Chapter 9
As soon as John stopped the car, I jumped out and started running to the south side of the park. He was right about how many people go through here. "Aki, why'd you take off so fast?" Mai panted as soon as everyone caught up with me. I smiled.
"Sorry, I just really want to help out Shichirou." Monk nodded smiling.
"We understand." I went to the bench and pulled up the stone and there was a manila envelope that was titled evidence against Ichirou.
"We should take these back to the office and look at them there." Naru said finally. I nodded. That would probably be a better idea. Shichirou was sitting on the bench now.
"Will you come back?" I smiled at him.
"Of course we will." His worried face relaxed and he smiled at me.
"I'll be waiting for you." I nodded and he was gone again.
"Kohaku-san again?" John asked curiously.
"Yep, he was worried we weren't going to come back."
"What's up, Naru?" Monk asked Naru. Naru had a peculiar expression on his face that I couldn't place.
"I'm just wondering how strong his spirit is if he keeps showing up to talk to Miss Haru." You know, he has a point. Everyone seemed a bit shocked by this statement but Naru quickly ordered us to return to the cars and announced that we'll be returning to the office. Yes, this case isn't over yet. There has to be something we can do to for Shichirou. I so badly wanted to read the papers, but I restrained myself and waited until we got back to the office. The atmosphere in the car was anxious and tense. Finally we got back to the office and once everyone was settled into a seat and had their own cup of tea, we began to go over the papers.
"Guys, this looks really bad." Monk said shaking his head.
"For him to be using these kinds of circles there's definitely a bad spirit in that school." Lin said in agreement.
"We'll have to do some research on the kinds of bad spirits that these circles can summon and try to determine what kind of bad spirit it is." Naru said thoughtfully.
"But I thought you said we were going to hand this over to the police?" Mai asked confused. I chuckled.
"We are, but we should still figure out what kind of bad spirits roam that school." I told her grinning as she flushed.
"We may not have to." Yasu said smiling. "It looks like Kohaku-san already did that for us." I looked at the paper he was referring to and saw a diagram. There were lists of different bad spirits and one of them was circled. It was one of those spirits where you could only imagine what they would look like. It said Destructive Spirit.
"Yes, this is definitely not good." Ayako said going pale.
"We need more evidence if we're going to convince the police that Ichirou-san and Ishida-san are involved with occult things and that Ichirou-san is the one who killed Shichirou." I said finally.
"You're right. All we have so far is the retired janitor's testimony, those three girls' testimony, and the gasoline can. We need to figure out what Ichirou-san used to ignite the fire and how Ishida-san is connected to all of this." Naru said thoughtfully.
"It's possible Ishida-san found out the same way Kohaku-san did and just went with Ichirou-san on the whole thing." Yasu said thoughtfully.
"If he did, he's really cowardly." I said scowling.
"So what's the plan, Naru?" Monk asked curiously.
"As far as finding what he used to ignite the fire, that's going to have to be up to the police. But if we got Ishida-san to ourselves and asked him some questions, we might be able to figure out how he's connected."
"Yes, but the tricky part is going to get Ishida-san to agree to it." John said frowning.
"I'm wondering just how loyal Ishida-san is to Ichirou-san." I said thoughtfully. "Is he waiting for someone to catch Ichirou-san? Or is he going to stick with Ichirou-san to the very end?"
"I'm sure there's more digging I can do." Yasu said smiling. "I'll look into Ishida-san and Ichirou-san some more."
"Okay, while you do that Lin and I will look into the officers who were on the case and see if we can get some answers." Naru said thoughtfully.
"I'll call my old mentor and ask him if he knows of any ways to get rid of the Destructive Spirit." John said thoughtfully.
"And I'll help you out." Monk said smiling.
"Count me in too." Ayako said smiling.
"I'll go contact some friends of mine and help look for a way to get rid of the Destructive Spirit too." Masako said thoughtfully.
"Well, it looks like it's just going to be you and me, Mai." I said smiling at her. She nodded.
"If anything happens, make sure to call one of us." Naru said to us. I nodded.
"Will do, Boss man." I said grinning. He sighed. "I do have a question though. How are we going to get rid of the Destructive spirit if our 'client' called off the investigation?" Naru looked thoughtful.
"Just leave that to me and Lin." He said with a confident smirk.
"Alright," I said shrugging.
"Let's all meet up back here at 10 tomorrow."
"Alright, then we'll see you tomorrow, Naru." Monk said smiling s he, Ayako, and John got up and left.
"Yes, we'll be seeing you tomorrow." Masako said before leaving too.
"Bye, Naru, Lin!" Mai said going out the door.
"Miss Haru, wait up a second." I nodded.
"What did you need?"
"What are you planning to do with your living arrangements?"
"I'm gonna stay with Mai until I get enough money to afford my own apartment." I said thoughtfully. "Mai told me about a café that's down the street where she lives and that they're hiring. So I was thinking of working there during the evening and save up to get myself an apartment." He nodded.
"Okay, but if you ever need anything, feel free to ask." I smiled.
"Thanks," He nodded and then I went out the door and found Mai waiting for me at the bottom of the steps. "I need to go by my house to pick up some things." She nodded, looking a little nervous.
"Do you want me to come in with you?"
"No, you can wait outside. I don't want you to have to put up with my family." I said shaking my head.
"Okay," She seemed a bit relieved. I wish someone would come with me though. It'd be silly to go back into the office and ask Naru or Lin to come with me. Besides it was too late now, Mai and I had already walked a block. I fiddled with my phone in my pocket as we got closer and closer to my house. Well, I guess it wouldn't be my house anymore. I thought sadly. "Are you sure you don't want me to come in with you?"
"Yeah, I'll be fine. I did tell my brother that I would come back for the rest, so they shouldn't do anything to me." She still looked worried as I entered the house. That did not ease my nervousness. "Hello?" No one answered back, so I just continued up to my room. I picked up some books and some more clothes. I cautiously went back downstairs and looked around. When I saw no one, I left the house quickly and ran over to Mai who was still outside the gate. I breathed a sigh of relief once we couldn't see the house anymore. "That was pretty nerve wracking." I admitted I followed her to her apartment. She smiled.
"It was nerve wracking for me too."
"Good, I feel a little better." She pouted. I just grinned at her. "So, roommate, what's on the menu for dinner?" She looked thoughtful.
"How about we get some take out?" She said smiling at me.
"That sounds good to me." We stopped by a take-out place on the way to her apartment and started talking about the case.
"Honestly, this whole case is scaring me."
"I don't blame you." I said sympathetically. "It scares me too thinking about the things Ichirou-san could've summoned using that stuff. Honestly, what was that guy thinking?" I shook my head. "Doesn't he know that that stuff is dangerous?"
"I don't know. Maybe he doesn't care."
"Well he's really foolish if that's what he thinks. He's putting the lives of his students and his staff in jeopardy by doing that stuff. Plus he killed a student. Well, we don't have hard evidence to prove it, but it's still wrong that the police didn't check into the janitor. What were they thinking? Laziness is what I call it." I grumbled.
"Maybe Kohaku-san's father and mother told the same thing to the police but they didn't do anything about it."
"I want to talk to the people who 'took care' of the case and see what their point of view on this was." I said scowling.
"Well, maybe there's more behind their decision that they haven't told Yasu yet."
"You should text Naru and tell him to ask them why they made that decision."
"Okay," She said smiling. After doing so, she stopped in front of an apartment complex. "We're here! Come on!" I followed her in and we went up three flights of stairs.
"Why did you have to get a place that's on the third floor?" I panted as we stopped in front of her door. She grinned.
"It was the only one available at the time and I thought it would be a bit of a hassle to try to get one on the first floor." I nodded.
"I guess that makes sense." I said as she opened the door. When she flicked on the lights, I noticed that it was a pretty simple layout. As soon as you go through the front door, you enter the living room and just off of it were a small kitchenette and two rooms. One I assumed was a bathroom.
"I hope you don't mind sharing a bed with me."
"Nope, it doesn't bother me."
"So do you want to talk about what happened?" I sighed as we took a seat on the sofa. I eventually started telling her what happened and she looked horrified by the end. "How could they do such a thing?"
"There's nothing I can do about it now." She frowned.
"I know, but it's still wrong."
"Honestly, I'm glad to be free of them. I don't have to deal with them looking at me like I'm a piece of dirt on the floor or something." I said shrugging. She sighed.
"Well, let's eat and get to bed." I nodded. After eating and talking a bit more, we both went to bed, exhausted from today.