Chapter 16 - A mystery Revealed!

It was almost dark now, and Souta, who had already returned with Kouga, had taken the time to print out the images from his camera with the aid of Kagome's computer. These he carefully oriented to the map he had made earlier, and the extra photos he passed around the room for the youkai, hanyou, houshi, and Taijiya to see.

This is what met Hidenori's eyes when he entered the room. At first, now that he could take the time to notice, the sight of fangs, claws, pointed ears, feral eyes, and barely control rage behind those eyes, made the usually stalwart man, very nervous. But seeing his wife sitting among them, and adding what little information and aid she could to the plans around the room, he stood in awe and marveled at the lives sitting in the room.

Mayuki saw him enter, noticed that he was more composed and that he was just as in awe of the people in the room as she was. She had noticed the map and pictures that were being used to plan the evenings 'hunt', as everyone called it, and when she recognized some of the places indicated by the pictures, she began offering any information that she knew of the area.

Her and her husband had both grown up in the area. The home that Hidenori had been raised in, had at one time been in the heart of the now infamous, 'Nightwalkers' Graveyard'. They had gone to school together, from a very early age, and had gotten along since they had first met. This childhood friendship had easily become the ground work for love and marriage by the time they were adults. Hidenori had gotten a prestigious job with one of the better law firms in the country, and Mayuki had become a teacher at the university.

While both were not wealth, they were well off, and over the years they had rubbed elbows with some of the best in some of the highest places. Life was good and quite comfortable for the Takenouchi family. That is until the current crisis and their now missing daughter.

Not having had any real hardship in their lives, the Takenouchi's were finding it hard to cope with having such an experience now. It was difficult to know what to do, when to do it, who to speak to, what not to do, and more. If it were not for the quiet determination and supreme confidence of the Taiyoukai, as she had learned he was, Mayuki didn't know if she would even be coherent right now.

As it was, she at least felt like she was being helpful in trying to find her daughter. After she had heard how badly hurt Kagome was, she felt that anything she could do, anything at all, would be better than nothing and in some way help to make up in some small way for the selfish mistake that they had made last night.

She motioned her husband over, explained what she knew of the plan and what she was doing in her own way to help. Hidenori had more first hand experience of the area from his childhood, and remembered many of the haunts that he and his friends, at the time, used ot hang around in. He recalled the old youths' center that had once been a hub of activities for the kids in his day, and even the place late at night that seniors had used to gather for some socializing of their own.

There had been at least one small family store in the area, but the family that had owned it had been old when Hidenori had started school. The owners had no children to take over the small establishment when they had died about the time he had entered high school. No one else had taken up the business in their stead and the building had become one of the first abandoned buildings in the area.

At one time, Mayuki recalled, someone had tried to open up a nightclub not far from where the youths' center had been. But as the area tended to be more family oriented, especially with the ancient and venerable Higurashi Shrine nearby, it had never gotten off to a good start and more folks there didn't want it. Shortly after the owners had renovated one of the old storehouses that had been bought out from the previous owners, the establishment had been closed and boarded up, never to be used again. Just as with the small store, it had become abandoned and remained so today.

There had been one very large and prominent family at one time. Their home had been located about three blocks from the old storehouse turned nightclub. The Masakazu family had been very well known when Mayuki had just started school. Their wealth had been established by the great grandfather of the family a number of years before, and they had finally reached a pinnacle to realize their life long dreams of moving out of the local area. It was rumoured that they had moved to America, but Hidenori seemed to recall having heard that they had actually moved to France. Either way, no one had lived in the huge almost mansion like home, for at least 20 years. It too, have become abandoned and like all the others had not been maintained for ages.

As they looked on with the youkai, hanyou and other ningens in the room, Hidenori and his wife were proving quite helpful and resourceful in remembering the old buildings and places in the 'Nightwalkers' Graveyard'. Much of what they spoke of, had even trigger memories of the area for the old Daikotu. Having been with the shrine since birth, Ojii-san remembered some of his less than glorious moments as a youth.

There was a particular photo that Souta had captured that Hidenori kept coming back to. For some reason it kept triggering a distant memory. One that he had trouble recalling. It bugged him to the point that he picked it up, showed it to his wife and finally to Daitoku. "I remember this house. It is so familiar, but I can't place why!," he said.

Mayuki looked at the photo as well, "I remember it, too. Your right. It is very familiar, but something doesn't look right. It looks so broken down, like it is almost ready to collapse. I don't remember any of those old houses being in that bad a shape. This would have to have been abandoned for almost 50 years or more to be this bad."

"You are right. That is why it seems so strange. Those homes were all very well built in their day, and except for the foundation of the old youths' center, not one of them was over 100 years old, and none of them were abandoned when we were kids growing up around there," said Hidenori.

"Hmmm! You know, you are both right," said Ojii-san. "The first abandoned building was that old store. I remember it was owned by the Nishizawa's. They had started the business when they were in their early 20's and run the place until Nishizawa-san died about 25 years ago.

Let see...hmmm!" continued Daitoku. He might have been old, and to some very odd, but one thing about Higurashi-daitoku, he loved history. Loved it and knew it well. No one could match him for recalling the history of everything in the area, and if it was related to the Shrine Complex, you might as well sit down with a tape recorder, for once he got started there was no off switch. His skill in this area proved it worth on this one seemingly old building.

"The confusing part is all this rubble and the things that seem to make it look like it is near collapse. I know that is not right...hmmm!" he said.

Ginta looked at the image himself. The building, which he had come to understand was the equivalent in these times to a well built hut, in Sengoku Jidai, must have been very well maintained, at one time. The paint on the two story building was not new, but neither did it show the wear and tear that having been abandoned for many years would have shown. It appeared the windows were all intact, too. When he looked at the other run down homes in the other images, it struck him as odd that their windows were all broken or completely missing. The only real reason that this particular building looked so bad, seemed be the amount and kind of debry that was surrounding it.

There were several large beams of wood that appeared haphazardly tossed against the building. A large pile of old, worn, broken wood could be seen, heaped randomly against on wall, like it had fallen there or been tossed against the building carelessly. What must have been a porch was broken, the roof on one side appeared to sag dangerously, but if you looked closely, you could see that there was a fairly solid column just behind the lowest point of the 'falling' roof that kept it from falling as it should have done long ago.

Seeing this, Ginta pulled Hakkaku over and showed him what he had seen. Together they both looked over the house, and between them found more and more oddities. The actual roof of the house appeared to be in even worse shape than the porch. In fact, if truth be told, it was impossible for it to still be standing in the apparent shape it was. At first glance what looked to be a door barely hanging by one hinge, could be seen to hide another door, a little further in that was more than secure enough to keep the elements at bay.

"Is there anyway to get a closer look at this particular building?" Hakkaku asked.

"Why...it looks like a real dump," said Inuyasha.

Ginta spoke up, "All the more reason to look more closely. That porch roof is not as badly damaged as it appears, and most of the debry is deliberate."

"Hai, see. If you look closely at this corner of the porch, there is a supporting column just behind the lowest area. It obviously is supporting this spot, but if it was truly as run down as it first appears, then it would have collapsed long ago," said Hakkaku.

"Hai, and with other things that I noticed, it would seem that the roof of the house is also supported in some way. Look...there is no way that roof should still be standing if that house was really in that bad a shape. Besides even the paint is little worn, and all the windows are still intact. None of the other buildings in these other images have more than the occasional good window. All the others are broken or gone," said Ginta.

Ojii-san was still perusing the house in the photo, as the two ookami youkai spoke and pointed out their findings. As he looked on and each flaw pointed out, something clicked in the back of his mind. "Sugoi! Why didn't I see this earlier. That is the old Ishihara house." With that Higurashi-daitoku rushed out of the room.

"Ojii-san seems to have lost it again," said Kagome's mother.

"Iie," said Hidenori. "Now that he mentions it, I remember that house. He is right. A family from a long time ago, lived there. They were known as the Ishihara's. They were very well-to-do, although from what I remember, no one knew where their money came from. Neither the husband or the wife appeared to work, yet their children always wore the finest of clothes."

Mayuki spoke up, "Hai, I vaguely recall one of the daughters, when I went to middle school. She was very pretty and many of the boys could be found at any time vying for her favor. Which was odd, because she was very anti-social. She hung out with no one, and those who offered her friendship, she often shunned. No one really knew why. Many said that it was because of her father."

Hidenori spoke up again, "Hai, I remember her. She was the talk of all the boys. Hardly any of them in school had not tried to approach her and get her to go out with them. She turned everyone of them done. But there was something about her. It was odd. Many of the boys used to talk about how she seemed so beautiful and that they felt almost drawn to her."

"I remember one of my friends saying how he had tried his hand at getting a date with her. Imari, was her name. He said that the closer he got to her, the stronger the attraction seemed to be. She was very rude, and anyone that I heard talk about their failure to get a date with her, spoke of how they felt a chill of fear run down their spine when she spoke to them or looked them in the eye. Yet, despite this, they were still drawn to her. I can't remember what happened to her."

About this time, Ojii-san walked back into the living room, an huge photo album in his hands. He lay it out on the table and opened to a marked page. The picture showed a house that looked like it was just built. A young man and woman stood in front of it, with a baby in their arms, and two boys approximately, 6 and 9, standing beside them. The home was reasonably simple, but from the looks of the landscaping in the front yard, and the draperies in the window, the family was very well off.

Comparing the house in the old photo, to the image taken today, clearly showed how much of the 'damage' of the house as it was now, was more a front, than true damage. Someone had gone to a LOT of trouble to make a home in good shape, look like it was a wreck. But why? That was the real question.

Daitoku had caught the last of Hidenori's conversation about the onna he remembered in school.

"As I recall, she was attacked. In fact, now that I think about it, I believe that she was attacked not unlike Kagome. Unfortunately, her injuries were too severe, despite every effort made to save her. It was believed that even had she lived, she would not have been whole of mind," said Ojii-san. "The last that I heard of, her parents brought her back home after the physical wounds had healed, but after that nothing more was ever heard about her."

Ojii-san pulled out an old, yellowed article from a newspaper long gone. It showed a picture of a beautiful young onna around 15 or 16 years of age. It was clear that she would have become a regal beauty when she grew into adulthood, but as Fate would have it, she never made that day.

Daitoku spoke again, "I remember about that strange attraction that you spoke of, Hidenori-san. We had many people bring this to our attention at the Shrine. In fact, my father was still alive at the time, and when the onna's mother came to pay her respects here, she spoke to him about the girl."

"He believed, but never go the chance to verify it that she had some kind of spiritual power. We were never sure if it was miko, fujo, kurimiko, or exactly what it was, as we never got the chance to test her abilities. All we could be sure of, is that she was untrained. Her father refused to accept what she might be, and would not permit her to be tested. He was very....more like extremely protective of the girl, especially as she was their only daughter."

"Father believed that he was afraid that her beauty would attract the wrong type of man to her. He never considered teaching her how to make her own wise choices and discouraged her socializing other than what was absolutely necessary at school. We often felt that she resented this and that this was the reason for her cold and rude behavior." said the old man.

"It was not long after that incident that her family moved out of the house. It has been abandoned since that day. I was never able to find out what happened to them after that. About a year later, there were a few rumours that the house was haunted. That was shortly before my father passed away," said Ojii-san. "I remember it because my father was asked to give the house a blessing to put the spirit of the onna to rest and stop the hauntings. It seemed to work, as no more sightings were ever seen."

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