Hidden Blessing

Solace is felt by all three, especially from Sakura and Hitomi watching the glowing japanese kanji on the mini screen.

“Dad definitely wanted us to live. Every one of the beams here has that glowing kanji.” Sakura aims the camera to the other beams, bringing in comfort for her and her mom.

The camera catches the Karakase Obake in its two dimensional cage, clawing at its edges to no success.

“Takumi, can you close the wardrobe? That thing is giving me the creeps.”

“Sure thing Sakura.” Takumi closes the wardrobe and immediately goes to the boxes of tapes.

“What is it, Takumi?” Hitomi checks on him rummaging around the countless tapes.

“Mrs. Hoshino, there has to be something else your husband left for us. We know how to capture the yokai now, but is there something that can show about these symbols?”

“Takumi, call me Hitomi. You’ve certainly earned the privilege by now. But I’m sure my husband made these symbols to protect us.”

“That’s the thing, maybe we can make these marks throughout the rooms of this house. We can protect ourselves better.”

Takumi continuously pulls out any memory card and its holder in his sight.

“Takumi, my dad must have filmed so many encounters with those things in this house. It’s going to take us days to figure out what’s on them.” Sakura lays a hand on Takumi’s shoulder.

“I know but there could be something else to help us in any way. Wait, maybe he left us something in this room besides the videos. Can you and your mom check the other areas around that wardrobe?”

“Fine. But I’m not looking at that umbrella yokai. Come help me look, mom.” Sakura approaches the wardrobe and begins looking through numerous drawers.

Hitomi comes by to help as Takumi begins organizing the memory cards he picks up. Shifting through the cards, he sees some more numbered cases and puts them aside.

“Anything yet, Sakura and Hitomi?”

Sakura shakes her head.

“No, all I see here are just different cameras and a bunch of accessories for them. At least we have backup batteries, although we need to make sure they fit the camera I have now.”

Hitomi searches a drawer full of wrapped chargers, finding nothing that looks suspicious.

“I hardly doubt we need these different chargers. Now that I think about it, how is the electricity even working here?”

Hitomi looks up to the ceiling and sees the dim lights illuminating the room.

“Maybe dad had a backup generator installed.” Sakura remarks as she looks around the wardrobe.

“The thing is if he did, how long would it last us?” Takumi cautiously wonders, making his own hair stand up a bit.

Hitomi opens a bottom drawer, left of the wardrobe, only seeing lenses.

Pushing them aside, she sees a small notebook in the far end of the drawer. Curious, she grabs it and notices it’s binding is more elegant.

“I think I found something. Your father certainly wanted us to survive.” Hitomi hands the notebook to Sakura.

Its cover felt like leather yet lightweight. Opening it, Sakura sees some writing on the pages. Skimming through, her eyes widened at the page's content.

“Dad left us something here! Look, he wrote something on the back of the cover.”

Sakura excitedly flips to the front as Takumi and Hitomi rush over by her side. The trio stare at a handwritten message from Hiro.

“Dear Sakura and Hitomi, use this notebook in case you ever encounter these things. I had to do a lot of research from old historical accounts and my experiences. I love you both and please know I’m sorry for ever making you face these things.”

The trio take in the comforting message as Sakura flips to the following page and sees a familiar yokai.

“Hey look, it’s that creature dad trapped.”

All their eyes focus on the page describing the yokai entity named Kijo. Various sentences describe its appearance as seen on the marked “1” memory card. Its elegant beauty and hazel eyes match the facial appearance the three have seen earlier.

Sentences further along describe its nature to find a male and its hostile personality. Takumi sees a “1” in the upper right hand corner of the page, ringing a bell in his head.

“Wait, these numbers. I think Mr. Hoshino marked these yokai’s in the order he found them. Sakura, flip to the next page.” Takumi nudges Sakura’s shoulder.

Sakura does as she is asked and all three of them see the description for a Tanuki. In the upper left hand corner, it is marked “2”. Flipping more, they all see countless yokai’s and marked numbers reaching “140” by the end of the written content.

“Your father gave us another blessing. We can keep an eye out for any of those things in this house and now we can know what specific ones are here and how they act.” Hitomi gently caresses the book’s edges while hugging her daughter.

“Okay, looks like the marked tapes correspond to the numbers for the yokai in this book. In case we need to see how they act, we can just use one of the tapes. Although I wished we knew how to create those markings.” Takumi says while staring at the organized tapes behind them.

Hitomi nods.

“Maybe we’ll find the process somehow. Let’s be happy we have the knowledge to take on those monsters and trap them. We need all of the ukiyo-e we can get our hands on.”

“We have about a dozen so far, we need to get our hands on them so no yokai can destroy them. Just remember, we need them to physically have them be touched by the empty tapestries and not be in their range while they’re sucked in.” Takumi peers through the sliding door and sees the empty walls.

Sakura hands the book to her mother as she approaches her boyfriend.

“The issue is all those yokai can be anywhere in this house. They can get us at any time we leave this room.” Sakura worriedly exclaims.

“Let’s be ready then, we need to look over this book for all of the yokai that could be roaming free.”

“Sure mom. Let’s see what we’ll be in for. Come Takumi.”

Both Sakura and Takumi go towards Hitomi with the first page open. Slowly but surely, they begin taking in all of the information left behind by Hiro. Using all of their memory, they fully prepare to face any horror in this manor.