Hi! Something really sad happened today! My desk chair died!!! He just kinda fell apart... I got like 5 years ago, used, from my aunt. He was a good chair... I am excited to get a new one though! My dad said that I'd finally get a nice desk chair!! Right now I'm borrowing one from the office. I had some trouble while writing this chapter... My computer was being weird so I had to use task manager to switch from Microtsoft Word to the game. And then it started freaking out and just kept switching from one to the other!!! It was crazy but it finally calmed down and I got it to work again. Oh, and my computer is trying to restart to complete some updates so I had to deal with that... Anyway, enjoy!!! =D

Chapter 23

            “I saw some of the guests leave, they seemed pretty spooked,” I told Rentaro.

            “Yeah. Those poor people…” he said.

            “What happened?”

            “Who knows, they were too upset to make any sense. But I took care of their room after they left. I admit, it was a little spooky. Everything was torn up, like someone had taken the whole ryokan and given it a shake – and the shoji had turned this dark ash color – something weird happened in there.”

            “Do you know what scared the other guests away?”

            “Silly superstitions. I don’t get it. We have ghost hunters who come here to find ghosts – and if they think they’ve found something they panic and run away. But I don’t know… these superstitions are seeming more like truth lately…”

            “When did the ryokan get a reputation for being haunted?”

            “A few summers back. We were fully packed – it was festival time, there was this terrible scream coming from the baths. Next thing I knew, the paramedics were there. This woman had seen something and gone into shock. “

            “What had she seen?” I asked eagerly

            “She never said. A lot of people asked, trust me. But whatever she saw – or thought she saw, everyone else wanted to see it too. People started coming and pretended they could sense spirits or something. But a few of them…”

            “A few of them what?” I asked. I could barely stand the suspense.

            “Ah… nothing. Never mind, it’s nothing.” He said.

            What a wonderful dead end that turned out to be. But I had to wonder, was that thing that that woman had seen the spirit of Kasumi? I guessed no one would ever find out…

            “Do you believe that the ryokan is haunted?”

            “I don’t believe that anything is haunted. Ghosts are just what happen when guilty people let their imaginations run wild.”

            “What do you mean?”

            “Think about it. Why do ghost always want revenge? They’re what people invent when they feel guilty. If that wasn’t the case then ghosts would want all sorts of things – but no, they always want revenge.”

            Interesting point… I noticed something behind Rentaro. “ What are you building there?” I asked.

            “Oh this? This is the Rentaro 4000. I sorta got inspired got Suki.”

            “What’s it going to be?”

            “A  robotic dog. Or, maybe just a robotic dog’s leg. I’ll be honest, I had no idea how long these things take to build. But then again, a dog’s leg is not a good gift without the rest of the dog, sorta borders on creep, come to think of it.”

            “Is it going to be a gift for Miwako?”

            “Oh definitely! She’s my robotic muse! Well, she’s not robotic. Not that you’d think she is,” Rentaro sighed, “And this is why I work with machines, they’re totally oblivious to awkwardness.”

            “How are things going between you and Miwako right now?”

            “You know how in romantic movies, the couple is only really happy together for like a minute at the end?”

            “I guess so.” I said, I had never really viewed it like that…

            “That’s sort of how our relationship is. Except the movie restarts every week. Honestly, it gets a little tiring some times.”

            “Miwako seems to really like Suki!” I said, trying to make him feel better.

            “I know! Which is great, because that girl is really hard to buy for… and it’s been sorta a gift heavy year. Either she’s getting crazy sensitive, or I’m becoming a real jerk. Hmm, hard to say. It’s definitely one or both of those things.”

            “Is Suki supposed to be so… protective?” I asked.

            “Took a swipe at you, huh? Oh that’s one of her modes, don’t take it personally. It’s actually really clever – there are these command words you say, and then Suki chages into that mode. She’ll be protective, or aloof, or silly!”

            “Really, do you know the commands?”

           

            “I did… I can’t remember where I put that paper. Nope, sorry.”

            “Thanks anyways. See ya!”

            “Peace out!”

            I walked away. I was going to call Bess and George soon and see if they made any progress on finding the commands for Suki.

R.I.P. chair....