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As she was a cheerful child, always cheerful to the point that it was unimaginable that she"d break down to that extent, it hurt to see her cry.

Hirota went downstairs to the base together with Naru and the others, and asked, "... ... What was that about?"

Hirota wasn"t able to comprehend Mai"s turmoil.

Naru replied to this with a short and cold answer.

"It has nothing to do with you."

"But --"

"I don"t think that you will understand even if I explained it to you."

Hirota sullenly kept his silence.

"Leaving that aside, Hirota-san, didn"t you think of trying to investigate what happened at this house in the past?"

"What is there to -- wait. You couldn"t possibly mean, that? What Taniyama-san said, that a child and his parents were killed?"

"Yes, that."

Hirota sighed.

"... ... That"s a dream. Didn"t she say so herself?"

Naru simply sent him a very cold glance. Hirota distorted his face.

"Fine. Certainly, you guys decided you"re onto something. -- However, if that isn"t her imagination or an illusion, why can you say something like that?"

There was no answer to this either.

"Even Nakai claimed to have seen things. You dismissed that in front of me. If it wasn"t an illusion like Nakai"s experience, how can you say that? Not to mention the person herself said that it was a dream. Why aren"t you doubting that?"

"I don"t feel like arguing with you on that point."

Hirota was about to blow up spontaneously, but he was stopped by Takigawa.

"Say, Hirota-san."

"-- What."

"You"re probably totally prejudiced against mediums. Aren"t you thinking outright that mediums and the like are a bunch of swindlers?"

Hirota didn"t deny that.

"I think it"s fine that there are people who don"t believe in ghosts. That"s their own right. That"s why I think it"s okay that there"s a group of people who deny it. -- But you know, aren"t you a bit wrong for flatly suspecting people of being swindlers or frauds?"

"-- I."

"Even I will deny it if I think someone might be deceiving me in front of my eyes. That"s being vigilant. Even though that may be faint-hearted. -- However, to do that and then immediately decide that they"re a swindler, without confirming whether it is true or not, and turning a deaf ear on whatever they may be saying, isn"t that completely different?"

"But... ..."

"I don"t have anything to inform you to what is convenient to your ears. It"s only pointless to discuss this."

"Then, I have a question."

"We don"t have any spare time to the point of even listening to questions for the sake of nitpicking."

Hirota glared at Takigawa and moved his gaze to Naru.

"-- I have a question. You"re a researcher. It must be part of your mission to teach those who don"t know anything about it. Why is Nakai"s experience an illusion and why is there a meaning to Taniyama-san"s dream?"

Naru sighed.

"Basically, it"s a matter of how you define the word."

"... ... What."

"My definition of an illusion is seeing something that doesn"t exist."

"-- I see."

"However, there are people like -- for example, Hara-san. Her visions occasionally contain accurate information that isn"t known to Hara-san. Whether this is a coincidence, or something other than a coincidence, is something that I don"t know very well. Despite not knowing, it"s of a different nature than normal illusions, therefore I name and cla.s.sify it as a spiritual vision."

"I understand that, but --"

"If that ability frequently occurs I call it a psychic power and I call a person who holds a psychic power a medium. -- A word is no more than a code. When talking about the word medium, one may think of it as a word to refer to an ent.i.ty with a psychic power, but it"s even possible that such a thing may not exist in reality."

Hirota nodded. He had no objection thus far.

"Hara-san is said to be a medium, but it"s because it is believed that she holds a psychic power. If you ask why, it"s because she frequently experiences having illusions. On top of that those illusions are worthy of being called spiritual visions. -- That is to say that Hara-san can see things she didn"t know about."

"-- She truly didn"t know?"

"She is called a medium because it was proven again and again that she actually didn"t know. It"s not because of the fact that she is known as a medium. I"m not saying that her illusions are real, because Hara-san is a medium."

Hirota-san was discouraged. It sounded like he was playing with words.

"First of all, an illusion is not a mere illusion if it is in fact a spiritual vision. If these facts continue to acc.u.mulate, Hara-san is called a medium. When she experiences a illusion, I consider whether it is a spiritual vision -- or whether it is not truthful, I don"t check it due to her being called a medium, I check it because of her achievements that what made her be called a medium."

Hirota didn"t reply.

"Nakai-san said to have experienced an illusion. First of all, I have to start scrutinizing whether Nakai-san"s illusion was a mere illusion or a spiritual vision. I don"t know unless I investigate it in detail whether it is true or false, but at least I can explain that Nakai"s illusion as a highway hypnosis. If she has no achievements beyond that, it should be defined as an illusion in the first place."

"Nakai herself claimed to have a psychic power, didn"t she say so? She had some past achievements, so perhaps that"s why she thought she had a psychic power herself."

"You don"t call ten of those experiences an actual achievement, Hirota-san."

"Perhaps it"s hundred or two hundred. Or possibly thousand or two thousand."

Naru cynically laughed.

"I"m afraid to say that there are actually plenty of people like Hirota-san in this world."

"-- Eh?"

"If you say you"ve seen a ghost, people will dismiss it as an illusion and if you say you had a spiritual vision, they will accuse you tricking them. They will decide that you"re a fraud without hesitation and there will be no end to people who abuse you. -- Therefore, many people with actual achievements will not talk about it in that kind of way," Naru said and looked at Takigawa and Lin. Both responded in affirmation.

"I can confirm that," Takigawa said. "Even I don"t say anything outside the investigations. Because how I"ll be treated may hurt deeply."

"I cannot make careless remarks," Lin said. "I can only speak the truth"

"That"s right. If I say one thing that contradicts the truth, the hundred or two hundred achievements will go up in smoke. If I call myself a medium and cannot pa.s.s as one, my own ident.i.ty will collapse," Takigawa said with a bitter smile. "The moment that you think that the thing you saw was an illusion is the scariest moment. If just now was an illusion, isn"t all of it up until now an illusion? In other words, I"d start questioning my own sanity."

"Indeed."

Hirota remained silent. Without knowing why, he couldn"t find the words he should say.
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