Disclaimer: No, no, non.
She had to be dreaming.
Yes, she was.
All she had to do was to just pinch herself again…
"Stop pinching yourself, Mai. We are here, in the flesh." She wasted no time in rounding on her narcissist boss.
"Well, excuse me? That coming from someone who decided that the word 'privacy' didn't exist in his dictionary and start showing up at one place that I rather have no one who knows me well knows? On my parents' anniversary no less!" Mai stormed out, not bothering to slide shut the door after her.
Masako raised one sleeve. "How rude. After all the trouble we made to come here…"
"It can't be helped, you see." Shima cut in before Masako could continue her snide remarks. "Dates like these are days she wishes to just spend with her parents. I was not aware Mai was so closely affiliated with your company however. But I am pleased that you would look into my case."
"You're welcome. About Mai, I will answer your queries later. For now my assistant, Lin, and I would like to ask you some questions. Depending on your answers and how severe we gauge the situation to be, we might not accept your case." Shima nodded in understanding. "Excellent, Lin, if you please."
As Lin shifted to sit next to him, Naru took a sidelong glance at the still open sliding door.
-Mai…-
"How is it?"
Ayaka slid her hand off the tree. Takigawa and John approached her, the former looking at the tree before turning his attention back to the frowning priestess, who seemed to be deep in thought. "Ayaka- san?"
"This is strange." Startled, John and Takigawa stayed silent for a moment, before Takigawa spoke again. "What is?"
"The spirits admit that the construction nearby is indeed upsetting them, but they are not the ones behind the malicious pranks." Takigawa sighed. "But even so…"
"What is it?" John tilted his head. Ayako's frown grew deeper.
"According to them…ever since 'that thing' was brought in, nothing here rests in bliss."
Naru looked impatiently at his watch. –They sure are slow, those three…-
Meanwhile, Lin had readied a set of questions and was busy discussing the layout of the shrine with Shima, taking notes here and then. Out of a corner of his eye, Naru could see that Masako was clearly uncomfortable with something, judging by the way she had been fidgeting from the time they stepped into the area.
A mix of footsteps, Naru got ready to admonish the three-
"Naru! Look out!"
Reflexes kicking in instinctively, he dropped to the floor as a huge branch flew into the room, splintering at the ends as it came into contact with the wall before crashing into the floor.
As the dust cleared, Naru sat up and looked around. "Everyone alright?"
"I think so…" Masako looked shaken. "Shima- san? Lin- san?"
"Oi!" Takigawa burst into the room, followed by John and Ayako, eyes widening as he surveyed the damage. "What happened?"
Naru looked up from helping Lin move the unconscious monk away from the debris. "As you can see, we were attacked by a flying tree branch." He said flatly. Loud voices caught their attention, and Naru walked towards the door as several men ran up, panting.
"Can I help you, sirs?" Naru said. The men looked uneasy, some mumbling among themselves. "Well... pardon me…but, by any chance did you see a log dropping here… or something like that?" one of the men asked, wringing his fingers.
Naru looked at him. A white helmet, he surely was in- charge.
"Yes, a log suddenly flew in." the men looked alarmed. "But no one was hurt, only small wounds." They relaxed slightly.
"I see… but if you wish for compensation, please do feel free to look for me. I'm the in- charge of the site there," the white- helmeted man pointed to the distance, where a plume of smoke rose amongst the forest.
"Of course, how should I address you, sir? I'm Shibuya Kazuya."
"I'm Tonotori. And this is my assistant, Sakurai." He addressed the young man by his side, who bowed. Naru bowed back slightly.
"Pleasure to meet you, Tonotori- san. If you do not mind, I would like to drop by and enquire about this accident."
"Of course not. If you do not mind, we would like to retrieve the log."
"Not at all, please do." Naru moved aside, as Sakurai began barking orders and the other men made to move the log.
Out of a corner of his eye, Naru saw Tonotori slouched heavily, mumbling.
"It's a curse… this is a curse…"
Elsewhere…
"The construction has to be stopped! Already the spirits are angered!" A man thundered. "We cannot afford to have the name of our company disgraced further!"
"Are you saying that you believe in those…things?" another man said.
"Then how would you explain the accidents?" the man snapped back. "That shrine might contain plenty of resources, but if more people are going to get hurt, I'm outta of this project. I don't care even if I have to compensate in full!"
"Gentlemen, and women, if you please…let me have a word…" all heads swiveled around to face the blond- haired man.
"Who are you?" a woman asked, eyebrows raised. "Never seen you here before."
"Of course." The man answered cheerfully. "I, was just newly brought in here by one of your contractors. Mr…Tonotori, I believe?"
"Tonotori?" the first man barked. "So who are you supposed to be? A consultant?"
"Close to it, Mr Hideki. Pardon my rudeness; I have yet to introduce myself, am I right? My name is Nicholas Herrikson. I am a consultant…on more spiritual matters?"
"Well, we've never heard of you. And Tonotori…I thought he was bad enough, but hiring a consultant on spiritual matters? He's got Alzheimer's." Small laughter filled the room.
"Miss Shouta, I can assure you I'm no quack or those kind of nonsense spiritual chit chatters. And I can also assure you that the shrine…or rather, the forest near the shrine, is pretty out of bounds. You shouldn't have set your eyes on that area."
"Why? Coz of all those floating white balls or flying logs?" Another man snorted. "In my opinion, Tonotori is being inefficient. We shouldn't have hired him in the first place!"
Nasty laughter filled the room once more. Nicholas stood up, and all eyes turned to him, only for them to shrink back as they looked at his glacier- blue eyes.
"Gentlemen, and ladies." Everyone froze. Nicholas's voice might have as well been the Arctic regions. "When I say I am no quack, it's true. I come from one of the most prestigious paranormal research facility. But seeing as you still refuse to believe, I do not see any point in telling you. All I can say is, if you do not pull out, suffer the consequences by yourself."
Moriyama Shrine
Mai opened her eyes, and stretched her tired body. Apparently, she had fallen asleep in between her parents' gravestones after stomping out in anger. She sighed, and took a look at her watch.
"Oh my god…I slept for 3 hours?" she all but shrieked. Damn it, there goes the last bus. Looks like I have to bunk in with Shima- san tonight. Standing up, she dusted her skirt and knelt in front of the gravestones, brushing her parents' names fondly.
"Got to go now, mom, dad. See you next month on mom's birthday." Gazing fondly a little while more, she stood up…and her eyes widened as Lin and Ayako walked up to her, daffodils in Ayako's hands.
"Ayako, Lin- san…" Both smiled at Mai, as Ayako set down the flowers on both graves and bowed, as did Lin.
"Hello, Taniyama- san tachi. I'm Ayako, and this is Lin. We're Mai's colleagues from work." Ayako drapped a hand around Mai's shoulder. "Sorry to have intruded on a private day for all of you, our sincere apologies. But rest well, we'll look after Mai well on behalf of the both of you."
Mai felt the tears threatening to fall. The last person who had said that was Keiko and her former teacher. It had been a while since anyone had said that, and no matter how she looked, the pain seemed fresh everytime she came here.
"Thanks, Ayako, Lin- san."
Ayako rubbed the girl's head fondly, as Lin passed his handkerchief to the now sobbing girl.
"You're welcome, Mai."
Naru looked up as Ayako, Lin and Mai trooped into the room, the girl's eyes slightly red and puffed.
Probably from crying, Naru thought to himself. A pang of jealously went through him as John lightly hugged the girl. Stamping down the feeling as quickly as it came, he cleared his throat. All eyes turned to him, then to Takigawa as he shut the door behind him.
"Takigawa. How is the monk?" Alarm bells went off in Mai's head. She had not missed their injuries, and the slightly trashed up room had caught her attention, not to mention the huge gaping hole in the wall, in which she was certain was never there when she had visited earlier.
Unless she was blind and missed it somehow.
"What's wrong with Shima- san?" Mai cut in before Takigawa could say anything. "Where is he?"
"Ojou- chan, relax. The monk is resting. Earlier we had an…UFO accident." Takigawa scratched his head as he dropped to the cushion next to Mai.
"UFO?" Mai looked confused. "Unidentified flying object? Those things don't exist, Bou- san." She chided. Takigawa's mouth twitched in tired amusement.
"No, dear. UFO as in Unexpected flying object. See the hole there? Even if it was aliens, I doubt that they would zap a hole as small as this."
"You consider this small?" Ayako shrieked. "This is the size of a circle drawn around 4 footballs put together!"
"For the aliens, at least. To us humans it's pretty big." Mai stood up.
"Ojou- chan, where are you going?" Takigawa looked at her in surprise.
"Just going to check if Shima- san is alright. I'll be back soon." She padded past them silently and slid the door shut behind her.
A few seconds later after Naru had made certain he couldn't hear Mai's footsteps, he turned to Lin.
"Matsuaki- san, Lin. How did your search go?" Both shook their heads. "Nothing." Ayako sighed, but her eyes betrayed her consternation.
"What is it?" All eyes turned to Ayako.
"I've been communicating with the spirits along the way, and Lin had his Shiki search around. We both came to the same conclusion."
"What? What thing?" Takigawa pressed. For once Ayako did not snap back, only turning to Lin.
"Lin." Naru looked at the Chinese man. Lin sighed.
"Apparently, this part of the area is considered holy. Do you remember the school case where there was one of those…"
"Yes." Naru nodded. "Is this like that case?"
"No… It's not. I'm afraid, its more monstrous that that case."
"Way…more complex…" Ayako added. "We're talking about a very dangerous one here, Naru, worse than that blood mansion. If we're not careful…"
"Then we'll be the next victims." Lin finished.
A/N: So I managed to properly finish this chapter, whew. Anyway, I'm sorry for the long wait! Too many problems…such is life. Hahahaaaa…...ah
I promise to update faster next time! Really sorry for the wait! Before that…thanks to:
KayKit: Thank you! Hope you enjoyed this chapter too!
Krisaku: Sorry for the long wait, here's chappie 4! =)
Moonlightbutterflye: Really? Glad to hear that! =D Hope this chapter was nice for you as well!
Flamegirl5500: Sorry for the long long wait! I will slowly reveal everything over the chapters...so as to keep the suspense, heh. Happy hols to you too! Mine just ended. TT
Moonlight ookami: Sorry to have made you wait! Here's chappie 4!
Fallenraindrops: Too many things had been going on, so I didn't have a chance to properly finish this chapter. Now its done though, and I promise to update faster next time! =)
Ayjah: Yeah! Many might call her naïve, but I think her caring for everyone is one of the best traits she has. But she might be a little OoC in this chappie though…hmm…
YunaNeko: Arigatou~~ here's chappie 4, hope you enjoyed it! =)
Southern-punk: Haha, as much as I fear horror stuff, I have to admit Ghost hunt is awesome…I need moreeeee…..hahaha. Oh well, Naru…is being Naru. Hee hee~ here's chappie 4, hope you enjoyed it!
Herbblood: Really? Thank you! Hope this chapter was up to your expectations!
aniAngelxx: NOOO, I couldn't quit even if I wanted to, too many of you awesome readers to stop writing, haha! Sorry in advance for the late update, I promise to update faster next time! =)
Kenjo: Thank you! Hope you liked this chapter too!
HappyBunny855: Thank you! I'll update faster next time, hope you enjoyed this chappie in the meantime!
Feel free to give me comments on how to improve, and looking forward to your reviews! Thanks to all those who read and favorite-ed it too!
I will REALLY update faster next time! =) Cya soon~~~