Ah... sorry for taking this long... my new distraction is awesome, but theres nothing I hate more than slow updates... Which means lucky you guys shouldn't expect the chapters to be any more that3 to 4 days apart. The difference, I'll be doing it later at night, meaning I have less adept fingers, yeah? --- I just noticed how often i put that in... a 'yeah?' at the end of sentences... I guess it comes from the odd speech pattern I've picked up recently. Its a bit tricky not to use it in the story...

ahh, and I'm leaving for a two week vacation in a week. I intend to have it finished before I go, but I don't want to rush to the finish just because of that.

Aww... You guys make me happy. I love reading reviews... I figure yer bored of cookies.. but too bad. Anywho! Here... is chapter 4

Disclaimer- I don't own ghost hunt


4-

Mai didn't remember having a dream that time. She remembered falling asleep, but then she remembered waking up. Nothing between.

But when she did wake up, it was a good time for diner. Her watch proclaimed 6:12. After a slight fuss with her hair, she looked in the mirror, and deemed herself suitable to leave the base. Mai wondered where Noon was.

On her way to the bottom floor, she spotted Noon talking with one of the guests who was heading for diner. Noon nodded, and they parted, so Mai decided to talk to her.

"Mai!" Noon said, seeing her. "I haven't seen you for a bit. You know what? It wasn't just me! I talked to a bunch of people today. Even my maids didn't tell me because they didn't want me to worry about them." She smiled "How can I be of help?"

Mai thought of the dream she still could remember. What was odd about it? "Umm, Serra. When she was alive, was she very pale?"

Noon nodded. "How did you know? She never was in pictures, because of her condition..." she trailed off.

Mai's ears perked up. "You said she was sick, and that her medication made her delusional. Can you tell me more about that?"

"Serra was albino. There was a doctor over here developing treatment to help prevent them from getting skin cancer. So Kris and I moved out here with her. However, she had a reaction with one of the components in the original treatment, and she was put on something to counteract the side effects. But this led to..." Mai already knew what happened after there, so she put up a hand to stop Noon.

"Thank you. It makes more sense now. Now if you don't mind, I'm hungry." Mai said, spying the doors to the dinner room. Noon stepped aside, and Mai went in.


At 9:50, or 21:50, Mai and Ai knocked on the door to the base. Masako let them in, then quickly returned to sitting on Mai's couch. Ai nervously fidgeted with her hands behind her back, and looked at the ground. Naru and Lin were at their workstations. Ayako and Takigawa were nowhere to be seen.

Naru looked over towards where Mai and Ai were. Ai fought herself and managed to bring her hands to fists at her sides. "We're here." said Mai, unnecessarily.

Naru turned back to his screen. "I can see that." Mai rolled her eyes, and sat down on the table. Ai followed her like a stray puppy.

"Hey, Masako..." Mai started. Masako was not expecting to be talked to. "Have you seen Serra and Kris?"

Masako paused before answering, as if deciding if it was worth her time. "Yes, I did, but niether one wanted to talk to me. And Serra looks..."

"Albino." Mai said, assuming Masako was startled by the pale skin and red eyes.

Masako was startled. "You're... right! Did you see them too?" Mai nodded.

"Last night, I remember seeing Kris and Serra on the roof. She was completely out of her mind, and kept saying something along the lines of knowing something to be true. After stabbing Kris, she just jumped off. Kris spent the entire time trying to tell her she was wrong." Mai thought carefully. What were his exact words? You can't actually... but Serra stabbed him before either of them had said anything more useful.

Naru turned his attention to Mai and Masako. "If you dream something significant to the case, tell me next time." Mai frowned. She hadn't told him... oh oops. But if he's not going to say please, I don't think I will.

"Anyway." said Masako, particularly happy at Naru's discontent with Mai, "I believe, I will do as Matsuzaki-san and Takigawa-san have done, and go to bed. Since I wont be helpful with decoding the words..," with this, she stood up and bowed to Naru and Lin. She exited quietly, and the room was suddenly uncomfortably quiet. Mai's watch said 9:54.

Anxious to get rid of it, Ai stood up and stretched. "Well, if its alright, we can take over now." She said, hoping to get rid of the cause of her almost-heart-attack.

Lin looked to Naru, who responded. "Alright." Naru shut off his computer and left immediately

Lin set up a microphone. "If something potentially supernatural happens that you don't know how to deal with, this is connected to our room." Mai nodded, and he followed Naru. Ai sat down in Lin's chair. Mai moved Naru's to the position next to Ai's, and fished out two pens and a bunch of paper.

"Well," Ai said. "We've started."

Mai was wondering if anything interesting would happen. There were 8 screens. 6 guest rooms, 1 for the hallway, and 1 storage room. Mai got bored immediately. It's going to be impossible to do this at night! Sure during the day, you might see someone move around once or twice... but at night? She didn't hear Ai.

"Mai-chan?"

Mai snapped out of it."Oh! Yeah! Well, lets work hard!" she said repeating what she had said earlier that morning to the mirror. Funny how she didn't do much, yet that still felt like that happened ages ago. "When the voices start, I'll write down what Serra says, you write down what Kris says."

Ai nodded, then looked at the screen for the camera in the hallway. "Wouldn't it make more sense if you had a camera in the hallway on each floor, so if someone uses the stairs, you can tell if they go up or down? As in roof or middle floor?"

"Hmm." Mai thought, staring with unfocused eyes at the screens. "I guess, but it also depends on how many cameras we want to potentially put in danger. Naru has insurance on them," she growled internally, thinking of the time she found out about that, "But they are special cameras. He'd have to order them again, and who knows how long it would take to arrive."

Ai nodded, and stared at the cameras. Mai checked her watch. It was only a few minutes until the voices would start. The silence was actually quite nice this time. Unanimously, both people in the room decided to keep it. It was different from the silence that came from not not knowing what to say. This silence was the kind where no words were necessary. Mai enjoyed company, Ai felt like she was helpful.

When the voices started, Mai immediately sat up and grabbed a pen. She looked at the screens. All screens were the same as they had been moments ago. There was no sign of any sort of activity yet. But her look was superficial. She turned her head down to the paper, and began to write

"I'm not sorry. There's nothing for me to apologize for. Maybe if you'd have been thinking, you wouldn't have followed me to the roof." Serra said. Mai could hear it very clearly, as if they were in the room right above the Base.

"Mai..." started Ai, while Mai still wrote furiously.

But Kris started talking, so Ai picked up her pen, and started transcribing. "Look, it's not even the apology that I want. I just know that you've calmed down if you can apologize. I can't rest peacefully until I know you're calm, and can move on too."

"What is it?" Mai asked, while Kris spoke.

Serra started again, so Mai wrote. "Liar! You still don't believe me! If you had been thinking, you would have realized I was unstable, and you would have been on the ground to catch me, rather than dead."

"the room above us' camera!" Ai said pointing to the camera screen.

"And I was supposed to know you had a knife? I was supposed to know what was going to happen in advance?" Kris started losing his temper. Mai looked at the camera. It was Ai's room, and the temperature was dropping. Though not fast. Mai assumed that the more tempered they got, the colder the room. But still, the temperature was going down slowly. And it was hardly more than 2 degrees in total. But that was too fast for a temperature change with no catalysts. "I just need you to calm down, but it's always the same thing with you, isn't it?" Mai thought for a moment. If the spirits' presence was causing the temperature change, wouldn't it be more than 2 degrees? Wouldn't the temperature go to near freezing?

Serra's voice grew louder as well. "Ahh... That's not what happened..." It sounded like Serra had no idea what to say. Just like what Ai had thought before, when she was talking to Naru.

Kris was not happy that she didn't have something better to say. "That doesn't make any sense! Talk strait! If it weren't for you..."

"Oh, so it's my fault now?" The tone reminded Mai of how Serra sounded as she was slicing out at Kris in the dream. "Is it really my fault, considering I wasn't in the right mind?"

"Yes! It is! Suddenly I get the idea that you knew full well what you were doing when you stabbed me. Wouldn't it be easy to use the meds you were on as the fall back, to justify killing someone?" Mai remembered how Serra's mood swings were drastic, and sudden. There was no way she was actually like that. Mai didn't want to listen to any more.

But this was her job. She had already been allowed to sleep, so quitting would be like getting pay in advance, then not doing the work. Serra continued. "Thats not what happened." It was a bit quieter.

"Oh thats not what happened? Well explain to me. Because even after all this time, I don't understand still." Kris got louder.

"eh... Thats not what happened!" Serra said. There was silence, and Mai looked at the camera in Ai's room. It hadn't gotten any coder since the last time she looked.

"Hey, I don't think they are in your room. They are probably on the roof above your room. I really wish I'd asked Masako where she saw them."

The voices didn't return all night. Even the temperature went back to what it had been before they started hearing the voices. Ai fell asleep around 11:30, So Mai put her on the couch, with a pillow.

Nothing happened at all. Mai almost fell asleep, but she stayed awake somehow. At a few points, she debated going back to her bag, and grabbing her poem. But she felt like she would miss something important.

So when Naru walked in with Lin at exactly 6:00 am the next morning, she was still awake with her eyes glued to the screens. She didn't even notice until Naru spoke up. "You're done for now."

She was to tired to be surprised by suddenly hearing a voice. "Yeah, okay." She stood up and stretched. Ai was still on her couch, so she curled up in a corner using the blanket she was given and fell asleep with her bag as a pillow.

Naru grabbed the two pieces of paper. One was labeled Serra, the other Kris. He looked over both of them. To him, it didn't look like the end. It looked like it should have continued, at least till the spirits worked out a sort of semi truce. Still, after 4 months maybe they were giving up. But for now, the people who were writing it down were asleep.


When Mai woke up, she was on her couch. It was actually only 9:15. She didn't feel tired at all. Maybe yesterday's rest paid off! She stood up, and realised she was acctually tired, as her head spun wildly, and she had to choke back a yawn. Naru and Lin were at their respective stations working, Ayako was looking at a sheet of paper, and Takigawa and Masako were elsewhere.

With a stretch, she went to the bathroom, and washed her face. After stretching a bit, she turned to the mirror again, She was about to repeat what she said the previous day, and to Ai when they started their shift, but this time there were others who would hear.

Lets work hard again today! she thought, just to herself, and to the person on the other side of the mirror. It was a new day, the third day on the case.

Mai walked back into the base, and got a change of clothes. They were wrinkled from her leaning on her bag, but she put them on anyway. Who cared... right? The thought that Naru might think poorly of it crossed her mind. And while on the surface she didn't really care what he thought about it, or anything else, She did care.

She kicked herself for thinking like that. Honestly! I don't care! It doesn't matter! If its an embarrassment to him, then whatever. Besides, it's an inn. Who's going to think bad of it? She eyed an iron that was on the wall, the ironing board next to it. Mai had never really learned how to use one, so she tended to avoid clothes that required it. But the shirt was so cute, and it looked nice too, so she had to get it.

She smoothed out some of the wrinkles on her top. It was cream with a very loose pink floral print. The neck line, the sleeves, and the bottom had a brown trim. The fabric was a cheaper version of satin, so the wrinkles refused to leave. She also had a pair of cream capris. They were made of a more rugged material, but they still had creases.

Looking in the mirror, Mai felt fine. She looked nice, even with all the angled wrinkles, so she stepped out of the bathroom, and put away her clothes that she wore the previous night.

"Mai." Called Naru when she sat down on the couch. "Hara-san told me that even if she couldn't understand the voices, they ended much sooner than they did yesterday. Is what you have written down the full extent of their conversation from last night?"

Mai took a moment. She did remember it ending a bit abruptly. "Yeah. I thought it was weird because of what Noon and Ai had said. But that's what happened, so if you want us to do that again tonight..." She stifled a yawn, to try to prove that she was completely awake, but didn't succeed. The yawn came out anyway. "... I will do so."

Naru didn't respond, so Mai went to the room across the hall for breakfast. Similar to the day before when she went to get Naru's tea, Takigawa had a huge plate of food, and no other guests were in the room. Yue was sitting at a nearby table resting.

"Morning Bou-san, Yue." She said and sat down next to Takigawa. He some sort of sound that probably meant hello, but Yue stood up and came over.

"Can I get you something to eat? She asked, prepared to make anything.

Mai shook her head. "I'll steal off his plate." she said pointing to Takigawa who probably hadn't heard because he hadn't reacted to this statement.

Mai grabbed strawberry. Apparently Takigawa was okay with it, because again he didn't react. Mai ate some of whatever it was. It was good, but she had never seen it before. There were fruits, and weird square shaped recesses in some kind of dough, and lots of whipped cream all mixed together.

"What is this?" she asked. Takigawa was still eating, but Mai had her fill.

Yue laughed. "Don't tell me you've never had a waffle before?" Mai looked at a bit more carefully, and realised that it really was a waffle. She had had a waffle before. It just didn't have as much stuff on it.

"Best. Waffle. Ever." Said Takigawa, done.

Mai nodded. " I have to agree. The last time I had a waffle it tasted nowhere near as good as this." She said smiling. "you must be a genius."

Yue accepted the praise with a slight blush. "Oh, well, thank you. If you're still here tomorrow I'll make you one of your own."

Mai nodded and left the breakfast room. Takigawa joined her. Everyone else was already in the base when they got there.

It was time for the jobs. Upon seeing that the final members of the team had arrived, Naru turned to hand out assignments. Mai felt pretty good. She figured she'd get to sleep because of what she had done overnight.

"Hara-san, I'd like you to attempt to talk to Kris, then try Serra. If they won't talk, just stay nearby them. Takigawa-san, I'd like you to use the list of people who could hear Serra and Kris properly, and ask them if it was shorter than before to make sure. Matsuzaki-san, I want you to talk to those who said they could hear it, but not understand. Mai you will stay here and organize some information I have about the previous owners of the house," with this he tapped a pile on his desk, "and will collect the information from Takigawa-san and Matsuzaki-san when they report in each half hour. Also, watch the screens." Naru turned back to his computer for a moment, then returned to the group. "Lin and I will be back within 3 or 4 hours." They started to leave.

"Ahh, Naru?" asked Mai. He stopped for a moment. "Where are you going?"

"Brown-san said he's feeling better and would like to help." Naru and Lin left.

Mai sighed, and looked at the sheets. He didn't say how he wanted them organized. He didn't remember his promise either. "Ohh, I'm so tired. He said..." but she stopped. What did he say?

'Even if I say no, you will.'

He did not promise to let her sleep. How did that work out? It sounded like it meant he would give her the chance to...

Even if I say no, you will.

No, it didn't. He meant that, like usual, she would fall asleep without permission regardless. Which meant that this would be a regular day, and if she fell asleep, it wouldn't make a difference that she had stayed up the previous night.

"Mai?" Ayako's voice brought her back to the surface. "He said what?"

Mai frowned. "He said that I would still have to work today, and sleeping was no more allowed today than any other day." She managed to stop the oncoming yawn, and took the papers she was to sort to the table next to her couch.

What a great day.

Lets work hard again today! She thought back to that. Its so easy to say something like that, before you find out what you have to do.