Happy Pride Month guys.
Fun fact, it's a little after my birthday as I post this. I look back to when I first started writing this, and I was so young, just a baby, what the heck.
If you happen to see a certain nerd called ThisIsAa (who also guest reviewed as ThisIsA before getting an account)—they're someone I know IRL who got an account solely to heckle me. They don't plan to write anything fanfiction wise, but you might see them in the comment sections being r00d. I tend to talk about Blind with them, which is why they know pretty much the entire story despite them never reading it—and I continue to ask them not to dear lord its bad enough that you know who I am please don't. So if you see them in the comment sections laughing maniacally or calling me a sadist or whatever, they kind of have a free pass. That said, A, I know where you sleep. Ah, and not that I'm really expecting you to, because even A doesn't know all the details, but don't heckle them about details or future stuff. Knowing them, they won't tell you anyway and will laugh while doing it. And while they do encourage me to continue writing, they're not going to bother me in person about it just because someone asked, so. Moot point.
That aside, I still don't own Ghost Hunt, but I do have a tumblr—check out all the stuff I reblog that has nothing to do with Blind (also, I answer asks)! I also have an Amino, although I only really lurk there and check it like, once a week. But the Ghost Hunt Amino is still cool to look through! Wow, I sound like I'm self promoting, or promoting other stuff, but no, I'm just excitable. Ha.
WITHOUT ANY FURTHER ADO
ENJOY!
BLIND
Naru had just finished speaking with Mai with the radios when Takigawa's car could be heard pulling in. The young boss couldn't help but sigh. The olive green car was loud and easily heard from a distance. He hated it.
Takigawa, owner of said vehicle, was forever proud of his, admittedly, clunker car. And it even made it out here, which was… more than he was expecting, honestly. He had been fully prepared to awkwardly ask Lin for a ride up.
Lin was forever unimpressed with anything his coworkers did, ever. But he was concerned about the half conversation he just overheard. Mai didn't get scared easily, surprisingly, or at least not to that degree. To worry Naru…
Well.
Since Mai was currently not there, and hopefully hightailing it to base, Naru went to get Takigawa from the front yard.
"Oh, hey man," the blond greeted when he saw who came to get him. "Mai protesting your work orders again?"
"Not quite," Naru replied as he led the older man into the house. "I sent her to investigate somewhere, she should be heading back now."
Takigawa caught on quick. "… Something bothering you?"
"She seemed bothered when she radioed in a few minutes ago. Said she was on her way back…" Naru held open the door to base.
"Mai? Bothered?" Takigawa's concern bled through his tone. "Should we go get her?"
"She didn't tell us where exactly she was," Lin cut in.
"You sent her to go some place you didn't know how to get to? Have you seen Mai's luck?"
"I sent her to an abandoned building, expecting her to find a stray cat," Naru replied. "But now I'm not so sure… We can try to use the map the Furukawa's gave us, but according to Mai, it's useless."
Takigawa only got himself more worked up. "All the more reason to go find her! What was she supposed to find? Atlantis?"
Naru ran a thumb over the side of his radio. "A horse stable, supposedly. I'm going to try to contact her, be quiet for a moment." He pressed the talk button. "Mai, come in, can you hear me?"
… Silence.
Not that unusual, so far.
"Mai, are you there? Come in."
… Slightly more unusual.
"Mai!"
No response.
"Damn it," Naru growled, roughly picking up what looked like a copy of a map off one of the shelves before practically storming out the door. "Come on, let's go find her."
Takigawa hurried to follow him, with Lin staying to hold down base in case she came bursting in.
They really, really hoped she burst in.
BLIND
I woke up to hard, almost moist dirt pressed against my cheek. It felt nice and cold compared to the headache I was sporting.
… I was drugged.
And I've been kidnapped for the second case in a row.
Naru's going to kill me and keep my corpse on a freaking kiddie leash.
But… who the hell drugged me?
… I think it was… A tallish man, surprisingly strong.
… That's it. That's all I had.
The pounding in my head beckoned me to just. Lay here for a while. There was an almost deafening silence, and nothing really seemed to exis-
Exist.
… Why was everything fuzzy?
Not literally, the floor was almost as hard as a rock. But my sense told me it was… fuzzy. Not exactly, it was like… sensing smoke, or fire, or… something. I knew it was there but I couldn't for the life of me tell what it was. It was blurred, for lack of a better word.
I tried to get up, because what the hell, but I was firmly reminded of the fact that I had just been drugged and kidnapped. I almost lost my lunch trying to sit up, and nearly jumped out of my skin when I noticed there was a wall behind me. I should have had some idea, but no… I didn't.
What…
What was going on…?
…
My head pounded.
It had been nearly an hour and not only had Mai not shown up, there was no sign of the damn stable anywhere.
Naru was getting antsier by the second. The air around him was positively frigid, and, in contrast, his usually icy face was starting to crack.
"Mai, this isn't funny anymore!" Takigawa yelled across the yard at the top of his lungs. "Get out here or so help me I'm chaining you to Naru!"
"Mai!" Naru kept barking out as he tried to search for that forsaken stable, no wonder Mai had so much trouble, did she get lost trying to find her way back? He knew something was wrong with her vision but surely she was just. Just lost, she wasn't missing, not again, he couldn't do this again, two cases in a row, he had been teasing before, but did he really jinx it.
… Being a paranormal scientist, he really couldn't rule that out.
"Is that-" Takigawa would have been talking to himself, had he not been somewhat stuck on the volume 'yell'. "Naru I think I found the stable!"
"What?" Naru turned to see the dark blond run towards the tree line. He hurried after Takigawa, noticing the outline of an abandoned structure, barely noticeable as it blended into the strip of woods that bordered the property.
The two caught their breath for moment as they came to a stop in front of the stable. "Who the hell camouflaged this thing," Takigawa muttered as he straightened out.
"Not sure, but they did a good job," Naru replied, his tone dark and completely unamused. "Tread carefully, and look carefully for any sign of where Mai is."
Takigawa nodded. "Mai! Where are you, Mai!" He went to circle around the structure as he yelled, hoping she might have scurried off nearby.
Naru approached more quietly, carefully searching the ground with his eyes, trying to spot anything from the tall green and brown grass that brushed against his knees and calves. He was almost to the entrance when he spotted it.
Mai's radio.
He stared at it, almost in disbelief. The darkly dressed teen grabbed his own radio, and clicked the 'talk' button.
"Mai?"
Immediately, "Mai?" was parroted back to him from the radio on the ground.
"Takigawa!"
BLIND
I don't know how long I sat there as I faded in and out of consciousness a bit. Or, well, a lot. Point was, I still knew that it took a while before I felt fully awake again. Everything still hurt, but to a more muted degree, and while still quite fuzzy, my sense wasn't nearly as blurred as it was when I first tried to wake up. That's about when I noticed that I was somewhat tucked into a corner, dirt and stone wall to one side and a metal and wood column of some sort on the other.
It smelled… kind of damp, and very earthy.
… Don't tell me I fell down another damn well.
I flared my sense out.
And proceeded to immediately regret it as a wave of pained nausea overcame me.
"Ow, ow, okay, fuck," I cursed. "Won't do it again, got it…" Still, I got the answer to my question. I was definitely underground in some kind of tunnel. The column was one of many, a support column that kept the dirt from crushing everything, including me.
A faint echo came from further down the tunnel, to the left. "… hello…?"
Stiffening, I tried to keep my breathing quiet.
"… is someone-" the voice got closer, and then, "-here?" It was clear, and whoever it was had to be beside me, but still just out of my cut down sensing range. "I won't hurt you, please… I don't want to start hearing voices, so please let that have been real." I stayed silent. "I'm Akio Izumi, if you wanted to know."
Akio Izumi? "The missing kid?"
"Ah!"
I spoke without thinking and managed to scare him. Great. "Uh, sorry," I said in what I figured was his general direction. "I don't really… recall how I got here."
Izumi carefully approached, that much I could hear. "I don't either. Um, oh-" his hand bumped my arm, and the rest of him got close enough to where I could sense him, albeit not well. "Sorry, it's really dim if you haven't noticed."
"Uh." I hadn't, actually. For what should be obvious reasons.
"Anyways," Izumi sat beside me, his shoulder lightly touching mine. "I'm Akio Izumi. Who are you?"
I couldn't help but pause. But, really, what the heck else was I supposed to do? I don't think I could stand up if I tried, and this guy… didn't scare me. At all. For now, I felt I could at least trust him a little. "Mai Taniyama. Where are we?"
"As far as I can tell, in some tunnels under the house."
"Wait, really?" Now that couldn't have been in the blueprints, no way.
"Yep," Izumi shifted beside me. "I can't really hear them well, but I can… kind of tell there are signs of life up above in certain places. And there's a functioning bathroom down here. Hot showers, clean water, a freaking light, everything."
"Really?"
Izumi chuckled dryly. "Really. I'll take you down there, there's no use hanging around by the door here."
"… Door?"
There was an awkward pause. "-Oh, wait, sorry, I nodded. Guess you can't tell down here. There's a bend in this corridor, and around it is a metal door. Locked as all get out. But whoever locked me down here, and presumably you as well, leaves food there every so often. Enough to get through for a couple days, so long as a sparse meal doesn't scare you… Hopefully he continues doing it."
"It's a man that does this?"
I could feel Izumi's shoulders shrug. "I've caught his shadow a few times walking down here, but I've avoided going into the light of his lantern. I've also heard his voice, vaguely. He talks about… well. Crazy things. Something about… property deals, I think, and the sacrifices he's made to get to where he is? Don't know. But I'm not strong enough to take him on, I'm shorter than him for sure." He moved again. "But it's not often at all, you should be fine."
"Alright…" I leaned further against the corner I sat in. The nausea had mostly passed and the headache to a faint pulsing.
"Come on, let's get you to that light I promised," Izumi stood up.
Oh, great. How the hell was I going to walk when my knees suddenly decided to remind me they felt like pudding?
BLIND
Base was silent. Not as silent as the dead, as nearly everyone gathered there knew that the dead weren't nearly as quiet as some might think. Nor was it as silent as a grave, as those hummed with a strange energy, similar to libraries, holding onto stories told and words left unsaid.
No, base was quiet in a way only the living could manage, almost like a hospital room with a barely there patient. Not gone enough to thrum with stories that crept along your consciousness and under your skin, but also not there to fill the space with their presence.
Naru stared down at the radio he placed on the table. No finger taps, no words, not even a glare. Just a quiet, withdrawn stare at the technology before him, head resting almost gracefully in folded fingers, like the weight of his thoughts were being supported by the points of his elbows where they practically dug into the tabletop.
Around Naru were Lin and Takigawa, looking equally disturbed, and then the family they were helping. All of them looked despaired, as they had also tried to look for Mai before being called to help search that damn stable. Even Lin had helped, leaving the base with the simple knowledge that there wasn't anyone else who would even be in the house who could screw up their setup, and that for once he would much rather find his fellow assistant than wait in the wings.
And what did they have to show for all the searching they did in that little shack of a building?
Nothing. Nothing, except the radio Naru had found.
… It was Mrs. Furukawa that broke the silence. "We… understand completely if you wish to call the police, or to leave the investigation entirely-"
"We're not leaving without Mai," Naru interrupted. "We also won't stop the investigation. If I had to guess, it's likely connected, considering Akio Izumi has also gone missing on these grounds."
The adult Furukawa's all exchanged looks. They knew something, and seemed to slightly disagree with Naru's connection theory, but took his word anyways.
"Thank you," Mr. Furukawa said. "If there's any way we can help-"
"Think of every detail about Mr. Izumi's disappearance, big or small," Naru interrupted again. "Any legends, history of this place, and an actually useful map of the area, along with any blueprints or floorplans you can find. Information on your neighbors and their phone numbers might also be useful, seeing as, if Mr. Izumi is really with one of them, one of them might know something."
"We… we can do that," Mrs. Furukawa said. "Nothing pops up immediately, but… we'll let you know."
Naru narrowed his eyes. They knew something, and weren't going to tell him a damn thing until they got their own stories straight.
He also knew that they hadn't taken Mai, and likely didn't know where she was. That didn't excuse their silence, but this wasn't something he was going to be able to pull out of them like he wanted to. He'd have to play the waiting game, and in the meantime continue to try to find out what, exactly, happened to Mai.
Damn, Naru wasn't exactly the most patient person.
He sighed. "If we have no sign of Mai in the morning we'll bring the police back in, agreed?" The look on his face didn't actually give them room to argue. The couple nodded grimly. "Then go, we'll talk when one of us finds something."
The Furukawas left, and base was quiet. There was surprisingly both too much and too little to do, and Naru hated it. Where to begin, and where to put his only two resources…? It was sometimes just a bit too much, but Naru supposed anyone missing their assistant, friend, and, ah… crush… would be in a very similar position.
Still, he looked up at the ceiling with a thoughtful look. He had an idea, a pretty good one if anyone asked him, that Lin would hate.
Which meant he was absolutely going to do it no matter what.
Plans Lin hated tended to be the best plans, in Naru's opinion. Sure, they were usually risky and maybe Lin had a point, but they pretty much always worked.
Naru pointedly ignored the part of him that acknowledged that he usually compromised on "Lin Hates This" plans, which was why he was the twin that was alive.
Lin also thought that Gene going to Japan alone was a good idea.
Yeah, Naru was going to completely ignore Lin's opinion on this one.
"Boss?" Takigawa ventured. Right, other people. They still existed. Why couldn't pumpkins be useful? Or whatever Takigawa was. Squash, maybe?
"We'll have to make a more accurate map of the area, as well as do a basic canvas search," Naru said, pushing his less serious thoughts aside. "We can do both at once. Take notes while we're outside and make a basic map, at least. Note anything that can be used as a landmark or is of some sort of possible importance."
Takigawa nodded. "Right."
"We'll start here, make our way straight to the stable, then make our way back here. Mai was heading back when she…" Naru trailed off for a second. "When we lost contact with her."
Takigawa's nod was a tad more withdrawn this time. "Right… Roger that."
"Then let's get started."
BLIND
Izumi helped me walk, as I really couldn't do it by myself. Despite being about a year older, Izumi was actually shorter than me, which was really an accomplishment. I don't think he appreciated me mentioning that hopefully he'd get taller soon, though.
"Man, you must be really out of it," Izumi muttered. "What did that guy knock you out with, a brick?"
"Drugs, actually."
"… Oh." Izumi shifted my arm a bit. "Well, I think I was given a sleeping sedative, because one moment I was in bed, and the next…"
"Mm, yeah, that sounds… pleasant."
"Not at all, but I sense your sarcasm," Izumi said. "I'm guessing this guy must've used a different one on you. I was confused when I woke up, but I wasn't wobbly and I didn't have a headache—I can tell you're wincing."
I nearly tripped over a rock that jutted out of the ground, which upset our balance for a moment before we righted ourselves again.
Still, I had a concern with his last point.
"If you never saw the guy that got you, and he used two different drugs, then who's to say it's the same person," I pointed out. "I mean, I hope it's not, but…" I rubbed my temple slightly with the hand that wasn't around Izumi's shoulder. "And our, um. Kidnapping circumstances were different in just about every way."
"How so?"
"For instance, you were asleep as a guest in the Furukawa's house when you were taken in a drugged but otherwise pleasant sleep. I showed up as part of an, uh, investigation group, and found something this guy really didn't want me to see, and I was run away when he caught up and made me inhale… something. Drugs. Whatever."
Izumi was quiet for a moment. "… We're also different, too. Other than that we're young, we are different people. I can't really see you, but I don't think we really look alike. Our hair is two different shades of brown, at least."
I sighed. "I'm not saying its two different people, but… I can't say it's not."
He was quiet again. "Say, you said you were part of an investigation group? What's that about?"
I tried to hold down being flustered. "Well, um. Believe or not, we're… a psychic research agency. They've experienced weird stuff but… When the police couldn't find you, the Furukawa's called us, since the activity seemed to pick up. I think they think you're… but they also want to think you're alive, so..."
"I see. I think," Izumi said. "You're here to see if the ghost stuff was true, and if you happened to get a clue as to what happened to me, then…"
"Well, clue found. Now if I could only get us back to base." I shifted myself a bit. I was far from 'walking on my own' but I was at least a little more surefooted. "I was sent to investigate an old building on the grounds, and when I finally found it, I also found a trap door. Unfortunately for me, the guy that kidnapped me, he, ah. Kidnapped me. Clearly."
"Clearly. But that is weird that he happened to be there…" He hummed slightly to himself as he thought. "…Do you think he could have been watching you?"
That sent a shiver down my spine. "Considering how long I walked in that field… maybe. But, my luck really is just this bad, so I can't really say. Or the guy could've been guarding the place…?"
"But why would he? You're talking about the old horse stables, right?"
"Yeah? That's where I was sent."
"No one goes out there, so why would he guard it? Sure there's a trap door, but other than maybe twice a year, no one is really near that vicinity, and no one else seems to have noticed a door. So how, when you happen to go there, there's a guy out there with drugs to knock you out? How would he know?"
I got silent.
I didn't know.
BLIND
It was frustrating. All that map making and searching, and not a single clue as to what happened to Mai. The stables offered no help, being relatively clear, dirt floor packed too much to trace footprints to find what it was that had Mai so freaked out before.
It was getting late, although that hardly meant anything for any ghost hunter. Monk had reluctantly at least relocated the room where the guys would be sleeping, and Lin was busy configuring the maps into something useful, despite the lack of actual measurements.
Naru just felt restless. There were histories to be read, legends to go over, local veins to go through, but it all felt like it wouldn't be useful to finding Mai. There was that definitely not Lin approved plan, though…
"I'll be back in a bit," Naru said as he began to leave the base. "Bathroom."
Generic as hell excuse, but it worked, as Lin didn't even glance up from his work.
He might think Lin hadn't heard him, if Naru didn't know Lin as well as he did.
Naru crept up the stairs. Not intentionally quiet, not intentionally loud. Just walking, casually, up two flights of stairs up to Mai's room.
Was it a terrible idea to use his psychokinesis on Mai's things, despite knowing she probably would not be thrilled about it and when, last time he did this to a lesser degree during the last case, something was just odd about it? Yes, to all of that. Was he doing it anyway? Also yes.
Naru was a rational guy. He also kind of deserved the nickname 'idiot scientist'.
He was also seventeen, his twin brother had died less than a year ago, and one of his precious people was missing. He was hardly an emotional role model before, and he definitely wasn't one now.
Slipping into the room quietly, Naru waited until he shut the door behind him to turn on the light. No one was there to witness it, but better safe than sorry.
The room was simple, a couple of futons folded in the corner, a dresser, and wait where were Mai's things?
Naru poked around the room, even checked the bathroom next door, and there wasn't a trace of her anywhere.
He had seen Mai packing up from previous cases, he knew what she was like. She wasn't exactly a mess, but she did tend to spread herself out at least a little. And certainly, she had never bothered to pack her things away or hide them. That'd be the kind of dumb that Mai was not. Sure, she didn't know all that much about paranormal activity, but she had skipped a grade and lived on her own.
All that aside, this simply wasn't like her.
So where were her things?
Where was Mai?
The young boss barely remembered to not just thunder down the stairs to base, Takigawa noticing anyways and following Naru's hurried pace.
"Lin," Naru called as he rushed into base, "did you move Mai's things into the van?"
Lin stood up, alarmed. "No, are they missing?"
Naru cursed quietly to himself.
This wasn't good, not at all.
BLIND
"Here we are—omff, I was right, we really don't look alike at all," Izumi announced as we came to a small metal door. I guess he must've flipped the light on as he opened the door, I could hear a faint buzzing sound. I was gently set down on the edge of the tub, and he sat next to me. It wasn't a far journey, but that didn't mean it was easy, especially after being kept in conditions like this.
I tried to center myself. I felt a bit better than when I woke up, but that didn't really mean much. The world was fuzzier than I usually experience it, and certainly never for this long, my head still pounded, and I think I was cold, but I began to ache halfway through the journey here, so it hurt too much to really tell, honestly. There was also still a slight nausea as well, to add to my growing list of complaints about the situation, but it was the least of my worries.
Izumi eventually broke the silence after a few moments of us breathing and calming down from what shouldn't have been strenuous activity, and yet. "So, any better."
"Not by much," I admitted. "But better is better."
"True," Izumi said, then he paused, startled. I turned to face him slightly, and he seemed even more startled. "Oh, your eyes."
Oh, damn. That was quick. "Yeah, I'm…"
"Blind? Clearly. Or well, not for you. Wait that was mean," Izumi tried to backtrack, but I ended up laughing a bit before I realized hey laughing hurts.
"No, it's fine. No one really makes jokes like that around me. A lot of them… actually don't know I'm blind. At least, not initially."
Izumi shrugged, then hummed in what was best described as a 'shrugging' sound, the low-high-low 'I don't know' sound. "One of my friends when I was little was blind. He was in a car accident, and his eyes had a… similar look to yours. So I just immediately thought… he made a lot of jokes about it too."
I gave my own shrug and a slight smile. "What else am I going to joke about? Sorry I don't have the same colorful joke book as everyone else."
Izumi groaned "I know that was sarcastic, but it was also a pun, and I don't know if I should laugh or cry."
"Laugh. It's better for the heart, if there's an option to be had," I said automatically, then added, "that's one of my dad's sayings."
"Huh. Well. In that case. Ha. Ha. Ha."
"I have never heard such a stilted laugh in my life and I feel offended that you can't see the delight that is my humor."
Izumi actually chuckled. "Someone's gotta play the straight man." Then he seemed to grow thoughtful, and burst out laughing.
I chuckled on instinct, wincing when I was sharply reminded of my headache. "Uh, did I miss something…?"
"No, no, it's-" Izumi tried to sober up, "-it's an inside joke, that's all."
"Riiiight," I said.
He managed to collect himself. "So, anyways, forgive me if I'm wrong, but is it complete blindness, or…?"
And so the lies and half truths begin, because no one knew that my sonar-radar-whatever sense bullshit was absolutely nonsense better than me. "I can… tell that there are shapes, and I can tell where you are, but… eh, details. Also, computers suck, I just had to born in the technology age."
"Do you hate touchscreens, then?"
I gave an exaggerated groan. Touchscreens and laminated papers. Thankfully things I didn't deal with much.
"Well dramatic groan answers that question."
"No, really?"
"Sarcasm is not befitting a young lady." Izumi's voice gained a posh tone, and it sounded like he was almost quoting someone.
"The only people who have called me lady have been a rock-band bassist monk and my very pissed grade school principal."
"… I will admit, I am curious about both of those things," Izumi said.
"I might have gotten into a tiny fight, miniscule really, that my principal at the time didn't like at all."
"… you still haven't explained the monk."
"Hopefully, you'll meet him."
"Young lady that doesn't answer the question."
I just smiled, a mimed zipping my lips.
"Young lady please."
I didn't feel great, still. But I felt better.
Underneath it, though, I knew. We were distracting ourselves from our situation. Both of us were still scared, and unsure what to do or how to get out.
This wasn't good. This wasn't good at all…
A thought occurred to me. "Hey, Izumi? Do you know how long I was out?"
Izumi hummed. "No, I don't. I found you just as you were waking up… but I hadn't gone to that part of the tunnel in about. Two days? So at the most you were out for about one."
That. Well, it didn't exactly help but at least I wasn't out long.
"By the way, want some water? The sink is safe, and so is the water as far as I can tell, and I was given a cup a while back from Mr. I Kidnap Teens."
I nodded, somewhat lost in thought. I probably had a dry throat, but headaches have a bad tendency of making you forget those sorts of things, dull as mine was when I didn't move too much. I didn't know the drug used on me, it wasn't something I ever really looked into, but I did know at least some of the… unpleasantness I was going through right now was due to whatever it was. I was out for at least a while, but as for how long I had actually been out, I didn't know. Did Izumi know the day? How was he tracking time? Maybe he was wearing a watch? Made sense, I had mine on, but finer details were hard to make out now.
I could only really get about as far as kind-of making out body movements and more major facial movements when it came to Izumi, so the fine details of a hand of a clock? Not possible.
Speaking of, Izumi guided a metal cup into my hands, almost without me noticing. "Take it easy, okay? Small sips."
I gave him a look, I knew that much, genius, before making a tiny show of gently sipping the water. It was cool, and I didn't realize how much my throat burned until just now. Gentle sips, dammit.
When I was about halfway done with it, taking longer than what I actually wanted to, I paused for a bit. Izumi was doing a good job of distracting me from the situation at hand, but that didn't change what had happened.
I was kidnapped, so was he, and we were totally on our own.
Izumi seemed to stare at me for a moment, before asking, "Want to hear some knock knock jokes?"
We were also going to be bored, apparently.
BLIND
They searched the house top to bottom, but even as the sun rose on a new day, none of the SPR team could find anything. It was as if Mai hadn't stepped into the house at all. The Furukawas were used to waking up early, and had joined the search once they were up. Even with the added help, though, it seemed as if Mai's things had vanished with Mai.
That morning also introduced one of the neighbors.
Kisho Minamoto came over almost every other day as a close family friend of the Furukawas, according to the brother Ichiro, this time bearing a gift of eggs from his chicken coop.
Naru immediately seized the chance to interrogate—to talk to him.
"Where do you live, particularly in relation to here, Mr. Minamoto?" Naru asked, sitting across from the man.
"Just… a bit down the road? It'd take a while, but I could walk here if I couldn't get my car to start," the man replied, shuffling his legs from where he sat. He seemed baffled, and like he was trying to curl in on himself instead of stretching out and filling into his somewhat taller frame. "Who are you, anyways?"
"Kazuya Shibuya, I'm part of the investigative service the Furukawa family has hired," Naru answered smoothly. "You come to this house often, correct?"
Minamoto nodded. "Yes, I do, although I'm not sure how that's going to help you find ghosts or whatever it is that's here."
"So did you meet Akio Izumi, then?"
The neighbor paused. "Izumi? Yeah, for a bit before he ran off into the woods. At least, that's the current rumor."
Naru's eyes seemed to glint as he noted down what Minamoto said. "Who started that rumor, then?"
He seemed to think for a bit, head tilted forward as if his own lap had all the answers, hand on chin, and Naru took the chance to really see at what Minamoto looked like. About the same height and age as Ichiro, dark hair and eyes, tan skin, hands scarred from what could be assumed as hard labor. Not particularly handsome, but fairly plain and average. A worn wedding band around his left ring finger, he must've been married for some time, and yet Naru had yet to hear a word about a spouse. A shut in? A divorce? Or perhaps they had young children as the Furukawa family did, and whoever Minamoto married was keeping them at home. Still, it didn't explain why no one had breathed a word about them, if they existed.
"I think the person who started that particular rumor," Minamoto began, bring Naru's attention back to the interview. "I think that person would have been the old widow woman, Aoi Tachibana… she died last week, though, so I'm afraid that asking her might be impossible." He gave a slightly wary look and a strained chuckle. "Then again, you're ghost hunters, right? So maybe not so impossible."
Naru hummed. "That aside, what do you think happened to Akio Izumi?"
"Personally? I agree with Aoi Tachibana, that he ran into the woods. He's either alive out there, found his way out and is hiding, or… well. He was kind of a rich kid, city boy type. I'm not sure how well he could survive on his own out there, especially for this long."
"I see. Have you ever experienced anything here? You come around often enough."
"Nothing more than what the rest of the family has, I'm afraid," Minamoto admitted. "I really don't have any experiences to add. Nothing has ever happened at my home, either, if you were wondering."
"Ah. Is that so," Naru jotted down his thoughts along with the words of the interview itself in his file. "You've made your impression of Akio Izumi clear, and of the incidents of this property… What's your opinion of the family, then?"
"The Furukawas?" Minamoto seemed to settle himself back a bit into the worn couch. "Well… I've known Ichiro since we were kids… He's odd and quiet, kind of strange… might be a bit bitter about not having his own family, but… Koji is nice enough, despite his own quiet demeanor. He's really a very gleeful man, but also very private, so it's rare to really see that side of him. Hannah is… well she's sometimes not great at social cues, but she's a foreigner. I wouldn't call her an introvert, but she's not nearly as loud and in your face as one might expect from an American. The kids… Ayahime must've gotten her strangeness from her uncle Ichiro, she likes to make herself scarce and not pop out until she wants to, or if something is happening. Otherwise, she hardly speaks, and just… stares into your soul, I swear." Minamoto froze for a second, as if recalling something, before he shook himself out of it. "And Daichi is just an infant. Vocal and happy and playful, although probably stressed… they're all stressed and acting a bit weird. Ayahime hides more, Koji is more stoic, Hannah more subdued, Daichi more fussy… Ichiro is pretty secretive these days too, and irritable."
Naru blinked once, twice, and tapped his fingers for a moment. That was… quite a bit of information, almost rehearsed.
Minamoto noticed Naru's reaction. "Sorry, just… with the police questioning us up and down to find Izumi, well. I got used to answering as much as I could as quickly as I could."
"That's… alright," Naru recovered. It was a lot, but not totally useless. "We need what information we can get, although I'm not sure there's much else you can tell us, at least for right now… Pray tell, have you seen a short teenage girl around, brown hair, no fashion sense?"
"Ah, no…?" It was Minamoto's turn to blink in surprise. "I don't believe I have. I've been busy with preparing for spring and summer, as well as my own personal projects and such... So if there was someone I didn't know, I'd probably have noticed them, but I have had my own distractions… I'm guessing you're looking for her?"
"Keep an eye out, if you can, and tell us if you see her," Naru avoided the question. "I won't keep you any longer, Mr. Minamoto."
"Certainly… Pleasure to meet you, Mr. Shibuya."
Naru plastered on a plastic smile. "Pleasure is mine."
Minamoto left without any further fanfare, leaving Naru to go over the interview in his head.
The young man was used to plastic words and facades and the like. He wasn't even going by his real name at the moment, and hadn't been for months. That's not to say he was the master of looking through them, not at all. Naru knew that Mai was naturally far better at it, and most of SPR had some passing familiarity of looking through it. Lin, in particular, tended to easily pick up the hidden hints others left without knowing it.
So, Naru knew that he really should have had Lin or Takigawa listening in on the interview, because he had no idea who or what Mr. Minamoto was covering for. Perhaps Izumi?
He had noticed that Minamoto seemed slightly keen on suspecting Ichiro, as well, despite obvious efforts to not completely throw him under the bus. Although, in this case Naru had to agree that something was up with Ichiro.
Then again, all of the family was stressed, as was Naru. Mai was still missing and there wasn't a trace of her even being here. The most he had gotten from reading the radio she had dropped was that she urgently needed to tell him, or anyone from SPR, that she found something. What that was wasn't clear to him. Token reading was already a difficult task, and Mai was particularly difficult to get a read on.
Nothing completely unfamiliar to Naru, some people just weren't as… readable as others, and it wasn't always clear who would be easy to read. Masako, for example, telegraphed practically everything, while Monk was suspiciously aloof. It was just unfortunate and also just his luck, or perhaps hers, that Mai was both one of the hardest people to read Naru had ever dealt with and a danger magnet like he'd never seen before.
Why did he even send her alone? Sure, she had a radio and was walking in a mostly open field until she got the horse stable, but he really should have known by this point that she would end up in trouble anyways.
At least, Naru mused, she can't have fallen in a well and ended up underground again.
Now that would just be ridiculous.
BLIND
Turns out, I was right about being kidnapped being kind of boring, at least in this case.
Yes, I was terrified, but I wasn't alone, and the company I had was a guy who had been kidnapped weeks ago and he was… relatively okay, at least.
And, we could walk around the tunnels if we wanted to.
Granted, I was currently getting through whatever the hell drugged me and therefore curled up in the bathtub of the weird bathroom down here, but it could be worse. It wasn't like a vampire demon guy was patiently waiting to regain his energy so he could drain my blood in an attempt to live longer. No, my kidnapper was entirely too human.
I've been at the mercy of many ghosts, much to my and SPR's continued astonishment and annoyance, and none of them had ever needed something so human as a drug. Chemicals had been used before, yes, but I'm pretty sure they had been trying to kill me with the formaldehyde in those bottles they broke since they were conveniently there, not hide me away for who knows what reason. Not to mention that it might have been premeditated, nor the fact that someone had gotten kidnapped at a separate time entirely was still here weeks later.
Said fellow kidnaped teen had my side left a bit ago, apparently wanting to check if that door had a food basket or not, or to do rounds or… something. I wanted to say what was the point of checking the tunnels constantly, what are you going to find, more rocks?
But it's because Izumi did those rounds that he even found me, so I couldn't really complain or say they were useless. And who knew, maybe there'd suddenly be a secret door leading to a way out, or another bathroom, or something.
Also, the knock knock jokes got old after the tenth one. I think he memorized an entire book of them. Literally memorized it. And those were not helping the general ick I felt.
It was better when he was here, honestly, but it was because he was putting my attention elsewhere, and I needed a moment of clarity to myself.
The nauseous feeling had calmed further after I drank something, so it was likely from whatever drug was used, and I'd be fine in a few hours or, at worse, days. Downside, I very well could end up down here for weeks, so the time it took for me to feel better was almost saddening, since, well... I could be completely back to normal by the time I was rescued, and… yes I'd like to feel better and get out of here, but… not like that.
Moving on to less dreadful, less future-focused thoughts. I ached, and I think it was probably from being manhandled who knows how long before being dropped off in the tunnel. Maybe even literally dropped, some of these aches were turning into bruises. Otherwise, the ache was probably again due to whatever was used to knock me out. It wasn't too severe, thankfully.
Again, I knew this wouldn't last for too long. Bruises would heal, potentially before I was back with SPR and the rest of the team. Which, again, would suck for the amount of time it took, but I had no doubt I was going to be mother henned to death and back by the group, and Naru was likely to just lock me in the SPR office with limited visitation hours when the 'SPR extras' hadn't annoyed him too much.
My dizziness, now, that had me a little more concerned. I could have a concussion, as the headache was annoyingly present, even if it wasn't the worst I'd ever had. Or, I again state that I was drugged unconscious with an unknown sedative. Could be temporary, could be more serious. Either way, as long as I didn't move, it wasn't too bad. Likewise, the cool porcelain of the tub felt nice against my temples.
I was also a fair amount concerned about the fact that I wasn't sure I could walk on my own just yet, leaving me stuck here regardless, but I could at least slightly feel strength coming back. Slowly, but it came.
All of that, though, was a known temporary issue. Even if it's a concussion and I don't get medical help, I'll be fine in due time.
What had me downright worried was the fuzzy reception I was getting. My extra sense… radar, sonar, whatever… it didn't act like this. It didn't hurt my head and make the aches flair up when I pushed for more detail, and that detail wasn't I did get wasn't so… unrefined. Sure, I had adjusted to being blind, I couldn't do some things, but I always could backtrack on my sense. I didn't run into things, and I knew when people were around me. I always had this to fall back on, and now I didn't.
I was never scared of the dark. Why would I be? Daytime and nighttime was hardly any different for me, other than maybe a change in temperature, and these days I knew that if there was a monster in the dark, something bumping around in the night, that I could at least slightly defend myself or get help.
But in a tunnel system with a kidnapped boy and at least one human man, if not more, running around with no way to tell if that guy was sneaking up behind me…
Yeah, I was a little bit frightened.
Dreams, I could see, I didn't need my sense. Reality before, I had my sense, I didn't need to see.
Reality now, I couldn't see, and my sense is on the fritz. What if it didn't get better? What if, in the time it took to get out, and I refused to think I wouldn't escape or be rescued, that whatever damage that might have happened became irreversible?
Maybe it was temporary.
Maybe it was about time to embrace that I couldn't see and stop relying so heavily on a crutch that I shouldn't have relied too hard on in the first place.
Maybe I would have begun losing my use this… sense… thing as I grew older. After all, the whole blindness thing was apparently at least partially a curse, so who is to say what will happen, maybe this was meant to be.
But… I really, really wish it wasn't when I was vulnerable in a tunnel system, away from people who knew me and cared for me, and with a guy in a similar boat as me and at least one guy who kidnapped one or both of us for some damn reason.
… Calm down Mai. Panicking will not help.
I curled my hand around the car key I had, having taken it out of my pocket before I settled into the tub. I am here, and I will be okay. I am in reality, the things I'm going through are scary, but they are real, and I can deal with that.
I am here, and I will be okay.
I am in reality.
The things I'm going through are scary, but they are real, and I can deal with that.
I am here.
I am in reality.
The things I'm going through are scary, but they are real, and I can deal with that.
"I am here…"
BLIND
You've met my boy, Akio Izumi. If you're wondering if he's going to be Naru's rival or anything, ahaha, no. You have no idea how much that's not going to be able to happen. Bonus potatoes for anyone that can guess why.
Ah, by the way, I don't think I ever mentioned it, but I'm trying for a more… kind of not set in a strict time sort of thing, so while Blind is set a bit further in the future than the original series probably was, it's not quite truly modern, ya know? So if there's a more modern reference, such as say touchscreens, it's usually going to be referring to the earlier technologies. Likewise, older tech is probably a touch more relevant in the story, but maybe not particularly prominent or kind of fading out. Think… roughly early 2000s if you really want some kind of actual timeline, but the legit time setting doesn't quite exist other than 'around the turn of the century'. Poor Mai has no idea the pain that touchscreens may bring her in the future. Anyways, you won't really hear them say an exact year in any case. Besides, and I know because I did a legit school project on this, I presented it in class because teach failed to mention that part of the grade or I would have done something significantly less nerdy and strange, ghost hunting tech hasn't changed in freaking years. Other than ghost hunting apps. But those are pretty much shams, sorry to say. Can you imagine Naru getting upset about those apps though? Or Monk? Ha.
Fun fact- I actually identify more with Naru than I do Mai. So if Naru seems in character, that probably just means I'm more stoic than anyone raising me intended, and if he's a bit more out of character, I probably bled myself into him a little too much. Despite this, I still write for Mai. Which is probably why she's so damn sarcastic. Whoops.
If you really like ghosts and superheroes, check out PitViperofDoom's fic over on AO3 called Yesterday Upon The Stair for My Hero Academia. (I miiiggght be planning to cross post Blind onto AO3, even though Ghost Hunt isn't super popular there, but I'd inevitably end up editing the chapters before they would go on there, which means I'd have to repost them here, so… if I do end up doing that, don't hold your breath on it.) Back to YUTS, though, it's a fantastic read, and one of my favorite stories! I usually don't list the stories I like from other fandoms, but this one really captured my heart, guys and gals and nonbinary pals. It's extremely well written, and Pit is a fantastic author. It's also a semi similar format to this, actually, where it follows the series—but unlike mine where it was literally written down from the episode, it has its own twists and turns and doesn't just follow the episode, with mostly original-to-the-story scenes. AKA, you don't have to have watched MHA to enjoy it (although I advise it, because MHA is good and it'll make more sense).
With all that said and done,
UNTIL NEXT TIME, FRIENDS!