A/N: I wasn't planning on updating today. I was planning on finishing my ten-page report on Emily Dickinson. Unfortunately fanfiction owns my soul. You can also all say thank you to the few nice PMs and reviews that kicked my butt in to gear for this one. The editing isn't finished by the way. I will finish it and update it later.
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE! I would love it if you also checked out my other story Somewhere in the Middle, its in need of some love and you guys are the best!!
ALSO ALSO ALSO!! I now have a twitter! If people show interest and follow me on twitter I can twitter about updates and junk like that!! Twitter name= kiss_my_book.
Disclaimer: I would have owned Ghost Hunt but I decided to spend my money on manga instead. Then I realized I could have just read it on MangaFox.
Chapter 6: E is for Egad a Ghost!
"What do you mean it worked?" Mai asks suspiciously, pointing her finger at the shaking young girl, but as quickly as she had pointed the man she was holding swung out, trying to scrape her off his arm. She held on tighter.
Kimiko Kura stared at Mai through her wispy black bangs. She was a small, petit, young woman but her eyes revealed an air of age about her and Mai knew that she was older than she appeared to be.
"Father, please, calm down," Kimiko said slowly, as the large man Mai was clinging to reached further for Takigawa's throat.
Mai pulled on him harder, tears welling in her eyes, her arms burning.
After a minute that seemed to go on for hours the mans rage was quelled by his daughter's pleading voice. He began to breathe normally and he stepped away from Mai's teammates as everything around Mai, Kimiko and her father began to fall away to nothing.
'Nothing' that was like darkness and thick air. Mai was right back where she had started. She half expected to see a smiling Gene or a sneering Naru but neither came to her rescue. Instead she was left with Kimiko staring at her from the darkness.
Her father was gone. Vanished. They were alone.
"Where…Where are we? Where did your father go?" Mai asked warily. She wanted to step away from Kimiko but she knew that wouldn't do her any good.
Kimiko crossed her arms over her stomach, "He's gone. His rage has been stilled for now," then she looked up at Mai, "I am terribly sorry for dragging you in to my problems."
Mai shook her head, "But you haven't done anything. Its more Gene's fault than anyone's for dragging me in to this mess. You have been nothing but helpful, especially for someone of your…situation."
Mai hoped that she hadn't been stressing too heavily on the fact that Kimiko was dead. She did find it particularly ironic, however, that a single ghost had been more effective on this mission than a room full of mediums, psychics, ghost hunters, a monk, a miko and a priest.
The ghost, however, looked less than thrilled about this prospect.
Instead, she looked p at Mai with tear-filled eyes.
"I-I'm terribly sorry. I had to do something. Someone needed to stop my father, someone with strong psychic abilities. No one else would do and you hadn't even fully awakened to your abilities yet. I-I had to….to….," the girl's knees gave out as she landed in the darkness in a heap of tears. Mai was too startled to speak.
Confused and wary, Mai made her way over to the ghost and put a hand on her shoulder.
"Don't worry," she said, "Whatever you did, you did it to help us. I'm sure I can forgive you."
The ghost shook her head sharply, "I'm afraid not, you see I was the one that hit you with the car in the parking lot. You're having a forced out-of-body experience right now. You may never wake up."
*******
Luella Davis was sitting in her office in London, England. Her flat pin-stripe suit clung to her perfectly and the smile on her face was appropriately discreet. She clicked the mouse on her computer as she dragged a file from one end of the screen to the other.
Click. Slide. Click.
The office door opened and her husband entered, looking less than thrilled. He held two cups of tea in his hands and offered one to her.
"Thank you, dear," she said warmly, dropping the formalities, "Are you alright? You seem a bit shaken."
Martin Davis nodded feebly and collapsed in to a chair beside her desk. He was rubbing his forehead with his hand, a clear sign that he was nervous about something. Luella placed her tea down and reached over, taking Martin's hand in hers.
"Martin, what's bothering you? Is something wrong?" she asked, her work forgotten.
Anything could be bothering him. The boys. Madoka. Lin. Work. She prayed that nothing had happened to the former and rather wished it had something to do with the latter.
Instead, this is what Martin Davis conveyed to her: "That girl, Mai Taniyama, I found out why she seems so familiar. Madoka's been up to her tricks again."
Luella leaned back in her chair, surprised by her husband's news.
"What about Mai Taniyama?" she asked, tapping her nails on her desk.
Martin looked up to meet her eyes, "She is the daughter of Svetlana Reid and Tomoko Taniyama."
With this Luella sat back in her chair with an 'oomph'. There was no way in hell that this was coincidence. Unless it really was a small world after all…
*******
"You hit me with a car?" Mai repeated, stepping away from the girl, "I may never wake up?"
Kimiko nodded even though her head was in her hands. She didn't even look up to meet Mai's eyes. Shame and regret wafted through the darkness in thick waves.
Mai was torn between scratching this ghost's face off and collapsing in disbelief. She'd never felt so angry, so helpless and so terrified all at once. It was horrible.
There were only two people that Mai knew of that could help her now. Only two.
She stepped away from Kimiko and stood as tall as she could.
"Naru! Gene!" Mai screamed in to the darkness, "Oliver Davis! Please answer me! I need help!! Naru!!"
There was no answer. Her words didn't even seem that loud to her ears. They simple hung in midair, not echoing or ringing through the darkness like she had intended. She was scared.
*******
Takigawa was staring Naru down but the back-clad teen didn't seem to be caving in. instead he crossed his arms and stared right back at Takigawa's reddening face.
"Ah! Seriously Naru this is useless! Stop waiting and let us do an exorcism already. We could have this case in the bag!" Takigawa insisted, waving his arms out around him.
The others watched on in mild disinterest, many were in huddles around Mai's prone figure. Eric, against Ayako's wishes, was holding a wet cloth to her warm face. Masako, also against Ayako's wishes, was holding her hands against Mai's arm, trying to contact her spirit. And Ayako was standing behind them all, her hands defiantly on her hips and her face screwed in to a scowl.
"Hurry it up!" she snapped, "You both need to lie down. You were just hit with a freaking car less than three hours ago!"
Lin looked up from the monitors where he had been overseeing Yasuhara and John who were leading Haruka Haru, the medium, around as she searched for the spirits of the household. Everyone was catering to Mai.
"Naru if we exorcise the ghosts that live in this hotel then Mai will return to her body. Isn't that what you want?" Takigawa asked sharply.
Everyone looked up as Naru answered, "Of course it is Takigawa. However I am not willing to take the chance that Mai's spirit will be exorcised in the process. Also if a simple exorcism would do the trick then we would have been finished already wouldn't we? I suggest that you spend some more time fixing your strategy than yelling at your teammates."
"Nothing is permanent Takigawa, I can have you removed from this team," Naru conveyed darkly.
Takigawa held his lips together and they pressed in to a firm line. He sat down stiffly in a seat by the case report files and began to sift through information as quickly as possible. Satisfied, Naru also took a seat.
Ayako watched the transaction in amusement. It seemed to her that Takigawa had just been scolded by Naru-sensei.
She stifled a laugh.
The door came bursting inward.
Fortunately it wasn't a raging ghost bent on vengeance, but it was close.
Naru looked up.
It was his mother.
*******
Gene squinted at the newspaper being pressed against his face. His eyes were blurry with sleep and he couldn't see a damned thing in the dim light coming in through the dusty windows.
He would have decided upon this case being a lost cause hours ago if it had not been for Mai's predicament. Even so he was sitting in the town library with Madoka on his right, a pile of books on his left and no solid explanation between them.
He sighed softly and placed the newspaper back on the table. Hopeless.
"Aha!" Madoka gave a little cry, bouncing in her seat. Gene jerked in to wakefulness and leaned over her shoulder. She was holding a newspaper report from the seventies. The headline read: LOCAL FIRE KILLS TWO: POLICE SUSPECT ARSON--Under which there was a photo of the hotel and two smaller photos of a heavy man and a girl with wispy black bangs.
Gene's eyes widened, "That's her. She's the one the owners described. Kimiko Kura."
Madoka nodded and finished reading the article, after which she turned giddily to Gene and her smile widened (if possible).
"It says here that the girl, Kimiko, was an aspiring actress and her father wanted her to work at the RPG hotel. Her father had put everything he owned in to the hotel after his wife died and he was determined to keep it in the family," she plopped the newspaper down on the table, "He was dying from a stroke when the fire consumed the kitchen. Faulty wiring or something like that. Kimiko wouldn't leave without him so she died too. That entire part of the hotel had been redone, so it looks nothing like it did back then. The ghost of the father must be angry because his hotel is being run by outsiders and his daughter must be trying to warn people."
Gene lit up as well, a light bulb going off in his head, "So the actors that the guests reported in the rooms were all Kimiko and her father?"
Madoka nodded vigorously but then halted, her face squirming back in to frown, "But that man's ghost must be consumed with rage and betrayal, no simple exorcism will work on him. He needs to be fulfilled."
Gene nodded, he already had a plan.
*******
Mai stood for awhile after her failed attempts to contact Naru and Gene. There were so many thoughts running through her head that she felt it might explode.
Never wake up again? Mai might never open her eyes again. Ever. She'd never see the sun or make Naru tea or finish her mission? She was just starting t enjoy her new lifestyle too. Even if that lifestyle only consisted of three things: making tea, checking the cameras and taking down the temperature.
Kimiko was crying.
Mai reached forward and touched the girl's shoulder.
She smiled at Kimiko, whose face was confused.
"Why aren't you angry? Don't you want to kill me?" Kimiko asked with a hiccup.
"Don't worry, you're already dead. Besides, Naru will find me. I haven't known him for too long but he seems fairly reliable with these kinds of things. I trust him," Mai said assuredly, "I trust him with my life."
*******
"Mother?"
"Where's Madoka?" Luella questioned her son, her rage was palpable even in the fluorescent lighting, her hair whipped around her head as she scanned the room, "You can't hide her from me Oliver Davis."
Naru blinked and stepped forward, "I'm not trying to. She's not here. She's at the library with Gene."
Everyone else in the room seemed at a loss for words. Except for Mai who was currently indisposed. The last time they had seen Luella Davis she had been a formal, demure businesswoman. Now she just seemed plain crazy.
"I'll find her Oliver Davis," Luella shouted, "Even if I have to burn this whole place to the ground!"
Just then, for a moment, Naru could have sworn that time stood still. After, a bone-chilling roar rose from the very hinges of the hotel and shook the room. Everyone was silent as they fumbled for something to hold on to.
The roar echoed, and the silence that followed frightened even Naru half to death.
BTW, you aren't supposed to know who Mai's parents are. It will all be revealed!!
So going back to the A/N: check out Somewhere in the Middle and Twitter!!
Au Revoir mes amis!