(A/N): Hi, sorry this update took a while. I'll try and update more quickly, but I won't be writing next week because I have some mock exams to take. Thank you for reading my fanfic, and thank you to everyone who left reviews. You've all been so nice about my fanfic! And if you haven't left a review, please, please do!

The inside of the house was no better refurbished than the outside. Wooden stairs were hollowed from decay. Mould, only half-treated, stained the walls and the floors. The air was thick with dust and fibres from the building work. Despite the poor state of the house, though, everything felt peaceful and quiet. Serene, even. But I was far from calm.

"I have contacted the builders who saw any strange incidents. They'll arrive later on this evening." Kazuya was talking, but only a part of me was listening. It looked like the spirits hadn't wanted to wait until nightfall. But who was that woman? Why had she appeared? And how did she know me and my situation?

"The first thing to do is go a check the temperatures. Mai-kun and Takigawa-san, please go do that. Hara-san and Matsuzaki-san, please search the area one last time for spirits. Brown-san, you stay here with Lin."

And, whoever that woman was, she had come with a warning. "He's coming for you." Who? Did this woman know what happened last month? And the real identity of my 'colleague'?

"What will you do while we do all the work?" Mai teased.

"I've arranged to meet with some of the builders who were working on the site when they experienced some of the hauntings."

"All by yourself?" I snapped back to focus. Lin did not look happy at the idea.

Kazuya rolled his eyes. "Yes, all by myself. What is the worse that could happen? Honestly?"

Lin did not respond, but instead gave Kazuya a look of disapproval.

"Besides, I want you to stay here with Brown-san. If something happens, he might not be able to defend himself." At once, I felt all eyes on me. Nervously, I stared down at the ground. It was the easiest way to pretend I wasn't there.

"After all, you were in a car accident." Kazuya continued. "If a dangerous situation were to occur, you might be in trouble."

I nodded mutely, my attention instead on Lin. He matched my gaze openly, and did not bother to hide the murderous look in his eyes.

"…At least take Takigawa-san with you." He finally spoke up, not averting his eyes from me. Kazuya sighed. "Fine. Mai-kun, go with Matsuzaki-san and Hara-san."

Mai nodded. "Do we have any blue prints?"

Kazuya simply handed the sheets over. "Be careful. We don't know how the spirits will react to our presence, despite what you believe, Hara-san. Always be on your guard, just in case."

After the others had left to do their separate tasks, I was left alone with Lin. He was sitting at a plastic, cheap table that the builders apparently used. It looked like it would snap if we put too much weight on it. As he typed away at the computers he frequently used, I tried to ignore the awkward silence that hung in the air. Lin was furious with me; I could tell, despite his lack of emotions. But I had more important things on my mind – watching the camera screens intently, I observed every movement in every single room, hallway and corner. Was that woman going to appear again? On the screens, I could see Mai, Masako and Ayako walking around the house, as Mai checked the temperatures of each room. Outside, by the road, Takigawa and Kazuya talked to a group of what I assumed to be the builders. But there was no sign of the woman. In fact, no other spirits appeared. From time to time, I checked the monitors. Nothing was out of the ordinary.

Eventually, Mai, Masako and Ayako came back, carrying notes from their temperature check.

"Well?" I was already speaking when they had only just entered the room. I needed anything to break the silence that hovered between me and Lin.

"The rooms were between 0°c, and -4°c." Mai checked her notes.

"Did you see anything?" I was desperate to know if anything – anyone – had been spotted.

"Um, no…" Mai looked to Masako. "You didn't sense anything, right, Masako-kun?"

Masako shook her head. "Nothing. They are not very active right now." Disappointment welled up in me. So the woman had definitely not appeared again.

Mai tugged at my sleeve. "How did it go?" She whispered to me.

"Hm?"

"Being alone with Lin-kun. He's not very talkative, is he?"

I forced a weak smile. "Not really."

Mai grinned. "Don't worry, it's nothing personal." Maybe this was the case usually, but I knew that Lin was actually angry with me this time. He definitely wanted to be keeping an eye on Kazuya, not on me, and even though Kazuya was just outside, with Takigawa, I think Lin was anxious. But he didn't show as much. Even now, he was still typing away at his computer, and had not even looked up when Mai and the others entered the room.

"Hey, what'd you find?" Takigawa entered the room, following behind Kazuya. At his appearance, Lin immediately looked up.

"Nothing much. What about you?" Mai scampered up to Kazuya, and waited in anticipation for the news.

"Well, they heard the whispering, that's one thing. The scratching noises too. But it wasn't just the woman that they saw."

Ayako frowned. "So, they saw more than one person?"

Takigawa scratched his head, and looked down at his notes. "Yeah. The brown haired woman was seen, as well as several other people. Age varied, and race too. There were a few Japanese, but mainly foreigners. Usually, the person would appear either just before the whispering, or just after. The strange thing is, they all wore the same clothing."

The same clothing? "So, the hospital clothes?" I asked.

Takigawa nodded, leafing through his notes. He passed a wad of them to Kazuya. We gathered around to see them. Each one showed a printed out picture.

"These were photos that the builders took using their phones." Kazuya explained briefly, holding up one of the sheets. The quality was glossed and blurry, but I could make out a faint image of someone standing outside the building. A middle-aged man, perhaps Asian, was staring straight into the camera. Like Takigawa had said, he was wearing the blue hospital outfit. The next photo showed another woman, with much darker skin, in the field behind the house. Again, there was the hospital outfit.

"Maybe this used to be a hospital, or a doctor's clinic or something?" Mai suggested, looking to Kazuya to see if her thesis was of credibility.

"Perhaps. I'll check into the background of this area." Kazuya walked swiftly over to the computer. Mai grinned in satisfaction when her theory was not disregarded.

"Was there anything else?" Ayako peered at the screens. "Any other phenomena?"

"That was about it." Takigawa joined her at the mass of screens. "Nothing else."

Ayako looked thoughtful. "I wonder what kind of spirit we're dealing with here."

Takigawa grinned. "Let me guess, an earth spirit?"

For his snide remark, he was hit across the head. I edged away a bit from what I assumed was going to be one of their fights.

"Hey, John-kun, you ok?" Mai suddenly looked concerned.

"Um, yeah, I'm fine. Why do you ask?" I was puzzled as to her unease.

"You just looked really pale then."

"Oh…well, I feel ok. It's probably nothing. I wouldn't worry about it."

With no warning, Masako suddenly gasped. Her eyes were round and wide.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Takigawa and Ayako stopped fighting, and looked over to her.

"The spirits…" Her voice quivered. "I can feel their emotions…it's overwhelming…" She began to shake, and Takigawa hurried forwards to support her.

"What do you mean?" Kazuya, although his face was apathetic, could not hide the hint of alarm in his voice.

"They…they are very…angry and upset and…there's so many of them…" Masako gripped tightly to Takigawa.

As if to her words, the room suddenly became cold. I looked over to the thermography camera. The temperature was dropping rapidly. My breath was even coming out in faint wisps of condensation. The chill wormed its way past my clothes and skin, seeming to reach the marrow of my bones.

"I thought you said the spirits wouldn't act until night time!" Ayako shivered. But Kazuya held up his hand for silence.

"Listen."

And then I heard it – the whispering. It started quietly, barely an utter. But it began to get louder and louder. Soon, it was deafening.

"Naru!" Mai looked to Kazuya, panicked. "What do we do?!"

Kazuya said nothing. And then the scratching noises began. Long and drawn out, it was as if they were inside the walls. The sound of finger nails against wood made me shiver. I looked to the screens. They were still working, although they flickered back and forth between image and darkness. I strained my eyes, trying to make out if any of the spirits had appeared. With the flashing screens, it was not easy. But at last, I saw him.

Someone was standing outside the door. A man. He simply stood, watching through the open door way. Frantically, I turned to the door way, where the door was wide open. I could see no one. Yet when I looked to the screens, he was there.

"John-kun, what is it?" I heard Takigawa asking me. I did not answer, though. I just continued to stare at the screens.

The man was not wearing the blue hospital clothes, unlike all the other sightings. He was wearing a white lab coat. But what really struck me was how familiar he looked. Something about his face…I knew him. I was sure.

The man unexpectedly looked directly at the camera. He raised his hand and waved. His lips moved, but I could not hear what he said.

"Nau maku san manda bazaura dankan!" At Takigawa's mantra, the whispering ceased. The scratching stopped. And the temperature began to lift.

"So, the spirits decided to strike early…?" Kazuya ran through the camera recording at the time of the haunting. Masako was sitting at the table with Ayako, regaining her shaken nerves from the experience. Mai was making them tea. As for Takigawa, Lin and me, we watched over Kazuya's shoulder and observed the recordings with him.

"It's not that. They were suddenly…disturbed." Masako struggled to explain. "I think something that we may have done either angered or upset them."

"Interesting…" Kazuya's eyes darted back and forth between the screens. "But I can't see anything."

"What do you mean?" Ayako asked from over at the table.

"I mean that, no one appeared. I expected someone might come. According to the builders, whenever the whispering and scratching started, they saw someone swiftly after or had seen someone before. And this was also the case with those teenagers. But I can't see anyone."

"Are you sure?" Kazuya turned to me as I spoke, a slight frown on his face.

"Yes. I'm sure. Why, did you see someone?" The three of them stared at me. At the table, Mai, Ayako and Masako halted their conversation.

"…A man. He…I'm sure I saw a man."

"When?" Kazuya immediately turned back to the recordings.

"Just before Takigawa said his mantra."

Kazuya rewound the recording back to then. And there he was: the man, looking straight at the camera.

"There he is." I pointed at the screen. Kazuya paused the screen, freezing the frame so that the recording rested on a frame in which the man was staring at us, through the lens of the camera. The more I looked at his face, the more I felt that I had seen him somewhere before.

"Where?" Kazuya strained his eyes at the screen.

"Right there." I pointed again.

After a moment of careful observation, Kazuya just shook his head.

"I can't see anyone." He told me.

"What? But…" I stared at the screen again. I could still see him, clear as day.

"Yeah, I can't see him either…" Takigawa agreed, shrugging.

"But he's there…he's right there…" I looked to Lin, hoping that at least he could see the man. Like Kazuya, he shook his head.

Why couldn't they see him?