So yeah. Yeah. I'm back. With a new chapter I'm really sorry. I was gonna post it yesterday, but stuff came up. ie, The con. I bought myself some nice HUUUGE Tsubasa poster. Its really pretty. didn't get home till late because we missed the last good bus. OH!! And I'm going on vacation (Agains't my will" for two more weeks. Im hoping to come hoome ealier, but i dont know as of yet.
I'm really sorry about the long wait. It was hard to write this. I was originally going to post a very short chapter for the effect, but I like this better. So anyway. Yeah. I love all the comments you guys are leaving... they make me happy. So please keep reading! (Well now that I look, it is a bit shorter...)
NEW--HAHA!!! You know what? I forgot the last stanza of the completed poem... so I added it in. That was stupid. I'm glad I memorized it when I worte it because that was important! wow... i feel stupid. Ahh...hooo nywho
Disclaimer- I don't own Ghost hunt. Nope. So yeah. I do own my original characters and such, (Ai, Noon and the like)... Noon is actually the name of the main character in an original story I have been writing (For no real reason, just writing)... But yeah. That has no relevance. Besides a similar appearance.
9-
Mai woke up from a dreamless sleep at 7:47. She felt very refreshed. Compared to how hard it had been for her to stay awake before, she felt like she could to anything.
Naru had his eyes closed, but he wasn't asleep. "Hey, Naru." He opened his eyes and acknowledged she was speaking. "Why are the doors locked?"
"Takigawa-san deemed it necessary."
Mai laughed a bit to herself. Obviously Takigawa had been intending for something to happen. But what was he expecting with Naru anyway? I wonder when he will be back to let us out...
Mai stretched her arms forward, carefully avoiding the steering wheel. The last thing she needed was the horn to go off.
Mai and Naru waited in silence. Naru closed his eyes again, but Mai simply sat and stared out the window, attempting to retain the feelings that would help her with her poem. She had it figured out. Now all she needed was her paper...
Maui saw the door of the Inn open. It was now 7:53. Takigawa slowly walked through the crisp morning air. The rain had stopped about an hour ago, so he carefully traced around the edges of the puddles.
It became obvious that he was stalling when he spent 20 seconds glaring at a puddle that refused to evaporate fast enough for him to walk strait. Naru knocked on the window. Takigawa ignored it, and tapped his foot impatiently at the puddle.
Mai sighed and looked up to the sun wishing it would hurry up. She didn't want to lose what she come up with.
Takigawa finally seemed to think It wasn't happening fast enough and stepped over the puddle. He strolled over to the driver's side and opened the door for Mai. "Good Morning." he let her out, and closed the door without removing the child lock.
Both of them started heading towards the Inn. Mai didn't even notice Naru didn't get let out until they were halfway there. She swatted her hand at Takigawa's head (and missed) before dashing back and opening it. Takigawa waited for the two of them to catch up before continuing to walk.
"Very funny." Mai said. Naru was silently deciding exactly what his retribution would be.
"Aww, don't be mean, especially after I brought breakfast to the base for you both." Mai seemed appeased. Naru was still debating his choice of punishment.
When they reached the base, Masako was sitting on Mai's couch. She appeared to be fuming about something. Ayako was sitting in a spare chair with a cup of tea or something. Lin was at his computer. John was watching the monitors that were lined up against the wall. Mai smiled. "We're back." Everyone had already seen them, but she felt like saying it anyway. It felt good.
"Its good to see you, Mai-san" John said. "Are you feeling better?"
Mai nodded, and walked to her bag. There was some food on the table, but Mai didn't really feel hungry. Neither did Naru it seemed. He sat down at his desk and started up his computer. While he waited for it to boot up, he looked over at the row of screens. From his angle he couldn't tell if Ayako or Takigawa had put the microphone back in the same place.
Mai pulled out her poem, and sat down on the couch. Masako turned away, and moved as far as she could away from the part timer.
Other times, Mai might have been offended, or might have said something, but she had to get out her ideas before she lost them, or the feelings behind them. Sitting down with that piece of paper was like pressing play on a CD layer. The melody she had been using to trigger the feeling she thought was necessary to write about wings and flying and such started to float around for a moment before she started writing.
Then the pen hit the pen hit the paper and all that she could hear was her breathing.
If I had a pair
Of pretty white wings
I'd take to the sky every day
The longer I stare
The more my heart sings
To be able to just fly away
I'd miss the earth never
When I'd take to the sky
Maybe forever there I'd stay
All Ties I'd sever
With the earth as I fly
No one'd care anyway
Mai pulled back. She loved it. Ayako was interested slightly in why Mai just started writing. "What's that?" Ayako asked, intrigued.
"Oh!" Mai said, folding the sheet. "Yeah its nothing. I just remembered something I have to do school."
"Do your homework on your own time." Naru said, writing something out on his computer.
Mai growled a bit. "I'm already done, and it only took a few moments. I don't even have anything to do." She stood up, and put it in a side pouch in her bag and started to zip it up.
Mai stopped halfway through. When she had been of the premises of the inn, the weird invasive feeling in her head had subsided, but now it was back... and...
Hah hah hah!
Mai was gone. Serra had fully taken control.
It felt wonderful to have a body again. Not only that, but this one wasn't racked with the pain she could remember from her final days. "I'll be back." Serra said in Mai's voice. It was a bit weird for her to speak for someone else.
Masako had noticed. Takigawa, who had been flipping through some of the pages Mai had sorted earlier, had also noted something odd about Mai. Ayako caught on when Takigawa looked up from the sheets towards the door.
Masako had a problem. The right thing to do would be to immediately tell everyone she had been possessed by a spirit. But... She was upset with Mai. She had a feeling that if she said it, Naru would be up immediately to go help or something. She didn't want to see that happen.
She couldn't stand it.
"Hey, Masako," Takigawa asked, trying to see if Masako thought it was Mai who had just walked out of there, or someone else in her skin, "was it me or did Mai seem a bit... off?"
Masako was fairly surprised that he had caught on. But she had her hand to her mouth, and replied. "Perhaps it has something to do with what she's been through lately." Not a lie, so not as bad as one, right?
Takigawa frowned. That could be perceived as both possible answers. He wanted to ask strait out 'Is Mai possessed or not?' but Masako still hadn't figured out about the microphone. "I guess. Yesterday was a bit of a surprise.
Ayako frowned too. She had seen what Takigawa was trying to get Masako to do. She wanted to try herself, but they couldn't get the medium suspicious
Serra opened the door and left. Closing it firmly behind her.
Sure. There were drawbacks to human bodies. They can't walk through walls. They were limited to only be able to climb as high as the ground below them allows. But it was quite something to breath again. It was an interesting feeling to deprive herself of oxygen, and then start panting.
She stopped fooling around, and began to work her way up a set of stairs to the third floor.
Serra glanced down the hall. She rarely came to the third floor. It was always Noon who went to check on the guests.
No more wasting time! It would only be a bit before they got suspicious, and the girl was fighting for control. Serra tripped on the stairs when she could have sworn she had moved her foot, but Mai prevented it. At the top of the stairs, Serra opened the door and stepped outside. Mai was in submission again.
There was a bit of a morning breeze. It was crisp still. Serra could have stood there appreciating cold until She felt Mai try to take over again.
Not a chance for the poor girl. But what now? She had promised a fast trip out in an ambulance, but how to grant it...
The railing had not been put up yet on the one side of the roof. She started walking over to edge.
Takigawa was frustrated. There was no way to get Masako to say anything. Did she want something to happen to Mai simply because of a little jealousy?
He couldn't stand it. Somebody had to tell the entire crowd.
"Mai has gone to the third floor, and continued onto the roof." John said, pointing at a screen connected to a camera they had set up in the hall upstairs the previous night.
It dawned on Masako. The spirit who had Mai was the mentally unstable Serra. And that meant that Mai was now in danger to repeat history.
Takigawa frowned. The same thought as Masako flashed through his head. Masako was torn. It would be the right thing to do, but... she couldn't say anything.
"I'm gonna go make sure she doesn't do something stupid." He said, and left. Masako felt awful. She really wanted to tell them. But, something prevented her from doing it.
Ayako had figured it out too. It was driving her mad. There was no longer any time. "Why is Takigawa-san going so fast?" John asked, staring at Takigawa's figure on the screen.
Ayako stood up, exasperated with Masako's childish behavior. "Thats enough. Masako, Takigawa and I heard your conversation with Mai the other day." She turned to Naru. "Mai's possessed. Probably by Serra." She ran for the door, not bothering to close it.
Masako looked downcast as Naru, John and Lin all dashed out the door.
I feel... horrible. Mai is at least partly a friend. Masako started to hold back the tears. How could I have...
Takigawa was on the roof when Serra started stepping towards the edge. "Mai!" Serra turned around. Just like the last time, someone was going to stop her. Where was her knife? Why hadn't she grabbed it?
"I warned her." Serra said. "She failed to comply."
"Who's she?" Asked Takigawa walking towards Mai. If he kept making Serra believe he didn't know...he grabbed Mai on her shoulders, and looked her strait in the eyes.
But the great view of his eyes gave it away to Serra. "You know already. Get out of my way or I can't be responsible for what my anger makes me do." she warned.
"Don't you dare hurt Mai, or I can't be responsible for what happens to you." Takigawa was referring to what Naru would do, but there was no way the spirit would know that. What would Naru do? Probably jorei, or something just in general painful.
"You can't do anything to help her can you?" She smiled and pushed him away. "Not without damaging her body."
Takigawa couldn't do anything. No matter how much he wanted to help Mai, There was no way for him to know what kind of damage he would do.
The door to the roof opened again. Serra found it infuriating that more people were trying to stop this girl from getting hurt than came for herself when she committed suicide.
Maybe it has to do with the fact that you're the one doing the killing... A voice in her head suggested. But I was the one who killed myself too!
Not quite the same thing. Murder and suicide are viewed differently. said the other inner voice. Yeah.. yeah. Whatever. It made sense to me.
"Its too late!" Serra said. "You guys are on the wrong side to do anything!" It was true. No one stood between her and the edge. Serra started dashing now. The plan was to jump, then separate herself from Mai's body, leaving her all alone to fall.
No stopping this time before jumping. She made it to the edge and jumped.
Masako came through the door with enough time to see Mai jump and the spirit float up and out of her. The spirit watched her fall. Naru ran to the edge and tried to grab Mai's hand, but missed just barely. He was probably going to jump himself, had Masako not burst out in tears. "It's my fault." she cried. Naru looked down. Mai hit the ground.
Mai was a bit disoriented when she got back into her own head. Serra had managed to completely prevent Mai from telling her surroundings once they had gotten on the roof. The lack of ground below her feet was a bit of a surprise. She didn't make a sound though. Things seemed to be moving at a surreal pace.
There was also movement. She was moving at a fairly fast rate arcing downwards. She instinctively reached up. Following her gaze with her hand, she saw she just missed an extended hand. She looked up the arm of the hand. There was Naru. He looked... Mai couldn't tell. He was already gone.
Mai figured it out. She was falling. Time corrected itself. It seemed to speed up extra to compensate for the lapse. The fast approaching ground looked unforgiving. Mai closed her eyes. "Help..." she cried softly. The unfogiving ground was approaching fast.
Mai clawed upwards as if it would help.
Suddenly, it felt like someone grabbed her arm, and tried to slow down the falling. But teh person was also pulled down themselves. There was no one there. Mai hit the ground much less hard than she expected.
That's not to say it didn't hurt.
Her arm had been squeezed too hard, and it had a red mark forming where two hands had wrapped around it. Mai started trying to sit up. A voice softly called. "She's still awake! Hurry!"
She then started feeling the pain in her left leg. After that it was like a large wave of pain everywhere, and she fell over.
"Masako?" John asked, being the only one who didn't understand completely.
"I knew. If I had told you all earlier..." Naru didn't say anything.
Masako felt awful. She could tell her situation with Naru wasn't going to get any better, so she just ran off. Takigawa had gone to the edge of the building. "She's still awake! Hurry!" Everyone except Ayako and Naru left.
Ayako put a hand on his shoulder. "Mai's like a weed. No matter how much damage you do to it, its always back in a week."
Naru wasn't slightly comforted by the Miko's words. They started off down the stairs and had soon caught up with the others.
Mai had fallen off a building.
No really. He thought.
On the second floor, Ayako went into the base and called for an ambulance.
Serra had seen what escaped the view of the others. While she was waiting for Mai to get severely injured, something slowed her down a bit. Or rather, somebody grabbed her arm and tried to stop her from getting hurt.
That girl had one amazing guardian angel. "Why could no one do that for me?" Maybe guardian angles don't help psychotics or when you are suicidal, or after you killed someone else. Serra was upset that her mind was actually still logical. She hadn't been dead long enough to completely lose that.
But maybe that would change sooner if she tried.
When they got to Mai, it was obvious that she had broken her left leg. When she fell she crumpled to one side, and so a few stones lodged into her skin.
Everyone stood there, just looking. Naru leaned down and checked for a pulse. It was there. Weak, but there. Another examination of her body led his eyes to her arm. It looked like it had been grabbed tightly. But when he had tried to grab her arm, it wasn't there.
What had happened?
Ayako came around the corner, but didn't come far. She didn't want to see Mai's body, scared it might be dead, or that she might see that it was hopeless to do anything. "There was a false alarm relatively close. The ambulance will be no more than 2 minutes."
Two minutes would be an unbelievably long time to wait.
The ambulance had arrived.
But now there was a more difficult problem. Who would go with Mai to the hospital? Going on her own was out of question, and Naru couldn't go. He wanted to get rid of that ghost himself. Painfully
John and Masako would still be needed too. Masako in order to communicate with the ghost, and John in case someone else became possessed.
Ayako spoke up, seeing Naru's discontent with the situation. "I'll go." She walked over to the ambulance. Part of her said that she volunteered because she thought herself useless.
But watching over Mai was important. And sine Naru couldn't go himself.
"Alright." He turned his back as the ambulance pulled away.
Who could watch that happen?
The ghost would pay.
