School's Out (self-insert #1)

Chapter 5

Mai burst in the partially dismantled base as I finished wrapping up a wire, her eyes wide with shock. "What's going on? Where's Naru?" She demanded, partially out of breath.

"Cleaning up. Sleeping in the van." I gestured to the half empty bottle of coffee. "Want some?"

It took me a moment to realize that she'd left with the coffee. Sighing, I grabbed the other bundled up wires and trotted after her.

I caught up to her as she pressed her face to the side window, and began knocking impaitiently on the glass. "Na-ru! You're going to catch a cold, sleeping out here!" She chided, moving around to the open trunk to get a better look at the black-clad corpse.

The corpse twitched. After a minute, the jacket/blanket slipped off as Naru sleepily unfolded and then opened his eyes. "Mai." He muttered, running a hand through his hair. "What are you doing here this early in the morning?"

Mai flushed, no doubt flustered by how impossibly good-looking he was right when he woke up. "Ear-early in the morning? It's already past 11 am. Ah, would you like a cup of coffee?"

"Sure."

He sat up stiffly as she poured, coughing to clear his throat. I'd almost feel bad for him if he hadn't ordered me to sleep in the passenger seat ("I'm tired. If you want to leave, walk back yourself.") with no guarantee that we wouldn't be mugged in the middle of the night ("It hasn't happened yet, has it?"). When I'd gotten up to pray Fajr, I'd spent a few minutes stretching out my cramped limbs before I could even stand up straight. "Sleep well?"

He ignored me.

Mai handed him the steaming cup. "Did you find anything last night?"

"Yeah."

Silence.

"Really?!"

"Hey, what's happening in the lab?" Ayako demanded as she, John and Bou-san strode up after having checked the base. "What's going on, little boy? You're already packing up?"

"Correct." Naru replied, standing as he finished off his coffee.

Their eyes widened simultaneously. "You must be kidding!" Ayako shrieked the same time Bou-san demanded, "Why?!"

"I'm closing the case."

"Did you exorcise?"

"No, I didn't." Turning to where he'd been sleeping, he sifted through the pile of papers and handed them to the confused monk as if they were all the answer they'd need.

Bou-san raised an eyebrow. "What's this?"

"A level scale graph." Naru took the wires I'd been holding and tucked them on one of the shelves. "The building sank more than 0.2 inch just overnight."

"Whaaat?!"

"Land subsidence." Naru's laptop pinged from where it sat in the corner, it's screen partially lowered. He slid it over to me. Pushing back the top, I saw an email from Lin. Kuroda-san has entered the building. She went straight up the stairs.

Lin had harangued Naru into setting up a camera specifically for the purpose of keeping an eye on the base. I'll let him know.

"That's it? The psychic phenomenon was caused by this?" Ayako asked disbelievingly. I tried to hold back a snicker as Bou-san and Mai gave up trying to read the graph.

"This whole development was built in top of damp ground. Based on the number of wells that I checked, directly underneath the school is a big water vein running through." Naru explained. "There are two other wells, but when I checked for the amount of water in both of them they were both empty. So that's what's going on."