Yukiko puts on the garment

(chapter originally by faith on writing.com)

One fact that occasionally surprised her friends was how much Yukiko enjoyed ghost stories and folklore. She particularly enjoyed tormenting her friend Chie, a bit of a role reversal from the usually fearless and energetic girl and the more timid Innkeeper. The sad fact was that Yukiko was used to being alone, so the idea that other beings might be there with her unseen was not as frightening as it might be for others. Still, her love of ghost stories made her hesitate. Some of these tales revolved around terrible things happening to the person who ate ghostly food or handled ghostly objects. And yet OTHER stories said failure to follow the prompting of the spirits (and this was either a very obvious prompt or the most elaborate prank she'd ever encountered!) also led to a bad end. Then there were the spirits who acted like tricksters....

Basically, it was a crap shoot. What decided the matter was that Yukiko had absolutely no interest in trotting down the halls of her inn completely naked. So with a blush and a sigh Yukiko put on the tiny slip, covering her private parts that were almost instantly revealed the moment the fabric touched moisture.

The man in charge of this evening's filming, who we shall call Kanshi for lack of a better name, smiled to himself. He was an old hat as at these filmings, and he knew a few things about buildings this old. Research said that Amagi Inn was a several hundred years old at least. One didn't keep a place this large intact for that long without several periods of renovation and restoration. And inevitably, unused rooms were buried or walled off or just plain lost in the act of reconstruction. More rarely but still possible were the old places that had hidden doors and secret observation rooms. Japan had gone through some dark times in its history. The age of warring states was little better than the dark ages of Europe. If you could afford it, having a place to hide away your valuables (and potentially yourselves!) could be the key to your survival when bandits or arrogant nobility came to call.

Some careful research in Inaba's town records and some secret use of soundwaves to test the building's layout had revealed plenty of examples of both inside the Amagi Inn. Ever so carefully Kanshi had moved his people into the hidden rooms, exploring and "redecorating" as they went. They now had an entire base set up here, every room wired with hidden cameras. They had also built "set pieces" inside hidden rooms, designed like a funhouse to confuse the senses and terrify the onlookers. There were now dozens of rooms ready for Yukiko to stumble into, each using subtle and overt techniques to confuse her sense of direction and cause her to stumble into places she'd rather avoid. Any noise of construction heard by guests aided their cause as rumors of strange pounding or unseen voices only increased the Inn's reputation as a cursed piece of haunted real estate. All was ready to subject the Amagi girl to hundreds of smoke and mirror tricks designed to horrify her. And, it should be noted, the humiliate her beyond all measure. Yukiko had thrown the gauntlet down and drawn the personal ire of several members of the film crew. They were going to take personal delight in keeping Amagi distressed and underdressed for as long as possibe.

As Yukiko stepped into the hallway...