3rd Person, Limited, Mai Taniyama

Mai found herself outside the school near one of the benches that were scattered about the grounds. Before her, was the guy that was suddenly her boss for who knows how long, taking a seat on the mentioned bench. The brunette tilted her head in slight confusion, putting her hands behind her back so she could intertwine them without seeming too odd for doing so. Kazuya placed his arms before himself before he looked at Mai. The expression was familiar, and she nearly shivered at the thought. There was little to no desire to recall the fact that she nearly injured his assistant.

"A week ago, your principal contacted us and proceeded to hire us in order to investigate the old school building on the grounds. There were rumors within the student body that the location was haunted, and along with the countless accidents that seemed to occur within, it prompted him to go to a professional in order to gage an opinion." Kazuya stated, as he opened his bag and pulled something out. It was hard for Mai to tell what it was in the moment, but it was a machine of some sort.

"The student body…" Mai muttered, in thought before perking up, "Is that why you said you transferred to this school?"

"I'm glad to know that you aren't lacking in competence." He responded. The way he did so irritated Mai a bit, but she continued on with her reply.

"Nice to know I can satisfy the great lord…" She muttered to herself, before speaking up, "So you were trying to get information about the schoolhouse, then? There was mention of it last evening, after all."

"Exactly," The male said, looking over towards her, "However, I couldn't hear the conversation that well, so a retelling of what your classmate said would be appreciated."

"O-oh, well, Michiru said-"

"Hold on," Kazuya cut her off, lifting the machine up. Now it was more obvious to her what it was. It had to be a recorder, and he seemed to click the button that was likely to record the conversation. "Start."

Mai pursed her lips for a moment, curiosity taking over for a moment, but she allowed herself to recall the story as it was told. "Well… Apparently, a lot of strange things have happened before the place was closed down. Strange fires and deaths. A student died on the first floor one year, and another, a teacher committed suicide on the second floor. When the school closed down, sometime later, they found a child under the floorboards." The teenager thought about it all for a moment, slightly uncomfortable as she shifted her body and moved her gaze away. "When demolition started, the people doing it grew ill or in accidents that were hard to explain. Some of the equipment even stopped working for good. They went to tear down a wall, the roof collapsed and took out the workers on the first floor, stopping demolition. When they tried again, similar things happened. One of the trucks carrying rubble went into the volleyball court, and it eventually stopped again. And there's talk of students seeing things through the winders, including an upperclassman that Michiru seems to know when she was walking home one day."

She paused for a moment, before shaking her head gently. "That's all I was told, but I have heard other things before. I never think too much about it, though. It's just rumors, just like any other school." Though, she could admit the rumors themselves were odd…

The recorder was turned off with the click of a button. She found herself glad that the silent tense aura was gone, now that she wasn't under the surveillance of the device. "So, ah… How much of all that do you think is true?"

Kazuya went back to his bag, putting the recorder back in and instead pulling out a folder. When he opened it, Mai unconsciously peeked in and looked at the notes. It was hard for her to tell but… They seemed to be in another language. She couldn't figure out which language, but it was certainly not Japanese. Mai found herself silently impressed at the knowledge of another language fluently enough to be able to write it out so extensively.

"It is true that there were many deaths within the building. There used to be a consistent one to two deaths a year on campus." He spoke the information casually enough to cause Mai to be unnerved by it. "It is also true that the roof fell in during the demolition. This was as they were removing the west wing. However, there were no deaths during the incident."

"E-eh?" Mai found herself slightly dumbfounded by the information. "Really? That seems like a dangerous situation, though…"

"There were five injured, but no deaths were reported during any demolition of the building. This was usually due to human error, and nothing spirit related."

"I see…" Mai muttered, glad that it seemed that no one died during those incidents. It would feel odd to be going to school so close to a building where people died, after all…

"Demolition went as scheduled, and a third of the building was taken down. Since then, however…" He seemed to go silent for the longest time, before he continued, "As this was six years ago, the body of a dead child was recovered from the building between the two demolitions. A seven-year-old who lived in the neighborhood was kidnapped for ransom. After the body was found, the criminal was caught and prosecuted a month later."

The brunette froze up in the realization that there was death imprinted on the building. It was something that was unavoidable, but it still brought a sense of dread, knowing that there was such a link on the location.

"It is also true that a teacher committed suicide," He seemed to turn the page of his file, which once again drove Mai's curiosity, however, she was moreso focused on the conversation. "He suffered from neurosis, and a note was found explaining his actions."

The entire situation, knowing that such events happened dampered Mai's attitude for a moment, but she still found herself impressed by the research done to find this information. "Impressive… That's some decent research." She was aware of this because she did such things for her own stories. They both did it for different reasons, but they still needed the information for some reason or another, in the end.

"This is nothing, don't underestimate my research abilities." He said, rather bluntly.

It hit Mai in the chest harder than she expected, but she was indeed annoyed by this point. "So what about the out of control truck then?" A paper was offered to her, and she took it without much thought. Her eyes widened at the article before her. It still took time to read the fine print, but the headline was obvious to her. Daytime high school tragedy… The reason she didn't know about it was likely because she wasn't looking at the news for a while when she first started to live on her own.

Mai quickly tried to read the print, but only caught splotches of information at a time. Truck full of bricks… Volleyball court… Gym class… Nine injured… Two died… Driver was intoxicated…

Before she could read anymore, Kazuya spoke, "The demolition had to discontinue due to this accident. However, some speculation was that it also had to do with the rumors that were spreading regarding it."

As she stared at the two images that were shown of the students who passed, her heart started to ache. They felt familiar to her, for some odd reason. She couldn't pinpoint where she saw them before, as much as she wanted to…

"However, despite these events, I fail to believe that the rumors regarding the location are true. Others may have come to the conclusion that the building is cursed, but each accident has a reasonable explanation to go along with it." As he spoke, Kazuya started to stand from the bench as well as taking the paper from her hands. She assumed that he was using it to file away for a later time if he was as professional as he seemed.. "I believe that this investigation will not offer any spiritual activity."

"Really?..." Mai wondered if this could possibly mean that she could sneak her way to freedom from helping him, then. If there was no activity to be recorded, as far as he knew, there was no reason to need help. "So, um…" As she started to ask, she noticed that he looked over towards her, while starting to walk onwards. She expected that he thought she would follow without a complaint… "Do I really have to help you out, then?.."

He turned around completely, causing her to freeze in place. The look she was getting sent shivers down her spine, making her realize that she wasn't about to escape so easily. "Oh, yeah… I suppose I do, huh?..." Once she said that he turned back around and started to walk again, to which Mai forced herself to follow, fearful of not doing as he asked.

As they headed onwards, she took notice of a van from the corner of her eye. Mai was surprised that she hadn't noticed it earlier when she came around the building that morning. Perhaps something in her field of vision at the time kept her from seeing it… But it certainly interested her. The two of them moved to the back of the building, which is where she caught sight of a strange sight. It left her dumbfounded.

"Take the microphones down, I'll get the stands." Her gaze moved to the male beside her, nervous about this being her first task. She didn't exactly know how this was set up, so she feared to get it wrong and actually breaking something else.

"O-oh, yeah, okay…" Going over to them, she had to take a moment to feel them and figure out how they were put on the stands. Noticing a switch, she flicked it and the mic came right off, sliding off the stand. Squeaking, she quickly caught it, taking a few breaths to calm herself. Once she did so, she carefully lifted the mic back up and brought it closer to her face to get a better look at it. "What were you using these for, anyway?"

"Well, microphones are generally used to collect sound…"

It was as if he was teasing her, her gaze snapping up towards the male in a glare. "I know that! I mean for this situation. It seems a little off to be putting microphones outside a school building."

"It's dangerous to go into a haunted building you're not familiar with yet." He stated, "So it's important to gather as much information as possible from outside the location."For example, capturing sounds with microphones outside the building."

"So if you're going inside, now… You're not scared of the haunted building?" Mai couldn't help but ask, given the circumstances. As she did so, she gathered the second microphone from its stand.

"Not particularly."

After a few, long moments of silence, she moved aside so he could gather the stand she was beside. "That does remind me… Why are you doing this?"

Without hesitation, he responded, "Because they need me."

"Need you?" Mai silently questioned, questioning that motive. It seemed off for someone as young as him to be running his own business, but she wasn't about to question it. "And there hasn't been an area you were unable to solve the problems for?"

"Never. I have always been able to solve each case given to me."

The brunette stared at the other, lost in thought. How was he able to think so highly of himself? She didn't know, but she wished she had this self-confidence. "W-wow… So you're as smart as you are handsome, impressive…"

His attention snapped to her, despite his still ever blank face. "You think I'm handsome?"

"W-well, I mean, everyone else seems to think that, so I guess so." She had no idea why she let herself admit that, but that was what came out of her mouth before she could think it over.

"I see," He turned around, making his way over to what was possibly the van. "You have good taste."

That was a slap to her face, feeling herself tolt back for a moment before glaring at Kazuya's back with a fluster on her face. She couldn't believe this man! She supposed he had good looks and was impressive to be the president of a company at such an age, but the most noticeable thing about him was that narcissistic attitude he gave off.

She had the perfect name for this guy. Never will she call him by his proper name again. From now on, his name is Naru. And he totally deserved the nickname.

Hellohello, I'm back with a new chapter, delving back into the manga for my source. I also got most of the physical copies for the manga now in English, meaning I can actually keep true to my word about staying based on the manga. The online source I had used before is no longer working so I'm glad I can keep to my word. I'm also thinking of doing a second chapter for my Apartment Complex AU this coming week, so for those who liked that first chapter look forward to another incoming chapter sometime soon! Until then, I hope you enjoy my weekly posting of this fic.