Fortune's Wheel
Chapter 2: Setting Precedents
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Ghost Hunt.
13th April, Sunday 2.05pm
The raven-haired young man had been concentrating on his book when a knock on his hospital room's door led him to look up, a frown that hardly marred his features etched coolly on his face. Before he could tell whoever it was to leave (and go back home and rest), the sliding doors were slid back with a loud bang and a brown-haired girl rushed in, followed more sedately by an older Chinese man and a red-haired lady in a doctor's white coat.
"How're you feeling, Naru?" she enquired as she began refilling his (near) empty flask of oolong tea. Without deigning to reply, he shut the black volume with an audible snap, an act that while having proven effective in silencing a lecture theatre populated with students older than him, failed entirely to stop Mai from shoving a cup of tea at him noisily. "Here you go," she continued cheerfully, as if the highly visible white bandage that poked out from beneath her shirt sleeve didn't exist. Ayako, the red-haired doctor snorted derisively. "Shibuya. If not for the fact that you happen to be a patient at my friend's hospital too, I would have booted you out a long time ago. How can you let an injured person run menial tasks for you?"
Eyes like chips of ice bored into her. "Do I look capable of stopping her?" he said from where he was propped on the bed with his own large bandage wrapped round his head. Mai sweatdropped. "Ayako! I'm fine!" She held up her arm and waggled it pointedly. "See."
The older lady waved her aside. "You really ought to stop getting yourself into trouble every case. It's just as well your hospital fees are covered by your stiff ass employer over there," she grumbled halfheartedly.
2.23pm
The doors slid open again, this time revealing Akio Mamoru and a man in his mid twenties. "Sorry to interrupt!" he apologized as they stepped into the room. Naru nodded curtly. "How may I help you?" he asked politely, though people who knew him would have guessed that he was in fact, getting annoyed. The unfortunate site foreman gestured at his companion. "This is Himitsu Yuuji-kun. He is my assistant." The young man moved forward and handed a beige folder to Naru. "Pleased to meet you, Shibuya-san. This folder contains the preliminary report on the glass breakage that occurred yesterday. According to the lab findings, it seems the glass shattered as a combined result of thermal stress and poor manufacturing. We have already contacted the glass supplier to inform them of the…"
2.30pm
"That's impossible!" I broke in, cutting short Yuuji-san's explanation. "You can't expect us to believe that the glass broke on accident! It practically exploded! What about the computers going crazy?"
"Mai!" Naru scolded. I scowled back as fiercely.
To my surprise, the assistant laughed. "To be honest, I find the report a little hard to believe." He grinned apologetically at Akio-san. The older man shook his head and sighed. "Yuuji believes that the carnival ground is haunted," he explained. "And while I would prefer that what happened yesterday be the work of natural phenomena or poor workmanship, I am finding it increasingly difficult to believe that there isn't anything supernatural going on," he admitted.
"Has anything happened to change your mind?" Naru asked as Lin began firing up his laptop.
2.38 pm
"Well. After what happened yesterday, Yuuji and I went back in the afternoon to check on the site. Everything looked just as it had in the morning, and we were in the control room taking photos and collecting glass samples for the lab when I heard a sound behind me. When I looked round, I thought I saw a black shadow dart away." Akio-san mopped nervously at the sheen of cold sweat that had formed on his forehead. "I was sure it was just my imagination, but then I heard the sound of footsteps a second time, and this time, when I turned around, I saw that the office chair which had been on the other side of the room was now directly behind me." He looked at his assistant. "As I had just returned from the restroom, Akio-sempai asked me if I saw anyone leave the control room on my way up, and I am very certain no one had entered or left." Yuuji-san said.
"If you'll remember the layout of the control room," Akio-san continued. "You would know it's impossible to hide a stick in there, let alone a man."
We had all been listening to the two men's account, and except for the sound of Lin typing, we were all silent. Naru seemed to be deep in thought. "Shibuya-san. We at KokuGin Constructions would be extremely grateful if you would continue to investigate these occurrences for us."
For one thing, neither Akio nor Himitsu-san needed to have persuaded Naru. For one thing, he never left any job half-completed, for another, the descriptions of both men had left me with a bad feeling about this case, and at the very least, the fancy equipment would really come handy now.
15th April, Tuesday
Sure enough, the members of Shibuya Psychic Research found themselves back at the carnival grounds four days after they had first set foot there. Mai's cut had healed, with only a faint scar showing that there had been any injury at all. The three of them were joined by Ayako, who had insisted on "seeing what this over exaggerated case was all about" and Takigawa Houshou, who claimed that he was present to "clean up should the miko mess up as she usually does". Neither of them of course, admitted that they were there purely out of professional interest, or that it was Naru who had as usual, assembled the typical cast of helpers.
2.15pm
"Mai."
"What?" I wheezed under the weight of yet another box of heavy equipment as Naru stood unhelpfully by.
"When you are done with that, go make sure that the camera in the souvenir shop is not malfunctioning. I am not getting any recordings from it."
Without another word, that narcissistic jerk strode back to where Lin was already comfortably seated in front of the dozen or so screens. I thumped down the box in a corner, and grabbing my clipboard, walked out of the base hastily, in case Naru decided to reprimand me about being less than careful with his precious equipment. Given the large size of the compound, we were really stretched thin across. Naru had decided that it was best to start by placing cameras around the places where the staff had reported the most level of spooky activity until the technicians could fix the control room. This meant walking a long distance to any camera at all, and I set out without relish for the souvenir shop.
The sky was overcast, and puddles dotted the uneven ground as I walked past the empty stalls, their temporary tarp flapping sullenly in the cool breeze. I turned right at the end of the row of the makeshift booths and came face to face with the carnival entrance. The souvenir shop was a small building that shared the park exit. I turned the doorknob of the yet-to-be-painted door and froze when I thought I saw something move through the coloured glass panel.
"Hey! Mai!" I heard whoever it was in there say and let go of my breath. The door opened from inside and I found myself grinning at Yasuhara. "How come you're here?" I asked as I walked over to the camera near the cashier counter.
"The entrance gate was stuck, and I was about to call Naru when I spotted the open exit."
He looked on as I examined the camera. "Mai," Yasuhara said, and pointed at where the camera's plug was not connected to its socket. "Oh, right." I sigh and stuck it back in. "Well, now that that's done, shall I bring you to where our base is this time?" We all walked back out and I closed the door behind me. "I think you'll love it," I smiled.
2.47 pm
The guest rooms were to the east of the rides, near the back and Yasuhara was visibly impressed by how we had been given the full use of three of the completed rooms and the lobby for base. "You should check out the room you're sharing with Takigawa and John when he comes tomorrow." I said as I showed him where his room would be. "Us ladies are just across from you, and Lin and Naru's are further down." I handed him the room key as we walked into the guy's room. Unlike our room, Yasuhara's room opened out to a tree-lined backyard. A path of artistically arranged stone steps led the way to where an onsen was hidden behind thick clumps of bushes. "Wow. It's like looking at a different world," he commented as he set his bag down.
We had just entered the lobby again when Takigawa pulled me over. "Ah, and you should be introduced to Mai," he was saying as he pushed me forward. "Hey… Bou-san," I grumbled before my jaw dropped at the sight of the lady in front of me. If I thought Masako and Ayako were elegant, this lady beat them hands down. Her midnight-black hair was pulled into a long ponytail and she was dressed in a crisp navy pant suit. "Toriame Umeko. I'm pleased to meet you," she said softly and held her well manicured hand out to me. "Taniyama Mai. I'm Shibuya-san's assistant," I replied. "And this is Yasuhara Osamu, who assists with our research part-time."
"Toriame-san is the chief designer for the carnival," Naru said. Was it my imagination, but was he actually smiling a little? I looked discreetly at Lin, who had also abandoned his work station and was standing near Naru. He too looked slightly more relaxed. What's up with those two, I wondered. Ayako who had been standing quietly in a corner grinned wryly as if she had read my mind. "It's called a school boy's crush," she whispered and then rapped Takigawa's head smartly. "Oi, aren't you a little too old to be infatuated?" she commented derisively, though I detected a slight trace of jealousy in her voice. "Isn't that because you are too old to feel anything in the first place? Ow!" he yelped when Ayako deliberately trod on his foot with her 3-inch heels.
"A few of my co-workers have offered to assist in the investigation," Akio Mamoru had begun to speak. "This is Himitsu Yuuji, whom some of you already know, the tall guy over there is Yamashiro Takeshi, who has been working with me for three years already and our newbie, Ishihara Watanabe. I looked at the new group of people curiously. Typically, Naru was the first to get back down to business. "As KokuGin's staff are staying in their own quarters to the west of the park grounds, some distance away, it would be good to set up one more camera there and to remain in radio contact." We all nodded in agreement. "Mai." I groan again. "Yes, Naru?"
"Take the camera and follow Himitsu-san and the others to the staff quarters."
3.25 pm
"Is Shibuya-san a very strict boss?" Yuuji asked curiously as we walked to the staff area. I nod vehemently.
"Hah! You've no idea! But, he's really good at what he does," I admitted.
"Naru is a pretty strange nickname for him." Umeko-san commented.
"Well, it's because he's such a narcissistic person," I explained, slightly embarrassed.
She laughed. "Well, we've a nickname for Akio-san too," she confided. We call him "Kuma-sempai" because he reminds everyone of a teddy bear."
I could see why everyone liked Toriame-san. She and Yuuji-san were such a pleasant change from being around Naru. Ishihara rolled his eyes. "Trading secrets already, are we," he sneered. "Hurry up girl. We don't have all day," he drawled. I bristled. Seriously!
"Take no notice of young Ishihara," Yamashiro interjected. "He's just jumpy because he's terrified of ghosts," he chuckled as the shorter man turned on him angrily.
Later that night
It was after dinner, and everyone had settled in the lobby. The rest of the day had been unremarkable. Naru's computer had detected a slight dip in temperature at the control room, but nothing significant enough for anyone to bother venturing out to check. Yasuhara was seated at the side with Akio-san, deeply absorbed in the board before them. It seemed that they had both found a mutual obsession with Chinese chess. Umeko had left earlier as she was not staying overnight. Meanwhile I was trying to get on with a bit of homework when Ishihara clattered back in, completely out of breath. "Yamashiro-san's gone missing," he gasped.
Author's notes: Thank you for your lovely reviews! I'm afraid I'll definitely be slow in updating this. I'm mostly making it up as it goes you see. I value your comments very much, so do remember to drop me a note to let me know what you think. =D
I'll also be posting updates on my profile from now on in a bid to remain organised.