Chapter Text
In a desolate park at 2:40AM, Takina and Chisato sat on a tree branch, night vision binoculars in the former's eyes, boredom in the latter's, waiting for the ghost to show up. As Takina watched the same house window she had been looking at for the past half hour, keeping an eye out for any kind of person or presence, she finally decided to ask the question she had been holding the entire night.
"I know it's too late to ask, but did we really have to take this request?"
"What's wrong, Takina?" replied Chisato, obviously taking the chance to entertain herself. "Afraid of ghosts?"
"Of course not. Ghosts don't exist. That's part of the issue." She was also bored, so she didn't mind keeping her talking. "It doesn't seem like you are, either."
"Of course not! Ghosts are cool."
"I see." Takina gave some extra thought to those words, then took her eyes off her binoculars and looked at her partner. "Wait, so you do believe in them?"
Chisato shrugged. "I dunno if they exist, I'm just saying they'd be cool if they did."
"Why?"
"Lots of people don't get enough time to finish all their business." Takina noticed a hint of melancholy there. It was Chisato talking, so she decided she was probably imagining it. "It's kinda nice to think about them getting a chance to make things right, isn't it?"
"I suppose." Takina passed the binoculars over to her partner. "The business is question may be the problem, though. The ghosts you usually hear about don't seem particularly nice."
"The people you usually hear about don't seem that nice, either," countered Chisato, as she took the binoculars and, with them, watch responsibilities. "That doesn't mean most people are bad, it just means humans love complaining."
Takina cracked a hint of a smile instead of questioning such a baffling statement. She was getting too used to her. "So you think most people are good, then?" she asked, willfully ignoring the ghost part.
"Of course! Look around you, Takina!" She waved an arm around. "Good people as far as the eye can see!"
She didn't need to take back the binoculars to check. "There's nobody else here."
"Two out of two is pretty good, right? That's about 100%."
"Real small sample size."
"Who're you calling small, chump?" joked Chisato. "I'm taller than you!"
"I'm... also calling myself small if that's how you interpret it. I don't think you've thought that one through."
"Oh, wait," Chisato said, distracting from her questionable attempts at comedy, "we're down to 75. Look." She handed her the binoculars. Two Lycoris they were intimately familiar with were approaching the so-called haunting site. Their movements suggested they were not simply passing by, but casing the location.
"What are Fuki and..." The mean girl in the sneakers probably had a name. She definitely couldn't remember it. "...her partner doing here?"
"You think the DA's breaking into the ghostbusting business?" Chisato asked, hints of disappointment already present on her voice.
"We may be breaking into the DA's crime busting business," Takina declared matter-of-factly.
"Aw... a criminal? That's so boring!" she whined. "I wanted it to be a ghoul! Not some regular dude... dhoul?" Chisato looked at her, her eyes seemingly trying to ask her if this was even a joke, rather than if she found it funny.
"Fool?"
"Fool! That's it!" She now looked satisfied, her disappointment mere seconds ago already a memory. "Not some regular fool!"
Takina shook her head, amused. "Do we leave? Those two probably won't be happy to see us."
"Nah." Chisato stretched her arms. "We're already here, we might as well find out what's going on. It's still part of our request, don't forget!" She effortlessly hopped off the tree, then began walking. "Let's go, Takina!"
"Give me a second," Takina said, as she put the binoculars into her bag.
"What's up?"
"I'm not you, I can't jump down from this height."
Chisato turned around, took a couple steps towards her and held her arms out with a goofy grin. Takina ignored her and skillfully climbed down by herself.
"I would have probably caught you."
"I know you would have."
Takina followed Chisato from a safe distance on her, to put it politely, reckless attempt to sneak up on and surprise their live-ammunition-carrying coworkers. She stayed behind as she made her approach.
"Hey, kids! Whatcha doing out here so late?" she said, doing her best impression of a concerned citizen.
"Wha-!" screamed Sakura. Takina decided to approach when she confirmed no shots were being fired. At least for the time being.
"Oh, you two," said Fuki, as she looked at Chisato, then Takina. "Great."
Takina nodded at them, doing the bare minimum to acknowledge their presence.
"That's how you talk to your favorite friend, Fuki? said Chisato, theatrically putting a hand to her own chest. "After all we've been through?"
"You? My favorite friend? Since when?"
"Since forever, I think? As long as I have memory, at least." She immediately switched gears and started giving her some pats to the shoulder. "Everything fine? How're you doing? It's been such a long time!" It really hadn't been that long.
"Why are you two here?" said Fuki, as she grabbed Chisato's arm away.
"Same question."
"You first," spat Fuki, glaring at her.
"No, I insist," she replied, returning the glare and imposingly leaning towards the shorter girl.
"I ain't speaking till you answer," she said, getting up on her face in response.
"Yeah, I bet you'd love it if I did," Chisato replied in kind. "Go ahead, answer me and I'll gladly do it."
They both kept repeating their practiced routine, their faces and words getting gradually closer and angrier, respectively. Takina eventually found herself forced to intervene.
"We are investigating this house due to an independent party's request," she said, strategically keeping the specifics to herself.
"Hm." Fuki put a hand to her chin. "I guess it's possible for some civilians to have noticed."
"Wait," Sakura grabbed her partner and whispered loudly enough for them to hear, "can we really tell these clowns?"
"They might be clowns, but that girl right there's basically the Bozonator," she said, pointing at Chisato. She looked at her. "Will you agree to help us?"
Takina was ready to refuse on her behalf, but Chisato raised her arm in front of her.
"Down to clown."
"Alright, give me a minute. I'll request they make this a joint operation and patch you guys through to our comms."
"Boooooring. If you want us to join officially, I'm officially requesting you two not to kill anybody. And unofficially requesting you to do our paperwork."
Fuki took a second to consider it. "...Fine."
"Wait, really?" asked Sakura.
"Really," she replied. "Besides the paperwork part." Chisato shrugged, which Fuki must have taken as a sign of agreement. She pulled her partner away as she began talking into her earpiece.
Takina couldn't help but give Chisato a quizzical look. She eventually started staring back.
"What's up, Takina? she said in a goofy voice. "Getting lost in my beautiful eyes?" She wasn't, though she wouldn't disagree with her assessment.
"Why did you agree to help them?" she asked, now that their coworkers were relatively distant.
"Don't you want to know what's going on?"
"I'm not complaining, I'm just wondering. I have never seen you help the DA willingly."
"This isn't the DA asking, it's Fuki. If she's desperate enough to ask me for help, it must mean there's something really weird going on."
Takina looked at her former partner in the distance, seemingly done with her call, then back at her current one. "You two really are close."
"Takinaaa... is that a little jealousy I sense?"
"It isn't."
"You're still my favorite, you know," she said while putting her arm around her shoulder and getting really close to her face.
"...I said it isn't," she said while continuously pushing her head away lightly.
"You two done flirting?" asked Fuki, walking back towards them.
"Almost!" said Chisato playfully.
"We are," said Takina seriously.
"Is channel 4 okay?"
"Yeah."
They set their earpieces to the shared channel.
"This may have been pointless, given what I'm about to tell you," said Fuki, "but it's better to do it just in case."
"Finally!" said Chisato. "This better be good."
What Fuki and Sakura told them was surprisingly similar to what they'd heard from their client, Mr. Kage. This house, creatively dubbed "The Spooky House" by Chisato, had weird properties. Everything electronic capable of recording, communicating or even just illuminating would start malfunctioning as soon as it entered the yard's confines, getting worse the closer it got to the house itself. Interference, power failure, even instant combustion in some rare cases. No way for a drone to approach, no way to record a video, no way to take a picture. Every attempt had resulted in failure, be it due to equipment malfunction or corrupted output. No matter the distance, every picture of the Spooky House would come out an artifacted mess. As you would expect of a haunted building, nobody had witnessed anyone going in or out, or signs of anyone living there.
To their client and the people they had asked about it, it was a mere curiosity. To the DA, a successful attempt to subvert Radiata. Takina understood why they'd accepted not to kill anyone so easily, if there really was someone behind this, they would prefer them alive. For the time being, anyways.
What their DA counterparts failed to mention, and the reason why LycoReco (really, Chisato) had taken this request was the ghost. Every night, at 3AM, a transparent figure would be visible on the first window from the left of the second floor. Convenient, in Takina's opinion, that the ghost saw fit to appear in an area in which photographic evidence was impossible to come by, but logical arguments weren't going to dissuade her partner.
Rumors of the so-called ghost had yet to be spread widely, given the inconvenient timing and the Spooky House's circumstances, which is why they were able to stand in the middle of the street unbothered by bystanders, but Mr. Kage swore that he'd seen it for three consecutive nights before contacting them.
"Wait, so you guys don't know about the ghost?" asked Chisato, once they were done with their explanation.
"Gh-ghost? Take this seriously, will ya?" asked Sakura, as she not so stealthily clung to her partner.
"Is this like the time a monster lived under our bunk bed at DA?" asked Fuki.
"Nope," replied Chisato. "In hindsight, I think that one was sleep paralysis."
"Our client claims a ghostly apparition will show itself here every night at around 3:00 AM," explained Takina.
Fuki looked at her watch. "That's soon."
"We're not actually going to wait for that, yeah?" asked Sakura.
"It's a clue," said Takina. "Given that ghosts don't exist, seeing whatever that thing is could help us figure this out."
"Or maybe they do, and we get to see one." added Chisato, unhelpfully.
"Takina's probably right," said Fuki. "I'm not a fan of wasting time, but a few minutes won't hurt." Takina greatly enjoyed the look of betrayal on Fuki's unnamed partner's face.
Given how close they were to the time in question, and that the ruckus they'd already caused didn't seem to have drawn any attention towards them, they didn't see a need to go back to their hiding spot.
They'd meet this ghost in its own yard.