The search for the necklace was not going well. First of all, they had no bloody idea where it was or where to start looking! And whenever Cat thought about it she ended up with a pounding headache. Naru made the decision to divide them into groups, as per usual. While Takigawa, Matsuzaki and John were ordered to go down to the basement, Cat, Mai and himself were to go to the attic. Oddly enough Masako said she was staying in her room, claiming that she felt ill. Gene, seeing as he had been the target the last time, was ordered to stay in the base with Lin, whose mission was to keep an eye on the older twin. No one knew what sort of stupid ideas he might come up with and Naru didn't want to take any risks. No matter how annoying Gene was, he still wanted to have his brother around.

At least until the next time he made some stupid comment about Mai. Then Naru would kill him himself. He was such a loving twin.

"I still hate the attic." Mai muttered under her breath, walking next to Cat behind Naru.

Cat put her hands in her pockets, smiling grimly.

"Me too. I swear that if that thing possesses me again I'm going to blow a hole in the freaking wall." She promised to no one in particular.

"You can do that?" Mai glanced at her, interested. She was usually nice and gentle, but she thought that Cat destroying the attic would be quite the show.

Cat shrugged her shoulders.

"Dunno, but we can always find out." She looked at Mai, her usual smirk present this time.

"Hyuga, refrain yourself from blowing things up. If you do I'll make sure to forward you the bills." Naru warned, not turning around.

Cat glared at his back and stuck her tongue out. Mai giggled and that caused the boy to turn around slightly. Seeing the innocent faces of his subordinates he sighed tiredly in his mind. Why did he have to work with a bunch of idiots?

They were close to the steps leading to the attic when Mai stopped suddenly, glancing around. Naru and Cat also stopped, watching her worriedly.

"What is it?" Her boss asked, furrowing his brows.

"Something's wrong." SHe said, growing slightly pale. The feeling... the anger in the air was sickening her. It was stronger than she had felt before. She didn't move; she couldn't move. It was overwhelming her.

"Mai..."

Naru's words were cut short when a sudden force pulled him into one of the side rooms, pushing him to the ground and locking the door. From the groan coming from the other side of the room he knew he wasn't alone. He turned around, half expecting to see Mai with him, since it always seemed to be her with whom he was stuck in closed spaces. Not that he complained about it much.

However, instead of the very familiar brown eyes, he met green eyes from across the room. He raised his brow. Cat shrugged, massaging her head.

"Don't look at me. It's not like it was my choice."

They fell into silence when two voices were heard from behind the doors.

Mai watched wide-eyed as her two friends disappeared into a different room. The shock dissipated quickly however and she ran over to the dor. She paused mid-step when she felt someone's presence behind her. It was somehow familiar, but at the same time there was something strange mixed in with it. She gulped. Whatever it was, she knew that it wasn't good. Slowly she turned around, blinking in surprise upon seeing a familiar face.

"M-Masako." She said, forcing a small laugh.

The feeling refused to leave her. The black haired girl had her head down, not looking in her direction.

"I thought you said you were sick, I hope you're feeling better. We decided to leave you alone to recover, sorry if you felt left alone..." Mai started talking nonsense, her heartbeat racing.

Her heart stopped when Masako raised her head. The eyes that looked at Mai's weren't hers, however, the brown haired girl had seen them once before. They had once been Cat's eyes.

She knew right then that she was in deep shit. But something wasn't right. The ghost always targeted boys, right? That was why Gene was in danger. So why was she in front of her? She shouldn't be looking to hurt her.

Masako moved towards her and she backed up. This continued until Mai hit the edge of the table situated at the end of the corridor.

Mai closed her eyes, knowing that nothing good could come from her situation.

But what she felt instead of pain was a hand caressing her cheek. Mai opened her eyes, daring herself to see what was going on. She met those brown eyes again, eyes that watched her with care and... love? The caressing didn't stop.

"Don't worry my beloved." Masako said in a voice so not like her that in any other situation Mai would have been forced to stop herself from gaping in shock. It was so gentle and full of warmth. Never ever had the black haired woman directed anything to anyone in such a manner. "I am going to end your pain right now. There will be no more suffering from now on." She said, something flashing in her eyes.

Mai didn't know why but she had a feeling that it had something to do with the two people locked in the room.

"W-what are you talking about?" She whispered, too scared to move.

She knew, however, that the ghost wasn't going to do anything to her. Those eyes showed her as much. She must have confused her with Toshiko somehow. Even if they did look nothing alike...

Still, one bad move could cause the possessed girl to do something else, something more sinister.

Something flashed in Masako's newly acquired brown eyes.

"I'm talking about him of course! He is the reason for your pain!" She said, her voice hard this time. Mai shivered and the brown eyes softened. "You don't need to worry. I am not going to hurt you."

The hand was removed from Mai's cheek.

"Now please stay here, do not go anywhere. I will be right back, after I have dealt with the two unfaithful ones."

Mai couldn't bring herself to move. She could only watch as Masako moved without hurry to the room where Naru and Cat were imprisoned.

"Unfaithful?" Cat repeated, furrowing her brows.

The corridors on the last floor had absolutely no sound-proofing.

"She has somehow gotten it in her head that we have betrayed Mai." Naru answered, seemingly getting a grip on the situation.

"Wasn't she going after Gene?"

"I think she might have mixed us up."

"But I don't remember any situation that would cause her to think they we're traitors." She said before thinking for a second. "Unless you drugged me and did something."

Naru looked at her incredulously.

"Trust me Hyuga, I'm not in the habit of doing that sort of thing. You should ask my brother."

The sound of the lock clicking open stopped them. They looked over at the door, expressions hard.

Masako entered the room in all her possessed glory.

"What a lovely couple we have here." She said, an evil gleam in her eyes as she looked at them. "You are going to pay."

Naru looked at her, calculating the situation. He was sure that they could both protect themselves, considering their powers, but he didn't want to hurt Masako. As irritating as she was with all her tries to get him to date her, she was still his subordinate. He knew that if he used his SPR on her he would hurt her badly or even kill her. Since he had never seen Cat use her powers on another person he couldn't say anything about her, but he had his suspicions.

"Would you care to share why it is that we're going to pay?" He asked, eyeing her.

Brown eyes narrowed dangerously.

"You want to play innocent to the very end?" Possessed Masako asked, staring straight at him. "You know exactly what you have done."

"Actually, no, I don't."

That only seemed to anger the ghost further.

"You hurt her! She trusted you with her heart and you just broke it!"

It seemed as though the ghost was completely confused, mixing the past and the present. It was bad. From his side of the room he could feel the temperature rising. Cat was ready to strike at any moment.

Masako shifted her attention to her. She moved towards her with terrifying speed and Cat's eyes widened in fright.

"Do not dare try to do anything you whore!"

Possessed people really did have greater power. Cat screamed in surprise and pain when she was pushed and smacked into the wooden side of one of the beds in the room. With her concentration lost the temperature went down again. Masako looked as though she was going to strike again, but her eyes landed on Naru when he moved to stop her. A smirk blossomed on her lips.

"Do not worry, it is your turn now."

She slipped a dagger from the sleeve of her kimono.

She wasn't even distracted when the door banged loudly against the wall.

When Mai heard screaming coming from the room she snapped out of her stupor. she ran to the door and grabbed the handle, but it was locked, just like she had suspected somewhere in the back of her mind.

"Stop it!" She shouted, already knowing that it was in vain, but still, she continued. "Please, just let them go! They didn't do anything!"

She could hear a bang, as though something had hit the floor. Laughter, unmistakably Masako's, was heard. Tears streamed down her face.

She wanted to help them. She didn't want to lose anyone. Cat was her friend, while Naru was her most important person, the one closest to her heart. Losing both of them would break her. If she could never see the cold blue eyes, that familiar face, if she could never hear his sarcastic comments and remarks, she wouldn't be whole. She wouldn't be able to live.

Mai sank to the floor. She didn't even notice when white light began to emit from her body.

Naru lay on his back, trying to force the dagger away from his chest. How so small a girl could be so strong confounded him, but it was certainly aggravating.

From the corner of his eye he saw Cat lift up her glowing hand. In the same moment the door flew from its hinges and a white light caused them all to close their eyes.

When Masako's body suddenly fell on top of him, unmoving, Naru decided to see what was going on.

The room was back to normal and he sat up, pushing Masako to the floor - gently though, he was still a gentleman.

His eyes widened for a moment when he saw Mai, kneeling on the floor with damp streaks on her cheeks. She looked rather dumbfounded, as if she didn't know what had happened.

And she really didn't. One moment she was thinking about what could happen if the ghost really did do something to her friends, the next moment the door flew open. Mai wondered if Cat had discovered she could blow things up after all. She glanced at Naru who was watching her with as much shock as he would allow himself to show, while Cat sat on her knees, watching with her mouth partially open. It was a sure sign that something strange had happened.

Quick steps could be heard and Takigawa, Lin, Gene and the rest of the team came barging into the room.

"What happened?" The monk asked, stopping next to Mai and examining her.

The girl tried to smile at him, but a sudden dizziness caused her to black out.

"So Mai is not a medium?" Takigawa asked, looking at the girl who was lying on the couch, still unconscious.

Naru twirled a pencil in his hand.

"She is, but she is also capable of something else." He answered, thinking deeply.

"So what is she?" Ayako asked, sitting next to the girl.

Instead of answering, Naru turned his sharp gaze to Cat.

"You knew about it." He stated and everyone turned to her. She blinked in surprise. "When we were at your school in the infirmary. You said that her powers weren't fully developed yet."

Cat furrowed her brows, wondering about it for a moment.

"Oh yeah." She said, finally remembering. "When I stood in front of her when she was going to be attacked I felt a rise in her spiritual power. It was much higher than that of a medium. But seeing as how she didn't try to protect herself I deduced that she didn't know about it." She answered honestly.

"Do you know what her powers are?" Of course Naru wouldn't ask anyone for help. Lin did.

Her eyes widened in sudden realisation.

"The necklace!" She said loudly.

They blinked at her, not understanding her outburst in the slightest.

"Mai is the necklace?" Gene asked, barely hiding the humour in his voice.

Cat simply whacked him on the back of the head.

'Abusive girl, she is.'Gene thought, but he didn't complain.

"Don't be an idiot. The necklace Mai was talking about. I saw it before she possessed me. It's in the attic!"

A/N: Ok, so here is the new chapter. If any of you are confused about all this, don't hesitate to ask me outright. I will answer it on PM or in the next chapter.

Edited: Dark Akuma Hunter