Happy St Patrick's Day! Yes I did do a jig today and managed to get a couple coworkers to join me lol. I made my goal which was to finish and upload this chap before April and I did it! I do apologize as this is not my most exciting case, but I had a ton of character development planned (which I'm sure you've all noticed) and a lot of it will be necessary to know for the next case and I didn't want this case to overshadow the drama that was going on. Anyway, again I'm not going to promise a quick update, but I will say that we still have a few more chaps to this case and then a couple post case chaps. Hope you enjoy!
Chapter 4-"It's My Fault"
Day 3, 4:08 P.M.
"Hi, I'm looking for a friend of mine, he's researching a local business and I offered to come and help him," Mai said to the librarian at the main desk. "He's a young man with blond hair."
"Yes, dear," The librarian said lifting up her glasses. "He's in one of the conference rooms on the second floor."
"Thank you!" Mai took off for the stairs, earning a shush from another librarian. It had been a while since she was a part of the research process, sure she had to take Yasuhara's place when they did the case at the office building last month, but that was different and in the moment she only remembered half of it thanks to her not so friendly neighborhood demon. This time she would be helping John research the property instead of researching workers.
Maybe we do need to research workers too, she wondered as she scanned each conference room she passed. The only issue is the activity has really quieted down since we got here, other than the vines grabbing my ankle, there really hasn't been much. And none of the attacks have been surrounded by a specific person or persons. Definitely not a hoax like the office case, though there is a shot that the attacks might be caused by a hex. It wouldn't be too hard to hex plants into attacking people, right?
"There you are!" an excited voice exclaimed, earning a shush from a distance away. Mai turned around to see the blond priest smiling carrying an armful of newspapers. "I'm hoping you have a little more luck than me. There really isn't much abnormal with the info I've found so far."
"No unsual deaths? How about any deaths?" Mai asked as she held the door for the conference room that John had taken residence in.
"Not that I've found, at this point I wanted to go through the newspapers around the time of when the property changed hands to see if anything was reported, rumor or otherwise. Or maybe an obituary for the former owners." The priest plopped the papers on the table next to his notebook. "Unless you have a better idea of where to look."
"Do you have the names of the previous owners?" Mai asked as John handed her his notebook. It was written in English but Mai was about to make out the two Japanese names written at the bottom of the page. "You didn't find obituaries online for either of these people."
"I found several actually, unfortunately names like Ito and Nakamura are very common and there wasn't any mention of the greenhouse in their obituaries. I was hoping that maybe something in the newspapers but clue me in on which obituary is actually correct."
"Well, do we know what was here before the greenhouse?"
"Originally, it was a family's home but after the industrialization of Tokyo it turned into one of those family run businesses. Reiki I believe was the specialty," John explained, spreading out the newspapers. "That's why the building still seems like a house with a yard, it stayed that way until the 1980s when the Ogawa family bought it and built the greenhouse in the backyard."
Reiki? Like Izumi…I wonder if maybe I should see her again for a session…focus Mai! "Why don't you look into the Reiki family and I'll look into the family that owned the property before them?"
"Sure, you might need to get more newspapers though, I only brought in ones from the 60s to the early 80s," John said with an apologetic shrug.
"No problem, I'm gonna see what else I can find on the computer before I go searching the papers," she said sitting down at the only computer in the room.
Lin was not having much luck as he drove through the village of Kariwa in the Nigata Prefecture. His Shiki weren't really helping any more than Oliver's vague description of his vision. Japan may be an island, but it was huge compared to a tiny human. Even if that tiny human was at least six foot five.
He knew he needed to find a lake that was somewhat secluded, but had a road alongside it. Upon asking some of the villagers he found that there was one on the outskirts that could have been the one he was looking for. There was even a Shinto Shrine not too far from it. He finally saw the lake and pulled over to the side of the road. He stepped out of the car and climbed over the guardrail.
He let out a dejected breath and shook his head. This couldn't have been the lake. He knew as he looked out and saw that it was much too shallow for much too far out. Unless the woman who ran Gene over waded out several meters and simply got lucky that his body stayed there after more than two years, this wasn't the place.
He pulled out his phone and checked the time, it was going to take him several hours to get back to Shibuya especially with the traffic now. His best bet was to head home now and start back up early the following morning.
That would have to work, now he just had to call his already grumpy charge. He raised the device to his ear and listened to the distant ringing, preparing himself. "Any luck?" The slightly annoyed voice permeated the speaker. He certainly was not in the mood for mindless greetings and formalities.
"None," Lin answered, deciding not to have the boy hang in suspense. "I have a few more places I could try but I think it would be best to continue tomorrow. Some of these roads are best not to be travelled after dark."
"Do what you feel is best." He was definitely in a sour mood, the question was, was it due to Lin's lack of results or their conversation the night before.
"How's the case coming?"
"I'm still waiting for John and Mai to return with their research, however it's been pretty quiet. We have captured more footage of the tomato vines moving, however there hasn't been an attack yet."
"That's both good and bad, is it possible that the one employee who was almost strangled might be the sole target of this entity?"
"Unlikely, considering the entity is still present though Aina-san quit without notice. If it was targeting her specifically, why didn't it follow her?"
"Could be attached the to property, but Aina reminded it of someone when it was alive, someone they didn't get along with."
"It could very well be a case of mistaken identity, however the activity is still continuing, though slight." The Chinese man could almost hear the gears turning in the young man's head through the phone.
"If you're planning to do what I think you are, wait until Mai and John get back." Lin let out a breath. "Actually, I'd prefer you didn't do it at all, at least without me there, but I understand your point. It could be a good way to obtain the information we're looking for, but I don't want you to overexert yourself should the spirit decide to attack you."
"I'm not planning on using PK." Despite his monotone demeanor and logical sense, he almost sounded like an annoyed teenager. Which actually probably described him more than calling him the manager of SPR.
"You also didn't plan to use it last summer." Lin truly didn't mean to have as much venom in his voice as he said it, but he really didn't want to have to call Martin and Luella with the update that their son was in the hospital again because he did something stupid and rash. "At the very least take Takigawa with you. You're less likely to be attacked if you aren't alone and even if it does attack you Takigawa can protect you without you having to rely on your PK."
Naru was silent on the other side, meaning two things. He knew that his Chinese assistant was right and that he was finished with this conversation. "It will take me a while to get back to Tokyo, so don't wait up."
"Sounds fine." With that the conversation was over and the call was ended with a beep. Lin slid the device back into his pocket and started for this car.
"He's going to go on his own. I just know it." But there was absolutely nothing he could do as he climbed into the driver's side. Some people were simply hell-bent on their own destruction. And Oliver Davis was one of those people at the moment.
5:42 P.M.
Silence.
There had been total silence in their group for more than two hours now. More than just silence, now that the monk thought about it, it was as though a dark cloud seemed to follow them around as they did their duty and took temperature sweeps. At one point they went back to Base to figure out what they should do next, but Naru wasn't there. So they figured they might as well do another temperature sweep to at least appear productive.
Turns out they found their young ringleader on the phone outside the front door. With their current team accounted for, the three spiritualists continued their business.
But Monk was about to go insane. He truly was. Whatever Ayako had said to the medium shut the girl up completely and judging by the look on her face when he came into the room, he knew it was pretty bad. The priestess on the other hand had been out of sorts since she showed up to the greenhouse a couple days ago.
He knew there stereotype was that men bottle up their emotions and don't like to talk about them, but he didn't realize that the same could apply to women. The only difference was men seemed to be a bit better at hiding that something was bugging them. Something was definitely bothering these girls, but they were tight lipped about what it was.
He greatly envied Mai and John to be out researching and out of the way of whatever drama was going on. He also needed an update on whatever happened with Yasuhara the night before.
To make matters worse, his phone was still ringing off the hook and he couldn't excuse himself to answer it without fearing some other drama would occur between the girls. He forced himself to put the device on silent and in his back pocket.
But what happened? Everything seemed fine on their last case, granted John and Masako weren't there, but the rest of the team seemed to be getting along better than they had in months. Mai was starting to be her old self and the tension amongst them all appeared to have lifted at least for a moment. But what made all of that change? Was it just Ayako and Masako's turn to be glum?
How long are they going to not talk to each other? Monk wondered with a sweatdrop on his brow. Not even one snide comment about being better than each other? This is not normal. Not normal at all.
He watched silently behind the two girls as they travelled to another room. The priestess accidentally bumped into the medium letting out a quick "sorry" only to be returned with a "watch it."
I don't think I can take this anymore! Monk internally groaned with each step he took. Mai hurry up!
"AAAAHHHH!" THUMP. BUMP. CRASH!
"What the hell!" Monk exclaimed being the first to react while the two girls looked back at him in slight horror. He could worry about them later, whoever just crashed and burned needed his help first. So he rushed to the stairs, leaving the medium and priestess still with their mouths open.
"It's my fault. I could have stopped him. I should have stopped him."
The voice was unfamiliar to Mai as she wandered the halls of the house. It must have been the office building of the greenhouse. The layout was very similar, but this must have been when it was a Reiki business. The hall she was in looked similar to the hallway that led to the room where Izumi helped her.
I don't remember falling asleep, she wondered to herself as she walked. Of course, I almost never remember falling asleep. Sorry, John, but maybe I can get some sort of clue. Who was that talking?
She stopped at the door that led to Takuya's father's office in present day. Peaking in she saw what looked like a massage table, several unlit candles throughout room, and black shades drawn on the windows. There were also two chairs, again set up very much like the room where Izumi explained Reiki to her. In one of the chairs sat a woman with her head in her hands.
Cautiously, Mai took another step into the room. "Why didn't I see it coming?" Her shoulders shook with her sobs as she slowly became more hysterical. "Why didn't you come to me?" She bent forward letting out a heart-wrenching wail.
The scene melted away and Mai found herself in the passenger seat of a familiar car, driving down an unfamiliar road. It looked like a city of some sort, not nearly as grand as Tokyo but busy nonetheless. Something about the scene sat like lead in her stomach as she looked to her right at the certain college student who was driving.
"You look chipper," Yasuhara commented as he drove Mai to some unknown destination. The high schooler froze as she remembered seeing this scene on the train a few days before.
"Yeah, well, these things will do that to you," Mai replied for some reason but her voice mixed with another sending a chill down her spine. She did her best to glance over her shoulder to see if there were other passengers in the car.
Is that Masako? Mai wondered, but couldn't get a good look. For some reason her body wasn't allowed to turn all the way. But she did see a head of dark hair and pale skin. Was she wearing a kimono? She couldn't be sure.
"I guess so," Yasuhara laughed as they came to a red light. Mai couldn't do a thing as she knew what would be coming next. "So tell me, what's bothering you?"
Whatever Mai replied back was mixed and jumbled in a way that she couldn't understand. Almost in another language, but most assuredly gibberish, she strained to try to translate it. Why am I not meant to know what I say? Am I even the one talking? Are these even my friends or are we all just playing a part?
"I see what you mean." His face became much more somber as the light changed from red to green and he proceeded forward. Anxiety and dread crept up the teenager as she didn't take her eyes off of her friend as the inevitable happened. "Well, I'm sure that-"
There it was. The look of pure terror. On instinct, or maybe that was just how the scene had to be played out, but Mai turned around just in time to see the white sedan charging at full speed right at her. Yasuhara yelled something, but it wasn't discernible amongst the screams.
The scene melted away again just before the cars made impact. "What was that?" she asked aloud as she found herself in the dark, but without the purple glow. "Jin? Jin! Are you here?"
She began to wander in search of her guide. He usually appears by now, and she really hasn't had a dream without him since they reconnected. "Jin! Where are you?" she called as she started to see a silhouette up ahead. "Jin!" A smile grew on her face as she ran toward it.
Getting closer she noticed she was looking at the back of her boss, but Jin disguised himself as Naru so that wasn't surprising. The closer she got, though, the more uneasy she felt. Why isn't he turning around? He normally greets me by now, she wondered as she finally reached him.
"Jin?" She touched his arm as she reached him and almost screamed as the true sight formed before her.
It wasn't Jin. It was actually Naru! But his head was down with cold, hollow, dead eyes staring down at her as he seemed to sway. Mai looked up and realized he was hanging by a noose. Her breath caught in her throat as she took a step back. Was Naru actually in trouble or was he playing a part in another vision? Did the car accident have anything to do with the case? What was going on?
"It's my fault. I could have stopped him. I should have stopped him."
"No!" Mai exclaimed as she jolted awake, startling her friend. Her heart thundered in her chest as she took a minute to recognize her surroundings. That's right, I'm at the library researching with John.
"Are you okay?" John asked with concerned eyes. Mai took a couple of deep breaths before nodding.
"It was a vision," she said as her friend pushed a bottle of water toward her. She gratefully took a sip.
"An intense one," John commented as he waited for the girl to explain.
"All of my visions have been intense since I started having them again."
"The demon was blocking your visions?" Mai screwed the top back on the bottle.
"More or less, I guess. He did everything he could to make sure I didn't sleep and that's when I usually have my visions. Although…" Her voice trailed as she looked down at her hands. "I have had some while I was awake. One just a couple days ago too."
"Do you think it has something to do with the case?"
Mai shrugged and rubbed her eyes. She could use another nap, but she also didn't necessarily want another one of those visions. I was so distraught about not sleeping and not having visions and then so excited when I had them on the resort case, I forgot what it was like to be apprehensive about them…she wondered as she folded her arms on the table. I've seen much worse, why does this one freak me out so much?
"That's just it, some of it was in my vision now, but I feel like I've seen it before." Mai let out a breath and explained the vision she had while she was on the train. Then she explained the vision she had just then. "So I had thought that my vision on the train was from the future so I called Yasuhara and warned him, but then my friend said that I may have sealed his fate by telling him and now I'm not sure what to think anymore."
"Hmm…" John furrowed his brow as he processed the information. "I have heard that there really is no right way to deal with a vision that predicts the future. By telling the people involved you set things in motion and by not telling them they have no warning and could continue to follow the same path." He watched as Mai's face seemed to twist with guilt. "But we don't even know if this is a prediction. Seeing as you had the same vision just now along with potential clues to the case at hand it's very likely that everything connects somehow."
"You think so?" She raised a brow, not entirely convinced.
"It's worth looking into." He looked at his phone for the time. "We still have an hour before Naru wanted up back, let's use the time to dig and see if we can find anything involving the former owners and a suicide or a car crash or both. It gives us something a little more specific and since you said it looked like a Reiki spa so we can start there."
"All right, if you think it's worth a shot I'm in," Mai decided with a deep breath. Something still wasn't feeling right.
"You should not have been up there, Otou-san," Takuya chided as the group had gathered in the older man's office.
The yell and crash was actually Ogawa senior as he fell down the stairs. Luckily he was fine for the most part, just a twisted ankle, however he had caused quite a stir. "I'm fine, aren't I Takuya? Nothing I won't recover from and I needed to grab something," the older man said with a wave of his hand.
"Well, where is it?" The son was not impressed with the little speech.
"Where is what?"
"What you had to grab from upstairs."
"Well I would have grabbed it if I made it up the stairs, wouldn't I? I got knocked down before I was halfway up."
"Otou-san!" Takuya groaned placing a hand on his head in frustration. Raising parents could be so hard sometimes.
"Hold up," Monk intervened with a hand up. The two other spiritualists in the room seemed to be in their own little worlds, so it looked like it was up to him to get to work. "We still need to figure out exactly what happened."
"What do you mean, what happened? My father disobeyed doctor's orders and proved our concerns about his knee right." Takuya huffed as he proceeded to walk toward the door. "It's a good thing you weren't seriously hurt!"
"Masako, why don't you and Takuya go get some tea?" Monk suggested earning an odd look from the medium. I wish Mai were here, I probably wouldn't have had to suggest tea, she'd just do it.
"I'll go," Ayako replied, quickly making her way to the door. She flashed a smile at the young man in the doorway. "Why don't you show me what you have? I assume you have some tea that you've grown on the property."
"Uh yeah," the young man replied, a faint blush on his cheeks as he followed the priestess.
That's one way to do it, Monk thought before turning back to the owner. "Ogawa-san, what happened when you went upstairs?"
"I know I shouldn't be using the stairs, that's the whole point why my office is on the first floor," Ogawa admitted, leaning back in his chair with his ankle propped up. "But I had to go up there and get something. I just knew I had to get it."
"What did you have to get?" Monk asked, taking a seat across from the man.
"That's just it, I can't remember what it was. I just remember I had to be the one to get it."
Monk and Masako shared a look with each other.
Day 3, 6:53 P.M.
"Not a single car accident involving any of the owners," Mai huffed as she and the priest walked the streets of Tokyo after finishing their research. "We wasted so much time and don't have anything to show for it."
"Now, I wouldn't say that," John said with a smile, sliding one hand into his pocket and keeping a grip on the folder and notebook he had. "We did find that one of the owners of the Reiki business committed suicide."
"Yeah, but that doesn't help us figure out the accident in my dream." She blew her bangs out of her face. Maybe I should get them trimmed again…
"Well, we still don't know the nature of the suicide, he could have been the driver of the other car."
"Then what about the vision of Naru hanging?"
"Two suicides?" John shrugged with a sheepish smile.
Mai couldn't help but chuckle and roll her eyes. "I think you might be reaching a bit, John," she said, letting out a breath. A little bit of the tension released itself, much to her relief.
"Maybe, but you need to relax." They paused at a corner as they waited for the light to turn. "We'll figure out what it means, but until then, we'll just have to go by what we know. Your vision could have many different meanings, maybe it has something to do with a future case."
"I don't know, I've never had a vision about a future case while I was already on a case. At least, I don't think I have." She scratched her cheek as the crossing light changed and the two of them followed the crowd of pedestrians.
"Anything is possible, a lot has changed especially with the entity that had been attached to you. Maybe when he left your abilities shifted a bit."
"Shifted?"
"Yeah, kind of like when you shift gears when you drive, your abilities shifted what you needed to know. Hence why you saw that same vision while you were awake and again while you were asleep, you need to know this information to be prepared later. Whether it's a future event or one from the past, you need to know about it."
"And I can't know why until the moment is right," Mai said as John gave a nod of agreement. "I hope the rest of the guys had some luck, our research really didn't get us too far."
"We're further than we were before," John replied with a smile as they reached the greenhouse. "I'm sure we'll find some way to connect the dots. The suicide might be an important clue. I can already hear Ayako going on about it."
"She'll think it was actually murder, right?"
"Just like how she's convinced we're dealing with an earth spirit." Mai rolled her eyes and laughed. The priestess hadn't made that accusation in a long time, but Mai could still remember it like it happened that morning and could see the woman deciding the suicide was a conspiracy.
"Well, let's find out," she said with a shake of her head and grabbed the door.
Walking into Base it was eerily silent. Ayako was intrigued with her nails while Masako found something to focus on outside the window. Monk on the other hand looked like he was about to go insane, by the time his eyes fell on the priest and high schooler. "You guys are back!" the man said excitedly. "I was wondering when you guys were going to get back."
"It's only a little after seven," Mai answered with a raised brow as she did a headcount. "Where's Naru and Lin?"
"Not sure about Lin, but Naru was here earlier." Monk scratched his head. "Maybe Lin needed him for an errand because he didn't show up when Ogawa senior fell down the stairs."
"He fell down the stairs? Is he alright?" John asked, placing the notes on the table.
"Yeah, just a twisted ankle, but why he was going upstairs is the mystery because he doesn't remember."
"Wait a minute, someone fell down the stairs and it could have been paranormally caused and Naru was nowhere to be found?" There was no way that someone could have been in trouble, with the amount of cameras in the small building, and Naru would have simply sat in Base and watch it happen. Mai knew that, everyone should know that.
"Relax, Mai," Ayako finally spoke. "Right before the incident I saw him on the phone outside. He probably didn't hear the commotion."
"He wasn't out there now, we just came in the front," Mai countered, something did not feel right.
"Maybe he was on the phone with Lin and Lin needed him to do something," Monk said with a shrug.
"And not tell anyone?"
"It's Naru, when do we ever get hourly updates from him?"
Mai had to admit this was true, Naru liked to be given updates, but wasn't too keen on giving them. "Maybe," she said reluctantly. She took a seat in the folding chair next to the table, feeling her phone rest on her leg through the pocket of her skirt.
"Did you guys find out anything?" The medium finally found her voice as she walked over to the priest who opened his notes.
"We found out this building used to have a Reiki business. Before that it was simply a family home and then in the 80s the Ogawa family bough the property and built the green house." John flipped a page as Mai discreetly pulled out her phone to check it. "We also found that one of the Reiki owners actually committed suicide."
"Are we sure it was a suicide?" Ayako chimed in, Mai would have laughed if she wasn't too busy opening the unread text she received when she got to the library.
Lin has some personal matters to attend to. You and I will be running the case. Try to be back by 7 so we can compare notes.
It was from Naru. Sent around four. Something was definitely not right.
Why would Naru say he and I would be running the case only to run off before John and I got back? She wondered, the conversation around her fading to the background. If Lin had personal matters to attend to, why would he ask Naru to leave the case if what Monk said was even remotely true? Where was he when Ogawa fell down the stairs? Where is he now?
And of course, because it was perfect timing, her mind flashed a scene from her vision.
Naru hanging from a noose.
She didn't care what the others would say. She didn't care about being reprimanded for being careless. Something was wrong and she needed to do something. Which is why she quickly raced out the door, leaving the rest of her friends stunned.
There was only one place she could think of that Naru could be. He shouldn't have gone alone, but he was too prideful of a man to ask someone to come with him. He would rather hear the reprimand and ignore it like any other angsty teenager.
Lin wasn't going to be happy about this, but he would be even unhappier if she didn't make an attempt to look for her boss. She threw open the back door and ran toward the greenhouse.
The glass was fogged over making peaking inside impossible. Mai ran to the door and gave a hard tug.
But it wouldn't budge.
"Shit."
For once, Mai isn't the damsel in distress. Why was she the only one who was concerned? Is Naru gonna be ok? Ok, I think we know the answer to that one lol. Will Mai save the day? That's a better question. Will she tell Naru about the demon? What did Ayako's mom say to her? What's Masako going to do? Who keeps calling Monk? What's with Mai's vision of Yasuhara? Poor John is really just a bystander.
So I think I covered most of the unanswered questions. Feel free to add in some more in a review and also predictions! I love seeing if you guys can see through me the way that I can (and berate myself for it being so obvious but I know my own mind so...lol) I'll update ASAP especially since I left you on a bit of a cliffhanger.
Hope you enjoyed! Leave a review! :D