I enjoyed Volume 1 of this series, and was delighted to find this fair-condition copy of Vol. 4 at the Used Book Superstore in Burlington MA. (I enjoyed the anime based on the original novels too.)

The series is about a team of people with different psychic abilities who join together to deal with paranormal problems, with some mild romantic interest/jealousy here and there.

Here, the gang is called in to investigate rumors of hauntings at a high school. At first, boss Naru rejects the case, but when the student council president, a sharp and personable student named Yasuhara, comes to ask him to reconsider, he agrees to give it a shot.

Turns out there's a popular fortune-telling game that the students have been playing (something vaguely similar to Ouija boards), and there's some suspicion that this has roused ill-intentioned spirits. Oh, and then there's the student who was bullied into suicide - that might be a factor... Sightings include a demonic dog, strange noises, and more, and soon the gang has the most active parts of the school set up with monitoring equipment. Yasuhara turns out to be very helpful to them (and will eventually become a de facto part of the team), and his interactions with the regularly-bickering team members are among the funniest bits in the book, especially when he trades banter with ex-monk (and team wiseguy) Takigawa.

Mai's dreams kick in, and it seems that the rest of the team has finally begun to believe that she has psychic powers that reflect themselves in her dream-knowledge - though she's still hesitant to put forward these revelations. As to how helpful they'll be in this case, we'll find out... in Volume 5 {wry grin}.

The rest of this volume consists of a stand-alone case that's very, very poignant. A priest calls the team in to help with a situation at his church and associated orphanage - the children are periodically taken over, it seems, by a spirit that makes them run and hide, as if playing hide-and-seek. Not harmful - yet - but the incidents are increasing in frequency and length, and the priest is worried. He describes the suspected spirit, a young boy who was left at the church by his father decades ago, and who disappeared one day after a game of hide-and-seek. No trace of the child was ever found, but if it's his spirit haunting the place, what does he want?

This story features some very funny scenes - stoic, stand-offish Li having to play "father" when a possessed child glomps him, and later when the spirit jumps to Mai (!) and *she* clings to Li like a little kid. But it also has one of the more heartbreaking stories surrounding the cause of the spirit's unrest, and while it ends well, it's still very, very sad. Effective story-telling!

[See also the TV Tropes page.]

I plan to leave this book, bagged against the elements, near this historic old cemetery at around 4; hope the finder enjoys it!

*** Released as part of the 2015 Spook-tacular release challenge. ***

*** Released as part of the 2015 TV Series release challenge. ***