Ripped & Encoded by LadyN
Sitting at the door of darkness...
...talking to myself, this love will never die.
Searching for a trace in silence...
Hunting out the time to let my soul to fly...
...to break the chain of love and hate to set us free again.
Ride the wind to get to the land of joy.
When there's no fear, no pain, you can fly like a bird.
Seize the day and get to the land of joy.
Take me there, brand new dawn...
...into the mirage of blaze.
Take me there...
Some guy showed up in class that l've never seen before...
...and apparently he's my best friend!
Maybe you're the only one that's correct.
Please be careful.
There is something strange about that school.
Endless Conflict
Hey, did you hear?
Yeah l did, it showed itself again!
ln the northern building, right?
Yup.
A man wearing a white kimono covered in blood...
...was standing with a hateful look on his face.
Good morning Ougi!
What's up with him?
Can't you at least say ''Hey'' or something?
Morning Takaya.
You made it just in time.
Morning, Ougi.
So have you recovered from that amnesia?
l don't remember a damn thing.
You must really hate me for something, if you forget your best buddy.
Why would l hate you if we've never met before?
Did you really forget about me?
l thought we had a good solid friendship.
Cut the crap!
l don't ever remember...
Everyone, go to your seats.
l don't remember...
...do l?
No, that's not it...
Have l seen him somewhere before?
He's not in here.
What are you doing, Takaya?
Sir, you don't know a guy named Shuhei Chiaki, right?
What are you saying, of course l know who Chiaki is.
Then why isn't he on the attendance list?
Of course he is, take a good...
Huh, that's strange.
There's no doubt about it.
Chiaki didn't exist until yesterday.
But why won't anyone notice?
Could he possibly hypnotize everyone?
ls he...
Hurry up, Saori!
Come on, wait up!
This energy...
Go ahead and try it, it's really stupid.
Eighty-three pounds...
Hey, Narita!
Are you all right?
Yuzuru!
l'm all right, l felt a little light-headed.
And, why are you guys here?
Remember we mentioned we'd be stopping by today?
Yuzuru, you don't look too good.
Go home early today.
The teacher said the same thing.
l'll go get your bag.
lt's okay, Chiaki said he'd get it for me.
Chiaki did?
Yup.
Hey, Naoe.
l'm sure you drove here...
Give Yuzuru a ride in that luxury car of yours, all right?
Of course.
Please come to the front when you're ready.
l'll bring the car around.
What's with that attitude?
l don't remember Kagetora being so hoity-toity.
Lord Kagetora is a normal high school student named Takaya Ougi right now.
l know.
Anyway, this school is like a pit of spiritual energy.
l'm sure this is the reason why he fainted.
Speaking of which...
Did you find anything about Yuzuru Narita?
All l can tell is he's no ordinary human.
Not even with your power?
Only somebody with powerful spiritual ability like Kosaka could figure it out.
You're asking a bit much.
Yuzuru Narita is a threat to the Realms of the Six Beings...
What is Kosaka's intention?
Naoe.
l know.
Oh, l just remembered.
l have to return some sheet music the club today.
ls it in our classroom?
l'll return it for you.
Who do l give it to?
Hatayama the freshman, class five.
You met him yesterday, we're in band together.
Hatayama.
l got it.
Yuzuru asked me to give this to you, it's all yours.
ls something wrong with Narita?
He's not feeling well so he's leaving early.
See you.
Excuse me, Ougi...
You know my name?
Yes, Yuzuru has told me about you.
Would you want to go see how he's doing later together?
Sorry, no thanks.
That's too bad.
l was hoping you could tell me about the story of how you exorcised...
...Shingen Takeda's ghost.
What did you say?
Oh, well...
l heard that you exorcised ghosts, so...
Yuzuru told you?
Yes.
You really believe something like that?
l believe it.
lt's coming from the infirmary...
Yuzuru!
Takaya, look!
Did you hear?
Yeah, l heard that even the ambulance came.
The guys in the baseball club were injured, right?
Yup, the glass windows suddenly burst during practice.
They will be hospitalized for a while.
lt has to be the ghosts!
A girl witnessed a guy covered in blood wearing a white kimono with a...
...topknot on his head, standing next to the injured kid!
Are you serious?
Hey Ougi...
l need to talk to you about something.
There're some similarities.
Meaning?
The ghost Morino and l saw sounds similar.
The others who saw it..
...say it had a topknot like a samurai and wearing a white kimono.
And one more thing...
Eighty-three pounds!
Eighty-three pounds?
lt's the measuring system from the Edo period...
That ghost said ''Eighty-three pounds.''
l've heard the same ghost story when l was in middle school.
My middle school was built on the execution ground of the Kasuke Uprising.
Kasuke Uprising?
You're referring to the incident that happened in 1686?
The farmers surrounded the Matsumoto Castle...
...and demanded their taxes be lowered, right?
Yes.
At the time, the Matsumoto prefecture faced financial crisis...
...and tried to remedy that by raising the tax on the farmers.
The tax was raised from 83 lbs to 116 lbs of rice.
The farmers' struggling lives were further pressured...
...and some had started to raise their voices of resentment against the tyranny.
A group, led by Kasuke Tada and other leaders from villages...
...demanded the tax be lowered.
They marched to Matsumoto Castle to make their demands to the Lord.
Then, the farmers from the various villages who supported them...
...grabbed their farm tools and started to gather.
The number had risen to ten thousand people...
...and had become an unprecedented riot.
So the Lord accepted Kasuke's demand in alarm.
Right.
Then it was a great success, right?
But it wasn't.
The uprising didn't end in victory.
Later, the authorities arrested the ringleaders...
...and took back their promise to lower the tax.
And executed Kasuke and the other leaders.
l won't forget the promise!
lt's eighty-three pounds!
Eighty-three pounds!
And the place where they were executed is my middle school.
You supposedly hear voices sometimes...
Kasuke's last words, 'Eighty-three pounds.'
But then why is Kasuke's spirit haunting this high school?
He has nothing to do with this school...
You're right.
He is a location-bound spirit...
lt's strange that he'd come here.
We should do a spiritual survey.
Saori, will you bring us there?
Yes.
Giminzuka
Giminzuka October `986
This is where Kasuke's remains are buried...
...after the school found out about the execution ground.
Haruie.
Okay.
Any response?
Nothing.
Kasuke and the others' souls aren't here anymore.
Have they gone for the other world?
No, they're not at peace.
Just as l expected...
...the radient energy here is the same as the ghosts at school.
Those ghosts are definitely Kasuke and the rest.
And one more thing...
Someone recently did a spirit-guidance.
What?
What's a spirit-guidance?
lt is to steer a spirit.
Someone released them from the bind from this location...
...and guided them elsewhere.
This is no mere spirit-guidance.
The spiritual energy here doesn't have any ill will, it's more of a protective will.
Kasuke's spirits were well taken care of, and they turned into guardian spirits.
But when they showed up at Jyohoku High...
...they had become vengeful spirits.
This is probably...
...a hypnotic spirit-guidance.
Right.
Excuse me, you two.
Can you explain this so we can understand too?
Meaning, someone hypnotized Kasuke and the others' spirits.
Someone awoke their calmed hatred...
...and turned them back into vengeful spirits.
You can hypnotize a spirit?
Someone might be trying to exploit Kasuke and the others' hatred and powers.
Exploit?
For what?
There must be a reason for them to call them upon your school using a...
...hypnotic spirit-guidance...
What's at our school?
Maybe what they're after is you, Kagetora.
Me?
Why me?
l didn't do anything!
lt's probably one of the spirits of the vengeful warlords.
With such an explosive debut like that, the other warlords must have heard by now.
Kagetora Uesugi is a threat to every vengeful warlord.
lt's not surprising that they're trying to kill you.
O-Ougi, l'm going to take a hiatus from being your friend for a while.
Please rest in peace!
Y-You got to be kidding me, l'm not Kagetora!
For Heaven's sake, you have to stop being in denial!
Now that you have your power back...
...this was going to happen eventually.
But who would do such a thing...
lt must be someone who has tremendous power.
ls it...
So, what did you want to talk to me about?
l think it's you who has something to talk about.
What do you mean?
Don't play dumb!
Your hypnotism didn't work on me!
What the hell are you talking about?
Maybe you should really go to the hospital.
You think you can keep shrugging me off like this?
l know you hypnotized everyone and snuck into school...
And you woke up Kasuke's spirit and brought him here, so you could...
What's so funny?
l tried to do what to you?
You weren't thinking, were you?
You're interrogating someone who could be your enemy?
lt's like asking to be killed.
You bastard, so it is you!
Stop your whining!
You've turned into such a brat since l've last seen you, Kagetora.
Keep a low profile.
lf a guy like you, who can't even control your power, tries anything...
...you'll get yourself killed.
Are you sure, Naoe?
l think Kagetora is jumping to conclusions.
l'm sure you-know-who has a reason for infiltrating like that.
Maybe it's best that we don't carelessly approach him.
The problem is Lord Kagetora.
He's no help to us right now.
What are we going to do?
lf this goes on, we might end up having to exorcise Kasuke and the others.
lt's against the rules to exorcise guardian spirits.
Hopefully we can somehow undo the hypnotism.
You're suggesting we depend on Nagahide?
Our opponent is powerful enough to do a hypnotic spirit-guidance.
l'm not sure if he can compete with this one.
Chiaki, are you...
lf you value your present body, stay under their protection.
Are you referring to Naoe and Ayako?
You really don't remember a thing?
lgnorance is bliss.
Are you...
Are you on my side?
lt really rubs me the wrong way when you say it like that.
Are you all right?
Ambulance!
Call an ambulance!
Eighty-three pounds...
ls this...
...my fault?
Eighty-three pounds...
ls it really my fault?
Oh you're back.
Oh my goodness!
You're soaked!
You didn't take an umbrella?
You're going to catch a cold.
l'll bring a change of clothes, so hurry up and take a shower.
lf you value your present body, stay under their protection.
How is the onion soup?
Or do you want creamed corn instead?
Are you cold?
No, l'm all right.
Good.
l learned how to make Japanese-style hashed beef at Home-Ec today.
Tonight's dinner is hashed beef!
l always appreciate your doing this...
Oh, stop it!
Don't talk like we're strangers.
You're acting really strange lately, Takaya.
l came all the way to see you, you can at least act like you're sick.
l'm feeling much better.
l'll be in school tomorrow.
Don't come to school!
Did something happen?
l'm not Kagetora, but those guys keep following me and calling me Kagetora.
On top of that, all these strange things are happening.
Takaya...
lt's not me...
...but if l admit l'm Kagetora, what happens to the real Takaya?
There's another real Takaya Ougi and l'm the one who took his body!
Does that mean l killed Miya's real brother?
l can't accept that!
You are Miya's brother.
The one who Miya depends on and trusts is you.
No matter what name you're called, you're you.
That won't change.
Yuzuru...
Doesn't look like it's going to stop.
Yeah.
By the way...
...did you tell anyone about Shingen's vengeful spirit?
No, why?
Okay then.
Where are you going?
l'm leaving.
Leaving to where?
Home, where else?
See you later.
ls everything ready?
Everything is set, Master Ranmaru.
l'd really like it if you could exorcise some ghosts.
You asked for it, now you're gonna get it.
Kagetora, hurry up and show yourself.
There're people who are dying to see you.
Who cares about exorcism!
l'll beat you all with my bare hands!
Yes, come, so you can save the students.
Show me the power that blew Shingen away!
You will become the fallen hero...
...Ougi...
To be continued