Chapter 17

Mai woke late the next day in a bit of a daze. Her brain was sluggish and reluctant to give answers as she tried to remember what'd happened over the past few days. As her thoughts slowly started to drag themselves together, she was relieved to realise that she hadn't dreamt anything while she'd been sleeping. She stretched before slowly beginning to crawl her way out of her futon when she glanced at her watch.

"Ehhh?! You're kidding!" she exclaimed. It was already 1 P.M.

A short moment later, she heard a knock at the fusuma and Ayako slid the sliding partition open. Mai could see Bou-san and John crowding around behind her.

"You're awake," Ayako remarked looking at Mai.

Bou-san looked at her with a mock stern look. "Girl, I don't remember raising you to be so lazy as to be waking at this time of day," he said. However, that soon fell apart as he strode over to Mai and wrapped her in a bear hug.

"Gah! Let go of me, you old geezer!" Mai yelled struggling to breathe.

John smiled gently at Bou-san's antics. "How are you feeling?" he asked Mai.

Mai waved a hand somewhere in John's direction as she struggled to get free of Bou-san when Ayako hit Bou-san hard on the head with her fist.

"Oww!"

"Let go of her, you pervert," Ayako said annoyed. "And get out of here. At least have the decency to let her get changed!"

"Aa!" Bou-san exclaimed and looked down at Mai. "By the way, young lady, what's with all of the office staff staying in the same room? Daddy's rather upset with you, Miss."

Mai looked miffed. "That was Naru's decision. If you have a problem, talk to him about it. I'm just an employee."

Bou-san cuffed her lightly on the head. "I intend to do that, young lady. And what's this about your trying to make a move on him yesterday?"

Mai blinked in stunned confusion. 'I tried to make a move on Naru? Say what?!'

"What on earth are you talking about, Bou-san? Has your age finally caught up with you that you're going senile?" Mai laughed weakly.

"Ah, I heard it, too, Mai. You'll have some explaining to do when Masako gets here later tonight." Ayako piped in.

Mai shook her head bewildered. She had no idea what they were talking about.

By the time Mai finished getting changed and cleaned up, Ayako had since disappeared into the kitchen while Bou-san and John were seated at the low table flipping through parts of the case file. Mai was a bit surprised when she spotted Hirota sitting with his back to the wall in one corner of the base.

Naru barely glanced at Mai as he said, "Mai, tea."

"Coming~." Mai looked inquiringly at Bou-san and the others.

Bou-san looked up at the ceiling for a moment. "I'll have whatever you're making. I assume you don't have the stuff to make iced coffee at the moment."

"Sorry about that, Bou-san," Mai said smiling. "How about you, Hirota-san, John?"

Hirota looked up at Mai. "Whatever you're making is fine."

John nodded in agreement. "Whatever's easiest for you."

"'Kay, wait just a bit." Mai said as she hurried out of the base and into the kitchen where Ayako was.

Several minutes later, Mai and Ayako returned to the base carrying trays with food and tea. As soon as Mai finished serving everyone's tea, Ayako imperiously ordered her to sit and eat.

"Just what were you thinking? You don't know how to cook that well, yet you and Yasuhara-shounen tried keeping everyone fed for over four days? I'm surprised you haven't fainted from hunger yet!" Ayako looked at Naru and Lin. "You could've at least sent someone out to bring back some ready-made food. Most people can't survive off of air and work, you know."

"Are you quite done with the lecture, Matsuzaki-san? I'd like to get down to business." A hint of annoyance could be heard in Naru's tone.

"Yes, yes. And what would you like, Naru-chan?" Ayako asked dismissively.

Naru sighed, but before he could say anything, Ayako glanced at Mai. "Eat!" she ordered sternly.

Mai twitched slightly but obediently began eating.

Naru glanced at the Irregulars. "Hirota came to us almost a week ago wanting us to investigate this house for paranormal activity. His premise was that, since two murders with certain unusual similarities occurred here, the house must have caused the murders. When I refused the case, he kidnapped Mai from her school and brought her to Kyoto. Her ransom was for us to investigate this house."

Hirota frowned at Naru's description of what he'd done, but managed to remain silent.

Ayako and Bou-san looked at one another in surprise.

"I'm surprised at you," Bou-san said slowly. "You are the same stubborn mule who only a month ago refused to let us force our way into the Sasakuras' home in order to exorcise Sekiguchi's spirit, aren't you? Whatever possessed you to resort to kidnapping? That's a lot against the law, after all."

Hirota glared at Bou-san. "I didn't kidnap her. ...I just didn't say where I was taking her," he said after a moment.

Ayako sighed. "What were you thinking, Mai? You're more than old enough to know better."

"Girl, I don't remember raising you to be so careless as to go with people you don't know well. You do at least know not to accept candy from strangers, don't you?" Bou-san said looking sternly at Mai.

Mai shrugged slightly. She couldn't change what she'd done at this point in time. "Bou-san, Ayako," she said glancing at Naru uneasily, "Naru's getting impatient."

Bou-san glanced at Naru. "Ah, sorry about that, Naru-bou."

Naru picked up with his summary of events. "Anyhow, having found nothing here in this house, the initial investigation was supposed to end yesterday after which we were supposed to pack up and leave, except someone decided to disappear and cause even more trouble."

Mai pouted at Naru's description of her actions. 'It's not like I wanted to get locked up in that barn!'

"However, given the circumstances, we've decided to stay and help Hirota-san with what should be his own work. After all, he and Nakai-san seem to be incapable of handling their own jobs." Naru exhaled as he opened the case file. "Some time early yesterday afternoon, Mai ended up getting locked up in a barn a few properties up the road from here. Most likely, one of the kids living in this area locked her in there. Fortunately, it ended with just trapping her up in the loft of the barn and locking the barn up, but many of the incidents that have been occurring in this area have been much more serious than pranks."

Naru took a photo from the file. It was of a family photo of a little girl.

"This is Katou Aiko. Her family was visiting her grandparents home when her father killed his wife and in-laws. Aiko, however, was never found. We found her body yesterday while looking for Mai." Naru glanced at Mai briefly. "The current theory for what's happening in this area is that people who go to this one house on their own somehow end up being influenced into doing things they're unlikely to do under normal circumstances. Yasuhara-san contacted Hara-san, and she's managed to rearrange her schedule to come down here tonight, but she won't be able to stay long. She'll be taking a look at a few places on this street. From what Gene told me..." "Eh? You've been in contact with your brother?!" Bou-san interrupted in surprise.

Naru glared at Bou-san.

"Ah, sorry. Please continue," Bou-san said shrinking back from Naru's withering stare.

"As I was saying, according to Gene, the house that seems central to the incidents really only poses a danger to those who go there alone, but as long as people go in groups, it should be safe. Bou-san, John, Hirota-san, you'll be helping me set up equipment at the house. We'll be using some wireless equipment as well as the usual, so changing tapes is always to be done in groups of two or more. Mai, you and Matsuzaki-san are to go talk to the old woman and her son again. The man said that he was sure a number of crimes are happening in the area but aren't getting reported. See if you can find out more about that." Naru looked at Mai sternly. "Once you finish that, you're to come straight back here. No talking to anyone else, and no side trips."

Mai pouted at Naru's overly concise orders. "I got it. I'm not a little child." she said looking away.

The Irregulars all choked back their laughter at Mai's reaction. She was acting very much like a little child.

"Let's go," Naru said quietly.

"So what did you do to deserve being put on such a short leash, Mai?" Ayako asked curiously as they walked along the road.

Mai shrugged. "I didn't really do anything. Naru told me to check on a house yesterday afternoon, only no one was home. I ran into one of the kids in the area when I was about to return to base and asked him if he knew of another way into the abandoned house because it was locked when Naru and I went. The kid said he did. Only, when I went to contact the base to tell them I'd be checking out that house again, he stole my two-way radio."

Mai sighed as she stared at the fields around her. "The kid ran off, and I chased after him. He then lured me into a barn. I heard something up in the loft, so I went up there to take a look. The next thing I knew, he'd taken the ladder away trapping me up in the loft, and then he locked me in the barn. Thankfully, Naru and Lin were able to find me several hours later, so it all ended okay."

Ayako stared at Mai for a long moment. "Was the place you were locked in, somewhere this way?"

"Hm?" Mai glanced at Ayako before shaking her head and turning back to face the road ahead. "No, it was up the road the other way, maybe a few houses up from where we've been staying."

Ayako grimaced. She remembered seeing a number of people present at one home where the body of the little girl had been found. She suspected Naru had been vague about where the little girl had been found because Mai hadn't realised the girl's body had been in the same place as she'd been locked up. 'Which means the person who locked Mai up in the barn might be the same person who killed that little girl.'

Most of the equipment set up at the Nishimura residence had been dismantled during the night and morning following Mai's ordeal. Since the abandoned house they were investigating didn't have electricity, they were going to have to rely on battery power. Naru grimaced slightly at that thought. They were going to need to make a lot of trips during the course of a day in order to keep the equipment running constantly.

While Hirota and Bou-san began unloading the equipment, Naru and John went through the house measuring the temperature in the various rooms. The temperature in a few of the rooms were slightly lower overall, but none of the temperature differences were significant. Since they only had a limited amount of wireless equipment, Naru decided to set up the equipment in the lower temperature rooms, as well as those areas that showed the most signs of having been disturbed lately, while still trying to maintain as much coverage of the entire house as possible. Not having electricity was going to be a logistical problem.

After the equipment had been unloaded, Naru sent Hirota back to base with the van while he, Bou-san, and John went to work setting the cameras and mics up.

"Bou-san, do you know of any spirits that stalk, kill, or even eat people?" Naru asked suddenly.

"Hm?" Bou-san glanced at Naru. "Well, you remember that old school house in Nagano, right? Just before you found your brother. I'm pretty sure I saw a gaki hiding up in the ceiling crawl space when we found all the dead bodies while searching for Ayako and Lin-san. I figure it was the gaki that caused that corpse to fall from the ceiling, too, since that ceiling panel was shoved to one side before the body came crashing down. It's said there are 36 different types of gaki. Among them, there's one that kills infants, another one eats infants, and there's even one that attacks and kills people and eats them. Why?"

Naru looked at Bou-san and John. "Something might've been after Mai while she was locked up in that barn. As soon as we realised she'd gone missing, Lin had his shiki search for her and they were protecting her until we were able to get her out of the barn. But at some time between when she was locked up and when Lin and I found her, something else found her and seems to have been moving towards her. Fortunately, Lin's shiki managed to drive it away without any difficulty. I found scuff marks in the dust and a small pool of blood near her, and her hand was covered in blood."

Bou-san and John looked at one another.

"Do you think that whatever was in that barn was after Mai-san?" John asked concerned.

Naru sighed and shook his head. "Hirota-san mentioned that the body of the little girl appeared to be partially eaten when they found it yesterday. Unfortunately, he didn't say anything further about it. Likewise, we won't really know anything about how the girl died until the autopsy results are in, and they can take some time. I don't particularly like the idea of staying out here long enough to figure out what might be in the barn, but we need to know if Mai just happened to be unlucky when she got locked in there. It could be that she happened to be locked in there and some creature just happened to live there. Or it could be that she was locked in there because some creature lives there." Naru looked at the two seriously. "The other possibility is that whatever that thing was showed up because it was after Mai, and where she was had nothing to do with things."

Bou-san looked at Naru. "Did your brother say anything about the thing?"

Naru shook his head. "No. He didn't seem too concerned about Mai being locked up at any rate. The only thing he said after Lin's shiki found her was that she should be safe."

Bou-san frowned at that comment. "Huh?! What's that supposed to mean? You mean he knew Mai was in danger but didn't say anything? Or did he not know something was there but knew that, once Lin's shiki were with her, she'd be found soon enough, and anything that may or may not be there was unlikely to be an issue any more? What was your brother thinking?"

Naru shook his head. "You're definitely asking the wrong person if you want to know what that idiot was thinking," Naru said annoyed.

John looked at Naru. "Shibuya-han, what is it that you're so worried about?"

Naru looked away. "A person gets locked into a barn and the sun goes down. The person is stuck in there for one maybe two hours after dark during which time something comes out of the darkness towards that person. That response time seems to be too fast. Unless the gaki are that vicious in their own homes?" Naru glanced at Bou-san inquiringly.

Bou-san looked thoughtful. "I'm not sure how vicious they are really. Most of the gaki are seen as pathetic creatures since they're typically unable to eat or drink anything and are constantly starving. But the ones that do eat... I'm not sure," he confessed shaking his head.

Naru nodded. "Mai won't be coming out here at all during this investigation. Gene's already said that she should be kept away from here, and I agree. However, she might not take kindly to being excluded like that."

Bou-san sighed. "Roger that. I'll do my best to make sure she doesn't get suspicious or upset about being left out. I'll try cornering Ayako sometime tonight and let her know, too."