fic for pipsqueaks (part 1)
Gift fic for: pipsqueaks
From: track_04
Title: Dog Days Are Over
Rating: R (for violence)
Pairing: Ryo + Massu, appearances by Kusano and Tegoshi, mentions of Pin, Kame, and Toma
Warnings: Things that go bump in the night, violence, swearing, sort of dark themes...?
Summary: Sometimes being a bad ass monster hunter isn't all it's cracked up to be.
Notes: Set in the Supernatural Universe (Roughly seasons 2~3, no spoilers and no previous SPN knowledge required... I think). pipsqueaks, I really, really, really hope this is something you enjoy!! I absolutely adored your request and I hope I was able to do it (and the SPN verse) justice with this! A huge thanks to my support team (you know who you are) and to the wonderful mods of this exchange. You are both far too patient and wonderful. ♥
"Ryo, you don't have to do this."
Ryo leaned into Masuda's personal space, arm against his throat and the blade of his knife pressed against Masuda's temple, the tip digging in just enough to break the skin, bright red blood welling up beneath it and trickling lazily down the side of his face. Masuda's eyes widened, his breath hitching in a way that made the corners of Ryo's mouth curve upward into a lazy smile.
"I know."
"Please, just-"
Ryo slid the knife down the side of the other's face, the blade making a soft noise against his skin, and enjoyed the way that Masuda's breathing stopped for a second when he brought it to rest against his throat, just above his jugular. Masuda needed to understand. This wasn't about having to do anything.
"I want to do this."
Ryo watched the panic in Masuda's eyes and his smirk blossomed into a full on grin, a perverse spark of pleasure bubbling up inside of him. Masuda was doing a pretty good job of keeping himself grounded, of hiding his fear, but Ryo knew him better than anyone and he could see it there, just below the surface. He pressed the knife blade a bit harder against the other's skin, stopping just before he drew blood, and he could feel Masuda's muscles tense, could see the calculating look in his eyes as he went over his options and all the possible ways out of this situation in his head.
Not that it mattered, because none of them would work.
"I want to do this." He repeated, finger tightening around the handle of the knife, and he knew it was true.
4 Days Earlier
Masuda could hear Ryo's voice as soon as he stepped off the elevator, loud and angry and carrying entirely too well through the hallway of the dingy little roadside inn they'd decided to crash in the night before. He couldn't make out the words, luckily, but the tone was enough to pull a sigh from him as he moved across the faded carpet toward their room, hotel key in hand.
An older couple passed him in the hall, rolling their non-descript black suitcases behind them and mumbling to themselves as they shot the door to Ryo and Masuda's room furtive looks on their way past. Masuda smiled at them, tried to look charming and not at all suspicious as he stopped and unlocked the door one handed, the other busy clutching the bags with their breakfast.
"No, we have our own shit to take care of." Masuda was half-surprised he couldn't see marks worn in the carpet with the way Ryo was pacing, his phone clutched against his ear and a tired look in his eyes. "We've already got a job lined up in Fukui."
Masuda caught Ryo's eyes and held up the bag, mouth quirking up on one side in a half-smile as Ryo waved him off and resumed his pacing. He sighed internally and set the bags on the table, opening them up and digging out their contents as he continued to listen to Ryo rant. He almost felt sorry for whoever was on the other end of the line-they'd just spent a week clearing out a mess of Kappa that had decided to terrorize a small fishing village halfway up the Noto Peninsula and considering it wasn't really fun or easy to take out one of the things, having to handle a half dozen of them had been more than a little difficult and had ended with both of them more than a little bruised and battered, both literally and figuratively. Ryo had been more or less itching to give someone an earful for the past few days and Masuda hadn’t given him an excuse; apparently whoever was on the other end of the phone had.
"I don't understand why you can't do it yourself." Masuda heard Ryo's footsteps pause briefly before they started again, angrier than before. "Well, that's what you get for having an idiot as a partner."
Masuda arched an eyebrow, glancing at Ryo over his shoulder but not commenting. He had that sullen look on his face that meant that being cooped up in a car together was not going to be any fun. Masuda was tempted to try talking the other into just staying here a few more days. The hotel was old and the town was small, but they'd been worse places and they both needed a little bit of time to recharge their batteries. The job in Fukui was a few hours' drive from here at best and nothing so urgent that it couldn't wait. The trick was getting Ryo to listen and agree to reason-he could be extremely stubborn when he wanted to.
Luckily Masuda could be even more stubborn; he just had to decide if the battle was worth it this time.
"Okay, fine. I'll talk to Masuda and see what he says. Yeah, whatever, you owe us-you and Jin, both."
Masuda heard Ryo snap the phone shut as he pulled one of the wobbly plastic chairs around the table out, wiping it down with a napkin taken from the takeout bag before having a seat. "That was Yamashita?"
"Yeah. Asshole-he wants us to take a job in Tokyo."
"Tokyo? Did you tell him we were in Ishikawa? It's going to be at least a day worth of driving before we can even get there."
"I told him." Ryo tossed his phone on the bed and pulled out the chair across from Masuda, huffing as he plopped down into it. "But apparently this involves one of his friends, so he wants us to handle it."
Masuda nudged one of the food containers and a set of shrink wrapped plastic cutlery toward Ryo with a frown. "He can't do it himself?"
"No, he’s stuck with Jin down in Okinawa, apparently."
"Stuck?" Masuda opened up his food, throwing Ryo a skeptical look over the top of the container as he ripped the plastic off his knife and fork. "What did Jin do to get himself arrested this time?"
That actually got a snort and a half-smile out of Ryo. Masuda considered it a victory. "He said nothing, but I don't think I believe him."
"So, we're going to take the job?"
"I guess we have to-he said he was calling in his favor for Sendai."
"That was sneaky of him."
"I know. Fucker." Ryo stabbed at his breakfast a bit viciously and Masuda was pretty sure he was probably imagining it was Yamashita's face. Not that he would ever really stab anyone who wasn't some sort of supernatural bad guy out for the blood of innocents, but Ryo liked to think of himself as an asshole and Masuda never felt like contradicting him, even if he knew differently.
"So what's the job?"
"Some university students are losing their shit and acting all weird."
"Yamashita's friend was one of them?"
"No, but his friend knew one of the kids who did, apparently. From what Yamashita said it sounds like your typical low grade haunting, or maybe some sort of spell."
"Could be voodoo," Masuda mused between bites, his expression almost hopeful. They hadn't really had to deal with voodoo before, being in Japan, but it seemed like it would be interesting. All the stories he’d heard second hand from other hunters had always made it seem like a challenge--if, as he was sure Ryo would point out if he could hear his thoughts at the moment, a pain in the ass.
"Whatever it is, it probably won't be worth the drive. Especially not when Tokyo's crawling with hunters who could have handled it. He could have called Tanaka or Taguchi, but no."
"Maybe he did and they were busy."
"He better not have," Ryo grumbled, looking offended at the suggestion. "Bad enough if we get conned into doing this because he's off with Jin doing… whatever down in Okinawa. Even worse if we were just the backup plan."
Masuda shrugged and gave Ryo a wry smile. "So, are we doing research now or on the road?"
Ryo sighed. "Might as well do it on the road."
--
Masuda ended up calling Yamashita back for more details once they were packed up and on the road, since Ryo hadn't actually officially told the other that they were taking the job, even if Yamashita seemed to be taking that as a given. Either way, they would have had to talk to him again, anyway, since all Ryo had managed to get before he’d hung up were the last name of Yamashita's friend and some very vague details, none of which were enough to go on. Masuda didn’t like running into jobs half-cocked and ill informed and it was the one thing that he and Ryo always agreed on completely. They'd stumbled into jobs without enough information before, especially in the beginning, right after Ryo had begrudgingly agreed to let Masuda shadow him and when they were still getting a feel for each other and learning the ins and outs of partnership, and they'd been lucky to make it back out of some of those jobs alive, if not unscathed. Masuda really wasn’t eager to make that same mistake again. Ridding the world of evil (or whatever you wanted to call their job) was dangerous enough as it was.
Masuda didn’t really mind having to do the grunt work, anyway, and Yamashita seemed relieved not to be dealing with Ryo. It gave Ryo time to cool off a little anyway, enjoy the breeze through the open windows of the car and sing along with the radio under his breath when he thought Masuda wasn’t looking.
For his part, Masuda took pages and pages of notes and pretended not to notice Ryo mouthing along with the words of some girl group pop song as he grilled Yamashita for every detail he had. When he finally hung up an hour and a half into their trip, Yamashita seemed relieved to finally be off the phone and Masuda felt a lot better about this job now that they had more solid information to go on. They’d still have to do more research and question people at the school, but this at least gave them a better starting point.
Masuda set his phone on the dash and reached for his bag in the backseat, turning just enough to unzip it and dig his laptop out. He stole a glance at Ryo as he opened the computer and fired it up, smiling a little as he watched Ryo still singing along to the radio like he really didn’t know Masuda was watching, the music almost too low to make out any of the words. Masuda leaned over and turned it up a little and Ryo blinked, throwing him a look that wasn't quite a smile.
"Did Yamashita give you anything good?"
Masuda shifted the computer in his lap and moved his notebook to the console between them, open to the first page of his scrawling notes. "I think some of it will be. I got contact info for his friend--” he stopped and glanced over at his notebook, then back at his laptop. “Kusano Hironori. Fourth year performing arts student at Meiji University. He’s expecting us to give him a call when we get there.”
“How much has Yamashita told him?”
“About us? He knows we’re hunters. He was the one who told Yamashita and had him call in the cavalry in the first place."
“That makes it easier.” Ryo reached over, hitting the next button on the CD player, more out of habit than anything. “Did you get any info on the other students that have flipped?”
Masuda nodded, eyes fixed on his computer screen as he tried to bring up the wifi, the mountains on either side of the highway and the fact that they were in the middle of nowhere making it difficult. “I got names of the last two--Kusano’s friend and the guy before him. I’m going to do some searching before we get there and see if I can dig up anything else.”
“Great.”
Masuda watched Ryo reaching over to fiddle with the radio buttons again out of the corner of his eye and smiled. "It sounds like it shouldn't be too bad."
"That's good. I could go for an easy job right now." Ryo stopped messing with the radio and brought his hand back to the steering wheel, his shoulders relaxing visibly. "I'm still pissed at Yamashita, though.
"Yeah, he knows."
--
"A drama student?" Ryo gave him a distinctly unimpressed look over the rim of his coffee cup, glancing away from the fake transcripts and student IDs with their pictures that Masuda had spread out across the table in the small western style cafe they'd dragged themselves to (well, Ryo had drug himself, anyway--Masuda had already been up for three hours by that point) for breakfast. It was small and probably a place that a lot of people would have considered a bit of a dive, but it was clean, which made Masuda immensely happy, had coffee that was a lot better than the swill they had up in their hotel room, which made Ryo immensely happy, and it was only a few blocks from part of the Meiji University campus, which made them both happy and let them scope things out a bit while they ate.
Masuda took a bite of his pancakes to cover his smile and shrugged, doing his best to look innocent. It usually wasn't that hard, since people saw his face and just assumed he was harmless, but Ryo knew him better than that and the way the other was staring at him now said a much.
"Seriously, you couldn't make me a student of something less… fruity."
Masuda swallowed and didn't bother trying to hide his grin. "Yamashita's friend is a drama student. This will be the easiest way to get information."
"But you said that he knows we're hunters."
"He does."
"So what does it matter if I'm pretending to be a drama student or not, then? It's not like he's going to be wondering why I'm talking to him."
"Because other people might wonder. This will look the least suspicious, and if there's a witch or someone hexing people we don't want them clued into us." Masuda gave him a Look, because Ryo already knew all this and really didn't need Masuda of all people to remind him. Ryo actually looked a little contrite, even if he did still grumble under his breath.
"So, we get to be drama majors. Great-we don't get enough looks already when we share hotel rooms."
"We're not drama majors."
"But you just said-"
"Actually you're the drama major. I'm studying biochemistry." Masuda met Ryo's eyes and smiled a bit sheepishly at the incredulous look the other was giving him. "The most recent student to lose it was in Biochem. I thought if I passed as a student I could attend a few classes and poke around for more information."
Ryo looked incredibly not pleased. “So you get to run off and play scientist and I have to wear tights and prance around stage?”
“I thought you’d make a more convincing drama student.”
“What’s that supposed to--”
“I’m a terrible liar most of the time,” Masuda reminded him. Ryo pointed it out to him often enough that he was surprised the other could even forget. “And acting is all lying, right? I wouldn’t be very convincing.”
“I guess you’re right.” Ryo grumbled and picked up the fake I.D. with a sour look. "And I look more like an actor, anyway.”
Masuda grinned and pulled another sheet of paper out of his bag to hand it off to him.
“What’s this?”
“Class schedule for Kusano. I thought you could shadow him after your meeting while I work on finding out more about the last victim. If you stick to the bigger classes no one should notice an extra student hanging around.”
Ryo sipped his coffee as he eyed the schedule and sighed. “Fine, but I’m not going to enjoy myself.”
“Of course not.”
--
Masuda decided that he didn’t really mind being a student. It was a nice change, for once, from pretending to be insurance adjusters and cops and investigative journalists, a roll that he finally felt like he almost fit. He always felt a bit too young-looking and suspect when he and Ryo had to play their usual parts, but sitting in the student commons while he scoped things out, an open book and his laptop and a notepad spread out before him, he sort of felt like he belonged.
There’d been a time, years ago, back before he’d met Ryo and sort of stumbled into this life as a hunter of all things that went bump in the night, that he’d thought about college--planned on it, even. Sitting here now, he couldn’t decide if he was sad that he’d missed the chance or not, if he would have preferred a quiet life with books and going out for drinks with friends to what he had now.
“Massu?”
He blinked, looking up at the boy staring down at him, bag slung over one shoulder and wearing a careless, if slightly uncertain, grin. He practically screamed student, from his slightly rumpled clothing to his dyed hair, and Masuda was pretty sure he would have pegged him as being in University even if they weren't in the middle of the student commons right now. Masuda returned the smile and nodded without thinking, too caught off guard by someone using a nickname that he hasn’t heard in years--knowing that nickname, since even Ryo didn’t call him that--to think better of it.
“I thought that was you.” The boy--well, more like a man, just an exceptionally young looking one--slid into the chair across from him and rested his bag on the floor, still grinning from ear to ear. “What are you doing here? Are you a student now?”
“I--” Masuda started, a lie on the tip of his tongue. Then he blinked again and looked at the man across from him, really looked, and he felt a wave of realization and nostalgia hit him like a ton of bricks. “Tegoshi?”
“You didn’t know who I was, did you?” Tegoshi grinned but didn’t look offended, the expression so much like the awkward, bright boy that Masuda had been friends with all those years ago that he found himself offering up an idiotic grin of his own.
“Your look different,” he blurted out before he had time to stop and think about it.
“I'm not 17 anymore.” Tegoshi laughed and leaned back in his chair. “You look the same. You haven't changed your hair since High School."
“I like this hair." Masuda laid his pen down on the table, forgetting for a moment that he was supposed to be scoping things out for their job and just enjoying the other’s company. It had been years since he’s seen him--since he’d seen any one from his life before hunting, really--but he felt himself slipping back into the role of friend so easily that he wasn’t quite sure what to make of it. "You're a student now?"
“Third year in Psychology. What about you?"
“What?”
"You go here now?"
Masuda blinked as Tegoshi waved a hand to indicate the book and notepad spread across the table and he reached up to rub the back of his neck, laughing nervously. “Oh--not really. Just in town for a few days on business.”
“What business?”
“Just... looking into something.” Masuda gave himself a swift mental kick, trying to think up a way to change the subject and failing miserably. “I investigate things..”
“Like a private eye?” Tegoshi actually laughed at that and Masuda furrowed his eyebrows at him. "I'm sorry--I just can't imagine you doing that. I mean, you were always good at research, but you're not very subtle."
"I guess not." Masuda smiled because he really did have a point and shrugged. "I mostly do the legwork. My partner does all the hard stuff."
"Thank god for that." Tegoshi grinned and Masuda couldn't really find it in himself to feel offended. It wasn't like any of it wasn't the truth, anyway. Tegoshi's smile faltered a little as a brief silence settled between him, his face taking on that thoughtful look that Masuda still remembered. "I never thought I'd see you again."
The words were more a statement of fact than an accusation, but Masuda felt himself flinch anyway. "I'm sorry I never really got a chance to say goodbye. Everything was really... sudden."
"It's okay." Tegoshi had his head tilted to the side and was looking at him with that knowing expression that he sometimes got. People had always accused Tegoshi of being a bit oblivious, but Masuda had always thought that he saw and just chose not to comment most of the time. "Things are okay now, right?"
Masuda hesitated for a moment before nodding, wondering suddenly how Tegoshi would react if he told him the truth--about his life, his job, about witches and spirits and all those bad things that people talked about actually being real. About the real reason he'd left in the first place, about Ryo and the thing that had killed his family. It was right on the tip of his tongue but he bit back the urge and forced a smile instead. Knowing always changed people, and usually not for the best. “Yeah, I’m good.”
Tegoshi smiled and looked mostly satisfied with the answer. “Do you have any plans for lunch? We could grab something to eat and catch up. My treat.”
“I, uh.” Masuda started to say no and then stopped and nodded slowly. An hour or two out of a day really wouldn’t hurt anything. Besides, he owed Tegoshi after the way he’d cut him out of his life without warning all those years ago. Even if it was for his own good. “Sure.”
"I know a place with really great pie." Tegoshi grabbed his bag from the floor and stood, throwing him an excited look. Masuda started to pack away his things slowly, methodically, and smiled while Tegoshi fidgeted beside him. Things really hadn't changed much.
--
It turned out the place with really great pie was closed, so they went to a small ramen shop tucked away on a little used side street that Tegoshi assured him was just as good. It was also, apparently, owned by one of his friends' families, so they got a discount and extra-friendly service on top of decent food, both of which Masuda appreciated.
Toward the end of their meal he got a call and excused himself from the table, stepping outside to take it (he would never not think that talking on a phone in the middle of a restaurant was not rude). It turned out to be Ryo calling to check in and the conversation ended in just over two minutes, after Masuda had told Ryo he was working on a lead with a student (which wasn't a total lie--Tegoshi was a student here, so it stood to reason he might have heard something) and Ryo had a chance to bitch about how much he hated hanging out with "all these pansies", although he did concede, grudgingly, that Kusano wasn't that bad.
When Masuda got back, Tegoshi had already taken the liberty of ordering them dessert and was grinning at him in that knowing way.
"Was that work?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah. The guy I work with was just checking in to see if I'd found anything."
"So what are you guys here to investigate?" Tegoshi stared at him across the table, reaching for his fork and plucking a slice of strawberry off the top of his piece of cake with a grin.
"Just something that's been going on on campus."
"The people who have been losing it, right?"
"Uh, yeah. You know about that?"
"Top ranking students freaking out for no real reason? Word gets around." Tegoshi popped the slice of strawberry into his mouth. "Especially if you're a psych student. We pay attention to that kind of thing."
"So what have you heard?"
Tegoshi shrugged, chewing thoughtfully. "I know that the administration doesn't want anyone to think they're related, but people are freaked. I know that the last two guys to have a major freak out weren't the only ones."
"They weren't?" Masuda reached for the bag resting on the seat beside him and dug out a notebook and pen without even stopping to think about it. He didn't even realize what he was doing until he caught sight of Tegoshi's smile.
"You really are here on business, aren't you?"
"Sorry--I probably should have asked."
"It's okay. It's just weird, seeing you this intense." Tegoshi smiled a little. "Not that you weren't before. I guess it was just all reserved for swimming."
"Yeah." Masuda glanced down at his notebook and then back up at Tegoshi with a serious expression. "You're sure this is okay?"
"What do you need to know?"
Masuda uncapped his pen and offered Tegoshi a smile. "Let's start with the basics. Tell me about the other freak outs that you know about."
--
Masuda had barely set foot in their room that evening before Ryo started bitching. It probably would have annoyed anyone else, but Masuda was used to it by this point and it felt more familiar and welcoming and like home than anything. Which probably said something about just how weird his life was, but he was pretty sure that no one who did exorcisms and chased after ghosts and slept with a silver plated knife on the nightstand had a life that could be considered normal, anyway.
"The TV's broken."
"You hate TV," Masuda pointed out reflexively, smiling a little when he spotted Ryo stretched out on one of the beds, trying very hard to look put upon and completely bored with the book he had open in front of him.
"I like it for the noise." Ryo closed his book with a sound of disgust and tossed it aside. Masuda could feel the other watching him as he set his bag on the empty bed and started to carefully sort through its contents. "I need a distraction from my homework for tomorrow."
"Homework? I didn't even now they could give homework in drama." Masuda paused and turned to give Ryo a curious look. "Do you have to read a play or memorize lines?"
"No." Ryo pursed his lips, scowling as Masuda stared at him questioningly. "I'm supposed to be using tonight to reflect on my journey through the birth canal so I can re-enact it for class tomorrow."
Masuda didn't even bother trying not to laugh. "Seriously?"
"Apparently to express ourselves as performers we need to know where we came from." Ryo looked vaguely disgusted as he swung his legs off the edge of the bed. "I told you this stuff was ridiculous. Who takes classes on this shit, anyway?"
"Lots of people."
"Yeah, well, they suck. Most of them, anyway--Kusano's pretty cool."
"Did you manage to get anything out of him?" Masuda finished sorting his bag and zipped it back up, taking a seat on the edge of the bed and leaning over to plug his laptop into the outlet behind their nightstand.
"Not much more than we already knew. All of the students who flipped out were apparently normal, got good grades, really well liked by everyone who knew them. Before they went off the deep end, at least." Ryo's face looked thoughtful. "Kusano said his friend who freaked stripped naked in the middle of class and then tried to strangle their professor with his belt. Having met the professor in question, I can't say I blame him, though."
"The guy who gave you your 'homework'?"
"Yes. Total douchebag." Ryo wrinkled his nose.
"So what clued Kusano into it being something other than stress or a nervous breakdown or..."
"Drama student weirdness?" Ryo finished and Masuda gave a brief smile and nodded. "He said other than that the kid was normal. Quiet, pretty reserved, didn't really speak up in class--which seems weird for a drama student, but apparently he was decent when you got him on stage."
"No history of mental illness or chance that he was drugged?"
"Nothing Kusano knew about and nothing I could find in his records when I checked." Ryo smirked a little as Masuda gave him a surprised look. "Yes, I checked his records. I can do research myself, you know. I got by just fine before you started tagging along."
He smiled but decided not to respond to the teasing challengei n the other's voice directly. "And he didn't remember what happened?"
"No, he remembered everything, but said it felt like he wasn't in control of his body." Ryo gave him a significant look. "What about you? Any luck with the biochem geeks?"
"Not exactly." Masuda looked down and pretended to fiddle with his computer. "I sat in on one of the morning classes, but I couldn't find anyone who really wanted to talk."
"Then who were you talking to when I called?"
Masuda blinked, caught off guard for a second. He'd forgotten that Ryo had called when he was at lunch with Tegoshi. "A student I ran into in the commons."
"So, you're making friends now?" Ryo arched an eyebrow and Masuda shrugged, turning back to his bag to avoid looking the other in the eye.
"We just hit it off," Masuda mumbled, not really in any rush to tell Ryo about Tegoshi, considering he'd essentially blown their cover with him. Old friend or not, Ryo wouldn't like it. Actually, he wouldn't like it especially because Tegoshi was one of Masuda's old friends; Ryo always got weird when it came to reminders of Masuda's life before hunting, all uptight and guilty and that wasn't really something they needed to deal with while they were on a job. "He's been following what's been going on."
"That's kind of morbid."
"He's a psych student. He finds it all interesting."
"Yeah, morbid."
Masuda laughed and risked throwing Ryo a look over his shoulder. He looked slightly suspicious but unwilling to push it, which was a little weird. Ryo was almost always willing to push things. "I don't think we really have room to call anyone morbid."
"Probably not." Ryo admitted, his expression relaxing into a half-smile. "So, what did psych boy know?"
"It's happened to at least two more students over the past three months. There was a first year studio art student who tried to drink paint thinner before one of her friends tackled her and got her to stop and then a third year English major who decided that she could fly and tried to jump out of a fifth story window during a lecture."
Ryo whistled lowly. "I hope someone caught her."
"Some other students stopped her before she made it off the ledge."
"And let me guess--both model students with no history of mental illness who said they felt like they weren't in control of their bodies when it happened?"
"That's what it looks like." Masuda paused and "Apparently the gossip is that the English student said that she heard a strange voice and felt the air get colder around her before it happened."
"So, we're definitely dealing with a ghost, then." Ryo looked almost relieved, something that Masuda knew in the back of his brain would probably seem odd to other people who didn't do this everyday of their lives and probably wouldn't consider having to take on a pissed off, vengeful ghost something to be at all pleased about. When you dealt with this kind of thing everyday and knew just what other things were out there, though, ghosts were relatively easy. "I guess this means we get the spend the night researching and trying to figure out how our victims all fit together?"
"I thought we could start after dinner." Masuda grinned, unable to help himself. "Unless you're going to be too busy with your homework."
Ryo glowered at him but Masuda could see the corners of his lips twitching as he suppressed a smile.
"I can go get dinner and give you some time alone if you want," Masuda offered with an innocent smile and Ryo threw a pillow at his head, mumbling something about smart ass pigs and how much easier this job was without a partner.
--
They ended up not finding anything that night to really narrow things down; They'd both stayed up until well past three, pouring over papers and internet articles and reports trying to find some sort of connection between their three victims, but to absolutely not success. Everything they read seemed to point in the same direction: that their victims had absolutely, positively nothing in common.
Different majors, no mutual friends, no shared jobs or classes or past history or anything that made it seem anything less than random. If Masuda didn't know in his gut that they were working with something otherworldly here, he probably would have chalked it up to a set of strange coincidences.
Luckily he'd learned a long time ago that there was no such thing as a coincidence. Not that knowing that made their job any easier.
Masuda felt bleary eyed the next day, the lack of sleep making him feel lethargic and not at all ready to tackle the campus library in an effort to dig up something more concrete. They'd decided to use a divide and conquer strategy of sorts--Masuda at the library, looking for any violent deaths and campus ghost stories that might clue them into their otherworldly culprit, and Ryo to class with Kusano to see if he couldn't dig up something more on the drama student that would lead them in the right direction.
Masuda still hadn't told Ryo the truth about Tegoshi, just referred to him as another student whenever it came up in conversation, which luckily hadn't been much. He felt a slight twinge of guilt about that, since he felt like he probably owed Ryo complete honesty at this point, but something had stopped him every time he'd opened his mouth to mention it. He wasn't sure if it was a selfish need to keep something to himself, just this once, or if it was because he knew that if he brought it up Ryo would get that pinched look on his face and would shut himself off, claiming everything was fine while he silently brooded about the past and blamed himself for pulling Masuda down with him into this life spent chasing monsters and living in one shitty motel room after another.
It didn't matter how many times Masuda tried to convince him that there was nothing to feel guilty about, that things had just happened this way and that he didn't mind being here, didn't mind this life; Ryo never believed him. Masuda would never admit it, but sometimes he wondered if it wasn't because sometimes a very small, hidden part of himself didn't really believe it when he said those things to Ryo, either.
Maybe it was that part of him that kept him from mentioning Tegoshi to Ryo.
Whatever the reason that he hadn't come clean, his guilt over it was making it hard as hell to concentrate on what he was supposed to be doing at the moment. He'd managed to pull some of the older records--campus and local newspapers, collections of stories that might give some clue who they're vengeful spirit of the week was--but he hadn't managed to get much further than that. Everything he read seemed to trickle out of his ears as soon as he'd finished reading. It was making him frustrated with himself, which made concentrating even harder, which in turn made him more frustrated. A vicious cycle if there ever was one.
He'd just finished skimming a campus newspaper from the late 80s when he heard the scrape of the chair across from him being pulled out. He rested his finger on the page as he looked up at his unwanted guest, marking his place even though he knew he'd have to re-read the entire thing again. "I'm sorry, but I'm trying--"
"To work, right?" Tegoshi slung his bag over the back of the chair and leaned forward, elbows on the table and a slight edge of mischief in his smile. "I know. I'm supposed to be researching for a paper, but I thought I'd say hi. Funny, that I don't see you for five years and then I run into you twice in two days."
"Yeah." Masuda smiled. "Some coincidence."
Tegoshi laughed softly and eyed the papers strewn across the table. "Looks like you're busy here."
"Not that busy."
"I was going to offer to help, but if you're not that busy..."
Masuda shook his head, laughing softly. Tegoshi had always been far too good at poking his nose where it didn't belong and making you feel like you were the one who wanted it there. "I thought you had to study."
"I'll still get a decent mark even if I don't." Coming from anyone else it probably would have sounded conceited. Coming from Tegoshi it just sounded like fact. "Besides, how often do we get to see each other?"
"Okay." Masuda sighed, smiling a little to himself. "But only if you promise not to get bored and start distracting me."
Tegoshi opened his mouth like he was going to protest then closed it with a grin, no doubt remembering all the failed study sessions they'd had in high school because he couldn't keep his attention from wandering to books and video games and discussions that had nothing to do with the task at hand and distracting Masuda in turn. "I promise." He reached for the nearest stack of papers and pulled it towards himself, eying it curiously. "So, what are we looking for?"
"Deaths on campus--suicides, accidents, anything that would have been violent." Masuda decided to leave out the part about anything that would have been violent enough to leave a seriously pissed off revenge-seeking spirit behind.
"What does this have to do with what's been happening now? These papers are all at least two decades old."
"We're looking for... evidence. Something that might link to this."
"You think this happened before and someone died?"
"Something like that." Masuda forced a small smile, hoping that the fact that he wasn't out and out lying wouldn't make it obvious that he wasn't telling the whole truth. Tegoshi had always been notoriously good at telling when he was lying. Almost as good as Ryo. "If we can figure out what happened before, we might be able to stop it now."
For a moment Tegoshi just stared at him, looking like he wanted to argue, but instead he just nodded and returned the other's smile. "Tell me where to start, then."
--
It took a good eight hours and every bit of his and Tegoshi's attention, but at the end of the day Masuda felt like he had a pretty solid, if disparingly long, list of possibilities for their ghost. It only covered thirty odd years worth of violent deaths on campus, but he was banking on the death they were looking for being recent. At the very least, it gave them a good place to start. With a bit more poking around and maybe even some luck, they might even manage to whittle it down to the one name they were looking for before any other students were affected.
Not the ideal way to work, not by a long shot, but he'd take it over nothing.
Ryo had already ordered by the time Masuda arrived at the tiny restaurant around the corner from their hotel--little more than a counter, a row of stools and a beat up TV playing prime time dramas that neither Ryo or the one other customer there were paying attention to on a shelf in the corner. It wasn't much to look at, but it was clean, cheap and nearly empty, which meant they could eat in peace and discuss business without getting too many eaves droppers or weird looks.
"Hey." Ryo nodded as Masuda slid onto the stool beside him, looking slightly apologetic as the other glanced at the bowl of udon that he was already a quarter of the way through. "Sorry I didn't wait."
"It's okay. I was late." Masuda waved off his concern, frowning a little when Ryo went straight back to eating. "You're hungry tonight."
"I had to skip lunch.".
"Ryo--"
"Don't get all mother hen on me." Ryo paused long enough to give Masuda an annoyed look. "It was for a good reason."
"You always say that."
"That's because it's true."
"And what was your good reason today?"
"Kusano took me to talk to Kame."
"Who?"
"Kamenashi Kazuya--the drama kid that went apeshit." Ryo grinned at him, the expression clearly stating that Masuda wasn't allowed to be irritated with him, no matter how much he wanted to be. Masuda really was not a fan of that look.
"I thought he was still on lock down in the hospital psych ward.."
"Just got out. He's not really supposed to have company, but Kusano convinced his family that they should let him see a couple of old friends."
Masuda looked away just long enough to take a menu from the waiter and then turned back to Ryo with an impressed look. "What did he have to say?"
"Not much that we didn't already know." Ryo shrugged, but looked far too self-satisfied as he slipped a hastily folded piece of paper from his pocket and tossed it onto the counter in front of him. "But I did manage to swipe this when he wasn't looking."
Masuda reached out to unfold the paper and smoothed out the creases to reveal what he's guessing is a program for a play, not feeling nearly as disapproving over Ryo having sticky fingers as he probably should have.
"It's for the play that the drama department put on last term," Ryo said before Masuda had a chance to finish reading, obviously too wound up about his find to give him a chance to puzzle it out for himself. He reached out and slid the program out from beneath Masuda's fingers and flipped it open to the cast and credits. "Any of these names look familiar?"
Masuda scanned the rows with a soft frown. "Kamenashi, Ikuta, Watanabe--that's everyone except the English student."
"And I'm willing to bet if we dig a bit deeper we'll find out she was involved, too."
"In the audience, maybe?" Masuda guessed, lifting his eyes to meet Ryo's. "Sounds like our ghost is tied to the drama department."
"Can't say I'm shocked. If anyone would make a melodramatic ghost it would be one of the drama weirdos." Ryo snorted and reached for the program, re-folding it and stuffing it back in his pocket. "What about you? Any luck hunting down the usual suspects at the library?"
"Some. I managed to make a list of deaths dating back to the 80s, but it's pretty long. I can start checking for people connected with the drama department now, though."
"I can help," Ryo offered around a mouthful of noodles.
Masuda hesitated for a moment and then shook his head, feeling slightly guilty. Taking Ryo's offer would have been the smart thing to do, really, but Tegoshi had mentioned that he'd keep an eye open for him if he stopped by the library tomorrow, and that small, selfish part inside of him had him making up excuses to keep Ryo from tagging along before he could think better of it. "Maybe you should tag along with Kusano again. If the death was recent he might know something."
"You sure?" Ryo frowned, looking slightly suspicious. "I know you really like getting your nerd on, but that's a lot of work for one person."
"It won't be that bad. I already did most of the legwork today." Masuda looked down at the menu in front of him, using it as an excuse not to meet Ryo's eyes. "If it gets to be too much I can call you and you can come give me a hand."
"Okay." Ryo turned his attention back to his noodles, but didn't look quite convinced. "But considering I'm going to have to put up with that god awful pantomime class again, you owe me."
"I'll make it up to you," Masuda promised, unsure if he felt more guilty or relieved that Ryo wasn't pushing. He reminded himself for what seemed like the hundredth time that day that he was doing this because he didn't want Ryo to be upset.
It didn't make him feel any less guilty than any of the ninety-nine times that came before it, though.
--
No matter how hard Masuda tried to convince himself otherwise, he knew that he'd packed up and gotten to the library early because he was hoping to see Tegoshi there. Ryo hadn't said anything when he'd woken up to Masuda already dressed for the day and packing salt and lighter fluid and all the other ghost hunting necessities into his bag alongside his laptop and notebook, luckily, but he had given him one of those looks that said he knew that something was up and he was just choosing not to mention it. Masuda just pretended like it wasn't there and smiled at him on his way out the door, promising to call him if he found anything.
Now he was at the library, throwing everything into pouring over newspaper articles and police reports and doing his best not to think about it. It wasn't as if Ryo didn't have secrets; it was only fair if Masuda had one of his own for once.
He was also making it a point not to think about Tegoshi's promise from the day before and glance at his watch every five seconds, wondering exactly when the other would be dropping by. He tried to convince himself that if Tegoshi didn't make it by it really wasn't a big deal--he was a student and probably had things to do that didn't involve keeping Masuda company, things that were probably more fun than hanging out in the library, sifting through must papers and reports online, looking for something that Masuda couldn't even tell him the truth about.. Besides, it wasn't like Masuda hadn't ditched him for five years. It wasn't really fair to expect Tegoshi to want to keep him company now that he was starting to realize just how much he missed him.
Of course, all of this didn't stop the relief he could feel in his own expression when he heard a chair being pulled out across from him and looked up to see a familiar smile.
"Hey." Masuda met Tegoshi's eyes and grinned, straightening from where he was hunched over his laptop.
"Hey," Tegoshi echoed, his smile widening. "Still hard at work, I see."
"No rest for the weary." Masuda shrugged, laughing softly. "How's the studying going?"
"Not at all." Tegoshi reached for Masuda's notebook and slid it towards himself, ignoring the look of irritation that Masuda gave him out of reflex. "So, are you any closer to figuring things out?"
"A little." Masuda watched Tegoshi read over the list, hesitating for a moment, unsure how much he could tell the other without telling him too much. "I'm trying to narrow down the list to people connected to the drama department."
"You think this has something to do with the drama department?"
"That's what it looks like." Masuda shrugged. So much for not going into too much detail. "Three of the students who freaked out recently have had some sort of connection with the department."
"Really? How'd you manage to figure that out?"
"Something my partner found."
"This is like being in a detective drama.." Tegoshi grinned and looked slightly impressed. "I guess that makes me the guest star who hangs around for an episode and helps you catch the bad guy, doesn't it?"
"I guess it does." Masuda smiled a little at the thought. "Although if this was a drama we'd probably be spending a lot less time in the library."
"They'd probably just condense all the research into a snappy little montage," Tegoshi agreed. "So, what can I do to help out?"
"Help me go through that list and find if anyone there is related to the drama department."
"So, anyone who was a student or faculty member there?"
Masuda nodded. "Or whose death was related to the department."
Tegoshi lifted his eyes, his expression thoughtful. "Like someone who died there?"
"Yeah." Masuda met his eyes, frowning a little at his expression. "Do you someone who died there?"
"Not exactly. There's a story, though."
"A story?"
"Yeah. I think it's mostly just a campus legend, though." Tegoshi met Masuda's eyes across the table and shook his head a little. "It probably doesn't have anything to do with this."
"You never know. A lot of legends are based on truth."
"The theater is supposed to be haunted." Tegoshi met Masuda's eyes and laughed a little, like he was embarrassed for bringing it up. "The rumor is that a student killed herself there in the late sixties--hung herself on the stage to get revenge against a professor she was having an affair with because he wouldn't leave his wife for her."
Masuda's eyes widened a little, almost imperceptibly, and he slid his hand across the table top, reaching for his pen. "Does she have a name in the story?"
"Satoh Erina." Tegoshi shook his head, still looking a little embarrassed. "But I really don't think she's real, Massu. It's all just an urban legend."
Masuda shrugged, pulling his notebook back to himself and jotting her name down in the margins next to his list. "Maybe not, but the legend might lead us to the truth. It gives us a better place to start, anyway." He turned to his laptop, pulling up the school library's catalogue with a grin. "I think you might have just earned your spot as guest star, Tegoshi."
Tegoshi laughed and leaned forward to rest his elbows against the table. "Think if I keep it up I might get a spot as a reoccurring character?"
"Only if you really impress us."
"Well, then, we'd better get to work. I wouldn't want to be recast."
--
Ryo was standing outside a mostly empty classroom when Masuda found him, looking surprisingly at ease and like the part of the student he was playing as he leaned against the wall and talked with another student and an older man that Masuda was willing to bet was a professor, just judging by the way he held himself. Ryo was laughing at something that one of them had said and it caught him off guard for a second, seeing Ryo smiling and talking with strangers so easily. Ryo was good at playing parts and interacting with people when the job called for it, but this was different. He actually looked open, like he was enjoying himself.
It made Masuda feel better about the time he'd spent with Tegoshi over the past few days, even while it made him a little sad. Ryo was always so worried about Masuda missing out on having a normal life that he didn't seem to stop and think that he was missing out on that life, too.
Ryo must have heard the squeak of his tennis shoes against the tiled floors as he approached because he shifted his gaze, looking past the shoulder of whoever he was talking to and fixing his eyes on Masuda. Something about his smile changed as he lifted his hand and gave a small wave and Masuda couldn't quite decide if that was a good or a bad thing. It didn't look like a bad smile that the other was giving him, per se. It just looked more... typical. The kind of smile Masuda had come to expect from him.
"Hey." Masuda stopped a few steps away, bowing his head and smiling politely.
"This is my cousin Keisuke." Ryo pointed at Masuda and he offered another polite smile, covering the fact that the fake name caught him off guard for a second. He'd gotten so used to using his actual name with Tegoshi that it felt a little weird to be using one that wasn't his again. "Kei, this is Kusano--" he indicated the young man standing across from Ryo, arms crossed over his chest and a knowing, slightly amused smile on his lips. "--and Professor Horioka."
The older gentleman--Professor Horioka, Masuda ammended in his head--smiled and gave Masuda a brief once over, the glance almost too quick to catch before he pasted on a business like, incredibly fake smile. "Nice to meet you, Keisuke. Are you a student here like Ryota?"
"Yeah. Biochemistry."
"Ah, science. Ryota here must have been the one to get all the artistic abilities, then." The professor smiled, expression almost too pompous to be real. "Well, I guess we can't all be as talented as your cousin is. He's already something of a star in my class, you know."
"Oh?" Masuda glanced at Ryo from the corner of his eye and had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing at just how hard the other was blushing. Across from him, Kusano was making no effort to hide his amusement and Masuda could kind of understand why Ryo thought he was an okay guy. Not that he was probably thinking that right now, if the embarrassed way he was staring at the floor at the moment, probably plotting all the bloody ways he could kill the professor and end his embarrassment, was any indication.
"He has a gift for acting." Professor Horioka smiled and reached out, clapping Ryo on the shoulder. "One that I don't intend to let go to waste."
"It won't with you there to guide him, sir," Kusano spoke up, earning him one of those pompous smiles from their professor and a look from Ryo that he usually reserved for the moment right before he stabbed things in the heart.
"No, it won't. I'll make sure our Ryota goes places." The professor dropped his hand from Ryo's shoulder (much to Ryo's relief, Masuda thought) and glanced at his watch. "Well, it was nice chatting with you boys, but I need to be off to a meeting now. I look forward to seeing what you have to offer in class tomorrow." The words were, Masuda guessed, intended to be directed at both Kusano and Ryo, but the professor didn't take his eyes off of Ryo as he said them. It would have been slight creepy, if it hadn't been so amusing.
Masuda waited until the professor was down the hall and around the corner before he turned to look at Ryo, unable to hold in a laugh any longer. "You're going places?"
"Shut up," Ryo ground out, giving Masuda his best scowl. "Both of you--I don't want to hear it."
Kusano arched and eyebrow and laughed under his breath, but had apparently learned enough about Ryo over the last three days to know when not to push. He turned to Masuda instead, sharing an amused smile with him before bowing his head ever so slightly. "You must be Masuda? Nice to meet you."
"You, too." Masuda smiled, trying not to steal glances at Ryo out of the corner of his eye just to see how red the other's face still was.
"I've heard a lot about you from Yamashita. Thanks for coming to help out. I'm not really set up to take care of this kind of thing myself and all the hunters I know are busy."
"It's no problem," Masuda answered automatically, giving the other man a curious look. "You know a lot of hunters."
"Some of my extended family are hunters. I never really picked it up, but I know a lot of people in the business." He grinned, the expression relaxed, and Masuda decided that he liked him. "I try to keep my eyes open and keep people informed if I see anything going on."
"We appreciate it."
"Maybe we'll even be able to solve this one soon," Ryo mumbled, obviously trying to cover his embarrassment with annoyance at this point.
"Actually, I think we will."
"Really? Did you find something?"
"I think I know who we're looking for." Masuda nodded, reaching into his bag to pull out a carefully folded print out, offering it to Ryo. "Satoh Erina."
"Are you kidding?" Kusano took a step forward and peered down at the print out with a frown. "I thought that was just a story." At the questioning look that Ryo gave him, Kusano continued, "She was supposed to be a student who killed herself in the Theater. They say she haunts it now, but I've never seen any evidence of a spirit there. I always thought it was just a legend."
"It took a little digging, but I found a former student by that name from the sixties." Masuda reached out, pointing at the print out still clutched in Ryo's hands. "She was killed in an accident during a play rehearsal in the auditorium. The scarf she was wearing got tangled up in the ropes that controlled the curtains for the stage. Whoever was working them didn't realize until it was too late and she ended up strangled to death."
"Wow." Kusano made a face, looking surprised and slightly horrified. "I always thought that was just a story someone made up to tell at parties."
"Apparently it wasn't."
"Why would she wait this long to attack people, though? The theater's been in constant use since then. She could have started picking people off anytime she wanted to."
"Because the drama department decided to perform the same play that she was rehearsing when she died." Ryo re-folded the print out and gave Masuda a significant look. "I'm willing to bet this is the first time they've performed it since she died."
"The play from last year?" Masuda could hear Kusano let out a low whistle. "I remember that play. Horioka was the one who picked it--said the department needed to revisit their roots."
"I should have known that douchebag had something to do with this." Ryo handed the the paper back to Masuda with a frown. "Did you find anything about her remains?"
"Cremated." Masuda shrugged and Ryo looked unsurprised. "But I did some searching and apparently the department still has her scarf in with their costumes."
"Well, that's morbid."
Ryo wrinkled his nose, looking for all the world like he agreed. "Well, then, what are we waiting for? Let's go burn the bitch."
> go to part 2
From: track_04
Title: Dog Days Are Over
Rating: R (for violence)
Pairing: Ryo + Massu, appearances by Kusano and Tegoshi, mentions of Pin, Kame, and Toma
Warnings: Things that go bump in the night, violence, swearing, sort of dark themes...?
Summary: Sometimes being a bad ass monster hunter isn't all it's cracked up to be.
Notes: Set in the Supernatural Universe (Roughly seasons 2~3, no spoilers and no previous SPN knowledge required... I think). pipsqueaks, I really, really, really hope this is something you enjoy!! I absolutely adored your request and I hope I was able to do it (and the SPN verse) justice with this! A huge thanks to my support team (you know who you are) and to the wonderful mods of this exchange. You are both far too patient and wonderful. ♥
"Ryo, you don't have to do this."
Ryo leaned into Masuda's personal space, arm against his throat and the blade of his knife pressed against Masuda's temple, the tip digging in just enough to break the skin, bright red blood welling up beneath it and trickling lazily down the side of his face. Masuda's eyes widened, his breath hitching in a way that made the corners of Ryo's mouth curve upward into a lazy smile.
"I know."
"Please, just-"
Ryo slid the knife down the side of the other's face, the blade making a soft noise against his skin, and enjoyed the way that Masuda's breathing stopped for a second when he brought it to rest against his throat, just above his jugular. Masuda needed to understand. This wasn't about having to do anything.
"I want to do this."
Ryo watched the panic in Masuda's eyes and his smirk blossomed into a full on grin, a perverse spark of pleasure bubbling up inside of him. Masuda was doing a pretty good job of keeping himself grounded, of hiding his fear, but Ryo knew him better than anyone and he could see it there, just below the surface. He pressed the knife blade a bit harder against the other's skin, stopping just before he drew blood, and he could feel Masuda's muscles tense, could see the calculating look in his eyes as he went over his options and all the possible ways out of this situation in his head.
Not that it mattered, because none of them would work.
"I want to do this." He repeated, finger tightening around the handle of the knife, and he knew it was true.
4 Days Earlier
Masuda could hear Ryo's voice as soon as he stepped off the elevator, loud and angry and carrying entirely too well through the hallway of the dingy little roadside inn they'd decided to crash in the night before. He couldn't make out the words, luckily, but the tone was enough to pull a sigh from him as he moved across the faded carpet toward their room, hotel key in hand.
An older couple passed him in the hall, rolling their non-descript black suitcases behind them and mumbling to themselves as they shot the door to Ryo and Masuda's room furtive looks on their way past. Masuda smiled at them, tried to look charming and not at all suspicious as he stopped and unlocked the door one handed, the other busy clutching the bags with their breakfast.
"No, we have our own shit to take care of." Masuda was half-surprised he couldn't see marks worn in the carpet with the way Ryo was pacing, his phone clutched against his ear and a tired look in his eyes. "We've already got a job lined up in Fukui."
Masuda caught Ryo's eyes and held up the bag, mouth quirking up on one side in a half-smile as Ryo waved him off and resumed his pacing. He sighed internally and set the bags on the table, opening them up and digging out their contents as he continued to listen to Ryo rant. He almost felt sorry for whoever was on the other end of the line-they'd just spent a week clearing out a mess of Kappa that had decided to terrorize a small fishing village halfway up the Noto Peninsula and considering it wasn't really fun or easy to take out one of the things, having to handle a half dozen of them had been more than a little difficult and had ended with both of them more than a little bruised and battered, both literally and figuratively. Ryo had been more or less itching to give someone an earful for the past few days and Masuda hadn’t given him an excuse; apparently whoever was on the other end of the phone had.
"I don't understand why you can't do it yourself." Masuda heard Ryo's footsteps pause briefly before they started again, angrier than before. "Well, that's what you get for having an idiot as a partner."
Masuda arched an eyebrow, glancing at Ryo over his shoulder but not commenting. He had that sullen look on his face that meant that being cooped up in a car together was not going to be any fun. Masuda was tempted to try talking the other into just staying here a few more days. The hotel was old and the town was small, but they'd been worse places and they both needed a little bit of time to recharge their batteries. The job in Fukui was a few hours' drive from here at best and nothing so urgent that it couldn't wait. The trick was getting Ryo to listen and agree to reason-he could be extremely stubborn when he wanted to.
Luckily Masuda could be even more stubborn; he just had to decide if the battle was worth it this time.
"Okay, fine. I'll talk to Masuda and see what he says. Yeah, whatever, you owe us-you and Jin, both."
Masuda heard Ryo snap the phone shut as he pulled one of the wobbly plastic chairs around the table out, wiping it down with a napkin taken from the takeout bag before having a seat. "That was Yamashita?"
"Yeah. Asshole-he wants us to take a job in Tokyo."
"Tokyo? Did you tell him we were in Ishikawa? It's going to be at least a day worth of driving before we can even get there."
"I told him." Ryo tossed his phone on the bed and pulled out the chair across from Masuda, huffing as he plopped down into it. "But apparently this involves one of his friends, so he wants us to handle it."
Masuda nudged one of the food containers and a set of shrink wrapped plastic cutlery toward Ryo with a frown. "He can't do it himself?"
"No, he’s stuck with Jin down in Okinawa, apparently."
"Stuck?" Masuda opened up his food, throwing Ryo a skeptical look over the top of the container as he ripped the plastic off his knife and fork. "What did Jin do to get himself arrested this time?"
That actually got a snort and a half-smile out of Ryo. Masuda considered it a victory. "He said nothing, but I don't think I believe him."
"So, we're going to take the job?"
"I guess we have to-he said he was calling in his favor for Sendai."
"That was sneaky of him."
"I know. Fucker." Ryo stabbed at his breakfast a bit viciously and Masuda was pretty sure he was probably imagining it was Yamashita's face. Not that he would ever really stab anyone who wasn't some sort of supernatural bad guy out for the blood of innocents, but Ryo liked to think of himself as an asshole and Masuda never felt like contradicting him, even if he knew differently.
"So what's the job?"
"Some university students are losing their shit and acting all weird."
"Yamashita's friend was one of them?"
"No, but his friend knew one of the kids who did, apparently. From what Yamashita said it sounds like your typical low grade haunting, or maybe some sort of spell."
"Could be voodoo," Masuda mused between bites, his expression almost hopeful. They hadn't really had to deal with voodoo before, being in Japan, but it seemed like it would be interesting. All the stories he’d heard second hand from other hunters had always made it seem like a challenge--if, as he was sure Ryo would point out if he could hear his thoughts at the moment, a pain in the ass.
"Whatever it is, it probably won't be worth the drive. Especially not when Tokyo's crawling with hunters who could have handled it. He could have called Tanaka or Taguchi, but no."
"Maybe he did and they were busy."
"He better not have," Ryo grumbled, looking offended at the suggestion. "Bad enough if we get conned into doing this because he's off with Jin doing… whatever down in Okinawa. Even worse if we were just the backup plan."
Masuda shrugged and gave Ryo a wry smile. "So, are we doing research now or on the road?"
Ryo sighed. "Might as well do it on the road."
--
Masuda ended up calling Yamashita back for more details once they were packed up and on the road, since Ryo hadn't actually officially told the other that they were taking the job, even if Yamashita seemed to be taking that as a given. Either way, they would have had to talk to him again, anyway, since all Ryo had managed to get before he’d hung up were the last name of Yamashita's friend and some very vague details, none of which were enough to go on. Masuda didn’t like running into jobs half-cocked and ill informed and it was the one thing that he and Ryo always agreed on completely. They'd stumbled into jobs without enough information before, especially in the beginning, right after Ryo had begrudgingly agreed to let Masuda shadow him and when they were still getting a feel for each other and learning the ins and outs of partnership, and they'd been lucky to make it back out of some of those jobs alive, if not unscathed. Masuda really wasn’t eager to make that same mistake again. Ridding the world of evil (or whatever you wanted to call their job) was dangerous enough as it was.
Masuda didn’t really mind having to do the grunt work, anyway, and Yamashita seemed relieved not to be dealing with Ryo. It gave Ryo time to cool off a little anyway, enjoy the breeze through the open windows of the car and sing along with the radio under his breath when he thought Masuda wasn’t looking.
For his part, Masuda took pages and pages of notes and pretended not to notice Ryo mouthing along with the words of some girl group pop song as he grilled Yamashita for every detail he had. When he finally hung up an hour and a half into their trip, Yamashita seemed relieved to finally be off the phone and Masuda felt a lot better about this job now that they had more solid information to go on. They’d still have to do more research and question people at the school, but this at least gave them a better starting point.
Masuda set his phone on the dash and reached for his bag in the backseat, turning just enough to unzip it and dig his laptop out. He stole a glance at Ryo as he opened the computer and fired it up, smiling a little as he watched Ryo still singing along to the radio like he really didn’t know Masuda was watching, the music almost too low to make out any of the words. Masuda leaned over and turned it up a little and Ryo blinked, throwing him a look that wasn't quite a smile.
"Did Yamashita give you anything good?"
Masuda shifted the computer in his lap and moved his notebook to the console between them, open to the first page of his scrawling notes. "I think some of it will be. I got contact info for his friend--” he stopped and glanced over at his notebook, then back at his laptop. “Kusano Hironori. Fourth year performing arts student at Meiji University. He’s expecting us to give him a call when we get there.”
“How much has Yamashita told him?”
“About us? He knows we’re hunters. He was the one who told Yamashita and had him call in the cavalry in the first place."
“That makes it easier.” Ryo reached over, hitting the next button on the CD player, more out of habit than anything. “Did you get any info on the other students that have flipped?”
Masuda nodded, eyes fixed on his computer screen as he tried to bring up the wifi, the mountains on either side of the highway and the fact that they were in the middle of nowhere making it difficult. “I got names of the last two--Kusano’s friend and the guy before him. I’m going to do some searching before we get there and see if I can dig up anything else.”
“Great.”
Masuda watched Ryo reaching over to fiddle with the radio buttons again out of the corner of his eye and smiled. "It sounds like it shouldn't be too bad."
"That's good. I could go for an easy job right now." Ryo stopped messing with the radio and brought his hand back to the steering wheel, his shoulders relaxing visibly. "I'm still pissed at Yamashita, though.
"Yeah, he knows."
--
"A drama student?" Ryo gave him a distinctly unimpressed look over the rim of his coffee cup, glancing away from the fake transcripts and student IDs with their pictures that Masuda had spread out across the table in the small western style cafe they'd dragged themselves to (well, Ryo had drug himself, anyway--Masuda had already been up for three hours by that point) for breakfast. It was small and probably a place that a lot of people would have considered a bit of a dive, but it was clean, which made Masuda immensely happy, had coffee that was a lot better than the swill they had up in their hotel room, which made Ryo immensely happy, and it was only a few blocks from part of the Meiji University campus, which made them both happy and let them scope things out a bit while they ate.
Masuda took a bite of his pancakes to cover his smile and shrugged, doing his best to look innocent. It usually wasn't that hard, since people saw his face and just assumed he was harmless, but Ryo knew him better than that and the way the other was staring at him now said a much.
"Seriously, you couldn't make me a student of something less… fruity."
Masuda swallowed and didn't bother trying to hide his grin. "Yamashita's friend is a drama student. This will be the easiest way to get information."
"But you said that he knows we're hunters."
"He does."
"So what does it matter if I'm pretending to be a drama student or not, then? It's not like he's going to be wondering why I'm talking to him."
"Because other people might wonder. This will look the least suspicious, and if there's a witch or someone hexing people we don't want them clued into us." Masuda gave him a Look, because Ryo already knew all this and really didn't need Masuda of all people to remind him. Ryo actually looked a little contrite, even if he did still grumble under his breath.
"So, we get to be drama majors. Great-we don't get enough looks already when we share hotel rooms."
"We're not drama majors."
"But you just said-"
"Actually you're the drama major. I'm studying biochemistry." Masuda met Ryo's eyes and smiled a bit sheepishly at the incredulous look the other was giving him. "The most recent student to lose it was in Biochem. I thought if I passed as a student I could attend a few classes and poke around for more information."
Ryo looked incredibly not pleased. “So you get to run off and play scientist and I have to wear tights and prance around stage?”
“I thought you’d make a more convincing drama student.”
“What’s that supposed to--”
“I’m a terrible liar most of the time,” Masuda reminded him. Ryo pointed it out to him often enough that he was surprised the other could even forget. “And acting is all lying, right? I wouldn’t be very convincing.”
“I guess you’re right.” Ryo grumbled and picked up the fake I.D. with a sour look. "And I look more like an actor, anyway.”
Masuda grinned and pulled another sheet of paper out of his bag to hand it off to him.
“What’s this?”
“Class schedule for Kusano. I thought you could shadow him after your meeting while I work on finding out more about the last victim. If you stick to the bigger classes no one should notice an extra student hanging around.”
Ryo sipped his coffee as he eyed the schedule and sighed. “Fine, but I’m not going to enjoy myself.”
“Of course not.”
--
Masuda decided that he didn’t really mind being a student. It was a nice change, for once, from pretending to be insurance adjusters and cops and investigative journalists, a roll that he finally felt like he almost fit. He always felt a bit too young-looking and suspect when he and Ryo had to play their usual parts, but sitting in the student commons while he scoped things out, an open book and his laptop and a notepad spread out before him, he sort of felt like he belonged.
There’d been a time, years ago, back before he’d met Ryo and sort of stumbled into this life as a hunter of all things that went bump in the night, that he’d thought about college--planned on it, even. Sitting here now, he couldn’t decide if he was sad that he’d missed the chance or not, if he would have preferred a quiet life with books and going out for drinks with friends to what he had now.
“Massu?”
He blinked, looking up at the boy staring down at him, bag slung over one shoulder and wearing a careless, if slightly uncertain, grin. He practically screamed student, from his slightly rumpled clothing to his dyed hair, and Masuda was pretty sure he would have pegged him as being in University even if they weren't in the middle of the student commons right now. Masuda returned the smile and nodded without thinking, too caught off guard by someone using a nickname that he hasn’t heard in years--knowing that nickname, since even Ryo didn’t call him that--to think better of it.
“I thought that was you.” The boy--well, more like a man, just an exceptionally young looking one--slid into the chair across from him and rested his bag on the floor, still grinning from ear to ear. “What are you doing here? Are you a student now?”
“I--” Masuda started, a lie on the tip of his tongue. Then he blinked again and looked at the man across from him, really looked, and he felt a wave of realization and nostalgia hit him like a ton of bricks. “Tegoshi?”
“You didn’t know who I was, did you?” Tegoshi grinned but didn’t look offended, the expression so much like the awkward, bright boy that Masuda had been friends with all those years ago that he found himself offering up an idiotic grin of his own.
“Your look different,” he blurted out before he had time to stop and think about it.
“I'm not 17 anymore.” Tegoshi laughed and leaned back in his chair. “You look the same. You haven't changed your hair since High School."
“I like this hair." Masuda laid his pen down on the table, forgetting for a moment that he was supposed to be scoping things out for their job and just enjoying the other’s company. It had been years since he’s seen him--since he’d seen any one from his life before hunting, really--but he felt himself slipping back into the role of friend so easily that he wasn’t quite sure what to make of it. "You're a student now?"
“Third year in Psychology. What about you?"
“What?”
"You go here now?"
Masuda blinked as Tegoshi waved a hand to indicate the book and notepad spread across the table and he reached up to rub the back of his neck, laughing nervously. “Oh--not really. Just in town for a few days on business.”
“What business?”
“Just... looking into something.” Masuda gave himself a swift mental kick, trying to think up a way to change the subject and failing miserably. “I investigate things..”
“Like a private eye?” Tegoshi actually laughed at that and Masuda furrowed his eyebrows at him. "I'm sorry--I just can't imagine you doing that. I mean, you were always good at research, but you're not very subtle."
"I guess not." Masuda smiled because he really did have a point and shrugged. "I mostly do the legwork. My partner does all the hard stuff."
"Thank god for that." Tegoshi grinned and Masuda couldn't really find it in himself to feel offended. It wasn't like any of it wasn't the truth, anyway. Tegoshi's smile faltered a little as a brief silence settled between him, his face taking on that thoughtful look that Masuda still remembered. "I never thought I'd see you again."
The words were more a statement of fact than an accusation, but Masuda felt himself flinch anyway. "I'm sorry I never really got a chance to say goodbye. Everything was really... sudden."
"It's okay." Tegoshi had his head tilted to the side and was looking at him with that knowing expression that he sometimes got. People had always accused Tegoshi of being a bit oblivious, but Masuda had always thought that he saw and just chose not to comment most of the time. "Things are okay now, right?"
Masuda hesitated for a moment before nodding, wondering suddenly how Tegoshi would react if he told him the truth--about his life, his job, about witches and spirits and all those bad things that people talked about actually being real. About the real reason he'd left in the first place, about Ryo and the thing that had killed his family. It was right on the tip of his tongue but he bit back the urge and forced a smile instead. Knowing always changed people, and usually not for the best. “Yeah, I’m good.”
Tegoshi smiled and looked mostly satisfied with the answer. “Do you have any plans for lunch? We could grab something to eat and catch up. My treat.”
“I, uh.” Masuda started to say no and then stopped and nodded slowly. An hour or two out of a day really wouldn’t hurt anything. Besides, he owed Tegoshi after the way he’d cut him out of his life without warning all those years ago. Even if it was for his own good. “Sure.”
"I know a place with really great pie." Tegoshi grabbed his bag from the floor and stood, throwing him an excited look. Masuda started to pack away his things slowly, methodically, and smiled while Tegoshi fidgeted beside him. Things really hadn't changed much.
--
It turned out the place with really great pie was closed, so they went to a small ramen shop tucked away on a little used side street that Tegoshi assured him was just as good. It was also, apparently, owned by one of his friends' families, so they got a discount and extra-friendly service on top of decent food, both of which Masuda appreciated.
Toward the end of their meal he got a call and excused himself from the table, stepping outside to take it (he would never not think that talking on a phone in the middle of a restaurant was not rude). It turned out to be Ryo calling to check in and the conversation ended in just over two minutes, after Masuda had told Ryo he was working on a lead with a student (which wasn't a total lie--Tegoshi was a student here, so it stood to reason he might have heard something) and Ryo had a chance to bitch about how much he hated hanging out with "all these pansies", although he did concede, grudgingly, that Kusano wasn't that bad.
When Masuda got back, Tegoshi had already taken the liberty of ordering them dessert and was grinning at him in that knowing way.
"Was that work?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah. The guy I work with was just checking in to see if I'd found anything."
"So what are you guys here to investigate?" Tegoshi stared at him across the table, reaching for his fork and plucking a slice of strawberry off the top of his piece of cake with a grin.
"Just something that's been going on on campus."
"The people who have been losing it, right?"
"Uh, yeah. You know about that?"
"Top ranking students freaking out for no real reason? Word gets around." Tegoshi popped the slice of strawberry into his mouth. "Especially if you're a psych student. We pay attention to that kind of thing."
"So what have you heard?"
Tegoshi shrugged, chewing thoughtfully. "I know that the administration doesn't want anyone to think they're related, but people are freaked. I know that the last two guys to have a major freak out weren't the only ones."
"They weren't?" Masuda reached for the bag resting on the seat beside him and dug out a notebook and pen without even stopping to think about it. He didn't even realize what he was doing until he caught sight of Tegoshi's smile.
"You really are here on business, aren't you?"
"Sorry--I probably should have asked."
"It's okay. It's just weird, seeing you this intense." Tegoshi smiled a little. "Not that you weren't before. I guess it was just all reserved for swimming."
"Yeah." Masuda glanced down at his notebook and then back up at Tegoshi with a serious expression. "You're sure this is okay?"
"What do you need to know?"
Masuda uncapped his pen and offered Tegoshi a smile. "Let's start with the basics. Tell me about the other freak outs that you know about."
--
Masuda had barely set foot in their room that evening before Ryo started bitching. It probably would have annoyed anyone else, but Masuda was used to it by this point and it felt more familiar and welcoming and like home than anything. Which probably said something about just how weird his life was, but he was pretty sure that no one who did exorcisms and chased after ghosts and slept with a silver plated knife on the nightstand had a life that could be considered normal, anyway.
"The TV's broken."
"You hate TV," Masuda pointed out reflexively, smiling a little when he spotted Ryo stretched out on one of the beds, trying very hard to look put upon and completely bored with the book he had open in front of him.
"I like it for the noise." Ryo closed his book with a sound of disgust and tossed it aside. Masuda could feel the other watching him as he set his bag on the empty bed and started to carefully sort through its contents. "I need a distraction from my homework for tomorrow."
"Homework? I didn't even now they could give homework in drama." Masuda paused and turned to give Ryo a curious look. "Do you have to read a play or memorize lines?"
"No." Ryo pursed his lips, scowling as Masuda stared at him questioningly. "I'm supposed to be using tonight to reflect on my journey through the birth canal so I can re-enact it for class tomorrow."
Masuda didn't even bother trying not to laugh. "Seriously?"
"Apparently to express ourselves as performers we need to know where we came from." Ryo looked vaguely disgusted as he swung his legs off the edge of the bed. "I told you this stuff was ridiculous. Who takes classes on this shit, anyway?"
"Lots of people."
"Yeah, well, they suck. Most of them, anyway--Kusano's pretty cool."
"Did you manage to get anything out of him?" Masuda finished sorting his bag and zipped it back up, taking a seat on the edge of the bed and leaning over to plug his laptop into the outlet behind their nightstand.
"Not much more than we already knew. All of the students who flipped out were apparently normal, got good grades, really well liked by everyone who knew them. Before they went off the deep end, at least." Ryo's face looked thoughtful. "Kusano said his friend who freaked stripped naked in the middle of class and then tried to strangle their professor with his belt. Having met the professor in question, I can't say I blame him, though."
"The guy who gave you your 'homework'?"
"Yes. Total douchebag." Ryo wrinkled his nose.
"So what clued Kusano into it being something other than stress or a nervous breakdown or..."
"Drama student weirdness?" Ryo finished and Masuda gave a brief smile and nodded. "He said other than that the kid was normal. Quiet, pretty reserved, didn't really speak up in class--which seems weird for a drama student, but apparently he was decent when you got him on stage."
"No history of mental illness or chance that he was drugged?"
"Nothing Kusano knew about and nothing I could find in his records when I checked." Ryo smirked a little as Masuda gave him a surprised look. "Yes, I checked his records. I can do research myself, you know. I got by just fine before you started tagging along."
He smiled but decided not to respond to the teasing challengei n the other's voice directly. "And he didn't remember what happened?"
"No, he remembered everything, but said it felt like he wasn't in control of his body." Ryo gave him a significant look. "What about you? Any luck with the biochem geeks?"
"Not exactly." Masuda looked down and pretended to fiddle with his computer. "I sat in on one of the morning classes, but I couldn't find anyone who really wanted to talk."
"Then who were you talking to when I called?"
Masuda blinked, caught off guard for a second. He'd forgotten that Ryo had called when he was at lunch with Tegoshi. "A student I ran into in the commons."
"So, you're making friends now?" Ryo arched an eyebrow and Masuda shrugged, turning back to his bag to avoid looking the other in the eye.
"We just hit it off," Masuda mumbled, not really in any rush to tell Ryo about Tegoshi, considering he'd essentially blown their cover with him. Old friend or not, Ryo wouldn't like it. Actually, he wouldn't like it especially because Tegoshi was one of Masuda's old friends; Ryo always got weird when it came to reminders of Masuda's life before hunting, all uptight and guilty and that wasn't really something they needed to deal with while they were on a job. "He's been following what's been going on."
"That's kind of morbid."
"He's a psych student. He finds it all interesting."
"Yeah, morbid."
Masuda laughed and risked throwing Ryo a look over his shoulder. He looked slightly suspicious but unwilling to push it, which was a little weird. Ryo was almost always willing to push things. "I don't think we really have room to call anyone morbid."
"Probably not." Ryo admitted, his expression relaxing into a half-smile. "So, what did psych boy know?"
"It's happened to at least two more students over the past three months. There was a first year studio art student who tried to drink paint thinner before one of her friends tackled her and got her to stop and then a third year English major who decided that she could fly and tried to jump out of a fifth story window during a lecture."
Ryo whistled lowly. "I hope someone caught her."
"Some other students stopped her before she made it off the ledge."
"And let me guess--both model students with no history of mental illness who said they felt like they weren't in control of their bodies when it happened?"
"That's what it looks like." Masuda paused and "Apparently the gossip is that the English student said that she heard a strange voice and felt the air get colder around her before it happened."
"So, we're definitely dealing with a ghost, then." Ryo looked almost relieved, something that Masuda knew in the back of his brain would probably seem odd to other people who didn't do this everyday of their lives and probably wouldn't consider having to take on a pissed off, vengeful ghost something to be at all pleased about. When you dealt with this kind of thing everyday and knew just what other things were out there, though, ghosts were relatively easy. "I guess this means we get the spend the night researching and trying to figure out how our victims all fit together?"
"I thought we could start after dinner." Masuda grinned, unable to help himself. "Unless you're going to be too busy with your homework."
Ryo glowered at him but Masuda could see the corners of his lips twitching as he suppressed a smile.
"I can go get dinner and give you some time alone if you want," Masuda offered with an innocent smile and Ryo threw a pillow at his head, mumbling something about smart ass pigs and how much easier this job was without a partner.
--
They ended up not finding anything that night to really narrow things down; They'd both stayed up until well past three, pouring over papers and internet articles and reports trying to find some sort of connection between their three victims, but to absolutely not success. Everything they read seemed to point in the same direction: that their victims had absolutely, positively nothing in common.
Different majors, no mutual friends, no shared jobs or classes or past history or anything that made it seem anything less than random. If Masuda didn't know in his gut that they were working with something otherworldly here, he probably would have chalked it up to a set of strange coincidences.
Luckily he'd learned a long time ago that there was no such thing as a coincidence. Not that knowing that made their job any easier.
Masuda felt bleary eyed the next day, the lack of sleep making him feel lethargic and not at all ready to tackle the campus library in an effort to dig up something more concrete. They'd decided to use a divide and conquer strategy of sorts--Masuda at the library, looking for any violent deaths and campus ghost stories that might clue them into their otherworldly culprit, and Ryo to class with Kusano to see if he couldn't dig up something more on the drama student that would lead them in the right direction.
Masuda still hadn't told Ryo the truth about Tegoshi, just referred to him as another student whenever it came up in conversation, which luckily hadn't been much. He felt a slight twinge of guilt about that, since he felt like he probably owed Ryo complete honesty at this point, but something had stopped him every time he'd opened his mouth to mention it. He wasn't sure if it was a selfish need to keep something to himself, just this once, or if it was because he knew that if he brought it up Ryo would get that pinched look on his face and would shut himself off, claiming everything was fine while he silently brooded about the past and blamed himself for pulling Masuda down with him into this life spent chasing monsters and living in one shitty motel room after another.
It didn't matter how many times Masuda tried to convince him that there was nothing to feel guilty about, that things had just happened this way and that he didn't mind being here, didn't mind this life; Ryo never believed him. Masuda would never admit it, but sometimes he wondered if it wasn't because sometimes a very small, hidden part of himself didn't really believe it when he said those things to Ryo, either.
Maybe it was that part of him that kept him from mentioning Tegoshi to Ryo.
Whatever the reason that he hadn't come clean, his guilt over it was making it hard as hell to concentrate on what he was supposed to be doing at the moment. He'd managed to pull some of the older records--campus and local newspapers, collections of stories that might give some clue who they're vengeful spirit of the week was--but he hadn't managed to get much further than that. Everything he read seemed to trickle out of his ears as soon as he'd finished reading. It was making him frustrated with himself, which made concentrating even harder, which in turn made him more frustrated. A vicious cycle if there ever was one.
He'd just finished skimming a campus newspaper from the late 80s when he heard the scrape of the chair across from him being pulled out. He rested his finger on the page as he looked up at his unwanted guest, marking his place even though he knew he'd have to re-read the entire thing again. "I'm sorry, but I'm trying--"
"To work, right?" Tegoshi slung his bag over the back of the chair and leaned forward, elbows on the table and a slight edge of mischief in his smile. "I know. I'm supposed to be researching for a paper, but I thought I'd say hi. Funny, that I don't see you for five years and then I run into you twice in two days."
"Yeah." Masuda smiled. "Some coincidence."
Tegoshi laughed softly and eyed the papers strewn across the table. "Looks like you're busy here."
"Not that busy."
"I was going to offer to help, but if you're not that busy..."
Masuda shook his head, laughing softly. Tegoshi had always been far too good at poking his nose where it didn't belong and making you feel like you were the one who wanted it there. "I thought you had to study."
"I'll still get a decent mark even if I don't." Coming from anyone else it probably would have sounded conceited. Coming from Tegoshi it just sounded like fact. "Besides, how often do we get to see each other?"
"Okay." Masuda sighed, smiling a little to himself. "But only if you promise not to get bored and start distracting me."
Tegoshi opened his mouth like he was going to protest then closed it with a grin, no doubt remembering all the failed study sessions they'd had in high school because he couldn't keep his attention from wandering to books and video games and discussions that had nothing to do with the task at hand and distracting Masuda in turn. "I promise." He reached for the nearest stack of papers and pulled it towards himself, eying it curiously. "So, what are we looking for?"
"Deaths on campus--suicides, accidents, anything that would have been violent." Masuda decided to leave out the part about anything that would have been violent enough to leave a seriously pissed off revenge-seeking spirit behind.
"What does this have to do with what's been happening now? These papers are all at least two decades old."
"We're looking for... evidence. Something that might link to this."
"You think this happened before and someone died?"
"Something like that." Masuda forced a small smile, hoping that the fact that he wasn't out and out lying wouldn't make it obvious that he wasn't telling the whole truth. Tegoshi had always been notoriously good at telling when he was lying. Almost as good as Ryo. "If we can figure out what happened before, we might be able to stop it now."
For a moment Tegoshi just stared at him, looking like he wanted to argue, but instead he just nodded and returned the other's smile. "Tell me where to start, then."
--
It took a good eight hours and every bit of his and Tegoshi's attention, but at the end of the day Masuda felt like he had a pretty solid, if disparingly long, list of possibilities for their ghost. It only covered thirty odd years worth of violent deaths on campus, but he was banking on the death they were looking for being recent. At the very least, it gave them a good place to start. With a bit more poking around and maybe even some luck, they might even manage to whittle it down to the one name they were looking for before any other students were affected.
Not the ideal way to work, not by a long shot, but he'd take it over nothing.
Ryo had already ordered by the time Masuda arrived at the tiny restaurant around the corner from their hotel--little more than a counter, a row of stools and a beat up TV playing prime time dramas that neither Ryo or the one other customer there were paying attention to on a shelf in the corner. It wasn't much to look at, but it was clean, cheap and nearly empty, which meant they could eat in peace and discuss business without getting too many eaves droppers or weird looks.
"Hey." Ryo nodded as Masuda slid onto the stool beside him, looking slightly apologetic as the other glanced at the bowl of udon that he was already a quarter of the way through. "Sorry I didn't wait."
"It's okay. I was late." Masuda waved off his concern, frowning a little when Ryo went straight back to eating. "You're hungry tonight."
"I had to skip lunch.".
"Ryo--"
"Don't get all mother hen on me." Ryo paused long enough to give Masuda an annoyed look. "It was for a good reason."
"You always say that."
"That's because it's true."
"And what was your good reason today?"
"Kusano took me to talk to Kame."
"Who?"
"Kamenashi Kazuya--the drama kid that went apeshit." Ryo grinned at him, the expression clearly stating that Masuda wasn't allowed to be irritated with him, no matter how much he wanted to be. Masuda really was not a fan of that look.
"I thought he was still on lock down in the hospital psych ward.."
"Just got out. He's not really supposed to have company, but Kusano convinced his family that they should let him see a couple of old friends."
Masuda looked away just long enough to take a menu from the waiter and then turned back to Ryo with an impressed look. "What did he have to say?"
"Not much that we didn't already know." Ryo shrugged, but looked far too self-satisfied as he slipped a hastily folded piece of paper from his pocket and tossed it onto the counter in front of him. "But I did manage to swipe this when he wasn't looking."
Masuda reached out to unfold the paper and smoothed out the creases to reveal what he's guessing is a program for a play, not feeling nearly as disapproving over Ryo having sticky fingers as he probably should have.
"It's for the play that the drama department put on last term," Ryo said before Masuda had a chance to finish reading, obviously too wound up about his find to give him a chance to puzzle it out for himself. He reached out and slid the program out from beneath Masuda's fingers and flipped it open to the cast and credits. "Any of these names look familiar?"
Masuda scanned the rows with a soft frown. "Kamenashi, Ikuta, Watanabe--that's everyone except the English student."
"And I'm willing to bet if we dig a bit deeper we'll find out she was involved, too."
"In the audience, maybe?" Masuda guessed, lifting his eyes to meet Ryo's. "Sounds like our ghost is tied to the drama department."
"Can't say I'm shocked. If anyone would make a melodramatic ghost it would be one of the drama weirdos." Ryo snorted and reached for the program, re-folding it and stuffing it back in his pocket. "What about you? Any luck hunting down the usual suspects at the library?"
"Some. I managed to make a list of deaths dating back to the 80s, but it's pretty long. I can start checking for people connected with the drama department now, though."
"I can help," Ryo offered around a mouthful of noodles.
Masuda hesitated for a moment and then shook his head, feeling slightly guilty. Taking Ryo's offer would have been the smart thing to do, really, but Tegoshi had mentioned that he'd keep an eye open for him if he stopped by the library tomorrow, and that small, selfish part inside of him had him making up excuses to keep Ryo from tagging along before he could think better of it. "Maybe you should tag along with Kusano again. If the death was recent he might know something."
"You sure?" Ryo frowned, looking slightly suspicious. "I know you really like getting your nerd on, but that's a lot of work for one person."
"It won't be that bad. I already did most of the legwork today." Masuda looked down at the menu in front of him, using it as an excuse not to meet Ryo's eyes. "If it gets to be too much I can call you and you can come give me a hand."
"Okay." Ryo turned his attention back to his noodles, but didn't look quite convinced. "But considering I'm going to have to put up with that god awful pantomime class again, you owe me."
"I'll make it up to you," Masuda promised, unsure if he felt more guilty or relieved that Ryo wasn't pushing. He reminded himself for what seemed like the hundredth time that day that he was doing this because he didn't want Ryo to be upset.
It didn't make him feel any less guilty than any of the ninety-nine times that came before it, though.
--
No matter how hard Masuda tried to convince himself otherwise, he knew that he'd packed up and gotten to the library early because he was hoping to see Tegoshi there. Ryo hadn't said anything when he'd woken up to Masuda already dressed for the day and packing salt and lighter fluid and all the other ghost hunting necessities into his bag alongside his laptop and notebook, luckily, but he had given him one of those looks that said he knew that something was up and he was just choosing not to mention it. Masuda just pretended like it wasn't there and smiled at him on his way out the door, promising to call him if he found anything.
Now he was at the library, throwing everything into pouring over newspaper articles and police reports and doing his best not to think about it. It wasn't as if Ryo didn't have secrets; it was only fair if Masuda had one of his own for once.
He was also making it a point not to think about Tegoshi's promise from the day before and glance at his watch every five seconds, wondering exactly when the other would be dropping by. He tried to convince himself that if Tegoshi didn't make it by it really wasn't a big deal--he was a student and probably had things to do that didn't involve keeping Masuda company, things that were probably more fun than hanging out in the library, sifting through must papers and reports online, looking for something that Masuda couldn't even tell him the truth about.. Besides, it wasn't like Masuda hadn't ditched him for five years. It wasn't really fair to expect Tegoshi to want to keep him company now that he was starting to realize just how much he missed him.
Of course, all of this didn't stop the relief he could feel in his own expression when he heard a chair being pulled out across from him and looked up to see a familiar smile.
"Hey." Masuda met Tegoshi's eyes and grinned, straightening from where he was hunched over his laptop.
"Hey," Tegoshi echoed, his smile widening. "Still hard at work, I see."
"No rest for the weary." Masuda shrugged, laughing softly. "How's the studying going?"
"Not at all." Tegoshi reached for Masuda's notebook and slid it towards himself, ignoring the look of irritation that Masuda gave him out of reflex. "So, are you any closer to figuring things out?"
"A little." Masuda watched Tegoshi read over the list, hesitating for a moment, unsure how much he could tell the other without telling him too much. "I'm trying to narrow down the list to people connected to the drama department."
"You think this has something to do with the drama department?"
"That's what it looks like." Masuda shrugged. So much for not going into too much detail. "Three of the students who freaked out recently have had some sort of connection with the department."
"Really? How'd you manage to figure that out?"
"Something my partner found."
"This is like being in a detective drama.." Tegoshi grinned and looked slightly impressed. "I guess that makes me the guest star who hangs around for an episode and helps you catch the bad guy, doesn't it?"
"I guess it does." Masuda smiled a little at the thought. "Although if this was a drama we'd probably be spending a lot less time in the library."
"They'd probably just condense all the research into a snappy little montage," Tegoshi agreed. "So, what can I do to help out?"
"Help me go through that list and find if anyone there is related to the drama department."
"So, anyone who was a student or faculty member there?"
Masuda nodded. "Or whose death was related to the department."
Tegoshi lifted his eyes, his expression thoughtful. "Like someone who died there?"
"Yeah." Masuda met his eyes, frowning a little at his expression. "Do you someone who died there?"
"Not exactly. There's a story, though."
"A story?"
"Yeah. I think it's mostly just a campus legend, though." Tegoshi met Masuda's eyes across the table and shook his head a little. "It probably doesn't have anything to do with this."
"You never know. A lot of legends are based on truth."
"The theater is supposed to be haunted." Tegoshi met Masuda's eyes and laughed a little, like he was embarrassed for bringing it up. "The rumor is that a student killed herself there in the late sixties--hung herself on the stage to get revenge against a professor she was having an affair with because he wouldn't leave his wife for her."
Masuda's eyes widened a little, almost imperceptibly, and he slid his hand across the table top, reaching for his pen. "Does she have a name in the story?"
"Satoh Erina." Tegoshi shook his head, still looking a little embarrassed. "But I really don't think she's real, Massu. It's all just an urban legend."
Masuda shrugged, pulling his notebook back to himself and jotting her name down in the margins next to his list. "Maybe not, but the legend might lead us to the truth. It gives us a better place to start, anyway." He turned to his laptop, pulling up the school library's catalogue with a grin. "I think you might have just earned your spot as guest star, Tegoshi."
Tegoshi laughed and leaned forward to rest his elbows against the table. "Think if I keep it up I might get a spot as a reoccurring character?"
"Only if you really impress us."
"Well, then, we'd better get to work. I wouldn't want to be recast."
--
Ryo was standing outside a mostly empty classroom when Masuda found him, looking surprisingly at ease and like the part of the student he was playing as he leaned against the wall and talked with another student and an older man that Masuda was willing to bet was a professor, just judging by the way he held himself. Ryo was laughing at something that one of them had said and it caught him off guard for a second, seeing Ryo smiling and talking with strangers so easily. Ryo was good at playing parts and interacting with people when the job called for it, but this was different. He actually looked open, like he was enjoying himself.
It made Masuda feel better about the time he'd spent with Tegoshi over the past few days, even while it made him a little sad. Ryo was always so worried about Masuda missing out on having a normal life that he didn't seem to stop and think that he was missing out on that life, too.
Ryo must have heard the squeak of his tennis shoes against the tiled floors as he approached because he shifted his gaze, looking past the shoulder of whoever he was talking to and fixing his eyes on Masuda. Something about his smile changed as he lifted his hand and gave a small wave and Masuda couldn't quite decide if that was a good or a bad thing. It didn't look like a bad smile that the other was giving him, per se. It just looked more... typical. The kind of smile Masuda had come to expect from him.
"Hey." Masuda stopped a few steps away, bowing his head and smiling politely.
"This is my cousin Keisuke." Ryo pointed at Masuda and he offered another polite smile, covering the fact that the fake name caught him off guard for a second. He'd gotten so used to using his actual name with Tegoshi that it felt a little weird to be using one that wasn't his again. "Kei, this is Kusano--" he indicated the young man standing across from Ryo, arms crossed over his chest and a knowing, slightly amused smile on his lips. "--and Professor Horioka."
The older gentleman--Professor Horioka, Masuda ammended in his head--smiled and gave Masuda a brief once over, the glance almost too quick to catch before he pasted on a business like, incredibly fake smile. "Nice to meet you, Keisuke. Are you a student here like Ryota?"
"Yeah. Biochemistry."
"Ah, science. Ryota here must have been the one to get all the artistic abilities, then." The professor smiled, expression almost too pompous to be real. "Well, I guess we can't all be as talented as your cousin is. He's already something of a star in my class, you know."
"Oh?" Masuda glanced at Ryo from the corner of his eye and had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing at just how hard the other was blushing. Across from him, Kusano was making no effort to hide his amusement and Masuda could kind of understand why Ryo thought he was an okay guy. Not that he was probably thinking that right now, if the embarrassed way he was staring at the floor at the moment, probably plotting all the bloody ways he could kill the professor and end his embarrassment, was any indication.
"He has a gift for acting." Professor Horioka smiled and reached out, clapping Ryo on the shoulder. "One that I don't intend to let go to waste."
"It won't with you there to guide him, sir," Kusano spoke up, earning him one of those pompous smiles from their professor and a look from Ryo that he usually reserved for the moment right before he stabbed things in the heart.
"No, it won't. I'll make sure our Ryota goes places." The professor dropped his hand from Ryo's shoulder (much to Ryo's relief, Masuda thought) and glanced at his watch. "Well, it was nice chatting with you boys, but I need to be off to a meeting now. I look forward to seeing what you have to offer in class tomorrow." The words were, Masuda guessed, intended to be directed at both Kusano and Ryo, but the professor didn't take his eyes off of Ryo as he said them. It would have been slight creepy, if it hadn't been so amusing.
Masuda waited until the professor was down the hall and around the corner before he turned to look at Ryo, unable to hold in a laugh any longer. "You're going places?"
"Shut up," Ryo ground out, giving Masuda his best scowl. "Both of you--I don't want to hear it."
Kusano arched and eyebrow and laughed under his breath, but had apparently learned enough about Ryo over the last three days to know when not to push. He turned to Masuda instead, sharing an amused smile with him before bowing his head ever so slightly. "You must be Masuda? Nice to meet you."
"You, too." Masuda smiled, trying not to steal glances at Ryo out of the corner of his eye just to see how red the other's face still was.
"I've heard a lot about you from Yamashita. Thanks for coming to help out. I'm not really set up to take care of this kind of thing myself and all the hunters I know are busy."
"It's no problem," Masuda answered automatically, giving the other man a curious look. "You know a lot of hunters."
"Some of my extended family are hunters. I never really picked it up, but I know a lot of people in the business." He grinned, the expression relaxed, and Masuda decided that he liked him. "I try to keep my eyes open and keep people informed if I see anything going on."
"We appreciate it."
"Maybe we'll even be able to solve this one soon," Ryo mumbled, obviously trying to cover his embarrassment with annoyance at this point.
"Actually, I think we will."
"Really? Did you find something?"
"I think I know who we're looking for." Masuda nodded, reaching into his bag to pull out a carefully folded print out, offering it to Ryo. "Satoh Erina."
"Are you kidding?" Kusano took a step forward and peered down at the print out with a frown. "I thought that was just a story." At the questioning look that Ryo gave him, Kusano continued, "She was supposed to be a student who killed herself in the Theater. They say she haunts it now, but I've never seen any evidence of a spirit there. I always thought it was just a legend."
"It took a little digging, but I found a former student by that name from the sixties." Masuda reached out, pointing at the print out still clutched in Ryo's hands. "She was killed in an accident during a play rehearsal in the auditorium. The scarf she was wearing got tangled up in the ropes that controlled the curtains for the stage. Whoever was working them didn't realize until it was too late and she ended up strangled to death."
"Wow." Kusano made a face, looking surprised and slightly horrified. "I always thought that was just a story someone made up to tell at parties."
"Apparently it wasn't."
"Why would she wait this long to attack people, though? The theater's been in constant use since then. She could have started picking people off anytime she wanted to."
"Because the drama department decided to perform the same play that she was rehearsing when she died." Ryo re-folded the print out and gave Masuda a significant look. "I'm willing to bet this is the first time they've performed it since she died."
"The play from last year?" Masuda could hear Kusano let out a low whistle. "I remember that play. Horioka was the one who picked it--said the department needed to revisit their roots."
"I should have known that douchebag had something to do with this." Ryo handed the the paper back to Masuda with a frown. "Did you find anything about her remains?"
"Cremated." Masuda shrugged and Ryo looked unsurprised. "But I did some searching and apparently the department still has her scarf in with their costumes."
"Well, that's morbid."
Ryo wrinkled his nose, looking for all the world like he agreed. "Well, then, what are we waiting for? Let's go burn the bitch."
> go to part 2