Naru began, "For the sake of Bou-san and John, I'll explain from the beginning. Usami-san claims that he hears crying sounds at night, especially from the south wing. He had friends over one day, and in bright daylight, as he left to pick up someone else, those guests suddenly heard the crying sounds as well."
"Is it a child's crying?" John asked.
"No. But I believe it's female," Usami replied hesitantly.
"We asked Usami-san to leave the house for a while yesterday afternoon but no sounds came up. Nothing happened last night either."
"Well that's not surprising," Houshou said, shrugging his shoulders. He caught Usami's puzzled expression and explained. "Supernatural presence dislikes outsiders, so it's normal for any actions to subside for some time."
"Has there been anything else beside the crying?"
Usami looked down cast but replied to John's question anyway. "Every single picture in this house... which has either myself, my wife... or my brother, has been torn to pieces."
"Where is your wife and your brother now?" Houshou asked.
"My wife is in Europe. My brother..."
"Has been missing for some time," Naru completed for him. "We're still processing the data from yesterday. We might have to stay a little longer until something actually comes up."
"So what do you want us to do?" Houshou inquired, suddenly shifting his eyes to the rest of the room.
"Maybe look around at the south wing and see for yourself if you find anything strange."
"Why didn't you ask Hara Masako to come? She's the specialist here," Houshou asked with a strange smirk on his face.
"She's busy, else I wouldn't have asked either of you to come," Naru replied cooly. Though from Houshou's point of view, Naru had made it sound as if he was dealing with leftovers and it pricked him a little. So much for trying to tease him.
"Well if you were that disappointed, then you at least had another girl here with you, if that's what you preferred," Houshou retorted, a vein throbbing dangerously in his temple.
"It's true, Mai could probably sense something... if she wasn't so busy sleeping here all the time," he replied just as cooly. This time the throbbing vein transferred to Mai's temple.
Mai thought, "I wish I could say something back but I can't because he's right! I've been sleeping a lot but no dreams are coming. Well I'm so sorry I can't dream when I want to... you narcisstic... gah!" Mai held her breath and counted slowly until the vein would fade away, but to no avail. "Well!" she said then. "I'll show them where the rooms are then!"
"Ah, Mai-" Usami called out, and she stopped halfway, looking back questioningly. "The tea will get cold..."
"..."
xoxoxox
Who's there? I know you're... someone's there. Where are you...? ... Hey...
"No matter how you look at it, there's nothing suspicious here," Houshou said, rubbing his head after the long afternoon of inspection. Now they were back at the Base again enjoying cool drinks.
"I don't know about that," John said, tilting his eyes upward thoughtfully. "There was something a little strange about one of the rooms at the back."
"What was it?" Naru asked.
"Well... if I had to describe it... It was... kinda small." Houshou nearly choked on his drink.
"Small?" he said incredulously. "We didn't go to any small rooms in this house. This place is practically a mansion! All the rooms could turn to living rooms if he so wished!"
"Oh no, this place is not that big," Usami said modestly, rubbing his head a little in embarassment.
"Well..." John just left it at that.
"Mai," Naru turned to her. "Take the tape measure and start checking the areas of the rooms."
"Alright," she said, standing up immediately.
"What are you thinking?" Houshou asked.
"We still haven't managed to detect anything out of ordinary, so for now we should just check for anything anyone thinks is strange."
"What happens if you still won't be able to detect anything after some time?" Usami asked, looking at Naru directly.
"Then I'm afraid that our team will have to leave the compound for some time," he said, very bussinesslike. "Of course we'll leave the equipment here. The spirit will then probably start showing itself."
"...Thank you." Usami looked somewhat relieved at that. "I just... I hope that this... thing won't get anymore violent that it already has." He was thinking about the torn pictures he'd had to throw away. "I just... don't understand."
"Usami-san, if you don't mind I would also like to talk to your contact at the police station- whoever that is handling the investigation of your missing brother," Naru said. Usami nodded compliantly. "And if you have any contacts that could possibly know the location of your wife..."
"My wife's family... but they've stopped talking to me a long while ago," he said with some traces of bitterness.
"Any lead will help."
"I will go and help Mai now," John said, leaving his seat. Houshou watched him silently as he left the room and then turned to Naru.
"Well, what do you want me to do now?"
"Usami-san has been doing the housework all day long. Why don't you give him a hand?"
"..."
The nerve popped up again. Houshou thought, "Just who does this brat think I am... ... but... It'd be good to know the layout of this house better. ... Darn this kid, why can't he just phrase it differently!"