Chapter Eleven
April 10 12:13 pm
Mai stared at the man. He had beads of sweat coming down his face, and was panting. "He seems desperate." She gave a reassuring smile and said ,"yes, please come in."
He looked at her and nodded. He opened up the rest of the door, revealing him wearing a heavy winter coat, with earmuffs and everything else you would wear during a snow storm.
"May I take your coat."
"Yes young lady."
He took off his coat , scarf, earmuffs, and gloves. When he handed it to her she noticed that he was wearing two long sleeve shirts. "Wow, this guy must be as cold hearted as Naru."
Naru heard the door open and everything else. He sighed and got up. First thing he did was look at his hands, still bandaged from that night , "I would die if someone saw me hurt, even remotely." He opened up his second drawer to his desk and got out a pair of black leather gloves. He put them on, they were slightly snug, but no one will notice a thing.
He then got a pen and a notebook pad and walked out of his office to see the man had already set down.
Lin then, after hearing all of this decided to come out of his office.
They both took there usual seats.
Mai then sat on her usual footstool as the man began to tell them about the case. He sighed , "please you must help us. I work at Watanabe resort in the mountains. Recently we have began updates and renovations on our buildings and four weeks it began snowing! We are surrounded by several mountains but in the spring it doesn't snow, so we would open them for hiking. Three weeks ago my employer said that it was probably just a freak of nature and decided to keep open the ski resort part it."
Naru then asked , "so how might you think that this is paranormal."
"You see we have gotten a lot of publicity about the ski resort being opened and so many have come to the mountain to ski- but some more weird things have happened. In the main part of our structure where some guest would stay they have spotted a little girl in older clothing. Now so many children are getting sick, but now one ever eighteen has gotten sick. We have been taking care of them at our hospital at the mountain, but they do not seem to be getting any better. It is too risky to move them so we keep them there, but people on the staff fear that they might die. This all started after we found an old picture in the basement while we were renovating the main building. My manager - Yoshida-san has promised a handsome reward if you could end this."
Mai looked at Naru, she saw him staring into space, but kept his gaze fixed on it, thinking of what to do. He then scribbled down a few notes and rose , "we will take the case."
A smile graced the man's face , "you will, thank you, thank you Shibuya -kun."
Naru handed the pen and notepad to Lin, some extra notes he wanted Lin to type down , "we will be there in two days around mid day. Have one room prepared for us to use as a base and to more for my colleague's and I too sleep in."
The man bowed , "as you wish."
He then went to the coat rack and got his things and left
Two days later SPR was making their way to the Watanabe resort. John was able to stand and walk again since the incident and everyone was still tired from the last case though, they were going to have to get used to back to back cases again. Exactly at twelve they arrived. It was a long trip up the mountain for all of them, but when the van stopped they all jumped up. Naru said , "come on, lets go everyone wake up."
They all then came out of the van. Ayako sighed when she looked around - nothing but snow among snow , "you know Naru the next time you pick a case, let it be near somewhere warm, and have a beach that is not haunted by anything."
He ignored her as he began to walk to the building. When they got in Naru saw the man that came by the office, with another -older man next to him, dressed nicer. It was obvious that he was the Yoshida
He smiled at Naru and said , "welcome Shibuya- san to our resort. I trust your trip up was not too bothersome."
Naru shook his head , "we must really get to work sir."
Mai looked at both Naru and the two men, it still looks odd that Naru acts as though they are the same age.
The man nodded , "of course, of course- now I must insist that Suzuki-san give you a tour."
The man that they saw a few days ago came up and gave a bow.
Yoshida then said , "I must be off, but please with the investigation, try to keep it as much out of the people's way here. Some of them have too much to think about as it is."
He then walked off. Suzuki-san then looked at them with a smile , "thank you for coming. Thank you so much, now let me give you all a tour- and then start you investigation."
Mai pranced up, closer to Naru to get a better look of everything- it doesn't help to look at everything with being her height and Lin and Naru being at least a head taller than her.
He then showed them all of the main rooms. After about fifteen minutes Naru asked , "Where have most of the activity been?" It was obvious to the team that Naru was getting slightly irritated .
The man then said , "follow me."
He led them back downstairs to the living area, and dining hall , "some couples have reported of seeing a little girl in here. A few have even let their children play in here. One man fell asleep in here, leaving his son to play. When he woke up he thought he heard a girls voice, and his son's voice responding. When he opened his eyes it was just him and his son in the room and when he asked his son who he was talking to he said the little girl. Two days later the boy fell ill, he was one of the first cases."
The man then got out of his pant's pocket two sheets of paper , "these are all of the children that have gotten sick, and their parent's room numbers. Like I said, their ages range from four- eighteen, the only thing they have in common is they are to have supposed to have seen the girl."
"That is interesting," said Naru , "now do you have any idea of the identity of the girl."
A voice from the catwalk above them said , "so you want to tell them that old story."
The all looked up to reveal a woman, dressed in her company maid uniform.
"Yuri, shouldn't you be at work?"
She flashed a glare at Suzuki , "shouldn't you."
Yuri then made her way down the stairs , "so you guys are the ghost hunters old Yoshidi hired to take care of this place."
Mai said , "yeah we are." "She looks like she is in her early twenties," thought Mai.
Naru said , "so you know who the girl is?"
"Yeah, I saw her, come with me- I will show you who she probably is." Suzuki rolled his eyes. He probably didn't like someone doing his job, especially if they are obviously younger than him. They then began to walk back behind the main part of the first building, they were in the staff hallways when she came to a large door and opened it with stairs leading down.
She flashed them a smile ,"come on."
When they came down it was defiantly not like your typical basement. It- was bright, nothing dungeon about it. Mai began to look around, but then Yuri said ,"come on."
She led them left, and as they did Mai began getting more of an eerie feeling from being down there. The dry wall then ended, and stone was exposed , "creepy huh? Some workers were trying to attack floodlights down here, and we have already found toys, dolls, portraits down here of the original family that lived here. They came here in nineteen fifty-two after the war was over to build a manor. It was the Watanabe family, this is where we got the name for the resort. Now down here is part of the original house, like a wine cellar. They built this home, after the head of the family got back from the war was fascinated with America. We also kept the resort in a rustic American style just for that reason, it also attracts a lot of tourists. But we knew that the families two children played down here. The youngest was a girl by the name of Tora."
Yuri then began to search through things on the side of the wall and on a table. It took her a second until she found what she was looking for. Suzuki huffed as she brought it over.
"A few weeks ago when they were trying to put flood lights in this area a worker found this picture in a crack in the wall." She handed the picture to Naru.
He took it and dusted it off, Lin looked over it to see it. Lin's eyes widened , "Naru?!"
Naru kept his usual face, curiosity began to eat Mai up inside and she asked ,"what is it?"
"...,"
"What is it?!"
She got dead silence again. "That's it!" She then snatched the picture before Naru could do a thing about it, and turned closer in the light to look at it. In the black and white picture showed a girl with fairly light hair and a broad smile on her face wearing an old fashioned dress and head band. "What has both of them upset?"
Her attention was then brought to a tear at the top going somewhat down the middle, but stopped. In the top, right corner laid a teenage boy holding her lovingly. He looked almost exactly like Naru!
The boy looked about sixteen, he was lean and tall. His eyes seemed to be some king of light color, but not the exact color of dark blue. His hair was long and laid in a low pony almost like Monk's. He was wearing a white formal shirt and black pants. He was also actually smiling, even with his eyes. By the looks of it he might be about Kouki's might maybe shorter. Other than that they did look a lot alike. Same body build. Similar lips, noses, ears, and skin tone. Mai felt her face turn pale, "wow why does this keep happening."
Takigawa was looking at the photo behind her , "wow Naru, he looks just like you."
Masako said , "they do have a few similarities."
Naru just looked away.
Both Yasuhara and Ayako saw it then, and were dismayed.
Yuri said ,"yes, they do look similar in some ways."
Naru returned his attention to her , "so who was he?"
"That was her older brother Dai-in. She was about eight in that picture and he was sixteen when that photo was taken. He was a prodigy and when he turned sixteen he went to go to a university in America. Both him and Tora were supposed to have been close. The winter following his leave Tora became ill. They tried to help her, but every day it got worst, she began to run a higher and higher fever. Her body could barely begin to take it anymore. Dai-in would call his family and write to them, telling them he would try to return as soon as he possibly could. Every day she waited for him, the first thing she would ask first thing in the morning if Dai-in was home. He didn't ever come home. There was a fight- sometime near New Years. A boy in Dai-in's class has seen what the war between them has done and he had a gun. One New Years day the family got the news that Dai- in was dead, he was shot in the head two times. Every morning Tora would still ask, and this time they did not answer. They could not bring themselves to tell Tora, but sure enough when she woke up she asked if he was home. Finnally they told her that he was gone. Tora refused to believe it, so one night she went missing, they searched for her for days, but could find no trace of her. The Watanabe's lost both of their children, and they could not bear to live with this house every day, so they sold it, and everything in it."
There was a silence as she finished the story. Mai thought , "that is horrible, losing both kids after loving them for so long. I know how it feels from a kid losing both of their parents, but how must it feel the other way around, when you understand the concept of death." Monk then pushed Mai a little to bring her back to earth. Naru finally broke the barrier of silence and asked , "So she was very sick, much like the children, I would like to see them for any clues on this."
Yuri nodded , "right."
They began to walk out of the basement and to another building. Mai caught up closer to Yuri , "Hey your name is Yuri right."
"Yeah, what's yours."
"Oh, it's Mai. I was wondering how do you know that much about the Watanabe's."
"Well you see one of the family members - Tora's father."
"And you read it?"
"Why not, there all dead."
Mai smiled at Yuri, there was a certain essence of mischief to her, something that Mai liked to find in new people.
They then reached a medium sized building and Yuri said , "this is the hospital, come on."
She walked in with Suzuki. Some of the others followed in. When Naru was about to walk in Lin's arm came over to door frame, restricting Naru from going in. His hand smacked hard, causing all of them to turn around, and Mai was behind Naru- stunned at what Lin was doing.
Naru looked up at the Chinese man , "Lin what are you doing?!"
"You are not going in Naru."
"Lin!"
"No Naru, if you remember this illness is affecting children under eighteen."
"I am not a child Lin, I am your boss!"
"I am your assistant second, and I am your protector first. You are still seventeen until this fall!"
"Now Lin, let me through."
"I am not going to let you be so careless, you know whenever you use ki that much your immunity goes down for a few weeks. What am I supposed to tell the professors if I let you go in there, if you even got ill."
Naru's eyes for a rare time widened , "you told them what happened!"
"What was I supposed to do. They were wondering why there son wasn't working- if you remember you are still seventeen, by law they have control over your actions! I don't want to be responsible if you get back in the hospital so soon. You might not care about gambling your life, but I do!"
Naru looked away from him, there was pure silence. Everyone knew Naru hated when anyone would pull the age card on him, or if he was reminded that someone had power over him. Mai could not even think- she was so shocked. Lin and Naru rarely had an argument, and non have been this bad.
After a minute Lin said , "You, Mai,and Masako stay out here, we will gather the facts."
Naru gave him a look only Lin would notice, he was so unsatisfied with what was about to happen. Lin groaned , "Takigawa, hand me your cell phone."
Monk looked at him, wondering why- but he was afraid to say 'no' with the look that both Lin and Naru had as though they were about to kill someone. "Erm, sure."
He took out his phone and handed it to Lin.
Lin then took out his, both had internet on them. Lin handed his phone to Naru , "I put in on video, you can ask see everything we see, and ask questions."
Naru stayed silent, but took the phone.
Lin then gave a nod, returning to his silent self. He then began to walk in with everyone else- leaving Naru and Mai outside.
When they all went in, Mai looked at Naru- who was chewing the inside of his gum. Mai looked at him , "Naru are you all right."
She got dead silence from him, he finally said , "just fine, no I am perfect."
She groaned, but just walked up to the camera and began to watch.
Lin held the phone steady, and up to Naru's usual height when he is standing right next to Lin. They walked upstairs and could hear coughing children. Yuri opened one of the rooms, revealing a few children laying in several beds, all with a glazed look in their eyes.
She showed them several others, Naru then said , "Suzuki, can you later get information about what happened to them in detail."
He looked at the camera and said , "yeah, sure thing," he then stayed behind in the room as they walked out.
Yuri said , "it is sad really. But this mountain is not all about sadness, as a matter of fact. It has been a long standing legend that the mountain would bring out ones true feeling for another."
Mai took a deep breath as she said that and looked at Naru ,"If only he felt the same."
They finally came out of the clinic and Naru said ,"everyone- go to the van and start unloading."
He then walked off- still slightly upset about what Lin did. Lin then was quick to follow him.
As they walked off Ayako was the first to chuckle , "wow, the dream team is- upset. This should be entertaining."
Monk ran his fingers though his hair , "yeah it should, now come on- lets get unloaded, it is freezing out here."
He walked towards Mai and bopped her on the head , "that means you too Space Cadet."
Mai sighed and followed him , "my life."
Alright so here is my new chapter. Tell me what all of you think , the next two sould be very interusting in more ways than one. Now just RxR, and a little reminder I do not own ghost hunt- sadly, well later
