Naru's already stolen half your maps."
John dutifully doled out some files from the corresponding stack in base and they all settled down to read.
Mai faded in and out of the dreamworld. She was confused and weak. The darkness scared her. She thought she could see things. She thought her circle of light was getting smaller.
"Naru… Why is it dark outside my circle?" She murmured, peering fearfully from the circle of safety. There was no reply. She looked around slowly, scared that he had gone. But he was lounging a little way from her.
"Naru?" She asked again.
"I… I don't know." He admitted slowly. "I have a few theories but…"
"Oh." She contemplated this. Gene was getting worried. She'd been here far too long. She was getting sluggish. He could almost see the gears in her brain winding down. "So there are things you don't know." She said eventually, smiling thinly.
"There are many things I don't know."
"Hm."
There was silence 's sense of time in the spirit world wasn't perfect, but he could tell she'd been unconscious a long time. Hurry Noll.
Naru's tired eyes looked at his team over steepled fingers. He gazed at them all for a long moment before speaking.
"We're moderately certain of her location." He said without embellishment.
"Moderately?" Queried Bou-san. Moderately wasn't what they wanted to hear.
"A lot of the maps are old. There are a couple of other options but we're fairly certain she's here." He showed them a point circled on a map. "It's an observation point. The route to it is fairly difficult so they closed it down a couple of decades ago amidst safety concerns. The buildings however were left."
"Ok. So we go there." Bou-san said with a confidence he did not feel.
"Yes."
"We need to go there soon. If she's not there we'd need time to figure out our options." Ayako inputted. Everyone nodded in agreement.
"I think I came across that observation point in a few of the older pieces of tourist information." Bou-san flicked through some pieces of paper. He selected one and skimmed through the contents. "Yeah, it says there was a little cafe up there. It says the path should only be taken in good weather and it suggests the elderly don't try it."
"This is hardly good weather." Yasuhara said grimly.
"We'll just have to be extra careful." Bou-san shrugged.
"That old case is still bugging me. The one where the woman was taken. It seems to be one of the first ones, maybe even the first one." Yasuhara said.
"Maybe it was something personal?" Suggested Madoka, who up until this point had been quiet.
"If only I could find more information." Yasuhara rubbed his nose.
"Keep looking. Contact me if you find anything of note."
Yasuhara nodded, wished them good luck and ended the call. Naru uncrossed his legs and leaned forwards fractionally. "We just need to plan what to do. Nothing can go wrong." He looked at each of them in turn, even though they didn't need this to be impressed on them.
They discussed what needed to be done as quickly as they could. They were all tired and impatient. Even Masako who usually looked so perfectly composed was starting to show the strain.
After everyone had gone off to prepare themselves for their upcoming trial Madoka hesitated to leave the room. She looked at Noll uncertainly.
"What is it Madoka?" He wasn't looking at her. She took a deep breath.
"I'm sorry Noll." She paused. He turned to look at her and waited for the explanation. "I shouldn't have tried to force anything to happen… you know… between you and Mai."
"Madoka-"
"You can do things in your own way but Noll… I still think you're being blind and an idiot and hurting her in the process. Even if you want to be stupid you shouldn't hurt her at the same time."
There was a silence. She noticed he was not denying anything. He just looked at her with inscrutable eyes.
"Thank you for apologising."
She nodded awkwardly and turned to go.
"I think you're acting rather hypocritically given your relationship with Lin."
She wobbled slightly, frozen to the spot. "I don't want it to be like that for you and Mai." She said evenly and then left, shutting the door softly behind her.
Two hours and a lot of coffee later everyone was bundled up outside the hotel. Naru had estimated it would be a two to three hour walk due to the harder conditions, so the Sekozawas had provided them with hiking rucksacks packed with water, energy bars, plenty of food, waterproof layers and thin blankets, as well as more than enough rope along with miniature axes and picks. As an extra precaution SPR had already attached carabiners to themselves and slung a length of rope through them. The Sekozawas had also promised to call mountain rescue if the group weren't back within ten hours.
The team could see their kind, nervous faces peering at them through the door. John cheerfully raised his hand and waved before the group turned to face the snow.
The climb was long and hard.
"At least the snow has stopped falling!" John remarked cheerfully at one point, the only response he received was the grunts of the others as they carefully lifted each foot out of the recess their weight had formed in the white powder and placed it in front of the other. Lin lead the way, being the oldest (and presumably) most experienced out of them. Then came Naru, followed by Madoka, Ayako, Bou-san, Masako and finally, John.
At least the snow is fresh and not compacted, thought Lin.
After what felt like an age but was in reality 2 and a quarter hours, they could see a small cabin and what was presumably a platform surrounded by a fence overlooking a natural cleft in the mountain.
They gathered about 200 metres down the path from it.
"Ayako are the trees good enough here?"
Ayako nodded enthusiastically. "Yes, they seem strong and healthy. I think there must be a shrine near here somewhere too."
Naru frowned and looked at the map he'd brought. "If there is, it isn't marked on here. Hara-san, can you sense anything?"
The small medium closed her eyes briefly. "It feels peaceful here, but underneath I can detect something else faintly. Some malice. It feels faint but powerful." She said sadly. Her eyes widened slightly and she looked at the others her white face flushed with hope "I think I can sense Mai. It's very very faint, but I think I can."
"In spirit form?"
"Yes."
"She must be very weak or further away." Masako's eyes dropped.
"We need to see if there is a shrine here. Ayako can you sense the way? Once we've found it, Bou-san create a kekkai around the shrine and cabin. If we can't find it we'll need to give up and just create one around the cabin"
They all nodded.
Mai opened her eyes blearily. The first thing she noticed was the light gently shining through two small windows high up. She tried to sit up, but as soon as she rested a hand against the wooden floor a shaft of pain shot up her arm. She raised her hand to her face. She was pretty sure her hands shouldn't be numb and white but she was so cold she couldn't really think about it that much.
She lay back down and watched the dust swirling in the light. It was calming. Slowly she started to doze off.
There was another presence in the room. A young woman was standing in the shadow.
"Hello?" Mai croaked.
The woman turned to look at her. Her dainty kimono with a travelling lilac pattern looked completely out of place with the dusty room.
"Please you have to… help me please. I'm so c-c-co-o-o-old." A violent shiver went through her.
The woman continued to look at her. Mai stared back. Why wouldn't this woman say anything?
"Is there… Where am I?"
"You are on a mountain." Her voice was melodic and Mai was struggling to make out individual words.
"But…" There was something out of place here. Why was a woman dressed so formally on a mountain in the snow and the cold? Was she staying at the hotel? But they'd said there were no guests…
"Can you help me get up please?"
"No."
Mai didn't understand. "No?" She repeated vaguely. Silence reigned again for a minute or two. She stared at the woman. She looked vaguely familiar but Mai couldn't place her. Maybe she'd seen her at the hotel?
"Excuse me, but, have we met before?"
The woman was clearly amused.
"My name is Taniyama Mai."
"My name is Hanako."
"Hanako-san, could you help me get up please?"
"No."
There was another silence. Mai was sure she had heard that name before, but she couldn't remember where. She screwed up her face as she thought but stopped quickly as it felt weird. Hanako continued to watch her.
As the slowed gears in Mai's brain ticked along, she got an inkling of what was going on. The cold had confused her and numbed both her senses and thoughts. She knew who Hanako was! She was the ghost they were exorcising! She was here with SPR. But it was just her and the ghost which meant…
Naru on the snow, black against white against red
Her eyes widened. Now she remembered the cold against her neck and Naru's bewildered eyes staring into hers. She had been taken by this tiny, lilac kimono wearing apparition in front of her.
Tears sprung to her eyes but she made no attempt to wipe them away.
"You brought me here." Mai whispered, more to herself than to the spirit. "Why did you take me?"
"I have to teach someone a lesson." The melodic voice sounded nothing like the jarring, clotted voice Hanako had been speaking to Naru with.
"But what have I done?"
"Nothing." She spat the word out.
"But why…?"
"Because your boyfriend is a terrible person who needs to be taught a lesson." Hanako's voice was becoming lower and more guttural. The kimono started to fray at the edges.
"My boyfriend? But I don't have a boyfriend…" Mai was trying to focus on what she was saying but it made no sense. She had no boyfriend. And her fingers were numb but her feet had extreme pins and needles where they were pressed against each other and the floor. Her wrists were also throbbing and tingling. All of which seemed more important to Mai than a ghost.
"The one you like. The one who ignores you. He will be sorry when he's seen what he's done. Then he will know. It is irresponsible to play around with people's feelings!" She screamed.
Mai stared. Her kimono was now stained and torn, her hair wild, her eyes mad. Mai felt like what Hanako had said was probably important to SPR but she couldn't remember why it would be. Her anger started to build as Hanako's words went round in her head. She raised a shaking hand and pointed it Hanako.
"You have no right to punish Naru. You don't know me, or him. He's - he's done so much for me. He's saved me so many times, he's kept me calm when I was panicking and he's paid me a higher salary than I deserve so I can afford to keep my apartment. You have no idea what our relationship is like. Who are you to judge? Why is it your right? And what right do you have to take me and watch me die so he will feel bad? If you wanted to make him feel bad why not make him feel bad? Why hurt me too? What have I done?"
Hanako just looked at her impassively. Mai was breathing heavily. She probably shouldn't have tried to shout, but she couldn't help it when she felt an injustice had been done. Especially when it was toward herself or one of her friends. She leant her head back against the floor and closed her eyes for a moment.
"It does not matter now. If you go outside you'll die. Maybe if you're lucky your so-called friends will come to look for you."
"They are my friends," Mai murmured. She felt so tired.
She lay there for several minutes. When she opened her eyes Hanako was sat on the floor.
"What happened to you?" Mai asked wearily.
In the silence that followed Mai's eyes trailed the swirling dust. As she was closing her eyes however Hanako spoke.
"I lived in the hotel. Some of the guests were the same each year, and there was a family who came every year. The son was two years older than me. He was called Takehiko. We became good friends. He was handsome and so clever. I fell in love… and he told me he loved me. We…" Hanako blushed. She paused for a while.
"He lied to me. He told me he would marry me, he told me I was the only woman he'd ever truly love. But then one year he came for the summer and at the end of the holiday he told me he was getting married to someone else. I was upset, I cried, and he just smiled at me. So I ran away to the mountain, up here. But it was unusually cold that day and I'd left wearing my summer clothes. I climbed higher and higher, not paying attention to where I was, just enjoying the cold and the silence. It's always been beautiful up here." She sighed wistfully.
"When I had collected myself I did not know where I was. It was starting to get dark. I walked and walked but it started to snow lightly and the wind picked up. I was so cold. I got confused. I started walking up the mountain instead of down. I must have fainted and when I woke up the cold was gone. I found my way down the mountain and when I got to the hotel everyone was in mourning. I didn't understand. I only realised I was dead when I saw my own ceremonial burial."
Mai didn't know what to say. "I'm so sorry Hanako-san." She whispered, her tears leaving pink tracks on her white face.
"Takehiko wasn't even there for my funeral."
She gasped suddenly and her head flew up. She stared around her wildly. As she put her hand on the floor to push her up her kimono sleeve fell off and Mai could see her the back of her hand was white but her fingers were bright red and swollen, her nails blue.
Thanks so much for all the reviews. Please review this chapter and tell us what you think, it helps I promise. Only one chapter to go until this case is finished!