~~~
AKEMI
The heiress walks along the hallway with Oliver's leash in hand, the sun slowly setting already. The Golden retriever sniffs the hallway, at times sneezing and huffing from the accumulated dust. This lasted for a few more minutes, half an hour at most until the dog stops in front of a door.
"What's this— " Akemi reaches her hand towards the door, but the hand on her shoulder was faster. "Ah!"
The heiress let out a yelp, turning to pout her lips at an unconcerned Naru. A frown once again in his lips, "Mouh~! You surprised me back there..." Akemi laughs, her voice shaky.
Seeing how troubled she seemed, Naru straightened. His hand lowering back to his side. "Is something wrong? You look... Do you sense anything?"
Akemi ignored his sudden change of words, lifting him an assuring smile. "I'm fine, it doesn't concern the case." she reassures.
In fact, it concerns the two shadowy figures. The more they stayed in her presence, the more Akemi's sight seemed to diminish. It was concerning— Akemi was wondering if her sight has anything to do with the two paranormal activities.
Akemi points towards the door in front of them, Oliver already sitting in his place. "I do feel a presence here..."
Naru was silent, glancing at Akemi's pointed finger and moving his gaze to the door, his eye catching something; the metal lock. "It's locked."
"Eh?" Akemi couldn't tell that. "Can we not open it?"
Naru scoffs, stepping forward the door. "I wouldn't have said its locked if we can open it that easily,"
Akemi giggles, not one bit perturbed. "Ara~ someone sure is grumpy today..."
Naru send the heiress a cold darkening glare, clicking his tongue. "Let's go back now, Lin said he's close, Mai is already waiting for him at the caretaker's house."
"What do you mean? We're not going to check this room out?" Akemi lightly frowns, confused— not to Naru but to herself. Something inside her just pushes her to open the door. 'She wants to go inside now... but why?'
Naru sighs while he stepped away to leave. "Akemi, it's locked. We can just ask the caretaker to open it for us later—"
Akemi reaches over the lock and it breaks under her touch, the years of it being left over weakened its structure. "...Well I guess these kinds of things happen..." Akemi chagrined, sending Naru an embarrassed laugh before nudging Oliver to step inside.
"It seems to be a study room." Naru soon followed inside. The heiress hums, looking around before stopping her gaze on the desk next to the human sized windows.
~~~
~~~
NARU AKEMI
Naru observed around the room, still organized but unkempt. As though they left things from where they were and decided to lock the room immediately.
Composed, Naru walks around. His fingers grazing anything he can touch, the sense of a nice yet strict childhood— gifts from a lover and a book of heartbreak— until he noticed Akemi stepping towards the study table.
"Sense anything?" Naru asks, facing the heiress when she softly nods.
"The maiden that the caretaker told us about, she's here." Akemi says— placing a hand on the dusty study table. Lifting her slender fingers, caressing each other's tips to remove the dust that went along with it.
Hearing her words, Naru walked towards the study table, placing a hand on top of it before noticing a set of papers.
"A letter?" Akemi leans in, frowning when it was all for naught because she cannot read. She nudges Naru using her hips, telling him to read it out loud but Naru remained quiet for a while,
"Naru?" Akemi tilts her head, worried. 'Is he...?'
She stays put for a while, deciding to wait. Only when she noticed his aura cool back up did she nudged him once more. "Are you okay? Did you see anything?"
"Yeah," Naru drawls.
"What does the letter say?"
Naru sighs, lifting the paper up to his sight. A bit hesitant, but continues nonetheless. "Just once more, I would like to touch your lips again... but do you not care about me anymore?" He reads, lowering the paper down to observe the human-sized windows. "-This letter was written by the spirit existing here before she disappeared."
Akemi could tell from the very beginning of the letter. Though it was nice to hear Naru say such romantic heartbreak once out of his lips besides statistics and work.
The heiress made sure to hide her teasing grin.
Naru then explains to Akemi, the letter was being written by the maiden on the study room, yet on the stormy night just as the care-taker told— left the room quickly towards the cliff only to slip and drown.
"I see, so that's what happened... The story was actually real..." Akemi kept quiet for a while, her eyes gazing over Naru's, a frown on her lips.
"You didn't see any visions while we were here?" Naru asks, the tips of his brows drew together when Akemi admits to not seeing anything for the last few months or so.
"What?"
"I don't know why but there was nothing— no visions or any imagery for the last few months... The last I got was maybe after the Christmas case..." Naru frowned, that was highly unusual. Then he noticed her look,
"If you have something to say, say it." 'Why is she staring at me like that?'
"...Are you okay?"
Naru stiffens at Akemi's question. 'Shouldn't he be the one asking that?' Pausing for a while, knowing that lying is something Akemi won't appreciate— especially after the manhole incident with his leg. "I'm fine."
Akemi narrows her gaze, Naru repeating his words once more. Louder.
"If you say so~" Akemi loosens, straightening her back and nudging the all-this-time-quiet Oliver, so they can all try to leave the room.
As though planned, the furniture around the room started moving and shaking. Books on the shelves floated out of their casings and moved around the room. Naru thought of debunking such event as an actual earthquake or another land subsidence, however the sight in front of him paused his thought.
The area around the study table started to glow, morphing into a being— a figure of a woman.
Seeing Naru so focused, Akemi took step. "Naru, are you also seeing...?"
"Yeah."
The woman stood delicate and elegant in front of the human-sized window, she wore a traditional clothing, resembling an outfit Masako usually wears but her hair tied on a loose ponytail— her height close to Mai's stature. Light fingers touched the cold glass, standing there as though longing to go outside.
The letter on Naru's hand glowed, flying out of his hand and into the desk. The woman elegantly sitting down on the chair and lifted a pen to write the continuation of the paper.
Naru and Akemi remained quiet, watching the spirit move in her own world. It was soon when the spirit of the maiden paused, lifting the letter up to her lips and kissed the parchment.
Akemi kept still, her gaze remaining on where the maiden sat— folding the paper into an envelope and glancing behind to implore the heiress and the wizard with a sad look. "Please..."
And the spirit disappeared from Naru's sight like crystal dust. The letter having her every being written in soul.
"I guess she really wanted to give that letter to him..." Akemi sadly smiles, picking up the still warm letter on the desk. "... It would be nice if we could give the letter to him. Have each other met once again— in a way..."
"That's impossible," Naru shuts his eyes with a breath out of his lips. "He would be dead by now or extremely old in a place we don't know where."
Yet here he was speaking to the girl he only met in his dreams.
"Maybe we can summon him?" Naru stares at Akemi, quiet.
Thinking.
Observing.
Naru's gaze moves towards the sitting Oliver, the dog seeming to be innocent and quiet besides his owner. The dog Oliver tilts his head, placing its tongue back on his mouth and stares at Naru in question.
"That boat..." He mutters, a light passing his peripheral vision.
Both Akemi and him, turned their gaze towards the human-sized window. The sight of the ocean open and present as their view.
Akemi brightening at what it could mean, "Naru, let's go to where the boat was!"