Hey guys! I know I've always said that I love MaiXLin pairings over MaiXNaru, but I'm making an exception in this case. I've read a few other FanFictions that involve Mai and Naru and I've noticed that it's a little too easy to work with Lin since Naru is much more dense than Lin is. So, here ya have it! This is the result; Jealous Rage!
WARNING: This is a tragedy, so there may not be a happy ending. No flames if so.
Disclaimer: I do not own Ghost Hunt or any of the characters. Just this plot and any OC's I happen to throw in. Enjoy!
I sped down the sidewalk, dodging everything and everyone in my path. I couldn't believe it! I was late for work, AGAIN!
"Man," I gasped as I rounded the corner. "Naru's gonna kill me! This is the third time this week!" I sprinted the last few blocks to SPR (Shibuya Psychic Research) and climbed the steps two at a time.
Whn I reached the door, I hesitated before slowly opening it. I decided to quietly slip in and make sure I wasn't seen. When I managed to do so, I went over to my desk and grabbed a bunch of paperwork to make it look like I was doing something productive. After a while, I noticed something was a little off.
"Hm…Where's Naru?" I thought out loud. I got up quietly and crept over to his office door to find the narcissist laid back in his chair sleeping soundly. I was just about to walk in when I felt a strong hand on my shoulder. I whipped my head around to find Lin staring down at me with a smirk.
"I wouldn't bother him. He stayed up the entire night filling out paperwork for the business. Don't worry. I'll keep it quiet about you coming in late," Lin explained. I grinned at him before bouncing back to my desk.
About another half hour went by before I finally heard stirring coming from Naru's office. I took that as a sign that he was awake and prepared myself for…
"Mai, tea," he ordered. I rolled my eyes as I got up quickly to make the dreaded tea I made every day.
As I had set the kettle on the burner to boil, I heard the entrance door open and a voice call out,
"Hey? Anyone here?" It sounded like a teenage girl. I poked my head out and sure enough, it was. I quickly ran out to greet her. She looked like any other teenage girl in high school. But, what really caught my attention, was her amazingly beautiful eyes. They were a bright green color and shone brightly in the sunlight coming in from the window. I smiled at her.
"Hi, there," I said happily. "Can I help you?" I asked. She looked a little wary but proceeded in explaining why she was there.
"I'm looking for Kazuya Shibuya. My family and I have a bit of a problem," she said. I smiled.
"No problem! Let me get my boss and make some tea. I'm sure he'll have no problem taking your case," I explained. She nodded before taking her place on one of the chairs in the room, Naru had made his way out into the conference room with Lin in tow.
Afterwards, I made tea for everyone and took my own seat next to Lin on the couch as he was busily typing away on his computer. Naru studied the girl a bit before she spoke up.
"Please, sir. We need your help," she said.
"Would you please explain to me the details of your problem. We'll make our decision then," Naru said coldly. The girl just nodded.
"First of all, my name is Hitomi. My mother, father, and brother all moved here to Tokyo about a year ago. We hadn't noticed anything out of the ordinary at first because we were just that excited to be moving into a new home. However, one night about 2 weeks ago, strange things started happening. Doors would open and close on their own. We'd hear voices in the night. And knocking sounds would be heard every night at exactly 7:45. Other things have been happening as well; particularly to my brother. He's been acting strange ever since coming home from college. See, he hadn't stayed in the house because he was still in college at the time we were moving in. So, it was strange to see him acting so…odd…" She explained. Naru looked up.
"How odd?" he asked. Hitomi seemed to shudder a bit at the thought.
"Well, he never smiles anymore around my father. And, whenever I go to talk to one of my male friends, he becomes furious and forces them away. I try to stand up for them and myself, but it only seems to make him angrier. He also insists that I never talk to dad anymore, even though I always do," she explained.
"Is your brother the only one who's been acting strangely?" Naru asked. Hitomi shook her head.
"No, my father as well. But, he seems to hide it better than my brother," she said.
"Would you say that he's been acting like this since you moved into the house as well?" Naru asked. Hitomi thought for a moment.
"I don't think so. I think it started when my brother came home from college. My mother and I are the only two who don't seem to be affected by whatever's affecting them," Hitomi explained. She stood up and bowed slowly. "We would be very grateful if you could help us. If there isn't anything among the paranormal sorts, maybe you could figure out what's making all the events happen in our house. Please, good people…"
"Wow…for a sixteen-year-old girl, she's very mature," I thought to myself.
Naru thought for a moment before speaking.
"Have a few rooms prepared for us to use as base and sleeping quarters. We'll be there tomorrow around noon," he said. Hitomi lifted her head back up and smiled happily at us."Oh, thank you so much! Mother will be so happy, as well!" She said happily. She gave us directions to her house before happily running out the door.
"Mai, call Monk and Miss Matsuzaki and tell them to meet us at Miss Hitomi's house tomorrow at Noon," Naru ordered. I nodded before making my way over to my desk to call said employees.
The next morning, I decided to get up a bit earlier to pack a few extra pairs of clothes. I grabbed my small messenger bag from the side of my dresser and did so. Afterwards, I quickly put on a pair of jeans and a purple shirt with a black camisole underneath. I slipped on my shoes and put my hair up in a ponytail, which was now past the center of my back.
When everything was packed, I grabbed my bag and slipped out of the house quickly, making my way down the street to meet Naru and Lin.
When I reached SPR, Naru and Lin were still in the process of loading equipment into the van, so I decided to help. When we finished loading everything into the van, we set out for Hitomi's house. Monk and Ayako would be meeting us there.
It was only after a few minutes when I started to get bored. I hated riding in the back of the van with only Naru and Lin as company. It wasn't the best of company, either. I sighed again, which felt like the hundredth time. Naru must have thought so as well, because he sighed himself before saying,
"Mai, if you keep sighing, you'll use up all the air in the van."
I glared at the back of his head before shutting up. I made it a point to make sure not to sigh anymore during this trip. It was only another half hour to Hitomi's house anyway.
"So, what do you think we're up against, Naru?" I decided to ask.
"If I'm not there to assess the situation, Mai, how would I be able to determine that?" he shot back. I huffed before staring back out the window, as if the passing fields were suddenly interesting.
"Why does my boss have to be such a stupid Narcissist!" I thought to myself.
We turned onto a road that looked pretty old. But, when we finally came upon the house, it looked quite new. It was a relatively larger house, fit for a family of four. There was a small gazebo out front surrounded by a garden.
We pulled into the driveway as we were greeted by Hitomi when we got out of the van. Monk and Ayako had gotten there a little while before us and were waiting with Hitomi.
"Thanks for coming," she said.
"If we may, we'd like to meet your parents and brother if at all possible," Naru said. Hitomi nodded before leading us into the house.
Hitomi gathered her Father and Brother into the family room.
"If you want to speak to my mother, I'm afraid you're going to have to wait," Hitomi explained. She stared attentively at Naru before he nodded.
"Now, I want you all to tell me any personal experiences you may have had during the time of the haunting," Naru said. The father, Yakumo went first.
"I've been waking up at night recently. Not just randomly, but at exactly 1:39 am. It's the same thing every night. I would wake up, go get a drink of water, and come back to a man and woman in my bedroom arguing. I could never hear what they're saying though. Then, without warning, they would just disappear as quickly as they appeared. I never said anything to my wife or children in fear that they would be too afraid to get any sleep themselves," he explained.
"Has your wife seen these two people, as well?" Naru asked. Yakumo shook his head.
"She doesn't sleep in the same room as I," he answered. Naru looked up at this but asked no further questions. He turned to the son, Tetsuya, and waited for his response.
"I don't feel the need to discuss anything with strangers…" he scoffed. Naru glared a bit at the man before turning back to Yakumo.
"Yakumo-san," he started. "Has your son informed you of anything he's encountered within this house?" Naru asked. Yakumo glanced at his son before turning back to Naru.
"I haven't spoken with my son very much, Shibuya-san," he said. "So, if he has encountered anything, I wouldn't have heard of it."
"Thank you for your time," Naru said. "You may go about your day as if it were any other day." He turned to Hitomi. "Now, is it at all possible to speak with your mother, Hitomi-san?" he asked. She nodded before motioning to follow her.
"Should we come, too?" Ayako asked.
"No, we only need Mai to come two can stay here and set up equipment," he replied. Monk and Ayako did as they were told as we followed Hitomi.
We went up the stairs and to the end of the hallway to find a door with chains and a padlock on it. We watched as Hitomi pulled a key out of her pocket and slowly slip it into the lock. She slowly unlocked the padlock and took the chains off the door.
"May I ask why you lock the room up like this?" Naru asked the question we were all thinking. Hitomi looked at us for a while before sighing.
"My mother can't be trusted. Because of her condition, we have to keep her locked up like this," Hitomi explained.
"You mean your mother is mentally unstable?" Naru asked. Lin was busily typing away on his computer once again, recording down everything Hitomi says.
"Yes," Hitomi answered. "But, we don't entirely know what it is. The doctors can't confirm it either. The reason we keep her locked up, is because she insists on wandering around the house by herself and getting into trouble. She's already gotten out a number of times and injured herself in various different ways. We had to resort to chains and a padlock because she figured out how to pick the lock, surprisingly."
She slowly opened the door to reveal a simple bedroom with a few hospital monitors sitting by a single bed. On the bed, there was a woman around her mid-thirties sitting up looking the opposite way from us.
Hitomi was just about to say something, when we noticed that her mother looked as if she were talking to somebody. But who?
"Mom?" Hitomi said quietly. The woman stopped chatting with the invisible person and turned to us. "Who were you speaking with just now?" Her mother pointed to an empty corner.
"The nice lady," she said with a bit of trouble. It was clear she did suffer from a mental illness.
"Mom, there isn't anybody there," Hitomi said. Her mother went silent for a while before patting Hitomi's hand in understanding.
"How long has this nice lady been coming to see you, ma'am?" I asked before I got a chance to think what I was doing. I looked at Naru for approval. He just raised an eyebrow and allowed me to continue.
"When us moved to here," she answered with difficulty.
"Have you seen any other nice people?" I asked her. She shook her head.
"Just the nice lady. She call Aoi nice lady, too," she answered with a smile. (A/N: Aoi's the mother's name since we hadn't gone over this. ^.^;)
As Lin was busily typing away on his computer, Naru motioned for us to leave. It seems like he was satisfied with her answers.
"Mom, we need to go. Will you be alright if I leave you here, now?" Hitomi asked. Her mother nodded slowly after pausing for a moment to think. Hitomi gave her a pat on the hand before leading us out into the hallway.
"Now I see why you were a little uncomfortable having us talk to your mother, Hitomi," I said with a sad smile. She locked the door again and turned to me.
"It's alright. You needed the information, and I didn't even know she was seeing an apparition," she said.
"Let's get downstairs and get to work figuring out a plan on how we're going to approach this. Monk and Ayako should be finished setting up the equipment," Naru said. He turned and left without another word, Lin in tow. Hitomi and I followed afterward.
Later, we had just finished taking all the temperature readings throughout the house.
"A lot of the rooms were normal. But when I measured the temperature around Aoi's room door, it was colder than usual. The same in the father's bedroom," I said, handing the clipboard of recorded temperatures to Naru.
"Let's get started on setting up cameras and microphones in the rooms in question, and call it a night. Make sure to stay together," Naru ordered.
Monk, Ayako and I grabbed a few cameras and microphones and proceeded in doing what we were told.
We set up a microphone near Aoi's door and a camera and microphone in Yakumo's room. We decided to go to Tetsuya's room to set up some equipment as well. As Ayako and I were adjusting the camera, I decided to strike up a conversation.
"So, do you really think there could be a haunting here?" I asked.
"Who knows," Monk said. "It sounds like something could be here, given what we heard from the girl and what the mother was seeing in her room."
"But, remember," Ayako started. "She does have a mental condition. She could just be hallucinating due to that."
"It's possible. We won't know until further investigation, though," Monk said.
"Naru said earlier that it's becoming more likely that there could definitely be a haunting here," I said.
"So, you're all pro-Naru now, Mai?" Ayako said with a smirk. I felt my face go a little red at that remark.
"No! I'm just repeating what he said!" I shot back at her. She lifted her hands in defense.
"Just putting the pieces together!" She said.
We finished placing the microphone and camera and decided to call it a night. As we were walking out, Ayako was still going on about the whole "pro-Naru" thing. However, neither one of us noticed the slight glare Monk had sent our way at the mention of Naru.
That night…
I was standing in complete darkness.
"Yup, figures," I said out loud. "Any minute now…"
"Mai," I heard that all too familiar voice say. I turned around to find Gene staring at me with concern.
"What's wrong?" I said when I noticed his uneasiness.
"You need to wake up right now," he said.
"But, why?" I asked.
"Just wake up. You're in danger," he said. I was getting scared again.
"Danger? Why! What's wrong?" I said. But he didn't say anything as a light flooded my vision.
I woke up with a start as the hands around my neck tightened their grip. I tried to scream for help, but it was no use.
I tried to get a look at the one who was doing this, but it was too dark. Then, I noticed the red eyes, boring down into my own. It was only then when I gathered the strength to let out one, air-restricted scream.
"NO!"
Well! There ya have it! I'm pretty pleased with this first chapter! I'll be updating weekly from now on. Keeping a daily schedule is too risky. I'd have to rush to get a chapter done. This way, I can take my time and make sure every detail is perfectly placed. Hope you enjoyed the first chapter and I can't wait to see your reviews!
R&R, Comment, and Criticize!
Ciao! ^_^