Chapter 5

Sometime around three in the morning, I woke up to yelling. "I'm sorry, Yuzuki, but I can't deal with this. I'm leaving! That demon child has done nothing but be a nuisance. She always scares the neighbors away!" I looked down at my lap. Dad's leaving because of me. That's definitely not a good feeling. I wonder if Nii-chan is listening to this too.

"Please Isamu, don't leave me!" Mom sounded like she was crying; there's no doubt about it.

"I'm sorry, Yuzuki, but I have to get out of here." Then the front door was being slammed shut. The silence that followed sent shivers down my spine; like the calm right before a major storm. The next thing I know, Mom is storming into my room, full out glaring at me. She turned the light on, blinding me. As I tried to adjust my eyes to the sudden light, she walked up to me and slapped me so hard, I almost got whiplash.

"This is your fault!" She screamed. "Are you happy now!? Are you happy that he's gone!? I've never loved you! From the moment I found out about your little ability, I wanted to get rid of you! But your father thought you were just going through a phase, so we tried everything to prove that you were just faking it! I knew we should've just gotten rid of you!" She didn't even give me a chance to respond and slapped me again before leaving my room. I could feel the bruise forming on my cheek. Well, it could've been worse... I thought sighing. But it wasn't over yet. Nii-chan stormed in here next and decided to show me what he was feeling rather than tell me by punching me in my stomach. I felt the air leave my lungs and coughed, trying to get oxygen. But he wasn't done. The next thing he did was pull me off the bed by my hair and kicked me in my side. I groaned in pain.

"You're not welcome here anymore. So I suggest you pack your bags and get out." He said glaring at me before leaving my room. I sighed as I sat up. Now what am I going to do? I wanted to cry, but I couldn't. I needed to get out of there quickly before he came back and did something else. I packed what I could and left the house, informing Nii-chan I'd come back for the rest of it. He just glared at me. Why does this always happen to me? Suddenly it started raining and I groaned. Why does it have to rain right now!? Where should I go? I don't know where Michiru, Mai, or Keiko live or where the others live for that matter. Maybe I could go camp out at the office? I don't have a key. I sighed. I'll just have to suffer through the rain. I wish I had an umbrella. I thought as the cold started to set in. I shivered and rubbed my arms uselessly as the office finally came into view. I sat down in front of the door and wrapped my arms around my legs. Man, I'm so tired. I thought resting my head on my knees. I don't know how I did it, but I ended up falling asleep.

Naru's P.O.V

Lin and Naru are now just arriving at the office. The rain had stopped an hour ago. Naru stayed up late going over what they had so far. He was tired but he was worried about that dark spirit. When Aki had frozen up yesterday, she looked scared. He took that as a sign that whatever may happen is going to be bad and he didn't want to draw this investigation out any longer than it had to be. "What the," Lin said in shock as they noticed a figure of a girl, sleeping on the office steps. Naru frowned as he looked closer. She had a bag with her and she looked somewhat familiar.

"That's Miss Haru." Naru realized looking a bit shocked.

"What's she doing here so early? And she's soaking wet." Lin said shocked. And what's she doing in her pajamas? Naru wondered.

"Let's get her inside before she gets sick. I don't know how long she's been out here, but we need to get her inside." Lin nodded and picked her up. He gasped as her head rolled back, revealing a giant bruise on her cheek. "This isn't good." Naru muttered getting a bad feeling. Was it the dark spirit or did it have something to do with her family? Naru sighed as he unlocked the door. He was surprised that Mai wasn't here yet. She's usually the first one here. This meant she might be a little late. Great... Naru thought as Lin put Miss Haru on one of the couches and went and grabbed a few towels. Naru decided to go start some tea. She'd want something warm to drink when she woke up.

"Naru, there appears to be more bruises on her stomach." Lin called. Naru went back into the main room after turning the burner on. He cringed at the nasty purple and blue bruise. It looks like someone kicked her. It definitely had to be done by someone from her family. "There isn't much that we can do to keep her dry." Naru knew what Lin meant. They needed Mai. Luckily for them, Mai just happened to walk in through the door. She gasped.

"What happened to Aki?"

"We don't know, she was like this when we got here. Right now, we need to worry about keeping her dry." Mai nodded and looked through Miss Haru's bag.

"She has some dry clothes in here."

"Okay, you can use my office." Lin offered. Mai nodded and followed Lin carrying Miss Haru into his office. Then he came back out quickly. Naru sighed. More and more things just keep happening. This girl attracted more trouble than Mai and that's saying something.

"She needs medical attention."

"Yes, but I doubt she'll want to go to the hospital for this." Lin frowned.

"We have to do something."

"I know, but what can we really do? There's no way she'll go to the hospital and who's to say she'll actually tell us who did this to her? She'll be too frightened to tell anyone. I have a hunch as to who did this to her though."

"You mean someone from her family?"

"It's a possibility."

"Should I go and do some research on them?" Naru frowned in thought. She probably wouldn't appreciate it, but...

"Yes, if anything comes up, we'll tell her, but for now, let's not say anything." Lin nodded. The two waited patiently for Mai to tell them she was done. About thirty minutes later, Mai opened the door and announced that she was done.

"I'm going to run home real quick and put her clothes in the wash. I'll be right back!" Mai said before going out the door with Miss Haru's clothes. Naru sighed. It was nearly six. Just then, the tea pot started whistling.

"I'll get it." Lin said going into the little kitchenette. Naru looked down at Miss Haru, who was sleeping on the couch. What has she been going through that she hasn't shared yet? Suddenly she groaned and slowly her eyes opened.

"Naru? Where am I? Oh yeah," She muttered, sitting up and flinching, clutching her stomach lightly.

"So do you mind telling me what happened?" She sighed.

"I woke up at three o'clock this morning to my dad yelling at my mom. He left and I don't think he'll be coming back. So, my mom came up stairs, slapped me, told me it was my fault, and that she always hated me and all that good stuff. And then slapped me again. When I thought it was over, Nii-chan," Her voice started to crack here, surprising Naru. He was shocked she was even telling him. "N-Nii-chan came in and punched me and yanked me off the bed by my hair and kicked me, and told me I wasn't welcome there anymore and that I needed to pack my things and get out." By the end, she was in tears and Naru wasn't really sure what to do. He wasn't the best at comforting others. "I'm sorry." She muttered wiping the tears from her face.

"No, it's okay to cry every once in awhile." She nodded, smiling a bit. She took in a few breathes and let them out slowly. Lin brought the tea tray and sat it on the coffee table.

"Thank you." Miss Haru said as Lin handed her a cup of tea.

"Are you okay now?" She nodded.

"Yeah, thanks for listening."

"Anytime."

"Where are the others, I thought they'd be here by now."

"It seems they're running late." Lin muttered looking at the nearest clock. Naru sighed. He should've expected this. It was three hours earlier than the assembly but they needed an hour to get to Chinmoku High School and he knew how much dawdling they would do before they could actually leave.

"Mai took your wet clothes to her house to put them in the wash." Naru informed her. She nodded.

"Do you feel sick? You were out in the rain for who knows how long." Lin said looking concerned.

"No, but if I do, I'll let you know." Miss Haru said smiling. "I bet Mai will want to know what happened..." She looked thoughtful. "Ah well, I'll have to tell her sometime."

"But not when she comes back, everyone should be here by the time she comes back." Naru said sternly. She rolled her eyes but nodded.

"I know that. Do you know where my bag is?"

"It's right here." Lin said handing it to her.

"Thanks." She rummaged through it and pulled out a brush. "I bet my hair looks horrible." She muttered as she ran the brush through it.

Aki's P. O.V

About thirty minutes later, the others including Mai showed up. Mai looked worried but didn't question me right away. I guess she knew now wasn't the time to ask. I'm glad though, I didn't want everyone else to know. Right now, I'm fine with just Naru and Lin knowing, which is weird because we're not really that close. Now that I think about it, why didn't I just use my phone and call Mai? I mentally smacked myself. I'm so stupid half the time. "Hey, Aki, we didn't want to ask when we got here but how'd you get that bruise on your face?" Monk asked looking concerned. Crap, I forgot about that.

"I'd rather not talk about it..." I muttered looking down at my lap. I could tell he and the others were sharing a look, but I didn't care.

"Okay," Mai said sounding worried.

"Oh and thanks Mai, for washing my clothes." She smiled and nodded. The others besides Naru and Lin looked confused.

"Can we get back to the case?" Naru asked looking a bit annoyed. I was relieved to tell you the truth. "I don't want to draw this case out anymore than we need to."

"I agree, that dark spirit is troublesome." Masako said frowning.

"Like I said yesterday, we need to be careful." I said sighing.

"Also, I looked over what we have so far and noticed that there are some parts missing. I don't think the principal is being entirely honest with us."

"Yeah, all together the poltergeist activity hasn't really hurt anyone." Monk said thoughtfully. "So what compelled you to take the case Naru?"

"From the beginning I thought he was hiding something, so I wanted to find out what it was." Monk chuckled.

"That sounds like something you'd do."

"I think that dark spirit has something to do with it." Naru said more seriously.

"I could see if it would tell me its name..." I offered.

"First we're going to look into the history of the school and if we have to, you can ask it for its name." Naru said looking at me. I nodded. It was dangerous to just approach it.

"Plus if it attacked me, I wouldn't know how to defend myself against it."

"Miss Matsuzaki, please teach her a few warding spells."

"Alright, but she's riding in the car with me. If I have to spend another hour with Masako by myself, then I'll go crazy." Masako glared at her. Naru sighed.

"Fine." I chuckled. I wonder what Ayako is going to teach me. Does Mai know how to do it? She probably does. I doubt Naru would've let her go for long without knowing how to defend herself. He really does care about her, but he sucks at showing it. He really needs to work on his people skills. I thought amused remembering earlier when I was crying. From the look on his face, he obviously had no idea what to do. That thought had me laughing.

"A-Aki, what are you laughing at?" Mai asked wide-eyed.

"I-I'm s-sorry!" I chortled. "I was just remembering something." I said grinning once I had calmed myself down.

"What?" Masako asked curiously. I looked at Naru with my peripheral vision before winking at Masako.

"Hi~mi~tsu~!"

"Hold on, I saw you looking at Naru, what is it?" Monk said accusingly. I grinned.

"I'm not telling you." Besides if I told them, then they would ask more questions. He sighed.

"You're really stubborn." I shrugged.

"I've always been like that." Naru sighed.

"Let's get going." He said standing up. Everyone nodded and followed him out of the door, Mai locking the door on the way out.