Ghost Hunt, Volume 9 by Shiho Inada and Fuyumi Ono

Still caught up in the case of the Inn with the deadly spirit that kills off members of the family that inherit it, now the Ghost Hunters are in real trouble. Naru, with all his psychic powers and psychic strength, has been possessed by the dark spirit that is haunting the Inn.

Lin tries to keep it under control with his Taoist Sorcery, but all he can do is force Naru's body to sleep. The spirit has also possessed the young children of the family, and to force a reaction out of the others, the spirit makes the young boy run for the huge cliff, to commit suicide by jumping to his death.

Torn, Mai uses the Nine Words, and forces the dark spirit from both children. But her quick and dirty exorcism leaves the children with marks in the shape of the Nine words on their backs. The Monk who taught her the movements tells her that this is why such words are never meant to be used against people. But, exorcisms can't be done by just anyone, and that he's surprised she has the ability.

Then another daughter of the family comes up to them and screams at them for interfering with things that are none of their business. They offer her a paper charm to protect her, but it burns up in her touch. John, the Christian Priest, exorcises the spirit from her, and when it is gone, gives her a cross to wear to keep the spirit from inhabiting her again. She doesn't remember the time during which the spirit inhabited her body.

With Naru deep in charmed sleep, Masako attempts to contact the spirit, but is attacked spiritually. Mai has another psychic dream, where she sees the Hokora beneath the Inn looking warped, as if from something. Evil, perhaps?

In the morning, there is another attack, this time on Naru's body. A member of the family is possessed and hacks at the door with a knife. Is he there to kill Naru or free him? Mai and the Monk have no idea, but their attempt to shield Naru is halted when the possessed man escapes, and sets part of the Inn on fire.

Soon after the fire is put out, Yasuhara returns with his research on the Inn and the family who runs it, and the hunters find out a story that seems to tie into the past of the Inn, something called a Marebito, also known as a "travelling God". Stories tell of a monk, or a group of Monks stopping at the Inn with a great treasure and being killed by the greedy townsfolk for their treasure. The spirits of the killed monks attack the townspeople, who only survive by erecting a shrine to the spirits of the monks.

And the evil spirit attacking the Inn now... does that have anything to do with this long-ago story? There is a shrine located under the Inn, warped and pitted by immersion in the sea, for the sea cave the shrine is located in is underwater at high tide. But if the Marebito and the spirits of enraged monks have something to do with the tragedy happening at the Inn, can the SPR team do anything about it with their leader already possessed? Who can dispel or disperse the angry spirit, and how can they prevent this horrible tragedy from going any further?

This was a wonderful volume, scary and atmospheric, with a spirit that's even more powerful than Naru himself. Each of the SPR Team's powers get a thorough workout in this volume as they deal with spiritual monsters and possessed people who inhabit the haunted Inn. In the end, the problem is that the people in the Inn forgot their history and responsibilities, which led to the tragedy.

Even Ayako, whose Miko abilities the other characters had derided throughout the other volumes and cases in the series, gets to show off her power and show that she actually does have the powers she claims, but they can only be used in limited situations. This saves her from being a joke, and it's nice to see that she wasn't intended to be a jokey one-note character.

As in the other volumes, the scare factor goes up here, ramped up by an entity that means serious harm, kills people, and intends to kill more. The defeat of the entities and the ending of the curse by finding out the history that the family that owned the Inn had forgotten ends the threat of the curse, though should they forget their history again, it might resume at some point. An excellent end to the story, and I do want to see more. New volumes for this series will be out this year, so I am definitely going to be there when they come out.