Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Ghost Hunt.
To everyone who reviewed last chapter and asked what happened, here it is.
Lin frowned slightly. "Aren't we breaking out the champagne a little too early?"
Yasuhara grinned as he swivelled the delicate glass. "It's never too early for a celebratory drink." Gene nodded in agreement from his place on the couch.
"Even if Naru is too thick to confess, Mai-chan will do something right."
"Mai-chan?" The minister commented languidly as he took a casual sip of the champagne. Gene was clearly not so easily baited. "We're pretty good friends," he said and leaned back into his chair comfortably.
"What about your brother?" Lin scowled. "If he does anything to hurt her…" he muttered as Madoka and Gene both grinned at him.
"Don't worry, he won't. If his behaviour today was anything to go by, I'll say he's already fallen for her."
There was another round of toast and Madoka was discreetly refilling Lin's glass when the footman clattered into the room.
"Sir," he said and then paused to mop at his brow. "Sir, it is my duty to inform you…" he swallowed, eyes darting nervously. "The gods help me, but first it was foreign knights and bards and then a dandified mage and now…" he moaned as a silvery figure brushed past him majestically to hover in the air by the table.
"Your footman wants to announce that you've a new guest," it said in a booming voice beneath its venerable white beard.
"Old Black!" Lady Ayako, who had so far been sitting quietly by Takigawa leapt up. The tree spirit stroked its beard solicitously. "I resent that name," he announced. "Especially since I've deigned to come here myself to inform you that the Crown of Albion is in danger." Gene looked stricken.
"My parents – are they?"
"Don't be stupid, boy. I meant your brother. He's been kidnapped by that little cat of a witch; the brown haired freckly one who has been lurking about here for a few days now." He turned to Lin. "As the master of this house and a pleasant enough neighbour, I ought to tell you too that your ward was kidnapped as well, trying to protect the princeling."
There was a short pause, in which the only sound was Lin's glass breaking as he slammed it on the table. "Gentlemen, ladies, I'm afraid the party is over," he said to the hushed room.
"I will go order the carriage and horses," Madoka said briskly. "They'll be ready in five minutes," she said as she got up. "Gene, would you assist me in making up a charm for haste?" The young mage nodded and followed her out of the room.
Looking down, the Crown Prince of Albion observed that he was back to his usual human form. It didn't need a genius to work out how that had happened.
Flashback
Stumbling on a tree root that hadn't been there earlier, Mai fell heads forward onto the frog.
Naru scowled at that memory. It had been painful, embarrassing on hindsight and it confirmed his suspicions that the woods were probably haunted by possessed trees with match-making tendencies. He would have to remember to make it a point to inform Lin. As he picked himself up shakily from the threadbare carpet, Naru soon deduced that he was in a small cramped and windowless antechamber that had a musty bed frame and a cracked mirror installed by it. A small stream of light filtered in through a grate near the ceiling. The upturned bowl of water showed where Malfina had installed him prior to the spell reversal.
He tried the door. It was unlocked, a fact that fired up all his suspicions. Malfina was malicious, not stupid and he looked round cautiously first. The corridor beyond was deserted except for a few spiders spinning industriously away. As he stepped out, he was disgusted to note that the floor, no not just the floor, but everything was coated in a thick layer of dust. Even the spiders, on close inspection, were coated with a fine smattering of powder. Resisting the urge to sneeze, Naru was about to try the first door when a loud and indignant female voice echoed from through the gloom.
"Let me out you stink of a witch! You have it coming if a – a dozen frogs rained on your head and brained you! What did I do to you eh?" A smile twitched on his lips. Ah. So she was here too.
Mai hadn't really expected the enchantress to have heard her, so she was rather surprised when the door to her cell clicked open and swung inwards. "You freckly faced hag! You better look out because when I get out from here you are dead! Dead! Do you hear me!" she shouted furiously.
"I hear you." A voice that was decidedly not the enchantress's replied smugly. Silenced by this new turn of events, Mai craned her neck round to see who it was and immediately wished she hadn't.
Lin's face looked as though it had been set in stone as he was about to climb into the readied carriage. Madoka touched his arm gently.
"We'll sort this out," she said firmly. "She'll be alright."
An anxious crowd had formed outside the mansion gates and Lin sighed as he looked on at the people he had come to consider friends. "It's too dangerous," he said, looking at Gene in particular.
Takigawa folded his arms and looked mutinous.
"We're coming. All of us."
"That's right," a soft voice chimed in and everybody turned to see Princess Masako as she walked up the lane with her bodyguards in tow. "Do you expect that I, the Princess of Nihon should be left out of anything?" Her eyes had a mischievous glint in them as Sir John caught up to her, a cloud of woolly white following along purposefully. "And I've brought reinforcements."
Naru wasn't usually given to blushing, but the thought that he'd been kissed by Mai (or rather, smashed into by Mai) was causing his face to heat up slightly, that and the fact that she was now gaping at him slack-jawed. He raised an eyebrow at her and she gulped before averting her eyes.
"What? Didn't I tell you I happen to have a good complexion?" he demanded haughtily as he wrapped a fallen sheet around himself.
"Gene…?" Mai's amazement was being rapidly replaced by indignation.
"How did you get here?" she demanded furiously and blushingly in turn, "A-and f-find something to wear!"
A mere few seconds in the company of this intruder had been enough to confirm that she hadn't dreamt that the usually cheerful mage had just wandered into the room in his birthday suit.
"I already have."
When Mai looked up again, she rolled her eyes. "That's a bed sheet!"
"It'll have to do while I find something better," he said before smirking at her. "Or would you prefer me naked?"
Mai flushed an even deeper hue and concentrated on trying not to think about the well-defined trace of her new companion's shoulder beneath the cloth which he'd wrapped around himself like a Roman senator.
"Err… have you seen Naru?" she asked anxiously.
He gave her an inscrutable look before continuing to rummage through the large closet. "I might have."
Mai frowned at the person before her. There was something not quite right about him. For one thing, he was clearly not meeting her eyes and half-burying himself in the laundry cupboard in search of a clean sheet instead as an excuse. The thing was, he looked exactly like Gene. He even sounded like Gene. His entire demeanour however, was another thing all together, familiar as it was.
"You didn't answer my first question," she said suspiciously.
He gave her a look, and Mai was again struck by how familiar he was. "I suppose it was the same way as you did, which is to say, kidnapped."
"What does she have against you?"
"Is there any particular reason why you think it's her who has it in for me? I'm after all, the one who's walking about freely."
The brown haired girl put a finger to her chin. "Oh, I don't know…maybe your attitude of superiority?"
He smirked. "What about yourself? I hardly suppose you've been kidnapped because of any positive trait you might possess."
"Er…now that you mentioned it, I was trying to rescue a stupid pet."
"I can't imagine anything else less intelligent than you," he shot back in irritation.
"Huh! If you're so smart, then tell me where we are," she challenged with a glint in her eye. To her exasperation, this Gene only smirked at her.
"As a matter of fact, I do. This happens to be the second laundry room of Albion's Royal Palace," he said before frowning slightly as he fingered the thick green vine that poked in from the narrow window. "Though, it seems Malfina has enchanted the entire compound into becoming a forest…"
A loud jangling made him turn back around. Mai rattled her chains again meaningfully.
"Would you mind…I mean…er…helping me?"
He remained standing by the window. "There's something to be said about the rescuer needing to be rescued. Besides, talented as I am, breaking iron with my bare hands is not one of my fortes." Mai glared at him. "You know what? I don't think you are Gene at all."
"Really. I can't imagine what gave me away," he replied sarcastically.
"For one thing, Gene is usually polite. You are rude. For another thing, Gene wouldn't have needed prompting to help out at all. You on the other hand, are so full of yourself that…"
The young man's face hardened. "Shall I get Gene to rescue you then?" he shot back coldly.
"You could at least have the decency to tell me your name," she growled. "Instead of pretending to be someone else."
"I did not actually confirm that I was him."
"Jerk."
"Moron."
"Narcissistic prat."
"My name is Oliver. I'm Gene's brother," he admitted finally and waited for the proverbial bells to start ringing in the girl's head. After all, they were in the palace and it was no secret that the crown princes were twins and good looking ones at that. To his private exasperation, she merely stared blankly back at him.
"Oh," she said politely, vaguely sensing that she ought to be realizing something when she unfortunately didn't have any inkling as to what. "Well, Oliver, how do you suggest getting me off these chains?"
By a stroke of rare fortune, the King and Queen of Albion had been away visiting a nearby village that had been plagued by a flock of migratory marsh pigeons and their carriage rolled up the same moment that the rescue party had arrived, flock of angry sheep in tow. "The heavens… what has happened here?" The King demanded as he rose majestically out of the vehicle's door. Several of the onlookers shrugged. "Don't know, best ask the King. It's his palace ain't it?" one of them, who still had his pitchfork muttered truculently.
The King stared at the peasant speechlessly. "You…" Then, on catching sight of several familiar faces, he glared at them. "Would you know what happened?"
"Gene!" The Queen rushed out of the carriage on having spotted her son standing within the motley crowd. "Why are you all here?"
The mage grinned ruefully. "Rescuing Noll," he explained. "Malfina's got him."
Author's notes: This chapter got so long I had to split it so that it'll roughly adhere to the other chapter lengths. Anyway, plot's rolling along great. Expect slightly more frequent updates for now =)