Behind Closed Doors

File 3: Justifying the Means

"You never answered if he was cute or not!"

Mai blushed as she hurriedly opened the door of the once empty classroom (which was now occupied as their base), not really wanting to recount the unfortunate event.

"Eh?" John sipped his tea gingerly as it was still fairly hot and looked up with his wide blue eyes at the four as they entered the base. "Who's cute?"

"No one, John," Mai said, plopping down next to the blond priest, her chair scraping up against the desk he was sitting in and incidentally causing some of the hot substance to burn his tongue. "Ah! Sorry."

"Mai," Naru said with a hard voice. He stood up from his seat, his arms crossed in a disapproving manner. "Where have you been?"

"Honestly, I don't know," Mai laughed helplessly, wondering why everyone kept asking her the same question. "I've been lost the entire time I've been in this stupid school."

Naru glared at her. "That wouldn't have happened if you had stayed with us."

Mai held her hands up in defense. "I have a completely valid excuse for that."

"No she doesn't! She was busy talking to guys!"

"Leave it alone, Bou-san! She hasn't even told us what happened yet."

"Thank you, Ayako!"

"Well," Naru said, his dangerously low voice getting everyone's attention, "Why don't you start by telling us why you wandered off from me and Lin."

Mai took a deep breath, wondering how she could explain the experience. "Well, you see, I don't really know what happened…It started with the sound of Fumei-san's voice fading. I started feeling hot and nauseated and dizzy, so I looked down at Lin's feet, but they disappeared. I wanted to look up so I could find you easier, but I was so afraid I was going to throw up. And at some point, my vision went totally white. When I regained my senses, I was standing in the middle of a hallway crowded with guys!"

"Eh? Didn't the same thing happen to you when we were moving equipment, Masako?" John said, concerned.

"Yeah. That's why we went to the infirmary together," Ayako confirmed.

"Maybe it could be like the Urado case when the two of you were getting the same vibes?" Bou-san suggested.

"Continue, Mai," Naru said, followed by a sigh.

"Well…the whole hallway's attention was on me and I got super nervous and embarrassed, so I took out my phone to call you, Bou-san. And that's when this total assho – I mean, jerk, came up to me and took my phone! He started teasing me and even put it in his back pocket so that I couldn't get it back. But then it started ringing, and I was afraid you'd get mad at me if I didn't answer it, so I told him I'd give him my number if he let me answer it–"

Ayako pouted. "You never said if he was cute or not!"

Mai hesitated, but finally answered since she knew the red head was going to keep prodding about it. "Okay, so he was a little cute. He probably plays a sport, too, because he was really muscular."

"What!" Bou-san stood, enraged.

The brunette just ignored him, going back to her story. "So I snuck off while he was entering it into his phone. Oh! And afterwards this girl helped me find my way back to the main office."

The stoic Chinese man next to Mai lifted his head; her words had jogged his memory. "You said a girl?"

Forgetting his jealousy (although he himself would never admit it as such), Naru looked at Lin. "Fumei-san said himself that the only females at this school should be the three present in our team."

"That's right! I thought something was up when you said you met a girl." Bou-san confirmed with a nod.

"That's weird. I could have sworn…" Mai frowned. "Well, her name was Shizu Sasaki. Does that count for something?"

"Well, well. You actually did something right for once," Naru said with a rare smile as he and Lin retreated to the taller man's laptop to do some research on this person (they had gotten permission to access the school's database).

It's too bad that Mai was too shocked by the actual smile to come up with a good retort.

After a while of researching this 'Shizu Sasaki' and having a disappointing number of results, Naru and Masako had gone on a walk around the school together to scope out an estimate of spirits (much to Mai's obvious displeasure). This gave the others some time to eat lunch before they really had to get to work.

"So am I the only one who was surprised when Naru didn't bust a cap in someone's ass about this whole forceful-number-exchange business?" Ayako inquired as she took a bite of her sandwich.

Mai scowled over at the older woman. She hated talking about Naru in front of Lin. After all, who knew what the stoic duo talked about when they were alone? For all they knew, Lin could've recounted every embarrassing conversation they've ever had back to Naru!

"I sure as hell was," Bou-san snorted.

"I was." John raised his hand.

"Not you too, John! You guys know Naru doesn't care about me in that way," Mai said, her cheeks tinting red.

"On the contrary, Mai," John said with a comforting smile, "I think Naru cares for you deeply. He shows it in his own special way, of course."

She looked up at Lin to find that he was actually looking at them, paying attention to the conversation. Her heart skipped a beat. "Whatever. It really wasn't much of a big deal anyway," Mai sighed, turning down her music and taking out an ear bud. "Nothing I can't handle."

Bou-san rolled his eyes. "I'm surprised you were stupid enough to give him your real number."

"Oi! What's that supposed to mean?"

"Bou-san, don't tease Mai like that."

"Ayako-san is right. Have you guys tried not to fight for longer than five minutes?"

"John! You know I'm never the one to start!"

"Oh, I can name a couple of arguments that you've started yourself, Mai!"

Lin sighed, turning back to his laptop.

Crying.

Mai gasped, opening her eyes only to find another shade of black different from the back of her eyelids. After a moment of trying to discern where she was, her eyes had adjusted to the darkness and she found herself lying on the floor in what looked like a Chemistry classroom.

What the hell? Why couldn't she find herself in a chair every once in a while?

Dream Naru stood in front of her, his hand extended for her to take. He was glowing against the black backdrop of the room, and Mai was too, she noticed as she reached up to take his hand.

Once she was standing upright, Mai turned to her dream guy (pun intended). "Naru…is someone crying?"

Naru looked solemnly over to a cabinet in the back of the room, nodding to it. "In there," he said quietly, urging her to investigate. A man of few words as always.

Mai tiptoed over to the cabinet and attempted to slide open its door. She was shocked to find it wouldn't budge, and huffed before trying unsuccessfully to open it again. "What the–?"

"They locked it."

Mai almost missed the inaudible voice that came from within the cabinet, but she stopped herself from asking a plethora of questions and decided to start looking for the key (which was thankfully found sitting on a table not far away).

"Are you okay?" Mai inquired when she finally opened the door, revealing a small figure sitting on the floor of the cabinet with their knees against their chest.

"I'm fine," the person said, standing.

Mai almost choked when the glow of the moon allowed her a good look at the stranger's face. She was also suddenly thrown for a loop when she realized that the person whom she thought was a girl was dressed in a boy's uniform. "S-Shizu?"

The boy stopped rubbing his teary eyes to look up curiously at the girl. "Do I know you?"

"No-No…I just," Mai stuttered, unsure what to say. She had a strange feeling that it would turn out badly if she mentioned how she met him. She quickly changed the subject. "What on earth were you doing locked in that cabinet?"

Forgetting all about his previous question, Shizu looked down at the ground in embarrassment. " Just a couple of stupid bullies…"

"What!" Mai exclaimed, outraged, "Who did this to you?"

"Does it really matter? They'll get what they deserve, in time."

Mai was shocked into silence at how menacing the words sounded coming from the seemingly innocent boy's mouth, the look he was giving her only giving more credit to his words.

She looked back only to find that dream Naru had vanished as well as the rest of the classroom. Soon everything around her, including Shizu, had disappeared into the black void as well.

Mai gasped as she woke from her sleep. She felt the figure above her freeze and looked up to find none other than her own boss hovering over her. "N-N-Naru!"

He dropped the blanket and let it fall over her, straightening. "I didn't mean to wake you up."

The sun was setting outside of the window and the classroom was enveloped in a warm orange color. Mai shifted, sitting up in the uncomfortable wooden desk chair. "No, you didn't. I had a dream."

Naru sat down next to her. "Go on."

After explaining her dream, but leaving out the part about her stoic boss being in it, Mai and Naru pondered over many things.

"He did respond to the name Shizu and looked exactly like the person I saw in the hallway today. Does that mean I just mistook him for a girl and they're the same person?"

Naru said with a sigh, "But that still doesn't explain why we found nothing about him in the school's database. Just the name should have pulled up his file."

"Maybe he's using a nickname?" Lin suggested.

Mai jumped, not even realizing he was in the room with them. "I guess he could've been. Shizu could be a shortened version of names like Shizuko or Shizuka…though those are both girl names…" The brunette ruffled her hair frustrated. "No wonder I mistook him for a girl!"

"Oh! What did you guys find when you and Masako went around the school?" Mai inquired, almost forgetting to ask.

Her question, however, seemed to upset him. "Hara-san was unable to detect anything spiritual," Naru said with a sigh.

"Bummer," Mai replied, biting her lip. Was he beginning to think this case was a waste of time? He'd suggested the activity might be bullies when the case had first been presented to them, too...What if it really was just bullies and there was nothing at this school and he blamed her because she had advised him to take the case?

That would be a big bummer.

Naru stood. "Well, it's almost dinner," he said motioning to how the sun had already set, "Do you need to go back to the dorm before we eat?"

"Ah, no, I'm good," Mai said with a smile, though internally she was still fighting with herself. The three set off to the cafeteria where they met the rest of their teammates and sat down at an empty table.

"Did you have a nice nap?" Bou-san teased, poking her cheek.

"No," Mai replied smugly, wrestling his hand away, "Those chairs are ridiculously uncomfortable!"

Ayako laughed. "Don't complain about the chairs when you were the one that fell asleep on them! By the way Naru, I'm surprised you didn't wake her up."

"Well," said the dark haired teen, "Mai's dreams tend to be valuable on cases."

'Is that the only thing you need me for? Dreams and tea?' The brunette glared at him, before tuning out of the conversation as Naru regaled the team with his younger assistant's dream and what information they had gathered from it.

She took the time to let her eyes wander the cafeteria. Most everyone was staring at them, probably wondering why they were at the school in the first place. Maybe they already knew? The others seemed to be going about their daily routine and minding their own business.

Mai looked over the faces of the many boys and went about picking out the cute ones (which happened to be quite a lot). She was surprised Ayako hadn't been desperately trying to get her together with anyone yet. The priestess seemed to think that getting her a boyfriend would move Naru to some sort of action, but Mai had little hopes that that plan would work (plus, it seemed morally wrong).

That's when she saw his deep brown eyes on her. Wait…wasn't that…? Yes, the gods were cursing her.

Hiromasa Takeda.

Mai bolted up from the table, drawing everyone's attention to her. "Um…I…need to go to the bathroom?" She began walking as fast as possible in the direction opposite of where she saw Hiromasa.

"Bring someone with you!" Bou-san called worriedly.

"I can go to the bathroom myself!" She'd said it loud enough for their table to hear, but mentally cursed as the cafeteria's walls made her statement audible to everyone else in the room. She rushed out of the building.

John frowned, concerned. "Do they even have a girl's restroom at this school?"

Okay, so I'm going away to England for about 12 days. Don't expect to hear anything from me in those days. Hopefully when I come back, though, I will be in the writing spirit! I think I actually want to make the next case in England, so I'll make sure to take good notes while I'm there!

By the way, I'm kind of disappointed in how lately the reviews have gone from actual comments to…one word comments. Or a smiley face. But thank you for taking the time to review, anyway. I always appreciate them, even if they are just a smiley face. Thanks for all of the alerts and favorites as well!

I'm so happy I have good readers.

(Hope you liked the chapter!)