Yo! Thank you to all readers so far!
Gasps of surprise rang throughout the room. Mai's voice wasn't among them. Instead, she stepped back closer to the wall, her eyes narrowing slightly.
Murdered, huh? she thought with a frown. Had the two children been killed in this house or on this property, she wondered? Although, knowing when they had died was probably an important thing to figure out too.
Naru appeared to be thinking along the same lines, because he focused on Masako again. "Do you know when these children were alive or when they died?"
Masako shook her head. "I'm not sure if the children themselves are concealing things, or if it is the darker entity, but the closest I can tell is that they were alive and killed within the last thirty years. I cannot pinpoint it any closer than that."
Naru made note of that, and then looked over at Yasuhara and gestured at the large bookshelf in the corner of the room. "There are books on that shelf that seem to contain this house's history. See if you can find anything about the children, Yasuhara-san."
"Yes, boss!" With a nod and a salute, Yasuhara moved over to the bookshelf, scanned over a few of the titles, pulled a few of the books off the shelf, and then plopped down on the floor, beginning his search.
Silence fell as everyone in the room fell into variations of the same thoughts. They all wanted to know who the children were, how they had been killed, who had killed them, along with a fair few other things. Mai too had the same thoughts in mind, but there was something else she was thinking of as well.
"Naru?" she said suddenly, breaking the thick silence.
He looked up. "What is it?"
"Everything Hideki-san said happened to his friends... Couldn't those have been caused by high EMF readings?" she asked.
Naru and Lin exchanged a glance that betrayed surprise, as Yasuhara looked up from the book in his hands, confusion painted across his face. "EMF?" he repeated in question, Bou-san and Ayako looking just as confused.
Wondering whether Mai actually knew what she had just suggested, Naru gestured at her. "Care to explain?"
"It stands for electromagnetic field," Mai said promptly. "Theory is, basically, that spirits give off some sort of electric and magnetic energy, aka, EMF. But it's not just spirits. It's a thing that exists naturally around us, and certain objects will also give it off.
"But then you have people you can call...hypersensitive to this particular thing. They'd only need to be exposed to high EMFs for a few minutes before they'd start to react to them in some way. Nausea, skin irritation, headaches, paranoia, feeling like you're being watched, touched, or spoken to-those are all symptoms of it," said Mai, counting off on her fingers.
"So essentially, everything Hideki-san said his friends have experienced in this house are common symptoms of hypersensitivity towards high EMF."
Naru couldn't help but stare in surprise. Perhaps it was naive of him to think it, but he honestly hadn't expected Mai to explain it correctly. But...she had changed.
He'd been oblivious to it before, no doubt because he hadn't bothered looking or listening carefully enough, but Mai had changed during the year he had been gone. That change applied to her physically as well, of course, but her emotional and mental maturity had changed too.
Mai had grown up in so many ways he hadn't even thought to realize.
"Hey, boss?" said Yasuhara suddenly. When he had Naru's attention, he went on. "I don't see anything here about any children dying on the property. In fact, if these books are all accurate, it doesn't seem like any children have ever even lived here. The house is fairly new as well, from what I've been able to find.
"It was built some thirty years ago by the Minami couple. I see nothing about them having children, but they lived here alone until approximately thirteen or so years ago, at which point Hideki-san purchased the house from them. He lived here for five or six years, left for about a year, and then returned, and has been here ever since. It looks like he's been living here alone the entire time too." He lowered his notebook, adjusted his glasses, then looked up. "What do you think, Shibuya-san?"
Naru was quiet for a moment as he thought things through, deciding on what their next step should be, while the others exchanged bemused glances. They weren't sure why they ever expected Naru to share his thoughts with them. He never did until he felt like it.
"Go to the library-there must be one somewhere nearby," he said eventually, eyes on Yasuhara. "You should be able to do more detailed research there. The rest of you can start setting up the equipment. Our investigation will mean nothing if we have no instruments prepared to document any activity."
And so they did as told, Yasuhara asking Hideki for some directions before leaving the house, while nearly everyone else went around the house setting up cameras and the works. Once they were finished with that, they (discounting Yasuhara) returned to the Base.
Mai had only just stepped into the room, when Naru immediately sent her back out to get him some tea. With an explosive sigh, Mai turned on her heel and left the room once more, muttering under her breath.
"Stupid scientist, sits on his ass while we do all the damn manual labour..."
Naru sighed, but bit back a smile. Some things never change, he thought. There was a part of him that was genuinely pleased that this part of Mai hadn't matured. He secretly loved it when she said things like this. It was...amusing.
But Naru wasn't the only one who was wrenched out of his thoughts abruptly when a sudden scream filtered through the house.
"Mai!"
That's it for now. Looking forward to reviews! Laterz!