a/n: The long awaited continuation of this awesome story…sorry for the wait TTwTT

CHAPTER 10

Mai's POV

I slowly sat on the bed feeling like I was lost in a dense fog. Monk and Ayako were whispering to each other, arguing about something, though I wasn't really paying attention. My eyes remained focused on my family name glowing on the wall. I couldn't help but wonder if maybe it was just a common last name.

Oh, who are you trying to kid, you idiot, I could feel the start of what would be a massive panic attack if I didn't calm myself. If you've learned anything working with SPR it's that usually things like this are exactly what they seem.

So what did this mean? Was I this girl's descendant or…was it something far more complicated…like reincarnation…?

Either way, I don't think this'll end very well for me…

"It's just as I feared."

We all looked to the doorway to find Naru, John and Masako entering the room. Apparently Lin had staid back to monitor the room from back at base.

Naru walked up to the wall and placed his hand upon it.

"It would appear that whatever killed the people of this village still inhabits the area and lured us here under false pretence," he turned to face me, "knowing that we would be bringing you with us."

"You need to warn them! You need to warn them all!"

A familiar small voice spoke to me and I wondered if the others had heard it as well. But it hadn't been me she spoke to but the young priestess. I was seeing something, though whether it was before my eyes or in my head, I couldn't tell. All I knew was that I had to follow them, the priestess and a small hooded girl.

My body moved of its own accord from the bed to the doorway.

"Warn them of what, exactly? I don't understand… What is it you have seen this time?"

This voice was that of the priestess. But something seemed a bit off about it...something almost sinister. Something familiar and cold. My body stopped then and I became aware that I was no longer in the hotel but in the woods surrounding the village. As I followed them, making sure as not to be spotted, I recognized the tall structure of the Kuraeahni Temple off in the near distance.

The other girl glanced around as though making sure they hadn't been followed.

"I didn't know who else to come to."

The priestess placed a gentle hand on the young girl's shoulder, "That's alright, now what did you see?"

"I saw," the girl hesitated a moment, "I-I saw…death. I saw the village turned to dust and all its people decimated."

The expression of the Priestess changed to something almost kind, "That's awful. Have you told anyone else of this?"

The hooded girl turned away and began to tremble, "No, you're the first I've told of this."

"Good. How unfortunate, however, for you to have found me."

Unfortunately, with her back turned the hooded girl was unable to see what I could. A sneer spread across the False Priestess's lips and as the young hooded girl who I could only assume was Taniyama turned slowly back to face not her friend but the one she had foretold.

"Hello Eighth…or should I say Sister?"

The glamour of the Priestess melted away but not before the demon plunged a white glowing blade of light into her chest and when the girl spoke, her voice sounded wet and strained, "I…should have…known…"

I had to bite my tongue to keep from crying out. When the blade had struck her I had felt not only her physical pain but her emotional pain as well…all of it. It was almost too much for me to bear.

I finally then did scream as every molecule of my being began to rip apart.

I looked back toward the unfolding tragedy to see that the hooded cloak now laid at the young girl's feet. Her cries echoed my own internal ones. Her body began to glow and then dissolve into tiny particles of light starting at her feet.

Brightly glowing tears slid down the girl's cheeks, "Where…is she…?"

Demonic features flashed across that of the Priestess, "Oh, the real priestess? I actually really don't know. She pretty much ran off after she had taken a good look at me. She probably thought I was you-well-evil you."

The demon's glamour had completely faded leaving behind a woman that looked a lot like –

My heart stopped…

This just couldn't be…

It had to be some twisted joke!

The demon was just trying to get under my skin…

Maybe I wasn't even here…

Perhaps I was still in the room and this was all just a dreadful nightmare!

Because I couldn't let myself believe that what I was seeing was real.

The young girl struggled with her next words, "Why…? Why did you do this…?"

The Demon scoffed, "Seriously? …As if you didn't know?! You were allowed to remain an angel! A chosen child of a selfish god! And what did I get?! I was thrust into a life that turns me into this-this thing! A thing so horrid that even my own sister has forsaken me…"

The demon then ripped the blade from the other woman's chest and as she fell to the ground I saw that the particles of light were not her body disintegrating but her own glamour coming to an end. And when I saw her face I almost threw up. They weren't just sisters. They were twins! Identical!

…

And they both had my face!

The whole tragic scene then flashed out of sight as though it were sucked into a vortex. And then I was alone…in the dense dark woods…nothing left to suggest that anything that horrible had ever taken place here.

"I assume that you now understand why you were chosen for this case."

Having not noticed the young girl from my dreams hovering next to me, I of course shrieked hysterically and nearly had a heart attack.

I reeled on her and shouted at her to never do that again.

I sighed heavily and walked over to the spot it had all taken place, "It's because I resemble them, isn't it?"

The girl gave me a sad smile but her eyes showed patience beyond her youth, "You don't just resemble them you're all that remains of their kind."

"Wait-what?!"

The girl sighed, less patient now, "I don't have much time to tell you this, so please listen carefully. There were once Eight Angels who resided here at this temple. Only one escaped during another massacre 400 yrs prior to the tragedy that would decimate the entire village. Unfortunately she was killed before she could warn anyone about this wretched event as you have just seen."

I wanted to throw up again, "I still don't understand! Why me? Why did they look exactly like me?!"

The girl's expression changed to that of a concerned mother, "There was one… more Angel…We had kept her under a glamour, all these years. But I must say it's been quite difficult for us to continue to do so since you joined the SPR and awoke you divine powers."

It didn't register right away what she had just said but when it did I felt like I was being forced to my knees, "No…no…!"

"Mai, you are the Hidden 9th…"