15. It's snowing by the time Midnight Mass concludes and Mai leaps out the church's front door with a loud 'whoop!'. Takigawa snatches her by the arm as she slips on a patch of ice but ends up being pulled to the ground with her. Laughing hysterically, the young woman leaps back to her feet, nearly slips again, and giggles a redundant warning to everyone behind her. Masako shakes her head, but Mai can see the smile she's hiding behind her sleeve. Takigawa climbs back to his feet, bringing his hand down on Mai's hair. "Glad you could make it. Since Naru and Lin aren't here, I was afraid you'd be cooped up in your office tonight."
Mai crosses her arms with a crafty smile. "The Ikebukuro Branch is my office, therefore my rules. If Naru wants to work on a holiday, that's got nothing to do with me." Ayako agrees with a self-important nod of approval while Yasu piles on with the effect of stress on the 'youth of Japan', which earns him a few turned glances from even the Ikebukuro citizens.
Is he always like this? Celty asks, coming to stand beside her.
"Pretty much." Mai nods, then glances around the walkway at everyone else who made it tonight. John's occupied with a group of churchgoers and doesn't look like he'll be free for quite a while, not that Mai herself has time to talk anyway what with everyone from SPR cornering her and asking how business is in Ikebukuro. She answers it couldn't be better and introduces everyone to Shinra and Celty, and no one makes a comment about Celty's helmet, to her surprise. Mai smiles, relieved she doesn't have to explain the headless thing quite yet, then turns to the gate.
Shizuo promised he'd try to show up, too, but so far she hasn't seen him. And none of the other Ikebukuro regulars have heard from him all night. Mai tries to stay apathetic about it; after all, it was a only casual invitation. He must've gotten held up at a job or something.
Someone throws a snowball at her and she whips her head around, spraying snowflakes everywhere. "Sorry!" Kadota shouts. "I wasn't aiming at you, Taniyama!" Regardless, Takigawa throws one back at him and misses. Then Walker and Erika join in, followed by Yasu, Saburo, and anyone else within throwing distance, and within thirty seconds, a storm of snowballs is flying across the churchyard and parking lot.
Mai finds herself ducking behind a clump of snow-covered bushes with Masako and a fifteen year old boy she suddenly recognizes as Thanatte, the possessed child from the Christmas Case six years ago. It takes them half a minute to formulate an attack strategy (mostly against Yasu and Takigawa, who seem to be their chief opponents) and the trio scrapes together as many snowballs as they can.
The battle plan, however, does go somewhat awry when they're ambushed by Ayako and Erika, followed up by Kadota and Yasu, then Thanatte and Masako decide to turn on Mai altogether. She shrieks and covers her head, finding herself being pelted by snowballs in every direction. The abuse lasts only a couple seconds and she leaps up, screaming she will end everyone there. Walker throws one last frozen projectile at her, but she dodges and goes running to the gate, hoping to take shelter outside the wall circumventing the property.
"Whoa!" She yelps, narrowly avoiding a person on the sidewalk, dances around clumsily on her heels to keep from wiping out again, finds her balance, and looks up. Shizuo stares down at her, somewhere between puzzled and amused. Mai draws herself upright, planting her hands on her hips. "You, sir, are late."
He tilts his head to the side, smiling a little. "Why are you covered in snow? You look like a snowman."
"Snowwoman."
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Author's Notes: I was going to finish this one and post it tomorrow morning, but I couldn't sleep, so here it is now. Happy Holidays!
Ghost Hunt is owned by Fuyumi Ono and Shiho Inada.