Disclaimer: I do not own Ghost Hunt.

Chapter 5

Madoka looked at everyone, her face showing slight soberness. She put her folders on the coffee table and sat down.

"Well, Naru. I found out some very interesting information. Would you two like to hear about it?" she asked the Misaki twins. Kagome nodded smiling while Ryuuji gave her a slight nod.

"Alright then." Madoka picked up one of the files and opened it. "First things first, do both of you know the story about what had happened here?" Madoka looked at the twins.

"Well, my father told us that our ancestor Kyoshi had disappeared without a trace and that his wife Isabella was found dead in the forest..." Kagome tapped her chin with her index finger. Mai tensed slightly at that.

"I'm sorry to say this, but your father lied to you and was most likely lied to as well. It was something that your family made up to cover up the tragedy that had occurred here." She paused slightly. "Your ancestor Kyoshi committed suicide, but not before killing his own wife Isabella." This small piece of information shocked Mai more than anyone. Why would Kyoshi kill Isabella? She shook slightly, clenching her fists as to not get up and scream.

Naru, who had merely glanced at her, noticed her reaction and how she struggled not to show it. He narrowed his eyes at her. This piece of information had affected her a lot more than it did to others.

'She knows something' he thought to himself, his eyes still narrowed at her.

"The reasons for the homicide were unknown. The only way that they knew he was responsible for her death was that he had written it himself in his death note. Not to mention that some of the maids back then saw their argument and how violent it had gotten. In the report they stated that he was accusing her of something while she tried to deny it countless of times. He got angry and after that…he became very violent with her." Madoka told them in a hushed voice before continuing.

"They were trapped in an arranged marriage. According to the Isabella's personal maid, Kyoshi was the one that forced the wedding, while Isabella wanted nothing more than to be free of it. But in those times, once you were arranged to be married, you couldn't get out of it."

Mai was listening intently to Madoka's information. She couldn't believe that Isabella was forced to marry a man she didn't love. How did she know this? Because she knew the name of the man she loved. And Kyoshi wasn't it.

"This had all happened at a party they were holding after a month of their marriage. I guess you can say it was sort of an anniversary party." She tilted her head. "After that had happened, that's when paranormal things started to take place here. Especially in the room of where it all started. Apparently they had calmed down only getting a little harsher the date the incident had occurred. And here we are now, the beginning of the paranormal events taking effect once again." She got another file and opened it. "Here's another thing. The deaths had happened in spring. To be more exact, this happened April 13th. Well it happened past midnight on the 12th, making the murder to be placed on the 13th. And seeing the recent events…" Madoka let the end of her sentence hang.

"They might just get worse." Lin finished for her. They had all noticed that it was April 8th. In other words, they only had about four days to wrap this case up before things got worse. "What I don't understand Naru, is that things have been much worse than the previous years. And I mean worse as if it was already the date of the murder." Lin pointed out. Naru nodded in agreement.

"Maybe it's because Mai-chan looks like Isabella." Kagome said jokingly. Though to the SPR team it seemed like a definite possibility. This made Naru groan inwardly. There were a couple of others here, yet Mai had to always be the one that gets targeted the most by vengeful spirits.

'Why her?' He thought miserably.

Kagome shifted in her seat as if she had remembered something important. She suddenly stood up, surprising the others. "You have got to be kidding me! The 13th is Saturday, right? And Friday is the day I was planning to hold the—" Kagome stopped herself before she said anything else and looked down as if she was interested in her feet.

"Kagome, what are you talking about?" Ryuuji asked her, standing in front of her and lifting her chin up. She swiftly averted her eyes and locked her own with Mai's. Mai bit her lip in turn.

"Taniyama-san, what are you hiding from me?" Naru asked her icily as he looked at her. Mai bit her lip harder causing it to bleed a little.

Kagome got away from her older brother and slightly ran over to Mai. "See what you did Shibuya? You're making her nervous, she's even bleeding!" she put her hands up exasperation. Mai quickly wiped the blood away and looked down.

"I'm not hiding anything, Naru." She fiddled with her fingers. She could feel a glare on her, but for some reason she got angry and looked at him directly in the eye.

"I'm not going to tell you anything and even if I was hiding something I wouldn't tell you, Naru!" Her face was red with anger and she stomped out of the room, leaving a very surprised Naru behind. In fact, they were all surprised at her sudden outburst. Only one person actually snickered.

'Mood swings' Bou-san thought to himself.

~////~

After Mai had stormed out of the room, Naru ordered the rest of the team to either take the temperature of the rooms or to see if they could feel anything around the mansion. Naru had sat down thinking hard.

He had composed his outer appearance, but inside he was very surprised and confused. Something was definitely wrong. Either Mai was really angry or she is on her period. He thought a little more profoundly and realized that she was showing symptoms of pregnancy.

His eyes widened slightly at that thought. Could Mai really be pregnant?

'No, that's not possible…right?' He thought a little miserably. If she was in fact pregnant…then that would mean that the child that was growing in her womb would be his.

'Unless…it's that of another man…' as soon as that thought crossed his mind he felt a surge anger rise up to his throat. He made a mental note, the most important one at the moment, to ask her about it. Because if she was in fact with child, there would be two problems; finding out whom the father was. And the spirit haunting this house would target her with even more reason.

He almost let out a groan, but suppressed it. No one had noticed his troubled look, which only stayed visible on his face for a couple of seconds before it reverberated back to its original emotionless self, except for Lin.

He then decided to ask Naru what was wrong after he got some time alone with him. He had a feeling it was something to do with Mai because it was only with her that his young boss showed emotion or did something out of the ordinary.

~////~

Mai sat down on a chair in the kitchen and sighed. She thought about the information Madoka had shared with them and couldn't help but feel angry at Kyoshi. How could he do that to Isabella?

A maid had stepped into the kitchen and asked if she had wanted anything. Mai shook her head with a slight smile and watched the maid excuse herself out.

She sat there, focusing on a spot on the wall, yet not concentrating on it. From the corner of her eye she saw something pass by the kitchen door. Mai blinked and dismissed it as her imagination.

She got up, poured water in a tea kettle, and set it down on the stove. Again she spaced out as she waited for the water in the kettle to boil. Before Mai realized what was happening, she noticed that she could see her breath. She hugged herself as the coldness of the room made its way under her skin.

She looked around and had a very bad feeling about her surroundings. The brunette could feel the hairs on the back of her neck stand up and she swirled around faster than she had intended and knocked over the tea kettle with her hand. She winced and gritted her teeth at the burning pain on the back of her hand and looked ahead, not wanting to be surprised by a spirit or otherwise.

Not seeing anything, Mai slowly made her way towards the entrance of the kitchen, cradling her hand trying to ease the pain.

She heard a noise coming behind her. As if someone were breathing hard. A shudder made its way up and throughout all of her body. Swallowing her fear, she turned around slowly. Her eyes met a horrifying sight.

There stood Kyoshi. Blood running down his face, some dripping off the knife in his right hand, his eyes a frightening shade of red, and his clothes torn as if he had just come running from the woods.

He looked at her with a murderous glare. His breathing was heavy and profound. Kyoshi walked towards her, his steps small and slow.

Mai's eyes were as wide as saucers and she shook violently. Her mouth was dry and she felt her knees wanting to give away beneath her. Before she could register every sound right, she heard a piercing scream. Her mouth was wide open and felt the rumbling in her throat.

The scream belonged to her.

~Naru's POV~

I had gotten up and started going through the folders that Madoka and Lin had collected. I glanced at the cameras and for some reason I felt worried.

"Naru, what's wrong?" I heard Lin ask me from behind. I turned around to look at him only now noticing that we were alone. I struggled to answer him. I didn't know if I should tell him or not about what I thought was going on with Mai.

I looked at him and saw that his eyes and face were set. He wasn't going to ask me so nicely next time what was going on if I didn't tell him now. He would demand answers instead.

I sighed and sat down while looking at him. I made sure that my face was emotionless. Even if he was my babysitter due to my parent's decision, I didn't really like to show much expression to anyone. Including him.

"I think Mai…may be pregnant." I said quietly. To my surprise, my voice deceived my stoic facial expression and gave off a tone of worry. I averted my eyes from him and looked down at the floor. I heard him take in a sharp breath.

"What are you talking about? She is or you think she is?" He asked, almost as if scolding me. I looked up and met his eyes. They were showing different emotions, but the one that dominated was confusion.

"The latter. I'm not sure. I'm sure you've noticed that she's been acting strange or has that passed you by, Lin?" I asked, starting to get angry for some reason. I felt a slight pause from him.

"No. But what I want to know is if you both have had…relations. Naru, is that child yours?" He looked at me, demanding the answers to his questions. I looked up at him again.

"The answer to your first question is yes. To the second…I don't know. Besides, I'm not sure if she is pregnant. I'm just giving a possible solution to her strange behavior." I ran a hand through my hair and frowned slightly. For some reason I shunned the idea of knowing that Mai had relations with some other guy other than me. And the idea that the child in her womb was not mine and possibly his only made my blood boil with something worse than anger.

I knew Lin was going to want to know now everything had happened, but I wasn't going to tell him. Lin opened his as if to ask something but was interrupted when we heard a scream come from somewhere in the mansion.

I felt the blood in my face go down as I recognized the scream. I ran towards the cameras and looked for my assistant and saw a shadow coming from the kitchen. Before Lin could say something to me, I ran out of the Base and headed towards the kitchen.

'Mai!'

~Normal POV~

Mai started to back away from the frightening spirit in front of her. Her brain wasn't thinking straight and all she could do at that moment was move back.

She stumbled and fell back on her butt, knowing that she wouldn't have time to stand up and run out, she put her arms in front of her face and closed her eyes tightly as she saw Kyoshi's ghostly body looming over her. She let out a whimper.

The next thing she knew, she felt a stinging and hard pain on her right arm. She screamed out in pain and felt hot tears run down her cheeks.

Mai forced her eyes open and saw that Kyoshi was slicing and cutting her arm. She quickly put her arms down and backed away quickly, using her arms and hands despite the pain and the feel of her own blood running down her hand and onto the floor. She couldn't stop the tears running down her cheeks and screamed as she saw that Kyoshi continued to advance towards her.

"Mai!" She heard someone scream from outside of the kitchen. She recognized the voice and felt a surge of relief.

"Naru! Help me! Please!" She cried out and tried her best to stand up, but failed as her arm gave away underneath her due to the blood.

She saw a small orb of yellow light zoom into the kitchen and recognized it as one of Lin's shiki. It began to attack Kyoshi and his ghostly body soon began to disappear with a scream. But Mai knew that he wasn't gone, he only fled.

Naru had stood there at the entrance once he saw Kyoshi. He snapped out of his temporary trance and ran over to Mai. He kneeled down beside her, not caring about getting his pants wet with blood, and hugged her tightly.

Mai was shaking and crying in his arms. It broke his heart to see her so shaken up, and the pool of blood around her and that running down her arm didn't make him feel any better.

He stroked her hair and rubbed her back while holding her gently but firmly. Lin stood in front of them, not knowing what to make of the blood. He turned around as he heard running footsteps coming towards the kitchen.

The S.P.R team and the twins stood at the entrance and gawked at the scene in front of them. Bou-san pushed through the others and knelt on the other side of Mai.

"What the hell happened to her, Naru?" He asked both worried and furious at the same time. Naru glared at him, not caring about answering him and he turned over to Lin.

"Get the van ready. We're taking her to the hospital." He barked at his older assistant and helped Mai stand up. She had stopped crying, but she was still shaking.

The others made way for them and watched them go out the front door. Once they reached the front door, Lin told the others, except Bou-san, to stay and closed the door as to prove that he meant it.

~////~

"How is she?" Naru asked while looking through the small window in the door. The doctor sighed.

"She was here this morning wasn't she? The cut was clean, so she has no infections and it won't scar up. Though I did tell her to take care of herself, the loss of blood she suffered last time and that of now is not good for the child. Luckily, nothing serious happened. I already told her to be more careful. Because if she loses blood again…I won't know what will happen to her baby. I would like to keep her under a one night surveillance, just to be sure that both her and the baby will be fine to leave tomorrow." The doctor informed him and patted Naru's shoulder when he saw that his eyes were wide and his expression slightly surprised.

"Are you the father of her child?" the doctor asked him. Naru looked at him and without a word went inside Mai's room and shut the door behind him.

'So I was right. She is pregnant…' He thought to himself as he looked at the brunette on the bed. Mai in turn, looked up at him and quickly looked down at her hands when she saw his eyes. They were cold.

She opened her mouth and was going to ask what was wrong, but Naru beat her at talking.

"Why didn't you tell me?" He whispered fiercely, afraid that if he talked normally he would scream at her. He looked down at her waiting for the answer.

Mai's eyes widened and she gritted her teeth. She didn't dare meet his gaze, afraid that she would freeze underneath it.

"So you already know…" She let it her words hang, and put a hand over her stomach. Naru couldn't tell if she stated it or if she asked.

"Why didn't you tell me, Mai?" He half asked, half screamed. He moved her chin up, leaving her no choice but to make her look at him.

"The child is mine. Isn't he?" He forgot about the previously asked question and looked at her, demanding answers. Mai couldn't breathe and knew that if she didn't say anything, he would find out either way.

"Y-yes. He is." She couldn't stop the tears that came running down her cheeks and onto Naru's hands. Naru let go of her chin, surprised and somehow relieved at her answer, though he didn't quite know how to take it.

Mai covered her face and sobbed quietly. She felt the bottom part of her bed sink down and knew that Naru had sat down. She didn't want to look at him for fear that he would tell her that he would have nothing to do with her or her baby.

"Mai…" He whispered and placed a hand over her head. If Mai had looked at him at that time, she would've seen how his eyes grew soft and gentle.

"Why didn't you tell me?" He whispered softly. At that question, Mai shook a little more and Naru knew she had begun to cry more.

The door to the room opened and Bou-san went in followed by Lin. They looked at both teenagers trying to figure out what was happening.

Mai looked up at them, her eyes red and watery. Bou-san walked over to her and hugged her. Mai whispered something so low that only Bou-san heard. His eyes widened and he looked over at the raven haired boy whose face was now stoic.

"We need to talk." Bou-san said to Lin. Mai pulled on his sleeve. And Bou-san shook his head.

"It's inevitable, Mai. He will have to know other than Naru and I." He informed her. Naru narrowed his eyes at the monk.

"You mean you knew about this, monk?" He asked Bou-san icily. The said monk merely nodded. This angered Naru. How could Mai tell the monk about her situation and not him? He was after all the father of her baby.

"Naru, is Mai actually…" Lin let the question hang and Naru nodded. Lin looked at both teenagers not sure what to make of the situation.

It seemed amazing to him that a mere possibility was true. What would Naru's parents think of this? And what of Naru? Would he take care of both Mai and her child?

Naru stood up from the bed and looked at the monk intently. He clenched his hand into a fist and gritted his teeth.

"Hey monk, like you said. We need to talk. Will you let go of Mai now?" He asked a little harshly with a stoic face.

~////~

"Well?" asked an irritated monk while looking at the stoic boy in front of him. Lin was looking in between both of them, not quite sure if he should ask questions or to leave it all to Bou-san.

"Can you please explain to me why Mai told you instead of me, Takigawa-san?" Naru looked at Bou-san with the coldest glare he could muster. He was clenching one of his hands into a fist so tightly that his knuckles were pale white.

It took Bou-san all he could not to flinch away from Naru. He sat up straight as if to send a silent message that he wasn't afraid of his glare and cleared his throat.

"Well, what else would she have done? I mean, you are going out with Masako, right? You know very well that Mai doesn't get in the way of people and their relationships. And that's the reason she told me instead of you. Though, she never told me the name of the father. It surprised me as much as you and Lin when I put two and two together." Bou-san replied firmly with a trace of fury towards the boy.

Naru looked down at the floor. He was mentally slapping himself for forgetting about his "relationship" with Masako. It had never occurred to him that something of this scale would happen. He knew he should've ended that so-called relationship with Masako and told everyone the truth. Who knew that his secret would come to hurt Mai without her knowledge of it?

It took Naru a lot of self-control not to stand up and punch the wall behind him. Better yet, to go back to the mansion and torture the spirit in the worst way possible. Lin could see his young boss's struggle and went over to him. He laid a hand on his shoulder, only to be shrugged off by Naru.

"What are you planning to do now that you know, Naru?" Bou-san asked him, his voice now calm. Naru looked up at him not knowing what to say. What was he planning to do? "Break up" with Masako and tell everyone the truth and risk being hated by Mai for deceiving them?

"First things first, we have to get Mai out of that mansion. You know what happened to one of the servants that were working there. She was pregnant. The spirit was already attacking Mai for her resemblance to Isabella. I won't risk her or the baby to that...thing." Naru almost spit in disgust after he referred to Kyoshi by saying "thing".

Both the monk and Lin agreed with him. Mai had already been twice in the hospital in less than two days. They didn't want to see her there again with the possible news that the child had not survived.

All three of them were interrupted while planning where to take Mai by the doctor that had attended the young brunette.

"Excuse me. My patient wants to talk to someone by the name of Naru. She said that it was urgent." He said a little concerned. Naru had stood up when he realized that the doctor was talking about Mai and left as soon as the word "urgent" came out of the doctor's mouth.

He almost ran to her room but resisted that urge and quickly yanked the door open to her room. He looked over at the bed and almost went into a frenzy as he didn't see her there.

"Naru." He heard his name being called. Naru turned his head up and saw that she had come out of the bathroom. Naru silently let out a sigh of relief and composed himself. He was going to ask her what she had wanted him for, but stopped once he saw that the bandage on her arm was gone and that blood was sliding down slowly.

"Why the hell did you take the bandage off for, Mai?" Naru asked the petite girl not five feet from him whilst making his way over to her.

Mai didn't do anything as he pulled her into the bathroom and watched him look for the bandage. After about a minute of watching him look around the bathroom, she pulled his hand and stood in front of the mirror. Earlier she had noticed that she was paler than the previous day and new it was because of the blood loss. Her eyes were also kind of puffy from crying that afternoon.

"Naru, look at this." Mai whispered while washing off the blood from her arm and raising it up in front of the mirror. Naru didn't know what she wanted him to look at until he saw her eyes switch from him and quickly back into the mirror.

He turned his gaze over to the mirror and saw what she wanted him to know. The cuts on her arm weren't just any cuts. They formed words. And those same words made Naru's feelings mix in between anger, confusion, and worry.

"Not alone..." Mai whispered softly.

WOW. Yes I know I promised a very long chapter, but I also knew that you guys were getting impatient. So I decided to do this. It's shorter than the rest. I'm sorry! Please don't kill me!

I realize that it sucks. But it's the best I could do. I thought that if I waited until further for Naru to find out, I would get writer's block again. But don't worry, from this small chapter I got ideas for the next to come. ^.-

I also realized that Naru and Lin seem a little out of their characters, but if you think about it, finding out that you're going to be a parent or a sort-of-Uncle, can most probably do that to you. Lol.

Oh right. One last thing. I just wanted to let you guys know that there was a short time skip in between the first time Mai went to the hospital that morning and the arrival of Madoka which took place in the afternoon. When Mai arrives to the hospital again it's like around 6 p.m., or evening you could say. Sorry about that. I didn't realized I had sent Mai to the hospital twice, but what else would I have done? I'm making my story full of tense things I know, but hey, it makes for a good read, doesn't it? ^-^

Well! I hope you guys liked this one! And I hope you'll continue reading and as I said before. Any ideas? Don't hesitate to PM me or to tell me through reviews. ^-^