So...its been about 3 months since I updated...whoops...
I'm so sorry guys! I've been working full time now since it's summer break and haven't really had time to write much but I persevered and now it is my great honor to present to you (drum roll please)...CHAPTER 4!
Do enjoy ;)
Chapter 4: There She Goes Again...
The all consuming darkness surrounded the team in their windowless room causing them to freeze in their spots. Dropping the packets of information carelessly onto the cement floor, Ayako and Takigawa swiftly rose to their feet and attempted to see through the pitch black while Yasu sat glued to his spot.
They were immediately all on high alert.
Takigawa had his prayer beads held tightly within his left hand and Ayako had raised her right arm in anticipation of using the nine cuts. Lin and Naru stood from their chairs at the monitors tensed and ready to move. Lin took a step closer to his charge so he could protect the young man - if the need arose.
As soon as the building had gone dark, Naru felt his way over to a small black canvas bag sitting next to the monitors and rummaged through it until he finally felt the solid plastic of a flashlight within his grasp. Pulling it free he quickly flipped the switch, providing some light for the group, and checked the base for anything unusual.
"What's going on?" questioned Ayako as she continued to scan the room with what little light they had.
Not gracing her with an answer, Naru tossed the bag at the monk so they could all grab a flashlight of their own before handing one to Lin as well and checking over the now dead equipment to see if he could determine a cause.
Seeing that all his machines were unresponsive the black haired teen began issuing out orders. "We need to regroup." Turning to address the tall onmyouji, Naru's eyes graced him with a calm yet demanding look. "Lin, see if you can reach Fr. Brown and Ms. Hara."
Nodding his consent, Lin grabbed the walkie-talkie sitting on the monitor table and immediately attempted to contact the only two members of their group not in base. A buzzing static was heard then John's tense, accented voice came through. "We're here. All the flood lights suddenly went out though."
Taking the communication device from Lin, Naru further questioned the Australian priest. "Where are you located."
The familiar static was heard before he received his answer. "We're on the second floor in the hallway."
"I want you to head straight back to base." He responded with an air of finality.
"Ah….well, about that..…you see when the flood lights went out Masako tripped over one of the old pieces of furniture and twisted her ankle so she can't walk on her own." Everyone could hear the slight nervousness in John's voice as he told their boss something he knew wouldn't please him.
The narcissist's blue eyes narrowed the minutest amount in irritation while the rest of his face stayed as neutral as it always was. "Stay where you are we'll be there in a moment."
"Alright."
Knowing that the rest of SPR had heard the conversation, Naru didn't bother telling them what needed to be done and instead made his way to and out the door with Lin following closely behind and everyone else scrambling after him.
It took them less than five minutes to reach their destination and once John and Masako were in sight, Ayako went over to check on the medium's ankle to see how bad it really was while everyone else gathered around the blonde priest in the dark hallway. After a quick inspection, turning her foot every which way – much to Masako's discomfort – the priestess said that it was very minor and she should be able to walk on it in a couple of hours.
Facing the young Australian, Takigawa decided to see what he knew."So John, you guys see what might have caused this?"
"Sorry mate can't say we did. One moment everything was pretty normal then the next we couldn't see a thing." He supplied with an apologetic face.
Listening to his employee's conversation Naru then turned to the now limping Masako who was slowly making her way over the rest with Ayako's support. "Ms. Hara do you sense anything?" came his monotone inquiry.
Lifting her gaze to meet his, Masako shut her eyes and concentrated on anything that she could feel at the moment. "When the power first went out I felt a strong spike of energy from the spirit but it's very hard to locate now, though…there is something…" She continued to focus harder on the small nagging of something that she could faintly sense at the back of her mind. Wrinkling her brow in concentration the medium pushed harder until the feeling flooded her like a breaking damn. Snapping her eyes open she spoke in a soft but clear voice. "It's on the other side of the building on the third floor releasing a massive amount of negative energy."
Making a split second decision, Naru told everyone their next course of action. "Lin, Fr. Brown, and Takigawa will follow me to the spirit. Ms. Matsuzaki you will take Ms. Hara and Yasu back to base and stay there with them." And before any arguments or disagreements could be voiced he turned on his heels, rushing off in the ghost's direction with the men of SPR quickly running to catch up.
Keeping their fast pace the group reached the third floor in record time but Naru began noticing that something wasn't quite right. 'It's temperature rising the closer we get and the hallway... sulfur.'
"Hey guys, what's that flickering light? It looks kinda like a candle's in that room." Takigawa vocalized.
Speeding up, they came to a halt outside a door that seemed to be covered in graffiti of all kinds with some being rather suspicious and disturbing. The smell and the light were both coming from this room so Naru suspected that this was where the ghost was located. Attempting to open the door, Naru pulled at the handle before quickly snatching his hand back after being burned by the heated metal. Seeing as the normal way wouldn't work, he signaled for Lin to try kicking it down. Once that failed the monk stepped up and began chanting to see if that would unseal the large metal blockade and, a minute later, the heavy door swung open with great force and the team was immediately assaulted by the blazing heat of a raging fire that covered almost all of the room.
And in the middle of it stood Mai and Kenshin.
They both were positioned back to back in the only spot where the fire had yet to engulf as if it was being stopped by some invisible force. Having heard the metal door crash into the stone wall as it was opened, Kenshin's head snapped in the noise's direction only to come face to face with the SPR members. They could clearly see the worry written all over his face as he stared at them. "You've gotta get rid of that thing I don't think she can hold off this fire much longer!"
At that statement Naru zeroed in on the one person who didn't even flinch at their entrance only to see Mai with her eyes glued shut in deep concentration and silently chanting something over and over again. He also noticed that she was holding her hands in a familiar seal that he'd seen Takigawa use countless times.
She was shielding them.
"MAI!" the monk shouted before taking action and chanting once more in an effort to harm the spirit enough for it to stop its' attack. Soon John joined in as well, splashing his holy water on the burning room's floor while reciting his scripture. As all this was going on Naru and Lin started to look for a way that they could safely get Mai and the detective out of the center of the blazing fire. "Detective, can she keep that barrier up while moving?" Lin shouted over all the other voices and noise that filled the room.
Shaking his head in the negative, Kenshin watched as the fire slowly inched closer as Mai began to tire. "It'll fall as soon as she moves!"
Cursing under his breath, Naru began thinking of everything that could possibly get the two out of this situation. Then it hit him. "Lin give me your coat."
Not asking any questions the older man handed it over and watched as his charge then ran down the hall before disappearing into one of its other rooms. Turning back to the issue at hand he watched with much concern as the once decently sized space that both the detective and Mai were occupying gradually shrunk before their very eyes. 'If only we could locate the ghost. This would be much easier.'
Not a moment later Naru sprinted back to his side along with two thoroughly soaked coats. Already knowing what it was that his young boss wanted, Lin swiftly took back his and grabbed Kenshin's attention then chucked the weighed down material in his direction.
Upon receiving the coat Kenshin tucked it under his arm then caught the other covering as it was tossed to them. Taking the larger one for himself, he draped it over his head before crouching down till his mouth was right next to Mai's ear so he could whisper what they needed to do without startling her enough to break her concentration. "On the count of three I'm going to throw the jacket on you and we're going to book it to the exit."
Without waiting for a response that he knew wouldn't come, Kenshin rose from his lowered position and checked their surroundings in order to decide on a proper escape while avoiding as much of the debris as possible.
"One"
The flames grew closer.
"Two"
The chanting from both the monk and John steadily grew louder.
"Three!"
Thrusting the dripping material onto the small girl her focus broke and the barrier instantly went down while the flames greedily rushed for them till their once bare space was consumed by the heat. Grabbing Mai by the arm, Kenshin sprinted with her through the white hot inferno, both hissing as some of the flames broke past their temporary shields. Finally they made it to the exit and ran past the four men till they stopped their momentum at the wall opposite the room they just left out in the hallway.
John and Takigawa then backed out of the overheated room as the flames grew taller, most likely in response to the spirit's ire at its latest victim's escape. Once everyone had left the room's entrance, they all took a quick breather and just as they were about to ask if the two panting against the wall were okay loud knocking sounds could be heard all around them as well as what sounded like metal scraping against the hard cement surface of the factory. Eyes widening towards the end of the hallway, Mai only let out two simple words. "It's here."
Not seeing whatever it was Mai could but not doubting her Naru shouted over all the commotion happening around them. "Everyone back to base now!"
Without another word the group dashed back to the first floor. The whole way there it seemed as if the knocking and scrapping were following them and slowly gaining. Mai constantly looked over her shoulder at the unknown assailant with a worried and scared expression clear for all to see. Kenshin had placed a firm grip on her hand so he could make sure that she wouldn't slow down or lose them along the way. Right as they rounded the corner to the base the scraping sounded as though it were directly behind them and about to catch them. Lin hastily swung the door open and they all sprinted in before he slammed it closed behind them, locking it in the process and placing one of Ayako's wards on it. Backing away they all watched as the double doors shook fiercely for a little bit as they could still hear the knocking and metal sounds from the hallway through the walls of the base. After about two minutes of standing tensed to see what would happen, everything stopped and an eerie silence fell over them. No one moved for a good while as they waited to see if whatever was haunting the old factory would make another entrance. Slowly they realized that they wouldn't be receiving an encore and they all let out a sigh of relief then took a seat at various spots around the room.
Both Kenshin and Mai peeled off the wet articles of clothing that they had been given and hung them on the backs of a pair of chairs that were scattered across the room. Ayako, seeing the state that they were in bee-lined it straight over to the duo.
Yasu, Masako, and she had watched as one of the thick wooden doors was thrown open with great force soon followed by the sprinting members of their team and two extras. Seeing the panicked and wary expressions on their faces, she was on her feet in a flash as they all waited to see what would happen next. Once things calmed down everyone went over to see their old team member and were asking if she was okay and what happened. Shoving her way through her coworkers she eventually made it to the two wet individuals to check them over, though not before giving everyone the evil eye and telling them to back off in a not-so-subtle way. She started off by heading straight over to the detective and found a couple small burns on his hands and legs where the water ridden jacket wasn't able to cover but nothing to serious. Other than that he seemed to be perfectly fine, if not a little cold, but fine. "Here let me put some ointment on those burns then we can get them bandaged."
As she started reaching for his arm, his opposite hand grabbed hers making her give him a sharp but questioning look. The others froze at this as well. They all had experience with possessions before and didn't want to let their guard down on the off chance that the detective had been taken over by the resident spirit.
Seeing the group of people surrounding him tense up, Kenshin dropped her hand and gave her a reassuring look. "I'm fine it's just a couple minor burns. Check Mai first, she's the one that did most of the work."
Nodding her consent the redheaded woman slid over to the young girl that she had met all those years ago. Mai was in a similar state as Kenshin. Minor burns here and there from where the coat couldn't protect her but, unlike her male counterpart, she was pale and looked ready to collapse.
Acting fast, Ayako opened up the first aid kit and quickly bandaged Mai's wounds before checking her health. Holding a hand to the young girl's forehead she checked for any dangerous spikes in her body temperature and was relieved to find that she felt normal. "Mai I need you to look me in the eye."
Mai, hearing the request, slowly lifted her heavy eyes from the solid ground that she had been staring at for the past couple of minutes. The first thing she saw was Ayako and her worried expression and close behind her were Lin and Naru with, dare she say it…concern in their eyes?
"Mai, how are you feeling?"
Mai stopped her mind from thinking too much into what she might or might not have seen and brought her attention back to Ayako. "Like I just ran a marathon and had a brick dropped on my head. "
Ayako's brown eyes narrowed in thought before she held up her hand for Mai to see. "How many fingers am I holding up?"
Mai focused in on her hand, "Um…three?"
Lowering her arm Ayako put the one finger she was holding up down and continued questioning the girl. "Any dizziness or ringing in your ears?"
"Ya, a little." The young teen spoke softly.
Ayako was concerned for the girl in front of her. "Mai do you get headache's like this normally?" Seeing the girl shake her head in the negative the priestess continued her questioning, "Than what-"
"It's from overusing her psychic powers."
Doing a complete 180 in her spot, Ayako looked directly at Naru along with the rest of her colleges. "She pushed herself too hard and these are the consequences." He continued with an even tone while looking straight at Mai who only started back with what little energy she had left.
Deciding to join the conversation Takigawa also had a few questions for the young girl who was like a little sister to him. "Mai, what happened?"
Seeing the monk with confusion and worry written all over his body language she took a deep, calming breath to center herself before answering. "We were investigating the Fire Room."
"The Fire…Room?" asked John.
Nodding her agreement she elaborated. "Remember when I sort of flipped out earlier at the crime scene? I had a vision."
Interrupting her, Naru asked his own inquiry. "I thought you could only see these visions when you were asleep."
Giving her old boss a deadpan look, Mai let out a frustrated but tired sigh. "It's been 2 years Naru, did you think that my powers would just up and vanish like you did?" Everyone heard the accusation in her words and gave small involuntary flinches but no one acknowledged it out loud. Mai could see a flash of something in her old boss's eyes but it was gone faster than she could blink.
"Anyways, during the vision I saw what happened to that kid that was killed, and he was killed in that room by whatever is haunting this place, so Kenshin and I decided to check it out for any clues."
"So you thought it would be smart to just waltz into the same room where someone was murdered by a spirit in the dead of night? You shouldn't be consulting for anyone if these are the kind of decisions you make." Naru spoke out, once again cutting off Mai.
Kenshin tensed up at that but Mai placed her hand on his before he could say anything. It was time she stood up for herself and she refused to take Naru's insults sitting down. Her eyes weren't as unfocused as they were before and she was full on glaring at the black clad man before her in pure dislike, a look that she had never once shown him before, which caused him to mentally recoil at the sight and widen his eyes in surprise along with everyone else in the room. "Was it not you who said, and I quote, "When a spirit attacks they absorb the surrounding energy and use that to fuel their assault of their chosen victim(s). After this exertion of power the spirit will need to recover and regain its depleted energy. The more power sources available to them the more rapidly they will recover." It was you who wrote that, right Dr. Davis?"
Naru and Lin instantly recognized the little excerpt. Out of everything she could have said they did not expect it to be a quote from one of Naru's books. Bringing back his neutral calm, Naru gave his rebuttal, "A valid point but that corpse looked as though it had been there for months which is plenty of time for the spirit to recover so that makes your argument invalid." His confidence in his words rolled off him in waves until Mai doused his ego in cold water.
"That body has only been here for 3 days, max. The intense heat from the fire sped up the decomposition and I'm sure the animals that live in this building helped too. I have a very skilled coroner to back up my claim so don't try to counter it."
Mai: 2 Naru: ...a lot
Seeing no further argument coming, she removed her gaze from the now silent man in front of her and continued telling the rest of them what went on before they showed up. "We went up there to see if I could sense anything that might give us a clue as to who might be behind this but right as I was moving though the piles of old furniture all the power suddenly went out while the door slammed shut and locked us in. The ghost never manifested itself but I could feel it there, watching us. The whole room dropped about 30 degrees and then the flames just started shooting up from the ground. That's when I put up the barrier around us and then you all came in. The rest's history." While she had been recounting her tale, Ayako was bandaging up all the scrapes and burns that she could see but still listening intently to what Mai had to say.
Daintily removing her hand from its ever present home in front of her mouth Masako revealed a curious expression before she spoke. "Mai, you're a medium, are you not? Things such as creating barriers require skills far different from the ones that a medium would posses."
Having wondered the same thing himself, Naru once again zeroed in on Mai and watched to see what she had to say about this particular statement.
Mai could feel the anxiety sweep through her body like a strong wind. While she knew that answering this was better done sooner than later, the young brunette still couldn't get rid of the nervousness of what this line of questioning could bring up.
What memories it could trigger.
Deciding that the truth would make the best distraction, she begrudgingly opened her mouth and replied to the famous medium standing across from her. "Well, it all kinda started one day when I was working at my part-time job. I work at this old, pretty out of the way book store that has a little bit of everything from philosophy to ancient myths and religions. We get some pretty...unique people in every now and then so I didn't give much thought to one guy who walked in one day, very normal looking, which was the odd part."
Seeing the puzzled looks from her last statement Mai decided to elaborate. "The shop generally has very...specific types of customers. Anyways, it turned out that he was possessed and the ghost apparently had seen the giant invisible sign on my back that has big letters saying 'ATTACK ME, I'M DEFENSELESS'." Everyone could hear the frustration in her voice and couldn't help but to let out small laughs at their accident prone friend's expense despite the story being told to them.
Eyebrow twitching at the muffled laughs that she could hear, the brunette resumed her story. "To make a long story short, he suddenly came at me with less than pleasant intentions and ended up knocking me into one of the shelves, scattering books everywhere. While I was panicking and trying to find something to defend myself with, I ended up grabbing one of the books that I had scanned through before on ancient exorcisms and rituals and just started chanting the first thing I could find over and over again and closed my eyes as I saw him getting closer but I never stopped chanting. After a little bit I opened my eyes only to see him being held back by some invisible force. Which was a mistake seeing as how I broke my concentration and soon he came plowing towards me again. Without anything else I ended up shouting the nine cuts at him..." The memory still had Mai feeling guilty about that particular decision. She knew what using the nine cuts on a human could do but she was out of options at the time.
Everyone else in the room also knew that she had been told never to use the spell on a human again but seeing the guilty look on Mai's face, they didn't bother scolding her about it. Plus if it was truly a last ditch effort then they couldn't blame her either.
"I was the only one at the shop that day and he came in when the store was empty so I had to handle everything on my own. It seemed that once the ghost had left the guy it didn't want to stick around so once the man was conscious and himself I helped bandage him up before sending him home. Since then I've always remembered that chant and it's come in handy more than once." She finished while leaning back in her seat as another wave of dizziness hit her.
Surprisingly Lin was the first to speak. "Mai what did you do with the book you found."
Not liking the serious tone that he had when asking about the book nor the look he was shooting her way, Mai figured that he wouldn't be too happy to hear that she'd kept the book, even had it in her bag at the moment, and could hear sirens blaring in her head. 'Danger! Danger!'
"Can't you see that she's exhausted? Give the girl some room to breathe." Interrupted Kenshin before Lin or anyone else could push further at the subject.
'Yes safe!' Looking over at her companion, Mai could see the look in his eyes clearly saying she owed him one since he was being given Lin's full on glare which no one wanted to be on the receiving end of.
Listening to the detective's request, SPR's members backed off after getting a good look at Mai's condition. Ayako moved back over to Kenshin and started to bandage him up as well.
He whispered his thanks while the priestess patched him up. During her well practiced routine his attention then wandered to the young woman deep breathing next to him in an attempt to stop the nauseousness she was no doubt feeling.
Mai felt awful. She had first degree burns spotting her legs and hands and she was utterly and completely drained. A massive headache had begun forming from the overuse of her powers and only seemed to be getting worse. She raised one of her wrapped hands, courtesy of Ayako, and applied pressure to her temples in an attempt to ease the pain that she felt.
Due to the obstruction to her sight she never noticed someone walking up to her until they cleared their throat, causing her to lower her hand and glance at the object before her.
A cup of tea.
On the saucer holding the delicate piece of china there were also two little white pills that looked suspiciously like Advil, much to Mai's glee. Her eyes then trailed up the arm stretched out to her until they settled on the face of her narcissistic ex-boss. The gesture reminded her of when they had taken the case at the Miyama Mansion. The thought of that awful case still sent shivers running up and down Mai's spine.
Reaching out, she gently took the warm drink from his hand and whispered her thanks before popping both pills into her mouth and drinking them down with the familiar taste of Earl Grey. Naru didn't say anything in return before he made his way back over to the table that held the monitors and all their research.
Lowering the cup from her lips, Mai then noticed all the looks that everyone in the room were directing her way such as Masako's narrowed gaze all the way to Yasu's amused and eyebrow wiggling expression. The last one made her blush and look back down at the cup in her hands. 'I'm still mad at him and his attitude, but how can I possibly stay angry when he does something so nice? Stupid, narcissistic, idiot scientist!'
Caught up in her internal rambling, the young woman never noticed the questioning stare that she was receiving from Kenshin, though that's not to say that some of the other occupants in the room didn't. Yasu had a thoughtfully curious look on his face as he watched the duo seated on the couch before switching his gaze over to his black clad boss in an effort to see if he could decider anything from the man's ever blank expression. 'Blank unless it involves our little troublemaker of course.' He added as an afterthought. At this point in time though, it seemed that he wouldn't be gleaning any new information from the young business owner.
It was at this time that all the lights and electricity in the building decided to turn back on causing the people gathered in the room to let out a collective sigh of relief and turn off the flashlights seeing as there was no point in having them on anymore.
Taking the opportunity presented to him, Takigawa decided it was now or never if he wanted to talk with his Jou-chan and her new partner. "So Detective, you guys found out anything that might identify who's causing all the craziness around here?"
The man turned to face the monk before shaking his head in the negative. "There aren't many records of this place that are still around today and even then, there weren't really many kept back during that time period to begin with."
Turning away from his now functioning equipment, Naru added to the conversation. "With what just happened earlier and in Mai's vision I believe it's safe to assume that whoever's haunting this place died in the fire that occurred here."
Kenshin nodded his head in agreement. The big question now though was how were they going to find out exactly who it was haunting the old factory.
After a few minutes of sitting in the quiet contemplating that very question, Kenshin checked his watch before his eye grew in surprise at the time staring back up at him. Rising to his feet, the tall detective gained the attention of the whole room, his movement having broken them out of their thoughts. "Mai it's time we headed out for the night, it's almost 1am. And we still have to report back early in the morning."
Pulling out her phone and gazing at the time displayed, Mai was also surprised at how late it had gotten. "Ya I guess you're right." Slowly lifting herself from the old sofa Mai was only able to take a few step before the dizziness from earlier overcame her.
Kenshin quickly grabbed her around the waist before she could fully collapse and injure herself further. Lord knows she gets hurt enough as it is. Sighing in resignation, the cop quickly bent down and grabbed her under her knees before lifting her light body completely off the ground. Despite having the room spinning before her eyes, Mai still managed to blush at the unexpected gesture and before she could protest Kenshin spoke up first. "I'm not letting you down when you so clearly can't seem to keep yourself upright." "But I can walk perfectly fine on my own!" All Kenshin did was just raise an eyebrow at her with an amused expression that clearly said 'Do you really wanna test that theory again?', before Mai folded her arms across her chest and pouted in defeat causing the detective to chuckle at her stubbornness.
This whole time the members of SPR were watching the fiasco with worry at first when they saw their friend crumbling towards the ground then entertainment at the childish pout that Mai was shooting her human transport, letting out their own laughs At the situation.
Naru, having glanced at his watch as well, also decided that it was late and that they could continue their work in the morning to which the members of SPR were rather grateful. Their young boss had been known from time to time to keep them working into the wee hours of the morning when a case was particularly interesting or difficult.
Mai was still feeling the effects of her overused powers as she was held within Kenshin's arms. The headache was starting to dull -thanks to the pills Naru had provided her- and that gave room for the exhaustion to really start settling in on her. As her mind began to drift away into the all familiar darkness of her dreams, she could have sworn that she saw a fuzzy figure standing in the far corner of the room before her lids fully closed.
"Burn."
That's all folks! (for now at least)
Things may seems like they're happening slow but I personally believe that if your going to tell a good story you can't just rush though it all, there needs to be DETAILS! :)
Anyways...Thoughts! Questions! Suggestions! Leave a review and/or PM me and I will do my best to answer anything that you all can throw at me! I accept all comments even constructive criticism so don't hold back on me. I want to learn from this so I can make this story even better for you all
So remember my readers, REVIEW! Your words keep my creative juices flowing and the chapters coming :)
Till next time!
shayrulz