Day Two
It is sometime after midnight. Lin is bored to death watching the monitors. There has been zero activity. The window is open. It is quite cold. He looks out and is stunned by the view. He stands up and walks to the window. Leaning on his elbows he enjoys the beauty of the far away peak of Mount Yufu adorned in silvery moonlight. Suddenly he hears a sound behind him. Footsteps. He whips around, ready to unleash his familiars.
Mai yelps a little at his ferocious expression. She sees him relaxing a little when he realises it is only her. She walks in further and smiles, "I come in peace, and green tea."
Lin's lips twitch a little. Mai cannot tell in the darkness. He finds himself feeling glad that it was her. She places the tray beside the monitors and joins him near the window. He turns around to look at the mountain again. She closes her eyes and sighs, "It is so beautiful."
"I was thinking the same thing," he says, "Can I ask why you are not sleeping? Did you dream?"
She shakes her head, "That is what's so weird. After the shadow I thought I might dream something. Instead I couldn't sleep at all. So I was reading when Ayako woke up and scolded me to turn off the light. So I decided to check on you."
"Hmm," he rubs his chin. He sits down again and picks up a cup. He notices there are two cups. A few seconds later, she joins him. So goes on, for an hour or so, both sharing a comfortable silence as they diligently stare at monitors.
An hour in their monitoring, Mai gasps and points at the image projected from Masao's room. Lin follows her finger and frowns as well. There it is. A shape forming from the ceiling down. However it does not hover long as a few seconds later it disappears. Mai glances at the temperature recorder. She says, "Lin-san, look."
Lin's frown deepens when he reads four degrees Celsius on the machine. He shares a concerned look with Mai. Thank goodness Sakura had taken Masao from that room.
Mai asks, "If it is a curse, then what is a spirit doing here?"
"Good question."

When morning arrived, Lin is the first to wake up. He remembers Mai yawning and him ordering her to go back to her room. Instead, she did not. And soon, her head had bumped into his shoulder. He had shook his head and gently manoeuvred her, so she lay flat on the floor beside him. He then foraged in the closet for a blanket. After finding one, he had thrown one over her. Near dawn, he was struggling to stay awake. Giving up he lay down too, making sure he was far away from her (the room was big enough for evasion). His last thought was that if he was going to stay awake here every night he might ask his bed to be shifted here.
When he wakes up, he sits up and stares at the opposite wall for a while. He checks the time. It is six thirty. Then he looks to his right to see Mai Taniyama still sleeping. He watches her sleep for a few seconds when he realises that it is an extremely creepy thing to do so. He pushes the blanket away. He stands and stretches. Maybe he should wake her up. Maybe he should check the recordings. He does the latter.
He sits down in front of the screens again, making sure no part of her feet were touching him. He replays everything. After fifteen minutes of tape, he pauses at the image projected from the corridor in front of the guy's sleeping quarters. It was somewhere near dawn, maybe right after he lay down. A figure of an elderly man dressed in clothing from, maybe, the eighteenth century roaming the corridor. He doesn't stay too long.
"Whoa, who is that?"
He jumps. Without noticing, Mai had woken up and is sitting beside him with messy bed hair.
"Mai, tea," a sleepy Naru pulls back the door, yawning and rubbing his eyes.
Mai frowns. Oh well, she cannot expect him to nice always then. She stands up and leaves. Naru takes her place. He looks at the image, his brows furrowing, "What is that?"
Lin shrugs, "The temperatures are low. The man was outside your door."
I can see that," Naru smirks, "Mai kept you company?" The blankets strewn on the floors is not missed by him.
A little colour suffuses Lin's high cheekbones. He grumbles, "Don't be so crude Naru."
"I insinuated nothing."
Lin bites the insides of his cheek. Shit.
Caught you, Naru thinks, smugly victorious that his guess was right.
Lin says aloud, "Uh, there was other activity too." He shows his boss the other recording.
Naru asks, "Why are there spirits?"
Lin nods, "We were thinking the same thing."
"We?"
Lin didn't have to look a Naru to feel his smirk pointed at him. He ignores that and moves on, "Any news from Yasuhara?"
"Not yet."

Mai finds the kitchen soon enough. She enters, clutching Naru's preferred box of tea brand in her hands. She sees Sakura preparing tea as well. Mai says, "Good morning!"
Sakura turns around and smiles, "Good morning, Taniyama-san."
"Mai, call me Mai." She brings some water to boil.
Sakura bringing out cups for her, says, "I could do that." She says pointing at the kettle.
"No, no. My boss only allows me to make his tea. He is a slave-driver." She laughs at Sakura's horrified expression, who too giggles a little when she realises the younger woman is joking. Mai asks, "Earl Grey?"
Sakura nods, her eyes sad, "My husband prefers this."
"Uh, aren't you, uh, fighting?"
"Yes. We are. But I still love him. He is still my husband and the father of my children. He will probably starve if I don't periodically leave food trays outside his room."
Mai finishes preparing her tea and smiles. There are all kinds of love in this world. Even when they are fighting, she cannot stop caring and he cannot let her efforts to go waste. She asks, "Sakura-chan? Wait, can I call you that?" the older woman acquiesces, "I will help you prepare breakfast, please." Sakura nods, taken aback for a while. "Wait while I enable my boss's tea addiction!"
Oh god, I feel so bad for her, Mai thinks as she rushes out of the kitchen.

After breakfast, the gang sits down to prepare a plan of action. Everyone had one question: was it curse or spirit? After hearing everybody, Naru said, "Okay, Masako take John and check every nook and cranny. Matsuzaka and Monk, same for you. This could very well become a case like that Cursed House. I am checking up on the history of the house."
They went their ways. Lin started typing and Mai decided to roam outside a bit.
The surroundings are gorgeous. Beyond the cherry tree lies a lake and beyond that lake lies a shrine. Mai wonders if it is worth investigating. The lake is enormous. It takes her a while to get to the shrine. She spots a rough, dirt path leading from the house to the shrine. When she gets closer to the shrine she notices another, metalled road, leading from the shrine and then curving around a cluster of bamboo trees. She reckons that that road might connect the town to the shrine.
The shrine looks old. The paved path looks worn out from usage. The stone foxes look weather-beaten. She enters and feels tranquil. She breathes out in relief. This place it didn't feel like that other shrine by the sea. It feels peaceful. She can hear birds. Then she sees a young girl, maybe her age, appearing by another side from the main building. She has straight black hair open, she is dressed in a simple white dress and her head is down, as if in deep thought. She is shocked when she sees Mai. She clutches her chest, then breaks into a huge smile. Her fringe frames her face well. Well, she is very beautiful, Mai muses.
Mai waves at her, "Hi!"
The girl gets nearer, "Hi. Are you a local? I was wondering if you could tell me—"
Mai waves her hands frantically, "No, no I am not a local. I am staying over at the Kawaguchis." She jerks her thumb at the house across the lake.
"Oh," she blinks. She has longer eyelashes than me, Mai thinks. "Actually, I am staying there too. I am Kaorin Toboso. I came down from Hakata."
"Are you on holiday?"
"Y-yes," she says, "You look like you are in college like me."
She is lying, Mai thinks. Aloud, "Yes. I am in college. Second year."
"Me too!"
They explore the charming little place together, yet, Mai couldn't shake off the feeling that something is seriously wrong with the girl.

Ayako and Houshou are checking out the entire ground floor. Ayako is chanting softly under her breath when she hears her husband shouting from another room. She runs, trying to locate Houshou. She finally finds him in Masao's room. Her heart leaps into her mouth when she sees him clutching his stomach, kneeling on the ground. She rushes over and clutches his shoulder, "Houshou!"
He smiles up at her. She cups his face and asks, her voice shaky, "What? Are you okay? Are you hurt?"
"Yes and no. I was checking around, trying to place wards when the room got really cold. Then I felt icy fingers grip my neck. A woman whispered, "Not you" and drove their hand through me. It hurts a bit," Houshou explains.
She sighs and places her head against his. She whispers, "I used to be never scared."
Houshou grabs her elbow and whispers, "Me too."
"So you are saying you are a scaredy monk?" she smirks.
"Hey! I am not the self-styled shrine maiden here!"
And some things don't change.

Lin watches the couple fighting on his screen. He had been alarmed when Houshou shouted and fell to his knees. Then Ayako came. He had busied himself in typing again giving them their privacy. But he was forced to bring back his attention to it when they started arguing again. He grins. It was always obvious these two had a thing for each other. He wasn't surprised to learn they were married. Good to know marriage didn't change them entirely.
He wonders how Masako and John were doing. Then a little voice asks, where is Mai? He sends a shiki to check. Prevention is better than cure. It is always dangerous to let that girl wander on her own.

Masako and John are exploring the attic. He is sprinkling holy water and offering prayers. She trudges over to a corner. A particular wooden trunk attracts her attention. She wipes the dust settled on it with her kimono sleeve. It is rectangular with varnish that had faded over years and she sees a small floral design on it. She picks it up. It is a little heavy. She says, "John? I found something. Let's take it to Naru."
John nods and they go back to base. As soon as they enter, Naru asks, "Is the attic…"
Masako shakes her head. She shows him the box, saying, "I think it is from the Edo period."
All heads turn to look at her. Houshou, who had arrived with Ayako five minutes earlier, laughs, "Oh my God, Yasu's nerd has rubbed off on you!"
Masako blushes as Ayako jabs Houshou in his ribs. Lin takes the box from her. He sees it is locked. Just then his shiki returned. It curled around his arm and conveyed that Mai is all right she was coming this way with a guest. Lin frowned.
A minute later Mai barges in with a girl of her age. All heads turn to look at her. Mai introduces her, "This is Kaorin Toboso! She is here on holiday."
Lin coolly observes that Kaorin is beautiful but something felt off. He looks at her keenly when her eyes fall on the box in his lap. Her eyes register surprise for a second but then she is back to normal. His frown deepens.
Kaorin says, "Hello."
Mai says, not missing how he only had eyes for Kaorin, "That is our boss, Kazuya Shibuya. That is Bou-san and Ayako. This is John Brown and that is Kuojo Lin. We all work together."
"I heard what you all do. Sounds fascinating!"
"Toboso-san, you believe in ghosts?" Naru asks.
She nods her head, "I do. I believe that there are things that can never be easily explained." She then points at the box, "What is that?"
"A writing box. It was in the room," Lin answers, narrowing his eyes at her. Everybody looks at him, wondering why he lied, but holding their silence.
"Looks old."
"Yes. Kawaguchi-san let us use to prop equipment."
"Oh cool. See you guys around then. Bye! Bye Mai! It was so nice to meet you!" Kaorin leaves.
"Taniyama-san get in, and shut the door," Lin orders.
Mai does as she is told. His cold voice scares her a little. Lin asks, "Where did you meet her?"
"By the shrine," she replies.
"Lin-san?" John says, "Why did you lie?"
"Lie?" Mai asks.
"Yes," Masako says, "I found that box in the attic, Sakura-san did not give it to us."
"I did not like the look she gave to the box," Lin explains. Oh, so that is why she was staring at him and she at him, Mai thinks, mentally sighing in relief.
Mai nods, "Hmm, when I met her I did feel like she is up to no good. I did not want to bring her here but she insisted so much. Sorry guys."
Naru waves his hand, "She stays here, and she would have showed up eventually. We couldn't actually avoid her. Do you think she is a criminal of some sorts? I mean if Masako is right, that box is an antique. She could be here to steal it."
"Antique?" Mai crouches in front of Lin. She leans over, her head almost knocking Lin's chin. She places her palm flat on the top. She gasps when a vision of an old man and the smell of parchment and ink attack her olfactory senses.
Lin was edgy because of how close she chose to sit in front of him. Their knees were almost touching. Her green apple shampoo was the right amount of tang and sweet, just like her. He was interrupted from the unexpected train of thought when she gasped. She jerks her hand away and shakes her head repeatedly. Her eyes are round in surprise. Lin puts away the box. He grabs her by her shoulders. She stops her heavy breathing and looks squarely at Lin. Lin asks, "Taniyama-san, what happened? You saw something when you touched the box didn't you?"
She says, "I saw an old man. Did anyone else smell parchment and ink?"
Only green apple, Lin scoffs. He says, "I didn't."
"Yes, Mai. Neither did we," Houshou says.
Naru slowly says, "You saw an old man. You had a vision. Interesting." Lin looks at him sharply.
Mai blushes, "I don't know. It freaked me out because I have never done that."
"Hmm."
The door slides open and Tsugumi enters. She smiles, "Hi, sorry to interrupt but would you like some lunch now?"

While they are about to start eating, Kaorin enters along with Sentaro and his son. Hitoshi spots Mai and sits down beside her. Mai smiles. She is starting to like him immensely.
When everybody has done eating, Mai and John offer to help. Mai is on her third plate when she hears a bell ringing. Tsugumi goes. Sakura says, "I am sorry. It is just, my mother-in-law's death anniversary is in two days, and our family has a tradition of offering prayers for our departed for the first five years. My other brother-in-law will be here too. It will get crowded. I think it is them, they did say they would be here somewhere in the afternoon."
Mai shakes her head, "It is okay. No problem. Um, can I ask you something?" Sakura nods, "The children have been seeing a spirit. Do you think it is your mother-in-law?"
Sakura sighs, "Could be. She was the children's favourite. Why? Do you think she is harmful?"
"No. I have a feeling she is trying to protect them," Mai whispers.
Sakura nods, fighting tears. John says, "Mai might be right. She seems benevolent. I heard the tale from Hitoshi."
"What did he say?" Mai asks.
"He said he saw his grandmother here, in the garden. She just smiled and waved. He says she is still the same granny."
"I think she can't move on because she wants to protect her family."
Sakura sniffs. Mai throws an arm around her, "There, there Sakura-chan."
"Thank you Mai-chan. You have been so nice to me. I am happy to know you," Sakura says, in between sobs.
"That is Mai for you!" John says.
Unbeknownst to them, Lin hears the last part. He had come down with Naru's order of tea. Tsugumi arrives right then. She asks, "Lin-san, right? Did you want something?"
"'Uh," Lin is saved from explaining when Mai comes out and says, "Lin-san? Let me guess, tea?" Lin smiles. Mai sighs and returns to prepare tea.
Lin quickly makes his retreat. As he is walking upstairs he goes over to what Sakura said. She has been affected by Mai too. The girl has an amazing power of making a place in every person's heart she meets. Her sunny disposition and effervescence just cannot be ignored. She is unique. And before you know it, you cannot imagine how life would have been like without her. He is near the base when he remembers the night two years ago.
Lin wasn't the one for parties. When he saw Mai escaping, he made a split second decision to follow her. He still has not fathomed why he did so. He half-thought he would find her crying. But she wasn't. She was just standing there. Then when she hugged her and said, "Thank you Lin-san. I am glad I walked into the old school building and nearly killed you. Well, uh, sorry for that" and giggled, he found himself grinning. He came to Japan hating everything Japanese, but he knew he was leaving a changed man. Before he could stop himself he kissed her on her forehead.
He looks down at his hands. He still remembers the texture of her hair. Today when she was leaning in, he knows how hard it was for him to not touch her hair, slide down and brush her cheek. He runs his fingers through his hair. No, not Mai Taniyama. He cannot like her because…well, he could only see their age difference as a hindrance. There is nothing else he can think of as a negative point.
He had followed her that night because he wanted to. He kissed her forehead because he wanted to. He thought about her in London every now and then because he could not control it. Sometimes he would see something, or do something, and he would wonder what Mai would have done, how Mai would have reacted. He remembers making hot chocolate and throwing it down the sink because it reminded him of her. Like it or not, she was always hovering in the back of his mind for the past two years.
Oh no, he thinks, his heart dropping to his knees, I am not falling for her, am I?