Kazuya Shibuya, or Naru as he had been named by his former assistant, sighed as he shut his laptop. He had only been gone two years, settling things in England. And what had he gotten when he returned? Takigawa and Matsuzaki got married, John had left Japan for a Missions trip or something, and his stupid assistant went missing!
Nobody knew where Mai went. The idiot was good as gone. It was six months after he left. She had started by stopping answering her phone, and then it was disconnected. Ayako said when they went to her apartment, where the landlady told them the Mai had left. She had packed up in the middle of the night and returned the key. She broke the lease and everything.
All that was left of the girl they came so close to was a simple letter that the landlady had passed on. They even showed him the letter.
Dear SPR,
I'm sorry to do this. But I can't do this anymore. It hurts too much to stay. I have to leave. One day, we may meet again. But until then, please don't try to find me. Everyone would just get hurt even more.
Love,
Mai.
Nobody had any idea where she had gone. She disappeared of the face of the earth. Even Yasuhara and Madoka couldn't find her.
Naru had been back for a year, and there had been no sign of her.
A soft piano sound drifted from the lobby of the office. A glance out of his door showed that Yasuhara was sitting on the couch, listening to a song on his phone. He probably had the research Naru had asked for, for his next case.
Watashi no koi wo higeki no JULIET ni shinaide
Koko kara tsuredashite…
Sonna kibun yo
That voice. Why did it sound so familiar? Why did it tickle some place in his mind, that was so elusive. The voice teased him, just out of reach.
Naru stood up and stormed into the lobby. He could almost see Mai looking up at him with a question in her eyes, ready to fall from her lips. Naru shook his head. Mai had left, with just a letter in her place. It was like she thought that little letter, those few line, those ten sentences, those forty-seven words could make up for her leaving.
But his new assistant did squeak and nearly drop his tea.
"Yasuhara!" Naru snapped, glaring at the university student. "What is that stupid song?"
Yasuhara looked surprised, like he expected Naru to be more focused on the task on hand, which he should have been. But, he had to find out who the hell was the singer, or else he would never get over it.
After a slight pause, he answered. "It's Romeo and Cinderella by MAI."
Naru blinked. "Mai?" Mai had gone missing. If she really was a singer, or whatever, wouldn't Masako or Ayako have found her by now? Masako would have probably seen her in the studio, and Ayako would have probably found her songs by now.
Yasuhara lowered his gaze. "Not Mai, but MAI. All capitols, it's a stage name. Her real name is Akane Seto. Her agency, White Rose, tried to hide her real name, to give her some privacy. Her first land lady in Tokyo leaked her name."
Yasuhara showed him the girl dancing on the screen. There was a blonde girl with warm dark green eyes that sparkled with life was on the screen in nothing but tank top and a pair of panties, looking like she had no shame with her outfit. Her face looked similar to Mai's but only slightly. Like how a random passer-by might hold a slight resemblance to somebody you know.
Naru grunted before changing the topic to the case.
Mai Taniyama, better known as MAI by her fans or Akane by her close friends in Tokyo, sighed as the instructor ended the session. She turned to talk to Ren, but frowned when she realized the redhead was gone. And so was Miki.
She kept forgetting that Hart broke up. And it was all because of that stupid ghost that had been terrorizing the company.
The ghost did not scare the former ghost hunter. She had faced much worse working with Naru, so she stayed.
Ren tried to convince the group to switch to Forever Star, while Miki wanted to go to BEAT! and Mai wanted to stay at White Rose. So, Hart broke up to do their own thing.
The instructor left and Mai began going over the routine by herself, trying to get the moves that had been troubling her. Mai had always picked up on the moves easily, having used to dance herself when she was a child. But there were always one or two steps that gave her trouble.
That's when Mai felt it.
The muscles on the back of her neck bunched and her back stiffened. The room temperature dropped and she felt another presence in the room.
Mai bolted to the closed door and tried to pull it open. She may not have been afraid of the ghost, but she was not an idiot. The ghost wanted her gone, either way to injured to continue working or dead. Mai had a feeling the ghost would prefer the latter.
The doors stood fast, despite not having a lock on it.
"Help!" She screamed, pulling at the doors. A quick look back showed the ghost slowly crossing the studio. Very slowly. But it probably would reach her in no time at all.
As the ghost moved, mirrors shattered. Breaking into a million pieces that shone in the light. The glass twinkled on the ground.
"Somebody help me!"
The door opened, and the ghost was gone. Mai's manager, Akio Shuda, took in the damage and sighed.
"We're calling them, Akane." Was all he said to her. Mai felt her heart clench.
"Akio, please. Not yet. I can defend myself, I just need some time. All we need is probably a priestess. We don't need an entire Ghost Hunter team to come out."
Akio turned on Mai. "You say you can protect yourself, but you don't! I'm calling in a team!" Akio sighed and raked a hand through his dark hair. "Akane, don't worry. A friend of mine works for a team. Their very good with what they do. If you want, they probably will let you help. But I am bringing in a team. Nothing you can say will stop me anymore."
Mai glared at him before storming off to her room, leaving her bag in the practice room.
"Akane!" Akio called after her, but she ignored the older man.
It wasn't that she was trying to be difficult. She would have welcomed a team.
But she was hiding from her old team. Mai knew the chances of Akio contacting SPR where slim, but the chance of SPR hearing of her wasn't as slim. She was just lucky Masako Hara hadn't recognized her through the hair dye and contacts yet.
Mai plopped on her bed, sighing.
She pushed herself slightly off the bed to turn on her iPod, which waited for her in its dock station on her bedside table.
A cover of a song Hart did with another bad started playing
"Why did things have to turn out this way?" Mai asked herself. "It's been three years. Maybe I should try to contact them. But if they recognize my voice, how it changed…" Mai shook her head, her blonde hair whipping around her head. "After these ghost hunters leave, I'll call them. I'll tell them where I've been, let them know that I'm now MAI. They deserve to know. They have to know."
A/N: This is my first Ghost Hunt fic, so let it rip. Go ahead point out all the flaws, how OOC the characters are, how bad the plot is. All reviews, with flames being the exception, are welcomed. OK, so I'm modeling the singers off of Vocaloid software. MAI is modeled off of Hatsune Miku, and later characters Miki will be modeled off of Kagamine Rin, Ren is modeled off of Teto. And a character that has yet to be mentioned, well I'll talk about her when she appears.
So, the song lyrics. That is Romeo and Cinderella by Miku Hatsune.
Next chapter: The Ghost team comes? Does Mai knows them? A member of the team gets attacked?
