Note: I have nothing to do with Here is Greenwood and its characters except to be a fan who enjoys the OVAs a lot. This story is my extrapolation of the storylines as seen in the OVAs. I apologize if this story doesn't quite fit in with the manga.
Hasukawa Kazuhiro burst into the emergency room. He immediately headed towards the waiting area, where three of Ryokuto Academy's most notable--or notorious--students were sitting. "How is he?" he demanded.
Tezuka Shinobu stood up. "Hasukawa is fine," he said calmly.
Ikeda Mitsuru shook his head. "Fine, he calls it." He looked up. "Hasukawa's left leg is broken, he has a mild concussion, and he says he's fine." He shook his head again.
"Yeah, but the doctors are certain that with bedrest and care he'll recover within a week or two," the third boy, Kisaragi Shun, said.
"How did it happen?" Kazuhiro demanded. Then he noticed a fourth figure standing apart. "Oh, Coach Mitake, I didn't see you there."
"I'm sorry, Doctor," the track coach said. "This is all my fault. I suggested that Hasukawa try the hurdles this year." He shook his head. "I don't know how it happened...I thought he cleared it...but somehow, he got tangled up in one of the hurdles. He broke his lower leg and hit his head when he fell."
Kazuhiro felt sick. All his life he'd taken care of his brother--even if Kazuya hadn't always been pleased about it--only to have something like this happen!
"Hasukawa is fine," a soft voice said firmly.
Kazuhiro looked up at Tezuka Shinobu again. The boy's grey eyes regarded him steadily, almost intently.
"Hasukawa is fine," the boy repeated. "Believe it."
"Kazuya is fine," Kazuhiro said slowly. He's fine. He's fine. He's fine...
* * *
"Ne, Suka-chan," Shun said as he entered the room, "look what I bought!"
Kazuya looked up at his roommate from his position on the lower bunk. With his leg in a cast, he was unable to climb up into his own bunk, so they'd traded for the duration of his recovery. "What is it, Shun?" he asked, unable to completely suppress the irritation that two days of near immobility had spawned in him.
"It's a book!"
Kazuya rolled his eyes. "I can see that, Shun. What kind of book is it?"
Shun sat down on the floor, tucking his legs under the kotatsu in the middle of their room. "It's all about spirits and demons and ghosts."
Kazuya groaned inwardly. "Like we need any more of those around here."
"It also tells how to exorcise them."
Kazuya sat up quickly, then fell back with his vision blurred and the room spinning around him, thanks to the concussion. "Ow," he murmurred. "It does what?"
Shun flipped through the book. "In chapter four it explains what you need to do to exorcise different spirits and supernatural creatures." He was silent for a moment as he scanned the page. "Here, listen to this one." He chanted something in a long monotone.
In an Osaka museum, an Egyptian sarcophagus--part of a traveling exhibit--began to shake. A bright red aura flared around it. Suddenly, the lid moved and a column of dust rose up from the narrow opening. The dust poured up, then drifted down to the floor, forming a pile that grew taller and taller. And as it grew, it gradually took on a vaguely human shape.
"What langauge was that?" Kazuya asked. "It wasn't Japanese."
"Ancient Egyptian," Shun said. "That was a special chant to send a spirit into the realm of the dead."
"Since when do you know ancient Egyptian?" Kazuya demanded.
"I don't," Shun said. "But the guy who sold me the book also sold me this character and pronunciation key. He also sold me charts for German, French, English, and a few other languages that he said appear in this book."
Kazuya sniffed. "Well, go ahead and try another spell."
Shun turned the page. "Let's try one in Dutch." He began reading again.
In Nagasaki, a beautiful naked woman with long blond hair and distinct European features froze in midair, unable to press closer towards her sleeping victim. Her nature demanded that her physical need be satisfied, but the power that summoned her was too strong. With a strangled cry of fury she turned and floated towards the northeast.
"I guess that sounded okay," Kazuya said. "I'm not sure, though. What was it?"
"'To hold a succubus at bay,' the book says," Shun said. "I don't know what a succubus is, but if it's in here, it must be helpful."
"I suppose," Kazuya said dubiously.
"Well, it must be. Oh, here's one in Russian. It's supposed to put something called a rusalka to rest."
North of Hokkaido in a lake on the island of Sakhalin, a pale girl emerged from the water, wading ashore, ignoring the cold air that washed against her flesh. Her clothing hung in tatters about her, providing little protection from the weather or anything else, but she didn't care. By rights she knew she shouldn't be able to leave her lake, but something was calling her, something to the south. She began her journey.
"That didn't sound too bad," Kazuya admitted. "So, what's next?"
* * *
Shinobu froze as a chill ran down his spine. "Something's going on," he said, frowning slightly.
Mitsuru looked down at him from his bunk. "What?"
"Something's happening next door," Shinobu said. "In Shun and Kazuya's room. Something's not right. Put your ear to the wall and listen to what they're doing."
Mitsuru, hearing the note of worry in Shinobu's voice--in the voice of someone who he'd never seen or heard worried before--and the tension that possessed his roommate's frame, immediately rolled over and pressed his ear against the wall between rooms 211 and 210.
* * *
"English," Shun said. "This one's supposed to drive a vampire away for at least twenty-four hours." He looked up. "I guess the only way to kill it is to stake it."
"I guess so."
* * *
Mitsuru's eyes widened as he listened to the conversation next door.
"I summon you forth, vampire. You will come to me and you will obey my every command. By the cursed blood that flows from you up to him who first sold his soul at the Scholomance, I command you to present yourself to me and bow before me. I am your new master, and you will do everyting that I say."
In Shinuku a handsome young American teenager froze as he leaned in to kiss the neck of the Japanese girl he'd succeeded in spiriting away from the main streets. With a snarl of displeasure he drew away and, after tampering with the girl's memory, stalked off towards the train station, his thirst unslaked.
"They're summoning vampires!" Mitsuru exclaimed.
"What?" Shinobu said sharply.
"But that's ridiculous," Mitsuru said. "There's no such things as--"
"And there are no such things as ghosts, either, except we both know about Misako, don't we?"
"I--"
Shinobu got up. "I'm going to put a stop to this before it gets any worse."
Mitsuru jumped down from his bunk and followed his roommate out the door.
* * *
"That one didn't sound quite right," Kazuya said. "In fact, it sounded more like you summoned a vampire than banished one."
Shun shrugged. "Well, it probably didn't work anyway. Here's one in Sumerian," he continued. "It's supposed to be the one used to banish Tiamat from the world. Let's see--"
The door flew open. "Let's not," Mitsuru said.
"Sempai!" Shun and Kazuya exclaimed. "What's wrong?"
Shinobu walked over to Shun and took the book from him. He scanned the page carefully. "Shun, where did you get this book?"
"I bought it at a bookstore when I went to visit my aunty today. Why?"
Shinbou frowned. "You just read this one to banish a vampire, right?"
"Yes."
"Shun, this is a spell to summon a vampire, not banish one."
"I told you," Kazuya said from his bed.
"But it says that it's supposed to banish a vampire for a day!"
Shinobu shook his head. "Shun, I don't know what's going on, but these spells are real. I felt something just now when you finished this spell, and it wasn't nice. How many of these did you read aloud?"
"Four or five, I think," Shun said, his voice quavering. "Sempai, what's going to happen?"
"I don't know," Shinobu said. "Let me research this and I'll see if there's a way to reverse these spells."
Mitsuru shook his head. "Shun, why would you even buy a book like this?"
"I was looking for a way to exorcise ghosts," Shun said defensively.
Mitsuru blinked. "What?"
"I just wanted to have something ready in case Misako came back with those friends of hers," Shun explained.
There was a sudden chill in the air. "Konban wa, Mitsuru-kun!" a cheery voice called out.
Mitsuru gasped and scrambled away from the door as a girl's head poked through the door, followed soon after by he body.
"MISAKO!" Mitsuru cried.
"Oh, hello, everybody!" Misako said, smiling. "It's been a long time, hasn't it?" She started to say something more, but she happened to glance towards Shinobu. Her eyes started to water. She turned and stared accusingly at Mitsuru. "Mitsuru-kun, how could you? Now you're trying to exorcise me!" Tears poured down her cheeks and she drew in breath to scream.
"Misako," Shinobu said calmly, "please don't cry tonight. Hasukawa's recovering from a bad tumble, and he can't afford to get hit by flying debris tonight."
Misako's tears immediately disappeared. She walked through the kotatsu to the bed. "Oh, are you all right?" she asked.
Kazuya managed a tight smile. "I'm getting better," he said as calmly as he could. "Thank you for not crying, Misako."
"Of course," she said, smiling. Then her face fell. "But Mitsuru-kun doesn't care about me anymore."
"I..." Mitsuru stammered. "I--"
"Misako," Shinobu said, turning around. "Regardless of what you may think, this isn't necessarily about you. Someone sold Shun a book that purports to exorcise or banish spirits, but which actually summons them instead. Something is very wrong, and we need to figure out what's going on before any trouble arises. Do you think you could help us?"
Misako frowned and assumed a thinking position. "Well," she said slowly, "if Shun summoned any hostile spirits, they'll need to kill him in order to free themselves."
Shun swallowed. "Kill?"
Misako nodded. Then she smiled. "But, since most evil spirits can't stand holy objects, you'll be fine if you have some sort of religious icon with you."
"Here," Mitsuru said, reaching into his pocket and holding out a charm. "You can have this. It should work, at least until you can get something stronger."
"What is it?" Shun asked.
"It's from my family's temple," Mitsuru explained. "My grandfather blessed it, so it will provide some protection."
"Thank you, sempai," Shun said.
"Since that's all taken care of," Shinobu said, "let's start looking for a solution to our problems."
"Hai!" everyone shouted.
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