From this chapter to the very last…

I DON'T own Ghost Hunt!

This is a fanfiction for Pete's sake!


Update:7/29/19

Hey, sorry for the silence from this story. For those who are wondering for what is to happen to the story, please do read from my profile about what I decided for it. For those who can't go there . . . I'm sorry to say this but this story will have to end here. Things happened and I lost my progress to this story that I can't hope to fix it (and also I am no longer in the Ghost Hunt fever. But I still love Ghost Hunt and will still have a place in my heart!) So sorry it has to end here when Mai's adventure has not reached its conclusion yet, but I do want to thank the ones who've read this even if it has to stop now. To end it, I'd just like to mention these people for reviewing (comments from chapter one to chapter twelve): Kirah14, Sesshy's Rose, Ghost. Zero, Cafuchi, darklovelysecrets, Wolfy(Guest), CY(Guest), darkgenius2003, LadyHawke361, shambo cro, and two other Guests. Thanks so much for the comments, and lastly thank you readers!


Chapter Twelve

Rising Sun Church

The first thing Naru saw was the bodies.

But let's not start from there.

A few minutes ago, he found himself staring up at the old and abandoned building.

Untamed lawn, shady area, rotten wood, and a gloomy atmosphere. A perfect example of a haunted house.

He frowned upon the house. Something was off. Something doesn't look quite right. Of course, the answer was obvious, since he knows that that is where Mai is, along with Bou-san and Ayako. Considering Mai is a magnet of trouble, he knew that something bad is happening in the house, and it was proven true from all the previous cases SPR took in the past.

THUD!

A sound of something heavy dropped echoed from within the house. Then another sound as similar to the first one came after that.

Silence. Not a sound broke that spell of silence.

What was that? Naru thought, but then he heard maniacal laughter after a moment of silence. Well, definitely not something good.

He dashed over to the front porch, then slammed the door open.

That's when he first saw the bodies. Motionless. Not a single movement showed from the bodies.

The bodies—a man with long, sandy brown hair tied up to a ponytail lay on the floor. A woman with reddish brown hair lay right beside him. Those bodies… their features resemble two people he knows of.

A laugh—the same maniacal laugh. The kind of laugh that can only be heard from the kind of person who sees joy on watching people getting hurt.

Naru looked up and saw Mai sitting on the steps of the stairs, a grin on her face. But it's not the same Mai he knows of. That he can conclude. There's something different about her. The way she smiles crookedly, eyes glinting in the dark with malicious intent, how she stroked the blade-like thing in her hand like it was a kitten. It was obvious from her behavior—she's not Mai.

"Mai," Naru simply said. He watched the brunette slowly get up on her feet.

That crooked smile...

"Well, Naru. Took you long enough."


Back in SPR, it was silent as Masako, John, and Yasuhara were sitting down around the coffee table while Lin has hid himself in his office, doing whatever Lin does alone there. The three had nothing else to do since Naru, Bou-san, and Ayako left to chase after Mai. They were told that they found leads to where Mai may be hiding, and said that they would be back soon with Mai.

That's the great news, but the problem is that the three of them have NOTHING to do until Naru comes back with the rest of the gang. So they have to just sit quietly and be patient like little doggies waiting for their master to come home.

At that very moment, John received a call from his phone. He quickly picked it up and answered it.

"Hello? Mr. Brown here."

Masako turned to look at the priest, and she could see that his eyebrows furrowed in confusion and concern. Whoever it was who was talking to him, he seemed like he didn't quite understand why that person was calling him. His expression looked like how a person would look when a person who is dead is suddenly calling them on the phone, the person then wonders how could the dead be talking lively to them.

At that very moment, Masako thought she felt a presence, but it was just for a mere second. Then the presence was gone.

What was that? Right when she thought that, John has ended the call. Masako slightly raised her eyebrow in questioning, and John understood what she was trying to say without her even uttering a word.

"One of my friends, Mr. Kousuke who is a priest too, called me that I need to come over to Rising Sun Church immediately because of some issues he's facing." Masako nodded, allowing John to continue. "But what I don't understand is how could Mr. Kousuke be here right now? He told me two days ago that he'd be in China for two months. But... Why is he here right now?"

Masako raised a sleeve to her mouth while John wonders silently on that mystery. After a while, John shook his head, "Well, whatever it is, I have to go and help him. Could you please tell Naru about this once he comes here with the others? I'll make sure to return as quick as I can to help."

He stood up from his seat to leave but Masako stood up with him too. "Yasuhara can be the one to tell Naru. I'll also go and help you."

"Ah, Hara-san! You don't need to—"

"There's something about this that doesn't seem quite right," Masako interjected before he could say anything else. "I will assist you in whatever you need to do with the issue regarding with Kousuke-san. That way, you could finish with your task faster and we could be able to meet Naru on time."

John was silent at first, but he gave in later when he saw that Masako won't take no for an answer. He turned around to look at Yasuhara, looking apologetic. "Are you fine with staying all by yourself, or do you want to come too?"

The guy just shrugged at the priest. "You guys go. I'm fine with staying here. Besides, Lin's here! So I won't be completely alone." He turned to the direction of the door of Lin's office. "Isn't that right, Lin my darling!"

A sound of the door being locked was the reply to Yasuhara's question.

Yasuhara dramatically sobs into his hands. "Ah! You have hurt my feelings, my love!"

"Umm, anyways," John said. "Shall we go?"

The medium nodded her head and followed after John to the door. They said their quick goodbyes to Yasuhara and Lin before they left the place.


All according to plan...


"They're not dead, if that's what you were thinking."

Mai caught him staring again at the motionless bodies of Ayako and Bou-san. Naru looked up to see Mai's smiling face. She was having fun now that she's in control of this situation.

"Of course, they aren't dead... yet. But enough about them! I was wondering why you took so long, Naru?" A soft laugh from the brunette. "We're you... perhaps... busy being chased by some annoying girls, hmm?"

She giggled as she walked around the bodies, then moving slowly towards him. "Imagine that! All the girls chasing after such a handsome you man! But I think it's understandable, since you have been gifted with such God-given looks. No wonder Mai-chan would be attracted to such looks, but I guess there were other things that she likes about you than looks alone!"

"Do you have anything else to tell me other than what my assistant thinks about my looks?" He needs to think of what to do next that will not end up with Mai killing him in the end.

Mai hummed in thought, the tip of the blade-like thing touching her chin. (It almost looked like what may be a shard from a broken mirror.) While she was locked in her own thoughts, Naru tried to scan around to look at his surroundings. What he saw was just a room that looked like a bloody storm came and left the room in a mess. There were some blood splattered a bit on the walls, brown from age. Maybe a literal bloody storm came and messed the house up.

"But enough talk!"

Naru turned his eyes to look at Mai, who was now standing near him. A few more steps, and they'd be nose-to-nose to each other. He could sense some kind of aura around her that makes one think immediately that she will not hesitate to get her hands dirty to get what she wants.

She gave a smile that Mai gives to her friends—a warm and comforting smile—to mock him and remind him that hurting her would mean harming Mai. "I would love to stay and chat with you more, but I have other things to do."

In a flash, Mai lunged forward to him, blade aiming for his heart, but Naru ducked down immediately to avoid the attack. The blade was now stuck on the wall behind him, leaving Mai to try pulling out the blade. Naru moved away from Mai and made his mind instantly to go to strategy mode. He would have thought of using his APK to help him in this fight, but decided against it for it might make him faint after using it, providing an opportunity for Mai to kill him.

When Mai decided to leave the blade in the wall and to find another weapon, she looked back to see Naru about to run out of the door. But he never got to go out because the door slammed shut by itself. Naru frowned at this. It's obvious Mai would not let him escape that easily.

Mai pouted at him, but her eyes does not show that she was sad even for a bit. "Isn't it rude to leave a lady behind, Naru-kun? Now that's just mean!"

Naru glared at her, which she giggles upon seeing him growing annoyed to her tactics. But it was that very moment that the room had an instant change of temperature, making the house feel like it was winter outside. A whisper echoed around the house, but the words were not clear enough for him to understand. Even if the words sounded like mumbo-jumbo to him, Mai understood the whispering perfectly. The whispering probably told her something unpleasant because she pouted like a disappointed child, but then nodded her head as if she was telling whoever she was listening to that she understood what they meant.

"Someone told me that it's not your turn yet," Mai finally translated to him once the temperature turned back to normal and the whisperings disappeared.

Naru raised an eyebrow at this, so Mai explained to him.

"Someone told me that I shouldn't kill you yet because you are important in this game. You will play a great role that will make this game interesting. So you don't need to worry about me killing you... yet."

Mai giggled and started walking towards the bodies of the still unconscious monk and miko. Once beside their bodies, she faced him again and gave him a wave of her hand. "Well, please do wait until it's your time, okay? And do make sure to not cheat or else there will be consequences!"

Naru shook his head. This does not make any sense at all.

"Mai—"

"Goodbye, Naru! Until we meet again!"

That moment, she directly snapped her fingers and Naru suddenly found his vision growing black, his mind having the sudden feeling of slumber. His body dropped to the ground, and he was out.


Mai watched as Naru fall asleep on the floor. When she saw that he was unconscious already, she gave a loud laugh before running out of the house, off to her next destination.


Masako and John were silent as they took the taxi heading to Rising Sun Church. They did not exchange words all throughout the ride, and Masako could see from John's face that the priest really felt like talking with her right now. He probably didn't want to say anything without her permission because he tried to strike up a conversation earlier but Masako ended it as soon it started. So they had to sit in an awkward silence during the ride to the church. Masako finally sighed, thinking of what to say to be the one to initiate a topic to talk about. She then remembered the call John took from a guy named Mr. Kousuke.

"So, about Kousuke-san," she began. "Is he a friend of yours?"

John probably realized that she was making a conversation on purpose because he greatly smiled at her. "Ah, yes. Mr. Kousuke and I were friends since I first met him on my first day in Japan."

He faced towards the window, his face beaming with happiness as he lets his mind dwell back in the past.

"Mr. Kousuke wanted me to feel welcome to the country, so he decided to be the one to help me adjust to living in Japan. And those days were great! It was also what made me become great friends with him. We'd always watch over each other and help each other when there's a problem in the church."

"Sounds like a nice friend," Masako said and John turns to her with a nod.

"Yes, he is a good friend." But all the happiness held on his face instantly disappeared as his face showed an emotion of confusion. Masako notices this and raised a sleeve to cover her mouth.

"What's the matter, John?"

He turned to look at Masako, looking somewhere between concern of something and suspicious. "Well, I found the call quite... unsettling." Masako raised an eyebrow at this. John saw her questioning look, so he explained, "Aside from the fact that Mr. Kousuke is supposed to be in China by now and wouldn't be here for two months, I heard something in the background. It was like several voices mumbling in the background saying 'Go away!', 'Don't come!', 'She is after you', and 'Escape before it's too late!'"

The medium felt her eyebrows scrunch up together, but only slightly that it doesn't ruin her face. "Maybe that's the kind of problem Kousuke-san needed your help with. There could be so much commotion happening in that church that he needed assistance in calming down the people."

Even with that information, John doesn't look satisfied with it. "Yeah, it could be that... But, I think there's still something wrong about all this. And when Mr. Kousuke called, there seemed to be a bit of..." John stopped as he was lost in his thoughts. Masako frowned in concern.

"A bit what, John?"

His eyes then turned to stare at hers. She had never seen the bubbly priest look so serious before.

"I don't know. But something about this feels quite fishy and maybe suspicious. I just can't seem to know what though."

The girl medium was about to say that she felt the same way too when the taxi driver parked the vehicle in front of a very old church.

"Here we are... Rising Sun Church."


Mai is usually the one where she has dreams that are relevant to the case they take. Spirits would even visit in her dreams and try to convey a message to her. So when Naru needed some answers, he'd rely on what Mai saw in her dreams.

But for now, it's not Mai who gets the answers from a dream this time.

Naru knew he was asleep. He just knew. It's like those times when you're asleep, and you just knew without any evidences that you're still dreaming and not awake. The man groaned as he make himself open his eyes to this dream of his.

What he saw when he opened his eyes is a good view of a park located far away from him. He was leaning on a tree that faced the park, the shadow casted from the tree protecting him from the glaring rays of the sun as it started slowly going down to hide its wondrous glory. The sky looked like it was ablaze, in beautiful shades of orange, red, and pink.

Where is this? Naru thought as he rubbed his hand on his face.

"So, you must be Shibuya Kazuya. Naru, right?"

Naru turned to look at the spot beside him. It was a guy with caramel brown hair that swayed by the gentle breeze that hit them. His eyes were staring at the park in front of them, never even turning to look at Naru. The boy just watched the park like how a parent would watch over their children from afar to make sure of their safety as they play. He was wearing his school uniform, but it looked wrinkly, as if he didn't wear anything else since. The boy probably stank from never changing his clothes, but that proved wrong since he caught a whiff of the scent of soap, as if the boy just finished taking a bath. (Is it possible to smell anything in a dream? He should do some researching on this sometime.) And the boy looked around the age of a high schooler.

He looked normal, but the only thing that told Naru that nothing about the boy is normal is when he checked the marks on the boy's neck. There was a purple line encircling around his neck, almost like he was hung by a noose.

The boy didn't wait for Naru's response, so he turned to Naru with humorless eyes, the kind that someone has when they're about to make a deal. "A friend of Mai. Leader of the group. Player of this game. To win or to lose. To win or to die. To save everyone or to lose it all."

Naru furrowed his eyebrows a bit in confusion. "Game?"

"Yes," the boy answered. "The game. The game you're playing. The game of Cat and Mouse. The game who determines the 'It'. A lot of people did the game. A lot of people died from the game. Tried to help. Tried to give clues. Game does not allow cheaters. Cheaters die. Hints weren't enough to save them. No known survivors. Death. Game over. Start all over again. New player. New game. Save Aki. Don't let her remember. Save Aki."

The wind seemed to get cold around them, as if it felt the mood of the boy and started to get affected by it too.

Recalling back, he remembered a spirit asking him the same thingthat is, to "Save Aki."

"You're Sousuke..." It wasn't said as a question, and Sousuke smiled when Naru finally found out his identity.

"Hello, Naru. You don't mind me calling you that, right?" He then went back to staring at the park far away from them. "Did you know that Aki and Mai are there right now? They're in a middle of a struggle right there as this game is progressing. I can see Mai struggling to be set free. You have an interesting friend, you know?"

"What is it you want to talk to me about?" Naru ignored what Sousuke said and went straight to business.

Sousuke laughed, shaking his head. "Workaholic. Just like how Mai describes you."

"What my assistant said about me is insignificant to this matter."

The high school boy nodded. "Yeah, I should help you already. But all I can give are hints. If I give you a straight answer, then that will be cheating. And Dori, Hori, and Tori punishes the players of this game for whoever cheats. They want to make the game challenging and hard, and not some game that people could solve easily."

Sousuke got up and stand, towering over Naru, but doesn't look menacing. He only had a sad look. "We only have short amount of time before I ask you to wake up immediately. All I can say for now is that... don't let Aki remember."

Naru frowned. "I've been told that already."

Sousuke chuckled. "Ah, yes. I recall. Gene tried to tell you that. You probably don't understand what that meant, but you'll probably find out soon enough. You're a smart person, so it won't take long for you to solve it."

"What's the relevance of you to all of this?" The man asked Sousuke. "Why are you helping us, and what role do you play in this 'game' you mentioned?"

Sousuke just gave him a depressed smile, answering his question as if recalling bad memories. "Aki was my friend. I was there when things fell apart for Aki. I, unfortunately, was also a victim to this game. I understood her situation. I understood what are Dori, Hori, and Tori's intentions for doing this game. I tried helping the 'players', in hopes that Aki will be saved too. But I had to watch them all die, being part of the list of victims of this game." Hope flashed in his eyesthe kind where it's barely hanging, and one movement could make it let it go and fall to the dark abyss. "And all I ask is that... you would stop this madness and help save Aki. That way no one else will get hurt from this... including dear Mai."

A sound of tiny bells tinkled in the air, and Sousuke sighed upon hearing it.

"It looks like we've ran out of time. I'm sorry I wasted our time with that speech there. I promise that the next time we meet, I'll give more useful information."

Naru raised an eyebrow. "Next time?"

All Sousuke did was smile. "You should go."

That instant, Naru then felt very sleepy. His eyes were about to fully close when he heard Sousuke say something to him before he could leave the dream.

"Also, don't let your friends go to the church, okay?"


Fifteen minutes later and Naru woke up finding himself lying on the floor of an unfamiliar house. He groaned as he slowly got up, rubbing his still sleepy eyes. The man tried to recall what happened, but his memories were still slightly hazy. But when he made his eyes travel to a certain spot, his memories came rushing back in his head like a shotgun.

He recalled the area of where Mai stood with the unconscious bodies of Bou-san and Ayako, but looking at the area he then realized what Mai did.

That very area showed that Bou-san and Ayako are gone. There was no body or any evidences that two bodies were there.

Also, don't let your friends go to the church, okay?

Naru recalled Sousuke's message and quickly grabbed his phone from his pocket. He contacted Lin and didn't wait for Lin to pick up.

"Naru?"

"Lin." Naru simply greeted the man. "Is everyone there with you right now?"

"No. Hara-san and Brown-san just left to go help a friend of Brown-san."

Naru mentally swore and asked, "Where are they heading now?"

Silence was all he heard, but then he heard Lin talking to someone—sounded like Yasuhara—and gave the answer that made Naru's job harder to do.

"They're heading to Rising Sun Church."