AN: Hey Guys, This Chapter and the following case in it's entirety has been gone over by my lovely new Beta Reader. I know things have not been going as I planed, but now that I have one thing sorted out I can start writing again YAY! The Creative Writing Class I am taking requires me to do a lot of out of class work, if your wondering. Which takes up quite a bit of time, add that to two other classes and working and yeah... I will do what I can though, hopefully this will be a good start.

Case File One: A Samurai Dilemma Part Two

Day 3: Friday

I throw my bag in the back of the van with the rest of the equipment before shutting the trunk. Now the only thing left to do was to wait for the arrival of the others before heading out. They had already called ahead to warn us that they would be running a bit late due to the traffic jam. Actually, we were already running about ten minutes behind the scheduled time but they should be here soon….hopefully. I had escaped outside so I wouldn't have to deal with Naru.

I couldn't stay here much longer though, maybe if I went in and made him some tea he wouldn't be such a grouch. Knowing him he would be finished with is previous cup by now. Plus, with the way he hate being late he would bite my head off if he thought I was dawdling, so it's best if I make myself seem busy. That's why I came thirty minutes earlier than I usally do. If only to show him that I could.

Unfortunately all he said was, "It is amazing, you do know how to get here on time maybe you should make a habit out of it." He didn't even have the decency look from his case files while insulting me

Walking back into the office, I headed immediately to the kitchenette to pour my boss another cup of tea. When I heard two thing, first, the office door opening and two, the reason which I suspect he hired me for

"Mai Tea" see!, I couldn't decide if I should smile or cry that my prediction was right.

"Here you go," I said.

Drinking his tea absentmindedly Naru ordered "Call Takigawa-san and see what is taking them so long". For those who don't know Takigawa-san is the resident Monk of the team, his first name being Houshou, but most of us call him Bou-san.

Taking a deep breath, i answered patiently "I just called them five minutes ago, and they said they were stuck in traffic," because let's face it if Naru was a stickler for anything it was being on time.

"Well call them again, tell them that they can just meet us there, I won't be late on their account, give them the address and everything so they can reach the castle before dark." he ordered, "Lin, we are leaving," he hollered out.

'Impatient, rushing workaholic, you would think that he would be a little more understanding by now, but no!, everyone has to be perfect just like him' still ranting to myself I picked up the phone and Just when was about to dial Bou-san's number, I heard Naru voice "Quite dawdling there already, you are holding us! "

"I'm dawdling! You ordered me to call them," I shouted furiously it was no use though because he had already gone outside. Slamming down the phone, I stalked after him to find Naru had the door of the van open and waiting for me take my seat.

Day 3: Friday Evening

Mai blinked as the van pulled up to the old Hokkaido Castle. It was a typical old Japanese Castles. The base being made of solid stone, whereas the castles structure is a blend of wood and stone. It was composed of three buildings, each connected by a covered archway. A black tiled roofs in the Irimoya style in which the roofing extends out and up from each side of the rectangular structure. Partway up two of the shorter opposite sides are stopped and the remaining two continue to the top where they are joined. White wall expanding three stories high, with square windows, thought those of the uppermost storey took the shape of a pointed arch known as kato mado and had exterior balconies.

Afar, one could see the stone wall that encircled the whole property connected to the entrance gate made of thick and solid oak wood. Leading to a flagstone walkway where Mai noticed different plants such as Sakkara tree, lilac trees, orchid tree along with the beds flowers like the gorgeous bellflowers or the Lily of the Nile. Overall, it made for a breathtaking view that was impossible to breech thanks to The Sea on the rear side of the castle.

Now i understood why Ms. Hokkaido told us that the house was kept as original as possible, and why it was being converted into a hotel. The idea was to turn it into a tourist attraction without destroying the original structure. This way people could almost pretend they were back in the Warring States Era, and enjoy a slice of Japans past for a small fee of course. Well, it would be a great idea if not for the Ghosts that is, seeing, as not many guests would want to pay for a haunting experience; they were bad for business, not to mention your health – i should know seeing as i always end being targeted by them. But enough said on that moving on now, think positive happy thoughts Mai.

Lin parked the van in front of the door, and not long after Bou-san's car pulled in behind us. I smiled as he swept me up into his usual hug, before squirming.

"Bou-san I can't breathe let me go" I choked out causing him to laugh and drop me. Behind him stood Ayako the groups Shinto Priestess and Doctor, John our Catholic Priest, and Masako, a Spiritual Medium all of them looking a little worn from the long car ride.

"I sense an angry spirit lurking here" Masako proclaimed apon stepping out onto the gravel, then she attached herself to Naru arm.

"If you are done here we need to get moving before we completely lose daylight," Naru ordered still as impatient as ever, while making his way to the door, on the same time managing to extract himself relatively easily from the medium grasp. Shrugging we all followed him up as the door open to reveal Ms. Hokkaido standing there.

"I am so glad you were able to make it, I was worried for a minute there you had changed your mind and wasn't coming, but then I saw your van pull up and I was so relived." she told us, while ushering us in.

"Leave the servants to unload the boxes and bags, you can set it up later for now come in and have some dinner with us. I will show you the rooms you've requested are afterward"

The dining room was very authentic, it had several low tables pushed together to make one ling table. Alon numerous cushions littered on the tanami mat floor for us to sit on. In front of each cushion, there were three hollowed out wooden trays made of lacquered wood and stained black, I laughed silently to myself over the fact that it matched the building. On each tray, there was an assortment of food. Starting from the left there was a boiled fish. In the middle tray, there was some vegetables, rice, pickles, a small sake cup, some type of clear soup and chopsticks. On the right side was another assortment of vegetable and some more soup. We all sat down on one of the offered seats. The order went Ayako next to Bou-san, who was next to John followed by Masako, and then me, next to me was Lin followed by Naru. At the head of the table sat Ms. Hokkaido. I noted that it would have been her husband seat in the traditional Japanese table setting. Across from us there was other people of varying ages that must live in the house of. (1)

Once everyone was seated, Ms Hokkaido called out "Gohan yo! Tabemashou!" (2)

To which everyone else replied "Itadakimasu!" before beginning to eat. (3)

After dinner, everyone went into the sitting room for a cup of tea. Once settled down, we began discussing the case with Ms. Hokkaido who thanked us once again for coming.

"I was wondering if you would like some history about the castle or if you would need anything before you would retire to your rooms for the evening?" she offered politely.

Without saying anything, Naru motioned for Lin to pull out his ever present laptop so he could take notes.

"That would be most helpful to our case Hokkaido-san. If you could give us the history of the castle and were each disturbance took place together with the name of who was involved," asked Naru. Ms, Hokkaido took a small sip of her tea and then began. "Hokkaido Castle was founded in 1457 by Daki Iwate and his son Fumio under the order of Uesugi Mochitomo. In 1546, it was taken over by the Hokkaido clan until it fell again to Hideyoshi after his attack on Odawara and the Hokkaido. When the Tokugawa established their base of power at Edo, which is now known as Tokyo, Hokkaido Castle functioned as an important defensive position."(4)

She paused a minute in case anyone had any questions, with none forthcoming she took another sip of her tea and continued.

"Before the Hokkaido clan took over the castle and between the years of 1457 and 1546, in that span of eighty-six years there were a series of murders. Not much information can be found on who caused them and why, however Fuimo Iwate's first son, his wife, their five children and all the servants were found dead in there home, causing the castle to fall into the hands of the second son, Daki. It was Daki who caused the castle to fall into the hands of Katsuro Hokkaido, who in turn had the ruling lord and lady killed and the children forced into servitude." Pausing again she swallowed hard her voice started to get a little shaky as her story when on

"Since the castle fell to the Hokkaido's, every ten years and for the next century someone would die by either, suffocation, getting beaten to death, falling off a balcony, slit his/her throat, hanging and in a few rare cases decapitation. Then the castle went silent. Now i am afraid that the phenomena of people dying might start again; in fact, one servant and a child have already died within ten days of each other rather than ten years. Both of them fell off the balcony outside their rooms, their bodies were found washed ashore three days later. Neither of them had a reason to commit suicide, and both their deaths were ruled as accident by the local police. After their deaths, the shouts and screaming started to happen on a nightly basis and some of my staff had bruises that appeared on them, that's when I decided to call you".

The silence was deafening, until it was broken by Naru "I see, and in which room did these events happen?"

"Well the arguing voices and the people falling from their balcony seem only to happen on the third floor bedrooms. After the two deaths, I ordered all the servants to lock every single door and window up there and move to the second floor for their safety. The basement is where the beatings and slit throats have taken place, although nothing like that has happened yet, thank goodness. The third floor bathroom and kitchen is where the suffocation took place and there are no decapitations so far." She then proceeded to list who witnessed the events.

The list contained simple things like objects moving, seeing faces, and stuff like that. It then continued to more advances stuff, like bruises, and being locked in places for hours with 'someone'. Finally the deaths, the problem is, only powerful and vengeful spirits could kill people.

'Why do we always get stuck with the crazy- I'm- going- to- kill- you- ghosts, why can't we for once have a nice simple haunting.' I thought a trifle bit irritated, I mean i knew that if the Ghosts weren't crazy then there would be no real reason to call SPR 'but come on why do I always end being the ghost target'. My ranting was cut short by Naru voice

"I will need to further question these people tomorrow if you could send them to us one at a time and show us to our rooms now so we can set up our equipment before turning in."

"Of course right away if you would follow me please" Hokkaido- san led the SPR team to the second floor. Where they were given three connecting rooms, with The boxes neatly settled in the middle one. "I hope it's to your liking," Ms Hokkaido said.

"This will be fine," Naru said and started giving his order "Mai begin setting up the shelves, Takigawa-san can you begin setting up the monitors and unpacking the cameras and microphones, Matsuzaki-san help him. John and Hara-san please make a sweep of the castle and tell us what you can sense." Turning to his assistant, he said. "Mai when you're done with the shelves get the temperature reading of all the rooms, and take Takigawa-san with you. After the monitors are set, I want Matsuzaki-san, and John to set up the cameras and mikes in the hot spot rooms Takigawa-san and Mai can help when they are finished with temperature readings. When this is done we can retire." He said in a no nonsense voice. With that said, he began to help hooking up the monitors that had been unpacked from the supplies.

Once the shelving units were up, I called to Bou-san while grabbing a temperature gage and the clipboard with the list of rooms on it.

"Shall we get to it?" I said walking out the door. "I think that we should start at the bottom and work our way up it would be easier." I commented while walking down the stairs.

"That's fine Mai-chan as long as you don't get hurt, I don't want to deal with a tea-less Naru tomorrow," teased Monk with a mock shiver.

"Hey no fair I don't get hurt that often" I wined at him.

"Sure you don't, you only have been possessed, fallen down countless stairs, had a curse cast on you, fallen down into wells…" he let the list trail off.

"It's not always my fault" I tried to defend myself.

"I know it's not. You just run into trouble without thinking, you are lucky Naru's always there to save you" he continued to tease me as I blushed bright red.

"He only does it because it saves him from having to break in a new assistant," I muttered, while taking down the last temperature on the list.

"All done" I told him "let's head back to the base."

Once back, all the camera's and mic's had already been set up it would seem we had taken longer than we originally thought.

'All that's left now was to get some sleep; we would start the formal investigation in the morning' I thought while yawning.

I had barely closed my eyes in the bedroom I shared with Ayako and Masako that I already was off in dreamland.

I was walking down a long hallway. The floors were made of some kind of wood and the walls lined with six foot Tall three Panel Cherry Blossom Shoji Screen 6 Foot Tall 3 Panel Cherry Blossom Shoji Screen 6 Foot Tall 3 Panel Cherry Blossom Shoji Screen 6 Foot Tall 3 Panel Cherry Blossom Shoji Screenthat were firmly closed, I could see the torches were beginning to sputter out in their brackets indicating how late it was. Sliding the door at the end of the hallway open i could see that it was a bedroom. The walls were creamy white. The floor was a dark cherry wood. Walking into the room. I clutched the sleeping yukata tighter to myself to ward off some of the evening chill. At first, the room seemed empty, but apon closer inspection i could see another figure standing in the room with me

"Where did you wander off to so late at night Clarice," the voice asked.

"Just to the bathroom koishii, I didn't mean to wake you" I responded.

Moving past him onto the balcony, he followed me out. (5)

"You were gone a long time I was worried," he said.

"I went to the kitchen afterwards to get a drink Takao," I said getting a little frustrated with his overbearing attitude. This caused him to throw his hands up and start raising his voice.

"Well what am I supposed to do Clarice when my wife disappears from my bed-chamber in the middle of the night and has been gone for over an hour, your cheating on me aren't you" he accused.

Backing away, I tried to plied with him "No it's nothing like that at all" I told him crying

"I just couldn't sleep that's all"

"Then why did you go into Taro's bed chambers, you're in love with him aren't you? How many of our kids are really mine tell me that. You have been visiting him for a while now I have proof. The maids have seen you. What about our third son, he looks a lot like Taro is he his answer me." He yelled as he continued advancing toward me until I my back was pressed to the balcony railing.

"None Takao I don't know what you are talking about, please calm down, I have always been faithful," I begged him.

"Lies!" he exclaimed and smacked me hard across the face sending me tumbling over the edge of the balcony my screams filled the still night air.

"Traitors all of you," he said out loud "None of you traitors deserve to live"