Thank you for reviewing! That's so nice. At the end of the chapter, please read the credits, I have an important announcement there.
Thanks goes to:
Sara- You're so fun! I love our conversations!
Aufera- Yes, if I made Naru gay in this story I'm sure I would be dead by now from pissed off readers who sent their killer intent through the computer system. (It will find it's way to me through cyberspace or attack some poor defenseless innocent person, be careful!)
Otaku Nayami- COOKIES ARE MINE! MWUHAHAHAHA! Cookies are the one thing that will help take over the world! Go! Go! Kitty Powers! nya!
Day 2: Part Two
"Naru…" I asked hesitantly as we climbed a huge grand staircase leading to our bedrooms, "This place is so big…how are we going to be able to cover all the rooms? We don't have near enough equipment."
"I've been thinking about that too. With so many rooms there's no way we could even take small readings of everything." John added meekly.
Naru was quiet for a while. Then he decided he found a rational conclusion.
"We will just have to focus on the rooms with bigger paranormal activities and ignore the rooms with less active occurrences. Hara-san, you will need to be at your best. What do you think, Shibuya?" Naru asked looking at Yasuhara.
I mentally kicked myself.
How could I have forgotten that Naru wasn't head honcho here…Yasuhara was. I should have directed the question at him.
"Indeed, such pressing matters need to be thought out quite deeply, I agree with your strategy Naru-san, then again, thinking out strategies for cases like this is what you're here for." said leader answered loud enough for everyone in the group to hear.
Nice save Yasuhara-san!
Yasuhara merely smiled at me and adjusted his glasses before continuing a quicker pace up the steps.
"Jeez, Mai, you owe him for that one. Really, why are you such a klutz?" Bou-san scolded playfully.
"Really Mai, that's why you should stay in school." Ayako added with a heavy sigh.
Masako delicately put her hand to her mouth to cover her soft giggles.
Great, now I was getting laughed at by Masako.
I smiled weakly before averting my gaze to my feet. This was so embarrassing!
"Shibuya Psychic Research…" the maid ten feet ahead of us announced loudly.
"Yes, that's us." Yasuhara declaired.
The maid nodded. "You will be staying in this room, the room directly across the hall may be used as you like." She said pointing to the rooms by her.
We all nodded and stepped toward our new home, or at least I would have, but being me…I fell.
"Mai!" John yelped as I fell backwards down the stairs.
Warm. Thu-thump I can hear a heartbeat. Thu-thump Is… this a dream?
"Are you alright?" asked a familiar smooth voice.
Slowly, and reluctantly, I opened my eyes to see the man who was talking.
I nearly gasped.
"Oh! Please forgive me! I'm really clumsy I just... thank you…um…-" I stuttered. A mad blush painted my face a dark red. My eyes were wide in surprise at the sight of…
"It's Daniel Mavis, and it's alright. I'm just glad you aren't hurt. That would have been some nasty fall." he laughed.
Oh his laugh!
It was melodious and deep enough so that I could feel the vibration from my place in his arms.
I blushed even deeper, amazingly it was possible, as I continued to gawk at him from my frozen enchantment.
He looked down at my face and stopped laughing. "Do you have your footing back?" he asked in a very business like manner. He'd seen my blush.
I nodded once, and he helped me stand back up.
"Mai!" John sighed in relief once he was at my side, "Are you sure you're alright, Mai?"
I nodded my head again.
"Thank you very much for helping her." said the quiet voice of Masako.
Typical Masako.
Where was she when I fell?
Gone.
Where was she when I was in the arms of a hansom man?
Right next to us.
Something about that doesn't sound right.
I continued to climb back up the stairs with John right behind me, making sure I didn't fall again…something that would most likely happen.
"You really scared me Mai." John mumbled quietly.
"Luckily she has a hard head to stop her fall." Bou-san joked while patting my head.
I'm a dog to him.
A play thing.
It's not my fault I'm so clumsy! They should have known that Mai and staircase are two words that should never be used in the same sentence.
"Hey, easy there girly!" Bou-san continued to joke as he held his hands up in defense.
I continued my irritated glare.
Obviously I was a terrible glarer because it had no more than a childish effect…so I stopped glaring and decided to just look dead ahead of me.
John and I finally made it back to the others, who were already opening their door, they all saw me.
They were laughing…Naru was smirking…no…he was glaring.
"Since we are in a large castle with many staircases and confusing room layouts, such clumsiness would be very dangerous Mai. If you can't handle it, go home.
His words…were a blade.
I started shaking and clenched my fists to calm myself.
No, it was no use. I would have to show my feelings now.
"You shut your mouth Naru! Typical narcissist! Don't you even care that I almost got hurt? What if I died? At least John cared! So did Mavis-san! And he doesn't even belong to our group! I can't stand you! Since you think I'm so worthless, you can just solve this case without me!" I screamed. Tears were welling in my eyes, whether from anger or sadness I don't know. I don't even care.
They all looked at me shocked, even Naru showed signs of disbelief.
Sure I had complained and judged, but I had never been so angry at Naru before.
I can't stand it. All of their faces…I can't stand it!
I spun around and took off running down the staircase.
My shoulder slammed into someone else's, but I didn't really care. I just needed to get away from them, and as fast as I could.
"That idiot! She didn't use her head at all this time! She could be anywhere in this god-forsaken place." Ayako complained. They'd been searching for her for hours. The castle was so vast that it could take days to search through everything, especially if she was moving.
"Has anyone found any signs of her yet?" asked the man they new as Monk Hiro as he appeared from down the far corridor.
"'She is in a dark place surrounded by guards of hell' is what Miyoka-san predicted before she needed to sleep." offered the priestess called Naomi as she looked up from her magazine. She didn't really care about a stupid girl. She did however, care about those 'hunks' with blue eyes plastered all over the pages she was reading.
"What good is that? This whole place is dark!" the tan haired companion of Mai hissed. "Where are you, Mai?" he pleaded.
"We wouldn't be having this problem if you had better control over your employees." This was spoken by an ungrateful member of the Mavis group. He didn't like having to take care of others when money wasn't involved.
Shinuya's group didn't take into care what everyone was saying. If it wasn't helping them find their friend, it wasn't needed, so it would be ignored completely.
As the groups frantically searched, no one noticed one of the members of the Shibuya team standing by the staircase.
"Mai…" he whispered. He slid his hand up to his shoulder where Mai had slammed into him.
His eyes widened.
"Naru!" he screamed as he sped toward his team.
"John! What's wrong?" Yasuhara asked concerned.
"It's Mai! When she hit my shoulder…She's possessed!" the blonde wailed.
"That's impossible. I sense no spirits here." Masako 'politely' reminded him.
Naru supported her claim. "What makes you believe she's been possessed?"
John gulped.
"When I touched where she bumped into me, I got this really sharp sensation. It was like a current of emotions. Sometimes when I exorcise people with strong spirits I feel it…but it's never been this strong before." He was whimpering and trembled all at once. "Mai is in trouble!"
That's when tears overflowed from the young exorcists eyes. "We have to find her!"
"That girl…she's the one with the strong aura right?"
Yasuhara, Naru, Lin, John, Masako, Ayako, and Houshou all turned around to the meet the keeper of the voice.
It was them.
The demon slayers.
Begira.
And the woman was talking.
"What do you mean by strong aura?" Masako inquired.
The slayers stood dumbstruck.
The leader gave a disbelieving sigh.
"Seriously, don't you people know anything? Her aura is the emotions and energy around her. Hers is quite strong, which means she's come into contact with something powerful in the past." Chimed in one of the boys of the group, it was the dark brown haired one.
Shibuya's group stood silent.
He slapped himself.
"The girl with the short hair, wearing the skirt, smells like tea, has the bad temper-"
Bou-san gave a sad smirk, he had described her exactly. "Yep, that'd be her. Have you seen her?" he asked more concerned.
The leading woman nodded toward the man who had described her.
He saw her nod. "Yeah, yeah, I understand." he answered her boredly.
He closed his eyes and inhailed through his nose, then he began to sniff at the air like dog would.
"It's going to be the kid from the staircase." The blonde member of the slayers forecasted.
The other boy with black hair groaned. "It's the one from the wall."
"Wanna make a bet on it?" the blonde girl asked greedily.
"You're on." The two of them hit fists in agreement to the bet.
"Fifth floor." Sniff. "Dark room." Sniff. "Smoke." Sniff. "Stale." Sniff. "Dust." Sniff. "Sacred." the 'sniffer' began listing off where he smelt her.
His eyes snapped open.
"Blood."
"Well then, guess we better go get her for you." The 'sniffer' sighed. "What a pain. She's in a sacrificial room."
"What?" the Shibuya group screamed.
They had been fallowing after the demon slayer to the fifth floor, which was almost difficult considering the speed in which both group traveled was at completely different levels.
"These guys are gonna get a shock when the turn old like us." Bou-san noted over to Ayako, both of them were on the floor panting.
"Excuse me! I'm still young!" she protested with deep breaths.
"Whatever you say, you're just in denial." he weezed.
"We're here." Their beautiful guides said bluntly.
They were in front of a giant pair of redwood doors, each having a strange engraving of swirls and symbols carved on them.
"Mai!" they begged as they burst through the doors.
The room was made of completely red, the carpet, the fabrics that hung down from the sealing, the lighting, everything. The group cautiously made their way in to find gargoyles mounted throughout the large room, and off to the corned was a huddled figure sitting on the floor.
"Mai." John breathed in relief.
Mai sat crouched down on the floor before them, her knees hugging her chest, and her hands blocking sound from her ears.
"It's okay now Mai, we're here." Ayako offered soothingly.
Mai was chanting. "They'll never find me. Never. Never. Never. Never. Never. Never. Never. Never Nev-"
"Get a hold of yourself, Mai." Naru ordered.
Mai's eyes shot open and stared at him.
Her face twisted into a look of evil and hate. "Would you like to play a game? Come play with me? It's a fun game, so much fun. Come. Shall we play a game? It's fun. Lot's of people should play. Let's play a game."
"Stop it!" ordered a small child. It was the adorable boy from the slayers. "She doesn't want to play. Let her go." he snarled, as deadly sounding as a child could.
Then he let an angelic smile spread happily across his lips.
"We'll play together some other time. Okay? I promise!"
She nodded.
"Don't forget, you promised."
The eyes of the girl rolled back into her head, and she passed out.
End of Chapter
Yeah, yeah, it got really crappy when I took it out of Mai's context, oh well. I might change it later. MIGHT. I'm too lazy to right now.
Please read and review peoples. Oh, and I'm asking people to submit things they think should happen for ideas. I'm getting writers block with this. I know what I want to happen, but I need little events to happen before the main horror comes in.
PLEASE HELP AND SUBMIT EVENTS IN REVIEWS!
Thanks for reading! nya!