The Story Continued (Ghost Hunt)

Chapter 30

"How did we end up with this case, Mai?" Masko asked as both girls stood next to the van watching Lin and Takigawa load it with equipment. Mai shook her head. "Let me just tell you that Naru is not happy about it."

"Lin isn't either." Madoka interrupted them as she and Ayako approached. She then smiled. "I, on the other hand, think it's quite thrilling." Mai noticed the box Madoka was holding. "What's this?" She asked sure that it wasn't one of the SPR's boxes. Ayako grinned and opened the box. She pulled out: "Uniforms!" She yelled. A white top with a blue skirt and a bow. "Where did you get it from?" The girl asked suspiciously. "The client sent it." Madoka explained handing Mai the box. "Now go change, the boys should be ready." As she spoke a cough was heard behind her. Madoka and Ayako turned around to reveal Gene, Yasu, John and Naru in their uniforms. Now that Mai thought about it, she only saw Lin and Bou-san with the equipment. The others must have been changing in the meantime. Mai examined the uniforms. They had a white top, blue trousers and a tie. A series of coughs made Mai realize she was staring a bit too much at a particular someone. She looked up ready to be teased to realise that it was Yasu coughing. He was striking a lot of weird poses. "We get it you look good." Ayako sighed. "You wear a uniform almost every day. What are you so excited about?" The boy pouted. "You are no fun!"

"We are at work! Now start moving and get the equipment into the van or we will be late." The miko yelled then turned again to face Mai and the medium. "You two can go change now. Be quick." Mai nodded and as both of them passed Ayako and Madoka by Mai yelled jokingly "Yes, Matsuzaki-sensei!" This made Gene, Yasu, John and Madoka laugh. Masako smiled a little while Ayako's eyebrow visibly twitched. The girls changed quickly. "Are you ok with the outfit, Masako?" Mai asked as the two of them were on their way back from the office building. Masako nodded. "It's a nice change." The girl sincerely enjoyed wearing the uniform. It was not something she got to wear often. Soon the equipment was in the van and so was the team, already on their way to their, for the time being, new school. The building looked like every other school building Mai had ever seen. There was nothing special about it. One would never guess it was a prestigious school or that it was haunted. It was however pretty far away from any other area. It was built on a small hill. There were no houses or shops nearby. The crew had to leave their vans at the bottom of the hill as the only place closer to the school was the school's parking lot. But they couldn't risk having the students question the two black vans on the school property. That's what the principal said. As soon as they entered the group was divided and while Naru, Gene, Yasu, John, Masako and Mai followed one of the teachers to the classroom of the 'special' class, Lin, Madoka, Ayako and Bou-san went to the staff room. Their goal for the day was to collect as much information as possible.

Mai watched as the teacher slid the door open and stepped inside the room. She followed him and the rest of the group followed her. "Ok, keep it down. Everyone to their seats." The teacher yelled making his way to the desk. "The new students arrived." Mai, Naru, Gene, Yasu, John and Masako all stood at the front of the class lined up watching the class hurry to their seats. Mai counted. 1,2,3...10. Only 10 students were left. "Now, introduce yourself." The man ordered. So they did. The only exception was Masako. She kinda might have had to change her last name hoping no one would recognize her. As for Gene and Naru... Mai guessed they didn't care enough. The girl just hoped no one knew who they were. The group was then ordered to take their seats and the homeroom began. Naru ended up sitting in the last row right next to the window. In front of him was Mai and next to him was Gene. In front of Gene was Yasu. In front of Mai, Masako and next to Masako, John.

The first period went by quite peacefully. Soon enough it was time for the next one. Normally, they would have had to change the classrooms but not in this case. The 'special' class waits for the teacher to come to them. The second period was supposed to be music and Mai had to hold in her laughter as she noticed Bou-san entering the room. "Perfect match." she heard Yasu laugh. Then Gene followed. Finally, she too, gave in and chuckled quietly. "I'm the new music teacher, Takigawa. I'm here to replace that coward who quit." Takigawa said. Suddenly a hand in the class rose up. "Excuse me, Sir. But our teacher left after having his head smashed against the board by a ghost. I think everyone would quit after that." A girl explained quietly in defense of the previous teacher. "A ghost? There is no such thing." He answered causing Mai to raise an eyebrow. "Listen I won't be putting up with any ghost crap just because you brats are too lazy to work properly." He almost yelled then turned to Mai and gave her a small wink. 'He is trying way too much to not appear suspicious' Mai thought.

"Before we start I'll call out every name from the class register. I want you all to follow with a quick 'yes' understood?" Takigawa opened the book as he finished his sentence. He acknowledged the 'yes, sir' the class gave him in response but was mostly focused on all the crossed-out names he saw in the register. Around 15 students left or had to leave school because of this ghost. He noticed that 12 of them were 3rd years. "Ok, first Brown John." He said as he noticed that the SPR team was already in the register. John answered the call as Mai wondered how weird his name sounded being called in this order. This meant Gene and Naru would be called out by their surname first too. Sure enough, as Bou-san continued... "Next, Davis Eugene." Yep, it felt kinda weird. Gene answered with a quick 'yes'. "Davis Oliver." Naru nodded. He was still in a bad mood. He visibly hated it here. He couldn't even bring his laptop to continue writing. "Boy, I didn't quite hear you. Answer me properly." The monk scolded trying not to give in to the death glare Naru was giving him. Naru knew very well that the old man was trying to get back at him for always 'bossing around' as he called it. He will pay him back later. "Yes." He blurted out.

Takigawa moved on. As he did Mai noted every name he called. The names that followed were Inaba Tooru, Minami Yuki, Minami Yume, Miyazaki Shuichi, Nakajima Miho, Niwa Maiko, Okazaki Nao, Shimada Masako, herself, Uchida Kaoru, Yamazaki Reiko, Yasu and Yoshiko Emi. Once he was done Takigawa started the lesson. Mai had no idea if he was teaching the class something meaningful as she was not paying the slightest attention to the class. Instead, she kept on making notes while observing the people in the room. For once she was proud of herself as, at the moment, it seemed like she was the only one working. She looked back to see Naru hiding a book under his desk and Gene cheerfully chatting next to him. Who was he chatting with? Of course, Yasu. Poor Takigawa just tried to ignore them hoping the other students wouldn't notice. John was giving the new teacher less trouble as he was listening to the lesson. As for Masako, Mai had no idea. She was sitting behind the girl, who had not moved an inch since the beginning of the class. In her head, Mai started to create different scenarios as to what the girl could be doing. Listening to the class like John? Sleeping? Or maybe she has a book in front of her like Naru? Mai's personal favorite was however the idea of Masako secretly glancing over at John the whole time.