The Story Continued (Ghost Hunt)

Chapter 38

The crew arrived at the school building and started to remove the equipment. Lin and Naru went to the teacher's office, Gene and Yasu to their classroom, Masako and Mai to the gym and the gym storage while the rest were to remove the cameras in the halls on every floor. The girls got the camera in the gym down pretty quickly and then headed to the storage. Mai was holding the first camera so Masako went ahead and just as she was about to remove the other one Mai stopped her. "What is it?" Masako asked surprised but Mai didn't answer. The other girl simply had a very confused expression on her face. "I don't know. Something is off."

"Um..ok." Masako backed off from the camera. "What exactly?" She asked as Mai handed her the camera she was holding. She then watched as Mai positioned herself next to the camera. "It was moved." Mai stated. "It's facing a different direction. It was supposed to film the whole storage now it's facing the shelves on the right."

"Ok, we will have to watch the footage from this camera more carefully." Masako nodded.

"Yes, I'll let Naru know later." Mai stated as she started to remove the camera. "So where did you go after you left the room earlier?" The girl asked just to continue the conversation. "I decided Naru would somehow manage to make you get ready so I went down and met up with John, Yasu and Gene." Masako answered.

"Oh, I thought you maybe went to Ayako and Madoka first."

"No no, at first I was just waiting at the window down the hallway but they called me down." Masako hesitated. "Actually, John asked me to talk later today." Mai was instantly happy for her friend. "Omg, Masako that's great!"

"What? Why?" The girl asked confused causing Mai to roll her eyes. "What are you rolling your eyes for?" she added.

"You will see. Let's go. They still have to move the vans from the parking lot. Let's hurry a bit."

When they arrived Naru was already stamping his foot with his arms crossed. "Late again." He commented just as Mai was close enough to hear him. "Sorry." She said passing him by to put the cameras away. Masako followed her. "Naru. The camera number 5 was moved when we went to get it." She added turning around to face him. "What, why are you looking at me like that?" Naru kept on glaring at the girl. "I'm wondering how to fix this habit of yours."

"I'm not always late!"

"Actually, I was thinking of you always getting in danger like yesterday." He said knowing the moved camera meant trouble. "But now we have two things to fix." The boy had a visible smirk on his face. It disappeared once he focused on work again. "Anyway, Lin and Takigawa you can move the vans now. We will go to the classroom."

After that, they got inside the school building and there, they separated from Ayako and Madoka. While the two women went to the teacher's office the rest headed to the classroom. Luckily, no one was there yet. Even the person on duty didn't arrive yet. "The class starts in about 30 minutes. What will we do until then?" Mai asked already bored. "Wait." She heard Naru answer. She turned around to see her boss reading. "Do you have another book with you?" She asked. "In English." The boy told her looking up slightly. "Doesn't matter." Mai said while reaching out her hand. Naru gave her the book silently.

"Mai? You know English?" Mai flinched as she heard Gene speak. "Weren't you reading English books in my office last time?." Naru added. He noticed this fact before but didn't think much of it. He just assumed the girl didn't understand most of what she was reading. "Now, if you are so bored why not tell us? Which is it?"

"What's going on Mai." Masako joined the conversation slightly worried as to why Mai would lie about knowing or not knowing English. "Look, it's not that deep." Mai started. "I've been giving my best trying to learn English since you left so of course, I got better. I don't understand everything in these books but this way I can learn new words."

"Then why didn't you tell us?" Masako asked.

"I didn't want Naru to know until I would be able to speak at a satisfying level. I didn't want him to make fun of me so I pretended to not understand." The girl explained.

"Mai, that's great. Knowing English will give you a lot of advantages." Gene exclaimed. "But wait, now I won't be able to tease Naru in front of you anymore or he will literally kill me."

"Gene..." Mai and Naru said at the exact same time. While Naru said it in a warning tone Mai's was more of a sigh.

Mai was about to start reading the book but was interrupted by a loud meowing. "Hi, Yoru." She said turning around to see the cat on her desk. "Hello, Mai." The cat looked almost as if it was smiling. "Are you ok?" Mai wanted to answer the question but before she could say anything Yasu kind of freaked out. "Wait, it can speak!?" Gene, Masako and John were equally surprised. Naru however remained unmoved as he, after all, already had the chance to speak with the cat.

"Yeah, before he could talk in my head and my dreams. I guess he leveled up." Mai tried to explain which was a bit hard to do as she still did not get the whole situation herself. "But the spirits of animals shouldn't be able to talk." Gene blurred out. "I'm not a simple spirit!" Yoru huffed. "Then what are you?" Gene continued the conversation. "I'm Yoru! Mama's spirit. The rest...I can't tell you yet."

"What do you mean by 'mama' ?" Gene suddenly realized and the thought made him laugh. And now that he pointed it out everyone was suddenly more interested in the conversation, even Naru. Mai could feel their eyes all over her. "Don't look at me! I don't know!" She stated.

"Excuse me. I meant Mai. Did I cause some kind of misunderstanding?" Yoru asked feeling guilty. His tone was extremely polite but still childish. Mai smiled as she looked him in the eyes. "Of course not! Have you been calling me that in your head?" She asked. Yoru nodded in agreement. "Then you can keep doing that I don't mind." Mai smiled.

"Wait, I found Yoru! He was supposed to be my cat!" Gene suddenly remembered.

"No, Yoru is mama's." The cat disagreed.

"Then, can I be your Papa?" Gene asked jokingly.

"Yoru already choose his papa!" He argued. "I have to go now." He added before disappearing in a rush.

"Ne, what do you think? Who is his 'papa'?" Masako teased the girl. Mai rolled her eyes. "Yoru must be quite a young spirit. His voice sounds like that of a child too."

Just then the door to the classroom opened and Miho and Reiko walked in. The girls were surprised to see the group inside but still greeted them. "Morning." Mai answered. "Are you on the duty?"

"Yeah, what are you doing here?" Miho asked.

"We wanted to see some more of the school so we came a little earlier." Mai answered.

"Mai, are you ok? We were scared to death yesterday." Reiko joined as the two girls approached the group. "Yes, I'm all better now. Thank you for asking. But honestly, I have no idea what thathappened."

"That was probably Tae-san." Miha said suddenly.

"Tae-san?" Mai repeated.

"Yeah, you heard the new teacher yesterday, right? Even if he doesn't believe in ghosts it's true this class is haunted. It wasn't that bad since the 3rd year left but I guess it will start again." Miho explained.

"And the ghost's name is Tae?" Masako asked.

"No, we named it that. Actually Yume did." Reiko clarified.

"Ok, we need to get to work now." Miho stated as she pulled Reiko with her.

"Let's see what will happen today." Mai said to herself.

"Let's just hope you will make it out unharmed this time." Naru commented as he kept on reading his book.