Seal of Luck - Prologue
Disclaimer: I obviously do not own Ghost hunt or the characters. I'm just messing up with them...
A/N: Hello readers! Welcome to my first Ghost Hunt fic. Yup, this is an alternate story of Ghost Hunt. I have decided to make lots of change than the original story as it takes place in an alternate universe. Before you read, I need to tell you first that I made Mai OOC in this story. Why? Because I feel a little bit irritated with MaixNaru slow development in the anime/novel/manga. Especially with Mai's personality, it could take forever for the two to actually get together... not to mention there's Gene too... *sob*
Anyways, this story will have a lot of twists and a deep character background to spice things up.
I will stop my ramblings now, have fun reading!
It was a bright sunny day when a little girl with short brown hair and a black haired girl behind her decided to take a walk around that secret path. Their small steps carefully walked past the grass and woods, ignoring the itchiness from the bushes that kept brushing their skin for the past minutes. The girl behind her, however, didn't feel the same as her other friend. She kept calling over her friend's name in hope that she would stop her silly adventure to god knows where she was heading.
"Mai, can't we stop for awhile? I'm tired," whined the black haired girl.
The girl named Mai barely even glance her back just to reply her. "Oh come on Michiru! It's not that far!"
"But we have been walking like this for almost an hour! Where exactly we're heading anyway?!"
"Just past those rocks!" She pointed the large rocks ahead of them just across a river surrounded by trees.
"Mai! That's crazy! We're not monkeys! We can't possibly just jump off to those rocks!"
"Aw Michi! You really have no sense of adventure! We don't need to jump off to get past there, we're going to use the bridge over there!" She pointed out another direction towards an old bridge hanging on top of the broad river.
"What? Mai, but that's an old bridge! What if we fell? No, I'm not going! Besides, Kaya-sensei forbade us to go past there."
Mai gulped when she heard the mentioned name, yet that didn't falter her determination to move forward. "But, it's too far to go back now... it'll be alright as long as she doesn't know, right?"
"Are you sure she didn't realize us left the school? We will be in trouble if she found out about this...." Michiru stated it fearfully, trying to forget the terrible memory she had when they got caught red handed while trying to sneak out of the school last month.
"Yes, she would surely give you two a hellish punishment," said a third voice out of nowhere.
"Right, Mai, that's why we must... huh?" Michiru quickly turned around to see the owner of the voice before her.
In front of them, stood a young woman in her early twenties, smiling at them with the most malicious grin ever.
"Eeek!" shrieked Mai and Michiru at the same time as they both stumbled backwards.
The woman before them was still staring at them with her big cyan eyes just behind her transparent glasses. She was wearing a tight white shirt with black trousers. Her curly light brown hair was let loose to her back, showing how beautiful she was, though the beauty itself didn't hide the anger shown on her face towards the two little girls in front of her who looked no older than 10 year old.
"Now, where do you think you're going, little ladies?" asked her in an intimidating tone.
Both Mai and Michiru glanced at each other, hoping any of them would dare to answer her question. At last they both decided to answer it together. "No..nowhere in particular... Kaya-sensei."
"Well then, if that's true.. now I ask you two to return to where you should be now before I double the punishment for you both back at school."
They both let out a desperate groan. Knowing that argue would bring them nowhere, they obediently nodded and followed the path back to where the woman had pointed out.
Along the walk, Mai looked at Kaya from the corner of her eyes. She hesitated for a moment before opening her mouth to speak, "Kaya-sensei, I'm sorry... it was my idea, Michi has nothing to do with this."
Michiru looked at Mai in surprise. "Mai..."
"Hmm... and what makes you think that passing this forbidden area was such an interesting idea, Taniyama Mai-chan?" asked Kaya in a sarcasm way though her voice sounded calm.
"I..I saw a weird animal..."
"Animal?"
"Yes... I saw it ran towards the forest few days ago. It looked like a cat but it's bigger and it has 4 ears! I.. I know it sounds unbelievable but I saw it... and I wanted to show it to Michiru."
After hearing the reason, Kaya suddenly stopped. She somehow contemplative her words and lost in thought. Mai and Michiru glanced at each other before looking back at her in confusion.
Michiru decided to break her teacher from her reverie. "Kaya-sensei?"
Kaya blinked and faced the girls with reassuring smile. "Ah.. it's nothing. You must be overseeing things Mai-chan. Oh come one, we have to go back soon, let's go." She said it in a hurried tone, making both Mai and Michiru staring at her astounded.
Before they both could move one more step, out of nowhere, a sudden move from the bushes surprised them. Before they could realize what was it or what had happened, they saw blood dripping from Kaya's leg. Kaya was almost sank to the ground before she supported herself by leaning to a tree with a shocked expression.
"Kaya-sensei!" Both Mai and Michiru shrieked at her.
"Wha..what happened?!" Mai frantically moved to her side, "A-Are you okay?"
What surprised them more wasn't the wound on Kaya's leg. It was her furious expression that kept the girls not to move closer.
"Cih... not at a time like this!" She muttered something under her breath before she looked at the girls seriously, "Run! Run as fast as you can!" shouted her, making the two girls winced.
Mai eyes was widened in bewilderment. She looked at Kaya's wound which was now smeared by more blood than before. "But..but... what about--"
"There's no time to argue! RUN!"
Michiru was the first to regain her composure, she quickly grabbed Mai's wrist and took her out of that place in hurry.
"Mi..Michi! What about sensei?"
"Don't worry, I'm sure she'll be alright! Whatever it's we need to find help!"
Mai nodded to herself in agreement. She then fastened her steps to match with Michiru, but something caught them off guard. A strange animal just appeared out of the bushes, forced them to stop their track. Mai eyes widened when she recognized the animal as the one she saw prior days ago. That animal was indeed looked like a cat, although it was bigger than normal cat. It had black fur with 2 pairs of red eyes and 4 ears.
"Wha..what in the world is that?" asked Michiru with panic engulfed her tone.
"That.. that's the animal I saw!" exclaimed Mai.
"It..it doesn't look friendly... does it?"
Both girls gasped in fear as the said animal approached them slowly. Its eyes showed greed and hunger, something that Mai concluded as a bad premonition. She glanced at her right side and saw a river not too far from them. Without her could comprehend what's going on, her mind just suddenly screamed at her to run from that place towards the river.
Michiru however was too shocked to move, she seemed to have forgotten what she had been doing. Mai took the initiative by grabbing her wrist and ran to the other side, away from the threatening animal.
"Michiru! the river! run to the river!" She yelled at her.
As if awaken from a brutal nightmare, Michiru suddenly understood what Mai had said. She nodded firmly and determined herself to run faster without looking back. Mai herself didn't know what made her think that they'd be safe if they went to the river, whatever it's, she decided to trust her so called instinct.
Seeing its target ran, the creature took its leave after them. What they didn't expect was that it moved faster than any animal could possibly move. Seeing how fast it ran, Mai fastened her pace forward, ignoring her need for breath. As they approached the river, Mai gestured herself to jump. Michiru who saw it just shook her head hopelessly as she closed her eyes and followed the brunette girl. However, the animal moved faster and jumped towards Michiru.
"Aaaah!!!" Michiru cried in pain as the said creature bit her left leg. Before she could shook it away, she was already mid-air almost hit the water beneath her.
The next thing she could remember, she was already surrounded by water. The impact of the water made her quite dizzy, but it didn't fail her mind to bring herself aware about her need for air. She tried to move up to the light, yet her leg was too excruciating to move. Then she saw someone grabbed her wrist as she felt herself being lifted upwards.
"Mai! Michiru!" A familiar voice called on to them as they were dragged out of the river.
Mai was the first to open her eyes, she saw Kaya was clutching to her side with eyes filled with fear and concern. She seemed to relieve when Mai coughed out and tried her best to sit up. Mai brown eyes quickly scanned her surrounding for any sign of her friend. There on her right, she saw Michiru lied not too far from her.
"Michi!" She looked at her in panic as she saw blood coming from her leg.
Mai abruptly leapt to Michiru's side. She examined her condition and noticed the biting mark. However, the creature who caused it was nowhere to be found.
"Oh my god!" Kaya exclaimed fearfully. "This is a terrible wound!"
Mai could see the wound deeply injured Michiru's leg to her bone. A lot amount of blood can be seen flowing from her leg nonstop.
"Aaaaaargh!" Michiru screamed in pain as Kaya tried to lift her, surprising both female. Kaya was now too scared to lift her after hearing such scream.
"Michi!" Mai called on her as she hold her hand tightly.
Michiru opened her eyes slowly and looked at Mai. Her face showed how much the wound had agonizing her, "Ugh.. it.. hurts.. it hurts so much!" she sobbed.
Mai no longer care just how much tears she had shed for her friend. She stared into her eyes with guilt filling her, "I'm sorry... I'm so sorry! This is all my fault! Oh I'm so sorry, Michi!"
Michiru shook her head weakly as she tried to smile despite of the sore.
"We need to get her to the hospital soon, Michiru-chan please hold on for awhile. "Kaya watched as the girl nodded weakly. She then turned her attention to Mai. "Mai-chan... let's move."
However the little girl sat still with hands holding Michiru's more tightly than before. She kept muttering apologies until something unexpected happened. Mai's hands suddenly glowed brightly, engulfing both Michiru and Kaya with a bright light, surprising the two. Before they could react to what happened, their wounds suddenly started to recover. Michiru could feel the wounds on her leg rapidly healed back to normal as the pain started to go away. Even her blood was flowing back to her skin, leaving no scar or whatsoever. Both Michiru and Kaya blinked. Too stunned to say a thing. Mai released her grip from Michiru's hand and stared into her own hands in disbelief.
"The pain... it no longer hurts.." Michiru was the first to broke the silence. She gaped at Mai, looking astonished. "Mai, wha-what happened? What did you just do?"
"I..I don't know." Mai replied, just as confused as Michiru.
Kaya put Michiru back to the ground and examining her own wound, it was gone. She then looked back at Mai and cocked her brow.
"Mai-chan, that power... have you ever used that power in front of anyone else?" She asked her, somewhat sounded very serious.
"N..No, this is the first time I.. I ever saw... I mean, done something like this."
Looking somewhat convinced, Kaya grabbed Mai's hand and stared into her eyes. "Mai-chan, then listen to me. You must keep this a secret and never talk about this to anyone else unless you trust that person with your life, do you understand?"
"Huh? But.. why?"
"Just promise me."
Reluctant for a moment, Mai was silent for awhile before she caught Kaya's eyes and saw the seriousness in her. She decided to agree with her and nodded affirmatively.
Kaya then gave her a relieved look and turned to face Michiru. "You too Michiru-chan, keep her secret."
Michiru nodded to her then glanced back at Mai, she smiled to her warmly. "Mai... um.. thank you. That was amazing! Uh.. I mean.. I'll keep your secret safe."
Mai blinked her eyes rapidly. She stared at her wide eyed, almost looked dumbfound. Then she smiled back at her endearingly.
Kaya placed her hand at Mai's head and rub it gently, she smiled to her as well. "You saved us... Mai-chan, thank you."
After a moment of silent, they all started stifling a laugh. All of tension suddenly went away along with the sound of the cheerful laughter on the air. Kaya then cleared her throat and informed that it's time for them to move on back to the town. She helped the other two got to their feet and continued their walk out of that place.
"Kaya-sensei?" Michiru called out to her carefully.
"Hmm?"
"What was that animal?" asked her curiously. Mai too was watching at her in hope she would satisfy their curiosity.
Kaya seemed to have lost in thought before she decided to reply to them. "That was a youkai."
"Youkai?" both girls repeated the word in unison.
"Right, it wasn't a human nor an animal. It's more like a spirit and that one was an evil one. Both of you were lucky to run into the river, it's weak against water."
Both Mai and Michiru didn't say anything for awhile as the memories of the past events started to replay back on their mind.
"So, it was dangerous?" asked Mai.
Kaya nodded to her. "Normally, it won't attack people but just recently it started to get more and more aggressive. I have yet to know the reason, so you two better stay away from this area, is that clear?"
"But... sensei, how come we never saw anything like that around here before? I mean... why there's no description about that youkai anywhere in school books?" inquired Michiru, still thirst for knowledge.
Kaya exhaled a deep sigh as she resumed her walk restlessly. "Because normal people can't see youkai."
"Huh? But we..."
"In your case, it's because of Mai-chan."
Mai gave her a surprised look, "M-Me?"
"Yes, I suppose the seal around you is weakening..." she trailed off, making the two girls looking at her in utter confusion.
Kaya then pulled out a pendant from her back pocket and handed it to Mai. "Take it." She told her. "It'll protect you."
"What's this?" Mai asked her as she examined the necklace in her hand. It was a beautiful pendant with a purple pendulum on it.
"Some kind of charm, you can call it... a seal of luck." Kaya winked at her and helped Mai to put it on her neck.
As the necklace rested on Mai's chest, Mai somehow felt warm and calm. She touched the pendulum and looked back at Kaya with a smile plastered on her face, "Thank you so much, sensei! It's pretty!" chirped her happily.
Kaya smiled back to her before she replied. "Keep it always with you and never take it off. Remember, you must keep your secret safe no matter what."
With that, Mai felt her words engraved deeply into her heart. She nodded firmly as new determination born within her.
A seal of luck and a promise to keep...
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---To be continued---
Next Chapter:
First Case – Beginning of a mess
In Mai's school, strange things have been happening lately. Some of the students claimed that their bodies were switched, some even found unconscious and none of them has awaken afterwards. Naru is called to investigate these occurrences and meets Mai for the first time.