I don't own Harry Potter or Ghost Hunt, I'm just playing around while I can.
Thanks go to the awesome Dragonslayer2187, who does a brilliant job at editing this monster of a fic. Any remaning mistakes are my own.
Sorry it took so long to get this up. Been a little busy with things.
Yume no Naka ni Seishin
Case File Two
Where are you?
Chapter Twenty-Two
Two hours was a long time for Harry and Mai as they sat in the back seats watching the scenery, they had given up on doing any homework after an hour. They grinned at each other as Lin started to slow down and turn onto the driveway of a nice and very large, family home. Lin parked the van and got out, followed by Kazuya. Mai and Harry climbed out of the back door of the van and watched the two approach Sasaki-san, who was waiting outside of the house for them.
As Mai and Harry hung back by the van, Harry began to examine the house and its surroundings. It definitely was a nice, fancy, modern two storey building. Scattered around the property were trees and a nice big privacy fence, as there were other houses, though they were far enough away to make sure the occupants had their privacy. As Harry finished with his assessment he saw Kazuya gesturing for him and Mai to join them and the client. Harry tugged on Mai's sleeve, to get her attention, and they both walked up to Lin, Kazuya, and Sasaki-san, who started talking once they got there.
"Welcome to my home," Sasaki-san said with a bow to them.
"Sasaki-san," Kazuya greeted back, "Where are we going to be setting up?"
"If you follow me I will be more than happy to show you," he said as he turned around and began a steady pace to the front door of the house.
As they entered the front door they removed their shoes and put them on the shoe rack that sat to the left of the entrance. When they were done Sasaki-san led them through the living room and into a hallway that had a set of stairs at the end of it and a few doors on each side.
Passing one of the doors situated on the right Sasaki-san paused pointing it out, "This is the bathroom on this floor and next door is where you can set up. I use it as my library and study, so I hope it will work for what you need it for," he finished opening the door and walking in, making sure to hold the door for the rest of them.
Kazuya looked around the room and nodded, "It will do," turning to the others he ordered, "Start bringing in the equipment."
"Okay," Harry and Mai chimed, while Lin only nodded his head and left the room with the other two following.
Reaching the door they all once again stopped to put on their shoes, before heading to the back of the black SPR van. Harry didn't know if he would ever get used to taking his shoes on and off every time he entered someone's home. It got tiring very quickly, especially when they were moving equipment back and forth.
Unlocking the doors of the van and opening them, Lin stopped Mai from grabbing the first box, by seizing her wrist. When she gave him a questioning look he explained, "I want all the equipment put in the entryway first and once everything is there then we take it to the base," glancing up at Harry at the end.
Harry and Mai nodded and only then did Lin let go of Mai's wrist and take one of the heavy computer monitors, heading back towards the house. Mai shook her wrist out a little and grabbed the box she had originally been going for and followed Lin. Harry gave a sigh as he took one of the computer's hard drives and also followed. At least now it wouldn't be so bad in taking his shoes on and off. At least he only had to do it once more, instead of multiple times.
Harry passed Lin on his way to the entranceway, but the tall man said nothing as they passed and so he continued on. When he got to the front door he found Mai waiting patiently for him. Setting down his piece of equipment and heading out the door he wasn't surprised to find Mai right next to him.
"Do you really think this place is haunted?" Mai asked Harry softly as they made their way back to the van.
Harry smiled, "Yeah I do."
At his answer Mai gave a hesitant nod and gazed thoughtfully over her shoulder at the large house.
"You might want to turn around and watch where you are going before you run into the side of the van," Harry commented in amusement as Mai whipped her head around and was able to stop in time before she did just that.
Giving a sigh of relief and frustration she walked around the open door, shooting a glare at Harry, who was grinning at her in amusement, and picked up another box. Spinning around she began to march back to the house, but as she got closer her steps slowed to almost a crawl, forcing Harry to almost push her the last few steps to the door. He could see her glancing up at the house every few minutes with a mixed look of fright and curiosity in her face and eyes.
"Mai come on, if you don't hurry up Lin will have the whole van unpacked by himself and he will be even more unfriendly to both of us." Harry had seen the tall Chinese man pass them several times already and each time his glare got darker and colder.
This did seem to hurry Mai up though as she began her once hurried pace and dropped her box off and went back to the van, this time not saying anything to Harry. Harry did the same and before long the entryway was full and the van was empty. Now came the fun part of moving everything from the entryway to their base room.
As all three of them were bring their first load to the base together, Lin, who was in front, almost ran into Sasaki-san as he was coming out. "So sorry," Sasaki-san apologized moving out of the way so they could move past him, "I was just leaving to get my wife so Kazuya-san can interview her. After that she will show you to your rooms and since we have so many you each get your own room." He gave them a big smile at this, which Mai and Harry returned, but Lin again nodded his head and walked into the base.
Sasaki-san seeing this as a dismissal said goodbye to Mai and Harry and hurried off down the hall, that they had just come from and made a left at the end of it. Harry and Mai glanced at each other and shrugged their shoulders as they walked into base to find Kazuya and Lin figuring out where to put stuff.
Setting down their things next to Lin's they waited for their instructions. They didn't have to wait too long as Kazuya saw them standing there and started to bark out instructions, "Mai, start putting up the shelves here," pointing to a large cherry colored executive desk in the middle of the room. "Harry I want you helping Lin and I bring in the rest of the equipment from the entryway."
"Yes sir," Harry answered giving a mock salute before bolting out of the base and down the hallway, wanting to avoid any discipline he might receive for his cheek.
Moving the equipment didn't take long with the three of them and soon everything was in the base, including their suitcases. Harry was rifling through a box with all the cords they would need to connect everything together for recording and viewing purposes. Mai had finished setting up the shelves only a few seconds ago and Harry had to stifle a laugh as she jumped when she found Lin standing next to her with a monitor already in his hands and wanting to put it on the shelf she had finished.
Frowning Harry began to wonder where Mrs. Sasaki-san was. It couldn't of taken Mr. Sasaki-san that long to find her and tell her to come talk to them. They also needed to figure out where to set up cameras and microphones within the house and the only way they could figure that out is to talk to the person who was in the house the most, which would be Mrs. Sasaki-san.
Handing the cords in his hands to Lin, who was standing in front of the shelves with his hand out, he glanced at the door as it opened revealing a woman in her early thirties with dark brown hair pulled into a high ponytail. He saw out of the corner of his eye both Mai and Kazuya had also stopped their arguing to look at the door. Of course the only one not looking was Lin, who was putting the cords in the right spots.
"Hello, my husband asked me to come and show you the bedrooms," she smiled giving a bow in greeting.
Harry could also feel the slight tendrils of fear and worry that surrounded her form, much like her husband. Not wanting to have it affect him, he immediately started building his mental walls to block her out.
"Sasaki-san," Mai greeted as she went over, "I'm Taniyama Mai, please to meet you," giving a bow, "This is my boss Shibuya Kazuya, and colleagues, Lin Koujo and Potter Harry," each bowing as she gestured at them.
"Oh, please call me Erika, and thank you for coming. Shall I take you to your rooms now?" she asked as she looked around the slightly changed room.
"Before we do that, I would like to talk about the happenings in your home," Kazuya said pinning her with one of his calculating stares.
Erika gave a nervous nod of her head and walked more into the room, closing the door behind her.
"Lin, Harry," Kazuya ordered.
Both left what they were doing, Harry going for his notebook and pen, taking a seat next to Kazuya on the sofa. Lin snatched his laptop from a nearby desk and settled in the folding chair at the small coffee table, setting the laptop on top of the coffee table.
"Please sit down Erika," Harry smiled trying to be reassuringly.
Nodding she sat down in the only arm chair in the room, leaving Mai to sit on the folding chair opposite Lin at the small coffee table. Harry gave a soft snort at the wariness on Mai's face as she sat down. Her eyes kept darting to Lin as if he was a dangerous dog and any minute he was going to jump and bite her.
Sitting so close to Kazuya, Harry could also feel his amusement, but the teen chose to ignore it as he addressed the woman before them, "Start from the beginning, when did you first start to notice that something wasn't right?"
Erika cleared her throat and clasped her hands in her lap, "Hideki has always been a playful child. He was always outside playing with the other children around the neighborhood. In fact the only time I could keep him inside was if the weather was bad outside and even then he would have to invite one of his friends over to play. That all changed after we moved here three months ago." Pausing she took another breath and unclasped her hands to fidget with the material of her pants, "Around a week after moving here he started wanting to stay inside. It was strange, as with being in a new neighborhood I thought he would want to go make new friends, but I figured he was missing his old friends and so didn't push it. A few days after that I was walking by his playroom and I could hear him talking. I stopped and poked my head into the room, thinking he had invited one of the neighborhood kids in without telling me, but when I looked into the room there was nobody there. In fact the minute I became visible he stopped talking and looked at me asking me if I needed something. I shook my head no and left, but I only made it a few steps down the hall when I heard him start talking again. I told Ryota that night after dinner and Hideki had been tucked into bed." Erika stopped playing with the material of her pants and re-clasped her hands, now gazing up and meeting Kazuya's eyes, "Ryota assured me that he probably had an imaginary friend, which isn't uncommon for a boy his age to have, and so the next day, after Ryota went to work, I asked Hideki who he was talking to yesterday. I thought he would give me some made up name and some fantastical story, but all he said was he was friends with a little boy and that they like to play together."
"When did you first realise that it wasn't an imaginary friend?" Kazuya asked her.
Harry studied Erika for a moment as her fear rose another notch and he had to shut everybody out completely, he didn't want be overwhelmed.
"It was about two weeks after the first incident , he stopped going out to play completely and spent all his awake time in his playroom. I was taking his lunch to him and as I walked into the room I found him holding a stuffed rabbit. He was holding the back end and the ears on the rabbit were straight out, parallel to the floor, and every once in awhile I could see the fabric stretched as if something was pulling on it. I was only standing there for a few minutes, holding the tray with lunch on it, when Hideki hit the floor hard and the rabbit was now limp in his hand. I brushed it off as him playing around with me, but something in the back of my mind was screaming at me that I was wrong and it was something I should be concerned about. I couldn't, no I didn't want to think about it," she corrected herself, "even then I was too scared of the conclusion I would come to." a small visible shuddered running through her body.
"Did you tell your husband what you saw ?" Kazuya's voice held curiosity at this new story.
Erika shook her head in the negative, "No I didn't, I thought I was going crazy, kept telling myself it was in my head. It was that night that the crying started during the night. When it woke me up I thought Hideki had woken up from either a nightmare or had fallen out of his bed. I immediately jumped out of bed and practically ran down the hall to his room. When I got there and opened his bedroom door I found him fast asleep, but the crying had gotten louder as I had gotten closer to his room and even now with the door open it sounded like it was coming from his room. It was so loud, but Hideki didn't even move, as if he couldn't hear it at all. Royta called the next night, just before dinner and I told him what had happened. I don't think he believed me over the phone, but when he came back a few days later and heard it for himself and saw the same thing I had been seeing for the past couple of nights, he became a believer." Erika paused and took a deep breath and exhaled it slowly as if she was gathering her courage for what Kazuya was going to ask next.
Seeing the woman need some prompting to continue, so he could get the full timeline of escalating events, Kazuya gave her the push, "What happened next?"
Harry saw the distressed woman's hands clench so hard around each other her fingertips were turning purple and her knuckles were white, "For the next few weeks it was the same, almost every night at the same time, midnight, the crying would start and Hideki continued to talk and play with somebody that wasn't there. It was late in the morning and I was bringing Hideki his snack, when I walked into the playroom to find all of his toys floating about a foot off the floor. It was at that point that I knew something more was going on and I panicked. When I screamed all the toys dropped out of the air and I felt as if something pushed me to the floor and that is how Royta found me crying on the floor. That night is when the running up and down the hallways started to go along with the crying," her voice was shaking and Harry saw a tear fall down her cheek.
Mai immediately got up and found a box of tissues sitting on a bookshelf behind Erika and handed the box to her. She gave a quiet thank you as she took a tissue and dabbed at her eyes. Harry had to close his eyes for a moment as Erika's fear assaulted his shields, causing the beginnings of a headache as he tried to keep his shields from collapsing.
"What about the attack?" Kazuya prompted, wanting to know if anything new had happened after it.
"After the incident with the toys I didn't feel comfortable leaving Hideki in the playroom alone, so it was a couple of days later we were both in there. Hideki was playing and talking happily and I was reading a book. All of a sudden he started yelling, 'Yes she is,' over and over. Then he… he screamed and fell to the floor, clutching his stomach. I ran over to him and there was blo… blood and four deep scratches on his stomach. I had to get him out of there, I was so scared, I… I couldn't stay in the house. It didn't feel safe for us to be in there anymore and to be honest it still doesn't feel safe," she finished, her voice shuddering as she dabbed at her eyes with her tissue and fixed her watery eyes on Kazuya.
"Thank you for sharing that with us, I know it was hard, and that you're scared, but we'll do our best to help," Harry reassured her, a smile on his face as he continued to reinforce his mental shields.
Erika looked at him, "Thank you," she said softly.
"We would like to talk to your son as well," Kazuya told her.
"Oh, yes of course," she nodded as she got up a little flustered, "Do you want to talk to him in his playroom or here?" she asked as she got up to leave and collect her son.
"It would be nice to talk to him in his playroom, but I believe it might be best if you come here with him for now, Mai and Harry will be talking with him," he told her.
"Right, I'll go and get him," Erika replied as she went out the door.
"Why us?" Harry asked Kazuya.
"I think you both would be better in talking with the child then I would," he told them with a little smirk on his face.
Mai gave a snort as she muttered under her breath, "Most likely you would scare him."
Kazuya looked over at her, "Much like I scare you."
Mai jumped and blushed at being caught. Harry laughed and shook his head as he interrupted before the two of them could get into an argument, "Right, we'll take the lead," he then asked Mai, "Mai, can you take the notes?"
"Yeah," Mai grinned, happy to be given something to do besides sit and listen to others horrifying stories.
Kazuya got up and joined Lin at the table. It was a few minutes later that Erika came in with a scared little boy holding onto her hand.
Harry smiled at the little boy as he said softly, "Hello, I'm Harry and this is Mai, is it alright if we ask you a few questions?"
Hideki looked at his mother, who gave him a reassuring nod and smile, "Go on," she told him.
Hideki nodded and they walked over to the sofa and sat down. Erika pulled her son into her lap, giving him the comfort that he needed, "Okay," he said quietly, looking a little nervous.
"Right, Hideki-chan," Harry said with a smile, "Can you tell me about your friend?"
Hideki became a little nervous and looked to his mother once more. He got the gentle smile and nod from his mother and so he glanced back at Harry, "He likes to play with me, but he has been very bad and I'm scared of him."
"I know you are, we know you're very scared because of what he did to you," Harry said with a reassuring smile on his face, "But we want to find out why he did it, and if we can help him."
"He wanted to play," Hideki answered him.
"What does he like to play the most?" Harry asked, hoping they could use it to bring the spirit out.
Hideki waited a moment before he answered, "He liked playing with Koji the most. But now he keeps hiding him," Harry had let down his shields once the mother had left and could now feel sadness coming from the little boy.
Harry looked to the mother as she mouthed to him, 'Teddy Bear.'
"So Koji has been hidden again, and you can't find him?" Harry asked him
"Yes," he nodded his head, "I can't find him. After he hurt me, he took him away from me, saying it wasn't mine," he said as he began to sniff, "I want him back, daddy told me he was special," he said as he turned to his mother and cuddle closer to her. Erika tightened her hold on her son a little more and soothed him as best as she could.
"I'll do my best to find him for you," Harry couldn't help but promise the child, "as well as helping your friend."
Hideki looked from his mother and over to Harry, "Really? You promise?"
Harry nodded his head, "I promise to find Koji and help your friend."
"Okay," he said as he sat up properly.
"Now, we need to know about your friend. Do you know why he hurt you and took Koji?"
Hideki looked sad as he answered, "He was mad, really mad. He said that she wasn't mummy," he looked up at Harry.
Harry could feel Hideki's fear getting stronger, and knew he wouldn't be able to get anything else from him. He was too scared at the moment to truly tell them what was going on. They would have to try and talk with him again when he had calmed down some.
"Okay, thank you for talking to me," Harry smiled at him, "Why don't you go and play for a while, if it is okay with your mother?" glancing at Erika to see what she would say.
Hideki looked at his mother, "Can I?"
Erika smiled at him, "all right, go and play," she affectionately told him, but Harry felt the fear in her spike a little and knew it was because Hideki would be going to the playroom.
Hideki climbed down from his mother's lap and ran out of the room. Erika watched him with worry in her eyes as she then turned around to look at all of them, "It will be all right Erika," Harry tried to reassure her.
"I'm scared that something even worse will happen to him, he is only four and already had something happen to him that should never had happened in the first place," slight panic, fear, and concern showing in her voice.
Kazuya got up at that point and walked over to them, "I will be putting cameras up in a moment."
"Put them where ever it is you need to, my husband warned me that you might need to," she said, "Do you want me to show you the rooms now?" she asked trying to get back some form of control.
"I'll go with you," Mai said as she jumped up and handed over the notebook to Harry, "I'll take our things up to the rooms as well," she added as she went over and grabbed two cases.
"Thank you," Harry grinned at her.
He watched as the two women left the room, between them they had the four cases and took them to the rooms. Harry turned to look at Lin and then over at Kazuya, "So do we have any places that we need to put the cameras other than the playroom and Hideki's room?" he asked walking over to the table.
Instead of answering Harry, Kazuya asked him, "Where do you think they should go?"
"Well, the playroom and bedroom obviously, since most of what has gone on is there. The hallway outside the bedrooms is another, since they have heard a child running around," Harry was starting to feel nervous as he had stated the most obvious, "I think we should put one on the stairs as well, to make sure that there isn't someone playing a prank. Though I don't think so in this instance." He paused for a moment and closed his eyes, letting his shields down, letting his mind wander as he tried to pick up on the feelings of the spirit. He instantly felt Lin and Kazuya since they were in the room with him. Mai and Erika were upstairs and in one of the bedrooms. A little further away from them was Hideki. Downstairs he could feel Ryota-san in what he assumed was the living room. Harry felt a smile take over his face when he found the spirit in the bottom part of the house, which he could only assume was the basement, but the minute the smile formed it was gone as Harry had to take a slight step back to keep from falling over as extreme loneliness assaulted him. This spirit was not happy in the least, but at the same time he couldn't feel any malice or hate coming from the spirit, just loneliness.
"Are you alright ?" Kazuya asked in concerned when he saw Harry almost fall over from absolutely nothing.
"Yeah," Harry replied in a little more subdued tone than he meant to, but as he put his shields back up he began to feel more like himself and so was able to give a small smirk at Kazuya, "Forgot that there wasn't a wall behind me to lean on."
"So have you thought of anywhere else we could put the cameras?" Kazuya asked him, not amused in the least with the lie he was just told, but let it off for now as their were more important things at the moment.
Harry gave a decisive nodded, "In the basement," making sure he didn't sound like he was questioning himself.
Lin looked a little confused, "Why would we put something in the basement, no one has said anything about that room?" he asked.
Harry looked over to the older man as he replied, "Most of the spirits that I have come across in the past normally stay in an area out of the way of the living. When I looked at the map earlier, almost all of the rooms had a comment, except the basement." Not to mention that is where he had felt the spirit, but he couldn't tell them that part, at least not yet.
Kazuya nodded his head and smiled, "Then we shall put one in there as well, since you make a good argument," he told Harry as he turned back to the map before him and marked the basement with an x to mean a camera would be placed there.
"Thank you," Harry replied.
Kazuya then addressed Lin, "Lin, Harry and I will be setting up the cameras and microphones, you'll be directing from here."
Lin glanced over at him, "Alright," he then walked over to the monitors and got out a headset and put it on his head as he sat down in front of the monitors.
Harry and Kazuya picked up a camera, microphone, and one walkie talkie, which they could use to talk to Lin and receive instructions. Leaving the base they walked down the hall to the end of it and took a right and headed down the stairs into the basement. They started to set up the equipment, starting with the stand the camera would go on. Kazuya watched as Harry locked the legs all in place before setting the camera onto the mount.
It was nice to have everything be wireless, that way there was no need for wires to be in the way or stopping them from putting cameras wherever they needed them. Everything that the camera or microphone caught would be sent to the main hard drives upstairs in the base room and recorded to an SD card, though each card would have to be changed every six to eight hours, along with the batteries for the cameras and microphones.
Kazuya pulled out his walkie talkie and pressed the button, "How is that Lin?"
"The location is good, and I can see the whole room," Lin's deep voice came through the walkie with some static, "the feed is coming through nice and strong."
"Good," Kazuya said and then turned toward Harry, "We're going to be using a night camera in here, since it's mainly dark all the time."
Harry nodded his head in understanding and with that they left the basement and set up the cameras and microphones in the other locations marked on the map.
XxXxX
The last place Kazuya and Harry decided to set up in was Hideki's playroom. When they walked in they found Hideki playing on the left side of the room, so Kazuya headed toward the right side of the room and the back corner. Harry followed with the camera shooting Hideki a smile when he saw the boy was watching them with curiosity all over his face.
Harry set down the camera near the stand and began to set up the microphone on the left side of the camera, while Kazuya set up the rest of the camera stand on the right side. It only took them a few minutes to do their task and while Kazuya radioed Lin to ask if the angle was okay Harry walked over to Hideki to talk to him about not touching the equipment.
"Hello again," Harry said giving Hideki a big smile as he knelt down on one knee to be at eye level with the small child.
"Hello sir," Hideki replied shyly, ducking his head so he wouldn't have to met Harry's eyes.
Seeing how shy the boy was made a large grin break out on Harry's face, but he really needed the boy to look at him so he knew how serious he was about not touching the equipment. "Hey can you look at me?"
At Harry's question Hideki brought his head back up and his brown eyes connected with Harry's startling green ones. Seeing he had the boy's full attention now Harry continued, "Can you do me a huge favor." The boy nodded his head up and down, "Can you not touch that equipment over in the corner," Harry softly asked, while pointing to the corner where Kazuya was now adjusting the camera angle, with Lin's voice crackling over the walkie talkie.
"Why?" Was Hideki's childish response.
"It is very fragile and if you touch it might break and it is very expensive to replace," Harry replied, hoping his simple explanation would deter the child's curiosity. "Just pretend like it isn't even there."
"What's it for," Hideki's curiosity obviously not quelled.
Harry gave a small smile, "It will help us see your friend, so we can help him." he knew by answering any child of Hideki's age was the best thing to do instead of putting them off, because that would make them all the more curious and he really didn't need Hideki breaking Kazuya's equipment.
Hideki nodded, giving a small smile as he then turned away from Harry to go back to playing with his small car, his curiosity satisfied and Harry was sure he wouldn't touch the equipment now.
Standing up from his kneeling position Harry turned around to find Kazuya leaning against the wall watching him and Hideki, obviously done with adjusting the camera, "Are we done here?"
Harry nodded his head in the positive. Kazuya pushed himself off the wall and walked to the door, with Harry following, giving a glance back as he passed through the door to see Hideki not paying either of them any attention.
Striding into base they found Lin sitting at the monitors watching them intently and Mai standing a little behind him and watching the screens over his shoulder. Kazuya headed straight towards the monitors, but not before stopping behind Mai and whispering loudly by her ear, "Mai. Tea."
Harry couldn't help but chuckle as Mai jumped a mile with a loud squeak, before whirling around only to find that Kazuya had moved away and sat down in the chair next to Lin and reading his notes as if he hadn't done anything, but walk into the room and sit down. Mai's glare was smoldering and Harry was sure if she could Kazuya would be a pile of ashes right now. With a huff she stomped out of the room to go to the kitchen to make her boss his much needed tea. Harry shook his head in amusement as he continued on to where he had left his notebook on the coffee table from earlier. Picking it up he sat on the sofa and began to page through them, reading what Mai had wrote down, when they interviewed Hideki. After a few minutes of silence Harry broke it, "You know she will hurt you one of these days if you keep riling her up."
Harry could feel a burst of amusement from Kazuya as he only answered, "We'll see," he then continued in a more serious tone, "Lin, you'll take the first shift from midnight to four in the morning. Harry I want you to take the second shift from four to eight. Once Mai and I come to the base to relieve you I have no problem with you going back to bed for a little while, if you want to."
"I should be fine, I normally don't sleep that much," Harry muttered, not looking up at Kazuya to see his reaction.
So, Harry completely missed Kazuya nodding his head in acceptance, only heard his voice, "The schedule for tomorrow night will be me taking the midnight to four and Lin will do the four to eight. From there it will rotate to Harry doing the midnight to four and I having the four to eight. We will continue this schedule until the case is solved."
Just as Kazuya finished the door to the base crashed open and in walked Mai with a tray and four cups of tea on it, "Here's your tea your Highness," was her sarcastic reply as she set the tray down on the coffee table in front of Harry. Looking at Harry she asked, "Harry how would you like your tea?"
Harry could feel a wave of annoyance from Kazuya as Mai started with him and not Kazuya, but Harry hid his smirk, figuring it served the teen right for scarring Mai earlier. She took their orders and quickly handed them out one by one, leaving Kazuya until last.
"So what are we going to do now?" Mai asked after a few minutes of looking at each of them in turn.
"We still have some time left before dinner, I suggest that Harry takes a walk around the house,"Kazuya suggested.
Harry nodded his head, "That's fine with me."
"What about me," Mai asked with a little bit of annoyance in her voice.
"If Harry wants an idiot to go with him that is fine with me." Kazuya replied to her question as he took a sip of his tea.
Harry could see Mai was about to yell at the teen, but stopped her before she could, "I don't mind. Mai want to come with me?"
Mai, ignoring Kazuya completely, brightened up at Harry's question, "Yes," a big grin taking over her features as she drained the rest of her tea and took a hold of his arm.
On their way out the door Harry snatched up one of the walkie talkies by the door of the base and switched it to on before hanging it off his belt on his left side, since Mai had a hold of his right arm.
They were getting to the end of the hall when Mai broke their comfortable silence, "I am so happy to get out of base and actually do something, besides be the tea service."
"I could understand how that could get annoying," Harry replied in sympathie, "but for your information I don't see you as a tea maid." He received a blinding smile for his comment.
Once they reached the end of the hall Harry stopped, "Let's go down to the basement first and work our way up, like Kazuya and I did with the equipment." Harry stated as he steered Mai toward the basement stairs on the right and flipping the switch for the light before heading down.
"How do you know where you are going without looking at a map," Mai questioned as they started down the narrow stairs?
"I memorized the map, especially after looking over so much to figure out where to put the equipment." Harry replied as they finally reached the bottom of the stairs.
The real reason Harry was going to the basement first is because he could still feel the spirit down there. He wanted to see if he could find out why he hadn't passed on or maybe why he wanted the bear. As they stepped off the steps Harry could feel the spirit's curiosity as to why they were down in his area.
Harry walked into the room more, letting go of Mai's arm in the process, "Search around and see if you can find the bear," Harry instructed as he felt the spirits curiosity spike and mix with a little anger at the mention of the bear.
"Why would the bear be down here and what's up with a camera here?" Mai asked as she began to look at the shelves placed next to the stairs.
Harry looked back over his shoulder at her for a second, "I thought it might be a good place to watch," he paused for a moment as he felt the spirit's emotions move over to the back of the room and stop in front of one of the shelves. It had a feeling of protectiveness and slight anger directed toward Harry. Harry continued his explanation as he made a show of looking at some of the shelves closest to him as he moved down the line to the ones the ghost had stopped in front of, "Most spirits will have a place out of the way where they can hide, like a home base. Most of the time there will be very little to no activity in such a place. So far this is the only one that hasn't had anything said about it by the family. Plus, if they want a certain object that is where they would hide it as well," he told her.
"Really?" she asked.
Harry gave a nod, "Yeah," he answered.
Mai finished her line of shelves and knowing Harry had already looked at the next shelves she began to go to the ones hidden underneath the stairs, but stopped when she saw Harry move to the back of the room and to a certain stack of boxes, looking them over intently.
"Harry?" Mai asked, a little frown on her face as she watched him.
Harry smiled as he said, "I've found Koji the bear," he could see it just peeking out of some clothing and blankets that were near the back of the room.
"Really?" Mai exclaimed, "Already?!"
"Yeah," Harry smiled as he began to reach for it.
Harry could feel the spirit become even more angry at his declaration and new he had to keep Mai back, "Stay over there Mai and I will come over to you in a minute," he warned.
Feeling the anger coming at him from his right side, Harry slowly reached out his arm to get the bear. At this point the temperature dropped to the point Harry could see his breath in the air as he exhaled. Pushing the button on his walkie talkie with his free hand Harry began speaking, hoping it would pick up his voice though he didn't have it up to his mouth.
"Lin-san, the temperature in the basement is dropping very fast, can you watch to see if we pick up anything?"
"Will do," came the reply, "Be careful."
"I will," Harry said just as his fingers touched the bear he felt a surge of anger come at him and overwhelm his sense making him fall backwards and land on his butt hard. It felt like he was floating in the air and really not part of the living world anymore.
"Harry, Harry!" Mai's panicked voice sounded far away and fuzzy, but he knew he had to let her know he was okay.
Feeling himself slowly come back to the world the first intelligent thing Harry could say was, "What?" Even as he felt the satisfaction of the spirit as it left the room.
"Are you okay?" Mai asked, her voice shaking, "You wouldn't answered me when I called you, and then Lin came across the walkie that they captured a voice when you were thrown back."
"Mai, Naru is on his way to you now," Lin's voice came through the walkie-talkie on Harry's side.
"I'm fine Lin," Harry told him after pushing down the button.
"Harry, you didn't answer any of us for almost three minutes," Kazuya voice came from the middle of the stairs above their heads as an answer.
"Three minutes?" Harry asked him, confused as he watched Kazuya walk down the rest of the stairs and approach them.
He thought for a moment, and the only thing he could think of that happened was that he had been put in a mild trance when the spirit shoved the anger towards him. The spirit might have been trying to communicate with him.
"Yes," Kazuya said as he walked over to Harry and held out a hand for him to take.
"Thanks," Harry smiled at him as he took it and was helped to his feet.
After standing he felt something soft in his left hand and looked down and found Koji the bear in his hands. Studying the small blue bear with the red ribbon he wondered what was the significance behind it for the spirit. Taking his attention away from the bear he stared at Kazuya and Mai, "I don't understand," he muttered, pretending to have no clue what had happened to him.
The reason for playing dumb was because he didn't want anyone to know about his empathy. His only reason for not having told anyone, even Hermione and Ron, was because of the way they were treated. When somebody was found to be an empath in the Magical world they were isolated from any type of physical touch, because if somebody touched them with too much emotion it could hurt them. Harry didn't know how they reacted in the Muggle world, but he didn't want to find out, so he kept quiet.
"Let's get back to the room, Harry should rest," Mai said as she looked at him worriedly.
"I'm fine," Harry insisted.
They both didn't listen to him as Kazuya began heading up the stairs and Mai was practically smothering Harry as he followed Kazuya up them. It didn't help with Kazuya glancing back at him every few seconds to see if he was still following or had collapsed. Harry rolled his eyes at both of them and shrugged off Mai's hand when they finally walked through the base door.
Harry was thankful for Lin when the Chinese man spoke up grabbing both Kazuya's and Mai's attention, "We got something, I'll bring it up," he finished pointing to one of the monitor screens that had been paused on the basement with Mai hovering over Harry who was on the floor with his eyes glazed over and a dazed look on his face.
As soon as everybody had gathered around the screen Lin rewound the tape to Harry and Mai first entering the basement.
Pressing the play button Harry's voice came on over the speakers talking to Mai, "I thought it might be a good place to watch," there was a small pause as he turned back to the boxes before speaking again, "Most spirits will have a place out of the way where they can hide, like a home base. Most of the time there will be very little to no activity in such a place. So far this is the only one that hasn't had anything said about it by the family. Plus, if they want a certain object that is where they would hide it as well."
"Really?" Mai's voice was curious as she moved a little towards Harry.
Harry nodded on screen as he answered, "Yeah."
They watched as Mai finished her line of shelves and turn around to look for something else to search and began to head to the shelves underneath the stairs, but all of a sudden she stopped and watched Harry with a look of curiosity. The Harry on screen didn't even acknowledge her as he moved to the back of the room and seem to study the boxes intently.
"Harry?" Mai asked, a little frown on her face as she watched him.
Harry smiled on camera as he said, "I've found Koji the bear."
Really?" Mai exclaimed, "Already?!"
"Yeah," Harry still smiling took his left hand and started to reach past a few boxes, before his smile fell and he stopped.
A few seconds later Harry's voice filled the silence of the room and it was tinged with worry, "Stay over there Mai and I will come over to you in a minute," he warned.
After the warning the Harry on screen slowly began to reach for the bear once more. It was at this point that they could see Harry's breath on the screen, but they couldn't see Mai's who was standing by the stairs. Harry once again paused and they all watched as he reached his other hand down and pushed the button on his walkie before speaking.
"Lin-san, the temperature in the basement is dropping very fast, can you watch to see if we pick up anything?"
"Will do," came the reply , "Be careful."
"NO! Leave it alone!" came a child's voice, shouting.
"I will," Harry said letting go of the button right after he finished talking.
Just as his fingers touched the bear a voice shouted out,"No, leave it alone. It's mine, not yours. Give it back, give it back now!" A second later Harry fell backwards onto his arse and froze, staring at the place where the bear had been.
"That's all we got," Lin said as he stopped the recording and it went back to the live feed video of the basement.
"Right," Kazuya said as he looked at the other teen, "I'll be taking your watch tonight," Harry could feel the worry that the other was emitting.
Harry gave a little sigh, "Really Kazuya, I'm fine," hoping to reassure the older teen.
Kazuya ignored him, "Erika-san, came in while you were gone. Dinner will be ready soon, she will come back and get us when it is done. She has been told of your dietary needs Harry,"he told Harry as he turned to the two, "I believe that you two can work on some homework, while Lin and I monitor things until dinner."
Mai and Harry nodded, gathering the small amount of homework they had to do and settling at the table. Twenty minutes later Erika walked into the room to announce dinner.
Thank you for the awesome reviews. You guys are the best. I'm am having some trouble with the next chapter. But I hope I can update soon, instead of late like this one.