Family (Ghost Hunt FanFiction)

Chapter 8

Chapter 8 

"You know, I would've really liked to have gotten to know Shichirou." I said later on that day. I was at the Base with Mai, Lin, and Naru. Everyone else was doing Exorcisms to see if it would change anything. 

"Why?" Mai asked curiously. I shrugged. 

"I can really identify with everything he went through before he died." 

"Aki!" Mai said wide-eyed. 

"Oi, I'm not saying I'm gonna go and start a fire or something! I'm just saying, that I can relate to him and the problems he had. I wish I could've been there for him. I think we would've been great friends, you know?" She smiled and nodded. "So, have you talked to Ichirou-san about what Yasuhara told us earlier?" 

"No, I'm waiting a bit on that. We should investigate more before we jump to any conclusions without any facts." Naru said looking at me. 

"Yeah, well how are you supposed to find those facts without getting his side of the story first? Isn't that like Investigation 101 or something?" He sighed. 

"Yes, but there are other things we need to investigate."  

"What I want to know is what Shichirou meant when he said 'just like the others'." I muttered, frowning. "It suggests that there are more like him maybe? And if so, what are they afraid of? I don't think they're afraid of Shichirou. Maybe they're afraid of Ichirou-san?" Mai shuddered. 

"If that memory you saw about Ichirou-san really happened, I'd say they're afraid of Ichirou-san, but if he was really into some occult stuff, then it may be possible he summoned a really bad spirit without knowing it." Naru said thoughtfully. 

"Plus, I don't really think Shichirou is the one who started the fire. It's possible someone could've started it while he was in there." I said frowning. 

"I've got some information on the fire." Yasuhara said walking into the room. 

"Good timing!" I said grinning. "I don't think we got to properly introduce each other earlier. I'm Haru Aki, but you can just call me Aki." He smiled. 

"Yasuhara Osamu, but you can just call me Yasu. It's a pleasure to meet you." 

"The pleasure's all mine." 

"So what did you find out about the fire?" Naru asked interrupting our nice conversation; RUDE! 

"Well, from the police reports, there was no way that Kohaku-san started the fire. I looked into it a little more. The ones I did read were revised copies of the original. They put that just to close the case." I frowned. 

"So they were covering something up." 

"Yes and again, our friend Ichirou-san is brought up in it." 

"Let me guess, he'd been near the gym at the time of the fire?" 

"Yes, you're really good at this Aki-san." I shrugged. 

"I guess you could say I'm a bit of a mystery otaku." 

"Is that so? I'm a bit of one myself." Oh? I'm starting to like this guy. Naru cleared his throat. "Oh right, sorry. Um, anyways, in the original reports, Ichirou-san was there just before the fire started. He was seen talking to Kohaku-san by two girls who were passing by to go to class. They were running late is what the reports say. The girls said Kohaku-san looked upset and angry, but they were in a hurry so they couldn't see anything else that was going on." Mai frowned. 

"Ichirou-san was giving him a hard time again, wasn't he?" I was starting to like Ichirou-san less and less. 

"Yes and his fingerprints happened to be on a gasoline can that was found after the fire was put out. The police couldn't find what ignited the fire, but Ichirou-san's alibi was that he had borrowed the gasoline can the day before and brought it back to the school janitor who is the owner of the gasoline."