Chapter 4-Codes
December Day 3, 12:51 P.M.
"You never answered me yesterday!" Ayako exclaimed, as she drove not only Mai to the elementary school, but Monk as well. Wasn't Yasuhara supposed to pick her up?
"Answered you about what?" she replied, somehow she had gained the shotgun seat, the monk was sitting in the back seat right behind her. She still has no idea what argument the adults must have gotten into before she got in.
"Who your boyfriend is!" Ayako answered, earning a surprised shout from behind her.
"Mai has a boyfriend? When the hell did that happen? Gah!" Monk exclaimed, as Ayako took a turn a little too sharply. "What the hell!"
"You need to watch your language!"
"You need to drive better!" Monk retorted.
"Don't distract me!" Ayako screamed back at him, then turned to Mai. "So, who is he?"
"When did this happen!" Monk shouted from the back seat.
"Apparently they've been dating for three months!" Ayako lied.
"What!"
"Yasuhara was exaggerating," Mai rolled her eyes. "It's only been one month."
"One month! And we're only finding out now!" Monk was seriously displeased.
"Shut up, old man!" Ayako scolded. "We only have until we get to the school, before she'll shut down and won't speak a word of this!"
"Quit being so bossy!" Monk shouted back.
"I am not bossy!"
"Are too!"
"Are not!"
"Yuh-huh!"
"Nuh-uh!"
"And your time is up!" Mai announced, once Ayako had parked in the parking lot of the school. "I'm sorry, but you'll have to wait until our next episode of 'Just Who Am I Dating?' for another chance to find out, just who I am dating." She hopped out of the car before the adults could stop her.
"Damn it, Mai!" Ayako shouted, earning a flick in the shoulder from the monk sitting behind her. "Ow! What the hell?" Another flick. "Stop it!"
"We're at an elementary school, cool it on the language," he scolded getting out of the car. "Besides, you've hit me much harder than that little flick-"
"Jerk!"
***
"Mai will review the evidence from yesterday's EVP session," Naru stated, once they had gathered in Base. "Miss Matsuzaki and Miss Hara will do another walk through of the property, focus on the areas where you feel the most activity. John and Monk will take temperature readings and we'll compare them with yesterday's data. Yasuhara, I want you and Lin to talk with the principal and other teachers. See if there were any other incidents that they might have forgotten about during the original interviews, there might be a clue as to who the other spirits here might be."
"Sounds good," everyone agreed and split off to do their part.
"You didn't analyze the session after I left last night?" Mai asked in surprise as she sat down by the monitors.
"You started the session, you need to finish it," he said handing her the headphones.
"If you say so," she shrugged and started the tape.
"In the library, Mai."
"Ayako."
"Monk."
"Yasuhara."
"Is there anyone here with us right now?" Mai heard herself say. "Can you knock on the wall to answer us?"
Just like the night before, Mai could only hear silence as she anticipated something to happen. She heard Ayako let out a breath and heard her shift before she spoke.
"I don't think the spirits are here. Maybe we should cut this short and you can go home and get studyin-"
Just as Ayako was interrupted, Mai heard a breeze blow across the speaker of the recorder. Just as she had felt the night before. "We're here." Came a weak reply.
"No, they're here," Mai heard herself swallow and continue. "Can you tell us your name?"
"No." Mai heard the same voice reply. And another muttered something she couldn't quite hear.
She heard the book fall and Ayako shift to see what had happened. "Is your name in the book?" Monk asked and the book could be heard skidding through across the floor.
Mai could hear another mutter, but couldn't make it out. She tried turning up the volume.
"Were you in classroom 3B yesterday?" Yasuhara's voice blasted in her ears, but she ignored it. There was something there. "-teen."
She was going to have to go back and clean it up, but least she knew there was something to find.
"Do you know why you are still here?"
The pages could be heard fluttering and the muttering continued. This tape had quite a bit of work to be done to it.
"Thank you for speaking with us. Yasuhara, turn the lights back on," Movement could be heard and then finally, "End of E.V.P. session."
Unlike the day before, Mai didn't have Naru's constant assistance with figuring out how to loop the audio. She knew how to do it, granted she really only did it one time, but this session was much messier than the last one. But after close to an hour of splicing, highlighting, boosting, and listening, Mai was able to uncover something.
"Did you find anything?" Naru came up behind her just as she finished.
Mai removed her headphones and looked up at him. "For some reason this recording was a lot more difficult to clean up, but I found several voices. Unfortunately, it's almost like there are several people talking at once, jumbling the audio," she explained, handing him the headphones. "You have to hear it to know what I mean."
Naru took a seat next to her and put on the headset, Mai hit the play button and he listened. She watched his face in comparison to the loop she could see on the computer. A couple minutes in, she saw what she was looking for. Naru was confused, that was a rare occurrence, especially to see it on his face. "Replay the last four seconds," he said.
She obeyed and Naru ended up taking the controls and tried cleaning it up. "Sorry, I'm not used to analyzing audio-"
"No, you did well," he interrupted, continuing to play around with the settings. "Whatever is being said is almost too low for the speaker to have picked up. Had I known, I would have given you a better device. The fault is mine."
Well damn. Mai had officially gone three days in a row with compliments coming from her employer. She was almost tempted to feel his forehead to make sure he was well. But she was pretty sure that would put an end to the positive attention. "So, what can you make out?"
"What did you hear?" he asked her back.
"Well, it sounded almost like numbers to me. In that loop I'm pretty sure I heard twenty, thirty-two."
"That's exactly what I heard," he confirmed, "what do you think it means?"
Mai just shrugged and shook her head. "Not sure why you're asking me, I don't have a clue."
"If only it would come in clearer," Naru muttered to himself, as he went on messing with the recording.
Mai took that as her cue to get up and stretch her legs. She was stretching out her back when she saw the book from the day before sitting on the table. Just as she did the day before, she sat on the table and then opened said book. "Adventures of Keiichi-kun" was the title, the cover had a tree with a boy sitting on a branch, below the branch was a scene with the same boy in a sword fight in a completely different time period.
It reminded Mai of the books her pen pal from the USA would write to her about. The Magic Tree House...was what she believed they were called. This Kaizen Yamamoto must have copied the idea. Alice used to love those books, I wonder if this was one of Kaede's favorite books.
Before long, Mai had read the entire book cover to cover, while somehow ending up lying down on the table as opposed to sitting up. "I certainly hope you are not napping," she heard her employer reprimand.
She simply waved a hand after closing the book. "Now why would I be doing that?" She rolled to her belly looked in his very unamused eyes. "You took over my job so I decided to try something else."
"If you have so much time on your hands, go make tea." She should feel aggravated at him for that comment. He was the reason she had the time. Instead she simply got up and gave an exaggerated bow.
"Your wish is my command, Your Majesty!" she said with a smile. He gave her an odd look and turned back to the monitor.
"Glad to see we are both on the same page," he commented, with a smirk she was unable to see.
"As you wish, Your Highness!" she rolled her eyes and marched out, a little annoyed but mostly amused.
Well, at least he now trusts me enough to go get him tea on my own, I must be getting somewhere, Mai thought to herself as she snuck into the teacher's lounge to use their kettle. She would have gone to the cafeteria but they had closed it down for the day.
The kettle whistled and as Mai reached for it a chill flew up her spine. She froze mid reach and felt a cold breeze on the back of her neck. Her hair stood on end as goose bumps crept up her arms. The whistling became screeching and Mai swore she heard that maniacal laughter from the tape the day before.
Her head whipped around faster than most would have thought possible, though it seemed to have taken eons to the girl. A transparent shadow raced out the door. "Hey!" she exclaimed rushing to the door. "Wait a min-"
Just as she should have expected, not a single person was out there. Not a soul. The kettle became even more hysterical and Mai realized she had other tasks to finish. She must have just imagined it. With the limited amount of sleep lately it would make sense.
But why would I only start hallucinating now? She wondered as she finished the tea.
"Not a single fluctuation more than two degrees," Mai heard a very familiar voice comment in the hall. "Doesn't that seem strange?"
"It certainly does, maybe this building has a very good heating system?" came the voice of a certain someone with a Kansai accent.
"Eh, not sure the heating system would be able to compete against a spirit with a vengeance, John."
"Well, is there a fluctuation between today's and yesterday's data?" Mai asked, startling the young men. Both jumped a foot in the air when she appeared out of nowhere.
"Dammit, Mai!" Monk swore, as he caught his breath.
"Takigawa, you really should watch your language," John reprimanded with a shake of his head.
"I know, I know, at least you are far less violent about it than Ayako," Monk shrugged. "So what were you asking, Mai?"
"About the temperature readings," she answered.
"Right, compared to yesterday there is a more drastic rise in temperatures, but compare the rooms to each other they all on have a two degree difference."
"That is weird," she noted, and tilted her head to the side. "It's strange that on our first day we had such a response to the EVP session, but when we had one yesterday the response wasn't as strong. And today, not even the temperatures are abnormal."
"Now that you mention it, that is odd," John agreed. "We only have a couple of rooms left, then we'll be back at Base."
"Wow, since when do temp readings take two hours?" the high schooler teased.
"Real nice smart-aleck," Monk ruffled the girl's hair. "We would have been done sooner, but we didn't want to interrupt the classes going on."
"The children in the Cafeteria also wanted us to referee their kickball game!" John added with a smile.
"Uh-oh, Naru won't be happy to hear that," she teased again.
"Yeah, well, he will be even unhappier to find that you returned to Base with cold tea," Monk retorted.
"You're right," she laughed. "Better get this to him before he has more withdrawal symptoms."
"Miss! Oh Miss!"
Mai whipped her head around toward the sound of the voice. She knew she definitely heard something. A strange feeling consumed her, it were as though she weren't in reality, like when she had the vision of Sakauchi's spirit. Her grip on the teacup was fading when-
"Mai?" Monk's voice called her back from wherever her mind had gone to. "Mai, what is it?"
"Nothing," she said quickly, as she turned back around with a smile on her face. "I thought I heard something, but it must've been in one of the classrooms."
"Okay, we'll see you at Base," Monk replied with a raised brow.
"Yeah." She turned away toward the direction of Base, her pace a tad quicker than she may have intended.
***
December Day 3, 3:14 P.M.
Mai finally made it back to Base where Naru had finished editing the audio. Group by group Base became filled with the team and the brunette was starting to wish she had made more tea. "Did you find anything?" Naru asked Yasuhara and Lin once they arrived.
"Nothing we didn't already know or suspect," Yasuhara answered, sitting on the table like he had done the day before. "The most significant thing we were able to find out were voices and chills in the teacher's lounge."
That peaked the high school student's attention. If anyone noticed the girl's sudden interest, they didn't comment on it. "Also shadows out of the corner of one's eye are another claim, but that can easily be debunked as an overactive imagination, especially with the stress of what is going on," Lin added.
"Monk, John, what did you find?" Naru asked, turning to them.
"Well, we had a considerable rise in temperatures compared to yesterday, " Monk explained, flipping through the papers on the clipboard.
"However the difference between the rooms is not more than two degrees," John added.
"That is odd," the young manager commented, then turned to the medium and priestess. "What about you two?"
"I wish I could say we had more to give you," Ayako said waving a hand. "We really didn't find too much."
"I sense several very faint presences, but I couldn't see any of them. Not even the blurriness that I could see yesterday." Masako continued with a sad look behind her kimono sleeve.
"But, we aren't at a total loss," Ayako added. "We were able to determine that whatever is here seems to stay around room 3B, the playground, and the library. That's where Masako could really feel a presence. It's as though they were attached there or something, right Masako?"
"Yes, that's right."
"The E.V.P. session we held yesterday didn't help either," Mai said after a moment, she had been leaning against the doorframe since she walked back in the tea. She just felt too antsy to sit down. "There was so much static that most of it was garbled up, and what did pop up made no sen-"
She stopped mid sentence. Something occurred to her. Everyone stared at her as gears turned in her head. Why hadn't she realized it sooner? It was absolutely obvious. Better question, why hadn't Naru seen it? "Mai?"
"Naru, play the session yesterday out loud," she said running over to the table where she had left the book. Luckily, he didn't question her. Everyone was silent as the tape was played for all to hear.
"Can you tell us your name?" they could hear Mai ask.
"No."
The book was heard falling and sliding as Monk asked, "Is your name in the book?"
"Four, sixteen."
She flipped to the seventh page, the first page to have been opened during the session. She remembered learning about this in her history class. A code that could only be solved with a specific book, or letter, or something else of that sort. She had the code and the key for it. Now what was written on line four, word sixteen?
"Bamboo?" she said aloud, just as she heard another set of numbers.
"Twenty, thirty two."
At this point she had to flip to page thirty-three. "Harbor."
This pattern continued and throughout the mess of numbers she managed to find several more words. Sweet, maple, chapter, snow, and perfume. But what did they mean?
"Nice try, Mai, but they are a bunch of words," Monk said, putting a hand on her shoulder.
"Well, maybe it was the spirits of Kaede and another child and they wanted to give us a little scavenger hunt so they could have some fun too," Yasuhara said cheerfully.
"What part of this seems like fun to anyone?" Ayako raised a brow.
"Well, we are dealing with child spirits," he answered.
"Not all of them are children, I can only sense two spirits who are relatively young," Masako said with a sigh. "I still can't sense their specific ages..."
"Either way, it's a clue nonetheless, maybe, we got a few pages wrong or something, or maybe they gave us the wrong book."
"We don't have time to search every book in that library," Naru snapped.
The priest sighed. "He's right, judging by the pattern of attacks, it's only a matter of time before another child is injured. We don't have much time left before the school is off for winter break."
"You think there will be another attack before the children leave?" Ayako inquired.
"The likelihood is becoming increasingly likely," Lin added from his laptop.
"Where is Yuudai?" Mai asked after a minute. "I haven't seen him at all today, and did he leave early yesterday?"
"Yuudai will be working on this case separately," Naru answered. "It became clear that the case would be solved much faster if we each conducted our own investigation."
That didn't sound good. She knew about the argument yesterday, but she thought that they would still be working together on the case. At least sharing their findings, seeing if anything added up. Mai knew better than to glance to Monk for an answer, he was too lost in thought. She looked to Yasuhara who only shook his head.
Yasuhara, if you ever want to find out who my boyfriend is you are going to have to tell me what happened last night! Mai made a mental note to interrogate the college boy at a later time.
"Mai," Naru's order came after the brief awkward moment.
"Yeah, yeah, I know the drill," she said, putting the book down and heading for the door. Did he even finish the cup I gave him?
"Yasuhara, go with her," he ordered again.
Now normally Mai would have been pissed that her employer still found her inferior enough to need protection from the supernatural. You know, protection given by a non-spiritualist against whatever hellish being resided in this school. However, Yasuhara was just the person she made a note to interrogate just a moment earlier. However, she couldn't let him know that. Nor could she give him the satisfaction of being able to get under her skin.
So it was with every ounce of teenage angst in her that she managed to roll her eyes and walk out the door with a, "Fine, whatever. C'mon Yasuhara."
Wordlessly, Yasuhara got up and followed her out.
***
"So what happened between Yuudai and Naru after I left last night?" Mai asked as they made it to the teacher's lounge.
"So that's why you weren't annoyed that Naru had me come with you," he commented as she started the tea.
"Please answer my question."
"Only after you answer mine," he teased.
"You never asked me a question," she retorted.
"You never answered my question from last week." A mischievous grin graced his face as his glasses gleamed. "Who is your boyfriend?"
"No, what happened last night takes precedence over that."
The two of them held a stare down until the kettle whistled. Their battle had been cut off as Mai raced to turn the stove off. "Fine, you win, but I will find out," Yasuhara chuckled as he leaned against the counter. "Last night after you left, Yuudai asked to speak with Naru privately. So Naru had us leave, except for Lin. Monk refused to step out. Outside we could hear arguing. Not Naru of course, he has really only argued with you. We couldn't hear what was said, but it was obvious Monk and Yuudai have different ways of handling the paranormal. Finally we heard Naru shout for the both of them to be quiet and the next thing we knew, Yuudai had stormed out, along with Monk, both going in opposite directions."
"Wow, I thought they were supposed to be friends or something," Mai said, pouring several cups of tea and placing them on a tray.
"They could very well be friends, just not good coworkers," Yasuhara shrugged as they walked out into the hall.
"What do you mean by that?" she asked looking up at him.
"There are certain types of people who can get along great as friends and there are types of people who get along great as coworkers, then there are the few like you who get along with coworkers so well they become your friends, lastly there are the few who can work with their best friend at the same workplace."
"Okay, explain please."
"Alrighty, example, could you ever see Keiko or Michiru working for SPR like you?"
"No, though they have asked me about getting them a job here."
"And have you talked to Naru about it?"
"No, he would say no anyway."
"So you say, but working with your best friends can lead to the ending of a friendship. You probably didn't think about it in the same sense, but you probably unconsciously realized that if you were to work side by side with either one of them, then one of you wouldn't get any work done. Or you would get into an argument about something trivial and it would deter your work ethic and could potentially lead to you both sitting at separate lunch tables."
Mai thought about it for a moment, Yasuhara had a point. A very valid point. She recalled the first case she met the young man. She knew then he was very rational, but hidden within his goofiness he was mature beyond his years. Wherever he ended up, he would go very far. She realized in that moment that she admired Yasuhara for this reason, but also envied him.
They were heading back towards Base, when something caught Mai's eye. "Here, take the tray back to Base, I need to use the restroom," she said, dumping the tray into his arms and running off before he could protest.
"Wait, what!" he exclaimed, but it was obvious she wasn't going to come back anytime soon. And Naru would not be happy with cold tea. Or the fact that he came back without the petite assistant. Which was the lesser of two evils? Cold tea? No assistant? Cold tea? No assistant? Cold tea? No assistant?
Neither one would end up well for the college freshman, but he decided that he may as well take what he's got and at least give the Big Boss some hot tea.
***
Now, why Mai determined that she desperately needed to go out to the playground, she wasn't sure. Maybe it was because one of the spirits led her there. Maybe it was because she needed fresh air. Maybe she needed the cold air to shock her system just a little after such a long day. Or maybe it was because Yuudai was outside praying by the slide.
"Oh, Mai, you startled me," he said with a small laugh as he turned around. "What can I do for you?"
"Actually," she began as she knelt down in the grass next to him. "I was wondering how you were doing. I left early yesterday and just found out that Naru had determined it would be best if we stayed out of each other's investigations. He can be...well...Naru-ish."
At that, the monk laughed. "No, I'm doing just fine, I would have liked to work with you all a little more to get this case solved pronto, but what can you do?"
Mai chuckled as she sat back. "Yeah, it's a shame, I would have liked to work with you a little more. I mean you were Monk's mentor and all."
"You really call him Monk?" he asked. Mai had never found it strange before, but now that she thought about it, there were two monks on this investigation and everyone just decided on the nickname the first case.
"Yeah, since the first case we were on together we all just called him Monk. Now that I think about it, you probably find it strange. But it would be even weirder for us to start calling him Houshou."
"I can see that," he laughed and turned to face her. "So tell me, Mai, what do you think of this place? What do you think is going on here?"
"Everyone seems to love asking me that question," she laughed with a sigh. "Well, and I seem to say this on every case I've ever gone on, but something doesn't feel right."
"What do you mean by that?"
"With the attacks that have gone on here, I don't feel that dark of a presence. Not one that would harm children. Yet that's what we are dealing with. It doesn't add up."
"Whatever is here could be hiding their presence from you," the monk offered.
Mai just shook her head. "I've never had that experience before," she replied with a sigh. Then looked back up at the monk. "I'm sorry, none of what I just said made any sense."
"No, it's fine, here," he replied handing her a small book. "I'm sure Houshou has taught you some warding magic, this may help you learn more as well."
"Thanks," she said accepting the book and standing up. "I better get back to Base, Naru won't be happy that I ran off. I'm a bit of a danger magnet, he won't even let me fetch tea by myself, it's sad."
Yuudai just laughed, "Go ahead, get out of the cold. You must be freezing, I'll see you later."
***
Her vision was blurred, by what she had assumed was tears. She felt pain. Her body ached all over as the figure of a man was on top of her. She new exactly what he was doing and was thankful that she wasn't feeling the exact pain of such a vial act. "No! Stop!" a voice not her own came from her mouth as the man covered her mouth and laughed.
"Shut up if you don't want to die! You deserved this! I always get what I want!"
"Mai!"
***
"Mai!"
December Day 3, 5:00 P.M.
Mai opened her eyes to find herself sitting against the wall in the hallway. Naru was hovering over her and she saw John and Yasuhara behind him. "Huh?"
"Mai, what happened?" Naru asked as Mai was trying to remember exactly how she ended up in this position.
"I don't know I was walking back to Base and the next thing I know here I am with all of you around me," she answered, raising a brow. "Mind telling me your side?"
"Did you have a vision?" Naru chose to ignore her question. Mai opened her mouth to retort in some witty way or blab about her short painful vision but she stopped.
No! Don't! A voice came to her, not like the voice she heard at the Ishikawa's or anytime she heard a spirit. No this was the voice she heard at Yuasa High School. Don't tell them about the vision! They don't need to know!
"Actually," she said after she shook her head. "It's coming back to me, I didn't have a vision, at least not one I remember. But as I was coming back to Base I was feeling dizzy and needed to stop to compose myself."
She knew none of the boys around her bought that, but she smiled and stood back up, grabbing her book as she did so. "Mai, what's that book you have?" John asked as Mai started to head back to Base.
"Oh, it's just something I picked up from my school library, I left it in the teacher's lounge earlier so I went back and grabbed it," she lied smoothly, another thing the voice in her head was telling her to do.
"Now, who is your boyfriend?" Yasuhara threw in. Mai just threw her hand up to wave it away.
"For me to know and you to figure out later, Yasuhara."
***
Well, Naru had sent the rest of the team to do some menial tasks, leaving just the two of them, seeing as Mai was incapable of doing anything without danger following her. She had taken up her earlier position of lying down on the table going through the children's book. She was missing something. But this made so much sense, why did her idea seem so plausible yet turn up no results?
A chill raced down her spine as her body went still. She held her breath as her pulse boomed in her ears. Slowly she let her head fall to the side toward the door. It had been closed, now it was opened. How has this not gathered Naru's attention? She wondered.
Then once again she could see a figure scurry past the doorway.
She reacted immediately. She jumped up off the table and rushed out of the room, barely hearing her boss's call behind her. She saw something, something that may help them solve the case. Or lead her on a wild goose chase.
She slowed her pace and caught her breath as she realized what room she had been led to. "Mai, what the hell are you doing?" Naru's cold voice managed to break through her reverie, but not enough to completely break her focus.
"Naru, I saw-" but she stopped mid sentence as the door to the classroom 3B opened up for them.
Curious, they both walked in and Mai noticed the desk towards the back. "Nee, Naru?"
"Yes?"
"I..." she paused, trying to comprehend what she was seeing. "I think I know what Masako meant when she said she couldn't see the spirits here clearly."
Before her was an outline of a child. Most likely a little boy around the age of eight or nine. He was very thin as well. "Kaede," she let out in a breath as said outline tapped on the desk.
She walked over to the desk and examined it. "What are you trying to show me?" she wondered aloud as Naru followed her. She hadn't given him much of an explanation, but Naru was a smart cookie and could figure out some of the pieces.
He knelt down at the desk and started pulling out books and papers and pencils, hoping to find a clue. "There's something in here," he commented pulling something small out.
Mai gasped when he opened his hand, though she should have expected nothing less. But it was still a tad unsettling that he was holding a hitogata. "I think I understand as well," Naru replied as he turned the wooden doll over to see a name scribbled on it.
"Kaede..."