Zoisite stepped into the hall with this flash-light point down the long and dark hall...  "which way should we go?" he asked

OOC:

Rei blinked several times and shook her head to clear it. She couldn't explain the strange feeling she kept getting - it wasn't evil, but it was definitely something. She disn't believe in ghosts though! Leave that for Minako and Usagi (where she was).

She nodded at the second half of the group. "I agree, let's go in also." She looked at Ami and lowered her voice so Naru and Umino wouldn't hear; "we might need your computer. I have a strange feeling about this."

She followed her friends inside the school.

Zoisite watched as the flashlight beamed bounced off the lockers.  he was starting to wish he hadn't came down here. it was a waste of his time.

Minako shivered as she looked around. She had fallen silent before, quietly following the others end. But as she looked at Michiru and Rei, especially Rei, she wondered what they sensed. It had seemed like all kinds of fun before, but now that she was here, it was kind of creepy. The school was dark, with only the lights of the flashlights to guide their way.

She cleared her throat quietly. "Let's start at the front entrance and work our way up."

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Zoisite looked backed at Mainko "sounds good to me" he said as they headed that way

"I agree," Makoto said, entering the main hall as well.

The hallway was creepy at night, without any students walking around. "I guess we should start in Room 100?" Makoto asked, indicating the room across the hall from the locker room. Checking every room in the school seemed like a bit of a chore, but...

Haruka nodded when the others started talking. "that would probably make the most sense right now Makoto." she said slipping her hands into her pockets.

"that sounds good, I just hope the door is not locked" Zoisite said.

Just a reminder that goal B must be reached on or before 8/31.

It's great to see this thread active so do keep it up everyone!

Makoto gulped, walked over and opened the door. Fortunately, it opened easily, although the way it creaked in the silent hallway was a little unsettling. "It's not locked, luckily."

She peered into the classroom. It looked like a fairly standard high school classroom; nothing seemed to be floating in midair or anything. Though maybe ghosts took awhile to appear.

Breathing in a calming breath, Makoto stepped into the room. She turned around rather quickly. "So... this room doesn't look haunted to me," she said with a shrug.

"let's check the next one" Zoisite said as he opened the door and shinned his light into it.

ooc:

The female ghost decided to search for the group from the nearby rooms, maybe she would get lucky and her eyes could spot one of the group's members. She decided to keep herself blended into the wall since as much as she was a ghost who didn't have a physical body anymore, she didn't like the idea of literally walking through a human even by an accident but preferred to move melted into the architecture of the building.

Several minutes passed but after few rooms the ghost felt a presence of something, or somebody, quite close to her current location but it was hard to tell what the feeling she was getting actually was. Had the group of students been near the room she was in or was the presence she had felt owned by something else than a student? Not soon later a voice, like a person speaking, echoed from the walls to the ghost's ears but she was too far from the speaker to hear their exact words and thus everything she could hear was mumbling. The voice got all of her attention quite quickly and she didn't feel like focusing too much on the feeling she got earlier. Instead, she proceeded to move towards the direction of the voice.

Haruka sighed. "guys we should split up it will make searching the school just that much easier." the blond said. She was sure something was up now with the way Michiru had been clinging to her arm.

Bump everyone. There are only few days left before the deadline of Goal B!

Naru nodded nervously at Haruka's suggestion, pressing closer to Umino. She agreed that splitting up would make searching easier...but it also sounded scary! Maybe they could use some of the equipment and supplies that Umino had brought with him. He had been very well-packed for this, after all.

"That sounds okay to me," she replied, careful not to speak too loudly, "Where do you propose we check?"

Zoisite walked down the hall, wondering if they would find anything

Makoto joined Zoisite. "Yeah, I guess ghosts would want to hang out on higher stories?" Higher stories being closer to heaven. "Maybe we'll explore the second story?"

"we could try that" he said and head to the stairs.

Naru wasn't sure which group to follow. She hesitated, taking one step towards the group led by the stylish young man with beautiful blonde curls, and then stepped back again and turned towards the group that had assembled near the tall and striking blonde woman. Naru paused again, eyebrows furrowed, and turned to ask Umino his opinion.

Her turquoise eyes widened in shock. She whirled around, confused, but it was true. Umino wasn't there. Not even any of his equipment.

"U-umino-kun?" she called softly, terrified. "Umino-kun, where are you?"

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Zoisite listened to see if he could hear any ghost, but all he heard was Naru calling out for Umino, "i swear if that kid jumps out and scares us, i'm going to slug him." he said in a voice only loud enough of makoto and haruka to hear

Naru was really frightened now. Had the ghosts kidnapped Umino? She couldn't see a single trace of him, not when she stared into the darkness and tried to discern as much as she could, and not when she looked towards where the others had pointed their flashlights.

"H-he's gone!" she whispered, shocked.

He had said they would be together. She could feel tears gathering in her eyes, but she blinked them back hastily and took a deep breath to stop her voice from shaking. She had to be strong. She wasn't going to look like a fool in front of Usagi's friends, and she wasn't going to be helpless when Umino might need help. She'd keep looking for him as they searched for the ghosts. She only hoped that he was okay...

Somebody was crying; maternal instinct overtook Makoto, and she walked away from the stairs and up to Naru.

"We'll find Umino, okay?" she said, putting an arm on Naru's hand. "We'll go up to the ghost and demand he show Umino." Makoto realized this wasn't necessarily the most helpful thing to say to Naru. "Besides, he probably just walked away, right? I'm sure we'll find him soon. He's probably just down the hall, searching for ghosts."

Zoisite continued up the stairs.. "Hello? anyone here?" he asked

Naru appreciated Makoto's kind intent, but she had a hard time believing that Umino would have left her alone voluntarily without saying anything. That wasn't like him.

"I hope you're right," she said anyway, trying to put on a brave face.

She followed the group that was headed up the stairs.

"Maybe we should keep investigating down here, Naru. If Umino just got seperated from us, he's probably still downstairs."

Makoto indicated the third classroom door, and opened it. It wasn't locked. "I guess they don't lock the classrooms at night," she said with a shrug.

Naru turned back from the stairs and nodded at Makoto's suggestion. She had seen him not too long ago. He couldn't have gone too far... right? She could only hope so.

Naru peered around Makoto into the dimly-lit classroom.

"I guess they don't need to," she replied. "Does anything look odd to you?"

"Oh, Umino-kun," she thought to herself, "I hope you're okay..."

ooc:

When the ghost was about to walk through the wall to get closer to the faint voices, she felt that someone was on the other side of the class room. Hadn't she felt anything when the person had entered the room? That was rather strange since usually she felt the precense of humans close to her... She tried to brush away the thought quickly, turning around in the corner of the room that was almost pitch black. When the ghost saw the person who had apparently entered the room for a little while ago, she recognized him as a member of the student group she had been searching for earlier and according to his uniform, he attented the Juuban high school, as well. The ghost couldn't see his eyes well as they were covered by big eyeglasses and she was not sure if she should try to approach the boy or continue to follow the voices she had heard a moment ago.

Curiousity won over her earlier plan and she decided to show up from the shadows and maybe even try to talk to the boy although she could not guarantee that he would hear, over even see her. Regardless the ghost decided to see what would happen when she spoke to him as in the end there was nothing to lose. Quietly the ghost walked closer to the student, her pace slow so that the risk that her actions would startle him would be as tiny as possible. "Did you get lost?" she asked the boy keeping her voice quiet and continued with another question, maily formed by her wish to know more about the student group, the wish that had been born after they had entered the school. "Why did you all come to the school so late after the classes?" Now she could only wait for the boy's reaction, if he happened to see and hear her.

Umino was on a mission. Things were getting creepy and the witching hour was drawing near! (The witching hour, he had researched, was especially good for finding ghosts! And demons!) So when one of his devices started to blip, he made the tough decision to split off from the group. He felt bad about leaving Naru behind without a word, but what if it were a demon, or another sort of evil spirit? He couldn't let it get Naru or anyone else on the ghost hunt! So split he did, creeping down hallways until he found the room that reacted the greatest, and slipped inside to wait.

He had everything ready - his infrared detectors, his recorders, his plasma arrays, everything - but while he was well prepared to find a ghost, he was not quite as prepared for the ghost to find him.

It was a weird sensation; suddenly the air felt cold all around him and the hair rose on the back of his neck. He thought he heard something, something quiet; so immediately he flipped on his recorder and held the microphone out at arms length, sweeping it around with one hand as the other pulled the headphones into place to listen in near-real-time to the recording.

"get lost?" a quiet voice asked as a tiny, tinny whisper through his headphones. He froze, dead-still, listening, barely able to believe what he was hearing. Was it a trick? He pulled one of the earphones off, but heard nothing but silence even as the ethereal voice continued, "Why did you all come to the school so late after the classes?"

"Uh..." Umino hesitated, wondering what exactly a convoy to the dead should say in such a situation, "We were investigating mysterious disturbances that happen around the school at night, rumored to be caused by a ghost!" he reported. "Are you that ghost?"

Zoisite looked annoyed... no ghost or no sign of umino.   "UMINO, you better get your butt out here or I'm going kick it" he shouted