Sorry for not updating sooner! I've been very very busy :/
Disclaimer: I don't own Ghost Hunt or any of it's characters.
Please R&R
Saturday, February 13 (cont.)
Naru felt his legs begin to lose circulation due to his standing there for far longer than he had anticipated, but he shifted his weight and told himself to stop complaining. He had his arms holding Mai against his chest so that she'd stay standing and he'd occasionally move her hair away from her face when the wind blew it askew. It was almost strange how connected he felt to her… it was a feeling he hadn't had since Gene was around. Mai was different from his brother though, he felt as if he loved her more but he also knew that it was different sort of love. '…Valentine's Day is tomorrow.' He thought, the information came to his mind out of no where, catching completely off guard. 'Shit! What am I supposed to do?'
As he was pondering these thoughts a large gust of wind came and in the instant the wind hit their bodies something else strange happened that caught him off guard (yet again). It was as if Mai had just taken a dip in the ocean, her entire body drenched with water. Her hair and her clothes became matted against her body with the weight of the water and the ground beneath her feet turned into mud as if it had been raining for days just in the one spot.
"Mai?" his eyes widened in surprise as the brunette began to stir. Not wanting to get his shirt soaked, he put a little distance between himself and his favorite assistant. Seeing her soaked though brought back memories from the pointless case Ms. Hara had forced him to take. Mai was paired up with Monk at the time and they both got drenched with water, the memory made him smile, slightly. Of course there was the fact that Mai just so happened to choose the wrong day to wear a colorfully printed bra.
Mai opened her beautiful brown eyes and blinked before she looked up at him. "Naru…"
"Yes?" He replied calmly as if every girl he meets randomly gets drenched head to toe in what smelled like rain water. In truth he was trying very hard not to notice the frilly pink and red hearts decorating her bra.
"It's really cold." She whined crossing her arms tightly across her chest as another gust of wind hit them, she began to shiver slightly.
"That's because you're soaked with water dummy." He smirked, inwardly resisting the urge to find out if she was wearing matching under garments.
"You're a jerk." Her brown eyes met his with scorn but he could tell she really didn't mean it.
"No, I'm just smarter than you are. Here." Naru took off his blazer and put it around her shoulders, there was no need to share those frilly hearts with anyone else. "Now let's go inside, you need a change of clothes and we need to know what you saw as well."
During their short absence the guys had placed all of their suitcases in the appropriate rooms. Mai's were by the windows that looked out over the cliff. At the moment the sun was beginning to set and the sky was turning into beautiful shades of pink and orange. Wishing she could stay longer and watch the sun set she changed quickly into a pretty white flower patterned sun dress, grabbed a light blue sweater and ran a brush through her tangled wet hair before returning to the base room.
Everything seemed to be in place, which made her feel bad because she didn't help as she usually did. The monitors had been set up along the wall opposite of the windows and Lin's usual set up was next to them. The furniture that had been in the room had been moved around to fit their purposes with the couch up against the wall with the windows and a few chairs around a small table in a corner of the room. There weren't any pictures on the walls or anything that would indicate the previous use of this room, the only thing that stood out to her was the fact that the room hadn't been painted all the way and that it was very dusty.
Monk and John weren't there so she had to assume that they had been sent them off some where to collect information. Naru, however, was already by Lin's side looking over the older man's shoulder as he typed away on his lap top and periodically pointed out things that he deemed important. Naru had notice that she had entered the room, only pausing in his work to watch her as she studied the room. 'Cute,' he thought to himself as he studied her dress before turning back to the screen. 'Even better if she brought some tea with her…'
"If you will, Mai, tea." He said keeping his eyes on what Lin was researching, something about police involvement on the property…
'Maybe it's an addiction of some sort' she thought to herself but she smiled. 'Can some one really be addicted to tea? Well, seeing how this is Naru, anything is possible.' She tucked some hair behind her ear before walking right out the door again. "Sure thing boss!" she said before closing the door behind her.
It took her a bit to actually find the kitchen because she hadn't been with the group when the tour was given. It was simple and old fashion with out dated appliances and oddly very dusty, like it wasn't used much. 'Maybe Mrs. Himura doesn't cook often…' Mai thought absently looking through the cabinets until she found a tea pot and some cups, they too were oddly dusty. The tea she had brought her self because there was that one case where their clients were big on coffee and didn't drink tea and Naru… well he didn't handle the withdrawal too well.
While waiting for the water to boil, Mai dusted off a chair and sat down at a small table looking around the kitchen, soon spotting a calendar nailed to the wall on the other side of the room. She got up and walked over to it. The calendar's theme was old historical sites in Japan and the picture that was showing was of Kyoto, for the month of November. 'November? That odd and it's from 3 years ago as well...' Her brows furrowed in confusion.
Clack…thud…drag…clack…thud…drag – Mai froze when she heard the noise come from behind her. "Wh-who's there?" she squeaked, slightly turning her head, she felt cold air on the back of her neck.
"It's just me Miss Mai, sorry if I scared you." Mr. Himura apologized.
Mai breathed a sigh of relief and turned to face the injured man. "Hey Mr. Himura, how are you? I was making tea, would you like some?" she asked pulling out a chair for him to sit.
"Thank you, that would be nice." He replied sitting down he made little noise while rearranging his crutches. Mai busied her self with preparing the tea and decided now would be a good time to ask him about the house but he beat her to the questioning first. He asked her about school and her friends but never pushed for any details.
When the conversation came to recent events he didn't seem to know what she was talking about so she decided to ask about his wife. "When did you and Mrs. Himura meet?"
"Kaoru and I met when she was running a dojo in Tokyo, she was very spirited. Yes… very spirited indeed, you remind me of her in a way." He sighed. "I miss her so much…" As he was talking he had been looking out the dusty window. Now he was looking her straight in the eye as if searching for something, his sad eyes diving into her as if he were reading her soul. After what seemed like a life time he must have found what he was looking for because he leaned forward in his chair with a satisfied look on his face. "Tell Kaoru, I'll be waiting for her and that we'll be together again."
"What do you mean Mr.- " Mai began to ask, baffled.
"Mai, it doesn't take that long to make tea. What have you been doing?" Naru said as he walked into the room with Lin behind him.
She glanced at him and then at the tea that was still on the stove. "Sorry, I was talking with – " she turned back to Mr. Himura, who disappeared into no where. "But he was just?"
"Who were you talking to?" Naru gave her a slightly quizzical look.
It was then that something clicked in her mind. The thick layer of dust all over the house, the calendar from three years ago, and the chill she felt when Mr. Himura had come into the room. In fact the first time she met him she hadn't even heard him walk up behind her until he had said something. She looked back at Naru and Lin. "A ghost… I was talking with a ghost." She replied softly.
Monk glanced over his shoulder at the house as they walked in the direction in which they assumed Masako and Ayako had. "Man, does this place creep you out or what?"
"I'll have to admit, something about it is very strange." John replied, glad that he had brought a flashlight with him, the sun was setting fast and being on a haunted property at night wasn't the safest of ideas when you didn't know what was out there. "What do you think they could be doing that would take them so long?" he asked looking around. The property was big but no matter where you stood you could see the fence that surrounded it on all sides but the girls were no where in sight.
"I wouldn't have a clue," Monk replied casually but from his expression it was easy to tell that he was worried about Ayako. "Maybe they got lost."
John turned on his flash light and began systematically scanning the area. He couldn't help but periodically checking the woods, maybe they had found a break in the fence. If it was him he would have waited till morning to check it out, the trees were tall, dark, and close together making it impossible to see into. "I think we'll have a better chance of finding them if we called out for them." He said to Monk who nodded in agreement.
"Ayako! Masako! "
"Ayako!"
"Where are you two?"
"Takigawa!" a strained voice called out.
"Ayako? Where are you?" Monk called back, straining to hear where her voice was coming from. There was a rustling in the trees. John immediately flashed his torch over the spot waiting for a few suspenseful seconds before something emerged. Ayako fell out of the brush with Masako on her back. Both men rushed over to help them.
"What happened to you guys?" The worry was evident in his voice as he helped Ayako into a sitting position. Her black tee was clinging to her back from sweat and the knees of her jeans had dirt and grass stains. Masako didn't look much better. Parts of her kimono were torn and smudged with dirt. Her face seemed paler than it was usually and made her appear ghostly in the dark. Both of them were breathing hard as if they had been running.
"It's a lot to explain." Ayako replied tucking a strand of loose red hair behind her ear as she looked up at Hosho. "We need to get some where safer than here."
"Let's get back to base first. I think it'd be safer there." John helped Masako to her feet and lifted her arm across his thin shoulders. Monk nodded in agreement as he lifted his girlfriend to her feet. The group made quickly made their way back to the house.
It was not long before everyone was finally together in the base. Naru had to have everyone calm down and seated before he had any of them speak. Lin set up his laptop so that he was ready to type the relevant events as they were told. Naru had Mai make tea as Ayako and Masako began their story of what happened.
"We were going to walk around the perimeter near the woods," Ayako began. "When… Masako?"
"I heard many voices. Some were frightened but one… One was…" The medium seemed at a lose for words.
"Was what?" Naru asked.
"Angry, hateful, murderous. He doesn't want us here." She replied fear hanging around the edges of her voice. "The ground here I soaked with so much blood… I don't think I'll be able to continue with this case." Her blue eyes reflected regret but it was clear the fear for her own safety out weighed feeling bad about giving up.
"No one is condemning you for leaving; however, we need to know how you ended up in the woods and why." His eyes were cold and his tone was serious, he could care less about her leaving, it wasn't going to hinder the investigation.
"I felt someone else take over, I had no control over where I went but I could feel this person's fear. I could hear yelling too. "Get out! Get out! I will KILL who ever trespasses!" So I ran to where it seemed the safest." She glanced up at the door, where Mai had just entered, after she set down the try Masako continued. "The forest isn't part of the property but the spirit didn't seem to care until I was at least five meters in when the trees started to become too thick to pass through."
"I had followed her all the way there. I must say for wearing a kimono you run pretty fast." The older woman commented taking a cup off the tea tray. "However when I found her she had collapsed on the ground. She wouldn't move and she kept telling me to get away from her. Pleading for me not to kill her, at that point I figured she had to be possessed so I began to chant.
"That was when I heard John and Hosho calling for us and Masako returned to her self, right?" she glanced at the China doll like teen.
"That is correct." She nodded. "The spirit fled, I believe it is still on these grounds though. Its last moments were too violent for it to move on."
"I understand. Thank you for what you have done thus far Ms. Hara, you are free to leave in the morning. Ms. Matsuzaki I need you to make charms for the bedrooms and the base so that we can all rest without the risk of being attacked or possessed during the night." Naru looked directly at Mai when spoke the words 'attacked' and 'possessed' as if she was the only one the ghosts were most likely to act upon.
In retrospect, he is probably right.
Thank you sooo much for your patience with my poor updating! and for staying with me despite that :D so I will be doing my best, now that it is summer (which is AWESOME! XD ). to update chapters more frequently.
Thank you again! PLEASE R&R!
