Yo! Thank you to all readers so far!

Naru and Mai both cleared their throats and sat up, straightening their clothes and smoothing their hair, not looking at one another all the while. Once the blushes on both faces had died down, they returned to work mode.

If Gene had shown himself to them specifically to tell them to get on with it, then there was no doubt he was serious about it. If he said now was the best moment to do this, then the quicker they started, the better.

"So, uh, what kind of questions are we going to be asking?" said Mai, trying to remain focused.

Naru, who was attempting to do the same, said, "First, we will need to establish who is here with us. With Ryou-san and May-san…gone, we'll be communicating with Jack, Suzaku-san, or Shin-san. There are answers we need from all three of them."

Mai hesitated, wondering whether Naru was going to answer her. "Why did you suddenly decide to do an EVP session, Naru? We've never done it before."

Naru seemed to hesitate for a beat, before he said, "…I know. I haven't done one for a while now, but it just feels…right. I feel as if we have to conduct an EVP session." He didn't know why he felt this way, and the confusion on his face was making that very clear.

Mai watched him, feeling both surprised and confused herself. She had never seen Naru be so hesitant before. But she didn't have a chance to ask him about it.

"Let's begin." Reaching over, Naru turned on the recorder, MEL meter, and camera, and he adjusted the REM pod, which was already on. Then, leaning back in his seat, he caught Mai's eye and nodded once, signaling that he was going to start.

"Shin-san, Suzaku-san, Jack, are any of you here with us?" He held up a hand, signaling that Mai not speak. Thirty seconds later, he said, "We need to give them time to answer us. If we speak continuously, we may not be able to hear their voices on the recorder, if they answer us, that is."

"Oh, okay. Yeah, I think I remember reading something about that," muttered Mai. She looked around the room, thinking. The three spirits they were trying to communicate with were connected to her. Would they get better results if she tried to speak with them? She voiced her thoughts out loud.

Naru considered for a moment. "Alright, Mai, you try to communicate with them. You're right, they may not want to speak to me, but they should want to talk to you. Go on."

Mai nodded. Who should she start with? Her brother? Her uncle? Jack? She supposed it would be easiest to talk to her brother, considering he had shown himself before, and even spoken to them. "Shin-nii? Are you here?"

Naru was slightly surprised at this. He hadn't expected Mai to begin with Shin. Though the most logical order was Shin, Suzaku, Jack, he had figured she would jump straight to Jack. "Mai, the MEL meter's spiking," he said suddenly. "It's at 1.0. The base reading was .2."

"Shin-nii, if that's you, can you come closer? We can't see you right now, or even hear you, but the stuff we have here on the table can help with that."

"1.3… 1.5… 1.6… 2.0. Temperature's dropped about three degrees," Naru noted.

"Why are you still here, Shin-nii? Why haven't you moved on?" Mai paused, as Naru had said, to give Shin a chance to answer. "Are you haunting Akira?"

During the next pause, the REM Pod began going off.

"Shin-nii, do you know what happened to May and Ryou-nii?"

"Shin-san, what happened the day you died?" asked Naru. "What happened after you told Mai to run?"

They weren't sure if they were getting any answers at all. They couldn't hear anything but that was the point, wasn't it? EVPs were things they couldn't hear with their own ears. Their equipment however, seemed to be catching fluctuations in both temperature and the electromagnetic field around them, and something had to be causing that.

But suddenly, the MEL meter flat lined, returning to 0.2, and the temperature returned to normal, and the REM pod silenced.

"I think that's all we'll be getting from Shin-san," said Naru. "It takes a lot of energy for them to do stuff like this, so it isn't surprising that he can't communicate for long, if he was even able to at all."

"I understand," said Mai with a nod, hoping that her brother had said something. "Should I move on to my uncle?"

"Yes, I think that would be best."

Now focusing on her dead uncle, Mai began with the question that had been on her mind since he had passed away when she had been seven years old. "How did you die, uncle? They said you killed yourself, but that's not what happened, is it?"

Naru kept a close eye on the equipment as Mai asked her questions, but to his surprise, none of the equipment seemed to be picking anything up. Nothing at all. Mai seemed to have noticed this too, because she glanced over at him, as if asking him what to do now.

"Let's move on to Jack," said Naru.

Mai sighed. She understood why they had to do this, of course, but truth be told, she was nervous about this last one. What could she even say? She barely remembered Jack in the first place. All she did remember was that she had never liked Jack, and had been a little scared of him. When she had come back into the room that day, he was dead, and her sister had been crying so hard. So when they had been asked what happened, she had said that she had done it.

But if Jack wanted revenge on her, why was he after her father? That was something she didn't understand. Why hadn't Jack simply come to haunt her right away instead?

"Mai?"

Mai snapped out of her thoughts, surprised to find herself where she was. "Huh? Oh, Naru?"

"What is it? What's wrong?" Naru seemed a little confused.

With a small frown, Mai answered. "I…don't know what to say. I don't know what to ask Jack."

"This isn't a very difficult task, Mai."

But she shook her head. "You don't understand, Naru. My twin sister killed him and I took the blame for it! He possessed my father and had him kill my step-father and Ryou-nii, possibly also my uncle, and my mom and May, and he may have been involved with my kidnapping and Shin-nii's death too! What can I possibly say to that!?"

Naru, who had been listening to this in silence, closed his eyes and thought for a moment. Yes, Mai was right. This had to be hard for her. He hadn't realized it, hadn't really thought about it. He'd been so caught up in finding evidence and getting things done. Maybe it would be better if he asked Jack the questions.

Deciding this was the best way, Naru opened his mouth to speak, only to be cut off by the REM pod, which suddenly sounded off. Surprised, he focused on the equipment laden table.

The alarming on the pod was intensifying, the MEL meter was reporting an EMF of 9.3 and a seven degree temperature drop in the area around them. Well damn.

"N-Naru…?"

"Not now, Mai," said Naru, brushing his young assistant off.

"Dammit, Naru! Look!" Mai tugged his arm urgently.

Alarmed by her intensity, Naru looked up, only to see a dark, shadowy figure standing on the opposite side of the table. It stared down at them as they stared back at it, both too surprised to move. The figure simply stood there, giving off an odd and unpleasant aura.

And then it was gone, vanishing as fast as it had appeared. The equipment silenced and after a moment, was turned off. That had been such an odd experience, and both Naru and Mai hoped at least some of it had been documented. It was a good thing there was another camera placed in the room, because the camera facing the table wasn't positioned right to have captured the apparition.

"That- That was Jack, wasn't it?" asked Mai slowly, still trying to process everything that had just happened.

"I believe it was, yes," said Naru, thinking about the chain of events that had led up to them seeing the figure.

"Was he…making fun of us?"

Naru looked at her. "You felt that too?"

That pretty much answered Mai's question right there. She was very confused now though. Why had Jack been mocking them? What reason could he possibly have to do so? What was he doing? What was he planning?

That's it for now. Looking forward to reviews! Laterz!