Bathroom Break

Hours upon hours felt like they flew by. Hitomi flips the last page while Sakura and Takumi bring in more empty tapestries in the room.

“Mom, we got the last from this hallway.” Sakara exclaims.

“Excellent sweetie, I finished reading the last page of your father’s notebook.”

“Thank goodness, It’s hard to keep track of all of them after 3/4th of the book. Definitely needed a small break.”

Sakura and Takumi place the empty tapestries in the wardrobe, seeing their first yokai still immobile.

“That Karakase Obake is still trying to get out. I just wished it knew to give up.” Takumi says while holding the camcorder.

Through the mini screen, the yokai claws at the side of his entrapment to no avail.

“So mom, what was the last thing dad wrote in the book?”

“Something called a Kitsune. A shapeshifting humanoid fox that brings good fortune.”

Hitoki shows the two the notebook’s final contents and they see a tall human figure with pointed ears, a long matching tail, messy yellow fur and a slender pointed snout.

“Looks creepy.” Takumi adds.

“To be fair, all of these yokai look really creepy. Look at all these we need to find, Kappa, Tengu, Rokuro Kubi, Yuki Onna.” Sakura says as she flips through the notebook.

Hitomi felt her spine shiver seeing the description for the Yuki Onna.

“Okay, I need to stop looking at these photos, they're freaking me out.” Sakura puts the book aside and hangs the last of the empty ukiyo-e.

“How many blank tapestries do we have in total?” Hitomi asks her daughter.

“We got about 25. The thing is we haven’t checked the other hallways on this floor. We also still got the second and first floor to go.”

“That, and we still capture the yokai’s to make it back to our world.” Takumi yawns and rubs his eyes.

“How long have we been here?” Sakura takes out her phone; it shows the time 23:35.

“We’ve been stuck here for about 5 hours now. Memorizing that book definitely took a lot of time.” Sakura rubs her eyes, while Takumi feels his bladder acting up.

“Oh man. Hey, is there a bathroom on this floor? I haven’t gone at all.” Takumi squirms, holding in his urine.

“There is one, but we don’t know if there’s any of those things out there.” Sakura goes near the door, peeking through, she sees nothing.

“We’ll go with you Takumi. Sakura, get that camera bag and put a few empty tapestries in it. I’ll hold the camcorder."

Sakura grabs an empty bag and puts in three ukiyo-e. Zipping up the bag, Hitomi exits the room, holding the camcorder steady in her hand. With the filter on, they see the long hallway, appearing old and decrepit.

Step by step, the three of them exit the A/V Room, glancing every way they can. Hitomi leads the others cautiously to the end of the hallway.

Creak

Everyone stops and begins looking around. Seeing nothing, they continue walking down the seemingly endless hall. Within a few minutes, they make it to the end of the hallway.

“Okay, give me a few minutes guys. If you see anything, alert me and immediately trap it.”

Hitomi and Sakura nod as Takumi enters the bathroom. Looking around he sees a modern toilet and an old-fashioned squat toilet. Weirded out, he uses the modern toilet while Hitomi and Sakura look down the hallway with the camera.

Bang

Catching their attention, Sakura and Hitomi hear something from an adjacent hallway.

“Takumi, we’ll be right back. We heard something.” Sakura speaks through the door.

“Okay.” Takumi replies back.

Sakura and Hitomi head to the unexplored adjacent hallway, seeing it full of empty ukiyo-e. They hurriedly grab as much as they can, stuffing them into the camera bag.

Creak

The familiar sound can be heard again, only closer to Hitomi and Sakura. Pointing the camera at the hallway's intersection, Hitomi sees a faint shadow of some tall being. The shadow grows longer, reaching the wall with the creaking growing louder.

Creak Creak

What Hitomi and Sakura sees makes every joint in their body stiffen. A tall grey humanoid, with numerous long yellow thin paper protruding from its neck and waist, licks the ceiling with its forked tongue. It breathes blissfully, tasting every dust and grime, it can find.

“It’s a Tenjōname.” Hitomi quietly whispers to her daughter.

“Mom, get a tapestry ready.” Sakura whispers back.

Carefully unzipping the bag, Hitomi pulls out an empty ukiyo-e. Putting the bag aside, she sneakily heads towards the distracted yokai. Balancing her feet as best as she can, she feels her heels straining her balance with every step. The Tenjōname continues licking the ceiling, now next to the bathroom.

Given enough range, Hitomi leaps forward and presses the empty art to host its newest prisoner.

Grraaaah!

The yokai feels its skin being pulled heavily to the point where it can be ripped. It falls to the ground, with the ukiyo-e glowing bright and pulling its legs in. Gripping its only free claw to the floor, Sakura pushes the tapestry towards the yokai. With it fully covered, the yokai screams as its form is now sucked into the art.

The ukiyo-e falls to the floor, now having an image of the Tenjōname screaming to the sky. Hitomi sees through the camcorder and the creature looks confused and looks around its natural two-dimensional prison.

“Amazing Sakura.” Hitomi picks up the tapestry and puts it in the bag.

“Let’s get back to Takumi.” Hitomi commands.

Sakura nods and the two get to the bathroom door.

“Aaaahh!” Takumi yells out, alerting the mom and daughter on the other side.

Takumi’s arm feels a strong grip around his wrist. Looking around, he doesn’t see anything.

“Guys help! There’s something in here!”

Sakura and Hitomi go to open the door, but the knob refuses to turn. Looking through the camcorder, Hitomi sees some red light come through the floor gap of the door. Her eyes widen, and she immediately begins bartering the door with her shoulder.

“Takumi, it’s an Aka Manto! Don’t accept the red or blue paper, say yellow and pull back as hard as you can!” Hitomi yells out.

Hitomi and Sakura bangs and tries to enter by force to no avail.

“Mom, I got an idea! I’ll be back!” Sakura yells.

Takumi feels his shoulder close to popping out and is pulled to the floor, exhausted. His arm is going near the squat toilet. The toilet has water appear from its drain, containing red and blue pieces of paper.

“Red…or blue…paper?” An ominous voice whispers from the toilet.

Sakura makes it to the A/V Room and finds a tall camera stand. Grabbing it, she rushes towards the bathroom to see her mom still attempting to barge down the door.

“Pick one…or suffer.” The voice commands to Takumi.

“I pick yellow.”

The squat toilet begins to shake violently and cracks in half. Sakura makes it to her mom, holding the camera stand horizontally.

“Mom, help me barge it down.”

With the two holding the camera stand, they begin banging the door. Seeing a crack around the doorknob, they attempt a second push.

“Guys, please hurry! I think it’s really mad!”

Takumi feels his arm being pulled towards the crack inside the toilet, having its water pulled into nothingness. Holding against the rim, Takumi fights back against his invisible attacker.

Bang

The mom and daughter burst through the door, and Hitomi immediately sees a red cloaked figure with piercing white eyes using both arms to pull down Takumi towards an enveloping red whirlpool.

“Stay away from my daughter’s true love!” Hitomi cries as she pulls out an empty ukiyo-e from the bag.

Laying it upon the figure’s arms, the tapestry glows with all red glows being pulled in as well. Takumi falls back towards Sakura as the three of them see the yokai be pulled in headfirst. The toilet crumbles as the Aka Manto is fully sucked in, shining the room with a yellow glow.

The art falls to the floor, now holding a brand-new capture for the trio.

“Thank you, Hitomi and Sakura! You both saved my life.” Takumi hugs Sakura strongly, with Hitomi joining as well.

Breathing heavily, the three grab the ukiyo-e and head back to the A/V Room.

With more captured yokai added to the list, the trio feels some relief in their mission to exit the manor.