When the fog started to clear, the first thing I heard was a casual conversation.

The calm tones of the familiar voices felt like a mild whip-lash. Weren't we in the middle of a crisis? Where were the kids? Was the doll still there? What the heck happened?!

Sluggishly, I tried to move, bringing one heavy arm to my face and rubbing the exhaustion from my eyes. I made a half-hearted effort to push myself up, but didn't quite manage it, deciding instead to turn my head and look for the familiar voices from where I was.

"Mai!"

Monk was the first one I saw, his blurry outline coming into a sudden focus as he walked up to me and knelt down beside me. "How are you feeling?"

"Heavy." I answered honestly. "What… happened? Where are we?"

Ayako knelt beside Monk. "We're in the security office. You were out for a while."

"A while?"

"A few hours, actually. It's morning now."

I groaned.

The lingering vestiges of sleep started to fade, and as my body stopped feeling so heavy, I was able to push myself up to a sitting position. My mind started to race, kicking into overdrive as the scattered memories of what was happening before I'd been knocked out organized themselves. "Wait…" I started. "What knocked me out? What happened to doll? Is Kara okay?! What—"

Monk flicked my forehead, cutting off my barrage of questions. Starting with the most important question, he answered "Kara is fine, she's still asleep. Naru's been watching her. Your daughter is a little Rockstar, by the way."

Ayako grunted in agreement. "Just like her parents, that one. Running right at a volatile spirit like that…"

"She did WHAT?"

So Monk explained what had happened.

I was annoyed, but not too surprised that the spirit had tried to possess me. I knew I was a magnet for it, and it'd happened plenty of times before. I was a little surprised that Kara was the one who saved me from that. Monk was perplexed as he explained it to me, so I figured that Naru hadn't told the group about Kara's PK-LT. Leave it to Naru to keep important details like that to himself.

Similarly, what had happened after that had left them in a state of shocked confusion, and the details Monk relayed to me were mostly what he'd learned after things had settled.

Apparently, it was Edward who had been attempting possession, and Ai was just helping him out. By bonding to Ai's doll, Edward was able to move around the museum freely with Ai. Since exorcism wouldn't work on the doll, we needed some other way to break Edward's connection to Ai's doll, which would send him back to his own and make him harmless.

Through a stroke of uncharacteristically good luck, the museum happened to have an abstract painting that was said to be a doorway to hell. I vaguely remembered Kara telling me about it, and I remembered that I couldn't look at the picture for more than a second. The painting wasn't always a doorway to hell, and not everyone was able to open that door. According to Naru, the door could be opened three times a night, seven minutes past 1, 2, and 3 in the morning, and only a maiden serving as a priestess could open that door. The timing just so happened to work out.

I was ticked that Naru had decided to get Kara to do it, but that feeling was dampened by the swell of pride I felt for Kara, who did the job perfectly. The doll had been tossed into the painting and disappeared. Ai's doll was gone.

According to Masako, Edward's spirit had returned to his own doll, tucked away safely inside his glass enclosure.

And to everyone's relief, the seal around the hanging room had not been damaged.

Normally we would stick around another night to make sure the activity had properly died down, but Monk told me Naru had decided we were packing up today, with the promise that they could call us back here if anything happened over the next couple nights. Naru didn't explain himself to the group, but Monk and Ayako, rather smugly, theorized that he just didn't want to keep Kara here any longer. I figured they were probably right, and there was no way I would've let Kara stay here another night anyways.

The morning after that was a bustle of activity as we started packing up our things. The equipment we had was limited to mostly audio recording devices, but we also had to go around dismantling the hiding spots we'd set up through the museum, which took about an hour. Halfway through, Naru reappeared with a still sleepy Kara, which meant I had to take a break to make tea.

When I handed him his tea, he was sitting at the security surveillance desk, organizing papers. Kara was on the couch, eating an apple and reading some of the newspapers still lying around from the research session the other day. We were the only ones in the room.

The urge to snap at him was welling up in my chest, but I fought it down. As frustrated as I was that he'd gotten Kara to deal the finishing move, yelling at him for it was about as effective as banging my head against a brick wall. Starting tonight, we'd be living together, and on the verge of something as big as that, the last thing I wanted to do was annoy him.

I turned to walk away, planning to keep my silence, but he stopped me.

"Mai?"

I looked back at him, but he wasn't looking at me. His eyes were on Kara. His voice low and only just loud enough for me to hear, he said "Next time, she stays home."

Goosebumps broke out across my skin, and my heart started to race.

Home.

I huffed, trying to calm my pounding heart. "Of course she will." I agreed.

Kara was an exceptionally talented girl, but as helpful as it had been to have her with us over the last couple cases, there was no way I could handle the stress. Apparently, neither could Naru.

And I'm glad that, when it comes to Kara, we pretty much always seem to agree.

Once we were all packed and ready to go, I tracked down Mr. Yukito in his office to give him the written report of what had happened.

"It's a shame we had to lose the doll." He said to me after I'd handed him the documents. "But I'm relieved that no one got hurt. Raiden went on and on about Kara on his way home, it seems he's really taken to her."

I was surprised that the scared boy from the night before hadn't immediately passed out on the ride home, but I was happy to hear that the experience wasn't going to drive him away from Kara. I'd known plenty of young clients who took to distancing themselves from anything that reminded them of something scary, and it would've been really disappointing if something like this had caused Kara to lose her first friend.

"That reminds me," I said. "Would it be all right to get contact information for Raiden? He spends most of his time with his mom in Tokyo, right? I think Kara would love to keep in touch."

"Of course! I'll let Fuyumi know."

Fuyumi, I gathered, was Raiden's mother's name.

After exchanging contact information, I gave him back the security cards and hotel room keys. He thanked me again.

I turned to leave, but I paused when I reached the door. Looking back at Mr. Yukito, I said "Oh yeah, I almost forgot. About Edward… he's a cursed doll, right? Whose spirit is supposed to be possessing it?"

"Ah, that…" He put the things I'd handed him down on his desk. "No one's. At least, no one who was ever alive."

I paused. "What do you mean?"

He smiled thinly. "Edward is what you might call an artificial spirit. The strong desires of his previous owner resulted in a doll being possessed by the ghost of a boy who had never existed. Curious, isn't it? A single human with a powerful wish was able to create something like that. It makes me wonder how many more monsters were born because a person wished for it."

I smiled nervously. It was hard to believe that one person was able to wish Edward into existence… but I guess I've seen weirder things than that. "Yeah.." I hesitantly agreed. "Well, I suppose I'll be seeing you. Let us know if anything else comes up."

"I most certainly will."

And with that, I left the Nakai Museum of Oddities.

I met up with the rest of the group in the parking lot, where the usual argument about who would ride with who was taking place.

"She was in the van on the way here, so it's only fair that I get her for the ride back, right?"

"Then one of us will have to ride in the van! Don't hog the cutie."

"Come on, you got to share a room with her. You've had more time with her than I have."

"Shouldn't you be focusing on driving?"

"John can drive. Right, John?"

"I suppose I don't mind…"

I blinked a few times, watching Ayako and Monk bicker back and forth for a minute before realizing that they were arguing about who would get to ride with Kara. Kara stood a little to side, her head tilted at them in confusion, and I giggled.

Walking right through the group, I went up to Kara and said "Who do you wanna ride with, Kara?"

The argument died as Monk and Ayako turned to the little girl.

"Hmmm…." She considered the group, and the two vehicles that would be taking us home. Monk's car could hold four, and the van could hold up to six, driver included, although only Lin could drive the van. Any one of us could drive the car.

Her eyes suddenly glinted mischievously. "Well, I get to see mommy and daddy all the time…" She started innocently. "So they can take the car, and the rest of us can have fun in the van!"

I spluttered, feeling my face get warm. Was Kara trying to set me up with Naru?

Monk's face split into a wide grin. "You heard the girl!" He declared, tossing his keys to Naru, who caught them looking slightly miffed. Even Masako and John looked pleased with the seating arrangement. Looks like everyone wanted to spend a little more time with Kara.

"Fine," I conceded, a smile tugging at the corners of my lips. Putting my hand on Kara's head, I told her "Try not to tire your old aunt and uncle out too much, okay?"

She grinned. "Okay!"

"Uncle?!"

"Who's old?!"

Feeling a little proud of the flabbergasted looks on Monk's and Ayako's faces, I flashed them a smile, and without a word went to sit in the car.

I didn't have the most conventional family. We were a pretty mismatched group, and as Naru joined me in the car, I couldn't help but linger for a moment on the thought that the relationships in this family were a little complicated.

But it was the family I chose. My family. Kara's family.

And there isn't a single thing about it I would change.

Author's Notes:

And there we go. It's done.

This is a weird feeling for me. I first posted this story a little over four years ago, so finishing this is kind of like when I finished high school. I can't believe it's done.

I'm really proud of this one. This might be my favorite story that I've written, definitely out of the ones I've posted and maybe even out of all of them. I felt like I got a pretty good handle on the characters, especially with Mai.

Keeping Naru in character is always a struggle, and I know a lot of other writers in this fandom struggle with it too. The more I get into my stories, the harder it gets, because my Naru is a dad now, and it's changing him. Finding that balance of keeping Naru in character while still having him realistically evolve as a character is a challenge. But it's kind of a fun challenge, and I'd be willing to tackle part 3 of this trilogy if you guys want to read it.

Did I mentioned that I'd planned for this to be a trilogy? This was always supposed to be a trilogy.

Anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed this. Let me know your thoughts. If you have any tips for keeping Naru in character, let me know. And if you have any ideas about what the next case could involve, I'd love to hear it.

Happy Holidays everyone!

**Update**

The third installment of this series, 'The Lady of the Lake' is officially in the works. I'll be posting the first couple chapters on January 5th, I'm just waiting on some editing. I hope you guys are as excited as I am! I'll see you there!