Thanks for the reviews :) They mean a lot to me. Also, I'm not sure on who will be Mai's partner, I've always been a NARAI fan but maybe some people wants to see Gene and Mai together for once. Please do vote :)
Sorry for being the fast-pacing, I have another story in mind so I'll try to finish this as fast as I can. Maybe 12 chapters or so but still…
I do not own Ghost Hunt.
Chapter Three: Stolen
"My head hurts…" Mai thought waking up, but then… she wasn't in the base, well, in a way she was but she wasn't also in her body. Her eyes drifted across the room searching for the door while she was in her 'astral' state. The room was old and wrecked, almost like a warehouse; there were lots of weird looking statues that looked human. She reached out to touch one of them but a voice resounded in the whole warehouse, and the scene changed.
Mai looked around and noticed she was falling down, her heart raced as she looked around. There was nothing but black, she landed down on the ground without a sound. She peeked and sat up, she saw nothing but black. Everything was black…
Mai moved around reaching out to the unknown. Her hands landed on something like the walls, she moved around noticing she was enclosed in a room with no door she banged the walls then stopped.
"MOM! LET ME OUT!" a voice rang from the side of the room. She turned her head to its direction spotting a small child banging the walls, it was weird. The child glowed in the darkness, she continued yelling until her fingers started to bleed from the scratching and pounding on the walls.
Mai was about to speak but she heard someone calling her back to reality. She tried to ignore it but her surroundings started to shake and break into a million shards. She felt the heat of the sofa behind her then she felt someone holding her wrists.
Mai opened her eyes and stared at Ayako questioningly, "What happened?"
Ayako lets her wrists go and stood up, "You've been dreaming again."
"Really?" Mai lied, "I can't remember anything."
"I'm glad your okay!" Takigawa said pulling me up into a hug, "I panicked when you suddenly fainted."
"B-Bou-san… I need air…" She groaned while trying to escape his grasp.
"No," he said childishly.
Then Ayako hit him—hard. He lets go and they start bickering again, Mai sighs as she goes around asking them what happened while she slept.
Naru eyes her unnoticed while she talks to the others about what happened. He was checking the place where the hole once was, his hands slid against the surface feeling the texture.
"Naru," Lin spoke as he typed on the past-blood stained laptop, "I've found something."
Everyone heads towards Lin; Mai's eyes flashed a hint of recognition. It was the warehouse but it was a better, and way more cleaner. Mai's expression changed as she looked around to see if anyone noticed, and thankfully no the one did—or so she thought.
Naru stole a glance at Mai while he walked towards the laptop, and for a split second he saw fear and guilt in her eyes. But it was quickly diverted when Gene spoke, "Hey Noll, isn't this familiar?"
He looked at his twin and back at the picture; he remembered something like that somewhere in the lake where Gene was found… but… it wasn't the one, "Somewhat." He replied then he told Lin to scroll down, the next picture was a beautiful black haired girl with dazzling chestnut eyes. She looked familiar and Mai spoke from behind, "She looks like my mother…" Her voice kind of trembled.
Everyone looked at her and back at the screen, "Mother?" Yasu asked, "But your hair colors are different."
Mai nodded, "I know."
Naru looked at Lin and told him to scroll down further, and Kazuma gasped when he saw the gates of the old warehouse thing.
"She's can't be your mother, Mai." Kazuma suddenly said, "She's called the 'Witch'."
"You know of her?" Gene asked and Kazuma just nodded.
"She's famous around here," Kazuma continued, "she steals people's children and takes care of them until their old enough to become… decorations."
"Decorations?" all said except for Lin and Naru who waited for him to continue.
Kazuma shook his head, "I don't really know. But people say she would turn them into some kind of statue and dry their bloods out. Some say she makes voodoo dolls out of them. But most of them say she uses them as a vessel to let her stay young." He inhaled deeply, "In the end, people cursed her and burned down the whole warehouse along with her. No one saw her bones so they thought she ran, but there were no signs of her anywhere."
"Where is this warehouse?" Masako asked while she looked at the picture in disgust.
"We don't know."
"What do you mean you don't know?" Takigawa yelled in disapproval, "You bought this land and you don't know."
Kazuma sighed heavily and someone spoke from behind, "We did not buy this land." Everyone turned and looked at the man.
"Otou-sama," Kazuma muttered as he walked towards him, "you're alright." He hugged him.
His father nodded and spoke, "I barely made it here," he said trembling, "those… incredulous things got both my secretaries."
Kazuma calmed his father down and told him to sit at the couch, and they talked silently for a while asking what had happened to each other.
"Mai, prepare tea." Naru said thinking to himself that this was a great opportunity to let her make tea. Mai nodded and went to the side of the room and started to prepare quietly while she listened to their stories.
"The deed here was actually sent to us," he said ashamed, "we did not know who it was from or how it got to our house but it just… did."
Mai started passing out the tea cups and hesitantly gave one to Naru who acted indifferent, she sighed and sat beside Gene. Naru was a bit distracted by it but forced his brain to internalize what the man was telling, which was honestly hard to do since Gene would whisper things to Mai that made her roll her eyes or elbow him.
"So I ordered some of my secretaries to look at this place," Shizuma-san continued, "they all said that it was a good place for a hotel because of its natural Mother Nature style. I immediately agreed when I saw how huge this place was, I knew money would quickly come if I manage to put a hotel there."
"And so that's where I came in," Kazuma said, "As soon as the Phantasmal building was finished, Otou-sama gave me the full right to keep it in order. And that I did, it ran great, I honestly thought that the hotel was good luck until months ago when these things started."
"Wait…" John said, "I'm sorry but, why is it called Phantasmal? Wouldn't that make people scared to come?"
"People would always come under the names of the Shizuma, its natural." Shizuma-san said proudly, "The name was actually given by my secretary."
"Can I have the name?" Naru asked after he told Lin to jot down what he said next.
"I… It was Kuzeo Yuma-san," he replied, "She died seven years ago, the same time when the building was finished."
Naru nodded and told him to continue and it was Kazuma actually voiced the rest, "I really don't know what to say, it's just because of these things that the hotel's been haunted. I don't know why and I don't know how it started." He explained, "I don't know how to explain this but I doubt it's because of the witch."
"How can you say that?" Gene asked as if he was getting somewhere.
Kazuma was a little offended, "I don't," he stated quite firmly, "but as far as I know, it's been seven years and only now it came out? Why? Do you think I don't want to know why?" he was ready to snap, "I don't even know why these things are happening here, of all people, why here? Life's been going great then—"
He stopped when Mai slapped him across the face, "Shut up." She said sternly, she was completely annoyed by his complaints, "Look here, as much as we want to help you, we can't if you don't stop ranting about these childish whines of yours and tell us what you know."
Kazuma glared at her but Mai remained impassive, she stood her ground. He was about to argue when his father stopped him, "Stop," he said calmly to his son who calmed down a bit, "Everyone I'll bring you to my office."
"We cannot go together," Naru opposed, "I will go, and the rest will guard the base."
Mai complained, "I'm coming too."
"And now who's childishly whining." Gene muttered teasingly, Mai glared at him and he smirked, "Alright, alright, but I'm coming if Mai's coming."
Naru looked at the both of them and sighed, "Do what you want."
Mai and Gene smiled and did a high-five. Yasuhara sighed, "How exactly did those two become ghost hunters?"
"I have no idea." Takigawa said as the three left. Lin continued to find stuffs in the laptop and his eyes found something that everyone wouldn't be pleased to hear…
Mai sighed heavily as she trailed behind; Gene was teasing Naru while Shizuma-san ignored them. All of them were half-way there. "How big exactly is this building?" Mai wondered staring at the walls where they passed. They entered the elevator and then they went to the highest point of the building.
They got out when the lights started to flicker; Mai ran to Naru's side unconsciously and blushed silently when she knew what she did. He looked at her for a second and then ordered them to start running, "Take notice of the time, Noll." Gene yelled.
Naru glanced at the clock and saw it was already 9 PM. The last time it was 6… his head analysed every damn conclusion and then the lights went out, Everyone's eyes tried to focus in the darkness just as everything illuminated. Gene, Naru and Shizuma-san started walking forward but Mai remained still…
A shiver ran down Mai's spine when she felt someone grab her leg, her sweat slowly dripped down as everything turned into slow motion.
"Mai?" Gene asked, then the next second she was being dragged into the darkness.
"NARU!" Mai screamed the first thing that came into her head.
Everyone in the room heard Mai's scream and stared at the ceiling, "Mai!" they all yelled leaving the base. But they were trapped, all the zombie things were back.