To compensate for being horribly absent for so long, I have returned with an extra long chapter!

… still mad? Yeah? Sorry.

Anyways, enjoy!

I don't own Ghost Hunt and all that.

"Don't be shy. Start from the beginning, and tell us everything you remember."

The security guard shifted uncomfortably in the wooden chair, his nervous expression making him look a lot younger than he actually was. Monk and I waited patiently for him to start. I gripped my pen tightly, anticipating a longer story than the last one.

"I've heard a lot of things during my shift." He admitted slowly. "I started working the night shift around two months ago. It was a quiet shift at first. Uneventful. Sometimes the occasional teenager tried to sneak in, but you shine a light in their eyes and they scatter like rabbits." He grimaced. "Around a month ago, I started hearing whispers in the halls. I couldn't make out any words, but the voices sounded young, so I figured it was those teenagers. The thing is, no matter where I looked, I couldn't find anyone who shouldn't be there. Those whispers, though, they kept happening, and every night they got louder. About a week ago, it got loud enough that I could make out the words. It didn't make sense, though."

"What exactly was being said?" Monk pressed.

The guard twiddled with his thumbs, keeping his eyes fixed on a crack in the desk between us. "Sounded like some girls giggling, and a kid said "keep going", and some other kid- probably a boy- asking "Where are you?", but he didn't sound like he was seriously looking for something, it was more like… taunting, I guess."

"Is there anything else you can think of?" I asked.

The guard looked up and met my eyes, and I was immediately taken aback. His eyes were full of fear, but there was something else I couldn't quite place, something that made my skin crawl. He said "Well, I can tell you, those dolls, they move around sometimes at night. It isn't unusual or anything. I hear Edward and those porcelains have been strolling around since we got them. They got that glass case around Edward to stop it, you know? Cause he was breaking stuff at night. The thing is, it isn't just them that's moving anymore. Their shadows move around too, and they don't move with the doll. I swear I've seen Edward's shadow in my office a couple times."

I scribbled furiously as he spoke, trying to distract myself from the creepy by focusing on taking notes. Still, I couldn't help but imagine seeing the shadow of that freaky doll in my room while I slept.

A cold shiver ran through my body. I really hate having an active imagination. There's no way I'd get that image out of my head anytime soon.

Monk stood up and shot a smile at the guard. "Thanks, you've been a big help." He said. The guard followed his lead and stood up, nodding politely as Monk held open the door for him. The guard scurried out of the room without so much as glancing back.

I sighed and leaned back, flipping through my notepad. That guard had been the eleventh person we'd talked to so far that day. He'd given a lot more detail than the others had, but the gist of it was the same: voices, shadows, and creepy dolls. Other than that, there's been a random series of scratches on the walls and the occasional story of someone being touched—the woman who'd almost got hurt in the freezer, for instance, hadn't actually been pushed but had been lightly touched, which startled her so bad that she tripped and fell.

Monk closed the door and came back to the table, his arms crossed. "It's sounding more and more like those dolls are the problem here." He said. "What's the deal with those things?"

"We can ask John and Masako about it later." I answered. "I bet you Kara knows something about them, too."

"Kara didn't want to come with you for the interviews?" Monk asked, sitting down in his chair.

I shook my head. "She wanted to help Ayako." I said. I started gathering the papers on the desk into a neat pile. "Yasu should be there by now. That guard was the last guy that was supposed to come talk to us. You wanna head over?"

"Sure."

I picked the stack of notes off the desk and Monk and I headed out of the room. We'd monopolized the staff break room to do the interviews, and we'd had a steady influx of people for the past couple hours. Mr. Yukito had gone so far as to assign each person a time slot to come see us, although he himself wasn't around, which was a shame since I had a few questions for him. I didn't mind waiting for him to come back, but Naru would hate it.

Too bad, I thought. The guy had to be at his son's school today. Naru would have to be patient—after all, it won't be that long before Naru's making trips to schools for Kara's sake.

An image of Naru standing in the office of an elementary school popped into my head, and I choked on a laugh.

"You okay?" Monk paused, raising an eyebrow at me.

I nodded and gestured for him to keep going, not trusting myself to talk. I hid my grin behind my notes, hoping that Monk wouldn't press it. Thankfully, he didn't.

Back at the security office, Ayako and Kara were sprawled around a table overflowing with newspapers and articles. Ayako had taken to the floor and was glaring at the table like it was a difficult puzzle she couldn't solve. Kara was lying upside-down on the couch and was reading an old newspaper. Lin was at the monitors at the other end of the room, and sitting a few screens away from him with a laptop of his own was Yasu.

Everyone (except Lin) looked up when Monk and I walked in. Kara casually flipped backwards off the couch and bounced over to me, showing off the newspaper. "Look! Did you know there's this ice festival in town every winter? They make sculptures!"

Monk laughed. I tried not to, but I couldn't help grinning. "That's cool, Kara," I said, "But I don't think that's the sort of thing you're looking for, is it?"

Kara blushed a little. I rustled her hair affectionately, then turned to Yasu. "Hey Yasu!"

"Hey Mai, Monk." He grinned at us. "Long time, no see. What have you been up to?"

"Same old stuff," I shrugged. "Ghosts, tea, nearly dying and all. How's school?"

Monk elbowed me in the side. "Same old stuff?" He scoffed. "You're taking care of a kid."

I almost flew into a panic, until I realised that he wasn't implying a long-term thing. I felt my face flush from my suddenly pounding heart. "R-right," I stuttered. "Kara, did you introduce yourself to Yasu?"

Kara nodded proudly. "Yasu says I should call him big bro."

Okay, I know Yasu had no idea that Kara was my adopted daughter, and it was just like him to say something like that to Kara, but the implication was horrifying. "Yasu!" I scolded, body heat rising alarmingly fast.

Yasu waved his hand, as though it was no big deal. "So what's going on with this place?" He asked. "I heard you two were doing interviews."

Monk and I shared a look. "A lot of people are complaining about those dolls." Monk answered.

"They say Edward and the porcelain dolls move around during the night." I added.

Ayako called out indignantly "What, so the dolls are the issue? You mean I've been fighting with these papers for nothing?!"

"That's not all!" I protested, not wanting to annoy Ayako. "There's also been whispers, and scratches on the walls, and some people have even been touched. It might not be related."

Monk crossed his arms. "I doubt it," He argued. I glared at him, but he was oblivious. "I'm willing to bet they'd solve all their problems if they got rid of those dolls."

"I wouldn't be too sure," Yasu shot back. He went back to his seat and grabbed his laptop, then went over to the couch and opened it up. We all gathered around him. He pulled up an article captioned 'Teens Still Missing After Friday Disappearance'.

"Four teens went missing on the property around fifteen years ago," He explained. "No evidence of foul play, but two of them were never found. The kids in the area liked to use this building for tests of courage at the time."

"They're not the only ones." Ayako continued smugly, glaring discreetly at Monk. "About fourteen years before that, the last owner of the house died on the property."

"Peacefully," Kara added. "One of the papers I read said he had a son that got sick and died when he was little."

Yasu finished "As far as we can tell, those are the only potential deaths related to the location."

Monk thought about that for a few moments. "That's disturbing." He admitted.

Kara jumped back onto the couch, sending a few papers flying. "They have a bunch of problems here." She declared cheerfully.

Just then, Masako and John entered the room, the former looking pale and clammy, gripping her arms tightly. Everyone rushed to the entrance, crowding around the pair.

"Masako, are you okay?" I asked, steering her to the couch so she could sit down. Kara moved over, tossing papers onto the table to give her room.

Masako nodded. "I'm sorry, it is a little overwhelming." She said. I rushed over to the corner of the room where a small kitchenette was functioning as my tea station and set the water to boil. I figured she could use a cup right now.

John pulled up a chair and sat down across from Masako, smiling at her gently, encouraging her to explain. Everyone else watched Masako in anticipation as she slowly caught her breath.

"There are many spirits here," Masako declared. "Most seem to be attached to one of the attractions. The wooden figures in the hanging room and the porcelain dolls appear to be possessed. The Edward doll… I'm not sure. I can sense some sort of spirit attached to it, but it is unlike anything I've ever felt before."

"Is it demonic?" Monk asked.

Masako shook her head slowly. "I don't think so. I've sensed demonic entities before. This… is different. I believe there is also an additional presence on the property that is not attached to the attractions, but I can't get a clear image. It feels as though something is oppressing my senses."

My eyes widened. I realised that, though my instincts were going wild, I'd been here for almost 24 hours without having a single vision, which was really weird. I hadn't even had any creepy dreams last night. Maybe my senses were being oppressed too.

"It seems we have a significant list of potential suspects."

My heart jumped into my throat at the sound of the new voice. Dammit, Naru, could you maybe not sneak up on me for once? I whirled around and had to force myself not to take a step back. He wasn't exactly in my personal space, but he was standing pretty close.

He continued as though he'd been part of the conversation from the start. "The owner who died was Naoi Tsukami. His son, Yuki Tsukami, died when he was thirteen. Either of them might be responsible for the additional presence on the property."

"It could be one of those teenagers," Ayako pointed out.

"It's unlikely," Naru shot her down. She scowled at him. "Further investigation into their disappearance revealed that none of them actually vanished on the property. The group lost track of each other in the woods on the way back. In all likelihood, the two who were never found met with an accident in the forest."

"So they'd have no reason to be attached to the property," I clarified, more for Kara's sake than my own. "So we have possessed porcelain dolls and wooden figurines, maybe a possessed Edward doll, and a site bound spirit, either the owner or his son."

Naru gave me that patient look while I spoke, one that said 'let's all wait for the slow one to catch up'. Irritation bubbled in my chest, but I bit my tongue. I'd always suspected Naru irritated me on purpose, but after spending the last few weeks with him, I knew for sure that annoying me was Naru's personal form of entertainment. I couldn't let him rile me up.

Naru seemed to wait a second for me to comment. When I didn't, he continued calmly. "I'm more concerned about whatever is oppressing Miss Hara's senses." He looked me in the eye. "Mai, are you feeling this oppression?"

Surprised by his question, my irritation fizzled. "Not exactly," I admitted. "But I haven't had any visions or dreams yet."

"Unusual for you, particularly in a location as crowded as this one." He noted. "First, we need to determine which of the entities are causing damage. Monk, John, and Ayako, tonight I want each of you to try and draw out the spirits. Ayako, you'll be covering the entrance and the second and third exhibits. John, I want you in the dining hall. Monk, you'll be covering the first exhibit."

"Great," Monk grumbled. "I get to hang out with the dolls." Mumbling a few things about rotten luck, Monk left the room, probably going to grab his Monk tools out of his suitcase.

The kettle whistled, and I went over to pour Masako's tea. I made up Naru's cup while I was at it, and brought both back over to the two. Masako gave me a grateful look, and Ayako offered to bring her back up to the room to rest. Masako hesitated for a second, glancing at Naru, then me, but decided to accept the offer. I was surprised. She must've been much more exhausted than she looked. John followed the two girls out of the room.

Yasu went back to his laptop, and Kara went with him. I was about to go join them when Naru stopped me.

"Have you spoken to Mr. Yukito?" He asked.

I gave him a stern look. "He left this morning to go to his son's school, remember?" I told him. "He said he'll be back tomorrow."

Annoyance flashed across his face. I smirked. I knew he would hate it. I added "Don't get all huffy. He has a responsibility to his family."

He narrowed his eyes, but he didn't say anything. That wasn't an argument he could win, and he knew it.

After taking a moment to bask in the self-gratification, I changed the subject. "Kara's going to be up past her bedtime if we're all working into the night."

"She'll fall asleep on the couch." Naru said. "You know she doesn't function past ten."

I smiled. "That's true." Kara couldn't stay awake past ten, and she fell asleep very fast. Naru had carried her to bed two days in a row before we'd figured that out. It occurred to me that he'd probably be doing the same tonight. The others were going to have heart attacks.

Naru narrowed his eyes, staring at me for a couple seconds in a way that was somehow unnerving. I tensed up and my voice caught in my throat.

Naru didn't seem to notice my discomfort. After a couple more seconds of this, he sighed and said "Please try not to do anything irrational tonight."

I might've been excited that he used the word please if it'd been a little less insulting. "I don't try to get into dangerous situations, you know!"

"I know," He answered. His lips almost twitched into a smirk. "That's why it's concerning."

I glared, hating that I couldn't argue with that. His eyes glinted triumphantly as he turned to join Lin at the monitors.

It wasn't until later that I realised that Naru had kind of just admitted to being worried about me.

The museum cleared of customers around eight, and come nine almost all the staff had cleared out as well. The only ones who stuck around were a couple of security guards. Their names were Toshio and Yoshikawa, and they'd both gracefully vacated the room to allow for our work, opting to patrol the perimeter while we were busy inside the building.

Naru, Lin, Yasu, Masako, Kara and I gathered around the wall of monitors while Monk, John and Ayako panned out to the places Naru had assigned them. The silence in the building was so intense that their footsteps echoed faintly all the way back to the base.

I kept my eyes mostly on Monk, since he was the one in the supernatural section of the museum. I watched as he carefully laid out his tools. I wasn't sure if it was intentional or random, but he'd set himself up facing Edward the Doll.

Around nine-thirty, the three spiritualists were all set. Monk called over his headset "Ready to go when you are, Naru."

Naru leaned forward on the table. "Start slow. Remember, this is merely to draw the spirits out. If you begin to see any signs of aggression, draw back."

"Got it," Monk answered. He took a deep, steadying breath, and brought his hands together. His mantra flowed like a melody, softly filling the corners of the room. I'd learned over the years that the effect of his mantra relied a lot on the force he spoke with. The softer his tone, the less powerful it was. Monk was only using enough force to nudge whatever might be lurking into action.

We all watched in tense anticipation for a few minutes while Monk seamlessly repeated his mantra. Nothing was showing on the monitors yet, but I knew that didn't mean much. A tingling feeling was crawling down my back, making my hair stand on end. Something was definitely here.

Monk paused in his mantra. "I'm hearing voices." He announced over the headset.

Lin quickly picked up the headphones for the audio feed and dialed the volume up. His dark eyes flicked over to Naru and he gave a slight nod.

"Can you pinpoint the location of the voices without changing your position?" Naru asked quickly.

"Hold on," Monk muttered back quietly. A few more moments of silence followed before Monk's voice came back through. "They're coming from different areas. A few are definitely from that hanging room. The other ones sound like they're moving around. They aren't coming from this area."

Lin fiddled some more with the audio feed. "It sounds like something might be in the dining area." He said.

Naru quickly switched over to John's headset. "John, we're hearing voices in your general vicinity."

John's voice echoed back after a second. "I'm not hearing anything, but I'm seeing shadows. I can't quite make them out. They keep moving around in my peripheral."

As John was talking, Kara tugged at my sleeve and pointed to the dining hall monitor. I gasped quietly. I could see exactly what John was describing. A few indistinct shadows darted around the area, moving too fast to count or even to get a decent sense of their shape.

"Push them out of the dining hall." Naru ordered. "Lead them back to the exhibits."

John immediately pulled out his holy water and whispered a prayer. He sprayed the water in a circle around him. The shadows lingered for a second then faded into the darkness, leaving John in stillness once more.

Masako stared intently at the screen. A small frown had crept up on her. "I believe there are three wandering spirits," She started. "But I cannot sense anything else beyond that."

Naru gave her a small nod of acknowledgement and turned back to watch Monk. "Monk, can you hear what any of the voices are saying?"

"No," Monk answered firmly. "The voices are too muddled. There is something that sounds like laughter."

I heard it.

For a second, I thought my imagination was just reacting to Monk's words, but then it came again. A soft, muffled giggle. Teasing and playful. I felt like the temperature dropped ten degrees. A weight settled in my stomach and goosebumps spread across my skin.

Something is watching me.

No sooner had the thought entered my brain that I whipped my head around, looking for an onlooker. I caught him peeking through the window. His eyes met mine for a second, flashing a brilliant red. His face split into a grin.

"Naru,"

My voice was quiet and shaking, but he heard me anyways. Naru froze immediately and turned to look at me. "What is it?" He asked urgently.

I blinked. The boy had already vanished. "There was a boy," I told him, pointing weakly at the window. "He was watching us. His eyes…"

"They were red." Masako finished for me. I glanced at her and realised she'd been looking at him too. "That spirit… how strange."

"What do you mean?" Naru asked her sharply, although he was looking at me.

"Perhaps it is because my senses are being blocked," Masako started. "But I did not sense any negativity from that spirit."

I added. "He kind of just felt… playful."

Naru turned back to the monitors. He watched quietly for a few moments. The shadows hadn't come back, and from the way Lin and Monk were behaving it didn't look like the voices had gotten louder or quieter. Naru closed his eyes for a second and said to Monk. "Stand down, Monk. We have enough data to work with."

Naru switched over to John and Ayako's headsets and repeated the message. The three spiritualists quickly wrapped things up and started to make their way back to base. Ayako grumbled about being the only one not to experience anything, but she wasn't fooling anyone.

Once everyone had gathered back at base, I turned to look for Kara, figuring it was time to get her to bed. I scanned the room and found her curled up in a ball on the couch, fast asleep. I glanced at the clock. Sure enough, it was after ten. No wonder she was out.

Ayako noticed her as soon as she walked in. She stopped and blinked for a few seconds. "After all that, how is she asleep?"

I grinned. "Kara can't stay awake after ten." I answered. "She's tried to before. Never works."

Naru glanced over from the monitors. I eyed him out of the corner of my eye, wondering what he would do. It'd been his idea not to tell the others about Kara in the first place, but I wasn't sure Naru trusted anyone else enough to carry her. Heck, it made him nervous when I carried her. He's a little overprotective.

His inner dad won out. "I'll take her upstairs." He said. Lin and I smirked as Naru went over and scooped the little girl into his arms. The others stared with wide eyes and mouths dropped open as he left the room with Kara.

"Did Naru just volunteer to carry a little girl to bed?" Monk asked incredulously.

"No," Ayako denied. "There's no way. I'm sure we imagined it."

"You saw that too?"

I hid my smile behind my hand as Ayako and Monk argued back and forth about whether or not what they saw had really just happened.

I remembered Ayako's comment about how Naru wouldn't know how to take care of a little girl. Their reaction now didn't surprise me, but it was also a little disappointing. I couldn't help but feel like they were misunderstanding him. Of course, they haven't come to know him in quite the same way that I have.

During my first month working at SPR, Naru learned that I was scared of thunderstorms. A huge storm rolled in one afternoon while I was at work. My hands were shaking when I handed him his tea. He didn't say a word, but a couple minutes later he came out of the office and worked silently in the main area for the rest of the day with me. He didn't send me home until the storm passed, even though I'd barely done any work that day.

During the Kazai case, I accidently dragged Naru down into the sewers with me. He cheered me up by doing a little act with his pet coin. That was the first time I'd looked into his eyes and seen genuine laughter, even though his face wasn't smiling.

I got hurt so often on cases, it was only a matter of time before Naru took my first aid into his own hands, much to my embarrassment. I learned that even though his words were harsh, his hands were always gentle.

I couldn't count the number of times Naru put himself in danger for my sake. Sometimes he'd get just as beaten up as me trying to protect me. He'd scold me for getting into trouble and mock my intelligence, but he never complained about getting hurt because of me.

And of course, when Kara essentially adopted Naru, he didn't push her away. He acknowledged her. He's firm with her, but never impatient, never mean. He doesn't mock her. He doesn't hurt her. He turned himself into the exact father figure she needed, because, against all odds, he'd come to care for her just as much as I have, as his own.

The Naru I've come to know is awkward. He doesn't know how to show kindness, and he finds it easier not to. But even so, he's kind and gentle, smart and considerate, caring and loyal. The Naru I know is infuriating and full of himself, but is still a genuinely good person. I put up with him because I know that. I love him because I know that.

Sometimes, though, it'd be kind of nice if the others knew that too.