Disclaimer: Ghost Hunt does not belong to me . . . but it will soon. *evil smirk that sends shivers down everyone's spines*
"Honestly," Mai growled in her head, "Why do we have to get projects like this all the time?" Mai was puzzling over a worksheet she had gotten as homework. After finishing all the paperwork Naru had given her, she had gotten to work on her science. "Why did I have to chose Nickel? I barely know anything about it! Wait a minute . . . Hadn't the teacher said something about Nickel? I think–"
"Mai, tea."
"Oh, come on," Mai groaned. It had just been coming to her too! Why did he have to call her at the worst times? She stormed to the kitchen, muttering insults to her boss since she knew she couldn't say them to her face. She took out two cups. She only needed to make some for herself and Naru since Lin-san had gone out for a while on an errand. Upon hearing the whistle of the kettle, her hands automatically went into action. She was so used to it that her mind could wander off and she could make perfect tea: not something she was too happy about. Mai placed her cup on the table and went to the door of her boss's office, "Naru! I'm coming in!" Silence greeted her words. She took that as a 'yes' and entered with a sigh. She set the tea on the tea and paused for a few moments, debating whether or not she should wait for a 'thank you'. She knew that she would only get an insult and that would really make her angry. She decided that she wanted to finish her homework in a calm manner.
So she walked out of the room, surprising Naru. Though he would never admit it even to himself, he enjoyed their arguments. However being the proud narcissist he is, he chose to ignore the thoughts in his head, instead thinking, "Good. I'll get to work in peace now." Then he heard a squeal of joy from behind the wall that separates his office. "Or not."
Bou-san had arrived with Ayako and John. "Hey there, Mai!" The monk waved as he walked over the girl, pulling her into a bear hug.
"I missed you, Bou-san," Mai returned the hug. It had been so long since she had seen her friends!
"You look like you're in a good mood," Ayako smiled at the girl.
"Ayako!" Mai pulled out of her father figure's arms to rush over and hug Ayako, who had become like a mother to her in the little while she had known the woman.
"I guess you haven't gotten in a fight with Naru yet," Bou-san guessed.
Mai looked at him surprised, "How'd you know?"
"Because you're usually steaming with anger when we come here," Bou-san teased.
"Hey, it's not my fault he makes me angry all the time!" Mai protested.
"Well, if you didn't argue with him, then maybe he wouldn't make you angry," Ayako smirked.
"Who are you siding with?" Mai glared at the woman.
"Now, now," John tried to appease them, "The reason we usually come here is to calm her down when she is angry, not make her angry."
"That's right!" Mai huffed.
"Yes, yes," Bou-san patted her on the head, "Would you mind making us some tea?"
"Fine," Mai muttered before walking into the kitchen to make more tea. Luckily the kettle was still hot from the tea she made before.
"Hey Mai," Bou-san called as the three settled down on the couches, "What is this sheet that you're doing?"
"Oh, that," Mai remembered her homework with a groan, "We have to answer some questions about whatever element we chose. I chose nickel."
"What kind of questions?" John inquired.
"Like the symbol, atomic mass, physical properties etc."
"I remember when they made us do this, but they made us do this much earlier," Ayako told them.
"Wow, you are really old, aren't you?" Bou-san asked in mock awe.
"Why you?" THUNK!
"Ow! What was that for?"
Mai sighed as she listened to the usual argument taking place again. She walked in, "Alright, you guys. Do you want Naru to come out and yell at us?" This shut them up as they both looked towards the door of Naru's office. John smiled gratefully at Mai, which she warmly returned as she set down the tea, "Here you go~"
"Ah, thank you," Bou-san sang out as he took his cup of tea. Ayako nodded her thanks to the girl as John smiled warmly. They were awarded with the pleased look that settled on Mai's face.
"So how about you work on your homework and we'll help you?" John suggested.
"And then we can all go out for lunch somewhere?" Bou-san ruffled her hair.
"Great!" Mai replied enthusiastically.
"So what do you already have?" Ayako leaned in to look at the sheet.
"Well, I know that the symbol of nickel is Ni and its atomic number is 28 while the atomic mass is 58.69. I also have that nickel is a metal that is part of Group 10, which falls into the category of Transition Metals. The last piece I know is that its density is 8.912 g/ cubic cm."
"So what do you need then?" Bou-san asked.
"Well, I need to know where it's found," Mai scanned the list.
"I remember this one," John smiled, "In the Erzgebirge, otherwise known as the Ore Mountains, miners found an ore, from which they could not separate any copper from it. In 1751, Baron Axel Fredrik Cronstedt tried to extract copper from the ore and instead found a white metal, which was nickel. Though it was already used, but they only classified it in this time."
Mai scribbled it down, "Alright! Thank god for that one. I never thought I would be able to figure it out."
John blushed, "It's no problem."
"So what else do you need to know?" Bou-san brought them back to the topic of the homework.
"Hm," Mai looked at the sheet, "I need to know about the physical and chemical properties. I also need to know what it reacts to."
"Well, I know the physical properties," Bou-san noted, "Nickel is one of the three strongly magnetic elements that occur naturally with the other two being iron and cobalt though both of them are more magnetic than nickel. It's also a slivery-white ore. Nickel is also shiny, which is common upon metals that are both ductile and malleable. It melts at 1,555°C and boils at 2,835°C."
"I remember the chemical ones and what it reacts to," Ayako sipped her tea, "Nickel is generally not reactive, but it reacts with oxygen in high temperatures, burning to create nickel oxide. It also reacts with steam to make nickel oxide & hydrogen gas. And although the reaction is slow, it reacts with dilute sulphuric acids, chlorine, fluorine, bromine and iodine."
"Wow," Mai was amazed, "How do you guys remember this stuff?"
"Cause we use our brains," Bou-san tapped her forehead lightly with his knuckles, "You however can't as there is nothing there."
"Hey!" Mai replied angrily, "I have a brain!"
"Alright, then why don't you answer the next one?" Bou-san teased.
"Fine, I will!" Mai looked determined.
"The next one is," Ayako scanned the paper, "where is nickel commonly found?"
"Ha, I know this one!" Mai grinned triumphantly, "It's usually found in the Sudbury region in Canada, Norilsk in Russia and New Caledonia."
"Wow, she actually knew it," Bou-san whistled.
Mai shot him a glare. "If you're so smart, then how about you do the next one?" Mai challenged.
"Bring it on," Bou-san retorted.
"How exactly did this become a competition?" John sighed.
"Who cares?" Ayako smirked, "Alright, Bou-san. Tell us two common isotopes of nickel."
"Eh? Why do I get the hard one?" Bou-san whined.
"Shut up and answer it or give up," Ayako snapped.
"No way I'm giving up!" Bou-san leaned back, "Ah! I remember now! Nickel has 5 naturally found stable isotopes: 58Ni, 60Ni, 61Ni, 62Ni and 64Ni. 58Ni covers 68.077% of the natural abundance, thus the most often found. Meanwhile no other isotope for any element has a higher binding energy than 62Ni. When forming this isotope, the most energy is released unless it is fusion, which can make heavier isotopes."
"I didn't think he would be able to answer that," Mai mumbled. Ayako too looked shocked, nodding in agreement.
"Hey, what do you mean by that?" Bou-san looked offended.
"What's the next one, Mai?" John interrupted, hoping to avoid an argument.
"Um," Mai looked to the sheet, "I need to draw a Bohr-Rutherford and a Lewis Dot diagram. . ."
"Well, then here it is," John replied.
"Eh? What are–" Mai looked up, "EHHH?"
"What's wrong, Mai?" John looked puzzled. Then he looked at Bou-san and Ayako, surprised to see the similarly shocked expressions they were wearing.
"John," Mai began slowly, "Where did that huge blackboard come from?"
"And why does it already have the diagrams drawn on it?" Ayako added. It was true. The Bohr-Rutherford diagram had 4 shells, 3 of them full and the last one having 10 electrons. Meanwhile the Lewis Dot diagram had 10 valence electrons around the symbol of nickel.
John turned to look at the blackboard behind him, then back to them, tilting his head in a complete innocent manner, "Is this strange in Japan?"
"It's strange anywhere!" Bou-san exclaimed exasperated.
"Really?" John blinked confused.
"Never mind," Bou-san muttered.
"So, Mai," Ayako turned to the girl, fervent to change the subject, "What's the last question?"
"Eh? Um, yeah," Mai sighed in relief for the change in topic, "What are the origins of the name?"
"What kind of question is that?" Bou-san groaned.
"Does anyone know the answer?" Mai asked hopefully. Ayako and John shook their heads. Mai sighed. What were they going to do now?
"Kupfernickel." A sudden voice rang out behind them. They span around, crying out in surprise. There they saw Lin-san typing on his laptop.
"When'd he get here?" Bou-san gaped at the man.
"Um," Mai began hesitantly, "What did you say, Lin-san?"
"It used to be called kupfernickel," Lin-san continued emotionlessly, "It had 'kupfer' because the ore looked similar to copper and 'nickel' because it was the mischievous spirit that the miners blamed when they could not extract copper from the ore."
"So what was it called all in all?" Ayako asked.
Lin-san stopped typing and shifted his eyes to look at them, "Devil's copper."
The four froze. "Oh god, he's really scary sometimes."
"Well, Mai," Bou-san laughed nervously, "How about we get going?"
"Yeah, great idea," Mai agreed, eager to get out of the room.
"Wait," John stopped them, "Won't Naru mind?"
"Don't worry," Ayako waved it off, "Masako's probably going to come in and harass him anyways."
"So let's get go!" Bou-san called as he and Mai jumped up to leave, Ayako and John following them. They ran out of the building with one thought running through their minds:
"Devil's copper, huh? It looks like ghost are hunting us more than we are. Oh boy. Our lives will never be normal."
Yeah, I know it's random, but I had to present the information of my research and I chose a story. And since I was bored, I decided to make it a fanfic. And since I already wrote it as a fanfic, why waste it?
Completely random and unfortunately educational. XP So have fun~