NOTE: In the pervious chapter Emi didn't start a forest fire. Since, she definitely would have more common sense than Ben about how to handle flames.

Chapter 3: Ghost of the Forest

Emi Sendou woke up with a freight as cold water was dumped onto the girl's tent. Her and her sleep mates screamed at the top of their lungs as they rushed out of the cold drenched tent.

Laughter reached their ears as the girls peered around the camp to find some of the other students watching them. Blushes appeared on Mai and Emi's faces while anger appeared on Rekka's.

"Who did it!? Who poured that water!?" The idol asked, pointing an accusing finger at those around them. However, she didn't need anyone to answer as she found Kamiko and her posse in the back, giggling. "Kamiko! It was you, wasn't it!?"

Kamiko gasped at the accusation. "Tatsunagi!? How could you blame me when I've been chatting with my friends the whole time." Kamiko answered with an innocent look. The other kids around could only nod in agreement as they hadn't seen Kamiko go near the tent at all.

"How could Rekka blame Kamiko without any evidence?" A boy asked.

"I know right. I thought idols had more control over themselves than that?" A girl responded.

Rekka wasn't one to usually let others' opinions get to her, but she couldn't help the embarrassed blush appearing on her face. Emi tugged on Rekka's arm, gaining the idol's attention.

"Come on, Rekka. Let's just shower and get a new tent. I have something to tell you and Mai anyway." Emi hurried to try and defuse the conflict. Her words worked as Rekka marched off to the cabin for a change of clothes and a shower. Mai and Emi followed to do the same.

Kamiko hid a smirk behind her hand as she watched the Cardfight Club enter the cabin. Though, something did catch her attention and that was the bulky watch on Emi's wrist. "Where did Sendou get something like that from? She didn't have it yesterday. Eh, it's probably some lame toy anyway." Kamiko shrugged.

Once the girls finished changing clothes, they sat at the far edge of the camp for some privacy.

Emi now wore a dark pink blouse with a white Vanguard circle printed on the back. Her legs were covered by a long white skirt that went down to her ankles and black boots. Mai wore a denim dress with short brown shorts underneath and brown boots. Rekka wore blue overalls with a pink shirt underneath and a cowgirl hat on her head; Black boots of her own were covering her feet.

Emi had been explaining the previous night's events to her friends and to her relief they believed her. Though there was some skepticism.

"If you were attacked last night, then how come we didn't hear? We could've helped you." Mai brought up. It freaked the flower girl out that her friend could've died last night and she would've been none the wiser.

"Well, I did run pretty far from the camp when they started to shoot at me. So, the noise wasn't loud enough to wake you guys." Emi guessed.

Rekka tilted her head and wracked her brain in thought. Suddenly her face lit up as if a light bulb had turned on. "Emi, we should try out some of the other forms in the watch." Rekka said.

Emi was weary of the idea. While she was thankful to the watch for saving her life, it damn well had been the thing to put her in danger in the first place. "I'm not sure if that's really a good idea. We should tell someone about this and what had happened."

"Emi, what do you think they'll do if you tell them?" Rekka asked.

"Ummm….they'll believe me and do something about this watch." Emi answered.

"No, they won't believe you and most likely laugh in your face. And even if you do, they might have you taken to some lab to be experimented on!" Rekka may have been exaggerating on that last part, but judging from the scared looks on both Emi and Mai's faces, they believed her. "Do you want that to happen, Emi?"

"N-No." Emi answered, truthfully.

"Then after whatever activity the adults have planned, we'll go off and test that watch on your wrist." Rekka silently hoped to find a form that would help them get revenge on Kamiko. And to help Emi be prepared just in case of another robot attack….yeah that sounds about right.

Currently each of the students were doing a Scavenger Hunt in groups. The students were tasked with finding 8 pieces of paper that were scattered around different parts of the campsite. The winners of the scavenger hunt will be given dessert for lunch and dinner. Emi's group had already found 7 of the 8 pieces they needed to complete the hunt.

"Emi seems really fired up for this, huh?" Rekka sweatdropped at their friend. Mai chuckled at the serious aura Emi was emitting.

"Emi's always been serious when it came to sweets. She once won our elementary school spelling bee, because the grand prize was a month's worth of chocolate strawberry ice cream." Mai recalled the memory of their childhood.

Emi had placed all of her focus onto the exercise. All she needed was one more piece and the sweets would be all her's. Nothing could stop them now.

"HELP!"

"Huh?"

The trio looked and saw a boy running towards them in a panic. He stopped in front of them, panting. "Hey! Have you guys seen my friend!?"

"Um? Who exactly are you and your friend?" Rekka asked.

"Oh, I'm Akihiro Sato and my friend Fuji wandered away from my group when we stopped to drink some water. I'm asking for help to find him." Sato explained.

"Why are you asking us instead of the teachers or counselors?" Mai asked, concerned.

"My group and I have been going around asking other groups to help us search. Please help! I don't know what I'd do if Fuji got hurt!" Sato begged the Vanguard trio.

"Don't worry, Sato. We'll help you find your friend." Emi agreed. It would be wrong of her to place completing the Scavenger Hunt over a classmate's life. Her brother and mother would be disappointed if she did.

"Oh, thank you! I gotta keep asking around, if you find him just lead him to the main campsite! Also, Fuji has dark brown hair and wears a pink necklace around his neck all the time!" Sato instructed and ran off into the distance. Waving goodbye in return, Emi turned to her friends.

"Well, girls! Let's go searching!" Emi started marching into a random direction.

"WAIT!" Rekka grabbed her excited friend by her collar, stopping Emi's march.

"What's wrong, Rekka?" Emi asked, confused.

"We don't even know where to look for this guy. Marching off into a random direction will get us nowhere, but even more lost." Rekka said.

"Then what do you suppose we do?" Mai asked, curious at what her friend is thinking of.

Rekka eyed Emi's wrist and smirked. "Emi could use that dog creature she used last night to track him." Rekka suggested. Emi hesitated, before realizing that Rekka's idea was a good one.

"Well, it wouldn't hurt to try it," Emi activated the watch and scrolled through it till she saw the silhouette of the beast dog appear. Emi slapped down the dial and was enveloped in a green flash of light that made both Rekka and Mai cover their eyes.

When the light died down, both girls expected to see an orange dog, but only saw a ghost-like figure floating in front of them.

The creature was grey with black lines running all over it. The watch's symbol peaked out of its skin on the lower right chest with a pink singular pink eye and black pupil.

Emi observed her hands, confused by the mistake. "This isn't what I dialed in? What form is this?" Her ghostly voice echoed out. Mai had retreated back from the transformation. A little bit scared of this new form. Rekka observed it, cautiously.

"You're like some freaky-ghost, Emi." Rekka poked Emi's sides. The idol hastily pulled her hand back at the chilling touch of Emi's skin.

"How am I supposed to find Fuji now if I'm stuck like this?" Emi asked. She wondered if she somehow screwed everything up.

"W-Well...maybe this could still work. You could fly above the forest for a better look at things." Mai suggested. Emi's doubt cleared away at Mai's suggestion and she flew over to her friend, however in her excitement she accidentally flew through Mai. This action caused Mai to freeze up from the unnatural chill of the ghost's touch.

"Oh! Sorry, Mai!" Emi quickly apologized.

"I-It's ok! Just-Just never do that again." Mai demanded, hugging herself.

Emi nodded her head and flew off above the forest to find the missing boy.

It didn't take Emi long to find Fuji thanks to her aerial eye-view. The issue was that the boy was currently being confronted by a wild bear, much to Emi's horror and shock.

"A bear!? I didn't know that there were bears near our camp! What should I do? Should I grab Fuji and run for it or distract the bear?" Emi contemplated, in panic. Sadly, she didn't have much more time to think as the bear began rushing toward Fuji. The boy terrified out of his mind, placed his hands over his eyes and screamed.

Emi rushed forward and extended a punch to the bear and to her utter surprise the bear got launched over into a tree. "I guess this form also has enhanced strength." Emi realized.

"W-What are you?"

Emi looked over to Fuji and saw that he was staring directly at her. Fear and curiosity written all over the boy's face.

"I-uhh….I haunt this forest! And if you don't leave then I'll haunt you forever!" Emi pretended to be a scary ghost. Which seemed to have worked as the boy scrambled to his feet and ran away fast.

Too busy watching the boy's retreating back she missed the bear getting back up behind her and rushing her. By the time she turned around the bear was on it's two legs and smacked her with its paw. Sending the poor ghost-girl tumbling into a tree.

"Owww…" Emi rubbed her head in pain. She looked up and saw the bear looming over her. "Ummm...I'm sorry Mr. Bear! I just wanted to protect my classmate!" Emi tried to reason with the wild animal.

Sadly for her the animal wasn't open to reasoning and attacked. Emi held her hands up in defense at the fast approaching paw. However the pain never came and she opened her one eye to see that the bear's paw had gone right through her body. Her first thought was that the bear had impaled her, but dismissed it since she felt no sense of pain. Looking at the bear she noticed that he was now looking around the area, as if looking for its target.

"C-Can he not see me? Well...I am a ghost, so maybe I turned invisible or something." Emi said as she calmed down. "Though maybe I should get out of here, before the watch turns me back to normal." Emi decided. She turned to leave, but then saw something attached to the tree. It was one of the last pieces of the Scavenger Hunt.

"Wow! With this we'll be able to win! Maybe my luck is starting to turn around!" Emi snatched up the paper and flew off to reunite with her friends.

"I'm telling you guys, I saw an actual ghost!" Fuji cried out. The boy had made it back to the camp where he was retelling his "brave encounter" to his friends and classmates.

"And I'm telling you there is no such thing as ghosts." Kamiko spoke out the most against Fuji's claims. The idiot put all of them through more work than needed by getting lost, so she and the other kids were pretty annoyed.

As Fuji kept trying to convince everyone of his story, the Vanguard club finally arrived back at camp. A teacher noticed the girls entering the camp and called out to them.

"Girls! Where have you been this whole time!?" He asked, relieved to see the kids ok. Emi shifted nervously, hesitant about lying to a teacher.

Rekka quickly answered in her place. "We were still searching around. For both Fuji and the pieces." The idol explained. The girls noticed that Fuji was next to his friends and sighed in relief.

"And we got all 8 pieces!" Mai spoke up. Emi ran over to the teacher to show off that they got all of the required pieces.

"Well that's great girls." He replied. The Vanguard club brightened up at the feeling of being victorious. Emi's head being filled with images of ice cream goodness.

"But, Kamiko and her group were the first to bring in their 8 pieces."

And just like the image shattered to pieces and Emi collapsed to her knees. Her friends rushed over to her and tried to console her. Rekka glanced up from Emi and glared daggers at Kamiko.

Kamiko was smiling smugly at Emi's despair. She felt proud of winning the competition since it meant so much to Emi. Hell, she didn't even need to get her own hands dirty as her group had threatened others with blackmail to hand over their pieces. "That's another win for me and another loss for Sendou. How fun is this stupid camping trip for you now, huh?" Kamiko mocked, mentally.

Seems like the world favored her over Sendou...or did it?

Currently all of the kids and adults were asleep in their tents. The only sound around the camp were crickets and other insects around the forest.

Inside of a large three person tent was Kamiko and her friends. The girls slept soundly with their stomachs and dreams full of ice cream.

Kamiko rolled to her sides and gave out another low snore. Her body twitched at the feeling of something cold on the back of her neck. Ignoring it, she continued sleeping until the feeling got stronger and stronger.

Opening her eyes fully, she sat up and looked around her tent. All she found were her friends sleeping soundly. Groaning she prepared to go back to sleep until something tapped her shoulder. Finding that weird, Kamiko turned around and found herself staring directly into a singular purple and black pupil.

"Boo."

"EEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKK! GHOST!"

Kamiko scrambled over her two friends, waking them both up and knocking their tent over. Their loud noise woke up all of the other people in the camp. In a panic the adults rushed over in a hurry, while some kids took their time to get up.

And if anyone was truly paying attention, they would've noticed a bright red light flash inside of a singular tent in the back of the campsite.

Kamiko scrambled out of the messed up tent, shaking. "G-G-Ghost! There was a ghost!" She yelled. Her friends soon followed out of the tent. Both annoyed at being woken up, so early.

Everyone looked around the campsite not noticing anything different. "I don't see anything, Kamiko." A female teacher said.

"B-But I saw one!"

"I thought ghosts didn't exist, Kamiko?" Fuji teased, making some of the other kids laugh. The girl blushed, embarrassed at being called out and spooked.

"It was probably a nightmare, now please everyone go back to bed. Kamiko, I'll help you guys reset your tent." The teacher helped the girl up and got to work on the tent.

The Cardfight club peered at the events from the safety of their tent and giggled at Kamiko's karma.

Emi allowed a self-satisfied smirk grace her lips as she headed back to sleep. "Rekka was right. Revenge can be as sweet as ice cream."

Chapter End