Hardy Boys and Hell Girl are not mine...

Enjoy!

"Once vengeance is served, you will then have to deliver on your end of the bargain. There always has to be a price. And so, when you die, your soul will also belong to Hell. But, not until you die, of course."

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It took Frank over a week to get use to the tremendous difference in time zones. His father took even longer. In its own way, this had bothered Frank. His father was not exactly a young man, and worries of him getting hurt upset the younger Hardy quite a bit. The other factor was that his father had interrupted his time with Joe one too many times.

But, Frank had been given enough time to extract the information that he needed from his brother.

"Be careful Frank. This dude is dangerous. He won't be able to sense my presence from you because he doesn't know my powers. But he may catch on."

Frank walked down the streets with Tsugumi, eyes gazing over vendors and little shops. His father was right behind them, silently making mental notes of his surroundings. Hajime had gone earlier that day for some assignment, and had left the guests with a map, a list of places they should check out, and (Tsugumi had been outraged at him calling her this) a "tour guide".

They had gone through most of the list, when they had agreed to stop and eat at a café. As Fenton Hardy went to get them some food, Tsugumi had turned and looked at Frank straight in the eyes.

"Do you already know who Ai is?"

The brunette's first thoughts were denying such, but then he began to reason with himself. Joe had told him the Shibata's connections with Ai, so it really couldn't hurt to tell her…

"Just a bit…" iBut enough to make butterflies dance in my stomach./i

"Is that who you were talking to last night?"

"Um…" Well, no point in denying the truth now. "No. It was actually… my brother."

"Really? How?!" Frank saw the light in the young girl's eyes, the hope of her communicating with her mother.

"I… He chose a different path. Your mother probably went on to heaven, but… My brother stayed behind to help someone…"

"Oh." She looked down, in both disappointment and embarrassment. "Well… I hope your brother moves on one day too."

"Yeah…" he heard himself half mumble.

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"He might be it, Mistress. But the problem is, we can't find him."

"Where was he last seen?"

"The river, I think."

"We must find him. His powers are dangerous to be unchecked."

"And considering his state of mind… Who would he try hurt, Kukiko?"

"We aren't as important to him, I'm pretty sure. But… He might try to go after you, Mistress. You do realize that, right?"

"Yes."

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Frank had trained his mind to wake up during a certain part of the night, when he knew everyone else would be in deep slumber. It was the only way to get his minimum amount of sleep and be able to speak with his brother.

"You're gonna hurt yourself in the end, you know."

"At the moment, I think my mental state is better than my physical state."

"What? No balance?"

"Nope."

The two sat together in silence. It was hard to start a conversation between them, now that they had a different set of priorities.

"Can you track him down?"

"Not yet. And probably not for a while…"

"Still taking requests?"

"Of course."

Frank did not know what else to say. His brother was caught in almost a war between his old beliefs and this new world. Or, at least, he thought that this was his brother's fate. But from what he has seen, the conclusion was far from the truth. Joe had torn himself apart by choosing this path to walk, but made no visible signs. Heck, the blonde was enjoying himself in his sick way.

"So, you're just free tonight." It wasn't a question, and he wasn't really expecting any retort. However, his brother had something else on his mind.

"Not everyone has such intense hatred, Frank. And, believe it or not, not everyone believes we exist. So we do get the occasional nights off."

"I know, it's just… the dreams had came every night while I was at home. But, if you didn't work all the time…"

"Wait, are you saying-"

"I don't know what I'm saying. But… I hear voices. They keep on calling for help. I always thought it was the client or something…"

"This isn't good, Frank. We don't know who it is, their purpose… For all we know, it could be whoever took the others!"

"I know, I know… but I get the feeling there's something else behind it. What if there's something more than an enemy playing tricks on me?"

"Well, then who else would be doing this?"

Frank looked down at the floor, muttering "I don't know. But we're gonna find out."

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"So, you're saying he's having dreams about something he cannot identify?"

"That's what I just said. At least, I'm pretty sure I just did!"

"Shut it."

"Well, anyways… What do you make of it?"

"Considering the mind bond thing that happened last time, I can't be sure. I don't think it's the enemies' doing, though."

"What makes you so sure?"

"They aren't that slow. A chance to be caught by us is sloppy, and they've already proven that they made sure to be hidden. Also, they don't know about us yet. Frank only knew about the other servants because we observed them: They never saw us."

"So, if they had some magic mind reading powers…"

"They can't discover anything about us."

"It's weird, don't you think?"

"What's weird?"

"Mistress told us to stay in the shadows. She almost knew something was going to happen."

"Joe, you do realize that Mistress has these kinds of powers, right? Besides, I don't think she knew exactly what was to happen. It was a gut feeling."

"Yeah, a gut feeling turned reality."

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He could hear the voice again. It was in pain, crying for release. But, it wasn't masked into an unknown voice as before. It had cried with the emotions of familiar voices. He couldn't remember exactly whose voice it was, but he knew it…

"Help me! Help me!!"