Yo. Well, sorry about the wait…again. Thanks to everyone who's read this so far!

Disclaimer: I do not own Ghost Hunt or any of its characters. I do, however, own Takeshi and Junpei, so no stealing…

Mai and John were laughing as they set up a camera in the room Naru and Mai were sharing. Taking his laptop with him, Lin left the house and headed to the library to begin his research. True to his word, Naru gave Yasuhara a call, and the bespectacled teen promised to help, even though he was actually unable to join them. Bou-san headed into the living room, determined to get some information out of Takeshi and Junpei. When Naru said their clients were hiding something, it meant they were hiding something.

Left alone in the base, Naru collapsed onto the chair near the monitors with a sigh, almost feeling defeated. He didn't understand what was going on in this house. Why were both Takeshi and Mai being targeted? Was it the same entity causing both incidents? Or were there two of them?

If there was one, then why Mai? If there were two, then why Mai? Why Takeshi? What had the two teens done to warrant a stalking spirit? What could they possibly have done?

Naru frowned as a thought came to him. Could Mai have picked up her stalking entity during one of their previous investigations? It wasn't impossible, after all. But even then…how? We always exorcise all the entities in all locations… Could we have missed one? And that one, for some reason, attached itself to Mai? Possible…

But their last investigation had been ages ago. Mai didn't start feeling things until just the other day. If this entity decided to follow Mai during the last case, then why didn't it begin with the activity earlier? Why now, after all this time?

It just didn't fit… There isn't a connection. There simply can't be. Bou-san was right when he stated that Mai was experiencing activity before Takeshi-san even stepped foot into the office. Unless-! Naru suddenly sat up straight. Possible, he thought. Definitely possible…

Mai winced in sympathy. "Well that had to hurt. Was he okay after all that?"

"Oh yeah," replied John airily, watching as the girl double checked the camera's angle. "He was perfectly fine, but he did end up in a lot of trouble."

"Well that's not surprising at all, considering what he did. Whew! Done!" The two commenced their journey back to the base. "What about his friend? That girl? Was she alright?"

"Ah, well she wasn't physically harmed, but she's become a little paranoid."

The conversation ended abruptly when the girl and priest reentered the base. Naru was seated in the chair in front of the monitors, a preoccupied expression on his face. Mai and John exchanged a shrug, before sitting down themselves. They were about to continue their previous conversation, when Naru suddenly and finally noticed that they were back.

"Mai."

The girl looked over at her boss in confusion. "Yes?" she asked, wondering why he looked so serious.

At first, Naru said nothing. He just looked at her thoughtfully. Then, rather suddenly, said, "Tea."

Mai blinked. She hadn't been expecting him to say that. Well, she had been waiting for him to ask for tea, but had assumed, by the serious look on his face, that he was going to ask her some sort of question regarding her friends or dead family or something. "Um, okay."

It was time, Naru decided, for an experiment. He watched Mai walk out of the room alone, then swiveled around in his chair, to watch her over the monitors. Mai walked down the hallway, encountering no one, then entered the kitchen. It was empty. Perfect. The girl began preparing tea, set the water to boil, and yet, nothing happened.

Naru waited a couple more minutes, watching rather intently. It's time… He got to his feet, told John to watch over the monitors, then made his way over to the kitchen, where his young assistant was still waiting on the water.

Hearing footsteps, Mai looked round and saw Naru approached her. "Hey Naru, what's up?" she asked with a smile. As she had expected, her boss said nothing at first, merely made his way over to her, and came to a stop by the counter next to the stove, which he then leaned upon.

"What's taking you so long, Mai? Have you forgotten how to make tea or something?"

Mai blinked. "What? Of course not! And I am not taking a long time! This is how long it always takes to make tea!"

Naru however, shook his head. "No, it's definitely been longer than usual." That's right, just act normally. Good job, Mai. You're making this easy. Now, hopefully it'll work…

The girl let out an exasperated sigh, and began muttering under her breath. Naru knew that she was, no doubt, insulting him, but he really didn't care at the moment. He was waiting. What it was that he was waiting for, he didn't actually know. But he knew he would have at least one answer, if what he was waiting for happened.

The kettle went off with its usual screech, and Mai immediately turned off the stove. She reached for the kettle, picked it up, and as soon as she did, it exploded. The sound it made was quite impressive; it was almost like a gun going off.

"Kyaaa!" Shocked, Mai let out a scream and jumped back, cradling her left arm. A rather menacing laugh reverberated through the room, and Mai sank down to her knees with a whimper. Surprised, Naru got down next to her. That had been a little more than he had been expecting.

It took about a minute, but soon, the kitchen was packed. It seemed everyone in the house had heard the exploding kettle and creepy-ass laugh.

"Mai, your arm!"

Both Naru and Mai had assumed that she had burned her arm, but that didn't seem to be the case. It looked as if a word had been engraved into her left forearm, just like the one on her thigh.

"P-A-I-N... Pain?" Slowly, Mai looked up at Naru.

Though Naru's face betrayed nothing, on the inside, he was smiling smugly. "I knew it…"

So, what was it that Naru was trying to do? What is it that he knows? …I have no idea. Well, I've got a vague clue, but I haven't fully thought it out yet. Dunno when the next chapter will be up. Looking forward to reviews! Laterz!