A/N: Plot bunnies won't leave me alone, so this story emerges. This is my first attempt at Ghost Hunt Fic.

Title: The Ups and Down in the Life of Taniyama Mai

Pairing: NaruxMai

Summary: Mai is not as ordinary as she appeared to be – she has a secret and a latest case taken by the SPR forces her to lay it out in the open. Follow her as she and the SPR gang carried on in their ghost hunting adventures… Eventual NaruMai.

Disclaimer: Ghost Hunt is not mine, copyright belonged to Fuyumi Ono.

Chapter 4 – The case of the Yukimura's Clan, Part 4

Day 7

The members of the SPR were among the last to be evacuate from the mansion, initially, Mai was unwilling to leave but Sanae had insisted upon her leaving. To quote her initial words – 'you are equally in danger when it comes down to the idea of resisting dark arts, therefore you should leave immediately.' Then before Mai could said anything else, that narcissistic boss of hers had all but knocked her out cold before proceeding to drag her out from the house while the purification ritual took place.

The purification ritual was the toughest part of the whole exorcism part, first of all the wards being placed around the house would need to be taken down and dismantled. That was done by Sanae her-self seeing as there is no one else available to help, with Mai already out cold. Next, Lin was being requested to be on stand-by mode while Sanae stepped into the circle within the formation drawing that she had created for her own usage while she kick the start to the ritual off.

According to the words of one Hara Masako, which Mai had no idea how true her recount was – the ritual was off to a rocky start, because all of a sudden furniture just seemed to be fling in all kinds of direction as the angry spirit residing in it rages on. The rattling, shaking of the furniture had only come to a stop after Sanae's body started to emit off a layer of white glow that seemed to get the spirit to cower in fear, or sort.

Then slowly and bit by bit, the sinister feel surrounding the house began to deplete itself and soon it was no more. Eventually, the blonde girl re-appeared in front of the SPR team claiming that the purification ritual was completed with a weak smile, and all that's left now is to deal with the rest of the spirits that lingers on behind in the mansion.

Mai woken up to find the weary figure of Yukimura Sanae guarding her side, and immediately she pounced on the older girl.

"The ritual's complete; your friends are searching the place again to determine if there's any other lingering spirits around here." That was the only response given to Mai by the blonde.

"What of Yukimura Ai's spirit? Is it gone now?" Mai pressed on.

"It should be… and to play safe, we burned the skeleton of her body to ash." Yukimura Sanae responded wearily.

"You could tell which skeleton belongs to her…?" Mai questioned in skepticism.

"No, so to play safe – I burned all the skeletons found in the east wing of the house." The elder girl told Mai.

Silence engulfed the two cousins before it was broken by the return of the members of the SPR, Naru merely took one look at Mai's conscious state before commanding for the girl to start packing up for their return to the city.

To which, Mai complied easily and without complaints – she had a lot on her mind, after all. It kind of bugged her that she didn't get to see Gene at all during the dreams of this particular case. Not that she need anyone to guide her for this particular one…

Gene… Yes, Mai knew that the dream Naru was in actuality – her narcissistic boss identical twin. She knew her boss was actually the infamous Oliver Davis from UK, and the Naru she met on regular basis in her dreams was actually Eugene Davis. However, this little piece of information only becomes apparent to her about three months ago when she started having snippets of vision sights on random timing.

The visions scenes were nothing gruesome in fact it consisted of some fuzzy memories from her past that she suspected was either suppressed by psychological means or was lost during some potions mishaps incidents. Mai suspected that these snippets of vision was actually a part of her concealed memories from the 5 years she spend in the United States of America, and funny enough – she seemed to have know Eugene Davis back then. Why exactly were her memories concealed or suppressed then, Mai had no idea. Nevertheless, she had a suspicion that everything will play out by itself in time to come…

On the way back to the city of Tokyo, Mai as expected of her – fell asleep. With the stress level taken off her on the return trip, it was no doubt that she slept all the way through – as though catching up to the number of hours she had lost while keeping herself awake on the trip here.

"You've done fantastically well on this case by yourself." The dream Naru or rather Eugene Davis, better else known as Gene smiled as he addressed the brunette in front of him. .

"Gees, thanks a lot for leaving me alone in those dreams of mine back then – what an irresponsible dream guide you are." Mai commented aloud, annoyance clearly being spell out on her face.

"… It wasn't exactly that I could have stopped what the house actually wanted you to see – right?" The identical image of one narcissist commented with his never wavering smile in place.

"Alright, point taken – I guess. So tell me this, Gene… all of these was not a coincidence, right?" Mai questioned back in return, gesturing to the surrounding on the astral plane.

"You have got to be a little more specific on that…" Gene commented back in return.

"You don't seem to be surprise by me addressing you as Gene…" Mai narrowed her eyes at the black-haired teen; she usually addressed him as 'Naru' with the exception for today. By right, Gene should be surprised by his identity being known to her and not remained unaffected unless she was supposed to know who he was from the start.

"…I'm not surprised by it because I know you would remembered one of these days about how to tell us apart…" Eugene Davis responded with a wistful look on his face.

"So I do know you from before… but why is it that I can't remember anything about it?" Mai asked in a sense of urgency.

"All will be revealed in time…" Gene said, looking at Mai with a sad smile that frustrates the brunette to no end.

"Why do I feel as though I'm missing a big part of my memories, and why is it that you are involved in that big missing chunk of my memories?" Mai pressed on, feeling the urge to yank her hair out as she said so.

"Mai… sad to say but I can't reveal the reasons to you, at least not now…" Eugene Davis looked on at Mai with sadness before reaching a hand out tentatively to remove Mai's hands from her head.

"Gene… what happened to you that caused you to end up as my dream guide?" Mai whispered next, and felt the hands on hers' stilled for a moment before she heard a sigh from the teen.

"That again, was for me to know and you to find out at another point of time…" The teen responded, a bit shakily but Mai cannot be certain of it as her head was now pressed against Eugene's chest so she cannot look up and determined the boy's expression for herself.

"There's nothing you could tell me now, isn't it?" Mai whispered, sounding weary of it all – together.

"Sorry…all I can say is for you to wait patiently for the moment of truth to come…" Eugene Davis responded, patting the back of the brunette comfortingly as he hugged Mai.

"Fine… one last question; I've never met Naru before the case at my high school – right?" Mai sighed, dropping her previous topic of discussion and brought up another topic instead.

"Well, yes…Noll wasn't with me when I visited New York." Gene responded carefully.

"Noll…was that his nickname?" Mai asked, sounding curious and amazed at the same time.

"Yes…it's my nickname for him actually, but eventually the name stuck and everyone in the UK just started addressing him by that name." Gene grinned triumphantly.

"No wonder he seemed so stunned when I first called him 'Naru' in front of Lin, now come to think about it – Lin seemed frozen for a while when I first uttered the name 'Naru'. I gathered it is because of how similar it had sounded like 'Noll' only in another accent…" Mai mused aloud, now the mystery behind that 5 seconds slip of mask was solved.

"Indeed, noticed how he had started addressing you as Mai after you dubbed him the new nickname of 'Naru'?" Gene pointed out with a fond smile.

"I didn't notice it before… but now that you mentioned it… What a coincidence it was." Mai shakes her head ruefully upon the memory of SPR first case in Japan.

"Mai…" Eugene started suddenly, drawing Mai out from her thoughts.

"Yes…?" Mai questioned, cocking her head slightly to the side to express her curiosity.

"No… nothing, I'll tell you another time…" Eugene only shakes his head and smiled.

"Speaking of which, I gathered you knew I'm a witch?" Mai questioned, although her memory was fuzzy but since she met Gene in the US – there's a chance of Eugene knowing about her witch heritage, no?

"We met in the academy itself." Gene's answer was quite straightforward.

"What…? Why on earth were you in there…Never mind, forget that I asked." Mai was about to question Eugene's reason for being in the Salem Academy when she recalled a fact that the school not only takes in magical students, but also psychics.

"To answer your question, I'm there to speak with the school management about the collaboration between Salem Academy and the BSPR." Eugene Davis responded matter-of-factly.

"BSPR…?" Mai repeated in a quizzical manner.

"British Supernatural & Psychic Research Centre…" Eugene explained upon noting the bewildered expression on Mai's features.

"Oh…" Mai made a knowing sound then, before she sighed – upset about the fact that she didn't remember anything from the process of how she got to know Naru's twin.

"Mai… don't dwell on it too much. Come on, it's time for you to wake up." With that, Eugene Davis pushes the brunette lightly and the next thing Mai knew was the fact that she was back in the reality plane.

"Where are we now?" The question was out from Mai's lips before she could stop herself – upon her waking up from her dream.

"I would have thought you would have the sense to look for yourself." The snide remark came from Naru as per normal.

"I take it that we are on our way back to the office?" Mai asked, as she rubbed the sleep out from her eyes.

"Where else do you think we are heading?" Naru questioned his tone flat.

"Well… pardon me for trying to clear certain things up." Mai growled in response, before settling for ignoring the narcissistic guy for the rest of the journey back to the SPR office.

"Mai…" Naru started again, causing the brunette to glare at him with annoyance while biting out a harsh 'What' in response.

"Remember to submit a copy of your certification from your other sector of studies." Naru said, before turning his attention back to his book – while Mai blanked out for a moment before catching on to Naru's meaning.

"What the hell…?! Why do you even need it?" Mai growled, not understanding behind the reason why Naru was requesting them to be submitted for. That had nothing to do with her usual work duties, right?

"For the benefit of your tiny midget mind, I would explain this one time. We are a company that works to investigate the Supernatural and Paranormal Activities – no?"

"So what has that got to do with my magical education and qualification…?" Mai throw back in response, but was silent by a 'look' from the narcissist.

"Can you just listen until I finished before interrupting?" Naru gritted out in annoyance.

"Fine, go ahead!" Mai huffed in equal amount of annoyance radiating off her body posture.

"Anything that could not be explained through the use of scientific reasons would be classified under supernatural phenomena, or otherwise labeled as paranormal activity. Magic to a certain extent could not be easily understood by the majority of the general public, just like psychics users – no?

Therefore, when such incidents comes along – people like us would be call in to investigate. While Lin and I could easily differentiate between a real paranormal happening and a happening that resulted from the use of psychic – there might be a possibility of the phenomena falling under the use of magical means, correct?

Seeing as both Lin and I had no knowledge in such fields, it is only natural for us to check your opinion under those circumstances since your secret is now out in the open for us to know. For the purpose of records and documentation, your qualifications from those aspects would be required for submission – do you now understood my reason for wanting to get a copy of those certifications of yours?" Naru then ended his explanation, with an expression of 'what a troublesome thing to do' when he looked over at Mai for some form of acknowledgement.

"Fine, I will zap a copy tomorrow for you when I come in for work!" Mai agreed grudgingly as she sat in stony silence for the rest of the journey that follows.

'Argh… I don't get it how could Gene be so sweet and understanding, while Naru be so insufferable and behaving like a jerk?!' Mai thought inwardly as she fumed to herself.

Date completed: 1/2/2013

P.S. Sorry for the short chapter, but well – I rewrite it two times to churn out this… so, bear with it okay.