°•○●●○•°
"KYAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!" A piercing screamed sliced their ears, all looking around on where it could be. It led them to the closed bathroom door of the women's quarters.
And another fearful scream reached their ears only for it to stop in excruciating silence.
"Akemi!" The boys were quick to react, running towards the door with Bou-san getting there first.
"It's locked!" Bou-san yells as he kept turning the knob, placing his ears to the door when he heard gargling as though Akemi was screaming under water. "Akemi! The door's locked!" 'She sounds like she's drowning in there!'
Moving to the side gave Lin enough space to try and kick the door open, even using his sides to force it along with Bou-san and the others, but it was no use. "Akemi!"
Naru frowned in thought— clenching his hands and pulling it up beside him, Lin seeing this movement hastily reached Naru and held it down, glaring at the glacial eyes of Naru.
"It's dangerous, Naru!" The mechanic looked disheveled, knowing the teenage boy planned on using his PK. 'She could get hurt.' were the words left unsaid yet Naru heard it completely as though it was yelled in his ear.
Clicking his tongue in hidden annoyance, Naru backed-off. His ability would be too strong, it could break the whole door into splinters and some could embed itself unto Akemi and hurt her further.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!" Naru clenched his fists at the restriction that would get the door open, Akemi's gargling scream still continuous in his thoughts .
Looking around into anything that could help get the door to budge, Naru stepped to do it himself. "Try kicking down the door knobs instead," Naru ordered, but Lin's narrowed gaze told him to stay put as Lin did as Naru's told.
BLAG!
"Akemi!"
"Akemi-sempai?!"
Naru was first to get inside once they got the door open, his gaze moving around the compacted bathroom— only for it to settle on the golden retriever whimpering in front of the bath tub, just in time for Akemi to leap out of it with choking sobs, quivering like a wet puppy as she frantically tried to get out, tripping as she did so.
"AKEMI!" Kneeling in front of her, Naru didn't know what to do, Oliver beside him continued to whimper. Her choked screams still echoing around the room, her eyes set on staring at her drenched body with continual fear. 'Blood!'
He frowned in confusion when Akemi kept trying to wipe herself off of something he couldn't see, her tremulous voice ringing in his head. "What's wrong? What is it?"
Akemi's head shook, her eyes wandering all over with no particular destination to focus on. Seeing how she continued to grasp straws, Naru held her head and faced it to him. "Akemi!?"
Her eyes continued to wonder yet her body reacted to the knowledge of another person somewhere around her that won't kill her. "...Blood..." Akemi bit her shaking lips, its soft pinkish hue replaced by a bruising purple due to the cold. "I'm covered in blood..."
Naru's brow furrowed as he let his eyes wander over her drenched figure, it was only water.
His midnight eyes lifted back with a grim expression on his face, removing one of his hands from holding her face and reaching out for a towel hanging on the side. "Wait," Turning his head towards the others to nudge them out for the moment.
Akemi continues to flinch every two seconds, swaying slightly from side to side muttering how she was sorry and that she was covered in blood. Hearing her apologize to nobody in particular in such an exposed condition made Naru's hand tightened in his hold yet remained soft on her ice skin.
A few of them were hesitant to leave the two, but with Bou-san's nod and Lin pushing them out got them to follow eventually.
"Akemi-sempai?" Akemi didn't budge from her blank stare, her mouth moving so small and fast it made it hard for Mai to hear and understand.
Mai stared at her sempai in worry, she looked so scared and out of it. She didn't want to leave but with Ayako's nudging and Masako's pull, she walked out without a problem. Finally giving Akemi some consideration.
Removing the coat on his shoulders, Naru drapes it over Akemi's shivering physique. His voice silent as he picks up the towel he took once more and started to dry a sobbing Akemi with it.
They were silent as Naru focused on her face first, not once did he spoke and kept his eyes on hers, not once straying for a minute.
Akemi's eyes were still blank and red, alone in her thoughts and couldn't cry no more. Her voice grew sore and hoarse from her continuous call for help and close call to drowning kept her coughing a few times.
Yet their presence alone assured the other that they were still alive. One a bit battered and hysteric, and the other haggard and disheveled. Nevertheless, that was comfort enough.
A few more of their silence passed by and Akemi finally grasps reality, blankly staring at her hands that Naru continued to dry after finishing on her face. "I— I got a vision... at least I think it was..." He kept quiet, his lips straightly firm.
Only when he finally finished somewhat drying Akemi, the heiress decided to stand— wanting to leave the bathroom without ever glancing back.
The sight of the bathtub still filled to the brim with metallic crimson, the spirit taunting her with it as its essence remained in her system. The feeling of living— delight and pleasure, when she sunk herself was still embedded in her skin.
With shaky knees, Akemi lifted herself up. Naru following along her thoughts and stood not far from her, as did her dog, Oliver. The two keeping their gaze at Akemi taking one shaky step away from them.
Yet with one step, Akemi felt her knees buckled— her weight falling but long steady hands caught her unsteady body before she could hit the floor.
Her body shaking in shock— now mixed with total anger as her thoughts once again focused on Hideo Atsugi's death. Unaware that she spoke out her thoughts: "That good for nothing quisquilian— I've had enough— !?"
Arms wrapped itself around Akemi, her cold skin highly contrasting to the heat Naru gave. The difference in temperature made her flinch yet she couldn't help but feel warm as the hug engulfed her entire being. Turning her around by her shoulders, Naru wiped her wet cheeks with a deep look in his eyes.
Akemi may not see it, but she felt how his aura changed and Akemi's eyes once gain filled itself to the brim, reading him completely and understanding what it could mean.
"You're crying again." His voice came out taut hard, toneless; trying his best to keep it hollow and clear. Yet his concern and worry fully cancelled his voice,
it went so deep. His emotions.
No matter how he shows it, Akemi felt how his emotions consumed him. Trying so hard for his thoughts to win. His logic. His only weapon,
'Naru... why do you insist to hide?' unaware that her current tears fell for a whole different reason.
His aura. It's overwhelming.
"Calm down and tell us what you saw." Naru says, including the others when it was just the two of them in his presence.
And Akemi decided to indulged him,
"It took Hideo Atsugi.... and it made me relive his kill..."
"Why did you say you were covered in blood?" Naru asks, taking note on how Akemi said 'Kill' instead of the usual 'death'.
Akemi lifts her eyes, and Naru internally flinched on her puprle eyes; finding it hard to believe that her eyes looked at him right now with a vacuum-like void, as though she could see yet couldn't at the same time. "He bathes in it."
"Who?" Akemi's eyes glimmered in wet anger,
"Urado."
°•○●●○•°
"So you're saying that Kaneyuki-shi is the reason why people are disappearing?" Bou-san crosses his arms. All fully awake and occupying the temporary base with an attentive atmosphere.
Akemi nods, pulling her loose pink long sleeves further to her finger tips. They've never seen her so meek and timid. Her once rosy skin remained a close winter pale. "And from what I've gathered in the vision, he only takes the young ones— 25 years old max."
"I see..." Naru nods, cutting the others off as the look on wanting to know more passed their eyes. There was no need for them to know since he, Naru himself already knows. Having Akemi to repeat the words she struggled to say was torture enough. At least in the bathroom, she was open to show her vulnerability without the sight of others. "Yasuhara-san, Mai, you two are not to be alone."
"What?! No way!" Mai shook her head in surprise but Naru didn't dare to dwell on it and continued.
The room to the base dwindling to a cold temperature.
"Matsuzaki-san, how much can we depend on you?"
Ayako frowns, standing next to a coldly sitting Akemi. "What are you asking?" The Miko's stance turned protective,
"Now's not the time for word games," Naru's eyes sharpened. And the others forced to hide the shiver that crawled their spine, Naru's in his mood again. "It's dangerous here, but we need Mai and Yasuhara-san. How much can we rely on you?"
The room was quiet as they waited for Ayako's response, but the Miko was slightly hesitant if it weren't for Akemi's reassurance. "For counter spells, you can rely on me completely."
Naru glances at Akemi who weakly nodded at him, vouching for Ayako. "Counter Spells is one of Ayako's specialty. I'll be with her on it,"
"Understood, so we're completely dependent on Matsuzaki-san and Hara-san. Are we all agreed?"
"I'm worried, Matsuzaki-san..." Masako doubting she should put faith on Ayako. "Since I'm a medium, I can protect myself." Her words in content meaning that she rather protect herself to be sure, but Naru was not having any of it.
"Hara-san, I basically don't feel I can trust anyone outside our group." Naru mysteriously states that made the others understand, even they wonder the legitimacy of Oliver Davis and his company. "So that's very few people," Understanding what he meant, Masako couldn't help but blush at what she thought the meaning could be, but nod nonetheless and agreed on being partnered up with Ayako.
"Yasuhara-san, you can't defend yourself at all. We need people who can be depended upon to protect you." Naru places his attention towards the men. "So, Bou-san and John, you two guard Yasuhara-san. Please be diligent."
Lin stands up from his seat, his face confused. "Is it all right if I guard Taniyama-san and Akemi?" Noticing that the others who can protect themselves and others were taken up, leaving only him and Akemi— but from Akemi's condition, she doesn't look all to great and up to protect others.
"You'll only have Mai to protect," Lin's brow furrowed and Akemi's eyes widened.
"Okay, but then who'll guard you?" Lin frowns along with the others. "If I'm not mistaken, you can't use counter spells, right?"
"Ah! That's right! What would you do?!" Mai gaped. Focusing her attention towards a quiet Naru, who decided to only cross his arms and lean back on his chair beside Akemi. 'Lin's right, I'd forgotten that Naru isn't a medium... He only researches the supernatural.'
"Why do you think I have Akemi for?"
"Naru! You know Akemi isn't up for extinguishing spirits nor help you protect yourselves when she herself is in that condition!" Lin sent Akemi a look, whereas the heiress gave out a smiling nod, dismissing his words as she understands.
She too has the same thoughts as Lin. She was not in the right condition to do anything, her legs continued to shake like a leaf— making it difficult for her to walk or even stand, her body felt heavy and tired as well as the constant cold she found herself in after being submerged in the tub. Not to mention, her sight and ears are impaired at the moment with the spirits calling and showing up and drown her with visions. Once Urado has shown his vision, the other spirits followed and Akemi had to see death every minute she loses focus.
Though she could tell one of the reasons was the hidden jab towards Naru wanting Akemi to be with him for him to use his PK much more easier yet it is not enough reassurance for Lin, since Naru and Akemi haven't tried it out enough to find it safe.
"You have enough energy?" Naru to Akemi. The heiress lightly flinches, not quite sure how to respond.
"...I think so... but I'm not confident about it," Naru frowns beside her, 'Why isn't she confident about it?'
"We'll think of something." Akemi let out wry smile, sending Lin a worried glance. Instead of asking more of it, Naru insisted of having it to work.
Akemi can't fight him on this, she has no energy to socialize whatsoever.
"This is no joke. I'm worried anything can happen. Bou-san, you guard Yasuhara-san— Brown-san can guard Taniyama-san, Takigawa-san and Hara-san can guard Akemi together." Lin suggested, which was a nice idea though not enough for Naru's standard of complete security.
"I'm not underestimating the situation." Naru wants everybody safe and no news whatsoever of someone missing from his team, he got them in this situation as the Boss of sorts— he would carry this on his shoulders if something wrong were to happen. "I'm considering the possibility of threats here." Naru remained stoic in his decision.
But Lin wasn't backing down, giving the others free entertainment.
"-So please send someone back. We can't leave you by yourself with Akemi in her condition." Naru's frown deepened and his gaze turned cold. "If there's something you think we could learn from you, why don't you 'teach' us?"
Mai blinked, 'Teach us? What does he mean?'
Akemi tilts her head, taking note of Naru's tense reaction. 'Does Lin mean about Naru actually teaching?'
With nothing else to fight back, Lin went towards to what he thinks could win Naru over. "Please at least consider your parents' feelings."
"Lin..." The hidden threat lingered, as the room turned considerably cold.
"Did you forget? You said you were one of 17 children?" Lin and Naru glared at each other,
"If you're not satisfied with my leadership, feel free to leave."
Lin scoffs under his breath, "Do we have a misunderstanding here? Of course I may leave, it bothers me that you've forgotten. I'm not your chaperone,"
'What is this, a domestic dispute?' Mai and the others couldn't see the big deal of it.
"-Because I'm just here to observe you."
'O-' the others perked, 'Observe him?'
Mai felt a bead of sweat drip down her head, 'Observe him? What does that mean!?'
"Um," Yasuhara lifts his hand when he couldn't take the silence any longer, the fight was turning into discomfort and he didn't want to cause any trouble. "I'll leave."
"Hey, boy-" Bou-san went to intervene but Yasuhara smiles.
"If I do that, There should be no problems.". Yasuhara kept his smile, "-Isn't a president supposed to assign responsibility to his employees and then leaves so he doesn't become a nuisance?"
The others looked at him, "Are you sure?"
Yasuhara nods, "I'll assist Mori-san in Suwa City.". Silence once again passed them as it was decided, Masako and Ayako were to protect each other, Bou-san and John watches over Mai while Lin, Akemi and Naru are grouped together.
MAI
Now that they have it aside, there was something troubling Bou-san, "Why does Kaneyuki-shi abduct them in the first place?" Bou-san and the others turning to Akemi who flinched, Ayako founding a blanket for the heiress to wrap her shaking physique with yet it was useless still. All of them waited for her answer,
"Kaneyuki-shi drains them of their blood." The others turned, gaping as Naru spoke, their eyes widening in surprise.
"WHAT?!" while Mai froze, 'I don't want to hear this...'
Naru continues, "He would lead them to a room and drain them with the help of two servants and a doctor."
'No, stop... I don't want to hear this...'
"Then submerge himself with it." Mai felt her body quiver in fear, her hands holding her together to keep herself from collapsing.
'I don't want to hear this story anymore!'
"Taniyama-san?" The others then noticed Mai's panicking figure,
"Mai?" Bou-san went to comfort her but Masako waves her hand at him, her attention fully focused on Mai with a calm aura as well as Akemi who gazed at her sadly. Both of them seeing someone else,
"These people can't come. They can't save you for you have already died" Masako gently says, a soft aura coming off her as the atmosphere around her turned gentle. Akemi let out a slight hum, as Masako's aura was of great comfort.
Her touch on Mai's shoulder solidified that atmosphere, Akemi smelt a nice flowery scent linger as Masako unknowingly used her spiritual energy to free the spirit.
"Now keep going, don't be afraid, just try going towards the light. You must relax..."
The spirit was sent to her peace, Masako patting Mai's back as she cried for the spirit whose past and death continued to hurt and ended in a tragic way,
°•○●●○•°
"This mansion was constructed with a high middle section. The first floor's foundation actually inclines upward in the middle. The middle section is over two meters higher than the outlying ones." Lin showed to the crew the graphic outline of the house, Naru leaned in close to the monitors to see a huge space right in the center of the mansion.
Mai stood beside Bou-san, who both hummed at the sight of the mansion interior. "That's strange..."
"hm."
"This mansion was built in this shape from the beginning." John said, pointing to the empty space that made their job in measuring difficult.
Naru stepped back, placing a hand on his chin in thought. Trying to place the pieces together, "It seems to be built to look huge from the outside by its arrangement if windows, even though the middle section's rooms are as small as those in a smaller building. I understand that part but,..."
Bou-san though cuts him off with his own gloat. "I could have told you the middle was empty." Bou-san says. "Wasn't there an odd stariwell to the second floor as if it were there for a central courtyard? Maybe it's another hidden room and there's a secret passage way somewhere to get in."
"What if there's not a secret passage way?" Naru suggests, gaining confused gazes from the others.
"Huh?" All where confused, except for a meek Akemi, who weakly nods in understanding. Seeing the picture of Naru's idea.
"I see..." Akemi nods, frowning as her sight darkened considerably more and started to swirl though didn't bother to say. "If there is one in this old dirty mansion and the people who used the secret passageway disappeared by using it— shouldn't there be any traces left behind..?" Akemi asks, Ayako deciding to sit beside her on the vacant sofa and tried to warm Akemi's cold shaking hands. 'I feel... weaker...?'
"Eh?" The others remained blank, watching and turning their gazes back and forth Naru and Akemi, who looked at each other with a knowing look. "-Eh?"
"We tried to find a secret passageway into it but there hasn't been any traces of any disturbed dust, footprints and such."
Akemi tilts her head at Naru's words. "So there really is a sealed-off room?"
With a firm nod, Naru stared at Akemi with a fixed look. "What if that hidden space isn't a secret passageway but a sealed-off room?"
The others nod in consideration, finally grasping the out of the box thinking of the two. "That must be true..."
"It is possible." Ayako beside Akemi leans back on the back rest.
Yet Bou-san found an obstacle in this idea, "But how are we going to inspect them?" Bou-san asked, feeling something coming with the way Naru looked. "We can't just tear them down, can we?"
Naru without a moment's hesitation agrees. "that's not a bad idea."
"Huh?! FOR REAL?!" But before Naru could start planning, the window to the temporary base let out a noise and opened to reveal Madoka and Yasuhara. The two, waving at them with such bright easy smiles.
The sight of it gave Naru a frown.
"Good evening~!" Madoka cheerily hops inside with Lin and Yasuhara's help.
"Greetings! We're back to report our findings." Yasuhara adds in as he got inside the "warm" room.
"Yasuhara-kun was amazing!" Madoka grins, sitting next to Akemi. Keeping her words to herself when Naru called her earlier about the events just hours ago. "Today was so productive!" Madoka, gave Akemi a hug while Yasuhara sat on the seat Lin gave him.
"That's right, because I'm efficient." Yasuhara's eyes went to Akemi's condition, giving the heiress an encouraging smile and a nod of greeting to which Akemi returned as elegantly as she can.
Naru watched the two with a gloom expression, "Tell us why you came here."
'What's with the attitude...' Mai felt a bead of sweat drip down on her forehead. The sound of it turning ice and shatter on the fall was close to the sounds of a pot falling in a quiet room.
"Oh right, sorry about that." Yasuhara abashed. "Well we thought we should report back immediately, because while we were still heading into the city, I came up with the idea of counting the chimneys on this mansion and I came up with twelve but I thought there were only ten or eleven when we inspected the premises on the inside."
Lin spoke up, giving Madoka a set of papers. What was inside it? No one knows except for the two. "It was eleven."
"Then there's one more." Madoka nods, her eyes skimming over the papers and gave out a smile.
"So when we looked closer, the chimney in the middle of the house looked odd. It was wider than the others. So being the smart person that I am, I took a photographic evidence" Madoka gave out a smug smile and took out an envelop filled with the photographic evidence that was mentioned: photos of 12 chimneys, mainly focusing on the twelfth situated in the middle of the mansion.
"We asked around the neighborhood and heard various stories. Whenever possible, we spoke to the oldest neighbours who claimed that Kaneyuki-shi was an eccentric person that hated people and when he was kind he would help people but when angered, he would chase people around."
Yasuhara adds in." Well, for the most part, I didn't edit the survey results collected by Mori-san," Naru frowned at his smiling teacher. "Apparently, Kaneyuki-shi was physically weak when he was young. Since childhood he'd been told that he wouldn't live for long. He often meandered abroad, supposedly he was just sightseeing but people say he was actually visiting foreign doctors. After that, Kaneyuki-shi apparently lived here but he was accompanied by two man servants and a doctor would occasionally stop by. They were old gardeners who the grandfather allowed to go in and out whenever they pleased. They did everything here at the time, they apparently made a labyrinth out of hedges. The labyrinth supposedly covered the gap between the main wing and cottage, whenever those gardeners came here people experienced strange and nauseating feelings. There was a nauseating odor in that cottage too, like the one that always at a graveyard. Moreover, there were always new faces among the maids who came here..."
'For me it was a dream but for that person it was reality.' Mai let out a shiver as she remembered the maid that possessed her, hugging herself and caressed away her goosebumps.
"-Still calling out to you?" Bou-san nudges Akemi who stayed frozen on her side. The heiress flinching, while the monk was head over heels worried for the girl. He was already seeing her as a sister from a different family, he couldn't help it.
"...Pardon?" Akemi dumbly blinks.
When Bou-san repeated his question, Akemi nods. "They are louder today compared to the last." Akemi scrunched her brows, 'They're... Actually getting louder...?'
"Why do you think that is?"
"....I don't know..." With a teasing smile Akemi adds, "...It's making me think I'm wearing earphones though,"
Bou-san gave out a small smile. While Naru continued to listen to Madoka and Yasuhara, speaking out his thoughts. "Is that the reason why this murdered spirit haunts this house?"
Akemi froze, their voices— the crew, becoming inaudible as time passes and the lights to the room turned off, "?!"
The others tensed in alertness. The sudden disappearance of light, made it hard for them to see and it took a while for their eyes to adjust.
"KYAAAAAHHHHH!" They heard a scream, that was soon followed by a dozen of others. All mixing together to form a heart wrenching sound.
BAM
BAM
BAM
"Is this really happening?!" Ayako stood, Akemi shakily following along her gesture but all for a different reason as her eyes stared at the number of spirits crying to her. "That rapping noise is too loud..."
BAM
BAM
Mai looked around, scared. "Na-naru..."
"KYAAAAAAAHHH!" Akemi gaped, the sounds of their screams loud as they all gather around her. Using her energy to reach the physical realm, and soon everybody heard what she has been hearing all this time.
"HELP!"
"HELP!" Akemi's body felt freezing.
"HELP!" Heavy...
"HELP!!!" She feels so...weak...
"RUN!!" Burning...
"I'M SCARED!!!" Dizzy...
"I DON'T WANT TO DIE!!!"
"PLEASE SOMEBODY!!!" Dark.
'So this... this is what Akemi hears...' Naru's brow twitched, his expression turning cold as the screams continued to be heard. Years of calling, now finally being received.
KLCK!
The lights finally turned on, and they were all stunned to see the sudden graffitied walls, ceilings some even on the floor. "What the... No way..."
"Did the spirits do this?" Mai looked around, in cold. Stepping closer to Naru as she did so. The room was covered by messages of pleading and help— All written hastily with color close to blood.
Mai turns to Naru, who remained blank. The boy only gazing at one part of the message written. One on the wall, written in flesh blood. 'Urado.'
"Someone's coming. Yasuhara-kun, we'd better leave!" Madoka and Yasuhara stood and made their way towards the window they came through. "Naru, see you tomorrow, okay?"
"Madoka, it's dangerous to go out." But the woman scholar ignored him and continued their leave,
"See you later, Akemi-chan! I hope you're feeling better!" Akemi gave out a wince, hoping that Madoka doesn't jinx anything. Yet it was too late, Akemi felt horrible.
"Watch your backs!" Bou-san wholeheartedly smiles, waving at Madoka and Yasuhara as they left.
Madoka returned his gesture with a cheery smile. "Will do!"
Just in time for Akemi's eyes to roll and her body slumping to the ground. "Akemi?!"
The doors to the base opened, in time to reveal the former prime minister. "Is everybody all right!?"
And he was given a sight of the whole SPR trying to wake Akemi.
A complete repeat to past events,