Dangerous Souls

Break A Leg

Chapter 1-Static

January Day Before Case, 4:33 P.M.

It was just a cold and humid day, with each step Mai took, her gloveless hands lose a little more feeling. Needless to day, when she walked into the office she welcomed the dry heat of the furnace, not caring if her boss would ream her for being a few minutes late.

"Mai, tea, we have a client here as well," Naru called once Mai had closed the door. She hung up her jacket and rubbed her hands together to gain some feeling in them.

Quickly, she went into the kitchen and set the kettle to boil, and got the pot ready with tea. A few minutes later, she came out with four steaming cups. "Thank you for taking the time to see me, Mr. Shibuya," the client said, she had bobbed curly black hair framing her round face.

"Miss Akiyama, what type of phenomena have you been experiencing?" Naru asked as Mai handed out the cups and took a seat next to him.

"Thank you," the girl said, accepting the cup. "Also, you may call me by my given name, Fuyumi. I am the assistant director for a play that will be premiering in a few weeks at the Shirayuki Theater. When we began production, the cast had been experiencing footsteps, hearing voices, feeling touches, the sort of things that could easily be dismissed. However, when our lead girl was pushed off of the stage in front of everyone by an unseen force, the director, Inoue, took measures to call in a medium to take a look."

"She was pushed off the stage?" Naru repeated. "You're sure she didn't just fall?"

"She actually claims she's just clumsy and fell off of the stage on accident, I was watching as she fell, something didn't look right," Fuyumi explained, shaking her head.

"What do you mean?"

"She is a little clumsy, don't get me wrong, but she wasn't even near the edge of the stage, she took one step, supposedly a trip, and landed on the ground on her knee." She pulled out her phone. "If you look at the bruise here, you will see that it took a lot of force to create such a bruise. She's still having issues with her knee and this happened a couple weeks ago." She handed the device to the lead investigator. "It just didn't look right, and with the incident sending the other actors into a panic, Inoue hired a medium to cleanse the spirits and it seemed to work."

"Seemed?" Mai piped up. Fuyumi nodded.

"The medium finished just before Christmas, and everything was going just fine, no incidents or anything paranormal," the petite girl continued, pushing up the rim of her glasses. "Then a couple days ago, we were rehearsing and I had sent our lead girl to our costume department. One of our light fixtures fell and nearly crushed her. Another actor was there and pulled her out of the way, he claims to have seen someone on the bridge, and the rope was partially cut. When the entire crew investigated, we found no one in the building that could have done it. We called the police, they couldn't do anything and one officer did give the actress who was nearly killed, your business card, Kazuya. Resolving to call it a day, I had everyone go home and when I was leaving, the two actors who had nearly been hit by the light were leaving as well."

"I take it that's where something paranormal actually occurred?" Naru asked.

"I'd greatly appreciate it if you would let me finish my story, Kazuya." For a little thing, she wasn't about to be overlooked. "As we were leaving, the lights started flickering, we heard rapping sounds, the front door flew open and a voice shouted at us to get out. So we did."

"Is that the end of your claim?" Naru asked, half annoyed. Mai had to fight the urge to roll her eyes and check her cell phone that buzzed in her pocket.

"Yes it is," she smiled, leaning back. "Look, I'm not a skeptic or believer really, I just want to be able to work in peace and get this show underway. We've had to suspend rehearsal for almost two weeks because of the medium and the incident a couple days ago. If we continue to delay it, the show will most likely be shut down and a lot of people out of a job, not to mention the director's reputation would be in jeopardy."