A/N: We are moving right along! A huge thanks to zengu for your continual great reviews! Thank you so much for finding my problems!

Also, to Arelen thanks for the idea, I think that would be pretty interesting! I will see what I can do!

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The air was cold as it passed through her hair. Mai had successfully reached the small, hidden shrine before her pursuers caught up giving her enough time to snatch what she needed and run. And boy did she run…Mai fled from the shrine like her life depended on it. It was dark but her feet knew the way by heart, as if she had traveled that path every day for her entire life, even if they were protesting from the pain of running all this way barefoot.

Naru stopped dead in his tracks as he picked up the sounds of his assistant coming towards him. Mai was amazingly fast and they were slowed by the lack of knowledge of the path and destination; Mai had the advantage. Since they had lost sight of her Naru, Lin, and the monk were forced to merely follow in the rough direction of the noise she made as she fled them. Now that noise was no longer fleeting away from them, but was now sounding startlingly close.

"She is heading back," Naru turned on his heals and moved pass Bou-san in an attempt to cut off Mai's path of escape before she got by them again, "if we can get ahead of her then we might be able to intercept her and catch her before she does anything more stupid."

"I can't see a damn thing Naru! How in the hell are we supposed to intercept her if we can't even see her!?" Bou-san rushed to keep close to Naru so that he wouldn't get lost. He made a mental note that after this was all over he was going to have a nice long chat with Mai and make it painfully clear that she was to never do anything like this again.

The clamor was getting closer and closer alerting the two men of the nearing Mai. "This way…" Naru signaled with his hand to move to the right and Lin took the lead. His shiki might be able to help them catch the fleeing girl.

Mai pushed a branch out of her face as she rushed back towards the house. Her breath materialized in front of her face in the cold night air; she felt miserable. She had bolted from the couch still wearing the clothes she had on from earlier in the day which consisted of a jean skirt and a simple form-fitting long sleeve top. At the moment she may as well have been naked for the clothes were giving her limited protection and little warmth against the brisk temperature.

Fearing that she would inevitably make a stupid or clumsy mistake on her way back through the pitch black forest, Mai stashed the pact in the one place she knew it would be almost positively safe from falling or being misplaced…her bra. "Good thing I decided to wear you today and not a camisole" Mai commented looking down at her chest to her simple light pink bra that housed a small tattered and torn scroll, "if I had done that it would have been a little difficult to stuff anything in there and not have anyone notice that my chest was out of shape!"

Mai was panting hard but managed to keep a good pace despite her body's rejections. She clearly saw her way through the trees though she was not really sure how…it didn't really matter anyway.

"Kyaaaaaaaaaaa!" a horrible shriek escaped the frightened girl's mouth at such a pitch that if there had been any glass near by it probably would have broken, "No let me go!" She cried against the strong arms that held her in place in the darkness. Tears streamed down her face and she fought hard using all her meager strength to try and pull out of her captor's grip. The hands were holding both her wrists in place with bruising force…it hurt and she was scared. "Please…let me go…" Mai begged as all her energy failed and she sunk to her knees with her arms sill being elevated above her.

A soft sigh echoed in the air through Mai's stifled sobs; "Mai-san" the pressure on her wrists decreased "please do not be afraid." Lin's deep voice reached Mai's ears and she immediately stopped crying and looked up at the person holding her in place.

Her eyes adjusted and she made out Lin standing above her with Naru and Bou-san not far off and moving closer.

"What the hell, Mai!" Bou-san yelled as he finally reached her and Lin, "Are you out of your mind, or do you actually like getting yourself into trouble and worrying me to death!?" Even in the limited light Mai could see how disheveled the monk looked. He was panting and was covered in dirt. He looked as if he had hit one branch too many.

"You better start explaining…" Naru's voice was icy and gleaned a dangerous undertone "and it had better be damn good." Mai noted meekly that he too looked a little worse for the ware. His usually perfect hair was messy and out of place, his signature black attire was untidy and rumpled with traces of leaves and dirt apparent on its fabric.

The wind blew lightly shuffling her hair softly and she hung her head focusing her gaze at the soil beneath her. Lin still held her tight so there was no hope of making a break for it but she had to think fast in order to answer her obviously angry boss.

"I wanted to see something" Mai responded breathlessly without looking up. Naru scoffed at the answer…less than whelmed at her blatant lie.

"You are an idiot Mai! Whatever it was you wanted to see you could have waited until morning…" the monk was trying to grasp the reasoning in her apparent excuse "and I mean if it had to be tonight then you could have told us instead of making us run raged after you."

"You didn't have to come after me you know, I was fine on my own" she glanced up at the men "the forest obviously was kinder to me than to you all…and I mean I was going to come back." She sighed…there was no way this was going to cut it. Naru was already suspicious and this was only going to make it worse. There was no way in hell Naru would let her off especially not after this little excursion. 'I only hope I can hide the truth and stall long enough to recast this thing and get it done and over with before he catches on…' Mai thought to herself. "It had to be tonight…and I had to hurry or else I would have missed it."

"Missed what?" Naru folded his arms over his chest as he looked angrily down at the girl.

Mai looked up at the sky and concentrated her gaze on the moon and constellations above her. "I wanted to see…the sky…at the same time…she did. I wanted to see if it was the same as in my dream."

"You had a dream? Who is she?" Bou-san inquired eagerly as he moved closer.

"It can wait" Naru's voice was commanding and gave no room for argument. As angry as he was with his assistant he was also very worried about her. She was not well in the morning…her health had declined throughout the day and now she was sitting on the ground before him. She was pale and her breathing resembled panting more than actual breathing. The night air was cool and he could see that Mai was not wearing clothes suitable for the temperature nor was she wearing shoes. Her feet, arms, and legs all brandished cuts and scrapes evidence of her wild run through the forest. "We can finish this conversation once we get back to the manor."

With that statement Naru moved briskly to Mai's side and promptly secured her in his arms bridle style and began to make his descent towards the house.

"Whoa! I can walk on my own, Naru!" He ignored her comment and continued to walk followed grudgingly by Lin and Bou-san. "Please put me down!" Her face began to flush with a slight shade of red as she blushed in embarrassment and probably a little bit of joy at the way he was holding her. His chest was warm and she could hear his heart beat as she rested her head against it. It was so calming. It felt good to be held in his strong arms…she never wanted to leave this man's embrace.

"If I put you down you will no doubt try to run off" Naru finally said, "there is no way I am letting go of you now…especially not now as seeing the condition your body is in. I will be amazed if you can even stand tomorrow with those feet."

'I don't want to let you go either…' Mai thought solemnly as she gave into Naru with a sigh. 'I guess I will let him pamper me just this once…though this will probably be my one and only chance to be held in your strong embrace. Oh how cruel this world is. Just when it finally shows that you care for me…I will have to leave you. Just my luck… What an idiot I have been, really!'

Mai was beginning to hate herself more and more; but there really was no other way considering the time she had to work with…right? 'It is not like anyone will miss me much anyway…I don't have family and only a few close friends from school and obviously those from SPR. It's either me or them…I would rather go knowing that I saved all of them rather than doing nothing and having it be too late. I would feel so guilty if something happened when I knew there was something that I could have done to prevent it…no matter how extreme it was. But why do I feel guilty anyway…even when I am going to save them…my heart hurts.' Mai clenched at her chest with her free hand, 'I don't want to think about this anymore…'

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A/N: Angsty Mai! Thanks to Shoujolover22 for help in plotting this chapter (or more like hitting me over the head to make me write it) and you better get that stick ready and make me write a good ending too! Anyhoo...please let me know how you all liked it!