Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Ghost Hunt. I am just borrowing them for a little while and will be sure to return them as good as new, once I am done with them.
This chapter has been beta read by DragonSlayer2187, thank you sweetie
As you may have noticed that the amount that is in each chapter is going up, we're trying to strike a balance between two much and not enough.
Sorry for taking so long in getting the next chapter up, but for the last month it's been one thing after another to bog me down and almost to lost my love of writing. The only thing that kept me going is a new fic, which I will be posting either next week or the week after.
We are to move house, which I am looking for a new place to live, we said goodbye to our dog Tabby, she was just gone 13. I've had a cold and a slight chest infection again, thankfully nothing like over Christmas. And other bits and bobs that kept cropping up.
Yume no Naka ni Seishin
Chapter Fifteen
Case One – Evil Spirit's All Over
Part Nine
Harry waited patiently in front of the gate that led to Mai's apartment complex, pushing the button a second time to let her know that someone was waiting for her. Finally Mai's voice came over the speaker a few seconds after the second buzz, "Harry is that you?" she sounded out of breath.
Smiling he pushed in the button that would allow him to answer her and leaned over so his mouth was only a few inches away from the intercom, "Yeah it's me Mai. Are you ready to go and why are you so out of breath?"
He let go of the button, only to hear Mai's out of breath reply, "Yeah, I'll be done in a minute. I will tell you the reason when I see you."
"Okay, see you in a few." Harry answered, before leaning against the stonewall and waited for his friend.
Like Mai had promised she came running down the stairs and came to a stop beside him, pulling on a tan jacket as she did so. Harry smiled at her as she got the gate and opened it. The first greeting Harry got was Mai explaining why she was out of breath, "My alarm didn't go off, and so I was hurrying to get ready," closing the gate behind her, that automatically locked, before they both started walking in the direction of the school.
"Oh," Harry gave a smirk, "Are you saying I actually woke you up when I called to tell you I had some errands to run this morning and would come and get you?" e thought she had sounded pretty groggy when he had called.
A small blush appeared on Mai's face, Harry not even having to feel her emotions to tell that she was embarrassed, as she nodded her head. "I'm glad you called. not only did you wake me up, but I was planning on coming and getting you this morning."
"Good thing I called then, because I would have bee out o the house." Harry answered her as they slowly made their way down the sidewalk.
Mai's blush faded and she asked, "Did you get what you needed done?"
"Yep," he replied thinking about how his house was now clean and since he had stopped by the Magic School, he now had a week's worth of magic assignments. Harry was hoping none of them would be hard, but if they were he always had the weekends or after school to get in touch with the professors.
He was brought out of his musing when Mai asked him, "How does Hedwig like this place so far?"
Surprised by her questions and the curiosity she had towards his owl Familiar, Harry shrugged his shoulder, "She's fine, and I think she would like it better if I had more things for her to do," poor Hedwig, Harry thought. She loved to get out and deliver letters, but now with him living in Japan, she didn't get the usual letter to deliver and he could tell she was getting restless.
Mai surprised Harry out of his mind once again by doing a complete subject change, "What do you think will happen today?"
He couldn't help but stare at her at the abrupt change in subject. He could feel her emotions were going all over the place and it worried him, he realized that she was actually waiting for his answer this time he shook his head back and forth, "I don't know, we'll just have to wait and see."
Her face scrunched up in dissatisfaction with his answer, but she nodded her head once and turned the corner that lead them to the school. The Cherry Blossoms were still in bloom and lined both sides of the sidewalk creating a picturesque scene. Mai got a little ahead of Harry and began twirling around with her arms out murmuring, "This is so nice and peaceful, don't you think?"
Chuckling at her actions and shaking his head softly in fondness he answered her, "Yeah it is." Harry continued to watch her, but became even more concerned when her emotions showed anything but contentment. They were still all over the place, but the most prominent was worry and fear. Not one to beat around the bush Harry schooled his face and outright asked, "Mai," he called out grabbing her attention, "what's wrong?"
Stopping her twirl, she gazed up into the multiple branches laden down with Cherry blossoms, "Why do you ask?" She tried to make her voice sound innocent and carefree, but failed.
"You're jumping from one subject to the next rather quickly. That usually means something's bothering you and you're trying to avoid it." Harry pointed out, watching her closely for anything that could tell him besides her emotions.
Giving a sigh of resignation at being found out, Mai turned her gaze to Harry, "My mind is all jumbled up from what has been going on at the old school house. Things keep happening, but everybody is all on a different page. Hara-san, Naru, and you all say there are no spirits. Takigawa-san, Matsuzaki-san, Kuroda, and John all say something is there, but all have different opinions on what it is." Her voice grew quiet as she looked down at her hands, which she was wringing together, "It's making it hard to know who's right and who's wrong."
Seeing her in such distress hurt Harry and wanting to make that stress go away he did the only thing he could think of. He walked up to her and wrapped his arms around her shoulders in a hug. Mai automatically hugged him back and laid her head on his right shoulder. "Don't worry," Harry said trying to reassure her, "Things will work themselves out." He gave her another squeeze before pulling back and looking into her big cinnamon colored eyes, "All right."
Mai gave him a reassuring smile and nod. Harry returned her smile and they began walking in a comfortable silence. He could feel her emotions had settled down somewhat with his reassurance and he was glad for that. Glancing up he then noticed they were almost to the school.
Harry and Mai turned the corner of the chain length fence and grey concrete wall that surrounded the old school house and found parked on the drive was Shibuya-san's black van. They could just make out that the back doors were wide open. The two glanced at each other in worry and curiosity, wondering what was going on, they walked around the right side of the van. Inside, they found Shibuya-san fast asleep in the back, with his coat thrown over the top part of his body.
Harry narrowed his eyes a little in irritation at the sleeping figure of his boss. He had told Harry that he was leaving and then obviously ended up staying the night anyways. If there was one thing Harry couldn't stand, it was being lied to. Especially since something dangerous had happened just before they had left. That was the last time he would leave the teenager's side, unless he left the same time as he did.
Walking a little away from the back of the van he watched in annoyance as Mai went over to their boss and called his name, "Naru. Hey, Naru!"
Shibuya-san gave a groan and slowly opened his eyes blinking a couple of times to get the sleep out of them. He ran a hand through his hair as he began to focus on Harry and Mai, "Hello Mai, Harry, what are you guys doing here this early?"
"It's almost noon," Mai answered in disbelief, with a small blush beginning to appear on her face.
Giving Mai a confused look he shrugged his shoulders and started to sit up, making his coat slide off his body and pool in his lap. Mai seeing this took a step back, putting her next to Harry, giving Shibuya-san enough room to move.
Harry could no longer hold back his anger and snapped out, "Have you been here all night?"
This got Shibuya-san's attention, and he glanced over and up to Harry with confusion in his deep blue eyes. They immediately went calm when he saw Harry's slight frown and remembered what the other teen was like when people were alone, "No, I did go to my office for a while."
Harry snorted and crossed his arms in frustration at the answer, asking, "What happened to not staying here?"
Shibuya-san seemed like he was about to give him an answer, but was interrupted by the arrival of Takigawa-san, Matsuzaki-san, and John. Harry gave another snort at the interruption, but let it go for now and turned his attention to the three new comers.
"Hey, what's up with everything being packed away?" Takigawa-san questioned, gesturing to the back of the van that was almost full of equipment.
Eyes widening in surprise, Harry glanced back to the van, and sure enough most of the equipment was packed away. He had been so angry with his boss he had completely missed it. Feeling Mai's surprise as well let him know he wasn't the only one.
"Yeah, it looks to me like you're trying to leave early," Matsuzaki-san stated, giving Shibuya-san an accusing look.
Harry's attention was taken away from the van to the conversation that was going on between everybody. It seemed that two out of the three didn't seem too happy about this little development.
"I am," was Shibuya-san's short reply as he took up his coat and started putting it back on.
Mai's surprise and disappointment hit Harry like a wave from the ocean and it took all his power and strength not to take a step back from her. Wanting to ease her fear, he put a hand on her shoulder, which seemed to calm her down somewhat, then leaned over whispering into her ear, "Its okay Mai, I'm sure he will explain. Plus you still have a debt to pay, so I'm sure this isn't the last time we'll see him." Pulling away he saw her give him a grateful smile and nod, which he returned, before focusing back on the conversation in front of them.
Matsuzaki-san snorted and pinned him with a smug smirk, "What you mean is that you are running away, because you can't figure out what is going on here or how to take care of it."
Stopping in the middle of putting an arm through the last sleeve of his coat, Shibuya-san gave the Priestess a death glare that made her lose the smirk and shrink back a little. John saved the day by coming between them, "This isn't true," he directed towards the Priestess, but then seemed to hesitate and looked to Shibuya-san asking, "Is it?"
Focusing on John, he finished pulling on his jacket, and answered, "No, as I have determined what is going on here and so have started packing up in order to leave as soon as I give my findings to the Principle."
Takigawa-san's mouth was hanging open in shock and he stuttered out in amazement and disbelief, "You've exorcised all the spirits on your own?"
Harry couldn't help the snort of laughter that left him, but covered it up as a cough when both males shot him a glare.
Making sure Harry was done with his antics; Shibuya-san turned his attention back onto the Monk, "No I didn't. There is no need, since there are no spirits here." He went to the back of the van and pulled out his laptop, pushing the button to start it. As it booted up he went on with his explanation, "Last night I complied the results of all the measurements that have been taken since I got here." A graph appeared on the screen as soon as the computer had finished loading up. Taking a step back, he motioned for everybody to come up and take a look, "This is a graph of my survey levels."
Everybody took the invitation to come and look. Harry ended up standing on Takigawa-san's right, John was on his left, and both Mai and Matsuzaki-san stood right behind them, waiting for their turn.
"The school house is sinking; in fact it has sunk 0.2 inches last night alone." Shibuya-san continued as Takigawa-san still continued to lean over the laptop and study the graph.
Takigawa-san stood up at that and gave a shouted, "What," not understand what Shibuya-san was trying to say.
Taking the opportunity to look at the graph, Harry leaned over and ended up bumping heads with John, who had also leaned forward. Harry shot John an apologetic look, to find John doing the same thing. They both smiled and nodded their heads, before both went back to studying the graph.
"It's called Subsidence." Shibuya-san said, thinking this would get across what he was trying to say.
Not understanding a thing the graph was trying to show, Harry stood back up and watched Shibuya, hoping it would bring more light to the subject.
Noticing Matsuzaki-san wasn't buying Shibuya-san's theory at all, Harry wasn't surprised when all he could hear from her was doubt as she stated, "So you think this Subsidence is to blame for all the phenomena that has been going on here," she threw a hand out to take in the old school building.
Sighing in frustration and pinching the bride of his nose between his thumb and pointer finger, Shibuya-san explained, "This ground is built on reclaimed swampland. When I looked into the distribution of wells in the area, I found out that there was a large waterway that passed underneath the school." He glanced up at this and saw that he had everybody's attention, "I checked the wells and they were mostly dry around this area."
"Which means what Naru?" Mai asked as she now had enough room to squeeze in between Takigawa-san and John to get a proper look at the graph, her face scrunching up in concentration, making her look cute.
"It means that the ground here was weak to begin with and now that the water is all dried up, a hollowing effect is happening." Mai glanced up from the computer with a confused face, eliciting another sigh of frustration from Shibuya-san, "It means the earth is caving in, which in turn is making the building sink into the ground."
Mai's face lit up into a smile as it all finally registered in her mind what was going on. Harry had to cover his mouth to hide the smile of amusement caused by her.
Wanting to make sure that he had this all figured out as well, Takigawa-san asked, "So the glass breaking, the chair moving, and the ceiling collapsing were all due to the Subsidence?"
"Yes," Shibuya-san bit out and Harry could see and feel his frustration of having to repeat himself, "The floor of the classroom at the Eastern end, where the ceiling collapsed, is three inches lower than the West side."
"So structural failure," Takigawa-san said in a thoughtful voice as he brought his hand up to his chin and stared up at the sky.
"That doesn't explain the creaking noises," Matsuzaki-san threw in with a doubtful tone.
Harry wanted to bang his head against the wall. Just how dumb could she be, honestly? A wave of annoyance and irritation hit his shields from Shibuya-san and Harry did end up having to take a step back, so he wouldn't be overwhelmed. Taking a look at Shibuya-san, Harry had to contain his laughter. He had his jaw locked together and you could see the slight movement, which meant he was grinding his teeth together.
Closing his eyes Shibuya-san said in a dull tone, "The building would be warping as it is put under stress and strain, which in turn causes the creaking noises that we hear." Opening his eyes he pinned everybody with a hard glare, making all of them back up in fear, "The area around the old school building needs to be declared off limits, it could go at any time." He then stalked forwards and slammed his laptop shut, hoping to end the argument, which it did.
"Harry, Mai," he said called out turning to them, "let's get the equipment packed away, a lot of it already has, but there is always more." he then walked away from them and into the building.
Harry and Mai both gave each other weary glances, before following after their boss into the old school building. The irritation was just flowing off of Shibuya-san and Harry was glad Mai and him were a couple of feet back from him.
Shibuya-san had just entered the base room when Mai stopped in the threshold, making Harry stop beside her and give her a questioning look.
Mai was looking around the room with sadness as she gave a small smile and whispered, "Well, this is it," taking a small step into the room and headed over to the table with several missing pieces of equipment.
Harry saw Shibuya-san taking the monitors off the shelf a little past Mai and wanting her to cheer up, Harry patted her on the back on the way by and softly said, "Cheer up Mai, I am sure this isn't the end," before continuing on to his boss.
"What do you want us to gather up first Shibuya-san?" Harry asked as he finally made it to the teen's side, though keeping some distance as the teen's emotions were still pretty strong on the anger side.
Turning his head enough to see both Harry and Mai in his vision Shibuya-san barked out, "Mai," she jumped a little at his tone, but met his eyes, "the second floor has four cameras still up and running, along with accompanying microphones. I want you to dismantle them and bring them to this room as I want to make sure we have everything before it goes to the van."
Mai gave a mock salute as she shouted out, "Yes sir!" then speed walking out the door at Shibuya-san's glare.
Harry couldn't help but let out a chuckle at her antics, but clamed up when Shibuya-san pinned him with a cold glare. "Harry, I first have a request for you."
"What's that," he asked?
Truthfully he was worried that it was going to be something along the lines of shut up, but was relieved when Shibuya-san said instead, "Will you please call me Kazuya instead of Shibuya-san all the time. It is beginning to get annoying."
"No problem, Kazuya," Harry answered with a smile. The only reason he hadn't done it yet was because he didn't want to seem to forward, plus it was considered rude if not given permission by the person.
Nodding his head Kazuya went on, "Good, now on this floor there are two cameras and microphones, start bring them here."
Harry simply nodded his head and left, deciding Kazuya wouldn't find him saluting like Mai had very funny. An hour later the base room was filled with all the equipment they had been tasked to gather.
Mai was exhausted from running up and down the stairs so many times, as she could only carry one camera and microphone at a time, and now sat in one of the classroom chairs to regain her breath.
Kazuya was packing some of the smaller equipment up in some boxes and Harry was starting to take apart the shelf the monitors had sat on, when Kuroda-san walked in.
The first words out of her mouth when she saw them packing up were, "You can't be leaving! What about the spirit that attacked me?"
Kazuya still somewhat worked up from this morning's little argument, whipped around and spat out, "If that did happen, which I am very inclined to think you just made it up, it could be the work of a floating specter that is following you around."
Kuroda-san puffed up like a blow fish and exclaimed, "Something did attack me, it really did, and it is not the work of a floating specter that is following me," she crossed her arms with a huff, turning her face up and away from him.
Harry rolled his eyes at her and went back to what he was doing. Kazuya obviously had enough of her as well, for he ignored the little fit and went back to putting things away in boxes and ticking them off his inventory list.
The only one who didn't get back to work was Mai, as she watched Kazuya's back for a moment; she finally spoke up in a small and timid voice, "Are you really leaving Naru?"
Without turning around Kazuya answered her, "Yes, the job is done," Harry thought he heard a little disappointment in his voice, but could defiantly feel it in his emotions.
Mai on the other hand didn't hide her disappointment as she whispered, "Yeah, I guess it is," she then got up off the chair and began to unplug and wind the cords together.
Kuroda-san, not happy to be ignored by everybody, stomped her foot and declared, "There is a spirit here, there truly is."
That was the breaking point for Kazuya, he slammed a notebook down into the box, spun around and glared at the stubborn girl, "No there isn't," he stated with venom in his voice. "The outcomes of my investigations were completely blank."
"Maybe you just can't tell where it is, because it's avoiding all of your little tests," Kuroda-san tried to reason out.
"Then you can drive it out yourself," Kazuya spat out, "especially if you have spiritual abilities, like you keep saying you do," his tone full of disbelief and spite.
Kuroda-san's mouth snapped shut and a death glare match took place between her and Kazuya. Poor Harry could feel the anger building and banging against his weak shields. If somebody didn't do something soon he was afraid his shields would break and he would be completely overwhelmed by the mix of frustration and anger that these two felt towards each other.
So lost in trying to keep his shields up he didn't notice Takigawa-san, Matsuzaki-san, and John walk into the room. All three giving puzzled looks at Kuroda-san and Kazuya, turning to Harry, who they noticed looked to be in pain, before settling on Mai, who was on the verge of a panic attack, which then turned to determination as she watched Kuroda-san and Kazuya.
Harry's savior ended up being Mai, who broke into the argument with her soft and gentle voice, "Guess this dream is over." Kazuya broke his stare with Kuroda-san, to give Mai a confusing look, wanting her to elaborate, "Well, here we are in an old building that is so creepy that you think it should be haunted. Not to mention all the ghost stories about it." She now had Kuroda-san's attention as she smiled and nodded her head, but let Mai continue. "There is a certain sort of romance to it all, isn't there?" She finished looking up at Harry, who had made his way over to stand beside her, trying to get as far away as possible from Kazuya and Kuroda-san's strong emotions.
It was as he was moving he noticed the others in the room all giving Mai a soft look. This made him smile as he answered her, "In a way I suppose you are right, this has been interesting," then he glanced up at everybody. "For me, it's not the romance, but more of the mystery that needs to be solved."
Mai nodded her head in agreement as she also looked at everybody in the room, "Now I wouldn't have wanted somebody to really die or anything, but now that I think about it, the ghost stories really did give this place an air of mystery and fun."
"Maybe so," Harry agreed.
Just then some sharp cracking sounds came from the ceiling above them and echoed all around the classroom. Followed by the tinkling of glass as it is about to break. Harry frantically glanced over at the glass windows, on the hallway side of the classroom, and noticed the spider web cracks appearing and spreading out. Kuroda-san was standing right next to them and without thinking he ran over to her.
Grabbing her around the shoulders and forcing her body to the ground just as the glass shattered. Harry was able to protect most of her with his body as the glass shards showered down on his back and around him, but he noticed that a piece of glass had been able to hit her arm, as it was bleeding pretty heavily and small dots of blood where appearing on the floor beneath it.
A look of surprise was on Kuroda-san's face as she peered up at him her position against his chest, but when his emerald eyes met her dark brown ones, the shock fell away and a small smile of gratitude took over.
She didn't get a chance to thank him, because right after that the knocking and banging sounds from before began to echo through the room. Followed by the classroom doors slamming open and close, without any human help.
"What's going on?" Matsuzaki-san shouted in bewilderment and terror over the noise.
"This is more than ground Subsidence this time," Takigawa-san pointed out to them all.
"Yes, knocking sounds are another of Tisane's criteria," John yelled out as he looked at the ceiling.
Harry didn't care about that; they needed to get out of there. Takigawa-san must have had the same idea as Harry, for he shouted, "We need to get out of here now!"
Frantically looking for Mai, Harry found her next to Kazuya, who seemed to have protected her from the glass as well. He had to do a double take when he saw his boss's face, for this was the first time he had seen a total look of shock on the teens face. He wasn't eve concentrating on one thing, just staring into space as he tried to figure things out.
"Naru," Mai called out over the noise, breaking him out of it as he glanced down at her scared face.
Seeing her scared and unsure, when most of the time she was so feisty and defiant did a good job of bringing him back to the now and then, his face hardened into one of determination as he shouted, "Everybody out!"
"But the door," Mai stuttered out as she went closer to Kazuya looking for comfort and safety.
"I'll take care of that," Takigawa-san said raising up a chair and flinging it at the doors as hard as he could.
When the chair hit the doors, they fell down, leaving an opening for everybody to run through. Harry helped Kuroda-san off the floor and she quickly took off into the hallway. Harry waited for Mai as Kazuya pushed her in front of him saying, "Go Mai!"
She finally found her legs and breezed past Harry, who didn't move until Kazuya was beside him and they all ran out of the building. Everybody else was either standing or crouched down, staring up at the building when they emerged.
Kuroda-san had sunk to her knees and just staring off into space, towards the old building. Wanting to make sure that she was okay, Harry walked over to her and kneeled down beside her.
"Harry," Kuroda-san said as she came out of it and looked at him, "Thank you," a small smile graced her face as she said it.
"Don't worry about it," he said, smiling back at her.
Digging into his pocket he brought out a clean hanky and pressed it against the cut that was bleeding sluggishly on his cheek. Seeing her hand still bleeding he dug into his other pocket with his free hand and brought out another clean hanky. Handing it over to Kuroda-san, who have him a perplexed look, until he gestured to her left hand.
"Oh," she took the offered hanky and pressed it down on top of her hand. Looking back up at him she asked, "Does it hurt at all," gesturing to his cheek with her head.
Shaking his head, making sure to keep pressure on it, he said, "No, I've had a lot worse than this, trust me."
She gave him a curious look, but didn't get to ask her questions as Matsuzaki-san came over at that point and kneeled next to them. Taking Kuroda-san's hand and looking it over she asked, "You all right?"
Seeing that he wasn't needed anymore, Harry stood up and went over to where Mai was standing next to Kazuya, who were both looking at Takigawa-san, who was facing them looking angry.
Once Harry was close enough he heard Takigawa-san yell, "What was that? You can't tell me that was caused by the ground sinking. That was a full on Poltergeist."
Harry jumped a little as Matsuzaki-san's voice rang out behind him, "Exactly, something was definitely knocking on the walls, that wasn't even close to regular building noises." She finished tying Harry's hanky around Kuroda-san's hand and stood up, her hands on her hips as she faced them.
Even John got in on the blame game, which surprised Harry greatly, "That makes four of Tisane's nine criteria," looking at Kazuya in what Harry could only make out as guilt while he said it.
Kazuya didn't say anything; he just continued to stare up at the building, ignoring all of them. As Harry finally got close enough he could feel the confusion and the frustration that the teen was going through. His fists were clenched at his side and Harry could almost see the wheels turning in his head as he tried to figure out where he had gone wrong.
Harry wanted to say something, anything, but at that moment he thought it would be best to keep his idea to himself, though he was pretty sure he was right. It had come to him when he grabbed Kuroda-san, but he would wait for the right time to tell his boss.
"Just goes to show you that you can't rely on technology in this field," Matsuzaki-san sounded almost disappointed as she stood there looking at Kazuya. "For a moment I was actually close to believing what you were saying."
Takigawa-san didn't have any problems rubbing it in, which once again surprised Harry as he would have figured it would have been Matsuzaki-san doing that, "Stick around Naru," he said as he walked away, "it's time for a little grown-up action."
"I can't even be near you at this moment in time," Matsuzaki-san commented as she followed the Monk.
"What is with them?" Mai huffed out loud to no one, "I haven't seen them do anything and now they start to get along." She glanced down at the ground, but shot her gaze back to Kazuya's hand which was dripping blood onto the ground, "Hey Naru, you're bleeding," Mai panicked, reaching out to grab his hand.
"It's a small scratch, attend to Kuroda," Kazuya's voice was cold and stopped Mai's hand mid air.
"But Naru…" Mai tried to protest only to be cut off.
"I would appreciate it if you would leave me alone right now." Kazuya's tone was harsh and full of irritation, "I'm so mad at myself I could throw up." With that he walked away from them and towards the opening in the fence.
Harry watched as Mai's face fell in defeat as she watched him walk away, before she turned and headed over to Kuroda-san, who was still kneeling on the ground holding her hand. John for his part shrugged his shoulders and gave Harry a sad smile, before going after the Monk and Priestess.
Making sure everybody was going to be fine, Harry then ran to catch up with Kazuya. As he came up beside the older teen he was given a death glare and saw Kazuya about to open his mouth to tell him to leave, but Harry beat him to it, "First, before you bit my head off, here." He reached into his pocket and pulled out the last clean hanky he had and handed it over to the teen. "It's a good thing I carry a load of these."
Kazyua jerked it out of his hand and wrapped it around the cut on his own. Harry saw it was more than the scratch he had assured Mai it was. Seeing that done Kazuya brought his cold gaze back onto Harry and hissed; "Now you can go."
"Nope I can't, there was a second reason," Harry stated which earned him another glare. He had to give Kazuya credit for his glares, but it didn't hold a candle to Snape's. With that in mind he plowed on, "Remember that I said there was something else going on here." Kazuya gave him a withering look that clearly said get on with it. Smiling a sly smile Harry simply said one word, or rather two letters, "PK."
At that one thing Kazuya's whole face took on a new look. The frustration was lost and replaced by quiet contemplation. "Harry, take over for a while. I may not be back today," he handed over the keys for the van to Harry.
Harry took the keys and nodded his head in acceptance. He then watched as Kazuya took off at a faster pace towards the exit, taking a right and disappearing from sight.
With that Harry swung around and walked back to the van, where he saw Mai, John, and Kuroda-san waiting for him. He figured the Priestess and Monk were either in the building or had gone off to lunch.
Thinking it would be better to eat lunch now and help settle the nerves a little. Harry asked the three standing by the van, "Would you guys like to go to lunch with me?"
They all answered in the positive, so Harry locked the van up, and led them all to a small café down the street. He knew they served both regular meals and vegetarian.
They sat at one of the tables in the outdoor area and were waited on immediately. While they were sitting there waiting for their food to be brought John asked him, "What did you talk to Kazuya about?"
Harry smiled at the man as he replied, "I finally figured out what was bugging me about the case. It was something we were all overlooking."
"Oh," Mai curiously leaned forward as she looked at her friend, "What was that? I know it has been bugging you since this case started."
Harry chuckled at her and shook his head in the negative; he didn't think Kazuya would want them to know just yet, "Yeah, but I think I'll keep it between myself and Kazuya, for now." At the looks of disappointment he explained, "I just have a feeling that I need to remain silent about this for a little while longer."
John nodded his head, "If you think it's for the best, but I can't help but be a little curious about what you think. I know you said that you don't believe there are spirits there, but do you still believe that after what happened today?"
The green eyed wizard smiled a knowing smile, "I know there isn't a spirit, but there are a number of other things which does include Subsidence. I still believe Kazuya was right in that theory as it can cause most of what we have seen."
"There is a spirit there, it attacked me," Kuroda-san protested, though right now she was saying it quietly so as not to attract the attention of people around them.
"Kuroda-san it might be that you are sensing something, but it is defiantly not a spirit." Harry told her knowing that some people were more sensitive to all kind of energy, rather it be spiritual, magical, or electrical.
Kuroda-san shook her head and stated firmly, once again bolstering her resolve, "I know there is a spirit. I'm not lying."
Harry rolled his eyes, becoming exasperated with the girl now, "I know what spirits feel like and there is nothing like that in that building."
Mai could tell her friend was getting frustrated so she stepped in, "Like you could at your old school?"
Nodding, though that wasn't the true reason, it was good enough to pass for now, "Yeah."
There food arrived just then and everybody dug in not realizing how hungry they were. A comfortable silence descended on the group as they all ate and it was only interrupted once in a while with comments of how good it was or if somebody could pass something. They all enjoyed their lunch and didn't talk about the case again until they reached the old school building.
Thank you for reading this re-write, I do hope you are all enjoying it so far. I would love to know, so drop me a review!