Ukyou walked down the stairs, and looked around the living room. Miku was in the kitchen, standing looking into the living room. She had a stack of papers and a cup of coffee in front of her. She looks up at Ukyou

“Good morning. About that information you were looking for…” Miku says

“Oh Good morning, what did you find out” Ukyou replies.

Miku took another sip of her coffee. “Taian Yeushou is a large scale road work company. They operate all over Japan. They have projects running all over. 8765-2 is a project reference number. It looks like there was a road construction project going on near the Sugisawa village in the Aomori Prefecture . that project stopped about a month ago, due to a police investigation of a ‘attempted murder that took place there. Apparently, the wife of one of the construction workers came onto the site to bring him lunch. The rest of the account is kind of unbelievable.”

“Well tell me anyway, I tend to believe a lot of unbelievable things. “

sip “Ok, The wife brought her husband lunch, and according to the rest of the accounts, he did not like it enough for her taste. There are some accounts that he was ill. Others that he started choking..”

‘If that was Akane’s cooking I can see that’

Miku just looks at her a second. “Anyway, she apparently got angry, and started beating him up. Most folks said this was a usual occurrence, and it wasn’t something to be concerned about, until she picked up a jackhammer and started using it on her husbands head. All of the accounts confirm this BTW, She jack hammered his head into the pavement. The foreman called the police, and several of the other works tried to help him or retain her, the accounts are confused here. She apparently knocked them over, and down, and generally beat them up as well. She fled the scene. The police report states the victim survived, account lists a Tendo Daisuke, not a Ranma”

“Daisuke was one of his closest friends. He must have taken the name and Akane’s last name to help him hide.”

“Ok, that makes sense. The police report shows that the victim was sent to Citizens Hospital in Aomori. The case is still an “attempted murder” so unless of a clerical error, the victim is still alive.”

Ukyou thought about all of this, and came to a decision. “I need to go there, for myself, and see if it is Ranma”

Miku nodded “I will get Kei, and we will go, its in northern Japan, and a good trip from here. It IS worth noting that Rei and I went to that area once too, to photograph the house, that she first saw a ghost in. So if Ranma was near that house maybe that’s why he is having these problems.”

Miku turns and pours Ukyou a cup of coffee. Ukyou takes a sip and watches Miku make her call. She thinks back about her last nights dream, and just as she has the other days, writes down everything she can remember. She finishes her coffee, and heads into the shower.

In she shower, she lets her mind go a second. He was really gone, He went with her, even though he KNEW that she was going to abuse him. Why could he not see how evil she was? Why could he not see how much I loved him? Ukyou’s thoughts descend farther and father down the spiral, as she cries in the shower. The hot water turns cold as she stays in the shower. And eventually she realizes that she is ice cold. She gets out and dries off, and starts to head back down the hall, to meet with Miku. She feels an even colder presence coming from the spare room.

As she walks past the spare room door, She sees a dark figure standing there, It is small, wearing a dress, and has no head. The shadowy figure is holding a round shape, under one arm.

Ukyou staggers back against the wall as the figure fades away.

Shaking she returns to her room, and waited in silence until a knock on her door told her that Kei had arrived, and they were ready to go.

In Kei’s car Ukyou sat, more or less silent. After a little bit, Miku finally draws her out enough to relay what was in last nights dream. Then followed a long conversation about Ranma’s curse, and some philosophical back and forth about the nature of his cursed form being a ghost, versus the type of ghosts Miku is used to dealing with. It’s a fairly animated discussion between Kei and Miku on this, that gradually draws Ukyou in, and makes her feel less despondent. They continue the drive and eventually stop for the night. Miku and Ukyou get one room, and Kei gets another.

Ukyou dreams.

She finds herself laying down, on the floor, of a room that she is unfamiliar with. Softly in the distance, she hears that song again. Miku had told her that the song was a nursery rhyme. That it was used to remind everyone how to deal with the Tattooed maiden, Reika. The song becomes slightly more pronounced, as Ukyou stands up and looks around. She is in a room with many cabinets, and boxes in it. She walks around to the left of the room and she sees a downward step. She walks down the stairs, and enters into a multi-room area common in Japanese traditional houses. There is a tatamati room, enclosed in rice paper walls, to her right, and a hallway to the left. She feels pulled to the hallway, and at the end of the hallway she sees a young girl, in a shrine maiden outfit, standing at the end of the hall, She turns and walks away, beyond sight. Ukyou comes up to the hallway and turns to the right. A few feet ahead of her, stands the girl again, in the intersection of a T. She is pointing down one of the paths. She then disappears.

Ukyou walks down this path and directly around a corner, into a door, that is covered with paper barriers. She opens the door, and steps in. She is in a hallway, with hanging flags from the ceiling. Ukyou walks down the hallway, there is no wind that she can see, but all of the flags are slowly moving, like in a wind. She comes to another door, and enters it. She walks into a room that has on the left a stairway going down. One her right is a lighted windows and a figure is sitting there playing a Biwa. Music plays slowly, in traditional sounds of sorrow. Before her is a banister, looking down into another room. Around the right is a pathway, that goes into another room. On her left is a paper stand, for decoration. She sees at the top of the stairs the little girl again, she is walking down them. Ukyou starts to follow her. Down the stairs, and past a grandfather clock into a room with a fireplace, and towards a doorway in the far right end. She enters into another hallway, that has a T intersection again, and a room with a mirror. She follows the figure to the left, down a hallway with a bunch of ropes to a door on the left. Here she sees a room with a huge whole in the door, and to the left is a foyer with a door outlined in a reddish glow. On the far side of the room, Ukyou sees the figure again, standing in front of a mask, that hangs on a semi-hidden door. Ukyou walks up to the mask, and the figure again disappears. Ukyou pulls the mask down, and opens the door. It enters into a pathway, that is cramped ,and tight. Through the tight space, she goes, almost tripping a few times, until she reaches a mini-door, that leads her into a room, with a large cage inside of it. She sees inside it a bound figure, hidden under a cloak. Ukyou enters the cage, there is resting places, a book shelf, and many small nick nacks inside. She approaches the figure and it starts struggling.

“Mmmpphhh!”

Ukyou decides to take the change, and start untying the ropes so that the blanket came come off. Under the the blanket is the familiar red hair of Ranko, Her body is tied under the blanket as well so more ropes need to come off, and her gag comes out.

“Thank you thank you thank you” starts Ranko jumping up and hugging Ukyou. “that TWIT got me to come down here and I got trapped by Miss Rope fetish.”

“what twit the little girl?”

“No, I mean Akane. I followed HER and she led me right into the Rope Maiden.”

“Oh a little girl lead me here, I guess to help you get free.”

“that must be one of the Pacifiers. I have seen a few of them, but only one of them actually is helpful the others are a pain in the foot.”

Ukyou wonders at her turn of phrase.

“I mean seriously. The last one kept trying to spike my foot to the ground.” Ranko grimaced.

Ukyou thought about this. She had been led to here, to free Ranko. Whomever the helper is, she is unable to directly interfere, other than by leading someone here to free Ranko.

“Well at least she led me here huh?”

“yeah and Ill kick Akane’s rear next time I run into her. I THOUGHT she was taking me to Ranma. Even here she is a bitch.”

Ranko is really agitated about all of this. “Matter of fact, you’re here, you have the camera, Lets go kick that Rope maiden into next week!”

Ukyou looks blankly as Ranko pushes her out of the cage, and to another door. She wonders to herself if Ranko was helping her or hindering her today. They enter a room with a huge center wheel to it. There are ropes all around it

“Come out Kyrie, I wanna Re-match!” Yells Ranko.

Ukyou feels a tremendous cold presence. Far larger than anything she felt before. A woman materializes

with ropes hanging off of her hands, feet and one around her neck. Her robes are that of a shrine maiden. She hovers over the ground and starts to move towards Ukyou. Ukyou is frozen in fear of this monster. Kyrie moves closer and closer.

“ohh no you don’t” Ranko jumps up and kicks Kyrie in the side of the head “Come on Ukyou start killing her off.” She finishes, as she almost knocks Kyrie over.

Ukyou pulls up her camera, and she notices another bar inside the first. If she holds the shutter down, that bar gets brighter and brighter. She lines up a shot on Kyrie, and waits for a clean one. A clean shot and not much happens. Ranko keeps fighting her, and every once in awhile a rope would wrap around a body part. Ukyou realizes through trial and error that if she gets a Red shot on Kyrie, the bonds gathering around Ranko loosen. This fight seems to last forever, but Ukyou also learns that she has a gauge at the top, that can read what must be spiritual energy. Its deleting over time in the fight. Eventually, She gets a red shot, followed by 4 linked shots, and Kyrie goes down

“Man that was tough. She is a real pain” Ranko sighs as she monetarily sits on the altar.

Ukyou is exausted as well. “ I need to rest, this sleep is wearing me out”

Ranko grins “ahh well, you come any closer to finding us?”

Ukyou nods “ we think we are on the way to where you are now. We were talking a rest.”

“some rest eh?

“yeah, well at least I like the company now”

“yeah” the two girls stand silent a bit.

“Well, its time to get you out of here, lets go.” Ranko leads her back to the room with the reddish door. When they get there, Ukyou notices that its color has gone blue now.

“take that door, you will wake up again. With any luck I will keep seeing you when you come here” Ranko smiles a moment. “take care and find us soon”

Ukyou walks through the door and wakes up. She is lining in her bed back at Rei’s she stretches again, and swings her legs out from the side of the bed. A figure is suddenly standing in front of her

“even in death I will not let you have him, you whore!” yells the head of Akane. Blood is pouring from her mouth, and eyes.

Ukyou screams again, at the sudden appearance and again, wakes up this time in bed, with Miku. She is cold and sweating, Miku wakes up, and immediately starts asking Ukyou to relay her dream.

Omake:

“GRRRRRR” An old man in white robes sits over a pool with a weird looking controller. “Zodi, Stop playing that game!” a female voice is heard in the room. In a moment, a lovely young fairy flies in to the room, and pouts at the old man.

“I want Dinner! Then I want attention “ she sticks her tongue out at the old man.

The old man sighs.

“yes dear, But I have got to get Ukyou to a save point. She JUST got past Kryie.”

“So, who is more important ME or the Game!”

“you dear” sighs again “I guess I will just pause it”

“fine now make me dinner”

In the game, Ukyou was having some alone time hat the perverted Zodi was encouraging with his universal controller. When the pause took effect the only thought she has was “you Pause me right NOW! You Bastard!”…