"Put those cameras over there, Mai... No, not there. Do you want somebody to knock one over and break it?"
"Sorr-ee!" Mai grumbled. Once again, she was getting ordered around quite rudely by her boss, Kazuya Shibuya – more fondly known by his team as Naru the narcissist. Sometimes it was hard work being a ghost hunter's assistant.
"You know how expensive those cameras are, don't you?" Naru reminded her. "You've already broken one. Simply working for me won't be enough to cover the expenses of another."
"Okay, okay, I get it!" Mai exclaimed irritably. She wedged the camera she was holding right into the corner of one of the shelves, where nobody could disturb it unless they actively ripped it from its place. "Are you happy now?"
"I'm not unhappy."
"Now, now, you two," Monk cut in teasingly, seeing Mai preparing to respond with another angry comment. His real name was Houshou Takigawa, but the nickname 'Monk' had stuck ever since he'd started working alongside the team at Shibuya Psychic Research. "If you don't quit arguing, then people will start thinking you're married."
"I don't think so!" Mai protested, her face colouring.
"I'll take him if you don't want him," teased Ayako Matsuzaki. She was the team's shrine maiden and seemed to think that every other case began with an earth spirit.
"Very funny."
Whilst the others argued in a light manner, Naru ignored all of them and set about adjusting the settings on the hi-tech cameras himself. He didn't trust anyone else with the technical side of the expensive gadgets – the only exception being his assistant, Lin Kojo, who was already putting himself to use and setting up the thermostatic equipment.
This particular room was to be used as the headquarters that they'd be working from. Only one of the cameras was actually staying in there – the rest were to be set up strategically around the house in order to be able to capture any possible paranormal activity in every room. Naru mapped out in his head where he wanted all of the cameras to be.
"We need one in every room. And possibly more equipment in the bedrooms, since several of the family members reported stories regarding the futons."
As their banter ceased, the rest of the team took note of Naru's directions and set to work stationing the cameras, microphones and temperature gauges about the house. Anything and everything that was recorded by the equipment would be relayed back to the room now serving as their base.
Mai went round the house a second time under Naru's orders, double-checking that all of the cameras and microphones were definitely switched on. Even though a good chunk of the work came down to procedures and statistical information, Mai still loved every part of her job. There weren't many teenagers who could say they hunted ghosts for a living.
"Everything's set up and ready to go," Mai announced as she got back to the base.
"Are you sure you didn't miss anything?" Naru asked.
"Of course not; I got them all!" Geez. Some thanks would be nice, Mai thought to herself grumpily.
"Lin. Go and do another check."
"Naru! I said I got them all!" Mai protested as Lin nodded and left the room. "Are you saying you don't trust my ability to check the equipment?"
"Yes. That's exactly what I'm saying."
"Naru!"
"Hey. Chill out, Mai," reassured Monk, as Naru turned back to survey the computer screens that had already been set up. He often had to try and play peacemaker between the two of them. "It can't hurt to have the equipment checked again."
"Yeah, but he didn't have to be so rude about it," Mai huffed.
"You sound surprised," Monk laughed. "Just who have you been working for all this time?"
Mai couldn't help but smile at that. He wasn't wrong there. "I guess you have a point."
The door opened again and Mai looked round. Had Lin really checked all of the cameras that quickly? But it wasn't Lin – it was John Brown. John was a Catholic priest who practiced exorcism. He was actually nineteen, but he still looked even younger than Naru. His Australian accent and poor Kansai dialect often made him the subject of teasing amongst Monk and Ayako.
He'd also been absent for the last twenty minutes.
"Hey, John. Where did you run off to?"
"I think somebody was trying to skip out on the manual work," Monk teased, nudging John with his elbow.
John looked sheepish. "Sorry. I didn't put anyone out, did I?"
"Don't listen to Monk. He's only teasing you," Mai assured him. "So where did you go?" As he was one of the quieter ones of the group, Mai hadn't even realised he'd been missing until he'd then reappeared. Oops.
"Oh. I had to take a phone call," explained John. He glanced across the room at Naru, who was still immersed in the computer screens. "Err, Kazuya? Can I maybe ask a favour?"
Naru looked up, mildly interested. John wasn't really one to ask for favours. The last time he had, they'd ended up working a case on Christmas Eve. "What is it?"
John went over to talk to him. "Well, there was a séance that took place yesterday in Hokkaido..."
"I never knew priests used cell phones," Mai whispered to Monk.
"He's not an alien, Mai. He's still a teenager and this is the twenty-first century," Monk pointed out. "How else do you expect him to keep in contact with people?"
"Yeah, I guess you're right," Mai mused. She guessed that when it came down to it, she didn't really know that much about the people she worked with. Certainly not about the rules and regulations regarding their jobs and religions.
"Forget that. I'm more interested in why Masako wasn't invited in on this case," said Ayako, changing the subject. "Did she and Naru have some kind of lover's spat or something?"
"No, she just couldn't come," said Mai, seemingly more annoyed by Ayako's suggestion than by the earlier accusations about Naru and herself. "Naru did invite her, but apparently she's in the middle of some big TV piece."
"I wonder if Naru will record it," Monk grinned. "So then he can watch it as much as he wants."
"Yeah, right," scoffed Ayako. "Can you really imagine Naru doing that?"
"Come on, you've gotta admit there's some deal with him and Masako..."
Urgh. Mai really didn't want to listen to theories regarding Naru and Masako. Resisting the urge to cover her ears and block out the monk and the spirit maiden's conversation, she turned her attention to Naru and John instead. They were still conversing quietly – she could only make out snippets of what they were saying.
"I can assure you they're real professionals when it comes to their work," said John. "And they're very respectful of spiritualists."
"Well, as long as they're willing to do as I say without question and that no information linked directly to me makes it out onto record, then I have no problem with it," replied Naru casually. "Just make sure that they're all clear on that."
John brightened. "Will do. Thank you, Kazuya." He bowed to Naru before excusing himself from the room again.
"What was that about?" Mai wondered aloud, as she watched the young priest leave.
"A friend of John's is going to be observing the case from tomorrow, along with another couple of ghost hunters," explained Naru. "It'll be for part of their field research."
"Really?" said Mai, surprised.
She wasn't the only one. "And you're okay with that?" asked Monk. It was obvious to anyone that Naru wasn't the most accepting of people and that he automatically distrusted most strangers.
"As long as they do things my way, then I've no reason to not be okay with it," said Naru. "And I trust John's judgement."
He said the last part quite pointedly, implying that he trusted John's judgement more than he did the rest of them. Besides Lin, of course. Mai had a feeling that she should be offended by that, but she was more curious about what John's friend was like. Was he maybe a priest too?
Naru seemed to notice that Mai was deep in thought over it, because he then added, "But like I said, they won't be getting here until tomorrow so you needn't waste time thinking about it. For now, I suggest you concentrate on the work at hand like the rest of us are doing."
"Okay, okay, you could say it a little nicer," Mai replied testily.
Geez. Maybe having some new people around might actually lighten the atmosphere a little.
XXX
Whatever Mai was anticipating from their additions to the team, it was nothing like the people who turned up on the doorstep of the house the following day.
"Mai. Door," Naru ordered bluntly upon hearing the doorbell.
"It wouldn't kill you to say please, y'know," Mai grumbled. But her curiosity was greater then her pride and she still went to answer the door regardless.
Standing outside were a young man and woman. They were both attractive and well tanned with curly black hair and dark eyes. Mai guessed that they were in their very early twenties. They were also clearly related – the resemblance between them was striking. The guy was carrying a pretty hefty-looking camera as if it was nothing.
"Hey there," he greeted casually, smiling at Mai with a perfect set of teeth. "Are you one of the residents or part of the Shibuya team?"
"Oh. I'm with Shibuya Psychic Research – the residents won't be back till later," explained Mai. "My name's Mai Taniyama."
"I'm Isaac Corsino," the guy replied. "And this is my sister, Monica."
"Nice to meet you," the woman added pleasantly.
"You too," Mai smiled. "Come on in. I'll show you to the base." She led the two of them through to their headquarters. The rest of the team were already gathered in there. The two siblings both gave John warm smiles when they saw him.
"Hey there, John," said Isaac. "Long time, no see."
"Yeah, it's been quite a while," John smiled back. His expression then turned confused. "But... where's Robyn?"
"She's parking Hetty out back," explained Monica. "She told us to go on ahead. We wanted to check out the situation here first to see if there's any extra equipment we'll need."
"You won't," said Naru shortly, bypassing all formal introduction. "We already have all of the necessary equipment set up."
Isaac and Monica were both a little taken aback by the blunt reply. "Oh. Err... okay then," said Monica uncertainly.
Mai shot an annoyed look at Naru. It was bad enough when he was rude to them, but when he did it to strangers too? She turned back to the new visitors and gave them the polite conversation topic they deserved. "So how do you know John?" she asked, looking between them and the young exorcist.
"Oh, it was Robyn who knew John before us," Isaac explained. "But we're part of her research team, so we've all worked together in the past."
"Ah, so are you guys spiritualists too?" asked Monk.
"More just enthusiasts," replied Isaac. "We've actually been funded by a company in London to research into paranormal activity."
"Yeah, we've been doing this for a couple of years now," added Monica.
"That sounds pretty cool," said Mai interestedly. What a great topic to get to do research on. And get paid for.
"Knock, knock..." came another voice. Everyone's heads turned towards the door. "Sorry. The front door was left open so I just followed you guys in."
Standing in the doorway was the most outlandish girl that Mai had ever laid eyes on. Her corset style top didn't leave much to the imagination – most of it simply consisting of straps – and her red jean shorts were ripped almost to tatters. There were multiple rings piercing her ears, eyebrow and lip and the top of a large tattoo could be seen peeking out from her low waistband. She wore her black hair short, choppy and flopping across one eye.
Naru at least didn't seem at all fazed by her. At any rate, his attention was fixed on Mai. "You left the door open?"
"Err..." Oops. She'd been hoping that this new girl's outrageous appearance would distract him from that revelation.
Luckily, what she did next did.
"John!" she exclaimed as soon as she spotted the young priest. Then to everyone's surprise, including John's, she dashed across the room and grabbed him in a hug. "It's been ages since I last saw you!"
"Err, yeah," stuttered John, thoroughly embarrassed and clearly unsure what to do with himself. "It's, err... good to see you."
"You too," she beamed, finally releasing him.
What the hell had just happened? Mai realised that her jaw was still hanging open. She was sure that everyone else on her team were thinking the same thing – how on earth did somebody as sweet and innocent as John know this exuberant, crazy-looking rocker chick?
"Oh, that's Robyn. In case you didn't guess," said Isaac obviously.
Robyn seemed to realise then that she'd just bounded into a room mostly full of people that she didn't know, without introducing herself. "Oh, I'm sorry. I'm Robyn. It's nice to meet you guys," she said, surprisingly polite.
"My name's Mai." The assistant stepped first up to the plate like usual. The rest of the group swapped introductions, including Isaac and Monica, who still hadn't formally introduced themselves to the remainder of the team yet. Mai then directed Robyn's attention to Naru and Lin, who were sat at the computers in the corner. "This is the head of Shibuya Psychic Research, Kazuya Shibuya, and his assistant, Lin."
Robyn nodded at them both. "Thanks for allowing us to join on this one."
"Well, John highly recommended your team and I trust his judgement," said Naru. No 'you're welcome' or anything, Mai noticed. "But now that you're here, I'd like to decide that for myself."
His tone suggested that so far he wasn't in agreement with John. In fact, from the little he'd established from Robyn so far, he was putting her intelligence at near to Mai's level. If Robyn noticed anything behind his words, she either didn't care or she just didn't mention it.
"Sounds fair," she said simply.
"Oh, hey," Monica interrupted. "We don't need any of our equipment by the way. They already have everything set up."
"Oh. Okay, that's great," said Robyn, a little surprised. She'd never worked alongside another ghost hunting team before. They'd always had to take care of the equipment side of things themselves.
"Whilst we're on the subject, I'd also like you to get rid of that camera," Naru cut in, addressing Isaac. "I don't allow any of my work to be recorded that way."
"But this is what we do!" exclaimed Isaac, astonished by the idea. "We document paranormal activity."
"Yeah, why would you even let us come here if you knew you weren't gonna let us film anything?" Monica protested.
"If you're such good researchers, then you don't need a video camera," Naru pointed out. "Document it in your memory. Or on paper if you have to."
"It's fine, guys," Robyn interrupted quickly before Monica could reply. "If he doesn't want us to film, then we've gotta respect that. We should be grateful we're here at all. And he's right – we don't actually need the camera."
"Yeah, I guess we can record everything manually," Isaac conceded with a shrug. "Old school style."
"Fine," Monica sighed.
"I'll take the camera back to the car," said Isaac. Robyn tossed the keys to him. "Don't start the fun without me."
"Your name is Robyn Isogai, isn't it?" Naru asked Robyn suddenly after Isaac had left.
Robyn looked surprised and a little uncomfortable. "Err, no, it isn't... It's Robyn Edge."
Monk raised his eyebrows. "Your last name is Edge?" He sounded amused.
Robyn grinned. "Hey, that's the name my old man gave me. Pretty awesome, right?"
Mai frowned as she watched the punky girl closely. I don't get it... She thought to herself. Robyn now seemed to be looking anywhere but at Naru. Was she lying? But why? What was the big deal about her name?
Isaac returned shortly after and the new ghost hunting team finally got down to business. "So what are we looking at here?" Oh, so now Robyn wanted to talk to Naru. "John said it's likely that there is something unnatural inside this house."
"It's probable," Naru agreed. "We haven't been able to determine any evidence for ourselves yet, but this is only our second day of investigating after all."
"And spirits tend to initially shy away from strangers," said Isaac.
"Exactly," said Naru. He didn't give any indication as to whether he was impressed that Isaac knew that fact. "The family who have moved in are the first to have lived here since 2008. The house has undergone multiple renovations since then and has only recently been put on the market."
"So what was it that made them think it could be haunted?" asked Monica.
"It started with random, abrupt drops in temperature and seeing frequent, unexplained shadows," explained Naru. "Then things started to get moved around or even broken. Everyone in the house has reported hearing strange noises. There's also been incidents involving the futons – everyone in the family has said that they've woken up in the night to feel the futons moving underneath them."
Monica made a face. "That sounds creepy."
Isaac seemed more sceptical. "Are they sure they didn't imagine it?"
Naru shook his head. "They said that they originally passed the movement off as minor earthquakes. But as soon as they got up, there would be no other signs of disturbance – it would only be the futons that moved."
"Definitely creepy," Monica decided.
"I know, right?" Mai was in total agreement on that one. She hadn't even wanted to touch any of the futons since they'd started working here.
"Are the futons old or new?" Robyn questioned. "Maybe it could just be from give in the springs or something."
"No. The futons were old, which they brought with them from their previous house. When the incidents kept occurring, they bought new ones for the entire family, but the same thing still carried on happening," Naru recounted. "They said it bothered them so much that they bought regular mattresses instead. They didn't have the same problems with those, but after they started using them, the noises and temperature drops became worse. Even more objects started getting broken and the shadows appeared in the house more often than before."
"You mean the house is punishing them for sleeping in something other than futons?" Isaac was now even more sceptical. It seemed like such an unusual thing for the haunting to focus on.
"Well, that's what we're here to find out, isn't it?" said Naru briskly. "Until we're certain that there are definitely spirits here, then there's no point in performing exorcisms. So for now, you can make use of yourselves by helping to observe and look for any unusual activity."
"Alright," said Isaac and Monica together.
It was clear that they didn't like being bossed around by somebody that they didn't know – especially somebody younger than them – but they had to concede that Naru was the one in charge and that he could kick them off the case just as easily as he'd allowed them on.
Robyn didn't seem as bothered by it. In fact, she seemed to be a lot more interested in the equipment that had been set up in the base. "Wow, this is really top of the range stuff. Is it okay if I have a closer look at this?"
"As long as you look and don't touch," said Naru shortly.
This time, Robyn had to pause before replying. It looked like her patience wasn't endless after all. "Noted."
"I think I'm gonna go and have a look around the house," Isaac decided. He then turned and gave Ayako a winning smile. "Fancy giving me the tour?"
Ayako looked a little surprised but she didn't need much encouraging. Isaac was quite a looker. "Sure thing."
Monica rolled her eyes. Her brother had never been able to resist a pretty face. "I'll go with you," she added hastily. She didn't want Naru to kick them out straightaway just because Isaac tended to have a one-track mind.
"I'll come too," Monk then chimed in.
Monica raised her eyebrows as he grinned at her. Was he trying to use the same trick as her brother? If so, he was wasting his time. She wasn't won over so easily by looks. "Fine."
Once the other four had left, Mai turned to Robyn, who was still inspecting the sound equipment from a fairly safe distance. She made sure she spoke quietly enough so that Naru couldn't hear her. "You seem a lot more laidback about how you're spoken to than your friends do."
Robyn smiled. "I wouldn't have been quite so laidback about it once upon a time. But recently, I've been trying this new thing where I don't complain about stuff," she explained. "I guess you could say I've been turning over a new leaf."
"How's the no cursing going?" John asked, sounding amused.
"Terrible," Robyn grinned sheepishly. "I still keep slipping up."
"No cursing?" Mai repeated.
"I've been trying to give up all my bad habits," said Robyn. "So far, not swearing has been one of the hardest."
Mai laughed. "So do you have a swear jar or something?"
"No, my friends just hit me instead," Robyn laughed too. "Trust me, that's a much bigger incentive than losing my money."
"Naru!" a sharp voice suddenly cut in, breaking the light-hearted atmosphere. Everyone's heads whipped round towards Lin, who was staring at the computer screen in front of him. "We've got some movement in the main bedroom."
The others all rushed over to crowd around the computer screens. "What is it?" asked Robyn excitedly.
"Here." Naru pointed to one of the screens, catching on quicker than the rest of them. "You can see the furniture shaking."
"We've also got a sudden decrease in temperature," added Lin, assessing the thermal equipment.
"Where are Monk and the others?" Mai asked worriedly.
"There!" John pointed to one of the other screens. "I think they're downstairs."
"They should be fine. They're in the drawing room – that's on the other side of the house," said Lin. "They don't even seem to have noticed any disturbance over there."
"Lin, get us some audio from the main bedroom," Naru ordered.
Lin complied and adjusted the volume to a higher setting. They could clearly make out the sounds of the wooden furniture shaking against the floor, the rattling of the vases and knickknacks on top of the dressing table...
Without warning, one of the vases suddenly shattered in its place, making Mai gasp. The dressing table mirror followed suit moments later. The sound of the breaking glass came through clearly over the audio. The walls of their headquarters then started to shake – it sounded like somebody was knocking on the outside of them.
"Knocking sounds!" exclaimed John. "And glass breaking. That's two of the criteria for poltergeists."
"Not to mention the moving objects!" Robyn shouted over the noise, covering her ears.
No sooner had she said it, the noise and the shaking of the walls stopped – just as suddenly as it had started. Robyn, Mai and John looked around, confused. All of the equipment was still completely intact and working fine. If it wasn't for the ringing in her ears, then Robyn could have sworn that she'd just imagined it.
Monk then burst into the room, followed by Ayako and the Corsino siblings. "Did you guys just feel that? Was that a poltergeist or what?"
Robyn exchanged glances with Isaac and Monica. The mixed look of surprise and excitement on their faces matched exactly what she was feeling. She'd known this was going to be an interesting case. She just hadn't realised how interesting. Now this was definitely what they'd been hoping for.