A/N: Wow, It's been a long time since I last updated. I've had a few things come my way: SCHOOL, writer's block, my computer crashing and things that would bore you. Enough excuses. I'm just wondering if people are still keen on getting to the end. The ending's there, just in my head. Now, if I can just somehow translate that into paper. Hmm...
To those that guessed Inuyasha, cookies for you! Enjoy! (Don't own either)
John Brown, maybe due to his training as a priest, would sometimes address the young CEO of SPR with formality. Given that said CEO was also quite rigid himself, it made sense that the equally young priest would rather refer to him as 'Shibuya-san' as opposed to the appointed nickname, Naru.
"Huh, Naru?" Takigawa was the first to comment, his words stumbling over. His eyes search the group and true to his observation, Naru was indeed missing. "Where is he?"
"He must be already at the base," Lin deduced. After all, where else could Naru be? 'Unless…' He gave a secret smile, but did not finish his train of thought. 'If he's not there, then…' It was a good thing that he was naturally a silent man, because they would have thought that something was wrong in his lack of participation in the conversation.
"He might be," Takigawa answered, and turned to up the stairs. It seems reasonable after all, remembering that Naru had asked Kobayashi-san to get him to talk with the students during the cafeteria accident. Knowing the young and accomplished man, he would get the student council president to go and get those who witnessed the recent event downstairs.
To say that Takigawa was surprised when he opened the door of the base was an understatement. Well, who wouldn't be, considering that only a bored Masako seemed to be in the room. Well, she didn't look like she was bored, but playing with a string that seem to have parted with the sleeve of her kimono, seem to have made the rest think otherwise.
She seemed to have noticed their entrance because at that moment the string was forgotten and her attention was on them. She looked around for a moment and noticed that the person she took a fancy in was missing at the moment.
"Where's Shibuya-san?" John asked before Masako could ask the same.
"Hn," she started, her brow furrowing at the pointless question, "he's obviously not here."
"That's weird," Takigawa piped in, "Usually, he would've given us something to do before going off to some unknown chartered island. Not that I'm complaining."
A sharp voice cut in through the laughter of some of them, namely Takigawa. "Then I suggest," Lin said, "rather than incur Naru's wrath when he returns, you go and do a bit of investigation yourselves."
Takigawa slid the door to reveal a shock Kobayashi with her raised arm poised to knock on the door. Quickly recovering her composure, she then addressed the absent boss. "Shibuya-san…"
"…is not here." Unexpectedly, it was Lin who finished her sentence. He stood up and asked for the clipboard in the girl's hands. "I believe that these are the list of students that were involved in today's incident. I'll give this to him when he returns."
The inhabitants of the room were shocked speechless. This was definitely the most they got out of the tall man. "I think it's best if you go to class now, Kobayashi-san." With that, the girl bowed and left, closing the door on her way.
Takigawa cleared his throat. "Well, Brown-san, we should get going." At his companion's nod, the monk then left.
"I shall go as well," Masako announced, leaving without waiting for an acknowledgement. After all, none was given. The room was then silent, except for the sounds of typing.
The moment Mai entered the nurse's office, the nurse immediately mistook her for a student. Ayako quickly cleared up the issue and explained the lack of change of clothes. She also revealed Mai's accidental tendencies, which the nurse, fortunately for Mai, seems to disregard at the moment.
"Poor child," the matronly nurse said, gently applying medicine on Mai's now exposed wound. "At least the wound seems too deep. So you're one of those ghost hunters?"
Since Mai had been reduced to hissing at the stinging feeling, it was Ayako who answered the affirmative. "Do accidents like these happen all the time?" The nurse had gone into bandaging the wound.
"Yes. But it's mostly her." A sound of protest came from Mai.
"She's right." A new voice startled the three. Ayako turned and found that it was Naru. It seemed that he was there for quite a while, judging by the way he was leaning against the wall. If she was right, he had been with them on their trip to the sick bay.
Mai choked. "N-N-Naru?"
"Hmm? Naru? Were you worried about Mai?" Ayako teased.
"Don't be ridiculous. I was here to make sure that the company would have to pay for any hospital bills you might have. Given your past history, it's no wonder why the company is still doing well." With that he left, effectively shutting out any displays of displeasure his assistant had. He wasn't leaving because he was found out; he did have to interview those students.
"Are you sure you're okay Kagome-chan? You were just recovering from your illness." A concerned female asked.
"I'm alright, Yuka-chan, really I am." It was hard for Kagome to convince her friends that she was alright, since she was planted on the floor, using the rails of the roof balcony as support. "But why don't you guys tell me why the building just shook a while ago?"
"Oh that's right, you wouldn't have known since you were sick for the past few days," another voice answered and went on to recount the strange recent events of the school.
'Oh my,' Kagome thought, 'A ghost? Here? It's no wonder I haven't seen it yet. Now, how to help it out…'
"…and so, the school hired those ghost hunters, uhm what were they called again Eri?"
"I think they were called SPR," Eri answered. "Two were about our age and that guy was so cute, right?"
"Yeah, they arrived earlier this morning," Ayumi added to her report.
"Ghost hunters? Are they the real thing?" Kagome wondered.
The opening of the door prohibited the three girls from convincing Kagome about their own beliefs of the ghost hunter's ability. They looked on curiously to try and determine the new person's identity. It was Ayumi who first noticed it.
"Oh, you're one of those SPR people, neh?"
Now Takigawa was not in the habit of eavesdropping, especially not on conversations between teenage girls, except if Mai was involved. (Who knew you could get so much blackmail material.) But upon catching wind of their conversation, he couldn't help but listen in, especially since they were talking about the investigation. Deciding that he did not want to hear SPR's reputation being disparaged, or at least put to question, he made his appearance.
Since it was a break, most of the students were outside, while some were sitting at their desks either eating or studying. He had just finished his rounds when he decided to check out the roof for any suspicious activities.
"That's right," he greeted, "I'm Takigawa Houshou."
Ayumi stood while the other two lent Kagome a hand. "I'm Mizushima Ayumi. This is Nakamura Eri, Hayashi Yuka and Higurashi Kagome." She pointed to each friend respectively. Noticing that the last girl was rather pale, Takigawa asked if she was alright.
"I'm fine…" But that only raised protests from her friends. Takigawa offered to bring her to the nurse, but Kagome wouldn't budge. From what he could tell, she was unusually strong for a sickly girl. It seemed like the girl was experiencing chest pains twice today and oddly enough, coincided with the ghost appearance and Mai's incident.
It was only until he looked closely that he noticed her aura. He was astounded at the brightness and purity of it. His training as a monk and spiritual awareness has enabled him to feel a person's aura to some extent. But this girl's aura was big and bright enough to be seen by him. 'Or even by Ayako.'
Takigawa was not the only one who was reading auras. Kagome took note of how soothing the person's aura was. It reminded Kagome of Miroku's aura, at least when he was using his spiritual powers. 'He must be like Miroku-sama then,' Kagome thought. 'He has spiritual powers.'
The monk stayed until he was certain that Kagome was well again. Afterwards he made his way back to the base where he found Naru.
"Hey Naru-bou, where've you been?" Naru didn't think him worthy enough to be even acknowledged.
"Anyways, I've found something suspicious." Having earned the young boss' attention, Takigawa proceeded to tell him about a young girl and her unusually bright aura.
"It seems that we might have to talk to Higurashi-san."
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