Oh, wow, that actually worked! Not that Eiji had been super desperate for it to work or anything, no, she was totally fine, she just- really really really needed some friends.
Whoa. Okay. Play it cool. People did not want to be friends with someone quite that desperate. "Come on, then, it's not far! I'm staying in the dorms." Very close, actually, which was good, because it meant that she didn't have to make a whole lot of conversation along the way. That minimized the chances of her saying something weird that she really shouldn't. It didn't negate them entirely, unfortunately. Eiji didn't really think she was weird, but the people in Tokyo sure seemed to. Any time she tried talking about the spirits she'd just gotten... odd looks. And sometimes they called her a country girl. And sometimes they called her worse.
And then they wondered why the spirits around here were all cantankerous... except they didn't, they just ignored them. "Dad's in Tokyo, but he works all the time, so it was easier for me to stay at school." There, that was a nice, normal statement, wasn't it? "So, um... what got you interested in the club?"
"Course it hasn't," Kyo interrupted, holding her fingers out in a square in front of her. "They wouldn't've been stolen if they weren't wanted, and if you find 'em again, that means they weren't wanted - which means they weren't stolen! Just lost."
She spun her fingers on the pair walking beside her.
"Click!"
Miiko had taken the camera, of course. Kyo wanted it - but Miiko had gotten to it first. It wasn't exactly fair. Kyo knew how to use a camera. Not - a super fancy camera like that one, but she'd used a phone camera before, and that was basically the same thing. Besides, old hand cameras like that one were ugly and outdated.
Wasn't like she wanted it or anything.
"Click! Click!"
She spun her fingers on Chiasa, holding them close to the other girl's face.
"Click!" She grinned. "Isn't it weird we're putting a camera in your changing room? Maybe we're the perverts."
Yesterday, upon the stair, I met a man who wasn't there! He wasn't there again today, Oh how I wish he'd go away!
“Is that so? Well it sounds like the perfect amount of time to get to know one another then.” Akina said as she stood. She took a moment to brush the wrinkles out of her skirt, offering a small nod to Miiko as she took the camera. She had faith that those three would find a good spot to set up, without any need for fire. For now, however, her job was to oversee the tea so trust would have to be enough. Akina picked up the electric kettle, and an empty tea cup before following Eiji and Sayane out of the room.
Eiji was helpful enough to keep the conversation moving as they walked which kept the smile on her lips. It was nice to get to know people. “If you don’t mind me interrupting, I’m living a little off campus for similar reasons, my mother likes to keep to the family’s estate while my father travels often for work.” It helped ease the nerves when others shared too, she thought anyway. “And to your question, when I was small my grandparents used to tell me all these stories about our ancestors and their tangles with the supernatural. I always loved those stories and wanted to meet ghosts myself because of them, help show that the world isn’t so… dull.”
—~—~—~—~—~—
“That isn’t a wrong way to think about it, I suppose,” Chiasa said as their little group made its way down the hall. The logic seemed straightforward enough, a little weird but there didn’t seem like there was anything wrong with it. Granted, everything about that girl, Kyo was it, seemed a little weird. “We don’t know how someone keeps stealing the stuff too, like teachers have watched the entrance while we were at practice and things still went missing. So that’s, oh!”
Chiasa leaned back as Kyo suddenly pushed her hands close to her face. Like a picture thing? The smiled awkwardly after the girl said click. “I uh, yeah it seems a little weird, but should be fine as long as no one changes, right?” She said with a nervous chuckle.
//... into the dark she stepped, but never did she feel free of the gaze...//
A group of three should have been worse than a room full of people, like when she had first arrived at the club room. With so few people, it would be easier for everyone to focus their attention on her, but thankfully, Miiko had been graced by Kyo's decision to come with herself and Chiasa. Walking next to the odd girl made her feel much more relaxed, her anxieties about what to say or do taking a backseat to her preoccupation with Kyo's curiosities.
The question about the morality of the camera placement was an issue, though. Miiko frowned, and looked down at the thing as the trio walked, contemplating it for a moment. "I... Hm. Well, uh, no one should be using them now. Or, uh, shouldn't be, for a little while, anyways. We have Chiasa's permission, also, so it should be fine?" they said, though it came out more as a question, and directed at the air more than either of her compatriots.
Oh, good, other people had weird messed up family situations, too.
Wait, that wasn't good. Eiji felt a little guilty about it, but somehow it helped to know that hers wasn't the only family where things were... well, weird. "My mom stays at our estate, too, with my little brother," she offered. "Mostly my grandparents take care of it, but I'd like to some day. When I'm older, you know?" That was where she felt at home - not here in Tokyo, with not enough spirits and all the ones who were there angry about things. It wasn't just them - the people tended to be angry about things, too. Eiji supposed it was easy to be angry about things, when you just jumped from one thing to another without any time or space to reflect on any of them.
Most of the talk along the rest of the way was superficial, but Eiji didn't mind. They were all sort of getting to know each other, and it was okay to take a little time for the simple things. She told them about her mom and her grandparents and her little brother, and little things about the estate. Not the big thing, not... yet. That probably came later. Or maybe it was just that Eiji wasn't sure how to bring it up, and before she knew it, they'd reached the dormitories and she was unlocking the door to her room.
"I'm home!" she announced, habitually, to the empty room. It was the sort of room that was somewhat obsessively tidy, with the bed neatly made and everything put away exactly in its place. There wasn't a lot that wasn't completely necessary, which was a testament to how little Eiji wanted to be here. The room did have a nice window, though, where she'd set up a small shrine, with a small cup of tea and a small cinnamon roll on a decorative plate, a stick of incense, and a vase of fresh flowers. The shrine had no pictures, though, only a clay pot full of dirt.
"Um, I brought some friends." Friends? Were they friends? Eiji wanted friends, and she hoped they were. "This is Sayane and Akina. I hope you can meet them some day."
Oh, right, she was being weird. And probably a bad hostess. Eiji sighed, awkwardly. "Um, sorry. This is... or, this isn't Kaede-hime, but she gave me a seed before I left, so I'm trying to grow it. I don't know if she's here at all or not, but I've thought it's best to be polite?" Nope, still weird. Oh, well. If they wanted to walk away and never talk to her again, it was best to get that over with. Eiji opened a cabinet, reaching up to take out a few packages of incense and try to figure out which one the locker room spirit might like best.
Miiko watched as Kyo took only a few moments to ponder the counters made by herself and Chiasa. She didn't agree that it was silly, but she did agree that it was a good idea. Why wouldn't it be a good idea? They were trying to catch whoever was taking things from the changing rooms, what better way than a camera?
Well, what if they saw the camera, and avoided it? Or just took the camera? Would Akina be upset by that? These questions weighed heavily on her mind, right up until Kyo laid a challenge at her feet, the challenge of a race. For a second, she thought she shouldn't, to be careful with the camera, or to not leave Chiasa behind. Those thoughts had no conviction, though, as she found her grip on the camera tightening, and before she really put too much thought in it, Miiko was off, running after Kyo, not quite in a sprint but quicker than a jog.
She was determined to not be the pervert of the three.
“Huh? Wait— hey!” Chiasa called after the backs of the two girls as they took off down the hall. She looked back over her shoulder, checking for any sign of teachers before she sprinted after the duo before they could get too far away. They were going to get into so much trouble, if they got caught, why were they doing this? Doing her best to push her consternation aside, she did her best to not get branded the pervert.
…
The smell of chlorine hung heavy in the air as Chiasa took a deep gulp of air, her hands resting on her hips as she caught her breath. She was a swimmer, not a sprinter so she mostly just felt flushed and miserable, but happy that a teacher hadn’t caught them.
“Okay” The Chiasa said, cleaning her throat. She brushed her skirt with the back of her hand as she straightened up, looking at the other two. “Now that we know who, uh, the pervert is, let’s get the camera set up”
The air was warm and humid as the trio entered, it was quiet, but not silent due to the faint hum of the overhead lights and whirr of fans from the school’s air conditioner. A repetitive drip echoed from the showers to the right. One of the rows of lights were off, giving the rows of gray lockers a gloomy atmosphere. Would they need all the lights on for the camera? She looked back at the other two girls.
“So, it’s these lockers here that things go missing from the most.” She said, with a motion of her hand.
—~~—~~—~~—~~—
“Thank you for having us,” Akina said, slipping her shoes off as she entered Eiji’s room. She followed Eiji deeper into the little room, careful not to bump into anything. Which, as neat as the room was, was largely unnecessary, still she was a guest here so it was best to be cautious. Akina followed Eiji over to the small shrine, and placed her kettle down on the before bringing her hands together and bowing her head to the shrine.
“Thank you for having us, Kaede-hime, I wish for the best as you grow into a fine tree.” Akina kept her hands together for a moment longer before she leaned down and picked her kettle up. “Though, if it’s a seed perhaps there should be a new name for this tree,” She added with a small frown.
“In any event, is there anything we can help you find?”
//... into the dark she stepped, but never did she feel free of the gaze...//
Sayane walked with Eiji and Akina the short distance it took to get to Eiji’s dorm. The conversation quickly turned to reasons for joining the “ghost club”, and she listened as Akina gave her reason. Wow, an estate, that must be nice. She just had a cramped apartment that she did her best to stay out of. Sayane shook the thought from her head, that wasn’t a good way to make friends if you kept focusing on negative stuff like that. Granted, it hadn’t helped her in the past, but who knows? Eiji seemed pretty desperate, so maybe there was something going on there. Maybe she’d have someone she could bring with her when exploring abandoned buildings!
Eiji’s room was kinda empty, compulsively tidy. Something about it just made Sayane wanna rumple up the bed or something, show the place had been lived in. The announcement to the clearly empty room was a bit weird, but she’d seen weirder. The explanation made a bit of sense? Sayane mirrored Akina’s movement, a bit awkwardly, before she finally put together what Eiji meant. Kaede-hime must be some sort of tree spirit back at her estate, and she brought a see with her. That was nice.
“Yeah, anything we can do?” Sayane chimed in. “I usually have more luck with sweet things myself, the spirits I find love sweets.”
"Sweets are really good," Eiji agreed with Sayane quickly. Perhaps part of the quickness was just related to the fact that neither one of them thought it was weird that she was talking to a pot of dirt. "I like incense because the scent travels, and then sweets for at the shrine. Like the incense is calling them and the sweets are what's there? Something like that."
She set a few different types of incense in front of her, wondering which one would be best for attracting and soothing a spirit that was maybe grumpy about construction. Eiji didn't really know, because at home she would have thought that people would ask the spirits first, but Tokyo... well, Tokyo wasn't like that. She turned to Akina, who seemed to have a decent understanding of Tokyo, offering four different selections. "What do you think?"
And Sayane was totally right about the sweets, but that wasn't too hard, either. "Um, Sayane, if you want to look in that bottom desk drawer, there's some candy." Were they going to think she was uncouth for keeping candy in her desk? Was that a thing? It seemed like it should be a thing, but then again, Eiji was pretty much worrying about everything since she'd gotten here. Maybe she needed to chill out.
"Maybe you can grab enough for us to bring for everyone?" That seemed like a good idea - people usually liked sweets too, even if they weren't spirits. Well, except maybe Kyo... okay, so bringing enough for everyone was definitely a good idea, then.
Kyo came running up behind to bring up the rear - which was a little odd, considering she'd had the lead, and neither of the other girls had seen her in passing when they ran. Grinning wildly, she skidded to a halt at the poolside, far less out of breath than she had any right to be.
"Guess I lose," she said. "Oops."
And left it at that. There was, after all, something far more exciting than silly games here. She approached the row of lockers, pressing her ear against the first, then the second, then the third. Kneeling down, she twisted the dial left - right - left - and with a click, the locker swung open. She stepped to the side.
"Hide it here?"
Yesterday, upon the stair, I met a man who wasn't there! He wasn't there again today, Oh how I wish he'd go away!
It felt nice to run again. Since being taken off the track team, she had been a lot lazier than she'd liked, spending her time moping around the house rather than doing something productive. She knew the way well, too, so she was entirely free to turn her mind off, forget about the new circumstances she found herself in and focus entirely on the movement, and her breathing. Arriving at the pool, just outside the changing room, she felt more relaxed than she had in a week, and she had been so focused on herself, she hadn't noticed when she passed up Kyo.
As the other two caught up, Miiko stepped into the locker room, the one Chiasa said stuff had been vanishing from. On a cursory glance, everything seemed... normal. Nothing seemed immediately wrong, and if anything, it felt more comfortable to her than the club room had been. Miiko was surprised, however, when Kyo stepped up to a locker and, rather nonchalantly, popped it right open, offering it up as a hiding place. "W-wait, hold on. How'd you know the combination?" she asked, supremely confused, but stepping forward with the camera nonetheless.
“Sweets are always nice, if you don’t know what you’re else the spirit might like, drinks too are good to offer up.” Akina said, agreeing with Eiji’s statement. Kettle in hand she joined Eiji as the girl set out several different sticks of incense for Akina to look through. Akina picked through them carefully, giving each a little sniff before she chose one and held it out for Eiji to take, “this one should pair the best with the tea I have.” she said with a smile.
“Chocolate should go well with the tea too, I think, though I doubt there are any sweets that wouldn’t be tasty.” She said, giving Sayane a wink, ”So be sure to bring plenty and I can take us down to the construction site once everyone is ready to go.” Akina paused for a moment, looking back over her shoulder back to Eiji.
“Oh, and can you let me know when Kaede-hime sprouts? I’d love to say a proper hello then.
—~~—~~—~~—
“Is it really okay to leave that in here?” Chiasa asked as Kyō popped one of the lockers open. Placing a camera in the changing room was questionable enough, but that camera also looked expensive and this was the locker room that things kept disappearing from. Still, if the lady wearing the kimono thought it would be fine then she was likely aware of the risks she was taking, right? “Is this your locker then?” Chiasa added to Miiko’s question.
CRASH.
Chiasa jumped in place at the sound of something heavy hitting the ground. A high pitched screech followed, like metal bending. Chiasa froze in place, staring through the doorway to the showers. Was that a shadow shifting in the gray light? She turned to look at the other two girls, her lips silently asking what they should do.
//... into the dark she stepped, but never did she feel free of the gaze...//
Kyo stared blankly at the other two girls, then smiled wide, shaking her head.
"Of course it's not my locker," she replied, "Look, my name's not on this bag!"
It was really a very stupid question. Why would she have had to listen to the lock to open it if it was hers? Was she just hearing its secrets? She had to bite back a giggle at that one - locks never told their secrets. They were too uptight. That was a good one, a very good one. She'd have to tell that to her friends.
Except, she didn't get the chance. A loud crash rang out through the locker room a moment later, and Kyo's attention flicked, catching the tail end of something moving.
"We're alone, right?" she asked casually, closing the locker with a click and taking a couple steps back.
Yesterday, upon the stair, I met a man who wasn't there! He wasn't there again today, Oh how I wish he'd go away!
"I'll let you know!" Eiji was mostly just happy to find someone who didn't think that it was weird that she had a shrine set up for a pot of dirt, even if that pot of dirt had a seed in it. Most people thought that was weird, and trying to explain that Kaede-hime was a maple tree spirit hadn't really helped the situation at all. Akina didn't seem to think it was weird, though, and that made Eiji feel a lot better about everything.
It didn't take the three of them long to gather everything that they might need, mostly because Eiji's room wasn't actually that big and didn't actually have very much in it. Some incense sticks, a sack of candy that was big enough for both the spirits and the Paranormal Investigation Club, and Eiji's jacket, because she was good at being sensible sometimes and her mother would have scolded her for going out without a jacket.
Eiji missed her mom. Her mom had always been good at balancing the needs of the spirits with the needs of the people around them. She fit in well in the estate, in a way that Eiji thought her dad really... didn't, even if he'd been the one who had grown up there. Maybe that was why he was always off in Tokyo, doing business people things. He'd stopped by to see her room a couple of times. He had't been particularly impressed with her pot of dirt, either. He'd suggested she put it in a closet.
They'd fought about that. Eiji wasn't happy about that, but she didn't know how to make it better, especially when Dad wouldn't listen. Maybe the spirits felt like that, too: angry because people weren't listening to them. She might not know what they wanted, or might not be able to understand them, but at least she could listen.
Even if that was apparently too hard for Dad. She sighed quietly to herself as she relocked the door, then forced her usual cheerfulness back into her expression. "So, ready to go?"