Case File #1: Skeletons in the Closet
Part 7
July
Day 2
8:47 PM
If there was one thing Mai felt she ought to have remembered other than the horror of Urado from the case at Miyama Manor (and even now she shuddered at the memory), it was Monk's rotten sense of direction when it came to being inside of a building. Or rather being inside of a building that wasn't of the normal persuasion. It was bad enough that her own sense of direction was poor on the best of occasions, but having her father figure's senses all tripped up was disconcerting to say the least. And the shadows being cast about by the overhead floodlights certainly didn't help matters. Even though they did have a copy of the floor plans given to them from Mr. Otonashi, they'd somehow managed to have gotten mixed up nevertheless.
To be perfectly honest, Mai felt that if it hadn't been for Katsu they would likely have gotten quite lost and would have needed to call someone.
After a turn round another corner revealed a set of stairs leading up to the unfinished third floor (ironically without the aid of the floor plans), Mai decided that she was thoroughly impressed. "Wow, Katsu! You really know your way around this place."
The interloper gave her brunette companion a sheepish grin. "Thanks, but it it's not that big of a deal. It isn't all that hard to navigate through until you reach around the sixth or seventh floor – then it's all metal skeleton and a mix of concrete and boards serving for temporary flooring in some spaces. I really don't blame Kaz – Naru –" she wrinkled her nose a little at saying the youth's odd nickname "– for restricting everyone from going past the third level of either side of the complex. Everything's so much easier when it's daytime, but even then it's like tripping through a hedge maze. It's really easy to get lost in those upper levels."
"Speaking of upper levels…" Mai stopped suddenly, causing Monk to run into her. She staggered forward a few steps and nearly toppled into a slightly bemused Katsu.
"What's up?" Monk asked, pulling her back a bit. Mai shook rubbed her nose, which was a bit sore from the unintended impact with the back of Katsu's covered head (the two were of the same height, surprisingly), before looking at the bassist inquiringly and asking,
"What were you, John, and Masako doing up on the fifth floor earlier, anyway?"
Takigawa sighed before answering. "One of the cameras somehow got dragged up there, and I went to go retrieve it with Mr. Otonashi. The thing was trashed. And then Masako and John showed up, and Masako said that she could feel something hanging around. She went off to the side, and then…" his voice trailed off.
"Oh," was all Mai could say.
"And Naru's already chewed me out about allowing the both of them up there and not keeping a better eye on things, if that's what you're wondering."
"Oh." By chewing out, Monk likely meant the kind of low and disapproving lecture that only Naru could deliver: the kind that made a person want to crawl under a rock and wither away. That was quite possibly the worst aspect about their young employer – Naru didn't need to yell at anyone to make them feel worthless.
Katsu frowned in their direction. "The verdict was a warped board on the scaffolding, right?"
"Yeah…" Takigawa said slowly. "But I don't know. I'm not saying it wasn't, but with everything that's been going on, I'm not so ready to just chalk it up as a simple accident."
"But wasn't it confirmed by the medics and the jobsite crew that it was the boarding?" said Mai.
"Well, yeah, but…" again the monk's voice trailed off.
Katsu sighed loudly. "Look, guys, I know you're worried about Miss TV Star, but that priest fella said she'd be okay, right? He doesn't come across as the type to fill a person with false hope, so I believe him." She offered them a weak smile upon seeing their saddened faces. "I don't blame you for being overly suspicious, though. There's a lot of strange stuff going on around here, and even if there wasn't, this place is a little weird at night. Trust me, I speak from experience."
Mai giggled a little at the flippancy of the girl's last remark.
"A little?" Monk scoffed. "If you want to know the truth, I think this whole complex is weird even in broad daylight."
Katsu grinned broadly. "I'm glad I'm not the only one who was thinking that, especially since you guys are professional ghost hunters and spiritualists. I feel a little better now."
Takigawa and Mai exchanged confused glances before looking back at the girl.
"Why do you say that?" Mai inquired.
"Well…" Katsu hesitated. "It's the… circumstances surrounding the building that used to stand here that I'm a little worried about. The fact that this all used to be an old tenement complex before it was closed down due to code violations and management infractions before getting diced up into multiple other things doesn't bug me as much as the amount of stigma attached to that old building. A lot of the older folk had been muttering about it for a while. I was here in Nakameguro a few years back, and even then they were telling us to stay out of the old building. I never listened to them before, but now I'm wondering how much truth there was to the warnings. Even though it isn't here anymore, it's like it never was destroyed or something – a lot of people were against it being torn down, actually. They said something about it at the neighborhood meeting about a year ago before the project started." The contemplative look on Katsu's face suddenly fell into stark realization of what she'd just said, and she clamped a hand over her mouth.
Takigawa looked at her incredulously. "Wait, you had background knowledge about the old building here and you didn't even bother to tell us?"
Katsu laughed nervously at the unhidden anger laced in his tone. "Uh… oops?"
He slapped a hand to his forehead. "You're just about as bad as Mai," he muttered. Unfortunately for him, Naru's assistant caught what he'd said.
"Monk!"
The bassist grinned in her direction before allowing a strict and disapproving gaze to settle on the interloper. "As soon as we get back, I think you'd better tell Naru more about what you know. Trust me on this, Katsu: withholding information from Naru is one of the worst mistakes you'll ever make while hanging around with SPR."
"Yeah, he really hates it when people try to keep secrets from him," Mai added nervously.
Seemingly unaffected by this news, the interloper shrugged her shoulders. "If I think it's something he needs to know, I'll be happy to divulge some information. Information isn't something you can get for free, though; it's worthless otherwise. But right now, I kinda want to get out of here. We've only got a few more rooms left to go, so let's see if we can get finished in time to kick the Dark Duo out of the Ghost Cave so we can usurp them from their perceived thrones of omnipotence. Then we can bask in the glory of feeling almighty as we watch them on the monitors. I call the tall one's chair."
It took the two a moment to realize whom Katsu was referencing before they snorted with laughter. It was then in noticing the camera looking at them from a nearby room that Mai realized that there was no way Lin and Naru could have possibly missed the girl's statement. The microphone propped up next to it was too perceptive.
…
From his position in front of the monitors, Lin raised an eyebrow in slight amusement upon hearing their newest addition's words. His eyes looked over in the direction of his charge, who was currently submerged once again in said addition's notes. They'd both heard Katsu Shinomori's rather lacking confession to having omitted a few details, which had in turn prompted the young paranormal investigator to review what he'd been given. Lin could hear Naru's occasional mutters through his headphones.
As he looked back to the monitors, he found it difficult to suppress the tiny smile he felt coming on.
'Unoriginal, but amusing. I don't believe I've ever been referred to as the tall one of the Dark Duo before…'
Although, now that he thought about it, it sounded like something he might have said…
The grin abruptly faded. Fond memories weren't welcome at the workplace. And now wasn't the best time to be thinking about…
He resumed his observations.
…
"Uh… I think there's something wrong with this scenario," Katsu stated after they'd walked back out into the hallway. They'd checked the last room on the unfinished third floor and could now head back to base to "usurp the Dark Duo", as she'd put it.
Monk and Mai looked down the corridor and frowned.
There was a door blocking them.
"Okay, where'd the door come from?" Katsu demanded, voicing the question running through their heads and taking an irritated step in the obstruction's direction –
And finding herself being pushed back by Takigawa.
"Hey!"
"You and Mai stay back," he instructed, pulling a strand of prayer beads from a back pocket of his jeans and walking towards the door. Katsu snorted, but did as she was told.
"This place is like an in-progress Rose Red …" she muttered under her breath.
"Rose Red? What's that?" Mai asked, unfamiliar with the name.
"A fictional haunted house," Katsu responded. "Kinda like the Winchester Mystery House and just as weird."
The mention of the Winchester house brought back a flood of memories from Miyama Manor: doors that led to everywhere and nowhere, strange pictures, blocked passages, the house having been expanded upon continuously over the years…
Urado.
'I don't think we should open that door…'
She felt sick as Takigawa slowly reached for the door handle. He seemed to hesitate in opening it, but then like a whip he wrenched the knob and flung the door open, jumping to the side as if expecting something to fly through. They looked into the darkness beyond, each one of them unknowingly hold their breath.
Nothing came.
They breathed a collective sigh of relief.
A sigh they could actually make out as tiny puffs in the air as the temperature rapidly dropped.
…
A blare of static erupted from several of the monitors, startling Naru from his concentration as he pored over Katsu Shinomori's notes. He looked up and frowned, seeing nothing but electronic snow blitzing over a multitude of the screens.
"Which cameras were taken out?" he demanded, dropping the notes onto Otonashi's desk and pushing himself out of the CEO's desk chair.
Lin's expression was pinched and frustrated. "Every single one of those we had placed on unfinished third floor of the residential section. And there was a rapid drop in temperature mere seconds before the cameras were taken out."
Naru's eyes widened as realization dawned on him. The unfinished third floor was where Mai's group was…
…
The sudden chill that overtook them caused them to pause.
"Not that I mind the sudden spurt of unwarranted air conditioning," Katsu laughed nervously, "but I find this to be a bit unsettling, don't you?"
"A drop in temperature usually indicates the presence of a spirit in the vicinity," Takigawa explained, bringing his hands together.
And then the lights went out.
"I take it this is something spooks do, too?"
"You two stay close to each other; I'm going to try to drive it away."
"Drive it away?" Katsu cocked her head to one side, but said nothing as Mai tugged at her sleeve in a silent plea for her to keep silent as the monk began to chant. The two kept the beams of their flashlights trained in his direction.
"Naumaku san manda bazaradan kan. Naumaku san manda bazara –" the chant went unfinished as rush of icy wind blew past, slamming the blond man into the wall. With a loud groan, Takigawa hit it hard, and fell unconscious.
"Monk!" Mai's eyes widened as the man slumped to the floor. She grabbed the fallen walkie-talkie and struggled to get it work with her shaking hands. "We have to contact Naru!"
"Don't bother with the walkie-talkie," Katsu advised calmly, clamping a hand down on the brunette's wrist. Mai looked at her in bewilderment. There was a surprisingly hard edge in what she could see of the girl's dark green eyes. "Spirits don't tend to mix with electronics, right? We're just lucky our flashlights still work."
And right on cue, the beams expired. Mai felt as if the entire spiritual realm was conspiring against her – this kind of thing always happened to her!
"Damn it. I spoke too soon," she heard Katsu grumble. "Me and my big mouth. Damn Murphy and his stupid law about things going wrong!"
"Who's –?"
Mai wasn't able to finish her question. The next thing either of them knew, there was a howling, followed by the same icy wind that had charged at Takigawa. They were pushed roughly into what they could only assume was a nearby wall.
…
Naru bit back a curse as he snatched up the walkie-talkie sitting next to his older assistant's laptop. He all but smashed the 'talk' button on the side. "Base contacting Takigawa, come back."
No response.
"Takigawa, pick up."
Still nothing.
'Damn it…'
"Hang on a second." Lin's voice snapped him from darkened ruminations. Naru looked at the Chinese man before following his gaze. Slowly but surely, the cameras from where Takigawa's team was located were coming back on-line.
All they could see was darkness, followed by a bright flash of light as the floodlights regained their power.
…
When the lights in the unfinished third floor corridor flickered back on, Monk shook his head in an attempt to dispel the dizziness that threatened to overtake him as he tried to stand up. Leaning heavily against the wall behind him, he passed a hand over his eyes and breathed evenly. His head was pounding fiercely – he swore that was going to murder Ayako for taking his acetaminophen.
"Hey, Mai? Katsu?" he said, voice coming out in more of a moan than he would have liked. "You two okay?"
He opened his eyes slowly against the bright illumination coming from a nearby floodlight, little dots dancing in his vision as he blinked fiercely to get rid of them. Yes, he was going to kill that damned shrine maiden.
"Mai? Katsu?" he tried again. Upon receiving no answer from either girl, he pushed himself off the wall and made an attempt at steadying himself without support. He felt a surge of panic as he looked up and down the corridor, seeing not even a shadow other than his own. He stumbled about, calling for the girls, his voice rising with each syllable.
He found neither of them. Just the walkie-talkie, lying not too far from where he'd fallen.
'Naru's going to kill me…'
…
Mai felt her eyes blink. The only indication that her eyes had opened at all was the thin beam of light catching dancing particles of dust as they floated about. She tentatively reached out a suspiciously sore arm and grasped her flashlight in one shaking hand before making a feeble attempt to sit up.
As she did so, she felt a wave of disorientation come over her. Nothing looked right, even swimming. It was too dark, and there were no real walls – only support beams that flashed silver when the light hit them. Where was she? And where were Monk and Katsu?
Part of her answer came almost immediately:
"Okay," she heard Katsu wheeze to her left. "What the hell just happened? And where's Monk?"
"I have no idea," Mai admitted. Nervously, she moved the beam of her flashlight around the room, only stopping the movement when it fell upon Katsu's dusty and harshly breathing form. "But… I don't think we should stay around here for very long." She trained the light to the opposite side of the room.
Katsu hacked again, and Mai could have sworn she heard the girl spit and swear lowly. "I couldn't agree with you more on that one. There's something weird about this room – scratch that: there's something wrong with this whole damn complex. Monk was right. And considering we didn't get in here by conventional methods, it's probably best that we scarper ASAP. I don't think I want to run into any more spooks in this place."
"Neither do I." They scrambled to their feet and looked around nervously, their flashlights the only source of illumination. Wherever they'd landed, it was certainly not the unfinished third floor. They might not have been in the residential section any more for all they knew. No floodlights lined the hallway, and all they could make out were the outlines of the metal skeleton supporting the unfinished building, and the concrete slabs serving as the floor.
"Oh, crap," said Katsu. Mai looked over to find the girl scowling fiercely. "This isn't good. We're way too far up. They don't even have the wiring for the floodlights here."
"How far up do you think we are?" Mai dared to ask, half of her mind screaming in protest, insisting that ignorance was indeed bliss, and standing firmly on that belief.
Katsu didn't answer readily, instead opting for shining her flashlight about and twisting her face even deeper into the scowl. Then, she uttered a low curse and carefully stalked past the metal supports and along the concrete slabs. Mai followed close behind, keeping her light trained at an angle that managed to capture Katsu's retreating booted feet and the floor beneath them. The last thing she needed was to find herself alone in this isolated location, wherever it was.
Where was Monk? Where was everyone else? Had anyone noticed that the two of them were gone yet, or was the power still out down there? And what would Naru do to them once he caught wind of this? Get mad at them, obviously. Yell, if they were lucky. Threaten Mai's job, insult her intelligence. Katsu, on the other hand… she didn't know how Naru would handle her. There was a small voice in the back of her head that said no matter what Naru said, Katsu wouldn't listen to him. Not entirely, anyway.
She was so absorbed in her thoughts that she hadn't noticed that her companion had stopped, and Mai walked right into her.
Katsu let out a yelp and one half-gloved hand darted out, grasped the nearest support beam and clutched to it fiercely.
"Watch where you're going!" she hissed, shooting a frantic glare over her shoulder in the brunette's direction.
"Sorry," Mai apologized, taking a quick step back. Katsu balanced herself and stepped back as well. "Where are we?"
"Well…" Katsu's mouth twitched. She looked uneasy in the darkness. "Let's just say that… I don't like heights, and I'm not very comfortable with how high up we are at the moment."
There was something in the girl's voice that didn't sit well with Mai. "How far up are we?" She took a step to where Katsu had been standing a moment ago, only to find herself yanked back roughly by the collar. "Ow!"
"Watch it!" Katsu reprimanded, and carefully guided Mai to the edge, peering down with her.
As Mai looked over the un-guarded edge of where they stood, she felt Katsu's hand clench roughly on the fabric of her shirt. Mai couldn't blame her for her fright: they were up high, too high for even Mai's liking.
"Wh-what floor do you think we're on?" she could guess, but she needed that comfort of hearing someone else's answer.
"Out of the sixteen or seventeen floors of this half of the complex? I'd say the somewhere around the twelfth floor, if not higher." The interloper gulped. "And that's just assuming we're even in the residential section anymore. The business section has twenty-two, I think."
There was deep and unsettling sensation settling in the pit of her stomach. Mai had never been bothered much by heights – find oneself several floors from the ground was a part of living in a metropolis like Tokyo. But there was a massive difference in looking out on the city street, sturdy and finished construction between a one and the ground below, and the kind of plunge one would most assuredly take just by leaning over to far on an unfinished building.
And with the lights of Meguro surrounding them on all sides and the light coming from what looked like the trailer they were using as base looking more like a pinprick against grey… Mai felt a bit sick and dizzy.
"We need to find a set of stairs, a rope, or something that'll get us down from here," Katsu said lowly. "It definitely isn't safe up here. Does the walkie-talkie work?"
Mai felt around frantically for the communication device, panic surging up through her skull as realization dawned on her.
"I don't have it anymore."
"Damn." It sounded as if Katsu would have liked to have made a more vehement and colorful ejaculation, but had refrained for Mai's sake. At this point, however, even the worst of swearing wouldn't have phased her. "Okay, let's just get away from this ledge and find a way down. They've got to have a stairwell or something."
Nodding in agreement, Mai turned with her companion, shining her flashlight to find their way back through the maze of metal supports.
She wanted to drop her flashlight in shock at the scene before. Instead, she froze. Katsu was the first to find her voice. Though what she said made no sense to the brunette next to her, as she didn't speak in Japanese.
"Oh, bloody hell…"
…
"You know, for the reportedly most active area, this building's been a dud so far," Yasu commented as they made their way down from the third floor of the business complex.
"Don't jinx it!" Ayako admonished, smacking his head (or rather his hardhat, much to his pleasure).
"Now, now," John chided gently. "Let's just go head back to base and check in with Kazuya. With any luck, Mai'll have something cool to drink waiting for us when we get there."
"I hope it's lemonade." Yasu almost drooled at the idea of an icy beverage – even at night, the air was warm and muggy.
"That would be nice," John agreed.
But the cheery atmosphere did not last long, for no sooner did they pass the second floor landing the walkie-talkie in Yasuhara's hand blared to life.
"Yasuhara, Miss Matsuzaki, Father Brown – head back to base immediately," Naru's voice commanded statically. "We have a problem."
…
"You've got to be kidding me," Mai said incredulously. Katsu's peculiarly spoken exclamation wasn't unwarranted: before them lay a completed hallway, dark from the lack of illumination, but very much finished. Pale walls stretched out into the darkness, and doors lined the corridor for as far as they could see.
'There's something about those doors…'
"Closets…"
Mai looked up at her as if she'd spoken in a foreign language again. "What?"
The interloper's gaze remained hollow as she pointed, sweeping the beam from the flashlight along the unfinished corridor. As Mai followed the unwavering beam, she could see that the doors were indeed several sets of closets: sliding, regular, folding… it went on the entire hall!
"All I can see are closets," Katsu said again, brows knitted together in thought. "But why would there be…?"
A loud series bangs and knocks interrupted the girl's monologue. Mai let out a half-shriek as they grew louder, almost as if coming closer.
"Katsu… I think it's above us!" she gasped, involuntarily clutching onto the newcomer's jacket sleeve as her free hand shook violently. The flashlight she held trembled as well, the light creating erratic patterns on the rows of closets.
And then their beams flickered and died. Again.
…
'Every time I turn around, that girl goes and gets herself in trouble…'
This thought had run rampant in the mind of the narcissist as his dark blue eyes scanned the monitors for any sign of his airheaded assistant and their interloper, Katsu Shinomori, and continued to do so as he and Lin scoured the unfinished third floor of the residential section. Takigawa had stumbled back to base after discovering the two females had disappeared during the bizarre power outage, and now the entire team was back to Mai-hunting, with a dash searching for Katsu. Base was now entirely deserted, but not unprotected; Lin had locked the trailer door before they'd set out.
Naru groaned inwardly as he reluctantly tugged at the atrocious yellow hardhat over his head, Lin following just behind him. In just that slight motion, he could smell the scent of Mai's hair from when he'd plopped the deplorable item on her head the night before, and he could sense the unmistakable fluster that had overcome her when he'd done so.
He had to bite back a smirk at the sensations she'd undergone in that one brief moment, and forced himself back into the reality of the situation at hand.
He'd sent those three to the residential half of the complex because it had been inactive – theoretically, it should have been safe. But when one figured a certain Mai Taniyama into the equation, one ought to have expected things not to go according to plan.
Mai was a literal spirit magnet and a beacon for all things catastrophic when it came to their line of work; a veritable poster child for Murphy's Law if he'd ever seen one. He'd long ago convinced himself that he kept her around only for her usefulness (despite the hindrance she was) and curiosity he held in regards to her still-awakening psychic abilities, as well as the convenience of having an extra assistant.
Replacing her, however, would be an inconvenience. He'd yet to discover another person capable of making the kind of tea Mai produced.
Naru and Lin turned a corner on the first floor of the business complex, headed for the completed service stairwell. When those two girls were found, Naru would need another cup of tea. This kind of exercise was guaranteed to send him into the all-too-familiar downward spiral of caffeine deprivation and subsequent withdrawal.
…
Somewhere in the darkness, Mai heard her recently acquired co-worker gulp.
"I think we'd better get out of here soon," Katsu whispered. "I don't know what floor we're on or what building we're in or how the hell we got here, but if we don't get moving…"
"Something bad is going to happen," Mai finished, still gripping onto the other girl's sleeve. Overhead, the noises continued in rapid succession, each thud and pound rising in volume until they were certain their teeth were going to rattle loose.
Katsu gnashed her teeth together. "They're just screwing around with us."
"What?" Mai had to holler over the din.
"They're just trying to freak us out," Katsu responded, louder this time for the brunette to hear.
"But why? Are they trapped like Masako said?"
"You're on the paranormal investigation team – you tell me!" There was another loud succession of pound and thuds, followed by what sounded like supports giving out and falling on the ceiling overhead.
"Run!" Mai shrieked, and yanked Katsu by the wrist. The interloper wasted no time in obeying, and the two darted along the hallway, their only objective being to get away from the mysterious noises as quickly as possible.
The time in which they ran was far too short – they quite nearly smacked into the wall that had chosen to materialize before them.
"What the – is this stuff normal in your line of duty?" Katsu exploded, slamming a fist into the obstruction. She immediately retracted her hand and brought it against her heaving chest with a sharp hiss.
"No, not exactly…" Mai stiffened. The noises were growing louder. "We've got to find a way out of here…"
"Great. Find one for me, 'cause all I see are closets!"
THUD. POUND. CLUNK.
The two girls froze. The din was slowly beginning to envelope them where they stood, each sound more pronounced and sinister than the last. And interlaced they could hear faint whisperings, mutterings. Spectral… detached…
"Didn't mean to…"
"It was an accident… an accident, I swear!"
"I didn't know…"
Cold seeped in through their skin. Mai shivered – why did these things always have to be attracted to her? Was she really the walking spiritual magnet Naru thought she was? What had she done to warrant this kind of insanity?
Tendrils of ice suddenly latched themselves onto her wrist and wrapped about her waist. With a strangled cry, Mai found herself being forcibly yanked forward. She whipped her head around at Katsu's loud curse, finding the other girl struggling fiercely, both hands appearing to be tied by some force at the wrist. Her lips were moving rapidly, and her hands looked to be making movements, but the restraints and violent yanking were too much.
Her free hand latched onto the lapel of Katsu's plaid shirt, and the two girls were suddenly flung through an opened door. Mai's head slammed into something. The darkness that followed was permeated only by the scent of fresh cut grass and rain infiltrated her nostrils.
…
Strands of ash blonde flew wildly into her face as she struggled to get past the people crowding the door. She didn't want this to be real; didn't want this to be happening. It was a dream, a nightmare of the worst proportions.
He could, just couldn't be…
"DOC! DOC, PLEASE WAKE UP!"
Someone's voice yelled over the buzzing whispers and mutterings, "Kenichi, this girl's a pain. Get a tranquilizer and shut her up, will you? I've already got enough of a headache as it is."
A latex-gloved hand grabbed her arm. "C'mon, kiddo. There's nothing for you to see he–"
She jerked away and tried again to dart into the room, only to be seized roughly by the arms.
"He isn't breathing, sir," a woman's voice spoke lowly. "She shouldn't have to see this."
"Get her out of here!"
They were blocking her, keeping her away from in the man in the room. If they took him away… no! NO!
"DOC!" she screamed with all her might, fighting even when the sting of the hypodermic plunging into her skin bit down. "LISTEN TO ME: HE'S NOT DEAD! HE'S NOT DEAD, HE'S JUST SLEEPING!" Darkness began to swirl, and the noises sounded as if they were coming through a tunnel. "Please, Doc! Wake… up…!"
The last thing she heard was the out-of-place sound of a jerky piano tune, playing in-time with what sounded like the beat of a metronome…
…
…
Mai's eyes snapped wide open.
A/N: The thing about creating a haunted construction site is how disorienting it can get – it's fun, but so easy to get everyone lost! LOL. Just where the heck could those girls be? Naru and the rest of SPR are going to have fun with this one…
Special thanks goes out to seiyuurabu, Aoi Kitsukawa, and Foxgrl18 for your reviews, and to everyone who added this story to their alerts/favorites lists – thank you so much! Until the next chapter, then! ^_^