June 15th

Naru was in a temper, and as usual, everyone else in the building was very well aware of it, thank you very much.

Mai had assumed that things were bad when she had walked in, the tinkle of the bell on the door preternaturally loud in the silence. That wasn't that unusual; sometimes, Mai wondered if Naru and Lin spoke to anyone before she came in.

What was unusual was that Mai had been standing just inside the door for five minutes and counting, and still, she had yet to be sent to make a cup of tea. If not for the fact that Lin's office door was open a little to allow the air to circulate, she would have thought the building deserted.

Mai shrugged off the oppressive air and went to stow her purse in the small kitchenette, grabbing two glasses and a teacup as she passed. If it was this hot, I'd want my tea iced, but I'll bring a hot cup too. Besides, if Naru doesn't want it, I'll drink it. She knew that Lin wouldn't want hot tea, and she couldn't blame him; the fans were barely keeping the office comfortable, and as the air conditioning had failed quite suddenly and exponentially two days ago, they were trapped in the middle of an unprecedented mid-June heat wave without the benefit of it.

She balanced hot and iced tea on a tray and made her way over to Lin's office, nudging the door open with her foot. "Hey, Lin-san. Iced tea?"

Lin didn't turn, only nodded and continued typing—what, Mai had no idea. She resisted the urge to look over his shoulder as she set the glass on his desk. It's none of my business, really.

Mai groaned inwardly as she stepped back out into the hall. "You'd think, with this being Shibuya and all, that somebody would get sent out to fix a faulty air conditioner," she muttered as she left, and started down the hall toward Naru's office. Still no call for tea. Is he asleep or something?

She pushed the door open gently and stepped in, tray balanced on one hand—and immediately froze as Naru's reddened eyes fell on her.

"What—" he gritted out between his teeth, "do you want?"

Mai took a step back, nonplussed. "Umm…tea?" What's up with him?

Naru took a deep breath and carefully rearranged his features once more. "Just leave it on the desk. No, I don't want it iced."

"But it's so hot. I thought you might like something a little more refreshing…."

Naru shook his head. "Leave it on the desk, please, and then go. I'm working."

Mai bit back the reply that was on the tip of her tongue and set the cup on the desk. Heading back into the entrance area, she shook her head. Maybe the heat's getting to him. He's not normally this on edge, though….

The sound of the door opening jarred her out of her musings, and she looked up to see a man standing in the doorway. He was a little taller than Naru, with dark hair neatly combed, and a pair of round glasses perched over his nose. Behind them, his eyes were dark and vivid, filled with infectious energy and excitement. He was never still—his eyes darted all around the room as he tapped one foot. They landed on her and he bowed his head.

"Good afternoon," he said. "Do you know if Shibuya-san is in? I'm Sato," he added. "Sato Natsuki."

Mai smiled widely. "Shibuya-san is in. Would you please take a seat, Sato-san? Can I get you anything to drink?"

"Iced tea would be fine."

Mai got him his tea, then proceeded down the hallway to Naru's office. She knocked, then waited. There was no reply.

"Naru?"

Still no reply, but she thought she could hear something, the soft shh of a window sliding closed. A moment later, Naru had pushed open the door with his usual impassive expression.

"Mai? What is it?"

"There's a client out front, asking for you." There was something off about him, as if the face he wore was merely a mask. It could be read in the tenseness of his face, and Mai saw that his eyes were slightly reddened, almost as if….

No. That couldn't be possible.

Because through everything, through pain and horror and shock, Mai had never, ever seen her boss cry.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*

Naru sipped at his tea and set it down on the table, opening his file as he did so. "Sato-san, please explain why you are here. Mai, take notes, and they'd better be more legible than last time."

Mai bit back a sharp reply. What a hypocrite. I might not be so neat as Lin-san, but at least he can actually read mine. She added it to the growing list of Things She Would Say to Naru Next Time and held her tongue, instead saying, "Yes, Shibuya-san."

Sato-san pushed up his glasses. "I'm curious," he said. "He refers to you by your first name, but you call him Shibuya-san? Do the two of you have a….relationship outside of being co-workers?"

"Might I respectfully say that that is none of your business, Sato-san?"

Sato-san shook his head. "I'm sorry," he said. "My wife tells me I'm as much of a gossip as any old woman. Well, down to business. I'm the chairman of the Historical Theater Restoration Project, and I've seen a lot of odd things on old stages. There was this one, in England, where—but never mind. Let's just say that, as many weird things I might have seen around old buildings like these, they've always had a certifiable scientific source."

Sato-san took a breath. "Just recently, I returned to Japan after a few months in France, and I was going to take a little time off, but someone told me about this old Noh stage out in Hatsukaichi and I just had to go and take a look at it. It turned out to be falling apart and badly in need of repair, but a group of local actors were trying to raise some money to get it renovated. After awhile, we joined up and raised enough money for the renovation.

"Odd things started happening after the renovation—well, I guess before that, really. There was a worker who claimed to have seen spirits at the place, but he was known drunkard and nobody paid much attention. The renovation itself went without a hitch. However, since then, some of the actors have reported hearing strange sounds in the dressing rooms, and there was an…incident, in which another actor claimed to see two shadows of himself, rather than one. We've had people look at it to see if the building might be sinking into the ground, but the land is dry and nothing explains the shadows. One of the musicians was involved in a haunting in Shinjuku awhile back while visiting relatives, and he told me of you, so…." Sato-san trailed off nervously, his foot tapping restlessly on the carpeted floor. He wiped sweat from his forehead and said, "I'd really like to have it looked at. The stage is nice, and I don't want to lose the actors we have now. I think the theater could thrive again if we could prove, once and for all, that either that it was not ever haunted, or that it has been exorcised."

Naru turned to Mai. "Do you have that?" he asked her.

"Yes."

He turned his attention back on Sato-san. "Do you know if there is a history of hauntings in the area?"

Sato-san shook his head. "Nothing that can be proved, no. there's always gossip, but no recorded documentation."

Naru was thinking, Mai could tell. "Hmm. Is the gossip of any interest?"

Sato-san hesitated. "There is one story, the usual sordid actor's affair, really. It has to do with a shite who fell in love with a wealthy woman of the town. They eloped, but it's supposed to have ended in misfortune. Like I said, only whispers, but….they say it might have been murder. There's no proof that he was killed in the theater itself, but there is some suspicion that he died by the hand of a jealous rival. Really though—" he laughed nervously, "I've gotten a version of that story at almost every old theater I've ever been to, and like I said, none of the others were haunted or anything." His finger was tapping against his leg. It was faintly irritating that he couldn't seem to keep still, Mai thought as she continued to take notes. "Still, I'd like it if you'd come and take a look. The shadows…..everybody's seen them, not just that one fellow."

"Have you seen these…shadows, Sato-san?" Mai blurted, then winced as she felt Naru's glare fix on her.

The man shifted in his seat. "N—No," he said, not meeting her eyes. "All this I'm hearing is from the actors, musicians, and directors. I myself haven't…haven't seen anything."

Why do I get the feeling that he's not telling us everything? Mai glanced at Naru. His eyes were steely, narrowed just slightly. He can sense it too?

Naru snapped the file shut with an audible click. "Very well," he said. "We're taking your case. I will arrange transportation for myself and my coworkers in three day's time. Will that be suitable?"

Sato-san nodded. "Yes. Thank you, Shibuya-san." There was a sense of vast relief in his voice. Again, Mai looked at him, and he quickly looked away, keeping his eyes hidden from her. "Well, I have to be going now. I'll see you all in three days!"

Mai waited until he left, then turned to Naru. "He's not telling us everything," she said. "Something's wrong here."

"Hmm." Naru appeared to be deep in thought. His ill temper of earlier seemed to have dissipated in light of a new and interesting case. "Maybe. Still, there's no harm in checking the place out." He stood. "Mai, bring—"

"--tea back to my office," Mai muttered as she walked away towards the kitchenette.

A/N—This chapter is just scene-setting. There'll be something more interesting in the next chapter, don't worry. Thank you to Kyia Star, kay, lizy, Yuki the Ryujiin No Miko, and meri47 for reviewing. Reviews make me very happy