Me: *gets on my hands and knees and bows down* I'm so sorry I haven't updated in so long! _
Naru: What poor excuse do you have this time?
Me: Um… laziness and family stuff? ^_^'
Mai: Well at least you worked on this and other chapters.
Gene: Silver doesn't own Ghost Hunt. Please R&R!
Mai's POV:
"Oh my gods that problem was so easy!" Kaguya said, stretching her arms up to the sky as we exited the school building.
"I know, I can't believe that detective work is actually that easy." I agreed, following after her as we walked across the deserted campus to the street.
"Well, it's not necessarily easy, but for those who have solved a lot of mysteries it'll be that way." She countered, smiling as she made her way down the street with a small bounce to her step.
"True." That fact was very easily seen in class as we had finished as the first group and got to leave early as we finished the lesson. I knew that it was all thanks to Naru and work that I had learned the skills to get me an A in that class. No matter how much I wish I could take all the credit for myself. It was definably a bit of an ego blow, but then again I had developed the skills then and they've been helping me ever since.
"Where did you learn your detective skills?" she asked, tilting her head to the side. Her hair bounced at the notion and made the red tips shine in the sun. It was really interesting to see how different she looked when you got to know her a bit. At first she seemed like someone who would fight anyone at the drop of a hat, but now, she reminds me of a little fairy bouncing about and as social as a butterfly.
"Work." Kaguya nodded her head at me and smiled. "How about you, where did you learn?" I asked, wondering where she had gained such amazing skills for details from. Actually, if it wasn't for her great attention to detail then we wouldn't have finished as early as we did. She found all the clues and I put it all together like Naru usually did with my dreams. 'We're one hell of a team Kaguya and I.' I thought happily, glad that when we had to pair up for the assignment we had teamed up.
"My boyfriend, he's a part of the police force and does criminal profiling and detective work. I've helped him on some cases which is why I want to be a part of it too." She blushed softly at her confession as a soft smile formed on her lips. Looking at her I couldn't help but smile as well. It was clear to see that she held him in very high regards and truly cared for him as it showed whenever she talked about him. To tell the truth, it was cute and made me wonder if I would ever be able to be like that with someone.
"Wow, how old is he again?" I questioned, remembering that she never told me his age. It made me wonder just how big the age gap was between the two is he was already at work in the force doing some higher up work. She looked down at the sidewalk and blushed slightly, making me wonder just how big the gap was. In all actuality is scared me a bit, wondering if by some chance she had a sugar daddy, even though she didn't seem to be the type of girl to have one.
"He's two years older than me."
"So-"
"He's twenty one."
"And he already graduated college?!" I asked, completely surprised by this. Luckily it put my fears of her having a sugar daddy to bed, but made me question the inelegance level that I was at. 'First Naru's smarter than me in pretty much everything, and now Kaguya's boyfriend graduated college at the age where I barely got accepted in.'
"Yep, he graduated when he was eighteen at the top of his class." She stated with pride, making my jaw drop.
"Wow, he reminds me of Naru." I said, remembering how Naru had become a college professor at the age of sixteen. It was one of the many things that made him Naru besides his good looks, and while it annoyed me to no end, he did have the right to bare his intelligence with pride. Just so long as he didn't rub it in other people's faces that is.
"Nar-who?" Her face scrunched in confusion at my nickname for my boss, and I couldn't help but giggle at her.
"Naru, my boss. His name is actually Kazuya, but I call him Naru because he's a narcissist." I explained, watching as her confused expression melted away to reveal understanding.
"I can see that, Kane can get full of himself too at times." A look of sympathy came on her face as she sighed softly. My brow rose for more than one reason, but I asked the question that seemed to be the most prominent in my mind.
"Kane?"
"My boyfriend, his name is Kazune, but I call him Kane for short." She explained, smiling happily at her little name, I couldn't help but giggle at her.
"Awe, that's so cute." I cooed, watching her blush once again. We continued on in silence until we got to the street that I had to go down to get to work. "Uh, sorry, this is as far as I go. The slave driver awaits me." I pouted at having to leave on this note where I wanted to know more. She had a similar expression on her face, but it soon turned into a smile as she turned to face me.
"Alright, well good luck. See you later?" she asked, holding her hand up as a smirk formed on her lips. Instantly I smirked back and grabbed it with a clap, remembering how my mother would tell about her hand shake with Kaguya's mother as we imitated it ourselves.
"Totally." I agreed, letting go as I turned tail and ran to the office. Stealing a quick look at my hello kitty wrist watch I saw that I was already five minutes late, and I curse my luck as I turned the corner. The hundred yard sprint to the front door of SPR added on another minute or so onto my tardiness and when I crashed through the door I was met with Naru's usual greeting.
"Mai, you're late. I need tea."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah." I sighed, giving up on trying to get him to say 'hello' or 'good morning/afternoon/night' or 'nice to see you Mai'. As I put everything in its proper place, my typical routine went into play as I went into the kitchen and began to make Naru his tea and Lin his coffee. When the water began to come to a boil the bell to the door jingled telling us that we had a visitor. Not skipping a beat I came out with a smile and welcomed the person into the office. "Hello, and welcome to Shibuya Psychic Research. How can we help you?"
The person turned around from the coat rack where they hung up their blazer and I saw that it was a woman who seemed to be in her late forties that came to us today. She had light brown hair tied up into a bun and held up with a single chopstick and soul piercing dark brown eyes. Her attire was extremely professional as she was in a business suit and looked like she had just gotten out of a very important meeting.
She looked right at me and had a slightly nervous look about her as she responded back. "Um, there have been some issues where I live and I would like to have it checked out by your company."
"I see, please take a seat and the boss will be right out." I said, gesturing to one of the couches in the front room as I went over to Naru's lair. Out of the corner of my eye I saw her nod and do as I said, sitting down with her hands folded in her lap. On my way I knocked on Lin's door as our signal for a possible costumer, and then quickly made my way to the office of the evil overlord himself.
"Naru, we got a customer." I said peaking my head into his office. He looked up at me and nodded before getting up and following me out into the meeting room. When he came out the woman's eyes widened and her mouth dropped a bit.
"Ma'am?" Naru asked, raising a brow at her. She quickly shook her head and snapped out of her trance as a soft smile formed on her ruby lips.
"I'm sorry about that, you just remind me of someone I know. My name is Kiwa Shen." She said, standing up and bowing down to him in respect. Just at this time Lin had come out of his office with his laptop to record any important facts he found from this confrontation and paused at her name.
"Shen, that's Chinese isn't it?" Lin asked, perking up instantly at the name connection to his home land. Shen-san was slightly caught off guard, but smiled softly at him and nodded.
"Yes, my father was from China."
"I see, then your mother?"
"Is Japanese." She explained, now completely comfortable in our office where as just moments before she was nervous and completely closed off.
"If we're done with formalities may we please get on to the reason why you're here?" Naru interjected before anything else could be said along this topic that wasn't work related. It was always one of his pet peeves when the people who came into the office for help would talk about other things, mainly with me as I'm the most social out of the three of us, unless Yasu's in the mix; then it's quite often him then I. Shen-san blushed softly at her off topic conversation and bowed her head a bit in respect.
"Of course, I apologize for the side note. You see, I have a summer home along the coast by Niigata, and there have been some, incidents, that have happened around a cave there. It's technically not officially on our property, but it is owned by us. You see, people have gone missing of the camp grounds around there and then are found at this cave dead." She explained, causing my gut to clench a bit at the last part.
"Have you ever thought that it may just be drunken teenagers Ma'am?" He asked, making me agree that it sounded more of a job for the authorities to enforce curfews instead of something caused by the supernatural.
"That's what I always thought it was, but then things started happening at the house. Things will move, and at times you'll knocking on the door of the room you're in when no one else is in. The strangest one though is that you can hear crying at night coming from outside. Right by where the cave is actually." She said, peaking my interest a bit. In my mind it seemed to be that of a minor poltergeist, and it would most likely be a day or two to just cleanse the place and to have Masako talk the spirit into moving on. Naru shot me a look, and I shrugged, not seeing the harm in at least visiting to make sure that it was indeed something going on there. He sighed and then looked at Shen-san with his usual calm expression.
"I see, we will be there tomorrow morning at ten. Please leave your information with my assistant, Mai, she will inform you of what we will need during our stay." He said, getting up and leaving the open area in favor of his little lair. Lin quickly followed Naru's lead and went into his office leaving Shen-san and I alone in silence before she could even say anything else.
"My oh my, and he couldn't even stay for a 'Thank you very much'." She said, pouting slightly that made me laugh a bit at her attitude.
"Yeah, that's him for you, I'm Mai Taniyama, it's nice to meet you Shen-san." I said, smiling happily at her.
"Kiwa, call me anything else and I swear." She said, giving me a small grin that made me laugh a bit at her carefree personality. However, something told me that she would do something if I didn't call her that which made me sweatdrop a bit.
"Alright then, um, we'll need three rooms for our stay. One for base and two for sleeping." I explained as she wrote everything down in a little pink planer that she pulled out from her purse. Once she had written down what she needed she tore out a piece of it and handed it to me along with a key. I looked down and saw that it was all of her contact information, but I raised my brow at why she would give me the key if she was going to be there the whole time.
"Very well, I won't be in town when this is going on, so I'll leave you with the key. My niece and her boyfriend however will be arriving later that evening." She explained, shrugging it off as if it were nothing and all I could do was just nod in response to her. "Thank you again." And just like that she walked out of the office leaving me to my fate of having to go through the process of calling everyone up and getting Naru a cup of tea after each call. Sighing softly to myself I went over to my desk and picked up the phone.
"Mai, once you're done with the information call everyone and tell them of the case. Then go home and pack." Naru said, startling me just before I pressed the first digit in Monk's cell number. I whipped around to see him at the corner of my desk with his little black book of death in his hand. Sometimes I really wanted to hit him for sneaking up on me, but after a moment of contemplation I realized that it would be in my best interest to not do so, so instead I smiled and nodded at him.
"Yes sir." I saluted, already knowing the drill that we went through for each case we went through. He nodded at me and then headed back to his cave. When he was in the doorway however, he paused and looked back at me with a small smirk on his lips.
"And Mai."
"Yes?" I asked, praying that it wouldn't already be another request for tea, even though it most likely was in vain. Surprisingly enough it wasn't, but his response almost made me wish it was.
"Don't be late."
Naru: Why did it take you so long to write this?
Me: I was experimenting with different styles and trying to evolve my writing…. It didn't go so well so I had to redo it once or twice in some places… -_-'
Gene: Well at least it shows you care.
Mai: Please Review everyone!