After having finished their talks, the detectives were invited in to the headmaster's office so they could discuss their findings together without being overheard by the students or other members of staff. Blythe communicated the details of what they heard in the canteen with Shaun and Jeffrey, and the detectives decided to do some further research. Inside the headmaster's office, there was a large bookshelf lined with documents, including the personal information of staff and students, as well as some old files detailing the history of this piece of land on which the school stood. Apparently, the land used to belong to a wealthy aristocratic family during the Edo period. However, it was later sold at an extraordinarily cheap price to the ancestor of the school's owner for unstated reasons. It had served as a local primary school since then for over a hundred years before the old buildings were knocked down about a decade ago and was recently rebuilt into a more modern campus.
"Hmm, I wonder why this land was sold at such a cheap price," said Shaun pensively.
"Let's search on the internet to see what we can find about the ghost in the white kimono," suggested Jeffrey as he turned on the computer.
After examining loads of irrelevant information, the detectives came across the personal webpage of a professor of traditional Japanese folklore studies at Tokyo University, whose name was Kiriyama Kyosuke.
"Hey, look!" said Jeffrey, drawing everyone's attention. "It says here that Professor Kiriyama has published an encyclopedia on traditional Japanese folklores and myths and there's a small chapter in his book entitled "The Lover's Curse". Apparently, it's about a lady cursed to death by her husband's lover during the Edo period."
"Hmm, we could go and check out the book at the Tokyo Metropolitan Central Library," suggested Shaun. "It'll definitely have a copy there."
"And we could visit this professor directly as well," said Blythe. "I've a feeling that he knows more than what he's written in his book."
After emailing the professor and stating their wish of discussing more about his encyclopedia, Professor Kiriyama agreed to meet them and they arranged to meet up with him on the following lunchtime, at a high-end restaurant in Nihonbashi called Akatonbo (meaning red dragonfly in Japanese).
"こんにちは！What is it that you want to discuss with me?" asked the professor in Japanese after they met up at the fancy restaurant. He was a bald man in his late fifties, wearing a traditional Japanese kimono and Geta. Luckily, both Shaun and Blythe were fluent in Japanese, so they was able to communicate with him. Jeffrey felt completely left out as he was the only one who did not understand a single word of the language. After sitting down, the professor ordered a whole table of Japanese delicacies, sushi, sashimi, oden, seafood tempura, which ended up taking up the entire table space. Blythe glimpsed at the bill and was astounded to discover that it all amounted to a considerable sum.
"Jeffie, why did we choose to meet up here? This seems to be an extraneously expensive restaurant! And who's gonna pay for all this?" whispered Blythe to Jeffrey, who was sitting opposite to her.
"The prof asked us to meet up here and I'm guessing we have to pay for all this," responded Jeffrey, shrugging. "Well, by "we", I mean Tiffany. She's paying for all our expenses here. Don't worry about her, she's rich."
"Poor Tiffany," muttered Blythe, shaking her head.
~To be Continued~
No comments:
Post a Comment