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.
Author's Notes: Now it's time for case 4… I hope it is entertaining enough for you people. I tried my best not to be demoralized by the lack of reviews…
Reply to Hikari Reizumi: Thanks for the review I wish you luck for your mid-term. Lol, I hope my characters won't make you lost in the 'jungle' XD the last case should be quite alright, I think… when you say characters with similar names…do you mean their first name or family name? Although I have a habit of recycling my characters featured in the story, one should not mix them up easily unless they read all my fics on hand. Then there might be a confusion XD now on with the chapter…
Chapter 11 – Case 4: A dead pianist's last wish…Part 1
Mai jolted awake upon the sound of a piano in the background, playing the infamous tune of Beethoven's 'Moonlight Sonata'. Blinking in bewilderment, the brunette glances around her surrounding only to find herself in an unknown corridor with a long stretch of doors ahead of her. There was no sign of living beings about the area, the only sign of human activity was that recurring tunes of Moonlight Sonata emerging from one of the rooms ahead.
"Okay…now what?" Mai mumbled to herself. Inwardly, debating whether or not to go in search for the pianist in question…but before she could come to the conclusion she was drawn back out from the vision and back into reality plane.
Taniyama Mai sat up in bed with a sigh; the clock sitting on her bedside cabinet told her it was 12am.
'…Great, this is just bloody fantastic. No case yet and I'm dreaming of the most bizarre thing again.' Mai thought inwardly to herself.
"…Just what the hell is that supposed to mean…?" Mai frowned as she mumbled to herself.
With a rueful shake of her head, Mai re-settled herself back onto her bed with the intention to go back to bed and hopefully see no dreams this time around.
Hours later, when Mai awoke from her slumber land…she could still hear the sound of Moonlight Sonata ringing in her ears.
'Damn…that tune's not going to leave me alone now. Somehow, I feel as thought that dream is not quite over yet.' Mai thought with a frown, as she starts to get ready for the day ahead. Throughout school period, the brunette was oddly distracted in class.
The tunes of 'Moonlight Sonata' ringing about in the back of her mind was making it tough for her to concentrate on what the teacher was droning on about in History lesson. Luckily though, it wasn't one of her weaker subjects in scientific fields…if not, she might end up in trouble again with the teacher in charge.
When the school bell rang to signify the end of the classes for the day, for the first time ever…Mai was the first one out from the door. The brunette knew, the only way to stop the nagging thought in the back of her mind was to get down to SPR right away. Judging from her past experiences to say, whenever she got bizarre dreams it usually meant there is a possibility of it being related to one of their cases.
"Mai-chan…!" The sound of Madoka Mori addressing the brunette jolted Mai out from her reverie only to find herself being captured in a crush-like hug.
"Madoka-san…?" Mai blinked, still disoriented from her thoughts. For a while, she nearly forgotten the fact that Madoka Mori would be staying around in Japan for some time before returning to the UK.
"Come on, let's go shopping." The female researcher and mentor of Mai's young boss declared causing the brunette's eyes to widen in shock.
"EH…?!" Mai stared as her eyes widen in surprise, she did not rush all the way here from school to go shopping. She came for the sake of unravelling the mystery behind her bizarre dream from the night before…
That was when the twenty-nine year old Chinese man, Koujo Lin spoke up. He told the brunette to leave with Madoka so as to 'save' them from that woman, and not to worry about her job and pay issue. The Chinese man promised Mai that Naru would not be able to cut her pay for 'slacking' during work period, this time around.
"Finally…!" Naru exclaimed grumpily, when his clumsy assistant and his mentor was no longer within earshot.
The Chinese man shot his ward a sympathetic look, Madoka had come in one hour ago trying to persuade them into the idea of going shopping with her. Naru, having been one who was never quite enjoy the idea of being in a crowd had turned down her request flatly and suggested for her to ask someone else for that matter. That had been when Taniyama Mai stepped into the office, and instantly Lin had suggested for Madoka to head out with the brunette instead.
In response to his suggestion, Madoka had obliged happily while the poor girl seem quite bewildered by the sudden shopping trip request. Naru and Lin though, were quite relieved when that woman left the office with the brunette in tow. At least now they could really get some work done here in the office.
"Naru, I noticed that the mirror in the bathroom was broken into shards this morning. What happened between you and that mirror before I make use of the facility earlier on today?" The Chinese man asked; taking opportunity to ask before his ward could stalk back into his office to sulk in peace.
"…I spoke with Gene." Naru eventually caved and let it slip of the fact that he had spoken to his dead twin earlier on in the day using the mirror in their apartment flat as a medium source.
"I see…I take it that the conversation did not go well?" Lin commented.
"He refuses to speak of his whereabouts, except to stress upon the fact that neither of us was to speak of his death with Mai." Naru gritted out from frustration.
"Did he tell you the reason why?" Lin prompted, frowning as he too tried to come up with a possible explanation behind Gene's insistence to keep things a secret from the brunette.
"No, aside from the fact that Mai might not be able to handle the news well…and it appears that he was worried of what Mai would attempt to do after finding out the reason behind his death, it would seems." Naru responded with a frown.
"You don't think Gene's death has got anything to do with Taniyama-san, do you?" Lin questioned.
"I don't know, but I reckon that the reason behind Gene's coming to Japan does have something to do with her though. The timing matches, be it Gene's visit or Mai's return to Japan after her five years spend in the states." Naru eventually said with a sigh, before re-entering his office to brood in peace.
'Damn you, Gene…' Naru cursed inwardly at his dead twin for tempting his curiosity only to leave things hanging and unsaid.
Naru disliked the idea of being kept in the dark, because that gives him the feeling as though he was running about the place blind. During his earlier talk with Gene through the mirror, he had had a few of his questions answered only to bring up more queries and doubts in mind which his twin avoided to address. Gene had refuses to share information pertaining to his reason for visiting Japan, and the cause behind his death.
The former had only admitted to the issue of knowing Mai from the US and was on good terms with the brunette. And then Gene had make him promised that he would never speak of the former death with Mai, and that when the time comes…he would not leave the brunette alone and unsupervised. Why…? Naru had questioned, but Gene refused to supply him with an answer but was adamant on getting his word of promise.
With a sigh, Naru draws himself out from his memory lane and focused on the book of local maps in front of him. From his psychometric ability, he had gotten a vision of his twin's death by picking up a shirt of Gene's a few nights prior to his arrival in Japan with Lin. In fact, that vision was exactly the reason that spurs on their decision to venture over to Japan in the first place.
He had seen and felt his twin's paralysed fear when the car rammed into Gene's body twice before being thrown into a lake to drown to his death. The feeling was so horrible that he never managed to forget about it, for the first month of his arrival in Japan…he never managed a night's sleep without jerking awake from those recurring dreams of his twin's death. Having seen his twin's death, he had strike a bargain with his adoptive parents' Martin and Luella Davis, to venture down here to Japan with Lin in search for Gene's body with the intention to bring the former back to UK for eternal rest.
Naru had circled out all the possible venues of his twin's body current resting place, but the whole of Japan have about twenty over lakes. He could not possibly search each and every one of them… that would take too much time. Naru set up the Japan SPR office in order to prevent their UK acquaintances for kicking up a fuss of his lengthen period of stay in Japan. Either way, back to the topic of the lake in question… the thing now was that Naru had no idea which lake it was in his vision of Gene's death.
He could recognize the surrounding if he saw it with his own eyes, but it was hard to tell on a mere map images. However, the lakes were practically spread across the country and he had no intention to uncover it using trial and error method. That would take up too much of his free time, now if only Gene would slipped up with the information that would be for best but unfortunately, his twin seem unwilling to let him in on the fact. Regardless of the fact that he had given his dead twin his words that this information would be kept solely between them and probably Lin.
Naru was rudely awakened from his thoughts when his solemn and taciturn assistant knocked on his office door, informing him of a client's arrival to speak to him. Snapping the book of local maps closed, Naru grabbed his black notebook and stepped out from his office into the front area where Lin was just settling down on the couch with a laptop in hand, after bringing the clients some tea from the kitchenette.
"Good afternoon, I'm the boss of the SPR, Shibuya Kazuya. How do I address you?" Naru pushed aside his own thoughts, and had on his usual business smiling mask as he greeted the client. A smile in which Mai would no doubt comment about it being fake if she had been around to witness it on his face.
"Shinomiya Mihato…" The client responded as they shook one another's hands for a brief moment, before settling down on the sofa couch for the meeting to commence.
The man was dressed in a typical business suit and look to be about mid-thirties with sandy-brown hair and there was some apprehension and worry on his features. Naru observed, while Lin returned from the kitchenette area with a cup of warm green tea in hand and handed it to the prospective client.
"Thank you." The man accepted the tea with a nod of appreciation, but did not make a move to drink it just yet instead he opted to warm his hands using the cup of tea.
"Shinomiya-san, May I inquired what's the reason behind your visit today?" Naru questioned his notebook ready at hand to record key information to the case while Lin had his laptop ready at hand to type out the case information for future references.
"I understand from some of my colleagues that your company deals with supernatural phenomenon, correct?" Shinomiya Mihata glances up at Naru for confirmation, and upon receiving a nod in response…he continues on.
"I'm experiencing some unfathomable situation back at home, and I swear it was driving me to the brink of insanity." The man in his mid-thirties proclaimed.
"Unfathomable situation like what…?" Naru prompted, and that was exactly when Mai and Madoka returned to the office with their purchases from the mall.
"Shadows were moving about in the house; doors opening and closing by it-self; humming sound being heard from the room when there was no one visible in sight and the sight of a piano being played when there was nobody playing it." The man was saying with a frown on his face.
"Was there anything else aside from the above disturbance?" Naru asked.
"Yes, and no… the strange thing now was that the disturbance stopped occurring the moment my niece came over and stayed with us. Only thing that worries us was the oddity in my niece's behaviour these days." The man commented next.
"Oddity in behaviour…what do you mean?" Lin piped up from his typing task to regard the client with unwavering gaze.
"She cooped herself up in the music room where the piano was stationed at all day long, stopping only to eat or to use the facility. Dark rings could be seen decorating the sides of her eyes, and she was turning paler with each passing days. I'm worried about her health, but whenever I brought up the subject for her to rest for a while before continuing her practice on the piano…she would give me a weary smile and assured me that I have nothing to worry about.
Her temper was also getting stranger with each passing minute; sometimes she gets snappy for no apparent reasons. She refuses to let anyone touches the piano which I think was quite weird, and these days she only played the infamous tune of 'Moonlight Sonata' when everybody who knew her on personal scale was aware of the fact that she prefers Mozart pieces over Beethoven. It was as if she was a complete different person at times that it was freaking us out." With this said, the man combed a hand through his already messy hair in distress.
"Pardon my intrusion, but I have a question for you, sir." Mai spoke up from behind, ignoring Naru's inquiring gaze while she centred her attention on the man seated on the couch. The client took no offences to Mai's interruption and in fact signalled for her to voice her question across.
"By any chance is that piano you have in your residence your own property to begin with, or was it part of the house when you purchased the place?" Mai asked, drawing curious eyes from the rest of the office occupants.
"It came with the house itself… the previous owners says something about not needing it any longer." Shinomiya Mihato responded, if he was bewildered by Mai's question…he did not questioned Mai's reasoning behind her inquiry.
"…" Mai was silent as she mulled over the incident, thinking back on the dream she had had the night before. And then, she shifted pleading eyes towards her narcissistic boss silently willing him to accept the case.
Naru knew Mai wanted him to accept the case, but he was not going to do so without getting a valid reason out from her first. And so, he only instructed for the potential client to leave his contact details with Mai while he think it over and would contact him once he made up his mind about whether or not to accept the case. The moment, the client departed from the office and was deem to be completely out from earshot… Naru started throwing questions towards the brunette.
"You seem quite eager for me to accept the case, why?"
"I don't know but if my recurring dreams of the tune 'Moonlight Sonata' were of any hint…I think we ought to accept it. Besides, I have enough reasons to believe that the niece of Shinomiya-san was being possessed by the spirit. He did mention about the phenomenon stopping once his niece was there to stay with him, no?" Mai pointed out blatantly.
"…" Naru was silent as he mulled over the brunette's words, he had to admit Mai's reasoning was valid enough. Grudgingly, he nodded his agreement to accept the case and instructed for Mai to notify the client about their acceptance of the case and to make relevant arrangements for the investigation to take place.
With that, Mai proceeded to call up the client making the necessary arrangement for their investigation work. Next, she dialled up the numbers of their usual SPR team members and informed them of their new case that would be taking place this coming weekend.
Date started: 14/2/2013
Date completed: 18/2/2013
P.S: Sorry for the shorter chapter, but my mind refuses to cooperate on the start of this case… Pardon me eh. I'll try to make next chapter longer if I can.