Hi, everyone!
I have written this fanfiction at around October 2009 and have published this in this website around the same time, too on my other account. Because 2013 came and I have not written and uploaded more than 4 chapters, I decided to take it down (another reason is because it was written so horribly that I could not even bear to look at it -shudder-, but let's not get to that). ;) I was feeling good lately so I decided to rewrite and polish all four chapters I had written before and upload them again.
Here's the first chapter. Cheers!
CLAMOR
Chapter I
Sherlock
There are just too many things Taniyama Mai doesn't like about her "today". For one, it is raining unbearably hard. Mai prefers the sun and the warmth, and feels completely vulnerable whenever she hears the incessant pitter-patter of the pouring rain. Oftentimes when it rains, her mind drifts to thoughts of her deceased parents, who she had always shared warm chocolate drinks with when she was younger.
Today, also—as marked in the calendar so meticulously hung near her boss's office—is a day of tedious errand. Mai, together with her boss, Shibuya Kazuya, and her fellow SPR member, Lin Koujo, have gone all throughout Shibuya district and its neighboring areas and to different stores to choose and order new equipment for the Shibuya Psychic Research team. After all, the group has been running for almost two years now and needs some new arrangements.
Then there is Naru—the ever so narcissistic Shibuya Kazuya and resident head of the highly-regarded psychic team. Mai rolls her eyes and later settles on watching the dull movements of the car's windshield wiper.
"It's really raining," Mai points out. She feels like the quietness is finally getting to her—with the likes of Naru and Lin as her companions, how wouldn't it?—and thinks that a very naïve statement has the ability to put an end on the silence.
And end the silence, it does.
Mai can practically hear Naru roll his eyes, and she knows that Lin, who silently and carefully drives through the pouring rain, hears it, too. The half-masked look of rising amusement on his stoic face is proof enough.
"No shit, Sherlock," retorts Naru, scoffing as he types diligently on his laptop.
The chocolate-haired girl who sits gingerly between the driver and the workaholic boy turns her head to look at the mentioned workaholic and glares. There is certainly no end to Naru's ill manners.
Mai huffs in irritation and looks straight ahead, watching the foggy road they pass by. Almost pouting, she mumbles, "Who the heck is Sher… Sheru… Sheruloku? Sherloku"—she groans in frustration and sends Naru a frustrated glare—"whatever."
It is hard enough to speak English when she barely passes the subject in high school, and it just keeps getting hard after finding out that her own boss is actually an English national. As if to add insult to injury, Naru closes his eyes and frowns.
"Only ignorant idiots don't know who Sherlock is," says Naru. He closes his laptop shut and slides it into its bag, pointedly ignoring the flushed eighteen-year-old who, in Naru's opinion, sputters incoherencies that are not worth hearing.
"What did you say?!"
Naru shakes his head, as though to admonish Mai. "Sherlock Holmes. He is a fictional investigator with sharp mind and unnerving wit, and he is known to solve complicated criminal cases. Everyone around the world knows him, but I guess there are always exceptions for the likes of you."
Mai feels a vein in her head burst in mixed embarrassment and irritation. How is she supposed to know? She is not much of a reader!
"Why, you—"
Mai is about to throw some kind of insult, no matter how childish, but is cut off when Lin steps on the car's brakes so hastily and so forcefully that Mai finds herself falling toward the dashboard. Her reflexes are unreliable during times when she is thoroughly unprepared, and although it is against her better judgment, she is grateful that Naru has managed to grab her shoulders back.
And just like that, Mai and Naru's childish banter that rainy evening is put to an end. Naru switches back to his workaholic mode and instantly questions the older man with them, while Mai leans back on her seat and relaxes her palpitating heart.
Mai has not heard much of what Lin said, but she catches the words "… person in the middle of the road."
The girl gasps. "Did you hit someone, Lin-san?"
Lin shakes his head no and prepares to hop off the car to investigate. They are in the outskirts of Shibuya already, and there are hardly any other cars that pass by.
Mai looks ahead of the road and notices that under the rampaging rain, the person who lies unconsciously on the way is actually a woman. She has her back on them, but Mai can clearly see the long, curly locks spread across the asphalt road.
Beside her, Naru makes a move to investigate the woman as well, and Mai doesn't hesitate as she follows him.
Mai is surprised when she and Naru arrives at the scene that Lin is not moving at all, and is just simply staring at the woman as if she is otherworldly. When Naru crouches and moves the body so it lies on its back, Mai screams.
Acting every little bit like Naru's prided Sherlock Holmes has its disadvantages, too, she thinks.
"What happened?"
Sitting by the emergency room, Mai looks up and sees Matsuzaki Ayako and Takigawa Housho approaching her with hurried steps. At the sight of two of the only people she considers as older siblings, Mai feels like crying again.
Saying that Mai is shaken is a major understatement. After Naru had moved the body so it lied on its back, they were greeted by a horrific scene. Half of the woman's face was badly burnt to the point that facial muscles were showing. Parts of her hair were scorched, her mouth was severely affected that it looked incomprehensible. Then there was blood.
There was blood everywhere.
That was when they realized that not only was the woman's face burnt, even her legs were scalded. It was as if she bathed in fire itself. As soon as they knew that the woman was not dead, they headed straight to the hospital and Lin did all the other errands.
One of those errands is immediately phoning two of their best exorcists.
"Everything's fine now, Matsuzaki-san," Naru says, leaning back against the wall across from where Mai sits. He sighs. "But it looks like we have a new case to solve."
Ayako and Bou-san raise their eyebrows and shoot Naru a weird look. Mai, who is now in between the two, looks up at Naru curiously.
"Prepare yourselves to visit a psychiatric asylum soon," the SPR boss continues as he fixes himself and stands up straight. He makes a move toward the records office of the hospital and stops when he is a good few meters away. He looks over his shoulder and to Mai. He calls out, "Mai."
Said girl stares at him curiously. "Y-Yes, Naru?"
"It's your time to be like Sherlock Holmes."
Thanks for reading! I will update as soon as I finished editing the second chapter. Review? :)