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.

Author's Notes: Case 3 is not a haunting case, and with Mai as the investigation leader. XD

Chapter 9 – Case 3: Magical or Paranormal? Part 1

"Mai, Tea."

The brunette assistant of the SPR office was rudely awakened from her thoughts on how to answer an essay question for her geography assignment, when Naru entered the office an hour later than usual on a Sunday morning.

"Okay, okay… I'm coming." Mai responded, as she hurried to jot down some key-point of the essay question before bustling into the kitchen to make that tea which her boss had ordered minutes ago.

Approximately fifteen minutes later, Mai entered Naru's office with his requested cup of tea in hand. Placing down the tea-cup on the desk of Naru, Mai stood by the side and waited for something she knew would never happened when she heard it. The term 'Thank You' that usually was the last thing to be heard from the stoic teen's lips, directed towards her no less.

"What did you say?" Mai snapped wide alarming eyes to her boss in shock.

"I said thank you, what else do you think I'd said?" Naru arched an eyebrow in question, as he took in the dumb look on his assistant's face.

"What brought it on?" Mai eyed her boss suspiciously, Naru never said 'thank you' unnecessarily. That narcissistic boss of hers' had never thanked her before, so it does not make any sense for the former to suddenly change his way of treatment towards her.

"I have received a case from Madoka's request." Naru said then, changing the topic of conversation abruptly.

"And…?" Mai prompted, something told her that it won't be anything good and that she should be mentally prepared for it.

"I want you to handle it." Naru responded, throwing out the bombshell piece of information onto Mai's lap as though it was nothing.

"I beg your pardon…?" Mai repeated, staring at her boss as though the nineteen year old narcissistic teen had gone crazy out of the sudden. Honestly, a case for her to handle and to lead in the investigation? The last time she checked, she was no investigator but a mere administrative assistant to Naru. So what the hell happened and why her roles and duties were changed so abruptly and without prior warning in advance?

"You heard me the first time." Naru responded his tone flat without emotions, making it hard to gauge his reason behind his odd behavior.

"Excuse me for asking this, but I wasn't aware I had the capability to handle cases on my own just yet. As far as I am concern, my job entails administrative work and other miscellaneous duties assigned on a case site. I haven't had any experience in leading investigation, in case you've forgotten." Mai reminded her tone sharp and sarcastic.

"You did well enough for the Yukimura case, isn't it?" Naru pointed out simply, while Mai rolled her eyes in response to it.

"That is not a typical case to say, because it involved magic. Besides, I did not do much except to quote off information for it and to make you tea on daily basis." Mai interjected, matter-of-factly.

"Well, in that case just treat this as an opportunity to prove to me your capabilities at handling it on your own." Naru argued, as he forced the folder containing the latest case he received into the brunette's hands not giving Mai the chance to reject his order.

"Fine, but enlighten me on this little thing. What prompts you to take on the case and not handling it yourself?" Mai arched her eyebrow up in skepticism, because this whole thing is too surreal that Mai had no idea what to make of it.

"I didn't want to take it; there is nothing interesting in the case for me to accept. However, this is a case brought to our attention by Madoka. And she refuses to take 'No' for an answer, Lin gathered we should just accept the case and let you handle it." Naru responded calmly.

"Lin suggested for me to take the case?" Mai frowned, inwardly wondering what could be the reason behind the Chinese man's decision for her to handle the case.

With that, Mai took the folder containing the client's information and general description of the problems they encountered and left Naru's office for Lin's. Knocking twice on the Chinese man's office door, Mai entered the room after being addressed by the former.

"Anou…Lin-san, I was just told by Naru that I will be handling a case myself this time around?" Mai asked, waving the folder in her hands as she started with some slight hesitation.

"Ah, yes…I was just wondering when Naru would be informing you of that." Lin mused, as he could still recalled his ward's skepticism when he told the boy to leave it in Mai's capable hands if he had no intention of handling it himself after agreeing to take on the case due to Madoka's endless pestering.

"Well… he says you recommended for me to take on the case." Mai started next, looking carefully at the Chinese man while she gauges the man's response to her words.

"Indeed, it was me who suggested you for the job." Lin told the brunette, successfully getting a look of absolute bewilderment from the said female.

"Don't mind me asking this, but why…?" Mai questioned.

"You mean why did I suggest you to take this case yourself or why did Naru accepted the case if he wasn't interested in it in the slightest bit?" Lin asked back in return.

"The former… I know enough to gather that Naru can't really say 'No' to Madoka-san. My question is why I am being placed as the lead investigator in this case…Even that case with the Urado, Naru was the one running the show from behind while Yasuhara was entrusted with the task of posing as him." Mai pointed out, objectively.

"Have you taken a look at the case file pertaining to the client's recount yet?" Lin arched an eyebrow up in question, as he regarded the brunette coolly.

"Erm…no, I haven't. I came directly over from Naru's office." Mai responded.

"In that case, I suggested for you to take a look at the case file first. And then we will speak again." Lin told Mai in a tone that leaves her with no room for argument.

Mai exited the Chinese man's office with the case file in her hands, still in a daze-like manner. Taking a deep breath, Mai braced herself for the content of the file and flipped it open. She was half-way through the client's recount of the incident before she found her lips twitching uncontrollably as she fought against the urge to slap the file closed.

'No wonder Naru doesn't feel like taking on the case at all, this is hardly considered a real case…Honestly, and I don't get what's the fuss about. This seems more like a typical magical occurrence rather than paranormal incident…' Mai was thinking to herself, no wonder Lin had suggested putting her in charge as the lead investigator for this case.

Tucking the case file away for the time-being, Mai decided to get her geography essay done before heading back to Lin office for the discussion to come. Fifteen minutes later, she re-entered the Chinese man's office with the case file and said.

"Lin-san…I've just read through the whole file, and now I believe I know the reason why Naru has been reluctant to take on the case. This isn't exactly a case that he would prefer to handle indeed… knocking sounds coming from the attic, things floating about in the nursery where the daughter of the client slept, the doors opening by itself without anyone opening it and also the moving of the portraits figures. It sounds more like a typical magical occurrence instead of a haunting thing." Mai concluded.

"My sentiments exactly, but unfortunately… Madoka insisted upon us checking things out there. To make sure we don't slack off in our duties, she's personally flying over to keep an eye out on our work tomorrow morning." Lin commented dryly.

"Eh…?! Madoka-san is coming over? But… would Naru be in trouble for passing this case over to me instead of him handling it himself?" Mai exclaimed first in surprise, and then her expression turned into one of worry and uncertainty.

"Taniyama-san… leaves the explanation task to Naru and me to handle. You just concentrated on the case will do." Lin told the brunette firmly, and then both of them started to go over the case file discussing among them-selves on how many equipments they should be bringing and setting up over at the client's place.

Day 1 – Thursday

Due to the nature of this particular case being quite peculiar as compared to the others that they had had before, after discussing between themselves… Mai and Lin had come down to an agreement of not involving the other SPR members, and simply relied upon themselves to solve the case.

With Madoka involved in the case as well, they would not be requiring the help of Yasuhara for this case either. Lin and Naru would be there guarding the monitors as per normal, while Mai handled the rest of the investigation process for this particular case.

The estate they would be investigating was a two-storey semi-detached terrace house belonging to the Miyamoto family. The client – Miyamoto Chihaya is a fellow friend of Madoka back in her university days in Cambridge, UK.

Miyamoto Chihaya used to reside in Australia until recently, when news reaches her about her father-in-law's death. Basically, that was when she decided to move her family back here to Japan to stay for good. Her husband, Miyamoto Shinchirou had shifted back here to Japan about one month before she arrived with their twenty month old daughter – Haruko.

It seems like such incidents has always been happening since her father-in-law's death, and she had tried to bring up the issue to her husband's knowledge but the former always cast aside her worries and claimed her to be suffering from some illusionary images. However, she was quite certain about what she had seen along the hallways about how the pictures of her husband's ancestors had moved about. The last straw that sends her calling up Madoka for help was when she nearly had a heart attack after witnessing how her daughter was floating at least two meter high from the crib without anyone supporting the weight.

When the SPR black van turned into the client's estate driveway, the expression on both owners' features was a complete opposite. Miyamoto Chihaya's features reflected utter relief, while her husband, Miyamoto Shinchirou was the exact opposite. In fact, the husband seems like he detested each and every minute of being here on the front porch welcoming the SPR investigators into his ancestral home.

"Come on, you people are the men… so unloading equipments should be your job." Madoka announced, pulling Mai away as she approached her university friend.

"Chihaya…!" Madoka greeted, engulfing the client into a warm embrace of greeting.

Miyamoto Chihaya mirrored Madoka's enthusiasm at the greeting, before she proceeded to introduce the husband to both Mai and Madoka.

"Madoka, you haven't had the chance to meet my husband…I believed. This is my husband, Miyamoto Shinchirou." Chihaya beamed at Madoka as she introduced them to one another, totally disregarding the look of mild irritation on her own husband's features.

"Chihaya-chan, is your husband treating you well?" Madoka must have noticed the look of annoyance on the man's face because Mai could have sworn she heard the former inquiring their client about how Miyamoto Shinchirou was treating her.

The rest of the conversation between Chihaya and Madoka, Mai had opted to tune out of it. Instead, she closed her eyes and allowed her senses to run wild and free about the estate.

'No sinister spirits hanging around, nothing too dark and dangerous here too… Good, that means this case could be wrapped up real soon. Hm.m… there's a shadowy feel up in the attic, probably the culprit behind the sound of knocking every night. It should not be of any dangers, since I can't detect any malicious intent from it…' Mai thought, as she opened her eyes and focused her attention elsewhere instead.

"Here's the room for the base, I hope it suits your purpose." Chihaya's voice jarred Mai out from her thoughts, as she focused her attention towards the room that was now in front of her.

The room was spacious enough to fit twenty over people, and judging from the layout of the room… Mai was willing to bet that this used to be a family lounge or sort for the family. One thing about old westernized building is that they tend to have a sitting room and another spacious room to be used as a family lounge on the same level. Bigger estates might even comes equipped with a ballroom, with the mansion separated into separate wings… but luckily this particular estate was not one of those that are huge.

"Yes, this room is good enough for us." Mai responded on behalf of Naru and Lin, who are now silently moving the equipments into the base. Although, the narcissistic teen had on a look of utmost displeasure and Mai was quite certain that if it was not because of Madoka's presence… she would be the one moving the equipments in instead of Naru.

"Chihaya-san, do you mind gathering your helpers together? If it is not too much of a hassle, we would like to start getting the interviews done now." Mai interrupted, bringing a stop to the ongoing conversation between Miyamoto Chihaya and Madoka Mori.

"Sure, it's no hassle at all." Miyamoto Chihaya responded, as she shifted her glance towards her husband and with a death glare of hers' – the man went off presumably to gather the staffs working in the estate to come around for the scheduled interview session.

"Mai, Tea." Naru ordered, while Lin set up his laptop for the interview to come in time.

"Okay, okay… I'm on my way to get your tea ready. Do remember to ask the correct set of questions, okay?" Mai reminded. The interview questions for this particular case were brainstormed by Lin and her together as a team, tailored for magical phenomenon.

Naru usually had the tendency to ask questions on a whim, and that is usually how he conducted the interviews from other cases too. However, for this particular case…Mai had specially came up with a list of possible questions to ask and they usually are used to prompt the witness to recount the phenomenon in detail because judging from how the magical phenomenon are like – it can be extremely hard for the witness to put their experience into words.

"Chihaya-san, do you mind showing me to your kitchen area?" Mai asked, wondering whether it was a good idea to leave Madoka behind in the same room as Lin and Naru.

After all, she had arrived this morning to find them glaring daggers at one another in the office. Something about Naru not showing her respect or was it Naru not placing enough attention on the case? Mai can't remember exactly, all she knew was that Madoka later approached her with well-wishes for her first case of being lead investigator and making some promises about promoting her to junior investigator if she can solve the case professionally and without any hiccups along the way.

"Definitely, the kitchen's this way…" Miyamoto Chihaya then started to lead Mai out from the base room and down the corridor hallway.

Once Mai was out of the picture, Madoka threw another glare towards her student's direction before she settled herself down on the sofa armchair with her arms cross defensively in front of her chest area and huffed.

"Mai-chan is too good to you."

"…" Lin eyed the irate woman with pinkish purple hair from the corner of his eyes, but had wisely remained silent upon the woman's statement. There was no way that he was going to involve himself in an argument between Madoka and Naru…

Just as expected, Naru chooses to ignore Madoka's remarks which only added on to Madoka's infuriated mood.

"If I am in her shoe today, I would have told you to get those tea yourself since she was supposed to be the lead investigator today, isn't it?!" Madoka threw back in a sharp retort.

Again, silence was her only response and that was when Madoka finally give up on the idea of baiting a response out from her stubborn student. Eventually, she chooses to change the subject of conversation bringing up her student's ultimate quest instead.

"How's the quest coming along?" Madoka asked, no longer upset now.

Madoka had by now figured out if she had the time to get upset by Naru's attitude towards her, she might as well spend time doing more research work instead. That boy could drive anyone nuts with that 'high-and mighty' attitude of his…

"Nothing much…we are still looking into it." Lin responded on behalf of Naru, whose features took on a sullen look by now.

"It's been eighteen months over already… although, they did not voice their comments aloud but I know the professors are getting worried about the lack of news from you two." Madoka commented.

"I'm not giving up." Naru muttered under his breath.

"There's still another two months before the deadline approaches, are you certain you would be able to find Gene by then?" Madoka prompted, causing Naru to glare at her in response.

A sharp intake of breath from the outside of the base room causes three sets of eyes to glance over in response, only to find the brunette struggling to keep the tea-set balanced on the tray she had taken the liberty to borrow from the Miyamoto's kitchen.

"Mai-chan… is everything alright there?" Madoka voiced out, heading over to assist Mai in bringing in the tea-set.

"Yeah… I just accidentally scalded myself with the hot tea that spills out when I nearly stumbled and fall just now." Mai responded, trying her best to remain unfazed but inside she was half-tempted to demand the trio to stop being so secretive and come out with the information relating to Gene already.

Yet, she knew this was hardly the time for her to bring up the issue of Gene for discussion… because that would mean she have to explain how she knew Gene to the three of them too. While she could simply dropped the information of Gene being her dream-guide, it still does not explains how she knew Gene… because of her ability to separate Gene from Naru in her dream would mean that she knew both of them on a personal scale. Now that was something she would be having trouble explaining, because of her fuzzy like memory.

Feeling the urge to yell, Mai bites the inside of her cheeks to restrain it with the best of her control and settled for glaring out of the window and took several deep calming breath instead.

'Gene… you'd better not appeared in my dream tonight, if not… I'll be damn if I let you off the hook so easily again.' Mai was thinking to herself inwardly, vowing to get some answers out from the elder Davis twin if she managed to meet the former tonight in her dream-land.

Date started: 7/2/2013

Date completed: 11/2/2013

P.S: This would not be one of those real happening cases, but I'm aiming to have Mai and Gene interact in the dream scene later… Mai may or may not found out how Gene died, but Gene is definitely going to present her with some answers.