Liar, Liar, the Mage's Desire Vol. 3 (Return of the Oumeno)

Shuichi Saihara, Where Are Ya? (7)

    Outside, Scooby and Shuichi couldn't see too far in the rain. They could hardly see the pitch black waves of the ocean below. They looked above them; the Green Sentinel appeared much spookier at night. Shuichi shuddered at the eerie sight. 

   "Come on, Scooby. Let's search around the lighthouse," he said. Scooby nodded silently, and together, they walked around the lighthouse, searching for any possible clues. But the darkness and the rain made it difficult to see anything. 

   "Mm...it's hard to see anything out here, Scooby," Shuichi muttered. He looked up at Scooby. "C'mon, we should head back insi-" Shuichi interrupted himself as he noticed Scooby shaking in fear and pointing behind Shuichi. "S-Scooby?" Shuichi asked apprehensively. He slowly turned around to see Barracuda Blatherskite glowering at him. Shuichi gasped in fear.

   "AHH!" he shouted. He ducked in time as Barracuda Blatherskite swung his arm down to strike him. "Run, Scooby!" Shuichi screamed. Together, he and Scooby took off running from the ghostly fisherman, who was right on their tail.

   "Gooo awaaaayyyy!!" Barracuda Blatherskite rasped. Shuichi and Scooby tried to run back inside, but they couldn't find the front door due to the pitch blackness and the rain. 

   "I-I can't see where I'm going!" Shuichi yelled through the rain. He felt the grass beneath him suddenly give way. "Scooby...are you-AAAAAHHHHHHH!!!" He fell until he landed on a soft pile of dirt. He stood up, shivering in the cold. He looked at his surroundings, realizing that he landed in some kind of narrow passageway. He walked forward until he saw a door with light emitting from underneath it. Cautiously, he walked over to the door and slightly opened it. Shuichi gasped at what he saw. The room inside was lit, with a computer, and peculiar objects, like a jackhammer, a drill, and an assortment of other construction tools leaning against one of the walls. On the opposite wall was a fuse box. On the far end of the room was a narrow staircase. But none of these were what made Shuichi gasp. The room was filled entirely with numerous, empty sacks that were sprawled all over the floor. Shuichi picked up a sack and investigated it.

   "Why are all these sacks here?" he muttered to himself. "Why are they empty? Wait...what is that?" He looked deeper into the sack and saw a gold-colored stain on it. Suddenly, he remembered the 70 million dollars worth of gold bars that were stolen from the bank. He gasped with realization. "I think I'm starting to see what's going on." He dropped the sack and went over to the fuse box. He opened it and saw that the switches to the lighthouse had been turned off, save for the one in the room he was currently in. He turned the other switches back on. He then went over to the computer, where he saw a folder with the words "Bob Dabillder Construction." 

   "I see. This must be the construction company Barty works for," Shuichi mumbled to himself, remembering the uniform Barty wore when he had walked into the lighthouse earlier that afternoon. He opened the folder. The first thing he saw was a diagram of the Green Sentinel, which made Shuichi raise his brow in confusion. "Why would this be down here?"  He was about to flip through the other papers, when he noticed something else on the desk that caught his attention. It was a small, black, rectangular tube. He picked it up and gasped as he realized that it was a tube of lipstick. He opened it, and the color of the lipstick was bright pink. 

   "Ah! So, the culprit has to be-" But Shuichi didn't get to finish. He felt a sharp pain rush across the back of his head as if it had shattered into a million pieces. He fell to the floor. The only thing he saw was a pair of legs rushing up the staircase before completely blacking out. 

    Meanwhile, Scooby rushed back into the lighthouse, crying out for help. "Relp! RELP!!" he cried. Everyone shot up from their slumber.

   "Scooby, what's going on?" Daphne asked. 

   "Ronster!! Ronster!!" Scooby yelped, jumping into Shaggy's arms. 

   "M-M-Monster?!" Shaggy stammered. 

   "Where did you see it, Scooby?" Velma asked. 

   "Rout there! Rout there!" Scooby answered, pointing outside. 

   "What's going on?" Bessie asked as she and Barty headed downstairs, yawning. 

   "Scooby said he saw ol' Barracuda Blatherskite outside," Fred explained. 

   "Nyeh...Kokichi...where's Shuichi?" Himiko whispered, tugging on Kokichi's sleeve. Kokichi looked and saw that Shuichi was, indeed, gone.

   "Hey, where's Shuichi?" he asked. Everyone looked around. 

    "He's g-g-gone!" Himiko yelled.

    "Like, Barracuda Blatherskite must have eaten him!" Shaggy said, trembling with fear. "He was goin' fishin,' and he hooked himself a Smallmouth Saihara!" 

   "Roooh....poor Ruichi!!" Scooby cried, tears streaming from his eyes. 

   "Nooo! Shuichi got eaten!" Himiko wailed. Kokichi gripped Himiko's shoulders.

   "Hang on, HimiCocoa Bean! Let's not jump to conclusions," he said before turning to Scooby. "Scooby, tell us exactly what happened." Scooby explained to everyone what happened.

   "...rand Ruichi just...risappeared!" he finished. "Ri ridn't see where he rent!" 

   "We should all split up and look for him," Barty suggested. 

   "Right!" Fred said. "Okay, Daphne, Velma, and I will search outside. Scooby and Shaggy, you two split up and search down here on this floor. Barty and Bessie, you guys can search upstairs."

    "Right!" Barty replied.

   "What about Himiko and me?" Kokichi asked, crossing his arms.

   "Er...well, um...you guys can...do whatever you want?" Fred asked, eyeing Kokichi with apprehension. "Uh...anyways...let's split up already! Come on, come on! Hurry up!"

   "Wow, Fred, you're usually not this pushy!" Daphne exclaimed. 

   "Just go already," Fred growled through clenched teeth, hurriedly pushing her and Velma towards the front door as his eyes kept darting towards Kokichi. Shaggy and Scooby headed for the kitchen. With one last suspicious glare at Kokichi and Himiko, Barty headed upstairs with Bessie. 

   "Nyeh...did you see the way he looked at us?" Himiko asked Kokichi. 

    "Yup! He's definitely suspicious," Kokichi muttered in thought. "But we can't worry about him, now. We gotta find Shuichi, Monkey Buns."

    "You're right," Himiko said. Then she cupped her hands over her mouth. "Shuichi Saihara, where are ya?!"