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The atmosphere of Kitakami began to settle as the season of the festival of masks came and went. The air grew colder, days shorter, and nights longer. Despite all these changes, spirits were still high with the residents and tourists alike. One such group was hoping that this would be true in a more literal sense…
“Hola!” a voice called from behind the front door, as it had done most days. Kieran stepped up and opened it, being greeted by the sight of a grinning Juliana, her hands packed with various pieces of technology.
“Wowzers…” he marveled. “This stuff’s all just for tonight?”
“It sure is!” Juliana confirmed, stepping inside and placing the items she brought with her onto the coffee table. “We need variety if we want the best chance of this working.”
“What a display you’ve got here, Jules!” Carmine called as she made her way into the living room with the couple.
“Yeah! I wanted to go all out for you guys since I know how important this is to you.”
As Carmine picked up and scanned each item on the table individually, Kieran turned back to her. “You sure this is gonna work, Julie?”
Juliana sighed, placing a hand on his shoulder. “Look, Kiki, I can’t say anything for sure, okay? All we can do is pray it works. We’ll use everything we have until we’ve tried everything. I’ll make sure we have the best odds of getting a result.”
Kieran leaned into Juliana’s touch, leaning his head on her hand. He took a breath to compose himself. “Okay… I’ve really got my hopes up here.”
“I do, too.” Juliana looked dejected. “All I know for certain is that it seemed to work for me before, so I have hope.”
Kieran cracked a tiny grin. “Then I guess I have hope, too.”
Juliana returned his smile, admiring the sparkle in his beautiful golden eyes.
“Ah, Juliana!” Yukito beamed as he and Hideko made their way into the room. He paused for a moment, surveying the scene around him. “I see you weren’t kidding about this investigation…”
“No, sir,” Juliana replied.
“As much as I have my reservations regarding provoking the dead…I’ll put them aside for what you’re doing tonight. It would be an honor to hear from those two again.”
“I would love the chance to hear from our little boy again…” Hideko lamented.
“You three be safe. If you need us, you know where we’ll be. Good luck.”
“Thank you, sir,” Juliana bowed.
“Thanks, grandpa!” Kieran grinned.
The two elders went back to whatever they were doing, leaving the trio alone once more. Finally, Carmine looked up from analyzing the various gadgets on the table. “Well?” she huffed.
“Well what?” Juliana raised an eyebrow.
“Are we gonna get started or what?” Carmine was beginning to sound inpatient.
“Don’t we gotta wait until it gets dark?” Kieran asked.
“Yeah…” Juliana confirmed. That erupted a groan from Carmine. “What do you two want to do while we wait?”
“Why don’t we go Applin hunting?” Kieran suggested, rummaging through his bag. “I’ve got some spare Pokéballs that need usin’.”
“Sure!” Juliana agreed. “Sounds like fun to me!”
“Sure, why not?” Carmine stated, getting to her feet and walking over to join the couple.
Before long, the three of them had rushed out the door and out the west of Mossui Town on their little time-killer excursion.
After hours, the sun had finally set over the skyline and darkness enveloped the land of Kitakami on another autumn night. The trio returned to Kieran and Carmine’s house, laughing good-naturedly and slinging their bags off to count their Applin.
“...seven, eight, nine!” Juliana cheered. “I caught nine!
“Nine?!” Kieran gasped. “Wowzers… How’d you manage that?”
Juliana just shrugged with a giggle.
“Only six?” Carmine exasperated, finishing her own count. “I guess tonight just wasn’t my night.”
“Aw man, I only got four…” Kieran sulked.
“That’s alright,” Juliana comforted. “We each gave it our all, and that’s what counts!”
“You’re not wrong there!” Carmine agreed with a grin.
“Yeah!” Kieran smiled.
The siblings each handed their new Applin’s Pokéballs to Juliana. She took them, along with her own, and placed them off to the side so they’re all in one place.
“Always wondered why we do this…” Carmine commented.
“Do what?” Juliana asked.
“Catch a bunch of Applin, and then just…release them. Seems like a bit of a waste.”
“If we don’t release ‘em, there won’t be any left in the Apple Hills!” Kieran addressed.
“I guess that makes sense…” Carmine shrugged. “Anyway, Jules!”
“Yeah?” Juliana turned around and walked back to them.
“You gonna explain what all this is about?” Carmine teased, holding up a blindfold and a pair of headphones.
Juliana was about to respond, but when her brain caught up with what Carmine was implying, her cheeks flushed and she sputtered. This forced a laugh out of Carmine before she was able to compose herself and explain. “Well,” she began, indignantly grabbing the two items Carmine was holding along with a small device with an antennae, “these are for something called the estes method .” Kieran and Carmine’s gazes were fixed on Juliana as she explained. “To do this, a person puts on the blindfold and headphones, hooks the headphones up to this spirit box, and turns it on. The people around them will ask questions, and if a spirit responds using the radio stations the box sifts through, their words should come through the spirit box into the person’s headphones so they’re able to say it out to the rest of the group.”
The reactions to this explanation were mixed. Carmine’s face looked puzzled and intrigued, while Kieran’s eyes were wide with shock and excitement.
“Way cool…” Kieran whispered with delight.
“That’s super weird… I love it!” Carmine exclaimed. Then she paused, looking over at Kieran as a smirk etched into her lips. “Hey, I think Kiki wants to try first!”
“Hey—I didn’t—!” Kieran stammered in protest, looking to Juliana for backup.
“Do you want to?” Juliana offered, holding the equipment out to him with a comforting smile on her face.
“I mean…if that’s cool with you.”
“Of course! We’ll all get a chance to try. Some spirits take better to different people. We might even be able to get your grandparents in on it.”
“You can try, but I doubt they will,” Carmine stated. “Grandpa’s always been iffy about the paranormal, and Grandma just goes along with him to be safe.”
“That’s alright!” Juliana reassured as she handed Kieran the equipment. “The offer will still be on the table.”
Kieran stared at it for a few seconds before going to put the headphones and blindfold on. He was quickly stopped by Juliana. “Woah, slow down there, eager Exeggcute!”
Kieran blinked, stunned for a moment. “Huh?”
“I’ll tell you when it’s time to put the stuff on. We’re still not fully set up yet.”
“Oh…sorry.”
Juliana messed up Kieran’s hair. “No need for sorries! Just sit tight.”
He did as he was told as Juliana went around setting up various pieces of unfamiliar equipment around the room: a circular device with various lights that went off when she held it, a couple of boxes with five colored lights at the top… All while she was busy, she was rambling on and on about what each piece of equipment does.
“Okay, so those little things go off when ghosts are near it, right?” Carmine asked.
“That’s right!” Juliana beamed. “It’s an EMF reader! If a spirit gets near it, it’ll flash either four or five of its lights and make a noticeable sound.”
“And what about that thing in the doorway?”
“That’s a REM pod! If a spirit moves above or through it, it’ll go off with a noise and light up the lights it passes to show us which direction it’s moving!”
Kieran was stuck staring awestruck at both Juliana and the devices she was pointing to as she explained what they were and what they did. Here he thought a basic Rotom phone was mind-blowing…
“You sure know how to bring the big guns when it counts!” Carmine laughed.
“I try my best,” Juliana chuckled as she sat cross-legged on the floor and began to direct the siblings on where to sit. “Alright, we should be good to go. Kieran, I’ll have you sit in front of me on my right; Carmine, I’ll have you on my left. Think of it as trying to make a triangle with me as the top point.”
The two hurried to do as they were told, and sat in position perfectly. Juliana seemed pleased. “Perfect! Now, Kieran, we’ll have you put on the blindfold and headphones.”
“Got it!” Kieran went to work getting the blindfold around his large tied up hair. With a bit of struggle and help from Carmine, he got it on, secured it over his eyes, then placed the headphones atop his head and flicked the spirit box on.
Juliana noticed Kieran flinch, as the slight hum of static could be heard leaking out from each of Kieran’s headphones.
“Do we just start asking questions?” Carmine asked wearily.
“Yep!” Juliana answered. “Here, do you want me to start?”
“Sure.”
“Okay…” Juliana cleared her throat. “Before I ask any questions, I would like to take a moment to invite any spirits here with us now to come into this room and give us a sign by interacting with one of the pieces of equipment either around us, or use the device in my boyfriend’s hand to verbally communicate with us directly.”
Carmine still flinched at Juliana using the word boyfriend. “Hey, Jules?”
“Yeah?”
“Won’t ghost Pokémon come through these things and maybe mess with us or our results?”
“Oh, no,” Juliana reassured. “They absolutely can’t stand these things. They make them feel ill—I learned that the hard way. They don’t really like interacting with human spirits much, either. Apparently they can be hostile…”
“Oh…that’s comforting.”
“Yeah…”
A silence filled the air that was swiftly broken by Kieran speaking up: “ Cheers? ”
“What?” Carmine questioned.
“That’s what came through the spirit box, I’m guessing.” Juliana looked in Carmine’s direction. “Those headphones have fantastic noise-cancellation, so he won’t be able to hear us at all between that and the static.”
“Okay…” Carmine paused for a moment. “What’s my name?”
Silence.
“ Red. ” Kieran spoke the device’s output.
Carmine’s eyes widened for a moment. “What…”
Juliana felt a chill run down her spine—whether it was of excitement or fear, she couldn’t tell. “That’s close to Carmine, right?”
“Kind of…” Carmine shuddered. “A little too close for my liking!”
“ Pain. ”
“Pain?” Carmine raised an eyebrow.
“Is there anyone here with us?” Juliana asked.
“ Nearby. ”
Carmine looked behind her with a jump at that response.
“Easy, Carmine,” Juliana tried to comfort. Then she turned back to Kieran. “Where are you right now?”
“ See you. ”
Carmine yelped. “What’s the matter with this thing?!” Her hands balled into fists and began to shake.
“Breathe, Carmine… The more comfortable an environment you make, the more likely you are to get something.”
“Okay, okay, sorry…” Carmine took a few deep breaths and steadied herself.
“What’s your name?” Juliana asked.
“ Mari? ”
“Mari…” Carmine’s voice was beginning to shake. “That sounds familiar!”
“Hold on,” Juliana directed with an extension of her hand. “Wait a minute. You don’t jump to conclusions with this. Mari, is that who we’re speaking to?”
“ Hurting. ”
“How did you die?”
“ Too fast? ”
“Hm…” Juliana turned to Carmine. Do you know how your mother died?”
Carmine’s expression contorted to one of sorrow and deep thought. “I think Grandpa told me it was…a car accident.”
“That answer would make sense, then. Mari, are you human?”
The choppy conversation continued largely without interference, although the answers they were getting started to become a bit more nonsensical now. Most of them didn’t have anything to do with what Juliana and Carmine asked, some of them only vaguely answering questions that the two had asked minutes ago. Before long, Carmine was growing impatient and Juliana hopeless. That was, until they asked one final question…
“Do you have any other information to give us, Mari?”
After a few moments of silence, Kieran echoed the response.
“ Leave. ”
Both Carmine and Juliana felt the pang of a chill running down their spine, and just when Juliana was getting up to end the session and get out of there, the REM pod in the doorway began to blare, the lights in the direction of the kitchen lighting up before moving to the ones in the living room. This sudden change led both Juliana and Carmine to scream, frantically removing Kieran’s equipment from him and scrambling for the door. They could hear the EMF reader on the table next to them begin to blare as all five of its lights lit up and the REM pod quieted. Kieran tried to ask what was going on, but between the frantic atmosphere and the screaming girls, he was drowned out. He quickly joined their panic when he heard the EMF reader’s noise, and before long, the three of them were out in the driveway that led up towards the house.
“What in Arceus’ name was that…” Carmine could barely speak.
“I…I don’t know.” Juliana’s voice was shaky. “It was…supposed to work.”
Kieran gently took Juliana’s hand and squeezed. “It’s okay, Julie, ‘least you tried.”
“Grandma and Grandpa are gonna kill us!” Carmine fretted. “All that screaming and the noise of those gadgets are gonna make them furious!”
“I’m sure they’ll understand, sis…” Kieran offered.
“No, she’s right…” Juliana cried. “And we’d deserve it. This wasn’t a good idea. I thought this would be enough to hear from your parents because I thought their spirits would latch onto your grandparents, but I…” Her voice broke, her gaze lowering to meet the ground. “I don’t know what I was thinking…”
At the sudden emotional display, Kieran wrapped his arms tight around Juliana and gave Carmine a look of “get over here or I’ll cut your hair off while you sleep.” She complied without much thought, deciding that defying her brother wasn’t worth not being there to comfort Juliana. The three embraced for a while until Juliana finally felt okay enough to speak again.
“Thanks guys…” she sniffled. “Let’s go get that stuff put away.”
“Sure, Julie,” Kieran comforted, kissing her temple. “We’ll help, too, right, sis?”
“Of course,” Carmine smiled gently.
Finally, the noise of activity had quieted inside the house, and the three of them made their way back inside to clean up their little mess.