Chapter 5-Advantage
April Day 3, 7:18 P.M.
"Shit," Mai cursed as she pulled the door again. Was it normally locked? Something inside her told her no and she started to feel panic fill her stomach. "Come on!"
Another tug. Nothing. "I'll break you down if I have to!" she grunted, feeling anger take over the panic, to which she was grateful. It didn't make her feel quite as helpless.
One more pull was all it took. The door opened with ease, almost knocking the girl off of her feet. "Come on!" she muttered as she raced into the building.
Her boss wasn't by the tea plants, but she knew he wouldn't be. Aside from the fact that all his drank was tea, the plants held no significance to him. She knew he was more interested in the tomato vines, and if he noticed the team's shift in energy like she had, he might have gone to test Mai's theory.
What better way to find out for sure than being live bait? He truly was an idiot scientist.
"Naru!" she gasped as she turned the corner down one of the aisles of tomato plants.
There he was, sprawled out on the ground two vines next to him as if retreating. Come on, Mai, think! You took that first aid course at school. There's gotta be something you can do!
With a shaky hand, Mai placed two fingers on her boss's neck and leaned forward to listen for breathing.
Thump-thump. Thump-thump.
Releasing the breath she unknowingly held, Mai sat up. "Naru, wake up!" she urged, tapping his shoulder. "Come on, I know you're in there, you need to wake up."
Panic was starting to rise and Mai noticed slight movement from Naru's side. It was the vines. That's right, I said that negative emotions could be what give the entity power to move the vines. Does panic count as a negative emotion?
With a calming breath, Mai started to pat the young man's face. "Naru, you need to wake up right now before I call Lin or Madoka." Her tone was much calmer and matter of fact that she noticed the vines retreat a bit. Not only did it elicit a response from the vines, she noticed Naru's eyes start to flutter. "Last chance, or I'm calling Lin."
With that, the young man's eyes fluttered open only to shut tight with a groan. Another relieved breath was released from the teenager and she moved back to allow him some room. Ever so slowly, Naru sat up and rubbed the back of his head.
"Jeez, Naru, you almost gave me a heart attack," Mai said, letting out another breath. Naru took to rubbing his temple as Mai caught a glance at the mark on his neck. "What were you thinking? Why did you-" But Naru held his hand up to silence her.
"Talk outside," he said, his voice rough as he worked his way to his feet. Once they had made their way out of the greenhouse, Mai shut the door and turned back to her boss.
"Why did you go alone?" she asked him. "We know that the actual attacks occurred when the victim was alone in the greenhouse. Why didn't you take Monk or Ayako or hell, even Masako! What you did was-"
"Incredibly stupid on my part, thank you very much for reminding me." The annoyed tone of voice that the young manager had, startled Mai as she realized that for once she was reprimanding him for the exact thing that she had done in the past. An interesting turn of events to say the least.
"Well, what were you doing?" she asked with a huff. And why hasn't anyone from Base followed me out here? What is going on?
"I had a theory and I wanted to test it out."
"And what was your theory?" Why did she suddenly feel like she was a mother scolding her child?
"Doesn't matter now, I was wrong." He turned and headed for the main building.
Mai shook her head in annoyance. "At least you're okay, you did scare me for a minute back there."
"As if something like that could get rid of me," he scoffed earning a pout that he couldn't see but knew was there.
Meanwhile, unable to hear the conversation, Masako watched from the window in Base. The way they fought like a married couple, the concern Mai showed him and smile that she never saw when he headed for the building. The smile that the medium would never receive.
Why did I even try? I never stood a chance, she thought bitterly as she turned her attention to her hands.
***
"What did you find out?" Naru asked once he took his place at the wall of monitors, with his chair facing the rest of the team.
"This building was once a family home before it became Reiki business in the 1960s before it was bought by the Ogawa family about twenty years later," John explained.
"One of the owners of the business also committed suicide shortly before the property was sold to the Ogawas," Mai added. "And the owners of the property when it was a home were Yamato Nakamura and his wife Hinata, we still have some digging to do since we haven't been able to find too much else on them."
"No obituaries?" Monk asked with a raised brow.
"Do you know how many Yamato Nakamuras there are in existence?" Mai asked raising a brow of her own.
"Point."
"What about the suicide? That's one death related to the property," Ayako asked crossing her arms. "And are we sure it was a suicide? Masako said the spirit here didn't want to die and held resentment for this place."
"We don't know if there are any other deaths to consider," Monk returned, mimicking the woman's stance.
"I'm just stating a possibility based on what we know," the priestess snapped.
"We don't have enough information to even begin theorizing possibilities yet." He was expecting another snap, a scowl, something that was characteristic of the priestess. Something was bothering her, he usually received at least one hit by now.
"You're right," she replied with a sigh, looking down at the floor.
The sudden submissiveness from the priestess certainly brought concerned and confused glances to fall upon her. Mai looked around to find that the others' faces matched the concern she felt. Except for Masako, that is, once their eyes made contact with each other the medium turned away.
"We also have the incident with Ogawa senior falling down the stairs a little while ago," Monk said, turning his attention back to Naru and the majority of the group. "He doesn't remember why he had to go upstairs other than to get something, but-"
"He's not to be going to the second floor anyway, hence why his office is on the first floor," Naru filled in. "Anything else?"
"Just that he knew he had to get something and only he could be the one to get it. No clue what it was, but the next thing he knew he was falling down the stairs. And from what I can tell, he hasn't been showing any symptoms of early Alzheimer's, but I mean he is only in his fifties." The monk turned to look at the priestess. "But I'm not exactly an expert. Any ideas Ayako?"
"I haven't really seen enough to give you an answer," she said, her focus moving to the window.
Naru looked at each of his team members and knew he had to make a decision. Half of them could continue on with the night, however the other half simply had too much on their minds to be productive in any way. "One last temperature sweep and everyone will be free to go. There isn't too much happening," he said, turning back to the table where the monitors sat and pulled out two clipboards. "Split up how you would like, Mai, I need tea."
John and Monk took the clipboards and grabbed the thermometers on their way out the door. Mai could only shrug as she walked into the next room. Since she was only making enough for two, the tea only took a couple of minutes.
It's been a while since he ordered for tea, Mai wondered as she poured the tea into mugs. Lately, he's either asked or waited until I made some for myself and brought him a mug. He's probably grumpy that a spirit attacked him. His fault that he went on his own, idiot scientist.
Coming back to Base Mai wasn't surprised to see her young boss focusing on the monitors in front of him. What did surprise her his immediate response when she entered the room. "Have you been sleeping well since our last case?"
Sure she knew Naru did actually care about his friends and apparently did worry about them (at least according to Madoka and from what Mai had seen), he just wasn't as good about showing it as pretty much everyone else. But his outright question reminded her of the night she admitted to him her insomnia, omitting the demon causing it.
"Were there nights that you didn't sleep at all?"
To be honest, she felt a little guilty not telling anyone what was going on. She didn't want to worry them, but still managed to do just that. "Yeah, a lot better actually," she answered a grin forming on her lips and she held out his mug to him. "A little too much, I've almost slept through my runs with my neighbor."
"No nightmares?" he asked as he reached for the mug.
She shook her head, keeping her smile until Naru's hand brushed against hers. Suddenly she was no longer in Base.
The scene warped and Mai found herself face to face with the creature that haunted her for months. Just as grotesque and terrifying as she remembered him, she felt a flutter of fear that he had returned only for him to approach her and brushed a lock of hair away with a talon, scratching her cheek. She watched his mouth move but heard no words, yet she knew what he said.
"You're one case away from seeing true evil. There's no coming back from it. I'll see you soon sweetheart."
It's a memory, he's not back...she told herself as suddenly reality seemed to return. She heard something else as the scene faded but couldn't really understand it in the moment.
No, all she could see was Naru's surprised face as he now held the mug and her own hand was still held out. It really didn't take much to know that he now knew everything or almost everything. "Psychometry..." she said with half a breath.
***
"So..." Monk began, simply to fill the void that was left as he and Masako flitted through the rooms taking pointless temperature sweeps. "How's your next season coming along?"
Masako didn't say anything right away. She merely approached the window of one of the offices on the second floor. "I'm not sure if there will be another season," she admitted, her voice hard.
Monk stopped writing and looked at the teenage girl. "What do you mean? Did your ratings fall with the past season?"
The girl shook her head. "No, they are higher than they ever have been. Including my first live show two years ago." She kept her gaze on the windowsill. "I'm merely not sure if I want to continue show business."
Now, Houshou Takigawa wasn't remotely famous. He was well known for being a monk and for his music, but did not have the same fame the young medium had. But he did know the potential it had to wreak havoc on anyone, especially someone as young as Masako. In fact, he was worried about his sister having to go through that, and she had only just opened the door to that world.
Masako had been dealing with it since puberty. That had to be tough, to develop and perfect her image and convince the public of her abilities. The fact that she was able to do it and not have a mental breakdown was amazing in and of itself.
However, she wasn't looking to be praised at the moment. She was looking for an answer. Should she stop her show or continue on. But Monk really wasn't qualified to tell her which way to go.
"Have you thought about taking a break? Some time off to just be yourself and not make appearances on TV or-"
"Yes, my producer wasn't too pleased but he understood. My manager on the other hand was even less keen on the idea. Especially since she knew I would be offering my services to SPR if requested."
"Why would your manager need to know that? Was Naru paying you to help?"
"No, but a mother would like to know where her child runs off to." Her voice was almost comically light. Yet Monk could practically taste the bitter venom dripping from her words.
Double whammy. A child star and a parent acting as her agent and practically forcing her to continue the lifestyle. What do you tell a girl in this situation? What would he tell Hoshiko if she came to him with this problem?
I think I know how to solve this, Monk thought after a moment. "What's the one thing you've always wanted to do that you couldn't because of your show's schedule?"
The question caught the girl by surprise. She turned back to look at the man with hopeful yet wary eyes. "Why would you want to know-"
"You don't have to tell me, but if you are going to take a break, do the things you couldn't do because you were The Masako Hara, Psychic Medium Extraordinaire." He gave the girl a cheeky grin. "Just be Masako, the seventeen year old girl who can have interests outside of ghost hunting."
Now this was a new thought.
***
"You saw..."
"Why didn't you tell anyone?" were his first words, and Mai felt a bubble of anger in her stomach.
He looked into her mind, saw personal, private memories, and was now demanding to be told why she hadn't told him about it before? What right did have to go and do such a thing? She would be justified if she started yelling at him-
But Mai stopped her thoughts. She knew getting angry and yelling and giving him a piece of her mind might make her feel a little better in the moment, but wouldn't solve anything. No it would backtrack the progress they had made with everything that happened. She needed to have this discussion, and it needed to be done civilly.
But she also wanted it to be done privately. So with a breath, she placed her mug on the table and headed for the door. "Mai, don't-"
"I'm not leaving," she said, her tone calm and even. "I just think this conversation doesn't need to be heard by anyone else." She walked back to the table and hopped up on it. "Now you can ask all the questions you want."
"Why didn't you tell anyone?" Naru repeated after a moment's pause.
"To be honest?" Mai began with a sigh, seeing the young man's slight nod she continued. "I wasn't in a good place, and hadn't been in a long time."
"Since the Ishikawa case."
Mai nodded. "Right after the Ishikawa case was when it started. It was just nightmares of past cases on repeat and a lot of them didn't end the way they actually did in real life." She crossed her legs. "And really, my relationship with Shouta wasn't helping matters, but that was my own fault. I shouldn't have gone out with him in the first place, not because of what happened, but because I wasn't mentally okay to date. Where was I going with this?"
Naru on the other hand, knew he was asking a lot from her. He wasn't asking for an explanation of something that occurred last week, he wanted an explanation for her actions the past six months. While he could have easily argued with her that telling someone sooner could have helped resolved the issues earlier, but he also knew that purposefully using psychometry to view someone's thoughts was crossing a very serious line.
So he would let her tell her story. Silently, he stood up and walked over to the table, where he picked up her mug of tea and placed it in her hands. Then he did something even more uncharacteristic of himself, he sat down on the table next to her. How it was sturdy enough to hold both of their weight? The world may never know.
"Go ahead, you can take your time," he said with a sip of his own tea. And with his words an almost calming wave passed through the teen, along with a familiar voice in her head.
Tell him, it's okay...
***
"Alright, I think the only spot left is the greenhouse," John said with his ever-cheerful smile as he marked down the temperature on his clipboard. "Shall we?"
"Huh? Sure?" Ayako replied, quickly breezing past the young priest and out the door.
The blond blinked and rushed to follow the priestess. He found her in the courtyard heading for the greenhouse. "Ayako, wait!" he called, catching up with the woman. She stopped and glanced blankly behind her. "Are you alright? You seem distracted."
"I'm fine John," she answered, turning to face him completely. The look of concern on the young man's face was enough to tell her he wasn't convinced. "Really, I'm fine. I just received some...unexpected news today. That's all."
"If you say so, but you were distracted the other day too." Ayako continued up to the door of the greenhouse. "Are you sure you don't want to talk about it?"
"John," Ayako said with a slight huff. "As much as I appreciate your concern, I don't need it. I'll be just fine. Let's finish this so we can go home." With that, she opened the door and marched in leaving the poor priest looking sheepish in the courtyard.
***
Thank you, Jin, Mai replied silently with a deep breath.
"I was having nightmares and the beginnings of insomnia shortly after the Ishikawa case in October. I figured that the cause was our frequent cases, and we had had a few very dark cases at the time. After a couple of weeks, I decided to call the number Dr. Enomoto gave me, you remember him right?" Mai paused and looked at her boss. "He's the psychologist from the hospital who said I could be released after the Ishikawa case."
Naru gave a slight nod, to allow her to continue.
"He said his grandson was a ghost hunter too and that if I needed to talk to someone I should call him. So I called Hozumi and figured maybe if I just talked about it with someone maybe I could-"
"Hozumi?"
"Yeah, that's his name, do you know him?" Of course Naru would know him, or at least of the office he works for, Mai realized, feeling almost stupidly guilty. He would have to keep tabs on his competition.
"I have heard of him," Naru admitted, before telling his most blatant lie yet, "but I do not know him."
Feeling a little better, Mai continued, "So we set up this system to meet up around once a week, almost like therapy sessions. But then I started dated Shouta and he was manipulative and jealous and because of him I skipped out on my sessions with Hozumi and even a couple shifts at the office." She gave a slight grimace and gripped her cup. "Sorry."
"That was months ago."
"What you have to keep in mind, Naru, is that the scene you saw was the first time the entity made itself known to me," she plowed through with a shake of her head. "And that wasn't until the theater case with Monk's sister. And when he did show up I was so sleep deprived I thought I made him up. He was the same thing that was trying to drag me down that portal back in October, I was having nightmares of past cases, it sort of made sense that my nightmares might take a new form."
"You still didn't tell Miss Matsuzaki or Father Brown." His comment struck a chord with the girl as she snapped her head to look at him.
"No, because for a couple months before then I had several members of the team tell me they were worried about me and were happy to see me doing better. That I was starting to act like my old self. Now I had this imaginary demon wreaking havoc on my sleep and mental state. I didn't even tell Hozumi because I thought he would think I was crazy, Naru."
She stopped and looked at her boss with sad eyes. "I knew I was going crazy. I also knew that no one would believe me."
Naru looked as though he were about to speak, but his assistant beat him to it. "No, Naru, I couldn't go to you. I was still with Shouta and even after we broke up, what he would say about you still stuck with me and while I'm not happy that I believed him I still did and I couldn't tell anyone what was going on. Even when I finally started to realize that I actually brought something home with me."
They were both silent for a moment, while Mai took to swinging her legs over the edge of the table, causing it shake a little. There really wasn't much either of them could say aside from a quick, "I see," from Naru.
Mai took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I'm sorry, Naru, I'm sorry I didn't tell you or talk to John sooner, and if I knew then what I know now, I truly would have. I'm sorry I endangered the team. That was totally irresponsible of me, even if I wasn't sure what was going on. And I'm sorry that I worried everyone for as long as I did, but I didn't know how to ask for help. I didn't want to feel like more of a burden then I already was."
Once again the man was silent, his stoic face never letting on to whatever it was that he was feeling. A little more coarsely than he intended, he said, "Endangering the team by hiding the fact that a demonic entity had attached itself to you was completely irresponsible. Waiting as long as you tell to confide in someone about what you were facing could have proven fatal to yourself or others."
Each word he said, sent a pang of guilt through the high schooler. She wanted to be angry at him, but she knew he was right. She should have had more faith in her friends, but that wasn't entirely her fault, right?
"But I understand why you did what you did," Naru finally continued, causing Mai to glance cautiously at him. "You felt alone and really didn't know where to turn, but you found your way back. If something like this ever happens again, tell Father Brown immediately."
"You don't have to worry about that, Naru," Mai said with a shake of her head. "I've learned my lesson on demonic attachments."
"Also, I'm sorry." Mai raised a brow at him. "My abilities reached into your thoughts, that was wrong of me to allow."
"I'll forgive you this time, Naru," she replied with a grin. "Sometimes stuff like that can be hard to control and it could have been me reaching out. I'm not even sure what abilities I have anymore."
"We'll have to work on that," he replied with a smirk of his own. Even though, he knew for a fact that it was not Mai's abilities acting out, but his own. He shouldn't have done it, but he couldn't think of another way to bring up the subject without admitting he had been eavesdropping.
***
"I wonder if Mai was onto something with the vines," John commented as he and Ayako watched, as the tomato plants seemed to dance along the floor of the greenhouse.
"What was her theory?" the priestess asked crossing her arms.
"That's right, you weren't here yesterday," John replied thoughtfully. "She and Monk were in here and she got a call from a friend. By the time she finished the call one of the vines had wrapped around her ankle."
"So what did she say she thought happened?"
"She thought that maybe negative emotions give the spirit enough energy to move the vines." Ayako tilted her head to the side when John finished. "What do you think?"
"Do the emotions have to be in the greenhouse?" she wondered aloud.
The priest shook his head. "I don't think so, considering the attacks that have happened so far haven't mentioned anything of conversations that occurred right before the attack. It could be that the conversation just has to happen on the property."
"Does it have to be a conversation?" John turned to her attentively. "You mentioned before we walked in here that I have something on my mind." He nodded, following along. "I do, but would just me thinking about it cause enough emotion to make the vines move? They also don't seem to be attacking us."
"It's just a theory, but I think unsaid emotion probably plays a small part, but we also don't know what might be going on with the others."
"You really think Monk and Masako are causing the vines to move?"
"No, but I wouldn't be surprised if Naru and Mai are bickering right now. It's not a totally negative emotion, which could be why the vines are not acting malicious."
Ayako pursed her lips as the vines slowly start to make their way over to them. "I say we head back to Base before the spirit gets enough energy to attack us, from whatever source."
***
"Alright, Naru, we're done the temperature-" Monk stopped short after he opened the door. Sure it was totally expected for Mai to sit on the table, but for Naru? "Are we interrupting something?"
"Monk!" Mai groaned and rolled her eyes, not noticing the hardened glare the medium sent her way as she took in the scene. "You can't be serious."
"If you're finished then you are free to go," Naru said, getting off the table much more elegantly than Mai would ever be able to. "We'll continue tomorrow." He returned to his chair in front of the monitors and began making notes in his notebook. "You can leave the clipboard on the table."
"You basically pulled the same thing you did when we met Yasuhara," Mai complained when Monk placed the clipboard next to her.
"No, I didn't."
"Yeah, you did, it started the whole 'Monk is my one true love!' gag he's been doing for the last year."
"So that's when that started," Naru commented, causing the two investigators to jump. "I thought it was at the summer camp."
"If we are done for the night, I'll be going," Masako said, breaking the conversation. "Have a good night, everyone."
"Good night, Masako," Mai said with a smile, but noticed the other teen hastily make her exit. Jeez, she probably thinks there really is something going on between me and Naru, Mai thought with as she sweatdropped. Great going, Monk.
"Did you ever figure out what was going on with Yasuhara?" Monk asked, breaking the girl from her reverie.
Mai rolled her eyes. "Just that Michiru really needs glasses. Kuroda's boyfriend looks nothing like Yasuhara, well, maybe from far away."
"And you were worried for nothing," the monk chuckled, earning a pout from the teen.
"I think this is the longest this case I haven't seen your phone out. Your battery die?"
"Crap!" Monk pulled out his phone with a groan when he saw how many missed calls he had. "Kimiko's gonna kill me."
"Kimiko?" Mai repeated, raising a brow.
"I'm gonna run, Naru, I'll see you guys tomorrow." With that, he dashed out of Base, nearly running into the priest and priestess as they arrived.
"Where's he off to in such a hurry?" Ayako asked with a raised brow.
"Apparently he forgot to look at his phone today," Mai shrugged. "You guys find anything?"
"Just the vines dancing in the greenhouse," Ayako replied as John handed Mai the clipboard.
"Dancing?"
"Not actual dancing," the priest smiled. "They were moving along the ground, but they didn't attack us and they definitely had and opportunity."
"I'll make a note," Naru said from his spot, almost forgotten. "You're all free to go."
"Alright, you want us out of here, I get it," Mai smirked with a roll of her eyes. "Good night, Naru."
Mai grabbed her schoolbag and Ayako grabbed her purse. While the priest and priestess made their exit, Mai stayed behind. "Please, Naru, don't go in the greenhouse tonight," she said with a serious look in her eyes. "I don't like the idea of anyone going in there alone, the one employee was almost choked to death and then you were attacked. I don't want-"
"I won't go in there until Lin returns," he said, not turning away from his work. "How does that sound?"
Mai smiled and shook her head. "Thanks, Naru, see you tomorrow."
Outside, the brunette walked down the stairs of the building. Looking to her right, she could see the priest's blond head make his way through the evening crowd of Tokyo. Looking to her left, she could see her priestess friend sluggishly make her way down the road.
Now or never, Mai, something's bugging her and it's time to figure out what.
Racing up to the young woman, Mai hooked her arm around Ayako's free one. "Mai?" the woman looked down in confusion.
"I think we should grab a cup of coffee," Mai said with a grin. "We haven't hung out in a while and I miss you."
And how could the priestess say no to that?