Author's Note: Greetings and salutations! Welcome to Case File #2 of Ghost Hunt: Inception! In this arc, SPR find themselves investigating a wine bar in Shinjuku Golden Gai. Quieter than a construction site, but certainly no less dangerous, what is it that haunts this shanty-style location? The truth, they say, is in the wine… A take on a tale from Edgar Allan Poe, but with a Ghost Hunt twist!
Please remember: all questions, comments, constructive criticism, and/or suggestions are welcome and appreciated. Thank you so much for reading – enjoy!
Disclaimer: I own nothing from Ghost Hunt. I just like to write. ^_^
And now, on with Inception!
Case File #2: In Vino Veritas
Part 1
Round, round with the glass, boys, as fast as you can,
Since he who don't drink cannot be a true man.
For if truth is in wine, then 'tis all but a whim
To think a man's true when the wine's not in him.
Drink, drink, then, and hold it a maxim divine
That there's virtue in truth, and there's truth in good wine!
– Benjamin Cook, In Vino Veritas
August
Day 1
6:27 PM
"Holy –!" Takigawa had to stop himself from finishing his exclamation upon taking his first look at the interior their stop. "You mean we're exorcising this place?"
Mai stood next to him, mouth agape. "You have to be kidding me. How am I going to help set up anything without breaking something?"
"I'm more concerned about just trying to investigate in a place like this," the monk said, equally slack jawed. "Forget exorcisms – just take a look at the inside of this place! Just one of those bottles back there is probably enough to clean out my whole month's earnings!"
"If you're finished gawking, you can start helping with unloading the equipment," Naru said pointedly as he passed by the pair with a monitor cradled in his arms.
"Oh! Wait, Naru! We don't even know where base is! Wait up!" Mai called out, hastily grabbing a box of cables from the van and hurrying after her employer.
Barely two weeks had passed since their return from the construction site case in Meguro when their current clients had come in: a couple in their late twenties who'd admitted to being slightly embarrassed at having to have gone to paranormal investigators. Akira and Tsumiko Shinoda had only recently acquired Akira's family's business following the death of his uncle. They'd heard rumors about the wine bar being haunted, but had never actually believed it.
Until now.
"Despite its dingy appearance on the outside, this place is really something else," Yasu remarked as he took in the scenery over the monitor he was carrying. Indeed, Kiss of Wine was a very classy place: the interior was of the same dim lighting of any place of its caliber; dark mahogany stools lined the glossy bar, and the multicolored glass bottles reflected on the shiny wooden floors as they erect on the glass shelves that ran along the walls. Chardonnays, burgundies, sherries, and even traditional sake sat pristine and mesmerizingly behind the counter where the bartender was currently taking inventory and going over predicted orders for the evening.
Mai was floored. It was enough that she was underage and in a drinking establishment (and a rather selective one, at that!), but for her to have been invited under the pretext of investigative purposes and find herself gawking at the sheer brilliance of the place…!
This place just couldn't be haunted!
'Get real, Mai,' her mind chided. 'Since when have appearances held any relevance to a haunting?'
She scowled at her own thoughts. Places that looked haunted sometimes weren't, like the old school building that had finally collapsed due to the land subsiding. And Ayami's house certainly hadn't looked like it would have been haunted, if a person were to have taken that creepy doll Minnie out of the equation…
"Pick up the slack, Mai!" Yasu commanded, nudging her with his monitor from behind. She looked over her shoulder to stick her tongue at him, receiving a smug grin in return.
Mai rolled her eyes and continued to follow Takigawa as he trailed behind Naru. Because Kiss of Wine was high-profile and known to have attracted a few well-known names in Japan, Naru had decided to play it safe by allowing Yasu to stand in as Kazuya Shibuya; the real Kazuya Shibuya had taken the pseudonym he'd created back when they'd accepted the case at Miyama Manor: Narumi Kazuo, an assistant. Mr. and Mrs. Shinoda had already been informed of the fact, and agreed to keep their silence on the matter. So long as SPR was able to help and keep their business's issues from the tabloids, they didn't mind the additional secrecy.
'Well, at least we can still call him 'Naru',' Mai kept reminding herself. She couldn't help but wonder if her little nickname for her employer had somehow instigated the use of that particular alias.
Base turned out to be a small back room on the second floor, which housed several private rooms that were not to be reserved for the duration of the investigation. Even here, Kiss of Wine proved to impress. The room came complete with a small bar, a micro refrigerator, and a connected bathroom. The two private rooms across the hall had been their designated sleeping quarters, complete well-kept tatami mats and futons with clean linens.
"Just put the cables over there," Naru instructed her, gesturing towards where Lin was going over the inventory as they brought in the equipment. Mai complied without question.
Takigawa set the monitor to where Lin had gestured. He groaned loudly, knowing there were several others he had yet to bring up.
"Darn that Ayako!" he spat. "She's always getting out of doing the manual labor!"
"If you're going to complain, you're welcome to leave," said Naru. He gazed at the monk emotionlessly before returning to his clipboard. Takigawa merely sighed in defeat and headed back to the door, Mai just behind him and Yasu trailing after the both of them.
Mai supposed she really couldn't blame Monk for his current frustrations towards the shrine maiden: the morning after they'd finished up the Tomei case, the poor bassist had found himself on the receiving end of Ayako's wrath yet again after he'd brought her missing purse to SPR's office. The accusation had been that he'd maliciously gone through her purse in hopes of finding blackmail material; Takigawa pleaded only halfway guilty, claiming that he'd mostly been hoping to find his bottle of acetaminophen.
The end result: a sore Houshou Takigawa, a smug Ayako Matsuzaki, an exasperated Mai, and a more-than-irritated Naru. And absolutely no acetaminophen until Monk finally bought another bottle, which he'd hidden somewhere so that Ayako couldn't snatch it away. Mai suspected that was the reason the miko was currently suspended from hitching rides from the bassist until further notice; the painkillers were likely to have been stashed in the glove compartment.
C'est la vie. At least when you happened to be working with SPR.
It was just when Mai snapped out of her reverie and slid in-between Monk and Yasu to grab one of the cameras that she heard the shout. It wasn't a very nice shout, nor one she would have liked directed at her, but it was the angry tone and the familiarity of the voice doing the yelling that caught her attention. Hands just under the camera, Mai turned around just in time to see a lanky older teen dart out from an alleyway with an equally tall friend, the friend holding a set of chopsticks and the teen holding what looked like a small, steaming hard plastic bowl of ramen.
"I said give that back, damn it!" A smaller figure crashed out from the alleyway, stumbling after slamming into a nearby garbage can and nearly knocking it over. The rucksack hanging from one shoulder strap thumped violently against the back of her thigh.
The teen with the stolen ramen laughed. "Yeah, sure! I'll give it back! I'd rather have a different flavor, anyway!" he spun around and threw the bowl, laughing hysterically. The bowl and its contents hit the smaller person square in the chest, causing her to violently recoil and let out a loud hiss.
The two boys stopped in their tracks and turned, snorting at the sight of the ramen-covered girl who'd been chasing them.
"Here, you'll need these!" the friend tossed the chopsticks in the girl's direction before letting out a hoot and tugging on his buddy's sleeve. The two boys ran off in the opposite direction, leaving their victim behind.
Said victim wasn't the type to just stand there and sulk, however. Not in the least.
"Bakayaro!"
…
She regarded herself as a fairly do-well kind of girl; even if she wasn't among the most highly respectable of citizens, she at least made a point not to cause too much trouble. A few minor infractions here-and-there were what she considered a healthy pastime. However, when someone took the initiative to outright humiliate her in public, all of that tended to fly right out the window.
She often prided herself in maintaining pretty good self restraint, but when it came being covered in hot ramen and receiving a great many stares from the people who'd been watching, all she wanted to do was pummel the ones responsible for her embarrassment into oblivion. She would have, too, if it hadn't been for the fact that she'd been strictly ordered not to "overdo it" by three very persuasive people, each of whom threatened to place under his own form of house arrest, one going so far as to ensure that he'd figure out a way to chain her to his bedside if she pulled anymore "dangerous stunts", as he'd so eloquently put it. And after a very long and serious discussion with that particular individual, she'd reluctantly consented. It was only right, seeing how worried he'd been.
Bearing this in mind, she clenched her fists harshly, nails cutting viciously into the palms of her hands. All she had to do was just…
She smacked herself mentally. There was no point in victimizing trash like that, even if he did deserve it. So she did the only thing she could think to do at that moment.
"Bakayaro!"
The two boys laughed even harder as the disappeared into yet another alleyway.
Now she was madder than ever. Why did people feel the need to stare so blatantly at a person when said person was at their most vulnerable? She wanted to disappear on the spot.
'I didn't even want to come to Shinjuku!' she lamented, looking down miserably at her broth-stained clothes. 'Favorable strands in this direction – my ass!'
"I can't believe those jerks! Of all the rude and inconsiderate things a person can do, throwing hot food on someone is unforgiveable!" Dark green eyes looked up to find a shockingly petite brunette being restrained by a long-haired man. The man himself looked to be angry as well, despite his insistence that going after the two wouldn't solve anything. The bespectacled young man just to the side was nodding sagely, though he, too, was looking daggers after the boys.
'Well, I'll be damned.' "Mai?"
The petite brunette snapped out of her tirade at the sound of her name. Brown eyes darted in the direction of the noodle-baptized victim. Those same eyes widened in recognition.
"Katsu!"
Takigawa and Yasu looked in the interloper's direction, both shocked to find that it was indeed the girl they'd left back in Meguro.
Katsumi Shinomori grinned widely despite her skin burning from the hot noodles and broth having seeped through her clothing. "Hi, guys!"
…
It took the trio a moment to fully register everything that had just happened. It felt a bit surreal, two weeks after the fact. The first night of the Tomei Construction Company case, they'd encountered a dark-haired teen named Katsumi Shinomori, a girl who was decidedly reckless and sported the appropriately boyish nickname of Katsu. Despite the misunderstanding and slight distrust derived of their initial encounter (the girl having clocked Takigawa with a piece of GRP piping upon realizing that she wasn't exploring the site alone), Katsu had been more-or-less accepted as a one-time volunteer during the investigation. By the end of the case, she'd become a bit of a friend and was asked to keep in contact.
But that, as already stated, had happened well over two weeks ago. In the time since, Katsu hadn't contacted either Mai or Takigawa as she'd assured them she would. Yasu had also heard nothing, though Mai found herself unsurprised by that revelation – Katsu never told the college student that she would call him, after all. But it had been disappointing to have been out of communication. Mai had genuinely been hoping to hear from the girl.
And now, here she was, covered in dark broth and stringy noodles and looking no worse for wear. She was still thin and still had dark circles under her eyes, though now the circles seemed to be a bit lighter. Her right arm was still bandaged, which indicated that the burns she'd received at the construction site were still healing.
And she was grinning like the Cheshire Cat. A Cheshire Cat covered in its meal, that is.
Takigawa was the first to recover.
"Still getting into trouble, I see," he teased, releasing Mai and striding over to where the interloper stood. He stared down at her with his arms folded and his mouth in a frown. The act of disapproval didn't last long, however, and the frown was soon replaced with a quirky grin. He chuckled. "Well, at least this isn't like the construction site."
Katsu giggled. "Yeah. This time you're not the one I was getting ready to clobber!" She laughed even louder as the monk groaned at the memory.
"Mortification seems to like following you around," Yasu said cordially, walking with Mai up to the two. The equipment was suddenly forgotten.
"Yeah," Katsu sighed, looking down ruefully at her ruined attire. "But usually I'm the one doing the mortifying. Talk about a twisted turn of fate. And I was really hungry, too."
Her stomach growled as if to compound the fact. Katsu scowled at the noise, much to the laughter of the other three.
"Well, even if you are a mess, it's really nice to see you again, Katsu." Mai giggled and began to pluck off the strands of squiggly noodles, tossing them aside onto the pavement.
"Ugh. They just had to get my bag, too, didn't they?" Katsu looked longingly at a thick piece of chāshū before flinging it aside. She then gave the brunette a helpless smile.
"It's really nice to see you guys again, too," she admitted, frowning a bit as Yasu pulled a strand of nori from her shoulder. "But what the heck are you guys doing here in Shinjuku?"
Takigawa quirked an eyebrow as he, too, assisted in the clean-up effort. "Actually, we were just about to ask you the same question."
"What are the three of you doing?" a well-known and cold voice demanded. The group looked over to find Naru looking at them exasperatedly, Lin standing just behind him. The narcissist's lips were pursed together in irritation. "I don't think it would bode well for us if the 'Head' of SPR was found chattering away when there's work to be done."
Yasu paled at the meaning behind his boss's words. He forgot about the chāshū dangling from between his index finger and thumb.
"Is that Narcissus?" Katsu asked, poking her head from behind Takigawa's frame. She eyed him curiously. "Sure is. What the heck are you talking about? You don't like you're 'chattering away' to me."
Naru's eyes widened fractionally for a split second before returning back to their normal state.
"Miss Shinomori," he acknowledged. He raised an eyebrow at her soiled appearance.
Katsu laughed nervously. Mai felt the girl tense up considerably under the narcissist's gaze. What Mai didn't realize was that Naru wasn't the only one boring holes into Katsu – Lin was eyeing her with equal intensity. "Let's just say I have a penchant for making weird entrances and leave it at that, shall we?"
Unresponsive, Naru walked up to the foursome, stopping just in front of Katsu. The interloper froze completely upon straightening up. The black-clad youth casually reached out to her shoulder, causing the girl to flinch.
Naru looked distastefully at the noodle he'd pulled from her shirt before dropping it to the ground. "What happened?"
"Not much," Katsu responded loftily.
Mai looked at her incredulously. "'Not much'? How can you call two boys stealing your food and throwing it at you in the middle of the street 'not much'?"
"Not to mention the added insult of throwing your chopsticks in your face while jeering at you," Yasu added with a frown. Naru scowled.
"Is this true?" he demanded, eyes narrowed in the interloper's direction.
Katsu sighed loudly. "Yeah, but what do you expect from a couple of degenerates? Those two were just looking for someone to pick on and somehow decided that a girl opening a prepackaged ramen was the best target. They probably did me a favor, seeing as I got it out of a vending machine; it wasn't even a flavor I really liked. I can always get another one later."
Her stomach growled in protest, earning itself yet another scowl from the dark-haired girl.
"I think your stomach's saying otherwise," Naru remarked caustically, ignoring the guffaws coming from the other three. Lin remained taciturn in the background.
"Dōshite watashi ga?" Katsu lamented comically. She quirked a half-hearted, crooked grin in the narcissist's direction. "My body never agrees with anything I say. I just try to ignore it for the most part." She adjusted the shoulder strap of her rucksack and sighed. "I guess I'd better find a place to get changed." She looked down at the mess, privately wishing she could at least curse the two for the scene they'd caused. She could feel that there were people still staring! And her skin felt really strange after being hit with the scalding broth…
"You can get cleaned up inside." Her head snapped up at the narcissist's words, only to find his back turned to her as he picked up yet another monitor from the van. "The rest of you, continue unloading the van and setting up base. Shinomori, when you're finished I want you to help out. Once we have the monitors set up, I want you and Mai to run temperature checks in the building."
Katsu felt her jaw drop; she was pretty sure she could hear at least three others hanging agape just behind her. "Wait, I get doused with cheap ramen and you want me to run temperature checks? Just what are your grounds for bossing me around when I haven't even done anything to screw things up yet?"
"I received a phone call from Miss Matsuzaki shortly before I came out here," Naru explained coolly, handing the monitor to Lin. "It appears as though she won't be able to make it here to assist us, which means that we're one person short. And since you happen to be here and did a commendable job of volunteering in our previous case, it's only logical to use you as a substitute for the time being."
"Case? You mean… this place?" she looked up at the sign overhead, frowning up at the kanji scrawled. Dark green eyes flitted back to the black-clad youth.
"You can change in the bathroom across from base. Mai will show you where it is." He strode inside with another monitor.
Katsu nearly jumped as she felt a set of hands clamp down on her shoulders.
"Welcome back to the team, Katsu," Monk congratulated her with a chuckle.
"Yeah, thanks… I think…" She laughed nervously, following Mai as the brunette grabbed a case of microphones and led her through the main part of the bar and up a narrow stairwell leading to the second floor.
"This is base here," Mai said, indicating the room on their right with a jerk of her head, "and the bathroom's just across." She nodded to the sliding door on the left.
"Thanks, Mai," Katsu said. She then looked a bit sheepish. "Uh, before you go in there, could I borrow your cell phone? I need to make a call."
"Here, take mine," Takigawa offered, stopping just behind the two to reach into his pocket. He quickly tossed a sleek black cell phone in the interloper's direction. "Just don't run the minutes off of it, okay?"
"Sure thing, thanks." And with that, she disappeared into the bathroom.
…
The bolt to the door slid into place, effectively locking anyone from the outside. She slipped her ruined shirt over her head and laid it on the counter. Sighing heavily, she looked into the mirror and frowned. 'Gods, I really am a mess.'
She picked up Takigawa's cell phone and quickly dialed the number. It wasn't often this particular individual would pick up for an unknown number, but considering his uncanny knowledge of things that pertained to her, she had a feeling he wasn't going to ignore it.
Sure enough, he picked up on the third ring.
"Ishimaru."
"Next time one of your 'favorable threads' involves me running into Shibuya Psychic Research, I suggest you give me a warning," Katsu said coldly. "I don't enjoy being tricked like that."
There was a low chuckle from the other end. "Glad to hear from you, too, kiddo. How's it going?"
"I got scalding hot ramen thrown at me, and now I've been roped into a ghost hunting investigation," Katsu deadpanned. "How do you think I feel?"
The chuckle turned into full-blown laughter. "Probably ready to kill me. I wouldn't recommend acting on it, though; murder's illegal, and you might just have a use for me later on."
"Hardy, har, har. Very funny." She cradled the phone between her ear and her shoulder as she began to undo the wrappings on her right arm. The broth from the ramen had succeeded in ruining the dressings as well, rendering them utterly useless. It was a good thing she'd wrapped her arm thickly, she couldn't help but think. "I just thought I'd call and let you know what those stupid threads of yours got me into this time. You really should have warned me that I'd be seeing that Shibuya guy again – you know how much I hate surprises! He nearly gave me a heart attack that last time!"
"I already explained to you why I wasn't able to give you a warning the last time," the man on the other end of the line said sternly. "It isn't my fault that you disappeared for two weeks on end, not even bothering to check in with either me or Kirishima. We're both still pretty pissed off about that, and I don't think the other one would be happy about it, either. Knowing him, he probably already figured it out."
"Yeah, actually he did." Katsu grimaced as she threw the bandages into the waste basket. "And he's already read me the riot act, I assure you."
"Thank the gods there's a least one person who can get through that thick skull of yours," Ishimaru snorted. "And as for you running into SPR again, if that's what your thread led you to, you're just going have to accept it. I just show you the paths; I can't tell you the destination –"
"– because you can't see it all that clearly." Katsu sighed. "Yeah, I know. I just thought it would be a good idea to let you know what's going so that you didn't think I took off again."
"And I appreciate it," Ishimaru returned. "You just take care of yourself and watch out for spirits. Just what kind of place are you all investigating, anyway?"
"We're in some fancy bar in the Golden Gai. I really couldn't tell you anything more than that. How come?"
There was a brief silence.
"Hello?"
"Do me a favor and try not to drink anything those people give you. I don't care if it's tap water – you're better off finding a vending machine."
"I beg your pardon? This is a bar – I'm underage! Like hell I'm going to drink anything! Do you really think I'm that stupid?"
"Nope. Good girl. And what're those magic words of yours?"
Katsu's brow furrowed at the question. "Go, go, beauty, round, round, nothing's gonna stop."
"That's my girl! Keep it up, and stay out of trouble. I'll see you when you get back in Shibuya. Later, kiddo."
Katsu looked at the phone in bewilderment as the dial tone came on, signaling the end of the call. She flipped it closed with a sigh and set it back on the sink before looking at herself again in the mirror.
Red splotches stood out on pale and previously unexposed skin, revealing where the scalding broth and steaming noodles had landed. There was a definite stain now on her ill-fitted white cotton brassiere, but there wasn't much she could do aside from blotting it out the best way she could. The angry red markings trailed from her chest down along her belly past where her pants sat at her waist, stained just like her shirt.
Compared the damage done to her arm, it wasn't all that serious. It just looked bad. A little cool water and it would be fine.
She stood there staring at her reflection a little while longer, allowing her thoughts to wander a bit in regards to what all had happened since she'd last seen SPR. She didn't get very far in her thoughts, for when she diverted her attention back to reality she was startled to find another, shockingly familiar person standing next to her reflection in the mirror.
Katsu froze. The boy in the mirror looked confused for a moment, dark sapphire eyes locking onto her midnight green ones before sliding to the rest of her halfway undressed form. One fine, black eyebrow rose quizzically as he took in the vision before him.
Upon seeing the red splotches on her skin, the boy's handsomely pale face twisted into a scowl, and he looked up to her as if demanding to know what happened before confusion overthrew his features again and he vanished completely, as if carried away by a wind.
Katsu's heart pounded fiercely in her chest; her mouth was dry and she suddenly felt lightheaded. She had to have been hallucinating – she hadn't eaten since earlier that morning, so it was a reasonable assumption. What just happened couldn't possibly have been real. It wasn't possible!
What would he have been doing in a mirror?
Terms, Phrases, and Definitions:
Bakayaro – basically a rather vulgar insult, which can be taken to meaning idiot, moron, or (in this case) a**hole
Chāshū – barbequed meat (usually pork, which is what it is in this story), which is seasoned with soy sauce and honey. It's the Japanese version Chinese Char siu, and is commonly found in ramen.
Nori – edible seaweed (also used for wrapping onigiri! ^_^)
Dōshite watashi ga? – Why me?
A/N: And thus begins Case File #2! Special thanks goes out to lil whit and Foxgrl18 for their reviews on Non-Case File 1 – I'm glad you liked it! Poor Monk never gets a break, does he? LOL
Until the next chapter, then! XD