Chapter 1: Ghost Island

PART 1

The cold nightly breeze blows through dust-ridden window with shattered glass. The girl continued to walk right behind the other girl walking right in front of her, and let out a small sigh.

[Geez. It’s alright, Mikoto-chan.] [B, but, but, but…… Isn’t this basically overflows with ghostly spiritual energy? What if we stumble in here upon some ghosts?]
The girl’s blazing-red hair tied into a ponytail shook and swayed nervously. Her name was Shiratori Mikoto, a young girl who was also an Exorcist, a person who was fighting against spiritual monsters such as demons and ghosts by using her trusted Exorcist Sword “Raikou”. She herself was referring to herself as “Beautiful Exorcist”(Self-Proclaimed). She’s been doing this for a while now, and have fought many battles against the forces of darkness.

[Why do I have to investigate ghost activity in here!? Wouldn’t Yamato be a far better choice for the job like that!?]
She was bright and energetic, courageous and brave, but surprisingly enough she couldn’t stand ghosts and other spiritual beings that were similar to them. Her eyes were big, her breast were ample and nicely shaped, and her skin was spotless and fair.

But that fair skin was now pale with fear, and her red lips were also trembling like crazy. She would jump in panic with even the slightest of sounds that would echo across the building.

[You know it cannot be helped, right? The Sanctuary in Miyama is a sacred place where women are forbidden to enter, and Yamato-chan is the only male member of the Black Cat Brigade at the moment.]
Sui tried her best to rationalize with Mikoto, even though her face seemed to say that she’s been through this scenario more times than she’d wanted to. Her long, black and glossy hair contrasted neatly with her white, porcelain-like skin. She had thick eyebrows and dark eyes, bright-red lips and a young-looking face. Her body was wrapped in a dark-brown blouse and a skirt in the same color, finished with a pair of black stockings. That was her “combat uniform” –– the uniform of the Shunjuu Academy, in which she was attending almost a year ago. Accompanied with a checkered collar and a red ribbon, it was an outfit that would allow her to face her enemies with courage in her heart.

Kayama Sui, because that was her full name, was a childhood friend of Tachibana Yamato and met with him again last year, while he came on a job to the Shunjuu Academy together with Mikoto. They were what the people called an “Exorcists”, people who were fighting and exterminating the forces of darkness. And it was also last year that Sui have discovered that she had the same kind of spiritual power.

Until Yamato’s group made her realize that, Sui didn’t even notice that she could detect youmas and bad spirits. And apparently her sensing ability was far better than any other Exorcist out there. It was supposed to be her own, natural ability, something that couldn’t simply be taught or obtained. Thanks to that power, she was able to help Mikoto and her twin sister – Shiratori Takeru – to defeat the demon that nested within the Academy and bring peace back to it.

After the incident was resolved, she could easily have go back to her normal, plain and ordinary life. If only she chose to part ways with Yamato and his friends. For a quiet and timid Sui it could have been a far better choice.

However, instead of that, she chose to become an Exorcist herself. Upon realizing that she could be of use to Yamato’s group, she decided to join the agency they were all working for, the “Black Cat Demon Extermination Brigade’s Branch Office”.

She was still but an apprentice-level Exorcist, but she thought that if she learns more about the art of Exorcisms and trains diligently, she could become even more useful to Yamato and his friends.

[Umm, the direction from where the signal is coming from…… This pillar here, I think?]
Relaying on both the radar in her hand as well as her own senses, Sui placed a demon repelling talisman on one of the pillars that was scattered all across the corridor. There was thin black mist emanating from said pillar, and once she placed the charm on it the miasma disappeared and the atmosphere became a little easier to breathe in.

(I’m sorry, but it is for the sake of my job. I hope you can forgive me……)

Driven away by the cleansing spell contained within the talisman, there was a figure of a sad ghost that disappeared right in front of Sui’s eyes. Just as Mikoto said earlier, this abandoned school building was a spot for ghost entities to gather. There were other ghostly figures that were disappearing all over the place because of the talisman’s influence.

According to the client’s words those were all the ghosts of the people who went missing or went mad and committed suicide, but so far none of the ghosts tried to attack Sui and Mikoto. Their faces looked as though they wanted to say something to them, but they were gone before any words could get out of their spirit mouths.

[The preparations are all done for, Mikoto-chan.] [R, really? Well then, let’s just get out of here. Hurry up and let’s get out of here!]
Upon hearing that, Mikoto stopped clinging to Sui’s back and started to head back the way they came with an astonishingly fast pace.

[Ah!! Mikoto-chan, wait! That direction is……!!]
But before Sui could finish that sentence –––– BREAK! BREAK!

Mikoto managed to step onto the rotten floorboards, and as a result her leg fell right under the floor.

[…… Geez, what the hell is wrong with this place!? Why isn’t this place build like any normal, modern school buildings!?] [Maybe it’s because it’s been actually ages since it was closed down.]
While Mikoto was using her sheathed sword “Raikou” to break the floorboards around her stuck legs, Sui offered her a hand and helped her to get out of the hole. Some of the kinder ghosts warned them earlier that the place had “traps” like that, but apparently Mikoto didn’t hear that.

[It used to be a private school with its own dormitory system here on this island! Which is strange, really, since the whole school grounds are no bigger than a baseball field!?]
Was Mikoto shouting because she wanted to let out some of her pent-up frustration or was she trying to make her fear go away? Sui couldn’t be sure. When Mikoto managed to get out of the hole, she started to shout even more as she flailed her arms around.

[What else do we have here!? A mass suicide!? Ghost of the missing people haut the place out of boredom!? No matter what grudges they may have, do they really had to have them at a remote place such as this!? Thanks to that our work is even more annoying and……]
BREAK! BREAK!

Mikoto stepped on another rotten floorboard and this time around she fell into the hole all the way to her butt. Her skirt got rolled up and Mikoto started to fling curses at the floor before eventually settling down.

[…… Sui……] [Eh? What is it?] [I think I am cursed. Maybe the ghosts got angry at me for all the bad-mouthing I kept on flinging towards them……] [Umm, I don’t really think……]
Hearing something like that, Sui made a really troubled expression. The ghosts weren’t really angry with them, but they were just trying to warn them about the dangers that loomed about the floor. And they may have been just a little bit annoyed with Mikoto’s attitude. But,

[…… Yeah, that’s it. They are angry with us, lemme tell you. Let’s quickly get out of here, or else a beam might fall on top of my head from the ceiling.]
Sui decided to not comment on Mikoto’s statement.

The island on which the school and the dormitories were build was really remote, you could only get on it via a ferry that was cruising from the mainland once every thirty two hours, but was closed down due to a certain incident almost thirty years ago when a huge chunk of students and members of faculty office committed mass suicide. At the time it was a pretty infamous event and the materials collected on the subject were enormous, but even with that no one was able to discover the truth about those events and it was still an unsolved mystery. Even Takeru was unable to gather any intel that could prove decisive in the case.

But it was the truth that before said incident it was true that many people lived here, laughing, crying and struggling.

The school located on top of a steep cliff where the sea was pretty violent all the time was nothing more but a mass grave at the moment. It was abandoned out of fear and was now overgrown with weeds and grass. For Sui, it was scary, but at the same time kind of sad.