Talismans (https://www.pixiv.net/novel/show.php?id=11165468) A continuation of Exorcism Part 2: "The Fire Cistern"
3. Talismans
This is a story I heard from my Shisho.
It was the spring of my second year in college. Around that time, I was working part-time at a private detective agency called the Ogawa Investigation Office. It wasn't the kind of regular detective work you'd expect. My job was basically assisting Shisho, who specialized in handling bizarre, inexplicable requests known in the industry as "spooks."
Shisho was also just a part-timer, but he seemed to make a decent wage. As envious as I was, to me back then, the amount of pay didn't matter nearly as much. Being involved in that kind of work alongside Shisho was the most fun and valuable thing in the world. Besides, I couldn't really remember ever being all that useful.
On that particular day, a client was coming to see Shisho, so I had been called in and was waiting inside the office. By that point, I had already abandoned my college classes. I was half-prepared for the reality that I wouldn't graduate in four years.
Hattori-san, my fellow part-timer, wasn't in today, so there were only three people in the office: the boss, Shisho, and me. The boss was fast asleep at his desk, arms crossed and head tilted back. Shisho was intently aiming, trying to toss a peanut straight into the boss's wide-open mouth. He had a dead-serious expression on his face.
"Shisho." "Hold on, I'm almost got it." "She's here."
The sound of footsteps climbing the office building's stairs stopped, and the door clicked open.
"Still as gloomy an office as ever, I see."
The first one to speak as she walked in was an elderly woman wearing oversized sunglasses with yellow rims.
"Oh, Nishina-san, you came too?"
At Shisho's words, the plump middle-aged woman walked in, her voluminous purple hair bobbing up and down.
Nishina-san was a meddlesome woman who kept bringing all sorts of "spook" cases to the Ogawa Investigation Office. She was a person of standing in the local area with an extraordinarily wide circle of acquaintances. She seemed to genuinely love occult things like fortune-telling and psychic phenomena, and she had taken a liking to Shisho. Thanks to one thing or another, referrals from her now made up the vast majority of "spook cases" for this tiny detective agency. To the Ogawa Investigation Office, she was a supreme benefactor to whom we owed a debt we could never repay.
"This girl was all shy, so I tagged along. Come on, say hello."
Emerging timidly from behind Nishina-san was a young woman. She was wearing a spring knit cardigan.
"Um, I'm Yae Kurotori."
It was an old-fashioned name, but with her brightly dyed hair and other touches, she gave off the impression of a typical modern youth.
"What was it, are you in high school already?" Asked by Nishina-san, she answered in a small voice, "Second year."
"Oh, right. This girl's grandmother was an old acquaintance of mine. She used to do things like being a shaman. I was in her debt a few times back in the day. Do you remember when I gave you New Year's money when you were little?" Yae Kurotori shook her head.
"Well, that grandmother passed away the other day. Because of that, the girl seems to have a bit of a predicament. Anyway, just listen to what she has to say. I'm busy, so I'm heading out."
Saying she had to go, Nishina-san left the young girl behind and scurried off.
"Hey, hold on, Nishina-san. What about the fees and stuff? She's just a high schooler..." Boss Ogawa, seemingly waking up from his nap, mumbled blurty.
"Oh, that's right. Just send the invoice to me. I'm a regular, after all. Don't go tacking on any weird extras." Declaring repeatedly that she was busy, Nishina-san vanished in an instant.
Same as always. After exchanging glances, the remaining three of us decided to listen to the girl's story anyway.
"My grandmother's family has supposedly had psychic powers for generations, so she did, um, spirit medium stuff, I guess." "Your grandmother's family—does that mean your grandmother's mother was a medium too?" "Probably."
We were facing each other across the waiting room sofa.
"I see. Did that grandmother of yours employ... use any kind of animal spirits or anything?" "I don't know."
Shisho crossed his arms and groaned.
"Possession bloodlines are usually passed down through the maternal line. That's a definite possibility. Where is her family originally from?" "Senza City."
Senza City was a historic region located west of O-City, the prefectural capital where we were based.
"Hmm. Possession bloodlines do exist around there, but that alone doesn't tell us much. Anyway, what kind of trouble are you dealing with?"
The girl looked hesitant for a moment, then asked, "Um... ghosts don't appear here, do they?" "Ghosts? You mean like actual spirits? How about it, Shisho?" "Well, we should be fine. It's daytime." Shisho answered with a deadpan expression.
At that, she said, "Just a minute," and abruptly began taking off her shoes. They were pink Converse sneakers. "It's about these."
The girl held up both shoes and thrust them out in front of Shisho and me. Boss Ogawa, who had been reading documents while eavesdropping on our conversation from his desk, finally raised his head.
On the inner soles of both shoes, there was some kind of unfamiliar pattern. Exactly the same on both the left and right. "Hmm?"
As I tried to lean in closer, Shisho stopped me from the side, saying, "Hey, she's a girl." Then Shisho said, "Mind if I take a look?" and accepted the right shoe, inspecting it intently. "There's something written here."
I peeked over his shoulder. It looked like black characters had been written, but they were so faded I couldn't quite make them out. "Wait a second. Who wrote this?" Shisho asked with a somewhat strained voice.
"My grandmother. The women in my grandmother's bloodline have had strong spiritual awareness since they were little—or rather, she said ghosts are naturally drawn to them very strongly." "You mean you have a mediumistic constitution?" When I asked, she nodded. "And you were like that too?" Shisho asked cautiously. "Yes. Ever since I was a child, I saw them often. You know, ghosts and things like that..." Her trembling voice trailed off into nothingness. "And so... my grandmother always wrote this in my shoes, saying it was a talisman to ward them off." "A talisman..." Shisho muttered with a difficult expression. "Ever since I was little, whenever I walked outside at night, suddenly these pale faces—just faces, over and over—would come creeping up toward me. When I wore the shoes with the talisman written on them, nothing worse than that ever happened, but I was always too terrified and ran all the way home."
The client looked genuinely helpless and trembled. "My grandmother used to tell me, 'If you're born a woman in our family, it can't be helped. When you grow up, you too must practice the techniques to defeat those terrifying things.'" "So your grandmother used to do things like exorcise possessions." "I was never allowed to watch. She said it had to remain a secret until I grew up and the time was right." "Um. Nishina-san mentioned that your grandmother passed away the other day, right?" When I asked, she nodded. "About three months ago. Her health suddenly took a turn for the worse, and she just... I... I haven't learned anything."
The girl covered her face. Shisho rubbed her trembling back. We stayed like that for a while. Finally calming down, the girl lifted her head.
"I've been living away from my grandmother since I was in junior high, because my parents built a house over here. But I couldn't manage without the magic spell in these shoes, so I'd go visit her from time to time to have her rewrite it. It rubs off and fades right away."
The girl took a plastic bag out of the bag she had brought. From inside, she produced another pair of sneakers. These ones were a darker color. "Since my grandmother died, these are the only two pairs left with the talisman spell on them. Both of them are already starting to fade. I don't know what to do..." She said this with a nearly tearful expression.
Looking at the soles of the black shoes, the same pattern as the pink ones seemed to be written there, but they were just as faded. "I see, so that's what you're struggling with." Shisho nodded. "I just want to check one thing—do you still see ghosts outside now?" "...Yes. When I walk alone at night, the back of my neck gets all tingly. When that happens, usually pitch-black things, grotesque faces, and things like that come swarming around me." "Do they ever follow you all the way home?" "They don't appear inside the house. My grandmother said she cast a warding barrier. When my father built the house, she even came all the way out here to cast the spell." "So you weren't taught the spell itself. Did she leave behind any kind of ritual texts or writings?" "I was shown her belongings, but there was nothing." "Hmm. It might have been passed down orally from generation to generation."
Looking terrified, the girl stared at Shisho with pleading eyes. "What are you going to do?" I whispered to Shisho. When it came to full-scale evil spirit exorcisms, Shisho shouldn't have been able to handle something like that.
"Would you mind leaving these shoes with us for a day? Just one pair is fine." Shisho proposed. "I have some experience in these matters, so if you let me examine them, I might be able to reproduce the warding spell. Besides, since Nishina-san has undergone your grandmother's prayers before, I'll ask her for details. It might be a ritual I'm already familiar with."
Hearing that, the girl looked pleased. "Please. Then, I'll leave these shoes here." With that, she handed over the black shoes. Then she hurriedly slipped her feet into the pink ones. We agreed she would come back tomorrow and settled on a time to meet, and then the girl left.
From the office window, we looked down at her as she walked away. The sun hadn't set yet, but she walked slowly, looking around her surroundings in jittery panic. "Poor kid," Shisho muttered. "Will she be okay?" "Yeah, probably."
Shisho stared fixedly at the pattern written on the soles of the shoes. His expression was harsher than usual.
◆
Stopping his narrative there, Shisho let out a deep breath. I was curious about what happened next and wanted to hear it right away. But Shisho fell silent, as if straining his ears to listen to the sound of the rain.
With no other choice, I pulled my gaze away from Shisho and thought I saw a faint, white light gleaming amidst the ceaseless rain ahead. Was Shisho looking at that too? It didn't seem to enter the shrine grounds, but instead flickered in the distance.
It is said since ancient times that telling ghost stories draws them near, and sure enough, those things do happen. Knowing this from experience, I wasn't all that surprised. I could remain calm because I didn't sense any malice coming from it toward us.
Eventually, as if confirming it wouldn't come any closer, Shisho resumed his story.
"The next day, at the appointed time, my Shisho showed up dressed in Shinto ritual garments. Where he borrowed them from, I don't know—he was wearing formal attire consisting of a white *karaginu*, a *hitatare*, and *hakama*. He even had a folding fan and a hair ornament called a *saishi*, like Queen Himiko you see in manga. And he told the client, Yae Kurotori: 'I've figured out your grandmother's rituals, so I'll perform a stronger prayer and completely erase the curse bound to your bloodline.'"
I was surprised. Did Kanako-san actually have that kind of power? It was the first I'd heard of it. I'd always assumed he solved things through bluffing or using poison to fight poison. Admittedly, he had this unfathomable aura that made you feel like he could pull off a straightforward approach like that if he really wanted to.
"Could he actually do something like that?" "He couldn't. But he did it anyway. Right in front of the client. He brilliantly exorcised it—the curse placed upon her. In the end, the talisman spells on her shoes weren't necessary anymore either. The client was half-skeptical, but she was swept up in Shisho's absolute assertion that she'd be fine now and the atmosphere he created, so she went home without wearing her spell-casting shoes. Days later, she contacted us to thank us, saying ghosts had stopped appearing."
"He actually managed to perform an exorcism? That's amazing." I said this honestly. However, Shisho shook his head.
"An exorcism is just something you imitate based on what you've seen. The purification incantations were just random words, too. When I asked him about it later, apparently it was something used for safe childbirth prayers or something." "Huh? What do you mean?" "The only thing Shisho did to solve the problem was make her go home without wearing those talisman shoes."
For some reason, Shisho's words sent a chill down my spine. It felt as though color had suddenly been given to a vague suspicion floating in the back of my mind.
"What was written on the shoes was supposedly a technique of cursing arts from *Jugondo*. To put it simply, it said: 'Terrify this person.'"
I was struck speechless. What the grandmother had written—wasn't it a warding talisman?
"She didn't write spells on her shoes because ghosts were drawn to her. Ghosts were drawn to her precisely because words of curse were written on her shoes. Ever since she was a little girl. Whenever she went outside, she always wore those cursed shoes. The idea that a warding barrier was cast over her house might not have been a lie. But even if it wasn't, for her, home was naturally a safe zone because she wasn't wearing the shoes there."
"That's too cruel. That's just too cruel." My voice shook before I could stop it. How could anyone do something so awful to a granddaughter who was terrified out of her mind?
"This is just a guess by my Shisho, but... a child who has been cursed since infancy and relentlessly pursued by evil spirits would, to some degree, inevitably develop the strength to oppose those things. And that would end up increasing their mediumistic abilities. It's the logic of *Kudoku* from *Jugondo*. Those who survive that process are made into successors. That might be how they kept the lineage going. Her maternal family line."
"What a horrific story," I sighed. "Yet, with this, that tradition came to an end as well."
At those words, Shisho shook his head. A faint vibration through the rain-shrouded darkness conveyed the gesture.
"Besides the client, she has four other granddaughters. It wouldn't be surprising if someone else inherited the secret."
It was an eerie... grotesque tale. It left me feeling utterly depressed.
"Didn't you say at first that the exorcism actually worked?" To my complaint, Shisho smiled quietly. "In a way, it did work, didn't it? After all, he exorcised the curse that continued to cling to her even after her grandmother's death." "That is..."
Whatever I was about to retort flew right out of my head. Because there was something white right in front of us.
A few meters away from Shisho and me, piercing through the ceaseless rain, it stood lingering. It was the same thing that had been flickering outside the shrine grounds just a moment ago. When had it gotten this close?
Tension spiked through me. "Shisho." "It's fine."
A short reply. I braced myself, but the white entity didn't come any closer. It gave off the feeling of intently observing us. I didn't sense any malice from it. If anything, it felt like sorrow was leaking out from it.
"Long ago, there were two people in this land who used to meet in secret," Shisho began speaking quietly. "Their families' interests had long been at odds, making it a forbidden love. This was during wartime."
"Every night, in this shrine where no one would see them, the two spent forbidden moments together, only to eventually be torn apart. The man was drafted into the war and died on the front lines. The woman was ordered to marry into another family, but right before that could happen, she took her own life. After the war ended and things settled down, strange rumors began to circulate. People said a ghost haunted this shrine. At midnight, two white spirits would approach from opposite sides of the road and unite at this shrine. That was the rumor. It seems someone who had secretly known about the lovers' clandestine meetings spread the rumor that they were the ghosts of those two. Both families found such a shameful rumor bitter to swallow, as it brought disgrace upon their houses. Even as generations changed, the rumors of those ghosts persisted. When yet another generation passed, someone from the woman's family thought: if they're going to wander out like that, let's erase them from this world. Somehow or other, that request found its way to my Shisho."
"To Kanako-san's place." My breath seemed to ripple the white form. The sound of the rain felt like it was receding. The surroundings grew strangely quiet. Within that silence, Shisho's voice echoed.
"My Shisho accepted the request from the woman's family and exorcised the woman's spirit. I haven't heard what method he used. But he must have exorcised it with absolute certainty, using some means or another. Just like with the shoe girl earlier. The request was fulfilled, and their clandestine meetings stopped. Leaving behind only a single male spirit, wandering through the night to come to this shrine."
Eventually, the white form drifted away from in front of Shisho and me, shimmering as it began to wander around the perimeter of the shrine. From its figure, only pure, unending sorrow was transmitted.
"Cruel," I spat out. "Yeah, it is," Shisho replied impassively.
"Before I started working part-time at the Ogawa Investigation Office. Back when Shisho was still teamed up with Natsuo Kurotani. If it had been me, I wouldn't have let him use a method like that. Hearing about this and actually coming here to see it for myself made me think that."
"Why is that?"
That didn't fit the image of Kanako-san I had built up in my mind. It was surely the same for Shisho, too. Shisho said quietly:
"I kept thinking: why would that Shisho use a method like that? Granting the wish only of the one who paid money, leaving the other behind like this. Why? Every time I came here, I thought about that."
The white figure was slowly, aimlessly drifting out of the shrine grounds. We simply watched it go.
"This story is built on hearsay. The rumor that the two used to meet in secret. And the two ghosts appearing at the shrine. The only certainties are that there was a request from the woman's family to perform an exorcism, and that right now, a single spirit is still wandering about. That spirit is searching for something, failing to find it, and wrapped in grief."
"Then, if you're going to do it, why didn't you exorcise both of them..."
"My Shisho saw both spirits. And upon doing so, the only thing he did was release the woman's spirit from this world. Based on that, here is my speculation: Were those nightly encounters really mutual secret meetings? Wasn't it rather a one-sided imposition that capitalized on some vulnerability? Wasn't it something so horrific that she convinced herself she could never marry anyone else, driving her to take her own life?"
Hearing Shisho's words, I was struck dumb. *Had Shisho been thinking about that?*
"If that were the case, my Shisho would never forgive it. He might have inflicted a punishment—leaving it behind in this world, making it wander for eternity."
Shrinking down into the shape of a small will-o'-the-wisp, it vanished into the far side of the rain. The sound of the rain grew louder once again.
"This is..."
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