Rated: K+
The dynamics of the SPR are just too interesting to pass up – enjoy!
Oh, and depending on which novel/manga you're into, Ghost Hunt is owned by Fuyumi Ono or Shiho Inada – neither of whom are me.
"Just another Day at the Office"
A series of digits on the bottom right-hand corner of his desktop computer indicated several things. One: it was late afternoon. Two: it was an otherwise normal Wednesday in early spring.
And three: his scatterbrained assistant was late.
Naru sighed and rubbed his temples, feeling a lack of caffeine start to tug at the edges of his otherwise razor-sharp brain. Leaning back in his chair, he drummed his fingers on his desktop, wondering what irrelevant excuse the girl would stutter before she'd get on with her actual duties, like making tea and filing.
At this point, tea took precedence. And according to his planner, SPR had an appointment with a potential high-end client precisely at 5:00 pm. "And if she's not here to handle things, I'm taking it out of her next paycheck," he muttered.
Ten minutes later, Naru had almost resigned himself to making his own tea and conducting the interview with Lin typing the notes when the entrance door was thrown open with enough force to crash into the wall. He even heard a muffled curse as he pushed his chair back and went to peek into the reception area.
He was greeted with the back of his short-haired, petite assistant as she inspected the wall for any dents left by her overly energetic entrance, her backpack carelessly thrown on the couch.
Brow furrowed slightly with impatience and caffeine withdrawal, Naru said, "Although staring at a blank wall is a form of punishment in some schools, this is a place of business, Mai, and excessive tardiness to your job results in reprimands and occasionally amounts deducted from your pay. How many times must I make this clear to you?"
When he first spoke, Mai's spine stiffened and she whipped her head around to stare at him, startled. But, by the time he got to "amounts deducted," her eyes narrowed and she put her fists to her hips, ready to defend herself.
"Well, Mr. Dense, it just so happens that I have a perfectly reasonable explanation for today! And it's work-related, so don't even try to pull any of that pay nonsense with me!"
Not in the mood, Naru headed back to the sanctuary of his office. "The legitimacy of your excuse will be determined by me, after you have performed the most basic task for which you've been hired. Tea. Now."
"B-but!" she spluttered. He shut the door firmly, cutting off any attempt to communicate.
"Argh! I cannot believe that man!" Mai ranted as she slung her backpack behind her desk and stomped into the kitchen. "He needs to stop and listen to other people for once in his pig-headed life!"
Meanwhile, Naru's other assistant opened his own door slightly, bending his tall frame to peer into the seating room. Seeing nothing broken and neither his boss nor the lively Taniyama, he retreated to his laptop.
Five minutes later, Mai practically kicked open the door to Naru's office and slammed a hot cup of tea on his desk. "There! Now, will you listen to me?" she said.
He said nothing, calmly inhaling the steamy scent of tea before taking a slow sip, electing to wait until her tantrum blew over before attempting any rational conversation.
She took his silence to mean he was ignoring her, which only added fuel to the fire. "Fine!" she said, charging back out of his office. "And it was related to our client, by the way!"
"Mai," he said coolly, "the file for today is on your desk. I assume you have not reviewed it, since your arrival today was less punctual than usual?"
"I didn't even need to read it, I'm telling you – " she started, but he interrupted.
"Our client is going to be here any minute, Mai. That does not give you long to go over the background information when one considers your reading speed and concentration powers. I suggest you focus on that so you will have something useful to contribute during the meeting," Naru said.
Turning to look at her desk for the first time, she noticed a folder labeled "Hoshizaki." Flopping into her chair, she opened the folder and sifted through the pages, looking for any photographs of the client and muttering disjointed but vaguely threatening things under her breath.
Sensing things had calmed somewhat, Lin entered the seating area and greeted her with his version of cordiality, which would appear quite formal to most.
Mai immediately cheered up. "Hello, Lin-san! Oh, I forgot to ask if you wanted any tea, can I get you some?"
"I am fine, but perhaps a fresh pot of tea would be prudent for our incoming client, Taniyama-san," he said.
"Ah, good idea," she said, heading back into the kitchen. Suddenly she paused, glancing back at Lin. "I don't suppose we have any pictures of this Hoshizaki person, do we?"
Eye narrowing slightly in thought, Lin answered simply, "No."
"Darn," she said, heading for the stovetop. "I was so sure it was…"
The relative peace of SPR was broken when a woman in her early forties stumbled into the office. Mai poked her head out of the kitchen, immediately in welcoming mode. "Good evening! Please have a seat. I'll be out in just a moment with some tea." Before getting the kettle, she knocked gently on Naru's door to get his attention.
The woman, well-dressed with a slightly rigid face, eyed Lin before she settled herself gingerly on the couch across from him.
Naru entered, introductions were made, tea was served, and Mai grabbed her notebook and the Hoshizaki file as the interview began.
"Why exactly have you come to SPR?" Naru asked plainly.
The woman sniffed lightly, clearly not expecting such straightforward treatment. "Normally, I would not make such a request, but my husband and I are simply at our wits' end. For the past two weeks…"
Mai, attempting to keep up with Mrs. Hoshizaki's story, found her mind drifting back to the dream she had earlier. It came on as she sat in the park on the way to work. For once, she had gotten out of school on time and was actually a little ahead of schedule. It seemed harmless enough to sit under a blossoming sakura tree and enjoy the scenery before entering the stuffy office.
Before she knew it, she had nodded off leaning against the trunk of the tree, and was pleasantly floating through a sea of sparkly blackness before she heard it. A rhythmic thumping, like someone bouncing a basketball on a hardwood floor. Then she saw a faint image of a man sleeping on one side of a large bed, tossing a bit with his arms outstretched, as if he was looking for something. The sound continued, getting a little louder and faster, then suddenly stopped. Mai wondered if this dream was one of those, or just a random strange dream, when a woman rushed into the man's bedroom and shook him awake.
Mai couldn't hear exactly what was said, but the woman sounded frightened. Maybe they're haunted by something? The man hugged her, and as the vision faded, Mai suddenly had a clear view of the woman's face. It was set in hard lines, but her eyes looked happy. It was the kind of face a person made when she just got away with something. Then the vision switched to the back of a very grand house, where a younger man was trimming the rose hedges. Mai couldn't help but think this man didn't look as nice as the sleeping one. Something about him seemed smug, or just not quite right…
Feeling the prickle of a familiar glower, Mai snapped back to the present moment to see Naru frowning at her lack of attention to the client. She immediately went back to writing notes, stopping when she heard Mrs. Hoshizaki describe the phenomenon she and her husband were experiencing.
"… And this is almost every night. We'd heard rumors from previous owners of the estate that the attics were haunted, but who would ever believe such jabber? It's not an ongoing wail, but it's not the wind and I have the only key to the attics, so none of the staff can get up there."
Naru looked as if he were considering her predicament when Mai had a flash of recognition. This was the same woman she had seen! Now if she could only figure out what her dream meant...
Trying to subtly signal Naru that she had something useful to contribute, he nodded slightly to indicate she could participate.
"Mrs. Hoshizaki, could you describe again the sounds you and your husband hear?"
"Well," the woman grumbled, "it's the most inconvenient thing. We both hear a wailing sound, and it wakes us both just as we are having our night's rest. My husband is a very busy man, and he needs his sleep. He's also very superstitious, so I just need you people to investigate and give him some peace of mind."
"Are you sure the sound you hear is like that, and not something else?" Mai asked, slightly confused. "Not a steady thumping sound?"
Both Naru and Lin flicked their eyes to the girl, sensing she was sitting on something.
"I told you already, young lady, and if you were not paying attention, then clearly you are the one at fault, not I," Mrs. Hoshizaki said irritably.
"I beg your pardon, ma'am; I just need to make sure I record all of the important details," Mai countered, still cheerful but slightly puzzled. "I just have one more question, and this may sound odd: do you happen to have a picture of your husband with you, by any chance?"
Looking slightly mollified, the woman pulled a fancy wallet from her handbag and flipped it open to show a small photo of her and a stern but kindly-looking man standing in front of the same stately Western-style manor house Mai had seen in the vision. Thanking her, Mai turned to a blank page in her notebook and scribbled a quick note to Naru, detailing her dream from that afternoon. Standing up and snagging the teapot for a refill, Mai discreetly handed the note to Naru and walked into the kitchen.
While Mrs. Hoshizaki rattled on haughtily, Naru read Mai's note. Lin noticed his eyes widen, then Naru grabbed a pen and quickly made three circles on the note before passing it to Lin. Looking at Mai's untidy scrawl, Lin focused on the three circled areas: "regular thumping sound in attic;" "husband sleeping alone," and "young gardener?"
Coughing slightly to cover his discomfort, Lin handed back the note and closed his laptop as Mai returned with more tea and sat at her desk and opened the file folder, still perplexed.
Rolling his eyes at his assistant's obliviously naïve nature, Naru stood abruptly and turned to head back to his office, announcing his disinterest in the case due to a lack of any supernatural involvement. When Mai went to cover for his sudden behavior, she bumped his arm, causing her note to fall on his chair. She picked it up and tucked it in the folder she still held, turning to help Mrs. Hoshizaki, who had also risen with an irate expression creasing her face, demanding why her case and business was so insolently ignored.
Two unfortunate things happened in the following moments. Naru said, not quietly enough, "Why don't you ask the gardener?" And Mrs. Hoshizaki took a swing at him, only to knock the file out of Mai's arms.
What followed as the papers flew was a confusing and thunderous mix of angry Mrs. Hoshizaki, angrier Naru, stunned but finally clued-in Mai, and stern Lin, who eventually succeeded in getting the woman out of the office and into the car that awaited her at the curb.
Mai huffed as she knelt on the ground to gather the scattered papers. "What a rude, awful person! And coming from me, who's almost used to dealing with you," she said, aiming a scowl at Naru, "that's saying something. I can't believe she said all that about you just because you figured it out. She actually called you an ugly pipsqueak."
"Oh, is that the nonsense she was spouting after I asked her to vacate the premises for striking the folder out of your hands? I stopped listening as it clearly was no longer important," Naru said, face blasé as usual. "Apparently, that was the correct thing to do as the woman is not only unpleasant and adulterous, her eyesight is failing."
"And not to sink to her level," Mai said, clearly needing to work out her lingering frustration while Naru was still in the room (Lin had since drifted silently back to his office once the semi-hysterical female was no longer a threat to anyone's safety), "but what does she know about you? It's obvious just by looking at you that you're an intelligent, beautiful person."
"You think so, anyway," he said casually as he turned to retreat into his office, watching her out of the corner of his eye to witness what would surely be a classic Mai-rant about his rampant narcissism.
She, however, wasn't quite up to speed with the turn in their conversation as she picked up the spilled contents of the file folder, and simply responded with, "Well, yes, but I keep those kinds of things to myself."
He paused for a moment and quirked an eyebrow, considering what she had just let slip and mentally counted how long it would take her to realize she'd just said it out loud.
Three… two… one.
A slight pinkish tinge started to appear on the tips of Mai's ears as she paused in her collection of the forms. The color spread down her temples and to her cheeks as she slowly lifted her head to face him.
"I – I mean, not that you are that great-looking," she blurted. "Well, you do have a nice face, not that I stare at you all the time! I mean, you just, I'm human, so I can notice these things, and, well, uh…"
To her horror, Mai found herself stuttering at an increasingly incoherent rate. Her eyes widened as her face got redder, hopefully conveying the unspoken message that Naru do whatever he could to get her to stop talking.
He smirked, picking up on her silent plea stamped clearly across her scarlet face and pitying her foolishness. Well, as amusing as her idiotic ramblings always are, I suppose she technically saved us from taking that horrid woman's case, which would be a colossal waste of time and my talent.
"Mai," he said, as if addressing a misbehaving five year-old, "as much as I enjoy receiving the compliments from someone who appreciates quality, you are taking too long tidying the floor. Tea is a better use of the time for which I am paying you."
"Oh, thank God," she muttered, letting him off the hook for his usual condescension as she darted off to the kitchenette and the much more relaxing pursuit of boiling water and arranging teacups. It occurred to her later that she could have sworn she heard him chuckle a bit, a low, pleasant sound, but she shook her head and thought it was just wishful thinking on her part. Not that I want him laughing at me all the time, she thought sourly to herself.
Once the tea finished steeping and she had a fragrant, steaming cup of Earl Gray ready for delivery, she carefully placed the cup and saucer on the tray and moved slowly to his office, concentrating so hard on not spilling any of the scalding liquid on herself she didn't even notice the rearranged folder was now placed square in the center of her desk with "Rejected" stamped on the cover, waiting to be filed.