14AmyChan: Long chapter for the readers~!
Naruisawesome: Let's go over it again
14AmyChan: *raises right hand* We don't own Ghost Hunt
Naruisawesome: *raises left hand* But we do own our OCs
14AmyChan and Naruisawesome: Enjoy the read~!
"You guys won't believe what we found!" Amaya cried out as she rushed into the room. She paused for a moment and took in the tense atmosphere. "Did I interrupt something...?"
Yuzuki twirled around to look at the girl. "No," she firmly said, sparing her brother a warning glance. "Not at all."
"Are you sure?" Amaya asked, looking from Yuzuki to Souta to Naru to Mai to Emi to Lin to Madoka to Kazuki. She simply knew something had been going on moments prior to her entrance. "Because..."
Souta rolled his eyes. "Aside from we just found out the spirit is targeting us kids and Yui demanding that Kazuki never leaves her side, no, you didn't interrupt anything." his voice half-sarcastic and half-serious.
"Oh, well, daddy and I already kinda knew that this thing was after kids," Amaya admitted as she placed a few folders on the table. She spread the papers around in an almost half hazard manner, searching for a place to begin.
Yuzuki scoffed a bit. "If this is still about your theory on Rumple-stilt-skin..." she warned, still not removing her hand from her brother.
"Well, yes and no," Amaya admitted. "You know how history said that Anne Frank and Anastasia lived here, where the Underground Railroad went through the first the we looked at it, and how it said that stuff about Rumple-stilt-skin the second time?"
"Yes, what about it?" the black-haired girl asked indignantly.
"Well, today, there was a story about the house that I couldn't connect to any fairy tale or historical figure, but I still don't think it's the real history of the building," Amaya revealed. "It connects everything together in some kind of weird way."
"Well gosh, Amaya, stop trying to leave us in suspend, and just tell us already." Souta, who was being a lot nicer than Yuzuki, said with a laugh.
"Well, in this short story," began Amaya. "There was a small family, passing through this house. Two parents and a little son. The night the family stayed, after everyone was asleep, a fairy approached the boy and asked him if he would like to play. He told the fairy that he shouldn't, but he did anyways. They played all night long..."
Yuzuki paused as the words sunk in. She had heard the same thing as the boy in the story. The word 'play' resounded in her head; however she was snapped out of her thoughts when Amaya spoke again.
"When the next morning came around, the little boy was nowhere to be found. His parents searched everywhere, but they could not find their child. Because they were in a hurry, they had to leave the boy behind. They begged the house to look after their son should he return, and then they left unharmed," Amaya said. She looked at the rest of the group with a triumphant look in her eyes, but the rest of the team seemed lost.
"How could they leave their son like that?" Mai commented sadly from the sidelines.
Amaya quickly searched through the papers until she found the answer she sought. "It says here that the parents found a map that looked like it had been drawn by their son. They didn't know if their son had drawn it or not, so they followed the map until they found a new house. By then, it had been a long, long time and the son wouldn't have been alive anyway. The parents are said to have drawn a picture of him, attached it to a boat, and sailed it off to sea as a funeral for their son.
"But the main thing is that no one died immediately from that. The parents and their son were just separated. Along with the other stories. The kids are always separated from the grown-ups!" Amaya concluded with pride.
"Sooo...what does that mean exactly?" a young voice said from the doorway. Everyone turned their gazes in the direction of the door to find that the Takigawas were back.
"It should mean that the spirit isn't here to hurt us, but to separate us," Yuzuki hypothesized aloud, looking to her father for an affirmation.
The man gave a curt nod, but before he could give a verbal reply to his daughter, Jun spoke again.
"You just said it doesn't want to hurt us, but why would it want to separate us if it didn't want to hurt us?" he asked.
Everyone pondered the Takigawa child's question. It was a strange thing indeed. Separate the adults from the children, but to what end?
Their attention was once again directed towards the base door as Masako and John came back in. The medium immediately searched for her baby, who Mai was supposed to be holding. She had to do a double-take when she saw it was Naru who had Emi instead. But nonetheless she went to him and took the child from his arms.
"Thanks for watching Emi for us, mates," John smoked kindly as he and his wife took the last couple of seats on the couch. "Have we found anything yet?" he inquired with good intent.
Yuzuki, Kazuki uneasily called out to his sister once again. When she turned her gaze on to him, he continued to speak. Where is Uncle Yasu?
"He's right-" Yuzuki began to answer, gesturing to Amaya when she seemed to realize that their loud and somewhat boisterous uncle had not yet entered the room. "Amaya... where's Uncle Yasu?"
"He's right-" Amaya began to answer now, only to realize her father was not behind her as she had previously thought. "Daddy...?"
"Naru..." Mai slightly gasped, going to her husband. Could what Amaya said earlier really be true...?
"Father Brown, Takigawa, go together and search the house for Yasuhara. Do not get separated," Naru ordered, having already planned this course of action the instant the researcher's name had been spoken. The monk and the priest were enough manpower to send looking for the researcher, while Lin, the priestess, and himself remained behind to defend the base.
Nodding hurriedly, the two men dashed out of the base, taking a left straight towards the doorway of the house to begin their search.
"Aunt Mai..." Amaya sniffed, beginning to panic. "Where's Daddy?!"
In an effort to comfort the child, Mai engulfed her in a hug. "We'll find him as soon as possible. And then you can yell at him for scaring us, okay?"
As Amaya clung tightly to Mai's neck, she nodded hastily, her eyes filling with tears though.
"Lin, Madoka, see if you can pull anything up electronically about this house. Construction plans, financial involvements, deed transfers, anything that may be of use," Naru ordered. The Chinese man and his normally bubbly wife nodded solemnly before turning to the laptop in synch. Souta watched with a keen interest as his parents worked.
Kazuki watched with sympathy as Amaya tried her best not to cry while she hugged his mother. The young boy leisurely made his way over to his friend and placed a gentle hand on her shoulder.
We'll find your dad, Amaya-chan. I promise, Kazuki's voice whispered into her mind. The shock caused the small girl to still her crying for a moment and look towards her friend with incredulity.
"K-Kazuki...you just...y-you..." Amaya could only manage to fumble out her words. She had never heard the boy speak before!
Well, not since he was three. It had been the last time he was able to speak aloud. And even now, he was not talking with his mouth. He was speaking in her mind.
Mai glanced between the two children of surprise. From Amaya's reaction, could it be possible that...?
"I thought only family were on Kazuki's wavelength," Yuzuki blurted, having overheard the conversation. Being twins, Yuzuki did not have to be touching Kazuki or even remotely near him for her to hear his thoughts.
Beaming, Kazuki on the other hand seemed genuinely ecstatic about the new development.
He reached out for Amaya's shoulder again only to have her pull away slightly. She was still trying to wrap her head around the fact that she could actually hear Kazuki inside her head whenever he wanted to talk to her.
As the Shibuya male twin began to frown in sudden disappointment, the female twin was still having trouble how her brother manage to talk to Amaya, much like said girl was doing.
"Daddy, what's happening?!" Yuzuki asked
Naru, who had been observing with a keen interest, thought over the possibilities. One of which stated that Amaya had always been receptive to Kazuki's wavelength, but the connection had only just opened due to the physical contact. Naru dismissed that idea because the two children played and touched often, including when Amaya would playfully hide behind Kazuki for safekeeping.
Another hypothesis said that Kazuki was able to adjust his wavelength to match others and allow himself easy access to anyone's mind. Should this be true, there would have to be a strong desire to communicate to Amaya in order for instinct to take over. Kazuki had gotten much training with his abilities, however, the boy always surprised them with new abilities, and instincts-much like Mai's-that allowed him to discover such abilities without causing injury to himself.
However, as Naru could not test either hypothesis, he wondered what merit it would be to give the children mere ideas as to what was going on, rather than a straight answer. He had always preferred to answer questions in a straightforward and blunt manner, after all.
"Ahhh, no fair!" Jun suddenly exclaimed, breaking everyone away from their thoughts. He jumped between Kazuki and Amaya. "Why you talk to her but not me, Kazi-kuuuuun?!" Jun asked, knowing—as everyone else—that the boy was able to speak with the girl.
The use of the nickname made Kazuki flinch visibly, but he did reach out for Jun. When their hands were connected, the Shibuya boy concentrated to try and send a single word across a connection that had not yet been established.
Jun immediately closed his eyes with an excited grin adorning his face. He waited for his friend's voice to float into his mind, but it never came.
Confusion finally spread in across the young boy's features after two minutes of waiting. He opened his eyes to see Kazuki frowning at their conjoined hands.
"Well?" Yuzuki blurted, thinking that the two had communicated and wishing to test the Takigawa boy. "What was Kazuki trying to say to you, Jun?"
"He hasn't said anything yet..." the boy answered, almost in a despondent type of tone. He glanced at everyone in the room in disappointment. "Why can't I hear him?"
In an effort to comfort the both of them, Amaya placed a hand on each of their shoulders. However, as she did, she could hear Kazuki say, very faintly, I was trying to tell him 'clown'...
The girl gasped in surprise and pulled her hand away once again. She looked between Kazuki and Yuzuki and realized she had overheard Kazuki telling his sister that.
"What was he saying?" Jun asked, not liking the thought of being left out.
"He...he said he was trying to say 'clown' to you, Jun..." Amaya replied after swallowing. She still couldn't believe she heard Kazuki talk! Even if it was by using telepathy. Yuzuki's eyes widened at the girl's words.
"You heard our conversation...?" she asked.
Instantly, Amaya withdrew her hand, realizing she had intruded. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to," she apologized, tears coming to her otherwise normal eyes. The emotional rush of the past few moments, her father being lost to discovering she could hear her best friend with telepathy, came crashing around her.
Yuzuki sighed, knowing she obviously upset the already distressed girl, and walked up to her. "It's fine, Amaya...I was just...surprised is all."
Sniffing, Amaya nodded, doing her best not to loose any more tears. It was a vain effort as a couple drops of the moisture rolled down her cheeks. She hiccupped from the effort.
Kazuki was about to reach out to Amaya again, but he thought better of it. The last two times freaked the poor girl out, he didn't want to make it worse. Slowly retracting his hand, he looked at Yuzuki.
Tell her I said it's alright.
"Kazuki says it's okay," Yuzuki announced. She gave the crying girl a once-over before pulling her into a hug herself. "By the way, nothing will get done if we spend the entire time crying. So cry it out now so we can fix all of this, okay?"
Amaya, who was now shocked from Yuzuki's actions, managed to let out a small, shaky chuckle before falling into a few more frightened sobs.
Yuzuki allowed her friend to cry on her for a few moments more. Everyone else within the room seemed to be exchanging worried looks, with a few calculating eyes which seemed to be estimating the possible amount of potential danger they were in.
A loud rattling from the front of the house shook the team out of this somber moment. Without much thought, Ayako jumped out of her seat and made her way to the source of the noise, determined to see if her husband had been a part of the noise. Madoka tailed the priestess closely, stating it would be safer to travel in numbers than to allow one of their own off into the house alone.
Souta narrowed his eyes slightly as he watched his mother and his aunt run out the door. He flicked his gaze to his father for a brief moment before speaking.
"What...exactly is...happening?" he inquired suspiciously. Ever since Uncle Yasu disappeared something hasn't felt... right.
"We are unsure at this point," Lin as answered his son, his eyes sweeping the base. All who remained in the room now was Naru, Mai, Masako, himself, Yuzuki, Kazuki, Souta, Amaya, Jun, and Emi.
"Do you see any of them on the cameras?" Mai asked quietly.
Lin turned to give the monitors a thorough scanning in order to answer Mai's query. From the dining room to the main hallway to the front door. Even the bathroom seemed devoid of any living persons. Lin gave a curt shake of his head before rewinding the tape that had been set to face the front door.
"Naru..." Mai sighed and she suddenly began to feel restless and jittery. She was worried for her family. They haven't heard anything from them and there's no sign of them anywhere.
"No one travels on their own anymore. No splitting up, and everyone will sleep in the base," Naru ordered, effectively placing the remainder of the SPR group on lockdown. Everyone nodded their assent immediately. Well, almost everyone.
"What? No, Naru, that's not what I meant!" Mai exclaimed, her eyes darted to him in dismay. She didn't mean for them to be on lockdown! Yuzuki scrunched her nose up, indicating she didn't agree with her father's words either.
"We will search for the missing team members as a unit," he continued, knowing that his wife and daughter did not like the lock down, but knowing that it was probably the safest option at the moment. His team was disappearing like ethereal beings and he did not want to lose anyone else. "No one is left behind or wanders off. Understood?"
Mai and Yuzuki shared a questionable glance towards each other, silently asking if they should agree to those terms.
"Is this understood?" Naru reiterated. The rest of the team, having already resigned to the fate of a lockdown, watched on in silent interest. Souta, Kazuki, Jun, and Amaya all shared looks. They knew that Yuzuki would crack only if Mai cracked, and there had been quite a few times that Auntie Mai had stubbornly refused Uncle Naru's orders for days on end.
But this was serious now. Someone could get really, really hurt.
"Alright, fine." Mai finally conceded. "But only until we find the others. If nothing has happened to them then it's still safe here."
Naru nodded, showing that he understood and agreed to his wife's statement. He stood up in one fluid motion and made his way to the doorway. The rest of the team followed him out of the door. Naru led and Lin pulled up the rear, making sure that no one was left behind or wandered off.
When the two silent men decided that was a mystery to the remainder of the team.
As promise, Yuzuki made sure that her brother was right beside her the whole time. How protective the girl was of Kazuki was unbelievable. Although Kazuki kept an eye on Amaya the whole time also, so who was he to tell his sister she was being too protective?
Souta kept an eye on Yuzuki as they walked, and the other on his father. His mother had gone missing, he did not want to lose his father as well. Jun, both of whose parents were missing, kept an eye out for everybody, his father's knack for leadership shining through the boy's normally goofball personality.
"Where should we search first?" Mai asked quietly, glancing at all the children to reassure herself that they were still all there.
"Perhaps we should try the front door and work our way backwards," Masako suggested, a surprisingly quiet baby in her arms. Emi seemed to be sleeping through the entire ordeal. "That was where John and Bou-san were headed towards."
Naru gave a curt nod. "I would have to agree. Hopefully we'll see them along the way."
"Okay." The brunette sighed. "Let's go then."
The team made their way inch by agonizing inch throughout the entire house, looking for any sign of life or any telling of a disturbance. When the returned to the base, they did so empty handed and on little sleep.
"Oh Emi..." Masako said tiredly as she tried to calm down the now awake and crying baby. She had been bouncing her up and down for the last several minutes without any luck.
"If we can get you a blanket, maybe you can feed her?" Mai suggested.
The medium sighed and nodded, looking down at Emi for a few moments before moving her gaze on to Mai. "I'll try anything, thank you."
Nodding, Mai went in search around the base for a cloth large enough to cover Masako so she could feed Emi. After plucking such a cloth folded from atop the monitors, the adults and children sat around to decide their next course of action.
"So...what now?" Jun asked, his attutide clearly impersonal from his usual goofy self.
"We should rest and continue the search tomorrow," Naru stated, taking control of the situation. "None of us will be of any use if we cannot even move our feet. The adults will be taking two-person shifts in the night."
Lin nodded in agreement. "Who will take the first watch?" he questioned.
"Mai and I will." Naru answered, giving his wife a brief glance to make sure she had no objections. "We'll wake you and Brown-san up later on during the night."
Lin seemed as though he wanted to argue, but one well-placed glare somehow kept the man's questions in check. He nodded and turned to assist Souta and Jun with their nightly preparations. Well, as many nightly preparations they could manage without leaving the confines of the base.
"Alright Yuzuki and Kazuki." Mai called softly, kneeling down in front of her children. She caressed both of their cheeks with one hand for a moment. "Time for bed..." her gaze shifted to the little girl who was beside her son. "You too, Amaya-chan."
"I wanna..." Amaya interrupted herself with a yawn. "Wait up for daddy..." It was obvious to anyone who was observing that the Yasuhara child was slipping into a too-tired-to-go-to-bed slash oddly-persistant-about-the-oddest-things phase. She stood herself right next to Kazuki and kept her bleary eyes on the door.
"He promised...to tell me...a story..."
Mai gave a sympathic smile to the girl even though Amaya wasn't looking at her. "Amaya-chan..." she began, only to be interrupted by her daughter.
"Mommy can tell you a story." Yuzuki commented, trying to cheer up her friend even if it was by a little bit.
"...will daddy come..when I'm sleeping?" The girl pressed quietly, already swaying on her feet. Kazuki moved to steady her and ease her into a sitting position.
"We hope so, Sweetie." Mai told her softly, knowing the girl was about to fall sleep at any moment.
"I...want daddy..." Amaya murmured as she finally let unconsciousness take her. She slumped against Kazuki, who had been supporting her at that point. He looked at his mother with a solemn face before setting the Yasuhara girl down and covering her with a blanket.
Mai nodded to her son and gave a small smile. She then looked towards Jun, wondering how he was doing without his parents here.
The boy was almost as solemn as Lin as the man readied the two boys for bed. It was obvious that the young boy was deeply disturbed by the absence of his parents, but seemed to be holding in the anger and frustration that came with the event. Mai wondered if she should approach the young boy and allow him to question everything when Souta beat him to the punch by simply laying a hand on the Takigawa boy's shoulder.
Startled from being snapped out of her thoughts, Mai shifted her gaze downwards to look at the small hand that was on hers. Then she flicked her eyes up to its owner.
Don't worry, Mom. He'll be fine. Kazuki told her.
Mai smiled wanly as she placed a hand over her son's, patting it lightly. I hope so...
14AmyChan: Okay, I know this is a sad chapter, but I squealed in some bits
Naruisawesome: lol!
14AmyChan: anyhoot...
Naruisawesome: Please read and review, guys!