Last time: The team came together to discuss Mai's disappearance and Aria revealed some of her connection with Mai and that she is the parapsychologist author Marie McLoughlin, whom Naru secretly admires. What will happen if she loses control and what will the group decide to do?
A/N: I know at the end of the last chapter we said we would be posting once every two weeks. Surprise! Since we have a holiday weekend, Spirit_Weaver and I decided to give you an extra chapter! We hope you enjoy this gift chapter, it also marks the end of what was re-written from the original story, Case File 1: The Disappearance of Taniyama Mai. The remaining five chapters are all new material. We hope you will enjoy the rest of the story!
-Koujinbutsu
The Disappearance of Mai Taniyama Part 3: Unexpected Visions and Clients
August, Day 1: Early Evening...
It wasn't long before Aria had managed to tell the group about Mai's sudden disappearance and what she knew she'd felt when visiting the apartment. Before Aria could continue, she got hit with a feeling of dark glee that she could sense was radiating off of the petite medium, Hara, Masako. The young medium's emotions were so strong that Aria also picked up on the thoughts underscoring them. In the state she was in, the strong emotions and thoughts became physically painful for her to bear.
With the increase in pain, she doubled over, leaning forward and clutching her head with a moan. She knew what was about to happen. It wasn't like she intended for it to happen, she never did, but it was almost like her body had times that it would demand that she see what was coming. She clutched her head harder, her head bowing down as another burst of pain shot through her. Gasping out in pain once more, she watched as her vision blurred and felt the girl's hateful words fill her mind.
Well isn't this a delicious turn of events! Anyone who knows Naru, knows he has a thing for Marie McLoughlin's writing. For her to be sitting here in HIS office, it must be a dream come true for him! Now that Mai is out of the picture and his most revered author is here, I bet he won't even bother trying to find that constantly-sleeping idiot. When this old dingbat leaves, the trail to find her will have gone cold and I'll be the only one left to vie for Naru's attention! *Mental laughter followed the thoughts*
Aria finally managed to raise her mental shields once more. The inadvertent assault from the medium left her feeling ill, and she never wanted to feel the greedy girl's thoughts again. Now that her vision had once again cleared, she could also feel Naru's eyes on her, and sensed the worry that coated his mind, yet his emotion did not assault her the way Masako's dark joy had. As she calmed Aria felt a true vision pull at her senses. This time, her surroundings faded away completely.
Aria's Vision...
The sound of the ocean crashing on the shore was the first thing she noticed from the world around her. Next, was the rocky beach. Lifting her eyes she saw an old five story building standing on a cliff, overlooking the ocean below. She seemed pulled closer to it until she could clearly see that the building's once white walls were now dingy and grey from years of neglect, some of the windows were simply dirty, others broken; the rest boarded up. As her body skipped ahead, even closer, she saw the front double doors both hung asque, the chains linked through the handles were probably the only thing preventing one door from laying completely flat on the ground.
Next she was drawn into what looked like a hospital lobby and then into a dark, complex set of corridors. Her mind jumped forward in random spurts through the seemingly endless corridors until she found herself somewhere cramped and nearly pitch black, an area that seemed to have been a storage room...only it had two large doors. After the vision's next pull she found herself standing in a white tiled room with no door. On a bare, twin mattress lay the one person she was worrying the most about. Mai was still, sleeping, in a set of night clothes-presumably the ones she'd been wearing when she was abducted. Before Aria could try to wake Mai, she skipped forward again.
Aria found herself again outside the abandoned hospital, this time facing away from it, but she wasn't alone. An older bespectacled gentleman with salt and pepper black hair and gray eyes sat looking up at the building from the inside of his car. By the cantankerous way he mumbled about the building and the odd, disturbing occurrences he was fussing over, Aria presumed he might be the caretaker. She heard him mumble something about supernatural nonsense, and something about a bank, and calling off a deal because it was haunted.
Agitated, the man grabbed a piece of paper from off the seat next to him. It looked like it had been crumpled and cast aside some time prior. Muttering, he opened it back up and smoothed it to read over the words written within. Looking closer, Aria saw that it was a recommendation letter directing the man to an address in Shibuya, Tokyo. Ironically, Aria noted, it was the contact information for SPR. "Shibuya Psychic Research, huh...I guess it can't hurt to get a consultation," was the last thing she heard him say before he set the car in reverse and drove away.
Aria closed her eyes and took a deep breath, trying to will herself back to her body. When she opened her eyes again the vision had shifted once more, but this time she was looking down at herself as a young child, informing her small self of several of her family members' deaths. That they'd died on a bus that had driven over a cliff while they were on Molokai. She could feel the body she was in smile at the girl's devastation and feel it's satisfaction. Out of her mouth...it's mouth...she heard the false words of comfort that she'd heard as a child. Suddenly she was outside the body she'd been inhabiting, looking back at it. It was a male with a thick brow and thin, almost non existent lips, hard, black-colored eyes and messy dirt brown hair. Now that she was looking at him, she wondered how she'd missed the feel of him when she'd been within him: the feeling of revulsion and an oily sense of twisted reality. It was unmistakably the feel of the Khiitani, the same feeling she'd felt throughout her childhood and again at Mai's apartment. Her heart races as it dawns on her how long the Khiitani must have been feeding off of her when she was younger, The same way they're probably feeding off of Mai right now. Poor Mai, we have to go save her quickly! She wanted to yell in desperation and tried to pull out of the vision.
Aria had a fleeting thought of concern for herself that they could have targeted Mai specifically to lure her in once more, before the vision finally let her go.
Back in the office...
The group around her was muttering worriedly as Aria opened her eyes once again. Not sure how long she had been out of it she took several breaths before sitting back up straight. Choosing not to look at the medium, whose dark glee had triggered the vision in the first place, she instead placed her hands on her lap and looked at them as she clenched them tightly.
Naru, who seemed to notice her return, quietly asked, "Are you alright Miss McLoughlin?"
With the help of her gift, Aria mentally wove together his words with the feelings behind them to translate his meaning. Though, he's concerned, he wants to know if I had another vision pertaining to Mai. His concern for her brought a degree of comfort to her and she gave him an apologetic half smile. He'll be good for Mai, she acknowledged, but there's one problem that needs to be taken care of...
She glanced at Masako before steadily meeting his gaze once more. "I am fine," she said quietly. Turning her gaze back to Masako, and not mincing words for the medium's comfort, she said, "Miss Hara, I won't be needing your assistance for this case. Please leave," she ended with an air of finality.
At her words, a few of the group's voices began arguing at once. Monk argued about why it would be her choice, Ayako about why she'd targeted Masako, and Masako, herself huffing about the indignity of it all.
Making his voice loud enough to be heard over the three, John added his voice to the argument, ever trying to be a peacekeeper. "I'm certain Miss McLoughlin has her reasons." Because it was John who raised his voice, it shocked the dissenters to silence and he continued more quietly, "Perhaps we should let her explain what they are before anyone jumps to conclusions?"
The prevailing silence, following his words, allowed Naru to speak uninterrupted, "I too would like to know why you wish Miss Hara to leave." Aria could feel that maybe he had some hypothesis as to why. The thought was disrupted however by a twinge of annoyance as she continued to endure the medium's tainted presence. She sighed and asked, "How many of you are familiar with empaths?"
Masako turned her full attention on Aria, looking stunned and far more pale than usual. She spoke quietly, "I know that empaths can sense the emotions of the people around them, and depending on how powerful an empath they are, they might get more than just pure emotions, sometimes thoughts or visions connected to those emotions."
Aria nodded, "I've been told that my empathic gifts are in a league of their own; that I am possibly the most powerful empath alive today." Adding in her mind, In more than one dimension at that. She paused glaring pointedly at Masako. "Do you understand why I'm asking you to leave? Or do I need to spell it out and enlighten the entire group?"
Masako hung her head in shame before answering, "I understand. I'll leave." She stood bowing to the group and then to Aria specifically. "I am sorry for letting my," she paused as if searching for a good word, "frustration get the better of me. It was…unacceptable. Please accept my apology." With that Masako stood and walked out of the office, her back straight and her steps as dainty and elegant as always.
With the medium gone, Aria sighed with relief and turned her attention back to Naru. "Now that the pain is leaving," Literally, she added to herself, "you should know that I had another vision just now. It was about an abandoned hospital situated on a cliff that overlooks the ocean. Mai is somewhere on that property, I saw her in a white tiled room with no door. I also saw an older caretaker-like gentleman. His hair was graying. He had gray eyes and rectangular glasses. Someone had written him a recommendation to try out Shibuya Psychic Research. I don't think it will take long for him to contact you. I'm never exactly sure when my visions are happening or have happened, they just come, so he could even show up later today. Whatever you do, you mustn't let him walk away. You need to take him on as your client or we may never get Mai back." Aria paused, dropping her eyes to her lap. She thought about the last portion of her vision before she spoke. "I am absolutely certain now that it is the Khiitani who have taken Mai. If we don't get to her soon, there's a chance she'll endure the same kind of torment I did as a child."
Naru's eyes narrowed as he placed his hand on his chin, and thought about all she'd told them. With a quiet hum that came from deep in his throat, Naru addressed the tall Chinese man, "Lin, I seem to recall something about shiki being able to be used to retrace memories. Can you do something like that to find Mai's location-provided you or your shiki could somehow be given Miss McLoughlin's vision memories?"
Lin thought for a moment before muttering, "It's possible for them to follow memories, but I'm not sure how I'd share her memories with them and I don't know how long it would take if I could."
Aria spoke up, "Leave that part to me. I've done it before to resolve one of my cases back home in Hawaii."
Lin took on a curious expression and asked her, "You have shiki?"
"No," she replied easily, "but I have worked with onmyodo before."
Lin stiffened. "I was unaware that there were any practitioners of onmyodo in the US."
Aria glances at Lin. "You may be from one of the oldest clans of onmyouji in China, but that hardly makes your family the only ones who might travel and settle in other areas on this great planet of ours. Hawaii has a very large Chinese community and I know several onmyouji. As a matter of fact, my Grandmother was one. I myself however, do not possess the ability. My gifts lay elsewhere."
Lin flushed a bit at her reply, "I'm sorry if I insulted you, I simply didn't know." He seemed a touch flustered as he settled his attention back on his laptop, returning to his note taking.
Just then the office door opened revealing a man in his late 50s to early 60s that looked just like Aria had described him to be. His rectangular glasses hit the light just right so that, for a moment, the glint on their surface hid his eyes from the group. "Excuse me, I'm sorry to intrude, but I was hoping you could assist me," his words came out in the form of a question rather than a statement.
Realizing this was the client Aria had mentioned, Naru stood to introduce himself. "I am Kazuya Shibuya, lead investigator of Shibuya Psychic Research. How can we assist you?"
Aria was sure that the entire group knew full well the importance of pleasing the man, but was relieved to know they hadn't discounted her words as she watched each of the irregulars, stationed around the seating area, start to move to please the man.
Monk stood and offered the man his seat. He, himself, moved on to the seat Masako had vacated not too long prior. As the older man moved to sit down, his face screwed up in an unsatisfied manner to take the offered seat.
While Monk had been offering his chair, John had run to retrieve a clean cup and handed it off to a waiting Ayako. She poured the man a cup of tea and set it before him.
He looked at the cup of tea as he gathered his thoughts. "Thank you," he muttered as he lifted the cup to take a sip, and gave it a quick unsatisfied frown, setting it back down he looked around the room before his eyes settled on Lin, "My name is Ishikawa, Riku. I manage properties owned by Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings."
Aria watched as Naru's jaw clenched and his fist tightened at his side. She was impressed that he could remain in control of his underlying anger at the man for ignoring his introduction so completely, but it was easy for her to see that he held that anger at bay with an underlying sense of determination and a note of worry.
Upon taking some kind of cue from Naru, Lin introduced himself. "Lin, Koujo, at your service." He then reiterated, "What is it we can help you with?"
The older man, having been blind to the exchange, took another sip of his tea, wrinkled his nose, and continued addressing Lin, "There is one particular hospital that has been a part of my assigned properties for the last 10 years. It has been decided that the hospital and the surrounding land should be torn down and turned into a nature reserve. Recently, however, I was tasked with checking the property over before ordering demolitions and, because of this, I have been receiving rumors about the place. Some of them have been about ghosts and disappearances so I didn't feel like I could call in just anyone. The other night, I went over, personally, to check over the property and noticed some rather strange activity on the premises." He paused looking around as if to gauge the reactions of those around him and gather his thoughts while he took another sip of tea.
Lin shifted in his seat, glancing from Naru to Aria, before letting his eyes settle back on Ishikawa-san. "Please continue. What sort of activity did you see?" His fingers twitched closer to his knees. To Aria they seemed like they were itching to reach out for the computer in front of him.
Ishikawa-san's eyes met Lin's and he answered, "Not what I was expecting. I saw a couple peoples' shadows flitting in and out of view, random items like chairs that spontaneously moved around. Knocking sounds like maybe someone was trapped in the next room, footsteps and even strange moans, but when I went to check, there was no one there and nothing out of the ordinary. In the last ten years, I've never experienced anything like this before, and now, right when it's been decided that the place would be torn down, it suddenly starts happening? It is like something doesn't want us tearing the place down." He takes a sip of his tea before continuing, "My drinking buddies told me some stories about people who tried tearing down haunted sights. Their companies ended up losing thousands in medical fees and bribes to ensure the wounded construction workers wouldn't talk about what happened and then there are the other damages they had to pay for. If I allow something like that to happen on my watch, I'll be fired."
Monk rubbed his chin as he spoke, "When exactly did the activity start?"
Ishikawa-san thought for a moment, "About a month ago?" He shifts and looks back at Lin. "I mentioned what was happening to a coworker of mine and he suggested contacting Shibuya Psychic Research. So here I am, following his advice, but I'm not convinced that you all aren't frauds just waiting to scam me for all I'm worth." He threw a glance at Naru in particular then flitted his eyes around to the others.
There was a heavy silence in the room as the man practically verbally slapped the entire group at once. Naru stood and spoke, "We're researchers, not frauds, and our fees are minimal. We will take your case."
"That's great coming from some young punk," the older man sneered, and again Naru showed great control in holding back. The man continued as if he hadn't seen Naru's clenched hands and jaw "but, I'd rather hear it from your boss."
"He's right," Lin defends, "Our fees are minimal and we will take the case. Could you leave the hospital's address with," he hesitates slightly before gesturing to Naru, "my assistant and we will contact you, letting you know when to expect us on site. Hopefully we can come by sometime tomorrow morning."
The man took out a business card and a pen and wrote down the address. Then he handed it to Naru and addressed Lin once more, "What time can I expect you to show up so I can be there when you start?"
"You want to go with us," Lin asked in surprise, seeming to not know how to handle the situation.
"Yes, there's no way I'm letting you guys just roam around on the property; doing whatever you like. Only I have the keys to let you in and I want to know that you're not just wasting my time and money," the old man explained, acting as if Lin was acting like a simpleton just to annoy him. This time it was Lin's turn to clench his jaw. The man just stood and continued on, "No way I'm handing money out like a charity to some fishy group who writes the name of their company in roman characters when they're based in Tokyo. It just screams, 'foreigner,' you know!? You can't trust foreigners." Ishikawa-san had the gall to say the words with a smile and then bowed shallowly to Lin and started walking towards the door. "Call me when you have a definite time. Until then, I'll look forward to tomorrow. After all, depending on what happens, I'll either be promoting your company or having you escorted off the property and rubbing your name in the dirt. Either way, I expect things to go in my favor!"
John looked at Aria and cheerily said, "It looks like your vision proved correct."
"How can you be so happy after all that crap!? That guy was a creep," Ayako exclaimed. "I've never seen someone so rude! If Mai weren't depending on us, I would have slapped him...calling us frauds, indeed." There was a round of nods exchanged at her words.
"Perfect example of a jerk to be a jerk to," Yasu said trailing off, "if only we didn't need him to lead us to Mai."
"The man is an ass. On that we can all agree," Aria said, deep in thought, though she turns to look specifically at Naru, she kept her words directed towards everyone in the room, "but you all did well not to go off on him. Even I was tempted, but since I'm not part of SPR, I felt it best to keep quiet...but...to a degree, the man was bluffing when he said we wouldn't be able to get in without him. When I was in my vision, I noticed that the hospital's main entrance was in extremely bad repair. The only thing keeping one door from lying flat on the ground is the chain that has been run through the handles."
Naru nodded. "So if worse comes to worse we may have a way in, however, I'd rather have his full permission than risk getting kicked out."
Monk rubbed the back of his neck before telling Aria, "I'm going to hate working with that guy, but I'm glad to be working with you to save Mai. I think I speak for most of us when I say she is like a younger sister. I don't think anyone could think of her as anything less than a dear friend."
Aria's smile was a bit sad as she replied, "Of course, I completely understand. I'm no different. I kind of adopted her as my own sister a few years back."
Naru looked around the room, gauging everyone's temperament before speaking. "I have some more information you should all know." He waited a moment as his words sunk in.
Ayako gasped in feigned shock and looked to the others, "Did I hear that right? Naru never offers up important details this early on in an investigation. In fact, I remember several occasions where he kept things from us even in the most dire situations." She turned back to Naru, dramatically pointed her finger at him and asked, "Who are you and what have you done with Naru?"
Aria grinned at the miko's words and exaggerated movements. Her eyes darted to Naru to catch his reaction.
After shaking his head with a sigh, he began to speak. "Because of the state of Mai's apartment, I was seriously worried she might be badly hurt." He clenched his hand at what he was about to admit. "I used psychometry on one of her things to see what happened."
Before he could go on, there was a general outcry of, "What!?"
"You never told us you could do psychometry!" Monk stated indignantly, "You could have really helped us in so many other cases. Why didn't you mention it when we were dealing with the fake Dr. Davis?"
"I don't have to explain my reasoning to you and it's not like I didn't. What matters, right now, is that I used psychometry for Mai's sake. And I saw what happened," he said sternly. When no more words rose to confront him, he continued, "After Mai spoke with Aria last night, three individuals forced their way into Mai's apartment and abducted her." He turned to Aria. "I know what her attackers look like, and I'll recognize them when I see them. Two are male and one is female. I also know that they're at least feeding her so we know they at least want her alive, at least for the time being." He paused meeting everyone's eyes in the remaining silence for a few seconds each. When he spoke again, his words were much calmer, but determined, "I would like us all to work to pack the van tonight, then head home to prepare anything we may need for a long investigation, because I do not plan on leaving that hospital until we have Mai safe and sound. I'd also like to send her attackers back to wherever they came from."
Everyone nodded and Monk acted once again as the voice for the group. "No problem Naru-bou," he said as he stood up. "Let's get the van packed right now. Let's not leave Mai in their hands any longer than absolutely necessary!"
There was agreement all around and, for once, everyone felt the same urgency so there was very little argument about who would do what. In short order the van was filled and everyone was heading their separate ways to prepare for an early start the following morning.
Will they be able to get to Mai? Will they be able to stand this client or will they get kicked off the hospital grounds?
No idea why, but Spirit_Weaver and I had a whole lot of fun writing Ishikawa-it's probably for Naru's reaction though. Are there any more of you authors that love writing in persnickety/evil people?