A/N: Haruhi found Kyoya, but Nekozawa is still a prisoner. Will they find him in time? You know me, I'm a sucker for happy endings. That doesn't mean he won't be tortured a little more. Enjoy!

Chapter 9 – Spirit Cat

Finding the pier had been easy, and a task accomplished within minutes instead of the hour plus Haruhi had been walking in her search for assistance. Her lids felt heavy and she was so tired, but she couldn't sleep – not for lack of want. She wanted to close her eyes and allow herself to float into the abyss, however, Kyoya kept waking her up and asking questions. Why wasn't she allowed to sleep?

"Haruhi, open your eyes. Which way from here?" Kyoya pressured her to wake up and give him answers.

Her eye lids lifting, she scanned the area and saw a small pier with very little light making it seem as if it was otherworldly. Way? What was happening? And then she was fully alert. Somehow, for some reason, all fatigue suddenly left her and she heard something, "Did you hear that?"

"Hear what? Haruhi, I know you're hurt and tired, but we have to find Nekozawa-senpai and you are the only one that can lead us to him."

"Haruhi, hurry!"

"There it is again!" Haruhi exclaimed.

For the first time in his life, the Shadow King worried for the only female host's sanity…normally he only questioned that of Tamaki or the twins. "Haruhi, what are you talking about?"

"Hurry. There's not much time!"

She turned her head this way and that, but she saw nothing. "Didn't you hear that? It was Nekozawa-senpai!" Her gaze fell onto one of her closest friends and she insisted, "I'm not going crazy. I hear him!"

If there was anything Kyoya had learned in his dealings with Umehito Nekozawa, it was to never underestimate him. Although not one to normally believe in supernatural powers, he had seen too many weird things around the former Black Magic Club president to doubt anything when it concerned him. "What are you hearing?" He asked her in all seriousness.

"He's telling me to hurry. Where is he? It sounds like he's right here!" She continued to look around in hopes of finding the senpai she left behind.

Grabbing her shoulders, Kyoya told her, "Haruhi, I need you to focus. Which way do we need to go to find Nekozawa-senpai?" Up ahead, the road forked into two. On one side, the ocean sat, and on the other, a tributary that fed the ocean. Haruhi could have come from either side.

"I just know it was that way. I just swam, following the current."

"Was it a strong current or weak?"

"I…I think strong, but I'm not sure. It's that way!" She pointed in the direction they were headed. Wasn't that the only way they could go?

"Less than a mile up ahead is a fork, I need to know if we follow the ocean or we follow the tributary."

"I…I…" She didn't know. How was she supposed to find Nekozawa when she didn't even know where she came from? When she was swimming to escape, she only worried about escaping and staying out of sight. Why hadn't she focused on her surroundings more?

"Follow my voice. I will show you."

She wasn't sure why she could hear Nekozawa's voice or why she felt suddenly alert and able, but something inside her told her she would find the way, "Go straight until we get to the Fork and I'll tell you where to go then." If she was wrong… No, she wouldn't let herself think like that.

Driving slowly, they crept closer and closer to the fork. Kyoya wasn't sure if Haruhi could actually lead him to where she had been taken, however, he had no other choice. According to his research, there were at least four different locations they could have been taken, two lie on the ocean side, one on a mountain, and one on the tributary side. They had found Haruhi while making their way to the three waterfront properties, and Kyoya had others checking the mountain. The tributary was man made and had been built to help with irrigation for an old village that no longer stood. It had served its purpose then, but now a couple of abandoned building lined its waterway, fishing companies who would process fish for canning. Out of the way and yet still close to the water, it tended to save money; however, out of the way did not guaranty success. Many times they had been shut down for health violations or something else…and Tanaka's family owned at least one of the buildings that had been used for such things. OF course, it was always a possibility that Haruhi and Nekozawa had not been kept at any of these locations, since the kidnappers had to have known they would be searched first.

The closer they got to the fork, the more uncertain Haruhi would be able to lead them, "Haruhi?"

Her eyes moved back and forth searching for some sort of clue that would set her in the right direction, but darkness greeted her everywhere, and just when the cars were about to stop at the fork, a tan cat appeared out of nowhere. It was almost glowing, and she knew instinctively to follow him. "The cat! Follow it!"

"Haruhi?"

"I know it sounds crazy, Kyoya, but he will lead us to Nekozawa."

It wasn't the fact she was telling them to follow a cat so much considering they were in the process of trying to save Nekozawa…the problem lie in the fact that he couldn't see a cat. He asked his driver, "Sudo?"

"Sorry sir, but what cat?" The driver responded with his own question.

Pointing, she said, "That one! The one that kind of looks like Beelzenef!"

Once she said that, Kyoya no longer questioned it, "We can't see it. Which way is it going?"

"It's across the bridge."

"Sudo, follow the road along the ocean side." Kyoya's gut had told him that would be the way, but since it was the ocean, it meant that there were more escape routes. "Haruhi, keep an eye on the cat and tell us which way to go." Time was of the essence and if Haruhi saw a cat that reminded her of that damned puppet, he would go with it for now.

"Hai!" Sudo agreed and slowly crossed the bridge over the tributary.

Ahead of them the cat started to run, and when he turned, Haruhi told the driver to turn. Fifteen minutes later, Haruhi questioned her sanity, "Why are we going this way? I know we were right on the water!"

Kyoya pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose, "They have probably moved him and we are going to his new location."

"He's moving faster," she exclaimed afraid that they would lose the cat.

"Sudo, speed up."

"Hai, Kyoya-sama," the driver agreed. He wasn't exactly sure what was going on, and he thought this girl probably had a few screws lose, but he would never speak that aloud for fear of angering his employer; however, this wasn't exactly sane. Following a non-existent cat to who knows where and taking instruction from a girl who was hearing voices, seeing things that weren't there, and up until right before the supposed cat appeared, seemed on the verge of fainting. It was crazy. Right?

They drove like that for another thirty minutes or so before the cat darted to the right. "Turn right!"

"I can't, Fujioka-sama. There is nothing but an empty field and no road," Sudo tried to explain.

"Go. If she tells you to climb a mountain, you do it. Turn right and listen to her orders as if she were me," Kyoya directed annoyed his employee would question anything. While it was true they were driving into unknown territory, they needed to make haste and uncertainty would get someone killed.

"Hai, Kyoya-sama!" Turning the car wheel, they turned into the field of tall grass.

Haruhi strained her neck to see the cat in the overgrowth and there was almost a moment when she thought she lost it, however, she quickly found it again, "Veer slightly right. I think it wants us on a specific path.

Sudo kept his mouth closed, but he almost reminded them that there was no path. And as soon as he followed directions and veered slightly right, the ground seemed harder under the tires. He also heard the distinctive sound of splashing coming from his left. Slowing down a little, he looked out the window and gasped. Glancing out the window to the right of him, he gasped again. On both sides was water. If they had stayed on the course they had been on, they would have crashed into a pond, or lake, or whatever it was.

"Turn left after the tree," Haruhi instructed.

Thankfully, there was only one tree and Sudo was able to find it easy and turn. In front of them was an abandoned house. Was he supposed to drive through it?

"I think…I think he wants us to park and get out."

Kyoya nodded and ordered everyone out of the car. The people in the cars following them also got out. On foot, it would take longer to traverse the terrain, but it make it also harder to spot their approach. "Which way Haruhi?"

"This way," taking off after the cat that had started to run, Haruhi could hear the others following at a fast clip. Her feet were killing her, but she had to ignore the pain in order to reach her friend…to save her friend. The heat of his lips still lingered and she didn't want her escape to be the last moment she saw him. She would think about the fact she was following a cat that no one else could see, later.

Out of breath, she stopped with her hands on her knees at the base of a hill. Foliage blocked their way, but the cat had jumped over a bush and expected her to do the same. "It wants us to go up." She received no arguments from the people with her, however, when Hotta tried to start up the hill in a different spot than where the cat directed, the cat appeared in front of him to block his path. He didn't see it, but Haruhi did, and before she could say anything, a tree limb fell, landing less than a foot in front of him. "Not there. It only wants us to use this spot," she called out.

Knowing she had to use this particular spot, she wasn't exactly sure how to accomplish it. Thick bushes stood in her way. They were too close together to climb in between, ergo, she tried to scale them. Hissing when she got more scrapes and cuts, but she managed; and when she looked up after landing on her face, she found an old stair case covered and broken with roots. Probably long forgotten, it was there and would make their climb easier.

"You could have waited for my men to cut the bushes down," Kyoya chided helping his friend off the ground.

"Look."

Turning his gaze to what Haruhi was pointing at, he found the staircase, and not only that, it seemed to be almost glowing so that they could find their way and footing. "The stairs are…" Behind him, his men were whispering amongst themselves about the glowing stairs. Even they could see them.

"You see the glow too?" Haruhi questioned.

"It appears we all do. Good, that will make our ascension easier," he stated. Pulling out a map and flashlight, he took a look at their current location. "These stairs lead to an abandoned monastery. We need to be on our guard because we don't know if that will be our final destination or if we will need to go elsewhere. Everyone be careful. Haruhi, you go first since you need to keep the cat in sight."

Before the group started to climb, Kyoya sent the coordinates to a platoon of the Black Onion Squad. By the time they scaled the hill, the monastery would either be secured, or the group would be there waiting for them. He hoped they would have Nekozawa safe before they finished the climb.