First Capture

Creak

Peering through a small opening of the sliding door, Takumi shifts an eye side to side.

“I think the coast is clear. I also see a bunch of empty ukiyo-e still hung up.” Takumi whispers.

Opening the door further, Takumi goes for the closest tapestry and grabs it.

“I have an idea, let’s save as much as we can. We won’t know if these things can destroy the blank pictures before we trap them.” Takumi adds while rolling the ukiyo-e in his hands.

Sakura and her mom follow Takumi’s lead and begin to roll up any ukiyo-e they see. Tossing them in the A/V room, they gather about a dozen ukiyo-e while Takumi stares down the long hallway. Squinting, he sees something peculiar.

“Um, Mrs. Hoshino, do you see that standing umbrella down the hall?”

Hitomi turns to Takumi’s direction, and she sees an orange umbrella standing up right. Sakura immediately grabs the camera from the A/V room and turns it on. Her eyes widen as she sees more monstrous features on the umbrella.

“Mom, Takumi, it’s a yokai!” Sakura yells.

Through the camera, the creature begins hopping on one leg at a fast pace towards the three of them.

“It’s the same thing dad caught on video!” Sakura yells.

Sakura’s claims are true as the camera shows a Karakase Obake. Having its arms forward, mouth open and sticking out a long tongue, it sets its sights on them. Its wild grin is shown on camera as Takumi and Hitomi ready the ukiyo-e they have.

The creature continues hopping as Hitomi unravels a tapestry for it. She sees a hopping umbrella going towards her. However, the yokai notices the empty ukiyo-e and halts in its tracks.

Screech

The yokai turns around and begins to hop away.

“Don’t let it get away!” Takumi yells out.

He begins to dash towards the bouncing umbrella as Sakura and Hitomi follow behind and see the creature’s frightful face through the camera’s screen.

“Takumi, throw the ukiyo-e! It's scared of it!” Sakura commands.

Takumi throws the ukiyo-e and a small piece of it lands on the back of the creature. The blank canvas begins to glow as the umbrella creature is now beginning to get sucked in.

“Cover it! Don’t let it escape!” Hitomi yells out.

Sakura pushes the paper down on the yokai further. However, its long tongue wraps itself in her hand.

“Help!”

Sakura attempts to pull back but the yokai fights back. Hitomi and Takumi grip onto Sakura’s arms and pull her back. Sakura's heart beats fast like a hummingbird as the yokai refuses to let go of her. 

"Get off me!" Sakura shouts at the creature.

Trembling and shaking, Sakura's strength is not enough to make it latch off of her. Hitomi and Takumi wrap themselves on Sakura, holding their ground as the creature is still trying to claim Sakura into the ukiyo-e.

"Mrs. Hoshino, pull at my pace! Sakura hold on!"

With a few hard tugs, the three of them fall on their backs as the yokai is fully sucked in. Takumi gets up and sees the Karakase Obake standing on its lone leg and looking like it’s attempting to scare someone.

Sakura helps her mom get up as she approaches the ukiyo-e being held by Takumi. Through the camera’s mini screen, the creature moves around in its two-dimensional cage clawing at the sides to no avail.

“We got it guys.” Takumi says.

“It’s definitely angry we caught it. It keeps jumping at the side.” Sakura adds while Takumi looks confused.

“It’s moving? I see it just still. Oh, hold on, you’re seeing through the camera.”

Sakura nods.

“Yeah, looks like dad was right about the filter showing us the movements of these yokai’s.”

“When it was coming towards us, it looked like a regular umbrella that was hopping.” Hitomi says.

“From the camera, I saw its massive eye and mouth. We’ll have to keep looking around with the camera from now on.”

All three of them agree and get a few more empty tapestries before reentering the A/V room. Takumi hangs up the ukiyo-e art containing the yokai on a wall. Sakura looks through the camera to see the creature inside it has given up fighting back and simply hops around its two-dimensional landscape.

“This thing definitely was an easy one, but who knows what other type of monster is in this house. Mom, can you open the blinds and see if anything changed outside?”

“I’ll check honey.” Hitomi comfortably says.

Going to a beautiful beige like curtain, Hitomi pulls it aside and sees black blinds covering the window. Pulling a string by the side, the blinds retract up to show darkness outside. No buildings, no people, just an empty void.

“We’re still trapped. I think we need more captured yokai to escape.” Hitomi says.

Going to close the blinds, Hitomi stops as she glances outside quickly.

“What is it Mrs. Hoshino?” Takumi asks.

Hitomi opens the window and peeks outside.

“Mom, what is it?”

Aaah

In the distance, a very brief scream can be heard. Sakura and Takumi walk towards the window, their ears hearing the faint scream.

“Who is that?” Takumi asks.

“It sounds like a woman.” Sakura adds.

“I think it’s our community. They must be dealing with those things as well.” Hitomi replies.

Hitomi closes the window and blinds; she glances over the trapped yokai with her eyes only.

“I don’t even know how much we need just to get out of here. If all we got was a scream just by capturing that thing, we’ll probably need a majority that was hung up in our house.” Hitomi says sulking.

“Mom, we can’t stop now. We can probably trap more if we keep at it.”

“The issue is how are we going to hang up the ukiyo-e for the trapped yokai? We can’t leave them in the hallway; it’s way too risky.” Hitomi exclaims.

Takumi looks around and sees a massive wardrobe that looks to be 5 feet in length.

“How about here? We can probably hang the ukiyo-e on this pole. We just got to remove all of the hanging cameras and straps.” Takumi replies.

Hitomi looks at the wardrobe space and leers towards the ukiyo-e with its trapped monster.

“Good idea Takumi. It’ll also help that we won’t have to stare at these ugly things anymore.”

Sakura holds the camera steady to see the creature moving around frantically and attempting to claw out to no avail.

“I think you made it upset mom.” Sakura says.

“Good, it messed with the wrong mother the moment it tried to pull you in the tapestry.” She mockingly says towards the yokai.

Sakura looks surprised by her mother’s comment but agrees as well. Looking around the room, she notices something glowing in the wood beams of the room.

“Hey, the camera also found something else guys, look.”

Sakura shows Takumi and her mom what she found on the mini screen. A corner wooden beam has a faint yellow glow, with Sakura moving towards it. Now within a few inches of it, she sees a Japanese kanji that spells out “safety”.

“Dad must have found a way to protect this room more for us.”

“Hiro, please be alright. I want to feel your comfort again.” Hitomi prays.

With some glimmer of hope, the trio can relax for now that they have safety in this room. Although, their goal is far from reach with all the supernatural creatures roaming the halls and rooms, waiting to grab a hold of someone.