A Time for New Beginnings: Chapter 1

Me and Naruisawesome: Well we've got a new story.

Me: We hope you enjoy!

Naruisawesome: We don't own Ghost Hunt!

Mai

My name is Mai Taniyama, I am 20 years old and I live in State College, Pennsylvania. Yeah I moved to America to get away from everyone and everything. I attend Pennsylvania State University. It's been 3 years since I have been home to Japan and it's been 3 years since I've seen him.

I sighed sitting in my Quantum Physics class taking notes like the good little student I am. Finally taking my school life seriously after what happened 3 years ago with him.

I got sick and tired of always being called an idiot by him so I buried myself into my studies for the past few years. I'm even one of top students here. Although, of course, not that he would ever know any of that because he's gone—he had left all of us that day.

The bell rang signaling the end of class. I get up collecting my books and heading to the library to meet my friends.

"Hey Ryan!" I smile. Ryan is the leader of the schools local Paranormal team. And I am a member. Because of Naru I have stuck to ghost hunting. "Where is everyone else?"

Ryan smiles at me as I take a seat beside him. "They should be here soon. Although I'm surprised you're actually here before anyone else." He says teasingly.

"Shut up, I had to be on time today." I smile playfully. "You know Michelle and I have a movie night tonight." I poke him. Michelle and I had been friends since I came to Penn State. We became friends instantly. She is actually the one who introduced me to Ryan and the rest of PRS. Oh that stands for Paranormal Research Society.

"Oh, is that tonight?" He asks with a shrug. I couldn't tell if he was just messing with me though. "I forgot about it."

"Brat..." I mumble.

"Hey Mai!" I look up and see Effie, Sergey, Katrina, Heather, Josh, and Michelle walking towards us.

"Hey guys! Ryan is being mean Sergey!" Sergey is like my brother and they all treat me like their little sister.

With an annoyed expression directed at Ryan, he immediately comes over and hits Ryan on the head before taking the seat on the other side of me. I giggle and thank him.

"Ow! I wasn't doing anything!" Ryan defends himself.

We all laugh.

"So Ryan. Why did you call us here?" Heather asked sitting across from him.

"We have a new case." He announces glancing at each of us as he does.

Me and Michelle groan. "Damn you Ry..." I state with a glare. "Where's it at?"

"It's at an asylum." He simply answers.

I visibly gulp. "An asylum?"

Michelle laughs and pats my head with a smile. "Scared, Mai?"

"N-No not at all!" I lie. "When do we go?" I say with fake enthusiasm.

"Tomorrow, so be ready." Ryan informs us. We all nod in understanding.

I turn to Michelle smiling. "Movie still?" She nods smiling back and we run off to our room.

_-_-_Meanwhile in London!_-_-_

Naru

"You wanted to see me father?" I walk into my father's office.

He nods and gestures for me to sit down as he takes his reading glasses off. I do as requested and wait for him to speak.

"I'm giving you a case son. You are going to go to America. To be precise Pennsylvania. You and you team from Japan are going there to investigate an Asylum you will be working with another team of investigators who are familiar with the area. So please Oliver don't be jerk to them they are the ones who will take this case and work with us." My father stands and hands me the case file.

As I open it, I look at him with a brow raise before reading it. "My team from Japan? Why?" I ask.

"The clients have a large building for everyone to cover Noll. Your team will go to America whether you like it or not."

"Father, I haven't even seen nor spoke with them from three years." I didn't understand his reasoning.

"Then you better start preparing for hell when you see them. But one has been missing for those 3 years..."

I look at him sharply. "Who?" I demand.

"Mai Taniyama I believe..." He said thoughtfully. My eyes went wide from shock, but I quickly recover.

"She apparently disappeared shortly after you left."

'What? What happened to Mai?' I think. I focus my attention back on my father.

"How do you know this?" I question.

"I keep in touch with Father Brown and Ms. Hara." He put his reading glasses back on. "Now go get ready. Koujo left to pick them up from the airport." He smirked. "I called them about this case yesterday."

I scowl and advert my gaze away from him. "I'd rather you have told me this (before) you did all of this."

"Why? would it have made a difference?" He asked still looking at some papers he had been reading earlier.

I glare at the wall behind Father. 'Yes, we would have.' I mentally answer.

I groan when I hear the front door open and the fighting of Miss Matsuzaki and Bou-san echo through the halls. My father laughs lightly.

"Wonderful they are here, Noll. Let's go greet them." He stands up taking his reading glasses off again and pulls me to the door.

The only reason I willingly went was so I could get information about my idiotic assistant from them.

They stop bickering when they see me and Miss Matsuzaki walks right up to me and hits me with her purse. "That's for Mai!" She does it again. "And that's for not keeping in touch!"

Takigawa just glares at me cracking his knuckles.

I glare coldly at Miss Matsuzaki as I take a few steps away from her. It did hurt—not that I'd ever tell anyone that—and now I know why Takigawa complains about it so much.

"Ayako, please refrain from killing him until after the case." Ms. Hara said walking into the house. John walked in behind her, laughing nervously at hearing her request.

I glare. "What happened to her? To Mai?"

Everyone immediately freezes at the mention of her and their expressions are somber. They glance at each other before Takigawa speaks.

"We'd like to know the same."

"So she left without a word then?" I look down and glare at the floor.

"Yes." Miss Matsuzaki snaps emotionally. "It wasn't even a month after you left!"

I mentally cringe then I look back up at them with a stoic look. "Let's just do this case." I said in a not caring voice even though on the inside I'm breaking.

"I think that's a good idea..." John speaks up softly after the monk and miko huffed before they turned away, refusing to look at me. Even Miss Hara looks down spiritlessly.

I walk up to my room to pack. She's gone... disappeared and it's all my fault...

I shake my head and pack my bags before leaving the room.

Even as I did I couldn't get rid of the acknowledgement that Mai's missing. Where is she? Did she leave because of me? And more importantly...why didn't she tell anyone where or why she went?

I will get to the bottom of this I will visit every country, every city to find her after this case! I will find her and when I do I will ask her why she left and if it was because of me. And I will make her come back with me. I didn't realize how much I needed her, how much I missed her until I heard she was gone!

When I went back downstairs with my suitcase in hand, Mother was already speaking with the others.

"Let's go. We are leaving. Now."

"Already? Naru, we just got here!" Takigawa complains while my mother gives me a disapproving glare.

I glare back. "Does it look like I care? Let's just go!"

Everyone except John gives mumbles of complaints—just like old times. They never change, do they?

I hide my smirk by getting in my car driving ahead of everyone else.

_-_-With Mai_-_-

"Ryan?" I knock on his door in the middle of the night.

I knock again when I hear no answer, and then a few moments later he sleepily opens the door. It's obvious I just woke him up.

"Mai?" He asks.

I hug him as I start crying. "It was horrible Ryan! I could feel her..." I reach up to hold my neck.

Ryan nods, understanding I had a dream before gently leading me inside and closing the door behind me. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"She was forced against her will...and then she was strangled. She was a nurse at the asylum...Ryan it was horrible I felt everything...every minute of it..."

As I began to cry even more, Ryan slowly—almost hesitantly—pulls me into another hug.

"Can I stay with you Ry? Please? I really don't want to be alone."

"...Alright." He whispers in agreement. It's not the first time I've done this, although it's only been a few times. Ryan always sleeps on the floor while he makes me take the bed, which I always feel guilty about but he doesn't take no for an answer.

"Ryan? Stay with me on the bed this time please? I'd feel safer that way..." I lay close to the wall for him to lay with me.

"Mai..." He starts off.

"Please Ryan?" I look at him with tears in my eyes again.

"...Fine." He finally agrees after it looked like he had an inner battle with himself. "But only for tonight." He quickly adds.

"Thank you Ry..." I mumble sleepily when he lays next to me. I unconsciously snuggle into his side falling asleep.

"Night Mai." I heard him say before I fell in a deep, thankfully dreamless sleep.

The next day I wake up wrapped in strong arms. Oh no. Ryan. I blush and look up at him sleeping. I breath a sigh of relief to know that he's still sleeping and doesn't know of our current position. I carefully detangle his arms from around me, so I don't wake him, then I sit up. Now that I was in my right mind I take in my state. I look down at myself and groan. I was only in a sports bra and sweat pants! Did I come here like this?!

What's wrong with me?! This is so embarrassing!

Ryan stirs awake and looks at me groggy. I subconsciously cover myself with my arms.

"Mai? What's wrong?" He sits up rubbing his eyes.

"N-Nothing... I'm sorry for coming here and waking you last night." I tell him, avoiding looking at him.

"Hey it's okay. I'm glad to help you." He makes me look at him and he smiles.

"Thanks... Well, I should probably go get ready to leave..."

"No problem Mai. Here use this to get back to your room without suspicion." He gets up and gives me one of his shirts.

I raise a brow. "Without suspicion? Oh yeah, that'll totally be non-suspicious." I say sarcastically.

Ryan rolls his eyes. "Everyone know you sleepover here sometimes EXCEPT for the team. No one else on the team know about your dreams remember? That's why you've always come to me even before we knew each other you were always there. I found you asleep outside the door every time I would go for my run at 4 am before anyone else woke up. I ended up taking you back to your dorm without anyone noticing every single time." I didn't know that little fact about it happening before we knew each other.

So I decide to ask him about it. "What do you mean before we met? Why would I go to your dorm if I didn't even know you?" I question, utterly confused.

He shrugged. "I don't know but you would come in the dorm in the middle of the night and pass out right outside my door."

I scrunch up my face, puzzled. That's really weird...and how did I not know any of that?!

"Who's Naru?"

"E-Excuse me?" I stutter, taken aback from the sudden question. My eyes involuntarily widened. "Where...did you hear that name from?"

"Last night before I fell asleep you kept muttering 'Naru' over and over again."

I...I did?

"It's nothing... Don't worry about it." I say as I turn around to leave. I'm not going to talk about him... Naru...

"Mai!" He grabs my arm. "No secrets remember?"

"...It's not a 'secret'..." I reply, still not looking at him. "I just rather not talk about it."

"Okay." He says letting go of my arm. "Go pack we have to leave soon."

I nod hastily and quickly run back to my dorm.

Michelle sits there waiting for me. "Sneaking out to see your lover again?" She jokes.

I blush at her assumption, despite it being wrong. "W-What? Of course not!"

"Mhm suuuurrre. Then why are you wearing his shirt?"

"How do you know this isn't my shirt, huh?!" I defend myself lamely as I went to my drawers to start packing my clothes.

"You went to bed in a sports bra and I wake up you aren't here. And besides the shirt is way too big on you." She packs her bags. I avoid looking at her as I continue to pack also. How am I suppose to get out of this conversation?!

Michelle comes up to me and sniffs. "You smell like Ryan's cologne...is that his shirt?!"

I blanch and back away from her. Then I wave my hands in front of my face in denial. "No! Of course not! That's ridiculous!"

Michelle smirks. "You were with him! I knew it!" She finished her packing and waits for me to finish mine.

I press my lips into a thin, firm line as I twirl around to look back at her. "It is (not) what you think!" I deny.

Michelle sighs. "Okay. Fine. I won't say any more on the subject!"

I breath in relief. When I finish all my packing, I turn back to her and ask if she's ready to leave. She nods so we do. We meet everyone out at the front of the college and then we leave and head to the asylum. Luckily I was sitting between Sergey and Heather during the car ride instead of Michelle and or Ryan.

Sergey keeps poking me though and it is annoying but that is how it was the entire ride. Ryan had wanted me to sit with him but I felt it would be way too awkward after this morning.

"Mai we are here. And it look's like the team we are working with is here too." Ryan said getting out.

"What?" I ask, furrowing my eyebrows in confusion. "What other team? You never said anything about working with someone else." I say as I climbed out the van also.

"Must have slipped my mind." He says as we walk over.

I roll my eyes as we all follow him. Yeah, right, 'slipped his mind'. He always acts like his memory is bad, but in reality, it's almost perfect.

Getting closer to the other team I stop dead in my tracks. "No...it...it can't be..." Everyone on my team stop at the sound of my voice and look back at me.

"Na-Naru..." I sat causing the rest of SPR to look back at me along with Naru and Lin.

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