A/N: This chapter isn't much, but since I won't be able to upload over the week (Dang school) I decided to post one more before the weekend ended. My brother agreed to help with this story (yay, that means I might finish it!) and has also helped to edit it a little.
On another note my brother and I agreed that as long as we get one new review/follow a chapter then we will keep working hard on this story and try to update at least twice a month. All we really need is know that at one person enjoys reading Assassin's Ghost. That's not too much to ask, right?
Disclaimer: I don't own Ghost Hunt! Actually I don't own much, I don't even really own my dog since my mom is the one that bought him and pays his vet bills. Slightly depressing if you think about it. Now on with the story.
"The next step is finding a room for you." Takigawa sighed as Mai stepped out of back room in her new clothes. "I have a building that is used mostly for housing my students, and currently only two of my students are staying there. Both are housed on the bottom floor, so I could house you on the top."
"Why are you so concerned about what room to give me?" Mai asked, rolling up her overly baggy sleeves. "As long as no one walks in on me while I'm changing then I'll be fine."
"There are only two bathrooms in that building." Takigawa explained. "The students I have right now use the lower one, I figured if I put you on the upper floor then you'd have your own bathroom. The last thing I need is for Yasuhara to figure out about you being a girl."
Mai pondered the thought for a while, before deciding that Takigawa was probably right. Sharing a bathroom with two boys would be risky, and Mai needed to play it as safe as possible. "Hey, you said there were two people staying in that building, but you've only mentioned Yasuhara."
"John is far too trusting and good natured to suspect anything about anyone." Takigawa replied, a frown setting across his face. "He's determined to be an assassin for reasons I can't explain, and he's a hard worker, one of my best students. However I sometimes fear that he's too soft-hearted to make a career out of this."
Mai cocked her head to the side, trying to image Yasuhara and the John might look like. After coming up blank on both of them she briefly wondered how Takigawa would describe her.
My students? Oh yes, I've got the heartless Yasuhara, the kind-hearted John and of course the cross-dressing Mai, I mean Gray. Mai imagined Takigawa saying something like that, which caused her to go into a fit of giggled.
"Gray." Takigawa's voice brought her back from her rather funny imagination. "Do I want to know what you were thinking?"
"I was just thinking how you'd describe your students." Mai said, suppressing another fit of giggles.
Takigawa raised his eyebrows slightly. "Why would I be describing my art students?"
Mai pouted slightly. "It was a joke Chie-erm-Monk."
Takigawa shook his head, wondering if taking this girl on as an apprentice was really a good idea. Sure, the girl had natural talent, natural talent that probably surpassed his top student. But at the end of the day she was still a girl, and now that she was relaxing around him she was really started to act like one.
"Monk?" Mai asked, bending her neck slightly so that she could look at him. "Are you okay? Your face got really tight for a second."
"Fine." Monk replied, waving off his newest apprentice. He'd already agreed to take her on; he couldn't just change his mind. So for now, he resigned himself. He was stuck with Mai.
Mai beamed up at him. "Do you have any tea here? I could make a pot of tea for us."
"Tea?" Monk suppressed a groan. "Gray, guys don't offer to make other men tea."
Mai's lips formed a small 'o' as she thought about all the times her father had invited his friends over. Monk was right, never once had her father offered to make them tea. It had always been either her mother offering or Mai offering.
"What if I'm just a really polite guy?" Mai defended, deciding that she didn't want to be wrong so early in her apprenticeship.
"Not even John offers to make other men tea." Monk said, amusement flickering in his eyes. "Perhaps you need a crash course in becoming a man?"
Mai opened her mouth to protest, only to realize that even if Takigawa was joking, he was still probably right. Her knowledge of men was rather limited; the only men she'd been around all her life had been her father and the boys that lived in her small hometown.
"I thought you might be able to get away with being a passive male, but the more I look at you the more I realize that it won't work." Takigawa mumbled, leaning against the wall with a small sigh. "We could overcompensate. Instead of making you passive we could make you overly aggressive."
"Aggressive?" Mai questioned, looking up at her mentor. "Like you want me to go punch someone?"
"Or throw a knife. That would probably work just as well." Takigawa replied. "Actually throwing a knife will probably be your best bet. You're smaller than both Yasuhara and John, and I'm willing to bet that your punch doesn't have much power behind it. But throwing a knife doesn't take that much strength. Just good aim."
"Throwing a knife at a highly skilled assassin just screams bad idea." Mai grumbled. "I'm going to end up dying before I ever learn anything."
"Throw the knife at Yasuhara." Takigawa told her.
"Isn't he the one you've been worried about?" Mai paled. "Shouldn't I throw it at the more passive of the two? You just said that I'm not strong enough to take either of them!"
Takigawa cocked his head towards his apprentice. "Yasuhara will be your biggest issue. He's our main information gather and he's skilled at what he does. The moment he sees you he'll know something isn't right with you. He probably won't jump to you being a girl right away, but if we don't stop his suspicion he'll figure it out within the week. This plan is to throw him off. He won't suspect that a girl would challenge him right away, girls just don't do that."
"Monk, that's insane! If I challenge him I'll lose! He's got far more skill than I have and he knows the estate better than I do." Mai protested.
"John will intervene way before you two start fighting." Takigawa answered, waving off Mai's worries easily. "Once John steps into the middle just sit back down, Yasuhara isn't the type to keep a fight going. He'll let it go."
Mai looked over at Takigawa unconvinced. His entire idea was based around the hope that John would step in before the situation escalated. It was a good plan in theory, but what if John didn't step in? What if Yasuhara decided he didn't want to just drop it? And if that happened it wasn't like Mai could just go sit down and pretend she didn't just throw a knife at Yasuhara. She'd have to fight him, and she'd probably lose. No, she'd definitely lose.
Takigawa watched in slight amusement as a range of emotions flickered across Mai's face. It was obvious that she doubted his plan. Takigawa eyed his young apprentice carefully, not only was this plan meant to make Mai appear more manlike this was also a test for her. Takigawa needed to ensure that Mai would always listen to his plan, even if it seemed like he was putting her life in danger. All of his students had taken a trust test as well, her test just happened to serve two purposes. Plus he couldn't think of a better test, after all he knew his students like the back of his hand. He knew how both John and Yasuhara would act, and he knew that Mai wasn't any real danger.
Mai let out a huff of air. "When do I have to meet them?"
Takigawa paused for a moment. "I believe both of them will return from their assignments tomorrow evening, so you'll probably meet them the following day. We'll spend tomorrow training one-on-one."
"Right." Mai said meekly. She was relieved that she at least had tomorrow before she had to meet Takigawa's two advanced students, and maybe with the one-on-one training Takigawa was going to give her tomorrow she'd be able to hold her own if Yasuhara decided that he wanted to fight.
"Ready to go to your room?" Takigawa smiled, nodding his young apprentice out of the old storage building. "You'd probably like to settle in. I'll give you the rest of today to adjust. Feel free to rest up in your room or explore the estate. I'll inform the maids of your arrival so that they don't bother you, and if you see my wife keep conversations with her brief."
"You already told me that." Mai reminded him, trying her best to smile despite the panic that was steadily rising.
Takigawa noted Mai's distressed even with the fact that she was trying to cover it up. "Don't worry." Takigawa said, resting his hand on the top of Mai's head.
Mai smiled up at Takigawa, nodding her head happily. For unexplainable reasons Mai felt herself calm down the moment Takigawa had reassured her.
"Off to your room then." Takigawa smiled.