"Naru," Mai whispered into the darkness. She had lost her only hope of getting through this case alive when she realized that Naru was not coming to save her. Her narcissistic boss couldn't hear her cries of protest in the dark and damp basement that she had gotten herself stuck in. It was all her own fault for running off alone when Naru had specifically told her not to go anywhere by herself. She sat crouched in the corner of what seemed to be the basement of the creepy old hospital. She cringed inwardly when droplets of what she hoped was water began to rain down on her from above. Mai wanted to cry; it was dark and musty, and she was having troubles breathing in the mold laden air. She didn't know exactly where she was or what had decided to lead her there. She was more than a little scared to say the least. She felt like a little kid again waiting for her mom to come back and knowing deep inside that her mom was never coming back. She hadn't felt so alone in quite some time. Her scattered thoughts were brought to an abrupt halt when she heard the pitter patter of footsteps sloshing through water. An inkling of hope burrowed in her chest at the thought of a swift and painless rescue. Surely, someone must have noticed her absence and had come to find her and bring her back to safety.

"Hello?... Is anyone there?... Naru? Lin? Monk?... Anyone?..." She practically shouted into the darkness that surrounded her.

The fleeting hope of a savior soon left her when she came to the conclusion that whoever or whatever was down there with her was surely no friend. She began to panic, her brain switching into overdrive thinking of all the gruesome possibilities those footsteps could entail. Her breathing grew spastic and she grew lightheaded. 'Calm down, Mai!' She silently berated herself. She would never get out of this situation in one piece if she continued to grow frantic like she was. She needed a game plan. She was having difficulties trying to think straight around her fear and hysteria, though. Just before she could begin to piece together what to do to get herself out of this mess she felt rather than saw something approach her. She opened her mouth to scream in protest but before the screech could rip from her throat she received a blow to her head just above her right eye. She felt blood trickle down the side of her face. She didn't even have time to register the pain before she blacked out into her blissful dream world.


*Three Days ago. 7:00 am. Case #1*

"Mai, we're leaving with or without you." Naru's monotonous voice came from the front of the van he was climbing into.

Mai retaliated by sticking her tongue out at her handsome boss before running to the van. She plopped into the front seat next to Naru just as Lin had started the engine. Mai sighed tiredly, thinking about how crappy her luck was that she had to get up so early on a Saturday. She yawned broadly and leaned her head against the passenger side window. Already beginning to be lulled to sleep by the feel of the engine. She cast a quick glance at Naru to find that he had already delved into their next case. Reading the file on the history of the century old hospital. The hospital was a couple of hours away giving Mai the perfect opportunity to catch up on some much needed sleep. She found herself having difficulties falling asleep though, when she couldn't stop thinking about the hospital they were heading to. Mai thought it sounded interesting, she was just happy they finally had a case after weeks of slow business. She grinned in anticipation just thinking about how the client had described the hospital.

Mai looked up from her filing when she heard the bell above the door chime in the other room. She stopped filing and quickly made her way to the other room where a young man stood awkwardly waiting for someone to acknowledge his existence.

"Hello," she chimed. "Welcome to Shibuya Psychic Research. My name is Taniyama, Mai. Do you have an appointment with Shibuya-san?" She asked.

He looked up from his vigil by the door and grinned at her, his face brightening. He appeared to be in his late teens. He was tall with green eyes the color of antifreeze and shoulder length black hair which he swept back with a flick of his hand. Mai had to admit he was gorgeous. He could give Naru a run for his money in the looks department.

"Ah, hello. I am Aburame, Shinji. Pleased to meet you Taniyama-san. I do not, most unfortunately, have an appointment. I was kind of hoping I could get help with something though. A friend of mine recommended this place. Is there any way I could talk to your boss though, cutie?" He said with a shrug and a wink which made Mai blush a bit at the slight flirting.

"Sure thing. Let me go get him. Take a seat he should be right out." She cheerily told him as she made her way to Naru's personal office.

She knocked briefly and without waiting for an answer, opened the door and stuck her head in the door.

"Hey, Naru." She called. "There is a client waiting for you out here. I'm going to go make some tea."

She stood waiting for a reply she knew wouldn't come taking this opportunity to openly stare at her narcissistic boss. He looked up after a few seconds noting that she was still there.

"Are you done staring at me, Mai? If so, I'd suggest getting back to work." He said in the tone of voice that made her want to hit him.

She grumbled to herself as she made her way out the door to the kitchen to make tea. As she started the water on the stove and got the cups out of the cabinet she heard Naru exit his lair. She sighed and unconsciously fixed her hair and flattened out the wrinkles in her uniform. She quickly placed the cups of tea on a tray and unceremoniously brought it out to Naru and the new client. She handed Naru his first then offered a cup to Shinji, who took it and said his thanks with a bright smile. She took her seat opposite Naru and opened up her notebook to take notes for the mysteriously absent Lin.

Shinji and Naru appeared to appraise each other for a moment before Shinji spoke.

"I assume that you are Shibuya-san?" He asked.

"I am. How can I help you?" Came Naru's curt reply.

If Shinji was surprised at Naru's age he certainly didn't show it. He merely nodded and began to tell of his situation.

"Yes, well I am Aburame Shinji and you see, I am here for my father. He recently bought an old hospital in hopes of fixing it up and reopening it as a functioning hospital, of course. Many people attempted to sway him from his investment by telling him it was haunted by former doctors and patients. My father has a no nonsense personality and doesn't have time for such silly rumors as he called them. He did not heed their warnings and began construction on the building around six months ago. Immediately after we began strange phenomenon began occurring." Shinji paused to collect his thoughts and take a sip of tea. He swiped his hand through his hair yet again and continued on.

"My father is a foolish man for not listening to what the others tried to tell him. He refused to believe and it is for that reason that he is currently in the hospital. But, before I begin to explain that, I must tell you about how it all began. It started as workers refusing to go into the basement because they claimed to see horrible spirits and ghosts. My father did not believe them, of course. I, myself, have seen spirits wandering around the corridors where the old nurse's aid station used to be. We all assumed these were friendly entities that meant us no harm and this was the case until construction began near the aid station. The day we started knocking walls down was when they started to get violent. Beginning with little things like hair being pulled from behind and nobody being there and being pinched and poked. But then one day out of nowhere a buzz saw was turned on without being plugged in and it chased a man down the hallway. He is currently sitting in the hospital with severe gashes along his arms. We managed to stop the buzz saw before it could do too much damage though. Then about two weeks ago a man was repairing windows outside on a ladder when he suddenly screamed in terror, lost his balance and fell to the ground pretty hard. He most unfortunately did not make it" Shinji paused again to take another drink. Mai had visibly blanched at the thought of the poor man who had died due to these threatening spirits.

"Many of the workers decided to quit after the incident and my father was distraught. He began to grow distant spending more and more of his free time working in the hospital. About a week ago he began spending all of his time there, only coming home to sleep. Then two days ago my father sent what was left of the men home for the night, while he continued work as usual. We don't know much of what happened at this point. We found him in the basement after hours of searching when he didn't come home that night. We don't know why he went down there or what happened to him. When we located him he was covered in blood from head to toe, none of which was his, muttering to himself about ghosts and 'treatments'. We took him to the hospital and were told that he had a fever of 104 and pneumonia. He still hasn't spoken a full sentence since we found him and he has this crazed look in his eye. My mother is beside herself in worry and won't leave his bedside. Please Shibuya-san, will you help my family? You are our last resort."

Mai knew that look in Naru's eye, he was definitely interested in this case. She sincerely hoped that he would take it. SPR had been dead the last couple of days and it was obvious this guy needed their help. She looked at her boss and awaited his answer. Naru stood up and looked at Shinji, saying

"We will take your case. We will need a room for our base of operations and two rooms for sleeping. Leave your information with my assistant and we will be there early tomorrow morning."

Mai grinned in anticipation; at least her weekend didn't stand a chance of being boring. Naru disappeared into his office again as Shinji and Mai got to their feet. Mai handed him her notebook and a pen to write his information down on. He took it and began to write. He looked up at her and smiled.

"So," He started, "Since I'm giving you my number do you think I could get yours? I mean what's fair is fair, right?" he said as he dropped a wink, causing her to blush yet again.

She reveled in how charming he seemed to be and giggled as she nodded her assent and wrote her number down on a different piece of paper and handed it to him. He handed her back her notebook with his information inside and headed for the door.

"See you tomorrow Aburame-san." She said to his retreating figure. He stopped and turned towards her, putting his hand in his pockets, the seriousness his face held earlier was no longer there.

"Please call me Shinji." He said.

"Sure, as long as you call me Mai." She said as she grinned like an idiot.

"Okay Mai, see ya tomorrow." He called over his shoulder with a wave of his hand as he walked out the door. Leaving Mai stunned at the conversation that had just taken place. She went to Naru's office to see who she needed to call. She knocked and went in still grinning. Before she could even open her mouth to ask, Naru started talking.

"Good, now that you're done fraternizing with our client you can go and call everyone and tell them to be here by 6:30 tomorrow morning." The grin slowly slipped from her face. Her mood quickly deflated at how snippy he had been. She walked out the door slightly shocked and feeling kind of hurt at how he had just acted towards her. But she shrugged it off as her jerk of a boss being his normal self. He always had to go and ruin her fun. Behind his closed office door Naru sighed and ran a hand through his hair. Displeased at himself for slipping up and dropping the façade for a few seconds. He hadn't meant to take his frustrations out on his gullible assistant but he couldn't stand the casual way that man had addressed Mai. The excessive flirting from the moment he got here was unnecessary as well. Naru could already tell this was going to be a long case indeed.

Mai yawned and twitched her nose in irritation at being woken up. She was having such a nice nap, she couldn't even remember falling asleep. She felt comfortable and warm. Glancing up she quickly realized why she was so comfortable. The blush could not be hidden on her face as she moved her head off of Naru's shoulder. He looked down at her his expression was unreadable to her. Just as she was about to apologize Naru spoke up for the first time since they had gotten into the van that morning.

"We're here." He stated.

And with that she glanced out the window to see that they really had arrived she hurried to open her door and get out of the van before she could embarrass herself any further.


This is my first multi-chapter fic. Hope you enjoyed it review if ya want.

Oh, and I do not own Ghost Hunt