CHARACTERS THE NOVELIST'S GROUP TAKAMINE JUNSEI [高峰　準星] Mr. Takamine was a famous horror novelist that acted as Mafuyu's mentor. He had been extremely famous in the past, but he needed some inspiration for his next novel. He heard about the abandoned Himuro mansion and went to investigate it in hopes of finding material for his next novel. He brought along his editor, Mr. Ogata, and his assistant, Ms. Hirasaka. He found some of the research that the folklorist Munakata Ryouzou had done, and through that learned about the Strangling Ritual which had produced the vengeful ghost ruling over the mansion. When Mr. Ogata was found dead with his limps ripped off, he and Hirasaka Tomoe hurried to unlock the mystery of the mansion, because they were no longer able to leave. Tomoe started to lose her mind because of all the ghosts, but her ability to talk to the ghosts and Takamine's research helped them figure out part of the story behind the mansion. When Tomoe was killed by Kirie, Takamine hurried to the Narukami shrine to find the pieces of the Holy Mirror, but he was killed by the ghosts inside the shrine. He still haunts the ceiling of the shrine, where he was ripped limb from limb. He was a kindly man in life, but after death all that remained was anger and malice, so he's truly dangerous to encounter. OGATA KOUJI [緒方　浩二] Help me, help me...ropes, ropes, more ropes...a woman in a white kimono... Takamine's editor, who accompanied him to collect material for the year-end horror special that his magazine was putting out (which I assume Mafuyu was working on as well). He was the first to be struck by Kirie's curse, and went mad, mumbling about ropes and running around looking for the exit. Kirie finally caught up to him in the Kimono room and ripped him limb from limb as he hid in the closet. He wanders around the mansion looking for the exit, and he watches Miku and Mafuyu as they enter the mansion. He guides Miku to the scene of his death, and then attacks her, trying to get her to lead him to the exit. HIRASAKA TOMOE [平坂　巴] Because...they want help....Kirie...I just knew it...why? why? Kirie....she's coming.... Hirasaka Tomoe was Takamine's personal assistant, and another of those people unfortunate to be extremely psychic. She had many bad premonitions about the Himuro mansion, but she followed her boss there and found herself at ground zero for disturbing psychic phenomena. She could actually talk to the ghosts and understand them, so she's the one who found out Kirie's name and tried to tell the others that the ghosts wanted to be helped. When Ogata's dismembered body was found, Tomoe slid quickly into madness, unable to distinguish reality from the visions that the ghosts were sending her. Kirie catches her at the water wheel at the Abyss, and strangles her in front of Takamine's eyes. Her ghost tries to pass on the information she learned to Miku, and she haunts the bamboo forest, the fish tank room, and the abyss, probably where she spent the most time in her madness. She looks kind of creepy, doesn't she? Maybe that's what people with the sixth sense look like to others? * back*