The First Ghost Investigation Assignment
AMARI HIGH SCHOOL, AOYAMA-ITCHOME, TOKYO
We were meeting in the Occult Research Club room. Despite what happened before, it seemed like Haru was excited to tell us about her plans for us.Tama and I didn't want to get into her business so we just acted like nothing happened before we came.
The place was starting to have a little more stuff that was starting to look like the weird place I imagined Haru thought it must be. Purple curtains that blocked the sunlight from the windows, a traveling broom that is typical of the witch stereotype, a crystal ball, a magic kit that curiously is from Maria's favorite brand so I immediately know that it is of high quality and expensive, there was also a wooden bow with a couple of arrows with paper tied to them, a couple of plastic magatamas and it seems that a couple of talismans that they sell in the temples. It certainly seemed that Haru had put a lot of effort into this nonsense since I imagine she do a little research before buying most things. Or they may have been impulse buys, the broom can be clearly seen where it says harry potter on the tag and the crystal ball still has the price tag attached to it.
"Where did you get all this?"
"We had not yet agreed to buy anything for the club"
"I have a mountain of things that my sister could "donate" without her realizing it and that would look perfect here"
"Do you like what I got?"
"Yesterday I went with my grandfather to buy a couple of things and I found all this"
"What do you think, without a doubt they are going to help us a lot in the future, right?"
"...."
"...."
"How can I say this"
"...."
"Your grandfather paid for all this?"
"You still have the bills right?"
"You would do very well to request a refund for everything except the talismans and the curtains"
"What!?"
"But if you haven't even seen all the things carefully!"
"Does any of this really work?"
"How do you know they are useless?"
"The magic expert is Tamamo"
"But even though I know almost nothing I can tell you for sure that almost all of this is discount Halloween decorations"
"The crystal ball is useless if it is not made of a special glass"
"A toy broom from a movie there's no way it would work even if it's used by a real witch"
"The magic set is for doing tricks and my sister has like 4"
"The wooden bow is stolen from an archery club, it still has the name of the school it belonged to, the arrows are made of very fragile wood, they are only for decoration"
"And finally Tamamo makes talismans in her spare time from time to time"
"To say that you don't know anything about magic, you seem very knowledgeable"
"Well, I don't know how to use magic, but I've seen more or less how to work with these things"
"Basically, if it is not with rare materials and difficult to obtain, it is a scam"
"You will never find real magical things being sold in a supermarket"
"Have you ever seen a wizard buy a wand as if it were a cell phone?"
"What about you Tamamo?"
"Can you pity me?"
"Tell me there is something of value in what I bought!"
"I'm afraid it's just like Elise says"
"Magic depends a lot on the things you use and the quality of the tools."
"Almost all of this is done trying to reduce costs and mass produce them"
"They are simple decorations for people"
"A magician could not use anything that is here in any way"
"Even Maria has done better at finding things that can be used"
"The only thing that could work is the Talismans but even they are quite weak and are created with rather vague objectives such as good health or fortune"
"Talismans are best when dealing with a specific target"
"The more detailed what the talisman should protect is much more effective"
"Something like a Talisman that protects you from being struck by lightning every spring Monday afternoon"
"The effectiveness of something like that would be much more effective"
"Ok this example is too specific, something like that could never happen"
"Isn't a talisman like that very useless?"
"Well yes, normally the probability that something like this happens naturally is ridiculously low"
"But what if you run into an enemy mage who casts lightning on you on a spring Monday afternoon?"
"A Talisman like that could easily protect you from up to 10 lightning strikes in a row."
"Well, it will spend all the mana embedded in it just to protect you from that in the most efficient way that the creator could write it"
"Okay, okay, I'm going to return almost everything"
"But the broom stays!"
"It looks so cool there"
"...."
"!!!!"
"Wait but that's not why they wanted them to come!"
"I have something more important to tell you!"
"Wait a moment before continuing let me say something!"
"I bet you my two premium puddings that we will have to fight with a supernatural entity" I said addressing Tama.
"My package of chocolates that this will ends up showing the police" she answered me
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"It's a deal?"
"Deal"
"Ok you can go on now"
"It's okay?"
"I already got our first job as members of the occult research club!"
"On Friday we are going to investigate a recently abandoned house for ghosts!"
"Wait what?"
"Where did you get an abandoned house?"
"Do you really want to do that?"
"I assure you that ghosts come out almost exclusively at night"
"How are you going to let your grandfather let you spend the night in an abandoned house!?"
"You have an idea what we'll have to do right?"
"I have it all under control"
"Our classmate Haruno Chika is also a friend of mine and she was telling me something"
"Recently that strange things have been going on in a nearby house for several days"
"She says that you hear strange noises, things change places, doors open and close"
"Supposedly to the grandfather of the family he lived in, he died at the end of last year and those things began to happen"
"The rest of the family left for the same reason, but strange things have not stopped happening according to what Haruno tells me"
"I managed to ask my grandfather for permission to sleep at her house on Friday"
"Since the house is close we can investigate until late at night if that is what you need"
"As for what to do, they were waiting for you two who have the experience to tell me what to do"
"Unfortunately I haven't experienced what it's like to be on the side of ghostbusters so I can't help you." Said Tamamo sure referring to when she hunted in the vicinity of the cursed rock.
"What do you mean?"
"She means that she is usually in charge of checking that the ghost is completely gone"
"The ghostbusters are in charge of finding out what kind of ghosts it is, Tama has not done this part yet so she has no experience"
"..."
"On the other hand, I am more used to the part of the blows, so I am not an expert on the subject either"
"But once I participated with a group of real ghostbusters so I have an idea of more or less what to do!"
"Ok, what do we need? Can you tell me exactly what to get it as soon as possible?"
"All right"
"The basics would be video cameras with a night vision and wireless communication"
"A couple of wireless microphones too"
"A laptop to be able to review them"
"A hand thermometer will also be quite useful."
"A portable battery-powered radio that searches for radio waves"
"A grimoire, don't wait forget that, that can't be obtained"
"Paper and a pen might do the job?"
"UV lamps can be incredible to have but they are hard to get, they are usually used by the police"
"..."
"And then the protection things"
"A pair of blessed Christian crosses depending on the type of ghost"
"Salt maybe, although there is blessed salt with the common kitchen salt could be enough"
"Incense is quite effective as the last option"
"Tamamo can make talismans in case he is a Yokai"
"Isn't all that ghost gear pretty high-tech?"
"We are not going to use candles, Holy water"
"A sacred whip maybe"
"How about silver bullets?"
"I already told you that I will not do anything dangerous, especially with you around"
"Your grandfather will kill me if something happens to you"
"We will only see if by chance something appears and we will run away"
"The truth is I don't think it's true but it will be at least more fun than doing what I always end up doing"
"Also look at it this way, if humans have succeeded in this world it has been because of their intelligence and creating tools to help themselves"
"What saved humanity has been technology and research, not superstitions"
"It is normal that both ghostbusters and hunters use the best in technology to help themselves as well."
"Okay, I think I can get the thermometer, the book, and I think my grandfather has a couple of those UV lamps at home, so I can grab one."
"I'll tell the teacher if she can get the cameras and the microphone, then we'll pay for it out of the budget."
"Elise, you look like the gamer type who always has the best possible computer"
"Do you think you can lend us your laptop for this?"
"Ok I can bring the computer"
"But if something happens to my computer, I'm going to burn down the whole block in revenge"
"Tamamo you said you were the one who knew about magic"
"Can you get us those weird things?"
"Sure, no problem"
"Everything is quite easy to get!"
"Okay then"
"With this, we would be ready!"
"I'll send you the address later"
"See you on Friday and please bring the other things"
"I hope that the teacher can also join us"
"It will be quite fun"
"I can hardly wait for it!"
"I'm going to get things right away"
"Bye"
Haru ran away excited as soon as possible, so it was up to Tama and me to finish packing the salon and close it before returning home. On the way home, we went to the cafeteria where we ran into Xian so we told him about it. For some reason she wasn't quite thrilled with the idea but she told us that she had several ghostbusting equipments on hand, it seemed even weirder to me that someone like her would have that but then she explained that it seems her family was into it for what also has experience in these things. It seems that everything was ready to see how real this ghost could be and if we were prepared for such an event.