Chapter nine:

L sits there looking over the case as he has made progress.

Watari's W has appeared on the computer screen. "L. So far we have been unsuccessful at contacting Mail's father."

"He is already wanting for abuse. He is a likely suspect in this case. Keep searching. He couldn't have just disappeared completely." L says. "He's alive. I'm sure of it."

"Of course." Watari says then shuts down the connection.

L brings his thumb to rest on his bottom lip. "I have a twenty percent chance that Mail's father might have had something to do with this." He mummers to himself. "He is our main suspect."

…

The three boys sit there in the alley in a least busy area listening to the man pacing in front of them.

"Now our first lesson." He begins. "Our world against the physical world." He stops pacing and turns to the three. "As you have probably already guessed we struggle with touching the real world as ghosts. But it's all in your mind." He explains raising a hand like a teacher would keeping one hand behind his back. "As a ghost we use our mental states to touch the physical world." He turns and reaches over and picks up a penny off the ground. "Like so. You use mental focus and you can touch the real world. If you can get that right mental state of mind you can touch more than ground and trees and such. You can touch picture frames or even a piece of fruit." He tosses the penny to the middle between him and the three as he turns to the three. "But be warned to be careful when doing so. By affecting the real world means that they can see clearly what you are doing even if they can't see you." He says in warning. "Do you understand?"

The three nod to show that they understand.

"Good." The man says. "Now you try it. Pick up the penny." He gestures his head to Mihael who is on the left end of the three to go first.

Mihael gets up moving forward and stops to crouch down where the penny is. He tries to grab it but seems to go through the penny.

"Focus." The man says sternly. "Focus your mental state. Don't just go for it."

Mihael pauses and closes his eyes to try to get a better mental focus than he got himself into before attempting to pick up the penny. He opens his eyes as soon as he thinks he has it. He tries again but goes through the penny at the first attempt only to try again managing to get one finger to touch the penny shifting.

"You almost got it." The man says in encouragement.

Mihael tries again and this time picks it up.

The man smiles. "Well done." He congratulates Mihael. "Now put it back so the next one can try."

Mihael puts it back on the ground then backs off.

"Alright you next." He gestures his head to Nate who was in the middle.

Nate gets up and goes over to the penny crouching down and tries to pick it up but goes through it. He pauses to take a deep breath then tries again picking it up.

The man seems surprised he got it so quickly. "There you go."

Nate puts the penny from on his hand to back on the ground. He gets up heading over to stand next to Mihael.

The man turns to Mail. "Now you."

Mail gets up and heads over to the penny. He stops to stand there looking at it. He finally crouches down and reaches towards it muttering to himself that he's got this. He reaches for the penny and tries to grab it… Only he goes through it. He tries again.

Same result.

Again.

Still the same result.

He tries again and again but still is unable to pick it up.

"Focus." The man says sternly. "Focus your mind!"

Mail stops and glances up to the man then looks back to the penny. "Ok. Focus." He says to himself under his breath. "Just gotta focus." He almost hesitantly reaches towards the penny again. "Focus. Focus." He narrows his focus onto the penny. "Just focus." He pauses just before he touches the penny. He waits a few seconds silently then tries to pick it up finally getting it. He brightens with a wide smile. "I did it!" He fist pumps with the hand not holding the penny.

"Good. Now let go of your focus." The man says. "Put the penny down."

Mail lets go of his focus letting the penny fall to the ground.

"Like human beings we can get tired. Depending on what we are doing makes it decided on how exhausted we get and how fast." The man explains as Mail joins the other two.

The three are still listening.

The man turns to fully face them. "Things like touching things in the real world doesn't drain your energy too much." He explains. "Now trying to talk to people. You can be shouting and they might usually pick it up as a whisper. But some have certain devices to help them hear us. If they aren't using that it is not likely they will see or hear you even you yell." He tells them bringing both hands to behind his back. "Now there is one thing that will exhaust you very quickly." His eyes flicker to look at all three of their faces before just looking in their general direction. "Possessing a body." He says plainly. "It is one thing that will make you very quickly exhausted." He tells them. "It takes energy to do anything to get it to enter the real world. Remember that." He says. "Do you understand?"

The three nod.

"Good then you might want to run."

The three blink confused then freeze hearing a demon growl come from deeper in the alley. They run past the man away from the demons that give chase.

The man turns to watch them go. "Good luck to you three." He says a little quietly. "Good luck."

…

The three keep running until they lose the demons letting them take a moment to rest. They are by the hotel that is for the more wealthy people.

"Ok. Now that we have that all sorted." Mihael says when he catches his breath. "Let's find the one in charge of our case."

There is an elderly voice that makes them curiously listen as they move to peer around the corner to watch the elderly man walking towards the hotel front entrance on his phone.