Naruisawesome: Hey everyone! So, yes, I have started another story with someone. Hehe! ^.^

Spamano Love Child: And I happen to be that person~!

Naruisawesome: Yes, you are. XD Everyone say hello to one of my best friends *points to SLC* lol. She wanted to do a story with me, so voila! Here it is!

Spamano Love Child: Yay, I love being a best friend! Anyway, because of my laziness, this has been the making since February 24th, 2014. -.-" I'm terrible sometimes. So...Enjoy!

Naruisawesome: ^_^; That's alright. Anyways, like she said, enjoy! And please R&R!

Disclaimer: We don't own Ghost Hunt!


^.^ Chapter 1 ^.^

Sighing, I walked into the office. It would be another day filled with tea-making and filing paperwork, at the best. Already knowing Naru's first words would be, "Tea, Mai," I headed to the kitchenette-thing, grabbing his favorite tea. Maybe he'd be a bit nicer because of it? I nearly laughed at my wishful thinking. Patiently waiting for the water to boil, I thought about the night before. After waking up at one in the morning, I found myself too scared to go back to sleep. Now yawning, I finished up the tea, walking over to the office Naru would be working at.

"Morning, Boss!" I shouted cheerfully. Naru glared at me. Too early in the morning? Too bad for him. Smiling, I put the tea my his side. I placed my hands behind my back and slowly began to rock on my heels. "Ne, what's that look for? You should be proud I'm early today!" My smile turned into a grin. My boyfriend stared at me before smirking, and I could feel a blush rising to my cheeks. He was totally making fun of me again! Why is he always such a jerk? I tried to cover my blush by diverting his attention. "You know, it's not nice to stare at people!"

"You stare at me all the time." He shot back as he picked up his teacup, hiding his smirk, before taking a sip. I blanched, my face even more tomato-like than before. Throwing my hands on my cheeks, I stormed out of the room, throwing the tea tray on the counter. I'm never able to win against him, so why do I even try? I've never been to win an argument with that narcissist. I sighed in defeat, leaning against the counter, closing my eyes and counting to ten. But before I could reach there, I felt a hand muss my hair.

"What's got you so down, kiddo?" I snapped my eyes open, and launched myself into a hug.

"Monk!" I burst out, jumping up and down excitedly. It'd been forever since I'd last seen him!

"Woah, what's gotten into you?" He grinned, wrapping an arm around me to return my hug.

"Nothing! I'm just really glad to see you, since you've been with your band a lot and all." I smiled and let go. Monk gave a sheepish smile.

"Yeah, I'm sorry I haven't been able to see you lately... But hey, you had Naru didn't you?" He added teasingly, causing me to pout.

"Mooooonk! Don't say things like that!" I began to fake cry. "I knew you hated me!"

He looked a bit panicked now. "Oi, what's wrong with that?! And of course I don't hate you—don't say that!" He said, trying to be calm. I stopped my fake crying, looking at him with red, teary eyes.

"A-are you sure?"

Monk nodded vigorously, placing a hand on my shoulder, and looked at me in the eyes. "Yes, yes, I'm sure."

"Yay!" I cheered, crying gone completely. I skipped away to the living room where we held clients, but stopped short. There was a woman sitting there with Lin and Naru. I couldn't believe I hadn't noticed a client. I put a smile on my face, walking over with Monk to sit next to my boyfriend. Her eyes were downcast, her blonde hair cascading down her shoulders, which were shaking. She was holding the hand of a young boy, probably about twelve. He looked at the woman concernedly.

"Mom?" She snapped her head up, as though she'd been in deep thought.

"Sorry, Akio." She looked up at us, smiling weakly. "I apologize for spacing out. I've just had a lot on my mind, so please forgive me."

"No, not at all! I apologize for coming in here late! I'm Mai Taniyama."

"And I'm Houshou Takigawa."

"I'm Mio Tachibana..." The woman said, looking at us with tired eyes. Then she shifted her gaze down to the boy beside her. "And this is my son, Akio."

"Mrs. Tachibana, can you please explain why you're here today?" Naru asked, straight to the point as always. I inwardly sighed at that. I just hope he doesn't be too blunt and cold towards the poor woman.

"Well, you see...It's about my house and property. My husband and I moved in after our wedding about thirteen years ago, and everything was normal until we had our first son, Ichiro. About three months after he was born, things started to fall. Since it was a new house, we thought it was just the house settling. A year later we had Akio," She gestured to her son. "After he was born, nothing happened. It was all normal. The next year we had my second-to-youngest son, Daisuke, and there were these...knocking sounds all throughout the house. Two years later we had my youngest son, Nozomu. It all stopped again. Then we had my twin daughters, Kanae and- Kanae and Kaori. Then the knocking sounds and things moving on their own happened together. Four years after, about six months ago, my daughter Kaori died. She got sick—there was nothing we could do. After that, Kanae started to have nightmares—I mean, who wouldn't after that? And then she told me she was seeing things..."

"What kind of things?" Naru questioned. He was already in his 'thinking pose', so I knew this case had already caught his attention. Mrs. Tachibana fidgeted uncomfortably, whether from having such full attention from Naru, Monk, and myself, or for what she was going to say next, I couldn't quite tell.

"She sees...She says she sees Kaori in the playroom when she's alone. And sometimes she says she sees her sleeping in her old bed like she did when she was sick. When she does, she told me she 'takes care of Onee-chan when she's sick, cause she screams cause it still hurts.' And four months ago, she woke up with small, hand-shaped bruises on her face, but no one in our house had hands that fit, and she told Akio that is was Kaori because she was mad. She has scratches in her legs and arms that say terrible things; there keeps being horrible accidents, like knives falling, and fires out of nowhere, and we've got these writings on the base of our necks." She handed over pictures and showed us Akio's neck. The kanji for 'loneliness' was there, as though they'd been etched into his skin. She began to cry, and I looked away.

"And last week, Kanae was pulled into the lake we have on our property! She would have died if Ichiro hadn't seen and got her out. But when he went under the water to find her, he saw her being pulled under it by a little girl he didn't recognize. He kicked her away, and as he was getting to surface, he said a young woman took the girl by her arm, and they stared at him and disappeared! Please, you have to help us! It's too dangerous, someone's going to die soon, I can feel it!" She continued.

I snapped my eyes towards Naru with a look that dared him not to care this case. He better help this poor family, or so help me... Although, I knew it was unlikely that he wouldn't; this case is too interesting for him, and besides...he's not heartless.

"We'll need three rooms set up—one for a base, a girl's room, and a boy's room. We'll be there in three days."

Mrs. Tachibana's eyes lit up at his words. That was the first time they had done so since she's been here. "Oh, thank you! Thank you, Mr. Shibuya!"

He nodded in reply, and we all stood up, bowing to each other. She grabbed her son's hand, thanking us one last time before leaving the office. Naru turned towards me, ready to speak, but I already knew what he was going to say.

"Yeah, yeah, I know." I interrupted him. "Call the others, right?" He nodded with an irritated look, and I bounced of with a victorious grin. Behind me, I just knew he gave an eye roll before going back into his office. I picked up the phone, dialing Ayako's number. It rang a few times, and I tapped my foot, smiling at Monk who was saying something about Ayako being an old hag. Finally, there was an annoyed, "Hello?" on the other end.

"Hey, Ayako, it's me, Mai! We've got a case."