Hello, mortals! (Junko: Oh great, he's getting a big head…) Welcome to the 11th installment of Love Hina Next: Second Phase! I hope I can crank a quality chapter today, but it's so freaking hot out… Actually, it's not so hot as it is humid. Really uncomfortably humid… Oh well, I'll just ignore it. (shorts out keyboard with sweat) Crap! (explosion)

---Kouji Tamino

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Love Hina Next: Second Phase

Week 2, Day 7: That Which Lurks on the 3rd Floor! (Haunted Adventure, Part 1)

Megumi groaned as she and the other girls sat in the living room/ball room. "All of this other stuff and the damn mansion doesn't even have air conditioning…"

Junko nodded. "I mean, what the hell? Doesn't this place have a fan or two?"

"Don't you woman have jobs?" Shinichi muttered, sweat dropping. He had walked in just as Junko had made her previous comment.

Ami sighed. "I can't keep a steady job… Men at almost every work place I go to harass me…"

Tenshi looked up and groaned. "I'm a bunny…"

Junko shrugged, rubbing the back of her head. "I was on the streets, conning people along with Naoko…"

Sakura bit her lip. "I was living off of dad…"

Megumi grinned. "… And I'm just a damn free loader! But It's okay because I'm his best friend!"

Ami stood up, pounding on the table. "No, it's not! Megumi, at least I try to get a job on occasion! But you just sit your lazy butt on the couch all day in the Game Room!"

Megumi yawned. "Yeah, so what? Shinichi's family is rich enough, we don't have to get jobs…"

Ami frowned. "It doesn't matter! Shinichi selflessly lets us all live here, I think we should give something back!"

"She's right, you know…" Sakura agreed, crossing her arms and closing her eyes. "We owe him, basically…"

Shinichi blushed and scratched the back of his head. "Hey, it was no problem… Stay as long as it takes to get back on your feet, girls…"

Ami frowned. "Oh, but what about your parents? They'll be back in two weeks!"

Shinichi smiled. "Oh I'm sure they'll understand…" He sweat dropped, looking around in different directions. "I mean, we have plenty of room…"

Junko chuckled. "Seriously… This place is bigger than… than um…" She glared. "Aww, just leave me alone!" She glared at Shinichi as he started laughing and left the room.

Naoko suddenly spoke up. "And plus, there is the 3rd floor, with all the strange noises…"

Sakura stood up. "Hey, you know what I think?"

Junko sighed. "No, we are not going to go upstairs and investigate…"

Sakura sat down and growled. "Well, why not? Are you scared?"

Junko blushed, looking away. "N-no… It's just… if we're not supposed to go up there, then we shouldn't…"

Sakura stood up again. "Oh well, I'll just go up there myself!" She quickly ran and went up the stairs.

"Sakura!!" Junko screamed, standing up. She stomped her foot. "Damn it!"

"Could you quiet it down?…" Megumi muttered. "It's too hot to listen to you scream…"

Junko pointed upstairs. "But she acting so recklessly!! I just knew it was a bad idea to let her here but nooo, no one wants to listen to me!" She looked over to Naoko. "Not even my own sister…" She sighed and began to run towards the stairs.

"Junko!" Naoko yelled. "Where are you going?"

"I'm going to go stop her before she gets in trouble…" Junko replied, not looking back. "Or worse!"

Ami sighed. "Oh well, might as well…" She followed Junko, followed by Megumi, Tenshi, and Naoko. They caught up to Junko and all of them reached the door to the notorious 3rd floor.

"Well, this is it…" Junko said quietly. "It looks like Sakura already went in…" She slowly opened the door. Suddenly, a hand came out and grabbed her arm. She screamed so loud that the others covered their ears in pain. The hand let go and came out of the doorway. It was Sakura.

"Ow! Damn, you're a louder screamer!" Sakura yelled, uncovering her ears. "But hey! You all really have to check out this place! It's really creepy!"

Ami rubbed her chin. "Um, I don't know… Maybe we shouldn't…"

"Shouldn't what?" Shinichi asked, smiling.

"Wh-where the hell did you come from?!" Ami screamed, jumping up.

Shinichi raised an eyebrow. "Well, um… I saw that no one was in the living room, so I came upstairs…" He looked at the open door and Sakura standing in the doorway, sweat dropping and smiling awkwardly in a 'oh shit, we've been caught' fashion. "Hey…" he said slowly. "You weren't about to go to the 3rd floor, were you?…"

Ami began sweating heavily. "Heh heh heh, of course not!"

Junko sighed, smacking her forehead. "Stop looking so suspicious, Ami… Shinichi, we were going to stop Sakura from going up there, but it looks like we were too late…" She bowed. "We apologize…"

Shinichi raised an eyebrow and put a hand on Junko's forehead. "Ms. Junko, are you sick?" He was then pounded on his head. "…Ow. Guess not…"

Junko growled under her breath. "Can't I just be nice for once?! And why can't we go up stairs, anyway? Besides the noises, that is…"

Shinichi sighed. "All right, here's the deal… Years ago, my grandmother told me a story… About a couple that used to live in an old mansion… A mansion that stood on this very spot…"

"So your parents tore down a mansion to build a new one?" Junko interrupted.

"Think, genius…" Megumi muttered. "This was probably a hundred years ago or more, the old mansion would have been really old…"

Shinichi nodded. "Thanks, Megumi… Anyway, they were deeply in love… But one day, the man was called away to fight in a war. The woman waited patiently for him each day… But unfortunately, she accidentally set her house on fire and died…" He sweat dropped. "The man was said to have never come back…"

Naoko bit her lip and began to cry. "T-that's so saaad…"

Shinichi nodded. "Anyway, my grandmother also said that the woman's ghost haunts the 3rd floor…" He got a puzzled look on his face. "Although why she chose to haunt only the third floor is beyond me…"

Junko snorted. "A ghost? Yeah, right…"

Megumi nodded slowly. "Yes, Shinichi… Your grandmother was just pulling your leg… Maybe the house is just settling…"

Sakura raised an eyebrow. "Settling after more than 20 years? I don't think so…" She grinned, looking back inside. "I'm going to find out what's up there! You guys don't have to come with me, but I am definitely going!" She quickly ran upstairs.

"Sakura, wait!" Shinichi screamed. He sighed. Suddenly, Ami ran upstairs too. "Ami, wait!" He sighed again. "Well, we might as well go too…"

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And so, they walked through the dark, dusty, old looking hallway. Megumi looked around in confusion. "Why does everything look so old? I mean, sure no one has been up here for about 20 years, but it shouldn't look like this…"

"I know…" Ami said, shuddering. "It's so…"

"…eerie..." Tenshi said, finishing the sentence.

"You guys are wimps…" Sakura said, the others having caught up with her.

Naoko began to whine. "I don't like it here…"

Junko smiled and patted her younger sister on the head. "There's no reason that you should be here if you don't want to… You can leave if you want."

Naoko laughed nervously. "Um, actually… I already tried that and--" She sweat dropped as she watched the others rush toward the door… only to find that it was gone.

"Oh my god!! I'm going to die here!!" Megumi screamed. "I didn't even get to lose my virginity!!"

"Heh, heh… That can be arranged…" said a certain perverted black bunny.

"Kyaaaah!!!" Megumi screamed. "It's the other demon bunny!!"

Tenshi smacked her forehead. "Oh god, not you again…"

Naoko looked up at the black bunny, then to Tenshi. "Tenshi, is that black bunny related to you?"

"Unfortunately…" Tenshi muttered in regret. "This poor excuse of a rabbit is named Kai… He is my twin brother."

Suddenly, another growl could be heard, obviously much louder now. A black dog appeared in front of them, it's chilly yellow eyes staring them down. It snarled, showing off it's very sharp teeth. It growled, saliva splattering everywhere. Junko shivered as some hit her leg. "Oh… my… god…" She said slowly. "That is so nasty!!" She screamed and ran in the opposite direction, the others quickly following. The dog chased them down the dark hallway.

Naoko, running as fast as her little legs could carry her, was unlucky enough to snag her foot on an old piece of floor board. She tripped and fell to the ground. "Oww!" She gasped as she saw the dog running towards her. She screamed, and the dog snatched her up in his mouth and carried her off.

"Naoko!!!" Junko screamed at the top of her lungs, running back. "Damn dog, give me back my sister!!" She was suddenly grabbed by the wrist. She looked back and saw Shinichi. "Let me go, damn it!! That thing has my sister!!" Tears rolled down her face as she began to yell and scream hysterically. She turned around and socked Shinichi in the face.

Shinichi, his face slightly turned away in the direction she had punched him, turned his head back toward her. "Look, we can't risk both of you getting hurt, or worse. I know how you feel--"

"Shut up!! How can you know how I feel?!" Junko glared at him.

Shinichi looked away. "Because… I used to have a little brother…"

Junko's eyes widened. "What happened to him?…" Everyone else could only stare at this little conversation in silence.

Shinichi looked back at her. "That's… not important right now…" He smirked. "What is important is saving Naoko! But we can't just blindly rush into things…"

Megumi walked up behind him. "So… What do you suggest we do?"

Shinichi looked down the hallway, a dead serious look on his face. "Well… I didn't plan that far, and I used up all of the bravery I had bottled inside…"

The others face faulted. Junko stood up and punched him in the back of the head. "You idiot!! While you're wasting time, that monster dog is probably munching on my sis's bones right about now!!" She began to stomp down the hallway.

Ami began to walk after her. "Junko, wait! I don't think you should stomp on the ground like thaaaaa--!!" Ami screamed as the floor gave out and they all fell. Well, except for the rabbits, that is…

Kai raised an eyebrow. "Hey, wait… If we on the 3rd floor, shouldn't they be falling back down to the second?"

"I don't care!!" Tenshi yelled. "I have to save Ami-dono!!" She jumped down the hole, but then fell from the ceiling. "Kyaah?!" She fell down the hole again, then fell from the ceiling. This time, however, she used her ears to stop her fall. "What's going on?!"

Kai rubbed his chin. "Yep, just as I suspected…"

Tenshi raised an eyebrow. "What? What is it?"

Kai looked up. "I have no idea."

Tenshi face faulted. "Argh, you're just wasting my time!!" She frowned sadly and looked down the hole. "Oh, Ami-dono… Please stay safe, wherever you are…"

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Ami groaned as she woke up. She groaned as the image of a grinning Megumi appeared above her. "Looks like you're the last to wake up, as usual…" Megumi taunted.

"Not funny…" Ami muttered, rubbing her head. She sat up and looked around. "Where are we? Shouldn't we be back on the 2nd floor?"

Shinichi rubbed his arm and winced in pain. "That's what we thought too, but it looks like we're not even in the mansion anymore…"

Ami gasped, then glared, her eyes rapidly going from one place to another. "Just as I suspected…"

Sakura looked to her one time rival. "What is it, Ami? Have you figured this all out?"

Ami nodded. "Yep. We've got the ghost of a very powerful magic user on our hands, and while her powers have been cut down to a third due to being dead, she still has enough power to pull this whole thing out…"

Junko glared. "So basically, that means that we are seriously screwed…"

Ami stood up. "Sort of… We don't know the ghost's motives for doing this, but we have to be very careful…"

Shinichi looked at her in amazement. "How do you know all this?"

"Simple…" Ami smiled. "I used to study magic! Before I became as powerful as I am now, I tried to find ways to amplify my powers… It never worked, unfortunately…"

Junko looked around. "So… How the hell do you propose we get out of here?…"

Ami sighed. "I don't know… I really don't know…"

To Be Continued…

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Oh geez, it's still hot… And it's 12:30 A.M.!! Oh well, at least I got this chapter out. I originally planned for this to be only one chapter but it sort of gained a mind of it's own and turned into another multi-parter. But that's a good thing, right? Just means that the fic is just going to get longer. At this rate, it may even become longer than my original fic! So anyway, see you next time!

---Kouji Tamino