Disclaimer: I do not own PoT.

Chapter 12

'Hold up! Wait. What? Girl, mansion, Taki, mansion, girl.'

Marui was so confused. It took him a few minutes before he could sort out his thoughts.

'Strange girl in mansion! And Taki!'

Marui quickly jumped off the bed and made a beeline for the room next door, which was Niou's. Marui banged on the door with such force, as if his life depended on it.

"HARU! OPEN UP THE DAMN DOOR! I know you're in there!"

Marui continued to pound on the wooden structure, screaming for Niou to quickly open it already and not to take his own sweet time, because he had something important to tell the silver head.

"Whoa," Niou muttered, avoiding a fist in his face.

"Just now, there was this one girl that suddenly entered my room and all, and she started to talk to me. I know it was stupid, that I didn't think about it, and then she left and then-"

"Bunta, calm down. I don't understand what you're saying." Niou held his hands up in front of his face.

Marui closed his mouth and took a few breaths, waiting for Niou to signal to him to continue.

"Repeat that, with more details now."

Marui waved his arms around in the air frantically. "No! You don't get it! There's no time! Come on! We need to find Yukimura and Yanagi!"

Marui quickly grabbed Niou's hand and dragged him down the hallways, ignoring Niou's protests.

"Seriously Bunta, what the hell's the hurry? Did something happen?"

"There's someone else in this mansion. I don't think she's the one behind all of this but it's still weird! Yanagi should know what's going on, we're going to tell the rest."

"Someone else? She?" Niou was confused. "What the heck Bunta, are you hallucinating? We've all searched this mansion, there's no one else except for us!"

Marui stopped and spun around, still keeping a death grip on Niou's wrist. "I know that! I don't know why that girl was here, but she was. I'm not hallucinating Haru! I touched her. Do you think that I can touch anything that my supposedly delusional mind made up?"

Marui made a move to continue walking but Niou stopped him. "Who did you see? Tell me from the beginning."

Marui groaned. "Can we continue walking?"

Niou paused, thinking, before nodding and Marui started dragging him again. "I saw this girl. I don't know her name, but she looked no older than 12. She just suddenly entered my room just now and-"

Marui stopped mid-sentence when he felt something prick the back of his neck. Releasing his hold on Niou's wrist, Marui frowned and rubbed his neck. All of a sudden, he started to feel heavy-eyed. Slowly turning around, Marui staggered a little and he felt Niou's hands on his shoulders.

"Bunta? Bun…, what's…problem…"

He tried to shake his head to wake himself up but found that his whole body was heavy. He could barely move. He couldn't even hear what Niou was saying, even though he could roughly see the silver head's mouth moving.

"Har-" Marui tried to call out, and then he felt himself falling down hard on the, fortunately, soft carpet.

Niou struggled to peel the arm that was around his neck off his neck. He had been holding Marui up, and screaming into the red head's face trying to get a response from him, when that dreaded arm circled around his neck and pulled him away. Gritting his teeth, Niou thrashed around uselessly and noticed that he had dropped Marui down onto the floor.

'Dammit.'

A new idea formed in Niou's mind and instead of trying to pull away, he tried to claw on the arm. Emphasize on tried. Unfortunately for Niou, he wasn't a girl, and didn't have long fingernails which hurt when they happened to accidentally scratch you. So, clawing on the arm didn't really help, plus, the attacker was wearing long sleeves.

He'd probably have a better chance attempting to kick the man – Niou could tell that he was a male due to the lack of boobs pressing against his back – where men would feel the most pain. He took back the thought when he realized that he would make himself feel the pain as well. (Honestly, your safety comes first Niou.)

So, due to the lack of better ideas, Niou continued to uselessly claw at the guy, digging his fingernails into soft fabric. He felt the arm tighten around his neck and coughed, gasping for air, his hands dropping down to his side, as the lack of oxygen made his whole body feel like jelly.

"Don't kill him," Niou heard a voice which he reckoned that he had heard before, somewhere.

Black dots started to appear in Niou's vision but they vanished as quickly as they appeared when oxygen filled his lungs once again. Niou dropped down onto his knees and hands, coughing, when the man released him.

Niou brought his left hand up to his throat and tried to assess the situation but a large palm kept his head down, and Niou had to slam his left hand back down onto the carpet. All Niou could see was the carpet. He could even see the tiniest specks of dust, his face was that close to the carpet.

"Why not?" Another voice asked, and Niou guesses that it was probably the guy who was trying to kill him earlier.

"Princess said to get that guy, not to kill someone else."

'Get what guy?'

Was it him, or Marui?

But this was new information, and Niou tried to keep an ear on their conversation.

"Tch, you're no fun."

"She's not happy with what happened at the pool."

Niou heard a forced chuckle. "Oi oi, that wasn't my fault."

There was a sigh. "Just get him and go already."

"Can I at least beat this guy up?" Niou felt a tug on his hair and winced, swearing that a few strands of hair had been ripped out.

"Whatever, just don't kill him."

"Roger…"

And then, Niou felt himself being thrown against a wall, hitting his head hard against the unforgiving surface. Niou blinked a few times, trying to clear his vision, which blurred after the strong impact. A hooded male suddenly appeared right in front of his face. There was no sign of the other man. Just this one psycho hooded guy who had intended on killing Niou.

'Oh damn.'

Niou received three punches in the gut and tried to curl up, lying on his side on the floor, using his hands to protect his stomach area. But the man just kicked him, to Niou, it felt as if the man's shoes had metal plating on the front. It probably did.

Niou tasted blood in his mouth, probably having bitten his tongue while trying to suppress screams. He didn't know how long it lasted, but through blurry vision – his eyes were filled with tears due to the pain – he noticed the man leaving his side, finally satisfied, and picking Marui off the ground, slinging the red head over his shoulder.

'BUNTA!'

Niou struggled to stand. But all he could do was twitch his fingers, his body wouldn't move the way he wanted it to. Feeling pathetic, lying on the carpet in pain, all Niou could do was watch Marui and the man get smaller and smaller, before the man turned around the corner, disappearing from sight.

Then, Niou blacked out.

Atobe lifted up his head when the doors to the recreation room swung open for the second time that afternoon.

"Huhhh? I thought the Kings Rikkai didn't want to hang around with the targeted Hyoutei?" Mukahi and Shishido sneered.

Standing at the doorway was a frowning Sanada, his arms crossed against his chest. Yukimura emerged from behind his vice-captain and glared at the two before diverting his attention to Atobe.

"Can we come in?"

Atobe shrugged, not seeing a need to reply. Yukimura walked in, holding his head high with Sanada and Yanagi following close behind him. Kirihara was clinging onto Yukimura's arm as they walked. Yagyuu entered not long after, with Niou draped on his back. The silver head's hair was tinted red on the back, and Atobe frowned.

Yagyuu placed Niou down on an empty couch and Sanada asked, "What happened to Niou and Marui, Atobe?"

"Marui-kun?" Jirou perked up at his idol's name.

Atobe narrowed his eyes at the Rikkaidai vice-captain and the two began a glaring contest.

"How should ore-sama know?" Atobe growled.

"I thought Atobe-kun knew everything," Yagyuu suddenly said, pushing his glasses up, making it shine in the light. It was really out of his character to say such a remark and Ootori dropped the table-tennis bat that he was holding.

Atobe didn't respond to Yagyuu's statement. Normally he would send a death glare at the gentleman, but Atobe was currently in the middle of a glaring competition with Sanada and he didn't want to lose.

"Sanada, stop it," Yukimura ordered, and Sanada blinked, tugging his cap down.

Atobe nearly let out a smirk but restrained himself, not wanting to seem childish in front of the others.

"What's the problem?" Oshitari came over, leaning against the back of the couch.

"We found Niou in the middle of the hallway unconscious," Yanagi explained.

Oshitari glanced over at the trickster and made a low sound, as if understanding. "Then, what about Marui?"

"No trace of him anywhere. We searched his room, Niou's room, and the level that our rooms were on."

Oshitari raised his eyebrows at that.

"So, a random disappearance like Fuji?"

"There's a probability of 79% that the person behind this was the same person responsible for Fuji's disappearance." There was a pause. "That is…if he is working alone."

No one questioned Yanagi's last few words.

There was a groan. Yagyuu turned around to see Niou sitting up, gingerly placing a finger on the back of his head before hissing loudly.

"Oh, Niou-kun, you're up-"

"There were two guys," Niou's face was stern.

Yanagi opened up Inui's notebook before moving his head in an incomprehensible nod.

"Are you sure Niou?" Yukimura asked, moving forwards, sitting down next to the trickster.

"I heard two voices. I'm sure of it."

"Did you see their faces?" Yanagi asked, ready to take in more information.

Niou would have shook his head, but it was throbbing so much that he just answered with a low, "No." Argh, he had a killer headache going on. Then, he remembered something important.

"They took Bunta."

"What?"

"One of them told the other, "Princess said to get that guy" I didn't know who they were talking about at first, but I saw this man take Bunta before I blacked out."

"Princess…did they say who she might be?" Yanagi questioned.

"No, but Bunta told me before we got attacked that a girl entered his room."

"When?"

"Just before he told me, apparently. We were on our way to tell you about it before, well, yeah," Niou clenched his fists together and leant forwards, biting his bottom lip. "Dammit! If only I had listened to him and not stopped him when he tried to tell me!"

Yukimura turned to Yanagi, gesturing for the data player to inform him about his thoughts on the matter.

"From what Niou told us, there is a 100% probability that the 'girl' is the leader in this whole thing. Also, there's a minimum of three people involved in the attacks, two males and one female. I do not know the reason why they took Marui and only left Niou unconscious after all the previous deaths."

"One guy tried to kill me," Niou suddenly injected.

"What did you say?" Atobe asked, intensively listening to the story.

"One of them tried to kill me, but the other appeared and told him not to kill me."

"Why?"

Niou shrugged. "I think they listen to that Princess's orders. Apparently she didn't order them to kill anyone, only to take Bunta."

"Thus, the 100% probability that the Princess is the one in charge of this whole thing," Yanagi repeated.

Taki approached Niou, holding a wet towel. "Here you go," he said, handing it over to the trickster.

Something clicked in Niou's mind, and he eyed the young butler skeptically, receiving the towel with a soft, "thanks." He watched as Taki walked away, hiding back in the shadows of the room, and placed the towel to the back of his head, where blood was beginning to clot. Unfortunately for Niou, he did not have the ability to see the back of his head and wondered if he was just dabbing at the wound uselessly. Yagyuu, noticing Niou's struggle, plucked the towel from Niou's hand and cleaned the wound for the silver head instead.

"Well, that's jolly and all now that we have a rough idea on how many people are after us, but it still doesn't change the fact that we're in trouble," Oshitari said, moving around so that he could plop down on the couch next to Atobe, who was sitting in a position similar to the famous statue, The Thinker.

"Still no sign of anyone coming to bring us home Atobe?" Sanada grumbled.

Atobe looked up from his cell phones and suppressed the urge to roll his eyes at the cap wearing vice-captain. "Do you think ore-sama would still be sitting here if there was?"

Silence.

"You might need some stitches for this Niou-kun, what caused it?" Yagyuu's voice broke the silence, even though he was speaking softly.

"Man threw me at a wall," Niou replied, his blue eyes fierce.

"Atobe…" Jirou crawled over, and started poking Atobe in the ribs.

"What is it?"

"What about Marui-kun?"

Atobe squeezed his lips tightly together. Then, he slowly shook his head. It was a lost cause. If it was similar to Fuji's disappearance, they had no hopes of finding Marui.

"But At-" Jirou started to whine but Atobe silenced him with a glare.

"I think there are others more worried about him than they show Jirou," Atobe whispered, so that only Jirou could hear him. Atobe didn't look at Jirou when he said that, his eyes instead darting around, to all of the Rikkai regulars, acting like they hadn't lost another valuable player.

"Oh yeah, those guys said something about the pool," Niou said out of the blue, causing the Hyoutei regulars to give him curious looks.

"Oshitari, Mukahi, Shishido, Ootori, go to the pool and investigate," Atobe commanded, sending them off with a wave. Shishido was about to protest but Ootori grabbed the third year's arm and pulled him away.

Bam!

The door slammed open and Fuji looked up. He had his knees up to his chest, his back leaning against the wall. A hooded male entered, carrying a person over his shoulder. Fuji immediately recognized the colours of the Rikkaidai jersey and widened his eyes.

The man dumped the body down onto the floor beside the leg of the bed and bent down, plucking a handcuff from his pocket and cuffing both of Marui's hands together. Then, he left the room for a second, before reappearing, dragging a long piece of rope behind him on the floor and started to tie the red head around the waist, against the leg of the bed.

"What are you doing?" Fuji asked. He didn't move from his position, and only stared at the male.

The hooded male paused in his actions and slightly lifted up his head, eyeing Fuji, who was sitting on the mattress, and looked back down, tying a tight knot with the rope and stood up, brushing dust off his pants.

"You got him didn't you?" A female's voice came from the doorway, and Fuji saw the girl leaning against the side, blowing a large bubble from the gum that she was chewing on.

The male nodded and the girl pushed off the wall, walking towards the bed and squatted down. She brushed Marui's bangs away from his face and frowned.

"What did you do to him?" She narrowed her eyes at the male.

"Nothing," the male shrugged, folding his arms across his chest and placed his weight on his right leg, casually standing on the spot as if it was normal to be in a room with people who he have tied up.

"Don't you 'nothing' me," The girl snapped, straightening up and grabbed front of the male's top.

"His face is all black and blue! What the hell did you do?! Throw him against a wall?!" She pointed a finger at Marui, hissing through her teeth.

Fuji looked at Marui and back at the two kidnappers. They did not seem to remember that Fuji was there.

"I threw someone else at a wall alright," the male laughed, and continued when the girl tightened her grip, "Just a few accidental knocks against some stuff when I carried him here, no worries."

Fuji closed his eyes and listened to their conversation.

"You!" The girl said, before sighing. She released the man and stepped back.

The male continued to laugh and asked, "Why do you want him anyway? I thought you only wanted girly over there."

Normally, Fuji would have taken offense for that word but in this situation, he really couldn't be bothered. He would take being called 'girly' any day.

"N-none of your business," the girl turned red and stomped away.

The man chuckled and shoved his hands into his pockets, sauntering out of the room after the girl, "I guess that other guy looks pretty girly as well. You seem to have a thing for girly guys, princess~"

"SHUT UP!" Fuji heard the girl scream, and a crash, as if something was thrown against the wall and broke. "Get out of here already!"

"Yeah, yeah, I get it, princess~" The man taunted, before pulling the door shut, leaving Fuji alone with an unconscious red head.

Fuji waited for a few seconds in the silence before opening his eyes. He turned his head and looked at the strands of red hair poking out from the bottom of the bed and then towards the door.

'Why is Marui here?' He hung his head down and looked at his handcuff. 'I hope that everyone else is fine.'

"We found Kikumaru," Oshitari announced when the four Hyoutei players returned to the recreation room.

"Oh?"

"He's a goner," Mukahi said.

"That makes all of Seigaku," Yanagi suddenly said.

"Renji, what do you mean?" Sanada asked.

"I saw Kikumaru running out of Tezuka's room when I went to find Sadaharu. Sadaharu and Tezuka are already," Yanagi paused, and lifted up Inui's notebook.

"There's still Fuji."

"…yes, it would seem so," Yanagi said.

"Did you find anything there Oshitari?" Atobe asked, rubbing his temples.

"No, nothing."

"It would seem that the notes have stopped," Yanagi spoke up. "There were no notes when I found Tezuka and Inui," he explained.

"There goes the only thing that would link us back to the attackers," Atobe mused.

"It's not as if they helped us anyway," Hiyoshi said.

Yanagi took out the notes that he had taken from Tezuka from his pocket and looked at them. "I thought that it was a pattern…"

"Heh, maybe they just can't be bothered giving us any notes anymore," Kirihara laughed. "What's the point of communicating with your victims?"

The data master ignored Kirihara's statement and flipped through Inui's notebook, slipping the notes in between various pages.

"Dammit! If only we can just get out of here!" Shishido slammed his fist down on the table-tennis table and Ootori flinched.

Atobe closed his eyes and swallowed. That was probably everyone's wish.

"Gah, he made me forget to write the notes," the girl grumbled, as she played with a blade that she held in between two fingers, "that idiot, he couldn't even complete a mission well." Putting the blade down onto the table top, she crossed her legs and placed her elbows on the table, resting her head on her palms as she grinned at the painted black wall. "Well, whatever. Now that all of the troublesome meddlers are gone, Syuusuke is all mine…"

She threw her head back and crackled like a witch. Running her tongue between her teeth, she felt the stickiness of the gum and bit on it. Eyeing the camera beside her, she ran her fingers over the top of it and picked it up, slinging it over her shoulder. Standing up with a grunt, she blew a bubble from the gum and stretched her hands. Time to build up her collection and…

She grinned.

…Time to think of another plan…

A/N: I have nothing much to say really. Just trying to think about what should happen next. Both Marui and Fuji are captured now. Yup...

Thanks for the reviews. I really love you all.

See you when I update again. Hopefully, soon? :D