Chapter 3

Pacing around his room, Naru thought about what he had just seen. The family was grieving now, which meant that asking questions would be seen as quite unsavoury. Having said that, he needed to start investigating as soon as possible; the longer he waited, the colder the trail would get. One thing was certain. The murder had been carried out by a human hand. Whether said hand had been controlled by a malevolent spirit, that was another matter altogether. Stopping in front of the big bay window, he decided on the best course of action. In order to determine who the culprit was, he would have to find out what possible motives there could be for killing the man. Unfortunately, men of Katsurou's wealth and status were very popular targets, which would make the task fairly bothersome. Still, it was nothing he couldn't handle.

'Naru.'

Lin walked in, as prim as ever, carrying some of the equipment they used on their cases.

'Lin, good to see you. Set everything here, there should be enough space. I'll go get the rest of the stuff.'

'It's fine, everyone has taken some up.'

Scarcely had he finished that sentence that Monk, Ayako and John all entered, chatting animatedly.

'No, I'm pretty sure that my pineapple would kick your durian's butt.'

'Pah, durians have spikes. You can't approach it without getting impaled, therefore, I win.'

Monk looked at Ayako triumphantly, basking in the glory that his logical argument had brought about. John's voice piped up.

'I still don't understand what any of this is about.'

'Well, we were just thinking about which fruit would win if they were sentient and could fight. My choice is obviously the answer. It has spikes, for crying out loud. Ayako's just has a funky haircut…top…thing.'

'And yours is made up.'

'Hah, sore loser are we?'

'No, because I haven't lost, because your fruit isn't real.'

'Yes it is.'

'No it isn't.'

'Is.'

'Isn't.'

'If you two don't stop this incessant bickering I will throw you out of this room permanently.'

'Ahh Naru! I see you haven't changed! How's Mai doing? Where is she? I haven't seen her in such a long time!'

'It's only been a month, Monk.'

'Ah yes, but she's such a cutie, if I don't see her every week a part of me just dies inside.'

This last statement was accompanied by an exaggerated gesture, for comical effect. Not wanting to encourage the man's ridiculous behaviour any further, Ayako carried the conversation away from its current direction.

'So, what are we dealing with here exactly?'

All eyes turned to Naru, as he began to concisely summarise the events which had occurred so far.

'The only thing we haven't yet determined is what kind of paranormal activity is going on in this house. There's definitely something here, but at this stage it's difficult to tell whether the murder had anything to do with it.'

'Well I haven't seen any ghosts.'

Hearing him speak, Masako looked up at the man whom she had just entered the room with. His air of authority, piercing eyes and commanding tone made her knees weak. It had been incredibly difficult to get over Naru, but she had finally managed it. Now however, she felt herself falling yet again, only this time, she would make sure that nothing stood in her way. Mai may have captured Naru's interest, but this man was going to have eyes only for her. How fortunate it was that she had brought along some of her best kimonos. There was definitely going to be a need for them. Urging herself to remain calm and composed, she elegantly rested her hand on his arm, whilst announcing;

'Everyone, this is Yakumo. I happened to bump into him whilst on my way here. He is also a guest of our hosts, and I would like to think that you can all join me in giving him a warm welc-'

'Yakumo! There you are! I've been looking all over for you!'

Haruka, who had all but stumbled into the room, stopped dead in her tracks. A short, traditionally dressed woman was holding onto Yakumo's arm, looking all the world like she had claimed him. That wasn't what bothered her however. Rather, it was seeing Masako's head twisting around sharply almost to a full 360 degrees when she heard Haruka's voice, in order to look at her. Terrified, the latter could do nothing but stare back, hoping to God that this thing was indeed an actual person, and not a malevolent spirit with an intent to kill.

'Who are you?'

'Me? My name is Haruka, I'm Yakumo's….'

'Partner. She's my partner. Now if you don't mind, I have things that need sorting out. I trust I will see you later.'

Yakumo extricated himself from Masako's grasp. His response to Masako's enquiry left Haruka slightly flushed, if not somewhat smug. She knew better than to think anything of it, but moments like these came so rarely that she felt it would be a pity not to indulge in them. The little woman was left speechless, murderous fire burning in her eyes. Haruka was certain that if she had been able to shoot lasers out of her eyes, she would be very much in a state of death right now. Thankfully, that didn't appear to be so.

'Excuse me…'

All nine of them turned around to face the old man who had just called out to them. He stood at the doorway, holding a tray of white, fluffy towels embroidered with tasteful flowers. His hair was the only clue as to his age, the rest of him seemed quite robust.

'I beg your pardon…I bring fresh towels.'

'Oh thank you! Let me get them!'

Mai walked towards the man, yearning to feel the softness of those towels. They looked so inviting, she may just shower for the sake of-

'Miss. You have to listen to me very carefully. It's not safe here. Go home. Tell your friends to leave. Please. Leave. The curse is too strong for anyone to fight it. You have to leave! Before… you too end up dead.

Mai's wrist was starting to hurt. The sheer force with which he held onto it made her question how long she would have until her hand popped off. His eyes wide, she could see that he was terrified. He continued, whispering somewhat hoarsely.

'The deaths aren't what they say. Please. Leave whilst you still can.'

With that, he let go of her, and briskly left, having left the towels on the floor. Monk was the first to break the silence.

'I guess we have our first lead?'

'What, you think he's the killer?'

'No, Ayako, I'm saying it's obvious that we need to start looking into those deaths.'

'So you believe what he said then?'

'Given that we have no solid lead apart from this one, it would be dense not to follow it. Having said that, it would also be quite useful to look into the family's history. There might be clues there as to who might have murdered Katsurou. The cameras and so on also need to be installed.'

Ayako shot Naru a dirty look in return for the thinly veiled insult.

'I'll look into the deaths. I've a few friends in the law enforcement sector, I'm sure I could pull some strings.'

Naru considered Yakumo's proposal. Though he really did not want to admit it, extra help would be useful. The case was clearly going to be a big one, and he wouldn't be able to cover all aspects efficiently enough. Well, he could, but it would take him an extensive amount of time.

'Fine. I will look into the family history. Masako, why don't you go with Ayako and help Lin with the setting up of the equipment. Mai, Monk, John and girl, investigate the house, see if you can find anything helpful.'

'My name is Haruka.'

She really, really did not like this man.

'Come on, let's go investigate, it'll be fun! It's such a big old house, we'll probably find trapdoors and stuff!'

Mai's enthusiasm pushed Naru's rudeness to the back of her mind, and soon she was laughing along with Mai at the prospect of finding a secret passage which led to some sort of legendary treasure. Once the introductions were over with, she set off with Monk, John and Mai in search for any clues which could further their investigation.

人

'I feel like we've been walking for hours!'

Mai's enthusiasm had quickly given way to weariness when it emerged that the Hideyoshi family home was as normal as it got. The décor was drab and suffocating, but other than that, nothing appeared to be out of the ordinary. Monk was getting tired of walking down endless, identical corridors, all with the same dusty curtains, dark wooden furniture and creepy paintings. The rooms were also all normal, thankfully, most of them were not occupied. He dreaded to think of the awkward situation that would ensue, should they barge into one of their hosts' rooms whilst they were in there. Having said that, they were all away, kept busy with their father's all too recent death. As they neared the end of yet another corridor, a voice filtered out from a door that was left ajar. He motioned for the others to stop.

'Yeah…I know, don't worry. Of course. Mhmm…Well, no not yet but…No, what I'm trying to say is…Right…I don't know how long it'll take for the formalities to kick in… Exactly. Yeah. Finally, people will have to start listening to me around here. Right. No problem, I'll speak to you later. Bye.'

Monk turned to the others. By the looks on their faces, they were thinking the same thing as he was. Either the conversation they just heard was incredibly coincidental, or they may just have stumbled upon the murderer.