Chapter 15

"Alright, as I said before, I did some more digging on Ishida-san. Not only does he do all of the things we discussed before, but he also has an offshore bank account where he's getting money from a third party. I couldn't trace it back to the person because they kept bouncing off the cell phone towers too quickly for me to trace them."

"I hate to admit it, but you're good kid. Our tech guys just figured that out a few hours ago." Detective Fujiwara said impressed. Yasu chuckled.

"Thank you. What I did find out about that third party though is they're a militant group from the United States. I did however manage to get their bank records and it shows they've been buying parts for weapons. Apparently, Ishida-san used to work for a weaponry company before working for the school and had been smuggling parts out of the country and selling them under the company's nose until he was fired for putting graffiti in one of the storage units out there."

"Let me guess, Ichirou-san is somehow involved in this." I said frowning.

"Right, apparently the two had met each other before they both worked at the school. Ishida-san had been letting Ichirou-san practice dark magic in that storage unit. I went to a ghost hunting website and asked around to see if they had any similar cases to the one you guys had and I got five groups reporting the same things that happened in your case happen to them."

"Well, it looks like Ishida-san and Ichirou-san have been busy." Detective Fujiwara said thoughtfully.

"Did any arson fires happen?" I asked curiously.

"Yes, they said that the people that were involved in the case that were left alone died in house fires. I looked at the police reports and found 5 other victims."

"Do you have those papers with you, Mr. Yasuhara?" Detective Fujiwara asked with wide-eyes. I guess he didn't expect Yasu to find so much information.

"Yes, I have everything right here in this envelope." Yasu said giving the papers to the detective.

"You've been a busy person, Mr. Yasuhara." Yasu chuckled.

"Well, I wanted to tie up the loose ends and I thought I might as well do it properly." Detective Fujiwara chuckled.

"You're a good kid. I appreciate the help you've all given me."

"There's one more thing I wish to share. There's something that's been bothering me about this. Out of the ghost hunting groups I talked to, at least one of their members had gone missing and weren't found until a week later, and by then, Ishida-san and Ichirou-san had moved on." I shivered. My bad feeling from earlier came back to me.

"That is troubling..." Detective Fujiwara said frowning. "Listen, I don't want you all to look into this anymore. It's getting dangerous." Naru's expression didn't change. I have a feeling he still wants to go check out Ishida-san. I agreed with the detective though. This was getting crazy and out of hand, but I couldn't just let the others go, if they go, and I stay behind and worry the whole time. "You're all free to go for now. I'll call if I have any more questions. Oh and if you would, please bring me that tape. If you step out into the lobby, an officer will be there to collect the tape and your fingerprints." We all nodded and left the room. Well that was intense. I thought frowning.

"Are you going to be okay, Mai?" Ayako asked her. Mai looked really pale. She shook her head.

"I don't want to talk about it right now." She said quietly. She was hiding something. She had a dream didn't she? What could it have been about? And when did she have this dream? If she woke up screaming, I would've heard her...

"Lin, go get the tape and take Miss Haru with you." Lin nodded and I followed him. I guess this was where Lin was going to ask me about earlier.

"What's been bothering you, Aki?" How did I know?

"I've been having a really bad feeling that something bad is going to happen Saturday."

"You don't have to go."

"I know, but I would hate to sit at home and worry about you guys until you came back. If I had to do that, it would drive me nuts." Lin chuckled.

"Alright, but if you get too scared, you can wait out in the van." I bit my lower lip but nodded.

"Okay," He smiled and patted me on the head.

"It'll be okay, Aki. I won't let anything happen to you."

"Promise?" I asked him holding out my pinky. He chuckled again and nodded.

"Promise," He said wrapping his pinky around mine. I smiled, feeling a little better. "Now let's get back inside, so we can get you back in time to get your work uniform." I nodded and the two us grabbed the tape and went back inside. "Ne, Lin, I was just thinking, there's no way Shichirou would hang another student. So I wanted to ask him if he knew who did."

"You'll have to discuss this with Naru when we're done here." I nodded. After we got our fingerprints done and whatnot, we all returned to the cars. I decided to ride in the van with Naru and Lin. I had to sit with the equipment but I didn't mind. I ended up falling asleep somehow and when I woke up, we were an hour away from getting into town.

"Lin told me you wanted to speak with Kohaku-san." Naru started once he realized I was awake. I yawned a little.

"Yeah, I wanted to ask him if he saw who killed that student. When you started to tell the detective about it, the thought just occurred to me that there is no way that Shichirou could've done it."

"It'd be too dangerous to go and ask him any time soon. Not with Ichirou-san and Ishida-san suspicious of us." I nodded.

"Somehow, I knew you would say that." I said sighing. Suddenly, the van gave a very frightful lurch. I hugged the back of Naru's seat, so I wouldn't end up crashing into the equipment.

"Lin, what's wrong?" Naru asked sharply.

"I heard something break. I'll pull over."

"Are you okay, Miss Haru?"

"Y-Yeah, I think so." I said, still hugging the seat. Before Lin could slow the van down, there was another loud noise. "W-What was that?"

"The brakes..." Lin muttered. "They're not working."

"Oh no," I nearly groaned.

"What's wrong, Aki?"

"My mom and I got into a car wreck when I was little. Someone tampered with the brakes and we ended up crashing into a street lamp. Ever since then, I've been a little terrified of being in cars. I've been getting better about it, but this is just bringing it all back." I said squeezing my eyes shut as we narrowly missed another car. I'm so glad we weren't on a hill. It was getting scary. My heart was racing and I was having a hard time breathing. The next thing I know, I was being hugged. I opened my eyes to see that it was Naru who was hugging me.

"I'll contact the others and tell them what's going on. Lin, just keep focusing on the road."

"Right,"

"Miss Haru, listen to me, okay?"

"O-Okay," I said hugging him tightly as we went over a bump.

"We won't let anything happen to you, understand?"

"Y-Yes," He patted my head before pulling his phone out. I just listened to his calm, heartbeat and tried to match my breathing to it.

"Monk, our brakes have been tampered with." There was a pause. "We're okay for now. We need to contact the police. Yes, you can speak to her." He handed me the phone.

"H-Hello?"

"How are you doing, Aki?" Monk asked me.

"To be honest, not so good."

"It'll be okay. We're going to get you three out of there. I know you must be scared, but stay strong. Can you do that for me?"

"Y-Yes," I said sniffling.

"Good girl, now give Naru the phone, okay? I'll see you soon."

"Okay," I did as Monk asked and went back to hugging Naru. Sorry, Mai, but I'm freaking out here. Naru talked to Monk a little longer and hung up.

"John is on the phone with the police right now as we speak and they're sending someone our way." He informed us. Good... For the next ten minutes, I focused on calming down. Naru and I didn't talk so Lin could focus on the road. It went on like this for about another twenty minutes before the police showed up. They called Naru's number and soon Naru was talking to them and explaining the situation. After about another twenty minutes or so, we were just getting into town. And when I thought things couldn't get any worse, it did. There was another loud sound and soon Lin couldn't control the van anymore. I couldn't handle it anymore, I screamed. It didn't take long for us to hit something and the next thing I know, the car was stopped, I was in pain, and all I could hear besides Naru's ragged breathing was the police sirens. I passed out.

No One's P.O.V

"Oh my god!" Mai said freaking out as she and the others crowed around the police cruisers.

"Mai, calm down, they're going to be okay." Monk said hugging her, looking worried himself. He told Aki it was going to be okay, but it wasn't okay. What the hell happened? And who did this? The firefighters got Naru, Lin, and Aki out of the mashed up metal that was the van. They're bodies looked horrible, but the paramedics announced that they were still alive. Monk felt a little relieved, but he wasn't going be satisfied until a doctor said they would recover without any complications. Ayako and Masako were in tears and Mai started crying too. John looked really upset. "Let's all follow the ambulances to the hospital." Monk suggested. The others nodded and got into their respective cars, before following the ambulances.

Not too far away from the tragic scene, two figures were standing in an alley way that had a clear view of the accident. "We did it, Ichirou-san."

"Yes, Ishida, we did. Now we won't have to worry about those brats for awhile. We'll pick up and move on before they can trace it back to us." Ichirou said as he and Ishida started towards their car that they parked a few blocks away.

"What about the storage unit?"

"We'll have to wipe it clean."

"I'll take care of it tomorrow."

"It's too bad I couldn't get my hands on one of those girls though. They would've made the perfect sacrifice." Then he got a sudden idea and smirked. "Hey, Ishida, how do you feel about visiting that hospital those kids were taken to later?"

"You want to do that there?"

"Why not? The girl that was pulled out of the wreckage, she won't be able to do much in her condition. Besides, they said the more pain their victims are in the more fun it is for them." Ishida-san nodded.

"Okay, when do you want to go?"

"First we need to go there and check to see what floor she's on and what her room number is. So let's go after the others get to see their friends and ask one of the nurses. Head on over to the hospital."

"Yes, sir." Ishida-san said turning the car around.