The Case Of The Broken Heart

Chapter Two: The Chance Encounter

Once on the hospital and Mai was call to have her medical cheek with a female doctor, Naru waited on the chair next to the door. Even though he hoped Mai have nothing serious to worry about, a part of him was in panic that he could be wrong. When he received the call from her school, he worry about what could possibly be wrong with her. The nurse assures him she was doing fine after she regains consciousness and that she would send the girl home, but when he saw her appear on the office, looking pale he wanted to make sure she was truly fine. He closed his eyes for a moment trying to relax a little while he waited, thinking that Mai's check could to take longer than expected, when he suddenly heard a voice talking in fluid accented English that he recognize well enough, and he froze on his seat for a second. The last thing he expected was to find Darien Curtis on Japanese grounds.

It was just his luck to find one of his English sponsor and a close friend of his father, so far from England and on a hospital in Shibuya nonetheless. He didn't know the men has travel to Japan and now that Mr. Curtis has looked his way, he may get himself on a tight situation, if Mai happens to get out of the room while the men was still there. To make matter worse, he notices that Mr. Curtis wasn't alone, but in company with his apparently injured idiot son Ryan Curtis, which walked behind him with a worry expression on his face. He has seen Ryan before and talk to him mostly for his father sake, when the Cuties visited them, than for the pleasure of his company.

His brother Gene was the one who usually deal with the guest his father invite home, so his interaction with Ryan was minimal at best and in many ways he was glad for it, since the guy usually bored him with his endless talk about girls. To be honest with himself, girls wasn't a theme that interest him back then, as he rather prefers talking about the latest paranormal investigation than hear an idiot babbling nonstop, about how hot a certain girl was. The guy amused Gene, but it annoyed him to no end. He has considered a few woman as beautiful, but he never gives them more than a glance or a second thought, as his focus lies elsewhere and he only recently begin to experience some problems with the opposite sex when Mai shows up on his life and dealing with her was making him busier with the pass of each day and every new case.

The girl was unpredictable, head strong, fearless at times when someone else was in danger, too impulsive for her own good and a danger magnet of huge proportions. Still, not everything about her was hard to deal with, most of the time she simply amuses him, as she was easy to tease and order around, not to mention she made the best tea he ever taste, which give him something to look forward every day. Unfortunately for him, it was a bit harder to keep her out of troubles lately and today's travel to the hospital was a proof of that and he has to admit to himself that keeping her from breaking many of his internal barriers he created in order to keep his emotions from ruling his life, has also become harder to prevent these days.

"Oh, Oliver. What a pleasant surprise to find you here. I was thinking on contact you for some... problems we had at hand here. I was just going to call Martin to give me the number of your office, but fate knew better and send me directly to you right away. God knows we are in dear need of your help." Mr. Curtis said in English and behind him Ryan nodded at him. He couldn't imagine what could possibly be wrong, his area of expertise was the paranormal and if he wasn't facing problems with a haunted hotel while visiting the country, he could not be of much help.

"Mr. Curtis, are you having problems with a haunting?" He asked back right away, highly aware that time could fall short at any time. Although he trusted Mai with some extent, her impulsive actions was another matter and if she comes to know his true identity it could be troublesome and dangerous.

"Well, it is not me the one facing problems with ghosts, but Ryan. You see, my Ryan here was lucky enough been accept as an exchange student here a few months ago and I was very excited. I hear great things from Martin about Japan and read most of your reports from your cases here. I had to said I am completely fascinated with the variety of research you can find here, back in England we do not have these kinds of haunting. At first everything was going as it should on any elite school and Ryan was making good progress with his classes, but recently I received a call from Ryan telling me about the strange things happening on his high school. Of course, I took the first flight here and talked with the director, but to my astonishment, the men is unwilling to call for professional help with the problem at his school. The fool seems to not believe in ghost and the incidents are escalating. Ryan was push down the stairs just an hour ago, other kids are facing similar problems and even worse than that." Mr. Curtis reply trying to control his anger with the director at bay.