Disclaimer: I do not own Ghost Hunt or any of its characters. :)

[Chapter Seven]

When Mai looked at the view in front of her, the waves were crashing violently against the big rocks as thunder boomed and lightning momentarily brightened the dark sky. She was standing on the beach but she felt compelled to walk closer to the water, where the figure of a red-haired woman was standing. As Mai walked closer to see who it was, the woman walked farther away from her, the water reaching her waist.

"Stop! It's too dangerous!" Mai yelled but no voice came out. Also, Gene was nowhere to be found.

Because of this, Mai cautiously walked into the water, hoping to grab the woman's arm before she gets swallowed by the waves. But before she got the chance to do so, Shiro Tomoki appeared, and he was running toward the woman who was still oblivious. He effortlessly fought against the strong current, all the while yelling the woman's name.

"Yukino! Yukino! Come back!"

'Yukino?' Mai thought as she watched the scene in front of her unfold.

Yukino turned around with a tear-stained face, looking very pale against the black sky. Shiro Tomoki stopped right in front of her, and without hesitation, held her in his arms. Yukino started crying, but she didn't return his embrace.

"I never knew you had a wife. And I never knew that you were only using me to have a child. But the thing is, I could never bring myself to hate you!" Yukino told him as she looked up at the sky.

Tomoki didn't answer. He just carried her in his arms and walked back to the beach. Yukino wasn't struggling at all. But even though she looked dead tired, she was still beautiful and elegant.

"So this is where you meet her every night," said Kinzaki Hina, who was leaning against the hotel doorway ten meters away from the beach.

The loud booming of the thunder woke Mai up. She looked around her sleepily and the first thing she saw was Naru's smirking face.

"Why the hell are you smirking?" Mai asked him groggily as she rubbed her eyes.

"Really, Mai? Penguins?" Naru answered as he pointedly looked at her pajamas.

Mai blushed immediately as she quickly pulled the blanket to cover herself. Naru sat back down on his bed, and Mai noticed that he was wearing black pajamas. Of course.

"What time is it?" Mai asked him as she tried to calm herself down.

"Four," Naru bluntly answered. He really wasn't the talkative type after all.

"Where are Yasu, Lin and Madoka?" Mai asked again, seeing that they were the only ones inside the room. Talk about awkward.

"Probably in the base."

"Naru, about last night-"

"If you volunteer as bait one more time, I swear I'm going to cut your pay in half," Naru threatened as he walked towards the bathroom, leaving Mai dumbfounded.

- Day 4: 7:06 am -

When Mai entered the base carrying another batch of tea, everyone looked well-rested. Ayako and Bou-san were bickering like an old married couple, John and Masako were looking through some articles, Yasuhara was smiling like an idiot, Lin and Madoka sat closely in front of the monitors, and Naru was longingly looking at his empty teacup.

"I brought tea!" Mai announced as she distributed the cups.

"Mai-chan!" Yasuhara exclaimed as he tackled Mai in a hug. It was a good thing she was finished distributing the tea.

"Stop doing that! She can't breathe!" Bou-san said as he kicked Yasuhara's knee.

"So, Mai-chan, what happened last night?" Ayako and Madoka asked her in unison, referring to Mai being alone with Naru the whole night.

"Nothing happened!" Mai defensively said, although she blushed.

"Don't worry, Mai. I'll do everything I can to protect you."

"What did you do to Mai-chan last night?" Yasuhara teased as he waggled his eyebrows.

"I did nothing to her. Now, if you continue harassing us with those kind of questions, I would gladly feed you to the sharks," Naru answered as he continued typing on his laptop.

"That's Naru, alright," Ayako sighed as John and Masako chuckled at the threat.

"Anything new?" Mai asked John.

"Well, we just found their profiles," John answered as he handed her the papers.

As Mai browsed through the papers, she was struck by Yukino's resemblance to Ayako. The two could easily pass as twins. Mai almost hit herself for not paying attention to what Yukino looked like back at room 733. Ayako glanced at the surprised Mai then walked over to where she was seated.

"If you don't stop worrying about me, you'll start getting wrinkles at a young age," Ayako teased as she played with Mai's hair.

"But how can I not worry? Hina obviously hates Yukino! If we don't get rid of her immediately, she'll only target you again!" Mai cried out as she fiddled with her empty teacup.

Ayako sighed and placed her arms around Mai. "Mai-chan, I'm not the only one being targeted by Hina. You should worry more about yourself," Ayako told her in a motherly tone.

"I dreamed about Yukino and Tomoki," Mai started, quickly earning the attention of the SPR members. Mai told them what her dream was, while Lin typed everything in his laptop. Yasuhara and Madoka seemed to be highlighting some phrases on the profiles, probably some information that matched Mai's dream. When she finished, Mai saw that the others unconsciously glanced at Ayako.

"I just look like her, okay?" Ayako sighed dejectedly.

"I found something," Lin's tone suggested that what he was about to say was very important.

Those words were enough to make them pay attention to Lin.

"Taniyama-san, you said that when you were kidnapped, a woman named Suzuka was there, correct?" Lin asked the brunette.

Mai nodded.

"Does she look like this?" Lin questioned once more as he showed Mai a picture. It was a family picture.

"Suzuka is Kaname's younger sister?" Mai, Ayako, Bou-san and Yasuhara blurted out at once.

"I knew there was something suspicious about Kaname-san and his sister," Madoka muttered as she glared at the family picture.

"What about Hitsuga-san then?" Yasuhara asked, looking confused.

"What if both Kaname-san and Suzuka-san are only being used as pawns?" John inquired as he sat back down on the couch.

"That's possible. Maybe they're being blackmailed or something," Ayako answered.

"In that case, there are more victims than we thought," Naru said as he stood up.

"Where are you going?" Mai and Lin both asked.

"I'll have a chat with Hitsuga-san. And maybe with her son later," he sternly replied as he left the room without another word. The rest noted that Naru's aura visibly darkened. They could only pray for Kaname's soul.

"If Kaname-san dies, John, you get the funeral rites," Bou-san said with a small smile as he patted the priest's shoulder.

John could only sigh.

- Day 4: 9:39 am -

"Ayako, I think I know how to get more information," Mai said after an hour of having nothing to do.

Ayako only raised her eyebrow in question.

"I can ask Yukino herself. In room 733!" Mai cheerfully said with a smile.

"Naru's not going to like that," Madoka and Bou-san reminded her.

"But Yukino's harmless! Please?"

Lin tossed Mai a phone.

"Go call him and ask for permission," Lin told her with a small smile.

Mai dialed Naru's number on the phone. He was already gone for almost two hours. Lin silently monitored Naru's movements, although there were times when Mai wanted to punch a monitor since female guests would occasionally flirt with him. Naturally, Naru directly rejected each and every move. He was about to enter a meeting room to talk to Kaname when his phone rang.

"What is it?" Naru asked calmly.

"Hi, Naru," Mai nervously started.

"Have you done something idiotic again?"

"Wha- of course not!" Mai defensively shouted, making Naru hold the phone away from his ear.

"What is it, then?" Mai could hear that he was getting annoyed.

"I...uh...can I go to room 733?"

"No."

"What's with the immediate answer? Can't you at least think about it for a few seconds?" Mai was obviously fuming with anger, causing the other SPR members to chuckle.

..1

..2

..3

"Still no."

"Huh?" Mai stupidly asked.

"I thought about it for a few seconds, as you requested."

"What the- Naru! I didn't mean it literally!"

"What did you mean then?" Naru asked. Through the monitor, Lin and Madoka saw that Naru was smirking, as if enjoying Mai's frustration.

"We both know that Yukino's harmless! Why won't you let me go?" Mai almost pleaded.

Naru sighed and asked, "If I don't let you go, you'll just escape, right?"

"Well..." Mai trailed off as she anxiously twirled a strand of her hair.

"Ask Brown-san to go with you. If you're not back in the base after an hour, I will personally hunt you down." Naru threatened as he hung up.

Mai thanked Lin and handed him the phone. Then she looked at John, who was arranging some documents on the table with Yasuhara.

"Mai, what did he say?" Masako asked in her usual light tone.

"Naru said I could only go if John came with me," Mai sheepishly said with a smile.

"You'd be in trouble if you went alone, right?" John asked her with a chuckle.

Mai nodded and said, "Naru's even scarier than the ghost."

"Let's go then!" John smiled as he opened the door for her.

In contrast, the atmosphere inside the meeting room was tense. Naru gave Kaname the 'if looks could kill, you'd be ashes by now' glare. Kaname could only look away from him. Flashes of lightning would frequently be seen, and the sound of thunder seemed to make the ground shake lightly. Or maybe that was just Kaname's imagination. For him, Naru gave the impression of a devil in disguise. It made Kaname wonder why Mai fell for a guy like him. After all, only the devil in disguise appeared to be oblivious to that fact.

"Are you aware that your sister is here?" Naru casually asked, breaking Kaname's train of thoughts.

"I am," Kaname honestly answered.

"Hitsuga-san said that Suzuka-san was at her sister's place. Who's not telling the truth, then?" Naru's cold tone made Kaname shiver slightly.

"My mom is not aware that Suzuka-chan's here. My aunt sent her back since she said that Suzuka-chan was acting weird," Kaname replied, still looking down.

"Explain."

Kaname inwardly sighed. Of course Mai's boss would immediately go straight to the point.

"My aunt said that during my sister's stay at her house, Suzuka-chan would always cry at night, and when my aunt would come to comfort her, Suzuka-chan would only tell her that it was nothing. On some nights, my aunt would hear Suzuka-chan screaming at someone to let her go."

"Why doesn't Hitsuga-san know about this?"

"We can't let her know! If my mom learns about Suzuka-chan's behavior right now..." Kaname trailed off.

Naru waited for him to continue, and it was obvious that he was losing his patience.

"My mom's health is very fragile. If she learns about this, she might get sent back to the hospital."

"Where is Suzuka-san right now?" Naru asked as he wrote down the information on his notebook.

"It's dangerous for her to roam around this place right now since she might still be unstable, so I decided to keep her in a room. An employee would bring her meals everyday and I instructed Suzuka-chan to always stay inside the room."

"In what room is she staying in?"

"Are you sure that's important..."

"Yes."

"It's...it's a shed, actually. It's the only place where my mom wouldn't go."

"Thank you for your cooperation," Naru finally said, stood up, and then left the room.

Naru checked his watch as he entered the base. 10:45 am. It's already been an hour but neither John nor Mai were present. Naru walked towards the monitors, ignoring the questions of the other members. He looked from monitor to monitor, and Lin could already see that Naru was starting to lose his cool. The other members were oblivious to this though.

"Hitsuga-san's son confirmed that Suzuka-san is within the resort premises," Naru stated which gained the attention of the other members.

"Don't you think we should look for Suzuka-san and maybe question her?" Madoka asked the raven-haired teen.

"We'll have to do that some other time," Naru answered as he kept on watching the monitors closely.

"Is something wrong?" Yasuhara asked as he adjusted his glasses.

"Where's Mai and Brown-san?" Naru asked the members at last.

"Room 733. I thought Mai asked permission from you," Madoka answered, though looking quite confused.

"Lin, we placed a camera inside room 733 yesterday, didn't we?" Naru managed to maintain his cool demeanor, but he wasn't fooling the older man.

Lin showed the team the said room, but it was empty save from the untouched furniture.

"What about the hallways?" Masako asked, looking worried.

"Naru-bou, what's going on?" Bou-san was starting to get nervous.

"I allowed Mai to go to room 733 with Brown-san, on the condition that they get back here within an hour. But as you can see, both of them are still not here," Naru explained as Lin showed various locations.

"Matsuzaki-san and Bou-san, search the first four floors of the hotel. Hara-san and Osamu-san, search for them in the second four floors. Be sure to be back here as soon as you finish. Lin and Madoka, watch the monitors. If you see any sign of them, inform me right away," Naru started giving out orders.

"Mai-san? Mai-san?" Mai woke up to the sound of her name being called. As soon as she was fully awake, she realized that she was tied to a chair; her wrists bound together and so were her feet.

"Are you alright?" the voice asked again.

Mai's vision was a bit blurry, but she managed to recognize the person calling her.

"John-kun? What happened?" Mai asked as she looked at him. John was in a somehow similar situation as her; his wrists and feet were bound but he wasn't tied to a chair. Instead, he was sitting down in front of her, his back leaning against the wall.

"You're injured!" she promptly noted when she focused on his face.

"Ah, it's nothing. Besides, you're injured too."

And that was when Mai felt the full force of the pain. When Mai looked down, she saw that her side was bleeding. Her arms and legs were also covered in blood. On the other hand, John's face was full of scratches, and his knuckles were bleeding.

"Why am I covered in blood?" Mai asked in horror.

"We were about to return to the base, but apparently, Hina had other plans," John answered in a low tone.

Then Mai remembered everything that happened. The two of them were already on the last staircase when they were pushed. Before Mai lost consciousness, she remembered seeing John fight against their pursuers, but his injuries from the fall took its toll on him.

"Ah, Naru's going to hunt me down," Mai gravelly said.

"I don't think this is the time to worry about that," a hauntingly familiar voice said.

"We meet again, Mai-chan," Hina cooed her name, but not in a pleasant manner.

"What do you want from us?" Mai tried to say it with a steady voice, but she was failing.

"I have no use of him," Hina answered while looking at John's direction, "But you, on the other hand, have a very important role to play."

"And that is?" Mai asked, her voice light since she was already starting to feel the effects of blood loss.

"Since you're here, your team would obviously come running. I'd finally be able to grab hold of her. Also, your knight in shining amour, the one who's been hindering my plan for revenge, would be flawlessly caught in this trap," Hina grinned as she traced Mai's face with the tip of her finger.

"Don't touch me!" Mai screamed at the top of her lungs.

"For that, I'd have to punish you," Hina smirked.

From behind her, Suzuka walked forward, holding a whip on her right hand. She stopped about a meter in front of Mai, and then she used the whip.

"Mai-san!" John yelled as he furiously tried to block Suzuka's whip from hitting Mai. Too bad it already hit her cheek, which started bleeding almost immediately. Mai screamed in pain.

"Too noisy," Hina complained before sealing Mai's lips with duct tape. Same went for John. More lashings followed, and soon, Mai felt her body give in.

'Naru, I'll be alright,' Mai thought before she lost consciousness.

Naru was the last to return to the base. He was soaked from head to toe due to the rain, but he headed straight to Lin and asked him if there were any sign of the two.

"Naru, you should probably change your clothes first. If you end up getting sick, how will you be able to help locate Mai and John?" Madoka reprimanded.

"Was there any sign of Mai and Brown-san?" Naru ignored Madoka and asked Lin.

"The camera on the third floor caught them walking towards the staircase, but as they were about to reach the second floor, the camera located there suddenly malfunctioned," Lin answered in a serious tone.

Naru was silent for a while, and then he said, "As soon as I get back from the room, Hara-san, prepare for a séance. We're going to room 733."

Masako, with no other choice, agreed.

- Day 4: 9:10 pm -

The room was only lit by candles, casting a dark and haunting shadow on the walls. The members were all seated around Masako, who started the séance without wasting any time. They didn't wait too long before a spirit entered Masako's body. And not only that; Yukino also made an appearance, looking very grave.

"Yukino-san?" Naru asked the red-haired woman.

"You're going to call him, right?" Yukino glanced at Masako.

"Yes. Mai and Brown-san-"

"I know. He's here," Yukino's figure sat down on the bed.

"Shiro Tomoki, are you here with us?" Naru asked the slumped figure of Masako.

Masako nodded. Yukino had tears streaming down her face. Meanwhile, Bou-san was staring intently at Yukino, who closely resembled his favorite priestess (not that he'd admit it).

"We need your help. I tried to talk to you a while ago in the hot spring, but you weren't there," Naru didn't waste any time.

Masako opened her mouth to speak, but it wasn't her voice that the members heard.

"I know their location."

"Then please, tell us where they are," Ayako's voice was pleading.

"As I thought. You look exactly just like her," Tomoki said as he glanced at Ayako's direction with an apologetic look on his face.

"Now's not the time for that!" Yukino suddenly screamed.

"Yukino-san, you don't know where they are, since you're bound to this place, right?" Bou-san gently asked Yukino.

Yukino nodded as she longingly looked at Masako's figure.

"Tell us where they are," Naru's tone was desperate. He knew that Hina wouldn't let Mai and John go unscathed. After all, she wanted to have her revenge.

"Control room. But it's a trap," Tomoki answered, still looking at Yukino's figure.

"It's too dangerous," Yukino voiced out.

"Too bad Naru here doesn't really care whether it's dangerous or not as far as Mai's safety is concerned," Madoka said with a sigh.

Besides, Mai would've done the same thing for Naru if he was in danger.

"I have a question, Tomoki-san, are you bound to this place too?" Ayako asked him while avoiding his eyes.

"Yukino is bound to this room so she can't leave. I can roam around the resort freely, though I can't leave its premises. Also, the dead female customers; she merely killed them for revenge. The only good thing is that they moved on without any problem," he added in a soft tone.

"There's nothing left to exorcise, is there?" Madoka asked Tomoki. He nodded in agreement.

"Then the only problem we have is Kinzaki Hina," Bou-san muttered.

"The control room...it must be located near the hot springs," Naru stated as he mentally pictured the blueprint of the entire resort.

"You have to hurry! Hina is torturing your companions as we speak!" Tomoki told them in a frantic tone before he left Masako's body.

No one was able to rival Naru's speed when he got out of the room.

[Author's Note]

Hello everyone! So far, I think that this is the longest chapter I've written for this story. :D This is because since my classes will be resuming soon, which means that I won't be able to update frequently, although I'll try my best to have at least one update per month. I'm sorry if there are mistakes or grammatical errors. :(

Thank you so much for all the wonderful reviews! I hope that this chapter somehow clears up the previous problems [although the solution would be for the later chapters so watch out!]

Please continue to support my story! :D Review if you have time~ ^_^

P.S. Do you guys want to have a sequel after I finish this story? :)

Anime recommendation: Toshokan Sensou! It's such an overlooked anime (much like Ghost Hunt, unfortunately) You guys should definitely watch it! The main couple is really really cute since they have a love-hate relationship 333 (They fight like A LOT and I mean A LOOOOOOOT, but in the end, they would always be willing to risk anything for one another) Also, Kasahara Iku (the female protagonist), is much like Mai since she easily gets riled up (always because of the guy of course 333) It's a really good romance anime!