Fun and Games (self-insert #4)

Chapter 8

"Lin-san, what are you..."

"What kind of figure was it?"

Lin could easily make a living as an interrogator. His visible eye bored into them with an impressive force. Mai, unable to face her employee after their embarrassing first meeting, swiftly deflected the question to Yasuhara. "What kind? Uh, Yasuhara-san, do you remember?"

"I did it too, but it was only once."

"When you invoked Orikiri-sama, did the invocation have this written on this? 'On orikiritei meiritei maiwaya shimirei so waka"—

Yasuhara's face brightened. "That's it!"

"And the paper was buried somewhere after it was used?"

"That's right. You can only use it one time. Afterward, it must be buried at a shrine."

Lin's usually taciturn face darkened. "A shrine..." He muttered.

"Ummm." Mai spoke up. "By any chance, is there a tiny shrine nearby? With a small gate and ceramic foxes?"

"You know about that?" Yasuhara asked, surprised.

"He asks the clairvoyant." I muttered. They ignored me, especially Mai—she was still annoyed at how I suggested that we leave. I shrugged.

"Can we retrieve this paper?" Lin inquired.

"Probably." Yasuhara moved to leave, calling over his shoulder as he went. "Please wait a moment. I'll ask some students.'

Lin positioned himself by the door. "You think you know what's going on?" I asked under my breath as I joined him. Right now he was better company that people who didn't care to think about reasons, and Lin usually ignored my presence when we worked together.

"I have a feeling." Was the mystic reply.

Yasuhara returned several moments later, a wrinkled piece of paper in hand. "It was still there. "Here it is. It was still there."

Lin accepted it, and after studying it closely he nodded shortly. "Of course."

Mai's brow wrinkled. "Huh?"

"'For dementia, the crossroads. For murder, under the shrine'. This is a cursed charm, one that works by burying it underneath a shrine." He said darkly. "It is a curse to commit murder."

Naru returned by late afternoon to have Lin drop the news on him the moment he entered. He took it surprisingly well, sitting on the table before he responded. "It's a curse?"

"Yes. If you bury it at a crossroads, you can drive someone mad. But if you bury it under a shrine, you can kill someone."

Naru was silent for a moment. "So this Kokkuri-san was being used as a tool to spread the curse. With the unexpecting students carrying it out."

"They did everything from making the charm to actually performing the curse." Lin agreed. "With just this single sheet, you could kill anyone."

Mai shuddered, but Naru looked vaguely fascinated by the idea. He was morbid like that. "So. Every day, the students were innocently making the charms and performing the rituals. It just so happened that this was used as a means of possession to gather spirits. And as a result...fulfilling the aspect of the Kudoku."

"That is what I expect."

Naru glanced up. "Once the Kudoku is complete, what will happen?"

"This person will die."

"'This person'?"

"Hideharu Matsuyama-shi."

The room fell silent. It was at this moment that my whack brain cells—the very ones that compared Naru to sugar—encouraged me to laugh. I chewed hard on my lower lip, trying to at least keep from smiling. Bou-san was the first to speak. "Matsuyama. Uh....as in that Matsuyama? What does that..."