Chapter 8

Outside, Yasuhara glanced around the yard for a moment before noticing a small figure crouched at the base of the cherry tree that had been planted in one corner of the property.

"Taniyama-san," he said softly as he carefully approached her. He put his arm around her gently as he knelt on the ground beside her. He could feel she was shaking very badly.

"Taniyama-san, are you alright?" he asked quietly.

Mai shook her head. Yasuhara could feel her struggling to fight back her tears.

Mai felt his arms wrap themselves around her holding her tight and she could no longer hold herself together. She clung to Yasuhara sobbing shocked at what she'd done.

It took several minutes before Mai finally managed to stop crying. She clung weakly to Yasuhara as she tried to get her breathing under control.

"I... I'm sorry, Yasuhara-san," she stammered. "I..."

Yasuhara patted her on the back, but didn't let her go yet. He peered into her face wiping her tears away gently.

"I... I'm okay now," Mai said weakly. "Really."

Yasuhara chuckled softly, but he still didn't let go. He felt Mai struggle a little in his arms.

"Y-yasuhara-sa~n..."

"Shall we go in then?" he asked.

Mai stiffened in his arms. "...I-I don't think I'm ready to go inside yet," she admitted quietly.

"In that case, I'm not letting go," he said.

"Yasuhara-san!" Mai exclaimed.

He chuckled, "I'm sorry, Taniyama-san, but it's cold outside. So I'm not letting go unless you're ready to go inside."

Yasuhara could almost feel Mai go hot as she blushed furiously. She wasn't ready to go inside, but she wasn't entirely comfortable with her current situation either. However, she soon relaxed in his arms again.

"...I heard a voice in my head," she said softly. "It kept telling me over and over and over again to... to do things." Mai shivered. "It wouldn't shut up and wanted me... it told me to... to use the kuji against Gene... and to hurt Naru. I kept telling myself I didn't want to do that, that it wasn't me. It wasn't what I wanted to do. But it wouldn't stop... it didn't stop until I actually... hit him."

"Taniyama-san."

"I couldn't stop myself," Mai cried as she clung to Yasuhara. "What if I'd met Gene first and ended up using the kuji against him? What if I can't control myself the next time I see him?? Yasuhara-san..."

Yasuhara held Mai tightly as she cried quietly in his arms.

It was several more minutes before Mai got control of herself again. Yasuhara pulled her to her feet and led her back into the house and into the base. He was surprised to see that Lin was alone in the base and that neither Naru nor Hirota was there. Mai obediently followed Yasuhara's direction and sat at the low table in the base, but she wouldn't look up. She hugged herself tightly.

A few minutes later, she saw a pale hand place a cup beside her. She could smell honey and lemon and looked up in surprise. Naru's dark eyes watched her carefully as she reached out a shaky hand and picked up the cup. She barely managed to choke out a thank you as he sat down at the table.

"What happened?" he asked quietly.

"Eh?" Mai asked confused.

"It was and wasn't you in the hallway there," Naru said quietly. "What happened?"

Yasuhara opened his mouth to tell Naru what Mai had told him outside, but stopped when Naru shook his head slightly stopping him.

"Mai," he said quietly.

Mai stared at the honey lemon drink Naru made for her. "I... hit you," she finally said.

"I'm quite aware of that," Naru replied patiently. "Why?"

Mai trembled but shook her head. "It... doesn't matter, does it? I did it. Making excuses isn't going to change things."

Naru gazed at Mai for a long moment then let out a long sigh. "What did you find out while you were out?" he asked finally.

"Eh? Mai looked up at him surprised. She was taken completely off-guard by his question. "Ah, um..."

Mai fumbled as she struggled to pull out her notebook and get her thoughts in order. "Um, I decided to go the same route as I took yesterday," she began. "I spoke with the Matsudas' daughter and she told me that the older kids told her to stay away from the abandoned house down here. According to Emi-chan, bad things happen if you go there. She also said that she told the same thing to Ai-chan but that Ai-chan wouldn't listen to her because Emi-chan was younger than she was. Oh, and Emi-chan told me not to go there, too, so I guess she was pretty freaked out about the place."

Mai flipped to the next page in her book as she continued her report. "No one was at the second house today either, so I went on to the Ikeda residence. When I spoke to Ikeda Yoshi-kun, I got a slightly different story about going to the abandoned house... or rather a more confused story. Apparently, when his family first moved to the area, the other kids in the area told him not to go there, and he said that since none of his friends lived down here, he hasn't bothered. However, he couldn't remember if bad things were supposed to happen if you went, or if you were supposed to do bad things if you went. The other thing he mentioned was that this was only supposed to happen if you went alone."

Mai paused taking a sip of her drink and blinked. She was surprised at how good it was with the perfect balance between sweet and tart. She quickly forced her mind back to her report however. "Um, after speaking to Yoshi-kun, his mother mentioned that the abandoned house might be the one she and her friends used to pretend was haunted. Talking to her about it today, she seemed pretty sure it was them pretending the place was haunted and not that there were actual rumours about that being the case."

Mai frowned slightly as she remembered her conversation with Mrs. Ikeda. It was the sort of things kids would often do unthinkingly, but at the same time, Mai was no longer sure they were such harmless pastimes either. She realised she hesitated a bit too long when a familiar tenor said her name bringing her back to herself.

"Mai," Naru prompted.

Mai blinked slightly. "Sorry, um... Mrs. Ikeda told me that she and her friends often played at the abandoned house and that they told ghost stories and did seances and stuff there. She also added that really they were just playing around and that nothing ever happened when they did so."

Mai shook her head slightly. "Umm... next I tried to do as you told me and talk to Mrs. Sengoku. The woman who ran me off her property yesterday..."

Mai grimaced. "She must've seen me coming up the walkway. I didn't even get to ring the bell when she opened the door, threw a piece of paper at me, and slammed the door shut again. I even heard her lock the door before I realised what exactly had happened."

Mai pulled the piece of paper out from where it was sandwiched in her notebook and laid it out on the table. The words "GO AWAY!" were written in very large letters on the paper.

Mai sighed. "I didn't have much luck at the other two houses on that side either. One house, I'm sure the people were home, but they refused to answer the door for some reason, while at the last house, the man living there told me he was too busy to talk to me about such foolish things as rumours of hauntings," she said shrugging.

"I then took the train down to Yawata again and repeated the same on the way back. At the first residence, I ran into a slightly older family and the mother and father told me that they didn't know of any rumours in the area. Their teenage son however, told me that the house was quite well known among students. According to Takagi Shoichi, the house is occasionally used for dare games among high schoolers even though that's typically a thing younger kids do. However, there're supposed to be a number of rumours about playing that game there. One of the stories goes like this: One year, when playing dare, one of the kids went into the house, but disappeared. The kid who disappeared was later found dead in a storehouse or something nearby. Someone had beaten him to death with a kendo sword that was found next to the body. There's a variation to this story where the kid goes to the house on a dare, but when he comes back, he starts attacking his friends with a kendo sword."

Mai checked her notes before continuing. "According to Shoichi, there's also a rumour that a boy and girl who were going out together decided to meet up and check out the place late at night. But when the girl got there, the boy attacked her and raped her. Those were all the rumours he said he could remember," she said quietly.

"The second house was the one that was empty yesterday. An old woman lives there and apparently has been living there for many years. Unfortunately, she's also mostly senile, and her son doesn't spend much time with her. I tried to talk to the woman, but she didn't respond to me at all. Her son said he was too busy to speak to me and that he didn't have time for such things as rumours and such. He did however say that he wished the police would get their act together and do something about all the crime in the area. He said he was sure that many more things were happening in the area but they were going unreported for whatever reason, and that people were trying to weasel out of taking responsibility for their own actions. And since the police were so lax in doing their job, they were getting away with it, too." Mai grimaced as she shrugged. She'd had to listen to him go on a tirade for a good fifteen minutes about what he thought of the police service. Quite a long time for being "too busy".

"And at the last house, the one with the boy yesterday..." Mai's expression was somewhat mixed as she continued her report. "Apparently both parents were out shopping, but this time the older brother was home too, so I spoke to the two of them. The younger boy told me much like Yoshi-kun and Emi-chan did, that he was told by the other kids at school not to go to the abandoned house on this street, but he couldn't tell me much more.

Mai paused, frowning. "When I left that house, the older brother, Keichi-kun, came out and talked to me about the house. He told me that he sometimes went and explored in and around the house and that there wasn't anything there. He also said that he figured the senior high school kids might be doing stuff like sneaking drinks out there since it's abandoned and all. He said he finds beer and sake bottles and cans there all the time and that he thought the high school students were telling the younger kids these things in order to keep them away. He told me I should take a look since it wasn't that far and that I'd see that it was like he said," Mai concluded.

Naru sighed. "And did you go there?" he asked quietly.

Mai blinked glancing up; Naru was gazing steadily at her.

"Umm, yeah," she admitted. "By that time, I wasn't sure what to believe. And since that kid said he'd been there a number of times on his own, Emi-chan told me Ai-chan was playing around the house all the time, and Mrs. Ikeda said she and her friends were always pretending the place was haunted but that it really wasn't, I thought I'd take a quick peek. Besides, it was still light out, so I figured it shouldn't be too risky."

Mai frowned as she tried to remember the house. "The area around the house is pretty badly overgrown since no one's been living there for so long. But since it's getting close to winter, a lot of the undergrowth has died so, umm... yeah. I did find some litter there."

Her frown deepened as she struggled to remember the details of the house and the surroundings in greater details. "The front door of the house was locked so I wandered around the house a bit. The wooden doors were all closed, but there was a small back door almost hidden in one corner of the house and it was unlocked." Mai fell silent again.

"It was kind of creepy inside, but... I guess that's to be expected since it's been abandoned for so long," she shrugged. "And since it was so dark and gloomy, and I didn't have a flashlight on me, I didn't really want to go in any further to explore. Otherwise, I noticed it was really dusty and I ended up getting a bit of a headache because of that."

Mai hesitated again before shaking her head. "There's not much else I can tell you about that place," she said finally.

Naru looked at her steadily. "What did you do next?" he asked.

Mai cocked her head thinking hard. "I don't... umm, I remember thinking it felt a bit cold in there... and wondering if maybe it was later than I thought and that I should get back here." Mai shook her head. "That's about it I think."

"Is that when you started hearing the voice in your head, Taniyama-san?"

Mai cocked her head slightly at Yasuhara's question lost in thought. "I think so... Umm... no. That started once I went outside again," she said finally.

She looked up and glared at Naru after hearing him sigh heavily. "What?!"

Naru looked down at her. "And what was this voice you heard, Taniyama-san?"

"Aa."

Mai started to turn to glare at Yasuhara when Naru's voice rang out again. "Mai!"

Mai shrank back at Naru's tone. He wanted an explanation and he wasn't going to take no for an answer.

Mai looked down at the table. "After I left the house, I started hearing a voice in my head telling me to do things. It wouldn't shut up. So I tried to take a bit of a walk around this place to try to clear my mind, but it just kept going on and on taunting me and goading me..."

Mai closed her eyes as she clenched her fists. "I remember it constantly jabbering in my mind and not shutting up and just when I thought it fell quiet... that's when I..." Mai shook her head slightly. "I don't know why I didn't stop myself. I should have. I know I should have, but... I didn't."

"Mai, do you have a protective charm on you?" Naru asked quietly.

"Hmm? You mean from Bou-san or Ayako?" she asked. "Umm, I should..."

Mai put her hand on her upper chest feeling for the small charm bag she normally wore, especially when she was on a case, but didn't feel anything there. Surprised, she felt around her neck for the string it normally hung on. Mai cocked her head to one side. "...... Eh? It's gone??"

She heard Naru sigh but shook her head violently before he could say anything. "I should have one in my jacket, too," she said. "Ayako told me to keep one in there all the time just in case," Mai said as she started to rummage through her jacket pockets. She pulled out the case that held her train pass and pulled out a slip of traditional Japanese rice paper. While it was folded, the shadow of the stylistic characters found on protective charms could barely be made out through the paper.

Naru took the paper from Mai unfolding it when half of the charm fluttered the table.

Mai's eyes widened in surprise. "Eh?!? You're kidding!"

"Mai, when did Matsuzaki-san give this to you?" Naru asked coldly.

"Umm... I don't remember but it was sometime this year. I think she said something about needing to replace them at least every year..."

Naru sighed as he reached into the inner pocket of his jacket and pulled something out. He put it on the table and pushed it over towards Mai. Sitting on the table before her was her missing charm bag.

"......" Mai stared at it speechless.

"I found it in the change area to the bath," Naru said.

Mai wilted as she stared at the bag. It was one of the few things she always wore especially when on an investigation. While not all-powerful, the charm should be able to give her a modicum of protection should anything happen. And given Mai's penchant for running after trouble and her inability to effectively protect herself, she needed all the protection she could get.

She heard Naru get to his feet when he rapped her sharply on the head. "Klutz," he said before moving to sit by the monitors.