Yes, yes, yes, I know I should be working on Things, but I've hit a few more speed bumps, one being slight writer's block, another being my internship leaving me tired at the end of the day half the week, and carpooling my siblings around does the same the other days. Plus on the weekends we've been going up north to stay at this cottage *coughcough*shack*coughcough* we got and have been trying to make nice for about a year now. We're still working on it, which generally doesn't leave a lot of writing time. Plus, until recently we had no internet up there. Now we have one of those plug in cards, but since we're so far out it's at dial up speed……………Please don't kill me…..
Anyway, this idea has been percolating in my mind for a while now, so I figured I'd give it a shot and maybe I'll be able to work through my issues with the other fic by getting some general writing done. If you couldn't already tell, it's sort of a crossover with the movie The Mummy, but mostly just plot wise—Rick and Evie aren't going to be jumping out from behind a corner. Some things will be the same, some I will be changing because I am the writer here and thus I have creative license.
Um, so, yeah…on with the fic…please don't kill me, I swear I'm trying to get the next chapter of Things up, just give me a little more time? *hides up north just in case, since the upside of being in the middle of nowhere is no one can find you*
Disclaimer: I do not own Ghost Hunt or The Mummy—they belong to their respective owners, producers, etc. I own only an impressive collection of manga, a few anime shirts, and the original character(s) that will appear in this story. If you plan to use them, please get my permission first.
"So let me get this straight," Takigawa said while picking up a cracker with some Colby cheese on it. "Today is some important day for Naru-bou, but not his birthday?"
"Yep," chirped Madoka cheerfully before popping a mini-pretzel in her mouth.
"But it's still important enough that you insist on celebrating it?"
"Right."
"But Naru doesn't think so?"
"Well," Madoka started before taking a quick sip of her Pepsi, "Naru doesn't really think anything's worth celebrating. He'd act this way even if it was his birthday."
"But you insist that he has too?" The monk continued, gesturing with his cracker.
"Of course."
"And so Naru tried to avoid you by burying himself in work today?"
The ghost hunter gave a semi-evil smile, "He tried."
"But instead you got here early and barricaded him out of his office?"
"Yes indeed."
"Okay…" Takigawa leaned back on the sofa and took a bite out of his cracker. After chewing for a few seconds, he asked, "How?"
"Oh, who cares," responded the miko sitting sideways with her legs crossed over the arm of the chair she was in. "All that matters is he's here, we're here, and there's food—stop questioning it. Can I have more coffee cake?"
"I'd have to agree with Matsuzaki-san on that point," stated Masako as she cut a slice of pastry off for the miko, "however, I would like to know what exactly we're celebrating." She put the slice on a small paper plate before handing it to Ayako and then cutting one for herself.
"Um," John, murmured out, trying hard not to look at anything but his plate, "I know this is for Shibuya-san, but if Shibuya-san doesn't appreciate it, perhaps we should celebrate less obtrusively elsewhere?"
"What do you mean 'doesn't appreciate it?' He's having a ball, aren't you dear?" Madoka turned to the head of the table, where sat the young president of SPR.
Naru looked up from the few papers that he'd kept out of his office with a scowl—no, he was not 'having a ball.' Choosing silence over the several choice and severely out of character responses he could have made (including, but not limited to "I know where you live, Madoka. I know where you sleep."), Naru glared a few moments more before returning to sulking with his work.
Madoka sighed, "Lin, this is why I asked you to go through his suitcase last night—so he would have to socialize a little bit."
"Leave me out of this, Madoka."
"I suppose we have to work out your anti-social tendencies before we can get you to work on his," Madoka said, not sounding at all daunted by the task. Lin just sat there silently in response, holding on to the tiny plate and cup that made him look even more ridiculously large than usual—his laptop was in Naru's office.
Yasuhara laughed, "Oh, I don't believe that will be too difficult."
"Ohhhh," Madoka leaned closer to her protégé in mischief, "Have we been plotting?"
"We have," there was a twinkle in Yasuhara's eye that no one but Madoka was comfortable with.
"Wonderful! Tell me." The pair leaned closer to each other so they could conspire somewhat more privately, when Yasuhara suddenly froze. Madoka watched as a look of confused awe came over the young man's face. "Yasuhara? What is it?"
"There's…there's a man out in the tree," He answered slowly, astonished.
A "What?!" resounded around the room as six snapped toward the window. There, sure enough, was a young man hanging from a branch of a nearby tree, reaching out to the window. His hand stopped when he noticed the attention he was attracting, and he used it instead to wave at his rather dumbstruck audience. This did not last long, though, because soon after he started waving the branch he was on snapped. The young man just barely managed to grab another one, and the group could hear him yelling from inside, although they couldn't make out what he was saying through the glass.
After a few seconds of shock, the majority of the group (Naru remained working and Lin observed the whole brouhaha) sprang in to action. Somehow in the midst of the chaos someone managed to open the window. The young man wasted no time in petitioning his audience for help.
"Lemme in you assholes!" After some clever maneuvering on Takigawa and John's part, the gang was able to grab hold of the stranger and pull him through the open window before overbalancing and landing in a pile of limbs on the ground.
"Aw, shit," the newcomer said as he wiggled his way out of the mound of bodies, "I think I felt something break." Checking, he began patting around his chest, paused, and then reached into his breast pocket, "Oh good, just a pencil." By this time everyone but Masako and John (whose wrist-watch had gotten caught on a loose string on the other's obi) had gotten back on their feet at this point and took the opportunity to examine the new guy.
The man was young, but looked old enough to have just finished college. His hair wasn't quite long enough to be considered long, but too long to be called short, and was dyed yellow. He was wearing a very odd assortment of clothes consisting of khaki pants with many pockets, a red tank top covered with a black blazer, and a worn black tie that hung loosely around his neck. Takigawa briefly wondered if he was supposed to be some kind of rocker.
"If you've come here to see me," Naru spoke for the first time since his "party" had started, "I'm afraid I don't accept cases from vandals, so my answer is no, and I expect reimbursement for the damage to that tree."
"Well, it's a good thing I'm not here to see you then, isn't it? Let me help you guys with that," glossing over the issue of reimbursement, the stranger walked over to a blushing John, who was so flustered over the position of his hand near Masako's chest that he kept fumbling the snagged string. Pulling out a pair of mini-scissors, he deftly snip it and released John immediately began thanking the man and apologizing profusely to Masako (who accepted with grace and slightly tinged cheeks).
"Judging by your 'it's-all-about-me' attitude and the 'somebody-pissed-in-my-cornflakes' look on your face," the man turned around to face the ghost hunter, "I'm guessing you're Naru?" A few seconds of silence ensued as half the room tried to hold back laughter, a quarter of the room stared nervously at the boss, who lifted his face from his work to treat his guest with a glare, and Yasuhara looked at the newcomer questioningly.
"What do you mean, a 'somebody-pissed-in-my-cornflakes' look?"
"Oh, you know," the guy cheerfully explained, "like when you tell a kid that they have to do chores on a weekend when all they want to do is play video games. Or when a kid wants to go to the beach but instead you take them to go buy clothes. It's that look that they give you that's all like 'I don't want to be here, I wanna go home, this sucks, you suck, I hate you, this isn't fun,' and so on."
"Since you seem to know my name," Naru interjected, doing a marvelous job of maintaining his dignity amidst horribly muffled sniggers, "I believe proper etiquette dictates that you give us yours." Naru gave a poisonously sweet smile, "Although I suppose asking propriety from a man who enters through the window and wears a tank top with a tie is a too m—"
"Damn, you are annoying," the guy said, unimpressed, "but have it your way. Name's Saki Shindo. And before you can ask 'my business here,' I came to surprise a friend." Saki shot a quick look around the room, "Luckily it looks like she's not here yet."
"She?"
"Oh, don't act like it's that hard to figure out, especially when you're supposed to be all smart and shit," he plopped down on the arm of Naru's chair, "I'm here to see Mai."
"How do you know Mai?" Takigawa and Ayako sat up, their over-protective natures shining through their every movement.
"Hey, easy, easy," Saki put his hands up in a peaceful gesture, "We're just childhood friends, that's all. I'm not here to cause any trouble. Not for her anyway." He turned back to Naru, "Guess I lied a little bit before. I am kinda here to see you."
"Is that right," Naru answered absentmindedly, having decided not to let this idiot who was like so many others get under his skin and returned to his papers.
"Aren't you going to ask me why?"
"Enlighten me," he responded, again, absentmindedly. Just as he was placing his signature at the bottom of a form, though, his pen was snatched from his hand, leaving a long black mark. The young president turned to snap at the man, only to find Saki had leaned in so close that now their noses almost touched. Naru was forced to admit two things in his mind at this point—the first being that his guy was not unattractive, in his own, ridiculously brash and open way. The other was that the strange look in this man's eyes, a seemingly targeting gaze, suggested that he may be a little more trouble than the usual, run-of-the-mill idiot.
Whether he was aware of Naru's thoughts or not, Saki let a mischievous smirk slide on to his face before he spoke.
"I'm here to make your life hell."
And there we have chapter one. I'm kind of trying a different style with this, I'm not sure if I like it yet. If I decide I don't, the chapters after this will probably start looking more like they do in Things, and I'll go back and change this later.
So, please tell me what you think—reviews put me in a good mood which usually helps me write (seriously, when I have trouble I go back and read over the earlier reviews to bolster my confidence). If you can give specifics (lines, words, characters) that you liked or disliked, let me know, please. I would very much appreciate it.
Finally, I know I say this every time, but I can't say it enough, please thank Chem mu for posting this. Since technology hates me, the only way these chapters get up is when I email them to her and she posts them. So bow, give cookies, whatever—just help me show her my thanks for always doing this for me, when it's probably a pain.
Until next time *praying that her reviews allow there to be a next time while she hunkers down with her laptop between the sand hill cranes and the bay*, jya ne!
(This is Chem-mu's blurb at the bottom. I'm sorry, blame me for the slow upload on anything on our page...Ookami sent this to me long ago and I have been forgetful and busy and haven't gotten stuff up as a result. I apologize again and hope you take the blame off of Ookami-chan! -Chem-mu)