January
Day 1

New Years passed on quietly for Mai. She was granted the day off by Naru as he was closing the office for the day and she gratefully took the day to deep clean her apartment, prepping to go into the new year with a clean apartment. She returned to school on Monday, had a test, ate lunch with her friends, and when the last bell for the day rang she quickly made her way to the office, restless for some odd reason.

It was chilly out and as she crossed the crosswalk she blew hot breath into her bare palms. "I should buy gloves." She said to herself as she approached the SPR office and quickly went up the stairs, a gust of wind blowing against her legs. "It's cold." She cried and quickly closed to door after her as she finally entered the office, looking up at the clock on the wall immediately and cringed. Nine minutes late. Today was an off day for her.

"You're late. Tea."

Mai smiled. "Yes, boss." She moved towards the kitchenette, pulling her jacket from her body before pausing when a strange feeling overcame her. "Naru? Is someone..." She rounded the corner to the seating area and her eyes widened.

Yasuhara stood in front of Naru and he grinned at Mai, waving his hand. "Mai-chan, it's been a while."

Ah. She hadn't realized that the case at Rokuryo High was so early on in January. It had only been a week since they helped Kenji move on and usually there was a long break between cases so she wasn't prepared.

"Yasu." Mai blinked, getting her bearings. "Are you... okay?" She asked as she took a long hard look at the older male. He was smiling and his school uniform was clean and buttoned up all the way, but there was a strained look in his eyes and his smile was just a tad forced. The last time the two had talked on their double date he was already dealing with the stress of things at his school and she was sure they had only gotten worse.

"I'm okay." Yasu nodded firmly and then turned to look at Naru, who was simply looking back and forth between the two quietly.

"You two know each other?" Naru asked.

Mai smiled awkwardly. "Um, yes... he was the friend I mentioned I was at Yoyogi Park with in the beginning of December."

Naru's eyes lit up as he remembered. "Right. You mentioned he was from Rokuryo High School." He was saying to himself lowly, putting his chin in his hand as he thought deeply. There was a moment of silence before he look up at Yasu and then Mai. "Call Rokuryo High School and let them know we'll be in tomorrow to do a preliminary investigation."

Mai blinked in shock and then turned to Yasu, who also looked a bit surprised. "Y-yes!"

Day 2

"Thank you for coming." Yasuhara bowed to them in greeting. "I'll show you to the principles office."

Mai glanced to her right and found the front desk attendant at Rokuryo was glaring at the three of them as they passed with Yasu.

"Talk about unwelcome, huh?" Bou-san leaned down to whisper to Mai.

"Must not like outsiders." Mai shrugged her shoulders and took a moment to look around the school.

Rokuryo High School was in a nicer area and was two times more bigger then her own school and it even looked newer too. It was cold here. She noted with a shiver as she looked around the grey walls devoid of colour and fliers. She had seen Rokuryo High in the newspapers previously for their academic achievement, high scores on exams, and their successful alumni. The tuition here was much more expensive as well.

It was safe to say that Yasu's high school was probably sought out by a lot of parents wanting their children to attend here, but dreaded by students.

They passed by a hall and in the middle of it a tall dark figure stood quietly, watching them pass by. Mai turned at the last second, just barely managing to catch it, but they continued down the main hall.

She shuddered, wrapping her arms around herself.

She knew that she would see Sakauchi's ghost eventually, but she wasn't fully prepared.

"Where's Lin-san?" Bou-san asked, pulling her back from her thoughts.

"He's waiting back at the office until we call about what equipment he should bring. He'll pick up Ayako on the way here."

"And John and Masako?"

"They'll be coming tomorrow."

They came to a stop as Yasu stopped in front of the principles office, and he knocked twice.

"Come in." A stern voice called out and Yasu opened the doors and they all stepped into the office quietly, where they were met with displeased expressions from two older men.

"I have the people from Shibuya Psychic Research here." Yasu began saying and motioned towards Naru. "This is Shibuya Ka-"

The bigger man sitting at the desk narrowed his eyes. "Whatever, just do something about all this nonsense quickly, will you?! Ghosts? Such rubbish! What will the board of directors say about me spending money on this?!"

Mai's eyebrow twitched in annoyance. Weren't you the one who hired us?!

"Yasuhara, why aren't you in class right now?" The taller man standing by the principle asked sternly. He must be Matsuyama.

Yasu turned to him with a polite smile. "Third years have a short day today."

"Then what about studying for exams?"

"Not to worry. Though I'd like to keep this short as I wouldn't want this time to cut into my studying times." Yasu said and although his tone was good, something about the way he said it seemed almost sarcastic.

The principle nodded. "Yes, well Yasuhara is at the top of his class so I wouldn't worry. Matsuyama-sensei," He turned to taller man. "Please show them to the conference room we've prepared for them."

"Yes." Matsuyama nodded and led SPR and Yasuhara out of the office and down the hall quietly with his hands held behind his back. He eventually turned to look at Naru with a skeptical look. "So you're the manager? How old are you?"

"Seventeen." Naru answered blankly, unaffected by his rude tone.

Matsuyama narrowed his eyes. "And high school?"

"I'll leave it to your imagination."

"Hah?" Matsuyama's mouth turned downwards as Naru's blunt reply and his eyes flashed to Mai who walked behind the boy. "And why aren't you in-"

Mai sent him a bright smile. "I flunked out." Naru turned to glare at her over his shoulder and Bou-san hid his smile in his shoulder.

"Hm, sounds about right." Matsuyama nodded with a smirk. "Young kids these days get carried away by such ridiculous things as the occult. Now we've got you phony swindlers prowling around our school." He spat out his words as he stopped in front of a conference room door and opened it, heading inside in a grumpy manner.

They took a moment to look around before Bou-san turned to their boss. "Now that we've got a base, where should we start?"

Naru watched as Matsuyama took a seat before turning to the monk. "We'll start with interviewing the students who have had experiences."

"We'll hurry it up. I'm busy." Matsuyama grumbled.

"Actually, you're not needed here." Naru told him calmly.

"It's my job to-!"

Mai turned away from their conversation and walked towards the window to look outside the courtyard. Rokuryo High was so big that it had two buildings. SPR's base was located in the first building and from the window of the conference room she saw the courtyard where a few students were currently hanging out and the second building across from the first, connected by walkways and second floor bridges.

She watched as a group of girls walked out from the school and she saw that their skirts weren't all the way past their knees and their hair was placed in low ponytails or cut short into bobs. Very plain compared to Mai's school. It wasn't something she thought of until now, but Mai's high school was pretty lenient and she was glad for it.

"-see if I care! If anything happens it's on the principle!" Mai heard Matsuyama yelling as he left, slamming the door shut behind him.

Mai moved forward, meeting Naru's eyes as she walked past. "Are you picking on the adults again?"

"They make it too easy." He replied back without a change in his expression.

"I was wondering when you were going to send him on his way, Naru-chan. You had a lot of patience to wait that long." Bou-san grinned in amusement.

Yasuhara watched them interreact curiously. It was strange to see Mai interreacting with her boss in a playful manner. She was always so standoffish when she was with him. "Matsuyama-sensei is a bit uptight."

"A bit?" Mai asked him incredulously. "He's incredibly uptight!"

"Yes, well I can't help but find you telling him you're flunking out of high school amusing considering I know that's not true." Yasu told her with a laugh. "Michiru-chan told me about your grades."

Bou-san watched Mai and Yasu talk. "Do you two know each other?"

"Yes, we're dating." Yasu said seriously and put his arm around Mai.

Bou-san coughed as he choked on his spit and he banged his hand against his chest, "D-dating?! Mai I didn't know you had a boyfriend!"

"I don't." Mai shoved Yasu's arm off from her shoulders and gave him a blank stare. "Don't joke around like that."

Joke? Bou-san thought to himself with a confused look. "You must have a very dry humor, Yasuhara."

"Yasu finds humor in making other people feel like idiots." Mai gave the older boy a deadpan look before turning back to Bou-san. "So just ignore him, I do."

"Yasuhara-san." Naru closed his black book sharply and Mai rolled her eyes. She was wondering when he would cut in and get them back on track to working. "I have a list here of all the incidents so far and I would like you to gather all the students for interviews."

Yasu nodded. "Of course-"

A blood curdling scream broke into their conversation and the four of them flinched.

The dog! Mai run towards the door and slid it open, running into the hall where she found a girl on the floor shaking looking into a classroom.

"What is it?" Bou-san asked as he moved towards the girl quickly, the others following right after him. "Are you alright?" Bou-san asked the younger girl with concern and the student looked up at him with a horrified expression.

"There's a dog!" She cried out and pointed towards the classroom.

Naru, Bou-san, and Mai turned look where she was pointing and they found themselves staring at a black dog in the middle of the classroom surrounded by desks and chairs that had been tipped over and strewn about. The dog itself was larger than a normal dog and its fur was shiny and black, its eyes had no irises and was just white. But the shocking thing about the dog was the aura that surrounded its figure.

It was purple and hazy, and it made the atmosphere in the room feel suffocating.

Its blank eyes turned to look at the SPR team and it began growling, drool dripping from its mouth as it took a few steps closer. Then it ran forward at them quickly and Bou-san and Naru flinched back since they were closest, however the dog jumped over their heads and the dog disappeared into the wall above Mai and the fallen girl who still lay on the ground terrified.

"It vanished!" Yasu exclaimed in shock.

Mai looked from the place where the dog disappeared into and then back down to the girl. "Naru, this girl is injured."

Naru turned to look at the student and found that she was bleeding from a bite mark on her calf. "Take her to the nurses office."

"I can." Yasuhara jumped forward and helped the girl stand before letting her get onto his back.

Mai began to stand when she jolted as a familiar sense of danger overcame her.

"Mai?" Naru turned to look at her with a frown.

The brown haired girl shuddered and looked down hall to where the students were all talking in fear while Matsuyama tried to get them under control. There, at the back of the students a tall figure turned away just then, disappearing around the corner. Without thinking she moved forward to follow it when another student intercepted her.

"Mai-chan!"

A brown haired boy stood in front of her and Mai blinked. Oh right, he went to Rokuryo as well. "Sota-kun, h-how are you?" She asked quickly still getting over her shock.

Sota, Michiru's current boyfriend, smiled at the other girl. "Well... as good as can be considering what's going on around here." He said to her with an awkward laugh, scratching the back of his head. He opened his mouth to speak once more when he noticed a black haired male over her shoulder who was looking at him with a displeased expression.

Naru turned to walk down the hall back to base. "Mai."

"R-right, back to work!" Mai called back when she sensed her bosses impatience and gave Sota an apologetic smile. "Talk later?"

Sota nodded slowly, watching as she turned and quickly hurried back to her bosses side. "Sure..."

Suddenly, he realized why Yasu was having such a hard time getting Mai to look his way. He has his work cut out for him if that black haired male was his rival.

The sun was beginning to set by the time that Yasu had managed to round up all the students who had experienced paranormal incidents at the school so far.

"I was playing back a tape that I had recorded during class..."

Mai turned from looking out at the courtyard back to the female students in front of her, Naru, Bou-san, and Yasu.

"...as I did I started hearing a strange sound that wasn't there when I was recording. It sounded like static as first, but then it got clearer and I realized that it was a child's laughter I was hearing on the tape. Then I felt a weird cold thing by my legs..." The student was saying with her hands clenched on her lap. "When I looked down there was a child underneath the desk looking up at me. I screamed and when I stood, it was gone."

Mai shivered and shared an uneasy look with Bou-san. Children were the creepiest when it came to ghosts, Mai and Bou-san both agreed.

Naru sat across from the students, resting his chin in his palm while the other hand spun a pen around his fingers. "Did anyone else see this child?"

Another girl nodded. "We've all seen him at one point or another. Anyone who has that class has heard him laughing too."

Bou-san wrote down the incident in a notebook given to him by Naru. "A child's spirit in the LL classroom..." He muttered to himself as he wrote.

"Are there any other strange experiences that you've heard about or seen yourself?" Naru asked the girls.

They students looked back and forth uneasily before one spoke up. "There's the unopening locker."

"And the anatomy model that goes to pieces when no one is locking." Another girl chimed in.

"Strange sounds from the music room."

"They say when you open the door to the incinerator room an old man's sticks his face out at you upside down!"

"Also, the beds in the nurses office! Before you know it, there will be a figure laying in the second last one to the right."

Bou-san's hand couldn't keep up with all the information. "Slow down!" He cried out desperately as he tried to write quicker.

The same girl who was speaking in the beginning looked up slowly, her face becoming solemn. "Some people say that you can see him."

"Him?" Naru repeated with a focused expression.

"I heard that too, that they passed him in the hall or something."

"Or sometimes people will see him sitting in his old desk."

Mai looked Yasu briefly and saw that his expression had darkened.

"Who are we talking about here?" Naru asked.

"There was a first year student who committed suicide in September." One of the girls clarified. "It's weird... all this stuff started happening after he committed suicide..."

"His suicide note became famous too..."

Mai clenched her hands tightly. I am not a dog.

"What did it say?" Bou-san asked with a frown, taking a break in writing having been caught up in the talk about Sakauchi's suicide.

"I am not a dog, is what it said." One student said slowly, looking down at the ground. "I think it became famous because we can all understand it. I've also thought it while at school as well."

One girl with dark hair tilted her head. "Now that I think about it, that student who committed suicide had a friend as well who always said that too."

"Right! I forgot about him..."

A friend of Sakauchi? Mai didn't remember Sakauchi ever having a friend and it was no where written in her book.

Naru tapped his finger on the table slowly, just thinking. "You can leave now, we have all the information needed."

Mai jumped forward with an awkward smile, cursing Naru's impolite way of speaking. "Thank you girls for giving us the time. Have a safe walk back home." She sent them off carefully and they left the conference room with a bow.

"Yasuhara-san, can you see if the friend of that student is still here at school." Naru turned to the older male and Yasu nodded, quickly leaving the classroom leaving the three SPR members.

"I am not a dog, huh?" Bou-san placed his chin in his hand thoughtfully. "They must hate school..."

Naru nodded slowly, still not having moved from his spot sitting. Suddenly, he turned to look at Mai with a focused look. "How is your school compared to Rokuryo High School?"

Mai thought for a second, turning to look out at the courtyard once more as the setting sun shined down on the green grass. "Much poorer than Rokuryo... yet I would choose my school over this one in a heartbeat. The teachers here seem like they suffocate the students." The image of the principle and Matsuyama flashed through her mind. "The girls skirts go below the knee. No one has their ears pierced. Everyone's hair is dark and void of any accessories. Rokuryo High School keeps their students on a very tight leash."

"Hm." Naru nodded and turned away as they pondered with their thoughts.

"I am not a dog."

Mai closed her eyes.

The door slid open just then and Yasu entered quietly. "I've called the student here. He should be here shortly."

Naru nodded. "Right, can I see a file on this student who committed suicide?"

Yasu nodded and pulled out a folder from his book bag promptly without wasting anytime. "Yes, I figured you would ask." He said and placed the folder on the table in front of the black haired boy.

Naru's eyebrows went up in surprise, "Perfect." He commented in a pleased manner and then removed the papers from the folder, looking them over. "His name was Yamaguchi Kai?"

Mai froze.

"Yes. He was a first year student." Yasu nodded firmly.

Slowly, Mai peaked over Naru's shoulder to look at the student's profile. "I think I misheard, what was his name?" Mai asked as she reached forward to grab the paper. "Yamaguchi...?" Mai repeated in confusion and her head began spinning. The file of the student they were looking at was a brown haired boy with hazel eyes and a bright smile. "A-are you sure this is the right student?" She turned to Yasu.

"Yes?" Yasu nodded and his face fell slightly as he looked at the girl across from him. "Is something wrong? You don't look well..."

A knock at the door took the attention from Mai and a voice called through it, "Yasuhara-senpai?"

"Ah, yes! Come in." Yasu called out and then turned to Naru. "This is the friend of Yamaguchi Kai."

The door slid open and Mai managed to keep her feet planted firmly as a wave of dizziness overcame her.

A tall male with black hair and dark eyes stepped into the office, one hand placed in his pants pocket and the other closing the door behind him. He bowed in a lazy manner, never once taking his focused eyes off of Naru's figure.

"Sakauchi?" His name slipped from Mai's lips and the male turned to look at her.

Sakauchi looked at her straight on and then tilted his head, smiling smugly. "You called for me?"

Yasuhara stepped forward towards the first year, casting Mai a concerned glance at her shaken state. "Yes, Shibuya-san has a few questions for you."

Bou-san scratched his head. "Mai? You knew Sakauchi-san as well?"

Ah. Mai paused and she hoped she didn't look as shocked as she felt. "N-no... his name tag." She said slowly and Bou-san looked at student and saw that he was wearing a name tag. "I was just surprised, Sakauchi isn't a very common family name." She tried to laugh it off and hooked her hands behind her back in an attempt to hide her shaking fingers.

Naru motioned to the seat across from him. "Have a seat Sakauchi-san."

"Sure." Sakauchi smiled and moved forward, brushing past Mai as he went to sit. She remained rooted in her place and felt a strange chill as he walked by her.

She wasn't sure how to feel.

One of Mai's biggest regrets was not helping Sakauchi move on in the dream. After he had been devoured by the foxfire she had thought about it for weeks and even the thought of him evoked strong feelings in her. Feelings so strong that she was going to make an exception and planned on trying to help him move on before he was devoured, even though she had intended not to change the events of the cases.

But Sakauchi was alive.

What had changed? What will this change?

Mai slowly turned around and made her way to stand behind Naru, trying to make herself scarce as she looked at his face. The questions weighing mostly on her conscious now despite the shocking revelation that Sakauchi was alive was... who exactly was Yamaguchi Kai?

DA DUN.

Sakauchi's alive in this one, how are y'all feeling about that? Also, I know it's only August but Halloween is coming up and I'm so excited! I love writing and rewatching Ghost Hunt around this time of year so hopefully that'll inspire more updates. I've decided that i was be adding original cases after all the anime cases have been solved.