Title: PSC Series: The Haunted Celebrity
Chapter: 08
Author: アキ
Fandom: the GazettE, SCREW, Alice Nine, more to come
Disclaimer: I don't own the guys. Just the story.
Pairings: AoixRuki, ByouxRui, probably more to come
Genre: AU, horror, supernatural
Rating: PG, for now
Warning: None
Beta: None
Summary: "PSC, which stands for Paranormal Studies Center, is an institution whose main object is to investigate various paranormal and supernatural events. This is the Department of Investigation and Recovery, where all investigative tasks are being done. My name is Kai, and I am the head of this Department. Welcome. How may I help you?"
Chapter 8
Ruki was slightly thankful that Reita had a habit of blasting ridiculously noisy punk rock songs while he was driving. It wasn’t quite to Ruki’s taste, and at other times it would have annoyed him to no end. But at the moment it was acting as a rather effective distraction. He needed distraction-he needed it badly. Otherwise, his nerves would snap and he would completely lose his calm. It had taken a lot of effort just to drag himself out of his apartment this afternoon knowing what kind of fate was waiting for him. He even had been sorely tempted to dial Kai’s number and call off his agreement, but in the end, his professional side took the best of him. So now, here he was, on his way to Yuu’s apartment; a bag filled with his belongings was sitting quietly on the back seat of Reita’s Mustang.
In the mean time, Ruki was wondering why Kai had sent Reita, of all people, to pick him up and drive him to Yuu’s place. He was probably needed to assess the situation, considering the abilities that he possessed. He didn’t like saying it out loud in public, but whether he liked it or not, he had to admit that Reita’s ability was truly above average compared to the other staffs in PSC. Moreover, his supernatural power was not limited to just one specification. He was the type of person who was born with an amazing gift, and he was trained-although he himself might not realize that he had gone through any kind of training-to use his gift optimally. And it was practical, too, because within that package of a sloppy young man you could find various abilities, from detecting supernatural auras to making protection charms.
So, Ruki concluded, Reita must be sent here as a second detector whose sensitivity level was higher than those of the staffs from Astral Aura Detection division.
Reita’s Mustang took a turn toward a familiar road, and all of a sudden Ruki felt a wash of nausea attacking him. All those distractions that had successfully diverted his thoughts vanished the instant Yuu’s apartment building came into his sight. It’s impossible now to pretend that the whole thing was nothing but a nightmare.
“Well,” Reita turned off his engine; his eyes were staring straight toward the white-and-grey building up ahead. “For an actor of Aoi’s class, this doesn’t look like a very fancy place.”
Ruki shrugged. “It’s a lot fancier than the shack I’m living in.” Ignoring Reita’s burst of laughter he grabbed his bag from the backseat, and stepped out of the car. “Come on, he’s expecting us.”
While they were on their way up to the Yuu’s floor, Ruki felt it was becoming harder and harder to remain calm. His mind was going haywire; all he could think of was how awkward it would be to spend a few days with Yuu in his apartment. He had never been an easy going person; he always had troubles socializing with others. He couldn’t instantly get along with someone he had just met, especially if this person made him feel self conscious. Not that he lacked self-confidence, no. He felt pretty certain about the qualities that he possessed, as long as no one brought up the height topic.
In this case, however, it seemed understandable that he would feel a bit insecure.
The situation was almost the same, back in high school and today. Yuu had always been a popular person. Being the center of attention had always been his thing. With his natural charm, he had always been surrounded by many people. Ruki had often found himself sitting at a distance, staring at Yuu laughing, joking with his friends. Many times it occurred in his thoughts, how was it possible for someone to feel so easy about opening themselves in front of other people? He himself could barely come up a joke that was funny enough to make people laugh. He hadn’t had that many friends either; sad as it may seem, no one had ever asked him to hang out in the weekends.
The process had lasted for a while, but in the end, Ruki accepted the fact that he didn’t have what it took to be a famous guy, and if he gave it another thought, what was so great about being famous anyway? He loved some peace in his life. True enough, his current job was not the most peaceful job in the entire world, but it must be a lot less dramatic than getting a career in the entertainment world like Yuu.
The sound of a chime told him that they had reached the floor they were heading. Ruki hurriedly brushed off the depressing thoughts in his head. Bitterly, he stared at the elevator door that was opening slowly. His legs felt like lead, too heavy for him to move, but he saw that Reita had already moved ahead. He heard his junior mumble, “Must be nice living in a place that has an elevator…”
Ruki gave himself a mental push before he followed Reita out of the elevator. “Number 612,” he told Reita Yuu’s apartment number. The blonde man nodded, and then marched ahead with easy steps.
Very soon, they arrived in front of Yuu’s door. Ruki glared at the white-painted, smooth-surfaced door; doubt hanging heavily in his mind. He knew, though, that he couldn’t turn back now. He had only one choice, which was to move forward and make sure he focused on his job. The sooner he got this over with, the sooner he could be free from this pressure in his head.
His hand was tense when he pressed the bell. Not long afterward, the door opened, and the actor’s bright face appeared from behind.
“Good evening, Ruki-san!” he greeted. And when he saw Reita who was standing right next to Ruki, he tilted his head and asked, “I don’t think we’ve met before…?”
Reita offered his hand. “No, we haven’t,” he said. “I’m called Reita. I’m working under the same division as Ruki.”
“Oh!” Yuu shook Reita’s hand, smiling. “Reita-san, pleased to meet you. Come on in!”
Yuu opened his door wider, and stepped aside to let Ruki and Reita in. Ruki didn’t spend too much time wandering around since he had been here just the other day; he went straightly into the living room, and then, clueless of what to do, he sat down on the sofa, hanging on to his bag like a lost kid. In the mean time, his associate, Reita was giving himself a tour around the room. He stopped in front of a desk right next to the window, staring at the photos in different shaped frames that were displayed on top of it.
“Wow,” Reita murmured. “You still have photos from elementary school days.”
Yuu approached where Reita was standing. “Yeah,” he said. “I like that photo. Our baseball team had just won inter-school tournament.”
Ruki could only sit in silence, watching Reita who didn’t seem like he was having a hard time getting acquainted with Yuu, as if this wasn’t their first meeting. Ruki wouldn’t have been able to do that; he couldn’t even come up with a topic to start any conversation with Yuu, even though they had met a couple of times before. But, then again, maybe this had a lot to do with the fact that he was still thinking about his high school days where Yuu had been his senior. The memory was still making things awkward, at least for him. It might have been better if he had never known Yuu before in the past… especially because it seemed that Yuu didn’t remember him at all.
Finally, he took a deep breath, and then set his bag aside. He coughed lightly, getting Yuu and Reita’s attention. “Umm, sorry for interrupting your conversation, but…” he looked at Reita, “Reita, if you would…”
Reita grinned sheepishly, nodding his head. “Okay, okay. Err… Yuu-san, can you show me your room? I’d like to start observing there.”
“Alright,” Yuu smiled. “Right this way.”
===
The inspection that Reita did in Yuu’s room took only fifteen minutes, not a minute longer than that. Watched by Ruki and Yuu, Reita stood in the middle of the room, spinning on his heels slowly, taking in the view of every crevice and every nook he could find. His forehead creased every once in a while, but he said nothing. Sometimes he walked a few steps towards some objects, like the TV rack, the window that headed out to the balcony, and the room that Yuu was using as storage for the many gifts he received from his fans. But in the end, he shrugged at Ruki.
“Nothing’s weird,” he said. “Except for that yuurei sitting on your balcony.”
Yuu turned to look at his balcony, but of course he couldn’t see anything with his bare eyes. Ruki couldn’t see a damn thing himself.
“Oh, don’t worry,” Reita waved his hand. “She means no harm, and she’s not staying either. I think she’s just passing by.”
Yuu was still staring warily at his balcony, as if he was expecting that yuurei to appear all of a sudden, solid and clear. “O-okay… so, other than her, you don’t find anything else that seems dangerous?” he asked.
Reita shook his head. “Not that I know of. Here, hang on a sec…” He reached into his jacket, and then into his jeans pockets, and finally pulled out a folded piece of white paper. He handed it to Yuu. “It’s an ofuda for basic protection. Pretty useful to get rid of weak spirits. You can stick it on the door, the window, or any other spots that are strategic as passageways.”
Ruki could see that Yuu was impressed. Anyone would have been awed to find out that Reita, whose appearance was so modern-even leaning toward reckless, knew so much about charms and spells and the sort. Physically Reita looked far away from what people used to think about priests who worked in the temples, but in terms of skills, he could not be underestimated. Once again Ruki had to admit that, although he felt bitter about it.
Yuu held the ofuda he received from Reita with utmost care, and then he walked towards the door that connected his bedroom with the living room. “Is it okay to place this here?” he asked, pointing at the door right in front of him.
Reita nodded. “That’ll be okay. If you’re still experiencing any disturbance tonight, I can bring more tomorrow. My uncle told me to make loads of it this morning.”
===
Around eight p.m., the ofuda was securely stuck on Yuu’s bedroom door, and Reita had left the apartment. Yuu had insisted that Reita stayed for a while for dinner, which consisted of nothing more than two boxes of pizza that he had ordered on the phone. Now there were only Ruki and Yuu left in the apartment, and Ruki, pathetically, was trying to convince himself that everything was going to be okay. But so far it seemed like the situation was completely fine, although he and Yuu hadn’t talked a lot tonight; before Reita came home, Reita had been the one who started most of the conversations. Ruki had only been able to jump in a few times with his trivial comments.
At the moment, Ruki was sitting on the edge of a light-brown sheeted bed in Yuu’s guest bedroom, staring curiously at all the furniture around him. There really wasn’t much to see in this room, to tell the truth, compared to Yuu’s room which was full of posters and personal belongings that could speak a lot about its owner. In here, he could only find the usual, standard furniture that one would have in a bedroom; nothing special. Ruki didn’t think Yuu often received guests who stayed over and required a bedroom in this apartment.
What about a girlfriend…? Ruki wondered if Yuu had any girlfriend who visited his place sometimes. And if he did, would Ruki be a nuisance by staying here?
He sighed uncomfortably. The thought made him wish something would just happen tonight, so that he could get straight to work. The sooner that damn creature showed itself, the sooner he could finish his job and go home.
“Ruki-kun!” Yuu’s voice and his cheerful smile appeared from behind the door, shocking Ruki until he nearly toppled off the bed. “Ruki-kun, I’m going to take a bath,” he said. “You go ahead and grab anything you want. Everything in the fridge is all yours, in case you’re still hungry. Or if you’d like to take a bath too, the guest bathroom is right next to the kitchen. Relax; I’ve already cleaned it up earlier today.”
“O-oh, yes, thanks. Err… I’m just going to sort out my things for now.”
“Okay,” Yuu said. “See you later, then.”
Yuu disappeared from the doorframe, leaving Ruki agape, his hand clutching his chest. His heart was beating fast, although he had no idea whether it was just from the shock or some other reason he could not explain. Jadedly, he thought about how this was only the first night. How was he going to survive this task?
===
It turned out that Ruki didn’t have to wait too long to get what he had wished for, although it wasn’t quite like what he had imagined. He was in the middle of rummaging through the contents of his bag, searching for his toothbrush and towel. He planned to end the day with a nice hot bath and go straight to bed; it had been quite a stressing day, both physically and mentally. He had only found his towel and was on the process of continuing the search for his toothbrush when, all of a sudden, Yuu barged into the room. Ruki’s eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. If only Yuu hadn’t been almost naked with just a piece of towel covering his waist and most private parts, he wouldn’t have been this shocked.
It was obvious that Yuu hadn’t had the chance to even dry himself before he left the bathroom. His hair was still dripping with water, streaming down his bare chest and stomach. He was panting as he was standing before Ruki’s bedroom door; his face was as pale as the white walls around them.
Something had just happened. With every piece of willpower he owned, Ruki struggled to ignore the fact that Yuu was practically nude in front of his eyes, grabbed the jacket he had been wearing this afternoon from the desk, and hurried over towards the actor.
“In the bathroom…” Yuu was stuttering. “There-there-”
“What is it?” Ruki asked, rushing to cover Yuu’s body with his jacket. Yuu immediately pulled the jacket tightly around himself, shivering. “Come on, sit down,” he pulled Yuu towards the bed. And once he was certain that Yuu was sitting safely and seemed a little bit calmer, he asked him one more time. “What happened in the bathroom, Yuu?”
Yuu took his moment to breathe, the shiver that ran through his body easing bit by bit. Soon, he could speak more clearly than before. “Nothing was weird, at first,” he began. “Everything was plainly normal. I was just waiting for the tub to be filled with warm water while doing… well, the routine, you know. And then I stepped into the bathtub.”
Sitting right next to Yuu at the edge of the bed, Ruki was staring at the dark haired man, waiting for him to continue with his story.
“A couple of minutes in the tub, I felt like…” Yuu frowned, pausing to think. “… I felt like there’s someone in the room, staring at me. You know the feeling, don’t you, that disconcerting feeling at the edge of your conscience when someone is close by? I was having the creeps, but everywhere I looked, there was no one around. I was in the bathroom all by myself.
“The feeling didn’t go away even after a while. Feeling discomforted, I cancelled my intention of staying in the bath for long. I stood up and walked toward the sink, wanted to brush my teeth. That’s when I felt… someone was breathing right next to me.”
Yuu touched his own nape as if he could still feel the uninvited creature nearby. Ruki cautiously looked over Yuu’s shoulder to check, but there was no one there. His supernatural sense was not exactly a treat he could be proud of, unlike that of Reita’s or the staffs in Astral Aura Detection Division. But all the years he had been working in PSC had given him enough experience that slowly sharpened his instincts. He could at least tell when there was a creature from another dimension hovering nearby. And with this sadly poor instinct of his, he didn’t think there was anyone-or anything else in the room except himself and Yuu.
“And then…?” Ruki asked carefully. He didn’t know how traumatic it was, but he needed to find out what had just happened to Yuu.
“And then…” Yuu continued slowly. “I tried to ignore… whatever it was. I was still trying to convince myself that it was just in my head. But of course that’s not the case. Right in front of the sink I was standing, brushing my teeth as fast as I could. And the next thing I knew… that thing was touching my back.”
Yuu stopped speaking for a moment, the shiver returned in full force. Ruki patted his arm awkwardly. He was never good in soothing other people in need. Not to mention this was Yuu who was sitting, shuddering right next to him; and to make matters a lot worse, Yuu was not properly dressed. Ruki wanted to get up and find something for Yuu to wear, but he wasn’t sure he could leave Yuu alone under this circumstance.
A few moments later, Yuu opened his mouth again to speak.
“Whatever that thing was… its touch felt eerie. It slid down from my nape to my lower back. I could only stand there, praying so that the creature would stop soon and leave me alone. I didn’t get what I prayed for. It was only getting worse. The touch then turned into a hug.”
“A hug?!” Ruki gasped, horrified.
Yuu nodded. “I could feel something similar to a pair of hands… arms. They surrounded me, hugging me. And then…” He closed his eyes; his lips trembled. “That breath… it was warm, like a human’s breath. It was as if someone was standing so close to me and had their face pressed to my cheek, and inhaled, exhaled. Inhaled, exhaled, over and over again. And then it spoke to me.”
“What did it say…?”
Before he answered, Yuu turned his gaze towards Ruki. The look in those eyes told Ruki that he should start fearing for his own safety from now on. “It said… ‘Get rid of your guest. Or I will make him suffer for intruding.’”
===
When Yuu finally fell deeply asleep, the clock was showing two a.m. late in the night. He had tossed and turned for many times; kept waking up even before being truly asleep. Ruki sighed, relieved. He himself couldn’t sleep, too tense from everything that Yuu had experienced. He was also aware that, as the person in charge of the surveillance, he had to make sure Yuu was safe and nothing else was going to disturb him tonight.
The main lamp in Yuu’s room was turned on, blindingly bright. Yuu had declined Ruki’s offer to turn it off, although, honestly speaking, the light wouldn’t have helped if the creature had decided to show up in this room. But Ruki understood the common suggestion that light brought a sense of peace. So if that was what Yuu needed, then Ruki would let the lights turned on all night long.
The big problem was that Ruki couldn’t leave Yuu. He had repeatedly told him that he wouldn’t be too far away. He would only be a few steps away in the living room; if Yuu wanted he could keep his bedroom door ajar so he could still see Ruki from inside. But Yuu had promptly refused. He had gone all the way to turning the contents of his closet upside down just to find a spare futon, a blanket and a pillow for Ruki to use. Ruki could no longer insist about leaving the room once he had seen Yuu spreading the futon on the floor right next to his own bed.
Who would have thought that an actor of Aoi’s level turned out to be a big coward? No one, including Ruki, would expect that the man behind all those hot-shot, daredevil characters on the screen was such a wuss.
Nonetheless, he was grateful now. It seemed that, despite the threat that the creature had said to Yuu, the disturbances had ended for tonight. Or maybe the ofuda from Reita was working effectively, so nothing unwanted could get into this room. Ruki needed to thank that guy… tomorrow, maybe, and only if Reita didn’t do anything that might possibly ruin his mood.
At the moment, though, he had to contact someone else, and he needed to make the call soon.
Ruki stood up from the futon slowly, careful not to wake Yuu. He walked out onto the balcony, and then pulled out his cellphone. Within a few seconds, he was connected to the person he meant to talk to.
“Night, Uruha. Yes. Morning, I know. Sorry. But this is urgent. Yes. Can you come here tomorrow? Yeah, Shiroyama Yuu’s apartment. Early-okay, as early as you can make it. This might be even worse than we suspected. I’m going to call Reita and ask him to come too. Okay. Yes, yes, go back to sleep. See you later.”
Hanging up the phone, Ruki took a deep breath. He really shouldn’t have said yes to this assignment.
- TO BE CONTINUED -
Notes:
ofuda = a type of household amulet or talisman, issued by a Shinto shrine, hung in the house for protection
yuurei = ghost
futon = traditional style of Japanese bedding
Previous chapters:
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