I do not own Ghost Hunt.
The ground was damp beneath her body. She could feel a light drizzle starting to soak into her clothes. There was a ringing in her ears and she couldn't move her limbs. A dull ache started in her head and it took her the better part of a minute to lift her upper body off the ground. Her visions blinked in and out of focus and it was a while before the fragmented images coalesced into a single view.
Mai was lying in a forest. Dense brush surrounded her. A pine scent reached her, growing stronger by the second because of the rain. She forced herself to get to her feet and looked around. The supine form of Masako had her stumbling over to the medium, dropping heavily to her knees beside her still body.
"Masako," Mai said, shaking her. "Masako, wake up. You need to wake up now."
The girl didn't move. A thin trail of blood rolled from her forehead and into the grass. Panicked, Mai searched for a pulse and sighed in relief when she found one, albeit a faint one. A twig snapped loudly in the silence and she jumped, spinning around wildly. Nothing moved in the dark. Worried that some wild animal might come across them, she slid her arm around Masako's back and lifted her. Mai limped slowly, pulling Masako along. The girl groaned but she forged on. She couldn't afford to be remiss when she didn't even know where they were. Or how they got so far away from the others.
"Mai," Masako whispered, pain in her voice. "Please stop. My ankle…I think it's sprained."
Mai ground to a halt and helped Masako to the ground. The girl was still half sucked into unconsciousness. She leaned her head back against the tree and closed her eyes.
"Stay awake!" Mai snapped. "If you don't I swear I will leave you here."
After a moment of painful silence Masako responded, much to Mai's relief. "You'd like that, wouldn't you? Then you'd have Naru all to yourself."
"Is this really the time to be arguing over that? You always choose the most inopportune moments to have this fight."
"Forgive me if my dying is coming in the way of your feelings about me and Naru." Masako coughed and shivered, her arms trying to rub some warmth into her body.
"Okay, first of all, you're not dying. It's just a sprained ankle. And two, there is no you and Naru. I'm sure he would have made it abundantly clear if there was," Mai retorted, annoyed that she had let Masako goad her into this volatile mess concerning a certain midnight-eyed man.
"You're just jealous that we've been on actual dates," Masako said, tilting her chin up in a superior manner.
"Don't you mean blackmailed dates," Mai muttered under her breath. Unfortunately the medium heard the comment and blushed, her cheeks tinging red.
"Does it really matter how I managed to get him on a date? The fact is that he came with me, and you're burning with envy that it wasn't you in my place."
Mai shot her an incredulous look, unable to believe she was willing to go this far to hurt her. Sure, she had seen them go on a date once, and it had hurt like hell, but once Naru's true identity had been revealed, the truth had also come out about the reason behind those brief liaisons. Still, she wouldn't rise to the bait. She wouldn't be made into the bad one, not when she was doing her damndest in trying to keep Masako conscious.
"You know what? I'm not even going to respond to such a childish comment," she said instead. "If you really want to goad me into leaving you here so you can complain to Naru about this later, you can forget it. You're a part of my small family, and I won't leave you behind no matter how much you annoy me. So go ahead, do your worst."
Mai stood, hands on her hips, and eyed their surroundings. They must have fallen pretty far away from the others. The brush this side was thick and untouched and she wondered why no hikers had ever ventured here. There wasn't even a path on the ground to follow. Just an undisturbed flow of green.
"I'm sorry," Masako said softly. "You're right. That was childish of me. I'm scared, Mai. And I don't know what to do about it."
Mai sighed and brushed the strands of hair falling onto her forehead off her face. Her skin was damp from the rain but inside her blood boiled. "It's okay. I'm here with you. I won't let anything happen to you. But first we need to try to find out where the others are. I can't even get a bearing, seeing as how deep we are."
"I can't really remember what happened," Masako murmured. "All I recall was driving along the road. And then Monk swerved violently and Miss Matsuzaki screamed. That's it."
"You're not wrong," Mai said. "I'm not entirely sure what caused Monk to react in such a way but something must have spooked him. He's usually more careful than that."
"Do you…do you think it was a spirit?"
"Shouldn't you be able to tell me that?" Mai asked dryly.
"My senses are all disoriented. I can't tell left from right. I might have a concussion."
"That's convenient," Mai muttered again.
She sighed again. She wasn't afraid. She supposed it was because she was with someone else and not by herself. Still, Masako, no matter how undesirable her company was, was better than nothing. A dull throb started in her head and she rubbed it absently, thinking about Naru. She hoped he wasn't badly hurt from the crash. It was strange though, that she and Masako ended so far away from the others.
"Do you think it was intentional?" the girl asked in a frightened voice, though brave enough to voice the question Mai couldn't. "Do you think we were thrown so far away from the crash site for a reason?"
"I think you might have a concussion," Mai said hastily, gnawing her bottom lip. She didn't want Masako to think the dark thoughts already running through her mind. "We should keep moving. We might stumble across some of the others."
Mai reached out her hand to help the girl up when a rustling in the bushes behind them made them freeze. Mai turned her head slowly. The bushes rustled again, the sound a mere whisper through the dark. And yet nothing had ever sounded louder to her.
"Naru?" she whispered, desperately hoping it was him and not some wandering spirit. "Is that you?"
"Not quite."
The voice that answered raised the hairs at the back of Mai's neck. She straightened and slowly faced the bushes as a figure began to take shape in the darkness. Masako clutched her hand tightly, squeezing the life out of her fingers. Of all the thoughts running through her mind, there was one thing she knew for certain. The voice wasn't Naru's. Nor did it belong to anyone else in SPR.
