Rolling along, here is the next chapter! Once again, if you'd like: R&R?

I DO NOT OWN GHOST HUNT!

The Mirror: Chapter 11

Although some small part of Mai had been prepared to see Minako again – despite how much she hoped she wouldn't – she definitely had not expected for the woman to look completely different from when they had faced off with her earlier.

Gone was the flowing hair and pretty sundress. Gone was the unmarred and luminescent skin. Instead, Mai found herself faced with a being that matched the gruesome acts she had committed.

Minako's hair was matted, her dress patched with dirt and holes. Her skin was cloudy with a layer of grime, save for two clear paths down her cheeks. An eerie red light poured from her eyes – a creepy shade of red that matched the most unpleasant aspect of the woman's changed appearance: a blotchy ring of bruises that circled her neck.

Mai's shaking hand quickly moved to her own neck. She did her best to calm her erratic breathing, swallowing as much air as she could without choking on it. The sharp pain caused by Minako's necklace had begun to fade into a dull throbbing that probably wouldn't leave her alone for some time. She carefully propped herself up on one arm; there was no way she was going to just lay there on the floor with a maniacal ghost staring her down.

Just as she began to move, Minako's head spastically twitched to the side, freezing Mai in place. The ghastly woman's mouth opened – a gaping hole with no teeth or tongue in sight.

"How…" she rasped with unmoving lips. Mai's skin crawled at the sound of her voice. It was as if someone was squeezing her throat, and she was fighting to get the words out. The hand Mai had resting on her neck flexed unconsciously.

"How… do you… live?" The red eyes narrowed. "I gave you… the despair… of your lover… denying you. I gave you… the hopelessness… of no escape. I gave you… the promise… the only escape… death!"

Mai flinched as the woman's strangled voice fought to become a shout. Her red eyes suddenly grew wide, fresh tears leaking down her stained face. Her hands fisted themselves into her torn sundress.

"…Why? Why? Why? WHY?!"

Minako shrieked over and over, her empty mouth gaping, tears staining her dress. Mai slammed her hands over her ears. What is wrong with her? What can I do to stop her – her tantrum?

As desperately as she wanted to think calmly about the situation, Mai was far too exhausted and pain-stricken to be rational. Her head pounded, further goaded to throb by Minako's hoarse screams. To be completely honest, she was suddenly far too aggravated to deal with the unending whining of some seemingly supernatural child.

"Why what?" Mai practically yelled at her, her voice straining. She felt like a parent chastising a child for asking all of those questions that ultimately get the answer "because I said so". Life and death situation or not, Mai was past the breaking point of acting like a sane person.

It took her a moment to realize that Minako's screaming had stopped. Mai slowly removed her hands from her ears, eyes locked on the gruesome being before her. She began forcing herself onto shaky knees in case she needed to dodge some kind of retaliation for her outburst.

Minako had momentarily stopped crying, and her hands were hanging limply at her sides. Her head lolled to the side as her eyes nearly slid shut. She moved her mouth wordlessly for a couple of seconds.

"Why…" she began in a whisper. "Why… does no one… feel… or see? Why… does no one… know?"

Mai staggered onto her feet, feeling some compelling force nudging her in the woman's direction. She stumbled towards the occupied mirror.

"Know what, Minako-san?" Mai pried gently, somewhat regretting her angry outburst. Now that the situation appeared to have simmered down a little bit, she could pay to act a little like she dealt with ghosts as her profession. Act calm, use what you know, get to the root of the ghost's unfulfilled regrets.

Minako's head twitched again ever so slightly as Mai continued to approach her. Her gaping mouth moved silently.

"I just… want to… he left… I am… not pretty… why? " she paused, wiggling her fingers unnaturally. "Why… aren't I… pretty enough?"

The anger in Minako's voice had disappeared completely, only to be replaced by an air of unending depression. An utter lack of self-esteem. A horrible ache that spread itself through Mai's heart.

In her mind, Mai replayed the scenes of her dreams. She relived the short-lasting happiness, the ever-lasting pain she had felt when in Minako's form. The betrayed woman's thoughts permeated her mind. Why aren't I…?

"You're right, Minako-san," Mai stated quietly as she made the last few steps, placing her hand upon the mirror in front of her. She could see the broken-down woman that hid behind the glass, the one who now stared at her with an inhuman face full of such human emotions. Mai's eyes refocused upon her own reflection, and she remembered the times before Naru had confessed to her. The times when she had felt that he could never have liked her, that she would never compare to the pretty-faced Masako. Once or twice, she was sure, she had had the same thoughts as Minako. Her thoughts had swirled within her as she looked in the mirror at her plain brown hair, her plain brown eyes. Why aren't I…?

"You're not pretty," she spoke firmly, her hand forming a fist upon the glass. She set her gaze upon the woman, whose red eyes lit up, her mouth forming the angered words that had to be appearing in her mind.

"You're beautiful, Minako-san."

The figure in the glass froze, her ghastly face grew blank, her eyes grew wide. Mai continued, her voice now a sad whisper.

"He didn't deserve you. He wasn't worth it… the tears… the pain… any of it." Tears now stung the teenage girl's eyes. "He wasn't worth your life."

A vision of the rope flashed itself in her mind. Looking through blurry eyes, Mai noticed that Minako was staring at her hands, tears once again falling fresh from her red eyes. She met Mai's gaze, and a melancholic understanding passed between them. The woman placed her discolored hand upon her side of the mirror, so that it matched up with Mai's.

"Yes…" Her saddened voice began; tears continued to stream down her face. Mai felt a tingling sensation from their apparently touching palms…

Crack!

A small cluster of cracks spread outward from their hands.

"I have waited… for someone… to tell me…" The cracks stretched out further across the mirrors, creaking and popping as they went. "Peace shall now… welcome me… to her home." Mai quickly glanced around at the spreading cracks. And, as soon as they had started, the noises stopped. All of the mirrors in the enclosed room were covered in cracks; their appearance was like that of a spider's web.

Mai turned back to Minako, whose tears had ceased. Calmness was painted across her features – features that had returned to the ones from their previous encounter. Her hair wisped beautifully around her, and she placed her hand over her sundress-clad chest. Minako's eyes were bright as she gave a slow, small nod.

"For your words… I thank you."

And with that, all of the mirrors shattered.

If Naru had to guess what he thought was going to happen – and he typically refrained from making guesses to avoid time-consuming mistakes – he probably could not have come up with what actually happened.

He and Bou-san stood still in front of the cracking mirror in silence, John and Masako a few paces behind them. Naru could practically feel agitation sparking in the air; he was sure it would only be a matter of time before Bou-san rounded on him, convinced that his decision to wait for something to happen was a mere waste of time and that Mai was probably –

Crack!

All eyes in the room snapped into focus on the mirror. A major crack had formed down its center, from the top of the frame to the bottom. Naru tensed his body in preparation for the worst. If the ghost was intent on breaking out and forcing a direct confrontation, then he was ready to give it the fight of its life.

"Naru," Bou-san whispered urgently. Naru gave no response. He couldn't afford to take any attention off of the object in front of him. Besides, now was not the time for talking.

"Shouldn't we mo – "

CRACK!

Mere moments of silence followed the ominous noise before the mirror finally broke. The four of them barely had time to throw up their arms as shards of glass came flying forward. Naru was waiting for the tell-tale signs of glass cutting his hands and his shirt, but they never came. Instead, he was hit with the force of something much larger.

He hit the ground with a painful thud, too preoccupied with covering his eyes to use his arms as some sort of cushioning for the fall. Only after hearing a shocked gasp did he dare uncover his face.

The hallway was filled with unearthly sparkles that floated silently through the air. Not a single piece of glass was to be seen – on the floor or in the silver frame on the wall. The more important thing to note, however, was the cause of Naru's collision with the floor.

"Mai!" he breathed out, arms instantly cradling the body slumped against his own. The other three gathered around them, and Bou-san let out a huge sigh of relief. John smiled, turning to look at Masako, whose eyes had suddenly flicked to the empty frame.

"The spiritual block – it's gone." Bou-san spared her a glance before returning his eyes to Mai.

"That's a good thing, right? It's safe now?"

Masako tilted her head and looked at Mai with serious eyes.

"The entity appears to have left. I do not know what happened in there, but it must have found the peace it needed to move on. In that essence, we are – as you say – safe. Mai, however…"

"We need to go," Naru said harshly. He raised his head for the first time since Mai had collapsed into his arms. His eyes swam with emotions that he had failed to repress in his few moments of silence. Bou-san instinctively moved to help him up.

"Holy – she's freezing!" He yelled in alarm as his hand came into contact with Mai's arm. Naru practically jumped up, throwing one of Mai's arms around his shoulder as he attempted to carry her. He expected some sort of a struggle, but she was far lighter than he remembered her being. Panic threatened to overwhelm his mind.

"Whatever that mirror does to its victims is serious," Masako explained quietly as the group began rushing towards the entrance of the house. "I cannot be entirely sure, but it seems to drain the entirety of one's life force: physical, mental, spiritual. At this point, I can barely feel anything from her, almost as if she has the faintest of presences. She needs immediate treatment – perhaps more so than the other two, even though they were in there for longer periods of time."

Bou-san muttered a string of curses as they burst through the front door. The four of them moved as quickly as possible to the remaining SPR van, falling into a serious silence as they climbed inside. Naru carefully positioned Mai in his arms as he sat in the back in some attempt to warm her up. The van lurched forward as Bou-san stepped on the gas, obviously planning on driving a lot faster than what was legally allowed. As was custom to instances in which Mai was in danger, Naru could care less about remaining rational and careful.

The only thing on his mind was getting Mai the treatment she needed as soon as possible. He just hoped – in the most foolishly emotional and sentimental way possible – that they would make it in time.

Time had seemed to stop passing in any normal way. No longer could Mai measure moments by the time on a clock or the brightness of the sky. Instead, she had separated her life into moments of black unconsciousness and brief instances in which she found herself in the weird spiritual realm in which Gene existed for her.

Even those semi-normal moments, however, were somewhat unstable. For most of them, Gene would simply float in her vision, mouthing words and making gestures that she couldn't understand. At the beginning of these flashes in contact, Gene looked truly frantic, yet Mai couldn't comprehend why. In fact, she couldn't really make any concrete thoughts form in her head besides his name before being pulled back into darkness.

These occurrences gradually became longer and clearer. Finally, they culminated into the closest resemblance to her usual conversations with Gene that she had encountered so far in this abnormal period of time.

"Mai?" Gene whispered gently, an unreadable expression on his face. Mai felt something unclench in her chest; she exhaled a shaky breath and gave a bright smile.

"Gene! I can hear you!"

He smiled softly.

"And I you. I would guess that this means the worst is over."

"The worst?" Mai tilted her head, confused. What is he talking about?

"Do you… not remember?" Gene's smile disappeared as his eyebrows furrowed. Mai blinked and looked around at the floating lights.

"I – I remember zoning in and out for a while. Everything was quiet, blurry, and I couldn't think very well." She stared down at her hands for a second, then glanced back up at him. "I don't know why though. Should I?"

Gene was silent as he examined her for a couple of seconds.

"Perhaps. Then again – perhaps not. I don't have a full understanding of what happened. All I know is that it was a… dangerous situation. I helped you as best as I could in the moments leading up to… whatever happened to make you like this. Things have not been looking the most optimistic for the past few days."

As Gene spoke, Mai's eyes grew wider, an uncomfortable panic threatening to spill over in her mind.

"Dangerous? A few days? Have I… Did I - ?" She practically choked on the last sentence. Gene quickly shook his head.

"No, you are still alive, Mai. But I will not lie to you," he began, a deathly serious expression on his face, "you were on the verge of crossing over multiple times."

A cold chill seemed to wrack its way through Mai's body. She instinctively clutched a hand to her chest, despite knowing that she wouldn't be able to feel her heart beating in the spiritual plane. Desperate to have something to cling to, she searched her mind for some image of comfort. Unfortunately, it was as if her mind was empty; no matter how hard she focused, there was nothing to be found.

"If – If I am still alive – why can't I remember anything?" Mai tried not to freak out as she stared into Gene's eyes. "All I know is – is that I am Mai, and you are Gene. That's all I have!"

He frowned and crossed his arms, his eyes drifting to the side in thought.

"I only have a guess, but the truth may be worse than what I hope."

"What do you think is happening? Or happened, I guess?" Mai asked as calmly as she could. Gene looked back to her.

"Your body underwent a horrible ordeal, but it wasn't beyond repair. The physical injuries would not have caused this kind of relapse. The problem that I believe led to this exact point – your fluctuations in and out of this realm and your memory loss – have to do with the damage done to your spirit."

"My spirit?" Mai examined her glowing form. "Is it broken or something? Can it be fixed?"

"Spirits don't break like bones do, Mai," Gene informed her with a smile. It vanished quickly. "Rather, they can be forced to fade or torn apart completely. Tearing normally accompanies rougher circumstances, such as very intensive exorcisms and the like. Fading, however, occurs when the spirit is forcibly removed from the body or hindered in any way that prevents it from normal possession of the shell it is destined to occupy."

"I see," Mai replied nervously, hoping her situation was more likely to be the less unpleasant sounding of the two options.

"In your case, I believe that your spirit was somehow pulled out of its direct link with your body. Most likely, the spirit you encountered on your last case attempted to disengage the physical-spiritual connection. As to why it would do such a thing, there is no way for me to know. That is a memory that is trapped in your mind."

"So, I've been fading in and out of here because my spirit's trying to come back to my body?"

Gene gave a slow nod.

"That is what I would like to believe. It would also offer an explanation as to why your memory is not currently functioning properly. Perhaps the connection between your spirit and your mind is needed to access your memories, all of which are connected to the senses that stem from a physical body."

Mai blinked.

"…Meaning that I'll regain my memory if I put my spirit back in my body?"

After a moment of hesitation, he nodded again.

"That is… my hope. We won't know for sure until you reignite that connection."

"Okay." Mai felt a surge of determination. "Sounds like a plan. How exactly do I do it? Is it hard?"

"To my knowledge, you have been doing it. I think the progression of our meetings has been the equivalent of you becoming closer to reuniting your two halves."

"Oh, I get it – that's why I've been able to stay here longer? And why I can hear you this time?"

"Precisely," he affirmed. "This interaction is as normal as they used to be before the incident. I think it is safe to say that you'll be able to return after you leave here today."

"Alright. I'm sure you're right on all of this, Gene! It makes sense. I'll be able to return, and I'll remember what happened. Everything'll be okay!"

Mai gave him two thumbs up and a smile. He laughed in response.

"As optimistic as always, Mai." Gene grinned at her for second before glancing over her shoulder. "It appears it's almost time for you to go."

She glanced behind her and eyed him warily.

"How do you always know when I'm about to go? I can barely even tell!"

"It's a secret," he said as he shrugged. Mai stuck her tongue out at him.

"Just focus as much as possible on your desire to return. Don't let your mind stray."

"Okay – I'll focus so hard that it'll hurt!"

"Don't strain yourself thinking too hard. You can't afford to lose anymore brain cells." Gene held in a laugh at Mai's indignant look. He held up his hands. "Hey – his usual words, not mine."

"Who's?" Mai asked hotly, a weird prickling spreading in her head. Gene lowered his hands, giving one her one last soft smile.

"Someone you know well. I'm sure he's waiting for you."

She wanted to respond, but everything was fading to black, and she could no longer open her mouth to speak.

Hospitals had never been something that Naru could tolerate easily. Every time he visited one, his mind threatened to overwhelm him with unpleasant memories and promises of unhappiness for the future. Plus, they were always teeming with a dangerous amount of spiritual activity. He definitely did not need any more of that in his life than was necessary for the SPR business.

Being at the hospital because Mai was one of its patients made the whole experience reach a level of intolerance that Naru had not thought possible. Not only was she a patient, but she was determined to be in critical condition and stayed that way for a whole week. At the time, Naru probably would not admit it, but it was easily one of the hardest weeks he had faced in his whole life.

Though not one to believe in spending all of his time doing things that were not related to work or studying, Naru could not allow himself to be anywhere but at Mai's side during her whole stay. Every rush of doctors, every beep on her heart monitor, every panicked discussion between nurses – all of these moments burned themselves permanently into Naru's memory.

The first time one of the doctors tried to get Naru to leave at the end of the designated visiting hours, he almost lost it completely. The instant the tell-tale signs of Naru's powers going out of control began to surface, Lin was forced to step in. Somehow, he convinced the doctors to let Naru stay, and that fact was all Naru that cared about in the matter.

After watching the medical staff struggle to diagnose Mai's affliction, Naru was tempted to inform them that they were out of their league, that all of their tests were useless with the current situation. The only issue stopping him from doing this was the rational thought that the doctors would probably view him as insane and force him to leave – a risk that he was not willing to take.

As much as he didn't want to admit it, Naru was sure that there something wrong with the hardest possible thing to fix: Mai's spirit. Even he knew of no way to directly heal it. No incantation or twisted exorcism could right such a complicated problem. All he could do was wait and irrationally hope that Mai could somehow sort everything out on her own.

Boy, did Naru hate waiting around like a useless human being.

At times, he was made to deal with the company of the other team members. It wasn't like he had anything against them – they could sit and visit for as long as they wanted – but he was in no mood to deal with the useless small talk or halfhearted attempts they made to get him to leave. He didn't want to talk, and he definitely didn't want to leave.

It only took a couple of awkward one-sided conversations for them to realize both of these facts.

Just as Naru was beginning to believe that things were far worse than he was secretly refusing to believe, something changed in the feeling in the air. Throughout the week, Naru would look at Mai and her monitors and feel as if he were just looking at one huge machine. Dull beeps, white skin on white blankets, unmoving cords, cold hands. It was as if there wasn't really a living human being lying there amidst all of the medical equipment.

But then, on the morning of the eighth day, Mai's monitors suddenly began beeping at a different pace, the little lights jumping just a little bit higher. Her face and arms appeared to be a far different shade than the stark whiteness of the sheets. And then –

She smiled.

A very, very faint, but totally not imagined smile.

Some infinitely small part of Naru swore that he felt the urge to cry. He determinedly ignored that urge, however, and pressed the nurse call button, desperate for someone to prove that he wasn't seeing things. His hand reached out of its own accord to grab Mai's, and the slight warmth he felt was the best reassurance that he could possibly ask for.

Hospitals are definitely no fun, Naru – I feel you there. One more chapter to go, guys! Let's go out with some happiness!
-Allikitty13+Tuna=^.^=