I don't own Ghost Hunt or Harry Potter, just playing around while I have the chance.
Well, sorry for taking so long in getting this out, been meaning to for ages. So I thank you for your patience with my up and downs and I do hope that you enjoy the end of the part of the case.
Thanks go to DragonSlayer2187 for editing this monster!
Chapter 19
Case One-Evil Spirit's All Over!?
Part Thirteen
Harry groaned as the sound of his mobile phone ringing woke him for a sound sleep. He reached out for it blindly as his hand patted over his bedside table. He swore as he accidentally knocked his glasses onto the floor as he finally found the noisy object. He pressed accept call and answered with a groggy, "Hello?"
"Morning Harry!" came the way too cheerful voice of Mai as she almost shouted down the line, "Do you want to walk to school together again today?" she asked, her voice still a little too loud.
Harry rubbed his eyes getting rid of the sleep in them as he let his hand fall over the side of the bed. He used wandless magic to Accio his glasses and quickly cleaned them of fingerprints and slide them onto his face. He was finally able to see the time and flopped back onto his back, "Mai, you do know what time is it, don't you?" he almost growled out. He was not happy about being woken up at five in the morning. Especially since he didn't get to bed until one in the morning, he'd had a lot of magical homework and class work to catch up on, and was able to get a lot done.
"I'm sorry if I woke you up," she apologise, "But I just couldn't sleep," she added, her voice held a slightly whining tone to it.
Harry resigned himself to the fact that he wouldn't be getting any more sleep and let out a long sigh, "Why don't you come over and I'll make us some breakfast. Then we'll walk to school together." he suggested to her.
"Harry you are the best friend ever!" Mai squealed, "I'll be right over," with that the line went dead.
Harry took the phone away from his ear and looked at it. He shook his head before he set it down on his bedside table and got up. If he was right, he would just about have enough time to shower and dress before Mai started banging on his door. He trudged into his bathroom and began his morning routine, with many yawns and grumbling about annoying morning people. Hermione had been the same as well, usually the driving force at getting Harry and Ron out of bed in time for the early breakfast, and not the late breakfast that most students arrived at the Great Hall for.
Harry had just finished getting dressed and had began to walk down the stairs when he head the doorbell ring, and then someone banging on the door. He noticed that Hedwig wasn't on her perch. Harry figured the owl would be back soon as the sky was starting to turn a soft pink as the sun continued to rise. He opened the door to a very hyper Mai. She stood there on his doorstep, a huge grin on her face and dark bags under her bright eyes.
"Morning Harry," she chirped as he invited her inside, giving him a quick hug as she passed by.
"Good morning Mai," he replied with a sigh and a shake of his head, he was still tired, but quickly returned the hug.
"So what's for breakfast, because I am starving?" Mai asked, as she bounced onto his small kitchen and sat down at the table, looking to Harry as he followed her.
Harry shuffled over to the stove and yawned as he asked, "How does eggs, toast and tea sound?"
"Sounds great," she answered smiling widely as she settled into the chair properly to watch him and continued talking, "So I couldn't sleep because of that experiment we set up yesterday. Do you have any clue as to what is going on Harry?"
"Mai," he sighed, "Slow down. I can't believe the energy you have with no sleep," he shook his head as he cracked a couple of eggs into the pan, "runny or hard?" he asked her as he glanced over.
"Runny," was the bubbly reply, "I'm sorry for being so anxious, I just really want to know. You can't tell me you're not curious," she said, tilting her head tot he side as she studied him with questioning cinnamon eyes.
Harry gave a sigh as he filled the kettle with water and flicked it on. He turned around and looked to her, "Mai, I have a slight clue as to watch Kazuya-san is planning," he quickly held up a hand to her from interrupting him with a question, "But I'm not sure. So I'm not telling you what I think. I'll let him explain it once we get there today."
Mai's lower lip jutted out in a cute pout as she tuned her puppy dog eyes onto her friend, "Harry, that's not fair. You have to tell me or I might burst from the constant need to know."
Harry almost laughed, but settled for a slight chuckled. Mai was completely adorable when she pouted and sent the puppy look at the same time, but he had put up with it a lot of the years. Hermione had done the same thing when she was trying to get him and Ron to do their homework. "I'm pretty sure it is almost impossible to burst from curiosity, so my answer is still no," he poured the water into the tea pot to let it steep for a bit as he carried on cooking.
He grinned as he saw Hedwig come swooping in through the window. Mai's attention immediately went to the owl as she began to coo and stroke Hedwig as soon as she landed on the back of her chair. Harry was able to finished cooking and making the tea with Mai's attention taken over by the owl and not the experiment. He walked over to the table and set down breakfast in front of her. He picked up his own and began to walk to his seat.
Mai's immediately whipped around, snatching her chopsticks crying out, "Itadaki-masu!" before digging in.
Harry started to go around Mai's chair Hedwig stuck out her leg out in front of him. Seeing the four letters attached to her leg, his gaze darted to Mai, to see if she was looking. Mai though was paying attention to her food and nothing else. Moving his unoccupied hand underneath the owl's leg, Harry shot off a wordless and wandless untie spell. The string untied and the letters fell into his hand without a sound. Curling his fingers around them he shoved them into his back pocket as he leaned closer to Hedwig. He was glad that Mai hadn't noticed the letters when she had been cooing over Hedwig. Though there was a little magic around them to keep the out of sight.
"Thanks girl," he whispered, making sure it was low enough Mai couldn't hear.
She gave a soft hoot before jumping off the back of the chair and winging her way over to her perch. Mai glanced up when she left and gave the owl a small smile as she watched her tuck her head underneath her wing to get some sleep. Harry made his way over to his seat across from Mai and began to eat.
Having finished before Harry, Mai sat their sipping her tea as she waited for him to finish, but she didn't stay quiet for long, "Do you think Kuroda will be there?"
Swallowing his eggs Harry locked his emerald eyes with her cinnamon coloured ones as he answered, "Yeah I am pretty sure she will be. Along with everybody else that was in the Principal's office yesterday."
"Really, why do you say that?" Mai questioned setting down her empty cup.
With his plate clean he took a sip of his tea before answering her, "I just have a feeling that whatever happened in the Principal's office is in connection with the experiment we set up in the old school house. That means that all people who participated should also be there today, for proof that we didn't rig anything."
"Oh, you mean so scientists will take us seriously," her face was scrunched up in a thinking pose and Harry couldn't help but laugh at her.
"Yes Mai," he got out through his chuckles, shaking his head at her.
She stuck her tongue out at him and he laughed even more. He saw her eyes dart up to the clock that hung beside the door and sighed, knowing she wanted to get going. Moving his gaze to the clock he read six-thirty, he guessed by the time they got to go the school it would be around seven o'clock. "Okay Mai we can go now. Just let me run up to my room really quick though."
"Sure, I'll just wash the dishes while you do that," getting up and grabbing the tea cups and plates.
"Thanks Mai," Harry told her before taking off for the stares.
By the time he came back down Mai had finished the dishes and was standing next to the door bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet, impatiently. "Harry you took so long, come on lets go."
Shaking his head he took his bag off the hook near the door and waved at her to open the door, "I'm here now so what are you waiting for."
"Humph," Mai snorted as she opened the door and all put dashed through it.
Harry looked to Hedwig, asleep on her perch and with a small subtle flick of his wand he quickly made sure that the house would be secured without him there. Harry walked out and shut the door and locked it. Glancing around he couldn't find Mai anywhere, but then heard her yell from the bottom of the steps, "Come on slow poke."
"How does she have that much energy after no sleep," Harry grumbled to himself as he walked at a normal pace down the stairs. Mai of course was waiting at the bottom and was urging him to walk faster, "Mai calm down, we have plenty of time to get there and besides once we get there Kazuya probably won't say anything until everybody else arrives."
Her face paled and her jaw dropped in horror, "He wouldn't!" Harry just gave her a smirk, which made her pout, "Oh I know you are right. He can be such an arrogant, self-righteous, Narcissist!" she ranted still a good two steps in front of him. Harry chuckled at her, until she whipped around and pinned him with an evil stare as she walked backwards, "You are almost no better. Keeping things from me that might be able to help me figuring this stuff out. You are such a snake sometime."
Harry's steps faltered a little, all he could think about was the snake coming out of the dark mark and he shuddered at it. It hurt to be reminded of it and it hurt him when she said it. Harry could only think of Voldemort, and what the Death Eaters had done. Mai turned and frowned when she saw the hurt look on her friends face. She didn't know why he looked hurt. She took a few steps towards him and reached out a hand, "huh," he startled as he took a step back as soon as her hand touched his shoulder.
"I'm sorry Harry, I didn't mean to bring up something bad. Sometimes my mouth runs away with me before I think," she apologised, not liking the fact that she had inadvertently hurt her friend with something she had said.
Harry gave her a small smile, trying to make her feel better. "No, it's all right Mai. I know you didn't mean anything by what you said, and you couldn't have known what calling me a snake means to me. There are things about me that you don't know, things that I can't talk about because they are so painful. But the snake symbol has an evil meaning for me because of it. The people behind it were true evil, you can't imagine what things were like. I was accused of being one of them when I was young, the heir of evil basically. It hurt and the things that happened, it almost killed me," he told her, thinking of his time in the Chamber of Secrets, "There is a lot more to it than that, but at the moment I really can't talk about it, just thinking about it still hurts," he shuddered as he remember Sirius.
Mai's face dropped and guilt began to fill her eyes as she went towards him and pulled him into a tight hug, "I am so sorry Harry, I didn't know. I feel like an awful person for being up something so bad for you. When you want. I'm here for you to talk to. I'm so sorry Harry," she told him.
"Mai, it's all right, like I said it's fine. You're not an awful person at all," he told her as he hugged her back and let her go looking down at her, "I know you were joking. It just took me off guard a little. So don't worry about it, all is forgiven."
She nodded as he let her go, "Okay," she smiled back a little as the two of them began to walk side by side. Mai had lost the cheerful mood she had been in.
"So," Harry said, wanting to change the subject and to try and cheer his friend up, "I haven't really asked, but what do you think about the other people that we are working with?"
This brought Mai out of her slump as she began to tell Harry what she thought of them all. The bounce slowly returned to her as she was now a couple of steps ahead of him. By the time they reached the old school house she was even further ahead of him. Harry couldn't help the eye roll as Mai went on about Takigawa-san and Matsuzaki-san and how they would make the perfect couple, and that they should lock them in a room together so they could do something about it. Mai told him that no mater what happened, it would happen one day.
Mai stopped short and even gave a small whimper as Harry almost ran into her back, "Mai, what's wrong?" he asked as he looked ahead of them as he felt guilt and a small amount of fear coming from her.
Stood at the back of the van, hovering over Kazuya and on crutches was Kazuya's original assistant. Mai's guilt was crashing over Harry's shield and they were threatening to buckle under the pressure. Harry sighed once again, and he knew it was going to be one of those days. He took hold of Mai's hand and practically dragged her to the back of the van.
Kazuya's assistant looked up as soon as he saw them out of the corner of his eye. His dark brown, almost black eyes narrowed in irritation as he caught sight of Mai. Harry let go of her wrist as though it had burned him, and in a way it had. Her guilt had sky rocketed. Not only that, but the feeling of anger and distaste being thrown towards her by the assistant didn't help his shields.
Kazuya frowned as he spotted them and glanced to his watched, "You're both early, why?"
"Well, you see," Harry said in an exasperated tone, "Mai here decided that sleep wasn't needed, so she made the decision that I should be awake as well and make her some breakfast," he said, narrowing his eyes and glaring a little at Mai, a small smile tugging at his lips giving away his slight amusement.
"I can't help it that you're a better cook than I am," Mai argued back, but retuning his smile, "Besides, I was only up because of that stupid experiment that we set up yesterday. My mind kept going around in circles about what it could all be for. So thanks to you Naru," she said as she pointed a shaking finger to her temporary boss, "I didn't get any sleep," she huffed.
Harry could feel the slight amusement from Kazuya at her announcement, and it only grew large at his next statement, "Well, you will have to wait a little longer, everyone else needs to get here first."
"See, I told you that you would have to wait," Harry grinned to mind, not keeping the smile of satisfaction from his face.
Crossing her arms in a huff she stuck her tongue out at him. She then turned her attention to Kazuya's assistant and went over to him a little. All her playfulness had fled as guilt took over once again, "I'm really sorry for getting you hurt. How are you feeling?" she asked as she apologised.
Kazuya's assistant didn't answer her at all. He started at her, not hiding the fact that he disliked her. Mai seemed to be having a mini freak out in her mind, as all she could do was stare back at him in fear and guilt. Harry didn't think the assistant would kill Mai at all, but figure he wouldn't be nice to her either. He grabbed Mai by the shoulders and with a short nod to Kazuya's tall assistant he led her over to a quiet spot to discuss something else with her until everybody showed up.
XxXxX
Thankfully they only had to wait another hour for everybody to show up, but Kazuya didn't let them sit around and do nothing. No he put them to work breaking down the rest of base camp and also making sure Mai stayed out of the way of his other assistant. This left Harry around the stoic man the most, though he didn't seem to mind him as much and even told him his name was Lin Koujo when Harry had introduced himself.
They were just shutting the doors to the van, while Kazuya and Lin were off to the side discussing something, when John showed up, "Good morning everybody," He said before his gaze rested on the new addition with a questioning gaze.
"Good morning John," Mai enthusiastically responded as she walked away from Harry and toward the Priest.
"Good morning," Harry echoed Mai as he followed her at a more relaxed pace.
Kazuya and Lin both gave short nods of their heads before returning to their discussions. John gave a minuet shrug of his shoulders and brought his attention back to Mai and Harry, "Who is that tall man with Kazuya-san?"
"That would be his actual assistant Lin Koujo. As you can see with the crutches, he is hurt, that's actually how Mai and I became Kazuya's temporary assistants," Harry filled in the golden haired Priest.
"Wait you and Mai aren't actually his assistants?" Poor John was a little shocked and confused.
Mai shook her head, "No this is actually the first time we've ever worked with Naru. It is actually my fault Lin-san got hurt in the first place. I also broke one of their cameras so I'm doing this to pay for my mistake."
"Wow," was all John managed to say through his shock.
It was at that point that Matsuzaki-san and Takigawa-san showed up and they had to explain it to them as well. Matsuzaki-san was a little bit more vocal in what she thought about it, but that was to be expected. Takigawa-san shrugged it off and came out with something along the lines of you reap what you sow. Nobody thought once to ask Harry why he was here if it was Mai's fault, but he didn't really mind or care to explain.
Finally Kuroda-san showed up and Naru didn't even give her time to say hello as he ushered everybody to follow him into the building. It wasn't until they made it to the top and all stood in front of the classroom that John, Mai, and he had boarded up that Harry noticed Lin holding a small camcorder.
Takigawa-san was the first to speak up, "So Naru, what are you going to show us today?"
"Shouldn't you give it up now, before you embarrass yourself?" Matsuzaki-san chimed in with a smugness creeping into her voice.
Kazuya ignored all of them as he glanced over the three in front, "Mai, John, Harry could you all confirm that the paper you signed yesterday has not been torn in any manner," gesturing for them to walk forward and take a closer look.
"Sure," Mai answered for all three of them as they moved forward.
After a few minutes of examining it Mai said, "It looks like it did yesterday."
"Same here," John agreed nodding his head.
"Yep," Harry also agreed as he moved back to stand next to Mai.
Giving them a sharp nod Kazuya then pulled out a long crowbar and Harry could feel the excitement radiating from the older teen as he shoved it between the two pieces of plywood and gave it a good yank. With a loud screech and crack the board covering the doorway was ripped away, exposing what was inside.
Mai and John were the first two to approach it and Harry didn't need to see their faces to know they were in shock and awe.
"Shibuya-san! The chair…" John stuttered out, "The chair moved!"
Everyone crowded around and looked inside. Harry was not surprised when he heard Kazuya's nonchalant tone as he said, "Yes, it has."
Kazuya walked over to the laptop that was in the room and began to type away on it as he started to study the video.
"H… Hang on, what does this mean?" Matsuzaki-san spoke, her voice confused as she looked to the young man at the laptop.
"Hey, Naru-chan!" Takigawa-san yelled out, trying to get the young teens attention when he didn't answer straight away.
Kazuya continued to stare at the laptop for a few minutes before he looked up to everyone, "Thank you all for your cooperation. I will be leaving sometime today."
Harry gave a small smiled as he realised that Kazuya and he had been right. He didn't need to know by looking at the laptop, since Kazuya was radiating smugness, though Harry would like to know if it was whom he had thought it was, was doing this.
Matsuzaki-san wasn't satisfied at the answer as she let Kazuya know it went she took a step forwards and said, "You're not saying that you've solved the case again, are you?"
"That's what I'm saying," Kazuya replied staring at her, irritation in his voice and on his face.
From beside Harry, Mai spoke up, "The ground sinking?"
"Yes, I believer that explains everything about the case that the principal hired me for," he nodded as he explained.
"Ha! So how do you explain the disturbance the day before yesterday?" Takigawa-san asked in a toe that said he clearly didn't believe what he was saying at all.
Kazuya didn't miss a beat as he gazed towards Takigawa-san and started, "That was a poltergeist."
"If you know that, then how…" Takigawa-san started to say but was cut off by Matsuzaki-san.
"What else could he do. He's incapable of driving the spirits out, right?" she turned a smirk towards the young teen.
"I do not believe that would be necessary. Would you like to see?" Kazuya said as he turned the laptop around and everyone crowded around it to watch what was playing on the small screen.
The picture started out with the chair sitting in the circle Mai had drawn around it, but after a few seconds it began to shake and scrap across the wooden floor to the wall. It then stopped and lifted up onto one of the back legs and fell over onto its side, before it became still once more.
Everybody that was watching gasped and when it fell over Mai clung to the front of Takigawa-san's shirt in fright. "W-What was that," Mai asked in a shaky voice?
"It was a full-fledged poltergeist, wasn't it?" Takigawa-san told slash asked Mai before looking at Kazuya.
"Humans are to blame for half of the poltergeist phenomena that we see," Kazuya told him while he studied everyone else, but let his gaze linger a little bit longer on Kuroda-san.
Mai had let go of Takigawa-san's shirt by now but Harry could see her thinking, "Do you mean like a prank, but no one could get in here," she trailed off as she continued to try and puzzle her way through this.
"True, we sealed off every entrance to the room. I even had John, Mai, and Harry sign everything so that we could tell if someone had gone in and tampered with anything," Kazuya explained to everyone.
John nodded his head along with what Kazuya said before adding in his bit, "If someone had broken them, they wouldn't have been able to perfectly duplicate our signatures or put the pieces back together to make it look like they were untouched."
"So, this only proves that I have been right and that it is the work of spirits," Kuroda-san's tone was smug as she pointed it out to everybody.
Harry groaned in frustration, but Kazuya was quick to point out what truly happened, "Yesterday when I called you all to the Principal's office I placed a hypnotic suggestion within your minds. It was a suggestion that this chair would move that evening." Everybody had stunned expressions on their faces Harry saw, except for Lin, Kazuya, and him of course. As Takigawa-san came out of his shock and looked to protest what Kazuya said, he wasn't given the chance as Kazuya pinned him with a cold gaze and said, "Using this method has never failed me."
Next out of their shock was Mai, "Yeah, but still, no one was able to get into this room," she argued.
"Harry, why don't you explain, as you came up with this as well as I," Kazuya said as he stepped back.
"Poltergeists can be a form of latent mental powers as well as spirits," he began getting everybody's attention, "It mainly happens from people who have an unconscious craving to be noticed by people. If something stresses that person a self-defence type of mechanism can be triggered, which then leads to the type of activity we have seen in this building before," seeing he hadn't lost anybody yet he continued, "With the hypnotic suggestion that Kazuya did it actually gives the person something specific to focus on and so you get the same results as we did," Harry stopped his gaze on Mai and could tell she had already worked out who was behind all of this.
Apparently Kuroda-san had figured out as well for her soft voice sounded loud in the quiet room, "So you're saying I'm the one who did it?"
There was really no blame in Kazuya's tone as he spoke to the young teen, "From the moment I met you I knew you were trying to get my attention. For example, you said there were spirits here from the war, but when I did my research there were no stories about this area being bombed or it being a hospital during the war or at any other point in history. That meant you were either mistaken or intentionally lying." Kuroda acted like she was going to protest, but Kazuya carried on, "I thought you were just pretending to be spiritually sensitive, so when things started happening that could only be considered poltergeist activity I began to believe. Granted once I examined the data from my equipment and got nothing back I began to doubt. Then Miss Hara showed up and said nothing was here, it pushed me further away from believing it was spirits and maybe something else."
Harry noticed Kazuya now gazing at him, so he went on for him, "That meant it had to be human. Any time you were confronted about there being no spirits or an exorcism being successful something would happen to prove us wrong. Activity like that is often caused by children in their early teens, mostly girls. It's a form of Psycho Kinesis that can come about during periods of great stress."
With Harry stopping Kazuya once again took up the explanation, "You were known through middle school as being spiritually sensitive, but once I came here and proved that the evil spirits you talked about didn't exist and it was all due to ground subsidence you would have nothing. You ended up losing faith in your physic abilities, which caused you great anxiety and so you told yourself it wasn't true that there really were spirits here and I knew nothing of what I was talking about. You couldn't face the truth."
At that point Kuroda started to cry and Harry was shocked it was Takigawa-san that went to comfort the poor girl, "You had no idea you were doing it?"
"I believe that you are a latent psychic," Kazuya stated and Harry nodded his head in agreement.
Mai gave them a puzzled look, "And that means?"
"Someone who has supernatural abilities. She is not aware of it, but she had some low level PK. For you Mai, PK stands for psycho kinesis," Kazuya said with a smirk on his thin pale pink lips.
"Why thank you, I couldn't live without knowing," Mai retorted sarcastically.
Kazuya ignored Mai's sarcastic comment and brought his attention back to Kuroda-san, but Harry could tell he was very amused, "You believed that there had to be some spirits in the old school house for you to gain the attention of those around you. This made you feel like somebody important and gave you an identity, but you already had that without it," Harry was shocked by the softness in Kazuya's voice and the feelings that he was getting.
"I can understand a little of how that would feel," Mai chipped in quietly, "It's natural that everyone wants to think that they are special in some way. A desire to stand out from the crowd and be unique as a person. It could be a simple talent or recognised as an honest and kind human being," meeting Kuroda's brown eyes, she gave her a smile, "In your case Kuroda, it would have been your spiritual abilities."
The other girl just nodded and returned the smile. Harry was sure she was afraid of talking, as she was still wiping away her tears. There was nothing else that Harry felt he could add to make the young teen feel better, that and he was still a little annoyed at her for the last couple of days.
Glancing at Kazuya he noticed him looking at everybody with a self-satisfied smirk on his face before asking, "Does that explanation satisfy everybody?"
"Not quiet, her stress was increased when you gave her your explanation, but that was not the case when I became locked in that room or the video being erased?" Matsuzaki-san had by this point walked to the front of the group with her hands on her hips, waiting for an explanation.
Harry tried to smoother the grin that wanted to take over his face, but couldn't so he just turned his head away. It didn't help matters that he could feel Kazuya's own amusement along with his, "You being shut in the room was because of a nail jamming the door shut." When Kazuya shrugged his shoulders Harry couldn't help the snort of laughter that came out, "I didn't think it was worth mentioning at the time."
Matsuzaki-san's anger was growing, but it only made Harry want to laugh more, "So someone trapped me in that room?" she whirled around and pointed a finger angrily in Kuroda-san's direction, "It was you!"
"You just meant it as a little prank, to get back at what Matsuzaki-san had said to you, since she had just verbally attacked you moments before?" Kazuya asked and was confirmed when Kuroda nodded her head.
"What about the video then?" Matsuzaki-san grumbled at being fooled.
"That was intentionally erased when you became trapped," at her puzzled look Kazuya gave a sigh of aggravation, "We all left the base to help you, there was plenty of time for someone to come in and erase the tape without being seen."
"Ridiculous," she muttered under her breathe as she looked away from them.
Takigawa-san came into the conversation as he smiled at the irritated Priestess, "So what do we do?" meeting Kazuya's navy blue eyes he continued, "The principal hired us to make sure that this place was ready for construction."
"I plan to report to the principal that the old school house was haunted by those that died in the war, they have all been exorcised and it is now clean of any paranormal activity," peering at Kuroda he asked, "Is that okay with you?"
"Yeah," she quietly answered while ducking her head down and a faint blush across her cheeks.
Hara-san stepped past the girl with her kimono sleeve covering the lower half of her face as she faced Kazuya, "That is very kind of you Naru, but will you really lie to the principal."
"Kuroda is doing a good job of suppressing herself, I don't think it is necessary to embarrass her any further," he stated in a cold manner.
At this point Matsuzaki-san strolled up to Kazuya in what she must have thought was sexy, but Harry thought she looked ridiculous. Leaning up against his right side she hummed into his ear, "Naru I had no idea you were so sensitive, got a girlfriend?"
"I don't understand the question," Kazuya pretended to be innocent as he looked to her, but Harry could feel playfulness rolling off of him.
"Well, I wouldn't mind getting to know you a little better, even if you are a little young," she flirted with him. Harry took a glance over at Mai and had to stop from laughing at the complete astonishment, jealousy, and anger warring on her face.
He did laugh at Kazuya's reply though, "I appreciate you saying so, but I can't. I'm too used to looking at myself in the mirror."
Immediately Matsuzaki-san backed off with her cheeks a rosy colour due to her embarrassment. Trying to cover it up she snipped out, "Who are we going to say performed the exorcism?"
"Everyone worked together. Is everyone okay with that?" Kazuya took a turn at meeting everybody's eyes to see if anybody had a problem.
Each person nodded their agreement when he looked at them and so after he got everybody's okay he came back to Mai and Harry, "Mai, Harry."
They glanced at each other and together said, "We know."
Giving them a smirk he then turned to Lin, "Let's break everything up."
"Right," Lin answered as he shut down the laptop and unplugged it before heading out the door.
Mai and Harry took down the camera and microphone, going down to the van with the others walking behind them and chatting. Harry had the camera and handed it to Lin, who then put it in its place in the van. Mai did the same with the microphone. Harry waited for her and they both waved goodbye to the others as they left before going back in to collect the cords and wires.
When they made it back down with the last of the stuff Kazuya stopped them at the back of the van and asked, "Shouldn't you two be going to class?"
"We were going to help you pack everything up, after all you are still our boss for a little while longer," Mai gave him a big smile after answering his question.
In a deadpan tone Kazuya regarded Mai, "I can handle it, why don't you head to class you don't want to get stupid Mai."
"Ugh, you must really enjoy putting me down, I'm a lot smarter than you take me for," Mai yelled as she snatched her school bag up and stomped off. She was only a little ways before she stopped, whipped around and shouted, "See ya later jerk face!" Turning back around just as fast and running towards the school.
Harry shook his head and gave a sigh of resignation. It had been fun and interesting, just like he thought it would be when he watched a program like it while staying with Mrs Figg one time. Then while he had been at school he found out one of his teachers was a paranormal investigator that went on cases, and had explained a lot to him. That had only cemented it as his dream to do this one-day. Now that he actually got a taste of it, he still wanted to do it. Too bad Kazuya wasn't hiring or he would apply for more than a temporary job.
Shrugging his shoulders he waved goodbye to Kazuya and Lin and headed after Mai. Now he was going to have to put up with a brooding and moody Mai for the rest of the week.
XxXxX
Mai was still brooding a few days later, and Harry couldn't help but shake his head at her each time he got a wave of her brooding emotions. It was the last class of the day when a loud crack rang through the air. The teacher stopped in mid-sentence and all the students were glancing around, trying to figure out where the sound had come from. Another crack sounded through the air, followed by a low rumbling that drew everybody's attention out the classroom windows and toward the old school building. With wide eyes they all watched as the left half of the building cracked and crumbled away from the right half of the building. As the dust settled all the students broke out in urgent whispers and the teacher called an early dismissal as she hurried from the classroom.
Harry and Mai stared at each other with knowing looks before they began to gather their things. Harry was in the middle of putting one of his textbooks in his bag when Keiko and Michiru came over to talk to them. Mai just ignored them as she finished putting her things away.
"You really should have got his number or even his address Mai," Keiko moaned in horror at her friend's forgetfulness.
"Yeah, since he isn't in the phone book," Michiru complained, though the only reason she would know is if she had looked on her own.
Then the secretary's voice came over the school intercom system, "Attention, Taniyama Mai and Potter Harry in room 1-f, you have a telephone call. Please report to the main office."
Curious on who could be calling them Harry shot Mai a confused look, only to be receiving one back. They both stood up at the same time and made their way to the office in befuddled silence. Once there Harry let Mai take the phone, but leaned in against her so that he would hear what was being said.
"Hello?" Mai questioned in a tentative voice.
"Is that you Mai," came the familiar voice of Kazuya.
"Oh, HI!" Mai shouted into the phone making Harry cringe and back away a little bit.
"You don't need to yell," Harry was able to hear Kazuya scold her, making him chuckle slightly at the red tint to Mai's cheeks.
Mai sent Harry a glare, but returned her attention back to the phone, "So, what are you calling about?"
"Your and Harry's fee's," came his monotone reply.
"What?" Mai sent Harry a questioning look, but he shrugged his shoulders in an 'I don't know either' gesture.
"Your payment for assisting me," Kazuya clarified for both of them, "If you don't want it fine, but I will send it to you within the week," he paused for a second before adding, "I'm curious if your school will allow you to have a job? I have a position for you, it's just office work."
If possible Mai's smile light up the hallway they were standing in like the sun as she answered in a bright voice, "Sure, that sounds great."
"Great, come down to my office after school, it's in Shibuya, off Dogenzaka," Kazuya told her and as Mai got a pen and pencil to write it down Harry heard him ask her, "Could you put Harry on?"
"Sure, and I'll see you there," she chirped as she handed the phone to him and began to write.
Harry put the phone up to his ear, "Hello Kazuya."
"Ah Harry, I was most impressed with the way you handled things during the investigation. I was wondering if you would like to work with me. I have already asked Mai and she will be doing office work, though she will come along on cases. I would like you to come in as a trainee investigator, as you seem to have some knowledge and a knack for it," Kazuya explained without even a hello back.
If possible Harry was sure his eyes would be as wide as saucers and he could feel his cheek muscles protesting from being stretched so far as he eagerly answered Kazuya, "Yeah that would be great."
"Good, come with Mai when she comes after school as she already has the address. I look forward to working with you both, goodbye." Kazuya hung up the phone before Harry could even say anything.
Setting down the phone, they then asked the secretary if it was okay that they would have a part time job. She told them it was and the rules that went with having one. They would be allowed to miss school for their job as long as they kept their grades on a B average, which wouldn't be hard for either of them, because even though Kazuya called Mai stupid she was far from it and had an A average most of the time. Same thing went with Harry, though that wasn't including his magic homework. Signing some forms and getting permission they said their goodbyes to the receptionist then began the walk back to their classroom to grab their stuff and head to Kazuya's office.
Mai was so excited she was bouncing down the hallway a little ahead of Harry, "I can't believe that I will be working for Naru the Narcissist again," looking over her shoulder at Harry, "but you know it should be fun."
Giving her a huge smile Harry agreed, "Yeah especially with your clumsy butt around."
"Hey," Mai gave a shriek and stopped long enough for him to catch up and smack his shoulder, "I am not that bad to have around."
"No Mai you aren't," Harry said slinging an arm around her shoulders, "but it will be interesting that is for sure."
Mai nodded her head in agreement as they reached their classroom. To say their friends were happy for them was an understatement and they barely made it out of their without having to answer a thousand and one questions. They also were able to get away without letting them know where they were going.
It was about a ten-minute walk to the Shibuya office after getting off the train. Mai and Harry filled it with mindless chatter about the new job and what it all entailed. When they got there Lin and Kazuya first showed Mai what she would be doing and then took Harry with them to get him up to date on things he needed to know about the equipment and other odds and ends. Needless to say by the time Harry got back to his house there was a big grin on his face and he felt lighter than he had in years.
He was finally getting his dream job and he knew Lin and Kazuya would be able to teach him a lot in and out of the field. He also felt like he belonged at the office and with those he worked with, it was even more than when he started at Hogwarts. He couldn't wait until tomorrow when he would finally get to go back to Shibuya Psychic Research.
Thank you all for the reviews, you guys are the best around! I am so sorry for taking so long. I do hope you have enjoyed it so far.