Me: Hey guys! Here's another chapter for you and it's only been just over a week!
Mai: Shellsan apologises if the chapter seems a little off. She was having some trouble getting into the mood. It should flow a little better towards the end.
Naru: Idiot
Me: That's not nice! You should do the disclaimer as an apology
Naru: Hn why should I
Me: *whispers in Naru's ear*
Naru: *smirks* Shellsan doesn't own Ghost Hunt
As the mansion approached in the distance, Naru looked back at Mai to see her still sleeping peacefully.
"You'll have to wake her up. She won't otherwise" Lin stated.
The younger rolled his eyes. "Obviously. I didn't think you would want to do it anyway."
Smirking, the Chinese man shook his head. "You're right but apart from that I don't think anyone other than you is capable of waking her up. Leaving out the option of slapping her of course," he pointed out.
Naru internally flinched at the thought. He hated seeing Mai getting hurt, they all did. It was even worse when they were forced to inflict that pain themselves.
"It's like you're her prince from sleeping beauty" Lin muttered just loud enough for Naru to here while smirking slightly.
Naru glared at him causing the smirk to widen.
Huffing, Naru opted it to ignore Lin until they reached the end of the road. Chuckling at the childish action, the elder shook his head and brought the car to a stop. Both of them wasted no time getting out of the car.
"Let Jean know we're here while I wake Mai" Naru ordered.
Rolling his eyes, Lin did as he was told, walking towards the front of the house.
Meanwhile, Naru walked over to the door behind his. Carefully, he opened the door, making sure that the sleeping girl didn't fall out.
"Mai, you need to wake up," he stated, shaking her gently.
Stirring slightly, Mai groaned. "Are we there?" she asked, her words slightly muffled by a yawn.
Naru scoffed, "yes now hurry up and get out. We have things to do" he commanded.
Nodding, Mai rubbed her eyes before undoing her seat belt and stepping out of the car. Stretching her arms out, she took this chance to have a quick look around. Her mouth dropped in awe as her eyes skimmed over her surroundings. It was exactly the same as in her dream- From the sparkling water to the moss on the walls.
"Stop admiring the view and start unloading."
Mai turned to Naru and glared at him. "I can't help it if the scene is so pretty!" she exclaimed.
Naru rolled his eyes, and walked around the back of the van.
Following after him, Mai sighed. "So where is Lin anyway?" she inquired.
Naru grabbed a monitor and sighed, "while you were busy sleeping, he went to tell Jean that we're here," he explained.
In that moment you saw Lin walk out of the mansion. This time he wasn't alone. Walking next to him was a woman who appeared to be in her late 40's. She had short brown-black hair and dark brown eyes.
"Mai-chan, this is Jean, the client and an old family friend of the Davis'" the elder man introduced. Jean held her hand out to Mai. Grinning, Mai grabbed it, shaking her hand. "Hi, I'm Mai Taniyama. It's nice to meet you."
Jean smiled, "And you too," she replied before turning to Naru.
"I thought you were bringing more people Oliver."
Said boy pinched the bridge of his nose already annoyed by the mention of the rest of the team. "They should be here any minute now. Why don't we start setting up base in the meantime" he suggested, mentally adding 'and avoid getting stuck in there petty arguments'.
The woman smiled nodding, "Right this way."
Walking off towards the house, the other three all picked up some equipment and began following after her.
The inside of the house was so different to the horrid room Mai had found herself in during the dream she had the day before. It had a classy feel to it. The walls were all a slightly creamy white and the floors were golden oak wood.
Jean led them down the short hall and the group found themselves in another room. To her left was a large spacious living room, complete with a large fire place and even bigger flat screen above it. To the left was a set of stairs. Near those stairs was a door. Smiling she pointed towards it. "You can set up in there. My daughter uses it as her room when she says here so it has a lot of power outlets you can use along with some couches. There's also a bed in there so that someone can get some rest instead of spending the entire night awake staring at screens" she explained, shooting a pointed look towards Naru.
He just glared at her in return before nodding in slight thanks and entering the assigned base.
"Mai, you start setting up in here while Lin and I go get more equipment" Naru stated.
Mai pouted, "but I wanted to meet up with the guys" she muttered while moving to set up a shelf.
Her boss rolled his eyes, "Yes I know. That's why you get to set up in here" he stated, flashing the brunette a smirk as he walked out of the room with Lin in tow.
Grumbling, she set to work not wishing to force the wrath of Naru upon herself.
Minutes later Mai heard loud shouting and grinned, finishing off the shelf. Turning to the door, she watched as Bou-san and Yasu entered the room, carrying monitors. Behind them was Ayako twiddling her nails.
"Why aren't you helping you old hag" the monk complained, placing the monitor on one of the shelves.
As a result Ayako used a perfect hand to swing her purse at the monk.
"Who are you calling old? You're the only ancient one here!" she yelled.
Mai stared at them in annoyance and before Naru could tell them to shut up she had already hit them both on the head.
"Can you not fight near expensive equipment? I do not need to be paying out replacement fee's thank-you very much" she lectured.
Ayako and Bou-san both looked at each other with a glare before looking down and sighing in acceptance. They didn't feel like making Mai. The result wouldn't be pretty.
Seeing them calm down, Mai grinned before noticing Naru looking at her with an eyebrow raised. Rolling her eyes she looked at John and noticed him still holding a monitor. Moving towards him she quickly took it from his hands and placed it with the others.
"Are you all going to stand there or help me set up?" she inquired.
With a sigh Naru moved to help, along with Lin.
Smiling in thanks, the trio began moving things around while the others stood around and –much to Naru's irritation- chatted.
It was about ten minutes before the room was set up. That was when she got a better look around.
The walls of the room were actually black. When you walk into the room at first you just see a large U-shaped couch with a desk on the left of it. On the wall was a large TV. However if you turned to the left you would notice that the room then lowered a few steps into a sleeping area where there was a large bed with red sheets. The wall behind the bed was slightly different. It had red running along it to look similar to blood. Even though it was kind of creepy she also found it to be comforting for some reason.
Hearing a small knock at the door, Mai turned to see Jean enter the room. She smiled at the new arrivals.
"Hello. You all must be the rest of the team Oliver said would be arriving. I'm jean and you are?"
John smiled. "Ahh it's a pleasure to meet you. I'm John Brown, this is Masako Hara, Houshou Takigawa, Osamu Yasuhara and Ayako Matsuzaki" he introduced them.
"Uh so what's with the creepy room if you don't mind my asking?" Bou-san inquired sheepishly.
The elder woman laughed. "This is my daughter's room for when she visits. She likes her room dark so she asked for her room to black. She also said she wanted to have a feature wall so I got it done as her coming home present. Sorry if it scares you a little but this room is most suited to your needs."
Mai rolled her eyes and smiled at Jean. "I think the rooms amazing. But I also don't think it's finished just yet either."
The woman nodded, "You're right. It's not quite finished but my daughter said she wants to do the final touches."
"Never mind that! How can you find such a dark room amazing" her brother figure exclaimed.
Scoffing, the brunette crossed her arms and ignored him, chatting enthusiastically with Jean.
"I think Mai finds the room comforting" Yasu speculated.
Hearing the younger man's words, Jean raised an eyebrow towards Mai, along with everyone else.
Masako scoffed, "how could Mai find a room like this comforting," she stated in a condescending tone.
Yasu pushed his glasses up making them glint in reflection of the lights. "It reminds her of her room at home."
"It does not." Mai denied.
Yasu gave her a disbelieving look. "It's almost exactly like your room back home. Yours just happens to have ocean blue instead of red."
Mai sighed in annoyance. It wasn't worth arguing over. "Whatever. Leave me be for a few minutes" she muttered, walking over to the bed and sitting on it crossed leg. The others watched as she calmed her breathing and evened it out.
John scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "We probably shouldn't disturb her while she's getting information" he stated.
Nodding in agreement, Bou-san turned to Naru. "So what are we going to do first Naru?" he asked.
"I want you and John to go set up the camera's. Miss Matsuzaki, go with Miss Hara to do a walk around and see if you can sense any spirits. I don't want anyone walking around alone. Is that understood?"
Murmurs of agreement sounded around the room as Bou-san and John walked off with the cameras. Masako and Ayako weren't far behind them. Before Ayako left the room, she turned to Naru.
"Keep a close eye on Mai. No matter how much has changed, Mai is still Mai. At one point or another she's going to wander off on her own. Try to make sure that doesn't happen."
With that said, the shrine maiden stalked off after Masako, easily catching up to her.
Naru sighed. As much as he hated to admit it she was right. He would have to make sure she didn't do something too stupid.
Little did he know, Mai had heard the whole thing and was slightly frustrated. Opening her eyes, she groaned at the sudden light. It was clear that she wouldn't be able to collect any information at the moment. There were too many interruptions and not enough silence. She could try again later that night when the others were sleeping.
"So boss, what am I going to do?" Yasu inquired from where he was sitting. If it weren't for the fact that he was Naru, he might have jumped in surprise. He had completely forgotten Yasu was here. He was being unusually quiet.
Before Naru could give him something to do though, Mai was walking over to them from where the bed was situated. "You can come along with me. I have to do the temperature run down on the rooms and I'm not supposed to go around on my own" she stated, grabbing the clipboard from one of the shelves.
Yasu grinned, "Keen to get me alone, are we?" he joked.
The brunette rolled her eyes. "As matter of a fact I am," before Yasu could reply she added, "I don't want any witnesses when I put you in hospital."
With that she stalked off towards the hall way, only stopping to turn and give the gaping men an irritated look. "Well are you coming or not Yasu. Hell Naru or Lin, I don't care who comes but (hurry up). There's a little girl missing and the last thing we need to be doing is wasting time" she exclaimed.
Yasu quickly snapped out of it, jogging to catch up to Mai while Naru and Lin were still in shock.
"Did she just beat Yasuhara in an argument?" Lin asked, more for himself than anyone else. It seemed almost impossible. Even Naru had trouble doing that but she acted as if it were easy. What did they miss while they were away?
Snapping out of it, Naru turned to Lin. "Call Madoka and see if she's found anything about the family history of this place. Then I want you to pull up the blue prints for the mansion. If there's one thing Mai was right about it was the lack of time."
********************WiTh MaI********************
Mai sighed as she took down the eleventh temperature. How many rooms did this place need!? Yasu was thinking the same thing. They had been walking around for the past ten minutes and he was beginning to get bored.
Turning to Mai it was clear she was concentrating. He sighed. "Why did you have to drag me along?" he whined.
The brunette turned to Yasu and shot him an annoyed look. "Because I needed someone to come with me and there was no way I was taking Naru or Lin. Stop complaining" she grumbled.
Her partner in crime sighed, "Fine."
They continued walking in silence until Yasu got bored and decided to try a new tactic. "Do you still like him?" he asked, mischief clear in his tone.
Almost instantly Mai's cheeks turned slightly pink. "I don't know what you're talking about" she lied.
Yasu grinned. "Oh so you don't like Naru?" he inquired.
She smiled at him sadly. "No, I don't like him" she agreed. I love him she silently added in her mind.
The boy next to her was still surprised. She wasn't lying but there had to be more to it than that. Surely she hadn't gotten over him yet. It hadn't been long enough… had it?
He shook such stupid thoughts from his head. Most definitely not. There was more to it than she was letting on and he was going to find out what. With the help of his partner in crime of course.
********************TiMe SkIpY********************
Roughly half an hour later everyone was back at base by now and Naru was clearly in a bad mood and no-one could figure it out why. Well, they had a feeling Mai knew but she wasn't exactly in the sharing mood.
"Come on Mai" Bou-san whined, "I can feel Naru's irritation from over here! Why is he in such a bad mood?"
The brunette sighed rubbing her temples, "Can't you put two and two together?"
Masako scoffed, "Maybe you just don't know" she voiced haughtily.
Rolling her eyes, Mai got up from her seat on the couch. Truth be told -she was beginning to get annoyed with the bad vibes he was giving off as well. Walking over to him, she put her hands on her hips.
Naru barely spared her a glace as he continued reading from his little black book. "Come on" she stated.
This time, he looked up at her curiously. "What do you mean 'come on'?" he asked in annoyance.
Mai rolled her eyes. "We're going to get you some tea."
He looked at her in surprise before covering it quickly. "What does that have to do with me?"
The brunette could barely contain her annoyance. "I do believe it was you who set the rule that no-one was allowed to walk around by themselves. And I also believe that you're the one in dire need of his favourite hot beverage so you can be the one to come with me" she explained.
Naru wanted to argue but he couldn't think of anything to say. She was right for once. He did need tea and it was him who needed the tea so it was logical that he should be the one to go. That didn't stop him from attempting to rile her up.
"I never said that I needed tea."
"You didn't need to. You're aura gave it away. It was like you were going to kill someone" Mai shot back.
Naru pinched the bridge of his nose in annoyance. "Fine" he caved, snapping his book closed and pushing himself off the seat.
He moved swiftly to the door and opened it, waiting for Mai to catch up before they walked straight ahead, turning to the left to find a kitchen and dining area. Sighing, Mai moved towards the kettle and filled it, setting it to boil.
She began looking through the cupboards to find the tea. However when she spotted it, it was up extremely high. The thought of asking Naru for help barely even entered her mind as she tried to reach up and grab it. She groaned when she just couldn't reach it. She was about to climb up on the bench to grab it when she felt a warm body press against hers. Her breath hitched slightly as he spoke.
"Did you need some help?"
Me: And there we have it. I hope you enjoyed this chapter
Mai: Shellsan wants to know if there was anything that you liked, didn't like, thought didn't work, something you want to happen
Naru: Or you could just ignore the idiots
Me and Mai: NARU!
John: … Please review
Me: *Nods* The more reviews the faster the update AND as a bonus we can have Madoka in the next chapter :D
Mai: Until next time
Me: Bye my lovelies~~~