I was sitting in the office when the phone rang. Now, when the phone rang I was doing yoga. I know what you're thinking, of all the things to do, why yoga? Well, let me tell it, it gets so boring and I don't want to be sleeping if Naru decides to show his face in the main room. Anyway, back to the phone. So since I was upside down in a crab position I managed to fall over from the initial shock of the phone ringing, then when I tried to get up I tripped over a water bottle that I left on the floor by accident, I quickly pulled myself off of the floor even though it felt like a car hit me and answered the phone. When I picked up the phone I tried to say, "hello this is Shibuya Physic Research, my name is Mai, how can we help you?" but It came out as, "Hell- oh God- this is Shibuy- ow I'm in so much pain- Physic Research, my- can you please could you give me a minute?"
"Yes, of course. Are you ok Miss?" A concerned English woman's voice asked through the phone.
"I'll be ok, I'm just very clumsy," I told the woman calmly.
The woman at the other end of the phone laughed but it didn't feel like she was being mean, it was like she understood.
"Oh, my goodness, I'm so sorry! How can I help you?" I asked as soon as it clicked that I had a job to do.
"Yes, I would like to speak to your boss," the woman asked nicely and sounded very polite with her English accent.
"Of course, may I ask who's calling?" I said as I moved my shoulders in a feeble attempt to crack them.
"I'm Elizabeth Davis," the woman informed me, "but call me Liz."
I bet Elizabeth has a great smile because a voice that sweet and polite deserves a pretty smile.
"Ok, if you would mind just waiting a minute and I'll patch you through to Mr Shibuya," I said and pushed the hold button on the phone and put the phone down.
I walked to Naru's office and knocked on the door, slightly worried that he would say no to whatever Elizabeth had to say. I know I only talked to her on the phone but I had a good feeling about her.
"Come in," Naru said with his normal nonchalant tone.
I warily opened the door. Ever since our last case I've been staring to wonder if Naru is more dangerous than any ghost, curse or God that we'll ever come across, but then I take a moment and think. He's Naru. Sure he has faults, that I won't list because there are a lot of faults, but he's Naru. He may try to make it seem like he doesn't care but he does. I've seen him be very sympathetic in his own way.
I stepped in front of his desk where Naru sat with a plain black book that was placed so that I couldn't see what was inside it. He's been looking at that book a lot lately.
"What is it?" Naru asked without looking up from his book.
"An Elizabeth Davis wants to speak to you," I told him.
Naru's head snapped up and he shut the black book quickly. That defiantly caught his attention.
"Is she on the line?" Naru asked with urgency.
"Well, yeah-"
"Please leave. Now," Naru practically ordered me.
I hastily walked out the room. As soon as I shut Naru's office door he started talking. I stood by the door for a minute, wondering what they were talking about. I couldn't hear what they were saying but Naru sounded very relaxed and I'm almost positive I heard him laugh.
When the front door of our office opened I practically jumped out my skin and lunged for a seat on the sofa so I didn't look like I was eavesdropping on Naru.
"Mai? What are you doing?" the person that walked through the door asked.
The question seemed sensible since my lunge turned into a dive and resulted into me landing face down on the sofa, which did not help the feeling of being rammed into a bus. Today was not going well.
I looked up and saw Monk staring at me in confusion. Considering the situation I was in, I did what I normally did. Closed my eyes, made a big goofy smile and waved. All I heard was Monk laughter laced with Ayako's laugh. I opened my eyes to find she was here as well. Now I was confused. It's normal for one of the team to drop by, but two of them…
I sat upright on the couch and looked at my two friends.
"Why are you guys here?" I asked when I saw bags slung over their shoulders. "and why do you have bags?"
"Well, I don't know about Ayako, but I got a call from Elizabeth Davis this morning, saying that she needed a spirit exercised. She said she was going to get the whole team involved before she phoned Naru," Monk explained.
"Same here," Ayako said.
"But why? Why not phone Naru first and let him call you?" I thought aloud.
"Because," Naru said from behind me.
My head turned around swiftly. Naru was leaning against the doorway, hands crossed over his chest and he looked very cute, might I add.
"Mrs Davis wanted to assure that I'd take the case. John and Miss Hara also accepted the case so I expect they'll be here any minute," Naru told us.
"So where are we going?" I questioned.
"We'll be near Ikenoura," Naru said. "Mai, I suggest that you go home and pack a bag right away.
"Ok," I said and stood up. "I'll be back in thirty minutes."
I exited the office and stared heading to my apartment. I didn't need a coat because it was summer so it was nice to feel the warm summer breeze. The sky was bright blue without a single cloud in the sky. Everyone around me seemed happy and full of life. On a day like this, what's the worst that could happen? I'm sure the worst thing that could happen would be a pigeon dying of a heart attack and believe me, it's happened.
Finally, I made it to my apartment. I opened the front door and walked up one flight of stairs. I turned to the left and saw my apartment door at the end of the hallway. My front door opened easily enough and gathering together a bag of clothes was no problem at all considering I had a bag already packed. You see, I know how Naru will only take cases that interest him and sometimes those cases will be halfway across Japan, which may seem small on the map but we have hills. Big hills.
I was back at the office ten minutes early and when I got in I saw John and Masako had arrived because everyone, except Lin, were having tea.
"Hey," I greeted and everyone returned my welcome.
I sat down next to Masako while Monk poured me a cup of tea and passed it to me in silence. I thanked him, took a sipped and noticed that everyone was looking at Naru in shock.
"So let me get this straight. We are going to Oliver Davises parents house to exercise a spirit? What's the point?" Ayako asked with her snooty attitude.
"They have had many cases of the spirit over the years. No matter how many times they exercise it, it always comes back worse than before and this time they want us to investigate it and try and help it find peace or we'll have to destroy it," Naru said and then took a calm sip of his tea.
"Surly it won't come to that," Masako commented.
"It has been happening for years and it just keeps getting worse and worse," Naru told us again.
"What keeps getting worse though?" I asked, feeling a little stupid that I even had to ask.
"The children from Ikenoura travel to the house that's higher up in the mountains and surround the house. Each time the spirit comes back the children move closer. This only happens at night so when dawn comes around the children awake from their trance so the Davises have had to take care of them until their parents came for them. When the Davises ask the children if they remember anything they say that they see a glowing figure standing in the window and all of the children say the same window," Naru took a sip of his tea again.
"What I don't understand is why they don't get their incredible son to go sort things out," Ayako stated.
Naru sighed. Silence fell over the room. I think we all expected Naru to say something but his lips remained sealed.
"So, when are we leaving?" John asked and his Aussie accent broke the silence.
"Ten minutes," Naru said.
"How are we getting there?" Monk said.
"Via mini bus. We don't need to bring equipment with us since the Davises already have the equipment," Naru said, and once again, he took a sip of his tea.
I thought about how far away Ikenoura was. I looked at everyone in the room. Now call it intuition but I think this road trip would result in one of us not making it to Ikenoura. We are all the worst people at sitting still, with the exception of Naru and Li, so we end up annoying each other with fidgeting, noises and even doing nothing. On our last case we decided to play a game to pass the time. We chose punch buggy. We almost killed each other until Naru, who had claimed the front passenger seat, turned around, gave us the stare of death and said in a low, threatening voice, "If one of you touches another's persons arm I will rip off all of your limbs." At the time it was scary. After that case was done, the threat was terrifying considering he has serious ESP going on.