Motoyama-chō,
Kōchi

That night we continued the investigation. As usual, we take turns to watched the camera. Yui is the only one who doesn't sleep at all.

Yui used post-cognition when she fell asleep. When involved in the case, she got used to not sleeping. Yui can't control her spiritual power. Compared to the amount of spiritual energy needed to do psychometry, Yui's spiritual energy is weak, which is why she sometimes falls too deep in the memory she sees and in some cases is injured because of it.

But, when Sakuya touches Yui's hands when she's doing psychometry, Sakuya will give Yui haft of his spiritual energy and at the same time he can see the same vision as Yui. That way Yui will be able to see the vision more clearly. But, it only worked with Sakuya. Is still a mystery though.

"Oh Sensei, are you awake?" Yui looked at me while I opened the door.

"Yes. I can't sleep. What are you doing?" I asked, sitting in front of her.

"I tried to gather information that we got. But it didn't find anything that could help," she complained, "Want some coffee, Sensei?" Yui asked.

"Sure, thank you, " I smiled.

"There is nothing wrong so far. The equipment has not shown signs of a spirit in this house. The temperature is still normal and there is no strange sound," Sakuya said as he paying attention to the statistics.

"Sensei, don't you feel anything?" Yui asked, staring at me while putting the coffee in front of me.

I can't say about the conjurer to Yui, "I haven't felt anything yet. There are still many mysteries, Kamaitachi and something in the pool, and the curse that happens to this family. There are still many mysteries," I sighed deeply.

"By the way, Sensei, when I was attacked by Kamaitachi, when you touched my head, did you drive the yōkai spirit away?" Yui asked, "Because it feels like something is detached from my body, so the pain disappears,"

"Hmmm ... you could say that," I just answered briefly.

"Sensei, doesn't Yokai and Shikigami have the same form? Sensei can drive them only with spiritual power. Does that mean, Sensei can also control them?" Yui looked at me seriously.

I fell silence for a moment. Then smiled, "Yui-chan you are very observant. How do I say it, actually ..."

HELPPP !!!

Suddenly we heard screams and shouts. We were startled and looked at each other and immediately ran out. We met Kiyoharu and the others who were also shocked by the sound of the screams.

"Where does it come from?" Kiyoharu asked.

"It seems from the right wing, where the servants live," Sakuya said.

We ran towards the right wing of the house. We passed the Matsumoto family who also headed in the same direction. We then arrived at the right-wing of the house and saw one of the servants lying on the floor. He laying in pain while holding his stomach.

"What happened?" Ayako asked.

"We don't know, suddenly he groaned in pain," the maid looked very frightened, their faces pale and trembling.

"Cough ... cough ..." the lying servant suddenly spit out blood. The maid screening loudly. His body began to be cut apart, his entire body suddenly scarred.

"Cough .... cough .... cough ... !!" We were all shocked. Not only blood, from inside his mouth he spits out insects. More precisely he spits out centipedes. Everyone screaming and step backwards.

"What's...?!" Rui asked, his eyes and mouth open wide in surprised.

"Don't tell me...it's...Gu poison??" Sakuya murmured.

We all stared at him with confusion, shocked, and fears. Sakuya's face also looked pale. He looked very shocked himself.

The servant then stopped groaning. He just laying motionless. Blood keeps coming out of his mouth. Strangely the centipede that had come out of his mouth disappeared somewhere. He was dead.

"Sensei, what should we do?" Kiyoharu asked.

We're stunned. We can only remain silent and could only stare at the bodies of the servants who was dead terrified in front of us.

I thought about it for a moment. Trying to be calm myself, "First...we have to take him to the hospital. The doctor will diagnose the cause of his death," I said, "Shosuke-san, please take care of this problem," Shosuke-san didn't answer. I looked at him and he just kept silent, "Shosuke-san !!" I snapped him so hard that he was startled.

"What should we do, Sensei? How about this?" He looked panicked and scared.

"Shosuke-san, try to calm yourself. I understand you see something terrible. But, we must be able to deal with this problem with a cold head," I warned.

"So...sorry, I just, saw something, vomited centipedes, then disappeared," Shosuke spoke stammered.

"We will take care of the problem. Now, please take care of the body," I said firmly.

Shosuke-san just nodded. He, his brother, brother-in-law, and other servants then began to move the body. Satomi-san asked the maid the cleanup. Shosuke then told Kazuya to call an ambulance. And asked his sister to take the children to their grandfather's room.

"Ayako accompanied them," I ordered Ayako. She nodded and invited them to leave the place. Ayako can calm them down with some prayers.

"Noamasa and Rui, help Shosuke-san to take care of the body. Follow them at the hospital to see what caused his death," I said looking seriously at Naomasa and Rui.

"Yes, " they both nodded.

The rest of us returned to the base to see if there were any movements in the equipment we installed. We didn't discuss anything about what happened. We must calm down first.

"When there is a scream, there is still no movement. The movement occurs when we get there," Sakuya said, "The temperature drops dramatically. And there is a sound that is recorded. Let's hear it," Sakuya then raised the voice from the tape recorder.

We looked at each other when we heard the voice. Try to organize what that sound is. The sounds diverse, like the sound of snakes, frogs, lizards, the sound of insects.

"The camera doesn't get a clear picture, just like a passing wind. But, it looks like the motion detector gets picture," Kiyoharu shows us a picture that was captured by the motion detector.

"What is that? Snake?" I asked while paying attention to the picture before me. There was a creature that crawled on the floor where the servant lay down, it looked snaking around the servant's body.

"Why are there snakes there, Sensei? There nothing there earlier?"Yui asked. Her voice is trembling.

"That is a form of curse. More precisely the form of Gu's poison," Sakuya said.

"Hey, when you say about Gu poisons, isn't that the same as Kudoku?" Yui asked.

"Yes," Kiyoharu nodded, "Gu rituals were originally from China and were brought to Japan centuries ago. This technique was very popular in the Nara era," Kiyoharu explained.

"I don't really know about Gu poison Gu. Isn't that a ritual that collects poisonous insects into a jar, then buries them? The insects will kill each other and the remains insect is used as poison?" Yui asked with a pale face.

"That's right. There are several methods for formulating the perfect gu poison, the most well-known recipe is to gather different kinds of the "five poisonous creatures" and place them in a jar to fight," Kiyoharu said, "This was done on the day of the Dragon Boat Festival, which is the fifth day of the fifth lunar month. Some say that the jar is kept in darkness for up to the year. The body of the remaining venomous creature, which has eaten the others in the jar, will become the source of the lethal poison," Kiyoharu explained.

"The fluids of the insect that survived would be used to poison an individual with a curse that would control them, cause them misfortune, or kill them. The remaining insect could also be used as a sort of "luck charm" granting the one who performed the ritual great wealth. In return, the owner is supposed to feed the bug. Neglecting to do so would enrage the insect," Sakuya said.

"Do you want to say that the dead servant was a victim to the Gu?" Yui asked, ""Does that mean the Matsumoto family is producing Gu?"

"A patient hurt by Gu gets cutting pains at his heart and belly as if some living thing is gnawing there, sometimes he has a discharge of blood through the mouth," I said, "Maybe...the Gu, not come from the Matsumoto family. If I'm right, the Samurai's family is the one that produces the Gu. Maybe, the accident that happened to them wasn't caused by an ordinary natural disaster, but due to a curse from the Gu, "

"Sensei, didn't the Samurai die long ago? When the Samurai died, shouldn't the Gu's poison also disappear along with its conjurer?" Kiyoharu concluded.

"Gu poison don't just disappear when the conjures died. There is a lot conjures who throwing out the Gu," I said.

"That means, the Matsumoto family take the Gu?" Kiyoharu said, "But, Matsumoto-san doesn't seem to know anything. Maybe is their ancestors?"

"The Gu poison still lives even though the Samurai family who produced it has died. When the Matsumoto family moved here, they performed a ritual at the shrine that was once deified by the Samurai family, the Gu then thought that the Matsumoto family was a new conjurer," I took a deep breath, "Because the Matsumoto family didn't know it, they didn't make offerings for the Gu, which is why the Gu took his own sacrifice,"

"I thought, the Kudoku only asked for insects as their food?" Yui asked.

"Every now and then, they will ask for human sacrifice," Sakuya said.

"Very cruel. They didn't even know that they were victimizing from the Kudoku ritual," Yui looked very devastated.

"But, Sensei, if indeed the disaster that happened to the Samurai family and the villagers were caused by Gu's curse, that means they neglected to give sacrifice right?" Kiyoharu asked.

"Yes. The liquid that comes out from Gu is used as a poison to kill someone who is also a labeled as the victim. Sometimes, when the conjurer can't give sacrifice, Gu takes the sacrifices himself. Usually from family members," I explained.

"If that's the case, why the Matsumoto family doesn't get killed all once?" Kiyoharu asked again, "They neglected the offering just like the Samurai family, then the Gu took sacrifice himself, isn't?"

"You are right. The Samurai family doesn't need to die. The Gu could just take the sacrifice from the servant or the family member. Why the Gu killed them all once? Includes the villagers?" Yui said.

"It's possible ... the samurai family did something to make the Gu angry," Sakuya said, "For example, trying to kill the Gu,"

"Kill the Gu? Can we do it?" Yui looked curiously at Sakuya.

"There is an ancient story about it," I said, " There was a family, for several generations they manufactured the Gu, becoming rich from it. Later, one of the family married, but they kept the secret from the bride. On one occasion, everyone went out except the bride, who was left in charge of the house. Suddenly she noticed a large cauldron in the house, and on opening it, perceived a big snake inside. She poured boiling water into the cauldron and killed the snake. When the rest of the family returned she told them what she had done, to their great alarm. Not long after, the entire family died of the plague,"

"Terrible," Yui looked at me while covering her mouth with both hands. I can see from her eyes that she is scared.

"Sensei, what should we do now?" Kiyoharu asked, "Matsumoto family doesn't know about the Gu,"

I fall silent for a moment. The Kudoku is very rarely used today. It is a very ancient ritual. This is bad.

"We will wait for Naomasa and Rui," I said, "First, we must ensure that it is Gu's poison. We must be able to get a record of the Samurai family. Kiyoharu, what about the Buddhist monks from your family temple?" I asked, looking at Kiyoharu.

"My brother said he would contact me tomorrow via a video call. He was still looking for a record about it," Kiyoharu said.

"Yui, don't forget to visit the city temple tomorrow morning to get a record of the Samurai family," I said.

"Understood," Yui nodded her head.

We don't know how much sacrifice the Gu needed. If we don't move fast, another sacrifice will be coming soon. The worst thing is the sacrifice maybe come from the family members.

***