Thank you all so much for reading and reviewing "Where is home?"
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
I've been reading some of the reviews and-Ooh! Sho has a fan!
Here's this week's chapter. I was planning to upload this next week but I figured I still have some time so, here it is.
Do tell me what you think about it!
Mai walked into the room frowning.
Naru was still in the table, jotting down notes. Sho sat in front of him, nodding. Takigawa was sitting on a small book shelf – a thermos in hand.
"There it is!" Mai gasped, pointing at the thermos in Takigawa's hand.
"Yeah, sorry," Takigawa said smiling and scratching his head. "I thought it was back in the van!"
Mai snorted and walked to him, grabbing the thermos from his hand. She proceeded to a corner of the room where the tea cups and tea bags sat on a table.
"These students, Maeda Yuuta, Kondo Akira, Nodaru Tomiko and Kouki Ichi," Mai heard Naru say. "They've graduated..?"
"No," Sho answered. He sounded…bothered.
Mai looked up to see him. She was worried about how the interview had affected him.
Sho seemed focused on remembering something…probably about what Naru was asking him.
"They more like…moved to another place," Sho said, looking up at him.
"All of them?" Naru asked.
Sho nodded. "They were friends from kindergarten, I think," he answered. "They were always together.
"Do you know of any member of this… parapsychology club?"
"Parapsychology club..?" Mai asked.
"Yeah," Sho said smiling at him. "I told him about the parapsychology club."
"You know about this club?" Naru asked her.
"Yeah, I've seen them having a meeting in one of the rooms," Mai answered.
Naru frowned. "And you didn't tell me about this."
Mai swallowed – the glare of his icy blue eyes making her cringe. "Ah…I-"
Naru turned to Sho. "So you know some of its members?"
"I do," Sho answered. "But I'm not sure if I can convince them to talk to you. They're pretty…weird…for psychology students."
"How weird..?" Takigawa asked, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Well," Sho said looking at Takigawa. "They keep to themselves a lot. I thought that perhaps it was because they were smart. They're great academic achievers, you see."
Takigawa and Mai snickered. Apparently, Naru wasn't the only snobbish braniac in the world.
Naru ignored them.
"…By keeping to themselves, you mean..?" Naru urged.
"They don't talk to others that much," Sho answered, looking at Naru. "They don't even bother with voluntary class recitations. They top any written exam and ace any project."
"Wow," Takigawa said. "Geeky!"
Mai snickered. "Careful, Bou-san," she said. "They're not the only geeks in the world."
Naru looked down at his notebook, scribbling down more notes. "Where is my tea?"
Mai stiffened and quickly went back to preparing his tea.
Takigawa burst into laughter.
"So they stay away from people?" Naru asked Sho.
"Yes," Sho answered. "They sometimes even stare at people around them like…everyone else around them are…inferior."
"Do they also have that icy glare in their eyes?" Takigawa asked.
"Takigawa-san," Naru muttered. "Surely your middle-aged brain can come up with a more relevant question."
Takigawa frowned and glared at Naru.
Sho's jaw dropped. He was sure Naru was younger than Takigawa. But he had the guts to wave Takigawa off like that!
"So they just don't talk to you," Takigawa said.
"That's right," Sho said. "They just talk to members of their club. I had friends who joined the club before. They were members of the club when Maeda-san was still its president."
"When did they leave?" Naru asked, looking at Sho.
"Around five months ago," Sho said. "They said it's…all…gotten out of hand. I'm not sure what they meant by that though."
"Did they tell you what they do in the club?" Naru asked.
"Some of them, yes," Sho answered. "They said they had regular group study activities…And they have this one meeting where each member presents something cool about parapsychology – ghost stuff usually."
"Had any of them tried doing some ritual?" Takigawa asked – his face suddenly serious.
Sho shrugged his shoulders. "They said they tried a lot of things – some of them in other languages. There were even times when they tried drugs to reach some point of…clarity..?"
"Eh? They use drugs?" Mai asked, placing two cups of tea on the table – one for Naru and the other for Sho. Sho bowed in thanks and sipped the tea. She then gave another cup to Takigawa.
"They use it outside school premises," Sho said. "And they said they don't do it regularly. Like one time, my friend said they used some disgusting stuff used in Africa or somewhere…And they didn't do it again because it didn't exactly taste good."
"It felt good though, for them," Takigawa said before sipping his tea. Mai sat beside him, listening to Sho.
"They said it was like they were dreaming," Sho answered. "And it felt too scary to experience again."
Naru stared at his notes, eyes slightly wider. "Who usually introduces the best…tricks?"
"Maeda-san, I guess," Sho said. "My friend said it was one reason why they chose Maeda-san to be the club president – he knew so much about parapsychology, it was like he was their guru."
Naru nodded and looked up at him. "Can you ask them to come here for a brief interview?"
"Yeah, they're still here in campus," Sho answered. "I can tell them about it right away."
"That's good," Naru said. "And these club members, is there a place here in campus where they usually stay in?"
"Um…That tree in the grove in front of the psychology building," Sho answered.
Naru nodded. "Thank you," he said. He then looked up at Takigawa. "Any more questions you'd like to ask?"
"Yeah," Takigawa answered. "You never thought about joining the club?"
Sho smiled. "I did, actually," he said. "But they changed their rules and, well…let's just say it crushed my chances of joining the club."
Takigawa raised a brow at him.
"It's invitational," Mai said.
Takigawa looked at Mai. Naru glanced at her.
"They choose people who would join their club," Mai said. "They lost the university's recognition because of that. They're more of an underground club now."
Takigawa looked at Naru. He noticed how his blue eyes suddenly strayed at nowhere.
Sho was drinking the rest of his tea when Naru spoke. "Did you get an invitation?" he asked Mai.
Sho and Takigawa raised a brow at Naru.
"Yes," Mai innocently answered.
"You what?!" Sho gasped. "When?!"
Takigawa's jaw dropped.
Mai shyly looked at Sho. "That was before I met you – around the first day of school," she said. "A girl approached me and asked me how her hair was. Then she pointed to a group of students paces away from us, and told me they want me to be their friend but they wanted me to do something first."
Takigawa frowned. "And you weren't tempted to join them?"
Mai turned to Takigawa. "I didn't know they were the parapsychology club until I heard my classmates telling me about them," she said. "And I don't like people who befriend you just because you can do something they like."
Naru sighed, looking somewhat relieved.
"You could have at least told me about it," Sho said. "I was really curious about that girl who hands the club's inivitation."
"You mean they assign a specific student distribute the invitation?" Takigawa asked. "Is she cute or something?"
Mai glared at him. "Stop that, Bou-san! You sound like a pervert!"
Takigawa shrugged. "I was just asking."
"That's what they say," Sho answered. "She's cute. But you won't see her anywhere else in campus. You won't even know her name unless you're part of the club."
"So you'll only see this girl when you're part of the club?" Naru asked.
"Yup," Sho answered.
Takigawa turned to Mai. "Well, what did she look like?"
"Long curly brown hair," Mai answered. "She's slightly shorter than Masako. She has very pale skin, and she has round green eyes. I thought she was an exchange student of sorts."
"Really..?" Sho asked, puzzled. "A friend of mine who got an invite said she looked like that hell girl character – Enma Ai?"
"Enma who..?" Takigawa asked.
"Enma Ai," Mai answered. "She has long straight hair, red round eyes and pale skin. She's supposed to be a demon that makes deals with people in exchange for their soul."
Takigawa groaned, frowning. "Geez," he muttered. "Even animes promote demons!"
Mai sighed. "That's not what it does, Bou-san."
"You said only one girl is assigned to hand out the invitations," Naru said.
Mai and Takigawa looked at Sho. Sho nodded. "That's what I heard."
"Then how come the girl Mai saw seemed like a Caucasian?" Takigawa asked.
"I don't know," Sho said shrugging his shoulders.
"That would be all for today," Naru said, standing up.
Sho stood up as well.
Takigawa and Mai stared confused at Naru.
"Thank you, Onishi-san" Naru said reaching his hand out. "Please tell your friends to visit us for a brief interview."
"Sure," Sho said, shaking Naru's hand. "No problem. Just tell me what you need."
"I'll walk with him to the hallway," Mai said prancing to Sho's side.
Naru only sat back down.
Takigawa watched Mai and Sho walk out of the room. He then took his seat beside Naru. "You think those kids summoned that shadow man?"
"I hope they didn't," Naru answered, tapping his pen on the exposed page of his notebook.
"They didn't intimidate you, did they?" Mai asked Sho as they walked down the hallway.
"Oh no," Sho said shyly. "…Not at all." They just asked him questions after all…a lot about the case… a little about…well… not about the case. Was he intimidated? Sure! …But not because of the interview. "So you received an invite and you didn't tell me?"
Mai sighed. "I didn't think it was important," she said. "A lot of people don't like that club."
"That's true," Sho answered. "Still, you didn't really think it was a good clique?"
"Nope," she said. "If anything, it gave me the creeps."
Sho nodded. "Hey," he said. "Do you think your boss is blaming that club for the shadow people in the old building?"
Mai smiled. "Naru is anything but someone who jumps to conclusions," she said. "He's very meticulous with his work. Heck! He's even meticulous about his things!"
Sho smirked. "You really know a lot about him."
Mai's cheeks flushed. "Yeah…I guess," she said. "We were friends after all."
"So what happened?" Sho asked. "…If it's not too much to ask of course."
Mai sighed. "I left," she answered quietly.
"Oh," he said. "It…didn't work out..?"
"No," Mai said, chuckling and looking out at the window. "I was being stupid."
Sho frowned. "…Because it didn't work..?"
Mai laughed. "No, no," she said. "It was working great, I just…I thought it was wrong."
Sho raised his brows at Mai. "Wrong..?"
Mai shrugged her shoulders, sighing. "Have you ever had that friend who's…just so good for you? That sometimes you wonder what in the world you did to deserve having that friend in your life?"
Sho smirked. "I have," he said. "I'm actually talking to her now."
Mai frowned. "Very funny, Sho-kun."
Sho chuckled. "I'm serious! I'm still amazed that I'm actually friends with you," he said. "I bet, Naru's as puzzled about having you as I am."
Mai burst into laughter. "Naru doesn't wonder about things like that," she said. "For him, he deserves to have everything and anything in the world."
Sho snickered. "Maybe," he said. "Or maybe that's what he wants you to think…so you won't think twice."
"What did you say?" Mai asked.
"Nothing," Sho said. "Naru is scary. I still can't shake off that glare of his."
Mai chuckled. "I know!"
Mai trotted back to the room in time to see Naru walking out the door.
"Naru!" she greeted. "You need to go somewhere?"
"Where is the psychology building?" he asked.
"Um...The third building from this one," Mai said. "Why? Are you planning to meet with the parapsychology club?"
"Can you show me where they stay there?"
"I can," Mai said nodding at him. "I'll go with you."
They reached the building in silence. Mai watched Naru anxiously, seeing how deep his thoughts were running in his blue eyes.
"Naru," Mai began. "What do you want to do?"
"Isn't it obvious?" Naru asked. "Where are they?" he said, stopping to stare at the grove in front of the psychology building.
Mai looked at the tree shades and saw several groups of students chatting with their peers. One group however was staring coldly at them.
Mai swallowed, chills running up her spine. Why didn't she feel that creeped out about the group before?
"Go back to the room," Naru said, walking toward the odd group of students. "Help Takigawa-san with the interviews."
Mai frowned. "No way! I'm coming with you!"
Naru turned and glared at her.
Mai glared back at him.
After a moment of glaring at each other, Naru turned away and sighed. He walked to the group and Mai walked quickly to catch up with him.
When they were only a few paces from the group, Naru spoke to her.
"Do you see her?" Naru asked.
"Who?"
"...The girl who invited you to the club."
Mai looked at the group and scanned their faces. "No, I don't. She's probably in a class or something. She looked like a typical freshman. I mean fresh out of high school. And almost half of the freshman community have class schedules at this hour. The rest, like me, will have a similar schedule tomorrow."
Naru didn't respond. He just continued to walk toward the group.
When they reached the tree, he stopped to stand just a few steps away from the students. The group was apparently sitting in a circle on the concrete bench under the tree. Their dead eyes looked blankly at him.
Mai couldn't help but cringe. But she kept her place beside Naru.
Naru took a step forward.
Mai followed, but his left hand quickly gripped her hand. He gave it a squeeze.
She looked up at him, confused. Her heart was doing summersaults, but she wasn't sure if it was because of the intimate gesture, or the scary tension looming over their heads.
"Hello," Naru said – his professional smile on his face. "My sincere apologies for the intrusion. Are you the parapsychology club?"
"Why do you want to know?" asked one of them – a girl who looked like she was on her fourth year in the university.
Mai noticed how hollow and zombie-like they appeared. She inched closer to Naru.
He didn't seem to mind the contact. He even pressed his back against her, as if he was shielding her from an enemy.
"I'm a paranormal investigator," he answered. "My team was hired to conduct an investigation in the old building. I presume you've heard about it."
One of them gave an eerie smirk. The others, five of them – two boys and three girls, just stared with their blank eyes. One of them, the shortest, looked familiar...
It somehow reminded her of the conversation they had with Sho about the student in charge of handing out invitations in the parapsychology club.
Mai's eyes went wide. The shortest one looked like Emma Ai! She didn't have the pair of red eyes though. Hers were just deep and black. She must be in charge of the invitations!
"We have," said the girl who answered Naru. "Why are you here?"
"I heard about your club, and decided to consult you on the matter," he said. "I've been part of a similar group in my school, and we usually conducted investigations on odd activities in our campus. I figured you've done some investigations on the old building before we arrived."
"You're a professional though, aren't you?" asked another student in the group – a short-haired girl. She was glaring at Naru.
"And we started out like all of you," Naru said coolly. "...Unless of course, you were too scared of the old building to investigate on those haunting rumors."
The smirking girl in the group burst into laughter. "You're very sly, doctor," she said. "I like you. We checked the building out. There's nothing there."
"When did you go there?" Naru asked.
"A few months ago," the girl said. "We would have taken your girlfriend over there if she wasn't such a scaredy cat."
Mai gasped – fear gripping her insides, making her cringe. They remembered her!
She felt Naru's grip tighten slightly, reminding her to stay calm. He must have sensed the tremble in her hand.
"How did you conduct your investigation?" Naru asked, ignoring the girl's comment about Mai.
"The usual," answered the girl proudly. "EMF, Infrared, historical research, interviews – nothing. Does your famous medium say there's something there?"
Mai stared confused at the dead-eyed students. They seem to know a lot about the investigation they were conducting in the old building. As far as she knew though, the head master only informed the students about Naru's involvement – not Masako's or anyone else's.
"Have you been to the building lately?" Naru asked.
"We only go there for initiations," the girl answered.
"You have initiations?" Mai asked without thinking.
The girl smiled widely at Mai. "Of course," she said. "We had to make sure our members were worth the membership. You would have passed it with flying colors."
Mai frowned and clenched her fists from trembling. Naru's hold softened.
"When was your last initiation ceremony?" Naru asked.
The girl smiled at him. "We can do one tonight," she said. "You look like a good candidate, doctor."
Mai glared at the girl, feeling her vocal cords stretch to release a threat.
"Thank you," Naru said calmly, smiling back at her. "I'll take that as a compliment. One last question – Maeda Yuuta. Do you know him?"
The girl's face contorted into a scowl. "He's a traitor," she hissed.
"I heard he was your club president at one point," Naru said.
"We kicked him out," the girl said. "He didn't deserve the membership."
Mai looked confused at the girl. "How did he not deserve his membership?"
The girl looked at Mai and for a moment she felt like the girl was staring at her insides. "He betrayed us," she said. "He betrayed our cause."
"What is your cause?" Naru asked.
The girl smiled eerily at Naru. "To prove our field exists."
"What..?" Mai asked, puzzled at the statement.
"Would there be anymore questions?" the girl said. "We're studying for an exam."
Mai frowned. There weren't any books on their laps. There weren't even papers or open notebooks! They were just sitting there – in a small circle, staring at her and Naru!
"That would be all," Naru answered. "Thank you. Would you mind giving me your names? It's just so I can ask for you in case we need your assistance."
The girl chuckled. "You know where to find it," she said. "…And where to find us."
The students in the group then turned their heads away from Naru and Mai, as if they suddenly thought they were too filthy to look at.
Mai swallowed, slightly shaking from the conversation.
Her head was swimming in mid air. Everything suddenly felt too headaching and confusing to understand.
"Let's head back," Naru said, pulling Mai away from the place – his hand still holding Mai's.
They were walking down the pathway between buildings when Mai realized there was one particular thing in the conversation that made it very odd for her.
"Naru," she said. "You introduce yourself as Shibuya Kazuya, president of SPR, right?"
"Yes," Naru answered, not sparing her a glance.
Mai looked puzzled at the path. "Back there…they called you…'doctor,'" she said.
Naru glanced at her.
Mai looked up at him. "We didn't introduce ourselves to them too, right?"
Naru stopped walking. "How many students were you seeing in the group?"
Mai raised her brows at Naru. "Six," she answered.
"One of them was a long haired girl, smaller than the others," Naru said.
"Yeah," Mai answered. "I thought she was a freshman, but I guess she isn't since she doesn't take the basic freshman course scheduled at this hour. Unless of course she's in my class, but I swear I haven't seen her before and-"
Naru sighed and looked away. "Don't ever go back there without me," he said.
"W-What..?"
Naru glared at her, squeezing her hand.
It was then that she realized how her hand was still locked with his. She froze – blood rushing to her cheeks.
Naru took both her hands in his, squeezed them, and pulled her close to him – her face a breath away from him. "You won't talk to any of them," he said. "…Without me. You won't go back there on your own, or with anyone else, unless you're with me. Promise me that."
Mai just blinked at him, feeling her heart thumping fast and hard against her chest at the distance between them. She could feel her cheeks burning.
If she leaned forward a little, she would be kissing-
"Promise me," Naru hissed.
"Ah-I p-promise," Mai breathed. "I promise."
Naru sighed and released her. He turned away and continued to walk away.
Mai sighed. She should have taken that step and kissed him senseless! But what if he pushed her away? What if he preferred kissing that famous medium?
"Mai," she heard him call a few steps away from her.
She stiffly looked up.
"Are you just going to stand there?"
"N-no! I'm coming with you," she said, running to catch up with him.
There was a group of male students in the interview room when Naru and Mai walked in. Apparently, Sho sent them all a message about the interview the moment he stepped out of the room.
His friends were more than willing to share what they knew about the peculiar club. And Takigawa, manning the room, conducted the interview. He casually sat across the boys as if he was chatting with his bandmates.
"Ah, you must be Mai-chan!" said one of them – a tall one with spiky hair. "Sho hadn't introduced us to you. He's still probably thinking of making your relationship official before he did so."
The three other students in the room thumped his head, hissing at him to stop making fun of Sho and Mai.
Mai stiffly smiled at them, feeling uncomfortable on the topic of their bickering. After all, Naru, her somewhat former boyfriend, was in the room with them.
"I'm Shibuya Kazuya," he introduced calmly. "And you've met my assistant, Mai. Onishi-san said you've been part of the parapsychology club."
"Oh yeah," the man said. "Takigawa-san's been asking us about it."
Naru nodded. "Mind if I join in?"
"Not at all!" he said, smiling at him. "We were just getting to the good part!"
Naru took a seat beside Takigawa and raised a brow at him. Takigawa smiled at him and handed him his notes.
"Would you like some tea?" Mai asked the students.
"Sure! We heard you're good at making tea."
Mai shrugged her shoulders. "Don't believe everything Sho-kun tells you," she said smiling. "He exaggerates a lot."
"We agree with you there!"
Mai chuckled and went on with preparing the tea. She couldn't imagine those boys being part of the parapsychology club – sitting in a circle under a tree with dead...vacant eyes and bone-chilling smiles on their faces. They were just too jolly and cheerful to be part of the group.
She suddenly remembered what that girl in the club said about their initiation – that they make sure their members were worthy of being part of their group... That they do it in the old building...
Did they measure someone's worth based on bubbliness? Was that why they kicked Maeda Yuuta out? He was just too jolly and cheerful to act as odd as them?
But the girl also mentioned something about the cause of their club...prove their field existed... What was that supposed to mean?
"So you all joined the club a year ago," she heard Naru say.
"Yup," the one with the spiky hair whose name turned out to be Wataru, said. "We liked reading ghost stories back in high school, you see. We enjoyed reading about urban legends and rituals too. At one point, we even wanted to study parapsychology. But it wasn't readily available here as a degree. And we didn't have that much money to get ourselves a degree outside the country. Heck! We don't even have passports!"
The other students laughed in agreement.
Mai poured tea over several ceramic cups in the make-shift kitchen.
That was true. She wanted to study parapsychology in the university, but the closest course available there was psychology.
"So how was the club when you first became its members?" Naru asked.
Silence suddenly filled the room.
Mai turned to glance at them. The students' jolly expressions were replaced with grim ones.
"Far different than what it is now," Tamotsu, the plump one in the group answered. "We've been telling Takigawa-san about it. The club was just like any academic organization. Only, of course, they discussed paranormal stuff. A lot of people looked down on them. But almost everyone just didn't care. I guess they also enjoyed the creepy stuff they do at some extent."
Mai served the tea, handing each interviewee a cup. She also gave Takigawa and Naru their own cups of tea. She then took a seat next to Naru.
"And these people who don't like the club," Naru said.
"If you're asking about people who overtly ridicule the organization," Wataru said, smirking. "There aren't any. They just think it's pointless to bully a club that already had a bullied reputation to begin with."
"So there was no form of attacks on the club?"
"Nope," Rouki, the long-haired one in the group answered. "...None that we know of, at least. The club's been totally peaceful and fun until around six months ago."
Mai frowned.
Six months...
She glanced at Takigawa and Naru. Naru had his professional face on. Takigawa's face on the other hand seemed serious and grim.
"What happened six months ago?" Naru asked.
"Maeda Yuuta was still the club president then," Wataru answered. "We did lots of stuff in the club and a lot of them were his idea. He was proclaimed president of the club for two-straight years. And he's been introducing great stuff to the club since he became a member of the club."
"What kinds of stuff are you talking about?" Mai asked interested at what the club did. She had an idea about what math clubs and science clubs did, but not parapsychology clubs. And she wondered if what Naru said earlier was correct – that they conduct paranormal investigations of their own.
"We have this workshop every month," Masao, the skinny one in the group wearing glasses said, looking at her. "We discuss about parapsychology – what it really is, how it's used, it's relevance in life... We don't always say that ghost stories are real, you see. A lot of them are just exaggerated accounts. Well, you know that don't you? ...Since you're professionals."
Mai smiled. "...Shibuya-san and Bou-san here are, yes. I'm just crashing the party. So you do investigations?"
"No," Rouki answered. "We discuss already resolved cases. We first guess if a paranormal activity is real or not, without knowing what the professionals said about them. Usually, they are ghosts caught on video or photographs. We discuss why it could be real and why it couldn't be real. Then we do the fun part – we replicate those ghostly images on the video and photographs."
"We learned a lot about photo editing and special effects in those sessions," Masao said. "At the end of the session, we would always joke about someday becoming special effects artists with what we've learned!"
"Then Maeda-sempai learned he had a deceased twin," Wataru said. "Maeda was adopted by his aunt and uncle. They were good parents to him. They're very friendly too."
"Oba-san was very supportive of Maeda-sempai," Tamotsu said, smiling at the memory of the old woman. "She even made rice balls and tempura for all of us when we went to their house for a workshop! She's an awesome cook!"
"The deceased twin," Naru prompted.
"Ah, Maeda-sempai turned out to have a twin who stayed with his biological parents," Wataru said. "He didn't know he existed until they received a letter that his twin died of an illness. We don't know much about their family issues."
Naru nodded. "Maeda-san was depressed?"
"Totally!" Tamotsu exclaimed. "He stared at nowhere a lot, and froze up whenever he saw a reflection of himself. I heard he wanted to have a brother for a while. So when he learned that he really did have one, and he didn't even get to meet him, he cracked."
"He seemed to recover a couple of weeks later," Rouki said. "He started to make some changes in the workshop – the topics, I mean. We started discussing about various beliefs and mystic phenomena. It was pretty cool at first. One time, we even used a set of mystic scripts to write secret messages!"
"What kind of scripts?" Takigawa asked, brows furrowing with curiosity.
"Different kinds," Masao answered. "One time, we used Sanskrit. At one point, we used Latin. Then we used the Celestial Alphabet."
"Celestial Alphabet..?" Mai asked.
"The letters used by Angel-san," Tamotsu explained.
Takigawa frowned. "What on earth are you kids doing?" he muttered. "Do you still have some of those notes written in Sanskrit?"
"I do," Tamotsu said, fishing out something from his wallet. "I keep a lot of those notes we used in the club for old time's sake."
"And for other things," Rouki said, smirking.
"Yeah," Tamotsu said shyly, scratching his head as he handed a piece of paper to Takigawa.
Mai stood up and walked to stand behind Takigawa, curiously looking at the piece of paper. She frowned at the sight of the scribbles. It looked more like an abstract drawing made of curls than a note.
Takigawa on the other hand stiffened at the sight of the scribbles. "Do you know what this means?" he asked in a low voice.
Mai stared surprised at Takigawa. He was pissed.
"I-It's a mantra for controlling an enemy," Tamotsu answered, feeling the anger in Takigawa's tone. "You say it ten thousand times, replacing 'amuk' with the name of who you want to control."
Takigawa looked up and glared at each of the students. "Had any one of you tried this trick before?" he asked.
"N-no," Masao answered. "Besides, it needs a lot of spiritual energy and concentration to make that mantra work. We're not that angry about anyone in particular."
Takigawa crumpled the paper. "What other mantras are you keeping?"
"Not much," Wataru answered. "...Just the ones for protection... Not that we actually use them."
"So you use them as amulets," Naru said.
"Well," Tamotsu said. "We use other things as amulets."
"Like what?" Takigawa asked.
"Like this," Wataru said, pulling out something from his pocket – another piece of paper.
Naru took the paper and examined it. Mai looked over his shoulder.
Unlike the paper from Tamotsu, the paper in Naru's hand bore what seemed like...a geometric logo of sorts. There were lines and circles, and if Mai didn't know better, she would have thought it was a blueprint of a circuit board.
"What's that?" Takigawa asked, looking at the paper in Naru's hand.
"A sigil," Naru answered.
"Sigil..?" Mai asked.
Naru looked up at them. "Have any of you used this before?"
"Like in a ritual?" Tamotsu asked.
"No," Masao answered. "We're too scared to even try. Angels are pretty scary."
"Wait! What are you all talking about?" Mai asked, frowning at Naru.
"Sigils are symbols used in magic," Naru said, offering the paper to Mai. "This is one of them."
Mai took the paper and closely examined it. "So...you pray on it?"
"Something like that," Masao answered. "You do a ritual with it. You can wish for things using that paper. Well…depending on the name you wrote on the paper."
"So…This symbol here is supposed to be a name?" Takigawa asked.
The four interviewees nodded.
"You can also, supposedly, summon things," Naru said looking at the group.
"Oh!" Mai exclaimed, catching up with the conversation. "
"This however is from a Western belief."
"Yup," Wataru said, nodding. "That's how in depth our workshops became."
"...To the point that you're studying cults and conjuring magic?" Takigawa asked, shocked.
"We didn't exactly know parapsychologists didn't necessarily need to know how to use those until we were out of the club, okay?" Wataru defended.
Takigawa sighed in frustration. He rubbed his face a couple of times before looking at the group again.
"Did you also drink special concoctions?" Naru asked.
"Not so much," Wataru answered. "When Maeda-sempai told us we had to drink a bowl of mystery drink to experience astral projection or out of body experience, me and my pals here, called it quits."
"We didn't want to die," Tamotsu said. "Or get expelled for taking drugs."
Mai's jaw dropped.
To think that there was a club in the university that did such things was just...well...unthinkable!
"The school doesn't know this?" Mai asked.
"This is the first time we're actually sharing this to someone else," Wataru said. "The club is very strict. And with all the things it already knows, we're not sure anymore about what harm it can do to us if we spilled those information out to just about everyone."
Silence filled the room.
"So why are you sharing this to us now?" Takigawa asked, his arms crossed over his chest.
"Well, one, you're professionals," Masao answered. "Or we were hoping you were professional enough to know what we're talking about and not call us disturbed college kids."
"And two," Wataru continued. "We want all of this to stop. We see our friends in the club everyday but they don't see us. And they look more horrible everyday. We want whatever it is they are doing to stop."
"If they are reported to the school authorieties," Mai began.
"They're not scared of being expelled," Naru cut her off.
Mai looked surprised at her.
"I bet they're not even scared of anyone in authority now," Naru continued – his blue eyes on Wataru.
"You got that right," Wataru said in a low voice.
Suddenly, everyone in the room was serious.
"What happened to Maeda-san?" Naru asked.
"He moved out of Shibuya with his family," Masao answered. "Days after we heard he was kicked out of the club - after Kondo Akira, Nodaru Tomiko and Kouki Ichi went away. The club had been trimming down its numbers that time, and he was the last one who was evicted from the club."
"Do you have any idea why he was kicked out of the club?" Takigawa asked.
"Definitely not because of what he introduced to the club," Rouki said, smirking. "That's for sure."
"Whatever else he'd shared in the club after we left is still being practiced by the numbers," Tomatsu said. "At least, that's what they appear to be doing with the weird aura they have now."
"No one's been hurt though," Mai said. "By anyone in the club, right..?"
Wataru chuckled. "If you don't count the members of the club, sure," he said. "We haven't heard of anyone else getting into trouble by any 'odd' means."
Naru nodded. "No one's had contact with Maeda-san and his friends since they left?"
The students shook their heads.
"I heard about the club conducting an initiation in the old building," Naru said. "Is this true?"
"I guess," Wataru said. "Dosu-sempai was just suggesting it before we left the club. I guess now it's part of the rules."
"Dosu?" Mai asked.
"He's the new club president," Masao answered. "He was Maeda-san's most faithful follower. He agreed to anything he proposed to do. He even suggested to tell everyone in the university about what we know. One time, he proposed that we did a ritual demonstration. None of us agreed. We were already ridiculed as it was, and if we were sure that if we did a ritual demonstration in public we would be called occultists instead of scientists."
Mai's face saddened. It must have been really tough. She thought that with all the people she knew who were interested in ghost stories, a science dealing with such field would be easily accepted.
"How does this initiation go?" Takigawa asked.
"They go into the old building," Masao answered. "Do some snooping around, and tell us if there's a ghost there or not…or tell us something else interesting in the building."
"So you've checked the building out," Takigawa said.
"Yup," Wataru answered. "That was like our first 'real' case. And it was squeaky clean – no ghosts, no lurking spirits – just space."
Takigawa and Mai frowned.
Either the club did a poor job at investigating, or the shadow wasn't there when they checked it out. Then again, they were amateurs so they must have missed it in their snooping around.
"When did you conduct this investigation?" Naru asked.
"Around seven months ago," Masao answered. "It was a workshop activity."
"Of course," Takigawa muttered, rolling his eyes.
"You just explored the building," Naru said.
"That's right," Wataru confidently said. "We did the standared EMFs thing, and infrared and-"
"Whoa! Wait! Where did you get those tools?" Takigawa asked.
"We have connections," Rouki said, winking.
"He means friends with second hand cameras we could use without the owner's knowledge," Masao said, smiling at them. "And some junk shops where we gathered enough stuff for a make-shift EMF detector."
Takigawa sighed, smirking. "Youth," he muttered.
"Was that the only time you went to the building?" Naru asked.
"Yes," answered Wataru, Masao, and Tamotsu.
Naru looked at Rouki who was suddenly deep in thought.
"Rouki-kun?" Mai asked. Takigawa was also looking at him with a raised brow.
"Oi," Wataru said, all three of them looking at Rouki. "Care to share what you know?"
"Y-yeah," Rouki answered. He looked up at Naru. "I remember Maeda-sempai inviting some of us to go back to the building – turn it into our headquarters or something like that."
"When was this?" Masao asked.
Rouki turned to look at his friends. "It was around two weeks after we inspected the place," he answered. "He just consulted a few of us. Around four of us I think."
"And that five includes you?" Wataru asked.
"Y-yeah," Rouki said shyly, scratching his head. "Something like that. I backed out."
"Who was the four who went back there?" Takigawa asked.
"Kondo Akira, Nodaru Tomiko, Kouki Ichi, and Yamahiko Koushiro," Rouki answered.
"What did they do in the building?" Naru asked.
"Well…Koushiro-san said they did a cleansing ritual in the building," Rouki said. "Just to make sure it was clean for us to turn into a permanent office. Of course, it was illegal."
"When did they perform the cleansing ritual?" Naru asked.
"Two weeks later, I think."
Naru nodded. "One more thing," he said. "Do you know about the member of the club who hands out membership invitations?"
Wataru and his friends sighed. They all glanced at each other and nodded.
"We weren't invitational before," Wataru said. "I see you know that. The invitational rule was applied after we got out of the club - when they started to look...zombie-like. I guess what I'm trying to say here is that we don't know the member of the club who who distributes the invitations."
"But have you seen the student before?" Naru asked.
"No," the four answered.
"It's weird 'coz we see every member of the club in the usual spot everyday," Tamotsu said. "But we've never seen the member people describe as the club's invite personnel."
"Not even the exchange student?" Mai asked.
Masao raised a brow at Mai. "I'm sorry, Mai-chan," he said. "This is the first time I've heard of an exchange student in the club distributing invitations. And this is the first time I've heard of an exchange student in the university. Well, at least for this year. I'm a student assistant in the registrar's office so I hear news about exchange student programs before it's released in the school grounds."
"So there shouldn't be an exchange student here," Naru said. "How about foreign students?"
"That depends," Masao answered.
"Caucasian?" Takigawa asked. "Supposedly a freshman."
Masao thought for a moment. "We have Caucasian Masters and Doctors degree students," he said. "I don't recall any undergraduates though."
Mai was about to reason that the girl she saw must have been a graduate degree student when Naru nodded and began to speak. "That would be all for now," he said. "We may need to call you back for help."
"No problem," Wataru said, smiling. "It's a great honor to work with professionals like you."
"I'll have Ayako make some charms for you," Takigawa said. "You'll still be around in the afternoon, right?"
"Yeah," Tamotsu said. "We'll even come back here after our class if you want."
"Sure," Takigawa answered smiling back at them. "In the meantime, you guys be careful. And stop playing with those papers, okay?"
"Yes, sir!" the four replied, bowing at them.
They then said their goodbyes and left the room.
Takigawa stretched his arms up and sighed. "So…This Maeda kid learns he had a twin who died, goes crazy, looks into cults and magic spells for a diversion and performs a ritual in the old building," he said. He glanced at Naru. "You think that shadow man is his twin?"
"If he is, Hara-san would have recognized him," Naru said.
Mai looked at Naru. She suddenly wondered if the details of the case reminded him of Gene. Did he ever try the things Maeda-san did?
"So that shadow could still be a demon," Takigawa said, sighing.
Naru tapped his pen on the notebook for a moment. "I'll be going back to the building," he said, standing up. "Takigawa-san, stay here in case other students come in. You can close the room at three."
"Yes, sir," Takigawa said, giving Naru a military salute.
Mai stood up. "I'm going with you," she said. "I don't have any class to go to for the rest of the day."
Naru didn't respond. He just walked out of the room with Mai on his tail.
"So what are we going to do now?" Mai asked as they reached the building. Naru didn't talk to her on the way.
"We head to the base," Naru answered.
They walked to the base where John, Masako and Ayako were.
Mai forgot the three of them were assigned to observe the footages and the building for any sign of paranormal activity.
"We haven't seen anything interesting," Ayako said. "And I've finished making the charms you told me to make."
Mai looked surprised at Ayako. So Naru told her to make some charms too.
"Good," Naru said before turning to Masako. "Do you still sense it?"
"I do," Masako answered. "It's still in the building - somewhere here at least."
Naru looked at everyone. "We need to check on the building again," he said. "Matsuzaki-san, please give them their charms. I'll be assigning each of you an area to inspect."
"Why do we have to do another round?" Ayako asked. "Why can't we just perform an exorcism?"
"We've found out rituals had been performed in this building," Naru answered. "I want to know how far those rituals went."
John, Masako and Ayako looked surprised at Naru.
"So the school has hired other experts to exorcise the building?" Ayako asked.
"No," Naru said. "Students have been performing various rituals here - amateurs who try out any ritual they find in the web."
"So this could really be a..." Masako said.
"I want you to check the walls and the floors for any odd-looking symbol," Naru continued. "Show me a picture of whatever you find, or at least make sure to remember them and be able to accurately draw them in front of me after you've completed your rounds. Hara-san and Matsuzaki-san, you're in charge of the top floor and the second floor's right wing. Brown-san and Mai, you two are in charge of the second floor's left wing and the ground floor."
"What about you?" Ayako asked.
"I'll be here in the base," Naru said, taking a seat in front of the monitors.
Ayako raised a brow at him.
When no one moved, Naru tapped the keys on the keyboard. "Did you not understand my Japanese?" Naru said.
Ayako glared at Naru. "Fine," she muttered. She turned to Mai, John and Masako - handing them each a piece of paper bearing a symbol.
"You'll be left alone here," Mai told Naru.
Naru ignored her and instead began to place a call on his mobile phone.
Mai sighed.
Ayako tapped her shoulder. "Don't worry," she said. "I bet the ghost doesn't stand a chance against his glare."
Mai chuckled.
She sure hoped that was true.
She glanced at Naru again before she stepped out of the room. Naru was still busy tapping some keys on the keyboard. His other hand held the mobile phone against his ear.
Mai sighed and turned away.
"Mai," she suddenly heard him say.
Mai turned to look at him – her heart jumping at the sound of his voice.
"Be careful," he said.
Mai's jaw dropped. Her brown eyes stared confused at Naru. "Wh-what..?"
But he already started talking to whoever answered his phone call.
