~~~
ʕ•ﻌ•ʔ MAI ʕ•ﻌ•ʔ
A month had passed and soon it was a weekend on mid January. Mai wore her casual orange turtle neck sweater with a short blue skirt and black shoes, her eyes focused yet dazed in thought as a pile of papers, filled and signed laid on the desk in front of her.
Mai hummed in thought as another minute passed by and still she was staring at the papers. 'Maybe... I can convince Naru?'
Mai and Akemi have their own desk at the office, on their first week on the job it was only Akemi with a desk as it is only meant for one person but after a while, Akemi decided to at least change the desk into a longer one that reminded Mai of a bar with two bartenders on the other side.
Their desk is the first one to be seen once the doors of the SPR opened and would continue on to view the receiving area, where modern sofas circle around each other with a coffee table in the center of it, a long sofa sat in the middle of the room with another across it and two single sofas on their sides. Behind it leads to a door not far towards the Office bathroom, close to Mai and Akemi's desk.
Seeing as their desk is not far from the main door and somewhere behind them is the entrance for the bathroom, their desk faces Naru's door on the opposite side of the room with Lin's office on the side wall next to Naru's, Lin's office faced the vacant doorway towards a small room for the kitchen which is right across the receiving area.
KA—CHAK!
Mai got out of her stupor at the sound of Naru's office door opening. She almost sweat dropped at the sight of the wall clock, 'He has been in there for hours without even asking for a cup of tea once? Jeez— just how long have I been reading these papers?!'
"Are you taking a break, Naru?" Naru didn't respond to Mai's question to an obvious answer and sat on a single sofa with his own papers. Seeing as her question is being ignored, Mai felt her brow twitched. 'You narcissist! At least let out a hm or something!'
Mai just dismissed her thoughts, it wouldn't be good to think of something negative when she clearly has something to say. "Would you like a cup of tea?"
Naru was silent, his eyes slowly gazing around the empty receiving area, glancing towards the kitchen bar and even on Mai and Akemi's desk. "Sure."
Mai didn't bother to look into his actions and went to the kitchen for his tea, frowning at the lack of cakes and cookies on the fridge or cupboard that Akemi would usually filled in with food and snacks; it was filled to the brim once, but none lasted for 3 weeks.
The graceful female had been gone from the office for almost a month now— it almost scared Mai to death when Akemi hasn't been present for almost two weeks and the high school girl feared that Akemi was fired, marching over towards Naru's office she found out that Akemi was off to a family traditional vacation, a month's worth of bonding. Mai let out a big breath after that and texted Akemi once a while and the model would send out pictures of her and her family as well as the souvenirs she would be giving to Mai, turns out Akemi was in Paris.
"Oh yeah..." Mai drawled, feigning her expression of thought as she walked back with the floral tray and tea. "-Naru something's been bothering me."
"So?" Naru blankly flipped another page of his paper—Mai peeked as she set his tea cup on the table. Highly curious but soon blanched and deflated when it was in English. 'Such a genius..!' Mai couldn't help but click her tongue, a flame of annoyance and awe filled her skin.
"Just 'so' ? Shouldn't we normally ask 'What's the matter?' or something like that?"
"Unfortunately unless it's something work related, I really don't have time for it."
'You— you egotistical workaholic!' Mai clenched her teeth, her grip tightly clenched on the floral tray but soon loosened to defeat. 'but thanks to that I have less competition! Calm down, Mai... Deep breath in and deep breath out...'
"Actually it is related to your most favorite work..." Naru was quiet, for a second his mind going somewhere else that involved purple and silvery gray with a touch of blonde but Naru shook his head before he could even build the thought.
Mai decided to continue when Naru remained quiet.
"Do you remember the story a high school student told you about her classmate being possessed by a spirit fox?"
Naru spoke without missing a beat. "I probably remember it clearly than you do."
Irked. Mai felt her eye starting to twitch. "I'm sure you do!" 'Deep breathes Mai...' "—because you're the one who rejected her and told her to 'bring your friend to a psychiatric hospital' instead of visiting our office!" At her words that soon escalated to a yell, Naru let out a sigh and took his sight off his papers, a vacant hand of his lightly thumped his index finger on the arm rest of the sofa. Seeming to have it's own rhythm from it's long pauses and at times continuous beats.
"I gave her the recommendation I did because it sounded like something that should be seen by a doctor." Naru responded.
TAP— TAP TAP TAP— TAP TAP— TAP TAP TAP
"Well, you could have said it a little more politely, you know?!" Mai gave out, feeling bad for the customer in topic. "You could at least have referred her to someone you know or..."
Before Mai could finish the door to the office opened with the ring of the bell. Mai turned to greet the customer with a professional greeting only to freeze at the sight of a tall man wearing cowboy boots, denim pants with a black silver belt and brown leather jacket with leopard spots. His brown hair long and under a cowboy hat with sunglasses on his eyes.
"Hello~" The man greeted, lifting what seems to be a guitar case higher on his shoulder. His gaze moved seeing the remote expression of a familiar boy. "Hello, Naru-chan~! The city's filled to capacity with people all bumping into each other—"
'Who— who is this...?' Mai blankly stared as the cowboy walked around the office with familiarity and sat on the long sofas.
"—You know I should've known better than to come to Shibuya on a Sunday..." The Cowboy turns to Mai who flinches at making eye contact but the Cowboy didn't bother to speak that out, confused to her reaction but dismissed it nonetheless. "Ah! Mai-chan can I have a glass of ice coffee?"
"Mo—Monk-san, that outfit!" Mai paled, at the sight while Naru seemed like he was not present on this conversation and continued reading, his finger already stopped it's tapping.
"Oh this? it's for my part-time job." Bou-san said as the monk gestured on his outfit.
"A part-time job as a cow boy?"
Bou-san shook his head, correcting Mai. "In a back-up band."
Silence.
"Haaa...?"
Bou-san let out a breath, explaining one of the bands he knew had a missing bass player, letting him take up the position temporarily and telling Mai that he even has his own band, working as a Studio Musician— though their singer is not the best at their job.
"But you still work as a monk, right?"
"Believe it or not, this business keeps me busy with so many curses and all..." Bou-san says, taking a sip of the iced coffee that Mai made in the middle of his story. "Every time something happens, because I'm an ex-monk, people ask me to pray for them. So working as a monk has become more of a side job. Get it?"
Mai let out a hum of understanding, nodding but her sweat drop still apparent. "I get it."
'They say you can't judge people by their looks. Well in this case, it's hard for me to believe that this man actually work as a monk... I wonder what else I don't know about other people's lives—'
~~~
ʕ•ﻌ•ʔ AKEMI ʕ•ﻌ•ʔ
"How is she?" Yoshiro Maruyama, the main head of the Maruyama family and Akemi's grandfather. His back hunched just a bit and hands intertwined behind his back. A concerned frown on his face as he asked Yukio who stood not far on the door of the hotel room, room 6E— where the girls on the family stayed with Akemi.
Yukio Nishiyama, cousin of Akemi from the oldest child of Yoshiro Maruyama. He is the youngest out of 3 boys and 1 girl on the Nishiyama family, currently 18— a few weeks older than Akemi.
"She still hasn't come out of her room..." Yukio said, as the two males glanced at the closed quiet door of room 6E. "I'm starting to worry— you don't think she would...?"
Grandpa shook his head, fully trusting his granddaughter. "She won't. She promised not to do it again after getting caught a dozen of times."
After a while, the door to the hotel room opened Sayuri and Chiasa Shoji, two females of the triplets of two girls and 1 boy of Tamiko Shoji, the third child of Yoshiro Maruyama.
Another followed which is the only girl of the Nishiyama family which is a year older than Yukio, Aki Nishiyama with her arm wrapped on Akemi's.
The four girls each held their unique hair color. A silvery gray, perfectly dyed on Akemi's birthday— a week before she met Naru and Lin at her old high school— it was all for fun, all of the girls and boys with Maruyama blood running on their veins are practically attached to the hip, the males were mostly the silent pranksters while the girls were more fiery bravery. One of those bravery led to the eye-catching hair color, all the male and female cousins thought it a funny joke— even the 22 year-olds joined in.
All for one and one for all they say.
Yoshiro Maruyama and their parents silently prayed above when they saw the identical silvery metal hair colors the next day, all of the cousins except for the 17 below have their hair color changed— Yukio and Natsu included (the boy on the triplets, Sayuri and Chiasa's brother) due to them getting a tattoo instead, but none of the family knows except for the other mischievous cousins.
A secret kept only to the gang. They plead to the fifth not to mention it until there is peace on the family. Yeah, they like to wreak havoc on a peaceful afternoon.
Yukio and Natsu cheered when they came inside the house to see it filled with silvery gray hairs, and the silvery gray group cheered louder when they saw Yukio and Natsu come inside the house— the parents didn't know why but the cousins did. Oh they know every dirt on each.
"Hey Oji-san," the girls greeted and hugged their grandfather— Akemi hugging second last with an angelic smile on her face. "What are you doing here by our door?"
Each of their rooms have four bedrooms, separated by female Maruyama spawns, male Maruyama Spawns, mini-maruyama spawns while each parent have their own privacy. Heavens know they need it.
"Grandma and the others are already waiting outside," Aki spoke up while their grandfather stepped closer to Akemi with assurance.
"Are you sure you want to do this? We can go to other underrated tourist spots instead..." Yukio and the others nodded in agreement, turning their eyes to stare at Akemi's purple ones. A unique color that shows they have the family blood in their veins.
"No... I think I should face them while I can still see," Akemi smiled, oddly calm as she intertwined her other arm to her grandfather and they all moved towards the elevator.
Akemi felt amazing, a bit worried but amazing nonetheless— her maternal family was worried for her and that was enough for her to feel genuinely happy to see that they cared.
It wasn't like this when Akemi was 8— a lot of people didn't believe her abilities and it made them a bit hostile or awkward around her but when her maternal family realized she wasn't kidding around— they started to hover around her in worry and care. The family already lost precious family members and they don't want that to happen again,
Akemi has the Maruyama spirit and that was enough for them to love her for who she is.
~~~
ʕ•ﻌ•ʔ NARU MAI ʕ•ﻌ•ʔ
"So what brought you here today?"
"Oh yeah," Bou-san stopped his sip and placed the cup back on the center table and faced Naru. "I actually came here to talk about a job— I need your expertise on something..." Bou-san first finished his cup before focusing at the reason for his visit, even Mai sat beside Bou-san to listen.
And so the Monk started once all focus was on him. "One of the fans of my band is a local high school student and according to her there's a desk in her class room that the students think is cursed-"
Mai inwardly froze, 'Cursed?'
"-Everyone whose sat at that desk in the past three months or so has been in some kind of accident, there are four people that it's happened to so far and all four of them have been in the same type of accident..."
Despite the awful news, Naru wasn't moved knowing better than to grasp things emotionally; Logic was always his forte. "Didn't we have the highest number of accidents in Japan's history this year?"
Bou-san sighed, his head giving down like it lost strength but he soon lift his face with a wry smile. "I knew you were going to say that yes, but these weren't common accidents. All four victims were dragged by a train, all in the same manner; arms caught between the doors."
"What!?" The high schooler in the room gasped, a hand on her lips.
"Since september, this class has changed seats three times." Bou-san lifted three of his fingers. "- every student who sat at that desk has been in an accident. One of them got off with only light injuries but the other three were injured severely— luckily none of them were killed, but don't you find that very strange?" The two young people remained quiet but it was indeed a strange occurrence. Once could be luck, twice a coincidence but 4 times such an 'accident' happened? Mai was starting to doubt it.
"-and that's not all this girl's teacher used an art prep room for his office he started saying that he was seeing a ghost there and soon after, he fainted and was admitted to the hospital— he's been coughing up blood and his doctor still cant figure out what he's suffering from."
"That sounds strange!"
Bou-san turned to Mai, nodding along her. " Doesn't it? and I've heard many other horror stories about mysterious illnesses and incidents at her school so she came to me to see if there's anything could do to solve the mystery."
"Other incidents?" Just then a thought appeared on Mai's head, her eyes glancing at her desk. "Hey, Bou-san... she doesn't happen doesn't go to Yuasa High school, does she...?"
The monk perked up at her question, blinking. "How did you know?"
'I knew it!' Mai cheered on her head.
"Just today we've had three people come to our office regarding Yuasa High cases! But Naru turned them all down, it made me wonder if maybe you or John might want to help them out? so I took their contact information..."
Hearing her words, Bou-san lifted a hand on his chin. Deep in thought at the sudden connection. "This can't all be just coincidence— so many incidents at one school in such a short period of time...?"
~~~
ʕ•ﻌ•ʔ AKEMI ʕ•ﻌ•ʔ
Speaking in: French / English / Spirits / Japanese / Thoughts
"Nice to meet you, I'm Clarisse Monet but you can call me Claire." Akemi smiled, speaking in fluent french reaching her hand over to the other side of the table where a man wearing a professional suit stood up from his seat. Akemi turned to the other two people sitting along the table, an old couple— the old man blond and slowly losing his hair to reveal a shiny forehead with white slightly wrinkled skin on the center of his forehead and the corner of his lips.
Not that Akemi could see his— their features as the only thing she could process was blotches of blur that left her only knowing about their color and height— and that there was a bubbling woman covered in dark aura next to a guy seeming to be on his phone— flirting would be Akemi's guess as the woman spirit kept getting darker and darker mumbling about getting cheated on and the boy being hers.
Akemi still had a uncomfortable time having only see spirits clearly instead of the actual breathing people in front of her.
Akemi shook his hand the man's hand, seeing that he actually frowns a lot and a learning a few more information given the seconds worth of their touch.
Akemi still kept her graceful smile, not one bit bothered when the woman next to the old man matched hers. Her hair turning close to white but she could tell that it used to be blonde, and unlike her husband, her wrinkles are barely noticeable but if looked closer it would be there. Both of the couple stood tall but Akemi is still taller in height, almost reaching the old man's nose while his wife stood not much by his shoulders.
"Hello Claire, my name is Maria and this is Louis but you can call us Papé and Mamé." Akemi's paternal grandmother gestured to the old man and herself but Akemi said nothing and just widened her smile just a bit before sitting down along with the lawyer.
"Now Claire as to why you are here—" Maria decided to speak as soon as they took their orders, Akemi didn't have an appetite at the moment and so only chose to order a cup of cocoa.
"Excuse me but I already know why I was called here," Akemi spoke up, her smile and nature still calm but her eyes showed her steel. "You want to talk about my father's will."
The Lawyer cleared his throat to gain the 'family' attention. His eyes gazing over the papers he took out from his bag and handed Akemi a list of what she would have if she were to legally sign her name as well as some photos to give her visuals for buildings her father (and mother) owned. "It states here that Clarisse Monet would inherit all of the fortune he earned as well as the Galerie de lumière claire." The Lawyer continued to list of the other things Akemi's father wrote in his will to give— having Akemi receive all of his inheritance on her 18th birthday but it seemed it took the Lawyer a while to find her due to her different name.
"And how much is my son's fortune?" Akemi clenched her fists under the table. Keeping her eyes stuck on two certain photos she found on the paper list she was given,
"Ms. Claire, your father has € 71,601,540.99— the other stuff he wants to give is not yet included on that count." the waitress giving their orders flinched at the mention of the currency, her eyes darting towards the people occupying the table. When the waitress eyes— connected with Akemi's, the graceful woman gave out a genuine thank you for the drinks before taking a sip of the beverage.
As the waitress walked back to the kitchen, she couldn't help but thought how fortunate Akemi must be— looks and fortune. Not to mention her lady mannerisms made her look like a portrait of an angel.
Maria gaped while Louis gulped down invisible air, eyes staring only at the lawyer while Akemi kept her gaze at the cup of hot chocolate on her hand and photo on the other.
It was the Gallery Museum Akemi's father owned, Galerie de Lumière Claire. Akemi hated how she couldn't see what the building looked, this was one of the occasions she hated her sight.
Her spine went cold, shoulders tensed, seeing the two familiar shadow figures standing next to her.
"I'll sign it." Akemi quickly said and without further hesitance signing the papers— legally having her own all of her father's inheritance— not bothering to listen to Maria and Louis's stuttering shock.
Akemi didn't even know why they were there— cause it seems they were not mentioned at all at her father's will as well as remembering her late Aunt Chieko who was the very first one willing to take her in, told Akemi how her father's parents never liked her mother nor their relationship. Akemi's paternal grandparents never spoke to her parents once they married and had Akemi, it was clear that meant they were no longer part of the family.
So Akemi tried to control the dark laugh tickling her throat as she felt the cold aura and glacial stares from her Papé and Mamé.
It seems the Lawyer was also on her side, not once did he acknowledged the grandparents— only focusing on Akemi. Good for him.
While Akemi internally frowned, noting how the aura of the two shadowy figures was... Warm?
"No matter..." muttered to herself, ignoring once more the shadow figures and Akemi blinked and her sight turned— if possible— more obscured and dark.
Akemi let out a sigh, her index finger tapping on the table with an unknown rhythm as she waited for all this to finish and tour around Paris with her Maternal Family.
~~~
ʕ•ﻌ•ʔ MAI ʕ•ﻌ•ʔ
"Hello..." Mai perked up, seeing an aged man maybe in his mid 40s standing by the SPR door with his coat tucked over his arm.
A day has a already passed after Bou-san's sudden inquiry about the Yuasa High but like on their last school case, the SPR wouldn't be able to do anything without permission of the school itself— hearing that, Bou-san left to say it to the student that spoke to him as well as Mai collecting the written papers to call the other students that visited the office.
And it seems they're prayers have been answered by the man standing by the SPR right at this moment.
"Ah, yeah... may we help you?"
"Please may I have a word with you? lately there have been a lot of strange things happening at my school and i was wondering if you could please help us out?" Because the man in front of Mai was the Principal of Yuasa High.
Just like that his case was immediately accepted,