Disclaimer: I do not own Ghost Hunt.
"What?" Sayuri leans away from him, completely unsure as to why he said that.
"You might be possessed, Miss Natsuma. We don't want you leaving the house until we prove that you are not," Naru walks away from her.
"P-possessed? You got to be kidding me!" Naru ignores Sayuri's comment.
"We don't joke."
Sayuri makes a mental note to add in her notebook about the main character possessed by a unseen force while ghost hunting. The ghost is actually not a harmful spirit. It be more like a protector, using them to help the other characters get rid of the evil. The spirit would be like...a guardian angel. Yeah, that works! wait...isn't possession suppose to be scary?
"So do I have to worry if my eyes turn red or if my head starts spinning one eighty?"
"Could you care not to joke about this?" Naru's tone felt a lot colder then the room she was in upstairs.
"Well," Sayuri crosses her arms in front of her chest, "excuse me for not believing in all of this ghost crap."
"What do you believe in?" John asks her.
"Angels and demons. As Sho said earlier, half our family is Catholic. The other half...I don't know. I believe in the afterlife. You either go up," She points a finger up, "or down. Believing that someone's soul lingers here on earth? No way."
"You don't seem to be very...religious," John chews on his lip, not wanting to argue
"I use to go to church with my grandparents. After they died, I stop going." A moment of sadness rises up from somewhere inside her. Sayuri pushes away the thoughts of her loving, sweet grandparents. They were an odd couple but she loved them. They were the ones who pretty much raised her while her parents spent most of their time working.
"Don't be afraid to ask questions, Father," Sayuri smiles at John, "nothing you can say will offend me."
"Lin," Naru doesn't move from looking over something on a clipboard.
Lin moves forward, before kneeling down to eye level with Sayuri. He leans in, pressing his forehead against hers. The feeling was uncomfortable and embarrassing. She didn't know what to say to him as he stays like that for a few minutes. Lin steps away from her.
"She's not possess."
There was a collective sigh of relief from the other members.
"I told you," Sayuri shakes off the disturbed feeling, "can I get up now?"
"Not yet," Naru turns back to her, "so you heard a voice?"
"Yeah, from me bump-"
"Just be quiet," Naru holds up a hand, "yes or no will suffice for now. You said male, correct?"
"Yes."
"Loud enough for you to think it was Mr. Takigawa?"
"Yes."
"Interesting," Naru makes a face, "what exactly did he say?"
"First my name," Sayuri sighs, getting annoyed, "then he said 'go...Sayuri...go' just as Monk was dragging me away from the room."
"Male voice...did it sound concerned?"
"Yes," Sayuri groans, "can we stop talking about the voice in head and focus on the case?"
"I don't think the voice inside Miss Natsuma's head has anything to do with this case," Naru speaks up, "I think the voice is connected to her."
"Well that's just gr-wait, what?"
"Have you had any-"
"Mr. Shibuya, it was just a voice. I rather not talk about it right now. You have a case that you and your team must do. One that your clients expect these spirits to be remove from the house. Now I'm getting up and going to check on my cousin." Sayuri interrupts, standing. She stomps off towards the backyard that Mai and Sho were still playing in.
Sho looks up, his eyes widening a bit. "Sayuri...?"
"I'm alright," Sayuri kneels down, "having fun hanging out with Mai?"
Sho gave a nod, though his eyes looked distant, almost thoughtful. He kept staring over Sayuri's shoulder, in the direction towards the woods. Sayuri turns around, staring at the woods. It was unnerving how her cousin keep look at them. "What's the matter? Saw something that spooked you? Probably those darn cats again."
Sho bit his lip, "Hope he's okay..." he whispers absently, turning to look away.
"Hope who is okay?" Sadly Mai overheard. Sayuri hangs her head, hoping she didn't want to explain to Mai about Sho's overactive imagination and a possibility of a imaginary friend.
"Kyo," Sho looks at her.
Mai frowns, "Kyo?"
"Yes, Kyo," Sho speaks as if talking about a real person, "he went off into the woods. I met him when Sayuri and I moved into our new house."
"What does Kyo look like?" Mai says, smiling sweetly.
"He's tall like Lin," Sho moves his hands as if drawing a picture in the air, "with dark hair like Naru's and grey eyes like Sayuri. He wears a kimono like a samurai would. He also has a sword and he's got a nice smile."
Sayuri frowns, "Sounds like the samurai Grandpa used to talk about."
"That's what Kyo said," Sho begins to look excited, "he was sitting near the tombstone. When he saw me, he smiled. Kyo said it's been lonely since Grandpa and Grandma left the house."
She swallows hard. For some reason, she feels her hands become clammy and her heart pick up speed.
"Sho...I didn't see anybody at the house when we moved in. Are you sure you saw someone?"
Sho just stares at her, "yeah. He saw you too."
"M-me?"
"Yeah," Sho frowns, "but you didn't see him. He says he's going to watch over both of us."
Sayuri licks her lips, "S-Sho... I think you should just stay away from Kyo."
"Just until we can figure out who he is exactly," Sayuri tacks on.
"He's my friend," Sho says, darkly.
Sayuri goes to say something only to be stop by Mai. Mai holds up a hand before heading inside to talk to someone. Sayuri just sits on the porch, hanging her head. Okay so the boy had a imaginary friend. A friend that may or may not be real. She wasn't sure about the circumstances about the 'real' part.
Sayuri gets up from the porch.
"C'mon Sho, it's dinner time. Let's head back to the house."
"Aw, but I was-"
"You can hang out with Mai another day," Sayuri takes his hand, walking him back into the house. Sayuri quietly asks Mai if maybe some days she could watch Sho when she wasn't working. The teenage girl agrees. Sayuri picks up her notes, with Sho mumbling apologizes to Mai and John for leaving so soon.
"Just contact me the next time you have a case," Sayuri states to Naru. Before he could step up and say anything, the two leave the house. The group watches the tiny red car leave up the street.
"What was that all about?" Ayako asks.
"Sho has a 'imaginary' friend," Mai uses floating quotations, "I think she might have a ghost on her property."
"A ghost?" Ayako looks back between the others.
"I sense something while you two were outside playing," Masako speaks to Mai, "there is defiantly a presence surrounding both Sho and Sayuri."
"So that's what the voice she heard was," Mai speaks, "maybe the ghost is protecting them. I mean she did say it told her leave the upstairs."
"A ghost that protects," Naru closes his eyes.
"A presence," John thinks over it, "maybe they have a guardian angel."
"Guardian angel?" Mai asks.
"Yes," John opens up a book, showing a picture, "sometimes they're just beings. But once in a while there is that one special relation that seems to stay behind, mostly to protect the rest of the family from something dark and evil."
"So you think that this friend of Sho's is a guardian angel, possibly a family member?"
"I'm not so sure," John turns to Mai, "did Sho say anything about this friend of his?"
"That he dresses like a samurai and his name is Kyo. He might be related to the family because Sho said he had the same eye color as Sayuri," Mai tries to get the image in her head. A samurai angel was the first thing to pop up. A tall handsome man that had the same eyes of Sayuri.
"We shouldn't push," Naru gets up, "if Sayuri wants our help then we'll wait until she asks for it. Otherwise, don't bring it up."
"But Naru-"
"She doesn't believe. If she wants to believe, she'll have to accept it on her own. The best we can do is just go about like its nothing."
"Talk about having a challenge," Mai mumbles as they go about solving the case.
insert line here
"Ghost hunting? Incredible! I never thought you would do it," Sayuri stands in front of a desk, rolling her eyes as her editor goes over the notes. Katsuro Shiomi had been her editor since he found her first horror novel on his while she was still a senior in high school and he was just starting to work as a full time editor.
His handsome short brown hair is brushed back with large amber eyes eating up Sayuri's notes like a candy bar.
"Well now I am. So what do you think so far?"
"So far," Katsuro removes his glasses, "it's a great idea. Try not to ruin the suspense. Now, tell me where you're getting all of this research on ghost hunting."
She sits down, rubbing her forehead, "a team called the Shibuya Psychic Research here in town. I found it while looking at the newspaper one evening and-" She stops talking to see that her editor was making a odd face.
"Oh dear God, don't tell me that you-"
"I can't believe that you, Sayuri Natsuma, is actually researching along with SPR! They're the best ghost hunters team in town."
"They're the only ghost hunters team in town," She groans, "why do you like them so much?"
"They help out a friend of mine. The school that he teaches at was suppose to be haunted. They help cross over the spirits and defeat the evil mojo floating around," Katsuro grins, "our girl Sayuri with ghost hunters."
"Just because I'm researching doesn't mean I believe in ghosts." Sayuri sweat drops before getting hit in the head with a newspaper.
"One of these days you have to," Katsuro frowns, "or otherwise you'll find yourself in deep trouble with the spirit world."
"Already did on that first case I went to. I got thrown into a wall apparently and-"
"Sayuri!"
"I'm fine. I hurt my back and got a minor bump on the head," Sayuri decides to keep the whole voice in her head thing to herself. The last thing she needed was for Katsuro to think she was crazy.
"Any ideas for the characters yet?"
"Well not sure. I made notes on all the people I work with. Maybe one of them will inspire me."
"I like this Mai girl. She's sounds like a not so typical high schooler. It be nice to see you aim your next novel towards a much younger crowd."
"Katsuro, I have ten year olds who read my stuff. What makes you think that I-"
"It be a nice change of pace," Katsuro hands her back her notes, "a young girl dealing with ghosts, on top of having...who was it? A suppose psychic or two, a medium, a priest, a shrine maiden, and a monk? Wow, you pretty much got the basics for an entire new cast of wonderful characters."
"Yeah yeah whatever," Sayuri puts her notes back into her bag.
"You getting along fine with everyone?"
"Meh," Sayuri stands up, "I got to go pick up Sho from school. I'll talk to you later Katsuro."
She leaves the office building to head to Sho's school. Sayuri was glad that she pick a good school for him. The school Sho was originally going to wasn't doing much for his education. She found Sho to be a bright boy who could possibly do anything. Sayuri enters the school, recalling past memories of when she was Sho's age.
"Oh Miss Natsuma," Sho's teacher catches her eye the moment she turn the hallway.
"Ms. Hotake," Sayuri shakes her hand.
"I hope I didn't call you out of anything important," The older woman reminded Sayuri a bit of her grandmother.
"Not at all," Sayuri smiles, "Sho is more important then me having to get nag by my editor. So what seems to be the trouble? Is something wrong with Sho? I help him with homework every chance that I get."
"It's not that," Ms. Hotake smiles, "I just want you to read something. Follow me," the teacher leads Sayuri to the teachers room. Ms. Hotake pulls out a small pile of papers from the filing cabinet. She hands them to Sayuri.
"I think Sho has your gift of writing."
"Huh?" Sayuri reads over the papers. It was a story that she recall that he had to write for class. It was a story about a young samurai who got left behind to destroy a evil monster living in the woods. She mentally rolls her eyes at the name of the samurai but becomes engross into the story.
"He...wrote this? Wow. I remember him telling me about it. I offer to help but he wanted to do it himself."
"I hope you're proud of him. I read it out loud to the class. They want to know more stories about the samurai Kyo and his adventures."
"I do too," Sayuri smiles, "I hope he got a good grade on it."
"He did and I offer to submit a copy to a young writer's contest. I wanted to know if I have your permission to do so."
"Please do! I'm just proud of him for writing something so amazing!" Sayuri quickly plans in her mind to take Sho to his favorite restaurant. It be worth the time and money to give him a treat. He deserved praise for his hard work.
After her meeting with Ms. Hotake, she went looking for Sho. With his story tuck away in her bag, she was trying to figure out if he would want pizza for his dinner. She spots him just a few feet from her standing around with a few classmates.
She notices that he is talking to an older man who had to kneel down to him and his classmates. Sho spots her, waving her over. Sayuri walks toward them when the man gets up and turns around.
"Oh hell..." Sayuri curses.
"Hey there," Monk sends her a smile, "fancy seeing you here."
Sayuri hangs her head.
She just couldn't go for one day without having to deal with a member of SPR.