Bolded Italics = Gene talking
Italics = Mai's thoughts
Case Three—Part 1
Yuasa High School
It was great watching other high school students be students while she got to hang around "on the clock." She made tea when needed, listened to a few experiences here and there, and completed her homework. No teachers were breathing down her neck.
A cold gaze pierced her side, interrupting her peace. It was undoubtedly from her unamused boss wondering why she wasn't being helpful. Before he could question her utility, she practically skipped out of her chair to make some tea. The school day was finally over, so students would no doubt drop by to recount their stories.
Just as the tea was finished, Takahashi Yuko, preferably known as Taka, entered the base with a student following behind her. Taka was Bou-san's fangirl he mentioned when introducing the case to them a few days ago.
"Hi, I brought Mirayama-san with me," she said upon entering.
Mirayama entered the classroom with help from Taka. She was one of the students injured from sitting at the cursed desk. Bandages covered both legs, a sling on her right arm, and a crutch nestled under her left arm. Mai could practically feel the aches and pains looking at the poor girl.
Naru sat the girls down while Mai listened from afar as she prepared the tea.
Mirayama's experiences started with chills when she first started sitting at the desk. Sometimes, it felt like someone was standing behind her, breathing against her ear. This went on and off for the first month and a half. Then, the train incident happened—upon exiting the train, her arm was yanked back as the doors closed, and she was dragged several meters before being freed. Luckily, her life wasn't severely in danger, but she also wasn't left unscathed. Scrapes lined along her legs and her right shoulder was dislocated along with a distal humerus fracture.
"I'd like to see this desk," said Naru.
"Yeah, sure. I can bring you there." Taka led the group out while Mirayama opted to head back to her club, the track team. Mai assumed she was on stand-by watching rather than participating.
Naru ran his hand along the edge of the desk. "Does anyone sit here now?"
"No, everyone's way too scared. The girl who sat here after Mirayama-san was hurt so badly she's still in the hospital. She even said that sometimes a hand looked like it was coming out of the desk. She had stomach aches for days after that!"
"The orientation hasn't changed?"
"No, same as it has always been."
Mai studied the desk but didn't see anything off with it. Why just this desk?
Something about it made her want to stay far away, though. Call it her instincts, or the "bad juju," according to Gene.
When they returned to base, Bou-san had just arrived. They'd only been gone for a maximum of five minutes and the guy was already swarmed with fangirls.
He really wasn't bluffing, Mai giggled to herself. Guess he had a reason to act like hot shit.
Naru wasn't nearly as impressed and chased the flock away with a single glare.
After the girls left, they debriefed Bou-san on what they'd learned. Naru didn't find any cases particularly noteworthy, but altogether, they were strange. Nothing felt connected.
Their resident monk dramatically dropped himself into a seat and leaned over the table in defeat. "I can't possibly exorcise everything by myself."
"What are the chances that each incident isn't just a coincidence?" she asked.
"Maybe a few being connected isn't impossible, but this many?" Bou-san brought a hand to his chin in thought. "Want to go on a walkthrough, Jou-chan?"
She blinked, not expecting him to ask. "Yeah, sure. Did you need me here for anything, Naru?"
Her boss reading his notebook with his back to her was the answer she got.
Shrugging, she gave Bou-san a thumbs-up.
They decided to cycle through all the floors from the top to bottom. As they walked, her companion started up a conversation. "How's your training going?"
"Fine, I guess. After the hotel shenanigans, Naru assigned me twice as many readings! I also have to eat vegetarian once a week, and then every day if we're on a case."
"Sounds like he's giving you proper training… interesting that a ghost hunter would know the intricacies of training psychics," he mumbled. "I guess if he really is an onmyoji, then it checks out."
Mai tilted her head in confusion. "Naru, an onmyoji?"
"Remember the last case? How Naru planned to make some hitogata?"
Of course, she remembered, but did that automatically make him an onmyoji? Gene was a medium, so Naru excelling in onmyodo wasn't improbable—but Naru hadn't done anything else to make Bou-san's assumption valid. Knowing her boss, he probably pushed for Lin to do the hard work of making the hitogata.
That would make Lin an onmyoji, then. Another assumption, but she wasn't going to go around stating it as fact, unlike other people.
"Maybe?" She shrugged, neither agreeing nor denying.
"I think it's good that you're learning more about your powers. You got a pretty stacked resume to keep in check." He sent her a thumbs-up and an encouraging smile before adopting a mischievous smirk. "Now, what's this about 'hotel shenanigans?' I didn't think teenagers were so shameless these days."
Took him this long to react to what I said?!
Mai shot him a glare. "Dirty old man! What kind of degenerate thoughts are in that head of yours?!"
"Nothing at all! I'm a mere innocent monk from the mountain!"
"Well, nothing happened that would taint your innocence," she said, rolling her eyes and nudging her fist into his arm playfully. "The van broke down, we stayed at a haunted hotel, John got stalked by a spirit, I got attacked, and… yeah."
Bou-san studied her and wondered if she was leaving something out. It wasn't his business, so he didn't pry despite the temptation. "You must be a danger magnet. Did you get hurt in the attack?"
"Not physically, but remembering it bothered me for a while. I'm better now, though!"
"Good to hear it. You should really be careful from now on. If a spirit intends to harm you, they will do it."
She remembered her body running on overdrive as the memory replayed itself. She certainly would have been severely injured without John's interference if that demon had its way. It was a testament to how strong John was.
"Oh, I know. That's not the first time one tried to kill me." She shrugged. "Actually, I was wondering if you could teach me some warding spells. Maybe something I can use alongside my other prayer."
He blinked in surprise. "Yeah, sure. What are the other prayers you recite?"
She explained how she prayed to Usa-sama for protection as Gene had taught her. She hadn't had a specific scripture to recite until recently when she attended the Otsukimi* festival with her friends in September. She visited one of the shrines taking part in the festival and the priest offered her a talisman after seeing her interest—a poem about the moon was written on it.
Gene told her to start using the poem as her prayer. It certainly made Usa-sama happy!
Bou-san seemed fascinated and asked to see the mirror. "You know that you're already performing your own kind of warding spell, right?" He inspected the mirror and gently ran his thumb over the top. "It's a more passive approach than what I'll show you but just as strong. The two should work well together."
"Really? How?"
"You know the story of the rabbit on the moon?"
"Haven't heard the full thing in a while." Usa-sama was probably shaking his head at her.
"Weren't you just at the festival?" he questioned, sending her a pointed look. She could only shrug sheepishly. He shook his head.
"Well, the story has a Buddhist background and has a few different versions. Long story short, the deity, Sakra, disguised as a beggar and asked for three animals to provide food for him to show their charity, the rabbit being one of them. While the other two animals provided him with piles of food, the rabbit could only provide grass. Instead, he jumped into the beggar's fire to offer himself as the meal. Sakra was so touched he revived the rabbit and offered him a palace on the moon for everyone to admire."
Mai listened carefully, never realizing how much she missed from the story as a child. It wasn't exactly the typical bedtime story, but she remembered enjoying her father's version of it—after moving into the palace, the rabbit got bored and got a part-time job pounding mochi. Far from believable but cute.
"And how does that help the two warding spells work together?"
"Even though the story has a Buddhist origin, Shinto also has its rabbit deities that might derive from the same tale. Your friend may be one of these worshipped divinities. I don't know how much you pay attention in class with all your doodling, but Shinto and Buddhism have a history that spans thousands of years."
Mai glared at him for his nonchalant jab.
Bou-san ignored her and continued. "Okazaki and Saitama still have rabbit deities at their shrines and temples if you're ever interested."
She crossed her arms and grumbled, "You sure know a lot for an exiled monk."
He feigned offense and shook his head in disapproval. "Is this how you treat all your elders?"
"Perhaps," she laughed.
The two continued their walkthrough of the floor with little to note. Once on the stairway down to the next floor, Bou-san pulled her over.
"Okay, follow what I'm doing," he said, forming a mudra* for what he explained to be that of the "sword." She wasn't about to get a lesson on Buddhism, so she didn't inquire.
After correcting her hand posture, he instructed her on how to assert her will to protect herself. "And then, repeat the mantra of the Immovable One. 'Naumaku sanmanda bazaradan kan.'"
She repeated the mantra a few times before feeling the slightest bit more confident that she wouldn't stumble on it in the heat of the moment. She did feel more power with this mantra compared to Usa-sama's prayer, which she considered to be firm but less forceful.
As they walked around the floor below them, her senses alerted her to something off. Nothing seems off though…
"Ah, you must be part of the investigation team," said someone approaching from behind. "Welcome to our school. We appreciate your coming to help us figure out these upsetting events."
Nearly jumping out of her skin, Mai spun around to find a lady in her late thirties to early forties with short wavy brown hair. She adorned a polite smile.
Mai stepped aside for her and nodded her head in greeting with her own fake polite smile.
"Of course, we're happy to help," Bou-san said, stepping aside for the lady to pass.
The lady nodded to them both before walking past. She entered a room a few doors down that Mai read the sign to say, "Biology Lab." She must be one of the teachers, likely the biology teacher at that.
Bou-san shared a glance with her before they both shrugged and moved on.
After they finished and returned to base, their resident monk was kidnapped by a few fangirls while Naru and Lin went to set up cameras in the now-empty classrooms.
Other than the strange feelings when that teacher showed up, there wasn't much else she noted from the walkthrough. Some areas did creep her out for no reason, but she knew Naru wouldn't be impressed with her vague descriptions. Perhaps, once Masako arrived tomorrow, she'd sense something that Mai missed.
Sighing, she took this time alone to write in her journals—not that there was much to add. There was a lake nearby that she checked out on her way here, but it wasn't the right one. She could just look at pictures and use the Earth app to view the lakes she couldn't visit, but it wasn't the same as seeing them in person.
You don't have to keep searching, Mai. Let Naru do the hard work. Gene's voice said from inside her head.
She blinked and sat up straight. "Gene?"
The one and only.
How was he doing this? He normally couldn't contact this plane without Usa-sama's intervention.
As if reading her thoughts, he responded, You haven't been the only one training! Usa-sama beats me up every night but now I can contact you through your mirror. Only your mirror, though.
She pried her mirror out and clicked it open to confirm his words. At first, she only saw her reflection. Closing her eyes and focusing her mind, she opened them again to find the faint apparition of Gene on the mirror's surface.
Her face broke into a grin. She could finally see him on this plane!
"This is great! Do you think you could talk to Naru now?"
Gene shook his head. Only you can see and hear me. I'm still relying on Usa-sama to do this, after all.
"Aw, man. I thought we were on to something," she said, sighing.
They had both agreed that if Naru found out about Gene, it would be from Gene himself. He didn't feel right making Mai a middleman.
Thus, his goal was to become strong enough to reach out to his brother.
"Well, at least now I can talk to you while I'm aw-"
"Hey! Oh- sorry, were you on the phone with someone?" Taka apologized as she held the door ajar.
Mai snapped her mirror shut and placed it back in her pocket. "Not at all! What's up?"
Taka scrunched her brows and scanned the room before walking in. "Nothing much. Was just wondering if Norio was around?"
"Nah, he's off with some of his fangirls."
The other girl seemed to curse her slowness but shrugged it off. "Oh well," she said, walking over and sitting with Mai. "So… just out of curiosity, who were you just talking to? A ghost maybe?"
Man, this girl is nosy, said Gene.
Mai almost cracked a chuckle but held it in. "Would you believe me if I said yes?"
Taka tilted her head and studied the light-haired girl. "To be honest, I wouldn't be surprised since everyone has supernatural powers nowadays, apparently."
"What do you mean by that?"
"No one told you?"
"The Kasai Panic" started when one girl claimed to be able to bend spoons. The school was promptly sent into a frenzy divided by those who believed this Kasai Chiaki character, and those who were in opposition. The teachers called Kasai out discrediting her, even after she successfully bent a spoon to prove herself. Unfortunately, that led the girl to "curse them to death."
Thus, she was ostracized from the rest of the school and hid out in the biology room most of the time.
Mai found the whole story ridiculous.
"Does no one have anything better to do than worry about some girl bending spoons?" Mai complained to Naru as they walked toward the biology lab.
As usual, her boss let her complain without providing any input.
When they arrived, Naru knocked on the door and was greeted by a high school girl with black hair cut just below her shoulders. "Is Kasai Chiaki-san here?"
The girl eyed them both. "Why do you want to see my sister?"
Okay, Taka did not tell them Chiaki had a sister.
"Chizu-chan, who is it?" Mai recognized the voice to be the teacher she and Bou-san had run into earlier.
"We are from Shibuya Psychic Research. We heard about Kasai-san's abilities and wanted to talk to her," answered Naru flawlessly.
The girl called Chizu stepped aside for the teacher to welcome them in. "Yes, of course. Please, come in. I'm Ubusuna Kei, the biology teacher. It's nice to meet you."
"Ubusuna. That's an uncommon name," noted Naru.
Ubusuna smiled politely before her eye caught Mai. "I recall you from earlier. Your other friend isn't here?"
Mai shook her head awkwardly. "He had something else to attend to. Um, it's nice to meet you Ubusuna-sensei. I'm Taniyama Mai."
Further back into the lab was a girl with longer black hair sitting on one of the stools. She turned her back to them as soon as they entered. "I have nothing to say to you," she said.
Ah, that must be Chiaki.
"Chiaki-san, they're professionals who research psychic phenomena for a living. They won't ridicule you," her teacher cajoled. She was successful because Chiaki reluctantly turned around albeit with a face that conveyed nothing but distrust.
Chizu sat next to her and that was when Mai could observe them side by side. They looked almost like twins.
"So, what do you want to know?"
Without hesitation, Naru presented his first question. "I heard that you have the power to bend spoons at will."
Chiaki glanced at her sister and the two seemed to communicate briefly just through their eyes. Mai wondered if that was how her twins looked like when they were together. "Sure, I can, but I don't expect you'd believe me."
Naru crossed his arms. "Why wouldn't I? Any parapsychologist knows about the existence of PK. You're not the only one who can bend a spoon."
That little shit, Gene's voice suddenly echoed in her head.
Naru has PK?! Her inquiry never got a reply but part of her wasn't surprised.
Chiaki smirked. "If you can bend one, then prove it." She handed him one of the metal spoons from the table.
Mai watched on in anticipation and unknowingly inched herself closer. Her boss pinched the spoon firmly and stared at it in uninterest before casually using his index finger to bend the spoon backward like jelly. Even after bending, the neck of the spoon seemingly corroded and broke into two.
The room was silent as everyone stared at the measly spoon head on the floor.
Chiaki relaxed a bit after that.
"We were up late one night this summer and found this talk show covering spoon bending. I thought it was a load of crap until I found some videos online of other people doing it too. I decided to try it and it actually worked."
Naru nodded. "That is called the 'Gellerini phenomenon.'" Mai tilted her head in curiosity as did the other high school girls.
"'Gellerini?'"
"The name derives from Uri Geller, a man claiming to bend spoons on TV in the 70s. He sparked an influx of psychic awakenings, which researchers dubbed as 'Gellerinis,'" answered Ubusuna.
Naru narrowed his eyes at the teacher, surprised at her knowledge of the topic. "You are well-informed."
"Kasai-san, can you still bend spoons?" asked Mai.
"Of course I can!" Chiaki reached for a spoon on the table. She directed her focus to its neck, allowing her fingers to rub the handle. Her concentration was so strong that she crouched over.
"Stop what you're doing!" Naru's strident command nearly had Mai jumping out of her skin. "You were about to use the chair to bend the spoon. If anyone else saw you, you would have lost all credibility."
Chizu placed a hand on her sister's shoulder and glared at Naru. "Nee-san really can bend them."
"Any paranormal researcher knows that psychic abilities aren't consistent, so you would've been better off admitting defeat. Critics wouldn't have believed you, anyway," Naru stated.
"Can you bend them?" Mai asked Chizu.
Chizu's demeanor changed immediately, not expecting to be addressed by Mai. "Um, no, I'm not into all that," she denied, waving her hand for good measure.
Chiaki looked down in shame at having been caught. She picked up the piece of the spoon Naru had broken as well as the handle. Placing the two pieces together, the utensil appeared to have fused back together. "Usually, it works, but lately I haven't been able to do it all that well," she admitted, showing them the fixed spoon.
She continued, "Because of all this nonsense, Kei-sensei was ridiculed by the other teachers for defending me. Nee-chan wasn't even a part of this mess and now even she's being treated differently too."
"Sometimes it's because people mistake me for her," Chizu added. "Other students seem to think because we're related, I have the same powers."
"Is that why you said you would curse everyone to death?" Naru asked Chiaki.
"I said it in the heat of the moment, but I couldn't actually kill anyone, right?"
After they were done talking to the group, Naru and Mai slipped out of the lab to head back to base. They walked in silence for most of it while Mai ran through all the details in her head. The whole school thought Chiaki was the culprit, but the girl could barely bend a spoon. But what about her sister? She wasn't sure if they were twins or not, but that wouldn't be the first case of psychic twins, that's for sure.
"What are the odds that Kasai Chizu has powers?" she asked. "I don't know how it works with siblings but wouldn't it make sense if one has it, then the other would too? If they were twins, I mean."
"That is an interesting point, but there is a lack of research on the subject. There have only been a handful of reported cases of siblings with psychic powers."
Entering some dangerous waters, Mai!Her head gremlin was right—she needed to abort the mission.
Pretending to pick lint off her sweater, she racked her mind for topic changes.
"That was cool how you bent that spoon back there. I didn't know you had PK." She remembered reading about it during her assignments.
"Do you remember what it stands for?"
"Of course, I do!"
"Then state the difference between macro-PK and micro-PK," he said, a corner of his mouth quirking upward as he watched her face take on three different emotions as she fumbled through her memory.
He easily distracted her from asking more risky questions by bombarding her with an onslaught of quizzes. She wasn't even fazed by them anymore and he was almost impressed at her progress. Not every answer was right but her circumlocution exhausted him enough that he didn't bother picking on her about it.
When they finally arrived back at base, he stopped in front of the door and turned to face her. "Mai, don't tell anyone about the spoon bending, especially Lin," he said, before adding, "Please."
She blinked in surprise. If he was adopting manners suddenly, he must've been serious about keeping it a secret. "Uh, yeah, sure."
He turned away, hiding his face from view.
"Thank you."
On her way home that night, she stopped by the convenience store to pick up some vegetarian instant foods—she wasn't about to cook tonight… or for the rest of the case.
She checked for nearby pedestrians before pulling out her mirror when she got to her street. She snapped it open and stared intensely into the reflection. If anyone had told her she would be seeking out a ghost in a mirror months ago, she'd have called them insane.
Gene's apparition didn't show up immediately, but when it did, she couldn't be happier to see his goofy smile in the reflection. She could see him clearly despite only having the moon and streetlights to go by.
"I still can't believe I can talk to you face-to-face now."
He nodded. All thanks to our rabbit lord and savior!
"Can I see him too?"
He can just poof into that plane, remember? He doesn't need a mirror.
"Oh, right," she said, simultaneously checking her surroundings. This area wasn't unsafe and yet some nights she couldn't help feeling paranoid.
And tonight was one of those nights.
Isn't there anyone you could walk with, so you're not alone every night? You know, so you aren't just a lone teenage girl walking down a dark street.
"Ever since my Kaa-san died, I've had to walk around alone at night all the time. Other students do it too."
Gene grumbled and crossed his arms. Maybe if my idiot of a brother had any ounce of chivalry, he'd give you a ride or walk you home.
She chuckled, adjusting the bag of groceries on her elbow. Looking up ahead, something strange at the next intersection just before her apartment piqued her concern. A figure stood in the middle of the intersection. There were no features to this figure even with the streetlights shining overhead.
"That… doesn't look right," she mumbled.
Gene scrunched his brows in concern. You okay?
Her eyes lingered on the figure even as she dipped her head down to address Gene. "Suspicious individual at the intersection before my apartment. Don't think it's a person, though." She rummaged through her pockets for her phone and promptly took a picture. "What are the chances it'll leave me alone?"
Can you go a different way?
She tried the next block around only to find a suspicious shadow on the ground at this intersection too. The closer she got, the more the figure would rise from the ground. She even took a video to try and catch what she was seeing. At the nearest streetlight, she quickly sent Naru the picture and video in an email just in case.
Snapping her mirror shut, she braced herself for what she was about to do. Her fists tightened as her breathing hastened.
She could do this.
Good thing this never happened before SPR. She wouldn't have known what to do… not to say she knew what to do now either.
Holding the mirror in her palms and adopting Bou-san's mudra* from earlier, she recited the mantra of the Immovable One quietly to herself. She treaded cautiously toward the intersection. When she neared, the figure turned to follow her movements. Her eyes stayed straight ahead while keeping the figure in her periphery. Her uneasiness grew as she felt a presence manifest right behind her shoulder.
She whipped around quickly and recited, "Naumaku sanmanda bazaradan kan!" The black figure that had been creeping behind her dissipated into thin air. Not staying longer to see what happened, she sprinted to her apartment as fast as her legs could take her.
Mai slammed the door shut behind her and leaned back against it. She dropped her grocery bag to the floor and sighed in relief.
You did a good job, Mai.
"Thanks, but I don't think it's gone for good, though," she admitted.
After locking the door, she as good as collapsed on her bed, long having lost her appetite.
The rest of the night was less eventful. She requested Usa-sama's presence for the night and spent most of it finishing her homework and trying to get Gene to help her with her quadratic equations. She ended up staying up late to ensure she didn't have any rude awakenings, which was fortunately the case.
Her sleep wasn't dream-free, however. She met up with Gene at Yuasa and witnessed her first fox fires. They were laid out throughout the building beckoning the question of why each location. Was the whole school haunted, or was there something else at play? Gene's riddles implied that he believed the fox fires to not be spirits at all, so Mai didn't know what to think.
When her alarm went off the next morning, she felt instant regret for having stayed up so late.
Even with a touch of makeup, Ayako and Masako, who had arrived with John, deemed it important to point out the bags under her eyes.
Oh, how she missed them.
"There are no spirits here," Masako said as she entered the base with Ayako. "There must be some kind of scheme going on here."
"And the whole school is in on it? There's got to be something here, at least with that desk," Bou-san argued.
While the rest of the crew discussed, Mai sat at the table and rubbed her nose bridge as her head pounded. The lack of sleep must have given her a tension headache. It wasn't excruciating but still hard to ignore.
Someone stepped beside her and she deduced it was Naru telling from his energy. "Was that your footage in the email last night?" he asked.
"Yeah," she said, yawning and allowing her eyelids to close for a moment. "I didn't watch it yet. Did you see anything?"
"You caught what appeared to be a shadow figure. Good work."
Her eyes opened and she scrunched her brows in confusion. Did he just praise her?
"Um, thanks."
"What are you two talking about hush-hush over there?" Ayako asked, her arms crossed.
Mai rolled her eyes. "I just ran into a shadow figure last night on my way home."
"Do you think it's related to this case?" asked Bou-san.
She shrugged and tilted her head in thought. "I don't know—this is the first time I've ever had this happen."
"I think it could be related. It's not like Masako's word is always truth," quipped the red-haired miko.
Masako narrowed her eyes and covered her mouth with her sleeve. "At least my word has more reliability than yours. I don't recall you being very helpful last case."
"Why you-"
Naru cleared his throat. "Did anything else happen, Mai?"
The brunette went on to explain her dream last night about the fox fires but left out Gene's deduction since she had no backing for it. This gave the team some leads for where to begin their exorcisms. Interestingly, some of the fire locations matched the reports they had gotten from the students.
Their resident medium was adamant that there were no spirits. She left first to do another walkthrough with Ayako. Why Naru assigned the two when they always butted heads was beyond her. That left John and Bou-san to begin their exorcisms in the rooms she noted.
Meanwhile, Naru and Lin left to investigate further, leaving Mai to watch the base.
Like yesterday, she took the time to write in her journals and plug away at her homework. All was boring until her instincts acted up. Goosebumps lined her arms and she had the sneaking suspicion the same shadow from yesterday would pop up again.
Standing up and leaving the base, she pulled out her mirror. "Gene, you there?" she whispered.
Yeah, good thing you left. Bad juju over there.
She aimlessly walked down the hall, watching as students participated in their clubs outside. "Well, now I don't know where to go. You think it left yet?"
Gene shrugged, Use your senses!
"Right…"
"Who are you talking to?" Mai jumped out of her skin, snapping the mirror shut and spinning around.
It was Chiaki's sister, Chizu.
"U-uh, to myself! It's a habit I gotta stop," she laughed nervously.
Chizu quirked a brow at her but shrugged it off. "Okay… well, are you investigating right now?"
"Sorta. Were you heading to a club or something?"
"Yes and no. After this whole Kasai panic thing started, I haven't exactly been welcomed in my club. I'm part of the track team and they were the first to start trouble with my sister."
"Oh, sorry. Sucks that you guys had to deal with this over some spoon-bending," Mai sympathized. "It doesn't explain all the weird things happening though. Have you had any experiences?"
Chizu brought a hand to her chin, "Not particularly." Her aloof demeanor changed when she moved closer to Mai. "So, do you have psychic powers, Taniyama-san?"
Mai blinked, taken aback by her sudden question. "Oh, um, why do you ask that?"
The dark-haired girl studied her for a moment before shrugging. "I just assumed that a group of paranormal researchers would have a few psychics, especially 'cause your boss has PK and you called Hara Masako here too." She then brought herself only within Mai's earshot. "And you weren't just talking to yourself either, right? You're an esper, maybe?"
The light-haired girl's eyes widened.
Chizu smiled, "No need to be surprised—I just think it's cool. Anyway, see you later!" As fast as the girl had come, she disappeared down the hallway.
Unsettled, Mai sped back to the base, relieved to find that the weird energy from earlier was gone. She barely had the chance to sit back down before the other Kasai sister knocked on the door. Mai sighed and let her in.
"Hey."
"Uh, hey." Mai gestured for the girl to sit down. The two stared at each other in silence until she broke the silence. "So, what's up?"
Chiaki kept her face as expressionless as possible and Mai couldn't help but wonder how both girls could be so different in their mannerisms.
"How's the investigation going? Bet there are a lot of spirits here."
She shook her head. "Actually, Masako says there aren't any."
Chiaki widened her eyes. "There aren't any? There's no way! What about all that crazy stuff happening?"
"I can see why you say that, but… I think Masako's right."
The dark-haired girl didn't respond right away, choosing to observe Mai instead. "What about you and your boss? Can you guys sense anything?"
Mai thought about her walkthrough yesterday—she could feel some negative energy here and there, but nothing to support the happenings to ghosts. "I'm not a medium like Masako, but I don't feel that there's anything here either. No spirits, anyway. Naru's not sensitive like that. He's more of a researcher. How about you?"
Chiaki shook her head. "I don't have any ESP. I only have PK, PK-ST at that."
"I see—you know quite a bit about parapsychology I take it."
"Kei-sensei taught me all about it," said the dark-haired girl with fondness. "She was the only one to defend and support me this whole time aside from Nee-chan. I feel so bad for putting her through this."
Mai leaned her cheek on her hand. "Ubusuna-sensei seems really caring—kind of cool that she's into this kind of thing. What about your sister?"
"Nee-chan doesn't care about any of this. She only comes to the biology club because she's bored. She's more into competitive things, like sports."
Odd. Chizu expressed plenty of interest earlier. "Oh, okay. She did tell me before you came that she's part of the track team."
Chiaki scrunched her brows. "How much earlier?"
"Like two minutes before you showed up?"
"But she told me she was already at track…" Chiaki mumbled barely audible to Mai. "Maybe she was running an errand."
Interesting.
"It must be that Chiaki girl cursing the school," stated Ayako after Mai told the group about her encounters.
Mai frowned and tapped her fingers on the table. Even if Chiaki said she'd curse people, she didn't seem capable of that—ability-wise and personality-wise. She didn't talk to her for long, but her gut told her Chiaki hadn't done anything wrong.
"She only has PK-ST, she said," Mai defended. "Wouldn't she need the other one? The one for living things."
"PK-LT?" John answered.
"Yeah, that one." She felt the piercing stare of Naru on her and found him with a raised brow. His eyes read, Shouldn't you know the name? She pretended she didn't see him and looked at every other point of the room.
Bou-san put a hand on his hip, "You're not wrong, Jou-chan, but some psychics like Nina Kulagina can use both PK-ST and PK-LT. I mean, it is rare though, no matter how strong the psychic is. Do you know that British psychic, Dr. Oliver Davis? He is one of the strongest PK-ST users, being able to throw a large aluminum ball into a wall. Even so, he hasn't been able to use PK-LT."
"Wow… Oliver Davis, huh? I've had a reading or two from his one book. Seems like a smart guy," Mai commented. Masako chuckled while hiding her face to the side. Did she say something funny?
"Uri Geller—the one who popularized spoon bending—claimed to have both PK and ESP, which is just as rare," added John.
"Okay, then this Kasai girl probably has both," stated Ayako, like it was a fact.
"The girl can barely bend a spoon." Mai got up to make tea while everyone shot out theories.
"If she has latent PK-LT, she may be fulfilling her curse unintentionally. Whatever the case is, we should continue what we have been until further leads arise," said Naru, sitting at the table.
As everyone filtered out to resume their exorcisms, or to adjust the cameras in Lin's case, Masako glanced back at Naru and Mai before reluctantly closing the door behind her.
Mai set Naru's tea in front of him before taking a seat beside him. They shared a comfortable silence as she sipped her own cup.
"Kasai Chizu gives me strange vibes," she started. She rested her cheek in her hand and traced the lip of her cup. Although Naru was still focused on his laptop, she could tell he was listening. "She says she's not interested in all this… and yet, she came by to ask me about the psychics on our team. She even figured out that I have ESP."
"We don't know her intentions, but we should proceed with caution."
"Noted!" She went to take another sip only to notice something off. She squinted her eyes at the corner of the room. There was a shadow that didn't belong.
Her suspicions were confirmed as the shadow looked to be pulsating, slowly rising from the ground. "Naru," she whispered, tugging on his sleeve. The dark-haired teen followed her gaze and stood up, standing in front of her.
The lights flickered before shutting off entirely, the sound of the door lock engaging.
"Is that the same shadow figure from last night?" he asked, slowly ushering her away from the shadow as it grew. She held onto his arm, trying to tug him back.
"Yeah."
The shadow opened its eyes to reveal two distorted pupils. Mai gasped and tightened her hold on Naru's arm.
It reminded her of the demon that attacked her from the hotel.
Naru glanced down, seeing the terror on her face. Understanding, he backed them both away from the figure. "Mai, you need to focus. Use your warding spell."
Taking a deep breath, she nodded and called for Usa-sama. Protect Naru, please.
The shadow figure never took its eyes off her, slinking toward them. Mai stepped in front of Naru and positioned her hands. She started by reciting Usa-sama's prayer before steeling her will.
"Naumaku sanmanda bazaradan kan!"
The shadow hissed before disappearing, just like last night.
Mai let out a breath she didn't know she was holding. "It was so close…," she said, a hand on her chest. "Are you okay, Naru?"
"Yeah." He crouched to the floor and studied the area where Usa-sama stood. He waved a hand over the space and adopted his thinking pose.
She couldn't help but watch him, enamored. His curiosity was endearing considering that he probably couldn't even see the deity. A small smile made it onto her face.
Feeling her staring at him, he turned over. "What are you doing?"
Heat crept up her cheeks and she quickly averted her gaze. "Nothing! And I see you met my friend, Usa-sama," she changed the subject. She picked up the rabbit deity, "Usa-sama, this is Naru. Naru, Usa-sama."
"Interesting," was all Naru said. Within a second, he took out his phone and snapped a picture, surprising Mai. He studied it carefully before allowing her to see it when she made a fuss.
It looked like she was holding onto air while making the most ridiculous face imaginable.
"I hope you're deleting that."
He smirked.
"Don't worry, this will only be used for research purposes."
"NARU!"
Mudra* = Buddhist hand signs
Otsukimi* = Mid-Autumn Festivals for Moon-viewing. Also called "Jugoya" for the fifteenth night of the month. This year, it's on 9/29! Our rabbit friend is relevant during this celebration!
A/N: Hi friends! And so, the next case commences! I decided to go with a mixture of manga and anime material for this case since I feel like the anime left out a lot of crucial information.
Anyhow, I don't have too much to say about this chapter other than things are rolling along! I hope the next chapter doesn't take nearly as long to write, haha. I've just been so lazy after work ngl ; ; sometimes I just wanna lay down and do something mindless, like play a game or watch videos. I'm constantly brainstorming and internally writing, but it doesn't always make it into Word in a timely manner LMAO
Thank you for reading and commenting! I'd love to hear your thoughts or predictions for this chapter!