Okay so this is Case 1 Part 2 for The Hunter and The Hunted and we're starting things off with a recap of the last piece of Part 1 then Imia's dream-that's-more-of-a-flashback. So I'm going to say enjoy and I'll see you at the end of the chapter.
It was almost midnight before she had finished drawing up a schedule and completed the homework that she needed for classes tomorrow, so her dishes were left for the morning as she collected her books back into her bag and entered her bedroom, collapsing under the covers as soon as she was near enough to the bed to do so. Her dreams that night were anything but pleasant.
Case1 - A High School Haunting Part 2 - Forging Bonds
The scent of blood flooded the air around her as Imia watched the scene, this wasn't the first time something like this had happened, her past rarely left her alone. Six people, ranging in age from twelve to sixteen were standing back to back in a small circle, a high cold laughter filled the snow covered clearing, blood covered bodies, Hunter and Vampire alike, dotted the snow. The six teens and the owner of the laughter were the only living creatures in the entire forest, making the dream, memory, even more terrifying than it had been when she'd lived the scene the first time. She'd been focussed on her team and getting out of there alive, she hadn't really cared about the local fauna.
Again the cruel laughter came, the youngest members of the team twitched faintly, well, the Hina twins and Kotaru did, Imia's past self just cast out her senses and let her eyes flicker around the clearing again. They each had their weapons drawn, Saigo no Shikyo held tightly in a two handed grip in the twelve year old memories hands, Kotaru had his kunai connected to his wrists by long chains that clipped to iron gauntlets that acted as both sheaths for his kunai and protection from anything that could, or dared, get to close to him, Rei and Kai had the Shikyoyaba in firm grips that still allowed easy flexibility, Frei's gun was held at his side, his green eyes closed, listening to his instincts and Akira had a dagger in each hand, her stance mimicking Kotaru's.
"Well, well, well. A group of kiddies shouldn't be out here all alone, now should they? Ain't it passed yer bed times?" The voice cackled and giggled, causing a shiver to run down everyone's spines, both past and present Imia included, the Level E's words carrying so much malice.
If Imia hadn't lived this once before, and revisited it a good dozen times since, she likely would have been surprised by the clear voice, untainted by fear, which rose from the twelve-year-old girl that was her past self. "Isn't it past your death day?"
The Level E's next words were wrapped tightly in his laughter. "Looks like little girly got some bite to her. He, he. Make good meal shall she."
Lilac eyes narrowed to dangerous slits and crimson energy swirled warningly around her, the rest of the team had flinched away from her at the vampire's last words, knowing that she would become angry. "I am nobody's meal." The growl that accompanied her words was something that one would associate with a wild animal rather than a young girl of twelve.
The present Imia smirked faintly at the scene, her own team terrified, for themselves and the vampire both, she'd given them hell for that three weeks later. Her expression of faint amusement left her as the blood crazed Level E rushed from the undergrowth. The clearing, and the forest for a good mile out, rang with gun shots and the sound of metal crashing against metal as the battle raged on in the clearing, the area growing as Hunter's and the Vampire were thrown into trees, knocking them over, and, in some cases, a number of other trees in the area.
Watching the scene from a 3rd person point of view, Imia was easily able to see when the Level E decided to target Kotaru. The boys back had pulled away from the protective circle so that he could wield his kunai easier, those who wielded swords having done the same, as they needed to lessen the space between them and their target. A scream that only she could hear ripped from Imia's throat as she watched her old friend being wounded beyond the possibility of healing, knowing that he wouldn't live to see the sun rise in the coming dawn.
Shooting up in her bed with a strangled gasp, Imia was thankful that she'd long stopped screaming at being woken by a nightmare, wether she'd lived it before or not. A hand ran tiredly through her shoulder length hair, she never let it grow longer than that, and slipped out of her bead, not surprised that the blankets resembled a knotted bundle of fabric. She'd deal with it later, she decided, glancing at the alarm clock on her bedside table, which was blinking faint red numbers at her in the darkened room. 4:00. Crap. Shibuya wants me at the school in an hour. Deep breaths Imia, deep breaths. Shower and an apple then off to deal with the narcissistic jerk. That's what I'll call him today, Narcissist-san or maybe just Naru? Eh, I'll figure it our later, shower and food now.
Her eyes drifted to the photo of her Hunter team as she re-entered her bedroom from her shower, towelling her hair dry as she slipped her school jacket over her shoulders. It had been taken only a week before Kotaru had been killed. They'd spent the day just goofing around and being kids, since they were in effect kids, Frei had only been sixteen at the time. I really miss them. They were always like a second family to me. She thought, glancing at her phone. No. She thinks firmly, ripping her gaze from the small electronic, checking that her illusion was in place as she walked out to the main area of her apartment. An apple from the basket on the table was lifted by one hand and her book bag, which she had neglected to move into her room the previous night, was slung over her other shoulder. She walked out of the apartment with the usual mask of a friendly smile, ensuring that the door was locked securely, while the majority of her personal possessions were clothes, she did have a number of belongings that she simply couldn't replace, the photos on her nightstand perfect examples.
Pulling her thick coat around her shoulders tightly, Imia walked off towards the school building, already dreading what was to come.
Grumbling quietly to herself, Imia worked on setting up cameras until just before the bell rang, at which point she rushed out of the building with barely a nod to indicate that she'd heard Shibuya, she'd been doing her best to not speak to the sixteen year old lest she say something that she'd likely regret, as he called at her to be back directly after classes finished. She already hated working for the man and she'd only been doing so for an hour or two at most, she found herself extremely glad that this arrangement was temporary.
Classes passed by in a blur to Imia, she took notes, listened to lectures, spoke with her friends briefly in-between, and barely remembered half of what happened from the time that she left the old building that morning, she actually only half remembered stopping by the nurses office after twisting her wrist in gym and asking if she had a fever.
She cursed quietly to herself as she hurried to the old school building, some of the seniors had wanted to talk to her, but she'd refused, they hadn't liked that and were currently chasing after her. She stopped in front of the building, hoping that would deter the seniors. When it didn't, the fifteen year old rolled her eyes with a heavy sigh and slipped her foot in front of them both, tripping the seniors so that they fell head first into the side of Shibuya's van. The man in question leant out of the back door with a raised eyebrow.
"You wanted me here after classes finished," Imia stated with a shrug, she gestured faintly with her head at the more-then-slightly dazed seniors before continuing to explain. "These two wanted to talk, I told them I couldn't stop to talk with them today, they chased me here and I tripped them. Sorry if their thick skulls damaged your van."
The black haired teen shook his head and retreated into the back of the van, Imia shrugging and hopped up in after her temporary boss, who barely glanced at the faint sound of her shoes making contact with the metal of the vehicle. Casting a curious glance around the van, Imia brushed back some of her hair, which had fluttered into her face at her movement, to examine the equipment that was still being stored I the van, laptops and monitors, mostly, but she could see a number of cameras stacked neatly against one wall.
Kazuya glanced up from his laptop to watch as his employee looked at the cameras that he and Lin had stacked against one wall of the van while Tanayama had been in classes. The girl seemed to be rather curious about the thermal imagery ones in particular, as she was focussing more on them than the inferred or standard cameras. He had too grudgingly admit that the brunette was rather good at setting up the equipment last night, and earlier that day, and hadn't once complained about the weight of any of the boxes, none of which were exactly light and she was only a fifteen-year-old girl. Tanayama was certainly proving to be a curious puzzle. One he was determined to solve.
Imia brushed her fingers lightly over the thermal imagery camera wondering if she could use something similar on a contact camera to allow a Hunter to more easily find their targets during missions, though she supposed it wouldn't be much use for anyone other than a newbie, as any Hunter that had been trained would know how to use their instincts and physical senses to locate a Vampire within a two hundred meter radius easily. Most of them could probably sense a Vampire coming from six hundred meters away without to much difficulty.
A faint crunching reached her sensitive ears then, footsteps on gravel, she decided. Focussing for a moment she decided that they were coming towards the van and abandoned her examination of the cameras to leap lightly back to the ground, the small ledge between the back of the van and the gravel nowhere near enough to unbalance the fifteen year old Hunter, even if she was technically a non active Hunter, she had still been trained in the profession and retained the physical skills after she went into hiding two years ago.
Two people were walking along the gravel drive, one was a man in his late twenties, early thirties with long sandy brown hair and eyes, while the other was a woman in her mid to late twenties with reddish-brown hair that was more of a red than Imia's illusions and dark brown eyes, make-up spread thickly around her eyes and lips.
At the faint sound of another body touching the ground beside her, Imia turned to see Lin stopping beside her, Shibuya peering curiously out of the van and the two seniors unconscious on the ground. With a heavy sigh, the teenager hauled one of the seniors up into a sitting position before repeating the process with the other, giving them both a disgusted glance before shrugging and leaving them be once more. By this point, the two people had arrived at the van, giving the unconscious teens a puzzled look before turning their attentions to Imia's current co-worker and boss.
The woman had a snobbish air about her, Imia noticed as she spoke to the two men. She obviously felt herself to be above the two, Imia had had the displeasure of dealing with more than a few people like her in seven-odd years as an active Hunter. The man was only slightly more humble, his gaze holding a superior gleam and a glimmer of humour.
She doubted that they would be getting along well with the black haired men she was forced to work with, she wasn't sure, how she herself would get along with them, she had a history of making friends in the most unbelievable places. Her team were a good a example of that, Frei and Akira had loathed everything and everyone because of their pasts before Imia had found them and adopted them as siblings, Rei and Kai had been about as close to demons to society as two human seven year old children could be when they had first met, and Kotaru, Kotaru had been the worst off of the group, the authorities of his home town had been discussing a way to remove him when Imia had stepped in, saving the boy who had come to be as close to her as her own blood siblings.
With a deep, shuddering breathe, Imia closed her eyes and focussed herself back in the present, where the woman, Matsuzaki Ayako, was sneering down at Shibuya at his words regarding her profession, that of a Miko. A twitch of Imia's lips was the only indication that she agreed with her boss' words, or was even faintly amused, as she walked back over to the space she had occupied previously, perching herself easily on the edge of the back of the van, leaning her left arm against the open door nearest her position. Shibuya barely glanced at her as he and the Miko continued to exchange barbs, and neither was pulling any punches either from what could be heard of the insults, as both were adept enough to insult someone with only a simple glance.
Rolling her eyes, Imia turned her attention to the man, who was looking somewhat confused by the Miko and teenagers exchange.
"Well, I'm Tanayama Mai, temporary employee of SPR. Who are you?" Imia questioned with a faint tilt of her head.
A smile pulled at the man's lips. "Takigawa Houshou, a Monk."
Imia quirked an eyebrow at Takigawa's long hair, she knew the man wasn't lying but she also knew that she wasn't getting the whole truth. If he didn't want to talk about it, however, she wasn't going to push him.
A scoff from the Miko indicated the winner of the verbal war, and Imia once again slipped from the back of the van to stand on her feet. "Am I needed for anything, Shibuya? Or can I get my assignments finished?" The teen asked, her eyebrows lifted in question.
Her boss considered for a moment, before nodding faintly as though having decided something. "Take those cameras and set them up in the main building, there's apparently been some miner incidents on the second floor by the junior language labs and senior history rooms." He paused here to fix his Sapphire eyes on the Amber of Imia's illusion. "You know where they are?"
Imia didn't even bother to answer as she collected two cameras and headed towards the main school building to place the electronics in there designated locations.
Begging at the junior language labs, Imia set up one of the cameras in the hall, allowing easy visibility of each of the lab room doors, the other in the room itself so that both the door and window would be visible on the monitors back at base. Nodding faintly to herself the teen went back to the van, checking briefly with Shibuya if the cameras were in acceptable positions, collected another two cameras and returned to the hall to place a camera in each of the junior language labs on the second floor. Twenty minutes and another two trips between the school and Shibuya's van later and there was a camera in each of the specified language rooms. Imia had just collected the next two cameras when she noticed a girl of roughly her own age dressed in a kimono waling towards the crumbling old school building, slightly narrowing her eyes, Imia watched as the other girl paused to watch something that Imia couldn't see on the roof. As the kimono clad teen walked into the building, Imia continued her work setting up cameras in the main building.
Another half hour of walking and setting up cameras later and Imia walked into base, rotating her right shoulder, the injury that she'd taken when she fell from a tree when she was seven decided to ache just before she'd finished setting up the cameras for her boss, she'd very nearly dropped the camera she'd been carrying at the time that the ache began, barely managing to keep her grip on it until she reached the room where she was supposed to set it up. She glanced only briefly at the gathered spiritualists as she entered base, heading directly to her bag that she'd left there that morning. Keeping one ear on the conversation between Shibuya and the young blonde, Imia carefully shook two small pills from her bottle of Aspirin and downed them both at once, her nose wrinkled only faintly at the discomfort in her shoulder. Breathing out heavily the teenager turned to the group that was sitting around the room, mostly ignoring her. She could feel the clenching of muscles as her teeth pressed tightly against each other and forced herself to calm down. Picking up her bag, she moved quietly over to an unoccupied seat that was near a table and sat down heavily, taking her assignments from her files and notebooks that she had collected from the van on her way back to base.
Kazuya watched from the corner of his eye as the teenager that the Principle had forced on him as she walked in to the room, her brown eyes flickering to the group of spiritualists only for a brief moment as she walked to her bag where she had left it when she left for classes earlier in the day. With his attention split between the conversation with the priest, Brown John, Kazuya couldn't see what the girl had taken from the bag, only that she had removed some object or another from the fabric case, she stood there for a moment before turning back, brown eyes glancing over everyone in the room, a faint twitch at her jaw as she walked over to a seat by one of the tables in the room, her books and files in hand. He watched for a moment longer before focussing on his conversation once more.
Twenty minutes later and Tanayama is still pouring over her notes, jotting down new information occasionally with her left hand, her right laying on the desk in such a manner that allowed her to rotate her shoulder every few minutes. Kazuya thought for a moment, allowing his focus to drift now that he'd finished speaking to Brown-san, before standing and walking over to the teenaged girl that he would be stuck with for the entirety of the case, she was the only one that he didn't know much about, the Monk, Takigawa was easy going and carefree and enjoyed teasing the Miko, Matsuzaki, Hara Masako he knew even before meeting her, Lin he'd known since he was seven and he'd been speaking to Brown-san for the past forty-five minutes, but Tanayama was a total mystery to him.
Standing behind the girls seat Kazuya could see her hand pause as she was jotting down the answer to an algebra problem, her head turned slightly to the side for the moment of stillness before her eyes focussed solely on the sheet of paper in front of her, her hand moving once more.
The shift in air behind the seat that Imia sat in was easily picked up by her senses, trained specifically to pick up movement too fast for most human eyes to perceive, she wasn't sure if Hunter's should be considered human or something other. Turning her head faintly, she could see from the corner of her eye that it was Shibuya, the Narcissistic Jerk of a boss, his dark blue eyes faintly curious. Deciding that he wasn't much of a threat or a distraction, Imia returned to her work, once again loosing herself in the equations' her math teacher had set for her to complete before tomorrows class.
Through her detached mindset, she heard her bosses request for tea and replied in a detached manner, still thoroughly absorbed in her work. "Sure, Narcissist-san, just as soon as I've finished this."
A faint sound of choking and a sense of utter stillness brought the disguised teenager back to the world around her. Placing her pen and papers back into her bag before turning around to quirk an eyebrow at her boss. "Or would you prefer Naru?" There was a faint bite to her words that she had been holding back for the entire day. It had been a trial in restraint, her emotions were easy to hold back, she'd been doing it her whole life, pulling her strikes had been a hard task to learn, she'd learnt from a very young age that when one struck at an opponent they struck to kill, to maim, to incapacitate. Her kendo training had taught her to hold back the vast majority of her strikes power, but it had taken almost a year and a half for her to learn it and that control was still new.
Shibuya looked like he'd been hit in the face by a wet fish, repeatedly. His eyes were faintly wide and his jaw was hanging lower than it should, though he wasn't gaping openly, Imia had learned at a young age to read even the blankest facial expressions. The skill had been extremely useful when she had met Frei, the mans face had been a black mask. He still only used minimal movements of his facial muscles, speaking less than anyone else on the team. Imia shook her head mentally in order to bring herself back to the present, knowing that now wasn't the time to lose herself in the past.
A faint clicking sounded in the room, aggravating Imia's headache, which had been absent until she had started hauling cameras. Flicking her eyes around the room she was able to catch a glimpse of a small dragon-like creature hovering over her boss' shoulder, it was gone from her vision in the next second, she could tell that it was still there. The pounding on the inside of her skull had grown worse with the small creatures disappearance from sight and the girl lifted her left hand to her forehead, resting the heel of her palm against the ache, her eyes closed in an attempt to ease the pain.
With a heavy sigh, the young Kiryuu opened her eyes again and dropped her hand back to her lap. "You wanted tea, Naru?" She questioned as she rose slowly to her feet, doing her best to ignore the pounding of her skull. The older teen nodded, still looking faintly shocked and irritated, Imia gave only a faint hum in indication that she'd heard him before walking out of the room and building, heading towards the office to collect the student kitchens keys, knowing that it would be a shorter trip that the main kitchens and the staff kitchen was off limits to all of the students without a pass. Ten minutes and a short conversation with the office attendant later and Imia was walking into the student kitchens to brew the tea her boss had requested. She decided to go ahead and brew tea for the entire group, knowing that they'd all still be at base when she returned.
The youngest Kiryuu walked back into base twenty-six and a half minutes after she had left with a tray of tea and cookies held in her hands. She placed the tray on a desk and handed out the cups of steaming liquid to the group of spiritualists before taking her own cup and sitting down at her desk to look over her history assignment, doubting that she'd have time to get it done after Naru let her leave for her apartment, unless she wanted to pull an all nighter.
Her eyes flickered over to her boss, examining him for a moment. He seems familiar. Where have I seen him before? She thought to herself, frustrated by the fact that she couldn't remember where she had seen him before. As a Hunter, it was practically suicide to forget a name or face, and Kiryuu Imia was better than most at remembering obscure details about people that she'd only seen once in passing than any other member of the Association could about someone they'd known for their entire life. Shaking her head Imia took a sip of her tea, letting her shoulders drop slightly at the relief that the hot liquid gave her from the constant pounding on her skull and the ache in her shoulder lessened, even if only slightly.
Directing her gaze to the young blonde out of the corner of her eye. She knew him, and wasn't about to forget him. Brown John was probably the first friend that she'd ever made, despite the fact that the boy was the same age as her brother. She felt a pang in her heart at the knowledge that she wouldn't be able to reveal who she really was to her friend without the rest of the people here from gaining that knowledge themselves. Bitting her lip the girl turned her full attention back to her history assignment.
Imia's hand paused it's movement across the page of her notebook as the lights flickered violently and a sudden chill ran through the room almost three hours later, the teens short skirt and school issued jacket weren't the warmest clothes and her thick coat was in her gym locker were she'd left it that morning. Glancing up at the other occupants of the room it appeared that everyone had stilled at the sudden changes in the immediate vicinity, Lin's head having turned halfway from the monitors to through cautious glances to every corner of the room, Naru's Sapphire eyes were narrowed and darting about the old walls like a panicked animals, the Monk's hands were twitching were he stood in a position that the young Hunter knew gave him a good view of the entire room while also allowing him to act a moments notice, John-san and the girl in the kimono, Imia hazily remembered her being addressed as Hara-san, were still seated in chairs near each other, there eyes flickering around the worn walls in search of the cause of the drastic changes in the room.
Imia noticed the cause at the same time as Hara-san. Standing in the corner of the room was a figure, blurred around the edges and cloaked in shadows, it was impossible for Imia to identify the figure as more than humanoid, and that was a term that she used loosely in this scenario. Having stood at the sight of the figure, the young Kiryuu fell to her knees in pain, bile rising in her throat at the increased pounding on the inside of her skull. She made no attempt to hold back the bile as the pain increased and figure disappeared with an inhuman shriek.
When the lights flickered back on and the occupants of the room could see clearly past their own noses, Naru's eyes fell almost instantly on the figure of the high school student that was working for him. The girl was kneeling on the floor, half curled into herself with her head in her hands, her chocolate brown eyes closed, vomit dripping from the corners of her mouth and chin, clinging to the girls uniform and pooled in front of the girls' knees. Even from halfway across the room the boy could tell that her breathing was uneven and more in line with pained gasps.
Taking cautious steps towards the girl, Naru, and he couldn't hate the girl for giving him that nickname, carefully placed a hand on her shoulder, ignoring the flinch that he received from her in response. "Are you alright, Mai?"
His question seemed to have snapped the younger teen from where ever she had been as her head turned slightly to view him from the corner of liquid chocolate eyes, a curious eyebrow raised slightly. "I will be." She replied quietly. "Help me up, would you? I've got a spare set of clothes in my gym locker."
Naru did as was requested, half lifting, half supporting the girl, waiting for a moment as she checked her balance before removing his hand from her arm.
"I'll go with you, Tanayama-san." Hara-san stated, rising to her feet and straitening her kimono as she walked towards the other girl, careful not to step in the puddle of sick. She took the brown haired teens forearm and began leading her out of the building.
Imia barely registered the gentle touch of the younger girl on her arm, cautiously checking her balance every other step and wincing at the soft sounds that the two sets of footsteps brought to her throbbing skull, glad that the pain induced nausea had at the very least dulled to a point that her training could block from her mind, easing the strain slightly by reciting the lullaby that her mother would always sing her when se was young in her mind. Hara-san waited for Imia's directions once they arrived at the gym, not knowing where the locker rooms were located. Gently shaking her arm slightly the young Kiryuu caught the mediums attention and with a small series of glances requested that her arm be released. Hara-san complied, following Imia as she walked steadily along the hall towards the locker room.
Once inside the locker room, Imia headed straight to her locker, entering the code to open it and wincing at the sharp click the lock made as it released. The girl removed the set of clothes from within and placed them on a nearby bench. "There's something you want to ask me." She whispered. The words were a statement, not a question, and both girls knew it.
The younger teen replied in kind. "That isn't your natural appearance."
Imia nodded, a faint vertical twitch of her head. She debated silently for a moment, before closing her eyes and allowing her illusion to flash briefly out of existence, letting her companion glimpse her true appearance.
The young medium nodded and made herself comfortable on one of the benches. "And Tanayama Mai…" She trailed off as the older girl removed her uniform, revealing the tattoo on her lower back.
"Is just an alias." Imia completed the sentence, glancing over shoulder as she slipped into the clothes that she'd removed from her locker. "My real name is Kiryuu Imia. I went into hiding just over two years ago, right after I received the seal on my back." She paused here, walking over to the showers and filling one of the basins part way, scooping some water into her hands, she washed her face of the remnants of vomit. Her clothes were then quickly dunked into the remaining water and left there as Imia walked back over to the bench that Hara-san had seated herself upon. "It suppresses the poison that was on the blade that caused the original wound. When the poison grows to be more powerful than the seal, if I haven't fully recovered, I'll become a puppet for the one who gave me the wound. It's sort of like an external possession from what I've seen of the puppets."
Her companion nodded, an expression of shock on her face that she covered with the sleeve of her kimono.
Hara-san asked questions for the few minutes they were in the locker room, Imia cleaning her uniform as best she could with a basin of water before they both left for the laundry room just off of the teachers lounge to deposit the completely soaked clothing items.
Imia was silent for a few moments as the two girls walked back towards the old building, before she decided to speak. "It's nice to have someone who knows the truth Masako-chan, it's been years since I last had a chance to talk about my past." At the younger girls startled glance a small smile slipped into place on the youngest Kiryuu's lips. "None of my friends know who I really am and my only one member if my team knows what alias I'm using and where I am. I've never really been alone before the attack, I always had my team and brothers, even when my parent were gone for a long time." The sadness that flickered in Imia's eyes had her new friend placing a comforting hand on her shoulder.
The two smiled at each other and continued on towards the cracked building, talking quietly about school for the rest of the time it took them to arrive in the room that Naru had set up as base.
"Hey Naru." Imia greeted, smirking in victory at the twitching eyebrow of her boss. She could hear the quiet laugh of Masako-chan from behind the girl's kimono sleeve as they walked further into the room, Masako-chan heading to her previous seat and Imia to her bag, her headache returning from simply being in the room again.
Imia blinked slowly just as she reached her bag, a thought coming to her. When I was young, I would always get headaches and become nauseous whenever there were spirits around. Maybe…No, I wont get my hopes up. Taking a deep breathe, the young teen sat heavily at the desk, noting faintly that someone had cleaned up the puddle of sick while she and Masako-chan were gone, taking up her pen and continuing to work through her assignments.
The sun had set before the shadowed figure of the spirit reappeared. Masako-chan pointed it out helpfully for the few in the room who were unable to see the spirit. The Miko seemed to be more focussed on the rapidly paling form of Imia than helping out, though the girl was grateful that someone was there with her.
Feeling the nausea rising in her stomach, Imia began humming quietly, heedless of the pain that was building in her head. Her voice grew slightly then, singing the lullaby just above a whisper, knowing that it would help.
"Watch as the snow dances in the moonlight, reflecting distant memories.
Let night sing, the stars alight, till morning comes to greet you.
Dance with those flakes of snow as memories swirl, sing together as the moon smiles down on you.
Listen now to the night's song as she calls to her lost memories.
Morning dawns with a swirl of forgotten joys, lights glinting in the darkened halls of your mind as you remember dancing in the moonlight.
Raindrops glisten with the moon's tears until you can join her again.
Voices echo through the light seeking the dancer who was there when the snow swirled happily, ignorant of the memories within."
She repeated the words twice more before growing silent and simply watching the events unfold. The Monk uttering a sutra at the distracted spirit, whose eyes were fixed firmly on the girl who had been singing only a moment before. The prayer sending the spirit on easily.
Masako-chan moved over to Imia as quickly as her kimono allowed, a curious glint in her eyes as she sat down next to the other females in the room. Imia smiled slightly to show that she was fine and didn't mind her asking whatever was on her mind. "What was that song, Mai-chan?"
All the attention of the room was fixed solely on the two teens then, the men all raising an eyebrow at the familiarity of the address. "It's a lullaby that my brother would sing for me when I had a nightmare, it's always calmed me down. I guess that it always will to." There was a faint smile on Imia's face as she remembered better times, when she would wake up in the middle of the night after have a bad dream and walk down the hall to her brother's room. He'd always be awake and waiting for her, when she was very young she could vaguely remember him coming into her room, and if she wasn't in his room after she'd had a nightmare he'd still come into her room so that he could calm her down and get her back to sleep again. She wondered then if they would ever do that again. It had been so long since she'd seen him. Almost four years had past since the last time they actually spoke, though she'd snuck over to catch a glimpse of him just over three years ago. She quickly pushed those memories to the back of her mind, she didn't need to burst into tears here and now, if Naru or the others saw, she'd just be asked questions that she couldn't answer.
They all separated a few minutes later, Imia gathering her things and heading back to her lonely apartment for dinner before heading to sleep.
When she woke the next morning, something felt almost hollow within her heart, though for the life of her she couldn't figure out why. She took her time preparing for school, knowing that she didn't have to hurry as she had ceased to work for Shibuya the instant the case was over. Is that it, then? She questioned herself silently. I'm not working for N-Shibuya anymore? She closed her eyes then, stopping the tears she had felt forming from falling through force of will alone. She had noticed the way she'd almost called him Naru, and it frustrated her. She only used nicknames for the people who were closest to her, her brothers and her team had been the only ones that she had given a nickname to, Nanahime didn't really count as she had only shortened the name, but Shibuya she had called Naru simply to annoy the older boy. Now she found herself still referring to him as Naru even though she would likely never see him again.
A swift shake of her head dispelled all thoughts of the boy and allowed her to continue preparing for the day.
When she arrived at the school though, she saw a familiar black van parked at the curb, an even more familiar teen leaning against the door, blue eyes searching the students that were milling around the front of the school, waiting for classes to begin. Bitting her lip Imia thought for a moment before sighing heavily as she came to a decision. She walked over to the van and cleared her throat to draw the older teen's attention to her.
Shibuya turned to her with a slightly irritated frown adorning his handsome face, the expression softened as he saw her. "You forgot your pay check." He muttered gruffly and held out the piece of paper in question.
Imia took it with a raised eyebrow, knowing that he wouldn't have been waiting out here for her just to give her a slip of paper that entitled her to the stated sum.
Shibuya's eyes were focussed on the pavement as he continued. "I was wondering if you'd like to work at SPR part-time." The words were a statement but Imia recognised them for what they were.
"I think I'd like that. Thankyou." She answered the not-quite-a-question after a moment.
He nodded and gave her the offices address. "Be there at five pm, and try not to be late."
"Stupid Narcissist." She grumbled after him as he slipped into the van and it drove off down the street.
With a shake of her head and a small smile, Kiryuu Imia headed into the school building in a much better mood then she'd left her apartment in.
And there is the end of Case 1. We have some more informatio on Imia's past, don't go thinking that's all of it. Next chapter starts the beggining of the 2nd case and a few notable events. More of Imia's past will be revealed. I'm going to smile evilly now and tell you to have fun while exerting your supirior patiance. Case 2 Part 1 should be up around the 24th.