DuskWolf= love the idea, but I can't really see Mai curl up with Naru in the sewers with how she is. I'll try to put a friendly sort of romantic moment later on in the fanfic, but Mai doesn't really like Naru this way in the fanfic. But she might end up liking him though!
WhisperToTheWolves= I can't wait to write it! Mai is going to make Monk and Naru pay in every single way she can. –Evil chuckle-
97kingdomwolf= MaixLin huh? That's just as often used as NaruxMai. And I don't know how that would work anyway, but that's me. It's definitely a pairing to keep in mind though!
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Thursday
The ambulance came and picked up Masako. She was unconscious on the stretcher as we watched her get put into the back of the vehicle. Thankfully, I wouldn't be going to the hospital with her.
People with no lives had already started rumors.
"I heard she saw something…"
"It's the same thing that Mr. Yoshino saw…"
"It's gotta be a curse!"
"Come on you know it's her. Who else would do this?"
"I hope I don't meet Kasai in a dark hallway."
'Get a life you paranoid sheep.'
"Call us soon and let us know how she's doing, okay?" Ayako said as John climbed in the back of the ambulance.
"Right. You guys try to be careful, okay?"
And now we're down two morons. As if we weren't stressed enough.
Hey, maybe if I'm lucky, since I already have a curse, I can't get another!
Wait…
Why doesn't that sound as good as I thought it'd sound?
Later
Ayako was still in hysterics when we reached the base, made obvious by the first sentence that came out of her stupid mouth.
"Shouldn't we just go ahead and get this Kasai girl locked down?! Our lives are in danger here!"
"Did you not hear me earlier!? She didn't do it, dumbass."
Ayako turned back to glare at me. "You still believe that crap?! Then tell us who IS doing it, otherwise but out!"
"I don't know, and I won't butt out! I refuse to let someone who didn't do it go to prison to hang out with the junkies!"
"Whoever it is, they're warning us," Naru tried to diffuse the situation as well as get the point across. It only worked with the latter.
"What?"
"We must be getting close to something," Naru answered "The hexer attacked Miss Hara and I to warn us from digging any deeper."
"That's a hell of a warning!" Ayako huffed "Masako was pushed down the stairs, Naru. This is serious!"
"Yeah," Monk agreed. "And not to toot my own horn or anything, but who knows what would have happened to you if I hadn't scared away that spirit earlier."
"So as long as we get the message, the hexer doesn't really care if one of us is hurt or killed," Naru continued "That tells us a bit more about the kind of person we're dealing with and makes our resolving this case quickly all the more imperative. The targets were Mr. Yoshino, the unfortunate sophomores who sat at that desk and had accidents one after another, and the entire track team. And let's not forget, the hitogata we found in the desk and the locker room make it clear that the culprit was after someone connected to them. "
"I think we're all aware of that working on this case poses a risk, and for that reason we should want to expose the hexer as soon as we possibly can. Lin, Mai, and myself will investigate those connected to the desk and the track team. Monk, you and Ms. Matsuzaki will continue to search the school for hitogata." He commanded us. I guess he paired me with himself and Lin because he was worried I'd rip Ayako a new one, or give her an eye like he has if he left me alone with them.
Well played, Sir Ass.
"Yeah, right." They both agreed.
I was in base with Lin and Naru as they interviewed Miss Sunshine once again, giving me another sugar migraine.
"So you're trying to figure out if the desk and the track team have a connection," Taka questioned, only to be ignored.
"Who was the first student to sit in that seat?" Naru went on to question.
"Uh, first term… I honestly don't remember. But I know that Murayama sat there second term."
"When exactly would that have been?" Naru barely gave her time to breathe.
"Oh, let's see the first seating change was in the middle of September," Taka muttered, gathering her thoughts. "See, at our school we always change seat on the fifteenth day of every month, so it must have been from July fifteenth to September, uh, fourteenth, with summer vacation in the middle."
"When did Murayama have her accident?"
"A couple of days before the seating change, I think." Taka answered after thinking about it for a minute.
"Alright. That means that the culprit must have put the hitogata inside the desk sometime between July fifteenth and September eleventh or twelfth."
"Hitogata?" Taka was ignored, like I usually am when I make a witty comment.
"The accidents started happening midway through September, so the student before Murayama probably wasn't connected. I think it's a safe bet that Murayama must've done something to anger the hexer during that period."
"So the curser is pissed?"
"Oh yes, that's obvious. They had to have had a grudge of some kind. Our culprit knew Murayama, or at least what she looked like, which means we can probably rule out teachers she didn't have and students in other grades."
"Um," Taka inputted, "I don't know. Sometimes substitutes or administration type people come in. Plus there are club meetings and stuff that other kids come to." Then Taka gasped and brought a hand to her mouth, effectively making me think she'd make a damned good actor.
"What's with you?"
"Well. It happened during the Kasai Panic… Some of us kept dragging Kasai into our classroom to see the spoon-bending thing. It really was pretty cool, you know. But one time Murayama just totally stormed in and started yelling at us. She said 'Would you guys give it a rest? I'm so sick of this supernatural crap! I mean, come on! It's really just a cheap trick, right?'. I guess Murayama was pretty upset because she even went to talk to Ms. Ubusuna."
Oh powers above damnit. How do I disprove that one?
"Ubusuna?" I asked, grasping for anything of any use at the moment.
"Uh, yeah," Taka nodded. "She knows a ton about psychic powers and stuff… Didn't you guys know that? I've even gone to ask her questions about it before. I remember her talking about psychokinesis… Like the three types of PK that there are. I remember trying to see if I could make a die roll a two, ya know, since she said it wasn't that uncommon… No dice—er, forgive the pun. Looks like I'm as normal as they come… But Kasai was different. I think maybe that's why she always stuck up for Kasai, even when the whole school went crazy over psychic stuff and people started taking sides."
"And this is the teacher Murayama complained to about Kasai?" Naru questioned suddenly.
"Uh huh," Taka nodded. "Ms. Ubusuna said if she stepped in it would just stir things up, but pretty soon the other teachers and the PTA started freaking out about it."
"So Murayama was the first person to reject psychic powers… Quite interesting," Naru muttered, obviously on to something in his twisted mind.
"Wow, you know I hadn't even thought about it until just now, but I don't think the track team had a lot of believers either," Taka spoke up suddenly. "Well, Mr. Yoshino was the team's advisor and he really didn't believe, so the team ended up doing… you know… whatever he said." Oh great, more frickin sheep.
I really should have stayed at home.
Later
"What did you say?" Ayako questioned.
"You're kidding, right?" Monk put his two cents in.
I shrugged "you were wrong, he isn't an Onmyouji."
"But come one, making hitogata, performing a purifications, and now this zuhzou thing? Of course we'd think he's an onmyouji! Anyone would" Monk protested.
"And you're yelling at me why!? Lin can do it, Naru useless at it. Get the picture?"
"So I ruined a perfectly good manicure for nothing," Ayako muttered, looking at her brightly colored nails. Seriously!? After all that's happened, you're worried about your nails? I never saw the point of nail polish, but then again, I have paws, not hands.
"And I've been putting up with his crap because I thought, 'Oh, he's a master, we have to do what master says!'" Monk murmured, looking upset.
"Then maybe you should wait until the whips and chains come out before you assume he's bought you." I glanced at the new smell coming our way "Mrs. Ubusuna?"
"Yes," she nodded. "I just heard that Masako Hara was injured."
"She fell down some stairs."
"Is she alright?"
Ayako spoke up. "At the moment it doesn't appear to be life-threatening, but if she had landed any differently things could've been a lot worse. Maybe you'll see this as an opportunity to wake up and take a good look at this girl you're so interested in defending."
"Shut. Up." I hissed, only to be ignored.
"Oh I knew it, Ubusuna spoke remorsefully. "You've chosen to believe Kasai is to blame for all this too, haven't you?"
"Of course we do." Ayako grumbled.
"There's certainly no reason not to suspect her," Monk echoed.
"She's so scared, I really worry about her." Ubusuna worried. "I'm not sure… what she'll do…"
"She wouldn't go… too far, would she?" I questioned. As I've mentioned before, I'm not against suicide nor will I try to prevent it. but if she kills herself everyone will always think she did it, and that's no way to go.
"I doubt it," Ayako answered with a sneer. "I saw her over there spying on me and Monk earlier. For all we know maybe the 'little dear' is deciding who she wants to curse next."
"Who do you think you-"
"Excuse the bitch." I interrupted, jumping into the middle of the argument like a moron "she says she's a professional, but I seriously have my doubts. I don't think Kasai did this, the girl doesn't have it in her. Call it an instinct, I suppose, but I just can't get the guilty verdict to stick with me."
"Instinct?"
"It's just one of those things." Why explain what's natural? 'It's a dog thing' won't work with Ubusuna, she probably didn't understand what she saw when my hood got yanked down the other day, so she probably doesn't realize I'm a mutt.
"My goodness," Ubusuna spoke, sounding surprised, probably by my cursing. "And what's your name?"
What kind of questions is that? "Mai Taniyama."
"Thank you, Mai. That means a lot, and I know Kasai will be very happy to hear it too."
I shrugged "it's what I think. They can just go fall into a ditch for all I care."
"I would really appreciate it if the rest of you would stop accusing that young girl," Ubusuna addressed Ayako and Monk. "The poor thing has been through enough as it is… Good day."
"How can we stop accusing her?" Ayako shot at Ubusuna's back once she was out of hearing range. "What if something worse happens because we sat back and didn't act in time?"
"Yeah, and it's starting to look like it could be our turn next," Monk muttered, sounding seriously paranoid.
Later
I've always liked keeping to myself. Not the secretive, you-don't-know-a-damned-thing-about-me like Naru does, I just like keeping myself as my only company.
So it wasn't really a surprise that I ran off on my own and didn't really explain where I was going. I wanted to be on my own (something that didn't really happen much anymore since I've become part of S.P.R.) and I didn't feel like having someone come running after me.
So it surprised (and annoyed me) that during my walk when I was looking around for some of those Hitogata things, I started hearing crying.
Looking around, I noticed a kid's bag in the middle of the construction site. Is someone that dumb? "yo!? Someone out there?"
More crying. Just great. I'm not a hero.
Sighing, I glanced around a minute before yanking my hood back and shaking it off. It would be a nuisance more than anything else when it came to climbing over things. Sticking my paws carefully into the small holes of the fence, I made my way over, getting more than a few scratches and I'm sure a few pieces of fur came off.
Well, I'm no hero, but my dog instincts demand that I go help the kid. Dogs hate it when humans feel sad.
I eventually found myself staring at a slightly open manhole cover.
Nudging the thing open with my nose (you have no clue how hard it was with my sensitive nose and how heavy the thing was) I turned around and carefully backed myself slowly down, wincing at the feel of having my pads of my feet separated by the rusty bar.
"Mai!" suddenly, I heard Naru shout. I was so busy trying not to slip I didn't even smell him coming "What are you doing in there?"
"There's a brat down here!" I shouted back. "They dropped their bag over…" I looked over, no bag.
Oh shit, I think I just fell for some kind of ghost con.
And, as if karma and the powers above both decided it was time I meet my maker, my paw slipped. Frantically grasping for anything with every part of my body, I hooked the top rung in my jaw and bit down. Hard. Ignoring the toothache that was exploding in my head, I carefully searched for anything for my paws too grab, trying not to upset the balance too much. Dogs can get hurt a lot easier than humans in drops like this. If I fall on my spine, I'll never walk again. If I'm even breathing to walk, that is.
"Mai!" I heard Naru run through the gate.
I felt a tug. I looked down, to see a little kid (probably some kind of spook) grabbing my back paw. It was then I knew I was screwed.
Naru came up by the manhole, noticed my predicament, quickly demanded "give me your hand!"
Ignoring the fact he misused his terminology on my body (something I don't usually do) I managed to calmly mutter a slightly garbled "grab my scruff. Paw, don't work."
"What!?"
My ears fell back in slight irritation. He's supposed to be the smart one! I rephrased "neck fur. Grab neck. Won't hurt, lots of skin. Hurry!"
My teeth slipped from the bar just in time for him to grab my scruff. Ignoring the slight sting from the tug, I listened to him. "Calmly put your foot on the ladder. Can you do that?"
Although my timing was horrible; I snorted "doubtful."
I placed a paw on the ladder, and of course, it broke.
We fell.
What is with my luck!?
I landed square on my paw, making me whimper slightly. Hey, dogs don't cry, they whimper.
Getting up on all fours, I limped over to where the ladder used to start. Yup, I broke it.
"Damn my luck." Muttered under my breath "why is it always the mutt?"
"Are you alright?" again, my sense of smell failed me. Glancing over, I noted Naru was leaning against a wall.
"You fall in too?"
"My hand got caught in your undershirt."
"Well, we're screwed." I commented lightly, sounding almost cheerful "let's hope someone will find us soon, or we'll be buzzard food."
"Did you tell anyone you'd be here?" Naru asked. I gave him a dry look.
"Do I ever?"
"Me neither." He admitted, not surprising me in the least.
Placing my front to paws on the wall in front of me, I let out a howl to see if anyone nearby could hear me. Nope, nothing. I started barking as loud as I could.
"What possessed you to come down here anyway?" Naru interrupted.
"A brat." I looked around a minute to see if she was still down here, then restarted barking. Yup, just like I thought, I got duped.
"So now we know they've decided to attack you as well."
"Why am I not surprised?" I huffed, more to myself. After joining S.P.R, I've found myself talking to myself aloud a lot more often than I should. First sign of insanity… "It's always the mutt."
I went back to barking.
"Hey, dogs like things that move, right?" he questioned, before digging around in his pockets "you want to meet my pet?" I tilted my head, curious. Alright, I admit it, I'm overdoing the dog thing, but dogs are well known to survive stuff like this more than humans. "Come on out here," he said as he lifted his hand and brought a coin out.
"Did you hit your head? It's just a coin."
The coin shook, then went back into his palm. "You see, he hid because you made fun of him."
"I made fun of you, not the coin. Besides, it's in your hand."
"Really?" He opened his hands.
"The hell?' I muttered. I've seen magicians do that sleeve things before, but he didn't tilt his arm back or anything, so it isn't there.
He reached behind his right elbow. "Ah, there he is," he pulled the coin back out.
I sniffed it, no scent. What the hell is that thing? "Let me look at that thing."
"Catch," he said, flicking it in the air. I tried clapping my paws together, as a version of catching something. Unclapping them, I found I didn't have anything. Taking a quick check to make sure I didn't drop it somehow, I crossed my arms. I'm falling for all kinds of dupes today "stop screwing with me."
"I guess your fur scared him so much he had to hide again."
"Nice to know I'm freaky."
He moved his hand up to the collar of his jacket. "Ah," he pulled the coin back out again, "so that's where he was."
"You're not afraid of Mai, are you?" Naru asked the coin.
"Mm-hmm," it agreed.
"You don't have to be afraid of her. I promise she's not nearly as scary as she comes across," Naru told it. He put it away.
Drip.
The hell? I looked around, nothing.
Drip. Drip.
"Don't worry Mai," said Naru, trying to reassure me. "When everyone gets back together to report they'll see I'm not there and come looking for me. At least I know that Lin will."
"Just you huh? Ass."
Drip. Drip. Drip.
Suddenly, Naru was kneeling forward. "What's with you?"
"Whatever happens, stay close and keep calm," Naru answered, not answering my question.
Suddenly, nothing in here smelled like anything. Oh just great. The spooks back.
"What's that?" I questioned. Long hair came out of the ceiling, followed by part of the face to reveal two bloodthirsty eyes.
Well, isn't this familiar?
I started growling.
Dogs are well known to hate ghosts because of what they do to their masters, after all. And while Naru is no 'master' of mine, I still hate the damned things. I'd be up to defending anyone or anything at a time like this, if it meant getting to attack a ghost.
"It's alright," Naru reassured. "The spirit couldn't have grown much more powerful in one day. Stay calm and we'll be just fine."
"You know, you suck at making people feel better. You're more freaked than I am, get that through your thick head now."
Something suddenly protruded from the mouth of the ghost. The woman spirit pulled it out of her mouth to reveal a bloody scythe.
Ah, screw my promise to keep my cursing to a minimum; this will hopefully be the only time I'll ever mutter this phrase "we're fucked."
I know I told you I hate the f word, and I do, it just fits at a time like this. Besides, I say 'we're screwed' too often. We need a little mix up here and there.
The woman flipped over and dropped down to stare at Naru, the only thing between them being the scythe she held close to his face. My growling deepened. Come at you spook, I'll make good use of that scythe.
"Naru? Are you down there?" I heard Lin's voice call down. I turned back, the ghost was gone.
Why do I feel like I missed something big?
Naru came over and stood beside me. "That was quick. We need a rope or a ladder, and a flashlight, please."
I, finally smelling something, ran over on all fours and grabbed something between my two paws. Damnit, the smell is impossible to trace again. Damn water.
"Mai! What are you doing now?!" Naru shouted as though he was expecting me to have run off into the sewers to live with the rats.
"Get over here."
Later
"Mai, stop falling down holes. You even dragged Naru in with you this time!" Ayako berated me.
"I'm sorry, from this moment on whenever we're on a case I will swiftly get away from anything circular." I grumbled.
"Naru, I'll check on you next, okay?" Ayako told him, only to be ignored.
"You know, it's actually kinda impressive that there are this many of them," Monk commented "I never would've thought to look in the sewer."
"There's Mai," Naru said, looking at the hitogata he held. "So Mai's doll, and also ones for Miss Hara, Yoshino, and myself were found."
"Our names weren't there?" Monk asked.
"Hm, well I guess that's a relief," Ayako muttered.
"I don't know, I kinda feel left out," Monk joked.
"Now we have to burn the hitogata and throw the ashes in the river, and the power of the enmi will be broken," Naru declared.
"But, do you believe this will stop the hexer?" Ayako questioned.
"We're not even completely sure who it is," Monk added.
"It ain't Kasai." I put in. hey, you left the moment open, I'll butt in.
"Mai, come on, this is really getting old," Ayako reprimanded.
And then, Naru fell over, and didn't get up.
During the confusion, I still found myself joking "dude, if you're dead, I'm so not hiding your remains."
Alright, I've got to mention this now. I deleted my poll and reposted it, with a few changes. Sorry! this will be the only time I'll do that. So please revote! And I don't want any more reviews about what I should choose. Sorry, don't like them is all.
And since Naru and Lin are obvious choices for most people, I took down those choices. There's still a choice for me, I just don't want everyone voting them. We really need some originality!