Chapter Five: Boyfriends?
The SPR team slammed opened the doors to the largest of the dinning halls. In the center of the room lay a male body, blonde hair covered the white face, blood oozed from an opened wound in side of the victims head, arms and legs twisted the wrong way.
Kazuya stopped in the doorway pushing Mai back out if the room. "Stay behind me." he ordered looking around the room for the source of the screaming. Two young maids sat huddled together in the far corner, while the older Detective questioned them.
Kazuya looked back at Mai, who stood frozen behind him, staring at the body. Her face was pale and she was tilting to the side almost like she was going to faint again.
"Mai? Are you alright?"
Mai's breathing hitched as her vision blurred and her world slanted. It took a few moments for Mai to understand that she had fainted and even longer for her to realize that someone was holding her.
"Are you alright?" Yakumo asked looking down at the small girl in his arms. "Can you stand?" she nodded, but as he pulled her to her feet she stumbled forwards into Kazuya, who caught her in his arms and glared at Yakumo.
"Don't touch her." he whispered lowly, his arms tightening around her.
Normally Yakumo would ignore him, but this Kazuya person seemed like a lot of fun. Yakumo smirked feeling a renewed interest in this otherwise boring case. "I wouldn't dream of it."
The two continued like this until Haruka called Yakumo's name gaining his full attention, even if some what reluctantly. He turned looking over at where she was sitting with Gotou and the two maids who had found the body. "Yes?"
Haruka got to her feet walking over to where he and Kazuya were standing before she whispered. "Gotou-san wants you to check the room for spirits, again." She looked around the room, a strange look on her face. "Are there any?" she asked after a minute of tense silence.
"What do you think?" Yakumo said annoyed that he was being doubted, he had already been through the room and the ones around it looking for a spirit and he hadn't found even one small one, let alone one that could do this.
"I don't think there is a ghost here." Yakumo smiled, pleasantly shocked by her answer. "But that scares me more."
Yakumo nodded, it was more difficult if it was a live human.
"Did they find anything out about who that is?" Yakumo asked pointing at the body.
"No, they were hoping he was still around and you had seen him." Haruka inched closer to Yakumo as the side door opened and Mr. Grey walked in closely followed Gregory.
"What happened here?" Mr. Grey demanded. He stopped eyes widening when he caught sight of the body. "Steven?" he looked over at Detective Gotou eyes hardening. "Your supposed to stop things like this from happening!"
"It would be easier," Gotou said crossing his arms. "if your staff would cooperate with my team and I."
Mr. Grey's face heated with color. He opened his mouth but was cut off by Kazuya. "Your that one that brought us in Grey, you might as well let us do our jobs." the words were said to fast for most of the people present to understand, but the look on Mr. Grey face said that he didn't like it.
"Watch what you say Kazuya." Mr. Grey threatened glaring at the younger man. Who shrugged, uninterested in his threats.
"Detective Gotou-san have you found anything?" Kazuya asked shifting the way he was holding Mai so that they could walk closer to the body, which had been covered by a sheet.
"There not much I can tell until my Coroner gets here." Gotou said gruffly. "He's not to be moved, and I want this room sealed." he turned pointing a finger at the younger detective. "Ishii will be standing guard until the Coroner arrives."
"Alright." Mr. Grey said turning to leave. "I'll leave it to you then Detectives." Gregory bowed to the room moistening the rest of the staff out of the room.
Ishii turned to look at Gotou eyes wide. "I have to stand guard alone?"
"What's wrong?" Gotou said smiling. "You look a little pale."
"Nothing sir." Ishii squeaked.
"I can stand watch with you Ishii-san." Haruka offered, moving away from Yakumo. "No." he said grabbing at her hand. "I told you before your not allowed to be alone." he whispered pulling her closer.
"I won't be, I'll be with Ishii." she said trying to free her hand.
Yakumo sighed, feeling a headache coming on. "Your not allowed out of my sight." he said rubbing at his temples. "Understood?"
"I can stand watch with him detective-san." the tall brown haired SPR member offered stepping forward. "No one should be left alone for a while. I think it would be safer." Ishii nodded looking at Gotou.
"You are?"
"Hosho Takigawa, a Monk from mount Koya." Hosho said bowing in greeting.
"A Monk?" Gotou looked him over doubtfully.
"Why do you have hair, aren't Monks supposed to be bald?" Ishii questioned.
"It's a part time gig." Hosho replied smiling.
"Oh." Ishii and Gotou stared at him for a minute. But it didn't really matter if he was a monk or not, just that Ishii wouldn't be alone. "Alright, thank you Taikgawa-san. We gladly except your help."
Mr. Grey slammed his fist through the drywall, heart racing angrily. This wasn't how it was supposed to go! They weren't supposed to work together!
He glared over at Gregory. "Go and find out what their doing!"
"Yes sir." he bowed and left the room, a small smile creeping into his eyes as he thought of all the new ways he could irritate he boss.
Mai watched the monitors, eyes fixed on the hall where Bou-san and Detective Ishii were standing, leaning back against the door frames. The hall had been empty since everyone had cleared out, with only Ayako going to give the two men drinks about a half hour ago.
Mai was worried about this whole thing, it didn't seem right, nothing fit the normal haunting criteria. And she could see it was bothering the whole team.
"Mai?"
"Yes Naru?" she asked not looking away from the screen.
"I want you to go and talk to your friend Ozawa now."
Mai looked up surprised. "Really why?" Naru wasn't looking at her, he was watching the camera for the entrance, where Haruka and the Detective were meeting an older man with a jacket the read Coroner. "Oh. Alright, I'll be your spy this once."' Mai said getting up. "But you owe me."
"Yeah all right." Mai smiled bouncing out of the room.
Lin glanced over at Naru eyes questioning. "What?" Naru asked coolly.
"Oh nothing,"
"What is it Lin?" Naru asked turning to face the Chinese man.
"I just hope you know what your getting into."
"How so?"
"You owe Mai, she can ask anything she wants and you'll have to keep your word and let her be. Are you really ready for something like that? She could ask anything."
"I know what I'm doing." Naru said huffing.
"I hope so." Lin said going back to his typing.
Naru glared at Lin, his mood darkening with every passing minute. How bad could it be? It was only Mai... Naru groaned. Lin was right it could be very bad.
Haruka groaned trying to ignore Hata-san's horrible dead jokes. She walked closer to Yakumo, avoiding the older man as much as she could without being openly impolite.
"I was called 'crudely disgusting' yesterday by a lady who came in to claim her husband's body." Hata was said to Gotou who groaned. "Well she has it right doesn't she. You are disgusting." Hata laughed giddily rubbing his hands together. "Yes I do think so."
Yakumo's face a frozen in place completely devoid, Haruka sighed, slipping her arms around his left arm and hugging it tight. "Yakumo, can I go see Mai now?"
He glanced down at her, looked at his arm and then back at her face. "No, I'll take you after Hata sees the body." he shifted uncomfortably.
"But-"
"Haruka!" a female voice called from the hall in front of them, Mai jogged over to meet them, smiling to the three men before moving to Haruka's side. "I was hoping to run into you."
"Really? I was hoping to avoid seeing the body again, actually. I wanted to come see you, but Yakumo wouldn't let me."
"That's okay, I really wanted to get away from Naru." Mai said a little louder then she needed, making sure that Naru would hear it on the speakers. "Where are you headed to right now?"
"The dinning hall. Coroner Hata is here to examine the body, so after that I'll be free." Haruka said noticing that Mai was looking pale again. Haruka pulled away from Yakumo and wrapped an arm around her. "We can stay outside if you want."
Mai shook her head, "We need to know about what happened as well for our investigation," she smiled tightly. "It'll be fine, I'll just stay at the back."
"Okay, I'll stay with you." Haruka said smiling.
"Thanks."
"What's that matter with you?" Yakumo shot a sharp look at Gotou, warning him not to ask. Gotou shrugged. "I'll just ask Haruka then."
"NO!" Yakumo shouted grabbing at the back of his suite jacket. "Don't."
Gotou stopped smiling, as he took in the rare sight. Yakumo had been rubbing at his hair in a irritated fit for the pass fifteen minutes while Hata checked over the body. Yakumo's hair was now standing up on one side and flat as a sheet on the other. Ishii and Hosho had been watching him as well and had been placing bets on how long it would take for him to notice, he still hadn't.
"Is everything alright?" he asked smirking.
"Yes, everything is fine." it was interesting that Yakumo only got this way when Haruka wasn't around—she and Mai had left the room after Hata had accidentally poked out one of the victim's eyes—he had been one step away from pulling out his hair ever since.
"Good, I would hate to think that you were worried about Haruka being alone in the hall way, with no protection against ghosts...or anything really."
Yakumo frozen, then turned to glare at his older friend. "Stop that."
"Stop what?" he asked innocently.
"Stop trying to freak me out, it's not working Gotou."
"It looks like it is." he pointed out nodding at Yakumo's wrinkled appearance. "Just go check on her, you're not missing anything."
A second later the door was closing behind him.
Gotou shook his head. It wasn't good to have Yakumo so worried, it meant that this was going to be a very hard job.
"You should call your wife."
Gotou looked down at Hata, confused by the sudden change in topic. "Why?"
"Because this guy was killed by a human." he replied holding up a perfect bloody finger print.
Haruka was just setting down tea pot when Yakumo burst through the door to the SPR's base. He looked half crazed with his hair standing on end, his eyes flew across the room searching wildly until he found her sitting at the table next to Lin.
"Haruka!" he angrily pushed past Ayako and John. Fuming he yanked her chair away from the table and leaned down towards her. "What were you thinking leaving without telling me like that!"
Haruka opened her mouth to explain but he just kept going. "Do you now how long I've been looking for you!"
"Yak—"
"What would you have done if you were attacked and no one knew where you were!"
Haruka sighed, which seemed to set him off even more. The SPR team stared on in confusion not sure if they should help or stand back and laugh. "What would I have done if—" Haurka's hands slapping to the sides of Yakumo's face stopping him.
"Stop it." she said angrily. "I wasn't alone I was with Mai, and you knew I wanted to come here so it should have been the first place you looked!" Yakumo stared still shocked that she had hit him. Haruka softened, a small smile on her lips. "What did you do to your hair?" she asked running her fingers gently through it until it was back to it's normal bed head look.
"Are you alright?" Mai asked, reaching a hand out towards them. Yakumo straightened, face unreadable. Haruka blushed bright red, realizing what she had been doing.
"Y-yeah everything's fine now. Right?"
Yakumo humph-ed, he made it to the door before he turned to Haruka. "Next time tell someone before you run off."
"I will." the door closed as an awkward silence followed that was finally broken by John saying, "So how long have you been dating?"
Haruka turned so fast she nearly fell out of her seat. "Dating!" she sputtered a fresh blush burning it's way to the surface. "We are not DATING John-san!"
"It looked like it." Ayako added before John could apologize. "You make a really cute couple too."
"I-i...we." Mai clapped a hand on Haruka's shoulder, smiling sadly. "It doesn't matter what you say, they just want to have they're fun. Just ignore them."
Hata sipped at his tea watching Gotou as he paced the across the dinning room. The verdict was out, and it wasn't good. The murderer was human, and most likely still inside the house, since it had been on lock down from the very minute the body was found.
"You said the body was still warm when it was found, correct?"
"Yes." Gotou said stopping for a moment. "That's why I had Yakumo search for any spirits I thought it must still be nearby if the corpse was still warm."
"Yes, it would seem like that..." Hata smiled.
"The culprit might have even been in the room when we first found him." Gotou mused a feeling of deep depression settling over him. "He might have been in the room with us." he whispered to himself disturbed.
Hata drank the last of his tea and reached down for his note pad. "The victim received a nasty blow to his skull, dead from loss of blood, and blunt force trauma to the head." Hata flipped to the next page looking puzzled. "The funny part is that I can't find where skull was first fractured, the way it looks is as if the attacker wrapped his hands around the victims head and squeezed...oh." Hata looked down at his crumpled note pad frowning.
Gotou growled, and started to pace again. "What am I supposed to do!" he said angrily.
"Your job." Yakumo said pushing off the door frame. "I don't see what the problem is. You've been a police for how many years?"
"Twenty." Gotou answered looking him over. "What are you doing back? Did you find her?"
"I did."
"Good for you." that explains why his hair is fixed then. Gotou thought smiling.
Mai smiled. "Where have you been sleeping?" she asked Haruka as they walked down the upper halls, checking cameras and mics.
Ayako was checking one room to the left while they waited outside. Haruka blushed, but only enough for Mai to see before it disappeared. "I have a room down one floor."
"Really? Which one?"
"I—I'm not sure I haven't slept in it yet." Mai looked confused. "I mean I have slept, I just didn't sleep in my room yet."
"Then where did you sleep?" Ayako asked handing a tape to Mai. "Was it with the black haired guy from before?" Ayako asked jokingly smirking.
Haruka paled. "How did—" she slapped a hand over her mouth staring wide eyed at the other two women. "I mean—"
"Ohh! How exciting!" Ayako squealed. "So you are together I thought so!"
Mai blushed. "I didn't know you where dating Yakumo-san."
"I'm not!" Haruka yelped. "Don't miss understand Ayako-san, I'm not dating him! Were not together I just—i couldn't sleep by myself so I slept in his room. He slept on the couch!"
Ayako and Mai smiled laughing. "You don't have to explain we figured as much, he seems like a reasonable person." Ayako said patting her shoulder. "We won't assume anything. We'll believe whatever you say Haruka-san."
"Thanks Mai-chan."
"This is the place right?" Jori asked looking over at Ren, who was staring at a poorly drawn map that an elderly man had made for them at the gas station.
He nodded. "I think so, lets ask." he got out of the car and walked over to the gates looking for a intercom box. After a minute he found the black box, half covered by a ivy vine. "Hello." a male voice spoke from the box.
"Hi, Is this Mr. Grey's mansion? Me and my friend are here to work as replacements." Ren said in his clear accent free English, motioning Jori over.
"Yes it is. Your names sir please?" the voice asked. Jori glared at the box, couldn't they at least try and speak Japanese?
"Ren Fujioka and Jori Lee Kim. Were here to replace my brothers Haru and Natsu Fujioka. Mr. Grey has already been notified."
"Yes, one moment someone will be there momentarily to show you in." the voice said as the gates started to open.
"Thank you!" Ren said smiling.
"You're too nice Ren." Jori scolded, as they got back into his green charger. Ren looked over and shook his head. "It not our job to make them do anything, so just leave it alone."
"I'll try." Jori grumbled pulling the car in through the gates. They parked on a side path.
Ren jumped out of the car and started walking towards the back doors. When a voice called out to them from the front steps. "This way please gentlemen."
Jori grimaced. "That doesn't sound weird at all."
"At least he's speaking Japanese." Ren added slapping his friend on the back.
"This way please. My name is Gregory, and I am in charge of all staff members, so if you have any problems bring them to me or the head chief." Gregory said leading them in through the front hall. "We have guests at the moment. Some are even from the police department so please try not bother them while you are working. The Head chief will be able to answer all your questions about work. And I will find you tonight to show you two to your rooms."
"Thank you." Ren said nodding his thanks.
"Were did you learn Japanese?" Jori asked looking him over.
"In Tokyo, where I went to school and lived for many years as a child." he said without so much as a pause. "Will that be all? I'll have Kris here show you to the kitchens." Gregory said pointing to a young man around their age, with light blonde hair and blue eyes.
Kris smiled, waving a hand towards the left.
"Do you speak Japanese?" Ren asked feeling bad for how awkward the atmosphere had gotten since Gregory left .
Kris brightened. "Do you both speak English?"
Jori nodded. "Yeah, Ren and I studied in Canada for two years after high school."
"Jori?" a voice asked from behind them.
Jori turned surprised at the familiar voice. "Mai?" he could barely believe it when she ran forward smiling.
"Hey I wanted to call you but your phone was off." she said stopping in front of him. "I was going to tell you I couldn't make it this weekend because of work. But your here!"
Jori smiled stupidly. "Yeah." Mai's smile brightened.
"We're here for work actually." Ren said breaking into strange atmosphere that had come over his friends. "We're helping out in the kitchen."
"Really? I didn't know you could cook. That's amazing." Mai said making Jori blush.
"Ren!" Haruka squealed running forward, "I didn't see you! What are you doing here?" Ren forgot all about Jori then and turned to smile at his brown haired angel.
"Haruka, you're here too? This is just weird. Fate maybe?" he asked taking her hand in his, kissing it softly. She blushed bright red smiling. "Maybe." she mumbled.
"Hey what gives, who are these guys?" Ayako asked striding over to glare up at the two young man, who had captured her friends attention. Recognition hit her like a ton of bricks. "Y-y-your the guys from the movies!" she gasped slapping a hand over her mouth.
Jori looked over at her, frowning. "How would you know when we met them?" Ren raised an eyebrow waiting for the answer as well.
"Oh, I...um I mean."
"Yes, why would you know Ayako?" Mai asked an icy smile on her lips.
"I-i-i...um...no really I didn't have a real reason I was just...um...on a date with..."Ayako stammered looking around her for anyone who might help. "Hosho!" she said without thinking when she spotted him coming around the corner with Ishii closely followed by Yakumo and Detective Gotou.
"What? Did I do something?" Hosho asked walking over to the crowd with a smile. Until he spotted the young man standing way to close to Mai. "Who the heck are you!" he growled pulling Mai away.
Jori glared, "I'm her boyfriend."
(A/N. Thanks bbhelen3162! I'm really glad that you reminded me of the guys ;), I hope everyone loved this confusing and overdue chapter! Keep reading because I'll be bringing in the ghosts in the next chapter! R&R \(=3=)/ haha!
(A/N. ahhh i mixed the guys up! it's fixed now. sorry.