A/N: I'm still stuck with my other story so I decided to update this one. Hehe. I hate this. I just want the other one to end but why? Writer's Block is really enemy of all authors. But I hope you like this chapter. I have written it a while back so I just encoded it and post it here.

DISCLAIMER: I don't Own Ghost Hunt.

[Not Edited]

ARC 01: THE RETURN (03)

CHAPTER THREE: Novels and a Friend.

Mai Taniyama grew up in California but her mother wanted her to return to England where her father grew up in. In her first life, she refused to leave and continued to live alone in California. It was not until she was poisoned by a rival that she seeks refuse in England. By being a money maker, she had offended many powerful people and this was the result of all her acts. And in her new life, Mai decided not to go to England but she also don't want to stay in California. England had also left her so many bitter memories so she choose Japan to live in. Mai wanted to discover the land where her ancestors came from. Mai also planned to find a spouse there. But she still needs to visit England because the main residence and her parents are there.

It has been three years since her mother passed away and it also means that it has been three years after she came back from the future. Mai pretty much deviate from her first life's path after living in Japan. She continued her studies in in Tokyo University after passing the entrance exam. And it was not easy. Mai may have been a successful businesswoman in her first life but it doesn't mean she is that academic smart. She struggled in Science, Mathematics and Japanese. She almost failed the exam. She have been living for two years in the country and she had learned a lot from it.

She took Journalism instead of Business Management. It's useless to study that field again when she's already an expert. She started writing horror novels using the experiences she got from the ghosts she had helped. And some people like what she wrote. It was a bit difficult to write in Japanese in the beginning since she doesn't know a lot of Kanji but it was fortunate that she had found a good publishing company that agreed to translate her English novels and publish them in Japanese. But now that she learned how to write in Kanji, she stopped writing in English.

Mai bought a house in Shibuya but it was more like a commercial building than an actual house since it was located in the center of a shopping district in Dogenzaka. It was loud but that is what Mai like. The silence reminded her of her quiet life in the hospital and all the rooms are soundproof so if she doesn't want noises, she can just close the windows and doors.

The building has four floors and the fourth and first floors are currently occupied by her and a friend's family. She owns the fourth floor and the rooftop while the first floor is currently being used as a café by a friend's family. Mai only need the two upper floors so she decided to rent the rest of the floors out to earn extra money than to let it rot forever.

Mai sent the draft to her editor's email. She had been working on her third horror novel and she had just finished the ending after one night of staying up. Mai was supposed to submit the draft a month earlier but she hit the bottleneck and went to gather inspiration for the book. Mai went to the bathroom to freshen up before lazily coming down to the first floor to eat. Mai knew how to cook but she only knew some simple dishes and she currently don't have that much of ingredients.

The café was established by the family of Mai's assistant and friend, Kawana Yukino. She is five years older than Mai but she acts like a junior probably because of Mai's very mature temperament. This woman also acts like a teenager. Kawana Yukino was fired by her former boss when Mai first met her. She's very talented in business and it would be a waste to let go of this good seedling so Mai hired her to manage the foundation that she is building.

Mai doesn't want to be a tycoon like her first life but she doesn't know what to do with her money besides shopping. Mai also want to help poor unfortunate children in their education so she established LINEN Foundation which aims to help children in need. Mai threw Kawana Yukino in to represent her, the anonymous boss. This newly appointed Vice-Chairwoman was a bit clumsy at first but with Mai's guidance, she is now capable in handling things alone. As for how Mai persuade Kawan Yukino to work for her,

"Macchan! Did you finished the ending?! Let me see! Let me see!" A woman with black hair and delicate face came rushing to Mai as soon as she entered the café. Her dark brown eyes are twinkling as she look at Mai with expectations, her arms are clinging to Mai like octopus. Kawana Yukino looked like a dog squirming in front of a rabbit because of her tall height and more matured face than Mai.

"I already sent it to the editor, you can read it after it was published." Mai answered her with an exasperated sigh as she freed herself from an octopus hug.

That's right, Kawana Yukino agreed to work for her not because she don't have a job but because she learned that Mai is the author of her favorite manga that was adapted from the first novel that Mai had written. Kawana Yukino loves horror and she would not read anything but horror and of course, romance. Yukino's mom, who saw their landlady struggling from her daughter's sticky hugs, immediately help Mai by throwing a bag of bread towards her daughter's head.

"Ouch! Okaa-san! What did you do that for?!"

"You stupid girl! Are you planning to kill your boss?! She almost looked like a zombie because of that novel but instead of feeding her first, you asked for the update?!"

'Zombie? Thank you for the complement Auntie.' Mai sarcastically sighed in her mind as she look at herself on a mirror. But Aunt Kawana was just saying the truth. Mai really look like a living dead by how pale her skin is because of the lack of sunlight and also because of the dark circles under her eyes. She spent four days and three nights without sleep just to finish the final volume of her book. It is no wonder that she look this horrible.

"I get it! I get it! Macchan, come this way." Yukino grumbled and lead Mai to a table. The café have a few costumers since it was just five in the morning so it was a bit quiet. Mai sat on a chair and waited for her usual breakfast.

"Macchan, did you consider what Editor Sou-" Yukino didn't finished her sentence because of Mai's interruption. Mai already knew what she's going to say. She and her editor, Yamamoto Souta, had been bothering her with this topic for a while now.

"I don't write romance novels." Mai immediately answered as Aunt Kawana placed her meal on the table while glaring at Yukino, who glared back. This aunt smacked her daughter's head before leaving.

"Why do she always smack me?! UGH!" Yukino grunted while rubbing her head. She turned to Mai, who began eating. "But why don't you write romance? Don't you know that 90 percent of your fans ship the characters on your novels?! The characters in your novels formed such chemistry that even I wanted to kill you when you sink all of our ships!" Kawana Yukino glared at her friend as the other person ignored her words and focused on eating her meal.

Mai's novels are popular all over the country and had won many awards. Her pen name, RENE, is also known in Japanese Literature. The pen name means 'reborn' in French. All of Mai's novels are either adapted into movies, animations or mangas. The plots are amazing and same as through with the characters. Many readers are obsessed with her works and continued to ship the characters together.

Mai's characters sometimes have great chemistry that made her fans go crazy. Almost all of them have their biases and shipped couples from her novels and some even formed a fan base for them. It is a pity that Mai would sink those ships even before it sailed. There are new ships whenever Mai publish a new book but Mai always crush her fan's dreams by not letting the characters have a romantic relations! This makes some fans go insane!

Because of this issue, Mai's fans were divided into three categories: the bitter non-romance fans, the passionate shippers, and the numb shippers. The bitter non-romance fans are the ones who like the novels are a horror genre and they the usually the ones who justify and supported Mai not wanting romance. The numb shippers are the one who ships Mai's characters but also accepted that their ships will always sink. These kind of Mai's fans are already immune to Mai's boat sinking techniques. And the last one is the passionate shippers, they are the fans who wanted to kill Mai. Even if Mai sunk their ships, they still wanted Mai to write horror-romance novels and these passionate shippers are approximately 60 percent of Mai's fan base.

So there are many people who wanted to kill Mai aka RENE because she's so anti-romantic. This is also the reason why she doesn't attend book-signing events. Mai was so thankful the she used a mask on her first book-signing or else, many people would have known her appearance. But they can't really kill Mai, right? Who would write their favorite novels?

Kawana Yukino and Yamamoto Souta belonged to the last fan category and they have been bugging Mai for a year now. They had been persuading Mai but she always disagrees! But it is not that Mai don't like to write romance, she just doesn't know how to. She had been single for years both in her first and current life, how would she write a romance novel?! She also refused to write one because it would be factitious and emotionless.

"I don't have a love life, why would I write a romance story?" Mai asked to stop her friend's series of complaints but Yukino continued to berate her. "Can't you see the chemistry between the characters you wrote?! You have the talent to write a romance story!"

Mai shook her head while wiping her mouth with the napkin. She raised her right eyebrow before sighing. Honestly, she doesn't know why the fans even ship her characters when she made sure that all of their interactions she wrote are normal. Mai thought that maybe it's because the main characters on her first book are a male and a female so on her second book, she made all of her main characters male. But as a result, she gained Yaoi fans! And even if the main characters are males, other fans managed to ship her side characters. Mai gave up trying and just wrote her third book the ways she wants.

"What Chemistry? They're just solving cases and helpings ghost! I still don't get why you ships my characters when they acts as friends or co-workers!" It was Mai's turn to complain. Yukino shook her head and put Mai's dirty plates on the dishwasher in the kitchen. She came back after a few moments.

"Why can't you see it? MashiroxMomoya, LeonxAlice, LuhanxShin, and SakixMichiru have chemistry! And they perfect for each other!" Yukino tried to explain but Mai countered her immediately. "The first pair are just detective partners, the second one are childhood friends, the third pair are both males, and the last pair are just non-blood related siblings! Their relationships are normal and so are their interactions."

"Ehy are there so many shippers then?" Yukino angrily retorted but Mai shook her head. "Maybe you're all crazy?" Yukino almost exploded at her answer. She really wanted to pull Mai's hair until she's bald but she can't do anything! Mai is still her boss and what would happen to her novels if Mai's gone?!

Yukino stopped speaking for a moment before beaming a grin and snapping her fingers, showing her eureka moment. "I know! I'll arrange you another blind date!" Mai almost spit out the water in her mouth as she heard that familiar sentence. "Again? How many times would I tell you that I don't like the men you're arranging for me!"

"We would have prevented that if you tell me what your exact type is!" Yukino snapped and began to loudly scold her boss while poking her forehead. This action made Mai to raise her voice. The Kawana Family didn't try to stop them because this is a normal event whenever one of them mentioned the words, 'blind date'.

"I already told you I don't have anything specific as long as they treat me well and were honest and loyal then I'm okay with them!"

"All those men treat you well!"

"All of them try to win me with money and looks! You know I don't care if they're poor or average-looking!"

"I arranged some average-looking man for you!"

"They're still second generation rich who only knows how to spend their parent's money! You know I hate those men who think they can win me with their money! Gosh! I am even wealthier than their parents!"

"How can you live if your husband is poor?!"

"I am rich! I can support him!"

"How can a woman like you support a man?! It's not proper!"

"Oh, don't be so traditional, Yukino! My man's role is to only love and care for me. If I found that man then I wouldn't mind if I were the one who chase him."

"How can you say that when you don't even have a man to chase, you idiot!"

"My intuition will tell me once I met him.'

"What do your intuition do?! I think it is dead!"

"Humph! No matter you say, I'll wait for him! He'll come around."

"Then what about my romance novel?!"

"I don't know! You write it!"

"UGH!"

The two of them ended up panting after that long banter. The few costumers around them were looking at them strangely while trying not to speak a word. Yukino and Mai cleared their throats when they noticed the embarrassing tension. They lowered their voice and changed the subject.

"Ahem. By the way, Yukino, I want to take a 2-week break." Mai was the first one to speak as Yukino turned to her. "A break? Where will you be going this time?" Mai pulled out a brochure and showed it to her friend. "Nagano."

"Okay! I'll tell it to your editor later. When will you be going?" Yukino asked as her phone rings. "Tomorrow morning." Yukino reached out for her bag and retouched her make-up. Mai watched her and raised her eyebrow.

"Okay. I have a date with my boyfriend in the next 30 minutes so I have to go now. You have to be careful while travelling, okay?"

'So this is why she styled her hair today. She looks pretty good.'

"Will do." With that reply, Yukino put away her make-up kit and walked away after saying goodbye to her parents. Mai also stood up from her seat and went upstairs.

Mai is really trying to get herself a boyfriend and patiently went to all blind dates arranged previously by Yukino but she just got bored by all of those men who she dated. They're so typical and doesn't appeal to her. Even the feeling she got from them are not appealing to her. They don't attract her in some way or another. Not all of them are assholes but the remaining fall to the ill-fated and the friend category. Some men she dated don't live long and they would think she was crazy when she tried to warn them! No matter how good some men are and how they matches her tastes, she just can't look at them in a special way. Mai sighed to herself and pouted in envy for Yukino's date. Mai also wanted a boyfriend!

Mai went o pack her things while ignoring the ghosts that approached her after she went out of the café. She planned to visit all the tourist spots in Nagano Prefecture within her 2-week vacation. Mai hoped that there will be no ghost that will ruin her fun. She didn't forget to pack her headphones before going to the bed to sleep.

Sometimes, people would find her odd when she's talking to the ghosts that normal people can't see. So she bought head phones or put the phone beside her ear to look like she's talking to someone in the phone. Mai sighed one more time before she closed her eyes that almost look black due to lack of sleep.