I'm alive! Happy New Year! So sorry I haven't update in a while and I'm sad to say that I probably won't be updating too frequently in the immediate future. I've been dealing with some personal matters and I hate to say it but I've had some serious writers block as of late but I swear to the Lord above out of all the fics I have open that I probably won't finish I'll finish this one and I won't do it half-assed either. So please bear with me and thank you all so much for your wonderful reviews and messages and for sticking around this long! Enjoy and I hope you stick it out to the end with me!
Chapter 3-Not Our Business?
A Little Earlier…
April Day 2, 7:44 P.M.
"Hara-san, do you have any insight?" Naru asked once everyone had assembled in Base.
"I can sense one spirit here, I don't know the gender or age at which they died, but I know they did not want to die," Masako said, rubbing her arm. "From their anger and coldness to this place, I would say that whoever they are either died on the property or was tied very deeply to it."
"That gives us something to look for in our research tomorrow," Naru said turning to Monk and Mai. "Did you guys find anything?"
"Considering I got molested by a plant, yeah I say we did," Mai answered handing the thermal camera to Lin. She noticed the priest's concerned expression and smiled at him. "I'm exaggerating, John, don't worry." Seeing the priest relax, Mai turned to Lin. "I rewound it to when we entered the greenhouse, so just put in on the big monitor and you'll see what we found.
Once Lin had set up the camera's feed to the larger monitor, he actually got up out of his seat and gave Mai access to the controls. Not that she minded really.
On the screen, everyone could see the difference in temperature of the vines and were quite bewildered when they saw the vines curl around Mai's fingers. "Then my phone rang and while I was taking the call-"
"Because that's what I pay you for." Naru's monotone sarcasm interrupted Mai's explanation much to her annoyance.
"Monk's been glued to his phone too, besides had I not taken the call we wouldn't have caught this." Mai nearly rolled her eyes as she fast forward the clip. "The call was a small emergency from my friends and as the conversation became more intense we can see this."
The thermal showed a longer vine close to the ground heat up and slowly stretch down as Mai's phone conversation intensified. It reached the ground and slithered its way to Mai's ankle before encasing it. The feed stopped and Mai leaned back with her arms crossed. "We'd have to test out the theory more but it seems that negative emotions are enough to power the spirit to use the vines to attack people."
"However-"
"Amateurish at best?" Mai actually did roll her eyes before slumping her head down in defeat. She knew she was reaching but the idea made sense when she and Monk talked it over.
"C'mon, Naru, she does have a point," Monk said shooting a sympathetic look at the teenaged girl.
"Oh dear…" Mai could hear John sigh to the medium next to him.
"Ridiculous," Masako muttered back.
But Naru simply scanned the room with a raised brow. "Actually, I was going to say that your theory makes sense for your specific experience," he explained, opening his notebook to his notes from the interviews. "During our interviews none of the victims or the vines mentioned having an intense conversation or argument prior to the attack. That isn't to say that one occurred somewhere else on the property at the same time or that we didn't receive the complete story. It is definitely a theory we should test out. Good work, Mai."
Pleasantly surprised, Mai couldn't help but raise a brow and grin at her boss. "Thanks, Naru, I try."
"On that note, I think we've done enough for the moment. We'll continue to collect data tomorrow and conduct some research. Father Brown, can I trust you to get that started tomorrow afternoon until Mai gets out of school?" Naru looked to the blond priest who only smiled and nodded.
"Of course!"
"Mai, I'd like you to report to the library when you're done class instead of coming here. When you and John have finished we'll compare our notes."
"You got it," Mai said with a grin.
"Takigawa and Hara-san will report here and we'll continue the investigation on our end. Good night."
Once again dismissed, everyone gathered their things and headed out of the building. Mai walked quickly down the few steps of the building with her phone in hand as she scrolled for a certain friend. "Someone's in a hurry to finish gossiping," she heard Monk tease behind her. His long strides catching up to her quickly.
"Says the one who bolted out of Base yesterday to answer his phone." The teen rolled her eyes as she placed the device to her ear.
"Point taken," the man replied with a shrug. "Who are you calling anyway?"
"Moshi moshi, Mai-chan!" Yasuhara's chipper voice was loud enough for the monk to hear. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"
"Hey, Yasuhara, I was wondering where you are right now?" Mai decided to ignore the monk next to her and continue her investigation.
"Actually, I'm in Shibuya running errands. Did Naru forget something at the office? I can run and get-"
"That's okay, that's not why I'm calling." She tried her best to be cheerful but knew she probably failed. "Michiru texted me that she saw you near Hachiko square-"
"She did? I was just there not that long ago, she should have said hi. I don't think I've seen her since her party." With that, Mai's heart sank a little, but it bobbed back up. If he was dating Kuroda, and possibly cheating on Kiko, why would he be so eager for Michiru to say hi, when she could bust him?
"That's what I told her, but she didn't listen to me." She managed to laugh as some of her tension subsided. "Sorry to bother you, I really should have just texted you."
"Don't be sorry, it's good to hear from you. No sedans as of yet, I've been keeping my eye out." Mai could practically see his cheesy grin and gleam of his glasses. "Naru probably has a ton of work for you to do, so I'll let you go. Bye, Mai!"
"Bye, Yasuhara." She hung up and looked back at the monk who did not take his eyes off of her throughout her conversation. "Can I help you?"
"Wanna clue me in? What was that about?" Monk crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes slightly.
With a sigh, Mai took another breath and briefly explained the conversation earlier with Michiru and then of her conversation a moment before. Minus the vision of a white sedan crashing into her friend's car of course. "So now, I'm curious and need to figure this out. You know what I mean?"
Monk scratch his head scrunched his face in thought. "I do…"
"But…"
"But…is it really any of our business? He and Kiko probably never even got together in the first place and maybe our last case made them realize that they were better friends?" Monk could only shrug as he spoke. "I just don't see him as the type of guy to cheat and he might not have even been with that Kuroda girl. She could have been with someone who looked like him."
The thought had crossed her mind, in fact she really hoped that was the case. But with the fact that Yasuhara admitted to being in Hachiko Square around the time of Michiru's call, well it raised some doubts. "There's only one way to find out," Mai said with a shrug of her own. She adjusted her bag onto her shoulder and flashed a smirk at the monk in front of her. "Why don't you let me worry about that and give that girl a call back? She must be pretty pissed that you ignored her."
She was making her way down the street before her friend could retaliate. "I expect an update!"
Mai waved him off as she paced her way down the street, tucking her phone back into the secret pocket of her skirt. Well, Mai, looks like you get to play detective again, she thought to herself as she waited on a corner for the crosswalk sign to change. I wonder what I can get out of Kuroda…
9:27 P.M.
The two silent types held their staredown for quite some time. Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on how you choose to look at it, both men were very stubborn. And neither of them liked to lose. When one was questioning the abilities of the other, tensions could only rise.
"I'll ask again, did you know that Mai was possessed?" He was the one to break first but he needed to know. Needed to know what exactly he had missed and how could an Onmyouji have missed it as well?
With a breath, but a look of warning, Lin replied, "No, I did not know she was possessed, because she wasn't." He paused and allowed the young manager to process the information. "A demonic spirit had attached to her and was working toward possession, which I had been suspecting for some time."
"And you allowed it to continue-"
"You can stop right there, Oliver." Lin held up a hand and shook his head. "You are forgetting that the extent of my abilities can do more harm than good in situations like this. When you were possessed at the Yoshimi house all I could do was sedate you. Of our team the one who really holds the power to safely exorcise a spirit from a person is Father Brown. Whom I have shared my concerns with."
"How long had you suspected the attachment?" Naru asked, another thought occurring to him. Her nightmares…
"Since the theater when she almost jumped. There was a chance that we were only dealing with a poltergeist but the spirit attached to her convinced her to try to jump off the roof. Now we know that that wasn't necessarily the case. As we know now, Father Brown was able to relieve her of the entity probably right after the Kawaguchi Agency case last month. I didn't sense anything unusual about her during Madoka's case, so we can assume John was successful. However, I don't know exactly how long the spirit has been-"
"October. It started in October, must have been an entity from the Ishikawa case," Naru said crossing his arms in disbelief of his own stupidity. Why didn't he see it sooner?
"And you are suddenly clairvoyant?" The Chinese man raised a brow.
"On our last case, Mai revealed that she had been suffering from insomnia and nightmares since October. Considering we started to see a change in her attitude during Madoka's case at the nursing home I think we can safely assume that she brought something back with her from that portal." He truly was an idiot.
"That would make sense, cases of demonic possession aren't typically a quick event. We both know that it can take months for signs to be made prevalent and with our frequent cases, we all assumed that she was simply worn out. As I said, I spoke with Father Brown a while back and he agreed to keep an eye on her, but even he admitted that unless he witnessed her causing damage to herself or others he wouldn't be able to do much unless she knew about the possession and asked for help."
"And she obviously did as we heard from the conversation between Hara-san and Father Brown. She understood something was wrong, but why keep it from the rest of the team? She never did that before."
"That's something you will have to ask her." At that Lin turned back to his laptop and continued to look at their evidence. "I suggest you discuss this with her sooner rather than later, perhaps tomorrow seeing as I will be continuing our search."
And with that, the young narcissist knew the conversation was over. He definitely did not like it, but even he had to accept that fact. He returned his attention to the evidence before him. There was nothing he could do at the moment, he had to be patient, something even he struggled with.
Day 3, 8:15 A.M.
Mai walked into her homeroom to see Michiru and Keiko gossiping with Taiki. When they saw her, Michiru also snuck a glance over to Kuroda who was blushing as she looked at her phone. "I take it they've told you what they called me about last night?" Mai asked Taiki with a raised brow. He gave a half smile and nodded.
"I tried to tell them it wasn't our business and that we don't know the whole story-" Taiki tried to explain but Michiru pouted and crossed her arms before scowling at the senior boy.
"I don't like that you're defending the cheater, maybe I should keep an eye on you before you do the same to Kei over her." She gave a humph and shot her face away from the group as Keiko let out a sound of surprised disgust.
"Michiru! How can you say that!" Things were getting out of hand and Mai was going to leave it to them to reel everything back in.
Ignoring Taiki's pleading expression, Mai dropped her bag off at her desk and took a seat at the one next to Kuroda. The one person who could make sense of the situation. "Hey, Kuroda, what's up?"
"Mai? Since when do you want to talk to me? I thought you would be over there with Michiru and Keiko." Kuroda raised a brow behind her glasses, already suspicious of Mai's actions.
So much for being easy… "I've been meaning to catch up with you actually," she half-lied. "We haven't really talked since our project for English back in September."
"Well, we've both been busy." Still, wary she turned her attention to her phone, which lit up and made her grin.
"Is that the same boy you were dating before Winter break?" Mai asked quickly, grateful for the opening. When the girl gave her a look, Mai managed to grin and pat the other girl's desk. "Hey, believe it or not I've had a boyfriend before, and that was not the look of someone who got a text from their sibling."
"Actually, I was going to say that Hideki dumped me before New Years, I was apparently not nerdy enough for him," Kuroda replied with a pout. "Joke's on him, the girl he tried to get with turned him down cold. Thought he could come back to me, but nope, if he could leave me once why should I give him another chance?"
"Sounds like a real charmer," Mai said, feeling a sweatdrop at the back of her head.
"What about your boyfriend? You guys broke up too, right?"
Mai scratched her head and looked a little sheepish. "I actually did the breaking up. That was like two months ago."
"You dumped him? Wasn't he in college too?" Mai nodded at this. "Wow, so what are you going after Shibuya-san?"
"Huh!" The brunette could feel her face turning red as she groaned. "Not you too…"
"So you really did dump him for Shibuya-san, how scandalous!" Kuroda was much too excited at the news. Mai could only hold up her hand.
"Now hold on, I'm not sure what or where you 've heard, but I broke up with Shouta because he was becoming possessive and actually was tracing my cell phone." She was surprised that she had come up with that excuse so quickly. But it had the exact effect that she was hoping for. And it wasn't a total lie.
"That bastard!" Kuroda hissed, leaning forward in her seat. "So how did you go about it? Rip it off like a bandaid?"
"Story for another day, you never answered my question." The brunette shook her head trying to bring back her focus to her original task.
"I did, you asked me if the person texting me was the guy I dated before Winter break."
"Then answer this, who texted you? I know that it wasn't just a friend." Mai gave the girl a knowing look and was happy to see a touch of pink grace the bespectacled girl's cheeks.
"Just someone I've been talking to for a couple of weeks." She looked away and down to the floor. Now we're getting somewhere.
"Talking? You've met him before though, right? This isn't some online dating thing right?" Mai did her best to sound nonchalant and curious rather than discerning.
But Kuroda took no offense, in fact she laughed. "We did actually meet on a chatroom, but we've met in person and we actually had a date last night in Shibuya. Here," she scrolled through her phone. She turned the device to Mai with a rather smug grin on her face. "Meet Takara, he just graduated high school on the other side of Tokyo."
Thankful that she didn't have to ask for a picture, Mai was able to get a good look at who Michiru and Keiko must have seen the night before. Even she had to admit the boy did have similar characteristics to Yasuhara, but she was relieved to see that he wore a different type of glasses and his hair color was dark brown rather than her friend's greyish black. Keiko and Michiru worried me for nothing… "You guys are so cute together." She handed the phone back and stood up to go back to her seat. "You'll have to bring him when me and Kei and Michi all go out one night."
But Kuroda's smile fell and Mai started to walk away. "I knew it…You're going going to make fun of me behind my back…"
Concerned, Mai's brows knitted together and she turned back around. "Kuroda, I'd never do that to you." She took a step closer to the girl and put a hand on her shoulder. "I'm really happy for you, truly am. I know you've had a rough time fitting in and you've found someone who makes you happy, why would I make fun of you for that?"
"You're right." Kuroda shook her head in shame. "I'm sorry, Mai, I just-"
"Don't worry about it," she replied with a shrug. "You've obviously been through that before. Just remember, if anyone makes fun of you for being happy, it's because they are pathetic and jealous."
With that, she walked back to her seat. "Alright, so did you get the dirt on the cheating bastard?" Michiru asked, leaning forward and tapping Mai's shoulder.
Mai just turned to her friend and swatted her hand away. "I'm starting to think you need glasses, Michi, because Kuroda's boyfriend looks nothing like Yasuhara-san."
"Hey! That's-"
"Enough, Michiru," their sensei said walking into the classroom. "Good morning everyone."
2:48 P.M.
"Glad you could join us, Matsuzaki-san," Naru quipped as the priestess sluggishly made her way into Base. "Hara-san and Takigawa are doing a walkthrough, they should still be on the first floor if you would like to join them."
Ayako threw her purse on the table before walking out of the room without a word to the stoic young man. Who in turn, raised a brow, what was going on with his team? Mai had been keeping very serious secrets from everyone, something intense is bothering Ayako, Masako seems to be distracted, and Monk definitely is.
While this all worried the young manager to a degree, he knew most of it was not his business. He just hoped that the team could get it together for the remainder of this case.
Ayako found the two investigators on the other end of the building, once again she wordlessly entered the room. "Hey, look who finally made it!" Monk teased with a grin on his face. "Here I thought you were trying to skip out on us."
"Uh huh," was all she said as she looked out the window. Causing the two investigators to share a look.
"Well, she must have realized that I'm much prettier and don't scare away the spirits as easily as she does," Masako remarked.
"Masako has a point." Now both Monk and Masako were concerned. What was going on with Ayako?
"Well, who wouldn't be freaked out when they see the face of such a scary old hag-" Monk braced himself for the blow that would never come.
"Yeah, maybe we should move onto another room," Ayako agreed with no one in particular and managed to sluggishly make her way out of the room.
"What's up with her? I thought for sure she would've clubbed me with that one," Monk said rubbing his head where Ayako should have hit him.
"She was acting odd the other day, too." Masako lifted her sleeve to her mouth. "You should probably talk to her about it."
"Me? Why me?" Defensive arms and brows were raised.
"As if I could get involved with such trivial matters," yet another kimono sleeve was raised as the medium gave her snarky remark. "Besides you are closer to her than I am."
"Oi, you just want to hear about the drama later and not be a part of it in the moment," the man grumbled with a sweatdrop. He straightened and shook his head. "Besides, we're not that close, I mean there was the whole situation last case, but even still-"
I don't want another pretty face, I don't want just anyone to hold.
"Crap, I keep meaning to change that," Monk groaned as he pulled out his phone. He made a sheepish face at the medium and inched his way to the door. "I have to take this, think you can handle the temperature sweep? Great! Thanks! Bye!"
Monk pushed the thermometer and clipboard into the medium's kimono sleeved arms and ran out of the room. Leaving the girl with am unsightly pout on her pretty face. "You just don't want to possibly deal with girl problems…"
She made her way to find the priestess when she overheard the monk's voice, "Hold on a sec, Kimiko-chan, I'll hear you better if I go outside."
Kimiko? Who's Kimiko? Masako wondered as she paced to the stairwell, looking up she could see the priestess leaning over the railing from the second floor.
"Are you guys coming or what?"
"Monk had to take a phone call," she called back taking the steps one at a time at her own pace. What happened on the last case anyway?
"I honestly don't know what to tell you, Mai," a very familiar masculine voice filled the speaker of Mai's phone as she headed to the library after school. "It's likely that your vision and what your guide was trying to tell you are connected, however, you said you've see this vision before? Before you reconnected with him?"
"Yes, I think…" Mai scrunched up her brows and sighed in defeat. "Now I'm not sure. Everything about the scene was familiar. It was like a weird déjà vu moment. I don't know if it's from driving with Yasuhara a lot on recent cases or what, but there was something familiar about seeing that sedan come racing toward my side of his car." She stopped as she waited for the crossing light. Her eyes grew wide at her realization. "It would have t-boned his car and I would have gotten the brunt of the crash. Hozumi, did I see my own death?"
"Okay, take a breath, you're jumping to a lot of conclusions a little too quickly for you to keep up." Mai closed her eyes and obeyed as the light changed and she followed the crowd. "You've had visions in the past without your guide, so it is possible that he was trying to warn you of something else entirely. As for your vision, seeing as you told Yasuhara-san about it, you've either helped prevent it or sentenced it-"
"Are you telling me I shouldn't have told him!" Her voice rose a little too loudly, earning rather condescending looks.
"I'm sorry, I thought you knew." He sounded apologetic, but Mai still felt a pang of anger. "If this it a precognitive vision, then it really is hard to tell whether telling the other parties of the vision about it will help prevent it or seal it in fate. Now, we don't even know if this vision has anything to do with you or your friend, you've had visions where you've played a character or rather another person involved with a case, right?"
"Yeah, I guess. I'm heading to the library to research the property of our newest case, but I don't think my vision has anything to do with it."
"It might have to do with a future case, only time will tell."
"So what? Am I supposed to just avoid riding in his car until I figure out what this vision means?" Her cheeks puffed out as she reached the library and paced around the front door.
"If this is a premonition, then avoiding the situation could do more harm than good." As if sensing Mai's confusion and concern, Hozumi elaborated. "By avoiding it altogether, you could simply transfer the fate to someone else. It could always be someone else in the front seat of his car in the accident."
"Hozumi, you're not making me feel any better…" she groaned, tapping her head one of the columns supporting the overhang. "I may have just sealed my own fate or someone else's. This is really messed up."
"Mai, we've talked about your abilities evolving, when you weren't sleeping and started having certain visions and more cases of clairvoyance while you were awake, I told you that sometimes when one door closes another one opens. In this case, I think several windows might have opened." Mai tapped her again against the column again. "During the time of your attachment, you've shown and developed many different types of psychic abilities, clairvoyance, astral projection, visions, psychometry, just to name a few. In a way, you've been a jack of all trades-"
"Master of none," Mai finished.
"But better than master of one." Mai glanced sideways at her phone. "What I'm trying to say is that with the spiritual and mental shocks you've gone through, your abilities have evolved and changed and developed and now they are starting to manifest in ways that will benefit you in the future."
"By telling me I'm going to die in a car crash?"
"You just don't want our sessions to end so soon," Hozumi teased with a laugh. Mai could practically see the grin on his face. "It's okay to feel a little lost and not have all the answers right now, Mai. It's also okay to be pissed that you don't have the answers. You're at the point where you've done all the footwork you could possibly do to get ahead and now it's time to sit back and watch things unfold. It'll be hard, but in the end everything will make sense."
"I hope you're right." Another sigh and Mai looked up at the building before her. "I better go, John is waiting for me to help with research."
"Everything will be okay, Mai, you just have to believe it will be."
"Thanks." With that they said their goodbyes and Mai tucked her phone in the secret pocket her friend at sewn into her skirt. "If only I could actually believe it like you seem to." She blew her bangs out of her face. "I guess some changes are permanent."
Buzz. Buzz.
Honestly believing the text could wait, and actually really not wanting to pull the device from its pocket, Mai ignored the text and walked into the building. It can wait, I'm supposed to be working anyway.
Masako was not much of an interrogator. No, she preferred to find her information through other means of research. Typically she could get snips and pieces of information from her spirit guides, or in the past she has had one of her assistants do the research for her discreetly. Rarely did she ever find herself having to talk directly to the source.
That's just what she had to do here. She had to figure out what was bothering the priestess and report back to Monk-wait. Why did she have to do this? She, herself, held no benefit with this information. So she was a tad conflicted when she walked into the same room as the priestess.
However, she did have an ulterior motive and Monk just might have given her just the opening to get her answers. She placed the thermometer on the desk and thrust the clipboard to the redheaded woman who was once again staring out the window. Jolted out of her thoughts, she gave quizzical look to the teenager. "If you think I'm going to do more work than I have to, you're wrong," the doll-like girl said with a smug look on her face. "Besides, you look like you need a distraction."
"You're not entirely wrong," Ayako grumbled under her breath.
No witty remark? No condescending reply? No jab at her delicate doll-like features? This was not their usual Matsuzaki Ayako. And what about Monk? Running off to talk on the phone with a girl? That was not like him at all, he was normally much more professional than that.
Come to think of it, Naru and Mai have been different as well. Things were almost normal between them again with their teasing, but they seemed…closer? A lot seemed to have happened since the last case she went on.
"The team seems different since the last case I went on," Masako said finally as Ayako wrote down the temperature. Look at her, making idle small talk, she hated it. "I heard the most recent case was interesting to say the least."
"Considering Madoka plotted our sleeping arrangements, I don't think interesting is the right term," the priestess commented dryly.
"Sleeping arrangements?" the medium echoed with a raised brow.
"Yeah, we didn't realize until we got into our room that she expected us to be live bait for the spirits haunting the honeymoon resort. I wasn't expecting to have Monk walk in on me and I don't think Mai was expecting to walk in on Naru-"
Was the priestess imagining it? Had there been a shift in the air? She turned around and saw how still the medium was. Ayako could have kicked herself. Masako hadn't known about the sleeping arrangements and Ayako knew the girl's feeling for the black clad manager. She was an idiot.
However, she never did see the medium's face. She was turned toward the door, but Monk managed to see it when he finally entered the room. The girl then took her leave and marched gracefully out. "I need to use the restroom, don't wait up for me."
Once her dainty footsteps had faded, Monk raised a brow to the priestess. "What was that about?"
Ayako groaned and smacked her forehead. "I'm an asshole, and that's all there is to it!"
Realizing that what I wrote at the beginning could have been interpreted a few different ways I figured I should say that this is not Dangerous Souls' final case. However, we are getting close I want to say we have about two more cases but that could turn into 3 or 4 (with one of the cases being rather short). I have some ideas for the next case and things are about to get intense so hold on tight!
Also the hundredth chapter is coming up! I can't believe we made it this far and I have something very special planned for it. In the meantime, I want to know, since I've really only gone out and said that one SPR couple is official I want to know who you think is next to get together.
Hope you guys enjoyed I'll update as soon as I can! Please review!