It was nighttime. I turned around and saw the Naru of my dreams again, but this time again he was not smiling. "Naru, what is going on? Where are we?" He pointed at the other side of the street. A Yume was running. She had bruises and blood dripping from her head. She dropped her book bag to run faster. Behind her I saw two boys and a girl chasing her. They looked older but they had the same school uniform. "Are those her classmates?" Suddenly, Yume tripped and fell to the ground. They caught up to her and started kicking her. "So Miss Smarty thinks she's better than us huh?

"Try to repeat your Physics lesson now, Perfect brat!"

Is this what Yume was going through every day at school? I wanted to cry. I turned towards Naru, to tell him to wake me up. I didn't want to see this, it made me sick. But then on the same side of the street as ours, another boy came running. He was between blond and red. His brown eyes were filled with anger. He looked about the same age as those bullies did. He stopped next to us and leaned against the fence of the sidewalk. "Yume!" He shouted.

"Shiro!" She said in a weak voice. "Help me..."

The boy jumped over the fence and started running towards the other side of the street... Without noticing the car coming his way. I knew what was going to happen but I didn't want to see it. I woke up gasping loudly.

Monday, October 25th, 10:10am

"Easy Mai!"I was in my bed. Daniel was sitting next to me. He placed his hand on my forehead while I breathed heavily. "You don't seem to have a fever. That's good."

"I fainted again didn't I?"

"Naru brought you here and told me to watch over you."

"Thank... wait, Naru carried me here?"

"Yeah. You slept through the night."

Wow. Was it just me, or was my narcissist, over self-confident, jerk-self boss starting to get soft on me? "You scared the life out of me. Do you faint often?"

"No usually it happens in my sleep. But I think he had to show me something this time and pulled me in a trance or something."

Who's he?

Oh it's a figure that guides me in my dreams. It looks like Naru. During different cases, it shows me something that is part of it. Especially if I'm in danger."

Daniel chuckled: "You're amazing Mai! You can handle one Naru in reality, but also one in your mind! Haha!

Actually, the Naru in my dreams is always smiling and being nice to me. It's like the incarnation of Naru's feelings."

Daniel stopped laughing and looked serious again. He brought his hand up to my face and brushed my bangs away from my forehead. "I'd give anything to be in his place and be on your mind all the time."

I froze at his last comment and felt my cheeks getting redder. It may, have been just me but it looked like he was getting closer. Suddenly, we heard knocking on the door. "Come in, said Daniel. Mary appeared from behind the door : "Dany, you're going to be late for school. Mai I think Naru wants to see you." She had huge bags under her eyes. She probably stayed all night up watching over Yukio, just like her son did with me. I got up, quickly brushed my hair and ran to join Naru and the others at base.

"Naru, I'm here!

"Again Mai, no need to shout. How are you feeling?"

"Fine, I'm still a bit dizzy though..."

"I take it you didn't have breakfast." I laughed nervously. Naru sighed.

"Honestly Mai, you'll never change. You're such an airhead". I turned around and saw Ayako sitting next to Monk, smirking at me.

"No need to be rude." I replied to the shrine maiden, pouting. Naru served me a cup of tea and gave me a piece of bagel with it. While eating I explained to them what I saw in my dream. Naru wasn't blinking.

"So far, all your dreams have shown you are the deaths of the people that Yume witnessed."

"It's obvious, is it not?" Said Masako. "Yume was the one I sensed the fox in. And if one person was to be blamed responsible for all the deaths she saw, would it not be Yukio? At both times he failed to be there and protect her. It would be normal for the girl to bear a huge grudge against him."

"How can you say that? She's only twelve! I doubt she would have the ability to curse someone."

"You seem to forget that she is very sharp for her age."

"That's not an excuse! She's his daughter!"

"That is no excuse either, she added in her usual calm tone."

That was it. I got up so fast, that my chair fell on the ground. "Did you see her face when Yukio was attacked? Did you see the tears falling out of her eyes and her cut off breathing? Well I did and I can tell you, it wasn't acting!"

"Please! The girl and her father haven't spoken in years."

"Do you think that's reason enough to think she hates him? How shortsighted are you?"

"That's enough both of you!" Shouted Naru. "Like I said, we're not done investigating. Miss Hara, I'll remind you that despite her weak intellect, Mai has a very sharp intuition. She's never been wrong so far. We'll save the accusations for when we have more pieces of the puzzle."

I sat back down, Masako's glare on me. Naru continued. "Mai, please go get Yume, I want to ask her something."

I got up and went upstairs. As I came closer to her room, I could hear Yume talking to herself again. "I didn't know... why didn't you tell me?" Was she talking about Yukio? I knocked on the door. "Come in." I entered. Yume was sitting on her bed, hugging her legs and resting her head on her knees. She looked at me with her bright blue eyes full of tears. My heart broke when I saw her. I sat next to her and gave her my handkerchief. She took it and thanked me. "Your dad is going to be fine Yume. We'll soon send that spirit away."

"Mai, have you ever met any good spirits?"

"What do you mean?"

"Spirits who don't harm anyone."

"Usually when people call for us, it's because the spirit is a danger to humans. So no, I haven't seen any good spirits. But there are the lost spirits who don't know how to find peace. Those don't do harm on purpose so we just cleanse them."

She looked kind of disappointed at my answer. She stayed quiet for a minute. Lost in her thoughts. Then she looked up to me with a big smile. "Did you want something from me?"

"Shoot, I forgot! Naru wants to ask you something."

We started heading to the staircase. "You like Naru a lot don't you Mai?"

"HUH? Well of course I like him, he is my boss after all. I mean if I didn't like him why in the world would I work for him?" I was trying to hide my blushing face. Yume laughed. "You're in denial Mai. But that's okay." She was so young, yet she talked about grown up stuff so easily. I could see her brilliance shinning in her eyes. She was good at hiding her pain. I teased back: "You like talking to yourself, don't you?" She turned crimson. "You heard me? That's embarrassing!"

"Just payback for making fun of me."

She tried to smack my back but I started running towards the stairs. Yume ran after me, laughing. Then she suddenly stopped. I did too at the top of the stairs. "What's wrong Yume?"I asked leaning against the banister.

"Mai, move the floor is collapsing!"

The moment I rested my wait on it, the banister and a part of the floor detached itself from the staircase and started falling. I screamed but managed to grab on to a part of the banister that wasn't broken...yet. There was about 15 meters between me and the first floor. I could already feel my hand slipping. Yume through herself on the floor and grabbed on to my wrist. I heard footsteps. "Mai!" I heard many voices shout in unison. "Hold on!" Said Monk. He started heading up the stairs. But part of the stairs crumbled right in front of him. And then... it appeared. It was huge. The ghost looked like a giant wolf. His yellow eyes could have been the flames of hell themselves. He was ferociously growling at Monk. He quickly took out his rosary and started chanting : "Na ma bousa na dam bare don kan!" The monster growled louder but didn't back off. John stepped in and threw some holy water at it. This time, the monster roared and disappeared through the wall. I heard Naru shout. "John, Miss Hara, go after it!" I was loosing my grip and didn't think the piece of wood I was holding on to was going to hold much longer. I could hear the wood crack. Tears started coming out of my eyes. Yume was desperately hanging on to my wrist. "Yume stop, you're going to fall too!"

"No way!"

"Don't be stupid!"

"There's no way I'm sitting by again!"

At that moment, the piece of wood broke. My heart skipped a beat. I waited for the impact, but it never came. Instead, I felt a sharp pain in my wrist, was grabbed by the back of my sweatshirt and pulled up on the second floor. I heard Yume grunt as she pulled me up. We both panted for a long time. When I was able to speak again, I slapped Yume as hard as I could. "Are you out of your mind? You could have died!"

"So could you! I'm not letting anyone die because of me anymore!" Tears were flowing out of her eyes again. Her voice lowered considerably and started shaking "Never again... you hear me?"

In that moment, I saw Naru and Monk coming out of one of the rooms. They probably came in by the emergency stairs of the fire exit. Naru ran to us and knelt down. "Mai you're safe! How the hell did you get back up? I'd never had imagined you were that strong."

"I'm not. Yume pulled me up." Naru stared at the girl for a while. "No one will be coming up here for a while." Said Monk. "Let's get you both downstairs." I tried getting up but my legs were still shaking from shock. Naru put one of my arms around his shoulders and grabbed me by the waist with his free hand. I blushed madly. Naru was actually holding me. Monk turned to Yume and held out a friendly hand. "Need help standing Yume?"

At my surprise, the girl slapped his hand away. She glared at him and said with a deep voice "I can walk by myself." She got up and started walking towards the exit. What had just happened?

Naru helped me down the emergency exit. Everyone was waiting. Shion and Mary had Yume in her arms. Yukio was awkwardly standing behind them. I could tell by his face that he wanted to hold his daughter but something kept him. It was kind of sad. Yume looked like she was back to normal. "Mai, can you stand?" Asked Naru. My legs were still shaking but I gave it a try. It worked for a bout ten seconds. My boss sighed. "You're hopeless."

"Hey! I didn't ask to be pushed off a staircase by an angry ghost!"

I was expecting him to crush the argument with one of his oh-so-clever comebacks like he always did, but he just stared at me with an emotionless face. It kind of worried me for a moment. Then he just picked me up again. Masako and John came back at that moment. When she saw me and Naru, she froze. I gave her an 'I'm-not-responsible-for-this' face. She just looked away, giving me a 'you-just-got-lucky' face.

"Where did it go?" Naru asked to Masako.

"The spirit escaped us. But I'm positive that it is still in the house. Probably hiding upstairs. Just like I said, it wants us gone so that he can finish what he has been summoned for. "

"This is getting out of hands. From now on, no one stays alone, got it?"

Everyone agreed.

5:30pm

We were back at base. The whole team was here, sitting around a table, except for John who was watching over Yukio with Mary. Lin and Naru were checking something on the monitors, while Monk was sharing some of his thoughts with us. "I'm telling you, that thing has to be a demon. It's too smart. And you saw how it didn't react to my exorcism."

"It has been concealing itself pretty well." Added Masako.

"Maybe Naru was wrong it is actually a Shiki." Said Ayako, sarcastically.

"I found it."

Everyone turned to Naru with eyes wide open. He turned his computer around and showed us a footage. It was taken from the camera that was placed in the second floor hallway. The footage was the one taken this mourning. It was paused at the moment where Yume was holding my arm. "I want you all to pay close attention to this." He played the video once. It was four seconds long. It was the moment when Yume pulled me up. "I didn't see anything, did you?" I asked the others. They all shook their heads. "Now, I'm going to show it to you frame by frame." We all looked. In the first few frames nothing, then we got to the part where she actually started pulling on my arm. The one frame where she was facing the camera : her eyes were bright yellow. Like the eyes of a wolf. And I could have sworn I could see a fang on the side of her mouth. "No...It can't be... Yume... is really possessed?"

"I knew I sensed the fox inside her." Said Masako.

"We know for sure Yume is involved in all of this. The spirit gave her this strength. It's not possible for a twelve year old as small and skinny as her to carry a 50Kg teen with such ease."

"46Kg! I still don't believe it!"

"The proof is right under your eyes, Mai. Accept it. How do you explain the claw mark on your wrist?" Said Masako facing the ground. She was sad I could tell. Deep inside, she'd probably hoped that I'd been right about Yume.

"No, I mean I still don't believe Yume is the one that put the curse on Yukio! What if the curser only used Yume to hide the spirit? What if the spirit is hopping from host to host to conceal itself better? You said it was smart didn't you?"

Naru stayed quiet a moment. He was about to speak again when someone knocked on the door. Ruka came in. From the looks of it, he was just out of a long day of work. He also had the same embarrassed look on his face. "May I disturb you a minute?"

"Has it something to do with our investigation?"

"Yes...well, maybe." His hands started shaking. Lin pulled out a chair for him. He sat down and stayed quiet for a minute. " I was worried that I'd be in trouble if I told anyone, but things have gone too far... I may be the cause of the paranormal activity in the house."

Everyone froze and starred with wide eyes. Only Naru and Lin stayed emotionless. Ruka went on. "It started about three weeks ago. I went to Yume's room to ask her for a pen. I knocked but she wasn't there. So I thought it wouldn't bother her if I just took one from her desk. But I tripped over a pile of books. I tried holding on to a frame but it broke from the wall. I was about to put it back when I saw that there was a hole in the wall behind it. And in the wall I found those."

He pulled out a bunch of sheets of paper, a couple of used candles and a necklace. On the sheets, there were circles and different symbols, and writings. Those could only be Ouijaboards. I didn't know what to think. What was going on? Ruka continued. "I've always had interest in these kinds of things so I tried them out. I didn't know it would have such an effect."

"Who does the necklace belong to?" Asked Ayako.

"It was Sakura's, Yume's mother. I know because there's a name on it. Yume lived in this house with her grandmother a couple years ago."

"You are not the one who summoned the spirit Ruka." Said Naru. "You're no spiritualist and have no formation to put a curse on someone specific. I don't suppose you used anyone's name when you played."

"No, not even my own."

"Then you're in the clear. However, you shouldn't do ouijaboarding anymore. Even an amateur can summon a dangerous spirit."

Ruka wiped the sweat off his forehead and sighed loudly. He left the room thanking us. We could eliminate one person for our suspect ring. But things were looking bad for Yume.

Naru was lost in thought. I decided to break the silence. "Naru, what are you thinking?"

He didn't answer. I warned him. "Don't you dare just walk away without telling us!"

"I'm thinking of interrogating Yume."

"What do you mean interrogating?"

"Calm down. I need to think more about this. Mai, with the exception of Yukio, I want you to interrogate the members of the family, alone, one by one. Ask them if they've had any memory blanks. Miss Hara, Monk, please be here for all the interrogations just in case."

6:20pm

I sighed as I walked to my room. None of the family members other than Yume had felt these blanks. I still couldn't bring myself to see her as the culprit. "Why the long face Mai?"

I looked up and saw Daniel leaning against the wall, smiling."What's up Daniel?"

"I was just wondering if you could give me some idea of where you're at in the case. Can you fill me in?"

"Well, I can't tell you everything, but we're certain someone cursed Yukio."

"Cursed him? As in with straw effigy dolls and needles?"

"Not that kind of cursing, but it's the general idea."

"Who could've cursed him? Yukio is a pretty decent person. Nice, hardworking, funny. He's never done any harm to anyone."

"Do you think Yume could actually blame him for not protecting her mom?"

Daniel stayed quiet and stared into space. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to snoop. You don't have to answer."

"No, you have a right to know. About a week before she was killed, Sakura constantly received threats by phone or letter saying that she was going to be attacked if she didn't leave the house. She told Yukio about it but he thought it was just a prank. I don't know if Yume knows about this. When he told me, the only one present was Mom."

And yet another odd that was against Yume. "Naru, I thought, whatever you're planning, I hope it works."

Tuesday, October 26th, 10:30am

That mourning while Daniel, the twins and Yume were in school, we asked Shion to help us prepare a room for a séance. The only one who knew exactly what was going on was Naru. He just gave us instructions while John and Masako were still searching for the spirit. Monk and Ayako were asked to set up a barrier to keep the spirit from leaving the house.

"Why is it that all I seem to ever do in cases is making charms and putting up barriers? Naru should really rely on my exorcisms more." Complained the Shrine maiden.

"Maybe if you'd actually done something productive since we started working together, you'd get a higher rating from Mr Narcissist."

Instead of a reply, Monk got his head smashed by dictionary.

"Careful Ayako. We still need him in one piece. At least until the end of the investigation." I laughed.

"Geez. Thanks for your consideration for my health Mai. I appreciate the thought." replied the pouting monk.

"Everyone stop messing around."Naru snapped. "Everything needs to be ready for when they come back."

"So this séance is for Yume, right Naru?" My boss looked at me carefully. "Yes."

"Is it really necessary? Will it harm her?"

"Physically, absolutely not. Mentaly, it's going to trigger a reaction according to her feelings towards my questioning." I lowered my head in sadness. " That almost sounds like mental torture. Naru, there has to be another way..."

"Mai, look at me." He grabbed my chin and lifted my head. "This test will decide once and for all if Yume is the culprit or not. I'm asking you to trust me."

2:30pm

"All right, Mr Shibuya. You have my permission. Get this thing out of my daughter." Said Yukio.

"Are you insane, Yukio? What if they harm her? Don't you think your daughter has suffered enough? She is fragile, we have no idea how much this thing will affect her!" Yelled Shion, jumping out of her seat.

"These people are professionals. They know what they are doing. You want your niece to keep a monster inside her for the rest of her life?"

Shion shook with anger and slammed the door when she left. Naru thanked Mr Kimura.