The morning of day three Naru sent Yasu to the library for research. After the possession, the dog attack and the botched exorcism, Naru was getting fed up. Luckily, Yasu reappeared only a couple hours later with a notebook full of notes and a gleam in his eyes.

"Listen to this, around ten to twenty years ago there was a notorious Japanese yakuza gang in the area. Rumor has it that they were after the wealth of Takeru Fukui, who was the owner of this very building at the time. He also owned several apartment complexes around the city but he resided here for reasons unknown.

"He was found murdered April 15th of 1990 and all his wealth was gone. People believed it was the yakuza gang who were behind his death. Either way shortly after his death the current building owner, Sora Kabayashi, stepped up and took his place.

"I couldn't find any spiritual records to suggest any strange incidents but I did find that there have been several attempts on Kabayashi-san's life."

"Wait, back up. Attempts on her life? Why has she stayed?" Ayako spoke up. Yasu smiled secretively and pushed his glasses up his nose.

"I don't know why she's stayed but it seems that outsiders who stay in this building go temporarily insane and attempt to kill her, as stated by an interview with the press. So far five people have been arrested but they were released and instead counselled when they showed no previous signs of violence and it was ruled a fit of insanity. Strangely enough, they never had any other records of attack or assault outside of the hotel."

"Are you perhaps trying to say that we may attack Kabayashi-san?" Naru said quietly. Yasu frowned and shrugged.

"It's a probability. Then again the people staying in the apartments temporarily were often businessmen here for a convention or meeting, not spiritualists."

Mai couldn't help but glance over at Monk and Masako. That can't be what's going on. They can't be used like that to hurt someone!

Monk must've noticed her dire expression. "Hey, there's no way anything like that is going to happen. Say, Yasu, did the people who assault Kabayashi-san report any strange symptoms beforehand?"

"Well, yes. And you're not going to like this." Monk's lips thinned at Yasu's hesitant tone. "They complained of headaches."

Ayako gasped and clapped a hand on her knee. "No, that's impossible. Surely there's something else going on here!"

"What else did you learn," said Naru.

"Um, well, that's about it. Oh, wait." Everyone leaned forward to listen better. "Not too long ago a man moved in here, named Kenshin Yanagi. He committed suicide only months after moving in. He was supposedly driven insane by the spirit living here.

"That's all, I'm afraid. It would seem that someone likes to keep the activities of this place under wraps. I had to do some serious weaseling to get the info."

"Thank you Yasu, that will be all for now. I think the best plan of action as of late is to find who's haunting this place, Takeru-san or Yanagi-san, would you not agree Lin?" Naru said thoughtfully.

"Hai."

"Let's get to it then."

"Man, I sure am tired," Mai yawned. She had been stuck with Masako on a spirit sensing mission, and so far they had been walking in awkward silence.

Masako's headache was back, albeit very mild, but it was making her grumpy.

"It's only seven Mai, you have a whole day yet to go," Masako teased her gently. Suddenly the medium paused, raising an uncertain sleeve to her mouth.

"What is it? A spirit?" Mai asked nervously.

"It would seem so. A very troubled one too." Mai felt her heartbeat quicken. She cast a furtive glance around and saw a man peeking out from a half closed door.

"H-hey, what are you doing?" Mai asked. She didn't like the feeling he gave her. Masako glanced at Mai and then at the door, confused, before going pale.

"Mai, we have to go," she whispered before letting out a soft cry and clutching at her head. "That's a spirit!"

Mai gasped as she eyed the man again. She hadn't even noticed! Mai grabbed Masako's arm and was starting to lead her in the opposite direction when they heard a growl. When they turned around a dog was launching itself at Masako.

Oh my God, is this the dog? It has glowing red eyes!

Masako screamed, but Mai knew that in her kimono the medium couldn't move fast enough. Panicked, she jumped in front of Masako, putting herself directly in the path of the dog. Its teeth were heading straight for her face, and in a protective gesture she threw her arms up, squeezing her eyes closed.

She let out a cry as a hot flash ran through her and she could faintly feel her hands tingling. The growls of the dog stopped but she could feel it close by. Opening her eyes she saw it rolling on the ground, injured, before jumping back up again.

"Masako, run," Mai yelled, getting ready to jump at the dog. Sure it was stupid, but the dog was clearly faster than her, and she'd rather face it head on than be attacked from behind.

"Mai, get away from it," Lin called from the end of the hall. Mai gritted her teeth and backed up slowly, trusting Lin. The dog took a step towards her, and then another before launching itself at her again. She heard a piercing whistle before two streaks of light snaked out from behind her and plunged into the dog, making it howl before dissipating. Lin's shiki to the rescue yet again.

"Thanks Lin," Mai said gratefully as he caught up with them. His only response was a grunt.

"Is anyone hurt?" Monk asked as he, too, ran up to them.

"No," Masako answered softly.

Mai was about to answer when the world spun precariously. She stumbled, trying to keep her balance, but things were quickly growing fuzzy and unstable.

"Whoa, Mai, you okay?" Monk asked. His voice sounded echo-y and far away. Mai tried to answer yes but found herself falling. She braced herself for the impact with the floor but instead found Monk's arms.

He quickly scooped her up as Naru arrived on scene as well.

"What?" he asked as he saw Mai laying limply in Monk's arms.

"The dog came back. Mai seems to have taken a hit," Lin remarked ruefully. Naru sighed heavily, running a hand through his hair. Not another possession, not now.

"Mai jumped in front of me, I thought for sure she was going to be bitten. It was going right for the head too this time," Masako finally spoke up, her voice shaky. The three men exchanged surprised looks.

"She has no bite marks," Monk pointed out. "So what happened?"

"No, of course she wouldn't, she fended off the dog before it could get her. It was a strange warding magic, too."

"What? Mai, don't tell me you channeled your energy. It's dangerous, you can't control it yet," Monk said harshly. "…And she can't hear me."

By this point Mai was almost completely unconscious, fighting to stay awake but barely.

"Get her back to base for some rest. Everyone, we need to start hunting this dog down."

Mai wasn't sure if she'd ever heard Naru sound so resolute.

Mai found herself floating on the astral plane.

"Hello?" she whispered, looking for Gene. Instead, she felt herself fall suddenly, down into a room. An apartment, a very familiar apartment.

"This looks like the apartments in the building we're in right now," Mai remarked quietly to herself. "But which one?"

A cursory inspection of the room revealed it to be 119. Hm, was this room related to the case? It had been the room the papers appeared in front of. She whirled around as she heard whispers behind her. When she looked, there was nothing there. Yet, the whispers continued.

"Hello?" Mai asked, trying to find the source of the whispers. They seemed to be getting louder and were making her restless. "Who's there?"

She jumped as she heard a banging noise, then another. The whispers were all over, inside her head, making her spin dizzily as she kept trying in vain to see who was doing it. Mai froze. This wasn't her. If it was her, she'd know it was a spirit and would wake up. She was living through someone, but who?

She saw the mirror in the room and gasped. A ragged man stared back at her, pupils constricted abnormally and a sheen of sweat on his face. This was the man she kept seeing, the one who also looked like a dog.

He/she let out a scream and Mai winced. She could feel herself slowly going insane. Now all she could hear was whispers but she couldn't make out what they were saying. Why was she feeling this way? So unstable… like a rope about to snap.

This was the worst feeling.

Mai tried to wake up. She called out for Gene but it seemed like no matter how loud she screamed all she could hear were the whispers. It was like when she was most scared, but multiplied times a thousand. Her heart kept racing.

She was sure Naru had talked about something like this before, but she couldn't think straight. Paranoia?

Finally the noises and the voices got to her. She felt herself begin to fall.

Before she hit the ground she woke up to John staring down at her with a worried expression. Mai could feel her lower lip trembling and didn't resist as the kindly priest pulled her into a hug.

"Mai-chan I was worried, you started saying things and moving around in your sleep," John said as he fussed over her. Mai resisted the tears and tried to calm herself.

"I don't know what happened. I was in a room, and I heard these voices. It was the worst feeling, I couldn't wake up! It was like I was going-"

"Insane? Doesn't that sound familiar," Naru's voice made her pull away from John to look at him. To her surprise it was just her, Lin, John and Naru at base.

"Ah, Yanagi-san? That must be who you dreamt about," John said as he caught on. Mai just sighed and buried her face in her hands, tugging at her bangs.

"That was awful. I was so stressed, and the whispers wouldn't stop," she mumbled sadly. John rubbed soothing circles on her back until she calmed back down some more.

"It's alright, it wasn't you Mai," John reassured her. Mai sighed and shot him a grateful smile.

"Still though, what he went through felt pretty bad. Poor guy."

Naru had been thinking this whole time what Mai's dream meant. Finally he spoke, "I think it's safe to assume that the spiritual activity began before him, but that doesn't erase the issue with him attacking people. I say we continue what we're doing now and don't stop until he's exorcised."

Mai felt a funny feeling in her stomach. She mistook it for hunger, at first, except it was cold. "Hey wait. Naru, you can't do that," she said in a shaky voice. Naru glanced over at her impassively.

"And why not?"

"I don't know… but don't you think that maybe he will lead us to the real culprit here?" Mai argued.

"Mai if that was the case we'd have solved this by now. He's clearly not willing to cooperate, as evidenced by his frequent attacks," Naru said slowly, as if she was dumb.

Mai flushed angrily. Of course Naru would make her angry right after a traumatic dream.

"I just have a feeling that we shouldn't get rid of him just yet."

"A feeling, hm?" That Naru, being so condescending. "Is this in any way influenced by your recent dream?"

"You're saying that I'm thinking impulsively," Mai shot back, offended.

"I'm saying that perhaps you're letting your emotions get in the way. This Yanagi-san has given us no reason not to exorcise him. Frankly he's been causing plenty of trouble and I think all of us want him eliminated, except you, apparently."

"Na-RU I am not letting my emotions get in the way. I was just attacked earlier, wasn't I?" Mai huffed.

Naru's eyes narrowed. "Technically speaking, Hara-san was the intended victim. It was your own stupidity that made you throw yourself in the way of danger."

"How dare you! I was trying to help, she was in trouble." Mai cursed her wavery voice. Why did she have to get teary when emotional?

"Thanks to you we had to put this operation on stand still once more."

"You would've done the same without complaining if Masako had been bitten," Mai fired back, hurt. "You did the same for John and Monk too."

Naru sighed heavily and Mai's lips twitched. While she was hurt that he prioritized the others over her she had to admit that she had won a small victory. Naru knew she was right about that much.

"Mai's right, Masako also suspects that there's something else here," John hesitantly stood up for his friend. Mai beamed at John and Naru just rolled his eyes. Some days that girl just lived to oppose him.

"Lin, what's your input," he finally asked snappishly. Lin glanced up, surprised.

"I can't say for sure. I still think Yanagi-san is behind this, but if Hara-san also says it's not him pulling the strings then perhaps it may be best to hold off until we better understand what's happened here."

Naru let out another sigh and Mai thought she heard him grumbling under his breath, but she waited for his answer. Finally he glanced up and stared coldly at her.

"Alright Mai, you win this time. We won't exorcise him. For now."

"Is it just me or is this floor really cold," Yasu griped. Monk shot him a look and gingerly rubbed his temples. Man, this headache was not going away. He had refused exorcism all this time but he was starting to rethink things. He had a feeling Masako felt the same way.

"If you're uncomfortable, you're welcome to leave," Masako fired back impolitely through her kimono sleeve. Monk wanted to high five her.

"Point taken. Anyways, what are we doing up here?"

"Looking for a lost cat, Yasu. We're obviously trying to find the bastard that attacked Masako and Mai," Monk sniped sarcastically. Yasu blushed mildly but tried to look unfazed.

"Hold on, I sense him. He's very close, and angry." Masako staggered slightly. "Very angry."

Monk and Yasu exchanged looks. "Where is he?" Yasu asked.

"Right there," Masako pointed at a closed apartment door.

As if on cue the door unlatched and swung open with a bang, making Monk and Masako flinch and Yasu shriek. Monk wasted no time in dashing into the room, the other two hot on his heels.

When they ran in they all gasped in horror. A woman was stood on the balcony, scrambling over the railing.

"No! Don't do it," Masako shouted. The woman shot them a wry smile over her shoulder and Monk growled slightly.

"She's possessed!" Before he could start an emergency prayer the woman had jumped and plummeted four stories to the ground. All three of them cried out and ran further into the apartment. When they burst onto the balcony and peered over, she lay on the ground, limbs and hair splayed out around her.

"No," Yasu whispered.

Luckily when they got to her she was still alive, but in critical condition. As the whole group ran to her, she began regaining consciousness. By the time the ambulance had arrived, they had gather some semblance of what had happened. Apparently she was mid cleaning when she heard whispers. The next thing she knew, she was falling. As she got wheeled off, she got a funny look on her face when she saw Mai, something that didn't go unnoticed by Naru. Even so, everyone was eager to head back to base and he didn't have time to ask her.

As everyone headed inside, Naru glanced up at the window of the apartment that she jumped out of. He thought he could see markings on the window, and when he checked it out a little later his suspicions were confirmed.

On the window, written in blood, were the words 'All who enter cannot leave.'