Monday

Only a week after Naru and Lin's return, in the middle of April, they received a request for a case.

"Ito-san sent up baking for you."

Naru was seated at his desk, typing away.

"I don't want any." Was all he said in reply.

Mai looked at Naru, feeling awkward knowing that Yuusei was standing in the office behind her, listening to his every word.

"You sure?"

Naru's voice turned cold. "I'm sure."

Mai closed his office door slowly, glancing behind her sheepishly. "Sorry, Yuusei-san."

Yuusei smiled at her and shrugged. "It's okay. You and Yasuhara-san should help yourselves. And, uh... you should come by the bakery on your lunch break." The older boy was saying as he opened the door. "We added a new iced coffee to the menu. It's really good."

Yasu's voice chimed in from his desk, where he sat watching their interaction with a grin. "I will, Yuusei-san!"

"Oh! For sure, Yasuhara-san." Yuusei blinked at the boy, like he just realized that he was there too.

"Although, it's too bad. Mai doesn't drink coffee." Yasu feigned a sad expression.

Mai flashed a glare over her shoulder and then turned back to Yuusei, smiling softly. "I like iced coffee and I'll come try it!"

"Okay, cool!" Yuusei waved, closing the office door behind him as he left.

Yasu and Mai lunged for the baked goods at the same time, bumping shoulders as they fought to grab the apple cinnamon one.

"Aha!" Yasu pulled back victorious, looking down at the pout on Mai's face.

Mai jumped for it, and he raised it above his head where she couldn't reach. "Give it!"

"A-am I at the wrong place?" A voice asked, unsure.

Mai and Yasu both jumped, their heads swiveling towards the door.

An older man stood at the door with his hand on the knob, and he was looking at the name on the frosted glass for confirmation that he was in the right establishment.

Mai recomposed herself with an awkward laugh, going to greet him properly. "I'm sorry about that. You're looking for Shibuya Psychic Research?"

"Yes..." The man trailed off, looking between the two of them. "I'm here to speak to Shibuya Kazuya? I have a request about a possible... haunting?"

Mai blinked.

Oh!

The man's name was Oda Arima, and he was the mayor of Oguni Village.

While she went into the kitchen to prepare some tea for him, Mai pulled out her phone and searched the village as she had never heard of it before.

Oguni Village was in the Iwate Prefecture, about a seven hour drive from Tokyo. Though, apparently it was located in the mountains by the sea, which meant that it would probably take longer to get to the village itself.

Please, don't be an actual case. Mai thought as she brought in the tea, quietly setting it down in front of the man. The thought of having to drive that far away for their first case was daunting to her.

"Thank you, miss." Arima said to her, wiping his sweat with a napkin.

Mai smiled at him, taking a seat across from him.

Arima was a middle aged man, average in height and plain in appearance, with brown eyes and ink black hair. He wore a suit, though he wrenched off the jacket as soon as he sat. He seemed a bit apprehensive to be in the office, but the fact that he had traveled so far about the case meant he was probably quite serious in his request.

Naru opened his notebook, leaning back as he looked at the man. "Would you provide the details of your case?"

"R-right, uh... you see, our village has a lot of urban legends about a tunnel near the village." Arima wiped at his forehead once more and tried to smile. "As long as I can remember, there have been many stories about strange events happening in it but as I got older, I realized they are often just a way the elders scare kids from going into the forest."

Naru waited for him to continue, having found nothing of interest yet.

"We call it the Howling Tunnel."

Mai blinked, recognizing the name. "Howling Tunnel? Isn't that—"

"A movie!" Arima laughed, nodding at her. "I guess the urban legends about it generated enough interest for a movie to be based off of it, totally fictional of course, but... strange things do happen."

"You said that the stories were used to scare kids away from the forest, though?" Naru questioned blankly, beginning to tap his pen on his notebook impatiently.

"They were just stories but about ten years ago, after the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, the tunnel became flooded for a short period of time and a young girl drowned to death there."

Naru's pen stopped.

"Despite the scary stories about the tunnel, some of the teenagers go and explore, and this girl was one of them. After her death, there are continuous rumors about people hearing crying coming from the tunnel and, uh... there is a nearby road. An unnatural amount of car crashes occurs around it. Always in the same place. Hydro workers who have to pass it to get to the dam constantly complain about their radios cutting out, and in some cases their car batteries will just suddenly die."

That was strange, indeed.

"That's all?" Naru asked.

"No, there's more." Arima started sweating once more, his eyes flicking to Naru's hands where he had started writing. "We boarded up the tunnel after the young girl drowned but some kids still manage to get inside. There is an incident that happened recently. One of the kids attacked another unprovoked, and they have no memory of doing it. When questioned, they claimed that they saw the face of the girl who had drowned ten years prior, and then everything went black."

Mai felt a chill run up her spine. She knew that they would be taking this case.

Friday

Day 1

The drive was as terrible as Mai knew it would be.

Her legs were asleep as she stepped out of the SPR van, and she cringed as pricks and needles traveled up her feet.

"This sucks. We're gonna have to make that drive back." Mai groaned as she fell into step with John, who rode with Bou-san and Ayako.

John stretched his arms above his head, sighing at the relief. "Yes, it's been a long time since we had to travel so far for a case."

"Since the Yoshimi case." Mai said with a yawn. The drive to Noto had been just as awful. She looked around the train station parking lot they had stopped in, searching for a kimono clad girl. "Masako didn't arrive yet?"

Masako had been smart. She'd taken one look at the route and how long it would take to drive and decided that she would be taking the bullet train. Mai wished she could have done that too, but Naru shot her down before she even had the chance to bring it up.

Ayako stopped beside them, looking around them with a pleasantly surprised expression. "This is Oguni Village? It's quite nice."

"This is not Oguni Village." Naru replied, his face set in stone.

Mai had taken one look at him and just knew he was in a bad mood. He was probably grumpy he couldn't take the bullet train too.

"Then where are we?" Ayako asked with a frown.

Apparently, they were in Miyako city. One of the cities that had been devastated by the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in 2011. It was right on the coast of the sea, with new buildings and the smell of salt in the air.

"—we're waiting here for a councilman of Oguni Village. He's going to take us up the mountains to the village once Hara-san arrives." Naru explained and glanced at his watch. "He should be here within the half hour."

This council member was not there within the half hour. He arrived almost two hours late, long after Masako arrived.

"Excuse me, are you the ghost hunters from Tokyo?" A man in his forties approached them cautiously, looking from each person in the group. He had brown hair and was quite lanky. "I'm Kimura Genta, a council member of Oguni Village. I'm here to—"

"Let's go." Naru cut in coldly, walking past him.

Mai and Yasu shared an uneasy look before they followed him, entering the van once more.

Genta awkwardly shuffled around for a moment before he retreated to his car as well. They followed him as he drove through Miyako, heading up a street that disappeared into the trees of the mountain that lined the edge of the city. They drove for about a half hour up a smooth road and just when Mai was starting to nod off, he turned to the left.

This road was not as smooth. It was bumpy dirt road that rocked the SPR van side to side and made Mai feel car sick after the ten minute mark.

"I'm gonna be sick." Mai mumbled, holding her stomach.

"What's that?" Yasu suddenly said and she looked up.

There was a sign on the side of the road that indicated they were entering the village. However, that was not the interesting part. Below the village name, the sign read something odd.

"The Japanese Constitution is not in effect past here"

Mai narrowed her eyes, feeling uneasy at the words. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"I don't know but... it's really creepy." Yasu said and pushed his glasses up his nose. "Looks like we're finally here."

The village finally came into view and Mai looked out the window with wide eyes, car sickness completely forgotten.

Looking at Oguni Village made her feel like she had entered a time warp. The whole village was surrounded by trees and every house looked traditional and old. There were no signs of modern supermarkets or stores and as they drove along the main road, every single local stared at them as they passed.

Genta's car slowly came to a stop in front of an old, traditional looking house.

"This is totally archaic." Ayako deadpanned as soon as they stepped out of the car. She glanced at Masako and smirked. "You fit right in."

Masako smiled sharply. "Are you getting memories of the old days? It must have been a very long time since you've lived in villages like this, Ayako."

Beside her, John snorted into his palm, immediately ducking his head to hide his amusement when Ayako's glare flashed to him. Before she could say anything, a female voice called out sharply.

"Dad!" Footsteps approached from behind and Mai turned, only to stumble forward as they bumped into her shoulder as they passed by. A girl, with long hair and a pale face, shot Mai an annoyed look before stopping in front of Genta.

Genta tried to steer her away, talking quietly. "I'll come see you later, Ko. I'm busy at the moment—"

"I need money." Ko held out her palm expectantly. When she saw her dad hesitate, she scoffed. "You want me to starve? You didn't buy groceries and I'm hungry."

"Okay." Genta sighed and dug into his pocket, pulling out a few bills. Ko yanked it from his hand before he even passed it over, stalking off without casting the group a single glance. Genta coughed awkwardly. "S-sorry, that's my daughter."

"Jeez, she didn't even apologize." Ayako complained as she stood beside Mai, her eyes narrowed on the rude girl as she walked away.

Masako flicked her hair over her shoulder and approached Naru. "Where will we be sleeping for the duration of our stay here?"

Naru didn't glance down at her and simply stared up at the old house in front of them with his arms crossed across his chest. "Here, I assume."

"Here?!" Everyone chorused as once, snapping around to look at the house.

Genta unlocked the door, laughing in embarrassment when he had to jingle the door to get it to open. "This is one of the unoccupied houses here in Oguni. We do not have hotels here since tourism is pretty much nonexistent." He guided them inside and watched as they all took a look around curiously. "There is only one floor."

Bou-san slid open one of the rice paper doors, looking into a small room with tatami floors. "How many rooms?"

"One." Genta answered and watched as everyone turned to him and then back to the space.

Mai walked across the main room and peaked into the single bedroom at the back. It was small, even smaller than her one in her old apartment. The living room was bigger, though not by much. The kitchen was even smaller, and Mai curiously turned on the stove to see if it would work.

Sensing the mood plummeting even further as the group explored the house, Genta bowed and took a step back. "I will give you the time to settle in. You can come find me or Arima if you have more questions. We will be in our office down the road, it is right beside the Matsuyama food stall." Then he made his escape.

Bou-san snickered at the somber mood among them and walked towards the light switch, flicking it up. The room lightened with a dull yellow tint for a few moments but then the bulb began flickering before turning off completely. He flicked it off and on a few times.

Uh oh.

Already sensing his train of thought, Yasu tried the kitchen light and they all deflated as it failed to turn on too, letting them know that the power had cut out.

Naru sighed, dropping his bag on the ground at his feet. A dust cloud lifted from the impact of it and his eyes grew colder as he watched it. "This..." He trailed off before letting out a sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose. Although he didn't finish his sentence, everyone understood immediately.

This sucks.

After going through the hassle of fiddling around with the lights and the generator, Lin was able to return electricity to the house.

They spent the first few hours in Oguni cleaning rigorously. Although Ayako and Masako were a lot snottier about their complaints of the house, everyone agreed that it needed to be cleaned before they could even settle in. Once that had been done, it was late evening and they set on working out the sleeping arrangements.

"Well, I mean it's pretty obvious we'll all have to sleep in the same room." Bou-san said as he looked between the main living room and the bedroom. "I guess we'll just have to decide which one we'll be using a base."

Lin went around both of the rooms, counting how many plugs there were and testing if they worked. "We'll use the living room as the base." He decided and everyone picked up their sleeping bags, dragging their feet into the bedroom to lay them out.

They fit side by side on the floor, perfectly.

"I hope none of you snore." Yasu laughed as he looked at their sleeping bags. He turned back to the living room, raising an eyebrow. "How is any of the equipment going to fit in here?"

"Don't worry about the equipment for now since this isn't the place we're investigating." Naru replied and pulled out his laptop, setting it up on the coffee table. "We've had a long day and it'll be impossible to get any work done at this hour. You're free to do as you please for the rest of the night."

Relief flooded everyone's expressions and Mai collapsed onto the floor in the living room. Leaning back against her overnight bag with a deep sigh, a twinge of alarm zapped through the line causing her body to stiffen.

Hands coming up to her chest, Mai recognized that the feelings were not her own.

Baku.

She closed her eyes, focusing on her breathing and putting her body into a trance state to enter the astral plane.

When she opened them again, she was hovering over the space of the small house. She searched for the familiar sight of her shikigami but he was no where to be found, through she could feel him off in the distance.

Anxiety coursed through the line connecting them and Mai frowned, taking a step forward to start looking for him. She called out to him and was immediately hit with his warning.

Something's here.

The distant sound of someone calling her name stopped her and she hesitated, caught between figuring out what was wrong with Baku and waking up to answer whoever was trying to wake her.

Her name was called once more, this time more urgently and she cast an unsure glance back at the empty space before falling back into her body.

"What?" Mai asked as soon as she opened her eyes. Gone was the hustle and bustle of everyone and instead was replaced with the quiet sound of typing on a laptop. "Did you need something?" She asked the only other occupant in the room.

Naru glanced at her briefly. "No."

"Where is everyone?" Mai pushed herself to sit up, looking around in confusion. She glanced at the clock on the wall and realized a half hour passed.

"They went to find something to eat." Naru replied, his fingers not pausing as they travelled across the keyboard quickly. "They said they would bring us back something."

"Oh, okay." Mai muttered, silence enveloping them as she looked around the room awkwardly.

She sat for a few moments longer and then got up to make her bed, taking longer than needed smoothing out the creases in her bedsheets. She returned to the living room and stood in the doorway, watching as he typed.

"What is it?" He asked.

Mai started. "Uh, you want tea or something? I can get the kettle started or if you need something set up I can—"

"I don't need anything at the moment." He replied quickly.

Mai nodded. "Okay."

Even though he did not want any, she busied herself with making a cup of tea for herself. She needed an excuse to be out of the room. In the office, Yasu was usually there with them so she rarely found herself alone with him, and she was thankful for it.

Naru seemed so unfamiliar to her suddenly.

The air around him was much calmer now and he didn't seem so cold anymore. She had expected to be excited about his return, and she was, but she was also having trouble adjusting to him being back in the office.

Not to mention how much his appearance had changed, as Ayako had no shame in mentioning. Almost two years could change a lot in someone, especially for young adults who were still growing.

Seventeen year old Naru was tall and lanky. He was grieving and working day and night, barely eating healthy food and so his physical appearance must have taken a toll from his lifestyle. However, back then Mai didn't know any better. Seeing him now, she realized the difference. Naru was still lean, but his clothes didn't drape over his body like they did before. His hands and face filled out and he had a healthy glow. He also cut his hair a bit shorter, and it looked a lot more put together because of it.

Naru no longer looked like a boy, and Mai had trouble meeting his eyes because of it.

She let out a long sigh. "Oh boy." She whispered to herself, trying to shake away the distracting thoughts and focus on the tea.

"Mai."

Her hands froze, shoulders becoming stiff as the voice rang throughout her head. The call of her subconscious tingled at the back of her mind, sending recognition through her in a way she hadn't experienced since they said goodbye.

Gene?