A/N: Hello everyone! I would like to thank everyone who has reviewed, faved, and followed this story! It makes me happy and really did motivate me to write faster. Also, thanks to Aline for the first non English review I got. If google translate was right, I thank you very much and hope that you like this chapter!


Case 3: Lullaby

The week before

Mai's POV

It's been about a week since we have come back from the prison case. I can't say that things have gotten much better, but it does seem as if we are going back into our regular routine that we had before Naru left.

Well, it's almost been the old routine. Honestly, I've been sleeping on the job even more lately but it really isn't my fault. I swear. Last time it was usually out of boredom, but now it's all because I am being plagued by dreams from that Raven. It seems as if ever night I fall asleep just to wake up some time in the early morning hours before dawn because of one of them.

It isn't even like they were scary dreams either. It was just a little bit a music, a door that I can't open, a mask that resembles a raven, and of course, the Raven that has been in my dreams. Earlier in the week, I had woken up to find a long black feather resting on the pillow next to me. After a slight freak out session, I put it in my back pack. Don't ask me why I did it, I have no clue, but I felt as if I should keep it close just in case.

Today seemed to be the same way. I had woken up at about 1:30 that morning and just couldn't find a way to go back to sleep. And then after that, I was at school and it was as if I couldn't stay focused on anything. My mind would wander, my head would droop, but I still wasn't falling asleep. It was like I was in a semi-conscious state.

It sucked!

Then I was back to the office working on more paper work that Naru managed to dig up from somewhere. I had started to think that he would always be needing something to be filed, and if he was done with what he had given me, he could just make up more things to keep me busy.

I was still working when it pulled me under.


Dream

I was doing paperwork. I knew that much. But now I was somewhere else. It was dark and I could hear this music. It was the instrumental type that I remember hearing on movies where there is some sort of formal dance going on. I could defiantly see this as somewhere that Naru would look right at home in.

Looking around in the darkness of my dreamscape I found that ornate door that I had seen once before. But I couldn't remember where it was that I had seen it. It was made of a thick dark wood, and I could see that there were several bolts locking the door in place. I reached out to the bronze doorknob and tried to twist. But the problem was that I couldn't get the thing to twist at all. It was locked up about as tight as it could be. And yet I felt something deep inside that begged me to open the door and see what was behind it.

I jumped about a foot in the air as a flutter of wings brushed against my shoulder. I turned to see the Raven as he turned into a man who was wearing an elaborate mask. The mask was formed through the layering of black feathers with sequins around the eyes and a small beak coming out from where the indentation for the nose was in the mask. It was more of a piece of art than something that a person should wear. It was mesmerizing me, just like it always did in these dreams. Yes, this was the exact dream that had been messing with my head for the past week.

As I was distracted by the mask, I didn't notice when the man had pulled me into a dance. But I do know that we were spinning somehow gracefully around the room. As I was spun around the room, I didn't even notice that the music had stopped or that there were ghostly dancers also spinning around the dance floor around us. Their lower halves scattered as if the smoke or mist that had created them couldn't reach the ground as it trailed after them. The only two things that I knew for sure were that I was dancing with this man, and that he seemed to be real.

He spun me around once more, only this time he was leading me away from the other dancers and to the door.

"Don't let this happen to you," a soft but deep voice came from him.

Then everything but the door disappeared.


Naru's POV

I opened the file with the dreams that Mai had written down since last case, and I couldn't help but notice that she still hadn't finished the last dream that she had seen. It lightly irked me that she seemed to take forever when getting through these small details that should have been finishing within a day or two of the actual occurrence. There was no real excuse for it taking her this long.

If it had been anyone else, I would have called them out on it. But I had a feeling that I was still stepping on eggshells when it came to Mai, and where normally someone would just do as I said, she would probably just storm out and become clouded with anger. I know from experience that she is much better at her job when she was not mad at me and when she was usually less detailed and would often times just write it up as quickly as possible just to irk me as well. I needed the written account of her dream to be flawless for her file, so I would wait for her to do it on her own time. For now.

"Mai, tea!" I call out about fifteen minutes after she had walked into the office. Usually I ask right away, but I was doing some writing on the newest project that I am working on.

I expect to hear her grumble out a few choice insults and go through her usual rant about me. What I was not prepared for were the sounds of a kettle being put on the stove and the clang of the tea cups as they were taken down. There were no words said at all.

Thinking that she was perhaps waiting to come in here to bother me, I decided it was best if I postponed my judgment on the matter until she came in to give me the tea. I wouldn't admit that I was kind of disappointed that she hadn't started to mutter absurdities. The office had been rather quiet today; without Mai being herself, and the rest of the regulars coming in and treating the office like a café, I was left being reminded of the inhospitably ways of the London offices.

I listened as there was a shifting of papers, probably her shifting through notes that I was having her file while she waited for the tea to boil. That was also new. Usually, when I had her make tea, she would stand there and wait for the water to be ready without doing anything. This was starting to worry me a bit.

So I looked intently at my book and waited for her to come in. Maybe I had done something that bothered her and she was going to say something when she came in. I supposed that could be the case, but I couldn't for the life of me see what I had done to her lately. This past week we seemed to be rather normal, there were no outstanding arguments, nothing out of the ordinary.

With eyes only half watching, I saw her enter with the tea, set it down, and then, much to my surprise, she turned to leave.

I don't know what possessed me to do this, but I ordered "Mai, hand me that book over there," hoping for a very Mai-like reaction from her, or at least a stop to the silence.

I was sorely disappointed as she simply walked leisurely over to the book, and handed it over to me. No nagging about my being a slave driver, no grumbling and stomping. So I decided to look right at her as she turned to leave. That was when I saw it. Her breathing was deep and even, her eyes unfocussed. If I didn't know any better I would have said that she was sleep walking. Wait, that didn't sound as if it was too far off.

As she left I got up and went to Lin's door. Knocking I said in a low voice as not to wake Mai up "Get a camera out here, I think we might have something going on right now with Mai."

When he came out, we both walked over to her desk. It was clear that she was asleep, and that she wasn't consciously aware that the two of them were there. So I cleared my thought softly and said "Mai, I need your write up on the last dream that you had on our last case."

Both of us watched as she shifted to look at her computer without so much as glancing our way. Now, don't get me wrong, I was ecstatic that she was doing her work, but I was really confused on how she was doing it while she was asleep. I could have almost thought she was possessed. Actually, that might have been the actual case with what was happening. It did seem to be the logical answer when it came to Mai and the unnatural way that she attracted spirits and danger to her.

We continued to film her four about an hour before I told Lin to cut it off. It looked as if she had finished the report I asked her to write up as well as all of the files I had given her throughout the week. Whatever was going on, it was making Mai a much better worker somehow. But it also had me worried. It was not a healthy thing to be sleep walking like that.

Walking up to her, I just placed a hand on her shoulder. "Mai, Mai, I don't pay you to sleep on the job," I said in my usual tone. Though I didn't mean it; I was saying things like that to see if I could tell what kind of dream she had been in or if it was just her sleeping.

I watched as her lazy chocolate eyes focused and her pupils went back to their normal size and their emptiness was first filled with calm and then confusion. That there told me that the dream hadn't been bad. The confusion illustrated that Mai might not have been aware that she had fallen asleep. But that was the usual way Mai fell asleep.

"Naru, wasn't I-" Mai started groggily. But she stopped and looked around her desk before looking back at me and mumbling softly "When did I get all of the paper work done?" I had the distinct impression that she hadn't wanted me to hear that and didn't know that she had asked the question aloud.

"Care to explain why you were asleep when you were supposed to be working?" I asked, all too aware that it might make her angry, but that was also part of my plan. It would force her to either tell me off, or in most cases while we were on cases it would cause her to divulge the intimate details on her newest dream.

As expected, I watched her face flush red with anger before she snapped and yelled "It's not like I mean to you damn Narcissist! It just happened! I haven't been sleeping well at home and I guess it just got to me or something! I couldn't help it, damn it!" She yelled.

I took the moment to look at her and study her face after she yelled at me. It was true that I could see the bags under her eyes, but I could also tell that she had tried to cover it up with makeup as well. I shifted me gaze to the rest of her and saw the slouching caused by exhaustion that seemed to be weighing her down. I could practically feel the waves of exhaustion rolling off of her.

"Go home early today, but I expect you to be in early tomorrow. Or at the very least on time," I said as I turned and left for my office, my senses still trained on my assistant to see what she would do. It wasn't all that surprising when I heard her use some excited words and garbled sentences before prancing out the door.

The moment she was out, Lin and I got out the video and watched it. I was looking at the little details that I might have missed before while Lin was just watching for everything that he could see and I could not. He was usually a good source to make sure that I was seeing everything that was there. After all, he was just about as attentive as me in that respect and I respected his opinion. That was something that I couldn't say about most people.

"Did your shiki sense anything?" I asked. I knew that he had them look at here, it was usually one of the first things he did when someone was possessed or acting strange.

He looked over to the screen before focusing on my again and saying "They were slightly confused to be honest. It was a possession, but not in the normal sense. Usually there are two warring souls inside of the body during a possession; this was the case when Mai was possessed by Kenji during the case that John brought to us. In this case they sensed that not only was Mai astroprojecting, but what possessed her was only half there. The rest was also inside of the dream that Mai was having. But there was no distress like what we are used to when on cases. I don't think that Mai knows what is going on."

I caught me chin in my hand with that. It didn't quite make sense. I wasn't even sure if it was possible, but I trusted Lin's assessment. Taking out my file on Mai, I added the new information, as well as getting a slot ready for the DVD that I was planning on burning that had the events of today. It was clear to me that there might be something more going on with Mai. The question running through my mind was whether or not she knew about it.

We were just about to close up when I heard the door open and from the number of footsteps a group had just walked in. I could hardly believe that almost forgot about the late appointment that I set up the other day. The thing with Mai must have rattled me a bit more than I wanted to let on for my mind to forget about clientele.

Walking out I gestured to the couch as a group of six adults arranged themselves in front of me. It was clear that there were three of them who wanted to be there, who that didn't care, and one that blatantly thought that this was a waste of time. And I got all of that from the first two minutes I spent with them.

"Please tell me about the case you want us to investigate," I ordered in my own way as they sized me up.

"You've got to be kidding me!" The man who I could tell was against us almost yelled. "You are in charge here? What are you, sixteen? Are we really supposed to believe that you are the one running this?" He was laughing hen. I gave him one of my blank looks as he stewed before looking at the three who did want to ask for help. I could care less about the idiot who insults the person he is trying to ask for help. Lin just looked at his laptop as he continued to type everything said and the reactions of the people. He was also profiling them and recording anything that his senses and shiki were telling him.

After a short squabble, the one who seemed to be the elected leader spoke up "I'm Nakano Shou, we are all from an apartment complex not too far from here called Falling Petals. I know it sounds cheesy, but the rent is good and it is in a great area. Lately we have been having some problems. We are constantly being pushed down the stairs. And the doors will lock on their own. At night there are strange noises and voices. The worst part is that a few of the woman in the building have been rushed to the hospital for some strange reasons. The moment they are away from the complex for more than a day all of the symptoms disappear. A lot of us can't really afford to move, and we just want this to stop."

I thought about it for a moment. It did seem interesting. With all three o the females on our team there, Mai only had a thirty-three percent chance of attracting this thing. Or I could put that up to sixty-six percent seeing as she was doubly likely to attract whatever it was to her. This could end up being a good chance to monitor how she reacted to something like this.

So I agreed and had Lin get the information while I went to my office to strategize what I needed to do to monitor any and all of the people who would be coming with me. I felt bad for leaving Lin like that, but I really did need to do this. I needed to think. And I also knew that it might be even harder with monitoring her in this situation from the way that she seemed to e acting. For one thing she wasn't sleeping well, and that compromised her immune system. So I was going to have to watch her that much closer. The more I thought about it, the more I began to think that I was a tad impulsive on this case.

But even with all of that, this case did look interesting. It was something new.


A/N That's all for now. I hoped that you all liked this. Sorry for any mistakes, I did try my best on it. Please drop in a review or what not. Thank you all for reading!