It's my first GH fanfic, but I hope that you'll enjoy it anyway. Trust me, it gets better as it continues on. Thanks for giving it a shot!

Disclaimer: Oh if I owned Ghost hunt, Naru would have asked someone out by now

AN I just went and revised this chapter. Nothing big

File 10: Part 1 – Fiery Confinement

It was the grandest house I had ever seen or set foot in. It had a slight European sense of furnishing and grand prestige. I felt a bit uncomfortable being in a mansion that seemed like only royalty were fit to live in. An elderly man around his late fifties, who was our recent client, politely encountered us at its entrance.

"Thank you for coming. It's this way to the study room." Sou-san motioned. The room where we'd hold our usual base.

We were escorted up a flight of stairs, near which was a great oversized window looking over the backyard gardens. I saw multiple colors all around an old oak and lake, but only one type of flower.

"Ehh…There are only Chrysanthemums. " I noticed.

Ayako nodded. "It's probably because this place is near a grave or something.."

"Oh near a place like this?…Ne Naru, aren't they beautiful though?"

He didn't respond, but I saw the smallest tilt of his head towards me and his emotions were, as usual, unreadable. Am I supposed to answer? I guessed him thinking. I sighed and let it pass.

Sou-san slightly paused in his steps and glanced out the window as I had. "There is a separated area with gravestones farther along the path next to the tree. It's from the story that the daughter of the first owners of the mansion had quite a liking to the Chrysanthemums. She disappeared with her lover 50 years ago after a fire. Their bodies were never found."

We all stopped to look at Sou-san. He hadn't mentioned this much about the case issue yet. He sensed our eyes and looked back at us before continuing upward to the second story. "It is her spirit that possessed the girls throughout the years and now my daughter because she wants to be reunited with her love. At least, that has been the hypothesis all this time. We don't know why the fires start, though."

Bou-san seemed slightly impressed. He leaned over and whispered in my ear. "He's tried to figure it out himself."

We'd reached the upper story and walked down a small hallway into a separated room. There were four chairs set out with a small, mahogany coffee table between them. The rest of the room's furnishings were hidden beneath dust cloths and pushed against one side of the room, out of the way.

"Forgive me, but we had limited time setting up the room. I think this place would be the most suitable for you."

"Thank you." Naru replied. "Then if we could spend some time retrieving our equipment…"

Sou-san shortly nodded and smiled. "Of course."

"Mai."

I smiled and raised a thumb. "I know."

A Few Days Ago

We were in the office of SPR, and had a new client. He had arrived with a young girl, around her early 20s, whom I expected to be his daughter. I had put down the tea for our guest, Naru, Bou-san, Ayako and myself. As I'd sat down in the seat next to Naru, I could hear Lin start typing into his laptop from across the room in his usual seat.

I had found out that Lin hadn't meant to be cantankerous when he had refused my offerings of tea, but that he just didn't enjoy drinking it like we did. So I had dropped off a cup of coffee to which he had given a thankful nod.

"My name is Sou Tamaki. This is my daughter Kana."

Naru then deliberately set down his teacup. "She's the one who's been possessed?"

"Hai, twice." Kana interjected. Her face had been lowered, both hands clasped together upon her lap. Naru had turned towards her and nodded to ask her to continue.

"Whenever it happens, I don't remember much after I awaken. But I keep seeing a situation in my dreams, and I suspect that it is similar to them."

"Dream?"

She'd nodded and finally looked up at us. "I'm trapped in a great fire. A man is calling to me, and no matter how hard I try, I can't reach him. I awake when the flames start to blind me."

My brows had drawn closer, a dark shiver running down my spine.

"The first time, she was slightly burned and the second time, I had barely made it in time. It's been a month now and even though Kana's been away with her aunt, I can't help but feel…worried." I'd been startled when Sou-san had suddenly raised his voice . "Will you please accept this case?" The two across the table had looked at us with desperate looks. I'd been sure of what the answer would be.

Naru had nodded, receiving sighs of relief. Sou-san had then asked when we'd be able to come over. He lived not an hour away from our office. Naru was silent for a moment, and I'd realized that Lin-san had even stopped his typing. He had eyed everyone for a confirmation and then gave nod to the man. "How's tomorrow sound?"

Inserts OP music :p

November Thursday morning

Naru began his talk while Bou-san was helping me put up the monitors up onto the shelves.

"The room the fire had occured in is down the hallway, the last door to the left. That was were Kana-san was found after her 'dreams'. Mai, after you're through with that, we'll go take a look."

I nodded and quickened my pace. "Hai."

"In here."

From the outside it had looked normal and clean. But as soon as Naru had opened the door, we all gasped at the sight of a blackened mess. Naru was the only one who wasn't surprised and who made any motions to walk inside.

Ayako hesitated. "W-wait, is it really safe in there?"

Without a word, he strode in and from the center of the room and gave the place a glance. Ash still seemed to be floating around him, as if the fire had happened only hours before. I heard Ayako hmph behind me and I meekly smiled.

Bou-san and I put down at the entrance the cords and camera we'd brought with us just in case. We followed Naru's lead and cautiously entered to inspect the area. With nearly everything blackened from the past fire, I couldn't even tell what some of the objects were. I was afraid to touch anything, lest it crumble apart.

"Eh, this was an awful fire." Bou-san mentioned. He was inspecting a nearby wall with a hand under his chin. "It burned through a layer in the wall before being put out."

I slowly raised a finger to a lift up a dark, flat object from the remains of what looked like a desk, but it cracked and fell to the floor. I lurched back with surprise. "Ah!"

"Careful, okay?" Ayako said. The miko seemed to have already gotten over the fear of the floor breaking down from their feet. She walked in farther into the room and to the opposite side of the door. "Well, at least the fireplace didn't burn up."

I followed. As she had mentioned, the fireplace looked like it had been added into the room after the fire had occurred. None of its stone edges were blacked, only a thin layer of soot and dust surrounded it.

"Isn't that sort of the point of being a fireplace? Being fireproof?"

"Is it?" Ayako asked as she peeked up the chimney, being careful of trickling down soot.

Bou-san had noticed us and walked over. He leaned over with us, hands on hips. "Find something interesting?"

"Mm-mm. Nothing really."

Naru suddenly spoke. "It's been 50 years and now they've decided to act." More than awed, he sounded annoyed.

Bou-san cocked his head a bit. I knew he didn't like it when Naru kept the information from us. "Naru-chan, what exactly are the facts?"

Naru kept his arms crossed as he turned to us. "It seems that after the accident had occurred –the original fire – each woman that had been possessed died a decade apart from each other. Three of them have perished so far. After the deaths and knowing it's history, why wouldn't the house be shut down?"

Three lives? Burned? It was probably a horrible way to die. The strange thing was that the deaths had happened like a pattern.

Thursday night

"Naru, the temperatures for the rooms."

He took them without a word and skimmed through the data. Nothing seemed to really interest him, and I knew that none of the temperatures had been abnormal. I stretched my fingers and raised both my arms with a sigh.

"Ahhh…don't make me do it again. Recording all the rooms of a mansion isn't easy you know."

When I peeked an eye at him, Naru was passing the chart to Lin-san. He started giving me the usual directions.

"We seem to not have enough cameras for every room. Put up the night-vision cameras, thermograph and sound-gathering microphones in the burnt room, the rooms everyone will be staying in, and the hallways of the second story."

I nodded, making sure Bou-san had heard as well. Then I pretended to be dejected. More work...

Naru didn't even bat an eyelash. "Good. It's a job you should be used to by now." He'd heard my sigh.

Turning around with annoyance, I picked up a microphone and strode out of the room. "Fine!" Honestly, couldn't he say thank you? He knew how to plead politely, hell even sometimes with a cocky manner. But he sparingly used the word. The last time I'd heard 'Thank you' with true appreciation had been after the phone call at school, offering me the part-time job.

That had sounded really nice…

…

"Ehh…Where do you think Naru would want the night-vision camera?"

I looked around the burnt room and processed Bou-san's question. I thought a bit before choosing the corner of the room where the wall with the door and the wall perpendicular to it met. "This way we can see through the center of the room to the opposite window."

"Okay, let's go then. Ah, being old sure takes its toll." He rubbed the back of his neck and sighed pitifully, the result actually turning out silly.

I let out a small giggle and started following him out of the room. Then suddenly, I felt a strong sort of feeling that I should turn the camera, an overwhelming sense. What is this feeling? Walking back to the corner, I stood in front of the camera and tilted it to the left a bit so that the fireplace would also be shown. There.

"Mai? We have to finish the other rooms too you know."

"Coming!" I ran out after him.

…

Naru stood with his back against a chair, his hands folded and deep in thought. Lin-san was getting up from the table with his laptop back to his usual seat in front of the monitors. No doubt he'd been typing up the script between Naru and our client, because Sou-san had just passed me and Bou-san down the hallway back to the base.

Entering and slouching down in the nearest chair, I asked. "Did you get the rest of his story Naru?"

My boss nodded.

After a second, Bou-san smiled and raised an eyebrow. "Want to tell us about it?"

Ayako answered for us. "It's just the usual. Evil spirits, no idea whose it is, although Sou-san is certain it's the guy that died. And aslo there's thudding, more along the walls than from the ceilings."

My eyes widened at the familiar description. Rapping sounds?

"Each time Sou tried to repair the room, there had been…disturbances."

I sat up straighter in my seat and leaned in, now interested. "The spirit wasn't happy about the intrusion, right?"

"Yeah. The opposite results of a normal spirit. A fire even engulfed one construction worker. It scared them away. He didn't die, but got a pretty bad second degree burn."

I unconsciously brought a hand to my face. There was a bit of silence where we were lost in our individual thoughts. I imagined the worker consumed by flames with no way out of his torture and got a chill down my back. No, I pushed those thoughts out of my mind. Ayako soon decided to share hers.

"I wonder if one of us will get possessed."

"Eh?" Not what I'd been really expecting. "As in you or me?"

Ayako looked at me and gave a half-hearted shrug. "I think that the young girl's spirit is possessing women to make them go through the terrible, same fate as hers."

"I'm sure being burned alive wouldn't be something you would like to experience, Matsuzaki-san." Though Naru had spoken with seriousness, I could tell that he was irritating her.

Bou-san smiled evilly. "She probably would want to possess only young, pretty girls I bet." He raised both his hands with a mock shrug. "You won't have to worry about a thing Ayako."

"What?!"

I tilted my head to one side with a giggle. "Let's hope that doesn't happen though."

Bou-san sat down beside me and mentioned out loud, "It's sort of like our second case isn't it? The mother who gathered the spirits of children while searching for her daughter?"

Naru's low voice cut through our conversation. "No two cases can have exactly the same cause." He put a hand under his chin and nodded. "However, comparing them to similar ones can be helpful."

Bou-san tried to continue his speculations. "Well, then maybe–"

But he was interrupted by an urgent call.

"Naru!"

We all turned with a quick sense of worried fear at Lin's sudden yell. The tone of his voice could only mean trouble. We rushed over to the multiple screens Lin was monitoring. Before we could ask what was wrong, it was clearly obvious. One of the screens was a flashing, almost blinding gray that danced this way and that.

"A fire!" Ayako's eyes brightened and flickered from the reflection of the screens. "Why aren't the alarms going off?"

Naru leaned in for a closer look, as did Bou-san and I moved out of their way. I started making my way towards the door. "We have to get – "

"Mai, wait." Naru's calm voice held me back, but I turned to him with impatience.

"But Naru!"

"No, it's not a real fire."

"Eh?" I could see the flames clearly on the screen. Ayako seemed confused as well, but Bou-san guided my head to a certain angle.

"See how the flames aren't licking up the walls?"

With a flick of his finger, Naru flipped on a number of switches. Suddenly, the screen showing the fiery room turned different shades of blue and white. "There aren't any changes in the normal room temperature." He mentioned.

I sighed with a raised eyebrow. "I see that. Well then it's only an illusion?"

Naru had a finger to his chin and I knew it would be impossible to get anything out of him at that moment. I turned to the monk on the other side of Naru. "Bou-san?"

"Hmm, something about it unsettles me though…"

Ayako stepped back and looked at Naru, Lin and Bou-san. "Shouldn't we go check it out anyway?" She snapped.

I was just about to back her up, when something in the screen caught my eye. Gasping I leaned in, bumping in a bit into Naru's arm. I gasped loudly. He leaned away and watched me intently. "What do you see?"

Is he serious?

There was no mistake about it. Someone was in the fire. He or she were crawling towards the window, a melting figure of blackened clothes and burning flesh. My eyes widened and I couldn't turn away from the gruesome sight. "Someone…someone's there!" I could hardly hear my own shaken voice.

Then I broke myself away from the sight and began my way down to the room at the end of the hallway. "Oy!" Bou-san shouted. "Wait, don't leave alone! Mai!"

I ignored his calls. Couldn't they see? Didn't they notice the burning person?

…

I could hear Bou-san's worried voice calling for me from down the hallway, but they had become distant. The door opened without resistance of rusty hinges and without thinking about the possibility of danger, I burst in.

No one was there. My eyes widened. No fire.

"Eh?"

As Naru had presumed, there was no fire. The room I had intruded into was silent and still with darkness. The air had actually gone a bit chilly and I guessed that it was because of the opened window. As I went to close them, I stopped in my tracks and stared at the billowing curtains. They had been closed and tied shut earlier… I was denying the fact that it could be the presence of a ghost or spirit.

The temperature must have been near freezing point by then. I could see my breath. I neared the place where I'd seen the person on the camera. It was near here… Looking down, my sight froze.

"Mai!"

It wasn't a moment after discovering the marks when Bou-san, Naru and Ayako burst in, and when the walls around us began to shake with fearful power. Slowly at first, and then from one wall and then another, as if something was being bounced off of them. I heard Ayako yell out. Far off, I heard the camera fall over from its stand.

"Nau-maku-san-manda, Bazara-dan-kan!"

After a small clatter of the glass windows the shaking reluctantly stopped and I looked behind to see Naru flick on the lights.

"What do you think you were doing running off like that?" Bou-san demanded. "Are you alright?"

"Because I saw someone in the fire! I'm smart enough to not go off my myself without a good reason." Anger filled me.

Naru sighed with almost a look of a parent trying to explain a difficult concept to a child. "Mai, it could have been a lure made by a spirit."

I hadn't thought about that, but I wouldn't declare defeat. With my brow brought together, I turned away. Ayako looked down at me and kneeled down. Her voice sounded exasperated and full of relief at the fact that nothing terrible had happened. "What were you looking at? There's no one here."

"Right." I'd almost forgotten. I turned back to the bit of the wall below the windows. I pointed at the long scratches with a shaking finger. Ten in all.

It caught Bou-san and Naru's attention, and the two of them quickly walked up behind us. Ayako looked at them with a tilt of her head before loudly yelling out, "Are they…?"

Looking grim, Bou-san reached up with both his hands, and touched the top of the marks on the wall. They were just short of reaching over the windowsill. Then slowly, with everyone watching, he ran his hands down, perfectly tracing the jagged path.

Naru spoke as I thought the same horrible thing in my mind. "Nail marks."

Chrysanthemums are sometimes considered to be flowers used for honoring the dead. They're also great in tea.