Disclaimer: Again, I don't own Ghost Hunt. How sad... T.T All characters- except for Madoka's friend and a few extra characters- belong to Fuyumi Ono.


Chapter Two: The Case

Naru was almost frozen in place. It was very rare for him to see his assistant so distraught that he had no idea what to say. He had almost gathered the courage to ask her what was wrong when the bell over the door chimed; a signal that they had a customer. Mai stood and made her way to the door where she bowed and said, "Welcome to Shibuya Psychic Reasearch. My name is Taniyama Mai; may I help you?"

The person who'd entered blinked her surprise. For the scene before her looked like this: Naru was standing at his office door, eyes wide and mouth open while Lin was standing by Mai's desk an injured and bewildered expression on his face. And when Mai stood there was a shocked, ashamed, and sorrowful look on her face. "Ma-Mori-san," the girl let out before rushing off to the kitchen. "I'll make you some tea!" she squeaked.

Madoka looked from Lin to Naru and then in a dangerously low tone of voice asked, "Noll, just what did you do to her?"

Naru, his mind unfrozen at the sudden venom in his mentor's voice, gathered himself together and replied, "I did nothing to her, Madoka. I found her like that. Lin, do you happen to know?"

Lin had managed to put himself together and answered-an expressionless look on his face-, "I found her much the same way. I was just bringing her tea." He gestured to the now cold cup on her desk.

Mai came in with a trayful of tea just then, a fake cheerful expression on her face, and asked, "So what brings you here today, Madoka?"

Madoka gave everyone in the room a suspicious glance before she made her way to the couch and sat. She accepted a cup of tea from Mai, who sat next to her with a cup of apple juice. Madoka sighed and knew it would be best not to pry at the moment. Besides, she had a serious case for them. "An old friend of mine came to me the other day with a case. She just opened a hotel in Hiroshima about a month ago. Since the opening day there have been strange mists that will randomly appear everywhere, knives and cutlery will disappear and red sticky substances would appear on the walls."

Madoka paused here. "Recently however, things have taken a turn for the worse. It started escalating about a week ago with messages written in blood on the walls saying things like, "Help me" and "You will never find the child". And then about midweek a pregnant guest was attacked. She remembered nothing of it but when taken to a doctor to check on the baby it was as if there hadn't been a child growing there to begin with."

Mai gasped. "That's horrible!" she cried feeling a strange sickness creep over her. She gulped it down. She had finally found a case she didn't want to take but only because it would endanger someone already precious to her. Naru gave her a strange look before turning to Madoka.

"How many have been affected by this entity?" he asked.

"Three pregnant women in the last week," Madoka answered with a grim look on her face.

Naru looked at Mai. "Call the others. We'll need everyone we can get for this case." He then turned to Madoka. "Call your friend and let her know we will need 3 or 4 rooms plus a place for our base. Tell her to clear everyone out of there. I don't want any pregnant woman within 2 miles of that place, understood?"

Madoka nodded, pulled out her cell phone, and went into the hallway to make the call.

A/N: Okay, so what do you guys think so far? Have I done a good job keeping everyone in character? I hope you guys are enjoying this so far! Please read and review!