A/N: so I've only ever seen the anime, which what this will sort of follow. I'm going try add elements of the light novels, but I've only ever ready the descriptions on wiki. Anyway, this was an idea that floated into my mind a while ago. Let's see I can articulate it properly. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: If I owned, the anime would not have ended so quickly.

Three Ghost Hunters and a Baby:

chapter 1:

Now this was an image that Mai never imagined he'd see.

"Mai, she's staring at me."

Her tough and almost emotionless boss, Shibuya Kazuya, or Naru the narcissist if you like, holding a small child at arm's length. He was inspecting it like one would a particularly vexing piece of evidence. To give the child credit, she stared back at him with one of the most intense glares he had ever witnessed. The family resemblance was uncanny. The scene was altogether too bizarre for Mai who had just stridden into the office to see this frighteningly humorous thing. So much for an ordinary day at the office.

...

"Naru, why are you holding a child?"

Various scenarios ran through Mai's head involving Masako Hara and moonlit hotel rooms with alcohol. A blush of anger quickly spread across Mai's face.

"The child is Lin's." The words confounded more then they explained, but assuaged some of Mai's less happy thoughts.

"LIN?" Mai exclaimed staring at Naru and the child incredulously. The supposedly asexual third official member of Shibuya Psychic Research had a child. There had never been any indication that Lin even looked at women, let alone procreated and had children with them. It was just too bizarre, almost as bizarre as Naru somehow ending up with babysitting duties.

"Mai, here."

Unceremoniously, the child was plopped in Mai's arms. It seemed the child repelling Naru had his fill of the toddler for now.

"Wait!" Mai clasped the girl and chased after Naru who was quickly escaping to his office, "Where is Lin? Who is this kid? Where is her mother? What am I supposed to do with her?"

With a sigh, Naru stopped at the door to his office. Relief was so close yet so far.

"Lin is out appropriating supplies. The child's name is Saya and her mother died last week of terminal cancer," Naru explained, enunciating clearly for Mai's benefit, which she noticed and was thoroughly annoyed by, "Saya is toilet trained and was recently fed. You should be fine for a while." Without another word, Naru strode into office, leaving Mai staring at the closed door for a second.

Hang on a second.

Did that mean Naru...

A chuckle escaped Mai's throat as she went back over the couches nearby. The idea of Naru preparing food and feeding Saya or helping her to the bathroom for that matter was just laughable and Mai suddenly found herself regretting not coming into work earlier. Still chortling, she sat the little girl down on the couch and surveyed her for the first time. The only features that resembled Lin at all were her eyes, both the shape and color and her slender fingers. Other than that, her chestnut hair and round face reminded Mai of her own mother, wise and calm.

"My name is Mai," with a smile, Mai settled on the couch next to hers. She would guess that this girl was about three, and could maybe even talk, "What's yours?"

"Sigh-ya," she carefully enunciated pointing a clasped fist at herself. The name was formed carefully and with great concentration, a face that mimicked Lin's surprisingly enough, "Where's Mama?"

Uh-oh.

Now Mai wasn't sure what Saya had been told about her mother, or in fact how much Lin wanted her to know about the death, but Mai did understand what the emotional implications the death of a parent had on a child. Feeling an upsurge of sadness for the loss of her own parents, and empathy, Mai carefully collected the child. She had to say something.

"Your mom...well, I think we should wait for your dad to tell you, but don't worry Saya, you'll be okay," Mai explained in soothing words, "No matter what happens you still have Lin."

Of course, Lin had almost as much experience with children as Naru, and an even shorter amount of patience for them. The front door to their office opening drew both girls' attention. Glancing up, they spotted Lin entering with a large number of bags precariously balanced in his arms. A few items were sticking out of the paper, including several items of clothing, a few toys and some food. Looking weary like she'd never seen him, Lin set the bags on the nearest counter and turned to Mai and Saya.

"I take it Naru's given up already." There was no surprise in his tone, "Well, thank you for watching her, Mai."

"It's not problem Lin," Mai watched curiously as he started pulling items out of the bags.

First he pulled out a few sippy cups and some baby-friendly food. These were stored in cupboards and the fridge. Next came the toys. It was a mix of a few dolls, and a few cars and robot toys. No doubt Lin had haphazardly grabbed whatever he could. The rest seemed to be baby proofing equipment.

"Look Saya, Lin brought you toys!" Mai helped Saya off the couch and led her to the counter. Watching carefully, both she and Lin observed as Saya headed for, surprisingly enough, the cars. They were just small dinky cars, but she immediately clasped them in her fist and smiled widely. Strange, Mai definitely remembered have a doll collection as a child, along with several teddies but no cars, "Well that's interesting."

Lin rubbed her forehead, like he was still processing what was going on.

"If you don't mind me asking, what's going on Lin?"

He seemed to understand what she asking without directly hearing the question.

"Her mother was a remarkable woman who died in an unremarkable way," Lin explained, his eyes unreadable, "Unfortunately without any other living relatives, Saya falls to me."

Unfortunately.

"Lin, you're her dad," Mai explained sounding a little upset. What she didn't understand was why that word crossed Lin's lips. Here Lin had the chance to provide his child with something she would have otherwise lost entirely. Mai lost the same thing, but Mai was also lucky to find a new family. In the same way, Saya was lucky to have someone left in the world, but Lin saw it as a burden... "You're her only family."

"Mai, you should know that our work, my lifestyle is not suited to children," Lin explained with the fact based logic of the eternally academic and cynical. It was like those words were a justification for the walls that both Lin and Naru tended to build around themselves that inflamed Mai even more.

"Yeah well tough! make it work!" Mai retorted sharply, jutting her chin out defiantly, "She's your kid, and you're her dad. Hire a nanny or something if you're so concerned."

That simple irrefutable and completely illogical attitude was something Lin had come to expect from Mai and he merely sighed for seemed like the thousandth time. He surveyed his daughter again; she was sitting quietly on the rug, rolling a bright yellow muscle car back and forth against the wool with a satisfied smile on her face. She didn't understand what was going on, nor did Lin expect her to. With another quick sigh, Lin looked at his watch. According to the baby book, through which he was only half way, it was about time for an afternoon nap. Unceremoniously he lifted Saya off the floor and led her away to his office. Mai's words were still ringing his ears as he set Saya down on the small couch and placed a blanket over her.

"It's time to sleep now," he informed her carefully and clearly.

She blinked. He blinked.

"Car?" she held it out to him almost like a peace offering and Lin resisted sighing. This was not getting them anywhere.

"Sleep." He took the car from her fingers and placed beside her, "Sleep."

He placed a hand on her forehead, finding the action more natural then holding her and gently rubbed her head. Letting out a deep breath, Saya wearily blinked. Apparently Lin had been right about one thing, she was tired. Forcing her eyes open, Saya repressed a yawn and reached for her car again, which Lin allowed her to have and she held it to her chest, the yellow standing garishly against the green of her dress. After a few minutes, her eyes drooped a little more and her breathing became lower. After nearly twenty minutes, Saya was fully asleep and resisting a wince, Lin straightening up from where he had been hunched over. With that first hurdle crossed, he collapsed onto his office chair and started typing, hoping for a measure of catharsis.

In the space of the two hours where Saya was asleep, Lin managed to keep up with all the paperwork and reports. It remarkable how much a child could derail a day. If Lin had to guess, he would say his productivity had taken a sharp downturn in the course of the day. A nanny was imperative.

Opening Google, he did a quick search of nannies around the area. The list was essentially two groups. Either teenagers with no references, no education and what looked to be next to no experience what so ever, or middle aged women who had a large pile of references and experience but looked mostly like they would frighten children. Neither group seemed adequate (Lin ignored the fact that he scared children as well). An ordinary person would not serve well as a nanny for Saya. Even at this young age, he was sure she must have had some sort of latent power, both he and her mother were extremely gifted so it followed that she would be too. What he needed was a nanny with a background in the paranormal and supernatural.

It was late afternoon when some life finally entered the otherwise quiet office in the form of Father John Brown and Ayako Matsuzaki. At the particular moment, Mai had been balancing a giggling Saya up in the air and twirling like a helicopter, complete with sound effects. As expected, the child shrieked with laughter. The sight earned a few very strange looks from both John and Ayako. The sight of a child, a happy child, within the walls of the Shibuya Physic Research was nothing short of signaling the apocalypse.

"Um...Mai, do you have a case?" John probed for an explanation, his accent ringing in their ears quietly. With a small smirk, Mai settled the child on the ground, where she preceded to grab a few cars and start racing them.

"Nope." The smirk got more pronounced, "You guys aren't going to believe this-"

"Mai, according to the book, it's time for the girl's dinner," Lin stopped in front of his office door and held back a mental groan. Now there would be more people to witness this spectacle, people who he did not particularly care for either. Both spiritualists looked from the child to Lin and then back to the child. It wasn't particularly hard to put one and one together.

"Oh my..." John had the decency to keep his face blank for the most part, with amusement sparkling only in his eyes.

"A daughter?" Ayako was snickering in a far more obvious way and looked ready to burst into peals of laughter any second, "No way!" The snickering grew more pronounced.

"This is Saya Koujo," Mai bit the inside of her mouth to keep from laughing as the expression on Lin's face got surlier. After having hidden for the better part of the day, Naru finally emerged from his office, and first sent glares at John and Ayako before settling his gaze on the child over which this commotion was occurring. Like before, Saya glared right back, her eyes not wavering for a second in fear or nervousness.

"We have a case, I was just about to call you." Naru finally broke the kid's gaze and turned to face the rest of them, "Even though you're obnoxious your still right on time."

Once everyone was settled with a cup of tea and some snacks, Naru started explaining.

"There's a case in Ikebukuro," Naru was looking thoughtfully at his tea cup. He wasn't positive about this case, there were just too many factors he didn't understand right away and that bothered him. Regardless, it interested him enough that he was willing to take the case; "It seems the seventh floor of an apartment complex is being plagued, literally. Every night from between 2 and 3 some sort of odd happening will occur."

"Like what?" Ayako asked.

"Last night, some of the children got severely ill and did not get better until they were removed from the seventh floor," Naru explained thoughtfully as Lin set Saya up with some sort of baby friendly gruel for dinner, "The strange phenomena all started ten days ago, with no apparent cause."

There had been no sudden death on the seventh floor or in the vicinity of the building, there were no scorned neighbors. It was just far too random to be nothing, but a distinct pattern hadn't quite shown itself yet either. It was quite perplexing.

"I'll call Monk," Mai stood up and then grudgingly added, "And Masako too."


As usual Mai woke up somewhat disoriented. The world seemed a little bit distorted and itntook Mai only a second to guess exactly what was going on. She was no longer in her own home, but instead standing in the middle of the office, and it seemed to be late sunset outside, both odd considering it was actually probably the middle of the night and she was tucked away in her own bed. Right own cue, Naru strode over to her with a small happy smile on his face.

"What's going on?" Mai asked, considerably confused. Only in times of trouble did this 'dream Naru' ever really show himself. Unless the office was haunted by something, she doubted that he would have contacted her at all.

"Mai!" a small voice drew her attention and suddenly standing next to her was Saya, dressed in what appeared to be a onesy with ducks on it. Most adorable, but it didn't quite distract Mai from the fact that Lin's barely three year old child was somehow in her mystical dream. With quick panic, Mai lifted the girl up.

"Is she in danger? What's happening?" Mai asked quickly, looking around for some sort of threat.

"It's nothing like that, I just met someone who wishes to say their goodbyes," Naru explained good naturedly looking apologetic for working Mai up for no reason. He stood aside and a small, but incredibly beautiful woman was revealed. She was the type who would no doubt age like a graceful queen, if her wide, wise eyes and soft frame were anything to go by.

"My dear girl!" the woman let out what was a cross between a sob and a small cry of relief, and her arm's automatically reached out for Saya who let out a grateful squeal. With tears gathering in the corners of her eyes, the woman hugged Saya close, swaying a little bit, "I'm so sorry."

"Mama!" Saya dug fists into the woman's sweater and buried her face in her hair.

"T-this is Saya's mom?" Mai looked between them and 'dream Naru'.

"Yes, she just needed to say her goodbyes before she could properly pass on," Naru explained with a touch of gentleness to his voice that Mai had never seen before; he seemed almost sad but Mai couldn't think of a reason why.

In some ways the reunion made Mai a little sad too. She never got a chance to say goodbye properly to her mother or her father. Admittedly she had been too small to properly understand death when her dad passed, but regret always plagued her about her mother's death. This was a chance she would have given almost anything for. Then again, when the woman hesitantly handed Saya back to Mai, the pain on both their faces made Mai wonder if it was worth it to relive the pain of a goodbye. It looked like their hearts were breaking due to the separation.

"Please help Lin," the woman begged with her head bent as she faded away.

"Of course, Ma'am, of course!" Mai quickly assuaged her as Saya started to wiggle, eager to get back into her mother's arms.

"Mama!" she cried reaching with tiny arms for a mother that would never come, "Mama back!"

"Shh, Saya, it's alright, it's going to be fine," Mai tried to sway her, but once the last of her mother disappeared, Saya started wailing with thick tears streaming down her cheeks. With a look of deep regret etched on his own face, it was clear Naru was wondering if this good bye would leave Saya more wounded then healed.

Just like it started the dream ended and Mai opened her eyes to find herself sleeping her own bed once again, only this time Saya's cries were ringing in her ears.


Saya's red rimmed eyes were enough to tell Mai that her dream wasn't just a dream. Looking tired and incredibly sad, the little girl clung to father's hand like it was a life line. For his part, Lin looked only a touch more annoyed than usual, but Mai had to assume that he probably lost his temper at some point. He could barely handle dealing with Mai when she had been possessed by the spirit of that young boy, and it was doubtful that he could handle an actual child. No doubt Saya had woken in the middle of the night crying like she had been in Mai's dream. In that state, Mai doubted that Lin would have able to calm her down and now it seemed they were witnessing the remnants of what had happened.

"I'm guessing someone threw a temper tantrum," John commented quietly as they approached.

"Lin or the kid?" Monk as surveying their uncannily similar surly expression. All he had thus far was a second hand account of the child from everyone else, but even he had to admit that the girl had a glare like he had never seen. Upon spotting Naru, she dropped her father's hand and ran to him first, surprising everyone. Children often ran from Naru, not towards him.

"Mama," she demanded in a 'I'm a kitty pretending to be a tiger' voice.

"You mother is not here," Naru informed her crisply, looking down at the girl critically.

"Bring Mama." The command was clear in her voice.

"I can't." Naru's voice became sharper, to the point of rude, "No one can."

"B-But-" the girl sputtered incoherently, tears filling her eyes again, "Mama! Want Mama!" She collapsed onto the ground in both exhaustion and grief and curled up into ball, still sobbing pitifully. For a second no one moved.

"Come on Saya, get up," Lin bent down next to her and tried to coax Saya to her feet again, but the child refused to move or listen, she just curled into herself tighter. It clenched at Mai's heart a little bit because she knew that grief so well, "Saya, now is not the time."

"We need to get the truck loaded." It was Naru's way of suggesting that Lin solve this situation quickly. The cries only got louder.

"You two aren't helping!" Mai burst, pushing past both Lin and Naru. As gently as she could manage, Mai lifted Saya off the hard cement and held her against her side. Almost instinctively, Saya loosened up and curled into Mai, hiding her face away in Mai's sweater. The cries were muffled now and both Lin and Naru walked away without further comment. As far as they were concerned, the situation was taken care of by more capable hands. It seemed Lin still had a lot to learn about being a father.

"Poor child," Masako commented.

"That was...rough," Monk commented slowly approaching Mai, "So this is Saya."

"Yeah," Mai glanced back at the entrance to their office, she was supposed to be helping them. "Can you hold Saya well I get the truck loaded?"

"Only if Saya's okay with it," being the every friendly Takigawa he was, Monk put on his most charming smile and looked at Saya, "I was thinking we could get a some crème puffs from the bakery down the street." When all else failed, Monk found that bribes of a desert related nature always convinced people to do as he wished. With a small hiccup, Saya peeked at him over Mai's shoulder and hesitantly relinquished her grip Mai's sweater and let Monk carry her.

"We can all go," John suggested looking to Saya who nodded after a second.

With a sigh, Mai watched as Monk, John, Ayako and Masako all crossed the street with Saya in tow. A frown appeared on her face as she entered the office and grabbed a few cases of cameras. Both Naru and Lin looked completely unaffected.

"That was a disaster." Mai's comment was ignored, "You two really sucked back there. I mean really sucked."

Once again, neither looked up from what they were doing.

"You should know I had a dream last night."

That got their attention.

"About our case?" Naru asked, for once giving Mai his undivided attention.

"No, Saya's mom was in it and so was Saya," Mai was curt, she was never curt with them. Angry and loud on a daily basis, Mai was never passive aggressive, "she said goodbye to Saya and then disappeared. It probably explains why Saya is upset this morning." With a glare at both of them, Mai headed out the door with her chin up in the air.

Though Naru looked mostly unrepentant, Lin looked slightly concerned as Mai walked out.

The drive out to the apartment complex was very quiet. Monk, Ayako, John and Masako were taking Ayako's car, which left Mai, Lin, Naru and Saya in the truck. Settled comfortably next to each other, both the girls' spent most of the drive pointedly ignoring the boys and spoke only quietly to each other. Their silence was very much noted. Usually, though Lin spoke little, Mai always made some sort of conversation. The empty silence was oddly uncomfortable. Now Naru didn't like children, but he was considering a truce if only to return them all to a pre-Saya symbiosis.

"Saya are you hungry?" Mai asked quietly, rifling through her bag for those crème puffs Monk handed her before they left Shibuya. With some success, she managed to find the box and was pleasantly surprised to find that it wasn't just crème puffs that Monk bought, but what seemed to be every pastry, desert and tart the bakery contained. All of them were still warm, "Wow!"

With a small pudgy hand, Saya reached out and picked up a lemon tart and held it in her palms. There was a sort of reverence in her eyes.

"Do you like lemon tarts?" Mai asked curiously.

"They were her mother's favorite," Lin's voice was so quiet that Mai almost missed it. His eyes didn't even move from the road, but the emotion in his voice was clear. One of the last memories he had of her was bringing a large box of the most expensive lemon tarts to the hospital. She had simply smiled widely at him; by that point she was sick enough that she barely managed to each half of one, but seemed to enjoy ever bite. Lin couldn't remember what happened to the rest of the box, "And Saya's too."

With a swallow of her pastry (a chocolate tart), Mai wondered if she was being a little harsh on the boys. Her small amount of guilt was quickly quashed by what Naru said next.

"According to Miss Matsuzaki to many pastries lead to obesity," he commented, "And Miss Hara stated that too much sugar was unhealthy."

Miss Hara. Well screw her!

"Well all the more for me, jerk!" she growled and took a decidedly large bite of her tart and chewed vigorously. It seemed Masako was a particularly sore point with Mai. With his lips curling upwards slightly, Naru decided that grabbing a pastry for himself would probably end with Mai attacking him. Instead, he let a condescending air take over his demeanor and looked amused despite his completely straight face.

"Ob-Obcity?" Saya asked trying to enunciate as best she could.

"When someone is overweight to the point of unhealthiness," Naru explained.

A blank look later:

"It's something you don't need to worry about, Saya," Mai replied and the look of concentration eased off a thankful Saya.

Whatever Ob-city was, she didn't want it.


The building looked very normal. It had beige trim and a few flower bushes outside. Nothing that screamed of a haunting or poltergeist. But then again most places didn't. Even as they toured the building it occurred to Mai that a strange aura was hanging around it. Like an oppressive heavy fog, and the longer she paced those hallways, the heavier it seemed to feel. There was no indication that the others felt any of this, to the contrary, Monk was joking lightly with Father Brown at the back of the group while the building manager led them through.

"There are a total of fifteen families living on the seventh floor of this complex," Mr Ita, a slightly balding man explained to them. The names of all the families were on each door and fear seemed to be tangible in the air. Ita wiped his brow with a handkerchief, "We have cleared out an empty apartment for you. It has three bedrooms, a kitchen and a living room." He led them to a door that said room 709 and pushed it open. It was a modest apartment with tatami mats on the on the floors and the slightest hint of lemon cleaner.

"This will do," Naru nodded, "We will need to speak to every person who lives on this floor." With a nod at Ita, they all entered their temporary home and started to set up their HQ. It was almost noon, meaning they had about fourteen hours to set everything up and interview everyone before the haunting hour would start, "Alright, Lin work up a timeline of the last ten days and every event that took place. Miss Matsuzaki, Monk, Father brown please start interviewing all the residents. Miss Hara please search for any strange presence on this floor and throughout the building. Me and Mai will funnel the information to Lin."

Despite being a complete jerk at times, Naru was proving his leadership skills to be very effective. With this division of labor the work time required to prepare for tonight would be cut in half.

"Mai," a small voice whispered forms somewhere around Mai's knee, "What about me?" Saya looked up at them with big eyes. In her view, it was hardly fair that everyone else got to do something special while she was left alone to do nothing at all. The look on her face was clear; Saya just wanted to be part of the gang, the cool kids.

"Saya play with your toys," Lin suggested in cool voice, already sitting behind a computer.

"B-But-"

"Saya we have to do work now."

Mai could see this would not end well, so she thanked god for the sudden brainwave she just had.

"Why don't you help us by cleaning the apartment!" the apartment was already clean, but it would serve as a decent distraction for Saya who probably didn't know any better. With a raised eyebrow, Saya scrutinized Mai and her request. It certainly sounded bogus enough to be a fake, but as of yet, Saya couldn't be sure.

"Are you sure, cause it looks clean..."

Damn it. The kid was smart.


So guys, let me know if I should continue this or not.

See ya!