Day 6:

Honestly it was much too early in the morning to sit there in the base, but for once it was needed. One spirit was gone there were two more remaining and on top of that three members of the team had been injured, the first being Shina, and then Mai had been injured by Masako's hands, because she was possessed, and was purified by Aya. All the members of SPR, plus Aya and Shina, sat quietly at base the only sound coming from Lin's computer. Aya leaned over and helped her ward, Shina figure out a math problem. Masako was back with everyone and sat next to Mai. The two girls had actually, become good friends. Masako felt horrible for having strangled Mai, while she felt weak from the forceful exorcism she really didn't care about what happened to her she cared about what happened to her best friend. After Naru had returned to England it had been Masako that had been at Mai's side to help her grieve over the "jerk." Masako on the other hand while she had been disappointed about Naru leaving, she had not been as upset as Mai. Masako for the most part had held dirt on Naru and wanted to show him up for not liking her when everyone else had. About a year after Naru has left Mai continued to mourn the loose, Ayako and Monk had become a copy, and Masako and Yasuhara had started going out as friends, until it eventually grew into something more.

"Yasuhara called this morning. He was able to find some information on Mina Hitomi." Naru stated as he flipped through the papers in his hands. The whole room went quiet. Masako raised her kimono over her mouth hiding a blush. "Mina Hitomi was born Mina Shinamori, in 1892, she was 18 when she was married Jiro Hitomi, who was 24 at the time. It was an arranged marriage. According to this Mina was having an affair with a man name Akihito Minoru age 22. Akihito was an unique character and so was her husband. According to this statement Jiro was strange he didn't seem to be interested in his wife at all. His family arranged the marriage, because of Jiro's unique taste. It seems that Jiro was interested in males and not females."

"Say what?" Screamed Monk as he nearly jumped out of his chair. John looked like he was about to pass out. His face was bright red and his poor innocent mind was probably going overboard.

"No way, you mean he was gay." Ayako said. The rest of the group seemed sobered by this news.

"Yes, it seems that he was. It continues though. A close friend said that the husband and wife had arranged it so that they would be able to be with the ones they truly liked or were attracted to. The only condition was that they had to be honest with each other about their partners." Naru said as he continued to flip through the papers. "Well this is interesting. It seems that they shared the same partner. Mina's lover was in fact her husband's lover from before they were married and after. Their marriage didn't even last a year. After a year of being married Mina simple disappeared as well as Akihito. Shortly after their disappearance Jiro took his life."

"So the three spirits that are or were here are Jiro Hitomi, Mina Hitomi, and Akihito Minoru." Mai said as she tapped her bottom lip. Naru cleared his throat to keep from looking at the delicate lip that she tapped. "Mina is already gone so that means that the other two are Jiro and Akihito, but we have already said that one of the spirits is weaker than the other. So which one is it Jiro or Akihito? And what happened to Akihito and Mina? They couldn't have just disappeared Mina proved that by haunting this place." Mai said as she continued to think. The room had gone quiet, even Aya and Shina had stopped what they were doing to look at her. "What?"

"Wow, Mai that was a really good analysis of the facts." John said as he scratched the back of his head.

"Aya, does that sound accurate to you? But what about that other 'thing'?" Shina asked as she looked up at her guardian.

"Yes, Shina that is accurate. The spirits seemed to react to the story. The fact that Jiro was only interested in males while his partner was interested in both, could hint to the fact that Jiro was the dominate partner. If that is the fact it would be safe to say that Jiro is our main spirits and that Akihito is site bound and wants to rest. Mina had a lot of anger and the fact that we have not had any activity from two separate male spirits further proves that point." Aya stated the facts as if it was nothing, but the rest of the team, minus Naru and Lin seemed very uneasy about the subject.

"Aya how do you know about um…the dominance of ….um….?" Mai blushed. She couldn't finish her sentence. Aya smiled brightly.

"I interact with people of all sexual orientations." Aya said as she rose from the couch she was sitting on. "Excuse me I am going to go rest in the medicinal bath for a few moments I will be back shortly." With that Aya left. As the others watched Aya leave Naru began to get busy.

"Mai, tea. Monk and Ms. Matsuzaki take temperatures and gather tapes from the camera. John and Ms. Hara walk around. Make sure that Mina is gone and see if you can figure out anything on the other two spirits." Naru said as he looked down at Shina. "Shina stay here with Lin. He will be able to protect you."

While the others were off doing what they were "ordered" to do Aya was off at one of the baths. No one argued when she left. For one she was not part of the team and on top of that the members of SPR were aware that Aya was not in top shape when it came to her health. Aya stood in the changing room of the medicinal spring slowly she pulled on the white yukata and tied her long silver hair up with a dark green ribbon. This had been the one thing that she had wanted to do since she had arrived at the resort. Madoka had promised her that she would have the time to go to this spring. She was hoping that it would be just what she needed to regain her strength. With a soft sigh Aya stepped out of the room and took a deep breath of the air from the medicinal spring. Smiling Aya slipped the yukata off and slowly lowered herself into the water and laid back letting the hot green water wash over her body.

"Ne…Naru?" Mai called as she placed his tea on the table.

"What is it Mai?" Naru asked as he did not look up from the black folder in his hands.

"Have you noticed that Aya and Lin seem to be getting along better? I mean they aren't calling each other by their last names right now." Mai asked quietly. She didn't want Lin to overhear, but she really didn't have to worry about it. Lin was sitting in front of the monitors reviewing data with his head phones on. Shina was also in the room, but judging from her look she was very close to killing a math book.

"Lin and I had a talk. He knew things had to change. My guess is that he spoke to Ms. Huang about it." Naru said as he looked up at Mai. Mai was looking up at the ceiling thinking. Feeling his eyes on her she looked down and blushed. She was wearing a scarf around her neck today that matched the light blue shirt and khaki shorts she was wearing. "Mai, why are you wearing a scarf?" This question only made Mai blush more.

"Um…I just….Um….There was this…" Mai stammered.

"She has a hickey." Shina said not looking up from her math book. "And don't play with Mai. I know you gave it to her." Both of the teens promptly turned their heads away from each other. Mai was blushing very hard and if you looked closely you could see a slight blush on Naru's cheeks.

"God damnit. I don't understand this place." Screamed Ayako and she came into the room and threw herself onto the couch.

"Ayako you have done nothing, but… nevermind…." Monk said as he saw the glare that Ayako directed to him. "Naru has anything happened? I understand how Ayako feels. It's almost like these spirits are hiding from us."

"No nothing new has shown up. Lin is reviewing the data to see if we may have missed something. So far he has found nothing." Naru said as he took a sip of tea. Masako and John entered the room during the discussion looking exhausted. No one said a word.

Aya looked at peace in the hot spring. Some of her hair had come loose from the ribbon and laid spilled across the warm stones. Her violet eyes were closed and a soft sheen of sweat covered her brow. A lone white light floated around her, before disappearing. Something was wrong. Aya kept her eyes closed and opened her senses. She saw the world differently this way. In her mind she saw a vibration in front of her on one of the high stones. She also felt a difference in the water. That is when it hit her, the metallic smell of iron. Blood…and lots of it. Aya's eyes snapped open. The water had turned to blood. Violet eyes met crazed gold eyes. There was a movement behind her.

"Aya-sama, you need to get out of here." A deep masculine voice stayed. The voice was void of emotions.

Aya continued to stare at the creature in front of her. Slowly she pulled herself up in the water. The fox demon in front of her tilted its head. Something was wrong with this, Aya noticed.

"Aya-sama, the demon is crazed. It's gone berserk."

Aya nodded her head slowly she did not want to make any sudden movements. The fox demon made a painful cry. Its in pain. Something is causing this creature to act this way. Aya continued to watch the creature, all the while working on slowly climbing out of the springs. The demon suddenly went still. A dark aura started to pour out of the creature.

"Aya-sama, run!" screamed the voice.

Aya did not need to be told a second time. Forgetting everything she ran from the springs grabbing a white towel and wrapped it around her body. Thankfully the towel looked like an oversized sheet wrapped around her. Aya didn't stop to change the demon was losing it she could tell that easily by the demonic painful sounds coming from it.

While Aya was dealing with her own troubles the others at base were blissfully unaware of what was going on. Mai had made tea for everyone and they were sitting thinking about the case.

"Ayako, you're a doctor right?" Mai asked. Ayako gave her a look that said that Mai was stupid for asking that question.

"Yes, why do you ask?" Aya said as she flipped her hair over her shoulder.

"When I was on my way back to the room the other night I heard…A…someone throwing up. I was wondering what would cause a woman to be that sick." Mai asked she had almost slipped and said Aya's name. Naru cut his eyes to Mai giving her a warning.

"If it was a common occurrence it could be the fact that she has an ulcer or she could be pregnant and instead of having morning sickness she gets sick at night." Ayako said looking at her nails. Lin had turned slightly in his chair to listen to the conversation and Shina had paused in her writing. She was facing her paper, but if you looked closely you could see that her eyes were wide.

"Oh…okay…." Mai said looking down.

"You're talking about Aya, aren't you Mai?" Masako asked. Mai looked up startled. "I overheard it the night before."

Shina was getting nervous. She had to come up with a way to get them off of the topic. Dreams…Mai is clairvoyant.

"…..Mai have you had any dreams about this case?" Shina asked suddenly. A mask had come over her face and she looked calm.

"Um..yeah I think I have, but I can't remember them. Why did you ask?" Mai said as she scratched her chin.

"Aya told me to always pay attention to my dreams and I remembered our conversation about you being clairvoyant. I feel the same way, but I can't remember anything. I wonder what…." Shina paused there was a sound coming down the hallway of feet hitting the floor. Someone was running down the hall. The whole room went quiet as they heard the same thing. Suddenly the door was thrown open and Aya ran into the room. The males of the room immediately paused and the females looked shocked. Aya stood in the door way a towel wrapped around her. Her hair was in a sloppy pony tail and she looked like she had just been running for her life. Shina stood slowly. "Aya…."

Aya did not listen she stalked her way over to where Lin sat at the computer. Naru noticed that Lin's eyes were widening by the second. Without any thought Aya leaned over Lin's side and started typing on the computer in front of him. The room was stunned. Aya did not seem to notice. Lin swallowed and leaned slightly back from Aya. His hand tightened into a fist, as his body reacted to the nearly naked Aya. Memories started to come back. He could feel how it felt to run his hands over her back to gently grip her…Calm down, Lin. Focus on what she is doing. Lin's inner voice was making a whole lot more since then his mind right now. Looking to what Aya was doing he saw that she was pulling up document after document on fox demons, kistunes. The print at the side of the computer started to print. The documents on the computer changed and it seemed like Aya was pulling up information on the local shrines.

"Ms. Huang, just what the hell is going on here?" Naru said. For her to just come in she did in barely anything, pissed him off.

"While the rest of you were in here I had a lovely encounter with the "thing" we are looking for." Aya said as she reached over to grab the papers. Lin got them first.

"Aya, are you saying that the thing we are missing is a fox spirit." Lin asked.

"Wait! Go back!" Ayako yelled. "Explain why the hell you're in here like that." She said pointing to Aya.

Aya looked at Ayako dully. Shina was already up making her way to Aya, when she felt the air in the room shift. The others felt it as well.

"Aya-sama, was in the medicinal bath when a fox demon appeared." The voice seemed to come out of nowhere. Slowly a shape started to form. Leaning against the wall next to the window was a tall man… well you couldn't call him a man. On top of the man's head stood two black horns which matched his long waist length dark purple hair. He slowly raised his head and the gang of SPR were met with the coldest silver eyes, but what was strange was the fact that his eyes held nothing. He just stood there look at them. He was dressed…if you could call it dressed in what appeared to be a black skirt that was secured at his waist with a heavy belt and a spirit ribbon wrapped around his shoulders. His well toned chest was bare except for the black tribal tattoo that danced across it. In his clawed hands was a dark black yukata. Pushing himself off the wall he walked slowly to Aya draping it across her shoulders. Aya slipped her arms through it and tied in front letting the towel fall to her feet underneath it. Lin stood there watching the members of SPR, while Shina ran over to the man and gave him a soft hug. The man showed no emotion as he placed his hand on top of her head and then moved her away. "I advised Aya-sama to get out of there. The water in the bath turned to blood as well. Aya-sama, after you left the demon withered in pain, before disappearing. When it disappeared the blood did as well."

"So, the blood appearing in the baths is caused by the kitsunes. After the two spirits are dealt with we will have to deal with the local spirits. I…." Aya said as she thought about what was said.

"Who….what…is that?" Monk yelled pointing to the man.

"You don't recognize him?" Lin asked. Everyone shook their heads. "This is…"

"I would be the pathetic snake." The man stated.

"Kū?" Mai yelled. The man gave a smirk. Sighing Aya looked up at the man.

"Everyone this is Kū in his natural form." Aya said softly. "Should I guess that the others will be appearing shortly?" The shiki nodded his head.

TA-DA. Alright we have only a couple of more chapters left before the case is closed. All those blanks and questions that you have will be answered shortly. Next time on Never What It Seems: A chance encounter. Will everyone make it out of this case alive?