AN: Not my sandbox. Just dabbling in the Ghosthunt Fandom. Will be a multicase Fic where I take pleasure in torturing the various characters and wringing emotion from our favorite canon pairs. Mai/Naru, Ayako & Bou-san, and (bonus pairing) Masako & Yasu. Though, in Naru's case, it's a little bit like trying to wring blood from the proverbial stone...
As Always, Reviews mean the world to me. The Ghost Hunt Fandom is small but strong. It's a lot of fun to write for you guys!
Cliff notes for enjoying this ride: Don't piss off Ayako, don't play cards with Mai, don't underestimate Bou-San. Bring your own tea. And remember, you can't always trust what you see.
Where The Light Enters
Prologue: The Beginning of the End
"And I'd choose you; in a hundred worlds, in any version of reality, I'd find you and I'd choose you." - The Chaos of Stars
Love isn't supposed to destroy.
The full hunter's moon cast a sickly orange glow over the clearing. Harsh breathing was the only sound as the two figures struggled at the cliff's edge.
"Damn it, Naru! The ground's giving way! You have to let go!" Adrenaline and fear had made Mai's voice tight and high, but even now she could take a twisted sort of pride in the fact that it didn't shake.
Just once, she didn't want him to be her collateral damage. Lin's words from the church that night months ago echoed in her head like a premonition.
Dirt and dust rained down onto her face, tears streaming from her eyes as her left hand scrabbled desperately for purchase.
It was useless, though, the whole side of the cliff was loose shale. Nothing but ever-shifting gravel met her questing fingers. She felt the pain in her fingertips where she'd torn off at least one fingernail trying to cling to the cliff side.
If not for the stoic (silent-stubborn-narcissistic) young man half hanging over the cliff above her, both hands wrapped desperately around her one, she'd have already fallen into the river below.
Far, far below.
But they'd been in the exact situation before, too many times to count, and the conclusion was always the same.
She'd start to fall, he'd refuse to let go, he'd go over with her, and they'd both pay for her uncanny ability to attract trouble.
But not this time, not if she had a anything to say about it.
Even larger clumps of rock and dirt were falling on her now, and she knew any second the whole cliffside would go down, taking them both with it.
Love wasn't supposed to destroy. If she had learned anything over these past few months, it was that.
Another, even larger clump of earth shifted loose beneath him, narrowly missing her head. He couldn't balance half over the cliff much longer before they'd both go over. She could see the sweat beading on his brow, the strain around his eyes as he tried to strengthen his grip on her hand.
They were out of time.
"Naru.." she choked out again, voice low and desperate. "It's okay." She stared into eyes she'd loved for more than three years now. "You have to let go.."
She could do this. She could be this strong. She'd saved the others.
Silence was his only reply, face straining with the effort of trying to stave off the inevitable.
She gazed into his furious face. She knew that expression. She'd seen it years ago, in the cave of the Okoubu. She'd seen it weeks ago, when he'd stopped her attacker.
He was about to use his PK, probably to try and levitate her...
And it could only end one way.
It would kill him.
And what wouldn't she do? To be the person who saved him for once?
"Dammit Naru, I'm NOT Gene!" She screamed at him. His face went blank, his widened eyes the only clue to his shock at her words.
She'd break his heart if it saved his life.
Then the remaining cliff side gave way beneath them.