Yo! Thank you to all readers so far!

Lin returned to the Base a few minutes later with a camera, recorder, MEL meter, and a REM pod. He put these down on the table by the couch where Naru and Mai were seated, and began setting them up so they could be used.

He placed the small recorder in the centre of the table, the MEL meter on its stand to the left of the recorder, and the REM pod on the right of the recorder. The camera was then placed where it would be able to capture all three devices in frame.

Finished, he turned to Naru. "Everything is ready, Noll. You will need to turn them all on when you begin."

Naru nodded and glanced over at the monitors, where he could see the others in the middle of their own work. "Make sure none of them enter the Base until we've finished. I want only Mai and myself in here during the session."

"Are you absolutely sure about this, Noll?"

"I am."

"Very well." With that, Lin left the room, shut the door, and then took position right across the hall, waiting.

Alone now, Mai cocked her head. "Naru, what're we doing? What's an EVP? What's a…REM pod?"

Naru glanced over at her. "You know what EMFs are, but not EVPs? I thought you had studied?"

"I did!" Mai defended. "But it was a while ago!"

"Well, do you remember anything you read about them?"

Mai sat there thinking. "EVP stands for…electronic voice phenomenon, right?"

Naru nodded. "Good. Now what exactly is an electronic voice phenomenon?"

"Umm…voices?"

"Yes. Go on."

Mai leaned back, biting her lip, deep in thought. "Voices…you may not hear with your own ears at the time. I think."

Naru gave her a small smile, which showed that he was pleased. "That's exactly it. Extremely vague, but it." The girl punched him when he smirked. "What? That's a praise, Mai. The simpler, the better. You made it easy enough for anyone to understand. Ow!"

"Hmph."

"Yes, well, EVPs are voices or noises we may capture on the recorder, voices or noises that we may not hear ourselves," said Naru. "Do you know why we can't hear them? No? It's because spirits speak on a higher frequency. A frequency that humans can't hear, though, there are counts of certain animals being able to do so."

"Riiiight! I remember now!" exclaimed Mai. She paused. "Then what's a REM pod? I'm sure I've never heard of that."

"That doesn't surprise me," said Naru plainly. "They're fairly new devices and not many people use them yet. Do you see that antenna sticking out of the base? Around that antenna is a sort of…bubble, I guess you can say."

"A bubble?" Mai repeated in confusion.

"An EMF bubble," said Naru. "If something comes within that bubble, it disrupts the field and the pod alarms. Watch."

Naru turned the pod on. "See? It's completely silent." He then brought his hand close to the antenna, as if he were about to grab it. The pod immediately began to light up and emit an alarm type sound. "This is exactly what will happen if a spirit attempts to get close to or touch it. Understand?"

"Yeah. That's kinda cool." Mai turned her attention to the meter. "Then what's that?" she asked. "I mean, it looks a lot like an EMF meter, but…"

"Good eye," said Naru, faintly impressed. He hadn't expected her to notice that. "A MEL meter is rather similar to an EMF meter, except this one measures temperatures as well as EMF. As you should know, spirits can cause temperature fluctuations as well as interfere with EMF. A MEL meter is capable of documenting both at the same time."

"Oh, I see," said Mai, staring down at the device curiously.

"So what we're going to do," said Naru, "is I'm going to turn all of these on, and then we'll ask a series of questions and listen back to see if we managed to capture anything on the recorder. While we're conducting the EVP session, we'll have to keep an eye on the MEL meter and the REM pod. Once everything's done, Lin will go over the camera's footage and we'll work from there."

"Got it," said Mai. She stared at him.

"What?" snapped Naru impatiently.

Mai smiled teasingly. "You've never explained things so willingly and…happily before," she said. "It makes it obvious that you really like what you do. It's cute."

Naru scowled. "Mai," he said warningly.

"What?" said Mai with a wide smile. "Do you want me to say that you're not cute? Cause I'd be lying if I did. Watashi no Naru-chan wa kawaii desu!" And she leaned in and ruffled his soft black hair.

Naru made a noise that sounded almost like a growl, before he grabbed her by the wrists and pinned her down to the couch. His lips crashed onto hers in a desperate, heated kiss. Mai was slightly shocked by not only the abruptness, but also the intensity. Still, she reacted almost immediately, parting her lips and allowing the kiss to deepen.

Too caught up in the kiss, Naru didn't even notice that one of his hands was wandering, slipping under Mai's shirt and running up the soft skin of her belly.

"Mmmngh!" Mai broke the kiss and gasped when she felt Naru's hand cup one of her breasts. "Naru!"

Naru didn't stop. He captured Mai's lips again and pressed her further into the couch. Mai moaned into the kiss, gripping Naru's shoulders tightly, and just as Mai-

The REM pod's alarm went off, causing both of them to freeze at the sudden sound.

"I-I think you forgot to turn that off," said Mai breathlessly.

Naru scowled. "Apparently so." He pulled himself away from Mai and reached for it, only to pause.

Eugene Davis stood nearby, a smug smile on his face. There wasn't much colour to him, he was more like a shadow, yet there was a brightness surrounding him.

"I hate to break off what is clearly a happy time for the two of you, but I thought I'd remind you that you're supposed to be conducting an EVP session at the moment," said Gene with a grin. "I'm quite sure you'll have time to ravish one another later. Lin may get suspicious, you know. Don't think either of you want him walking in on you sucking face."

His grin faded into a more serious expression. "I also felt it would be wise to inform you that right now is the best moment to do this EVP session. It seems that Jack is in a rather decent mood, due to his earlier...feast," he said with a grimace. "All that remains is for you to pose the right questions."

And on that enigmatic note, Gene was gone, disappearing as suddenly as he had appeared.

That's it for now. I guess this chapter was originally written when Resi 6 was coming out, because I mentioned the logo looked like a lady sucking off a giraffe. Anyway, looking forward to reviews! Laterz!