Chapter Text
Day 0
“I’m here!” Mai calls into the office as she enters. As usual, there isn’t any response from either man occupying the office and she sighs. She dumps her backpack and coat next to her desk and picks up the stack of files Naru left on her desk to file, humming under her breath.
She walks slowly to the filing cabinets, eyes scanning over the tags. The door opens behind her just as she gets there, startling her into dropping the files and smashing her toe against the cabinet. She yelps.
“Oh I’m so sorry!” the woman who enters the office exclaims.
“It’s fine!” Mai quickly answers, dropping to her knees and gathering the fallen papers. “I’m just a klutz. Happens all the time.” The woman shakes her head and drops down to help her. “You don’t have to do that!”
“Why wouldn’t I?” she retorts. The papers are all mixed up and Mai quietly laments the extra work she’ll have to do.
“Mai!” Naru’s voice comes from his closed office door. It clicks open shortly after, revealing his scowling face.
“Did you call for tea?” Mai asks, head snapping up. “Sorry, Naru, I--”
“Did you break anything?”
“No.”
“Not even yourself?”
She glares and emphasizes, “ No .”
“Good. Tea.” He turns as though to head back into his office but pauses when he sees the woman knelt beside his assistant. “I’ll grab Lin since you failed to inform us of a client.”
Her mouth drops open and she splutters incoherently for a moment before scowling. He’s not even listening anymore so she shouldn’t bother. She gathers the last of the papers and gets to her feet, thanking their client quietly. She dumps the stack on her desk and heads toward the kitchenette.
By the time she returns, Naru and Lin are seated beside the woman, taking down details of the potential case. Naru glances at her and takes the teacup directly from her hand, listening intently to the woman. “The hotel has been losing customers because of these problems even though we’ve tried everything. We even completely remodeled to ensure the highest possible safety for guests and staff, but none of it has made a difference.”
“How many people have been hurt?” Naru asks.
“10 already since the new year. All men.”
Mai’s eyebrows raise. Impressive considering it’s only the 25th. “Any deaths?”
“Only one, thankfully. It pushed through the remodel.”
“I assume before then, you had noticed similar incidents occurring.”
“Of course we did.”
“But this is the first you’ve come to us.”
“We tried another service but what they said didn’t feel right. Dishonest, even.” Naru hums and makes a note. “And, truthfully, the incidents with customers didn’t bother us much. They could have been simple accidents and it isn’t as though we’re in financial trouble because of the losses, yet.”
“What made you seek help then?”
She swallows. “The woman who owns the hotel with me--Okawa Chikage--her son, Yujiro, just turned 16 and has started suffering heavy bruising. A broken arm even.”
“And you believe the incidents are related and not simply a bully at school or some type of domestic violence?”
Mai shoots him an exasperated look while their client--who she still doesn’t know the name of come to think of it--purses her lips. “I’m quite sure Chikage is not beating her son and they aren’t from school.”
“Have you asked the boy about it?”
“He’s tight-lipped. Won’t say what happened but disappears and the next we see him, usually the next morning, they’re there. It’s similar to other complaints from guests, particularly longer stays. They keep waking up with worse bruising the longer they stay. The man who was killed in November was there a week and a half and toward the end of his stay he said he felt like he was being harassed in and out of his room, pushed into walls and tripped down stairs, until he was found dead, strangled and beaten in his locked room.”
“Has anyone seen an apparition?”
She frowns. “Not that I know of. Chikage and I only know what we’ve gotten complaints of.”
“You haven’t experienced anything yourselves then?”
“No. Just her son. Even my own hasn’t felt anything off.”
“How old is he?”
“Shintaro is eleven.”
Naru makes another note and taps his pen against his notebook. “What makes you think this is supernatural in nature?”
“Like I said, we’ve done everything to ensure the safety of the guests--remodeled the stairs, improved the security cameras in the halls, everything. But still we get complaints from men of being hurt while staying.”
“Is there any footage from the cameras of unknown persons entering the rooms of guests who were hurt?”
“None whatsoever. And no one goes into Yujiro’s room but him, not even Shin or Chikage and I. That’s what convinced us.”
Naru nods his head in thought, steepling his fingers in front of him. “We will require a larger room with many outlets and at least two rooms for sleeping while we investigate. Please leave the address and contact details with Taniyama-san. We’ll head out tomorrow morning, assuming our team is available.”
The woman stands and bows deeply to Naru. “Thank you, Shibuya-san. I’ll reserve and prepare the rooms for you as soon as I get back.”
Naru doesn’t answer her, just nods his head and rises to his feet to go back to his office. Lin finishes up typing and follows him. Mai sighs at their lack of sociability and jumps up to grab her notepad off her desk. “Sorry, I didn’t catch your name at the beginning.”
“Miyara Reisa,” the woman answers with a kind smile. Mai nods and jots it down along with the address and phone number that she lists. “I’m sorry again for startling you. I didn’t mean to cause you more work.”
Mai shakes her head, looking up at her. Reisa’s eyes had deep bags under them and it’s apparent, at least to Mai, that she hasn’t been sleeping well. Whatever problems her hotel has been having seem to be really bothering her, no matter what she says about finances. “It’s really nothing. I could have easily done it on my own, startled or not.” She offers a smile that is returned.
Reisa bows to her and says, “Thank you for the tea, Taniyama-san. I’ll see you tomorrow with your team.”
Mai bows back and waits until the door shuts to turn to her messy desk, still covered in all the mixed up files. She groans looking at them and starts a list in her head. Call the team, fix the files, file the files--
“Mai, tea!” Naru calls.
“Ugh!”