After the overt hostility he encountered at the front door, Jun was cautious to look carefully over each doorway before approaching or trying them. He largely ignored the smaller shadows and minor beings that he passed, confident that his prayer beads were enough to ward them off. As he passed through the halls it occurred to him that at one point this mansion must have been a beautiful place, though judging by how deeply rooted the evil seemed to be, the beauty of the construction likely lasted only long enough for the original tenants to take up residency.<br/><br/>He largely ignored the minor inconveniences such as the flickering lights or the damp carpet and walls. When the spider landed in his hair, however, Jun hurriedly bushed it from his hair, grimacing at the sensation of cobwebs on his face. When he turned the corner and bumped into the table, he muttered under his breath at being too distracted to notice something so obvious. He hoped that he would reach an open door or stairs or some other new feature to break the monotony of these overly large halls... and the damned spiderwebs just seemed to be waiting for him! He started to brush another handful of webs from exactly the same spot on the side of his head when he stopped in mid motion. The same spot...?<br/><br/>With a quick glance behind himself, Jun hurried around the next corner and bumped into another table with a startled curse. He frowned darkly as he rubbed at his bruised shin and examined a suspiciously familiar painting. Slowly he walked back the way he had come, his eyes scanning carefully from one wall to the other. As he turned the corner, Jun pulled up short, almost losing his balance in the process. There in front of him, just below eye level, was a small brown spider hanging from a nearly invisible strand of web.<br/><br/>“<em>Chikushō</em>...” Sometimes Jun hated being right. He stepped around the spider and stood squarely in the center of the hall. He had heard of these sorts of “looped space” before, but those were usually the work of<em>sukima youkai</em>, “gap demons,” and he had not expected there to be a similar being here in America. The important thing, he reminded himself, was that no matter how powerful a spell or illusion is, there is always a weak point somewhere in its structure, if only one can find it.<br/><br/>It was slow work, going over practically every inch of the walls and floor without actually prodding at them, but Jun was not yet desperate enough to actually touch the mysteriously damp carpet. His first thought had been either the painting at the corner or the table. Neither of them stayed where he moved them to, nor did they remain broken when he tried a more forceful tactic. As he felt himself getting frustrated, Jun took out the flashlight that had been provided for the first time since entering the mansion. Using the surprisingly bright beam to counteract the flickering lights, he began to examine the ceiling as best he could while keeping an eye on his surroundings suspiciously.<br/><br/>Three loops later, he was just about ready to try putting a hole in the wall. He somehow kept managing to almost walk into the table, and that damned spider ev- Jun blinked and shook his head slowly. “<em>Masaka... Sonna ni kantan...?</em>” Cautiously he made his way down the hall until he found the spider dangling from the ceiling, curiously immobile, as if it were patiently waiting for someone to pass by. Jun quietly said a prayer in apology, shook the strand of beads, and clapped his hands together sharply, squashing the spider between them. Suddenly there was a sensation of rippling in the air, as though through water.<br/><br/>As he brushed his hands off on his pants, Jun looked about warily. Nothing looked different from where he stood. He edged down the hall, his hand raised in defense, and turned the corner in a rush, prepared to kick the table over if he was still stuck. It seemed that his luck was improving, though, as he was now facing a new corridor of doorways, this one ending with a window which faced part of the garden. With a relieved sigh Jun replaced the flashlight in his vest pocket and leaned on the wall for a few moments. As he rested against the wall, he pulled the hand held radio from his belt and flicked it on. There was no better time to make friends than the present, after all, and he depressed the PTT button. “Eh, hello? If anyone can hear me, this is Jun Kawashiro. Hatcher-san sent me to assist here, is there anyone listening?”