Disclaimer: I don't own the rights to the original story, I just seek to try finishing it in my own head someday in the form of fanfiction. I'm a complete amature and receive no compensation except my readers comments
A/N: I don't know how this chapter will be for you guys. I hope it won't be too disturbing or upsetting for anyone. I'm not sure if I should be upping the rating for this one...it doesn't feel too disturbing to me. In addition to that, My old beta is extremely busy lately and hasn't gotten back to me on this in weeks...so this is being posited with any mistakes I missed...anyone up for being a beta?
Mai's desire to be alone guides her feet to continue on one step after another away from the room, leading her on a path towards the stairs. At the landing, she hesitates and finds herself turning to walk down the tiered path, towards the base and her temporary room. As she goes, her mind debates her upcoming choice: Going to her room so she can be alone or drowning her thoughts out with more work.
She arrives at her door and half heartedly reaches out and grasps the handle but leaves it shut, her mind distracted with indecision. As she stands sifting through the thoughts running in her mind, she becomes aware that she's been seeing something moving in her vision. It happens again and she's astounded to find it's coming from her. The hallway is so cold, it's her own breath she's been seeing. Belatedly she sees the goosebumps peppering her arms. When had it gotten so cold?
A warning note of anxiety rises in her heart. The drop in temperature could only mean there was a ghost around, that was obvious. They'd already identified that there were multiple ghosts in this house. She turns back to the hallway, her mind now clear, focused, and somewhat on edge. As she casts her eyes around trying to locate the soul, she finds the hallway before her to be blank, devoid of anything of note, even equipment. Infact, the only difference she can see, from the last time she'd been down here, was that one of the doors had been left open, the storage room, but there didn't seem to be anything in it aside from the items stored there. Moving on, she turns to glance towards the stairs and finds the area is also empty.
The chill hadn't left the air so she knew the ghost was still around, but other than the cold, there seemed to be no activity. Shivering, she casts her eyes back down the hall, wondering, Where could it be? It has to be here somewhere. An idea springs up in her mind, was it possible she just wasn't seeing it? There had been plenty of times she'd not been able to see them in the past, but her senses had gotten stronger since then, hadn't they?...Or had the time away from cases made them dull once more? It's not like there was anywhere to hide, or was there? Maybe the ghost is around the corner, in the joining hall, she deduces. In her need to know, not feeling like she was in any immediate danger, she releases the doorknob and walks down the hallway so she can peek, her slippers whispering over the hardwood floors as she goes past the door to the base to the corners edge.
When she reaches the end, she peeks around the corner at the remainder of the hallway. It's empty. She sighs in relief, but becomes puzzled. If it wasn't in the hall I came from, she looks down the hall she came from, and it wasn't over here, she looks back to the hallway she's arrived at, could it be in the bathroom? She takes several steps forward before shaking her head. No, it would have been cold in there and only minorly chilled in here if that was the case. That means I'm not seeing it...my abilities have regressed, she concludes sadly. Naru will probably be annoyed when he finds out. she chuckles grimly at the thought, rubbing her arms to warm up. Behind her, she hears a sudden jumbled, jangling sound.
Turning around, she zeros in on the sound coming from the storage room. With the door open, everything was directly connected-the halls and storage room would act like a single room so of course the cold would affect both spaces. The storage room is a large room, there's no way I would have been able to see the entire room from my door. How could I have ruled it out so quickly? she face-palms.
With each jangling, Mai becomes more acutely aware that the storage room is between herself and the halls only exit. If something were to happen, if something went wrong, there was nowhere to run. She'd cornered herself like an idiot, and, on top of that, she was bitterly alone. Her mind flooded with fear. What if It was that tattooed ghost? There's no way I could deal with it by myself. With the doubt springing up alongside the fear, she becomes frozen in place.
She wished she could have been brave and strong like Monk, or smart, like Naru. She grasps her locket, Naru..what would Naru do? Her fear lessens as she realizes the answer, he'd use logic to overcome his emotions. She'd been panicking too much, she just needed a plan. She looks around, trying to think her way out of the situation. The door to the storage room wasn't facing her. It was probably too late to turn the corner and run down the hall she'd come from, but maybe she'd be safe if she got into the bathrooms behind her. Chances are, she hadn't been seen yet, right? Nodding, she gets closer to the far wall, slimming the chances of being seen from the storage room, and then backs herself towards the bathrooms. She keeps her eyes trained on the door the sounds were still coming from. A short tumbling, scraping sound rips from the room and the overall sound changes.
A "scrip...scrip...scrip" like sound keeps coming closer to the room's edge. That sound is just a...a chain? Being dragged across the ground, she guesses, trying to remain logical. She glances behind her noting the four feet remaining til she'll reach the door. When she hears the sound change, becoming louder and more rattly, Mai turns back. She sees a girl with short black hair that spikes and curls outwards fashionably. The girl halts in the hall in front of her, chain, in hand, dragging on the hardwood floor. There were no tattoos. She looked like a normal person, a girl probably not much older than herself.
The talk she'd had with Gene about spirits, comes to mind. They're just people without their bodies, she reminds herself. There were lots of spirits in this house, weren't there? If it was any ghost besides the tattooed one, there was a possibility that she could take care of it herself, right? She'd purified ghosts before-a whole classroom full. Maybe this one could be reasoned with? Taking courage, she takes a step forward.
The ghost girl abruptly turns her head towards Mai and courage and logic quickly flee, replaced once again by fear as Mai takes in the girl's crazed, brown eyes staring directly at her. The girl's face is marred by an almost bloodthirsty expression. The girl wastes no time turning her body and running rapidly towards Mai, raising the chain wielding hand as she comes closer. Mai skurries backward, putting up her hands in defense, until she hits the same wall that had promised refuge only moments before.
As the girl comes close enough to strike, Mai drops to the ground, a quick, chipped scream escaping from her lips. The chain swings around hitting the walls above her. If she hadn't dropped, it would have hit her for sure. Mai puts her arms up to block the attack she expects won't be far behind. When it doesn't come, she looks up at the girl bent over her. Both of the girl's hands are against the wall, surrounding and blocking Mai from fleeing in any direction.
"Where is he," she hears the spirit demand, the chain grating against the wall with equal force to the girl's words.
"Who," Mai squeeks out.
The ghostly girl reaches down and grabs Mai's arm and, all of a sudden, Mai is stumbling around in a cold dark room, the stench of mildew mixed with a metallic smell assaulting her nose. Pain courses from her cheek and leg. Her fear spikes as she hears a splash to her left and motion catches her eye.
There's a knife glinting in the dark, it remains suspended in the air about mid waist, but it only stays suspended for a moment before it turns and hurls itself upwards at her. Mai manages to lunge sideways quick enough to receive a wound on her side. She'd dodged away from the worst of it, but she had no time to dwell on it, she needed to keep moving. I can't see anything, where should I go? she wonders frantically. The blade twirls out of the darkness, swishing through the air beside her ear and lodging itself into the wall not far in front of her.
"Woah," she exclaims, Not that way! she panics, turning and running blindly away from the blade and her attacker and further into the darkness. Behind her, she hears a short hiss as the blade as it's removed from the wall and the sound of footsteps coming after her at a leisurely pace. This isn't just some attack, she realizes. I'm being hunted! The thought forces her adrenaline filled body to move faster. Where am I and what have I done to deserve this?
Mai runs forward blindly, but doesn't make it far before loudly slamming her thigh into something metallic. Her momentum sends her stumbling onto it and onto the collection of sharp metal...somethings that adorn it. A loud crash sounds as the tools, at least that's what she assumes they are, fall both onto the table or counter or whatever it was she was now on, and across the floor beyond. The pain coming from her hands informs her of new injuries. A dark, masculine chuckle comes out of the darkness not too far behind her, reinforcing her need to flee. The tools had fallen onto the floor beyond, that meant the room was open on the other side.
Ignoring the pain, she shoves herself over the surface she's on, throwing herself away from the man and sending several more of the metal objects to the floor along with her. Her slippered feet drop to the floor just in time to hear the ping of metal on metal. He'd missed her, but just barely Mai doesn't stop. She's got the feeling that he'll kill her if she stays put, but she can't continue running around blindly. She needed more light and something to fight with. If only she'd had the thought about it earlier, she could have grabbed one of the tools she'd landed on and scattered. There was no way she was going to try going back for one.
Coming to a wall, she feels along it and shortly finds it comes to an abrupt end, an opening, maybe a way to escape? She turns into the opening and follows the wall until she comes to another opening and ducks into it. She presses her back to the cool, almost wet feeling wall on the other side. This new area's acrid smell twists her insides, making her feel unwell, but it might just be her only hope for escape…or it could be her grave, she acknowledges, wishing she could reject the idea. Her mind turns back to her hunter. Where is he? She needed to know. Not knowing would guarantee death.
In the eerily quiet room, she listens out for her hunter, but only hears her own breath as it rages in and out. It seemed loud, horribly loud, way too loud. He would hear her. She holds her breath to silence herself and listens again. There, she could hear him. Her body forces her to breath again and she attempts to slow it to silence, but fails. It's still too loud. Mai goes back and forth in a struggle between breathing and silence, nearly making herself feel lightheaded while she continues listening and racking her brain, trying to figure out what to do next.
She was hidden now, at least she hoped she was, but he kept finding her in the darkness, he wasn't even stumbling into things, Mai realizes, He knows this place...but, wait, no, she shakes her head. People can still stumble in places they know when things are scattered on the floor...like all those tools that fell. He should have hit at least one by now. Could it be that he can see?...But that's not possible without...Could he be wearing night vision goggles or something? she trembles and shakes her head, That's so unfair! She pouts in indignation ..but, if he is, he'll find me for sure. Just then, she hears him enter the hallway behind her hiding spot. He's still walking with that same, horrible, leisurely stride. Holding still, and holding her breath, she hopes he'll pass her hiding spot.
The steps keep coming with their slow, clip...clop...clip..clop, echoing slightly off the walls. When the steps get close, she hears them change direction towards her and enter the room. No! Please, don't find me!
Clip...clop...clishhh. The strange drawn out sound of his step is the only warning she receives before she feels the blade's cool edge kiss her neck. She was grateful that she'd had the warning, as short as it was, it had given her enough time to jerk away and spared her life. Mai lets the air in her lungs out in a shriek and runs. He can see me!
Hitting another wall, Mai hurriedly turns and flees once more. She manages to make it several feet before slamming into yet another wall, this one jarring her and reverberating deeply. Wall number 3, she found, is composed of metal rods. The hunter laughs cruelly, and she imagines that he's mocking her in her pain, bringing her a sense of shame on top of everything else.
Shaking off her self inflicted pain, she retracts the arm that had been holding the rails and keeping her upright all the while she maps out the room in her head. Two walls behind her, and one with rods in front of her. A dead end. The only hope this room had left was the last wall and the laughter sounded far enough away that she just might be able to make it. She couldn't afford to stop trying. Keeping her hand stretched out to the bars, she uses them to guide her run, keeping tabs on the wall with her finger tips, the other hand outstretched in front of her to warn her if there was another incoming wall. The hand running along the wall hits an extra pole of some kind that moves, falling, making a scraping sound as it slides. She manages to catch it before it falls, but, directly after, runs into the fourth and final wall of the room. She quickly feels along the wall for an opening, but finds none. She's trapped, she'd cornered herself in with her killer. She thought she knew his general direction, but she needed him to move to confirm it. It takes her a few seconds to realize she's not heard his steps following hers while she'd run around the room. She hadn't heard anything from him since he'd laughed at her. If he hasn't moved, she calculates. then he's still standing by the opening, blocking my exit.
Shivering, Mai continues to stand defensively, listening, waiting for him to move. Why isn't he attacking? I'm trapped in here aren't I? He's got me cornered. As she tightens her fists, she recalls the object she still has clenched in her hand. A ray of hope brings a smile to her face, I have a weapon. She didn't know what it was, but, whatever it was, it was her weapon now. The only details she knows about it is that it has a wooden pole, it had sounded like the tip was made of metal, and it's definitely longer than that knife he was using. She moves her weapon to rest in front of her and grips the long pole of it with both hands, feeling the weight of it. A thought settles in her mind then. With this weapon, I have an advantage. And there she stays, awaiting his next move while planning her own. He'd attacked her multiple times now. She had every right to hit him back and defend herself. The thought was oddly freeing and she took courage in it.
She listens as his footsteps shift and calmly clip clop away from the passageway.
Here he comes. The thought brings her a trill of panic mix with excitement. It was nearly time to attack him back. He is walking slow enough that she feels like she has time to quickly investigate what she was holding. She needed to know, it could make up the difference between success and defeat, he was still several feet away. Her hand slides along her weapon, in the direction she knew the metal would be, after finding the cold metal, she fingers her way down it's neck to the tip beyond. It was flat and wide. It's a shovel. She could use it like a blade, a spear, or a bat, a long metal tipped bat. She was good with a bat.
She plans out her swing, where she'd aim. There was a chance she could hit his head and knock him out, but if it failed, he'd be pissed and that wouldn't bode well for her-heck anywhere she hit would piss him off, but what if she missed, she didn't know how tall he was, she hadn't seen him, she'd only seen his knife. She looks ahead trying to spot it.
Mai couldn't see it now, but the last time she'd seen his knife, it had been about as high as her waist, there was a possibility with the shovel's blade being as large as it was that she could knock the knife away, maybe even through the bars, but doing so wouldn't be good enough to end her problems. He, himself, was dangerous. If she got too close to him when she ran for it, he could still catch her. She needed to get him away, or injure-An abrupt screeching hiss sound snapped her out of her thoughts. His footsteps stop and the sound comes again, the wailing noise confuses her and puts her more on edge. Unconsciously she returns her full grip back to shovel's handle, getting a better grip and turning the shovel's tip broadside for a wider hitting area.
His footsteps come towards her once again, now accompanied by a hissing plink that sounds with each step. She figures out that he's running the blade along the bars as he makes his way over. He's trying to scare me, she figures. It's not going to work. I've got a plan. I need to knock the blade first and then keep swinging, she concludes. He's only 4 feet away, but his actions have made the blade an easier target. Hey, batter, batter… she taunts inwardly. One more step forward and she swings and is rewarded with a ping of her own. Followed by a jarring bang as she hits the bars. As she pulls the shovel back, the knife skitters on the ground past the bars and she grins, takes a step forward and thrusts the shovel forward directly above the area she'd heard his steps and she meets air, and stumbles after the shovel. Baffled, she swings at him again, still catching nothing but air. What the heck? Where did he go? Before she knows what's happening, her shovel is roughly jerked out of her grasp. She manages to back petal towards the passageway, wide eyed in surprise. She was weaponless once more and once again, he wasn't, but now she could get out. She turns and flees before a sudden gust blows by near her head, and the shovel clamors to the floor somewhere behind her.
Her flight takes her back to the room she'd scattered the tools in and she quickly shuffles forward through them until she reaches the metal table. She edges around it, placing it between her and the hall she'd just escaped.
When she's done, she looks around. She'd been able to see the knife in here, not back in that prison like place. It meant that there was light in here somewhere. If only she could find it, maybe she'd be able to use it. Far behind her she hears the blade dragging on the ground, he'd reached it somehow. She didn't have time to puzzle over it, she had to find the light.
Forward and to her left, she spies a small, dim strip of light that she had somehow missed before. She runs over to it. As Mai comes close, her hands brush a soft but heavy, mildew perfumed shroud that she grabs and jerks out of the way to reveal a short hallway lit with a single dim light near the floor. A small, innocent-looking spike protrudes from the wall, pointing downwards: a light switch. She doesn't hesitate and flips it upwards. The room lights up in a brilliant flash of light, temporarily blinding her. The footsteps enter the room and she looks towards them. Her surroundings shock her as she looks for her hunter. She finds herself in a room similar to a mideval torture chamber. Her assailant is nowhere to be found, just a knife suspended and dancing back and forth in the air. "Surprise," his voice whispers lazily.
He's there, but he isn't. This is impossible. A growing sense of confusion assails her mind, increasing her already high levels of panic, nearly to the point of shutting down with the confusion. There is no one wielding the knife. Is it a ghost?...or have I fallen into some alternate dimension filled with demons and dungeons? Her face pales as she tries to understand what exactly is happening. "What are you?"
The voice chuckles again, darkly. The blade stops its dance and closes the distance between them.
The knife that had almost been brandished languidly before, now moves with a terrifying speed so shocking that she shrieks and backs away. The unexpected wall she finds at her back stops her. She has nowhere left to go. Putting her bloody arms up to block the blow is her only defense. Instead of a blade, she's surprised when her arms are grabbed roughly, the grip painfully searing her bloodied arms in the cold room. Her wounds shriek in protest as her arms are raised above her head and forced against the wall by his unseen force, increasing her shock.
"To you," he growls out in reply, "I'm Death."
With the finality written in his voice, a new found level of panic rises to her throat just as the blade meets her chest in a rush and it embeds itself there.
A loud scream penetrates the air. Somewhere in the distance a door slams into a wall and Lin's voice calls out her name. The sound of hurried footsteps sound alongside her scream, followed by a whistle.
Mai stares blankly ahead, not seeing the ghost girl turn and fling the chain towards Lin and his shiki. She also doesn't see when the girl flees. When she does come to herself, Mai finds herself back in the hallway by the bathrooms, where she'd been what felt like a lifetime ago. She remembers that she'd been crouched, but now, somehow, she was on her feet and clutching her chest wound. With tears in her eyes, she notices Lin making his way over, Naru was there too.
In the blink of an eye, Lin has somehow closed the distance and is directly in front of her, his hand now on her shoulder. "Are you alright," Lin asks.
The question breaks a portion of the grip the shock had on her and she tries to process her answer. Looking down at her hands, she finds no blood, no trace of the wounds she'd had only moments before, nor, she realizes, is there any pain in her chest. It takes several seconds for her to realize that the blade hadn't hit her at all. It had hit the girl, the ghost girl. Those weren't her memories, they'd been the girl's memories Mai had been reliving. Remembering the other wounds from the vision, Mai runs her hands along her arms and body, checking the matching locations, none remain. "I'm fine," she answers shakily.
Lin meets eyes with Naru momentarily before suggesting, "Come on, let's get you back to base." She nods in response, but when she doesn't move forward on her own, Lin puts his arm around her shoulders, and gently guides the shaking girl along. Naru walks on ahead.
Shortly after Mai and Lin round the corner, John comes down out of the stairwell, only to stop and stick his head back in. "Guys, she's down here," he calls up the stairs in his accented japanese. Afterwards he comes close and asks, "Mai-san, are you okay?" She nods, but gives no further comment.
Monk appears and swiftly makes his way over, "We heard your scream from upstairs. You scared us, Jou-chan," he says, reaching out to hold and check her face, halting Lin's efforts as he assesses her for himself. When the other girls of the come down, both Monk and Lin, respectfully, are gently pulling and pushing Mai along into the base.
After crowding everyone in the space and the group's movements still, Ayako askes the girl situated on the couch between Monk and herself, "What happened?"
"I just met a spirit in the hall," Mai explains lamely, intending to leave it at that, not really wanting to talk about it. She felt like a drama queen, constantly seeking everyone's attention and sympathy. Logically, she knew that wasn't the case, but she felt she'd had too many problems happen to her throughout the day and was sick of being the only one seemingly needing the attention.
"Just meeting a spirit in the hall wouldn't have made you scream," the woman states obviously not accepting the explanation. Mai glances around the room sheepishly, amongst the quizzical gazes around her, she spies among them Naru's intent gaze as he leans against the wall, arms folded. Even Lin, who is at his normal place at the equipment table, is turned around listening.
John, sitting forward in a nearby armchair, asks kindly, "Did it do something to you?"
"No," She states, It wasn't a lie. In the end, the girl hadn't done much more than touch her, "not really," she adds. Even if she scared the living daylights out of me for a second, that was more of my jumping to conclusions because of the chain she was holding and the look in her eyes, Mai reasons. It probably won't be good to mention that part, though. The only thing that had made the experience bad had been sharing the girl's death, which Mai didn't want to have to think about just yet. It was still too fresh in her mind. Instead Mai explains, "She came up to me to ask about someone,"
"And," Monk prods quizzically, "who's that?"
"Well," Mai begins, "I think she was looking for the guy that," she pauses realizing she's said too much to back out now, "the guy that killed her."
"How did she die," Naru asks.
"She was stabbed," Mai responds, holding a hand to the place the ghost's wound had been.
Masako covers her mouth with her sleeve, looking pale. "You relived her death," Masako acuses. "That's what made you scream. You really shouldn't do that. It's dangerous, you know."
Mai looks around at the concerned faces surrounding her, somehow the other's looks seem to be accusing her too, especially Naru's. "I didn't mean to." Mai says defensively, "When I asked her who she was looking for, she grabbed me all of a sudden and I ended up getting pulled in."
"Tell us what you saw," Naru demands.
"Naru," Monk protests, sitting up more stiffly, "It was a death! A murder! Naru, you know Mai doesn't just see this stuff, she relives them! She was murdered! She shouldn't have to relive it again." He exclaims, tightening his hand into a fist on the couch arm beside him.
"Death or not, living it or not, the fact remains that Mai has information the rest of us don't possess. No matter how unsound the information may be scientifically, if it's accurate, it could mean the difference between life and death." Naru says sternly, "If she knows something we can use, I will put it to use." The logic the boy threw at them was indisputable, leaving a heavy silence to fall over the room.
Monk and Naru glare at each other several seconds before Monk concedes, "Fine." He turns to Mai apologetically, "I'm sorry, Mai, Naru's right."
"I know," Mai admits. "You guys need to know."
"I don't want you to get sucked back into it, though," Monk states. He slips off his cushion to drop to his knees on the floor, in front of her, "Just give us the important details and try to avoid anything too frightening if you can, okay?"
Mai nods and begins, telling them about the dark room, about not being able to see anything more than the knife flashing in the dark, and how she'd felt he was hunting the ghost girl-verbally attaching the feelings to the person who'd originally felt them. She tells them about running into things and the room with the bars, the shovel and finding the light switch. She'd tried staying disconnected, tried to look at the memories as though she was watching them rather than experiencing them, tried not to delve into the details that had scared her most, but even in passing thought, the ghost's wounds still stung in her memory.
In the end, she gets caught up in the memory when she starts talking about flicking on the light. When she turned to see the room. There had been blood intermixed with the table and tools, around the floor and even on the walls. It was her blood. She'd bled everywhere including the tools she saw scattered all over the floor. There were manacles hanging on the wall, straps adorning the top of the metal table, the floor glassy in places with puddles of water, and a blade twirling and dancing back and forth by itself. Surprise, a voice seems to whisper in her ear. She feels hands grab her upper arms "Mai," he had her. She gasps on the verge of screaming once again.
"Mai!" she feels herself get shaken. Blinking, she sees Monk kneeling in front of her, his arms outstretched and lightly gripping her own. He was the one that had shaken her. In concern, he asks, "Are you alright? You stopped responding." He wipes a hand over her cheek, catching a fallen tear.
"Sorry," she apologizes, "I guess I got lost in the memory."
"I can't imagine having to experience it like you do, it's hard enough just knowing," Masako admits. "I rarely see spirit's backgrounds, and even when I do, it's detached, like I'm just watching something happening around or below me."
"What did you see in the room, Mai" Naru asks, cutting into the conversation, earning him disapproving looks from more than one pairs of eyes for his insensitive question. His expression remains neutral, eyes locked on Mai.
Mai looks up at him, "It was like a torture chamber."
Apparently needing more input, he asks, "How so?" After she responds with a few of the details, he asks, "What did the girl's attacker look like?"
"That's just the thing," Mai stalls, thinking of a way to explain, "I couldn't see him. I could only see the knife dancing through the air. His voice was there, but his body wasn't."
Naru and Lin share a look and Lin shakes his head. Naru frowns. "What kind of knife was it?"
"It was a kitchen knife," she trails off, remembering a knife sticking up from the cutting board. "It was a lot like the one Isamae-san showed us earlier-the one she'd said had gone missing about a month ago."
"Hmm," Naru utters, placing his chin in his hand, "Anything else?"
Mai nods and continues, "It wasn't long after that that he had me pinned to the wall. He said that he was 'Death' and then he stabbed me."
"He stabbed the girl," Naru corrects logically.
"Right," she says slowly.
Naru pushes off the wall "Takegawa-san, Matsuzaki-san," Naru commands, "I thought I told you that I didn't want to have to worry about anyone while we were down here,"
"We got all of the rooms we would be using, Naru-bou," Monk states.
Naru points out, "We are also using the hallway, are we not?"
"The hallway is tricky to do without a door to contain the spell. The only way I know how is to make a barrier, but keeping it active would drain far too much energy to keep up. It wouldn't be sustainable for more than a few hours. It would be a terrible solution, yet without a barrier, there would be nothing stopping ghosts from coming into the area, even if we completely warded the place," Monk informs, in frustration.
Naru turns to Lin. "Lin, can you do anything about sealing off the hallway from the stairs."
"Using my shiki shouldn't cost much energy once I have it set up, but it will be complicated and the process will drain me for a while. There is one other problem," Lin warns.
Naru gestures for him to continue.
Lin sighs, "I won't be very effective in a spiritual fight afterwards. A barrier like that will take four of the five shiki I have to maintain."
"Do it," he tells Lin. "We'll deal with whatever else comes along when we get to it. You'll mostly be on the monitors anyway." Nodding, Lin acts immediately, getting up and making his way out. "John, go with him," Naru adds. Before the duo can get out the door, Naru starts barking out orders to Monk and Ayako, "As for you two, I want every room down here taken care of, the bathroom, storage room, any and all rooms down here. I don't want a repeat of this incident. Do I make myself clear?" He asks, an edge of anger filtering through his words. The two nod and slowly get up to prepare. "You two, go with them," he says looking at Masako and Taka-chan.
Mai gets up to follow, half expecting some kind of command to be thrown her way as well; with the way he'd been acting, she didn't particularly want to stick around. She would gladly help the others...or maybe she could run for tea. She thinks about several other occasions where he'd asked for tea when he'd been in one of these moods. Mai nods, It would be good to calm him down, right? We just had dinner, but Naru needs to settle down before he explodes. She looks around the room quickly, there was a coffee pot that she could make use of, but no tea bags. She could make a quick run to the kitchen, she'd borrow Taka or Masako quickly so she didn't do it alone and risk some other encounter. Masako would be better if there was trouble. They wouldn't be gone long, it's not like it was too far.
Naru catches her by the arm as she passes him, "Not you, Mai. We need to talk."
I hope you liked the chapter, guys and gals. I had a good deal of fun with this chapter, I hope you guys like it too! Finally something new and interesting in the original Malignant tattoos story plotline, Yeah! Now...how to get to the next interesting piece of the plot. J/K the next chapter is written, my beta just hasn't gotten to it yet…
Please review but be kind. People with inferiority complexes (me included) don't do well with harsh criticism.