ey all, another late chapter; I know. I apologize again, things have been busy for me this past week. I worked at the county fair and had a heck of a time getting in any writing between all of the power outages. Plus my main computer's hard drive got fried, so there goes all of my work. -_- Got to love these thunderstorms right? Yep... me too. Anyways, here I give to you chapter 10!

Ghost Hunt belongs to Fuyumi Ono.

I held my breath as I began the decent into the basement. None of us really wanted to go down there but we knew it was necessary. After all, it might give us some kind of answer to our remaining questions. I crept down as quietly as I could, hearing the others behind me doing the same. Sozo hadn't dared to venture down into the basement, so anything could be down here.

As I reached the bottom step, I felt an odd sense of calm overcome me. I allowed it to ease my frazzled nerves and I stepped into the room. Looking around, I noticed something odd. The basement was a small square room but yet it looked like the inside of a shrine. Looking behind me I saw similar expressions of mild confusion, "I thought they only kept the foundation of the old shrine, I didn't know they modeled it to look like the inside of the shrine too..."

Silence answered me, everyone else was just as stumped as I was. I ventured further into the room, making sure to be cautious. On one side there was an altar and a small statue with several burnt out candles. They had even put an altar down here? Now things were getting suspicious. I went over to it and brushed the layer of dust that had accumulated upon it. As I did, I felt a jolt of energy and I jumped away, holding my finger. What in the world...?

"Mai," someone asked in slight concern.

I shook my head and approached the statue again, brushing off their worry. There is something about this statue, I just know it. I felt drawn to it for a reason, call it my intuition but I just felt a pull from it. I tried touching it again and this time I held on, despite the energy coursing from it. Come on, I begged it, show me something. Then I saw it; flashes of things. I hastily my eyes shut and let it the images consume my vision.

I opened my eyes and looked around the room, it had to be in the past. I could strongly smell the blooming cherry blossoms and the the freshness of late spring. Where the staircase was in the present was the main doorway, partly open, allowing sunshine to peek through. The inside looked absolutely stunning, candles and offerings lay spread throughout the floors and yet it was so clean. As I continued looking around, I realized that the atmosphere was sad, like something important was missing. The front door slammed open and two men walked in, I ran to the far wall and stayed out of their way. They were carrying a black bag and I found, in horror that it was a body bag. They went to the middle of the room and carefully lifted one of the panels, revealing a gap in the floorboards just big enough for a small person to get through. The smaller of the two men slipped through and did something that made the gap open wider. He stood upon something and helped his companion to remove the bag from the body. Terror ran through me as I recognized the face of the woman in a elegant blue and green kimono; it was Tatsu. They handled her without care and disappeared beneath the floorboards.

I gasped as the memory faded. I felt shaky but I didn't even know what they had done to her body, they could have just buried her down there like we had been told... Sometime inside me said they hadn't though. Focusing back on the present I saw Naru's concerned blue eyes looked at me. I blushed and looked away, feeling embarrassed.

"Mai, I'm not asking this time, what's wrong," he urged.

Figures he would be the one to know I thought sourly. "I saw something and it made me wonder about whether or not Tatsu's last wishes were evem granted..." I whispered. I could practically taste his confusion.

"Tatsu..." he said as if pondering, "Oh, you mean the priestess?"

I nodded and looked toward the panel that I knew lifted up. Not hestitating anymore I strode forward and began feeling for the little handle they had used. I couldn't hide me smile of accomplishment when I found it and lifted up the panel. I could hear the others gasp slightly around me and it made me feel even better about my find.

I tossed the panel aside and eyed the gap between the floorboards carefully. I knew I could fit through it and no one else could, except maybe Masako but I knew that wouldn't happen. Casting a sideways glance at Naru I quickly ducked through the opening, getting through before Naru could drag me back up. What I hadn't been prepared for was the small fall to the ground below.

I landed on my stomach, letting out a small groan as I sat up. It would be my luck that I landed on the rock. Another thing I had not been ready for was just how dark it was. I couldn't even see my hand in front of my face for crying out loud!

"Mai? Mai? MAI? Are you okay? Are you hurt?"

I sighed, same old overprotective Monk and Ayako... and Naru? I smiled lightly at the sound of Naru calling down to me, sure we were together now but I still had to get used to it. "Calm down," I called back, "I'm fine just a few bumps." I squinted into the darkness, trying to see but failing, "Can come one get me a flashlight or something? It's really dark down here."

"Sure, here's mine," Monk said, lowering it as far as he could.

I jumped to grab it and thanked him. Switching it on I did a quick look around myself. It was a dirt floor, definitely in the earth. I walked forward a few paces, swinging the light to and fro when I noticed something white, blue and green in the corner by a rock. I quickly flashed the light over there and froze in horror.

It was a body.

Nice ending, neh? It could have been better sure but I have to ensure your curiosity for the next chapter! Sorry again for the lateness, computers can be unreliable sometimes.

~Ghosties