wow, so sorry for not updating, will leave my sappy excuse down the bottom ;;


Monday, 11.10

A somber tone filled in the air of Tokyo that morning. Even the usual upbeat Mai found herself in a slump, seemingly drained of her normal energy. Despite being late due to misplacing her keys for the thousandth time, she couldn't even bring herself to sprint to school as she normally would. She walked the same monotonous route she always had done. Mai noticed those around her also seemed to walk lethargically, but she took no mind to it and continued on her own way.

"I guess the term 'Monday blues' holds true…" she mumbled to herself as she stretched her arms out in front of her.

She knew she was late, and the abandoned hallways crushed the last tiny shred of optimism she still possessed of being on time. Continuing down the desolate hall, she arrived at her room and placed her hand on the door with a sigh.

"So should have stayed in bed this morning."

She slowly opened the door to her classroom, attempting to not make much noise and disturb the class. However, the older building seemingly never complied with the students' silent wishes and always had to make as much noise as seemingly possible.

"Taniyama, please come take your seat."

"Damn."

The brunette laughed awkwardly and obeyed her teacher's orders, muttering her sorrys under softly. It seemed odd that she was not reprimanded for her lateness on the spot, but took it gratefully and kept quiet. Gene turned his head around and half smiled, which she returned with a small wave. The teacher cleared her throat.

"Now that you're all here, there is –"

"Wait, we are still missing someone," a boy spoke, jabbing his thumb at the empty desk next to his.

"That's Reo's desk…," a girl said softly from the other side of the room. Everyone except Gene and Naru turned around to see the empty desk at the end of the class. Mai noticed the twins shared a look between each other, and her intuition was telling her something was fishy. She narrowed her eyes at the two but couldn't seem to get their attention.

"I am aware. There is some news the school has asked all homeroom teachers to announce," she paused and took a deep breath.

"Reo will not be in school today," the teacher said while fidgeting a ring around her finger, "or any day further, for that matter," she added, considerably softer than before.

Questions immediately arose from the class, each confused by the teacher's words. She raised her hand and silenced the classroom and took a moment before continuing.

"Last week, Reo passed away."

The room was silent for only a moment before the questions returned louder than before.

"What happened?"

"This is a joke, right?"

"How could this happen?"

"There's no way this is real."

Everyone simultaneously spoke over each other.

"Unfortunately, this is no joke. Reno had some medical complications last Thursday. His funeral is tomorrow. The school understands you all must be very distraught by this news and has decided to release you from classes today and tomorrow is you wish to attend the service."

Mai sat completely still in her chair. She felt sick to her stomach when she looked over at the empty desk and realized it would never be filled with the same face again. Immense guilt settled in for never getting to know him as well as she could have, and never even taking the time to learn the color of his eyes.

One girl began to cry. Then another. Then another. Everyone looked at the abandoned desk that now held a whole new meaning. No longer was it a place to cultivate a young mind, but a place a young mind would never return to. Doubt and confusion continued to linger in the air. This was a truly unexpected event.

"This doesn't make sense," a girl cried into another girl's arms.

Reo had always had the best grades, always seemed happy and smiling, never even seemed to have a bad day. He was always particularly alone, though, but everyone thought that he simply enjoyed being by himself than being in a group. He was never bullied or picked on, his classmates had a sort of mutual respect for him. Everyone felt guilty for never truly getting to know him, taking a small piece of the blame for the tragic event that occurred.

"Mai, are you okay?" Gene looked at her sadly and reached out his hand to touch her arm. Mai immediately pulled back and covered her mouth with her hand and shook her head. The touch made a shock of reality course through her body. She was reminded of her own parents' passing and was suddenly hit with a wave of nausea.

"I'm really going to be sick."

The feeling in her swelled and her body temperature began to rise rapidly. The teacher was still talking, attempting to quell the class, but no one was listening. How could they be expected to listen at a time like this? Mai could feel her heart pounding in her chest as her nausea grew. When she couldn't take it anymore, she bolted out of her seat, through the door, and down the hallway to the restrooms. The twins shared another look again. Naru pinched the bridge of his nose.

Mai groggily made her way back to the classroom after some time. Most of the students were gone, however a few remained speaking in hushed tones and teary red eyes. Gene and Naru stood by their desks. Gene held his forehead, pushing his hair back and sighing, while Naru had his arms crossed and his gaze fixated on the windows.

"Oh, you two are still here?" Mai walked over to her desk and decided it was time to leave. She knew she couldn't stay here all day. She needed fresh air to calm her mind.

"Yeah, we were waiting for you," Gene said softly.

"Oh, I'm sorry," she began collecting her things quickly as to not hold them up any longer.

"You need to come into the office today," Naru rolled his fingers against his arm.

"Huh? But today was my day off…" Mai grabbed her bag and slung it across her shoulder then looked at him with her sad puppy eyes.

"I think what my brother means to stay is that there's something we would like to talk about with you," Gene shot his brother a look. Naru returned it with a stare of his own. Mai could sense the almost electric pulsation between the two.

"Alright alright, let's just go now and do it," Mai walked over and grabbed the fabric of Gene's jacket, breaking them from their staring contest, and pulled him to the door.

"Come on, I don't want to stay in here anymore. It's make me depressed," she said quietly.


"So, what was it that you wanted to talk about?" Mai placed a freshly made tray of tea on the table and sat across from the pair.

"It's about a new case," Gene started as Naru took a sip of his tea.

"Oh really?" Mai perked up slightly from the funk she had been entrapped in all day.

"To put it simply, Reo's family has contacted us to investigate their home. They believe him to be the cause of some new disturbances," Naru stated seemingly unaffected by the news of their classmates death. Gene shook his head at his bluntness.

"Way to ease into it, Naru," Gene scoffed into his tea before taking a sip.

"I don't have time to waste," he replied, rolling his eyes.

"Reo… wouldn't do something malicious like that," Mai said, brows furrowed.

"Sometimes spirits in the afterlife don't act exactly how they were while living," Gene explained.

"But isn't that all too fast? He did only… pass a few days ago," Mai tilted her head slightly. The feeling of sadness and guilt began to slowly creep in the more she thought about her classmate's untimely end.

"Sudden passings often leading to near immediate hauntings," Naru explained. Mai stared down at her tea and gazed at her own reflection for a moment.

"But that leads us to our question for you, which is," Gene began.

"If you will join this case or not," Naru finished.

"Of course, I will," Mai replied immediately, "if there is anything I can do to help Reo, I would be more than willing to."

Mai looked between the two twins and noticed something immediately changed about their demeanor, as if one large sigh had been exhaled.

"What…"

Naru smirked, "I told you she would say yes."

Gene groaned and reached in his pocket, pulling out his wallet. Mai tilted her head in confusion. Gene pulled out 1000 yen and reluctantly gave it over to Naru who snatched it from his hand.

"I guess I'm not used to dealing with people who have such a good moral compass," Gene replied, taking a shot as his twin.

"Wait, wait, wait, you two made bets on if I would say yes or not to the case?" Mai sat shocked. Naru got up and walked over to his office, the ghost of a smirk still lingering on his lips. Gene rubbed the back of his neck.

"Of course he leaves me to explain it…" Gene muttered and sent his other half a not so friendly message via the all too handy telepathic channel they possessed.

"We needed something to lighten the mood a little bit…" he confessed. Mai shook her head but couldn't help but laugh.

"I would be a bit more okay with it if he lost instead of you," she jabbed her thumb towards the direction of the narcissists office.

"It's ok, I'll steal it back when he's not looking," he whispered across the table to Mai with an assuring thumbs up. A stack of papers was dropped in front of Mai at a moment's notice.

"Call these people and inform them of our case, then you are released for the day," Naru said as he turned to once again return to his office.

"It wasn't even my day to work today," she pouted and looked grimly at the papers in front of her.

"Yikes, that's rough Mai," Gene said, slowly standing then inching his way towards the door, "You know me, normally I would love to stay and help but, ah well wouldn't you know, I actually have some sort of… things. So, bye!" He said before rushing out the door in a flash. As the door closed with a thud the office became starkly silent. She reached for her first paper when she jumped, startled by the voice who broke the deafening silence.

"Oh and, by the way," Naru said, leaning on the doorway to his office, "we leave tomorrow morning."


Ok, I would like to begin by saying how sorry I am for how long this update took, and honestly I know it isn't the best. I've been struggling for a while with my confidence while writing this story, and during that past few months I was extremely discouraged with my writing and whether or not it was actually 'good'. I have such an awful tendency to compare myself to others too much, and because of this I basically convinced myself this story was not worth writing because I thought it was trash and no one enjoyed it. But recently (as in like 30 minutes before writing this), I had this overwhelming inspiration because I just have to believe there is one person out there who maybe loves this story and for them I can't just let it die. I hope that person does exist oneday. Thank you for all your continuing support, and I look forward to updating with a new chapter soon!