Disclaimer: I do not own Ghost Hunt or any of its characters. Any similarity to actual persons or places or events is purely co-incidental. This work is purely fiction.
Not Enough Evil Spirits!
Prologue
January 10th
16:15
Boots waded through the snow, occasionally tossing a handful of it upon the bare legs that wore them. Mai shivered. It was minus four outside, a temperature unusual for a winter afternoon in Tokyo. It had been freezing for the past couple of days, and her old apartment was too old to keep the cold out. And right at the very moment, so was her coat. She shivered again. 'I've ought to buy a new coat soon. A thicker one.' She made a mental note, as she hurried through the streets of Shibuya. She wanted to be warm soon, as she gave a longing glance to the stores or cafés she passed along her way. As she passed another café, she slightly envied a group of giggling high school girls in the window. Turning around the corner, she spotted the building that housed a café on the first floor and the Shibuya Psychic Research office on the second. Climbing the stairs and dusting off any remaining snow off of her, she opened the office front door, that jingled, announcing her arrival. Yasuhara looked up from his computer screen and grinned at her.
"Afternoon Mai. You're early today."
"I'm officially a third year from today. Hence, less classes!" She chimed and grinned back. Propping up her coat on the rack and putting her bag in one of the back offices, she patiently waited for a snide remark from her Employer. But none came. Figuring him or the Chinese man weren't in, she disappeared into the office kitchenette, only to pop out back again.
"Would you like some tea, Yasu?" she inquired, going up to the young man. Smiling at her consideration, Yasuhara nodded.
"I'd appreciate some, Mai."
Mai nodded. Once again, checking to see if Naru and Lin were in, she got ready to prepare some English tea for two. That was when the front door jingled, announcing a visitor.
"Welcome back, Boss." She heard Yasuhara greet, notifying the arrival of her Employer. Popping her head out of the kitchenette, Mai saw Naru propping up his coat on the rack. Acknowledging her with a glance, Naru headed towards his office. No Lin, Mai noticed. She disappeared back into the kitchenette and corrected the amount of tea to make three cups. As she filled the kettle with water, she heard a soft click of Naru's office door, signalling his retreat into his office. Putting up the kettle on the stove to boil, she prepared milk and sugar.
The front door jingled for the third time that day. This time, it was a client. Probably another potential client. Mai heard Yasuhara greet them politely and then heard him knock on Naru's door. Sighing, she added more tea to the pot, when Yasuhara peeked into the kitchenette.
"Mai, the Boss is asking you to take care of the clients and prepare a case file if you deem it worthy enough to be considered." He smiled.
Mai looked at him as if he had grown two heads. He chuckled and took the pot from Mai's hand.
"Well the Boss values your opinion, Mai. Why don't you go and meet them? I'll get the tea."
Mai smiled and nodded. Thanking him, she left the kitchenette to meet their clients.
- x - x - x -
January 10th
16:45
A young couple walked down the streets of Shibuya, arriving in front of a café. The lady looked at the paper in her hand, and then looked back up at the building in front of her, as if to double check that they did not get the place wrong.
"This seems like it."
"It's quite… different." The man commented.
The lady nodded.
"Anyway, let's go in… it's not like we have much choice…"
The two nodded and climbed the stairs to reach a door that said,
S.P.R.
Shibuya Psychic Research
Hesitantly, the man grabbed the handle, turned it and pushed the door open. The door jingled announcing their arrival. They stepped into a simple but bright office. It wasn't anything, like what they had expected. A bespectacled, smart looking young man rose from his seat, smiled and greeted them politely.
"Welcome. Are you here for a consultation?"
Both looked surprised but nodded. The young man smiled and showed them to the couch. He then went over to one of the doors labelled 'CEO' and knocked on it. As soon as he got an answer, he went in and closed the door behind him. However, he soon came out, smiled and nodded at them and disappeared behind a partition. Soon, a young girl in a high school uniform came and took a seat opposite to them and smiled.
"Hello. Nice to meet you. My name is Taniyama Mai. I'm one of the Investigators here. If you wouldn't mind, I'd like to hear the details of your problem."
- x - x - x -
"Hello. Nice to meet you. My name is Taniyama Mai. I'm one of the investigators here. If you wouldn't mind, I'd like to hear the details of your problem."
The couple in front of her looked at her incredulously. Well, she wouldn't blame them, many people coming there had the same reaction. It was not what they'd expect from a group of people believing in occult. And then again, Yasuhara and her were students – It was not what you'd normally expect.
The couple in front of her was quite young – maybe in their mid-twenties. The woman sat with her hand laid in her lap. The man, whom Mai supposed was the husband, held his wife's right hand in his left. Both sported matching wedding rings in their left ring fingers. The man looked like he was in his mid to late twenties. Black hair partitioned loosely in the right side, fairly thick eyebrows and a bit droopy black eyes to go with the hair. He was fair, not very pale and had a lean built. He wore a simple brown full-sleeved T-shirt that loosely fitted his torso along with denim blue jeans. The woman was small compared to her husband. Flowy light brown hair that came up a little below her shoulders, with thin eyebrows, brown eyes and a small round face. Her complexion matched her husbands'. She wore a simple baby pink blouse with sleeves that ended a bit below her elbows and a flowy grey skirt that ended just below her knees.
Though Mai had greeted them, they continued to stare at her. This flustered her and she panicked.
"Um… um! If you're not comfortable with me I can get another investigator! I know I may not seem very reliable, but… um… if you're okay with it, I could listen…!"
"Pfft!"
A chuckle broke her out of her rambling. The woman was giggling and the man smiled at her.
"Oh no. We're very sorry. We didn't mean to be rude." The woman apologized. "We were just very surprised to see a student working in a place like this. We were not expecting it."
The man nodded.
Yasuhara came and placed the tea in front of them and smiled. He went back to his desk and resumed his work, while intently listening on to their conversation.
"My name is Mikami Yuzuru. And this is my wife, Haruka." The man introduced himself and his wife.
"It's a pleasure to meet you Mikami-san, my name is Taniyama Mai. If you wouldn't mind, I'd like to hear the details about your problem." Mai smiled and continued, "Though we cannot tell you if we'll take up the case, without consulting our boss. We'll reply at a later date, if that's ok with you." Mai looked at both of them.
The couple gave each other worried glances but turned to Mai and nodded.
"Mikami-san if you wouldn't mind, could you please state your name again, along with age and occupation?"
The two nodded.
"Mikami Yuzuru. 28 years old. I'm an architect."
"Mikami Haruka. 25. I'm a housewife. Please call me Haruka."
Mai nodded as she noted the information down. "Thank you. Now, can you please tell me about your case?"
Mikami Yuzuru put on a troubled expression.
"Yes. You see, Haruka and I got married 4 months back." He lifted his left hand to show them his ring finger. "We met at the company where I work. She came in as my assistant. After dating for a while, we decided that we'd get married when we had our own place. We finally found a piece of land, that was sold to us for quite a cheap price a year back. On that land, stood a magnificent traditional Japanese house. Since it was quite old and had not been lived in for long, we had it renovated, but did not change it much because the architecture was beautiful. The renovations were finally finished 2 months ago and we decided to move into the house around the second week of December." He paused and gave his wife's hand a light squeeze.
"For the first 10 days, everything was lovely." Haruka-san continued where her husband left off. "We had a beautiful house with a beautiful garden. Though it was big, we were sure, that when we would have our children, we could raise them well there. Though cleaning the house was certainly a tough job, I was able to get some free time to even start some gardening." She let out a dark sigh. "For the first 10 days, everything was lovely."
"However, things started getting weird." Mikami-san continued for his wife. "I would many-a-times work from home. Therefore, we specifically converted a room into a workroom for me. However, things started getting misplaced. I started losing files and papers and would later find them someplace else."
"Is it not possible that you yourself misplaced them and forgot about it?" Mai interrupted him.
Mikami-san shook his head. "It is certainly possible for me to misplace them within the room. However, I'd lose them and would find them in completely different rooms, where I wouldn't even take my work. The other day I lost a file, which I was sure I had kept in my desk's drawer. Next day, Haruka found it in a kitchen drawer. And it was not just me."
He looked at Haruka-san. She nodded.
"My make-up, gardening tools, or things in the kitchen would also get misplaced. Once I found my foundation and lipstick buried in the flowerbed." She seemed quite shaken but continued. "And as days passed by, the flower beds started getting vandalised and we would hear someone running through the corridors. At first, we thought a small animal had somehow got into the house and that would somehow explain the things that were happening. But then furniture started moving. At first it was small things, like a cushion or a chair. But then, even things like the couch and the bed started getting moved. The sounds of someone running about in the house started getting heavier night by night. And then, on the night of the day before yesterday, we started hearing thrashing sounds, like something heavy was falling on the floor all over the house." Haruka-san broke down into sobs, as Mikami-san put his arms around her shoulders and comforted her.
Mai and Yasuhara exchanged worried glances. Mai turned to glance at their Boss's door, only to find it shut. 'What is Naru doing?'. This was certainly a case that would interest him. Mai turned back to look at the couple. She couldn't just let them go home without any reply. They were too distraught. With a determined huff, she got up and took her file and gave the couple a sweet smile.
"If you wouldn't mind, could you wait here for a bit please?" she asked them politely. Giving each other a confused look, the couple nodded.
Mai turned and gave Yasuhara a determined look and Yasuhara grinned at her. She then turned and strode off to face her Boss. She knocked on his door, and after getting a reply, she disappeared into his office.
- x - x - x -
Alright… For the readers who may have gotten confused about the time-line, I'd like to clarify that it continues where the novel/manga ended i.e. Akumu no Sumu Ie – Ghost Hunt. I hope you like it. I'm open for critics and feedback on the story, so feel free to trash it (lol). 〜 Anzu 3
