Nightmare School:

Chapter 1:

Mai looked around nervously as she ran down the dimly lit school corridor. Her short brown hair was a mess and her eyes were big with fear. She had to get away from them. She had been the only one to notice what was wrong. Or rather what was missing.

Now she had become a target.

She forced more air into her lungs and felt them burn with pain. Her stamina was wearing out and she was slowing down.

Her feet came to a stop with a squeak when she saw the figure in the shadows at the end of the corridor. Her already elevated heart rate sped up with panic.

She was trapped. She couldn't run back and she couldn't run forwards. She was going to die.

The sound of running footsteps behind her became louder as the figure in front of her approached her slowly.

Within seconds she was surrounded by the figures that had been pursuing her. The scariest one took time walking up to her. That figure raised his hand and she closed her eyes as the pain took over.

Her last thoughts as the blood drained out of her wounds were that Naru was going to find out everything. It was a ghost case. He had to solve it.

Even if he couldn't save her, he had to solve the case so no one else would end up like her.

Naru's favourite part of a weekday was when his assistant arrived at the office from school. It wasn't because she was his favourite person or anything like that. It was because he liked her tea.

By now he had observed her routine. She would arrive, call out a greeting to him and Lin, take off her coat and offer to make tea. Naturally he always replied in the affirmative and he had a steaming hot cup of tea within five minutes. That was the best part of the day for him.

He could always ask Lin to make tea for him, but Lin always gave him a look that said he had better things to do than make tea. The idea of making his own tea to drink never crossed his mind.

The narcissist checked the time on the clock on the wall of his office. If his calculations were correct and of course they were, Mai should arrive in the next ten minutes. He resumed reading his book to occupy his time and waited to hear the outer door open and Mai's cheerful voice.

He finished the fascinating chapter on cursed household objects and checked the clock. Fifteen minutes had passed. How strange.

Perhaps Mai had been delayed by gossiping classmates. It had happened once before. He had waited for so long that he had ended up giving her a lecture about punctuality when she had finally arrived.

He deemed that she was due another lecture if she did not arrive in the next twenty minutes. He was her employer, he had the right to do so.

He sat back down at his desk and opened his book again. Twenty minutes passed and he began to feel irritated. Naru swore that it was annoyance and not tea withdrawal symptoms.

Mai was definitely going to get a lecture now. It was hard telling her off when she looked at you with her wide eyes. He seemed to be the only person at SPR that was impervious to it. Lin and Bou-san couldn't bring themselves to tell her off anymore no matter what happened.

Deciding that it would have a greater effect on her if she found him lurking by the door instead of sitting in his office, he moved to the seating area and settled down there with his book. He always enjoyed the look on Mai's face when he surprised her.

Lin poked his head outside of his own office and took his headphones off to talk.

"Noll, Taniyama-san is thirty minutes late. Do you think there might be a problem?"

Naru disregarded that. "She is either gossiping or perhaps she ended up doing a favour for someone."

Another annoying thing about Mai was her selflessness. She was too kind and accepting. She hadn't batted an eyelid when he had returned to Japan and rehired her. He hadn't expected her to greet him so kindly. It was like that conversation had never existed.

"Taniyama-san would call me if she was late," Lin pointed out. "She has done that before."

His assistant was annoyingly close to Lin now and seemed to find him easier to talk to.

"Well maybe she forgot to this time. Mai's memory is not too reliable."

Lin elected to not reply and withdrew into his office and the sound of typing started up again.

Sooner or later Mai would burst in and apologise, he would give her a lecture and she would make him tea. There wasn't anything untoward about her being late.

A cold feeling shot down his spine and he shivered. It couldn't be a sign that Mai was in trouble; he didn't have psychic abilities like that.

She had been looking worried for the past week. He hadn't known how to broach the subject with her so he had remained quiet.

His sharp eyes spotted a silhouette outside the frosted glass that looked like Mai. The door opened and someone with Mai's school uniform tiptoed in. Naru cleared his throat, ready to speak and was surprised to find that the girl wasn't Mai and there was another schoolgirl with her.

If he remembered correctly they were Mai's friends. He had met them during the first ever SPR case. One was Keiko and the other was Michiru. He wasn't sure on their surnames though.

"What business do you two have here?" he asked once he had recovered from the surprise.

The response was another shock.

"Mai-chan was attacked and taken to hospital. We want you to take on her case."

Naru stared at them. It wasn't that Mai had been late, she was unable to come. He should have been worried about it instead of being annoyed. He gripped the Michiru's shoulders.

"What do you mean 'attacked'?" he demanded forcefully.

"She was found unconscious during break time. There was blood everywhere. She was taken to the hospital."

"When did this happen?"

"The actual finding was less than two hours ago, we don't know how long it took to find her," she answered. "We came here as soon as school ended."

That was afternoon break. What could she have been doing that led to an attack? Had she empathised with a spirit and allowed herself to become possessed? The ringing of the office phone interrupted his harried thoughts and he vaguely registered that it had been picked up by Lin.

The dark haired omnouji burst out of his office.

"Taniyama has been attacked! She is at Matsuzaki-san's hospital."

Part of that was a relief to Naru. He knew Matsuzaki would do her best to take care of her.

Lin's eyes took in the presence of Mai's friends.

"Bou-san says we don't need to come immediately because he and Matsuzaki-san are watching over her. He says that we need to investigate the attack first."

"I see," Naru said. "Is she conscious yet?"

If he was being asked, not only by the monk, but Mai's friends to investigate there had to be something abnormal about the attack. The most obvious abnormality was that someone as kind as Mai had been attacked that badly.

His attention turned back to Michiru and Keiko. An interview was in order. This would be treated like a standard SPR case.

"Lin, make tea for the clients," he ordered and darted back to his office to retrieve his black notebook.

Mai's friends sat close together on the sofa opposite him. His experience in reading clients told him that they were scared and nervous. The arrival of Lin with tea did not have a calming effect.

Instead of returning to his office the omnouji sat down next to him. "I know something about this case so you will need to ask me questions too."

That explained his earlier concern about Mai being late. He picked up his pen and opened his notebook.

"Keiko-san and Michiru-san, what do you have to tell me?"

The short haired girl raised her hand.

"We can't tell you everything because we don't know much as we aren't in the same class as her anymore. But we want you to investigate because it's a case for SPR and not the Police."