Disclaimer: Since I don’t own the original piece of work I can’t do whatever I want with the characters. Well, I can, but only to a certain extent. At least I can make them think whatever I want.

A/N: So here is the next chapter. Or should I say day? The fourth day is here! The third day is done!

I was running late as I arrived at the school. It didn’t take me long to set everything up and get it in running condition. By the time the students were out of school, I had gone over everything we had collected during the previous night. One of the mikes wasn’t outputting any signal so I went to check it out. Everything was in and I couldn’t see any problems with it. I went out to the van to grab a new one. Then I went back to the room to see if it was hooked up.

While I was down the hall, I heard people talking. I recognized Mai’s voice, but I couldn’t tell who the other person was. I opened the sliding door. “What’s going on?” I asked.

“Naru!” Mai exclaimed. “You won’t believe what just happened to Kuroda-san. She got attacked by a ghost.”

Hmm . . . “When did that happen?”

“Just now.”

“Let’s replay the video. Where were you?” I asked Kuroda-san.

“The second-floor hallway.”

I rewound the video feed to about ten minutes ago. The tapes played. Kuroda-san appeared in one of the screens and then proceeded to walk through the building. As she was going up the stairs, she disappeared in one camera and appeared in another. Mai pointed out which screen Kuroda-san was in. All of a sudden, everything went fuzzy.

“What’s that!? Is it broken?” Mai shouted.

“Everything is operating as it should be. And the camera shouldn’t be broken. This is very interesting.” I would have to go through the possibilities later. There are a number of causes for something like this.

“What is?”

“When the spirit appears, suddenly the machine stops working properly. I wonder if this was caused by a spirit, or trouble with the radio waves, or . . .” I wondered aloud. I changed the direction of my thoughts, turning toward Kuroda-san. “You mentioned it said something. What did it sound like?”

“It was a hoarse voice, but I believe it was a female.”

Mai broke in, “But Masako said there was no spirit.”

“I wonder if she truly is psychic,” I said. “It is normal for a female medium to have a bad day once in a while. I thought I could rely on her talent. Or . . . let’s say there really is a spirit here. And perhaps,” I said, looking at Kuroda-san, “you and the spirits are on the same wavelength. That may be why . . .”

I broke off. Ayako had just come in with a bunch of people and the principal. “Let’s go down, Mai.” I walked out the door. They followed.

Mai said goodbye as Kuroda-san left and we went to the room where Ayako was starting to perform her exorcism. I walked over to Takigawa-san.

“Okay, pay attention. I’ll exorcise it, no problem,” Ayako said.

Takigawa-san spoke up, “I wonder if she’s really able. I guess I may as well check it out. What about you?” he asked me.

“I’ve never seen a Shinto-style exorcism. I guess I’ll check it out too.” Although I had been planning on staying to begin with.

She started waving her Shide wand in the typical purification ritual performed by most Miko’s. She chanted in Norito and waved it. Left. Stop. Right. Stop. Continuing throughout her chanting. In front of her on a table was a makeshift Kamidana.

I had read about Kamidanas before but I had never actually seen one. It consisted of six different parts. Tall vases on the outside holds evergreen plants and the bottles near the back should contain ritually purified sake. The center dish should contain washed rice. A jar to the front left with a pointed lid contains water and the plate in the front right corner holds salt. There was no ozen in this makeshift shrine because she was not going to be making an offering.

“What’s this? What is she saying?” Mai asked.

“Be quiet.” I stated. “You’re Japanese and you don’t even know about Norito?”

“Norito?”

“It’s a ritual prayer offered to a Shinto god.”

“Huh . . .” she drifted off.

Ayako was done a few minutes later. “Now you can feel relieved.” She said to the principal.

“WOW! VERY IMPRESSIVE. How shall I put it? It felt heavenly,” he replied.

“Shall we all go out for drinks to celebrate tonight?” Tokigawa-san asked, yawning.

Mai yawned as well. “You made me yawn,” she said to Tokigawa-san.

I cut in. “To be on the safe side, we’ll spend the night here so that we can make sure everything is okay.”

The principle was leading Ayako out. “I’m impressed. You are indeed a professional. Why don’t we go have lunch somewhere?”

*CREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAK!!!*

*CRASH!!!!!!!*

*SHATTER!!!!*

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

“Was that?”

“Are you okay!?”

A/N: There you have it. I’m leaving it as a cliffhanger. The first one that I voluntarily put in a story!!! Okay. Now that my crazy stuff is done I have to give credit to my beta for his last minute support and to the web site where I got the information on the Shinto ritual from:

http colon slash slash www dot nihonbunka dot com slash Shinto slash shime dot htm

Please review!!!! Have a good Halloween!!!!