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It was a small study, with only a few bookcases lined up along a window or two, the spiders having already inhabited the place long ago like many other parts of the house. But he saw none of them in this room despite their webbed homes remaining. In fact, he hadn't seen hide nor hair of any animal in the area since his coming here. Not even a single fly. He tried to ignore this fact as he began examining what the small library offered. Typically, every book was in Japanese, and as such was untranslateable to him. They were surprisingly well preserved considering the state of the mansion. But then he noticed something unusual among the books. Not all of the books were of the same age or material. In fact, a few of them appeared to be very recent. One such book he pulled out to find it thankfully written in a language he understood despite its unusual timestamp. It was the same handwriting of the note he found out at the very back of the mansion, near the waterwheel.

Month~%, Day XO Further studies have revealed many things to me about this mansion. It was difficult to translate some of the text here, quite a challenge I assure you! But a good knowledge of linguistic deduction never hurt anyone, and I even managed to gleam some information concerning this place. It appears that this mansion is known as the Himuro Mansion, owned by the Himuro clan. They performed some sort of awful ritual to purify the gates of Hell, and keep them securely shut to keep the world safe. Unfortunately this required the death of a pure maiden. How frightening! How terrible! But it seems that something went wrong at one point. There was a young girl named Kirie, who became impure (at least according to them) and remained attached to the world through falling in love with someone. Young love can become quite a fickle thing, but it was enough to taint the ritual into not working, unleashing some sort of terrible curse upon the Himuro clan. The master even went insane, and killed everyone in his own mansion! Can you even imagine such a thing, dear reader?! But the strangest thing is, despite the apparent existence of this curse, I do not sense any here now. Has the curse been lifted in all that time? It's difficult to tell what year this world is so I cannot approximate how long it has been since Kirie's curse first occurred. It must be at least a hundred judging by some more recent texts I found while rummaging through the place on my own objective. But something about this place has brought me here, as well as my targets. I must find out what, and why. It is my duty to learn more of the supernatural world that exists around us. We must arm ourselves with knowledge, dear reader! I will leave these notes around the mansion just as others have done in this place's past. Should you ever find these, always remember the three simple rules. 1. If you can wield elemental powers, use them. If not, then you must flee or find some way of utilising magic in this mansion. I am currently discovering a way myself on how to combat these terrible ghosts for those without such power. 2. Do not give in to your fear. Ghosts can sense negative emotions rather strongly, so one must always stand firm with a smile in their heart. 3. Always keep your inventory close at hand. Some of the more mischievous spirits do so love to steal from unwary travellers. That is all I can say for now. Keep an eye out for more of my work, whilst I further investigate this most frightful manor.

James' eyes widened with this new information. Now he knew the purpose of the name that had been given to him before. The other notebooks merely contained various scientific diagrams he could not comprehend. With silent gratitude to this learned traveller, he headed back to the main living room, noticing a padlocked door right next to the small library only to hear another door creak open. The door to the room with the dressers. He was certain he had closed it, and tenderly walked forwards to investigate further. Nothing seemed to be different in the room, other than the fact that something was making an awful rattling noise. None of the drawers moved, yet the rattling turned louder as he stepped closer towards the small mirror. Then he saw it. The crawlspace door was shaking crazily with some sort of energy. James could feel it pulsating strongly, his nerves stiffening. But he remembered the wise words of the notebook. He readily fired up one fistful of flames, while reaching out to the door with the other. The moment his hand touched upon the cold wood, it sprang open with a squealing cackle. He fell back and blasted his fire straight towards whatever had come out, a shriek of panic making him see what he was facing. "BLEH-AAAAGH HOT HOT HOT! Whatcha do that for?!" "COME OUT BITCH! SHOW YOURSELF!" He felt a little more confident now that he knew he was doing damage, readily burning his fists once more for a follow-up. He almost lost his focus at seeing what he was facing. A round ball-like white ghost with a tiny little wisp at the rear, mischievous black pupils and a leering mouth of hanging tongue and two fangs. He almost smirked at such a thing, the way it waggled its tiny flipper-like hands in defiance at him. THIS is what I was afraid of?! Oh come on, this guy's not scary at all, what the hell mansion?! "What," said the spirit, "ya all cocky now that you got fire to blast me with?!" "You can say that, ball boy." "Ya weren't so cocky when we gave ya a real scare back at that shrine!" "Th-that was you!?" His confidence slightly wilted, trying not to remember that terrible presence as the ghost advanced with a gentle float. "Ooooooh it was. Me an' alllll my friends ready to give ya the best fright of yer LIFE! Blehehehehehe!" "...right." "Hey, dontcha play the big guy with ME! I'm Boolicious! You can't touch dis-OW!"

James shot up another fireball, now turning extremely annoyed that he had been made a fool by such a little harmless ghost. "Okay, you had your fun scaring me. Ha, ha, ha. Now how about you tell me what the hell's up with this mansion?" "Psht, you read the notebook over in the library right?" "Yeah." "What else I gotta say?! This is our place now, and there ain't no one here alive...OR DEAD, who's gonna take it from us!" The way the ghost said this in a somewhat unconfident way made James turn intrigued. "Alive OR dead? ...are you the only ghosts here?" "Ooooh I dunno about that." "I thought there was no one here who could take this place from you." "W-well, you...BLEHHH!" It tried to intimidate him with a rather stupid fake-out with its face, pulling a mean expression. James barely flinched and brought up a firey hand. "Back off butterball, I'll fuck you up." "Woah woah woah chill dude," the ghost brought up its flippers in defence, "no need to get nasty!" "I think that kinda stopped after you pulled all those tricks on me. I don't like being tricked." "Oh come on, where's yer sense of spirit?! ...HAH, spirit, get it?!" "...do you wanna bitchslap made out of fire or what?!" "Okay okay jeez, people nowadays got no sense o' humour!" The ghost gently floated away towards the wall, but James stopped it. "Hey hey not so fast, I got more to ask you!" "Well if yer gonna be such a miserable jerk an' not just go with the flow why should I stick around?!" "Well what about the mother?!" "...Wh-wh-wha-u-uhm...I dunno anything about that." Wow even ghosts can be bad liars, thought James as he readied another fireball. "Don't lie to me...who's this mother I heard about?" "I-i-i dunno any mother, watcha talkin' abou-AGH!" He blasted his fire straight past the ghost, snarling as the flames licked across the wood before he blasted out a shot of water to extinguish it. "DON'T fuck with me, I don't care if you're dead or not and I've been pushed around enough by your stupid-ass tricks! Now tell me who this mother is!" "Uh...th-the others won't like me tellin' ya." "Your friends I don't give a shit about, I'll take on all of you, now that I know what you really are! TELL ME!" "Sh-she's some weird spirit that lives here now! We all came here just to chill out, nobody's using the place anymore so you got no right to tell us where to go!" "...we?" "Y-yeah! Ghosts, all kindsa ghosts come here, i-i-it's cuz we're-" "HEY!" Several white blobs popped out of the walls around FG, making him quickly get ready to fight off a group with both hands bubbling up into water. They started to argue amongst themselves however. "Were you gonna tell 'im?!" "N-N-NO I SWEAR!" "Boolicious you better not mess this up now! We already got enough on our hands without HIM messing it up!" "I-I DIDN'T HONEST, HE WAS INTERROGATING ME! He's got fire on 'im, dontcha remember what happened at the shrine?!" "...HEY, YOU!" They all turned towards James, at least five of the little white spectres glaring at him. He tried not to chuckle and crossed his arms, feeling stupid for being scared all this time by a bunch of childish pranksters. "Yeah?" "You mighta got lucky back at the shrine, but you ain't just got US to worry about!" "Hah, really? Isn't it bad enough that I'm gonna think every ghost here is just you cute little pricks and I won't be scared anymore?" "HAH, that's where yer wrong!" "H-hey Booris, yer gonna mess it u-" "CAN IT! I'm talkin' about the other ones here." The ghosts all looked at each other and grinned wickedly, giggling to themselves with excitable high-pitched cackles. "Oooooh yeaaaaaaah, the other ones." "Wait, what other ones?" asked the raptor. "Ohhhhh you'll soon find out, heck we'll even help show ya the way to the...next level." More cackles rose up from the group, and James soon felt he was being taken on for a dare, like the sort kids put on each other to stay a night in some old abandoned house. Knowing who his enemy was for now, his fear had disappeared into a pathetic whimper, and he accepted smugly. "Alright, lessee what this place has got for me. What do I have to do?" "Oh, just die of fright, that'd be pretty neat! Blehehehehe!" "Yyyyyyyyeah no, what else?" "Well, here, take this map." One of the ghosts floated over towards him and handed him a map of the mansion, as well as a pencil, both of which James put into his satchel. He noted that the map already had one place marked, a room east of the cherry atrium. "What's this place?" "That's where ya gotta go. But ya gotta find the key fer it." "...and where is this key?" "In the storeroom downstairs, it's in the square hallway. Ya remember the hallway after that long looooooong room where someone breathed on yer neck?" He cast his mind back to what they could have meant. Then he remembered the long hallway, and the chilling breath he felt on his neck. His shiver made the ghosts giggle. "Lemme guess, one of you guys right?" "Yep, that was me!" The moment one of them raised its hand, he shot out a splash of water straight into its face, making the ghost sputter and cough. "That's payback bitch." "UGH, h-hey, don' be such a spoilsport!" "Whatever, I don't need you guys slowing me down for whatever I'm here for." "...pfffthehehehehehe, you don't even know why yer HERE?" "Why, do you?" "Sure we do! That red guy told us to give you the map!" "...red guy? ...wait, did he have like big wings like a bat?" "Nah nah nah this was a red ghost, couldn't get a good look o' him but he told us to give you this after we had a li'l...fun with ya." "Right...well, thanks for the scares, and the claw marks, and taking my reflection away." "Huh?" "Oh come on, that thing at the well, the fact I can't see my reflection in the mirrors now?" The ghosts all looked at each other rather curiously, their hands shrugging up non-existent shoulders. "We didn't do that." "Yeah we just spooked ya at the long hall and the shrine." "...wait, what?" "Yeah, we may be Boos but even we got our limits, I mean we just change into scary things like girls in spooky white robes-" "-The broken-necked one was TOTALLY my idea!" "-but how the heck can ya STEAL a reflection?! I mean that's crazy!" "And scratching my arm at the well?" asked James. "We didn't even go near the well! ...darnit that'd have been a GREAT idea!" "SHHH dude, don't talk about that!" "Wh-why not-...oh." The raptor was curious now, but he saw they were speaking the truth in admitting what they did and didn't do to him. "What about the well?" "N-None of yer business, just go find the key at the storeroom an' get outta here! A-a-and no talkin' anymore about that mother or whatever!" The Boos hastily popped out of the room through the walls, leaving behind a rather confused velociraptor as he tried to ponder over what had just happened. On the plus side, the mansion was far less scary to him now, for the time being. On the other hand, the fact they were so adamant to admit they were not responsible for the well or his reflection did not help matters. What's their deal with the well? How could they have not been involved with that if that was the only way to get the shrine doors open? ...they didn't SOUND like they were lying, they're too stupid to lie. And this whole thing about this mother, they're really freaked out about her. ...whatever, let's just check this map.

He followed a nearby route that lead him towards the storeroom they mentioned, taking a route from the living room-looking area through the door opposite the small library. A T-shaped hallway opened up before him, the corridor heading west towards some stairs with another hallway heading south before it. The other corridor to the south had a mirror facing it directly, just along the wall to his right towards the stairs. James cautiously approached it, hoping to see himself. No such luck. His reflection was still missing. He headed downstairs, finding himself back in the square hallway which he saw was actually a slightly longer rectangle on the map. He noted a small room in the middle, finding a door to the west of the stairs. The storeroom was darker than most of the rooms he had been in, a feeling of claustrophobia easily welling up within him. Disorganised rows of wooden boxes lay toppled on top of each other, along with one or two suits of samurai armour sitting in the corner, untouched and rusted. There was a second floor to the storage as well, a small ladder reaching up to an alcove. He felt an exhaustion hit him at the prospect of having to check each and every box for the key he wanted. With little else to do, he started to look through the boxes, finding very little he could use. Medicinal herbs long decayed, old writings he could not read, rusted items of Japanese lore he could not comprehend. But no key. He wasn't going to check every single box, no way. He just wanted to keep moving. The idea of staying in one place for too long inside a haunted mansion only fed his fear. Even after meeting the whimsically childish Boos, he did note they spoke of other ghosts who were here, few of which they were even scared of. He dreaded that prospect, and continued to look further. Eventually he made his way up to the upper floor of the storeroom, where a few small boxes laid around. Then he saw something shining in the beam of his flashlight. Just what he was looking for. "Aaaah shiiiiiny." He grinned childishly as he walked over to pick up the key, this one marked with the emblem of a strawberry. He was confused as to why fruits seemed to be the motif for the place, but nevertheless he took it with him and left the storeroom. He tried to remember the path back to the locked room, noticing the huge area on the map that was undoubtedly the cherry atrium outside. He made his way to it, only two rooms away as he returned back to the thin hallway before the water room. The door he was looking for, which was to the north along the wall beside the mirror he checked himself for bitemarks before, did not have a padlock. And yet it would not open. "Huh? ...how the hell do I get in then?!"

He rechecked his map, seeing that there was another way into the room through a different series of rooms. The path however confused him, showing another door in the main lobby where he entered the mansion from. "...there wasn't another door there...was there?" He felt his memory, or at least the mansion itself, was playing tricks on him. He tried to ignore it and headed back towards the front hall. But just as he made his way along the cherry atrium, he was startled by a child's sobbing from a nearby door. At first his heart reached out to the poor thing, but then he stiffened up upon realising something. "Not this time guys, I'm up on your tricks this time." The raptor turned away coldly and went towards the door leading to the candle room. However he found it to be locked shut, with another talisman upon the door. Clearly someone had placed it not more than a few minutes ago. "...what? ...who the hell keeps putting these things here? ...wait...well...this kinda worked the last time." With trepidation, he gently pressed his hand upon the slightly glowing paper and readied himself for the coming horrors through his mind. The visions were just as insane as before, a twisting miasma of violence and sorrow. But this time, he could see the visions more clearly. His mind was able to separate the images, seeing fractured pieces of terrible scenes, voices running through them.

_guide him with these and make sure tha- what do these spirits want from this caver- the three goddesses have abandoned us- WRHA-A-A-A-A-A-AAAAAA!!! _

The last scream blinded him even worse than the first talisman had, the screaming fury of a child filled with malice making his eyes bleary with pain as he collapsed to his knees. He could see the tiniest remains of the image from his agonising filter of the mind. Skulls worn upon creatures, lanterns swinging to and fro, a child screaming to the moon. He looked around himself, finding no one other than the child's crying coming back from the other door. He had ignored the door which faced the atrium itself, along the wall to the east of where he stood. But now the pathetic crying was getting on his nerves when he clearly knew who it was. "Ohhh noooo," said FG sarcastically, "that sounds like a poor kid in distress, gee I guess I better go see if he's okay-" He was interrupted from his snark by the sounds from the room suddenly turning into a ruckus. The crying stopped, only to be replaced by a sudden argument. He could tell one of them had to be the Boos certainly by the high-pitched voice, proving his suspicions right before the sounds of a mighty crash came from inside. Panic started to rise in the ghost's voice, followed up by anger and a deeper voice more difficult to hear as the fight started up with cracking wood and heavy falls.

It seemed to escalate even more as the cracks and clattering turned more furious, the raptor imagining the whole room being torn apart by the chaos within. Finally, the higher voice seemed to shriek with fear before another hefty slam knocked it down into a pathetic whimper. It was soon followed up by another Boo's screaming. "G-G-GO AWAY! I'M SORRY, I DIDN' MEAN IT, P-PLEASE I'M SORRY! N-NO! NO, NO-AAAAAA_AAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIEEEE!_" Hearing a ghost itself scream from genuine pain and newfound horror was something James never wished to hear ever again. The screams of a mortal in pain cut deep enough to pierce the mind in most people. But those of a spirit in pain, they cut straight into the very soul. James hunched over with a wounding pain in his heart, wincing bitterly as he tried to fight the odd pain that grew from him. With the fight seemingly over, James hurried over to find out what the hell happened. He didn't expect such a level of carnage to occur in such a small perfectly square little room. Normally a row of dolls would be sitting upon a display stand to his right, proudly staring with ancient eyes of false piety. But now they were scattered all over the floor, rolling softly around. One particular doll however was apart from the rest, sitting in a small alcove in the wall directly before him and separated by ropes. He noted the white robes and long black hair to be the same as the ghost he fought in the shrine. But the first thing he saw was neither of those. It was the body of a child, crushed under wooden beams over a broken part of the floor. The child had been horribly burnt and beaten, scarring burns upon its face. A scroll upon the wall had been burnt somehow, and a small drawer on the wall beside it opened up slowly. A Boo gently crawled out, shivering with genuine fear and a burning scar on its face, same as the ghostly child. "We...w-we just wanted to scare you..." "...what happened?" asked James cautiously. "S-someone...came in...said he didn't want us to mess up his plan, b-beat us down with his...h-his flames." "Flames?" "H-he had a lantern on 'im, g-got some kinda power in it, h-he hurt my friend, h-he won't wake up or get outta that shape he's in an' I dunno what to do! I just wanted to scare folk, I didn' wanna fight other ghosts!" The little ghost put its flippers to its eyes and started crying like a puppy, almost seeming to turn slightly transparent beyond its solid white. He knew by now they could never be this good at lying, and decided to put aside his irritation of them before. "What did this guy look like?" "R-ragged cloaks, piercin' yellow eyes, c-c-carried a lantern around...h-he went through there." The Boo pointed at the burnt scroll on the wall. "Through the wall?" "Y-yeah but...you can get in too, i-it's a secret passage." "...okay, let's make a deal." "Y-yeah?" "If you and your friends promise not to pull any more pranks on me, I'll hunt down this guy and beat the shit out of him, got it?" "G-got it." "You promise? Cuz if not I'll burn you twice as bad." "I promise I promise, Boo's honour! L-lemme open the door for ya." He had no idea how much that was worth but considering the shaken state of the little spirit, he took it as being good enough. The shaking Boo gently floated through the wall, turning the single panel around, scroll and all, until it was halfway turned. A perfectly unblemished scroll was on its other side, and through the opened wall itself, was another large room. James squeezed through, finding himself in a room full of kimonos hung up on racks. Two were in the corners both on his left and right. A whole row of kimonos with centuries of dust lined up before him with a double-door on the other side of them. To his right and along the wall was a large red wooden box in the far right corner, along with another dresser and mirror. "H-h-he went that way," said the tearful ghost behind him. "B-be careful." "Thanks, you just take care of your pal, and remember our promise." "I-i will I will." The wall turned behind him back to its original place, and James began exploring the area for clues. He also noted that according to the map, he was in a room directly north of the room with the fireplace. A corridor to the east would lead him back to it, so he was already going the way he wanted to go.