.o0o.

To tell the truth, they really should have seen that one coming. Without the other three, Long and Kai were powerless. Wandering around Aokigahara was not a good thing for a lone spirit to be doing, especially in the dead of night.

"Where is he?" Kai grunted, whiskers twitching impatiently.

"Kai, in case you haven't noticed, Aokigahara is huge," Long replied, baring her teeth with equal impatience.

"But… I can't sense the boss anywhere! What if… what if he got eaten by a bear?"

"What is it with you and bears, Kai?"

"Hey! I was originally a bear before I died. I am a bear spirit!" he said, twirling around, arms outstretched whimsically.

"Then why do you look like a dragon?" Long countered.

"Because dragons are cool." Kai curled his body and put his hands on his hips. "And coming from one of the fair folk, I could ask the same about you. Like why you don't look like a cute little pixie that sprinkles cinnamon all over the place."

Long let out a snort before smacking Kai in the back of the head. "The fair folk specialize in mischief and torture, so you can shut your mouth before I let out my true nature."

"Ooh, I'm soooo scared. If the boss were here, he'd have your head for saying that. And don't you think it's a bit ironic (pun intended) that the particular fairie in front of me wields the element of metal?"

Long's body flashed a murderous shade of silver. Kai's little green eyes widened as he realized that her berserk button had been pushed. Long launched herself at Kai, unleashing weak bursts of metal energy. Metal, being wood's destructor in the elemental cycle was the perfect thing to kick Kai's tail with. The two of them rolled around in the dirt, their light briefly illuminating the invisible spirit forms of goblins and youkai inhabiting the forest. Said spirits looked on in curiosity as these two strangers fought themselves silly within their territory. However, slowly but surely, they began to turn their attention to something coming from the opposite direction. Long and Kai eventually picked up on this shift and stopped their fighting. They turned around, following the spirits' gazes.

"H-hello?" echoed a whimpering voice. Long and Kai watched curiously as a form took shape. A human male, young, wearing a blue coat, was pacing apprehensively through the spiritual plane of the forest. "Daddy? Where did you go?"

"Hey… Isn't that…" Kai needed to say no more. By the looks of Long's face, she recognized the child as well. It was that kid that mistook their boss for his father. Now what was his name again?

"Hey, you, kid," Long said. The boy looked around before focusing on the silver dragon approaching him.

"I know you," he said, pointing up at her. "You are Mr. Lin's friend."

The two of them then uttered in unison: "Do you know where he is?"

Kai flew up to the boy. "Wait, why are you looking for our boss?"

"I… I heard he was missing. I wanted to help look for him."

Long and Kai exchanged glances. Long floated forward. "But why come to Aokigahara? Did you hear that our master is here?"

The boy nodded.

"But you're a site bound spirit. How did you get all the way to Aokigahara?"

He shook his head. "I don't know. First I'm looking for my friends. The next, I can't see, and now I'm here."

Long sighed. "Do you mind if I try something?" she asked. The boy blinked. Long did not wait for a response. She floated up to the boy's face and put both claws to his forehead.

"No!"

"Kenji!"

"Don't listen!"

"Kenji, where are you?"

"Don't go!"

The boy– Kenji– was chasing after another child. The child was approaching a glowing object in the void of the spiritual plane. Other children were approaching too, but Kenji didn't recognize them. They disappeared one by one into the glowing object. Kenji ran towards the child–towards the glowing object– but the faster he ran, the farther the glowing thing seemed to get. And then, it let loose a flash of light. Kenji shielded his eyes from the burning illumination. When he opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was a canopy of trees, accompanied by the chirps of birds and the shimmer of fair folk and youkai as they stopped and stared at him.

Long removed her claws. Kenji looked down at her, curiously. It was obvious that he had no idea what she just did, but the emotions he was feeling were not so obvious.

"What did you do?" Kenji asked, eyes wide.

"Don't worry. It was just telepathy. You're okay, aren't you?" To Long, Kenji nodded. A loud growl made them turn their heads. Out of the bushes came a spider youkai and what looked like a tiger spirit.

"Who are they?" Kenji asked, jumping back several feet.

"Kid, don't make sudden movements!" Long shouted.

The tiger spirit stepped forward, growling. "Who are you?"

"We do not intrude with malice. We are merely looking for what we lost," Long replied, bowing her head slightly.

"Hey," Kai interrupted, jolly tone cutting through the tension like a knife. "You wouldn't happen to have seen a guy about yay high, with a creepy forelock over the right side of his face?"

Long shot him a sideways glance. "If the boss heard you say that, he'd have your tongue for sure."

Kai waved a claw dismissively. "Oh, he's heard worse." Then he morphed into his true bear spirit form. "Now are you going to answer my question, or are you going to be lunch?"

The spider opened its jaws threateningly. The tiger's hackles rose, but neither of them attacked. "Your human friend wandered through our territory yesterday. He reeked of demon."

"Which way did he go?" Long continued.

The spider raised a foreleg. "That way," she said. Her leg pointed backward towards civilization. Long and Kai's eyes widened in hopeful realization, but it didn't last, as the spider had suddenly pounced on the metal shiki. Long suddenly grew to a much larger size, hardening her scales, in order to throw the spider youkai off. The tiger stared the large grizzly bear in the face. He took one swipe at Kai's nose, causing him to make pitiful whining sounds.

"Don't eat me! I'm not tasty!" he whimpered.

"Get a hold of yourself, man!" Long growled, tossing the spider into a tree.

Then the tree came to life. It held up the spider in tangled branches. "Watch it, would 'ya?" it growled, before throwing the limp arachnid off in another direction.

Long profusely bowed her head. "Sorry, please forgive me…"

Then the tree started laughing. It morphed back into the mischievous wood spirit known as Kai. "You should see your face!" he said between gasps.

"When we get out of this, you are so deader than dead." That's when Long caught sight of the tiger charging from behind the bear spirit. She pointed, but before she could verbalize her warning, Kai offhandedly backhanded the cat.

"Now let's get out of here," he said, tone now surprisingly serious. They began walking. But then they realized–

"Kid?" Long called into the forest. Nothing. Just chirping birds. "Oh great."

"Well at least we know we're as bad of babysitters as the boss is," Kai mused.

"Up here," came a voice. The two shiki looked up into a tree to see that Kenji had climbed up there while they were fighting down on the ground. The boy then jumped down from the tree in front of the spirits. "So is Mr. Lin back at the church?"

"I don't know," Long said."I can't sense him at all. But if that tiger's word is to be trusted, then we should probably be going. Huh. I wonder how Take and Rokku are doing."


"In the name of the father, son, and holy ghost, may God's grace always be among us–"

CRASH!

Father Tojo whirled around. The people inside the church looked up. The stained glass in the giant, round window had shattered, fragmented twilight hues raining down inside the Lord's house. A reptilian beast with long limbs landed on top of some of the pews. The people sitting there had ducked as best as they could, but the creature seemed to be taking care not to injure anyone. Even its long, whip like tail was neatly out of the way. It then took another flying leap into the aisle before smashing through the main doors and running away.

Tojo stood there, numbly, barely registering the rising panic inside the church. "That was…"

The creature had taken a left turn and had now found itself among several children, most of whom were screaming and running away. One Mai Taniyama, rested on the creature's back, had spotted a monitor off to the edge of the playground. She waved at the camera profusely, making sure that Naru or Yasu saw her. The sound of approaching footsteps confirmed it.

"Mai! Lin!" Naru yelled. Mai jumped off of the creature's back easily, but Lin was still trapped inside its jaws. And embarrassingly enough, in a hospital gown. But this was no laughing matter.

Mai nudged the creature. "Okay, you can put him down now," she said. But the creature didn't respond. "Jack? Are you listening to me?" She tugged on his lower jaw, which was fastened tight to Lin's midsection. The creature wasn't focused on her at all. She hesitantly put a hand on his spiracle, but all she got in response was his tense breathing. She then noticed his eyes. They were focused not on her, but on the children, now all being corralled back into the building. "Jack, what is it?"

"Mai, move," Naru said. Mai turned around. Naru's hand was enveloped in qi.

"No, don't!" she exclaimed, but it was of no use. In one swift movement, Naru sprinted up to her and Jack, shoved her out of the way, and slammed his palm into the side of Jack's neck. Jack was knocked hard to the ground, now snapped out of his trance. Lin had been thrown from the reptile's jaws, and Naru was now hovering over him.

"Naru, you used your qi!" Mai continued. Her head whirled around as soon as Jack got up, but it was evident that she didn't know what to focus on.

"Thank you, Mai. I hadn't noticed," Naru replied, but his usual sarcastic tone was dampened with worry. Jack immediately began growling, but Naru's swift glare in his direction made him stop. Mai's jaw dropped. Jack tilted his head in confusion before craning it around, as if observing Naru from different angles. Then it clicked.

"Jack, this is Naru, Gene's twin brother," she said. Jack let out a snort before craning his neck towards the building. Mai followed his eyes to where the children were staring out of the windows at the scene before them.

"Lin, can you hear me?" Naru asked, snapping Mai back to the situation. She ran from Jack's side to Lin's, who was rising to his hands and knees. She thought she saw a hint of embarrassment in his expression. Truly, hospital gowns were not very flattering. Naru slung one of Lin's arms over his shoulders, hoisting them both up. Suddenly, the boy staggered and went limp. His qi. Lin, however, snapped into action and grabbed him. He wavered under the added pressure, but he did not fall. Instead, he went back to his knees. He looked up at Mai.

"Mai, help me."

"Okay… what should I do?"

"Take him inside."

"Hey!" came a voice. The two of them looked up to see Yasu running towards them. He immediately assessed the situation and supported Naru's limp form under his shoulders. Lin too, got up and stared at Yasu. Yasu's gaze suddenly shifted from to the tall man to behind him. He eyed the creature looking up at the building.

"Yasu, let's go," Lin said. Yasu snapped back to the present and began to carry Naru inside. Mai followed behind them. Jack saw that the girl was leaving, and he immediately got up to follow her, like a dog. He kept his muzzle down near Mai's ear. He stopped, though, when they approached the door. He was pretty big. His eyes stared down at the offending obstacle before sliding a long foreleg through the opening. He then turned his body sideways for his shoulders to fit though. Once that was done, he awkwardly pulled in his other forelimb before entering the building completely.

Meanwhile, Mai and Lin's jaws dropped. They thought that surely the creature would just barrel through the doorway, but Jack's cautious approach to enter without vandalizing anything took them completely by surprise.

"There," said Naru. Both of them turned to see the boy pushing off of Yasu. He wobbled a bit before finding his feet. He then touched a mirror on the wall. The burden of his exhaustion suddenly seemed to dissipate.

"I'm so glad that he and Gene were able to connect," Mai said. Lin remained impassive. She turned to him. "Wait, shouldn't you be in the hospital?"

That's when Lin remembered, too. Oh, and there was a monitor just down the hall, to keep his current attire immortalized on film. After all of this is over, those tapes are getting burned.

"I can oblige," Wu said, still clinging to Lin's neck. Lin didn't respond.


The police had done a full search of the place. Mai had by now decided that turning cop sightings into a drinking game was now both legit and a death sentence for your liver (and you'd get arrested pretty quickly for intoxication). However, none of them found Jack, as it was quite easy for the limber creature to hide out on the high ledge on the church next to one of the statues. All they had to do was throw some toilet paper over him, and he looked like a gargoyle. A teepeed gargoyle. The hard part was actually getting him to do it. There had been a lot of yelling and blank stares. Wu couldn't really communicate with the guy; he was originally a kitsuné, and he didn't understand Jack's particular dialect. However, when Lin reported this (in a change of clothes that Yasu and Masako had graciously brought from his apartment), Naru had been quite interested.

Jack was now sitting in the middle of base, watching intently as Naru circled him.

"So there are demonic dialects?" he mused. He got no response.

Mai leaned over to Yasu. "So what's Lin's apartment like?" she asked.

"You know how they say that everyone has hidden depths?" Yasu replied. Mai nodded. "Well, whoever said that was a dirty liar. Lin is as boring on the inside as he is on the outside. His place is so neat and orderly."

To that, Lin turned to them, shooting them what Mai could only guess was a warning glare.

"If I recall, the first thing you did was attempt to raid his fridge," Masako interrupted.

"Yeah, but I couldn't open it."

"He probably shiki locked it or something," Yasu mused.

"Smart guy," Mai replied.

"Hey!" retorted Yasu.

Seemingly out of nowhere, Lin looked up. Masako seemed to sense what he had sensed, since she too looked where he was looking.

"What is it, Lin?" Naru asked.

"Some of my shiki have returned. Two of them." He then addressed them directly. "Long, Kai, where have you been?"

"Heh, where haven't we been?" Kai replied. Lin shot him a disapproving glare.

"We were looking in Aokigahara for you, but instead we found that kid you got stuck with when you were last here."

"Kenji?" Lin blurted. Everyone stopped and stared at him. "My shiki saw Kenji in Aokigahara forest," he explained.

"How did he get there?" Mai asked. There was a pause.

"They say that he had followed a bunch of children on the spiritual plane, came across a glowing entity, and woke up in the forest."

"What kind of entity?"

Lin shook his head. "I don't know. It wasn't clear. The image wasn't clear."

"But where is Kenji now?" Yasu asked. In response, a vaguely humanoid shape materialized. It appeared to wave before disappearing. Mai was the only one who waved back at it.

There was a pause. Then Naru spoke up. "Masako, are you up to performing a séance?"

"Yes, I am," Masako replied.

"Are we channeling Kenji?" Mai asked.

"Yes. He obviously knows something that we don't, and it's best if we hear it straight from his own mouth."

"Wait," Yasu interrupted. Everyone turned to him. "Wasn't Kenji mute during his living… err… life?"

"Yes, but that doesn't mean he's mute now," Masako replied. "I agree with Naru; channeling Kenji is our best bet." She turned to said person. "I'm ready when you are."

"All right. Let's get started."

The lights went off. Everyone was seated around a low table where a candle was lit. Jack was pushed into the corner of the room to make room for everyone else. He watched the scene curiously. Everything was silent, save for the soft pitter pat of rain on the window. Masako closed her eyes. She breathed, and the candle flickered. There was a brief moment before the candle flickered again, except without Masako doing anything to it.

"Kenji?" Mai asked.

Masako gasped, but she did not open her eyes. Her head raised as if she were looking straight at the girl who called his name.

"Kenji, is that you?" Naru continued.

"Y-yes," replied Masako's voice. Her head scanned the room. She settled on Lin. "Daddy?" She got up and repositioned herself in front of him.

"Not this again," Lin muttered, putting a hand to his face. "Kenji, I'm not your father."

Masako paused. "Then you're Mr. Lin." She looked down. "I don't know if Miss Mai told you, but I'm sorry for before."

Lin seemed somewhat surprised. and perhaps a little touched. Nevertheless, he nodded his acceptance. Kenji nodded as well.

"Kenji," said Naru. Masako turned to him. "Can you tell us what happened right before you woke up in the forest?"

Masako put a hand to her chin, lost in thought. "There were a bunch of other children. They were walking towards a funny light."

"Where did they come from?" Naru interrupted.

Masako shrugged. "They just appeared."

"Where? On the spiritual plane?"

She tilted her head.

Mai chose to step in. "The place with all of the white lights floating around," she explained. A look of recognition passed over Masako's face. She nodded.

"And this light," Naru said, causing the two to turn back to him. "Did you detect any unusual qualities?" The look of recognition faded, replaced by confusion.

"Naru, he's a kid. He doesn't understand you," Mai muttered. She turned to Masako's body. "He asked you what the light looked like."

"It was all fuzzy. And bright. It was a big floating light."

"How big?" Naru asked.

"Um… bigger than me."

"How much bigger?"

"Mr. Lin's height," Kenji said, pointing at Lin for emphasis.

Mai tilted her head. "So it didn't look like a carnival tent?"

Everyone in the room turned to her.

"Mai, what do you know?" Naru demanded.

Mai shook her head. "Nothing. I only saw it that one time… when I was asleep for two days. Remember?"

"Why did you bring that up again, though?"

"What do you mean?"

"What connection did you draw to find that relevant to our situation right now?"

"Well, let's see…" She lifted her head in thought. "Only children were entering the tent. There were no adults. The tent was glowing yellow." She turned to Kenji. "Was the light glowing yellow?"

"No. It was bright, like those lights," Masako's voice said, pointing upwards to the fluorescent lights, currently turned off.

"Oh," Mai said, shoulders sinking.

"Daddy?" came Masako's voice again. Lin became alert in that annoyed sense. Everyone else had perked up due to Kenji's sudden shift in subject. "Daddy, I'm just talking to the side kicks."

"That's 'psychics,' kid…" Yasu muttered from the sidelines.

"You ain't no psychic, Yasu," Mai retorted quietly. Yasu stuck out his tongue at her. She deadpanned at him. "Real mature." To which he grinned. Out of the corner of her eye, Mai saw Lin nod to some invisible force. She turned questioningly to him. Then his shoulders slumped. He reanimated.

"Kenji, thank God," he said, embracing Masako's body. Yasu looked floored.

"Welcome to the world of the SPR, where even a man like Lin can become interesting to spirits," Mai said.

Naru took back control of the scene. "Mister… Uh…" And for once, Naru seemed to be at a loss for a proper word.

Lin shook his head. "Doesn't matter." He suddenly fixated on yet another invisible entity. "Who are you?" he asked.

"That's Long, daddy," Masako said.

"Long?" Mai whispered to Naru.

"One of Lin's shiki," Naru replied. He then turned back to Lin. "Why are you possessing my colleague?"

"Because I have something I need to say." He waited for the signal to continue. He took their silence as just that. "You're being watched."

The remaining members of the SPR froze as a blast of thunder sounded. Lin's hand pointed to the window. They all turned, expecting to see someone peeping in. What they did not expect was a small flash of red right in the corner of the windowsill. It was some kind of spy-cam. The light dimmed as soon as whoever behind it realized that it had been spotted.

"Daddy?" Masako's body asked.

"It's waiting for you outside," Lin's body continued.

"Who?" Naru demanded.

Lin put his hand to his stomach. He drew it back, looking at his palm. "Are you aware that your friend is–" He pitched forward. Mai and Naru jumped up to catch him. Both had thrown an arm under his torso, and when the blood seeped through their clothing, they realized what had happened. Kenji's father had overexerted Lin's body, and had now been forced from it.

"Daddy?" Masako's body whispered before her shoulders slumped.

Masako opened her eyes, oblivious to her surroundings. "What happened?" she asked, somewhat in a daze. Nobody was where he or she had been when the séance first started.

"Lin, you need to be in a hospital," Naru insisted.

"No," Lin grunted. "We all saw how well that went last time."

"For all we know, you could have several infections. You need treatment."

"No."

The door opened. Lin sat up straight. They all turned their attention to Father Tojo. He was soaking wet, but he wasn't nearly as wet as the miserable excuse for a package he had in his hands. "I apologize for interrupting. This package is for Koujo Lin. I assume that's you?" He motioned towards Lin, who nodded and accepted the parcel. Tojo then left the room.

It was a box. A soaking wet box. "What is it?" Yasu asked.

"No clue," Lin replied. "But I don't like the looks of it." He made a slight motion with his head. "Wu, investigate." The little red dragon slid from around his neck and into the parcel. He came out not a second later, returning to his customary position around his master's neck.

"It's a silver circle."

"A what?"

"A compact disk?" Long asked. Wu hesitated before choosing to nod.

"Note to everyone, get Wu up to date with human technology," Kai muttered to himself, even though he knew that the other three had heard him. He didn't give a damn.

Lin, on the other hand, knew that, no matter how snarky or mischievous his shiki got, they couldn't lie to him. He pulled the box open easily. Out came a CD in a transparent case. He handed it off to Naru, who went to put it in the computer.

"Be sure the antivirus program is running," Lin warned. Naru nodded. A few clicks and a disk insert later, a window popped up. It said: Click to play. Naru did so. A video began. The first things they saw were the faces of Ayako Matsuzaki and Hoshou Takigawa. They had been gagged, and they were watching carefully the moves of the people behind the camera. A line of text began to crawl on the bottom of the video as a message began to play, voices distorted. Well at least they had a good editor.

"Listen up, Shibuya Psychic Research; we know you have Hell's demon Jaquikik in your possession." Jack perked up. Mai turned to him before turning back to the tape. "You will bring him willingly to the cave that your colleague escaped from a week ago. You will not bring anyone but Jaquikik with you. You will not fight back. You have forty-eight hours, starting at 12:00 midnight tonight. Failure to comply with any of our requests results in their throats getting slit. This disk will self-destruct in ten. Nine…"

"Wait, what?" Yasu blurted.

"Naru!" Mai exclaimed.

"Everybody out of the room!" Naru yelled. However, before he could even move, a strong set of jaws had fastened itself around the computer. In one swift movement of its neck, the computer had been ripped out of the electrical outlets and tossed out the window, exploding in the rain.

"Jack!" Mai shouted, before stopping herself. Jack was staring intently at the window where the computer had self-destructed. Mai stepped forward. "Jaquikik?"' His gaze snapped right to her. "Your real name is Jaquikik?" And to everyone's surprise, he nodded. However, his eyes communicated something to Mai that nobody else could read. "I told you that from the beginning."


Thanks for reading!
Galacticexplorer12