Mai poked her head in the door timidly, the hinge squeaking as it opened. Both Naru and Lin, on the couch doing paperwork, paused to eye her in confusion; she had never hesitated walking into the office like this before. Naru couldn't help but instantly be suspicious of what sort of trouble the girl had managed to stir up again.
"Ah, hi." Mai greeted politely, stepping inside and allowing the door to close behind her. "Um, you see, there's this… thing that… I have a favor to ask."
Both quiet – demeanoured men merely blinked, waiting.
"See- my cousin's house, er, the place her family lives and works- ever since we were little it's been haunted, but we were just really used to it and thought it was our imagination from when we were kids, but lately-"
"No." Naru denied instantly.
"What?!"
"It's not interesting." Naru shrugged.
Mai's expression darkened. "Naru, this is the only family I have left we're talking about. My second cousin and childhood friend, and their six-year-old daughters. You-"
"That doesn't make it more interesting. No one's hurt right, it only barely escalated from what you wrote off as a kid's imagination? Then it's fine." Naru denied again vaguely, having gone back to his paperwork.
The door was quiet when it closed behind her, rather than slammed in anger – which took an amazing amount of effort on Mai's part, but making Lin pale, staring at the door after her for a bit then glancing at Naru before continuing his work, feeling almost afraid of the next time he would have to see the girl.
The phone rang, and Naru idly answered.
Ten minutes later, he ordered Lin to call in the entire team for a long-term case.
Day 1 – Noon
Mai watched from the window, snickering slightly as Naru almost dropped a couple cameras from the pile he was carrying up the steep steps, though she felt a bit bad for Takigawa and Lin who were similarly struggling with heavy equipment. But hey, at least Naru was being forced to actually do some of the real work, rather than his usual sitting in the base room staring as if he would see it even if something weird did happen. Which it never had. Not that he would know, since he couldn't actually see spirits.
Okay so she was still extremely angry. But at least her case was being looked into – not that Naru knew that. She had called Yurio, who in turn called the office, neglecting to mention it was Mai who referred him, and agreed to return from his trip early – Viktor had taken him and Yuuri to a training camp in Canada, and Yurio had happily accepted the excuse to return, saying he 'could hear them through the wall and would sleep far more peacefully at the Utopia Katsuki', which Mai couldn't help but be amused about.
The two-story building threw the team into shadow. She watched through the viewing window staff area, tinted glass, as they entered the building – looking around almost awe-struck at the giant area behind the glass that housed the rink, shivering slightly. Mai grinned, proud for her cousin who worked so hard to maintain the live-in skating center.
Mai walked to the door, exiting the viewing platform and making her way over to peek around the corner to oversee the meeting.
"Welcome!" Yuuko was saying. "Judging by the equipment you're the Ghostbusters we called in?"
Mai had to cover her mouth to keep from laughing at the look that flashed across Naru's face before he managed to control it.
"We're Shibuya Psychic Research." Naru introduced, emphasizing the last word slightly without seeming to notice. "I'm Kazuya Shibuya, this is my assistant Koujo Lin, and these are Hara, John, Matsuzaki, Takigawa, and Yasuhara."
"I'm Yuuko Nishigori, and these are my daughters, Axel, Lutz, and Loop. My husband Takeshi is away picking something up at the store, but will return shortly." Yuuko introduced with a small polite bow.
"We require two rooms for our equipment and sleeping, are those ready?"
"Yes, it's right this way." Yuuko confirmed, waving her hand down the hall going left to the customer residency rooms meanwhile her daughters ran off towards the upstairs, no doubt to go annoy Yurio and the other skaters training in the workroom. "We might have to move you if this lasts more than two weeks – these rooms are meant for customers, we have lots of skate teams that come here for training camps you see, both school and professional. But that's just a maybe, only if we get a last-minute request, which is quite unusual."
Naru nodded once in understanding, though Mai could see the vaguely annoyed air about him in the tense of his shoulders.
"So what's been happening here. The person on the phone never identified himself but mentioned several things such as that he always feels like he's being watched here, odd writing reflected in the bathroom mirrors that isn't there when you turn around, strange sounds at night, odd lights, and warm furniture or air, which should be impossible here due to the building structure and upkeep of the rink? Also, he said that he'd finally had it with the place when something pushed him towards the rail out on the ice, when no one else was even in the rink."
Yuuko's eyes sparkled. "Yes indeed. I'm afraid he left out a few details though. This place has always been haunted. Sometimes at night, the ice reflects the light strangely. Normally there is always a faint glow from it, even when we have the lights off, as it refracts light. Every now and then, the light reflecting onto the walls will flicker like it does when someone's skating in front of the refraction, or glimmer like it does when chips are thrown from a jump or hard turn. I grew up in this ring. If you've lived in a house a long time, you get to know the normal sounds it makes. Sometimes it unmistakably is reflecting far more light than is even present. When we were young and learning to skate, and we still get reports of this now, if we were about to fall every now and then someone would brush by us to help us get back our balance. That particular ghost has always been here, we were just so used to it that we took it as something that was natural here. Last year when we realized it was a ghost all along, we named him Yukio-Sensei." She explained at length as she opened the door to what would be the base room, grinning.
"And the rest of the things he reported?"
The smile vanished. "Yurio-san – he didn't believe about it being haunted, though he did admit the ice was strange, until one day he tripped over a nick in the ice. He would have twisted his ankle but instead he was pushed toward the railing. What he didn't tell you, was that was two years ago. Two weeks ago, it all stopped. The lights, the helping hand. Then just last week… the rest started happening. Feeling like we're being watched, and not by Yukio-Sensei either. Randomly the air or benches will be warm. Due to the way we cool the ice, and the air conditioners, that should be completely impossible. There would be writing on the walls reflected in mirrors, that isn't there when we turn around. You'll hear someone messing with the skate blades or locker doors, the games in the arcade randomly turn on at night. Not one person has said anything about someone helping them. Yukio-Sensei is gone. Yurio-san hid the details of it being separate at the request of another long-time student because he thought it'd make you more interested for some reason, because those two types of things together indicate something different than having them separate?"
Naru's expression went flat. "And how did that student know about that? If your student did research on his own I please ask you discount it, it's usually quite wrong. This time however he was correct, it does in fact indicate that. Your ghost probably moved on, and there's most likely a problem with faulty wiring. That's it."
"My husband checked the wiring twice. I manage the rink itself, he does the rest and is a specialist at is as I am the ice and everything pertaining to it. I checked the rink equipment, and the air conditioners, twice; nothing amiss."
Mai decided this was a wonderful time to interrupt. "And," She began, catching the attention of the SRP members as she stepped into the base room after them, "Yukio-Sensei is still here, but very faintly, so it's not Yukio-Sensei doing this."
"M-… MAI-SAN?!" Takigawa yelped. "I thought you were taking this case off, and Lin said you would kill Naru the next time you-"
Ayako covered his mouth with her purse, then smacked him on the head. Mai grinned.
"Oh, no, I won't kill him, I'll settle for destroying his bloated self-confidence and willpower against me. And I am taking it off, I happen to be in the client base rather than the staff of SPR this time."
Ayako, Yuuko, and Masako, the only other girls, giggled knowingly.
"You were the one that requested my client keep back those details." Naru observed sharply.
"Yes." Mai answered easily in return. "You're a really horrible jerk you know. I need to protect my family and you refused to help. Let me guess, you assumed that because the ghost wasn't trying to kill me like the other actually interesting ones, that it wasn't worth your time. Well, this new phenomena has started scaring away more customers than it brings in and I wont allow this place to become in danger of being lost – I knew you would agree to it if I wasn't the one asking, so that's exactly what I set up, with thanks to a friend. And I really am taking this case off except to assist, I have training to catch up on."
Naru sighed. "Will you shut up if I take the case?"
"Oh, you want to and you know it you jerk." She replied, annoyed. "At least now that you've actually let me talk enough for people to explain."
"What a way to talk to one's boss-"
"Except you're not my boss, It's my day off, and so's tomorrow, and the next day, until this case ends – since you didn't bring me along on it as an employee. So I am not only a civilian, but also directly affiliated with the person paying you."
Naru remained silent, glaring deeply.
"Anyway, I'll be in the work room if anyone needs me. Ah, and if you guys want a tour, just send someone to come ask!" Mai informed, sing-song.
"Have fun with your revenge!" Yuuko called after her pleasantly. "And switch out Harmony for S-Mix while you're passing the control panel, Yurio-san said he wanted to go over the Mechta Pair routines later to keep them sharp, the theme isn't announced yet so we don't know which one to use."
Mai's eyes lit up "Vicchan approved Mechta theme for the free?!" Mai squealed, and Yuuko nodded grinning widely, and giggled, making Mai flush a deep red at her teasing look.
"Ehhh! I will, I will! … and stop looking at me like that!" Mai agreed, blushing brighter and disappearing down the hall as she sprinted away, turning right into the Staff Room and quickly switching out the CD, then running down the hall to the equipment room.
Yurio looked up as she entered and poured out the news about the competition skate, rewarding her with one of his rare wide smiles.