Chapter 10

Hirota didn't return to the house until late that evening. He looked tired as he walked into the base only to stop suddenly. He stared at Naru's face.

"...Did something happen while I was out?" Hirota asked hesitantly. While faint, there was a thin mark on Naru's cheek where Mai's nail had scratched him.

"Why, Hirota-san, what on earth are you talking about?" Yasuhara asked him cheerfully from a corner of the room. He'd been tutoring Mai in what she was to cover next in math class. "There's been no sign of anything in this house since we got here."

Hirota cocked his head to one side but decided against pursuing the matter further. Naru hadn't deigned to look at Hirota since he first entered the room.

"Ah, I'm fine Taniyama-san, please don't get up on my account," Hirota said stopping Mai as she moved to get up to make tea.

Mai hesitated when Yasuhara tapped her math book. "Taniyama-san," he said sternly, "You're not going to escape this question that easily."

"Yasuhara-san, I don't know what you're talking about," she said with a strained smile as she tried to pretend that she hadn't just tried to escape from studying math. She reluctantly settled back down.

It wasn't until Hirota set his notebook on the table and sat down that Naru looked up from the papers he'd been reading.

"I found out about the Fujii family – the people who lived here before the Nishimuras," Hirota said wearily. "It seems, their youngest son was arrested for attacking his friend with a kendo sword, and his friend ended up with several broken bones and a concussion. There was also a note that the boy eventually admitted to being jealous of his friend because he was the better of the two at kendo."

Naru looked at Hirota steadily. "It took you quite some time just to find that out," he said coolly.

Hirota stiffened slightly as he fought to keep his temper. "The case involved a young offender and it was some time ago, so it took a bit more time. Quite frankly we're lucky any record was left of the incident."

Hirota shook his head slightly. This office's young boss had a way of getting on his nerves, but he also knew that he couldn't win against him. That much had been made all too clear to him during the Agawa case when Naru had answers and plenty of acrimony to spare whenever they exchanged barbs.

"Otherwise, regarding the things you asked about yesterday... I went through the murder-suicide case file and found that no suicide note had been left behind. It looked like a pretty violent and messy murder," Hirota said quietly. "As for the latest murder, the officers said that they spoke to all the neighbours but that one of them refused to open the door or speak to them. However, a couple of area residents warned them that that's how that household's been for a long time, so they shouldn't think too much of it and to contact them by phone if they needed to speak to them. It seems that that woman's attitude wasn't just towards Taniyama-san."

Naru nodded. "In that case, I want you to do some background research on the house across the street next," he said.

Hirota looked surprised. "The house across the street?" he asked confused.

"I believe that's what I just said," Naru said looking slightly annoyed.

"Why do you want to know about that place?!" Hirota asked incredulously. "That place's been abandoned for years."

Naru nodded. "Quite possibly over 30 years," he agreed. "Yasuhara-san will be doing his own check into the house's ownership tomorrow, so if you could try hurrying up this time when you look for any incidents that might have occurred there?"

Hirota exhaled noisily. Why did he have to do what this young man wanted?

"Hirota-san," Naru said impatiently, "I told you we'd do a preliminary investigation of this house and that if it came up negative, I'd be taking my wayward investigator back to Tokyo. You have one day left before the results of that investigation are in. Are you sure you want to be wasting time like this?"

Hirota looked at Naru surprised. He'd forgotten the conditions on the investigation. He also knew that if something didn't catch the SPR's boss's interest soon, he'd be out of luck and the team would leave.

He nodded slowly. "I'll see what I can find out," he said and climbed to his feet. "In which case, I'd better get going. I'll try to get back some time tomorrow afternoon, but I might not be able to make it until the evening."

Naru sighed softly. He wanted to leave Kyoto by tomorrow afternoon so they could get back to Tokyo at a reasonable time, but that wasn't looking very probable.

Mai sat in the base late that night struggling to stay awake. She didn't trust herself to fall asleep as she was afraid of what might happen – if she might dream, if she might see Gene... And if she saw Gene, she was terrified that whatever had pushed her into slapping Naru might still be inside her and cause her to hurt Gene. Struggling against sleep, she hauled herself to her feet to go to the kitchen to make tea.

"Mai," Naru said looking at her expressionlessly.

"What?" she asked rubbing her eyes as she looked at Naru.

"...If you're getting up to make tea, I don't want any," he said after a long pause.

"Really?" she asked a bit surprised.

Naru sighed. "Mai, get some sleep."

Mai shook her head. "I can't," she said.

Naru looked at her slightly annoyed. "You mean 'you won't'," he corrected.

"...No, I can't," she said. "I don't know what'll happen if I do, so I can't."

Naru took a deep breath but didn't say anything else.

"...Are you sure you don't want more tea?" she asked hesitantly.

Naru stared at her for a long moment. "...How much tea have you brought me so far tonight?" he asked her.

"Eh? I don't know," Mai answered confused.

"Five cups." Naru said with a sigh. "I'll have you know, I am not a fish, Taniyama-san."

Mai glanced at her watch. It was currently 2:30 A.M. "...Oh," she said as she slowly sank back down to where she'd been sitting on the floor.

'He's always drunk his tea when you made it.'

Yasuhara's amused comment from earlier in the evening echoed in Mai's mind. She stared at Naru for a long moment as she realised that, while he stopped her this time, he'd also drunk all his tea each time she'd brought him any that night.

She laughed silently to herself as she leaned against the wall and started reading through the photocopies Yasuhara had made for Naru. She'd finished her homework some time ago – except for the one English assignment she wouldn't let Yasuhara (or Naru) help her with – and definitely wasn't in the mood to fight with her other classes, so she'd settled on reading through whatever case materials there was to read. Since Naru didn't say anything when she started stealing papers from him, she figured he didn't particularly mind.

Lin remained carefully expressionless as he heard Naru's and Mai's conversation behind him. He was surprised Naru was even aware of how much tea Mai had made, but he was even more surprised that his superior had drunk all of it, too.

Author's Note: Normally, I don't write things post-chapter unless it's relevant to the story, but a few questions have come up over the course of the chapters that might be a long time in answering if I waited until the end of the story. So, without further ado...

Why does Naru keep calling Mai Taniyama-san?

Naru calls Mai various things. Most often he uses 'Mai', but sometimes he uses 'Taniyama-san'. He usually switches to 'Taniyama-san' when he's being sarcastic or when he's annoyed with her. The usage varies, but it's almost never done out of politeness.

I don't understand how the nine words (kuji) can hurt Gene. I mean, don't they just work on evil spirits?

The kuji is effective against whatever it's directed against, whether it's an evil spirit, a person, or an object. Mai's very weak over all, so when she directs it against a person, they're only minorly injured, but Bou-san or Lin could seriously injure a person if they directed it at a person.