Speaking in Chinese

thoughts

Regular speaking

(Lin's POV)

A week has passed since the others found out that I was engaged to Mayune or as the old name they knew her by Mai. Since then they have been cautious of me all except two people, Noll and Madoka. "Lin are you listening?"

"Yes Madoka I heard you the first time, and as I told you then they will be in your email withing the next hour. Now please leave me alone so I can finish this or is there something else you wanted to say to me?" I grumbled as I pinched the bridge of my nose as I watched her look at me from the door way.

"Fine..."she said as she fully stepped in to my office and closed the door before continuing speaking, "Lin when were you going to tell us that you had kept in touch with Mai once we left for England or that you two were getting married?"

"Madoka I wasn't going to tell any of you, She had the right to tell you her self so I left it up to her, and you guys forced her hand the other day so she told you the truth because she is tired of being bugged by you guys. Is that what you wanted to hear Madoka because it is the truth?" I said as I began to finish up the case review.

"I..." as soon as that word left her mouth the chime of the front door went off signaling that some one has entered the office. At hearing this I stood up and went and checked who it was, when I stepped into the main area there stood a young girl that was shaking and looking around the room in fear.

As I walked to her I asked "Welcome to SPR my name is Lin, how can I help you?"

I watched as her eyes went wide as she looked at me before saying, "I need help." I peaked over my shoulder and saw Madoka heading towards Noll's office.

I then turned back to the girl and said, "Please have a seat, would you like anything to drink? Water, tea, coffee?"

"Water please." the shaking girl said as she sat down on the love seat sofa, just as Noll and Madoka took their seats across from her. Once I had made tea and gotten the girl some water I handed them out before heading to my office to retrieve my laptop. I then returned to the main room and sat down on the sofa and began to type all of the information that the client was saying.

"Please state your name, and tell us why you need help." Said Madoka after she sipped her tea.

"Chi Awayuki...and I think that I have been cursed." When she said this I looked at her thinking that she was being dramatic in her story.

"Really and why do you think that you are cursed?" Asked Noll with annoyance lacing his voice.

"I think I have been cursed because...it started about two weeks ago when I bumped into a woman asking for money. I thought nothing of it but when I got home this was on my hand." Said the girl as she took of one of her gloves showing a black mark taking up a part of her hand. "At first when I saw it I thought it was just dirt so I tried to wash it off but as you can see it never did. That night is when the screams started to happen, when I heard them I left my room asking my mother if she was screaming and she said that I was imagining things, and I believed her thinking that I was just tired form the day so I went back to bed. When I was fully asleep I was suddenly pulled off my bed and onto the floor when I opened my eyes, there was the woman I bumped into earlier that day siting on me but the longer I looked at her the more she began to decay till her face was just bones with eyes. I tried screaming and crawling to get away but the woman wouldn't let go and then I blacked out, when I came to the next morning my clothes were covered in dark blood. When I saw it I freaked and went to check on my parents finding that they were alive and well I went to change my clothes, but as I was changing I found this on the clothes on the back of the shirt." Said the girl as she pulled both her pajama top that was in a bag out along with her cell phone. She then said, "Then when I took the shirt off this was on my back." As she looked through the phone for a photo of what was on her back. When she showed it to Madoka her eyes went wide and she passed it to me and as I looked at it I felt dread in my stomach, because it was an ancient symbol used in cursing people.

"I still have it on my back it was not written in marker or anything but was scratched into my every night since that one she stands at the end of my bed and stares at me, I try to ignore her but every time I do she pulls me out of bed and whispers the word 'next' in my ear. I did not look up what the symbol meant and left it alone until two days ago when both of my parents were in a car crash, when I asked my father what happened he said, 'A woman suddenly appeared in the back seat of the car and her face melted away until it was just bones and eyes. She then leaned forward and pulled your mothers hair and grabbed the steering wheel forcing me to lose control.' I never told my parents about the woman so when he said that I freaked out and started to ask around about who could help me and every one I talked to said you were my best choice. Please help me I am afraid that it is going to get worse and that it might try to kill me or my parents."

I sat there thinking if the woman cursed her why did she see her face as the spirits I looked up as Noll looked at the girl trying to see if she was telling the truth about the whole situation. He then said, "We will take your case, please have three rooms ready for us and pleas give my assistant your information including the address to you house. We will be there tomorrow." As he got up and walked back into his office. Madoka then left to contact the others and tell them we have a case and that we were leaving tomorrow. The girl handed me her information after writing it on a sticky note and leaving the office. Once she was gone I cleaned up all the cups and washed them and let them dry off as I went back to help Madoka gather everything we would need for tomorrows case.

By the time we had every thing ready for tomorrow to load up in the van it was time to close shop and Noll was already to leave and head to his place. After he passed my office Madoka passed fully ready to head home as well at seeing her pass so soon after Noll I couldn't help but think, they suck at being secretive before Madoka yelled, "Lin Noll and I are leaving lock up when you leave."

"Fine see you two tomorrow morning." I replied as I heard the door close. I then headed towards the kitchen and put away the cups and then headed to my office and gathered my things and headed home for the day once I finished locking up. I called Mayune once I was out of the building and when she picked up I said, "Hello my love how was your day?"

"Eventful tomorrow the team and I are taking a weird case. The father of a teenager came in saying that he thought his daughter was being haunted and because she started to act strange close around two weeks ago, he said that it got worse about four days ago when his daughter started to mumble at the dinner table about some woman saying the 'she's just there.' He then said that a woman caused a wreck that both he and his wife were in because she appeared in the back seat of their car and hurt his wife then caused the car to crash." said Mayune.

Then before she could continue I said, "Mayune I think that we are both taking the same case."

"Of course we would end up with the same case, but I already have a theory as to what is causing this do you want to hear what it is." She said as I started my car and headed back to the house.

"Sure tell me and I also have my theories about what it is." I said as I was already out of the city.

"Well my theory is that was are dealing with a witch." Said Mayune as I neared a stop sign. I thought on how to phrase my theory to her it took me a total of fifteen minuets to know what I was going to say and during that time she

"Hum...that is a good theory though so is mine...I believe that we are dealing with a diseased onmyoji that places curses on people who would not help them or ignored them when the onmyoji let their spirit be seen and made it seem as if it had a physical body if they were to bump into it and did not offer assistance." I said as I came to another stop light halfway home.

I smiled when Mayune said, "Well if it is either of ours, then this case is going to be dangerous for both of our teams but it will be worse if it as you theorize, because we both know that an onmyoji is strong when alive but has the ability to be even stronger when they are dead because they are able to gather power quicker than they did when they were alive." As she finished talking my smile began to vanish at the realization that she was right about what she was saying. As I sat there I could not help as dread seeped into my chest as fear began to crawl on my skin as I though of what could happen on this case. I must have been out of it for a while because the next thing I hear is Mayune saying, "Koujo...Koujo are you there?"

"Mayune I'm sorry about that I was thinking about something...but we need to be very careful on this case, as you said if either one of us are right that means that the others will be in danger." I said as I started to head down the road that lead to the house. "Mayune I will be in shortly see you in a few minuets."

"Okay see you when you get in, oh and dinner will be ready soon." Said Mayune as I hung up after the gates opened and let me on the property once I was parked I got out of the car and headed inside.

Once I was inside the house I said, "I am home my airen."

"Okay go get cleaned up and the come down for dinner." Said Mayune from the kitchen. Heading her words I went and got cleaned up then joined her and the team down stairs for dinner.

Once we were all seated Kevin spoke up be saying, "So I looked into the case for tomorrow and found that a woman used to live there about twenty years ago before she died, in the police report that I found it looked as if she was a witch or that some one used her as a human sacrifice in a ceremony. Her name was Elena McQueen she was originally from America but was adopted into a home in China when she turned three and when her family was informed of her death they did not seem upset by the news that she was dead." He looked around the table before he went and looked back at his note and continued by saying, "So I went and looked up her family and he birth parents from America and found that she was a daughter of a well known witch in Arkansas before she was adopted into the Tao house. Even though they adopted her they did not change her name to their own, then when I looked up the Tao family I found that in their home town that the family was known to be a family of onmyoji that had helped many people. Based on everything that I found I believe that they trained her to use he abilities and taught her the way of being an onmyoji." As Mayune and I sat there hearing him talk we both looked at each other, I felt me stomach drop as Mayune's face began to drain of all color.

"Thank you Kevin for the information, now that we know that I think that it is time to get some rest, but first Kikyo I need you to make charms for all of us and SPR so in total that will be about 16 but I want you to make six extra ones just to be safe." Said Mayune as she stood up from her chair and grabbed her dish and went into the kitchen to wash them, I followed her with my own and washed mine before she leaned up against me and said, "Pleas have them ready in the morning, and once you are done get as much sleep as you can but also remember that you will be able to sleep on the way to the clients house. Tomorrow morning we will leave here at seven in the morning, since we already have the vans packed since we did not empty them last time we will bring the external drives so all of the data from last time can be stored before we set up our equipment. Now good night and see all of you tomorrow morning." She said as we both turned and walked out of the kitchen and headed to our room. Once inside our room Mayune went over to her dresser and began to change into her pajamas, I turned my back to her and began to change into my clothes which consisted of a pair of pajama pants with no shirt. When I turned around and started to head to bed Mayune was pulling down her pajama shirt before turning and heading towards me as I lay in the bed. After she climbed in bed she kissed me on the cheek and whispered, "Good night I love you my arien."

"Good night arien, sweet dreams see you in the morning." I whispered in her ear before I placed a kiss on her head and then laid down and fell into a deep sleep. The next morning when I woke up I found Mayune's side of the bed empty and found that it was cold, I quickly sat up and looked around the room as I did I noticed that she was siting in one of the chairs crying. When I saw that she was crying I got up and went to her side and lifter up into my arms and I sat in the chair and placed her on my lap.

As I did so she put her arms around my neck and cried as she said, "We were both wrong."

At hearing her words I looked at her and asked, "What do you mean arien?"

"They killed her...because she had strong powers as a witch even when she was little, and when they trained her they saw an opportunity to give their family more power. They saw that her powers made her a strong onmyoji and that they made her a powerful witch because she was born from a witch by blood which meant that she was already in touch with magic before they adopted her. They killed her in order to become powerful and to have more money, she was a sacrifice against her will." she said as she cried into my shirt.

I pulled her closer and said, "Oh Mayune I am sorry that you had to see it."

She then pulled back from me and looked me in the eyes and said, "Koujo we have to free her they sacrificed her in a ceremony where every five years she will be forced to kill to fuel the families spell so they will keep what they have gained from sacrificing her."

I looked at her as I said, "We will free her and end the cycle so her sole will be free to move on." Mayune smiled up at me as she saw the seriousness in my eyes. "Now lets get ready to go on the case." I said as she nodded to me and kissed my cheek before getting up and headed to her dresser and got her clothes then headed to the bathroom to get ready. While she was in there I changed my clothes and waited for her to get out and once she was I finished doing everything that I normally do in the morning. Steping out of the bathroom I found Mayune sitting at her desk looking at the file for the case, I walked up to her and said, "Arien come on we have to eat before we leave."

She looked up and smiled as she tucked the file in her purse and walked next to me and headed to the kitchen to eat. As we stepped into the kitchen we found LPRS team sitting there eating breakfast. When they noticed us Michel walked up to us and handed us each a plate of food before heading back to eat the rest of his food. Then Kikyo walked up to us and handed each of us a charm as she said, "Wear these over your heart, oh and they are water proof so you can take a shower with them on." She then sat down and finished eating as we joined them and continued to eat our own breakfast. When everyone was done with their food we all loaded into the van, As I sat in the drivers seat I placed my briefcase in front of Mayune soon after both vans had left the house I saw Mayune place the charms in the outer pocket before she grabbed my hand and placed a kiss on the knuckles. When we reached SPR I noticed that the others were there and that the vans were fully loaded, I then parked the car and gave Mayune a kiss before I exited the car and headed towards the others. As I closed the van door Mayune slipped into the drivers seat and went into reverse and started to head to the location of the case.

As I approached the others I noticed that they were watching me and I could tell that today was going to be a long one. Then just before I was all the way to them Noll asked, "Lin what took you so long?"

"I was busy researching the house and its past residence." I said as I stopped right in front of him.

"Hay...that's my job!" whined Yasuhara as he began to pout.

That was when I reached into the bag and pulled out the charms that Kikyo made for us. "Here every one needs to put one of these over their heart it will protect you and yes you will need this to stay alive." I said as I handed them to Noll. I then got in the drivers seat and started the car, once every one was ready and in their assigned cars we began our journey. Though when Noll got in the car he placed the rest of the charms in my briefcase that was next to his feet. The drive to the Awayuki residence was not a long one that for which I was glad. As we pulled up I saw Mayune's vans.

When we got out of the van Noll said, "Why didn't you tell me that they were taking this case as well."

I responded be saying, "I didn't tell you because we are going to need both teams and if you knew you would have left it where they were the only ones on the case." As I stepped out of the van I got the feeling that I was being watched and that what ever was watching me felt confused and angry. I looked over towards Masako and saw her looking around at what she was feeling coming off the house. As we approached the front door it opened to reveal both the young girl and a older gentleman which can be assumed that it is her father.

"Welcome SPR it seems as if my daughter hired another group to work our case but they are willing to work with you to find out what is going on here." said Mr. Awayuki as he showed us to the rooms we would be sharing with LPRS. When we got to the base we found the other team finishing up an interview with a maid.

"Is that the last one?" Asked Mayune as she pored her self a cup of tea.

"Yep...the last of the employees." said Kevin as he closed his laptop and looked at us entering the room.

"This is the room you will be sharing. Now my daughter and I must go and see her mother before visiting hours are over." Said Mr. Awayuki as both he and his daughter left the room and closed the door behind them self's.

Mayune then turned around as the rest of her team walked in and sat down as she spotted me she said, "I am going to ask you all to sit down you need to hear what we know and koujo will help me explain what I am talking about." As she said that I felt Noll's stare on my back and I nodded my head and went to her side where she leaned up against me.