A/N: Plot bunnies won't leave me alone, so this story emerges. This is my first attempt at Ghost Hunt Fic.

Title: The Ups and Down in the Life of Taniyama Mai

Pairing: NaruxMai

Summary: Mai is not as ordinary as she appeared to be – she has a secret and a latest case taken by the SPR forces her to lay it out in the open. Follow her as she and the SPR gang carried on in their ghost hunting adventures… Eventual NaruMai.

Disclaimer: Ghost Hunt is not mine, copyright belonged to Fuyumi Ono.

Chapter 1 – Case 1: The case of the Yukimura clan

Shibuya Psychic Research Centre is a company that was situated in the heart of the Tokyo City, well-known for it's' investigation of supernatural and paranormal activities. It has been around for about two years and over these periods of time - they had already solved several cases creating a name for themselves in the current society.

Taniyama Mai, an eighteen year old teenage girl was working part-time for the said company. The brunette has been working for SPR over the past one and a half year, ever since SPR first case over at her high school. The reason behind Mai taking up a permanent part-time position in the company was kind of peculiar, she had started helping out the SPR then when the gang was investigating the old building of her high school.

At that point of time, one could say that Mai had no choice but to assist them out for it had been due to her carelessness that resulted in the injury of her narcissist boss only assistant - Koujo Lin, back then. Not to mention breaking some cameras of the SPR property in the midst of doing so, and therefore as a form of so-called compensation act that narcissistic boss of hers had her trapped with no way out of the arrangement to assist them all in the investigation process.

She had thought following the end of the investigation at her school, she would no longer had anything to do with the SPR any more. However, she was wrong – seems like Shibuya Kazuya, the boss of the SPR whom Mai always referred to as 'Naru' because he was so narcissistic called up her school and offered her a part-time position in their company. Seeing as she does have the intention of looking around for some part-time jobs at that point of time, Mai only took a minute to consider things over before giving the former a confirmation response to the job offer. Basically, that was how Mai had landed herself the part-time assistant position with the SPR.

Her job entails namely filing, sorting of documents, keeping stock of pantry items, attending to calls and clients and other miscellaneous duties assigned from time to time. Nothing too challenging, in fact it's quite a routine job – which somehow would bore her out of her mind. However, once a case came by – not only will things gets interesting, it also gets dangerous at some point of time. For instances, the Urado case that involved the ex-prime minister of Japan – that particular case still gives Mai creeps whenever it came into her mind.

The train operator announcement of approaching Shibuya station draw the brunette out from her thoughts, as she glances down at her watch to look at the time shown on it. Almost immediately, Mai had to bite the inside of her cheeks to prevent herself from cursing aloud. Apparently, she was running late again – no excuses would be considered well enough for her boss, Mai believed. Naru would definitely be mad at her for being late again, thankfully this was the start of a new week if not she is willing to bet against the fact that her pay would be dock again for being late for work.

"Mai, you're late!" As expected, this was the first thing Mai heard upon entering the front office door of SPR when she finally arrived for work.

"Sorry, I was held up. In class..." Mai added as an afterthought, when she realized Naru is still waiting for her reason for being late.

"I see, and that fact alone had just proved to show that you're indeed an idiot." Naru said, as he smirked at the brunette.

"Argh! How many times must I emphasized, that I am not an idiot!" Mai threw a sharp retort back at the said narcissist, as her face turn red from anger and indignation.

"Getting yourself riled up just because of a remark from me, isn't that action alone considered idiotic?" Naru threw back at Mai before turning on his heels to enter his private office, leaving the girl to stare after him in disbelief.

"Ah! What a jerk!" Mai muttered under her breath, as she flopped herself down at her usual seat – which happened to be situated in the front office area, and acting as a receptionist to the office as well.

"Mai, where's my afternoon tea?"

"Grr! Damn that narcissist, can't he just give me a moment to settle down before asking for his tea?! "Mai muttered aloud in frustration, as she stalked towards the small kitchen area towards the back of the SPR office and start preparing the tea which Naru had requested for.

Making tea in the office kitchen had become such a routine task for Mai that she does not even bother to look around for the necessary utensils and simply just grab the tea-kettle which she usually used from the cabinet shelves and start filling it up with water then placing it down on the stove to boil. She was about to reach for the usual pack of black tea that was placed on the counter, before coming down to a realization that the black tea was finished up last night and instantly groaned aloud. Black tea just happened to be a favorite for Naru, and she had obviously forgotten to get a new pack yesterday when she came in for work.

"… Well, I guess he'll just have to settle for Ceylon today. "Mai mumbled to herself, while making a mental note to get some black tea later on in the day – after work perhaps, so she wouldn't forgot to get it done tomorrow.

The whistling sound from the tea-kettle on the stove alerted Mai on the fact that the water is now fully boiled and ready for use. Carefully, Mai opened up the can of Ceylon tea leaves and scoop out two teaspoon dropping them into the teapot before proceeding to pour the boiling hot water into the pot. She waited for a few minutes, for the tea leaves to soak it fully and for the fragrance of the tea to settle. Then she reached for three cups from the cabinet, and pours the freshly brewed tea into the cups respectively. Once accomplished, Mai grabbed the tray from the side of the counter and balance the three cups of tea on it.

Exiting from the kitchen, she first headed towards Lin's office before heading for Naru. Knocking twice on the door of Lin's office before poking her head into the door way, Mai greeted the former politely.

"Good afternoon, Lin-san. Here's a cup of tea for you, we kind of ran out of black tea so I hope you don't mind having Ceylon today." Mai said as she placed the cup of tea down on the desk of the elder man.

"Good afternoon, Taniyama-san. Ceylon is fine." Lin responded, nodding in acknowledgement as Mai set the cup down in front of him.

With that done, Mai headed out of the room and stopped by briefly at her own desk – placing a cup of tea that she had poured for herself on her own desk. She took the remaining cup of tea towards Naru's office, knocking twice as usual – she waited for the prompt for her to go in before opening the door.

"I certainly hoped you don't mind Ceylon, because we ran out on black tea. I was going to get some today, but because I'm already late I didn't have the time to drop by the store to make any purchase. I'll be sure to drop by the supermarket to get it later on though, so for today – just make do with what we have on hand." Mai explained herself as she placed the cup of Ceylon down on the desk, before stepping back to wait.

Naru had remained stone and silent for a while, before responding. "Be sure to get a receipt for the purchase later, if not you can jolly well forget about getting a reimbursement from the company."

The statement had shocked Mai greatly, for she had been so certain that there would not be any response from Naru's part. Ever since the first day Mai started working for him, Naru had never expressed his appreciation of her tea-making duties by saying a simple term such as 'Please' or 'Thank You'. Even at times, when she makes purchases for the office – the idea of paying her back through the reimbursement act had never did once occurred before.

"Are you really going to reimburse me for the purchases, this time around?" Mai questioned, still finding it hard to believe.

"Well, you are always yapping on the fact that its' unfair not to pay you back for the purchases made on office behalf – isn't that so? "

"Yes, I did say that before – but I didn't think you would agree…"

"Previously, you're still doing compensation for the camera that you'd broken before. Now though, that compensation amount has officially being offset. Therefore, from now onwards – claims could be made through proper procedures with the support of relevant receipts and documents." Naru replied, placing extra emphasis on the part that says proper procedures and relevant receipts.

"Oh… Okay." Mai responded dumbly, and scurried out from the office in a hurry upon the questioning look being directed her way by Naru.

Heading back to her desk, Mai quickly put together a list of supplies that she needs to get for the office usage. The term proper procedure to apply for reimbursement would mean that any cash that is being reimbursed out to her would need to be fully recorded, either input into the system or written clearly down on paper – right? Mai asked herself, nodding to herself as she think back on her accounting class contents.

Having an idea in mind on the recording procedure, Mai rumbled through her backpack and pulled out an unused notebook from within and labeled it down as 'Office Expenses Book'. She has one of her own expenses book, mainly used for the recording of her daily spending. Being an orphan living alone in a rented apartment unit, meant having to plan her allowance and budget all the time. Aside from that, she will need to set aside a certain sum of money to be saved in the bank every month as well – and so far, that is the reason why she remained on SPR for these long.

Otherwise, with that narcissistic attitude received from Naru all the time – combined with the cold treatment received from Lin when she first started working for SPR, added on to the snide remarks coming from one Hara Masako – a fellow co-worker of SPR; Mai would have quitted long ago if it was not for the fact that SPR pay her well. In fact, the amount of money she was being paid every month while working for SPR – whether does it involves having a case or not, the payment is still doubled the rate from her previous part-time job at some retail outlets doing promotion sales. Since now Naru is offering to reimburse her back the amount of money spend on office supplies, she could afford to save more in the bank or to pamper herself in relations to getting herself some new attires or sorts. This idea itself is enough to make Mai feel good for the rest of the day, and so when the door to the front office opened up and bring them a new potential client. Mai's enthusiasm in serving the customer was totally unfazed and completely cheerful, despite the fact that the client was in fact someone she doesn't like to deal with on personal scale.

"This is the Shibuya Psychic Research Centre, isn't it?" The man that entered the office questioned, without glancing towards Mai but merely scanned the surroundings as if trying to see if the office is up to his standard of associating.

Mai takes in a deep breath, telling herself to treat the person in front as any other customer and try to ignore his aristocrat way of doing things as she greeted the man – professionally.

"Yes, this is the SPR. How may I assist you, sir?"

"Huh? Oh, its' you … What are you doing here, if I may ask?" The man took one look in Mai's direction, before questioning snidely.

"I'm working here as a part-time assistant to the owner of this company. Now, can I ask about your reason for coming by?" Mai responded with a question of her own, she highly doubted the former was here to ask about her welfare.

"Yes, I've heard from others that this company deals with supernatural phenomena situation – correct?" There was a skepticism lying underneath the tone of speech that he had choose to adopt while speaking with Mai, and it annoyed the hell out of her.

"If you are feeling skeptical about it all, perhaps you should just leave. Honestly, I don't understand just what can be so unfathomable for you to resort to coming down here and seek assistance. After all, you do have some capable beings at your beck and call – isn't that so?" Mai commented, as she eyed the man in his late forties with equal skepticism.

"I would have solved this if I could do it that easily. " This was all Mai had been able to get out from him, before Lin appeared asking if there was a client here to see them with a case.

"…Well then, Lin-san – this is Yukimura Mitsuo. He's here to bring us our latest case; I'll go and get Naru." Mai said as she excused herself from her current company, while she left for the direction towards Naru's office.

"Naru, there's a client outside waiting to speak to you." Mai stated plainly as she stuck her head through the doorway of Naru's office, before bustling off towards the kitchen to get the client some tea.

"I'm Shibuya Kazuya, the president for SPR. How may I assist you, Mr. Yukimura?" Mai distinctively heard Naru greeted the client in his usual manner, while she busied herself with the task of preparing the client's tea.

"Pardon my intrusion, but here's the tea for the client" Mai said objectively, as she placed the cup of tea in front of the client's reach.

"Honestly, Ceylon? I would have thought you had enough sense to serve your clients top rated Earl Grey." Yukimura Mitsuo muttered under his breath as he took a sip from the teacup that was meant for his consumption.

"…" Mai pressed her lips tightly in annoyance, and Naru started in on the reason behind Yukimura Mitsuo's visit – drawing the said man into a discussion of the so-called case. Somehow somewhere along the line, Lin must have picked up on Mai's agitation and so does Naru. The duo shared a look among them outside Mai's vision range before Lin approached Mai with a list of items that need to be purchase from the nearby stores sending her off on an errand trip. For that, Mai was immensely grateful if not Mai feared she might ended up snapping at that man going by the name of Yukimura Mitsuo.

"Well, we would be requiring 3 rooms in total. Two bedrooms to be shared among our members and one room for our equipments to be used as a base, kindly have them ready by tomorrow evening. That will be all, we shall see you tomorrow evening then – Mr. Yukimura. "

Mai returned to the office just in time to hear Naru making his usual announcement of sealing a deal with the client, Mai wisely kept her mouth shut as Yukimura Mitsuo passes her by with a smug expression on his face. Lin and Naru watched on in silence as Mai's face took a turn for a deeper shade of red, probably from anger due to the client's behavior before going into a ranting session.

"Naru, why the heck are we even considered taking on his case?!" Mai wasted no time in pressing on for an answer from the stoic teen, she knew for a fact that Yukimura Mitsuo's attitude would no doubt irked the stoic teen as well – so why bother with his case?

"Two reasons, first of all – we have not been on a case for the past few months so we have no reasons to be turning down a potential business deal. Secondly, the case sounds rather interesting to me so I felt the need to check things out." Naru eventually said, while Mai took several deep breaths to recompose her thoughts before stalking off to start calling up the rest of the SPR team members to gather for a pre-investigation meeting for tomorrow morning.

Date edited: 7/2/2013

P.S: Amended a little mistake in the chapter, should be one and a half year, not two ... sorry for the mistake.