ʕ•ﻌ•ʔ MAI ʕ•ﻌ•ʔ
"Wow! It's a real church." Mai gaped at the well structured architecture and started twirling and running on ahead the wide open space.
"Mai, don't run or you'll fall." Bou-san reminded the high schooler as he got off the car he was driving. It was a day before Christmas where the temperature is close to cold, but not cold enough compared when there is snow.
"Yay! Yay! How cute!" Mai continued to gush as she saw the area of the church,
"Huh? me?" Bou-san teased, just as John decided to get off the same car where the monk and Bou-san got off from.
Hearing his words, Mai pouted towards the monk and started kicking him. "Silly! I wasn't talking about you— I meant the church, the church!"
"Hey John, did you see that?! She just kicked me! tell her to calm down!" John only sweat dropped, not really knowing what to do about the two goofs.
"A church during the Christmas season! This is nice!" Mai nodded to herself, placing both her hands at her hips as she gazed at the church with bright energy. "—that's the way to do it."
"Mai!"
The high schooler flinched at hearing Naru's voice just as the van stopped by the church to park. "If you came out to play, then leave now."
Mai salutes, stiff. "Right! This is a job! I'm fully aware of that boss!" Mai says but soon frowns at the dark colors of Lin and Naru, who got off from the back of the van while Lin on the front with Kikyo.
"Uwah~! This brings back so many memories..." Akemi gasped, taking in the air of the church which was the sight that Akemi saw as she stepped off the back of the van, following after Naru.
If Naru felt just a small breeze of the cold depending on his usual clothing— it was nothing compared to Akemi's get up as she practically was covered thick despite the lack of snow.
Akemi wore a plain gray beanie that was a shade darker than her silvery grays waves that she decided to keep flowing down her back instead of tying it up. Akemi also wore black and red ear muffs that matched her thick winter jacket of red and black fur. Instead of wearing a skirt like she usually does, Akemi opted to wear black fitted jeans that hugged her amazing figure with black leather boots.
Mai sweat dropped as Akemi also took out a scarf and wrapped it around her shivering form that covered half her face as well as some leather black gloves.
This was the first they ever saw Akemi's cold state, her teeth chattered and her hands continued to shiver despite the layers she wore.
"...Hey, although we all came to the church together, Naru and Lin-san have quite a different taste in fashion from ours..." Mai muttered, weakly chuckling at the sight of Akemi turning for Naru to properly wrap her scarf around to make sure no wind could get in as her hands continued to shake and made it hard for her.
"They're in black too." Bou-san nodded next to the teenager, his eyes straying towards Akemi as she was more baffling.
"What's with Akemi's get up?" The monk asked as Akemi turned to thank Naru before going up to help Oliver get down.
"I read from the magazine that Akemi-sempai is really sensitive to the cold— but I never thought it would be that sensitive..." Mai gushed at the sight of Oliver's boots and mini red scarf that matched Akemi's jacket.
"I agree," Bou-san hums, equally as excited seeing Oliver with his scarf.
~~~
ʕ•ﻌ•ʔ AKEMI ʕ•ﻌ•ʔ
Akemi crossed her arms tighter around her waist as they walked towards the church. She knew all her life that she was sensitive to the cold, that she shivers easily but somehow today was too much for her.
At times Akemi would only have cold hands when she wore her usual layers rarely shivered and chattered but somehow this day... She didn't know what was wrong today.
"Brown-kun!" a priest calls, the doors of the church opening to reveal an old man with brown hair and eyes to match, not that old but by the state of his worry— it decreased somewhat of his youth.
"Touju-san," John greets the priest, the others following among him to greet the priest.
"I'm glad you came." John and the other priest clasped hands as they greeted each other before John turned and gestured to Naru, who was not far behind him but the priest couldn't help but glance at Akemi's layered figure and the two greeted each other with a smile as they connect eyes.
Akemi get those looks a lot on Winters, so she is quite used to it.
"Shibuya-san, this is our client, father Toujo." John gestures to Naru. "Father, this is Shibuya-san, the President of Shibuya Psychic Research."
"Thank you for coming, please come in." Toujo opened the doors of the church wider, and Mai peeked in to see the inside.
"I hope you don't mind having a dog inside the church?" Akemi spoke up, her voice slightly muffled from her scarf but she still gestured to Oliver who stood beside her, his tongue sticking out on the side.
"Oh not at all, in fact I think the children would be delighted to have a dog over," Toujo smiled, Akemi giving a thank you of relief.
'Yay, this will be my first time visiting a church~!' Mai cheered to herself, clasping her hands around Akemi's to pull the heiress closer. Mai could feel her hands shaking and her teeth lightly clicking.
The two girls laughed to each other,
Bou-san looks up, noticing the angelic figures. Not really used to seeing such display, considering that he was on a different belief. "Huh...?" Bou-san turns to Mai and Akemi. "This is somewhat Psychedelic, don't ya think?"
Mai nodded, not bothered by it but somewhat becoming more excited as she glanced up and saw three angel statues, each having their own special display.
'Why is there a skull there?' Mai thought to herself, while Akemi buries her face on her scarf— feeling colder and tried hiding her face deeper into warmth but it was no use. "umm..."
"Kyaaah!"
"Ahahahaha!" At the sound of laughter, the crew turned their gazes to glance to the farther side of the church where a little playground stood with dozens of children playing with each other.
"There seem to be children from all over the world..." Kikyo spoke, her face filled with awe at the sight of different races having fun together. At first the guard thought the priest meant local children,
"Indeed." Lin hummed, his gaze focused on the children as well as the others.
Akemi softly smiled to herself, as she too gazed where the children played, despite it all being a blur of moving blobs— she could still take note of the air around them. 'that would have been a wonderful sight to behold, but seeing their auras mixing together of warmth... It is truly amazing.'
"Oh! Toujo-san watches the children of foreign workers." John brightens, "-He looks after them while their parents are working. He also takes in orphaned children and gives them a home."
Naru and Akemi remained quiet, pondering over John's words.
"I see, how kind of him..." Akemi softly hums to herself as they all went inside to the cozy warmth of the church.
But for Akemi, it only served to make her feel colder. And so she decided to exclude herself from the meeting and help Lin and Kikyo fix up the equipment, or even let Oliver play with the children just to warm her up in some way.
'Everything would be fine...right?'
~~~
ʕ•ﻌ•ʔ MAI MONK NARU JOHN ʕ•ﻌ•ʔ
As the other crew of the SPR sat around the vacant couch by Toujo's office, Naru sitting on a single couch with his legs professionally crossed and a folder at hand while Mai, Bou-san and John pressed together on the long sofa, willing to listen and the priest stayed across from Naru in a single chair of his own.
The priest finally started speaking his worries as soon as his guests were comfortable. "There have been strange incidents at this church— and again this morning, one of my children was acting peculiar, so I contacted Brown-kun and he suggested that I speak to you."
Mai frowned, squirming in her seat as she leaned in. "Strange incidents?"
"Well I mean..." Toujo hesitates.
"You saw the children playing outside, didn't you?" Mai nods, "Sometimes spirits possess some of these children..."
"What?!"
It was then John decided to speak up, "I tried performing an exorcism on them but the spirits just leaves one body and then possesses another," John says.
"It's not like the children end up hurting others when they're possessed— it's just that they clearly take on another personality and they hide themselves..." Toujo-san continues, nodding towards John in agreement to his words.
"What do you mean 'hide'?" Naru tilts his head slight like a nudge, Bou-san sweat dropped at the movement as it seems Naru was getting influenced by Akemi's actions.
A tilt that she does when she asks questions she was highly interested in. The monk couldn't blame him, even he sees Mai do it from time to time.
"They literally hide themselves— hide and seek, they hide themselves for a while and once they show up they go back to their normal selves but those who've been possessed usually don't remember what happened..."
Mai gulped in invisible air, her senses telling her to worry. "Hide and seek... you mean...?"
KLANNG—!
KLANNG—!
KLANNG—!
~~~
ʕ•ﻌ•ʔ AKEMI KIKYO LIN ʕ•ﻌ•ʔ
KLANNG—!
KLANNG—!
KLANNG—!
"Do you guys hear that?" Akemi perked up, her eyes straying around her as the sounds of a thumping stick kept echoing around the open area. Oliver waiting beside her but turned silent and alert as he too heard the sound.
"Yeah..." Kikyo and Lin nodded as they managed to lift some of the equipment needed, particularly the cameras.
The three of them were by the trunk of the open van, taking out the cameras until the hitting of a stick sound portruded the area.
Akemi frowned, her eyes looking around lost and body numb— in a quick turn, the heiress grasped her guard's arm before she could leave her side.
"Kikyo, can you see me?" Akemi airily asked, the guard and Lin exchanged gazes before Kikyo states that she can.
Akemi furrowed her brows in confusion, 'Then why does I feel as if I was hidden?'
"Tanatte! Tanatte!" Akemi, Kikyo and Lin turned to gaze at the adult woman yelling out a name in the midst of the park while the children surrounded her.
"Tanatte!" The woman continued to call out, the children following among her steps as they have finished their counting right after the sounds of the stick, determined to know who was missing this time and it seems to be their friend Tanatte.
But the trio didn't know that and asked the lady what was wrong,
Lin went ahead to place the cameras, Akemi urged Kikyo to go and follow him while Akemi would talk to the woman, with Oliver beside her. 'She sounded so worried.'
~~~
ʕ•ﻌ•ʔ MAI MONK NARU JOHN ʕ•ﻌ•ʔ
"It seems someone has hidden again," Toujo-san sighed, as the echoing sounds of the stick disappeared. "The noise you just heard is an indication of 'I'm waiting for you to come find me.'"
"It was thirty years ago, among the children I was looking after— there was a child named Kenji Nagano... I think it was about this time of year, right before we relocated our church to this current site and the construction was nearing completion— we were planning on having Christmas at our new church. Although the church was still under construction, I think the children were so happy about our new 'home' that they already started using this area as their playground. They especially loved to play 'Stickie' "
"Stickie?" Mai tilted, her brows furrowed in question.
The priest nodded towards Mai, "Kenji-kun couldn't speak so he would hit objects with a stick— he would use that sound as his voice. most of the children that are brought here either have no family or their family is having problems, Kenji-kun was brought here by his father but when I first met him he already couldn't speak." Toujo-san pauses, hesitant but decided to continue.
"I heard it was due to psychological trauma he'd experience, but I never heard the cause of it— but despite the handicap he was still a cheerful active child and soon got along with other children. After Kenji-kun joined us they invented the hide-and-seek game 'Stickie' where instead of words, you have to use the stick to call out signals. Not ready is one hit. For 'ready' you hit the stick a bunch of times."
Toujo solemnly smiles at the memory he remembered. "...Kenji-kun was the hiding expert. He seemed to have special hiding skills because we could never find him but then one day... he vanished."
Toujo explains how on that certain day it rained and the children went inside, when the Father noticed a lack of person, he asked the children where Kenji was but he wouldn't come out of his hiding place.
The staff and other members of the church went out to look for him and thought he was under all the scaffolding that got wrecked but Kenji wasn't there to be found.
"The next day we looked for him again when it got light out and we found his whistle. I had given it to him for his birthday, thinking if he used it, it might help him communicate with the others. He always wore it around his neck but when we found it— the chain was broken."
"Perhaps he dropped it while he was playing?" Naru thought out, letting the priest hum in consideration.
"Possibly, but I was pretty certain it was before he hid himself because ever since he got the whistle he always blew it as an indication of 'Ready'"
Toujo sighs, another sign of his hesitation as the though of it was too destroying for him. "There's water course behind the church, it's quite deep and back then there was no fence around it. There's a storehouse there and next to it is where we found the whistle. I think... I think maybe he fell into the water course. Although the police officers searched for him all the way down to the river— nothing was found."
The priest lowered his head in shame and sadness, his voice shaking from the distraught that never left him. "All of our efforts were in vain."
Right then Naru's phone notified a message.
» »PrincessSmilesALot: Subject: I got a Quest~! (｢'･ω･)｢ « «: I am off to find the missing child~ one of the people in the church already informed me of the situation~! wisheth me luck, o wond'rful wizard! and thee shouldn't misseth this princess too much!
Naru internally sighed, as he hid his phone back on his pocket. Already drained.
~~~
ʕ•ﻌ•ʔ AKEMI ʕ•ﻌ•ʔ
Akemi walked around the area, while Oliver stepped along side her. "Let's see Oliver, if we were an expert hider— where would we hide?"
Akemi and Oliver walked in silence, the sound breaking the intangible thought is Akemi's constant conversation with Oliver, who lets out a light bark as a response to her words.
And just then, it hit her.
Akemi feels hidden right now, that feeling of not being found is still present— and after hearing what was happening on the church, Akemi knew it was her abilities working once more. "Oliver I think I know where he could be, ikou~!" Despite the shaking hand that continued to shiver from the cold— Akemi pulled Oliver's leash and just like that she was by the trees.
Her gaze straying up above, seeing clearly the child clinging on a tree.
"Kenji-kun! Mitsuketa~!" Akemi pointed to the kid up the tree, his lost eyes brightened at the sight of her warm smile.
~~~
ʕ•ﻌ•ʔ OTHERS ʕ•ﻌ•ʔ
"Right there, they found Kenji-kun's whistle just inside the wall." John pointed towards the sides where a brick fenced wall was placed.
Bou-san pats the wall with the height just enough for him to be able to jump up on. "Huh... it's like an incinerator and this must be the water course he was talking about— it looks pretty deep." The monk says as he saw the water course quite clearly.
"Huh?" Mai, turned hearing a step and blanched at the sight of Bou-san standing at the peak of the cemented fence. "Bou-san be careful!"
"Hah!" And all her nightmares came true, Mai full blown panicked.
"AHHH! He jumped in! YOU idiot!!" The high schooler screeched, running ahead to try and jump in as well. "BOU-SAN!!!"
"Mai that's dangerous!" John panicked behind her,
"Huh?"
Bou-san pops out, "What's wrong?"
Mai paused, gazing on the extra ground where Bou-san stood nonchalant. She sweat dropped. "Ahh... I didn't know there was a ledge there— don't scare me like that!"
Bou-san smiled, placing his hand on top of Mai's head. "Right, So that's probably what happened. He tried to hide here,"
"Huh? A kid couldn't climb over his wall." Mai thought out, it was simply to high for a kid to reach. 'Even I have problems getting up this wall...'
Bou-san hummed, his shoulders shrugged and pointed out. "-But back then the church was under construction, right? That means there may have been some lumber piled up here or maybe there was scaffolding to stand on." The monk then started explaining what he thought could have happened, "-He climbed up on this wall and his chest rubbed against it causing the chain to break and the whistle fell off and then jumped over to hide himself but when he did, he fell into the water course— that's my guess..." Mai almost applauded in awe, 'He could be a writer! Or a detective!' Mai brightened at the sight of her colleague.
Bou-san, seeing Mai's applause turned to Naru who stood not far with the blueprints of the church. "What do you think Naru-chan~?"
Naru with the blueprints of the area said his word without hesitation. "It sounds like it could've happened but that's mere guess-work."
"Of course it is..." Bou-san muttered, pouting as he bit his tongue.
"That water could've been cold, I feel sorry for him..." Mai solemnly gazed at the water course, just looking at it made her feel cold.
Lin appears, and calls out to Naru. "Naru, Toujo-san asked me to tell you that lunch is ready."
The grumpy wizard turned to glance at Lin's way, noting that Akemi nor Kikyo was with him. He hasn't received another text either to signify that Akemi found the hiding child. 'She's still looking on her condition?' Naru frowned.
Bou-san grabbed Mai's head and started petting her that it irked Mai with her now ruined hair. "You be careful too, safety is number one when playing hide-and-seek."
"—I don't play that!"
"Okay." Naru says gaining Bou-san's attention realizing the time.
"it's already lunch time—? That's so sweet! I skipped breakfast, you know?"
Mai snickered, nudging her elbow towards the Monk as he jumped down the fence to be on the same side as them again. "What's that? Are you trying to sound like Ayako?" Mai laughs, 'He wasn't even close.'
They all walked back inside the church, Naru already seeing Kikyo and Akemi sitting by the vacant benches with Oliver sitting across from his owner. A little boy also not far sitting next to Akemi,
It wasn't until by the sounds of footsteps did they turn to look at the new comers, the little boy slowly turning to take a look as well until he was hit by the sight of one particular person.
"Daddy!"
'Fa...' Lin froze as a child sprouted out of nowhere and embraced him with such longing.
'Fa...' the others stared shock and quiet at the sight while Bou-san gave out a surprised laugh.
'Father...?!'