Me: And another chapter done!
Naru: What has you on such a roll?
Gene: She's going away to camp in a week so she's trying to finish the story before then.
Naru: Stupid.
Me: Call it what you like, but that is my goal.
Mai: Silver doesn't own Ghost Hunt. Please R&R!
Naru's POV:
"Wh-what are you talking about, I'm not hiding anything." Mai stuttered, her face draining of all color and leaving her whiter then some of the ghosts we've faced. Narrowing my eyes I crossed my arms and glared.
"Bullshit."
"Oh, what can you use to prove it?" she asked, a nervous smile on her face, giving more then enough away without her even having to say anything.
"By the fact you're so convinced it was a trance she was in and not a drunken daze." I stated, picking one of the many flaws in her set up.
"My instincts told me." she countered, crossing her arms and looking at me confidently. Her argument was valid, but I was not going to let her know that. Smirking, I raised my head in challenge.
"You may have a good intuition, but it's not quite at that level."
"Well maybe I am."
"Mai." I began, using the familiar tone that she knew that she wasn't going to be able to escape from me. She sent a desperate look to Kaguya who sighed and nodded back to her. My mind raced as yet again that girl came into play and made someone who was so dedicated to me withhold valuable information. Mai closed her eyes and released her breath as she looked back into my eyes.
"Fine."
"Good, now do tell why you thought to withhold information that could possibly help solve the case." I said, letting my tone turn as bitter as I felt. She flinched away from me at it and hung her head and did everything in her power to look away from me.
"Well, Kaguya and I thought that they were just silly myths that were told to scare little kids at night. We didn't want to give you false info until we knew it was true, which after that dream, I know for fact is true." she explained,making me mentally smirk at the gold I had gotten ahold of.
"I see, so it was partly Kaguya to blame as well." I said, moving my glare over to the other party involved to see her scowling back at me holding nothing back. I found it amusing for it let Gene her true colors underneath all that perfectness that he compared her to. I stole a glance at him to see shock on his face, and I couldn't be happier.
"Hey we didn't-"
"I don't want to hear it." I said, cutting off the blasted vixen for spreading her lie and poisons words anymore then she already has. Turning my glare back onto my assistant I saw her flinch away and I knew that I once again ran the show. "Now then, Mai, would you care to share?"
"Well, one of them involves mermaid luring people and then draining their life force. Another talks about if you wake up the fae that are sleeping in the cave then they'll push you in the water or knock you out with a rock to the head and you'll drown. Then the last one is about a girl who commits suicide there in Meiji 9." she said, shrinking further and further into her shell with each word she said.
"How does that make any sense to the case at all?!" Monk asked, making myself and everyone else nod in agreement with him, even if mine was just mental.
"Well it's a combination of three of them." Kaguya stated, interrupting once again and getting herself involved in something she should have been smart enough to just stay out of. My glare once again fixated at her as I now decided to put her on the spot.
"Explain."
"The mermaids lure the people to their deaths like the ghost lures the people to the cave, and once they're there, it pushes them in and drowns them like the fae." she elaborated, making my anger at her raise considerably baling Mai out of trouble with her words yet again.
"What about the girl?" Monk asked, making my hopes rise that they wouldn't have an answer to it, but I was greatly disappointed when Mai perked up and smiled at the man she saw as a father.
"We think she's the main spirit and she's the one who's causing all this." Mai said, piping in once again.
"Wow, good work you two." Ms. Matsuzaki complemented, patting Mai on the shoulder and smiling over at the she-devil.
"Yeah, you guys did some pretty good research there." Monk added, smiling proudly at the two girls. Mai blushed at the complements and looked away from her parental figures as she moved a section of hair behind her ear.
"Thanks." she said, a proud smile of her own spreading across her lips. The final straw though was when I looked over at my twin for help only to see him hugging the tramp with a wide smile.
"You did good Angel." he said, kissing the top of her head and making her smile happily at all that she had done. In that moment my anger for her and her manipulative ways boiled over and I snapped.
"Don't reward them." I said, scowling at the entire team. Everyone was taken aback by this, but I really didn't care.
"But they put together some of the main pieces." Yasu stated, bringing up a valid point, but at this point in time it really didn't matter to me in the slightest.
"That may be true, but that doesn't excuse them from not only keeping this information to themselves, but also breaking one of the main rules by sneaking away from the group by themselves without a spiritualist there." I said, reminding them all of that little rid-bit that they seemed to have forgot with all their praise for the two troublemakers. Everyone fell silent to that and I could see the color drain from the two 'geniuses's' faces.
"But because we did that we were able to put things together!" Mai defended, taking a stand against me for once and truly trying to stand her ground instead of having Kaguya fight her battle for her.
"And how did you do that? Let me guess, you two stupidly went to the very cave that drowned so many people in the past." I assumed, not putting it past them that they would actually do that. They both stared at me wide eyed with shock and astonishment clear as day on their faces.
"How did you know?" she whispered, her voice shaking with fear to what I would do in retaliation. Smirking, I shook my head at her and sighed.
"Because I know you Mai, and you're an idiot for not telling us all this earlier."
"But it wasn't her fault! I made her promise not to tell you until we figure out if they were valid or not. I didn't want to waste your time on a possible wild goose chase." Kaguya cried, defending Mai and throwing herself completely under the bus. While although it made me happy to see her admitting to everyone that to was her fault, it still didn't make up for Mai mindlessly following her orders. I was her boss. I should have been the first to know.
"Regardless she should have broken that promise and have told me herself." I stated, moving on from her completely on this topic for she had confessed and now shown my brother her true colors.
"I don't break my promises Naru, you know that!" Mai defended, glaring up at me from her spit on the couch. It didn't even phase me as I showed her what a real glare was like.
"Then what do you call breaking the rule after saying that you'd follow it?!"
"But Naru-"
"No buts Mai, you could have been killed!" I exclaimed, making her recoil at my sudden shift in volume. I could already see the tears pricking her eyes as she narrowed her eyes and fought back in her typical Mai-like fashion.
"I didn't though and I actually found out some info that can help solve the case that wasn't in my dreams for once!" she stated, quickly recovering from my shout and now returning it with her own vigor.
"I don't care. We could have gotten it sooner or later, and since I don't seem to see you feeling any remorse for breaking the rule put in place to protect you, I feel it would be best to take you off the case." I said, no longer wanting to deal with her and any of her arguments. To tell the truth I would have like to send the she-devil away as well, but not only was she acting as the client, but Gene would most likely also have to go and I would not allow that to happen.
"What?!" she cried, looking at me in disbelief. Making my resolve I turned away and picked my black book backup from on top of the coffee table. No longer giving her anymore of my time or energy.
"At dusk Lin will drive you back to your apartment."
"Naru, you stupid, dense, jerk!" she cried, and I didn't even need to turn back around to know that she had gone running off as per usual. The stomping footsteps were enough of a clue.
"Mai!" Kaguya called, running after the upset brunette assistant of mine that had burst out of the same doorway moments before.
Silence followed the two's escape from base, whether it was from the harshness of my words, or that they were processing what I said I don't know, but all that I could say that I welcomed it regardless. A hand on my shoulder stopped me though. I looked up in slight surprise to see that it was my long term friend and mentor looking at me with concerned eyes.
"Was that really necessary Naru?"
"If I don't discipline her for what she does wrong she'll never learn." I said, feeling no remorse for what I said. Too many people on the team were soft to her and it wasn't softness that was going to make her learn. It was just how she was hardwired just like most of the idiots on this planet.
"She doesn't need to learn anything Noll, you're the one who needs to learn." Gene said, taking me by surprise that he was on their side instead of my own when I knew that I was clearly in the right.
"What did you say?"
"You just sent someone who the ghost has already attacked, and broken a deal, off running unable to see three feet in front of her due to her own tears. Think about all those people who died in a similar way." he said, making my eyes widen as this all registered in my head.
"Shit, and Kaguya went after her too." I cursed, running a hand through my hair at all the stress that girl caused me with her and her running away tactics.
"No duh. If either of those two gets hurt, I will never forgive you Noll." he said, glaring right into me to the point where I knew that if something did happen to those two things between my brother and I would never be the same.
Me: And check for chapter 14.
Mai: Why are you so mean to me?
Me: Because I can and that Naru will end up having to make it up to you later anyways.
Naru: Fat chance.
Gene: *rolls eyes* Please Review!