Yo! Thank you to all readers so far!
"Possessed!?"
"Hideki-sa- Akira-san got possessed?"
Ryou nodded. "It happened about a month before he left. I don't know how or why, but it changed everything."
"And you think this possession is the reason why he began to kill your family?" said Naru.
"Well, yeah. I mean, he was perfectly fine before that."
"When exactly did he get possessed?" asked Naru, trying to remain patient. "By that I mean, was he at home when it happened, or at work?"
Ryou shrugged. "I have no idea," he said. "I was only seven, remember? That day was totally normal up until he came home. When he came back, he was…yelling. He shouted a lot, loudly too. Mai and May were crying because of it. They probably didn't understand what was going on. He was just…so angry."
"Is that all he did?" asked Bou-san. "Yell?"
"No. He became physical after a while. He-he started hurting us. All of us…but, mostly Mai."
"Mai?"
"Yeah. She was injured so badly that she had to go to the hospital. She was in intensive care for nearly a week."
"What!?"
"Are you saying that that man down the hall nearly killed Mai?" questioned Ayako in shock.
"Yes," said Ryou with a nod. "Mai being in the hospital is another reason why she doesn't know any of this. We decided not to tell her."
"Why not?" asked Madoka. "Wouldn't it have been better if she had known?"
Ryou looked over at her. "When we were told not to say anything, I wondered that too," he said. "Pretty soon though, our parents got divorced and our mother remarried. When we saw Mai then, we knew we couldn't say anything. She had changed so much. She was so sad… She put on a happy face for us all, but…" Ryou trailed off.
"Go back to when Akira-san was possessed," said Naru. "How did you all realize it?"
"The spirit told us," said Ryou simply.
"It told you…?" Yasuhara repeated in confusion.
"Yeah," said Ryou with a nod. "Mai was unconscious and naturally, we realized that something about our father was off. And then he spoke, saying that we were right and that our father wasn't himself right now. He said that he had taken our father's body over…that he had possessed him."
"Did he mention why?" asked John.
Ryou fell silent.
"I'll understand if you can't remember," said Naru politely. "This was years ago and you were only a child."
"Heh, so you do have manners. Good to know," said Ryou with a smirk.
Naru forced himself not to argue back and merely folded his arms across his chest.
"I don't exactly remember what was said," said Ryou slowly, "but, I-I think I remember him saying he had some sort of…grudge against Mai. He said he hated her. I guess that was why he singled her out and hurt her worse."
The team was quite confused. Mai had been, what three or four years old at the time? How could a toddler possibly have upset a spirit to the point where it possessed the girl's father and had him hurt her?
"How did the spirit leave, then?" asked Yasuhara.
"An exorcism," said Ryou. "Mom called someone and he performed an exorcism."
"Did the spirit say why he hated Mai?" asked Bou-san. "Beyond the grudge part?"
"Nope. I'll leave that for you guys to figure out," said Ryou. "I'm sure you can do that much at least."
The team looked around at each other and nodded.
"With the information you just gave us, I'm sure we'll be able to find something out," said Yasuhara optimistically.
"Good," said Ryou. He then turned to look at Naru. "I don't like you, not one bit. But that's probably because my little sister chose you." He approached Naru and continued. "My opinion doesn't matter much, though. I am dead, after all. You piss my sister off a lot, but she still loves you, and she'll do anything for you. I've seen that, and I know that, but don't you dare force her into anything or you can bet your tea addicted ass that May and I will be after you instead."
As Ryou spoke to their boss, the rest of the team watched in serious silence. They all knew that this was not a joking matter, even despite the mild humour Ryou had inserted into the statement himself.
"Don't make her cry, understand?"
Naru nodded. "I won't."
Ryou smiled and then left Mai's body, causing her to fall forwards. Naru caught hold of her. She was unconscious, as expected. Mai had been possessed for a long time. She was going to need quite a bit of rest…
That's it for now. Looking forward to reviews! Laterz!