The warmth of morning sunshine brushed her face and Mai slowly smiled as she woke up. 'Ahhh, there was nothing compared to the beauty of sleeping in and waking up by yourself without an alarm to give you a rude awakening. Wait. Sleeping in? No, no, no, no, no! Mai! You cannot be late today! Today was your last chance to prove to Naru that you can indeed come to office on time this week.' Of course this was a normal occurrence, but Mai was definitely not happy to have to work overtime again. She barely got to be with her friends lately, and now she would be hard pressed to even see them. She couldn't bear to look at the clock, but what choice did she have? Oh! Mai cringed. Unless she was entering the office right now (which she wasn't, duh) she would be over three hours late- a new record for her.

'Oh well. If you're already late, Mai, then why make an effort to come to work quickly? You'll be late anyways... No wait. Nope. I don't even have the luxury of taking my time,' Mai thought as she quickly pulled on her clothes, 'because with every passing second I'm late, Naru will just keep getting madder and madder.'

"Mai, t—"

Naru stopped himself from issuing the empty command once again. Thankfully, besides Lin of course, nobody was around to hear to his mistake. 'Where is she? I knew she'd be late, but this is outrageous! She better have a good excuse this time or I swear I won't let her leave the office until she's worked off every single hour where she should've been working but was late or sleeping. I've waited an hour. I've even patiently waited two hours. But three hours and counting is a new record for Mai. God, I can't even work or focus when she's not here- because I haven't gotten any tea yet. That's why.'

"You idiot scientist! You know why you can't focus when she's not here and it's not because of tea. Though that might be a part of it. Mai is right, you know. You are obsessed with tea. Or is it her tea you're obsessed with. Or is it something or someone else you're obsessed with…huh, Naru?"

"…Gene," Naru sighed.

"Who else? You really have grown on Mai's nickname haven't you, Noll? Or should I say Naru?"

"Of course I haven't. Why have you decided to bother me now?"

"Because dear brother, seeing as you couldn't concentrate without Mai- or tea as you prefer to say- I decided to..."

Their brotherly conversation was suddenly cut off by the sound of the door opening and closing. Mai. Naru sighed. Finally. Despite her "valiant" attempts, she never could be quiet or sneaky. He walked out to…greet her. As always, she jumped. God. This girl…

"Oh! Um…Na-Nar—"

"Mai, tea. Two cups- no make that three. Now." Naru paused. She was trembling- waiting for him to explode on her. He'd definitely managed to scare her. Good. "Well? What are you standing there for? Go!"

On the outside Noll was perfectly composed, but, after pushing away anger, annoyance, frustration and…could it be?...relief?, on the inside he smiled. That explosion was definitely going to happen. Finally, finally, Naru allowed a small smile to come on his face- but just for a second. This was going to be fun…

Lin could hear the yelling outside. It wasn't anything new, nor was it surprising that he could hear every single heated word passed between the two. Sometimes, Lin thought it would be better if Noll just got over it and kissed Mai already. These thin doors… Ugh. Lin could feel another headache coming on. That always tended to happen when those two got in a fight. So really it was a miracle if Lin didn't have a headache. Though maybe this one was a migraine…

Lin sighed. At least there was one good thing that came out of these flimsy doors. Naru and Mai may not have heard it in their silent staring contest that occurred in a pause in the fight, but Lin clearly heard a quiet, but firm knock at the door. He wondered how long someone had been waiting at the door and how much of an emergency it must be for them to not be scared away by the raised voices inside the office. He was impressed.

Lin rarely ever came out of his room, but when he did, it had an immediate effect on everyone who was present at the time. This time it was just Noll and Mai. They broke out of their staring contest and looked at him- one with contempt and the other with surprise. Lin gave Naru a cold, calculated look and barely glanced at Mai. It's true, he had grown quite fond of the petite, sweet girl, but now was not the time; Lin needed to show how irritated he was. At them. He briskly walked past the teenagers and opened the door. Looking back at him was teenage girl who looked flustered but stood tall, and a boy about Mai's age.

"Hello, welcome to SPR. How may we help you?" Lin was no good at taking to other people besides Madoka, Noll, and yes, Mai, but he did it when it was required. The girl took a deep breath.

"Hi. I'm Natsumi…

"Hey Naru. Okay. Yeah…I'll be there…Uh-huh... Okay. Yes, I'll bring Ayako and John and no, I won't be late. Happy?" Ugh. Bou-san put the disconnected phone down. "Why is it always so hard to have a decent conversation with him? And why don't I ever get a chance to hang up on him?"

"Whatever. I need to call Ayako and John. Can't be late can I?"

As Monk, Ayako, and John entered the office, Bou-san immediately noticed that Mai seemed… oh… not mad, but her smile seems a little strained and artificial. He quickly rushed to her and enveloped her in a big bear hug. Monk squeezed tight then quickly let Mai go when she started to squirm. ("Bou-san! I can't breathe!") Then, almost like it was practiced, (technically it was) in one fluid motion he pushed Mai away and ducked down; effectively moving Mai to safety and avoiding Ayako's big purse as she came to hit him. Then Bou-san moved a safe distance away from Ayako, her purse, and her anger, and took a well-deserved bow. "Thank you! Thank you!" Yasu came over.

"Wow Bou-san, that was amazing!"

"Yeah, it was Bou-san!" Mai joined in as well. To his relief Bou-san could see a genuine smile on her face this time. He crouched down and quietly asked her. "Mai, are you OK?" 'I hope she can see the worry in my eyes and tell me what happened.'

"Yeah, Bou-san. It's just- Naru yelled at me because I came in late today. I know I was more than 3 hours late, but now I have to come in early and leave 2 hours later than usual every day for the next two weeks. And Keiko's having a party and I can't go. In fact I won't even be able to see her or any of my friends!"

"Oh I'm sorry Jou-chan. How 'bout I stay some of those extra hours with you and help you work? Then I can take you directly to some of my concerts. I have one tonight. Would you like that?"

"Yes! Thank you Monk!" He smiled. He loved making his Jou-chan happy. And it was too easy.

"Well," he straightened up and looked around. Where's Naru? Lin? "So is there a case or what?"

"Yes. There is a case."

Naru. Who else could capture everyone's attention just by saying one word? Just by stepping into a room, in fact, Ayako thought. Everybody sat down.

Now that everyone knew who Naru really is, Masako had no leverage over him. In fact, Masako had just stopped trying. Ayako assumed this would be the perfect opportunity for Mai to sit next to Naru, or at least do something to get his attention, but instead she opted to sit next to Yasu and John in the farthest seat away from Naru. Ayako wondered what was wrong.

She noticed as Mai avoided Naru and ignored him altogether, talking animatedly to Yasu with an amused John listening on, while Naru sat quietly. Why would Naru… Oh, he's waiting for Lin. And since Lin might take a while…

She turned around to face Bou-san. "Hey Houshou, did you hear about that-" Just then Lin strode into the room with his laptop. Ayako sweat dropped. 'God, he's really handsome, but quite scary. I know exactly how Mai feels with Naru…'

As always, Big Boss refused to tell anyone about the case details, Yasuhara thought. He started with, "Yes. There is a case," and ended with, "Get in the van. Mai will come with me and Lin," with nothing else in between. Typical.

Everyone went down to the van in a herd. Big Boss must've really riled Mai up because she flat out refused to get in a car with Naru. Instead, she called for a vote to see who should have to suffer the torture known as sitting with Naru and Lin. It was a fair point. No one should have to live with that all the time. Surprise, surprise, Masako won with a unanimous vote. Having Masako in the van just brought the mood down- Mai would totally raise everyone's spirits, Yasu thought. And so it was decided. Masako would sit with Lin and Big Boss, and that way, everyone would get the case details from Mai.

The minute the van was loaded and Monk had started the van, everyone turned to look at Mai.

"What?" It took her a second, but she got it. "Oh! Okay, okay. So a girl about Naru's age, Natsumi, and her brother, my age, Tomoyuki - Tomo- came in just this morning- afternoon actually." Yasu saw Mai cringe. He deduced that she must've come in late today. That explained a lot. "They believe a spirit is haunting their house. Every so often, randomly, the lights would flicker- sometimes go out- the doors would open and shut repeatedly, and light bulbs would explode. There was always one room where the wall paper would be shredded as if someone clawed it and tore it. They believed that this was the ghost's rage, and in the rage, someone was always hurt." Up until now, no one had interrupted Mai, but now everyone started talking at once. Poor Mai was bombarded by questions. Yasu was going to intervene to help her, but Monk beat him to it.

"Leave the poor girl alone!" he roared. Then he softened his voice. "Isn't that right, Jou-chan?"

"Thanks Bou-san!" She beamed. "OK, guys, this is the weird part that actually convinced Naru to take the case. Alright, so I told you that someone always got hurt, right?" Everyone agreed. "But every time, the injured person or people would feel a presence after the attack, but this one wasn't hostile. Then, suddenly, they felt a cool sensation and a blinding light. Almost like they were going to die. Then they felt an immense pain everywhere they were hurt. Just as quickly as it came on, though, it went away and they were healed! And every single time, while the spirit was healing them, the entire house would shudder violently and a line of destruction and rapidly falling temperatures would lead into the room where the people were being healed. Suddenly a dark shadow would appear and rush toward a wall and just disappear into it. And this wasn't just a one or two time thing. Natsumi and Tomo came to talk to us after nine different people have been injured and then healed. What finally broke them, though, was the fact that this time, it seemed the ghost had a lot of rage, and two of the people that were hurt, were injured so badly, that the intense pain that came from healing actually killed them." The sudden silence in the van was painful. Yasu decided to break it.

"So…" he ventured, "the key to this mystery is inside the wall?"

"That's what I thought at first too," Mai replied, "but no one was ever able to see which wall it came from, which wall it vanished in, and whether they were the same walls every time or if each time they were different."

Now that the case details had been given, everyone relaxed and started joking around. Having Mai in the van was a much better experience, Yasu believed. Though, he did, very briefly, wonder what Masako would be doing with the two robots on a three hour ride alone.

Masako was bored. No, she would never admit it, but she was bored. How did Mai- Mai of all people! - manage to stay with these- these- robots without going crazy and pulling her hair out! Talking wasn't allowed. There was nothing to read, music was out of the question, and there wasn't any spare paper or writing utensils to jot anything down. Worst of all, Naru hated her. He may have always hated her, but now it was worse. There was really a lot to Mai than what met the eye. Masako was impressed. There. Yet another thing she would never admit, but there it was.

Masako wondered what was going on in the other van. How much fun everyone would be having? It's true she didn't participate much, but she did enjoy herself, and did make some witty comments every now and then if she did say so herself! Still, Masako could see why everyone had opted to kick her out of the van. Especially now that Naru didn't have to do anything for her. Well, even though she slightly respected Mai now, the petite girl still had it coming for her. But for now… Oh! What was she going to do for three hours?

Hey guys! This is my first fan fiction ever, so please Read and Review so I know what I'm doing wrong (and right). Thank you. Enjoy!