Chapter 7 Cellmate

A response from Mimisaki Raidon, Patriarch of the Alexandria Family to Domjouji Ayami, Imperial First Lady of the Caecilius Clan, on late February 20th, delivered through the passage of Darius.

Oh, my belle. I'm so glad you called…

Drip. Drip. Drip.

Everything was darkness.

Mai's eyes slowly opened and her entire body felt heavy as though she'd slept in the most irregular angle.

Slowly, her eyes adjusted to the darkness and she groggily turned from left to right. When she realised where this place was, Mai's eyes widened.

The cell. She was in a cell identical to Shiba-san's.

And then it all came back to her. Naru. The talk. And then Gene. She'd stepped into the hallway, seen Hiroma sensei, and then everything had gone black. And Hiroma sensei had been a ghost too.

Mai looked around frantically. Oh, god, please let this be a dream. Please let it be a dream and let her wake up soon.

"Help!" Mai screamed. "Is anyone here? Help me, please!"

Only her voice echoed back at her and Mai, dejected, sunk back against the wall again. Of course it hadn't been a dream; she remembered seeing Hiroma sensei still before blacking out.

There was no one else in the room, and Mai knew without a doubt that she had been taken away by whatever had killed the girls.

She felt a sudden stab of fear; was that going to happen to her too? Was she going to get burnt alive also? Had it already happened to Shiba-san? Or were they going to kill her some other way? Mai couldn't die here like this. There were so many things that she hadn't done yet. She needed to show Ayami so many things, harass Bou-san more, take John-san to the Hiroshima tourism sites, ask Masako about her career, interrogate Ayako, muster the courage to ask Lin-san about his eye that he'd always kept covered by his fringe, and help Naru talk to his brother. Mai hadn't even told Naru that she had a slight crush on him either.

Naru.

At the thought of his name, Mai felt herself calm down just a little bit. Of course; Naru was going to come for her. He wouldn't let anything happen to her. Naru would never let any of his employees go missing without a trace. Masako had gone missing once, and hadn't Naru gone after her immediately? And it wasn't as though Bou-san would leave her to rot either. She only hoped she stayed alive long enough for them to find her.

And how was she going to do that? Ayami had said that Mai was a blue-blooded psychic, just like the other girl. Did that mean that Mai packed some fire power too and she just wasn't aware of it? Mai certainly hoped that she had at least a fraction of Ayami's power, but it probably wouldn't matter if she did anyway, because it wasn't as though she knew how to use it. But then again, there was that tattoo that Mimisaki Raidon had given her…not that it had been of any use so far. After all, she had been taken away by spirits, hadn't she?

And that was when she noticed.

There was a woman, sitting right across from her, staring right at her.

Mai stifled a scream and her heart skipped a beat. Her eyes lashed towards the figure, immediately wary, before she realised that the person had assumed a harmless pose. Her knees had been drawn to her chest and her arms were folded across them as she set her hands diagonally across her own shoulders. The woman's chin leant on her elbow as she dimly faced ahead.

She must have been here for a long time to be that still.

Mai moved forward a little bit and crawled towards the other woman. As she got closer, she realised that her cellmate's eyes were open; they were just staring unfocusedly ahead. Mai couldn't tell much about what she was wearing or what she looked like because it was so dark, but even in this lack of light, she could see that the woman was almost completely frozen.

"Are you alright?" Mai whispered.

The woman didn't respond.

Mai swallowed, reaching out to her. "Are you okay?" Mai repeated, a little louder this time.

The woman didn't reply.

Mai's fingers touched her flesh and she froze as she felt how cold the person was. The woman's eyes, sharp as ice, snapped to Mai suddenly. Mai fell back from the surprise and the woman continued to stare at Mai now, the rest of her body still immobile.

Her eyes, Mai realised with dread, were completely pupil. Where her irises were meant to be, there was nothing but white, blanked over, yet somehow, she was staring right at Mai.

This woman, whoever she was, clearly wasn't human.

Mai scrambled even further back in her cell and shrunk as far into the wall as possible. Her eyes didn't dare leave the woman's face and she stared, trying her best to calm her heartbeat. This woman wasn't human. Her companion – this woman 

– wasn't human. And the cell that they were in had to be two meters square at the biggest. All the woman had to do was stretch her hand out and craw forward, and she would be able to touch Mai directly.

Mai normally wasn't the hysterical type, but right at this moment, she felt like hyperventilating.

She stifled a scream, scared out of her wits as she pressed her palm against her mouth. If she screamed, it might just cause the woman in front of her to do something strange, and Mai didn't think she could possibly stand that. Moments passed and the woman merely stayed in that position – the same one she had moved into when Mai had approached her – before slowly resuming her original position. Her head rested back on the crook of her elbow, her face staring dead ahead without focus.

Again, Mai swallowed, hoping to erase her fear and she moved her hand down from her mouth slowly.

The woman ignored her.

Mai's heartbeat lowered, but she still felt frantic.

Naru. Where in the world was Naru?

"No, Naru."

Shibuya Kazuya felt a twitch of irritation as he and his employee moved towards the abandoned buildings that Mai had discovered two days back. His fingers gripped onto Mai's cell phone easily (something that she'd unwittingly left behind in her room, as usual) as he mentally mapped out his plan.

"If you're not happy with what I'm doing, you're more than welcomed to sit in base and wait."

"Again, you're forgetting what I'm here for," Lin said calmly, reminding Naru once more of his parent's interference. Naru ignored him. He was going to do what he needed to do; Lin could either come along or sit aside and wait with the others, who were standing outside the main school block, waiting for Naru's signal.

"Naru, there's still time for us to find Mai. If we go through the files one more time—"

"I'd be able to find Mai, but Shiba-san wouldn't survive," Naru interjected. "If Domjouji-san's words can be believed, the spirits will act around 6PM. We have one and a half hours before something happens to him."

"Then I'll do something!" Lin snapped. "Listen to me, Naru, if something were to happen to you, I don't know what I'd say to the professors. Just let me call the spirits so I can ask them and we'll be able to locate Taniyama-san and Shiba-san through that method."

"Mai's not dead, in case you don't remember, so it's not like you can call her." Naru said emotionlessly. And she wasn't going to be dead either. "And it's not like you can get a clear, concise answer from them anyway."

Naru found the ladder that the police had set out and quickly climbed over the wall. Lin trailed after him, still talking as his feet hit the ground on the other end. Naru's eyes assessed the area quickly; it was still the same as it had been several hours ago.

And Lin was still going; for someone that normally didn't talk so much, when he did start, it seemed as though nothing was going to shut him up.

"Naru! You know how dangerous this can be! Taniyama-san's life is endangered – I know that – but if Domjouji Ayami can retrieve her, why not just let her do it?"

"And let her prove once again that she can do what I cannot?" Naru just shot him a look. "You're kidding, right?"

"You're overly competitive over such menial matters. Do you want to collapse again? Takigawa-san and John-san have already suspected something, if you do this, they'll definitely find out."

Naru swirled his thoughts slightly, allowing them to stretch like elastic before simmering away in a cauldron of contemplation. He pushed aside his personal dilemmas, his thoughts of all others, in order to achieve perfect peace.

"I know what you're thinking; you want to prove to everyone – including Mai – that you're able to protect her, and that you don't need Domjouji-san to do it."

Naru ignored his assistant, now pushing deeper into his subconscious. Relaxation. Concentration. If he could manage a state of complete ease, he could summon his powers without any problems. And just like that, the dormant force swept into life, flowing through his body almost immediately. Naru had forgotten how good it was to have power coursing through his veins. It had been such a long time since he'd felt this energy flowing through his body. His kikou activated with his meditation, though it wasn't quite what Naru had wanted.

Naru brushed his fingers against Mai's cell phone and he shut his eyes.

And he saw Mai.

The woman was still staring at her.

And Mai didn't look away. Instead, she just continued to watch the woman warily.

Then, Mai suddenly sneezed.

The sound of that echoed through the cell and Mai winced. She looked to the woman again, who was still watching her, and swallowed once again. How long was this going to go on for? How long had it been going on for? Mai had calmed down a little bit now.

Then, Mai realised that she was sweating. She frowned, brushing the slight droplets off her forehead and she was almost tempted to fan herself, but the presence of the woman in front of her made it hard for her to move, let alone do anything else.

Her olfactory senses protested against the smell she scented and Mai grimaced as she could literally taste it in her mouth.

She frowned, now trying to recognise the taste.

Then Mai began to panic. Smoke. There was smoke literally everywhere. She could feel it seeping through the cracks of the wall, slowly flooding into the cell.

Oh, god. The fire. This place was probably on fire.

"Help!" Mai screamed. Now, no longer caring about her company. It was either be killed by the woman or burn to death, and right now, neither prospect seemed alluring. "Is anyone here? Help!"

She screamed and screamed and still, no one responded. Mai's heart thumped heavily in her chest. Her short breaths of air were becoming harder and harder to make. Dejected, Mai fell to the floor. She felt tears of frustration swell in her eyes and angrily, she blinked them back.

And still the woman had not moved. She just continued staring. Right at Mai.

Then, she appeared. Hiroma sensei. Mai backed against the war, horrified, as the teacher turned over to Mai. "My poor child," the elder whispered, before her body merged with the smoke, fading into nothingness.

Mai exhaled, now coughing slightly as she felt the smoke press into her throat. Her eyes stung and her entire body felt as though it were overheating. Then, something cool pressed against her arm and Mai, through blurry sights, focused on another dark figure leaning over her.

"Gene?" Mai whispered.

Gene smiled, nodding at her once. "Don't be afraid, Mai. They're coming right now. Takigawa-san is already performing the exorcism with Lin. You don't have to be afraid."

Mai tried to stay awake, but the smoke was making it harder and harder. "Where's Naru?"

"He'll be here soon," Gene's fingers trailed to her hairline and he brushed her fringe aside gently. "Don't worry, Mai. They'll all coming soon. Don't worry…"

25.09.2008: Hey! Don't you just love Naru? Oh, and thank you to those who played my game. Unfortunately, none of you correctly guessed their relationship. Some came close, but yeah...lol...none of you were actually right. killbethy's response was really good though; I never saw it coming, so here I am, with an update. Cheers, guys! I definitely won't be updating till next week though (well, I think so anyway). I haven't even finished the second chapter of Mirror and I have two assignments due for uni in the next fortnight. And I just found out that my end of semester exams are just a day after one another, which I didn't mind, and then I saw the time. 8.30AM! Isn't that barbaric? And my uni is almost 2 hours away...I guess I could always just find a shrub there and sleep around that area instead of going home...

Many thanks to: SimplyChristine, Gabryell P, Aoi Faith, Moons-chan, Trigger (Vesta's Bond is a set of cases that I wrote up. Teacher is the second segment; Goddess, which can be found under my name, is the first set to it), Dreamer-MRAF, crazymel87 (lol hey! Hope you liked this chapter then. I think it's about the same length too), lunamoongoddess, miss koneko, canadianviolet (LOL Raidon and Ayami aren't engaged, unfortunately. But I think the reason why Naru was offended was because Mai hinted that he didn't know what it was like to be bonded to another person through bloodline. Not that one could blame her when you see the way he acts :P), Kay (Hey! I'm glad you're enjoying it so far. Ayami was just trying to be a bitch when she set the time limit. A bigger man would have ignored her, I think. Naru went for it right away. :D), Ahjah, and killbethy.