Author's Note: Sorry for the long delay! I had a trapeze show and then got pretty sick after it for quite some time. Please review if you read. ;) Criticism is always welcome as well.

Disclaimer: I still don't own Ghost Hunt :(

Chapter One: The Seven Year Itch

Taniyama Mai restlessly drummed her fingertips on the armrest of her desk chair as she blankly watched a stream of dust particles dance to in fro in the last streaming rays of sunlight before dusk. She grabbed a stack of papers that was strewn carelessly across her desk, thumbing through the white sheets to find the chapter entitled 'Psychokinesis,' It was the rough draft of her boss' latest contribution to paranormal literature, The Developmental Structure of Latent Psychic Abilities. She had already read through the rather substantial pile that day since a certain someone had placed it there while claiming that it would be rather educational for her as well as a good combatant to her stupidity, something he made quite apparent he believed she had in abundance. Due to the unexpected arrival of a client, she had done exactly so, twice, finding the work more excruciating with each passing sentence as it seemed to be a bit more like her own biography than a work of science. Frustrated, she tossed the papers onto a stack of files at the side of her rather large oak desk and opened her mouth to sigh only to find herself coughing instead, certain she had inhaled a good amount of those blasted ballerina dustmites. Her office at Shibuya Psychic Research wasn't exactly the cleanest place around. As Masako had once put it, a rat would be ashamed to have to live in such a dirty, disorganized locale, but since it was her own private office, not visited by the business' clientelle, her likelihood to clean it carried roughly the same odds as Naru wearing pink.

The door to Mai's office creaked open after a light knock. "Mai-san, are you okay? I heard you coughing. If you'd like, I'd be more than happy to rub your..."

"Can it!" Mai had already sized up the young male assailant. Although she couldn't see his eyes due to the eerie glow of the light reflecting off his spectacles, the menacing smirk creeping across his face was a tell-tale sign that his gesture would not be one of sincerity. If he wanted to play hardball, she wasn't going to back down.

"Yasuhara, tea." She ordered, stifling her giggle until the door clicked shut behind the dispirited assistant. After all, he had no right to refuse her these days.

Mai picked up the only thing she kept tidy in her office, a shiny gold plaque positioned at the front of her desk and ran her fingers over the engraving of her name and position; the proud display was a gift given to her by the SPR crew upon her promotion last month. The business had grown considerably since Mai had first taken on a job as a part-time assistant approximately seven years prior. Ayako and Bou-san were now both steady employees and served as fulltime case managers within the office along with their services as exorcists and spiritualists onsite during cases. Mai herself was promoted to Assistant Director much to the surprise and bewilderment of her fellow employees. However, her now even more handsome boss of many names reasoned it quite well; Mai had been an employee of SPR longer than anyone else, not inclusive of Lin, since he was really more of an acting guardian than an employee, making her the most familiar with the internal workings of the ghost hunting company. But the main reason rested upon Mai's extroverted yet sensitive personality that consistently kept their tumultuous clients at ease.

The door clicked open again and Yasuhara placed two steaming cups on top of Mai's desk, plopping down into a seat across from her and swinging his feet up to rest beside the cup. A moment of silence passed over the duo as their own thoughts and concerns ebbed at their consciousness.

Mai gazed at her reflection in the hot brown liquid. Her hair was much longer now, falling midway down her back, and the passing time had made her cheek bones more defined. Slowly she had transformed from an adolescent tomboy into what any man with two working eyes would describe as a beautiful, attractive young woman. Yes, she still lacked a certain amount of poise, but sitting in her chair right now wearing her crisp, pressed white button down shirt and black slacks, no one would ever guess that a tiny bit of a klutz was concealed beneath the professional facade.

"How are things with Michiru?" Mai took a sip of her tea, decidedly breaking the silence. She also needed a bit of a distraction to keep her mind from wandering back to who precisely the mysterious client was in her boss' office.

Yasuhara hesitantly fiddled with his cup, spinning it back and forth, and sighed contemplatively. A twinge of pain was present in his voice as he began to speak. "Not so good. With medical school and working here part-time, we barely have enough free time to see each other." He paused, shifting in his chair as if an invisible weight was pressing him against the black leather. "And when we get a case, it's even worse because of the additional research and periodic demands that I remain at the case site."

While Yasuhara still enjoyed his time at SPR, his duties were no longer the carefree hobby he once thought of them to be, and they became more burdensome when he began dating Mai's old high school friend Michiru. While Tokyo University had given him a full scholarship for his initial studies, when he decided to transfer into the medical department, the scholarship was not enough to cover his entire tuition, not to mention personal expenses. Mai's promotion was perfect timing for him, as he could take over her old position as an assistant and also receive an extra salary for his research and overtime pay during cases. His salary at SPR was by no means chump change for a part-time job, but due to its notorious narcissistic director, part-time was really more like full-time, perhaps even more than that.

Mai nodded absent mindedly, adding "I'm sure it will work out just fine" with a reassuring smile. But to her dismay, her thoughts kept wandering to that elusive client in the next office chatting with the head of SPR.

"So have you seen the client?" Mai's eyes lit up with curiosity. Her boss didn't even allow her to greet the client at the door or give him a screening process and had even ordered Yasuhara into Mai's office prior to his or her arrival.

Yasuhara sighed and shook his head. How can she still be so interested in these cases after so many years? Although, he did have to admit, something was a bit unusual about this one. He hadn't been called to be asked for even the slightest bit of background research even once. And unlike the usual short meetings with clients, this client had been speaking directly with the head of SPR for hours now. "But he must be important if Naru didn't even have you screen the client before actually allowing whoever it is to speak with him."

Mai had unsuccessfully tried everything she could think of to find out even the tiniest piece of information about the client of case. Lin was out of the office that day purchasing some new equipment for SPR. Her one attempt to eavesdrop resulted in her boss, Naru, barking a stern "no" into her mind telepathically, and his mind was not one that she could easily read so it was pointless to even try. And she was feeling no psychic impressions from whoever the client was either, meaning there was either some sort of ward about or the client was also a rather powerful psychic.

After Naru had returned to Japan upon laying his brother to rest so many years ago, a reporter had uncovered a great deal of the secrets that shrouded the SPR boss in the first year Mai had worked there, specifically that the head of the organization was one Oliver Davis, a powerful, world-reknowned psycic. It resulted in a great surge in popularity for SPR and they were receiving numerous case requests daily, so Naru had put a screening process into affect to both quickly dismiss fraudulent claims and to hone Mai's abilities through constant use even while off cases. Although the original chaos had died down due to some keenly placed false publicity stating that Oliver Davis was in fact a middle-aged professor comfortably residing in England fulltime and had never even visited Japan, SPR's 100 success ratio still caused quite the flood of incoming clients.

A click resounded through the silent office, the familiar noise tearing both Mai and Yasuhara from their world of thoughts. Naru's office door had opened, but before either snoop could get scurry out of their chairs and reach the door, the sound of the main SPR office door shutting also closed any possibilities of insight. Without a knock, the door to Mai's office opened.

Mai's gaze drifted upwards to meet the gorgeous sapphire blue orbs she had been infatuated with for too long to exactly remember. Naru stood there stoicly in his all black attire, as per usual, but something about his aura seemed different. Mai narrowed her gaze in scrutiny, desperately trying to determine the cause of the uneasiness she felt while looking at her boss.

"Naru..." The syllables floated from her lips without even realizing they were audible, "are you confused?"

Yasuhara stifled his laughter as Naru shot Mai a gaze that would put Medusa to shame. "Make the relevant phone calls and inform everyone that we have a very important case. They should be here by 7:00 a.m. ready to depart and bring atleast two weeks worth of attire and neccessities. Then you are dismissed for the day." He abruptly shut the door behind him.

Mai's jaw dropped. Two weeks? Wasn't that a bit long for a case?

Yasuhara chuckled lightly and gave Mai a sympathetic pat on the head, before hearing Naru's voice echo through the door "Yasuhara, I would like you to accompany us on this case as well."

Mai and Yasuhara both gave each other a quizzical and exasperated shrug as the latter made his way towards the door. Mai picked up the phone, thoughts of who this mysterious client could be bouncing about in her head.

--

"I'm back!" Mai called out through the apartment as she slipped off the sneakers she had changed into for her walk home. The clanging of pots and pans resounded from the kitchen of the 2DKL (A/N: an apartment with two bedrooms, a kitchen, and living room). Her new home was something she was very grateful for, it was a far cry from the old 6 tatami mat apartment (A/N: about 9 square meters) she used to live in. There, she didn't even have a bath of her own, forcing her to use a local common bath house, let alone a kitchen.

The pitter patter of footsteps were quickly approaching Mai, as she widened her smile to greet her roommate. The electric overhead lighting bounced off the girl's bright golden hair, its dyed layers falling neatly slightly below the shoulders of her thin, petite frame. A few grains of rice were stuck to the porcelain skin below her dark blue eyes. Mai chuckled. If you had told Mai when she had first met her current roommate that they would become best friends and live together, she would have undoubtedly released a violent, pain-inflicting foot stomp, but after a heart to heart and the passing of time, she had really come to love the complex character of her benevolent friend.

"Dinner is almost ready." She chirped, grabbing Mai's hand and pulling her towards the kitchen.

Mai easily freed her hand from the grasp of the delicate fingers but followed the girl in pace towards the kitchen, still giggling from the unnoticed sticky rice that she now realized was also scattered about in the strands of blonde hair. A flash of the girl's old demeanor crossed Mai's mind and she clenched her stomach, buckling over in laughter.

The girl turned around. "What's so funny, Mai?" She lightly stomped her foot, an unconscious habit she had picked up from being in Mai's company so often.

"It's nothing, it's nothing." Mai waved her hand dismissively. "There's just some... rice..." Mai pointed, and choked up in laughter again.

The flustered girl quickly rubbed her hands across her face, swatting the stray grains of rice onto the wooden floor. "Now can we go finish cooking? I finally bought some fresh food to last us the week, and we needn't be wasteful."

Slowly, Mai's laughter diminished and Naru's reminder to convey the case chimed back into her head. "We're going to have to be wasteful." She sighed, slightly annoyed at the prospect of a long night of packing. "There's a new case. Everyone needs to meet in the office tomorrow morning by 7. I don't know why that damned narcissist picked such an early time." She huffed. "But whatever the case is, it must be important. Naru wouldn't even met me meet the client!"

Just describing the situation made Mai feel exhausted, so she plopped herself down on the nearby love seat, collapsing backwards to stare at the ceiling. The exasperated sigh of her roommate reached her ear, and she promptly propped herself up backwards onto her elbows to make eye contact with the girl. "We have a lot of packing to do, Masako."

--

END CHAPTER ONE

--

Author's Note: Before anyone asks... yes, this is Hara Masako as Mai's roommate. Why she is so different now will be revealed . A lot of things can happen in 7 years, no? Please review! I love them :) and they can only make a story better. The title for Chapter Two is simply The Case.