A/N: Plot bunnies won't leave me alone, so this story emerges. This is my first attempt at Ghost Hunt Fic.
Title: The Ups and Down in the Life of Taniyama Mai
Pairing: NaruxMai
Summary: Mai is not as ordinary as she appeared to be – she has a secret and a latest case taken by the SPR forces her to lay it out in the open. Follow her as she and the SPR gang carried on in their ghost hunting adventures… Eventual NaruMai.
Disclaimer: Ghost Hunt is not mine, copyright belonged to Fuyumi Ono.
Chapter 2 – Case 1: The case of Yukimura Clan, Part 2
Mai walked down the deserted halls alone, occasionally glancing over her shoulders to check for signs of approaches. She had no idea why she was so paranoid of the surrounding area, but she knew she was worrying about something or was it someone finding her down here in this particular corridor. The reason behind her unfounded fear was unknown; a squeak sounded from behind the suit of armour that stands by one side of the corridor hallways caused Mai to startle with a jump.
Trying to tell herself desperately that there was nothing so terrifying down here, Mai continue on her way. She had been about to turn into the next corner when she heard it, the sound of a demented laughter coming from directly behind her.
"Run" her inner voice told her to do so, and she choose to obey the voice of her inner self by running forth, not daring to look back at whatever that was behind her. Sighting a door towards the end of the corridor, Mai made a mad dash for the room. Somehow something in her gut is telling her that whomever, and whatever that was chasing after her would never dared to enter through that particular door.
Yanking the door open with all her strength, Mai tore through the doorway as though her life depended on it. Heaving a sigh of relief, as she leaned her body against the now closed door separating her and whichever it is on the other side of the door – Mai found herself sliding down to a sitting position as her body strength that kept her standing finally depleted from her.
She could feel the swirling of the surrounding in her sight, and knew then the dream was coming to an end. Glad for the chance to escape from this particular nightmare, Mai welcomed the familiar feel of the darkness to close in and consume her.
Mai sprang upright in bed, her chest heaving and gasping for air. A nightmare and she have not even gotten to the new case investigation site yet. Chancing a glance towards the side of her bedroom, she caught sight of the green numerical figures on her digital alarm clock situated on her bedside table. It was only 5 a.m. in the morning, and somehow after that nightmare she had no inclinations to go back to bed anytime soon.
An uneasy feeling settled in her as she thought about the new case that SPR has taken up, it was too late to back out from the deal now. All she could hope now was that whatever the case was about it has nothing to do with that dream of hers from before. Yet, she knew that would be just wishful thinking on her part – because whatever that dream of hers entails it would sure be related to the case, in one way or another.
'I knew it was bad news when that man appeared in the office yesterday afternoon! Whatever problems that he had had and ended up with problems resolving it by his own means can't be anything trivial … I swear if this particular case he had came forth to present the SPR with has anything to do with that particular estate in Okinawa – he will be having hell from me by the end of it all!' Mai fumed silently to herself, the dream that woke her up from before did nothing to calm her jittery nerves pertaining to the impending new case that the SPR is going to be off investigating.
Unable to fall back asleep, Mai decided to start getting herself ready for the day ahead. Taking her time as she entered the bathroom for her morning routine, she took a quick shower before proceeding to do a last minute check on the things which she had already packed for the investigation trip that was to come later on in the day.
Naru had told her to pack for one week, and judging from her usual way of doing things she had packed enough to last for 2 weeks. Although, she had hoped that the case can be wrapped up in a week's time – not because she was worrying about missing out on more classes in school but because she had a bad feeling of it all, pertaining to this particular case.
After Mai had doubled and tripled check her packed overnight duffle bag, her eyes flickered to the locked cabinet of her bedside table. With hesitancy apparent in her steps, Mai shuffled over to the said cabinet and pulled out a long wooden box from within.
The wooden box looks old, and it should be – Mai had first gotten it when she was eleven years old. About seven years has passes by since then, but only a mere two years had gone by since Mai stopped using whatever that was being kept in that box of hers – altogether. Flipping the box open, inside laid two long stick-like items – one was obviously a pointer or sort whereas the other is just a plain wooden stick.
You see, Mai has a deeply guarded secret against many – even away from the knowledge of the SPR. The thing is Mai used to be a witch, you know the kind of witch featured in the novel series of Harry Potter? Only, her kind of witch is more modern and could easily be camouflaged as a normal being.
The school where she had began her education as a witch was nothing like the castle in Harry Potter, in fact, it was the complete opposite. A very modern building situated in the heart of the city of New York, USA is where Mai had been for a period of 5 years before returning to Japan. However, the reason behind her return so abruptly and the story pertaining to her withdrawal from the school is just another story for another time.
Going back to the topic at hand, Mai glances down at the two items that laid within the wooden box with uncertainty while she pondered over the necessity to bring her wand along for this particular case.
The eleven inches long and dull looking wooden stick in the box was her rarely used wand, and the pointer pen lying down next to the wand was her camouflaged device – the cap to the pointer tip could be unscrewed to fit the wand in. Exactly like how Lucius Malfoy hides his wand in his cane – Mai's pointer work in the same manner.
"Looks like I'm going to have to require your assistance again – after so long, buddy." Mai murmured to her-self as she fingered the feel of her wand using her sense of touch.
Over the past 2 years since Mai had came to work for SPR, she had been keeping her heritage of being a witch against everyone on the team. The reasons behind why Mai had been keeping this fact a secret from everyone on the team, she wasn't too sure of it her-self.
What she does know is – if this particular new case of the SPR has anything to do with the estate under the name of Yukimura and being situated in Okinawa itself. Her secret might have come for the time to be out in the open, and revealed to the SPR members whom Mai had grown accustomed to looking upon as her newly found family members or sort.
Shaking her head to rid herself of unwanted thoughts, Mai turned her attention back to her task at hand. Taking the pointer out from the box, Mai worked to unscrew the tip point of the pointer and preceded on to insert the wooden stick that she had otherwise referred to as her wand before screwing back the tip to the pointer pen back on. Mai allowed a minute for her seldom used wand to renew itself in the feel of her hands before doing a quick wave of it in the air.
Green and blue sparks appeared in the areas where she had waved her wand about, Mai nodded – satisfied that her wand had yet to malfunction despite being out of touch with the reality world for a period of two years. Closing her eyes momentarily, Mai mentally prepared for her-self to expect the worst as she headed for the office.
Just yesterday evening, following the end of Naru's announcement that they would be taking on the case presented by their latest client – Yukimura Mitsuo; Mai had literally blown up twice. Once, when Naru agreed to take on the case – of course Mai had waited until Yukimura Mitsuo was out from earshot before blowing up.
The second time had been when she heard of the location for the case site being in Okinawa but luckily she had enough sense in her to vent her frustration by slamming the door of the front office closed instead of allowing her rarely used magic go haywire on her and risk breaking any of the window panes or light bulbs in her emotionally stressed out stage. It would do no good to the situation if that was what happened back then, Mai had no qualms about slipping up on her secret and cover at that point of time or worst, to have Naru or Lin pondering about the possibility of her having PK powers like Naru, he did.
Heaven forbids, when the uncontrollable magic go haywire and went fizzling out from her body – it does have a tendency to make things shake and break by their own accord. That had an eerily similarity to what Naru's PK powers would do, when being in an emotional outrage. Then again, that was all it has for the similarity between having PK and having magic in the body because no matter how hard Mai were to try bending a spoon with just sheer will power of the mind – it will never work because magic does not works in that manner. Uncontrollable fury radiating off one's body that caused untamed and accidental magic to flare out may have caused items to shake and break, but Mai can never control what these magic choose to act upon – and something as trivial as bending a spoon with the accidental magic was not in its league.
When Mai first arrived at the SPR office, the inside was still dark – a quick glance down at her wrist watch told her that the time now is 8:00 a.m. Funny to think that she was actually the early one to arrive, since usually the earliest to reach the office would be Naru and Lin whereas Mai, on the other hand, is usually the one that came into the office at the latest possible hour.
Deciding to start off by getting some of the items ready, Mai set down to work right away. She had been in the midst of getting ready the retort stand for the cameras that they will need when Lin and Naru happened to stroll into the office.
"Taniyama-san, you are early today." Lin had commented, after Naru's eyes widen significantly upon the sight that met them. The sight of Taniyama Mai being early for once, and is actually bustling around in the office getting the cameras and retort stands ready instead of making and brewing tea.
"Ah… I kind of woke up early today, and thought to head down to the office earlier …" Mai responded, not really sure if Lin's words had meant to be a question for her or not.
"Well, if only you could manage to wake up early every time we have a case – that would make everything played out right." Naru interjected then, in his usual cool and unfazed manner causing Mai to shoots him a look of annoyance when he finished.
"Excuse me! What was that again?" Mai gritted out in annoyance, and for a while she thought of ranting off again but thought better of it at the last possible minute and changes her lines instead. She had refuses to provide Lin and Naru with a reason behind her upsetting mood yesterday evening pertaining to the narcissist's decision to take on the Yukimura's case and she's not going to let them in on the reason now either.
"I believed you heard me right the first time I said it." Naru retorted, but was greatly disappointed when Mai settled for a total ignoring of his words from then onwards.
The trio worked in silence as they waited for the rest of the SPR group members to arrive and assemble as a team.
"Good morning, Naru-bou!" The ex-monk of Mt. Koya greeted before he did his usual task of squishing Mai with his 'hug'.
"Pardon me, but what's it with you and your tendency to squish the air out of me while greeting Naru?" Mai asked, as she tried to gasp for air while being squashed in that big bear hug of Takigawa Houshou, otherwise known to them as 'Bou-san'.
"Why, are you jealous for the lack of attention being showered upon you – my girl?" The monk grinned as he tightened his hold on Mai, cutting off her already lacking oxygen in the midst of doing so.
"You imbecile fool, let go of her already!" Ayako's voice was heard as she uses her purse to hit the monk heavily on his head.
"Aw! What the hell are you doing that for?" The monk protested as he let go of Mai reluctantly while Mai took the chance to refill her lungs with all the lacking air that she had needed from before.
"Stopping you from suffocating her, that's what I'm doing!" Matsuzaki Ayako, a self-claimed shrine maiden whom never did have proper training of a miko as she originated from a line of famous doctors – responded.
"Hey! I was not suffocating her; I'm only giving her a hug."
"Idiot, if you'd taken a look at her face you should be able to tell that your hug is on the verge of cutting off her supply of oxygen." Ayako scolded the monk in exasperation.
"If the two of you are just going to stand around and argue whole day, do it somewhere else and try not to disrupt our preparation work while doing so." Naru's emotionless voice was heard as he threw a death glare towards the duo's position, successfully in getting them to settle back down in silence.
"Good morning, Shibuya-san, Lin-san and Taniyama-san." The next person to arrive was John Brown, a priest from England but of Australian descent whom was also a resident exorcist from their group.
"Ah, good morning to you too… John." Mai greeted back with a mask of her usual bright smile, while Lin and Naru merely nodded back to the blond with nods of acknowledgement.
The last person to come strolling into the office was a kimono clad girl, about the same age of Mai – a well known medium to the public, going by the name of Hara Masako. Upon the sight of Mai already in the room, the medium appeared to be stunned for a moment before collecting herself and greeted the members in the room with her usual manners.
"Alright, since everyone is here already so do start with the task of loading the equipments onto the van parked downstairs." Naru commanded, and everybody immediately sprung into actions saved for the medium that claimed her weak in strength and thus would not be able to help with the task.
During the whole procedure of loading the van with equipments, Mai never did once let go of her duffle bag. She was nervous, but she refuses to let her anxiety get to her. The Yukimura family had quite a number of estates in the prefecture area of Okinawa but there has been only one that Mai detested with a passion.
Reason being – that estate give her a bad feeling for one, and the illness that took the life of her mother away was just a cover story given out to the general public. The truth is – her mother had been drained off too much of the magical powers during the short period of stay in that estate, and simply just cannot sustain any longer. The reason behind her mother's visit to that particular estate was unknown, but Mai could only guessed. After all, Yukimura Mitsuo did call their home up – three days in prior to her mother's visit to Okinawa.
From then on, Mai had detested Yukimura Mitsuo with a passion – and the former aristocrat way of doing things certainly did not helped things much. Mai hated the way the man always looked at her, just because her father – Taniyama Yuuto, was not one born of equal status to the Yukimura. If it was not for the fact that it was Yukimura Hisashi instead of Yukimura Mitsuo being in charge as the head of the family clan, Mai was willing to bet that her mother would be carted off and married to someone else instead. The more Mai pondered about Yukimura Mitsuo, the angrier she felt in her.
"Mai, if you are done dallying; could you hurry yourself up and get on the van?" Naru's annoyed tone sounded from the inside of the van, jolting the said brunette out from her 'walk' down the memory lane while she shot a look of annoyance towards the narcissist before heading for the SPR van.
"Wow, no comments on his attitude for today?" The monk mused aloud, when Mai simply just trudged towards the van in silence – not showing any outward signs of displeasure towards the narcissist teen.
Mai travelled in the company of Lin and Naru, for she was to stay aboard of the van to take care of the equipments on board the van. The rest of the group members, however, would be travelling to the client's place in the monk's car. Seeing as both her companions were not one with a lot of words, the whole journey was engulfed in silence.
Usually Mai would be falling asleep promptly when the van started on its journey, but not today. Sleep did not managed to claim the cheerful brunette, if anything – the need or the urge to sleep while travelling had forsaken her completely. Throughout the journey, Mai had been looking out at the windows of the van taking in all the scenery that pass them by while trying to tell for sure which estate is the one they are heading for.
Cold fear gripped Mai's stomach as she found the van pulling up to a stop in front of a western style building that loomed ahead of them.
'Great… just bloody great – the exact same building that I was hoping not to have come at all, seems like Yukimura Mitsuo was too confident of himself and now he decided that whatever it was residing in here could not be solved with a mere wave of a magic wand and deemed it necessary to bring in outside help – eh? Doesn't he know that he's putting the others including his own family members in dangers while doing so?! I would have thought following the demise of Yukimura Hisashi – Sanae's father, and Yukimura Maika – my mother. He would have already learnt his lessons, but unfortunately I thought wrong!' Mai thought silently while she fumed.
"Mai, get out of the van and helped us out in the unloading." Naru's ordering tone of voice successfully breaks into the thoughts of Mai, and draw her back into reality.
"I'm coming …" Mai mumbled as she stepped out of the van, making an attempt to move towards the back of the van and helped Lin in the unloading procedure.
Lin could feel the magic in the air, while his powers worked differently with those of the western side of the world. He could still recognized the powers radiating off in the surrounding air as magical wards, the wards of the house as though sensing an intruder in their compound had started to react badly to his shikigami's existence. It grew genuinely taxing for him as he tried to maintain his usual blank expression while heading to the back of the van to unload the equipments.
Taniyama Mai's sudden decision to jump into his sight caused his body to jerk into a shakily standing position caught Naru's attention – it would seem. His composure wavered for a split second and he had almost felt himself blacking out from the magic that went crazy surrounding him, when he felt the hands of Taniyama Mai holding a tight grip on him.
"Lin-san, hang in there for a while – will you?" Lin had heard Taniyama Mai murmured something like this towards him, before he felt a warm and welcoming sense of energy flooding through his senses. He had thought he heard Taniyama Mai chanting something in another language, but he wasn't sure of it. Nonetheless, that was a question meant for another time.
"Lin." Naru's voice shakes him out from his stupor mode, as he rose to his full height to regard the young man coolly.
"I'm fine, I just tripped...over a pebble." Lin responded calmly as he darted a look towards the offending piece of pebble that somehow suddenly seemed to appear by the side of his feet. His face betrayed no outward reaction while he slid a glance towards the direction of Taniyama Mai, silently willing the brunette to agree with his statement and at the same time wondered if the pebble had been her doings.
"Yes, Naru – I'm certain that Lin-san is alright. I think I jumped out from the van too abruptly and in the process accidentally kicking a pebble from my side towards him causing him to stumble. Everything is fine." That was Mai's response to Naru's questioning look, while she glances towards the stoic elder man with a 'look' of her own. Their eyes met for a split second before going back to their task at hand – that is, to unload the equipments from the van.
No words were being exchanged between them both, Lin was certain that Mai had something to do with that warm and fuzzy feeling that swept through his senses rendering the wards to welcome his entry now – but he had no idea what exactly Mai had did. On the other hand, Mai was simply glad that she had nullify the magic in the wards in time before Lin's shikigami lashes out in retaliation of their owner being attacked on the compound.
"What a big and nice house, the client must have been filthily rich to be able to live in such an exquisite house." Mai thought she heard the monk mentioned something like that, but she was not sure because her attention had been focused on elsewhere – such as trying to figure out just how on earth can the magical wards on the house be this complicated.
Magical wards are not Mai's forte area of knowledge, unlike her cousin – Yukimura Sanae. Mai's forte areas in magic are charms and defence spells, whereas Yukimura Marina – the daughter of Yukimura Mitsuo, forte area are in the fields of the dark arts. While on the subject of dark arts – this mansion absolutely reeked of it, especially the east wing of the house.
Speaking of which, she had better checked with Naru again on what exactly Yukimura Mitsuo had let them in when he came by with the case. She had after all missed the big part of it all, as Lin had sent her off for some errands upon detecting her immense dislike for the client.
The front door to the mansion had opened up then, and a nicely dressed lady had appeared with a butler in tow.
"Good afternoon, you people must be the SPR team that my husband was telling me about. Please come in, we already have the rooms that you requested for usage ready at hand. My butler – Kurokawa shall be bringing you people in and bring you people for a tour of the mansion while at it."
"You are Mrs. Yukimura, I presumed." Naru started, shaking the hand of the lady while he did so.
"Oh no… just address me as Rinka will do. It makes me feel old when you addressed me as Mrs. Yukimura." Rinka, the wife of Yukimura Mitsuo told Naru so – while the rest of the SPR team made a move to follow Kurokawa, the butler into the mansion.
"Masako, did you managed to feel anything?" Mai turned towards the medium and asked while she hide in the shadow of the SPR group.
"Yes, there's an abnormally large number of spirits lingering here in this house and mostly concentrating on the eastern part of the wing too. Among its centre is a dark and sinister spirit, the intent wasn't exactly clear to me though and she refuses to speak to me. All in all… it is still giving me a horrible feel to it." Masako responded, her kimono sleeves to her nose as per normal.
"…" Mai was solemnly quiet when she heard Masako's statement, and quite honestly she had no idea what to expect for this case. Now she was upset by her own doings back in the office yesterday, if only she could curb in her desires to snap at the man – probably she won't be this helpless now.
"Mai… stop day-dreaming and get a move on!" Naru's voice was heard from behind her, causing the brunette to snap back to reality – a quick look around she realized that she had zoned out in the midst of a tour around the house. Taking in a sharp intake of breath, Mai hurried to drag Naru with her as they catch up with the rest of the team – if she had knew they were in the hallways of the east wing she would never dared to zone out in her thoughts.
"This shall be the room for your equipments and to serve as your base." Mai heard the butler telling the rest of the members, as they come to a stop in front of a spacious room.
"Thank you, Kurokawa-san. I would appreciate if you can get the staffs ready to speak to us in another hour's time for the interview session to take place." Lin addressed the elderly butler, before the man took his leave from them all.
Mai stepped into the spacious room given to them for usage as a base and sighed aloud at the sheer irony of its all – the exact same room she seen in her dreams from before when she tore through that doorway separating the two wings of the house. Upon the thought of it, she froze – the doorway from her dream, its' missing.
Turning around immediately, she headed towards the doorway and bellowed down the hallway for the butler to come back for an explanation or sort.
"Kurokawa, where is that bloody doorway that separated the wings!" Mai bellowed, causing everyone in the room to wince at her shrill voice – this was the first time ever for them to see Mai bellowing at someone. Even when Mai argued with Naru, she only shouted or yelled at times but never to reach to a stage whereby she would bellow.
"… I apologized, but Master Mitsuo deemed the doorway to be old and a hassle and decided to do without it." Kurokawa, the butler explained in his most professional manner but only caused Mai to get even more irritated by it all.
"He tore down the doorway?! How dare he?! The doorway had a valid reason for being there and he actually dared to tear it down!? Just because he finds it too old and the design too hideous for his likings?! Why don't you just tell him to suck it down and deal with that maniac in there instead of seeking help from the outsiders when the strange disappearance of the maids started to happen?! That door was what exactly keeping the dangers away from the residents in it and he took it down?! Is he crazy or does he have a death wish on his list?!" Mai snarled her face turning beet red with anger and is giving off an aura that kills.
"Mai, what is going on here?" Naru questioned, judging from Mai's reaction – she had a very clear idea on what they are up against.
"A lunatic have it in mind to start a ritual of necromancy to bring back the dead – in specific to bring back her twin that died when they were still young. The ritual was somehow incomplete, either because it was put to a stop or that someone had sacrifice oneself for the obvious reason to deter the completion of the ritual. The ritual's first took place in the centre of the east wing, and since then the wing had been completely abandoned and a doorway was built to separate out the wings of this mansion.
Wards were placed on the doorway keeping out the evil and darkness that lurks in the east wing, words has been passes down generations by generations that no one is to go and cross over to the other side of the mansion if not tragedy will befalls. Nearly a century has passes by since then, but I wasn't sure if that lunatic in there was still alive or not. If alive, the worst scenario would have to kill her off – and if already dead, then we have a bigger problem at hand." Mai recounted the tale she had heard from her mother in prior, on her deathbed.
"Excuse me… but if it happened a century ago, surely the person whom tried to do the ritual would be dead already, no?" The monk interjected from his position.
"In usual circumstances, that would be the case." Mai responded, grimly.
"What is so unusual about this situation then?" The monk question back in return.
"I'll have you know - the lifespan of a full-fledge powerful witch could last through a century or more…" Mai muttered aloud.
"Pardon me, did you just say – a witch? Certainly that can't be true … this is no Harry Potter realm, you know?" The monk continues on, scepticism apparent now.
"Believe what you want, but I am not joking about this issue. This is the exact words from my mother, and she wouldn't lie of such things." Mai retorted back, her features solemn.
"Why would your mother tell you all these, and how could you be certain that she wasn't lying to you?" Naru pointed out, objectively.
"My mother is not lying because she had no reason to, she told me because I should know about it – as well. Topping it off together, I would think my mother to know her own family history better than the others out there. Yukimura Maika was the name of my mother … cousin to our client this time around, and sister to the late Yukimura Hisashi." Mai recounted, sending a challenging look towards Naru to dig through the history of the Yukimura Clan if he dared to.
"We shall continue this conversation at another time, for now – lets' just set up the base. Matsuzaki-san, Takigawa-san – do go around setting up the equipments. John accompanied Hara-san to do a walk-through and see if we can get anything about the spirits. Mai get me some tea from the kitchen, and while at it – do a record of the temperatures about the house too." Naru instructed, while he busied himself with the task of setting up the equipments in the base with Lin's help.
Date edited: 4/2/2013
I changed the name of Ayako officially to Matsuzaki Ayako, following what the Wiki-pedia listed down.