This chapter is specially dedicated to everyone over at GhostHuntHQ for recommending my work on their Tumblr page along with the incredible fanart comic by soulsborne123. Link to it is on my profile! It really is something fantastic!

Chapter 9
Disembodied Voices

They'd spent the better part of the morning reviewing the camera feed with nothing to show for it but tired, unfocused eyes and empty stomachs. The cameras captured nothing. No, that was an understatement. Although the audio was quite intriguing, the camera visual capabilities seemed to have gone mysteriously fuzzy ー nearly identical to the static from when Kuroda-san erased the footage of herself trapping Matsuzaki-san. There had been no one here to erase the data this time. They'd confirmed that when they'd met Ejiri-san at the base of the building when they'd first arrived.

Mai slipped off her earphones, pausing the audio recording after playing it for what felt like the hundredth time. She tapped her pen against the pile of loose leaf paper she'd taken to writing notes on (she was still a bit peeved about the missing notebook), "It's definitely an argument."

"Most definitely," Naru agreed somewhat halfheartedly from his place on the floor behind her. She'd made this declaration almost as often as she'd rewound the tapes to listen again.

"Right, an argument between at least two people."

"A man and a woman." Naru clarified. He'd given up on the tapes after the tenth rewind, complaining that the bulky headphones made his ears hurt. Instead, he'd used his time to read through the case files more thoroughly. So far, he'd learned more about Mai's crappy kanji than the actual haunting; she kept messing up the stroke order. But there was something interesting at least. "Why did you take so many notes on the renovation process? Will that really help solve the case?"

"Well, no but sometimes the renovation correlates with the start of the haunting ー did you say a man and a woman?"

Naru looked up from the file resting on his knees to Mai, who had spun in her chair to look at him. "Yes, well, mostly female." At Mai's baffled expression he added, "You can't tell?"

She didn't answer but turned back around, replaced the headphones, and replayed the recording.

Naru watched as she closed her eyes to listen harder, eyebrows furrowing. A minute later, she opened her eyes and shook her head. "I can't."

It wasn't that he could hear something Mai couldn't, it was just that he was something of an expert in voices. It'd been forced on him after spending the better part of three years neighboring a couple who didn't seem to know how to behave civilly.

Seeing that Naru wasn't about to get up on her behalf, Mai pulled the headphone connection out of the computer tower so that a low static spilled out of the speakers. He gave Mai a half nod. She pressed a button on the keyboard and the recording played again.

"I ーyou not toーstupid deal!"

"This is ーfault!"

Naru wagged his finger, raising his voice to be heard over the growing static. "That one. The word 'fault' is a deeper tone... it's difficult to describe."

"ーLiar!"

"ーCheat!"

"All ーfaultー"

The static swelled to a head pounding volume. Closer to the speaker, Mai visibly flinched as the sound of a man's furious scream crackled through the speakers. Lin-san, who'd been working silently on his laptop at the other end of the table, looked distinctly disgruntled beneath his own set of headphones as the yell continued for a few long seconds. Then came the whisper; words forming within the static, barely discernible, yet there was no doubt they were there. "Tell them the truth."

He waited until the room had gone silent again before saying, "And that yell is definitely a man's. The rest is sort of high pitchedー"

He stopped. The voice was low, guttural. Almost a plea. Tell them the truth. He felt his heart leap in his throat. Somehow, he'd convinced himself it'd never happened; that what he'd seen and heard in the kitchen yesterday had been a weird sort of waking dream. A hallucination brought on by lack of sleep and or group think.

Mai didn't notice his sudden withdrawal. She replayed the recording once more, nodding, "Now that you say that..."

Didn't she hear it too? He watched her out of the corner of his eye, stomach knotting. It felt as if he'd been caught in a lie, waiting for Mai to notice. But Mai just slid the headphones off again with a pinched expression, pulling her paper closer. She scribbled something, paused, scratched it out, and wrote something else.

Instinctively, Naru's eyes found the monitor that was still projecting a wide-angle view of the deconstructed kitchen. The high afternoon sun made the chaos of the construction work look benevolent, but in his minds eyes, Naru could almost convince himself he could see the beginnings of the black figure forming in the golden streaks across the floor.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing," he said too quickly, forcing his gaze back to Mai who was gazing at him. She had the expression again, the same one she'd given him yesterday. As if he were a ghost and she could somehow see through him; as if she were analyzing him.

Naru cleared his throat and flipped the page of the thick file, eyes skimming unseeingly over more detailed notes about the original state of the house. He'd only glazed over another detailed paragraph about the remodel when he heard the scraping of paper against plastic. Mai barely chanced a glance as he picked up the thin file she'd apparently slid over to him. The front of the folder was blank, no heading. He blinked at it. "What is this?"

Mai replaced the headphones back on her ears as she said, simply, "Police report."

Curious, he flipped the cover open and read the official script with big, capitalized letters stretching across the top.

POLICE REPORT; status: closed

On July 16th, 2001, at approximately 09:00 PM, Shibuya police officers were sent to the residence of Fujino Hikari to execute an arrest warrant issued earlier that day for suspected instances of company theft and embezzlement. After several unsuccessful attempts of contacting the owner, Fujino Hikari, blunt force was used to open the door. Upon entry, the premises were searched resulting in the discovery of a corpse in the middle room. First impressions of the scene indicate that the body was that of the owner, Fujino-san, who had passed several days previous from unknown causes. Due to the nature of the death, foul play was initially suspected. Cause of death was ruled as poison.

The more Naru read the more his stomach wound itself into a tight knot. He bit his tongue. "Did Fujino-san kill himself?"

"It certainly looks that way," Mai said, turning back around in her chair, "Though, it seems Yuriko-san, his exgirlfriend, is still under suspiscion of murder. I thought it might be relevant so I did some research on it last night."

"Last night?" Naru repeated, dumbfounded. "You came to investigate a house you knew might be the scene of a murder and you didn't think it was important until last night?"

"It didn't occur to me. All the hauntings in Britain are usually residual hauntings. You know, spirits who died in the Victorian era still wandering the halls in their nightgowns, that kind of thing. Not depressed blokes in their thirties with murderous girlfriends."

Naru cast her a disdainful look, but it was meant more for the room than for her. He wasn't sure how he felt about hanging around in a place where someone had died. On purpose or not.

Mai deflated. "Fujino Hikari was allegedly suffering from severe depression after losing his job. He was fired on grounds of suspicious activity. One of the news articles I read about it said the company he worked for was going to press charges and that his girlfriend left him when she found out. From what I gather, that means Yuriko-san was the last person to see him alive."

Naru quirked an eyebrow. "You learned all that from newspapers? That's not very informative. What ever happen to peer reviewed articles and fact over opinion?"

"You sound just like my Research Methods professor." She sighed and folded her arms over her stomach. "Unfortunately, there just isn't any other means of finding out the information we need. And anyway, I'm too hungry to think about it right now."

Her words had barely had time to process before Naru was suddenly reminded of his own growling stomach. He hadn't eaten since yesterday morning, having foregone dinner last night and not having this morning due to a certain someone breaking into their apartment. The feeling of being hungry didn't bother him as much as it probably should have. He was used to skipping meals; sometimes there just wasn't enough money. He steeled himself. That was why he took Mai's offer. They could use the extra income.

Mai straightened in her chair, turning to face her Chinese assistant. "Lin?" As if roused by her words, Lin-san suddenly stopped typing and pulled his headset off. He didn't voice any word of acknowledgment, but Mai didn't wait for one either. "Let's find a place to get some breakfast. I think we've done all we could with the recording for now. We can come back after and look at it with fresh eyes."

This seemed to be enough explanation for Lin-san who stood from his chair even before Mai had finished speaking. He closed the lid of his laptop with one hand and reached the other into his pocket, searching. Mai and Naru both slowly got to their feet; Mai smoothing down her skirt and Naru replacing the police file back on the desk beside the monitors. Lin, frowning, searched his other pocket.

"We're not too far from the office," Mai said, stretching, "We can stop by and grab some EMF detectors. I didn't think we needed them yesterday and we didn't have time to grab them today ーwhat's that look for?"

They both turned back to Lin-san who was scouring the desk. The deep, disgruntled glare etched into his face gave him the look of someone who had just lost something very important. All he said as he lifted the laptop was, "Keys."

"You didn't leave them in the van, did you?" Mai asked, earning herself perhaps the dirtiest glare Naru thought the older assistant could possibly have made without the use of both eyes. She raised her hand in surrender, "Just checking."

They searched behind and under all of the equipment, no matter how improbable it was to actually be there, before searching the boxes they carried them in but still there were no keys. Naru searched briefly in the hallway, finding nothing more than the same rogue nail that he was sure had always been there. They could have searched the whole apartment, but they were too tired and much too hungry.

Mai plopped back down in her seat with a whoosh. "I think I saw a convenience store on the way here." Mai said, glancing between them, eyes wide in mock innocence. "It shouldn't be that long of a walk."

.

.

Much to his dismay, it was eventually decided that Naru should be the one to go because, as Mai loved to point out, "that's the new guys job". And so it was with great annoyance (and the promise that he could get whatever it was he wanted on company expense) that he lugged the bag full of convenience store snacks and tray of tea up the elevator and back to the room. With no free hand, he kicked the door until Mai pulled it open and promptly thrust the bag into her empty arms.

She peeked into the heavy bag, lips turning up into an amused smile. "What did you buy?" She asked with a fair amount of incredulity. He really couldn't blame her; the bag had been quite heavy. It left deep red marks across his palm.

"Food."

She gave a short, bark of a laugh and lead the way to base. Together they unpacked the bags, laying the bags of chips, onigiri, cups of instant ramen, several assorted drinks, and a bento Naru had gotten especially for himself, on the free part of the desk. Mai picked up one of the rice balls, frowning. "What is this?" she asked incredulously.

"Onigiri," Naru said settling back in the floor with one of his own. He tried to wipe away the sweat still gathering over his forehead, "Don't like it? Next time you can walk three blocks in this heat."

"I didn't say that." She said, freeing the triangle of rice from its thin plastic covering. "I just… don't think I've ever eaten ー what flavor is this?"

Naru opened his own. "That one's tuna and mayonnaise, I think. This one is umeboshi."

Mai held the triangle skeptically. "I've never been a fan of fish."

Naru snorted. "You're in Japan." He reminded her. Seeing her face, and being utterly and completely reminded of Gene who loathed seafood, he stretched out his hand. "Would you like to switch?"

She looked as though he had offered her an explosive. "What's that?"

"Sour plum."

Her nose wrinkled in disgust, she didn't say another word by bit cautiously into the rice ball. On the other side of the desk, Lin-san was dutifully eating his own onigiri without complaint. Thought, Naru highly doubted the man would complain even if he didn't like the food.

It was nearing late afternoon by the time they were done. Lin-san returned to his laptop without another word, which wasn't all that surprising. Naru was shocked that he had even stopped to eat with them at all. Mai went back to replaying the audio ad nauseam, taking occasional notes, but she wasn't really listening. Naru was reluctant to return to doing pretty much nothing, and even though he disliked talking for long stretches of time, he made an effort to keep the conversation going. Surprisingly enough, he found Mai's life before JSPR quite interesting.

"Back home I was part of the tech team." She said, taking a long sip of apple tea, "Lin was on the data analysis team. I've never actually done field work until I got to Japan."

At this, Naru felt his jaw drop slightly and almost spilled tea over his lap. "Really?" He shouldn't have been surprised. He had thought it odd that someone who had been working for BSPR for years wouldn't be able to do something so simple as tell two different voices apart in a recording. "You mean you've neverー"

Mai shushed him.

He glared. Mai turned toward the monitors, short hair swinging as she gazed from screen to screen. "Did you hear that?"

"Obviously not." He said at the same time a soft thud permeated through the wall. He held his breath. Was that coming from the floor above? Or maybe it was coming from below?

Thud. Thud.

He followed Mai's gaze along all of the monitors. They were all perfectly normal; no static, noー A louder thud reverberated through his chest. He jerked away, the wall behind him still vibrating with the force of whatever hit it.

"It's coming from the room with the desk," Mai hissed as she and Lin-san both jumped to their feet, Mai looking excited and Lin-san rather disconcerted as they shot out of the room. Naru glared after them. Didn't people usually move away from danger? He thought, trying not to imagine what kind of object had to have hit the wall to make that kind of sound.

Still, he scrambled to follow after them. Lin-san was standing just outside the doorframe for the room next door, arm extended. Mai was inside the room, but only barely. Lin-san's hand was gripping her shoulder, forcing her back.

Carefully, as if approaching a wild animal, Naru sidled up beside them. He felt his jaw drop. The room had become a maelstrom of flittering paper. The big trash bags had been ripped open at the seams, its contents thrown into the air by some unseen force. A collection of tarnished silver picture frames were strewn across the floor, splintered and gleaming in the light. Naru saw the old lamp before the others. As if in slow motion, he watched it soar through the air toward Mai and Lin-san, who weren't looking at it, but at the ground were another picture frame lay broken. Naru opened his mouth to warn them, but the words wouldn't come. He reached out. The room was filled with the sound of shattered fiberglass as the lap was suddenly thrown sideways, colliding with the door frame so close to Mai that she flinched away from the scattering jagged pieces.

His hand trembled as he lowered it back down. His fingers felt as if he'd dipped them into ice water; his heart thrummed hard in his chest, a sudden irrevocable exhaustion sweeping over him. "What's... happening?" He asked, breathless.

Lin-san pulled Mai back, raising his free hand to his lips. "Don't be stupid, Mai." He said above the clamor.

But Mai wasn't listening. Her eyes wide, "Naru!"

He never saw the book coming. All he felt was the sting of pain across his cheek ー heard the flutter of paper, and with a final thud everything stopped.

Paper that had been thrown into the air was left to fall gently back down to the floor again. Naru lifted a cold, trembling hand to his cheek, hissing in pain. When he pulled them back, a thin line of blood coated his fingers.

"Are you okay?" Mai broke free of Lin-san's hold. She rushed the space to Naru, lifting her hand as if to touch him.

Naru leaned back as far as he could away from her, an uncomfortable heat creeping up his neck. He swallowed hard, "Are you?"

She shrugged, searching his face. "I think so."

He nodded, relieved when she dropped her hand.

Lin-san was glaring at him, visible eye narrowed to slits, eyebrows furrowed. He looked menacing. Uncomfortable under all the scrutiny, Naru deflected his gaze back to the room. It was a complete mess. No part of the floor was spared from the sudden onslaught and, with some concern, he saw that the flat part of what looked like a hammer had left the drywall broken where it hit the shared wall. "What was that?"

Mai was no longer beside him. He half turned in time to see her bent low just behind him, caressing the cover of the battered, thick red notebook. "A message."

.

.

He smoothed the skin of his cheek, still sore but at least it'd stopped bleeding. The cut was long and thin, probably made by one of the loose papers stuck inside the notebook as it flew past him, just barely missing hitting him full on in the face. He was lucky, really. From the sound it made when it hit the back wall, it could have broken his nose. But just like the lamp and Mai, it seemed to just miss him.

They didn't discuss what happened in the room and Mai wasted no time in delving into the notebook. She'd only barely refrained from opening it until she got back to base and had been sitting quietly at the desk ever since. The only time she'd moved was when she'd gotten the sudden idea to gather the papers from the room with the desk to add to the pile of evidence. Naru, bandaging his cut and frankly sick of sitting on the floor, had stacked boxes in a sort of makeshift stool and taken up the seat beside her. He ruffled through some of the loose papers, finding a late notice, a few fliers from festivals that were going to be happening around the city, and—

"This is an eviction notice," he said, staring blankly at the stark white paper. From what he could make out, it was dated sometime last year but some of the ink had been smudged. "Do you think Fujino-san was having trouble paying his rent?"

"It's possible," Mai said lightly, tilting the book toward him. "Naru-chan, what does this character mean?"

Her pale, slender finger was pointing to a particularly complex kanji made even harder by the scratchy handwriting. Naru bent sideways for the umpteenth time, absolutely refusing to touch the book. Even from his distance he could feel the immense feeling of loss and depression emanating from its frayed pages. He squinted, searching the radicals.

"It means 'hesitation'." He pulled away, rereading the whole sentence. "'Last night, I proposed to Yuriko' ー are you reading a dead man's diary?"

Mai's lip twitched in amusement. She leaned back in her chair. "Ah, that doesn't make any sense. Fujino-san proposes to her, she turns him down, leaves him, then a couple months later he's dead? If it were depression, you would think he wouldn't have waited so long... What if... what she really did kill him?"

"Who?" Naru asked, "Yuriko-san?"

"I don't know. She would have been the only one with a key. The door was locked according to the police report, remember?"

"I was under the impression you were a ghost hunter, not a detective." Naru tapped the desk beside the notebook, "How do you even know that was Fujino-san's journal and not someone else's?"

"It's basic deductive reasoning. The man who wrote this wrote about a woman named Yuriko-san. Due to rental records, we know that both a Yuriko-san and Fujino-san lived here for a period of three years before the events of the police report. The only owner after them is our client, whom hasnt yet been able to move in. Therefore, it's more than probable this notebook belonged to the late Fujino-san." They lapsed again into silence save for the gentle flipping of the thin, crumpled pages. Naru had just relented to checking temperatures again when Mai leaned over again, "Naruー"

"If we ever get out of here, Mai, I am buying you a kanji dictionary."

Mai pouted. "It's not my fault. I studied kanji before I came here but I've never seen some of these. His handwriting certainly isn't helping either."

"Your education is obviously lacking."

She leveled him with a tired glare. He hadn't noticed the light purple color bruising the underside of her dark eyes. Had she slept at all last night?

He relented, "That one means 'to be decapitated'. Waitー" He leaned in, squinting. Gene always said he needed reading glasses. "ーNo. He's saying he was fired from his job."

Mai pulled the book away, fingers tracing down the sloppy scrawl. "Fired? Why does that use the same kanji as 'decapitation'?"

"I don't know."

"Temperature drop detected by camera one." Lin-san announced abruptly, typing feverishly on his keyboard. "3-degrees."

Mai and Naru both turned to the camera focused on the kitchen. The late afternoon sun was still shining through the window, casting a golden glow through the room, but that was it. From what they could see through the small monitor, there was no activity.

"Anything else notable, Lin?" Mai asked. She pushed the chair sideways until she was side-by-side with Lin-san who didn't seem at all bothered by her proximity. She frowned at the screen, "Temperatures are returning to normal."

Naru jumped, suddenly flushed at the sudden feeling that something was crawling over his thigh. His hand flitted over his thigh – relief washed over him. He'd forgotten about his cell phone tucked away in his pocket. With a small glance back at Mai, he pulled it out just enough to see Gene's name scrolling across the caller I.D. Why is he calling now? What time was it over there?

"Are you sure it wasn't just a system malfunction?" Mai was asking.

He hastily stuffed the phone back in his pocket. "That could be. I thought the A/C was malfunctioning yesterday when I was in the kitchen."

Mai turned to face him. "Why didn't you tell me that yesterday?"

He shrugged, feeling the vibration of his phone come of a halt, paused for a moment, then start again. "I didn't think it was important."

"Lin, you said the Mel Meter recorded a temperature drop yesterday?"

He nodded.

"The A/C unit is completely dysfunctional. Ejiri-san said they had to cut all the wires and they hadn't gotten around to replacing them yet. That means... assuming that it's not a draft from one of the surrounding floors... that around this time yesterday the kitchen area fluctuated in temperature of at least 3-degrees."

The details of his run in with the old man's ghost were poised on the tip of Naru's tongue. But he bit them back. Was he really sure the whole thing happened? The camera hadn't captured any of the encounter, and there'd been no one else to see the man's ghost. How could he be certain he hadn't just hallucinated the whole thing? Anyway, what use was the information if it couldn't be verified? SPR was about science, he reminded himself. Not hearsay from an employee who didn't know an apparition from a sun glare.

"It's all got to do with this notebook..." Mai mumbled behind her hand. She was picking at the skin of her lips almost absentmindedly with one hand, stroking the creased page of said notebook with the other.

"How do you know?"

"I don't know." Mai sighed, "A feeling."

Naru eyed the notebook. The feelings of mingled depression and rage were nearly palpable this close to it. Mai had the book open to a page dated November of last year, the handwriting long and pointed, erratic almost.

Someone has been moving money from some big accounts in my department. There's going to be an inquiry at the office. I've got everyone available working on finding out who it was but—

Naru, very much against his instinct, gestured to the book. "Mai, can I?"

"Sure, sure," Mai pushed the book toward him, resting her forehead in her hands.

Naru gingerly, using the cuff of his sleeve as a buffer, turned the page. The same erratic handwriting was sloping down this page too, dating it only a week after the previous entry.

I've got documents of evidence but they won't listen to me. Takawa-san is guilty but no one wants to hear it! Just because he is our department supervisor—

He flipped the page again.

They think it's me, that I've been the one moving that money from our accounts. They say they have evidence but they refuse to show it to me. And this morning… this morning Takawa-san forced me to resign.

A sudden onslaught of fury burned inside his chest. He felt like tearing the notebook apart, throwing it across the room. He felt the urge to yell. To scream his innocence to anyone who turned their back on him. It wasn't him! He wasn't guilty! This was all his fault. Naru breathed hard thought his nose, forcing his fingers back from the page and feeling the essence of Fujino-san ebbing away. Somehow his shirt had slipped out from under one of his fingers.

All of a sudden, it made sense. "Is it possible…" he mumbled.

"Is what possible, Naru-chan?"

He jumped, nearly falling off his makeshift seat. He'd forgotten where he was. Mai was gazing at him expectantly. He looked away, back down at the notebook. "Sorry, no." he said quickly, "I'm just talking to myself."

"Go on. Say it. You never know what might be relevant."

"You don't think it's possible that Fujino-san did actually commit suicide?" He met Mai's gaze. "I mean; his girlfriend wouldn't marry him. Then he lost his job because of something that wasn't even his fault. Then his girlfriend left, and he was about to be kicked out of the apartment… you don't think that's a good enough reason? It certainly makes more sense than Yuriko-san coming back to kill him."

"It certainly has its merits. But it's not our job to tell the police they got it wrong, right? We're ghost hunters, not detectives, Naru-chan."

He gave her a long, hard look, "Don't use my own words against me."

"Don't make it so easy." They held each other's eyes for a moment longer than necessary before Mai sighed and looked away. "Maybe it's time to call Masa-chan. I'm not sure we can solve this case without a medium anymore." Mai pulled her cellphone from beside one of the monitors and flipped it open. She hit a few buttons, frowned pensively down at the screen and flipped the phone closed.

"Can I see your phone, Naru-chan?"

"Um. Yeah. Sure." He pulled his phone from his pocket once again, exiting out of the missed call message from Gene before handing it to her.

Mai typed in a number she'd apparently memorized and held the phone up to her ear. Naru could hear the tell-tale deep ring tone that came from the phone and then suddenly, it stopped. "Hello?" Mai said, then pulled the phone away from ear. She clicked a button. "It died."

Naru blanched taking it back from her grip. "It was fully charged a second ago."

Mai folded her arms across her chest, starting to pace the length of the desk as Naru and Lin-san watched her. "First my notes go missing. Then the keys. The activity in the desk room. Now both of our cellphones have dead batteries. There's a spirit here who's draining the energy from our electronics to steal things it must know we need. It's intelligent and yet has all the signs of a residual haunting..."

Naru pressed the power button again, half expecting the screen to light up and display the greeting message, but it remained resolutely black. With a loud crack, he flipped the phone shut. "What does this mean?"

Mai shook her head. "I don't know."

A/N: Very sorry for the amount of drabble in these two chapters. I find that the only way I can break myself out of writer's block is to let the character's do what they want and most times that's talking. A lot. Continuous thanks to Mimori Taniyama and SymmetricalGirl8DeathTheKid for being the most amazing beta's out there. Also, a shout-out to everyone who reviewed;

soulsborne123, The Night Whisperer, Fanficluver4life, D C JoKeR H S, Erasmith, and anonymous guest.

And of course, everyone who favorited and/or followed this story. You guys are the reason I keep writing. See you all in the next chapter.

Read, relax, and review!

ELV