HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
I don't know what I've done to deserve you guys, but you guys are seriously the best. Honestly! Every single one of you, and yes I mean you too, reader, you're all fantastic. I love you guys!
I bought a sunlamp, so that should help with the whole depression thing, so maybe I'll have more motivation to write in general? I've written completely unrelated things, but for some reason, Blind likes to be a bit of a bitch to get motivation for, unless I'm supposed to be doing sociology homework, which is an even bigger bitch.
Ahem, anyway, guess who tried (and failed) to do NaNoWriMo? AKA, National Novel Writing Month. It was supposed to be a story about a girl that works in a business that holds onto dragon hoards and like, sorts and protects them and stuff, but then ish happens, and she has to go fix it, and she's definitely not getting paid enough for this job, Anderson, and etc etc. I only got a couple thousand words though, but whatever, its fine, I wrote like three or four college papers in November so I feel like that should count for something, at least. Maybe one day I'll write a book. No idea what about, I have a lot of ideas but I'm somewhat flighty with what I like to work with, but if I ever do I'll be sure to tell you guys?
I have this case planned out… towards the middle and end. The beginning, however… eh, decided to just. Kind of wing it and hope for the best. It's not, like, completely unplanned, buuuuut interesting stuff happens somewhat later and so... Not sure if it'll be towards the end of this chapter or the one after… I'm trying to think of it kind of like an episode in the anime... I'll try to keep to the three-or-four-chapter-case model, with about, what, 8,000 words each, but I guarantee nothing. Oh, and while I have major facts hammered down, smaller details are still up in the air, and the inclusion of one particular character is still iffy. So I'll see what feedback I get from you guys to help decide certain things. You guys catch things I sometimes don't, so it's nice to see what you notice!
Really hoping that these names don't suck. Also this particular case has been revised a lot since the original, so even if I talked about it to you in the past, chances are, it's changed. Maybe I'll share my original notes at some point, they're handwritten and everything.
Also, I know I've been gone for a long time. I really, truly hate it, and I'm sincerely sorry for it. There are serious reasons, and then not so serious reasons. But regardless, time doesn't go backwards to let you write your fanfic in a timely manner, no matter how annoyed you get at yourself.
I don't own Ghost Hunt, or this would be canon.
ENJOY, HOPEFULLY?
BLIND
I never really cared much for farms. Big open places with plants for me to trip over and animals to either love me or hate my guts? No thanks. I probably couldn't even harvest correctly, and it's not like harvesting was a particularly useful skill for a Tokyoite living in the city with limited apartment space.
I also imagined that Naru didn't care much for farms either. He certainly didn't seem like a country, farm-boy sort of guy. Particularly the part where he wears dress shoes basically everywhere.
So, why are we out here again?!
Our location was a bit out of the city. And by that, I mean way out of the city. The Furukawa family farm was basically in the middle of nowhere. We weren't even given a proper street address, our instructions to get here were 'Get on this road, and keep going. Thirty minutes later you'll be at the house. Can't miss it. If you miss it, turn around at the red building, not the green and blue one—Kisho has trained guard dogs. If you miss both of those, ask for directions from any of the other neighbors, if you manage to stumble upon them. Might be a bit rude though.'
Isolated place, urban civilization far away, possibly hostile neighbors. How many horror stories started out this way?
Which, well, we did hunt ghosts, so I guess it was kind of a given part of the job. But still, we didn't have to encourage it.
Thankfully, other than a few phone calls to ensure that we were, in fact, going the right way, we managed to get to the case location with few problems.
… Still felt like a horror movie's subtle beginnings.
"Naru," I grumbled as I carted equipment out of the van and towards the large house we were investigating, "if we get murdered, I'm blaming you."
"We won't die, Mai," Naru carried his load with ease. "Do try not to get kidnapped this time, though."
I groaned. "Oh, great, you've jinxed it. And it's not like I ask for this nonsense to happen." I bumped the front door open ahead of Naru, as I do have slightly less than he does and thus a bit more mobility. "Trust me, if I could manage to go one case without somehow getting targeted by the ghost or curse or whoever's causing the problem, that'd be fine by me. I'd also like to avoid any wells or underground anything, while I'm at it."
Lin breezed past us, carrying at least half our shelves in. "I'm not nearly confident enough in your ability to not get targeted, but I do doubt you'll find a well close enough to fall down around here."
Oh wow. Whole sentences. Five hundred yen says he used his entire word count for the case to snark at me.
If Naru disapproved of what I mutter under my breath after that, he didn't mention it. Wise choice, I still had control of whether or not we have sugar or salt in the tea I make for this team. Lin's managed to prop our newest base's door open with a mildly hideous cast iron cat by the time we get there, and we settle our stuff onto one of the provided tables.
"Mai, shelves." At least it wasn't tea. "And tea, after we're done." Well, damn it.
I huffed as I set to work. It could be worse, I knew how our shelves worked. I also took good care of them, because if we get new ones, they might have laminated instructions, and laminated instructions can go burn. Doesn't mean I had to like the job.
About halfway through set up, as Naru's connecting the wires for the computer monitors I had banned myself from touching even before Naru did it as a 'precautionary measure' that I couldn't even argue with, I finally finished the last shelf. Next would be moving furniture and setting up the equipment around the house, so I decided to delay the inevitable by just a bit. "So is anyone else coming here to investigate, or…"
"This should be an open and shut case," Naru said. "The others shouldn't be needed. Still, Takigawa should be down here tomorrow, if only for grunt work."
"I thought that's why I was here."
"You're slightly above grunt. He's also physically stronger than you are. If nothing else, he'll be useful when we leave."
I furrowed my brow at him. "So basically, you don't want to do all this heavy lifting again."
"Well," Naru moved onto the next machine, "I never claimed to be a saint. Not many of them are known for their beauty anyway."
"And there's the ego okay, glad to see it survived that ridiculously long car ride," I muttered as I stood. No use delaying it, might as well get it done now. "The shelves are set up, what do you need me to move before we set anymore equipment up, Boss?"
Naru paused for a moment, moving his head to scan the room. "Move the largest couch against that wall," he moved his shoulder in a vague way of pointing, "then the two smaller couches over that first rug in front of the door. The coffee table can go between the two. It should be a good enough place for interviews later."
The rest of the day passed quickly, with set up taking until early evening, us having arrived late in the morning.
The hard groundwork officially done and the first batch of tea of the case being sufficiently used to water Naru, least his beauty wilt in such a lonesome place, the case had officially begun.
BLIND
… That is not to say that the case was officially interesting.
The Furukawa family wasn't actually here, at least not yet. They hadn't been frightened away, exactly, but they had given us the run of the house for the day, and, due to the labors of their work here, we would probably not see much of Mr. Furukawa at daytime, nor of his brother who lived in a nearby small house. The kids and Mrs. Furukawa would be around more often, but for today, all five of the family members were at a dear family friend's house. So, interviews with them would have to wait until the next morning when they came back, and I wouldn't be entertained sufficiently until Monk showed up later tomorrow afternoon.
I could try to amuse myself by bothering the two other… probably human coworkers that were here, but Lin was making dinner—I did offer to help but from what I could tell, his face scrunched up in a more horrified expression than any I'd sensed during a case—and therefore I was not going to give him incentive to poison me, and Naru was…
Well.
Naru.
He'd probably give me assigned reading or something. I tried to read the books in the office, but some were far more entertaining than others, and good number of them were in English. Even some of the equipment manuals that I read when truly, utterly bored were more entertaining than the stuffy research journals that populated the shelves. Thanks to that, I would never not know how to dismantle one of our cameras, and would probably never un-know the fact that some of them were waterproof of all things.
All due to the fact that parapsychologists liked to use words that literally only other paranormal researchers or internet search engines would know.
Seeing, ha, as my relationships with computer screens and the closest researcher are both the slightest bit not ideal for getting quick and easy answers, I had been stuck with the books that I could comprehend… which, again, were mostly just the equipment manuals. At least some of the books had helped with my English comprehension, if only slightly. Thank you, Oliver Davis, you nerd.
… Still, I was sufficiently bored. And if I couldn't find entertainment with the people I was currently with, then…
"Hey, Naru, I'm gonna go explore," I said, going from 'sprawled across the couch' to 'heading to the door' in three seconds flat.
Naru hummed, a tilt of his head showing that he glanced up from his files and computers. "You're usually not one to volunteer to go around case sites… See if you sense something. Don't break anything."
Translation: for once, you're being mildly useful without prompting. Don't break anything, I'm not paying and you're poor.
Which also translated to me having Naru's permission.
Well. It wouldn't have had stopped me if I didn't but it certainly made things easier on me.
"I'll be back before Lin's done with… whatever he's doing in the kitchen," I said as I grabbed one of the walkie talkies on the table next to the door.
"Considering Lin's cooking skills, you have a fifty-fifty chance of regretting coming back in time," Naru muttered as he went back to his work.
I chuckled and left it at that, and headed into the rest of the home.
The Furukawa house was rather large… Well, we never seem to investigate small places, do we? With three floors and multiple bedrooms and bathrooms and a huge wraparound-porch, outside-hallway… thing, I'd probably end up lost multiple times this investigation. Hence, why I took a walkie talkie, so Naru can bail me out when I inevitably end up too lost for my own good.
Base happened to be on the first floor of the house, to the right and a couple doors down from the main entrance, right near the stairs. The eldest child of our client, Ayahime, had her bedroom down here, further down the hall from base. The guest room that had temporarily housed a family friend's kid was right next to base. The young man, barely older than me, had gone missing. Naru was fairly convinced that the rich kid had run off from the farm, but would still look into things until he was found. A peak into the room as I passed it revealed that the guest room was almost complete bare… Also on this floor were the kitchen, dining room, and living room.
On this floor, there were reports of things moving, as well as banging coming from below, despite there being no basement floor.
Second floor had the client and his wife's room, as well as the nursery for their youngest. In particular, the nursery was what we were mostly worried about, and other than the missing guy, was probably our main reason for being out here. Figuring out what caused a fire to happen in a two year old's room had been fairly prioritized in this case. Second floor also had two of the bathrooms and what was the guy's room, or basically just Lin and Naru's room until Monk showed up.
Not that it even mattered since Naru and Lin didn't really sleep anyway, but at least they had the option of not sleeping in base.
Third floor was mostly storage, but it was where the girl's room was. Aka, I was alone on the third floor with dusty boxes and a bathroom to myself. I'd like to say at least the view was pretty, but it really didn't apply to me, now did it? Well, it also had the least amount of activity, mostly just footsteps and the occasional shuffling of things, all of which could very well be a cat that snuck in. This was probably why Naru put me up here instead of on the second floor. Keep the trouble magnet away from the trouble and all. Did not mean I had to be happy about it.
It was getting late, so I wouldn't get a chance to go check out the actual land the house was on until sometime tomorrow, probably… bummer.
The blobs—rather, the shiki—had been rather anxious since we got here. The one that stuck near Naru didn't even take the time to bop me like it usually does. It's hard to believe I actually missed that, but it was also hard to believe that the darn thing wasn't messing with me like usual. The shiki that was with me kept hovering at the junction between my neck and shoulder, below my left ear. Normally it buzzed around, but this time it stayed strangely still.
Despite the shikis' anxiousness, I honestly didn't feel all that odd about the house. Nothing seemed particularly wrong to me.
… Well, the haunting did occur outside of the house too. We were on a farm, after all. Maybe whatever it was wasn't here right now? There had also been activity reported in an old horse stable, hardly visited and practically abandoned, so the house might not even be the epicenter of activity. I'd check it out tomorrow, probably, after interviews were done, since I wanted to poke around outside anyway.
Even if I didn't want to, Naru would probably make me go. Something about 'feeling what your instincts tell you, Mai', or whatever. Psychic stuff, which I was nearly useless at. It's not like I was all that powerful with my abilities. I dream stuff and occasionally hallucinate, for all that it helped me, but otherwise I hadn't really done anything truly impressive. So it's not like I'd be able to tell where the ghost was until it was probably trying to kill me. With the absence of Masako, though, I'd have to deal with my fairly weak ability…
Well, unless being able to get into an unnatural amount of trouble counted as a strong psychic power.
Getting kidnapped by some sort of demon ghost vampire guy and surviving should be allowed on my resume, honestly.
Currently, I had made my way up onto the third floor. Easiest way to get used to the house was to work from the roof down, probably. Although, honestly, calling it a third floor was… maybe a bit much. It was mostly just a rather nice attic, storage boxes and random who-knows-what was everywhere. There were signs that someone, one of the family probably, was going through it, and it thankfully was fairly clean, all things considered, but it was still clear to me that the third floor wasn't used very much. I was genuinely surprised the plumbing went all the way up to the third floor. Not complaining, certainly, but it was a little… strange? Why did I think that strange…
… Nothing was really making an impression to me, yet, but I still poked around for good measure. Box, box, dusty corner they must have missed, intricate puzzle box, puzzles, storage bin, more boxes, another complex puzzle box, old games, some filing things… I sincerely hoped Naru doesn't decide we need to look through this stuff for clues. It'd take days, even with all of the extras of SPR called in and the client family helping.
I could unpack all my stuff… Eh, later. I've already spent all day unpacking SPR equipment, and for all I know, we could be out of here by tomorrow.
That had never happened, literally ever, but it still could.
Finding nothing and sensing even less, I headed to the second floor. Naru and Lin's room looked more like they were getting ready to leave than it being their first day here, everything was prim and proper and ready to go right back in the van. Well, at least I knew where their room was in case I had to fetch one of them for… something. Another bathroom, a spare bedroom… this place must have housed a large family in the past, this was way too big for most Japanese families. Maybe it was a generational home? Or did the original owners and presumed builders have a lot of kids? Questions to pester Naru with later.
The parent's room was large, but had some reports of weird sounds coming from their closet. Initially they thought it was their daughter Ayahime in her room right below them, but when they'd go to check, she'd either be asleep or not even in the room. Overall, not the most impressive report. Recently, they had moved a small kid's cot into the room, because while the parents' room was mostly unaffected…
Daichi's room has had some disturbing incidents.
The son and youngest child, Daichi, had his nursery set up in the next room over. There had been no activity in this room until recently, when fires would randomly start. All small, and Daichi hadn't been hurt yet, but it was these incidents that led them to tracking down our office to request help. In the meantime, Daichi would stay in his parents' room.
I treaded carefully into his room. If whatever it was could set up fires around a toddler, then… I brushed my hands carefully over the furniture and walls, feeling the spots where the fires had burned. They were little more than candle flames, according to our initial report, but it was still a bit disturbing to find part of a kid's bed had scorch marks on it. The most impressive one was the curtain, roughly the size of a baseball. It had managed to also burn the wall fairly severely, and if I had to guess, was the incident that led to Daichi being in his parent's room. That… must have been terrifying. I know I would have been terrified out of my mind.
Then again, sensing fire was always tricky business, so I'd probably have freaked out again, just like all the other times something lit on fire on a case… Fires, wells, collapsing floors, occasionally something with water, why was this a theme? Why did we have to take only the ridiculously dangerous cases? Just, why, Naru?
You know what case I'd love to have? One that ends with mochi. That'd be great.
Naru, if you're a mind reader, take notes.
"Mai-" OKAY WAIT WHAt oh yeah… walkie talkie… "-are you… was that you that just screamed just now?"
I unclipped the stupid thing off my belt and thumbed the talk button. "You… startled me. I'm here, what's up?"
Static for a moment after I let go of the talk button, then, "Making sure you didn't get into trouble, I thought things sounded too quiet. Also, Lin's almost done, so you might want to try finding your way back soon."
"Roger that, making my way down," I said, then clipped the walkie talkie to my belt.
Down the stairs I go…
…Wait.
Where were the stairs again…?
BLIND
After eventually stumbling—literally, I nearly fell down them—upon the stairs, I found Lin and Naru already setting up in the dining room. It was a bit odd, having only three people at a table that clearly was used to more, but it wasn't as uncomfortable as I was expecting. Quiet, and the small talk mostly revolved around the few case details we knew so far and what was to be done tomorrow, but comfortable enough.
Or maybe I was just lonelier than I thought, being in my apartment by myself for most meals…
Better theory, whatever parasite that stole Lin and Naru's emotions has dug itself into my brain, and I was starting to feel the consequences. It must be too late, I was showing symptoms, I shall never be the same.
"Mai, what on earth are you imagining into your rice," Naru said, a deadpan wary tone coloring—ha—his tone.
"Wondering how long it will take for the parasite in my brain to eat all my emotions so I can become a mini you," I responded.
The fakey-fake smile was on Naru's face. "Imitation is the greatest form of flattery."
"In which case, which book are you imitating, you young old man?"
"One that is likely above your reading comprehension level."
"I'll show you my 'reading comprehension level'," I mimicked, badly, and went to stand when a loud bang came from somewhere in the house. We all paused, waiting for it to happen again.
Silence, and then-
Bang. Bang. BANGBANGBANG.
We quickly got up, moving as quietly as possible towards where the noise seemed to be originating, another three bangs helping us on the way.
Then, silence.
…
"Naru," I turned towards my boss. He merely lifted his finger to his lips. Stay quiet.
Another few moments passed, then-
Bang. Bang. Bang.
We followed the sound to outside a room, a fifth bang interrupted by a loud clatter of some kind. We waiting again for some kind of noise, all three of us ready for… something. Naru signaled for Lin to open the door, and Lin opened it as quickly as he could, darting in the second it was an option.
Naru kept an arm out as we approached, probably to keep me from running in. Which was… probably fair.
We looked into the room, some kind of living room… we expected disturbed furniture, maybe a ghost throwing a hissy fit, waiting for us to come in before striking…
… Nothing was there.
BLIND
The next day, the Furukawas returned to the main house.
Most of the night, other than the dinner incident, had been quiet. According to Naru, who had probably memorized the initial report, this was to be somewhat expected, and the nights weren't active. At least, most of the time. Despite the supposedly paranormal incidents happening in their home, the adults of the family seemed happy to see us. Not just relieved at our presence, but genuinely happy. The kids didn't seem to mind our presence here either, which was generally a good sign.
Almost immediately after introductions, Naru had us start interviews. I had to observe them, apparently to learn. Most likely, I was there because talking to two ice cubes given human form was not exactly the most comforting of things to experience, and Naru was, annoyingly, smart enough to know this.
We started with the father and current head of the family, Koji Furukawa. He was a short man, but slightly made up for in the fact he was wide with stocky muscle. He was somewhat serious, but from the interactions with his kids, was definitely a family man that hid it very, very well. Tough exterior, mushy hearted interior. And stressed, if the faint lines I could sense on his face said anything.
After seating Koji Furukawa in our impromptu interview area in the base, Naru took up his files, Lin his laptop, and I just. Sat there. Awkwardly. Go team.
Naru began, cutting out the nonsense and getting right to it. "How often do you hear the banging?"
Mr. Furukawa blinked, probably surprised at the lack of pleasantries, but answered anyways. "Roughly… every three nights."
"Where do you usually hear it?"
"Living room. Ichiro says they also happen in the old horse stable, but I haven't been by there."
"Anywhere else?"
The head of the family shook his head. "No, only those places… There are thuds, but they show up everywhere."
"Thuds?" Naru asked. "These are different from the banging noises?"
"It sounds different." Mr. Furukawa paused. "To be honest, I'm pretty sure the thuds have been going on for as long as I can remember, but they've gotten louder, clearer, after I noticed them."
"When did you start noticing them?"
"About when the activity started, around three months ago."
"And the boy who went missing?" Naru seemed to point a look at the client, based on the way the older man stiffened after Naru's face shifted just slightly. "What about him."
Mr. Furukawa turned cold. "We haven't seen hide or tail of Akio since two weeks ago. That's all we know." He got up without another word and left, ending the interview then and there.
"… Should I go after him?" I asked.
"Leave it, he's not going to want to tell us much more right now," Naru said. "Go get Mrs. Furukawa."
Unlike her husband, Hannah Furukawa was tall. Still seemed strong, but definitely a different body type. Of course, it made sense that she would be, as she wasn't Japanese. I wasn't exactly the best at the whole 'differentiating different races' thing, since Japan was mostly just Japanese people. Even when I did meet someone not Japanese, it wasn't like I had very many clues as to who they were or what their backgrounds might be. Nose types and eye shape often helped, but not always. It didn't really matter, honestly, people were people, and could be just as friendly or just as rude as anyone else.
It was the first time I met someone with such a… fluffy? hair texture though. It curled and fluffed out something fierce. If it wasn't for the fact that it was hair attached to someone's head I'd be tempted to touch it, but that would be… really freaking rude. And, it's just hair, it was perfectly normal. What kind of weirdo just touches people's hair?
Hannah, oh thank everything for the similarity to Hana, foreign names were sometimes a bitch, was a lovely woman, motherly and kind and radiating a comforting warmth. She seemed worn, though, and had stress lines just as her husband did. She came in with Daichi, her infant son, in her arms. From the few fluffs of hair he did have, it seems he got at least a little of his mom's curl.
It was from Daichi's room that the fires had come from, one of the major concerns of the family.
"Let's get started," Naru said, indicating the seat in front of him. Mrs. Furukawa sat down, adjusting Daichi slightly in her lap.
We went over more of the standard questions, already farther along than Mr. Furukawa's interview had gone.
"Other than the bangs and thuds, are there any other noises?"
Mrs. Furukawa pulled a slight face as she thought. "There's been some mumbling since… since Akio left, but I can't tell what's being said, if anything at all. It doesn't seem to have an exact source, and the places it's strongest at always seem to change…"
Naru wrote in his folder with a small hum. "There was an incident with Daichi's room, care to explain it more?"
"There's not much to tell, honestly," she sighed, bouncing her son slightly with her knee. "For no reason we can tell, a couple of fires have just appeared in Daichi's room. Neither his room nor Aya's has any electricity in it."
"… No electricity?"
"Since the house is old," Mrs. Furukawa explained, "we don't have electricity running through the whole house. It'd take money and there's a few risks in messing with the walls like that. Most of it is concentrated on the first floor, and Aya's room is the only one without electricity on that floor. Our room and yours on the second have it, but Daichi… doesn't."
"I see. We'll investigate the walls and electricity ourselves, if you don't mind."
"No, please do."
Oh no, that face shifting. He's pulling another look, isn't he? "What about Akio Izumi, your temporary ward."
Mrs. Furukawa became much stiffer, wariness coming off her in droves. "What do you want to know about Akio."
"How do you think he disappeared, and why."
"I wouldn't know why. He could have easily have just left," her voice was far icier than I thought possible. "We happen to be in the middle of the mountains, once he got off our land... his family knows lots of people in the area, he's probably hiding with one of them, and keeping him a secret."
"Any idea why someone would hide him from his own family."
She said nothing for a moment. "None." Even I could tell that she was lying.
"… That'll be all for now, if you could send in your brother in law, Ichiro Furukawa, I'd greatly appreciate it."
The woman stood, Daichi making only a few small protests at the movement, and nodded at Naru's request as she left.
The three of us stood in mildly tense silence. "That was… weird."
Naru faced me. "What makes you think that, Mai?"
Really? You were there. Still, I answered. "She seemed so friendly, but the moment you brought up Akio Izumi, the missing kid… she got… defensive. Almost like she was denying it or… something. I wonder why."
Naru stared at me slightly before he jotted down my impressions in his case journal. It's not like it meant much, it wasn't something he didn't already observe himself, but Naru tended to take as many angles to a case he could get. My opinion just happened to be one of them.
Ichiro Furukawa entered next, and I honestly almost didn't notice him when he did. Compared to his brother Koji, Ichiro was of a slimmer, taller build, although still a tad shorter than Hannah. He seemed weedy, and something about him just seemed… Off, somehow.
I brushed off his weirdness and offered him tea, like I had done for the past two interviews, grabbing Mrs. Furukawa's mostly untouched cup as I did so. The man stared at me, openly, and it made me pause. It was weirdly intense, and I wasn't sure what to do.
"Uh…m, can I… help you…?"
He jolted, as if just realizing what had happened. "Sorry, you just look… familiar."
"… Familiar…?" What the hell did that mean, Mr. Ponytail Man?
Ichiro snapped his attention to Naru. "Ah, interview, right? Should get on with it, got to attend to the books."
Books…? Oh, right, he did the financial side of things.
I hardly listened to the interview, as right now it was mostly going over the exact same questions that had already been asked. So, I got to setting aside the two cups so far, Mr. and Mrs. Furukawa's, and set to brewing something the daughter would like a bit more, a bit sweeter than the somewhat bitter green tea Naru liked. Adding in sugar after just didn't taste the same, no matter what Naru said, but he was ultimately in charge of what we got. And so, my taste buds continued to suffer. No wonder I was starting to get the edges of a coffee addiction.
Ichiro was nervously answering with the same things the others had. He didn't hear much, as he lived in a small adjacent building instead of the main house, but he confirmed that an old horse stable got some activity. He did tell a bit about the history of the place, but it was mostly legends. Something about an old rich estate, and the very few bits of proof were the old stable on this property as well as the weird divisions of the land amongst the other neighboring farmers. Supposedly the neighbors also had some random weird buildings, but nothing exciting, and they hadn't reported any activity.
Naru would likely do his own, extremely thorough research, and I'd receive a dumbed down version of it later. Which I appreciated, because research was hard when you couldn't use search engines.
Note to self, get Keiko and Michiru to help me look into computers for the blind.
"Anything else of interest that we should know, any neighbors we can contact?" Naru seemed to be wrapping up his interview.
"Well…" Ichiro paused. "I don't know all the details, I'm not around the house itself very often, usually doing business things… But there definitely was a reason for why Akio was sent here…" He took a breath, seeming lost inside his head for a moment. "Other than that, the only ones that the rest of the family is particularly close to is Kisho Minamoto. He was the one who housed us for the night when you arrived."
"And would do you think of Mr. Minamoto?"
"Bothersome," and hey, we're three for three on icy glares directed at Naru. How wonderful.
Said boss continued writing as if there wasn't a cold, creepy stare directed at him. "If that's all, then feel free to bring in Ayahime, she's the last of our interviews for now."
The man nodded and got up. As he left, I could help but notice he stared at me again for a few long moments.
I didn't turn.
BLIND
It took us roughly five minutes to realize Ayahime either wasn't informed she was supposed to be questioned, or was hiding. That was fine, really, we didn't usually question the kids. This time, though, Naru noted that, with such vague details and what was obviously some big secret hiding in the background, maybe asking a child would work best. Well, as long as he didn't make her cry, like he did with Ayumi some time ago.
In the time it took me to go to the kitchen to wash out the cups we used and return, Naru had already begun brainstorming over what could possibly be happening.
"Mai." Not even two steps into the door and already he was demanding things.
"Yes Naru?" I answered, because he's my boss and signs my paychecks. "What is it?"
He took a sip of the sweeter tea, wrinkled his nose, then set the tea cup a little farther from him than strictly necessary. "… You seemed to avoid Ichiro, any reason why?"
"Asking for my impressions on everyone today, apparently," I muttered. Not quietly enough, given the face Naru sent my way. "I'm… I didn't even realize I was doing it, really, so… I'm really not sure. Something's off about him, though. Something's off about this whole case.
"Off?"
I mimicked Naru's nose wrinkle from a moment ago. "I couldn't tell you even if I tried."
"Try anyway."
Easy for you to say, bossman, you're not the one with the 'animal instincts'. There was a few moments of silence as I thought through my impressions of everything. "… I know we don't know everything. That's nothing new, but there's also… it's like we're not particularly important to what's happening… Or that… we're not especially needed. It's not that we're not wanted or that we can't be here, per say but…" I shrugged. "I'm not sure. I told you, it's weird."
Naru gave a slight huff, turning back to his work. Sorry I'm not more useful, Your Royal Narcissist. I'll try to be a better court jester. I'm sure Monk knows how to juggle, he could teach me.
Speaking of…
"Hey, Lin? Has Monk called to say he was on his way?"
Lin didn't pause in his typing, having tucked himself into what would likely be 'his' corner of base after it became clear that interviews were over for the time being, but did tilt his head slightly in acknowledgement. "He said three o'clock."
My broken-faced analogue watch told me that it'd be a while before he would show. I gave a long, overly drawn out sigh as I collapsed onto the couch with as much drama as I possibly could. "That's such a long time from now!"
Naru glared. "Really, Mai?"
"Yes."
"Why."
"I'm bored."
"In that case," Naru flipped through his case folder, "then you can go track down wherever that supposed horse stable that we keep hearing about is." He held a neatly typed paper out in my direction. I concentrated on it, probably accidentally glaring at Naru, to read it. Oh, just a list of activity and a really terrible map that would have been useless even if I could see.
He waved it slightly. I wasn't getting out of this. "… Fine." I collected myself and got up to grab the damn thing before he smacked me in the face with it.
"Good, make sure to take note where it actually is. I think their cartography skills could use some brushing up on."
"Oh, what, and you're the map making master?" I grumbled as I swiped a pen from the horde of them on one of the shelves.
"Well, I can at least give directions, since you managed to show up to work the first day, on time even… and then proceeded to be late every day since."
"I'm trying!"
"Yes, you are. You are very trying. Take a radio on the way out."
Clearly, I had lost this round. I grabbed a walkie talkie—who the hell calls it a radio, really Naru?—and was on my way with only a couple of threats mumbled under my breath.
The rooms I passed on my way out were empty, but I'm sure the family were around somewhere. I'd have to try to talk to them later, I wanted to make sure they were okay.
Even if Ichiro kind of freaked me the heck out.
Surprisingly, most of the yard surrounding the property was bare. Although this land was technically part of the farm, water tended to not hold well enough here to have successful rice paddies. While there were potatoes and other things that grew on occasion, they apparently didn't do very well, save for in a few spots. Even grass, grass, was having trouble with it. And it's grass. Grass doesn't even let concrete sidewalks stop it from growing, and yet. So most of the farming happened a little ways away, on the far side of the property. Luckily, it was still profitable enough, since it was such an oddly large piece of land, but it can't have been easy.
It also didn't help that, with the way the property lines were drawn and the natural lay of the land, the Furukawa's land was drawn like a giant wine bottle, with the neighbor right next to them being an exact mirror image of them. Think two wine bottles on their sides, with the bottoms against each other, making a long tube with narrow ends, and the road winding around the sides before continuing on. With the main house of each property being set in the 'neck' of the respective bottles, it made for quite a distance. According to Naru's debriefing of basic research this morning, there was a bit of mountainous road leading to the next house, not a farm, which sat abandoned due to its not-at-all-ideal location in the middle of a scraggly forest. There was apparently another, larger cluster of farms a bit away from the empty house, but they were more or less separated by a mountain from the Furukawa's farm. While you could get to the other farms from the 'Furukawa road', there was a different road that led there in a more direct way. We had to pass the fork in the road where the two roads split to get here, actually, a fact I knew because Lin had to call the clients for clarity on which extremely similar road to take.
I think the words Lin muttered might have been a small curse on 'deceiving road signs' and 'may your milk spoil on the way home' or something, but I wasn't about to call him out on it. I had at least some basic survival instincts.
Plus, spoiled milk was the actual worst.
Oh, right.
Horse stable… place.
… Where the hell is it.
… This.
This might take a while.
BLIND
One might think that finding an old, falling apart building on a mostly bare lot would be easy. But no, it had to be right against the wood line leading into the deeper mountain area. And I couldn't just go on a hill and 'look around', I was freaking blind. Sensory ability or whatever it was tended to be extremely useful, but it didn't fully replace sight. Things got fuzzy after so many feet, and then disappeared. So while someone could just look around, I had to go bit by bit. That's not even to mention being able to tell if someone is up just by being able to tell their light's still on, and other advantages, such as readable maps dear lord who made this a drunk monkey?
"Mai? Can you hear me?"
Oh, right, and Oliver "Bloody Wanker" Davis started bothering me every ten minutes about an hour into my search.
"Mai-?"
"Yeah," I cut him off with a quick thumb press. "I just found it, Naru. Your map was useless." Button off.
"I didn't make it."
Button on, why did I bother. "But you gave it to me. Anyways, I'm going to head in now."
I let go of the button again and waited a moment for his reply. "Be careful, Mai, the structure isn't very sound, according to Ichiro and the neighbor. They're the ones that reported the activity, although Mr. Koji Furukawa noted that one of them was more reluctant in it."
"Reluctant?" I replied as I carefully picked my way in. It really was in shambles, but it wasn't as if the wind was going to blow it over either, and there seemed to be an almost path in. "Why would they be reluctant?"
"It's an old building wrapped in legend. Probably thought they were being paranoid, but we can't tell for sure. Which is why we're here, to figure it out."
"You mean I figure out if the horse stable activity was paranoia by risking injury and tetanus and… honestly who knows what while you go over like a billion years of history."
I could feel Naru's eye roll from all the way over here. "You'll be fine, I doubt you'll get more than a splinter. Just be careful not to fall, you could knock the wind out of you, and who would yell at me to get my own damn tea then?"
"… Is this your way of telling me you're a masochist and not a sadist or…?"
"Just investigate Mai, check in if you find anything."
"Roger that."
I said that, and yet, I had already gone through most of the place during our conversation. It wasn't particularly big, and I had to agree that it was likely an old stable. There were loose planks and some hay here and there. Must hung in the air, and despite the mountain wind, it held pretty well…
Actually…
Something was weird.
It was the middle of nowhere, so I wasn't expecting a bunch of soda bottles, but it was old. So why, exactly, wasn't there any trash? I wasn't even talking wrappers or weird stuff like old shoes and bags. There should be more loose boards hanging around, rocks, piles of dirt, nails. But no, the place was clean, the dirt floor was even…
Too even.
I noticed some planks buried under a thin layer of dirt. If I had to guess, camouflage? I obviously couldn't tell, but I definitely wouldn't have noticed it if I hadn't noted the ground as weird.
… I was wary now, overly aware of my own pulse. The shifting of dirt under my shoes seemed too loud, my capris and t-shirt too exposed, and my senses a little haywire. The blob was out of bounds, having had gone back to stay somewhat close to Lin about halfway into my journey here, and I felt the absence dearly. Still, I needed to know what was going on. I approached the boards and kneeled.
"What the…" the boards weren't boards. They were a door. Why would there be a trap door in a horse stable. It opened far more smoothly than expected and lead straight down to some kind of… tunnel. At one point, maybe it was a service tunnel…? But now it only seemed to be able to be opened on this side due to corrosion.
Or, perhaps, purposeful damage.
The door had been easy to open.
It felt like I was being watched. I needed to do—something.
"Naru," I grabbed the walkie talkie. I had a hunch. "Was there any mention of why Ichiro was out here?"
A tense moment. Then. "No, why?" Oh man, I don't think I've been happier to hear static.
"I'm-not sure… I'm heading back now." I'd tell him in person, I just gotta leave, now.
"… Alright," Naru's tone clearly indicated suspicion. "We're gonna try again with interviews, so try to hurry. Monk's almost here as well."
Naru definitely noticed I was not okay.
"Interviews… great." I didn't want to see Ichiro, he… might be involved. And, maybe it wasn't a big deal but, hn I had no idea what was wrong.
The crackle of static. "Mai, is everything okay? Do you want one of us to come to you?"
Ha, no. "I'm fine. I'll see you in a few."
Another loaded silence. "Hurry, then."
"Got it." I didn't bother clipping it back to my belt before I started to quickly make my way out.
Why was I freaking out?
Why?
Just gotta—step here, the entrance way is just blocked enough to be an obstacle but why is it so easy to get passed-
Don't trip, don't-
Who's that.
Why is someone out here?!
Keep going, doesn't matter-
But it does-
They're chasing-
Who the hell-
Just dropped the damn walki-
No time just keep going-
Shrubs, I hate shrubs now-
Ow, something scratched me, of course-
I haven't gone far, that guy-
Right behind-
Who-!
Oh, fuck.
This guy was fast.
And strong-let me go-!
This smells sweet.
This was a drug.
Oh, hey… everything's…
…
… fuzzy…
BLIND
Back at the Furukawa household, a certain narcissist waited impatiently for his assistant.
He'd be kept waiting for a long while yet.
BLIND
I… have no idea what I'm calling this case. Out of Sight, Out of Mind, maybe?
Not going to lie, this is probably a bit of an American bastardization of Japanese farms, but I definitely tried to get it right. To be fair, I'm not sure there's all that much difference. I mean, definitely more rice, but it quickly became obvious to me that I needed the place fairly dry for what I had planned. I did end up learning more than I actually ever cared to know about rice, since I did try to learn about Japanese farms and surprise there's a lot of rice in Japan, so… yay? I guess? Anyway, they import a lot because mountains everywhere, and the farm usually wouldn't be all that big and would be shared with other people, but this is the set up that worked best for this. So I hope you forgive me for taking some amount of artistic license with this one, since I can't exactly drop everything and go to Japan.
Confession time, a lot of Mai's impressions tend to be from my own personal experiences. I have… weird adventures. Fun! But strange.
Also, totally watched a video about introverts and how you can tell an introvert likes you, and I was bored enough that I decided to apply it to one of my favorite anime introverts, aka Naru, and… wow. Okay. Wow.
Fun fact, this case is way different than it originally was. Some parts are similar, the noises, the somewhat vast location, the missing boy, the fires, the name Daichi for the son, and some other things, but uh. For starters, it was a hotel. It was two hotels actually. But so so many of you really wanted a farm case. So, I changed it. Didn't really change too much of the over arcing story and it actually made some things a bit more solid.
Bit of advice from me to you. Might sound silly, but. You're allowed to enjoy the things you do. I'm allowed to enjoy myself. You're allowed to enjoy yourself. Enjoy what you do, not because you have to do certain things, but because you can do things that you enjoy.
Surprisingly, this is something I had to learn.
Anyway, any guesses as to where this case is going? I'm hoping you won't see through it, but honestly… you probably will. Even if you don't I hope you enjoy! Enjoyed? Continue enjoying. There we go.
UNTIL NEXT TIME, FRIENDS!