*I'm in shock guys; over 100 followers! Thank you all, I am beyond grateful for your continued support of my story. I've been a fan of Ghost Hunt ever since I watched it for the first time when I was 18 (I'm almost 30, that's a long time). I used to write here on FanFiction back when I was in college but thankfully my writing style has changed as I grew older and I am so happy I decided to take the chance and start writing again. I haven't written anything since I was 20 and I am extremely self-conscious about it. In all honesty I have never shown any of my writing to my family, even my husband, so this was a big thing for me. Ghost Hunt Fanfiction has always been my go-to and absolute favorite. I love how creative and supportive everyone has always been in this community. Thank you all. *

Chapter Nine

Mai watched as the van rode out of sight and adjusted the bag on her shoulder. She couldn't help the proud grin that spread across her face. It was only her third day on the job and she could tell she finally found the right path after all these years. She felt more content and determined than ever to do well and impress her coworkers.

She began her trek up the large stairway of her flat complex, always preferring stairs to the lift. The complex wasn't very large and there were only three floors to the building. Mr. Hick's lived on the ground floor, three families lived on the first storey, and she and two other tenants lived on the second storey.

Eventually she made it to her flat and she made her way inside. Normally she was comforted by the sight of her small living space but today it felt too empty. She sighed softly and set her bag on the ground.

"Tadaima," she whispered into the quiet. ("I'm home.")

She was greeted by silence and an overwhelming urge for company washed over her. Her past jobs had always been somewhat solitary. To name a few, when she was a maid, desk attendant, and custodian, she was more often than not always by herself. Being alone never typically bothered her. At least that was until she began working at BSPR. With this new job she was always around others, talking to them, and making those connections she yearned for.

In just three days she already felt as if she was part of a family again. Something she hadn't had in a very long time.

The silence of her flat bared down on her until she turned around and made her way to the ground floor. She stood outside of Mr. Hick's flat and knocked hesitantly. She heard some shuffling coming from the other side and eventually the door opened to reveal the elderly man.

"Mai, love, what brings you here today?" he beamed. The corners of his eyes creased as he smiled wholeheartedly at her.

"Hello Mr. Hicks. I just came home from work and wanted to check in," she replied.

The man opened the door even more and beckoned her in with his small wrinkled hands. "Come in, come in! I just put a kettle on."

She smiled gratefully and walked into the man's home. The smell that greeted her made her nostalgic in an odd sense. She didn't know how to explain it but it was the smell she always imagined her own grandparents would have had if she had ever known them.

The man waved a hand towards the couch. "Have a seat on the settee, dear. I'll go fix you a cuppa."

"Thank you very much."

His voice rang out from his small kitchen. "How is the new job going, dear? I hope that new boss of yours is treating you fairly. If he doesn't just let me know and I'll break out the old boxing gloves; he won't know what hit him."

"That's very sweet of you, Mr. Hicks," she laughed. "My boss is actually very good to me. Sure he may be a little stubborn and full of himself at times, but he has always been a gentleman."

"As he should be," the man nodded and came up to Mai holding a cup of tea out for her.

She smiled in appreciation and took the cup. "How have you been?"

"I can't complain. My daughter comes to visit me most days and calls me the other times she can't make it in person. It's nearing the anniversary of my dear Elsie's passing this week so it can be a bit lonely around here." As he spoke he absentmindedly twirled the well worn golden band on his ring finger. He spoke distantly as he looked at a photo of his wife hanging on the wall. "It's been a long three years."

"I'm sorry I never got to meet her. I bet she was a wonderful woman," Mai said, reaching out to squeeze his hand comfortingly.

"Oh, the loveliest in all the world! I made sure to tell her I lucked out every day. Won the lottery with her, I did," he smiled proudly. "I still feel her around me sometimes. Around this time every year there is a little robin that comes and lives on my windowsill. They were her favorite bird, robins. She believed they were what brought the warmth and life of spring every year. I can feel her in that little bird every spring. It's like when it comes around it's a little message from her that she is okay and to keep going."

Mai felt her eyes water slightly. Her heart ached at his words but in a way it also made her hopeful. This man had such a wonderful love, one that surpassed time and even death. "I hope to have a love as strong as yours one day."

The man looked over at her and nodded. "Oh you will, love, trust me. Any man would be a damn fool not to sweep you off your feet. You're a gem if I ever saw one."

Bashfully, Mai rolled her eyes and waved off the man's words. "I dunno, I come with a bit of baggage that some men find quite...daunting and difficult to handle."

"Poppycock. Damn fools, the lot of them! You'll find someone one day that will carry that baggage as if it were his own," he objected.

Mai laughed and finished her tea. Standing up she turned to the elderly man with a warm smile. "Thank you very much for the tea, Mr. Hicks. As always your company has brightened my day."

Mr. Hicks stood slowly and picked up the tea cups. "Likewise, my dear Mai. You're always welcome. Next time I'll make some of Elsie's favorite scones, they're delectable!" He smacked his lips together for emphasis.

Mai laughed and made her way to the door. When she turned to wave goodbye to the man she froze when she saw an elderly woman standing behind the man.

The woman had short curly grey hair, a round heart-shaped face and petite lips stretched into a grateful smile as she stared back at Mai. It didn't take long before Mai recognized the woman from the plethora of photographs around the room. Mrs. Hicks looked from her husband back to Mai and she could see her mouth moving.

Thank you.

Mai nodded dumbly to the woman, still in shock, and smiled once more to her elderly neighbor as he made his way into his kitchen. She pulled the door closed behind her and the smile stayed plastered to her face as she made her way back to her flat. Some love never faded.

She opened up her door once again and closed it before leaning against it with a small sigh. A quiet buzz from her mobile drew her attention, alerting her of a new message. She walked over to her bag and dug out her phone. Tapping the screen, her breath caught slightly.

The screen read "1 New Message: Oliver Davis."

Unlocking her mobile she wondered nervously what he had to say. Did Lin explain to him what happened? Was he angry?

Her fears were quickly calmed when she gathered the courage to read the message.

Well done on your first case.

Mai stared at the screen and felt an odd sensation wash over her; almost as if a tingling fire ignited inside her chest. Suddenly a small squeak escaped her lips and she quickly covered her burning face with her hands.

"You cannot fancy your boss!" She scolded herself. "No matter how fit he is," she mumbled.

She quickly sent a response.

Thank you!

Biting her lip she shook her head to clear her mind. Not expecting a response, she set about keeping herself busy with making dinner in order to distract her train of thought.

Her phone buzzed again and she quickly looked to see what was said.

Be at the office for 8:30 tomorrow.

She gave a small chuckle. "Workaholic," she muttered while typing her response.

Okay, I will see you then. Have a good night.

Mai slowly opened her eyes, feeling somewhat disoriented. The air around her was hazy, almost as if she were in a fog. It didn't take her long to realize she was dreaming.

Hearing muffled voices coming from her right, she turned to see what appeared to be a group of people sitting around an office. She squinted her eyes, hoping to make the vision clearer and see their faces but it was to no avail.

Their muffled voices were coming in and out, as if through a failing radio.

"I say it's a tree spir-" a female voice started but faded away. She was speaking Japanese.

She knew that voice. At least she thought she did...

"-ou think, jou-chan?" a man's voice rang out.

Mai's heart started to beat as the voices resonated within her. They seemed so familiar but she couldn't remember.

She numbly stumbled her way into the center of the group and turned around to look at all of them. From what she could tell there were nine of them. The dark swirling shapes of their bodies lounged in what she assumed to be a sitting area.

"Hello?" she called out in vain as they continued their conversation.

The more she tried to strain her ears and listen to them, the harder it was to make out their words. Her breathing grew shallow and her head began to spin. Their voices morphed as if she were underwater. A suffocating weight surrounded her and she felt like she was drowning.

She tried to breathe but her lungs didn't move.

Mai gasped as she woke from her dream in a cold sweat. She bolted upright, clutching at her throat and thankful for every breath that flooded in.

What was that dream?

Why was it so familiar?

Who were they?

Millions of questions clouded her mind as she caught her breath. She reached a shaking hand up and ran it across her forehead, wiping it free of her perspiration. As her body calmed down her mind wondered and she stared into space. Shaking her head she turned on the lamp next to her bed before standing up and making her way to her handall. She hadn't had a chance to unpack yet so she knew where the object she desired was. She pulled out the journal Oliver had given her and sat on the edge of her bed. Opening it up to the next blank page, she began to write. Her penmanship was worse for wear due to the shaking of her hand but she knew she had to write it down before she forgot.

There was something important about that dream. She didn't know what it was but there was something about those people, that place, those voices...

As she wrote she felt something wet drop onto her hand and she slowly brought her fingers up to her cheek. She pulled them back and saw a sheen of tears.

The glass door to the office opened and Yasuhara looked up from his spot at his desk. A lopsided grin stretched across his face at the sight of his new coworker walking through the doors.

"Well look at you on this glorious Thursday. I heard about the case. Congratulations are in order, Miss Paranormal Investigator," he announced dramatically with a round of applause.

Mai blushed lightly in embarrassment. "Thanks, Yasu."

Yasuhara nodded. "Apparently you did so well they called her in."

She tilted her head curiously. "'Her?'"

"My wife," Lin's voice reached her ears. She turned to her left to see Lin coming out of the kitchenette holding a cup of tea. Her eyes widened, secretly excited to finally get to meet Mrs. Lin. He nodded his head in the direction of Oliver's office. "Go on, they're waiting for you."

Mai made her way into the room with her desk and placed her things down. She gently pressed her fingers under her eyes, hoping to alleviate the dark circles from her lack of sleep the night before. A woman's voice came from the other side of Oliver's closed office door. She wondered if she should go in or wait until they were finished talking.

"Oliver, what did I say about you treating my husband like a guinea pig?" an eerily sweet voice reached Mai's ears.

"This is ridiculous. I already told him I did it so he would have an unbia-" the man began before getting interrupted.

"I didn't ask for an explanation. I asked you what I said about treating my husband like a guinea pig. Seriously, Oliver, someone with your superior memory should remember such a simple conversation, shouldn't they?" Mai could almost hear the strained smile the woman must have been wearing.

After a slight pause she could hear Oliver sigh, making her think of a guilty child being chastised by a parent. "I remember."

"Oh! So you do remember me telling you I would sign you up for another year of teaching?" She said sarcastically. "Huh, that's funny. You know, I guess I didn't realize how fond you are of teaching. Let me just go call up the dean then, shall I?"

Mai felt sorry for the man and chose that moment to open the door to his office with a soft knock. "Excuse me. Lin told me to come in," she said softly. "Am I interrupting?"

The woman sitting across from Oliver turned to Mai with a large smile, her mood completely changed. She had shoulder length maroon hair with fringe, large brown eyes, and a very large protruding stomach. The woman took a moment to push herself out of her chair but once she got to her feet she held out her arms.

"You must be Taniyama-san!" she said happily and pulled her into a hug before standing back and looking at her. "Aren't you just the cutest thing! Oh, I'm so happy to have another girl around the office."

Oliver stood and ran a hand through his hair. "Mai, meet Madoka Lin."

Mai giggled and bowed slightly to the woman in front of her. "It's a pleasure to meet you Mrs. Lin. Thank you for using Japanese honorifics, but you are more than welcome to call me Mai."

Madoka shot Oliver a look of excitement. "Look how adorable she is! And so polite! I'll call you Mai but you're going to have to call me Madoka."

Mai laughed and nodded. "Okay!"

"Mai, please sit," Oliver instructed. Madoka shimmied over into the next chair to give Mai a place to sit. "I had you come in early this morning to discuss your first case. Did you have any dreams?" He knew she did but he wanted to hear them from her.

Mai pulled at the hem of her dress, slightly uncomfortable with the attention she was getting from her boss and Madoka. "Yes. I wrote it all down in my journal, too. Actually I have it with me."

Oliver reached out and took the book from her hands, gently opening it and reading its contents. His eyes narrowed slightly as he read one section but closed the book soon after. "Well done. Be sure to write everything in as much detail as possible; from what they are doing to the way they look."

"I will. Lin told me how important even the littlest detail can be." Mai said.

Oliver nodded curtly, and Mai could see there was something churning in that head of his.

"So Mai," Madoka chirped. "How did this sour patch kid convince you to work here?"

Mai chuckled softly. "It's by far better than the university."

Madoka raised a thin brow towards Oliver. "Recruiting people from Cambridge now, are we Noll?"

"She was the custodian," he rolled his eyes.

"Oh!" The woman nodded. "I guess this job is definitely better than that one."

"It wasn't bad, but I must admit I really appreciate this opportunity. I think I finally found something I truly enjoy doing," she smiled to herself and pulled at the sleeve of her denim jacket.

Madoka smiled in return. "Good. I hope this one over here doesn't chase you off."

Oliver huffed and Mai laughed. "I think I can handle myself. He has been very good to me so far."

Mai thought she saw a shimmer of surprise and curiosity in the woman's eyes. "Has he now?" Madoka whispered.

"Moving on," Oliver began, ready to change the topic of conversation. "Madoka I called you in early because you and Lin will be in charge of helping Mai hone her abilities."

The woman clapped her hands happily and looked over to Mai. "This will be great fun! Too bad the baby is coming so soon, I'll only be able to help you for a short while before my husband will have to take over in your training. You've got a lot to learn."

Mai beamed. "You'll help me with my dreams?"

Madoka nodded, "And everything else."

"Everything else?" she wondered, tilting her head in confusion.

Madoka turned to the man sitting across the desk. "You haven't told her yet?"

He rolled his eyes yet again, "She just got here, when was I supposed to have told her?"

"Tell me what?" Mai asked, she had no idea what they were talking about.

The maroon haired woman turned to her and smiled. "My husband says you are quite the diamond in the rough. The skills you demonstrated without any form of training is quite intriguing." She looked Mai up and down excitedly before nodding. "I can feel it. After you're done training with everyone you're going to become one of the best mediums out there."

Mai's eyes popped wide in surprise. "Medium?" she gasped.

Madoka clapped happily once again and stood to her feet as gracefully as she could with her large belly. "Oh, this will be proper good! I would start today but me and the baby have an appointment. We will start tomorrow! It's sure been a pleasure meeting you, dear!"

With that the woman reached down and gave Mai another hug before waving goodbye and closing Oliver's office door behind her as she left. Mai was still dumbfounded, and looked over to the raven haired man who was studying her. He propped his chin up on his steepled fingers and waited for her to get her thoughts straight.

"M-medium? Me?" she stuttered, pointing to her chest dumbfoundedly.

A smirk pulled at his lips. "I reviewed the footage collected from the past two days. I must admit, I wasn't expecting you to show such abilities in your first case but you keep surprising me, which I might add, isn't a very easy thing to do." A tinge of pink stained her cheeks at his words and he turned his attention back to a case file in front of him. "After reviewing the footage I found multiple instances where you were conversing with who you assumed to be Mr. O'Connor's son."

"Jacob," she added, drawing his attention. "The spirit. His name was Jacob."

He looked at her thoughtfully. "Yes, Jacob. In the footage I can see you are interacting with someone but there is no one there. From your point of view was there no sign that you were talking to a spirit?"

Mai shook her head. "When people talk about seeing spirits they usually say they are transparent or floating. Jacob seemed so real. I even held him…" she trailed off looking at her hands. "I never imagined he was the spirit."

"Do you think you have ever encountered a spirit before this incident?" he questioned.

Mai bit her lip. "Before the case? I have. Only a few, though. After my mother passed away I started seeing them. When I saw those first spirits it was your typical experience, I guess. They were translucent and were quite visibly spirits of the dead. After a month or so it stopped and I was left with only my dreams."

Oliver's eyes narrowed slightly and he scratched his chin with a distant stare.

"Care to share?" she prompted.

Blue eyes met brown and he straightened up in his seat. "I'm thinking about my previous theory that you developed your abilities after losing your parents. The evidence is making it appear that was truly the case. The fact that you saw spirits during that first month may mean that they were drawn to you and they thought you could help them. Children, teenagers especially, with abilities tend to have little to no control over their newfound powers. You most likely acted like a beacon to the spirits around you."

Mai bit her lip and nervously picked at her nails as a memory flooded her mind. The cold ghostly hand that had pulled at her. The raspy voice that begged her for help as she covered her face in fear. "That makes a lot of sense. I think you're right."

"Of course I am," he smirked, making her smile.

"I saw one last night too…" she said softly, alerting the man sitting across from her.

"When? Where?" he questioned.

"My landlord's wife passed away three years ago. I like to visit him and help him around the complex when he needs it. I went to visit him last night and she was there right beside him but he couldn't see her. But again, she was like Jacob, and seemed so real. If I saw her on the streets I wouldn't be able to tell you she was a spirit," she admitted. Seeing her boss's reaction and held out her hands and waved them frantically. "She wasn't doing anything wrong. Mr. Hicks told me the anniversary of his wife's death is in a few days and he sees little signs from her during these weeks each year. She isn't malevolent, I swear."

Oliver nodded. "I believe you."

She looked at him and smiled gratefully. "I'm glad."

He stared at her momentarily before turning to look out the window. "I'm curious as to why you have begun to see spirits again, and in such detail."

"Maybe it was the move from Japan to England?" she wondered out loud.

"That could be." Oliver pulled out her dream journal again and looked her in the eye. "I saw you had another dream last night."

She nodded slowly. "Yes but I don't think it was case-related. It's just…"

He raised a brow when she trailed off. "Continue."

"It's just that...I think I've had that dream several times before. I have woken up feeling sad with vague memories, but last night was the first time I could remember what happened so I wrote it down. I couldn't see or hear much but it all felt so…"

"Familiar." Oliver finished, lost in thought as he looked out the window.

"Exactly." she whispered and watched him curiously.

The man stood to his feet and handed her a pile of papers. "Here. File these before following up with the O'Connors. My mother should have already reached out to them as well to offer her services shall they need them."

Mai nodded and began to make her way out of the office.

"And Mai," he began.

"Tea?" she guessed with a smile, enjoying the slight hint of shock in those cerulean eyes.

"Please," he said with a small smile of his own, causing Mai's breath to catch before swiftly making her way out of his office.