Chapter 5:
Naru hadn't gotten a chance to fill Misumi in about the case at hand yet. But strangely enough his over-hyper assistant was acting…well strange. At first Naru chose to ignore the certain change in her behaviour, but when she insisted on taking all the equipment inside the house when they had arrived, Naru felt annoyed enough to stop and ask her.
"Mai, what is going on with you?" Everyone was already inside, the sun had gone down, and nightfall was soon to come, they didn't need to arrange the equipment so soon after the arrival, but Mai had insisted on doing it alone if no one would help her. Seeing Misumi standing up, Naru grudgingly had to be that someone.
She looked at him innocently now, as if nothing was going on in that hyper-active mind of hers.
"Nothing, I just wanted to set up as soon as possible, we are here to work aren't we, Naru?" She said sweetly, almost too sweetly, Naru noticed.
"If you are so desperate to what you call work why don't you go inside and start collecting some data? I'm going to need a map of the house; we were given one initially but I like to be sure of what I'm dealing with." He ordered.
Mai's face fell, Naru knew he should feel at least a bit guilty for having upset his assistant, but he knew now wasn't the time to back down, before he had a suspicion. But now he was positive something was going on with Mai. Sooner or later she'd burst, this was Mai, she couldn't keep her emotions bottled inside for long. He tried to hold back a smile.
In that moment Naru's attention shifted from Mai's gloomy face to Misumi, who was silently walking down the bridge that led to the lake near the house.
"Go on then!" Naru repeated, and as Mai slumped her shoulders and retreated towards the house, grumping, Naru followed Misumi.
He stopped on the foot of the bridge. Misumi stood near the water, her feet bare in the cold sand. It was windy and Misumi's rather long dress seemed to flow with the wind, so did her hair. Gene had always told Naru how much he loved Misumi's hair, how much he wished she'd never cut them. Back then Misumi didn't like to keep her hair long, but since that horrifying event, she had let them grow. And Naru couldn't help but agree with his brother.
Misumi turned to look at him, and smiled. A smile so broken and strained, he felt his heart ache.
"Noll, what is it?" She said coming to stand in front of him.
He gestured to the sand, and without the need to explain, Misumi understood and sat down on the sand, followed by an annoyed Naru. The sand was bothersome, and he didn't like anything bothersome.
"This case is different from all the cases that I've taken since I've to Japan" He started.
"We need to examine it closely, investigate every detail. I need your skills. This house isn't abandoned as such, this lake and the road opposite of it, are both exactly as I remember, it had taken me too long to find it, and now that I have, I think I do need your help." He said sincerely.
"Noll, you know I'm here." Misumi said quietly, and Naru realized just how much he had missed her in that moment. She didn't ask questions like, are you sure this is the place? Or is there any chance you could be wrong? She just believed. Why she did that Naru would never understand, but he appreciated it nonetheless.
"Gene used to say the same thing" he whispered.
"And he didn't lie, he's here, always." She took Naru's hand and put it on her heart, and then put her hand softly on his. It was a fleeting moment, over before he could react, but he felt something stir inside. Something foreign and unwanted.