Disclaimer: I do not own Ghost Hunt; this is a fanwork intended purely for entertainment.
Chapter 2:
"Konnichiwa," sang Mai as she stepped into the offices of Shibuya Psychic Research. She was in a good mood. It was a beautiful day, and for once, not even the hyper-critical Naru could claim she was late. She laid her satchel down beside the desk and scurried to the kitchenette to set the kettle to boil before Naru surfaced to demand his morning tea. Honestly, it would save time if she could just hook him up an IV drip from a big urn.
She met Lin-san exiting the kitchen.
"Good morning!" she said cheerfully.
Lin shied away from her, wild-eyed, and muttered something incomprehensible as he hurried down the hallway, clutching a full cup of tea as though it was his one hope of salvation.
Ouch. Naru-chan must be in fine form this morning, thought Mai, if he has managed to reduce the usually unflappable Lin to a wreck this early. Lin had been, if not friendly, at least a good bit more cordial in recent months. She was fairly certain that whatever was bothering him, it didn't have anything to do with her. It had to be Naru. It was always Naru—Mai didn't know anyone else who could cause so much chaos without ever being the slightest bit ruffled, himself.
Speaking of….Mai finished preparing his tea, and had set the fine china cup on a tray with the deftness of long practice by the time the irritable call of, "Mai, occha," drifted from her boss's office.
"Hai, hai," she grumbled without heat. "I'm coming." She carefully backed into the office, using her hip to push the door open before turning to carefully set the tray in its accustomed spot on Naru's desk. Naru, of course, didn't thank her, or even really acknowledge her; he seemed to be absorbed in his documents. Mai didn't take it personally—she had grown used to Naru's quirks. She had the sneaking suspicion that, despite his attempts to appear to be the ultimate professional ready to work at any time, Naru wasn't really a morning person. He was uncommunicative until about 10:30, when the tea kicked in and he became more willing to put some effort into verbalization. This usually took the form of a condescending lecture, but she didn't even mind that anymore. If she put aside her annoyance and listened, she actually learned a lot. Naru could be obnoxious, true, but he knew his stuff.
Mai retreated from Naru's lair and busied herself with filing at her desk. She was hard at work when the outer door opened and Hara Masako drifted in.
"Good morning, Masako-chan," greeted Mai. Relations between the two girls were fraught, at the best of times, but that was no reason to disregard the social amenities. It wasn't that she disliked Masako; in many ways, she admired her. The medium was very good at what she did, and was relentlessly honest in standing by her abilities. An outsider might assume that Mai resented her prettiness and her fame, but really Mai saw her as a slightly pathetic figure. Masako always seemed so isolated. She was, Mai suspected, drawn to the SPR offices not simply by her crush on Naru but also for the same sense of fellowship, of family, almost, that drew the others.
They didn't use the SPR's reception area as a combination café/lounge, as a bitter Naru was inclined to claim. Well, not entirely. They were all people set slightly apart. Bou-san by his abilities as an exorcist that his band mates and fans considered sort of cool, but also rather weird. Ayako-san, the poor little rich girl who talked to tree spirits and didn't quite fit into any easy category. John Brown-san because, well, because he was a very young, very Caucasian Catholic priest wandering around Japan with a Kanto accent and a name like 'John Brown.' Yasuhara-kun, where to start? On the outside, he had been the perfect student and leader of the student body, but his fellow students regarded him with a touch of wariness as a sort of authority figure, a buffer between them and the harsh teachers and school administrators. Who could have known that inside lurked an irreverent troublemaker?
The motley group around Naru felt free to be unconventional, because Naru himself would always manage to be so much more unconventional than they were. Mai was fairly convinced Naru had no idea what the conventions were, wouldn't recognize them if they were carefully marked on one of his precious maps, and wouldn't waste any time on them if someone was tactless enough to point them out. In a relentlessly conventional society like that of Japan, you rarely found a person as unapologetically indifferent to social codes as Naru—it was kind of refreshing, actually. Like a dip in frigid ice water in the middle of summer. Initially painful, but eventually you came to appreciate it.
"Is Shibuya-san in?" Masako ignored her greeting, barely waiting for Mai's weak affirmative before sweeping towards Naru's office and darting inside after a brief tap on the door.
Mai shrugged philosophically. She had been on the verge of warning Masako that Naru seemed to be in a difficult mood—it wasn't her fault if Masako got the sharp side of Naru's tongue. She had once feared that Naru cared for Masako, and certainly the medium herself had gone out of her way to foster that impression, but the revelations of Naru's background and of Masako's jealousy of her had pretty much dissolved that concern. If Masako was silly enough to use Naru's secret to coerce him into dates, she certainly didn't understand him very well. Masako herself admitted that she relied on her beauty and talent to make up for a less than amiable personality, and though he was sinfully good-looking himself, Naru was remarkably indifferent to looks in other people. Talent was a different matter, but Naru surrounded himself with talent. Masako's didn't particularly stand out among them. In fact, Masako was among the less useful members of the group—she often failed to come up with anything, and did have an unfortunate habit of injuring herself in the process.
Less than ten minutes later, the door to Naru's office flew open and Masako sped out in tears. She rushed past, her face hidden behind a sleeve, and was out the main door before Mai, frozen with her mouth agape and a file held in midair, could stop her. Mai's first impulse was to go after her, but she reconsidered. In matters pertaining to Naru, Mai was probably the last person Masako wanted to see.
Wow, Naru is really on a roll today, thought Mai. What's next? Offending the easy going John Brown? Managing to poke a hole in Ayako-san's sense of self-worth? Rendering Yasuhara-kun speechless?
Nah, not even Naru could manage the impossible. If Yasuhara encountered Satan himself and a band of devils in the hallway, he would politely inquire if they had a hall pass, and serenely direct them to the principal's office to get one.
With a mental shrug, Mai headed for the kitchenette. If she knew her boss, and she was afraid she was beginning to, she knew what was coming. She was unsurprised by the voice that came floating out of the open office door Masako-chan had failed to close behind her.
"Mai, tea."
Next Chapter: So, what did Naru do to set Masako off? A Naru point-of-view introspective piece! Naru's mind…talking about a twisted, dark, scary place…
Author's Note: Thank you to everyone for such kind reviews!