A/N: I'm pretty sure none would believe me if I said I own Ghost Hunt. So, yeah, I don't own Ghost Hunt. But I do own this interesting cookie in my hand right now!
Chapter Six
"Mom! Dad! The kids in school stole my cookies!"
A boy ran in the house with an upset expression, clothes dirty probably from trying to fight back to get back his precious cookies, but failed at that attempt and fell on the dusty ground. Once he closed the door behind him, he threw his bag to the floor and went off in a little hunt to find his parents.
"I was going to give them to Aoi-kun but the big kids snatched it from me and threw me at the dirt road beside the school. Now Aoi-kun will never get his cookies!"
There was no response to the kid as he just heard silence all throughout the house. He found this odd as his parents usually respond back immediately whenever he called to them. In fact, they usually greet him by the door whenever he reaches home, so why are they not doing that now?
He ventured more into the house and stopped when he heard crying coming from the kitchen.
"Huh?"
He tiptoed towards the doorway of the kitchen, get down on his knees, and peaked a bit to see his mother sitting on one of the chairs, sobbing into her hands.
"Mom?" The boy whispered to himself, quite shocked to see his mother sad. She usually has a smile on her face. Why isn't she happy now?
He watched his father hugging her and trying to rub circles on her back to soothe her, but the boy can tell that his father, too, had a pained expression on his face. Why was he unhappy as well?
Something in his mother's hands caught his eyes, and he squinted them to focus on his sight of what it is. It something small—a stuffed toy puppy.
It was his brother's stuffed toy.
His dead brother's stuffed toy.
The boy's lips pressed together, and his mood was then affected by the gloomy atmosphere his parents gave out.
Two years ago, his mother gave birth to another baby—his little baby brother, Ikkun. The whole family was overjoyed that even the boy was excited to become an older sibling for his new baby brother. But all good things don't last long, as one day—just four weeks ago—the babysitter in-charge of watching over little Ikkun accidentally started a fire, burning down the house while he was in a field trip in school and his parents at work. Both babysitter and Ikkun died, which the death of their baby caused such grief to the parents, and the boy was also affected badly.
He could remember the days that adults would lie to him and say that his brother "is living in another place for a while, and that you'll see him again someday". His parents would hear these lies and have an immediate emotional breakdown then and there from remembering that their baby was gone. The boy would always get annoyed with the adults for reminding his parents what they lost, and also is irritated with the fact that they're trying to lie to him because they think that children wouldn't understand death. But he understood it well enough that his brother is definitely not alive anymore.
"I-Ikkun..." The boy heard his mother sobbing, her voice cracking and making his heart feel a jab of pain from seeing how sorrowful she is. "M... My dear, s-sweet Ikkun...!" Another sob escapes her lips and she held her husband tightly than ever.
"Y-Yes, honey," he saw his father moving his hand to place at either side of her cheeks to make sure their foreheads were touching, and he wiped the tears from his wife, but tears rolled down from his eyes as well. "I know. I know..."
The mother squeezed her eyes shut and raised her hands to cover her mouth. "What a-about Sh... Shin? Oh gosh... to think he was s-so excited to have a baby brother..." She ended up wailing again. The sound can really painfully pull anyone's heartstrings. "M... My dear Shin. N-Now he won't be able to get to experience what it's like to h-have a baby brother anymore!"
The couple continued weeping as the boy's head dropped low, and he turned away from the depressing sight of his vulnerable parents. He just sat there on the floor, fists clenching and unclenching on his lap.
Right now, all he wishes is that his family will someday recover from the tragedy that has caused his family to start breaking.
"Taniyama Mai! Stop sleeping in my class!"
Everyone roared in laughter as Mai's head shot up, her mind no longer on Dreamland. Her eyes looked immediately at her teacher, who was looking quite P-I-S-S-E-D.
"Yes, ma'am!"
The teacher shook her head, then turned away to walk over to her desk, "This is unusual coming from you, as you have never slept in class before."
The teacher went back to her lessons and the students' snickering died down as they listened to the teacher discuss about Photosynthesis. Naru and Gene—who are sitting at the seats behind hers—looked at her questioningly, to which she answered with her whispering.
"Just sleepy. Probably from last night."
Gene tried to mouth out the words, giving the message that he understood, while Naru just nonchalantly turned away from her.
Mai sighed in relief and turned to stare out of the window. The privileges of having a seat by the window.
What was that? Mai asked deeply in her thoughts. That dream was weird. Quite sad, even!
She watched the tree beside the classroom have its leaves sway to the rhythm of the wind.
Now that I think about it... the boy did look like the boy I met in that weird Izumi House dream...
Maybe it was something important?
Mai shook her head. Laughing quietly to herself.
There's no way that was important anyways. Probably just some dream caused from thinking much about the Izumi House.
Yup, just a dream...
Okay. Whether it was a dream or not, Mai is DEFINITELY going to go back to that house.
She doesn't know the reasons why. All she knows that she has some strong pull to that house, and her curiosity of what's happening is eating her up. But, at the same time, she feels something definitely was wrong. Everytime she feels the pull, shivers run down her spine, as if sensing something bad was going to happen. But what it is, she doesn't know.
Once the teacher dismissed the class, she immediately packed up her stuff into her bag, making sure nothing is left behind. Seeing her packing in haste, Naru leaned over to her, his bag ready for him to leave already. "You're in a hurry."
Mai momentarily looked up at him, but went back to her packing immediately. Once everything was kept, she started walking out of the classroom in a fast pace, with Naru in tow.
"Gene is still in the restrooms."
Mai turned her head to look at him, but continued walking, "Please tell Gene I'll be leaving ahead and that we can walk home from school tomorrow."
It was silent for a while, but she had a feeling he was still there, following her. Then he spoke up.
"You're going to the house again."
Mai stopped. It was obvious that Naru wasn't questioning her. He said it as a matter of fact, and the world cursed her to be a terrible liar, so she might as well tell him the truth. She sighed.
"Yes, I am," then she added, "and you can't stop me!"
She dared to look back and saw Naru raising an eyebrow at her. "I already knew how much of an idiot you are. But I seemed to have underestimated your lack of intelligence, and am now seeing how terrible of an idiot you are than I originally expected."
Mai's face flushed with anger. "JERK! Don't say it like I have a brain of an ostrich!"
"You mostly have a brain of a jellyfish instead."
She cocked her head a bit. "I thought jellyfishes don't have brains?"
"Did you not get what I mean?"
The girl groaned, stuck her tongue out to him, then turned forward to walk away from him as far as possible. "Jerk! Jerk! JERK! UGH!"
She now exited the school and was walking towards the direction where she knows the Izumi house is located. What she didn't expect Naru to do was continue following her. Probably to annoy her more. He seems to have some enjoyable habit of teasing her. That bully! How Gene copes with this monster his whole life, she doesn't know.
"Why are you following me, Naru?" Mai called out without turning around to look at his annoying face. (Not that it's ugly or anything.) "Isn't Gene going to wonder where you went off to once he notices you're not there waiting for him like how a good brother does?"
"It's dangerous to go back to that house." He avoided her question, and the topic of the house won't escape him.
Mai sighed loudly, mostly for him to hear on purpose. "Could you please go back? Gene will be worried." Then she added, "Besides, I promise I won't do anything stupid when I reach the house."
He shook his head a bit. "Almost everything you do is idiotic enough."
She felt her eye twitch. Did he just—
Before Mai could do or say anything to him, rain suddenly dropped from the sky real fast, as if someone threw a dart at a giant water balloon on the sky. Mai raised her bag to cover herself, then she turned to Naru, to which he spoke up.
"We have to find shelter."
An idea just struck her mind.
"There's this shortcut that leads to the park!" And since the park is near Naru's and Gene's house, she could stay there until the rain dies down. Naru must've gotten what she meant and nodded his head. Mai continued, "There's this trail that leads to the forest. It's a short walk on the trail until we reach the park."
"Let's go then. Don't want you catching a fever that will destroy whatever braincells you have left."
Mai felt her blood boil, but she decided to discuss about it later as all she wants to do right now is get out of the rain.
She grabbed Naru's hand and led him as they ran ahead, looking for the path Mai mentioned. Half a minute later, the said path appeared and Mai steered Naru into the woods.
Mai sighed inwardly. Seems that she'll have to go to the house another time.
But she can't help but have this feeling as if someone was calling for her from that house... and she feels some certain pull for her to go to that house as well.
What is it, she wonders.
While the two kids were trying to run through the forest to reach the park, they weren't aware that near the park, the Izumi House, a door slowly creaked open. But nothing came out.
But is it really just nothing?
We'll make you join soon enough.
A/N: And here's an update!
Originally, this chapter was supposed to be longer than what I present here now. But because I realized it was just too long, I decided that it will be cut here, and the other half will just be presented in chapter seven instead. So watch out! As chapter seven MAY come soon just before May ends. (...I didn't know I made a pun until right after I typed that down...)
Anyways! Thanks pennYnnep again for commenting. (If it's loyalty, I appreciate your loyalty to this lousy fanfic of mine ;w;) And to answer your question... I'm not quite sure actually. But if I see it fit, I may add them to follow that part of the canon story. But thank you for asking as I'll take that in mind ^^
Thanks MarinitaChan for commenting! It was a funny story of my little "adventure" to figure out what your comment said as I had to chat with Suifeng Crimes. Saying, "CRIMES! DO YOU SPEAK SPANISH?!" And in the end, as much as it's not reliable to some extent, I used Google Translate to figure out what your comment said xD (I got the gist of it anyways)
To answer to what you asked about John, he may appear soon! And to answer if there are pairings in this FF (I call Fanfics as FFs because I'm lazy :p) well... I didn't categorize it as Romance, but maybe some slight pairings, as I do ship Naru and Mai, and a bit of Ayako and Bou-san. But this FF will mostly be focused to the genres I set it to have in the first place. (And I'll try my best on the pairings, as Romance isn't my forte, but I'll try my best anyways ^^)
That's all! Just know chapter seven will come soon.
Until next time~