Reason

My first story, so please go easy on me with the reviews. Constructive criticism is great and appreciated. Thank you.

Disclaimer ('cause I don't wanna get sued...): I do not own the characters of Ghost Hunt.

Chapter 1 - Problems arise

I know everything happens for a reason, but sometimes I wish I knew what that reason was.

"You there, report to Headquarters immediately! They should send the best strategists they can find!", a man with long blond hair tied into a pony tail yelled. The man he had yelled at saluted shortly, before quickly running off to complete his orders.
"Takigawa! Get over here!", a woman's voice yelled from one of the many rooms.
The man named Takigawa let out a sigh. They should raise his pay after all this...
"Coming!", he yelled back over all the noise in the hallway. He traveled down a few more doors before bursting into a room on the right side of the hallway.

The room was filled with screens hanging all over the walls. The light was turned of, so Takigawa could barely see the red haired woman sitting at the big desk in the middle of the room. Not giving his eyes the time to adjust to the darkness he stepped into the room and stood behind the woman.
"What do you want old hag?", he asked.
The woman twirled her chair around and stood up in a fluent motion. "What did you say?!", she screeched.
"Nothing." he answered, flinching away slightly. Yes, he defiantly needed a pay raise, dealing with this woman every single day.

The woman let out a huff, deciding to let the matter drop, before turning to the screens. "The situation got worse. I don't think they will make it."
"Stop thinking so negative, Matsuzaki. They always make it."
"Takigawa, there is no way in this hell that they will make it out alive! I mean, look at their situation! They are about to be eaten alive by some freaking rank four demons!", Matsuzaki cried, "There's no way..."

"You know we can hear you, Ayako." a girls voice rang through the speakers installed under the desk, "Thanks for putting so much faith in us."
"Mai!", Ayako's surprised voice echoed through the quiet soundproof room.
"That sounds like she's surprised that we are still alive..." a male voice spoke up.
"Naru, how do you plan to get out?" Takigawa asked.
"I've been busy beating um demons. I haven't thought of a plan yet. Isn't that your job when I'm out?" Naru asked a little annoyed.

The screen in the middle of the room showed a black haired teenager wearing electric blue headsets slicing a horrible looking creature in half with some kind of sword. The teen didn't seem to be phased by all the blood that splashed all over the place, including on himself.
"Well, according to your sensors you two are located southeast from a checkpoint. Try getting there first." Takigawa instructed.
"Of we go!", Mai shouted and a brown haired teen-girl, wearing the same pair of headsets, only red, could be seen charging into a mob of creatures holding a blood soaked sword.
"Mai!", Naru yelled. He let out a sigh before following Mai and disappearing off the screen.

"Well, at least they're alive." Takigawa mumbled quietly, knowing that the two teens could still hear him through their headsets.
"Defiantly alive." Ayako whispered back, "Should we follow them with the camera?"
"I don't think we should move the satellite camera just for them. Let's switch to the outside cameras of the checkpoint they are headed to."
"Alright, just give me a second." Ayako said and sat down in her chair. The sound of her fingers hitting the keyboard at a fast pace echoed through the room.

Just a few seconds later the main screen shifted locations and now showed a green field with a few daisy's instead of the bloody battlefield.
"Naru, how long do you think you will need for another half a mile?" Ayako asked, glancing over to another screen that was showing a map with two small blinking red dots on it and different blue marked points.

Naru didn't answer.

"Naru? Are you there?", Ayako asked. When he didn't respond once again she cast a nervous side glance at Takigawa. Their eyes met.
If something happened to them...
"Mai! Report in!", Takigawa commanded. No response from the teenage girl either.

"Mai! Naru!", Ayako yelled, hoping they would hear her if she raised her voice, but the room staid silent.

"Naru, we lost contact!", Mai called over to her squad leader.
"I noticed. They're probably panicking by now." He said, slicing up yet another demon.
"What should we do?" Mai asked, dodging some kind of nails that looked pretty sharp.
"Head to the checkpoint. There should be a camera there. It should be on the other side of the hill."
"What if it isn't there?" Mai asked innocently. Naru gave her a blank stare, ignoring all the deadly creatures around them. "What? Even you can be wrong every once in a while!" Mai defended.

Instead of answering the girl Naru turned back to the last few demons. He inhaled, staring at them. The demons fell to the ground, killed. He exhaled.

Mai stared at him, impressed that he was so fast, but at the same time kept on repeating that he was a show off.
Not noticing Mai's gaze, Naru rid his sword of blood with a fast swipe and slid it into it's sheath on his back. When he started moving up the hill, Mai finally snapped out of it. She repeated after Naru and packed away her sword, before jogging to catch up with her boss.

They could see a small tower just at the bottom of the hill they where standing on. Like Naru predicted. "Why do you always have to be right?" Mai asked the genius.
"It would be bad if I would have been wrong, wouldn't it?", Naru answered with a question.
"This is so not fair." Mai mumbled to herself. Why does he always out best her? Physical, verbal, skill and in intelligence! Well, on the other hand, he is her superior, so he should be more skilled than her...

"They should have noticed us on the screen by now." Naru said, although more to himself. When they finally reached the round tower, Naru felt along the sides until he came across a little bump. He pressed down and a little pad appeared out of the wall.
Mai and Naru let their hands be scanned by the monitor. When it finished the scanning it pulled back into the wall and a unnoticeable slide door opened in front of the two, granting them entrance to the tower.

They climbed up a few steps when they then entered a small round room. Cables where all over the place, leading to a huge machine standing in one corner, a refrigerator, a small speaker, a screen, much like Ayako's and microphone attached to a small table with a chair.

Naru walked up to the mic and pressed a little button at the base. "Reporting in. Takigawa, Ayako?"
"Naru!", came the immediate two voiced response of the two adults.
"We lost contact. It could be our headsets, but there isn't a very high chance that both would suddenly have some kind of technical problem at the same time."
"It could be that you two got into a so called 'hole'. There have been reports about sudden lost contact."

"That's something you two should look up. Has anyone else reported about a hole in this area?", Naru asked.
"Give me a second." Ayako answered and it became quiet on the other side.
"Naru." Mai spoke up. When he turned around Mai threw a bottle of water in his direction.

She wasn't surprised when she didn't get a thank you of any sorts. It's something she got use to over the two weeks they had been working together. With a little crack sound she opened the bottle and took a few quick sips.
"Guys." Takigawa's voice came in.
"Any info?", Mai asked, closing her bottle.
"There have been no reports. A group passed through that area a few minutes ago and they had no trouble." Ayako said.

A tense silence hung in the air. "Does that mean that our headsets were sabotaged?", Mai whispered.
"Probably." Naru said grimly.
"Let's talk about this when you two are back, the mission isn't completed yet. You guys are supposed to be the backup for team 22."
"Okay, we'll be on our way. We will stock up some supplies and get a map. Where are they currently?", Naru asked.
"Oh, they are only another two miles south! You guys can take the mission subject and return to this checkpoint in another three hours if it's bad!", a new voice said, obviously excited.

"Madoka!", Mai cheered.
"Mai!", the woman cheered back.
"We'll be on our way now." Naru said and turned off the mic, cutting off the connection to the main quarters.
"I'll search for some stuff upstairs." Mai declared and left the room.

Naru listened to Mai's footsteps as she climbed the stairs to the floor above where another room was located. The room was mainly used for stowing supplies, like ammo, but sleeping bags and similar where also located in some of the many boxes. With a short sigh he walked over to the fridge. He found some caned drinks and crackers, who came up with the idea to put them into the fridge, he didn't know.

"Naru!" Mai screamed. Immediately Naru made his way upstairs. The girl had never screamed before and he had never seen her truly scared either. When he reached the room his eyes widened for a split second. The "unbreakable" wall had a huge hole in it and there stood a big level two demon. It had spikes all over it's body and grey rotten skin in it's face, making Mai sick. Huge sharp horns stuck out of it's head and bloody red eyes. All in all, you could say that it was a horrible sight.

The jaw almost detached from the rest of the head as the demon grinned, the rotten skin stretching, almost ripping apart. Slowly it raised it's arm before stretching it out to grab the terrified girl. "Mai! Dodge it!", Naru yelled at her, but she snapped out of her shock to slow and the monster grabbed her leg as she attempted to lunge out of the way.
It raised it's victim, that was now hanging upside down, to it's eyes level. Mai noticed up close that it's eyes where as large as her head. Slowly it leaned it's head back and opened it's mouth, Mai closed her eyes as she was hit by the disgusting smell of rotten organs. She couldn't do anything else than wait for it to eat her.

Suddenly she heard the ripping off flesh and before she even knew it she was falling, just to be caught. She looked up to see Naru staring at her.
"Stay here." he said quietly. Mai nodded as he set her back down.
As soon as she was standing on her own he dashed off to fight the demon. Mai didn't even remember Naru killing the demon. She didn't register what was going on, her whole world seemed to be falling apart.
Her mind was pulled back to reality when a pair of arm wrapped around her. First then her mind seemed to register what had happened, what had almost happened.

She cried. Cried over everything and nothing. Through her sob's she heard Naru keep on whispering the same phrase into her ear.

"You're alive."

I hope you guys like it! I can't promise that the next chapters will also be so long...
Just so it is clear: 6 is the lowest (weakest) rank of demons

Thanks for reading!

rain628