"Shoji, Shoji's been, drawn into the painting!!!"

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Mai's p.o.v.

Everyone had gathered around the painting.
Looking at what had once held the simple drawings of a girl alone in a field, witch now contained another blurry figure beside the girl.

"Miss Hara?"
"The boy is still alive, but, there is a presence here that seems..." Masako said behind the sleeve of her turquoise kimono.
"That seems...hostile, dangerous? " Ayako asked impatiently."No. Not quite, hostile. More like, foreboding. Like it's trying to protect or keep people away from something." Masako continued.

But... protect what? How can she tell. I-That boy!!!

I gasped as I recognised the boy from my vision. My eyes growing wide in horror.

"So, she got Shoji too. I was worried something like this would happen." Nell said walking up beside me.

"Huh, what do you..."

She looked at me for a second that seemed to last for a minute before fixing a sullen look back on the painting and answering "His older sister had gone missing earlier this week. They've looked everywhere but they haven't found her yet." She lowered her voice even more as she glanced over to the small crowd that hovered in the hallway." Some of the guests think that, she was another victim of this painting."

"Hey, Mai. Can I ask you something. You don't have to answer if you don't want to. It's just that, there's something that bugs me about this." She said turning to me and lowering her gaze.
"Shoot."
"Do you, do you think that all these, occurrences, are all directly linked to this painting?" She asked facing away from me making it hard to read her expression.

The way she had posed the question, or rather, the question it self seemed odd. Like she knew something that we didn't.

Something about the painting maybe... but how would she... there's no way right. Maybe I'm over thinking this. It was just a simple question, right?

But even thinking that a feeling of unease crept over me as I looked at the tall girl beside me. Soon following her gaze back to the painting as the silence crept on.

I don't get it...

"No. I mean, don't know. I don't think that, the painting itself is the problem. Just... I don't know." Another moment of silence passed between us

"It, looks so lonely."
"Hmm." She hummed looking back at me a slight look of surprise on her pale face.
"The painting. It's lonely. The girl alone in a seemingly endless field. It just seems so lonely."

She smiled as if she was happy about something I had said facing the painting with a softer look in her eyes
"I guess it does look a little lonely. Then again maybe it's supposed to."
"What do mean?"

"Do you know why the artists originally painted this. Apparently this was the work of someone who had travelled around Japan in the old times, his sketch book being the only record of his travels.
He would draw certain things that seemed... special or different that he had seen, anything from landscapes to people, small stores, you know those kinds of things. Although he'd never give away the physical place where he was. This one is no exception. No one knows where he was when he drew this, or what the exact reason was. There's a lot of theories going around here as to the motivation behind it. But my favourite is one from some of our more senior workers.
They believe that the girl is someone that the painter had come across during his travels and that-"

"Mai we're heading back to base. Are you coming?" Monks sudden voice snapped me from the trance I had fallen into from listening to Nells story. We both look back to the emptying hallway and I see Naru talking to one of the guests here as he led her to the base. Most of the s.p.r. gang had already taken leave from the hall.

"Guess you should probably get back to work." Nell said a quiet snort slipping past before her emotionless mask fell back into place.
"Um, yeah I guess." I said looking back at her.

But what about the rest of the story???

Looking at her ,her gaze still fixed on the painting, made even more questions pop into my head as my unease grew. I'm sure that if I asked, she wouldn't answer them.

"I'll leave you to it then. You know, now that you guys are here, I'm positive that you'll succeed in this case. I'm sure things will finally turn for the better around here." She said finally looking back at me a soft smile at the corners of her lips.

"You think so?"
She shook her head, no.
"I know you will. Later then, Mai." She said turning into one of the darker hallways

"Mai?" Came Monks voice
"Coming." I answered running to catch up to him and Yasu.

I wonder what that all was about...

I know you will...

It's like she knows what'll happen...

I thought glancing back to the hallway she had disappeared into

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