Dangerous Souls

Shoji no Noroi

Chapter 5-"L"

A foreboding feeling washed over her again as she stood in what appeared to be Ryouta's office. Only it appeared to be outdated. The furniture in there was most certainly not the plush couches and chair she had sat in when they arrived. The desk was large and bulky with a lamp on top she was sure she had seen in a thrift store by her apartment. The chairs looked like western antiques and she saw two men in the room with her.

One was hiding behind a bookshelf in a corner of the room while the other appeared to be jerking around at every little movement. He finally noticed the man in the corner and appeared hurt.

The man who had been hiding was yelling at him, but Mai could not hear a word of it. She wondered why as the vision faded away just as the two physically began to fight.

Images once again plagued her eyes, much clearer this time. She could see images of both the men she had just witnessed dead. One stabbed in the chest, the other hanging from a noose. One thing similar in both.

October second.

More images blurred past her, she still couldn't make them out. It was bugging her. A lot. If you think of a dancer who can't get a specific move quite right, or a singer who just can't reach that high note they desire, that's how she felt. Where was the Naru in her dreams? He would normally help her. Wait, wasn't he just part of her imagination?

Mai found herself in that blackness she was all too used to being in. This was normally where she would find him. Perhaps if she kept walking he might appear and give her a hand. This case was becoming confusing and with John on the way, she was sure it was about to get much more dangerous.

She kept walking, her fears tagging along, as she spotted a glimmer of light. Naru? She thought as she continued for it. The light gradually grew and she was soon entering a brightly lit doorway...

"Naru?"

***

September Day 4, 8:30 A.M.

"Yeesh, you're dreaming about him now?" Mai heard the priestess say, as she was shaken awake.

Fighting to hide her blush, she rolled over. "I recall several times where you were calling out for Monk in your sleep," she retorted, sleepily. "Something about wanting more?"

This time it was the priestess fighting to keep her blush at bay. "I-I don't know what you're going on about, but get dressed. We're getting breakfast and then Naru wants to discuss the findings of the E.V-whatever we did yesterday."

Mai quickly dressed herself and headed for breakfast. After the silent meal she shared with an embarrassed and pissed Matsuzaki, they headed to Base to discuss their evidence.

They day before, Naru had asked Lin to have Mai listen to anything he heard, but he came back before the Chinese man could ask for her assistance and was therefore unneeded for that moment. Today, it appeared everyone was to listen to the audio.

"I'm going to play the audio we caught yesterday, if you hear anything out of sort, make a mental note of it for later," Naru explained, everyone nodded and Lin hit the "play" button.

"In room 217, Narumi..." Naru's voice was clear as day despite the slight amount of static.

"Mai."

"Lin."

"Masako."

"Ayako."

"Takigawa."

"Kazuya," At Yasuhara's alias everyone prepared to listen for the answers to questions, but to Mai, something did not feel quite right. She looked over to the medium to find she was not the only one.