ʕ•ﻌ•ʔ MAI ʕ•ﻌ•ʔ
NEXT DAY...
DING DONG—!
DING DONG—!
"I don't want to hear any more scary stories..." Mai's shoulder shook whilst tears fills her eyes— the thought of so many paranormal incidences at the school crawled shivers up her spine. Due to the fact she could encounter such hauntings made her grow unsteady.
They turned in the case for a few minutes and their papers were already stacked. Naru spoke to most of them, one of them goes with the name Kiyomi Ito, the student that Mai spoke to back into the office. She retold the story of her friend possessed by a Fox spirit after playing a game called "Kokkuri-san". Kiyomi went into detail of her friend getting into a collection of crazy trouble; leaping on desks, eating, sand and jumping into pools.
Hearing the story again did nothing to stop Mai from still feeling the creeping tingles on her spine.
Another student came by the temporary base, this time a topic about the Track team locker room. The lockers would tip over and equipment scatters all over the place. At first the Track team thought of it as an intentional harassment by other students so they stayed the night. They look back and saw shot put balls lined perfectly on the floor.
There's also about the storage room located on the Gymnasium. A group of students would play "Kimodameshi" and "Hyaku Monogatari" inside the locked storage and ever since then, they would see weird silhouettes and one says to see a rope shaped like a noose.
"Also a friend of mine was hospitalized the other day," one of the students came in. "She was with us when we did the 'Kimodameshi' and ever since that night, I heard that ghosts have been appearing at her desk..."
"Her desk?"
The student nods. "She felt like someone was touching her stomach... so she looked down to see what it was and a vision of a hand came out of it and was massaging her stomach."
Mai and Bou-san screeched, goosebumps on their arms clear to anyone that looked.
"-Apparently she experienced it many times. Days after that she discovered a hole in her stomach." after her story, the student leaves the room.
'Uhhh~~~~ I don't want to hear them any more either...' A bead of sweat drips down Bou-san's forehead, having his own fill upon hearing scary incidents. Naru didn't exhibit the same thought. He remained neutral and focused on his papers, a pile of them from the students who came by on their free time.
'He... he is built different...' Bou-san and Mai trembled.
KNOCK—KNOCK!
The doors to the temporary base slid open the minute it got knocked by a person willing to share their story. The doors opened to reveal two girls, one with short light brown hair reaching the lobules of her ear. Her height matched Mai's 5'5" while the other girl she's with stood inches taller. Shoulder length layered haircut with a shade of color darker than brown; Her left on an arm sling bandage.
"Kyahhh~! I'm impressed you actually came!" A bright expression occupies the short-haired girl the second her cinnamon colored eyes sees Bou-san.
"Of course." Bou-san smiles over the girl before gesturing towards Naru. "Let me introduce them to you. This good-looking guy over here is Shibuya, the President of Shibuya Psychic Research." Turning over, he places a hand on top of Mai's head. "-and the lady over here is Taniyama, one of his assistants."
"I'm Takahashi Yuko, it's nice to meet you!" the short haired-girl grinned, the sight of her open smile ignited a blush over Mai's cheeks.
'Finally got a dose of cheer...' Mai internally breathed, happy with the slight break off of haunting stories. Even for a short bit.
Seeing the sudden uprise of speech that did not at all includes the paranormal, Naru leans back on his chair. His deep indigo eyes lifts to examine the students present.
"Well let's get started," the room hushed at his voice. "I'm guessing you were one of the victims, were you involved in an accident after sitting at a certain desk?"
The girl Yuko was with nods her head, "I have... I was the second one to get in an accident." Mai gestured for the two girls to have a seat, and they did as the girl continues. "When I was getting off a train I started walking but then it felt as if something pulled my arm back... and it got stuck between the doors." Hearing her story, Mai could not help a gasp leaving her lips.
"Then the train began to move. I tried to keep up with it but I fell down and got dragged along the platform, umm... I was pulled 5 meters before the train finally stopped."
"Did you see anyone near the train door at the time of the accident?"
Shaking her head, the girl gave out a no. "I know for sure because the train wasn't crowded that day, and I'd remember if anyone had been near me."
Naru remained neutral to his thoughts. "Can you think of any reason why strange incidents would happen to students who sits at that desk?"
"Not really, right?" the girl turned to glance at Yuko who nodded at her question.
The room became quiet for a while, a sense of contemplation in the air.
"I'd love to see that desk." Naru breaks the silence with his words, Yuko perking up, offering to take Naru and the others there.
~~~
"It's that one right there." Yuko points to the chair on the far corner of the classroom.
"Does anyone else sit here now?" Naru asks, his hand touching the desk.
"Not anymore. The girl who was sitting here until recently is in the hospital now."
"And you guys haven't moved the location of the desk?"
"Nope," Yuko responds, her lips popping the 'p' on her mouth. "Nobody has touched it."
With a sigh, Naru removes his hand from the desk turning to face Yuko. "I also heard that your teacher has been acting strange..."
"That's right! he claims that he saw ghosts in a prep room, so now he won't come back to school!" Yuko controlled herself before she could mutter the words 'coward' under her breath. The school made the students come back after series of accidents and ghost sightings but a teacher falls back after seeing a ghost once. Thinking about it makes Yuko let out a huff of unjust.
"He would never have believed in ghosts before although he is in a hospital now, too. Apparently, he's been saying he even sees ghosts in his hospital room. I heard he acts as if he's suffering from Neurosis." Yuko's stomach churns, now feeling bad for her teacher's situation.
Bou-san and Mai remained silent throughout Yuko's and Naru's interaction. Their steps lagged behind Naru considering what they have heard throughout their clients.
"Hey... I wonder if this is contagious." Mai frowned, hitting the Monk lightly on his chest at his insinuation.
"How can you say such a thing, you mean ghost stories are contagious throughout the school?"
The monk laughs, glancing at Naru who continued his steps without hesitation. The stoic boss stayed silent after they left the classroom. "So what are we going to do now, Naru-chan? Do you think we should—"
Without much difficulty, their schedule rendered them inside the temporary base. Students and staff visited them all throughout the day, the SPR was indeed busy that Lin has not stopped typing.
"WHAT THE HECK IS HAPPENING AT THIS SCHOOL?!" Bou-san hunches down on his seat, his hands covering his face for his stressed tears. "Who's going to get rid of this many evil spirits? Who?! Is it going to be me?— let me just cry right here!"
Hearing him sobbing so dramatically, Mai falters a smile and decides to just make the weeping monk a coffee. 'Sorry I'm just a part timer here and Akemi-sempai is not present at the moment...' inwardly, Mai gives Bou-san a heartfelt apology.
"This is unusual..." Naru speaks out, his stance by the window and looking outside the starry night. Even by his posture, Mai can still see his appeal.
"Huh?" the weeping monk lifts his head out of his hands, taking the cup of coffee Mai was handing him. It turns out he still listens in the midst of his outbursts.
"I don't feel that each incident is that severe however, having this many of them is unusual, don't you think?" as his words finished, Naru turned to face Mai and Bou-san with a glint of curiosity in his eyes. "This many cases at the same location, at the same time... if all these cases were true events then there's definitely some reason behind it." None of them noticed this difference.
Lifting her brows, Mai does not really know the answer as to what could be the reason for all these incidents but knowing Naru...
He would find out about this sooner or later.
~~~
ʕ•ﻌ•ʔ NARU MAI ʕ•ﻌ•ʔ
"We won't be able to spend much time researching each individual case as there are too many of them. We'll just have to try and get rid of as many spirits as possible." Naru announces, his arms crossed and leaning back on a desk wanting to keep things quick and simple. "And if that doesn't work, we'll just come up with an alternate plan."
Realizing the situation made Naru call the others he knew would help. Ayako, John and Masako joined in the next day— even Lin joins for the meeting they are currently having at the temporary base.
Seeing the attention all on him, Naru turns to Masako. "Hara-san, please look around the school. First, check the desk that the ghost supposedly came out of and then the art prep room." Masako tried to control the grin making it's way to her lips, lifting up her sleeve to cover her mouth.
"Then, the desk that's supposedly possessed by spirits and the track team's locker room."
"It's okay if you just call me Masako, you know?" the Psychic chimes in, her eyes closing with her grin.
'She bugs me!' brows twitching, Mai bites her lip to stop herself from commenting.
To Mai's delight, Naru ignored the comment. "Matsuzaki-san, would you please accompany Hara-san? and if you see any spirits please get rid of them."
Noting how quick Naru seemed to ignore Masako's words, Ayako could not help lifting a hand over her chin with mischievous curiosity. "So you didn't say anything back to Masako, huh?" A grin slips in her red painted lips, snickering. "If it were someone else you wouldn't have given them a difficult time..."
Naru didn't disappoint, returning a deigning twitch of his lips, smirking. "If you have so much time to be chatty, why don't you try using it to prove your talent for exorcism? I would love to see you succeed for once."
And like nothing happened, Naru turned to the others. "At any rate there isn't enough equipment to cover all the case. I'll need to rely on everyone's psychic powers..."
"Why do you even challenge him when you know you're going to lose anyway?" Bou-san mumbles towards Ayako, who turned her back with a huff.
'It's humiliating. How do you even stand such a boy, Akemi?!' Ayako let out an exasperated breath.
"-As you patrol around the school grounds, please wear these..." Mai was quick to hand off the equipment that allows the others to communicate through the temporary base. "-Mai, would you standby here and wait for my call?"
"Roger... but umm— what about you, Naru? What are you going to do?"
"Lin and I will continue our research." soon the others left the temporary base, leaving Mai to herself as the doors to the base closed.
'Shoot.' Mai frowns, 'In the end, my job is still just administrative. Just once I'd love to do an exorcism and look cool. If I could do that, then maybe even Naru would...' Mai blushes, the thought of Naru's penetrating indigo gazes as she says something paranormal already making her heart race.
"Ahh!" The doors to the base opened without hesitation, the sight of Yuko made Mai jump. "Ah... you scared me..."
"Sorry~ Sorry~" Yuko heartily laughs, "What are you doing?— Woah! Are all those case that have happened just at this school?"
Mai gave out a breath, her heart calm from the sudden intrusion. A genuine smile passing her lips, "That's right."
"Honestly, I wonder what's going on here too," Yuko huffs, keeping Mai company from the lack of others in the room. Mai thanks Yuko for that gesture internally. "Curses, ghosts and pre-natural power— sheesh, what's next a UFO?"
Mai chuckles but paused at Yuko's words. "Wait a minute... What do you mean by Pre-natural power?"
~~~
"Kasai Panic?" Naru leaned back on the desk inside the temporary base, his hands stuffed in his pockets. Mai called him the moment Yuko mentioned a pre-natural power student.
Yuko nods, "There's a senior at our school name Kasai Chiaki. She can bend a spoon with her pre-natural power... I believe it was right after the summer break that she showed it to us for the first time, since then she became famous at school because of that power."
"Bending spoons became a cool trend among some of the students but while some believed in her powers— other didn't at all. It became such a big deal that she was asked to stand on a stage in front of everyone to bend a key..."
"What happened to the key?" Mai asked, fully attentive to the story. Her mouth full blown opened when Yuko nods.
"She bent it. The teachers started attacking her after that. Kasai-san eventually got fed up and said to the teacher that she's gonna put a curse on them and kill them. Ever since then all these strange things started happening. " Yuko paused, twiddling her fingers. "Please don't tell anyone about this but some of us think it may be Kasai-san's curse that's causing these events."
After hearing Kasai's story, Naru and Mai went straight away towards the Biology Prep room where Yuko told them Kasai-san would be.
Standing right in front of the Biology Prep room door, Naru let out a defeated sigh. Lifting his hand, Naru knocked in the weirdest way Mai had seen him do.
KNOCK!—KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK!— KNOCK KNOCK!— KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK!
'Huh?' feeling a drop of sweat trace down her head, Mai stares at Naru with furrowed brows when silence permeated the halls.
Even the doors seemed to hesitate when it slips open to reveal a short golden brown hair woman seeming to be in her mid twenties or early thirties.
"How can we help you?" The woman asked just as a student on Mai and Naru's sight turned away from them.
"My name is Shibuya and I'm with Shibuya Psychic Research. May I speak with Kasai-san?"
"Ah...sure, please come in." with her permission, Naru and Mai stepped inside and slid the door close. "I'm Ubusuna Kei, the Biology Teacher."
"That's an uncommon name." Mai bit her lip while the Biology teacher said nothing and smile.
"You need to speak with Kasai-san?" Mai nods. "You must be here to talk about the incident that happened—"
"I don't want to talk about it! Leave me alone!" Kasai yells as she turns away.
Ubusuna Kei turns to her student, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. "I suggest you speak to them so that they will understand it correctly."
"No! They won't believe what I say anyway!"
"But didn't you hear them? They work on the Psychic Phenomenon cases. I don't think they would deny what you have to tell them for no reason."
"...What did you want to talk about?" Mai flinched at the cold gaze, Kasai gave them. She distributes her weight left and right, uncomfortable at the tension between two guarded people in the room.
"I heard a rumor that you may have something to do with the mysterious events going on at this school. I also heard a rumor that you can bend spoons and keys with your pre-natural powers." Naru speaks up, his gaze focused on Kasai-san who gave out a condescending smirk.
"They're not just rumors. It's true but I'll bet you don't believe it do you?"
"Why wouldn't I?" Naru's next words stuns them all. "I'm also able to bend a spoon."
'He can what now?'
~~~
Naru closes the door when Mai left the room last.
With hands on the back of her head, Mai pondered whilst they walk back to the temporary base. "It sounds like they've had a lot to deal with." Mai gives voice. "Just because she bent a spoon it turned out to be a major drama at school."
'Did Akemi-sempai and the others experienced that?' Mai thinks to herself, snapping out of it when she hears her name.
"Mai..."
"Yeah?"
"I need to ask you a favor."
'!?' Mai couldn't tell how much she did it, but she froze at Naru's words. Before the High schooler could presume anything with her thoughts, Naru continues to speak.
"You just saw me bend a spoon. Please don't tell anyone about it."
"Why not?" Mai gaped, "What you did was impressive!"
"Please," Naru stressed. "Especially Lin."
'Why? Why? Why? I wanna know why! — Is what I really want to say...' "Fine. I won't tell anyone."
"...Thank you."
Flaming cheeks, Mai turned away from Naru. Her hand shaky and placed on her mouth. 'Wow...—'
"Are you coming in? I'm going to close the door."
"Eh?—" Without waiting for her response, Naru went inside and closed the door. 'Oh my gosh! I've never seen him make that face before...'
Without any knowledge, her body feeling a float. Mai slid the door open and walks inside. 'Somehow— For the first time, it made me realize that Naru's only 17 years old after all...'
~~~
"HA—?! There's no spirit here anywhere?" with a sigh, Bou-san sits on one of the vacant chairs. "that's impossible Masako-chan..."
"I didn't see any. I searched the entire school campus but found nothing." Masako proclaims once more.
"There at least has to be a spirit at that desk. There have been four accidents so far relating to it!" Bou-san leans in, waving a hand by the door, knowing outside on a classroom lays a desk that could potentially hurt others. As stupid as it sounds.
"I wonder if they're setting us up?" Masako chimes in, a frown on her lips.
"You mean the whole school?! Is that some kind of joke?"
John lets out a weak laugh, lifting his hands over Bou-san. "Now... now.. please calm down."
"This is going to be complicated." Naru speaks out, standing by the windows with his arms crossed over his chest. "How many of those witnesses you think were telling us the truth?" He turned and gazed at the others who remained silent.
"Even if only some of them were, there were still quite a lot of submissions. There has to be some reason why so many people involved with this school are experiencing so many psychic phenomena. That reason is still unclear."
Naru focuses on Masako, the psychic clearing her throat at his gaze, "We can only depend on your psychic power at this point, Hara-san."
And like what she has said last time, "There aren't any spirits here."
"I see," Ayako chimes in. "Masako isn't always right, you know."
Without slightest hesitation, Masako huffed with a sleeve covering her lips. "I'm correct more often than you are."
But Ayako did not relent, "I don't know about that! There's no way there aren't any spirits here."
"In fact, I can't remember when you were ever correct, can you!"
"You're useless even if you could see spirits, you could never get rid of them!"
'Geez...' Mai gulps, stepping away from Ayako and Masako to sit with the boys— John and Bou-san who seems calmer compared to the females.
"If there were any..."
'Huh?' Mai turns. seeing Naru facing back the window with a deep gaze in his eyes, staring at himself. "Did you say something, Naru?"
"Nothing." Naru goes to the desk and picks up his coat, placing them on his shoulders. "I was just saying that I wish I had a reliable psychic who had an ability to see spirits accurately." With a last glance on his reflection, Naru left.
"Lin, let's go back to work."
His last thought before he completely left the room with Lin made him take out his phone only to place them back in his pockets.
Unaware of the side glances Lin sent his way.