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.
"It's hard to believe it's all over," Mitsuru said softly.
Shinobu glanced at his roommate. "It's not over yet," he warned.
Mitsuru sighed. "I know," he said. "But at least this part is."
Shinobu nodded. He understood what his friend meant.
The mummy was gone. After nearly a month of worry and concern the ancient corpse had finally dissolved into dust, and the spirit that had animated it released to return to whatever paradise existed for ancient Egyptian spirits. No more would its passage leave behind illness. No more would it weigh heavily on his, Kazuya's, Mitsuru's, and--once they told him--Shun's mind. The museum in Osaka might continue to clamor for its missing mummy, but the dangerous mischief caused by the book was finally at and end.
Of course, as he'd told Mitsuru, it wasn't over yet. They still had a rusalka to return to her homeland...and a friend to release from a supernatural prison. Not to mention getting rid of the book entirely.
Shinobu sighed softly, then looked around.
Kazuya and Haru were walking together a few steps behind him. Aoki was on Kazuya's other side, talking with relative ease with the other two, but Shinobu could tell that Aoki wasn't as sure of himself as he seemed. That was understandable: Haru was a newcomer who plainly wasn't entirely human, so of course Aoki would be nervous. Aoki, though, was the only one brave enough to come anywhere close to Haru. All the others, including Tochizawa, were lagging far behind, and he could tell from their wide eyes that the whole thing had completely stunned them. He didn't know why it should, since they all knew Misako. Still, Aoki was radiating a great deal of animation and interest, more than he'd expect from someone confronted with what everyone believed to be an impossibility.
Shinobu sighed again. How much trouble could they have avoided if Misako had only told them sooner about the mummy? If only Mitsuru had let her tell him what she had to share! Then again, he wondered if finding out so late had actually worked in their favor. Would he have found the solution to their problem if they hadn't actually been in the middle of the situation? He really couldn't say for certain.
What he could say, though, was that he now had an idea of how they could complete the task of destroying the book. It would take two more occasions of turning the book's power against itself before they'd be free of it.
Shinobu left off his musings when he sensed Kazuya catching up to them. He had apparently left Aoki and Haru behind. Even more apparently, they had found some sort of common ground between them, because the two were discussing something with extreme liveliness.
"Sempai," Kazuya said, "can you explain something to me?"
"I can try," Shinobu said.
"Why did reading a spell the book provided work the way it did?" Kazuya asked. "Why did it cause the first break in the spine when the spell came from the book itself?"
"I sort of wondered about that myself," Mitsuru added.
Shinobu sighed. "Look, let's save the hard questions for when we get back to Greenwood," he said. "I'd rather be sitting down when I explain all of this."
Kazuya sighed. "Okay," he said reluctantly.
Shinobu nodded. "What are Aoki and Haru talking about?" he asked, changing the subject.
Kazuya made a disgusted sound. "Here I've known Haru longer than anyone else here, and with two questions Aoki manages to find out something that he never told me."
"And that would be?" Mitsuru prompted.
"Oh, nothing much," Kazuya said sourly, "except that it turns out that Haru enjoys playing video games."
"It stands to reason," Shinobu said calmly.
"You expected it?" Mitsuru asked.
"I suspected it," Shinobu corrected. "Even with all that Tokyo's nightlife has to offer, there are still limits to what someone as young as Haru can do. The movie theaters don't run all night and not all clubs stay open until sunrise, but there are 24-hour arcades where Haru can pass the time while...shall we say...he looks for a drink."
"But how did you know--"
"I didn't, Kazuya," Shinobu said. "I suspected. Now I know." He paused. "I'm surprised that Aoki's so interested, though."
Kazuya shook his head. "He's even agreed to invite Haru into the arcade so they can have a contest."
"Hmm," Mitsuru said, rubbing his chin. "Maybe we can start a betting pool on who will win."
"And will you explain to everyone just who Haru is?" Shinobu said pointedly. "I'm sure the entire dormitory will be pleased to know there's a vampire living in the attic."
"Oh," Mitsuru said softly. "I hadn't thought of that."
"I didn't think you had," Shinobu said gently. "But that's not important right now. What's important is that we keep Haru's identity a secret--to the extent that we can, since Aoki and the others know the truth--and start planning our next step in defeating the book and freeing Haru and the rusalka."
"No," Kazuya said.
Shinobu stared at him. "What?"
"What's important right now is sneaking back into Greenwood without the dorm lady catching us."
Shinobu grinned slightly. "Leave everything to me," he said.
* * *
"You can't be serious!" Kazuya hissed.
"Just go right on in," Shinobu told him. And he walked in the front doors of Greenwood.
Kazuya's jaw dropped, then he blinked as the other boys passed him and went inside. Then, with a shocked glance at Mitsuru, he followed them in.
Mitsuru bit back a smirk as he followed his friend. He didn't blame Kazuya for being so surprised. Of course, if he'd been paying more attention when they left to begin with, he would have known how they'd get back in. Or, if not known, at least suspected.
He glanced down the hallway to where Shinobu was approaching the dorm lady where she sat behind her counter.
"Could you find any constellations?" he heard her ask.
"Unfortunately, no," Shinobu answered. "There were too many high clouds. We did see Orion's belt, though."
Kazuya had stopped and was staring at the conversation. Mitsuru grinned, then pushed his friend ahead of him and up the stairs. He kept pushing him until they'd reached 211. The rest of the boys were already waiting inside.
"How did he do that?" Kazuya demanded the moment the door shut behind them.
"You weren't listening when we left," Mitsuru scolded. "He told the dorm lady that we were going to go do some stargazing. He made it sound very convincing."
"Yeah," Tochizawa said, smiling. "We had to go to the track because it was an open space and there wasn't as much glare from the city lights as there is here."
Just then Shinobu entered the room. Everyone immediately fell silent.
"Before you say anything," he said, "I realize that what we saw tonight was tonight was amazing and extraordinary. However, for the sake of everyone who lives in Greenwood, I must ask that you all keep it a secret. Forget that you saw a mummy shambling towards you tonight, forget that you saw a vampire materialize out of a cloud of mist tonight, and especially forget that Hasukawa said something in a strange language that stopped the mummy and sent it back to wherever its spirit came from."
"No body would believe us anyway," Furusawa said.
"You'd be surprised who would believe you," Shinobu said.
Mitsuru nodded. "There are reporters out there who would do anything for a story, and that's not even mentioning what American tabloid reporters would do if they came here and didn't get enough of a story to pay their way back."
"America?" Tochizawa's eyes were wide, and Mitsuru could see that he was dreaming of international exposure for his future career. He moved to head that off quickly.
"They'd dig into our personal lives for news," he said, staring hard at Tochizawa. "They'll take the smallest thing and blow it all out of proportion into something far from the truth but that their readers will eat up. And that's not even mentioning what the school would do to us if they found out some of our secrets." Now he glanced over at Aoki. "And we all have secrets, don't we? Like a profitable video arcade in a school dormitory?" He looked at Furusawa. "Or a boy who sleeps with his bike?"
"Okay," Aoki said quickly. "We get the picture."
"Good," Shinobu said quietly. "Tochizawa, I won't confiscate your video tape, on the condition that you never let anyone but those in this room see it."
Mitsuru frowned. "Or," he added, shooting a glance at his roommate, "unless you can fit it into a new movie and pass it off as being created by special effects."
Shinobu nodded. "That would also be acceptable."
Tochizawa nodded. His eyes started to twinkle. "I can see it now!" he said excitedly. "'The Mummy of Greenwood'! And we can always say the theft of the mummy from the museum was the inspiration for it!"
"That's a good idea," Mitsuru said. "Work on it, and maybe you can enter it into another contest. We'll all help."
"We will?" Kazuya demanded sharply.
"Yes," Mitsuru said, glaring at the younger boy. Kazuya looked away, muttering to himself.
"Now you'd all better get back to your rooms," Shinobu said. "It's getting late, and Mitsuru, Hasukawa, and I have things we need to discuss before we go to bed."
The boys began filing out. Aoki was the last to go. "Tell Haru to come to my room later, okay?" he said. "With Sakaguchi away, we can play for several hours after I close the arcade."
Mitsuru frowned. "Aoki, are you sure you want to invite a vampire into your room?"
"Sure!" the younger boy said cheerfully. "What's a little blood lost when I'll have the chance to challenge someone who claims to be as good as I am?" He waved over his shoulder as he closed the door behind him.
"What's a little blood lost, indeed," Mitsuru said.
* * *
"Now can we talk?" Kazuya asked.
"Let's go next door," Shinobu-sempai said. "We should include Haru in our discussion."
Kazuya sighed, then followed his friends next door to his room. Haru was sitting on the lower bunk, having entered the room earlier as mist while they'd brazenly walked in the front door. Kazuya still couldn't believe they'd gotten away with it.
"I was wondering when you'd show up," Haru said.
Kazuya managed a slight grin, but he was too tired to keep it up. He sank down onto the bunk beside Haru, then swung his legs up so he could stretch out.
"Okay," Shinobu-sempai said, sitting at one of the desks. "What do you want to know, Kazuya?"
Kazuya propped himself up on his elbows. "Well, for starters, where did you get the idea for the spell?"
"I can answer that one," Mitsuru said as he sat at the other desk. "Remember what I said? When Shun read the spells to banish a spirit, he ended up summoning it instead. So theoretically, a spell to summon a good spirit to aid us could possibly banish it instead."
"Wouldn't it have called up a spirit instead?" Kazuya countered.
Shinobu-sempai shook his head. "The spells Shun was reading were supposedly designed to banish evil spirits."
"Haru's not evil," Kazuya interrupted quickly.
"He knows that," Haru said gently. "But the book doesn't know that."
Kazuya blinked. "What? Now I'm really confused."
"Maybe we should start from the beginning," Mitsuru said.
Kazuya nodded vigorously. "Yes, please! From the beginning!"
As he listened to his two sempai, he realized that he already knew a lot of what was going on. He just hadn't understood it correctly. Shun had read spells to banish evil spirits, but the book had summoned them instead. Only, as he knew from his experiences with Haru, the rusalka, and the mummy, the spirits Shun had summoned were merely those closest to the book, even if "close" meant could mean in the middle of Tokyo or all the way north to Russia. The succubus was the only truly evil spirit summoned.
"The book has no intelligence," Shinobu-sempai said. "Shun read the spells, and theoretically the book should have tried to ensnare an evil mummy, or an evil vampire, or an evil rusalka. Instead, it only summoned those of each type closest at hand."
"I think I understand now," Kazuya said slowly. "Now explain why that particular spell worked in freeing the mummy."
"I'll try this one," Haru said. Kazuya looked at his friend.
"Basically," Haru said, "the spells Shun read were to banish supposedly evil spirits. Instead, they summoned them. Now, Shinobu told you to look for a spell to summon a good spirit to aid you. The book twisted that around and banished a good spirit instead."
"But that could have worked in another way," Kazuya protested. His head was starting to hurt. "It could have summoned an evil spirit instead of a good one."
"Not really," Shinobu-sempai said. "The book seems to work by doing the opposite of what it claims to do. Instead of banishing evil, it summons it. By extension, instead of summoning good, it banishes it."
Kazuya sighed. His head was really hurting now. "Okay," he muttered. "Let's forget about that for now. Why was the spell so...so polite?"
"That's true, isn't it?" Mitsuru said. "That spell did seem pretty respectful. I mean, it was nothing like how some of those old western monster movies portrayed it."
"Actually," Haru said, "I thought it was just more formal. It did command the spirit to leave, but without anything really offensive, like 'Begone, foul demon' or any of that kind of thing."
"True," Shinobu-sempai said. "Remember also that any good spirit that was here to be banished wouldn't likely be a demon or monster. That sort of rhetoric wouldn't work on them anyway. So instead, the book chose words that would be more appropriate to an angel or guardian spirit."
"I guess that makes sense too," Kazuya said. "Okay, now here's the thing I really have trouble with. Why didn't the book stop us?"
"You mean, why didn't it keep us from using its power to release the mummy?" Mitsuru asked. "That's because it's just a book. It couldn't stop us even if it wanted to."
Kazuya blinked. "What?"
"What Mitsuru is trying to say," Shinobu-sempai said, "is that the book isn't alive. It has no mind of its own. Apparently it is able to provide us with the spell we want, but that's all. It could no more prevent us from freeing the mummy than it could get up and walk away."
"But that book is evil!" Kazuya protested. "Surely that means something!"
"The book itself isn't evil," Haru said gently. "All a book is...all any book is...is words on a page. And the book itself has no power in and of itself. The power of a book lies in those words, and the effect those words have on the reader. Granted, this isn't an ordinary book, but the same truth applies. The power of the book lies in the words on its pages."
"Even that doesn't mean anything," Mitsuru said slowly. "Words are just words, until we put them into a certain order that gives them sense and meaning."
"They're both right, Kazuya," Shinobu-sempai said. "The book itself is not evil. And, to be honest, the power contained in the book isn't evil either."
Kazuya stared at him. "But--"
"Power is just power, Kazuya," Mitsuru said. "It's how that power is used that makes it good or evil."
"But--"
"Kazuya, think of it this way," Haru said. "The book is not evil. The words in it are not evil. The power contained in the book is not evil. But the intent behind the creation and writing and purpose of the book is evil."
"That makes sense," Mitsuru said. "Let's see. Someone who knew how to designed the book to contain power. Then, that same person wrote the spells in the book, but because he--or she--had a darker reason for writing the book, those spells are mislabeled so that banishing an evil spirit summons one instead."
"That book was definitely written with evil intentions," Shinobu-sempai said. "I can sense it, and I'm sure Haru can sense it as well."
"Yes," Haru said, nodding.
"So let me get this straight," Kazuya said slowly, closing his eyes. "What you two are sensing is the intent of the person that wrote the book?"
"Yes."
"And that intent was evil."
"Yes."
"And the power we used to free the mummy came from the book."
"Yes."
"And the book is not evil."
"Yes."
"Yes, it is evil, or yes, it is not evil?"
"Yes, it is not evil."
"And the power contained in the book is not evil."
"Yes."
"Yes, it--"
"Get on with it, Kazuya," Mitsuru snapped.
Kazuya glared at him. "I'm trying to get this straight, all right?" He looked back at Shinobu-sempai. "If all that's true, then why did the spine of the book crack?"
"It's because we twisted the intent with which the book was written," Shinobu-sempai said."
"I don't understand again," Kazuya complained.
"The book was written with evil intent, right?" Haru said.
Kazuya nodded. "I understand that part."
"Okay," Haru said. "Basically, the whole purpose for the book's existence is to do evil. It contains neutral power that is meant to be used for evil deeds. When someone read a supposedly good spell, the idea was that doing the opposite--like summoning a mummy instead of laying it to rest, or banishing a good spirit instead of summoning it--would be an evil deed."
"We turned all that around," Shinobu-sempai said. "We actually used a good spell that should have resulted in an evil deed to do a good deed. And doing that went directly against the whole purpose of the book. So, as a result, the spine cracked."
"Did that make sense?" Mitsuru asked.
Kazuya closed his eyes. Everything was slowly falling into place in his mind. "It did," he said slowly. "I think I understand it all now. So what we have to do, then, is find spells that will set Haru and the rusalka free, and that will destroy the book."
"It's not that simple, I'm afraid," Shinobu-sempai said.
Kazuya felt suddenly cold. "It isn't?"
"It won't be enough to just release Haru and the rusalka from the summoning spells," his friend said. "That will just balance things out. We need to do something that will definitely offset the balance in our favor."
"Any ideas?" Kazuya asked hopefully.
Shinobu-sempai shook his head. "Not right now," he said. "Today's events have left me exhausted. Let's sleep on it and talk about it again tomorrow morning."
"But--" Kazuya broke off as a huge yawn overtook him.
"You see?" Shinobu-sempai said, smiling. He stood up. "Haru, I'll take you over to Aoki's room. He wants to challenge you to a game of some sort."
Haru grinned. "Great! I hope I'm not too rusty after all this time."
"He also said something about losing some blood."
"I didn't ask him for blood," Haru said quickly.
"I didn't think you had," Shinobu-sempai said. "He did."
"Oh. Well, that's different, then."
Kazuya sighed as he watched the two leave the room. Then he closed his eyes as another yawn overtook him.
* * *
Mitsuru grinned as he watched Shinobu and Haru leave the room. It was surprising how well they got along. It was also surprising to hear Shinobu making small joke here and there. He wondered if Haru had something to do with that.
"Aniki?"
Mitsuru turned and looked at Kazuya. "Yes?" He frowned when he saw that the younger boy's eyes were closed. "Are you all right?"
Kazuya's eyes opened. "I'm fine," he said, smiling.
Mitsuru sighed, relieved. "Good. Did you want something?"
"I want to tell you something," Kazuya said.
Mitsuru got up and crossed over to the bunk. "Yes?"
"It was nice of you to offer your blood to Haru tonight," Kazuya said softly. "I know you weren't sure about it when you first met Haru."
Mitsuru felt himself flushing. "Well, I thought he needed it at the time." Then he sighed. "Although, as it turns out, he didn't really need it."
"It was still nice of you," Kazuya insisted.
Mitsuru shrugged. "Actually, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I guess it was almost...nice." He looked at his friend. "Is that the way it is for you, too?"
Kazuya nodded. "There's a brief moment of pain...no, just discomfort...when he first bites, then...it's like someone's singing me a lullaby or something."
Mitsuru nodded. "It was like that for me, too."
Kazuya sighed. "I guess you won't be giving him anymore of your blood, will you?"
"What makes you say that?" Mitsuru said.
Kazuya blinked at him. "You mean, you will?"
Mitsuru shrugged. "I can't let you and Shinobu--and Aoki now, I guess--take the entire burden yourselves. If he can take blood from the three of us--I mean, four of us--then we'll be just a little stronger ourselves. He won't leave you as weak as you've been."
Kazuya stared at him, then smiled. "You're a good guy, aniki," he said. "I knew there was a reason I loved you."
Mitsuru blinked, then grinned. He leaned forward until his nose was almost touching Kazuya's. "I love you too," he whispered. Then he kissed Kazuya's forehead.
"Now get some rest," he said as he straightened and stood up. "Tell Shinobu that I'm going down to bathe and that he can invite Haru into our room." He started for the door.
"Good night, aniki."
"Good night, Kazuya. Sleep well."
Get your own Free Home Page