Sorry for the long wait! Thank you for the reviews!
I still own nothing and enjoy :)
The next day Mai and Naru went to the office early in the morning so that Naru could go through the cases in his office that Madoka had left him. Mai sighed as she continued to file papers. She was really bored. The bell to the door suddenly chimed and she heard the familiar voice of a certain monk, "How is my little girl" Hollard Monk as her gripped her in a hug.
Mai giggled as she got out of his embrace, "I am fine. What's up? I thought you were still gone with the band?"
Monk rubbed the back of his head innocently, "I am actually here about a case that Naru might want"
Said raven walked out of his office holding a file in hand. Monk turned to the young boss and his eyes widened at the sight, "What the hell happened to you?" he exclaimed.
The right of Naru's face a dark shade of purple. He sent the monk a hard look and continued on his walk to Lin's office with the file.
Monk turned to Mai for an answer, "Rin showed up the other night after we got back from the airport. He kind of attacked Naru when he told Rin to leave" said Mai feeling guilty.
"What he attacked Naru?! Is he still alive?" Monk asked surprised.
He was imagining the Rin boy beaten to a pulp and lying in a ditch somewhere.
Mai shook her head, "Lin knocked him out. We called the police and they arrested him"
Monk nodded in improvement to the police being called, "Well I hope he doesn't show his face around here again. Naru might actually kill him"
The door to Lin's office opened up again to reveal Naru walking back into the main room, "Mr. Takigawa is there a reason you are bothering my assistant?" he said coolly to the older man.
Monk narrowed his eyes slightly at the rude boss but decided to not comment on it right now, "I actually have a case for you Naru"
The raven haired boy nodded his head and led the monk to the couch, "Mai, tea" she nodded and went to the kitchen.
After the tea was served Lin and Madoka appeared from the Chinese man's office and they all waited patiently for Monk to start telling them about the case. "Ok so the client is my manager's friend and he has just bought a house recently and is having some really troublesome problems. There is some knocking sounds in the nights and he claims to see a young woman walking around the house. Many maids and servants have gone missing and he is troubled because he is supposed to be hosting a big party soon with a lot of big name people and doesn't want them or any more workers in danger" monk explained.
"I think you should take it Naru" Said Madoka after the story was finished. Lin gave a silent nod in agreement.
Naru captured his chin in his hand and thought for a moment, "very well we leave tomorrow at 8am. Mai call the other and let them know" he stood and returned to his office.
Mai and monk continued to talk for the next couple of hours before he left. Lin and Madoka went home around eight and Mai sighed as she stared at the clock. She had to wait for Naru to leave the office for her to go home. As she watched the second hand tick by she could feel her eye lids getting heavy. Slowly she slipped into sleep.
It was ten at night when Naru finally looked at the clocked. He put down the case file he was looking at and rose from his desk.
"Mai ready to go?" he called as he opened the door.
To his surprise he found his assistant asleep at her desk. He let out a small chuckle as he walked over to her a shook her shoulder, "Mai, wake up" he called out to her softly.
Slowly the brunette opened her eyes and Naru lead her out to the car. Once they got home Mai went straight to bed as Naru stayed up most of the night researching for their next case.
The house that the case was at was huge. Mai gaped at the mansion in front of her.
Lin and Naru had already made it to the front door when, "Mai hurry up" was ordered from Naru as he knocked on the door.
A young woman answered the door. She kept her head down as she showed the trio in, "I will get my master".
In a few moments a tall man with jet black hair walked down the elegant stair way, "Hello my name is Narui Tao. Thank you so much for taking my case. I was so excited when Housho called me last night to tell me you would be coming. Come I will show you to your rooms." Said the man leading them down the hallway straight ahead from the front door.
Mai couldn't keep her eyes from wandering to the many paintings in the house. They were all of old fashioned people from around the eighteenth century she would guess. Mai also noticed that the house must have been from around that time as well from the way the house looked. It was strange to see a western style house in Japan but it was a mansion so it was probably from a foreigner that had a lot of money. They came to the room that would be there base. There were two couches sitting across from each other with a small coffee table in between. On the other side of the room was a large desk with a chair and Mai had a slight feeling that Naru would be spending a lot of hours there. While Mai and Lin brought in the equipment Naru began to research the history of the house.
"Mai tea" came his cool voice once Mai had finished putting up the last monitor.
Mumbling under her breath Mai left to fetch the tea addict his tea. After returning Mai slumped onto the couch, "Hey when do the others get here?"
"Later today" replied Naru not looking up from the file.
Mai groaned as she sat in silence. Neither of the men talked unless necessary and Mai was board out of her mind. Naru seeing her fidgeting a lot on the couch sighed and looked to the monitors and stood up.
"Mai grab the thermometer"
She jumped from the couch to grab the small device while Naru grabbed a few cameras. The two walked around the large mansion taking temperature readings and setting up the cameras. In one of the rooms while Naru was setting up a camera Mai looked around. The room was extremely old and had a dusty book case filled to the brim with books. The brunette went over and noticed one of the books looked to be a journal. She grabbed the journal and started to scan through its pages and her eyes widened in surprise.
"Naru... you should look at this..." Mai gasped looking to her black haired boss.
He turned from the camera and looked at his assistant. Noticing the book in her hand and her scared expression he quickly made his way towards her. Taking the journal from her hands, he read through the contents. The first page caught his attention and he grabbed Mai's hand quickly and went to leave the room. But before they could reach the door it slammed shut and the temperature dropped suddenly sending a chill through Mai's body. Turning back to face the middle of the room she saw a woman dressed in an old looking dress and she had the most gruesome face. She eyes were gouged out and half of her head was caved in from a heavy blow.
Naru wrapped an arm around Mai's waist and pushed her behind him. As she backed up to the wall, Mai saw the ghost narrow her gaze on the two teenagers.
"Are you the person who was mentioned in this book?" Naru asked the ghost holding up the journal.
The ghost stepped closer to the two making Mai shake in fear. The woman is the one from the journal and Mai knew it. It was her intuition telling her and it had yet to be wrong in any case before this.
The woman who stood before them had been tortured for her whole life. The journal was from the former home owner of the house. He would kidnap young girls and torture them for years until he finally would take it too far and they would die. From the pages that she quickly flipped through it looked the owner had kept very detailed records.
Naru understood what this meant, "Mai, no matter what I need you to stay calm and stay behind me" he whispered as the ghost stopped in her advance.
Before Mai could respond the ghost let out and eerie laugh, "You had better protect yourself. Men are evil creatures" she shrieked the last part.
Mai held on the back of Naru's shirt scared for her life. Naru narrowed his eyes at the laughing ghost in front of them. Suddenly, the ghost stopped laughing and she gave a serious expression that was almost as creepy as the smile she had been wearing previously. The room began to shake expressing her rage as she glared at the teenagers. Mai closed her eyes tight as she held on to Naru's shirt tighter hoping that if she did not see the ghost then it would just go away.
After a few moments the shaking stopped and she felt Naru get ripped from her grasp. She screamed out in fright as she watched Naru get slammed into the wall across from her. He let a gasp of pain as his back slammed into the wall but kept his expressionless face as he looked at the ghost in front of him, analyzing the situation and trying to figure a way out of this.
The ghost lifted up her hand and Naru felt his body become shoved back against the wall by an invisible force. In the next second, the ghost had her hand around his neck squeezing hard while he tried to fight her off. Mai screamed in fright for her boss's life and began to do the sutra that monk had taught her. The ghost turned to glare at the brunette when it felt the effects of the sutra and dropped Naru to the floor before she advanced on the girl.
"Mai, stop you can't beat her" called Naru through gasps of air, "You are just making her more mad"
The ghost left out another eerie laugh as she was in the middle of the room now and disappeared. Mai exhaled a sigh of relief and ran over to her boss who had gotten to his feet.
"Naru! Are you alright?" she asked still shaking a little.
He gave her a quick nod, "Let's go" he said.
He gently grabbed her arm to lead her to the door while looking for the ghost to attack. Just as they were about to cross the room Naru heard a deafening crack. His eyes widened in surprise as he searched around the room for the noise. Before Mai could process what was happening she found herself quickly thrown against the wall.
She shrieked thinking it was the ghost attacking again. But, then she heard the sound of things crashing around the room. Dust filled the air causing her to close her eyes and she felt herself being pulled down to her knees as she covered her head. After a minute the sound stopped and she slowly opened her eyes.
She gasped in surprise when she realized Naru was huddled over her protecting her with his body,
"Naru?" she asked confused she had a feeling something was wrong.
Naru's eyes that were closed tightly slowly opened and Mai could quickly see relief flash through his eyes, when he saw the girl unharmed, before going back to the cold and calculating. Mai looked under Naru's arm and saw that was once the first floor room was now mixed with the second floor. The room had caved in and Mai could barely see past Naru with all the furniture and debris on them. They could hear what sounded like a door opening from across the room.
"Naru! Mai! Are you in here" called Lin into the destroyed room.
"Yes Lin. We can't get out" replied Mai trying to see the Chinese man.
She could here Lin trying to move the debris out of the way to make his way over to the two teenagers. She sighed in relief knowing that they would be unburied soon. Then she felt a drop on her arm. Looking at her arm she saw that it was red, gasping she looked up to the man that had protected her and saw that his now dust covered black shirt was slowly turning color.
"Oh my god Naru! Your hurt" exclaimed to the raven haired boy.
Naru winced slightly, "Ya I will be fine" he said in a strained voice.
"Naru lay down" she tried to convince the man.
Naru shook his head, "I can't. My body is holding up a lot of debris that could crush us if I move" he replied with the same strained voice.
Mai gasped, "Lin you have to hurry Naru is hurt" she yelled to the Chinese man.
She heard Lin mumble something and then she could hear the familiar voices of Monk and Father Brown as they came running into the room. After shouting back and forth for several minutes the room filled with the sound of the three men moving lumber and furniture to the side. Mai returned her gaze to the face of her boss that was still standing over her. His eyes were tightly shut as he focused on keeping the stuff on his back from tumbling down on them. He was extremely pale and his bangs stuck to his forehead from sweat.
"Naru, please hold on they will be here soon" whispered Mai as she wiped the hair from his eyes.
Not opening his eyes Naru gave a stiff nod. Mai reached to the man's shoulder that was still bleeding and put slight pressure on it causing Naru to wince.
"I need to try and stop the bleeding" she told him as she tore a piece of cloth from her skirt and put pressure back on his wound.
After several minutes Mai noticed that he was shaking slightly. She was distressed with no way to help him with his injuries or with getting themselves out of this situation.
"Naru what can I do." she pleaded wiping the sweat from his forehead.
He gave a slight moan as fatigue started to set in and fell to his knees on either side of Mai straddling her and he put his hands on either side of her head against the wall. The debris above them shifted and fell around them and Naru let a gasp of pain escape his lips.
"What happened?" yelled Monk once the debris settled again.
Tears filled her eyes at her bosses pain face, "Just hurry" she yelled back.
They had been under the rubble for an hour now. They had to be careful about what they moved so that nothing caused a chain reaction and crushed to two people they were trying to save. Hearing Mai's distressed voice was very converning to the group but even more worrying was the fact that Naru had yet to be heard by them.
"it... is going... to be... ok... Mai" Said Naru gasping through the pain as he spoke.
Mai nodded her head as the tears rolled down her cheek, she could hear the group getting closer to them.
"Just a little longer Naru. They are almost here" she pleaded as she clung to the front of his shirt to give something to lean on.
Suddenly the debris to Mai's right shift and she saw Monk's face fill with relief, "Found them" he called over his shoulder.
In the next couple of minutes the three men had the two teens uncovered, once the debris was off his back Naru fell to his side gasping in pain again while all of the pain made itself known.
"Naru!" screamed Mai rolling him onto his back.
His breathing was shallow and his body was covered in sweat. Mai began to cry when she saw the blood spreading onto the floor. Lin pressed his hands into the younger man's shoulder receiving a small cry from Naru. Ayako came running into the room with paramedics hot on her tail. They loaded the young boss into the ambulance and the others got into the van and Monk's car following them to the hospital.
At the hospital they all stood outside the waiting room of the ICU. Lin walked over to the brunette who was sitting on a chair staring at the floor, "Mai what happened?" he asked gently.
Sobbing Mai told them about the journal and the encounter with the ghost. While Monk got on the phone with the client to explain what had happened. The client had been concerned when he heard about the accident and the fact that one of the people he hired had been sent to the hospital.
Lin nodded to the assistant, "He is going to be ok Mai" she looked at him with red eyes and gave a small nod.
After an hour of everyone pacing and sitting on edge the doctor came out of the room, "Is there a Lin Koujo present?" he asked.
Lin walked up to the man and they talked quietly for a few minutes and then the doctor returned to the room.
Lin turned around to face the questioning group and gave a deep sigh, "Naru has a deep stab wound on his shoulder but they managed to stop the bleeding. He lost a lot of blood. He has several broken ribs and some internal bleeding. He is going to be in intensive care for a while but they said the rest is up to him."
Everyone exhaled a sigh of relief at the news. At least he was not dead.
"Can we see him mate?" asked John.
Lin nodded and showed them down the hall to the room that the young man was laying in. Slowly the group filed in to see the young boss. His skin was almost as pale as the hospital sheets. The heart monitor next to him beeping in a steady rhythm seemed to be the only noise in the room.
"The doctor said he should be awake in a few days." Lin informed them.
John said a small prayer for the boy and everyone left when the doctor came in to tell them visiting hours where up. They all returned to the haunted house and sat in base trying to figure out what to do.
"I think there are several ghosts in here" said Monk.
Ayako looked to him questioningly, "What makes you think that? There has been only one incident, with one ghost"
"Well from what Mai has told us there is a female ghost who seems to hate men. From the incident report that the client gave us there have been many female maids that have gone missing. I think that the killer who used to live here is still torturing young girls. And the ghost Mai and Naru ran into is of one of his victims and she is out to get rid of men" he explained.
Lin nodded, "You might be right." looking at the computer monitors that had the history of the house pulled up on them.
"John you should do an exorcism of the journal Mai found I think the spirit is attached to it. Ayako can you do your tree thing? He buried his victims in the woods behind us according to the journal. This way we only have one ghost to deal with" Monk concluded.
Deciding to do it in the morning everyone went to bed for the night to prepare for the long day ahead of them.
Thoughts? I am really bad at action things but I hope it was tolerable.