The next day, I was so happy that nothing could ruin my mood. I'm a little sad that I don't work today, because I wanted to be there for Tatsumi's first day of work. Even though last night definitely wasn't a date, it still kind of felt like one. I'm just really happy he doesn't think I'm a freak. My phone started to ring, and I answered it. "Hello?"
"Hey, Aki!" Mai greeted me. "Do you have any plans today?"
"No. Why?" I asked narrowing my eyes.
"Naru has a case and wondered if you wanted to work on it." Mai said happily.
"Sure, I guess. Am I coming to the office right now?" I asked, curiously.
"Yes. Yasu is going to be joining us too!" Mai said. I could hear the grin in her voice.
"Sweet! I'll be over as soon as I can." I said before hanging up on her. As soon as I was out the door, I nearly ran into Tatsumi. "Oh, hey Tatsumi."
"Hey, Aki. Where are you going in such a rush?" He asked chuckling.
"I'm heading to the SPR office. We've got a case." I said grinning.
"Do you know what it's about yet?" He asked curiously.
"No idea." I said shrugging. "I'm sure it'll be interesting."
"When it's over, do you mind telling me about it?" He asked eagerly.
"Sure! I'll let you know when we're done." I said smiling. "Are you heading off to work?"
"Yeah. I'm a little nervous." He admitted sheepishly.
"Don't worry. Hajime-san and Izumi-san are really nice." I said chuckling. "Good luck today."
"Thanks! Do you want to walk to the bus stop together since the Star Café is along the way?" He asked curiously.
"Sure!" I said really hoping one of those incidents wouldn't happen on the way there. We just talked about a lot of things on the way to the bus stop. I told him to have a good day at work and promised again to tell him as soon as the case was finished. When I made it to the office, Mai gave me the strangest look. "What?"
"Why did it take you so long?" She asked curiously.
"Well, after I got off the phone with you, I went outside and ran into Tatsumi." I said shrugging.
"Tatsumi..." She said smirking at me.
"Shut up." I said rolling my eyes. "Anyway, he asked me if I wanted to walk with him to the bus stop and I said yes."
"You're telling me more about it later." Mai said just as Naru and Lin walked into the lobby area. I shrugged.
"Okay." I said grinning. It wasn't long before Yasu showed up and we started talking about the case.
"Detective Fujiwara came to me yesterday and asked that we checked out his precinct. Apparently, the Chief of Police has been hearing rumors about the evidence locker and break room being haunted. He wants to put a stop to the rumors and has asked us to look into it." Naru started.
"This is going to be interesting." I said snickering. "So, what kind of things have been happening?"
"There are reports of boxes in the evidence room going missing for a few days and then they turn up back in the spot they're supposed to be. And in the breakroom, apparently they hear a lot of knocking sound." Lin answered.
"Hm... that doesn't really sound like a spirit." I said skeptically.
"I believe so too." Naru said getting up. "Let's head over there now." We nodded and got moving. At the police department, we were greeted by Detective Fujiwara.
"Hello everyone. It's good to see you again." He said smiling.
"Do you think this place is haunted?" I asked him.
"No. Not if the other cases we were on together is anything to go by." He said shaking his head. "You can use this empty office as your base."
"Thank you." Naru told him.
"Do you see anything, Aki?" Mai asked me.
"Nope." I said shrugging.
"I'll show you to the evidence room and break room." Detective Fujiwara said, looking at us. "I honestly doubt you'll need all your equipment."
"I agree." Naru said thoughtfully.
"Might we take a look at your security cameras?" Lin asked curiously.
"Yes. I'll have someone help you with those." Detective Fujiwara said nodding.
"Thank you." Lin said nodding. We followed Detective Fujiwara to the break room and it wasn't anything special. Just a small room with a few tables, a counter with a sink and coffee machine to boot, and a trashcan. There were a few vending machines in there too.
"And this is the room where the knocking sounds are being heard?" Naru asked.
"Yes. I've never actually heard them myself though." Detective Fujiwara said shaking his head. Mai looked at me and I knew what she wanted to ask. I shook my head. She had look on her face that was a mixture of relief and disappointment. "Come with me to the evidence locker. Now, when coming in here, you have to have me or Officer Kunieda."
"Understood." Naru said nodding. We followed him into the evidence locker and there were a lot of shelves filled with a lot of boxes with labels on them. That's a lot of cases. There's not a single spirit in here. I thought frowning. We met back up at our base and Officer Kunieda led Lin to their security office to go over the footage.
"When did all of this start?" Lin asked Officer Kunieda.
"Uh, about a month ago. Do you want to look at the footage from then too?" Officer Kunieda asked curiously.
"Yes. But go back one week before. I need a comparison to before this all started." Lin answered. I was curious and went with them.
"Okay. I'll see what I can do." Officer Kunieda said nodding. We entered the security office and Officer Kunieda asked the officer in there for Lin's request.
"I can do that." He said before going to a different screen. "You can look through the footage over here."
"Thank you." Lin said appreciatively. He sat down in the chair in front of the screen and Officer Kunieda lent me a chair.
"Thanks." I said smiling at him. He nodded, and he went over to the other officer. They started discussing work related things. Lin got down to business. There was only one pair of headphones but that was okay. I doubt I'd hear anything anyway. We spent maybe the whole day looking through footage. Nothing seemed to really be happening. Mai brought us some tea every few hours. It was about an hour before Naru came in. He basically told us that he didn't find any evidence of paranormal activity. He said he was going to speak with the other officers who've heard the noises and then it was just Lin and I again. "Hey, Lin. Doesn't the footage here look kind of weird?" I asked pointing towards the screen. He replayed the footage again and watched it closely. He frowned and paused it.
"It's stuck in a loop." He said, sighing.
"I wonder if Yasu could help us." I said thoughtfully. "I'll go get him." Lin nodded, and I left the room after stretching a bit. Yasu was in the base looking over some papers. "Hey Yasu!"
"Hey, how's it going with the video footage?" He asked, curiously.
"Well, Lin and I noticed that the videos are stuck on a loop." I told him frowning. "Is there anything you can do to help?"
"Sure." Yasu said getting up from his seat. "Lead the way."
"We should tell Detective Fujiwara first." I said, and he nodded. Detective Fujiwara was actually in the security office and Lin was showing him what we had found. Oh, Lin is on top of this. Yasu looked into it and cleaned up the footage. He played the footage without the loop and it showed one of the officers here going into the evidence locker and taking stuff. Detective Fujiwara didn't look happy to see that and I'm assuming he's going to find that officer. He told us to wait in our base until he talked with the officer on the footage. We did as he said and filled in Naru and Mai on what was going on.
"Good work, everyone." Naru said nodding. While we waited, Mai made some fresh tea. Mai, Yasu, and I talked about random things until Detective Fujiwara came in.
"Shibuya-san, thank you for helping us bring that officer to justice." Detective Fujiwara said sighing. "Your case is finished."
"You're welcome." Naru said nodding. "Oh, and the noises that were being heard in the breakroom were made by a couple of squirrels."
"Figures." Detective Fujiwara said snorting. "Well, I'll let the Chief of Police know."
"Well, that was a little anticlimactic." Mai said as we headed out of the police station.
"Yeah, but at least we helped put that cop away." I said shrugging.
"I heard some of the other officers talking and apparently that officer was selling the evidence off to lawyers." Yasu said when we reached the parking lot.
"Yasu, it isn't good to listen in on other people's conversations." Mai said scowling at him. Yasu chuckled.
"Sorry, I couldn't help myself." Yasu said smiling. Tatsumi is going to be disappointed to find out there wasn't an actual ghost this time. Oh well, it can't be helped. I decided to stop by the Star Café on my way home to get something to eat. Mai had some plans with Keiko and Michiru, so I told her I'd talk to her later. I walked into the café and saw Tatsumi serving one of the tables. He looks really cute in his uniform. I thought almost blushing.
"Welcome to the Star Café!" Hajime called from the counter. "Oh, it's Aki!"
"Hey!" I said grinning as I walked up to the counter.
"How was your case?" She asked. I looked at her confused. "Kojima-kun told me about being your neighbor and told us how you had a case today."
"Oh. It's anticlimactic in the paranormal sense." I said shrugging.
"There weren't any ghosts involved?" Tatsumi asked coming over to the counter with a serving tray of empty glasses.
"Yeah. Instead, an officer was selling off evidence to lawyers." I said shaking my head.
"I'm glad he was caught." Hajime said smiling.
"Me too." I said smiling.
"So, your usual?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Yes, but just mine. Mai is hanging out with our other friends." I said yawning a little. It was getting late in the day and the sun was starting to go down.
"Okay, we'll have it out in a minute." She said before disappearing behind the kitchen door. Tatsumi talked to me in between serving tables and after my dinner, I decided to wait for Tatsumi to get off, so we could walk home together.
"When is your next day off?" Tatsumi asked.
"Wednesday. Why?" I asked curiously. He blushed a little.
"I was wondering if you wanted to hang out again after school." He said a bit shyly.
"I'd love to," I said smiling. "What do you have in mind?"
"We could be like normal teenagers and go to the mall or..." He said grinning.
"Let me guess, you found another place that's supposed to be haunted?" I asked chuckling.
"You got me." He said sheepishly. "If you want to."
"Sure, let's do that." I said, feeling really happy to spend more time with Tatsumi.
"Great! I'll tell you more about it tomorrow!" He said as we made it up the stairs to our apartments. "Good night, Aki."
"Good night, Tatsumi." I said smiling. "I'll see you tomorrow."
"Definitely!" He said, grinning. He waited for me to go inside before going in his own apartment. What a gentleman. I hope he's the one. I really want him to be. I almost had a hard time getting to sleep because I was so happy about hanging out with Tatsumi again on Wednesday.