(A/N): I do not own Ghost Hunt. Unfortunately. Thank you very much for the reviews! You've been so nice about my story! They make me happy :) I hope you enjoy this chapter! Oh, in case you're wondering, this is after book 12. John just prefers to call Naru 'Kazuya'.

The first one to see me was Takigawa. He was moving equipment from the van that was parked outside a large, stone building. At first, he simply waved at me and beckoned me over. But when I got nearer, he froze and stared. He did this for a minute or so, until I finally reached him. And when I arrived, he just looked at me, waiting for an answer to his unasked question. I stared down at my feet uncomfortably, trying desperately to recall the excuse I had gone over and over in my mind on the way over.

"…What happened?" In the end, it was Takigawa who broke the silence. He seemed unable to say anything else.

I glanced up at him. "Um…well…" I could tell him. At first, I had decided against it. I didn't want everyone worrying. We needed to focus on the case. If I said anything, that focus might shift, and that wasn't fair on Kazuya or Lin. Besides, with so much information missing from my mind, I felt a bit…uneasy with the thought of having the focus on me, especially considering my current state. But…I trusted Takigawa. He would understand.

I closed my eyes, took a breath out, and when I opened them again, I felt a stronger resolve inside me.

"I don't know." Takigawa was both bemused and slightly angry with my answer.

"What do you mean? What kind of cop-out answer is that?" He demanded.

I sighed. "No, I mean I really don't know. I…I have amnesia." As soon as the word was out, I felt myself tense while I waited for his response. He did not reply, though – my answer had reduced him to shocked silence.

"Look, I…" I pursed my lips. "I woke up in hospital, and…I can't remember what happened all last month." Once the situation had been explained, I felt both a burden lifted from my chest and a guilt layered on. Was it really ok for me to be telling him this? Would he decide that he preferred not knowing? Having amnesia was a lot for me to take on board, so I didn't know what it would be like for Takigawa.

"…So you can't remember anything? Anything that happened?" At last he spoke up. His tone was soft.

At once my mind flashed back to the river, the burning building.

But I just shook my head. "…No. Nothing."

"Are the police doing anything?"

"Well, yes, but…I'm not a top priority." Takigawa frowned as I told him this, so I quickly added, "But that's fine. There are probably more important cases they're working on."

"Wait, that means…you have no idea why your arm is broken and you're all beaten up? And what's wrong with your neck?" He stared at the bandage I had wrapped around my neck.

"Um, I just…cut it." I played with the hem between my fingers, wishing that people would stop pointing it out. He did not need to know the details of my injuries, or what Doctor Nakamura had told me. The information burdened me heavily already, and a part of me did not want to accept that my injuries had been caused by another person, despite what I had found out yesterday about the 'colleague'. I didn't want to burden him with the same disturbing information.

"…Yeah, I have no clue. But look, please don't tell the others about this."

"Why not?" Once again, I found myself staring at my feet, trying to avoid his unwavering gaze.

"I just feel…I think that…" Suddenly, no words were forming at all. Takigawa seemed to understand, though.

"Ok, I won't tell them. But what will you tell them?"

"Uhh…" I shrugged. "I'll tell them I was in an accident or something, I guess."

Takigawa placed his hand on my shoulder. Somehow, the small movement made me feel uncomfortable, although it was meant to be a reassuring action.

"Is there anything else you want to tell me?" He asked, his words slow and deliberate.

…he's looking for you…

I shook my head. "No. There's not really anything else to say."

The van was parked in a large, empty field, behind an old building. The place was made from old fashioned stone, but from the look of the plastic slabs dotted around in the walls and the scraps of metal that were lying about, the place had been repaired recently. That made sense – Mai had mentioned the case was from an estate agency who wanted to sell the house. Although they must have been desperate to sell it if they called in a paranormal research team, the company didn't appear to have renovated the building particularly well. The tiles, half of them having been replaced, were mismatching in both colour and shape. Ivy had been scraped half-heartedly from the walls, so that several large chunks of the plant still remained. Faint outlines of graffiti were still on the windows, refusing to be scrubbed away. And the field was not well kept, either. The grass was torn up and uneven, and the only other plant growing was a large patch of thick stinging nettles. Even these were flattened from something, probably a car, and looked dried up and pitiful.

"So, someone wants to sell all this?" I remarked in surprise, peering at the old house. "They haven't kept care of it, have they?"

"Not really. But the manager must be desperate to sell it if he called in paranormal experts."

"You'd think he'd fix the house better if he wanted to sell it, wouldn't you?"

"Yeah. Maybe he's just tight on money."

"By the way, where are the others?" Only Takigawa was here. Kazuya, Mai and the others were nowhere to be seen.

"They're just bringing in some equipment." He told me. "They'll be out soon. Ayako-kun and Masako-kun will be arriving later."

As if on cue, Mai appeared from around the front of the house. Hurriedly, she ran to the van where we were standing.

"Hey, what're you – " Just like Takigawa, she froze when she saw me. But unlike Takigawa, she did not stay in silence for long.

"Oh my gosh, what happened?! You're all beaten up! And your arm, it's broken! Did you get into a fight? You look so pale!"

I found myself being interrogated by her. Soon, Ayako and Masako arrived, and after the initial shock, they too joined in with their questions.

"A car accident? You were hit by a car?" Mai's eyes were round with shock.

"How terrible." Masako was calm, like always, hiding her mouth behind her kimono sleeve.

"I'd like a word or two with whoever was in that car." Ayako declared, her eyes narrowed as she thought of what kind of words she would be saying.

"Do the police know who did it?" Mai asked. "Are you going to get compensation or something?"

I shook my head. "I don't know what's happening."

The three of them muttered among themselves, despite my presence.

"Are you finished?" It was Kazuya, looking irritated. He gestured over to the van, half-emptied of its equipment. However, today Mai was not going to empathise.

"Naru, this is important! John-kun was hit by a car!" She gave him a look that dared him to contradict her. Kazuya glanced over at me, looking me up and down. His gaze was critical and searching.

"…A car accident, huh…" Was his response. I shuffled nervously, and spoke up,

"Um, shouldn't we be moving things?"

"Well, you can't with an arm in a sling." He raised his eye brow at my sling. "I want you to talk to the people that experienced the hauntings."

I nodded eagerly. "Sure, who exactly do I need to speak to?"

"As far as I know, the builders who worked on the building, some hikers and some teenagers who broke in for an art project."

"An art project?" Ayako sounded sceptical.

"Yes, abandoned houses are often sources of inspiration for budding artists. Not that you would know, I'm guessing creativity is not your strong suit."

"Was that meant to be an insult? I'm disappointed, Naru." Ayako scoffed, examining her nails.

"I don't feel I should waste my intellect on a petty argument with you when there are more important things to be doing."

Ayako huffed, muttering something under her breath that I did not understand. From her tone, I did not want to.

A group of three teenagers stood outside the main door, shuffling from one foot to another in the cold. Two girls and a boy, they were still wearing their Japanese uniform, although the boy had slackened the collar and pulled on a worn leather jacket. The girls had not brought any extra clothing, but appeared to be regretting it, since they were shivering. Whispering to each other anxiously, they glanced to the building behind them several times, as if expecting something to jump out at them. When I approached, and they saw my beaten appearance, they only whispered more. However, they stopped when they caught sight of Lin, who had come to act as scribe since my writing was not very legible right now.

"Um…how long is this going to take?" The boy asked immediately.

"Not long." It was Lin who spoke up. "So we'd be very grateful if you could answer our questions." Although his words were meant to be polite, somehow his tone was threatening. The boy fell silent, though one of the girls whispered to him,

"I told you we shouldn't have come back."

"They're ghost hunters, I thought it's be interesting." He hissed back.

I decided to being asking questions. "So, you first came to this house three weeks ago, at about 10pm?"

They turned their attention to me. "Yeah. We wanted some ideas for an art project. Nothing bad, just an art project." The boy stressed.

"And it wasn't as if anybody put up a sign or anything." The first girl added. "Like, we didn't see a 'no trespassing' sign."

"And the place is so rundown, we didn't realise that someone was fixing the place to sell." The second girl interjected quickly. She looked uncomfortable being here. I did not know whether it was because she was afraid of getting into trouble, or if she was scared of the building.

"What exactly did you see?"

The three looked at each other. "Well, it wasn't so much what we saw…" The boy told me.

"Yeah…It's more what we heard." The first girl explained.

"What did you hear, then?"

"Well, we were on the top floor, and we heard this really loud dripping noise." The other girl told me.

"Dripping?"

"Yeah, just continuously. We just ignored it, but after a while it got really annoying. So we went to see where it was coming from."

"We ended up opening up this door that was locked, cos that's where we thought we heard it from. But then it stopped really suddenly." The boy continued. "And the whispering began."

"At first, we thought that it was someone playing a prank. But no one was there, we swear." He insisted, despite nothing being said on my behalf.

"Yeah. And it wasn't just, like, one person whispering. It sounded like a ton of people." The first girl described.

"How many would you say exactly?"

"Loads. Like, I don't know, a big crowd. It was loud, you know? Kind of like when the whole class starts whispering and it gets louder and louder because we're all speaking at once."

"Do you know what was being said?"

"It sounded like a load of different languages all mixed together." The first girl tilted her head. "I think I picked up some English, German and some others that I didn't recognise."

"Did you hear any Japanese?"

"Yeah." The second girl was barely audible. "Someone was asking me to…to help them."

The first girl turned to her, shocked. "Yumi! Why didn't you tell us?!"

Yumi sighed, biting her lip. "I didn't…look, it really freaked me out. I didn't want to talk about it." However, the first girl was not swayed.

"What if there's someone in there?" She looked horrified at the thought. "And we just abandoned them there?"

The boy paled. "If there is someone in there…"

The first girl clasped her hand around her mouth. "No…"

I looked between them. "What else did you hear?"

Again, they exchanged a few nervous whispers. Finally, the boy turned to me.

"It sounded like…someone was clawing on the walls. And the door too. What if someone was stuck? I mean, we didn't go into all of the rooms, so what if someone's in there?"

This was a startling thought. "Well, that was three weeks ago, and the house has been opened up completely by the builders, so if someone was stuck in there, they probably would have been found by now." I tried to ease their mind.

They nodded thoughtfully.

"Is that it? You didn't hear or see anything else?" While the boy and the first girl nodded, Yumi seemed a bit more unsure.

"Can we go now?" The first girl checked her phone impatiently. "I need to be getting home."

"Yeah, me too." The boy rubbed his cold hands.

I looked to Lin, and he nodded. At once, the two of them hurried past me, towards the narrow road that stretched past the house, where I could see three bikes left on the turf. However, Yumi faltered.

"…Is there something you want to tell us?" I asked her. She crossed her arms tightly and stared down at her feet.

"I, uh…" She swallowed. "I saw a woman."

Lin, who had been losing interest, at once looked up from his notes and stared intently.

"A woman?"

"Yeah. Well, not like an old woman. She looked fairly young. Probably…mid 20s, I'd say."

"Where did you see her?"

Yumi froze. "Umm…well, you see…the other two wanted me to go and…get some booze. So, I…I bought some, and I was coming back to the house with it, and she was just…standing there. On the door step."

"What did she look like?"

"Um, she was tall and pretty. Brown hair. It was long, and kind of messy. She was wearing weird clothes, like…some kind of blue uniform…? It wasn't a school one, that's for sure."

"Did she say anything?"

"No, she just watched me. I called out to her, I thought the other two might have called on some friends, but she didn't say anything. Eventually, she turned around and walked into the house. When I asked my friends if they had invited anyone else around, they denied it."

"Why didn't you mention this earlier?"

"They just thought I had already started drinking and didn't take me seriously, so I..." She shrugged.

"Was this before or after the whispering?"

"Before. We left after the whispering."

"Did you see her at all again?"

"Um…once. We were already far down the road, on our bikes, and I looked back and I think she was standing on the door step again. Look, can I go now?" The two other teenagers were already at their bikes, and were beckoning to Yumi.

"Yeah, thanks for your time." Relieved to be leaving, she hurried towards her friends. They left promptly, and cycled away from the house at a surprisingly fast speed.

I turned to Lin. "A woman? What do you think of that?"

He grunted noncommittally. "Could have been making it up. Sounded quite dramatic, but vague in detail."

"What about the whispering?"

"I'm not sure." He did not offer any more speculations, and instead began walking around the back of the house, to the field. I hastily followed him.

In the field, by the van, I saw that the last pieces of equipment were just being brought out. While Mai and Takigawa struggled with the last pieces, Ayako and Masako returned from what I assumed was a search for any spirits.

Kazuya, who had been leafing through files and building plans, looked up at our arrival.

"Well? What did you find out?"

Lin passed him the notes he had made, and Kazuya scanned through them. It took him a mere few seconds to read the whole lot.

"So, whispering, scratching, and a woman…" He muttered, and handed the notes back.

"They mentioned something about dripping, too." I added. "I mean, it doesn't sound important, but who knows."

Kazyua nodded, and beckoned the others over, and read them the details.

"Matsuzaki-san and Hara-san, did you feel any presence?"

Masako looked back towards the building, troubled. "It's strange. There is a definite presence here, and the spirits seem to have a strong connection with this building."

Kazuya frowned. "How many are there, would you say?"

"Several. At least thirty. Maybe more. They do not seem to be angry."

"Oh, so it's like a hollow spirit?" Mai interrupted.

Masako gave her a brief, poisonous glance. "I wasn't finished, Taniyama-san. No, they are quite complacent. So I do not know why they are reacting in such a way to people who come here. I think, if anything, they are very glad when people come here, and are trying to catch our attention. Harming us is not what they want."

"So, it's an innocent haunting?" Again, it was Mai who spoke.

"I wouldn't say innocent. Rather, they don't have malicious intentions. They just want to be noticed."

"It's strange, though, isn't it?" Kazuya looked deep in thought. "That kind of behaviour…well, they're either desperate or they're being childish. But the teenager said she saw a woman, right?"

I nodded. "Mid twenties, apparently."

"And they were calling for help." Lin added.

"So maybe they really are just desperate spirits. But what do they want?" Kazyua mused.

"I don't know." Masako admitted. "Perhaps they suffered a trauma before their death, and do not actually realise they have passed away. There could be many reasons. But you mentioned a woman?"

"Why, did you see her?" Masako shook her head.

"No. They are hiding from me, so I can't tell who is actually there. I just don't understand why they are doing this, if they revealed themselves to those teenagers."

"Maybe they only come out for certain people?" Takigawa scratched his head and looked to the building.

"But why teenagers? And there are the builders and those hikers, too." Ayako reminded him.

"They must share something in common." Kazuya decided. "We just need to find out what that is."

"Well, shall we head in and take a look around?" Takigawa suggested. "We might as well."

Kazuya did not seem so sure. "Hara-san, would you say it is safe?"

However, she nodded. "Yes, they do not seem particularly active right now. After all, it is still light. I doubt they'll try anything before night time."

With this being said, Kazuya simply nodded, shared a glance with Lin, and the two of them began to walk towards the house. The others followed, with Mai dashing to Kazuya at the front, Takigawa and Ayako trading insults behind, and Masako lingering at the back. For a brief moment, I watched them, and I was glad that I had not told the others about my amnesia. Takigawa did not seem too troubled with it either, so that was a relief. At least that was something off my mind.

"But you'd better remember soon. Before it's too late."

I spun around. A woman was standing behind me. She watched me with vacant eyes.

"…I'm sorry?" Who was this person?

The woman raised her finger to her lips. "Shhh." Her hair was brown, tangled and matted in large knots. She looked young, perhaps in her twenties. And she wore a strange, blue uniform, like some kind of hospital gown. Just like Yumi had described.

She leaned forwards. "Hurry, Brown-san. He's coming for you."

Suddenly, my arm was beginning to ache. Every inch of my skin crawled. And suddenly, my neck felt tight. Like someone was gripping it.

"John-kun! Are you coming?" It was Mai, calling for me. I looked around to her, where she stood by the house.

"Um, yeah…" I called back, my voice feeling hoarse. "I'll be there in a second." This woman…how did she know me? And how did she know about my amnesia?

But when I turned back to ask, she had disappeared.