In Vino Veritas:
Chapter 5
Naru gently deposited Maaya down onto the tatami mat floor. Ayako followed him in and grabbed the first aid kit.
"I'm more qualified than you, I'll take it from here," she said, bending down next to Maaya. "You can go order everyone around whilst you are waiting."
She was expecting a reaction out of him, but all he did was nod and walk out of the room. Her attention was averted by a cry of pain from Maaya. Ayako instantly sprang into action and set to work.
Outside in the corridor Naru was issuing orders. "Brown-san, before you exorcise the area of the attack, take a photo and Hara-san, please try to see if you can sense anything."
John nodded and rushed off to change into his priest robes and to pick up his bible with Masako following after him.
"Lin, go pick up the camera- it's still in the van and after giving it to Brown-san, get a kettle and some tea bags from the kitchen," Naru requested.
Lin took it to mean that Mai was going to be staying in the base all day, making tea whenever Naru decreed. The scientist glanced at him and he walked off, leaving Bou-san and Yasuhara to get instructions.
"Yasuhara-san, research the history of this area and ryokan. Ask Hana Kudou-san for recent history and you can go to the local library later."
"Roger," Yasuhara answered and went off to find Hana.
"What about me, Naru-chan?" Bou-san asked.
"Exorcise all the other locations where there have been attacks," he ordered and turned around to enter the base again.
When he entered the base he found that Mai and Ayako were already to becoming best friends again.
"I swear, if he was a woman I would think that he was on his period with that kind of attitude," Maaya was saying.
Ayako giggled. "Nope, he's like that all the time."
Naru fought the urge to roll his eyes. Trust Mai to compare him to a woman at that time of the month. He cleared his throat to make his presence known. Much to his satisfaction the red haired priestess stopped giggling and Maaya jumped.
"Having fun?" he enquired politely.
"Yes we were," Maaya replied with a grin. "I feel much better now, thanks to Matsuzaki-san's treatment."
"Please, call me Ayako-san."
"You can call me Maaya-chan in return then," Maaya smiled. "And I'm already on nicknames with Naru over there."
Ayako raised her eyebrows. "You have no idea how close that is to his real name," she muttered.
"Kudou-san, if it is fine with you, you will be staying in here for the rest of the day so you are safe from attacks. There will be someone who can fight off attacks here at all time to protect you."
Maaya nodded slowly. She was becoming slightly frustrated with being attacked by a ghost at least once a day and she was covered in bruises. However the prospect of being stuck in a room all day with nothing to occupy herself and a narcissist for company was not appealing. Then she remembered her son.
"Could someone bring my son over here. He keeps sneaking off and I don't want him to get attacked like me," she requested.
Unexpectedly Naru volunteered. "I will bring him," he said and checked the monitors for his location. "He is in the second floor corridor."
Maaya squinted to see the camera feed from where she was sitting. "That's the second floor of the old building. To get there, take the stairs on the right by the reception and carry along the hallway until you get to another flight of stairs, then you will be in the right place. He shares a room with me."
Naru accepted the directions with a vague nod of his head and left the base to find his son. Following Mai's directions, he passed through the reception where John was already taking photos. He walked up the two flights of stairs and found himself in a hallway of rooms that had names on the doors instead of numbers, giving him the clue that it was the staff area and wasn't intended for guests.
As he reached the door labelled "Maaya", his son opened it from the other side and came out carrying an handful of children's books under one arm. He stopped as he caught sight of Naru in the hallway who was an imposing figure as he wasn't smiling and he was dressed completely in black.
Naru attempted a friendly smile. "Hello, Yakumo-kun, your mother would like to see you."
There was no semblance of a reply from his son and the boy was just staring at him silently. As he met Yakumo's eyes he realised that they really were just like Mai's.
"Are you going to come?" he asked again and tried another smile.
His son stepped out into the hallway before shutting the door behind him. Naru took that to be an affirmative so he started on the route back to the base. As he went down the stairs he noted that Yakumo was lagging behind due to his short legs so he held his hand out to his son and helped him down the stairs, but only to save time, he told himself. He wasn't developing any sentimental feelings for a son that he hadn't been aware of until 20 minutes ago.
The pair were still tightly holding hands when they reached the base. Naru opened the door and Ayako gasped at the sight of what looked like two Narus standing in the doorway, albeit one shorter than the other. Maaya looked over and her eyes widened. Naru wondered if she would see the resemblance for what it really meant or not. She certainly looked surprised at the sight and it looked like she was doing some mental calculations.
Then Yakumo broke the connection by running over to his mother. Maaya hugged him tightly before letting him go. The boy stared down at the bandaging on her leg and she whisked her skirt down to cover it. As she did her sleeve flapped and Naru caught a glimpse of a collection of plasters on her arm.
"Kudou-san, are you ready to give me a witness statement?" he enquired as he pulled out his laptop and woke it up from its sleep mode.
Maaya nodded and moved Yakumo so he was sitting next to her and handed him one of the picture books that he had been carrying. After making sure that he was comfortable and entertained she began.
"I was looking for Yakumo when it happened. I had just come back in from searching the garden which is connected to the reception area, when I noticed that one of the vases of flowers was looking different to when I had originally walked through on my to the garden. So I went over and bent down to get a closer look. That's when the vase fell off, I moved just in time. Then I heard a rustling sound and I looked up to see those words on the wall."
"Did you manage to see what pushed the vase?"
"It was a female ghost, I could see the bottom of a butterfly patterned yukata."
Naru made a note before moving on. "Is the same ghost that has attacked you on previous occasions?"
There was a brief interval as Maaya considered how to word her answer. "Yes and no. There have been different ghosts. Last time it was a male ghost."
"How many different ghosts are there?"
"Three."
Naru thought back to his other investigations with Mai. She was intuitive, but being precise and detailed were not her forte. At best she only had animal instincts and could tell between friend and foe.
With that thought in mind, he asked his next question. "Do these ghosts have a harmful intent?"
"The first one was friendly."
It would only pull on her leg or arm or frighten her, Naru recalled Hana Kudou saying and flipped back a page to check. Only when it pulled her down a flight of stairs did the attacks escalate and other people became able to see ghosts.
"And the other ghosts?"
"Definitely unfriendly and ... angry. They are the only ones that I have seen for the past month."
"Can you give a physical description of the two ghosts?"
"One is male and the other is female. They both wear yukatas, but they don't feel like old ghosts, somehow."
"Old ghosts?" Naru questioned.
"You know, the stereotype of a ghost is that they are really old and have been haunting places for centuries? It doesn't feel like that here. Besides, the male ghost doesn't have any facial hair, I swear any stereotypical male ghost has a beard."
"How old do the ghosts look to be?"
Maaya screwed up her eyes in an effort to visualise them. She had only ever seen them for split seconds before she was attacked in some way and no one else but her ever remembered what they had looked like.
"Young. No older than 25, I would say."
"Everything you have told me as been very informative," the narcissist said and turned away to check the cameras and temperatures from the time of the attack. A thought struck him and he turned back.
"Kudou-san, what has been the worst attack?"
The plasters that he had caught sight of earlier were worrying him as was Mai's past history with accidents.
Silently, Maaya held out her arm and Naru approached her. He peeled back the sleeve of her right arm which was covered in burns which were slowly beginning to heal. He pulled the sleeve back down and reached for the other arm which had been the one that he had caught a glimpse of earlier.
One this arm was the collection of plasters which were placed in a seemingly haphazard way. Naru exposed one to find a partially healed cut.
Maaya pulled her arms away and smiled wryly. "Ghosts don't like me."
"You're the primary target of all attacks, aren't you?"
Maaya regarded him carefully as she had not paid any attention before to how piercing his blue eyes were and she found it impossible to make light of the situation.
"...I seem to be. All the attacks on other people have occurred when they have been within close vicinity of me."
Naru let go of her arm and tried to say something comforting as he assumed that Mai was very scared right now as she seemed to gain a wound from each attack and all the wounds were building up, if the state of her arms were any indication.
"I will protect you and solve this case," he said eventually.