A/N: Wow, thank you all again so much for your reviews. Every single one made my day. And this chapter came out faster than I had expected because I was inspired… I now own Ghost Hunt, Vol. 10. Yup, y'all heard me right. Of course, it's in Japanese, so I don't understand it, but… still. :)

Disclaimer: If I owned Ghost Hunt, the English DVDs would be out already, and Madoka and Lin would have already been married.

Is this home?
Is this what I must learn to believe in?
Try to find
Something good in this tragic place
Just in case
I should stay here forever

Chapter 3: Home

There was absolutely no way this was the master of the house. For one, he seemed barely any older than she. His pale, heavily enraged, but handsome face kept her captivated. His raven hair matched his dark suit, which shrouded him even more in shadows. His figure towered over her, casting a wave of tension throughout the room. Everyone had gone silent.

The feature Mai noticed most were his eyes.

They were so cold. Colder than her walk here, more emotionless than she could have ever imagined. They bore straight into her soul, instantly eating away at her from the inside out. His eyes did not sparkle nor gleam, even with the moonlight reflected from the open windows. They merely shone a raw, unobtainable blue. Blank as a clean sheet of paper, harsh as nails across a chalkboard. Mai tried time and time again to rip their locked gaze away, but found she couldn't.

Why had her heart started pounding so?

"Are you just going to stand there? Didn't your father ever teach you it's rude to stare?" At his cynical tone and evident unkindness, Mai felt her nails dig deeply into her palms, her face steaming. The pain seemed to take away from his snappish behavior. She strained herself into a sharp bow.

"I-I…" She couldn't even bring herself to apologize. Why would she? "I'm Mai Taniyama. I've come to repay my family's debt."

"I know. I was the one who wrote your letter. And you're late, as well."

Mai's expression turned from rapt to offended within a matter of seconds. "I'm late?" she ground out, her words drenched with acidic fury. He seemed to not notice the blunt ax of his manners hacking away all of the comfort this new home and the servants within had posed for her.

"Yes, you're late. Was I talking too fast for you?" Shibuya's words were cut syllable by syllable, perfect diction coinciding with an even tone and quick wit.

Mai bit her tongue, feeling the rush of metallic, bittersweet tang bring her senses back. Her mind revved with indignant thoughts and emotions, each more vile than the last. This jerk… this conceited, overbearing, disrespectful…

"If you have nothing else to say, I suppose I must introduce myself. I am Kazuya Shibuya, master of Shibuya Manor. Taniyama-san, I see you have already met the… servants you will be working alongside."

Mai noted the small dip in his voice when he had mentioned his employees. He turned away from her, inadvertently giving her the perfect view of his stony profile. A glint of silver caught her eye, tucked away and nearly hidden in the inside pocket of his coat. Her eyes followed the sharp flash of light until his back was completely turned to her.

Mai grumbled under her breath. Her curiosity too much to restrain, she followed Shibuya eagerly out the room. She was going to figure out what he had in his pocket whether he liked it or not.

"So, um… what'll I do around here?"

"You'll do what I tell you to."

Mai froze in her tracks, rolling her eyes. So there was a 'Mr. Obvious' side to him, too. He continued to march – almost glide – easily down the carpeted, albeit dingy, hallways. She stared after him blankly for a few moments, refusing the pout to appear on her face, then hastily scurried after the master of the manor.

Mai shuddered at that title. How could this boy possibly be her boss? Sure, he seemed smart, he seemed composed, but wasn't this what masks were for? To impose a superior ranking?

"Care to specify?" she spoke out again, letting her tone show some irritation she had hidden since the letter had arrived at her doorstep less than a day ago. Again, Mai felt an icy shiver douse her back. It seemed so much longer than a day. A week, a month even, if that was possible. But she knew it wasn't true.

"If you need the direct details of your job, I suggest you ask Lin. He will be more helpful than I."

Mai scowled. Shibuya was one thing… Lin was another. She wasn't too sure if the clock really needed her to be asking questions every moment of the next however-many-years she spent here. She ran a hand though her knotted hair, finger-combing out the smaller tangles nervously. The fact that this was her new home hit her with full force again. Why—?

"If you insist on knowing, you will be doing many of the smaller jobs around this manor. The jobs that my current servants had not been able to do, due to their… common position. Cleaning up, making tea, helping me with daily chores… that is what your job will consist of, and maybe more."

His words evidently meant, 'You'll do that stuff I don't feel like doing and chores no one else can do because they're not human.'

"That's it?" Mai was unable to keep her thoughts from spilling out of her mouth. A smirk crossed the master's features, making Mai regret her words. The coppery flavor in her mouth again reminded her she had to keep quiet and mind her words. Inwardly, she scoffed at herself. Like that was ever going to happen.

"If you wish to include cleaning the windows—" he surveyed her diminutive form, than looked somewhat subtly up at the twenty foot windows placed along the hall, scowl mixing with the smirk ever so slightly "—and the endless rooms, be my guest."

Again he turned his back to her, but his slender arm rose to the inside of his coat. The silver spark she had seen! A flush of excitement burst forward in her chest as she craned her neck to see what it had been. As if expecting her to try and look, Shibuya turned father away from Mai and muttered something incomprehensible.

The silver flashed again. Mai rose on her tiptoes, desperately trying in vain to see what he held in his hands and what he wanted so critically to hide from her (prying) eyes. Mai leaned farther and farther forward, but Shibuya seemed to realize what she was doing kept turning the silver object away.

Mai leaned forward too far. With a high-pitched squeak and a thump as she landed on the dust-collector that could barely be called a carpet anymore, Shibuya finally turned back and peered down at her with what looked like a mirror clasped in his hands.

"If you wanted to see what I was holding, all you had to do was ask." She heard the smirk hidden, but obviously supposed to be heard, in his voice.

"Can I see it then? Please?" She managed to keep her voice barely above a growl.

"Yes, you can."

Shibuya continued to walk forward along the bleak hallways, making Mai blow up again.

"May I see the mirror? Please? Now?" Mai felt her heart surge angrily into her throat, beating heavily, but Shibuya gently placed the mirror into her hands.

"Don't break it," he said simply. Mai rolled her eyes. What she wouldn't give to make this guy suffer seven years of bad luck…

"I won't break it," she sighed resignedly, but as she looked down into it, she gasped.

There was no reflection.

"What the—? Is this some kind of trick?" Mai spluttered, shoving herself off the ground and waving the mirror in his emotionless face. Shibuya shook his head, raven hair falling in front of frozen cerulean eyes.

"Maybe it just thought you were too ugly to show up in the mirror. It shows my reflection perfectly."

He plucked the mirror from her hands and showed her. Yes, there his face was. Mai had a hard time choosing which of the two obnoxious faces she wanted to smack.

"You keep a mirror that you can only see yourself in?" Mai mocked him suddenly, thinking words were easier than violence, but that thought was getting harder and harder to prove. He merely raised one eyebrow, silencing her.

"Of course." His sly voice made Mai's emotions flare. Oh, cocky as well? This guy just had it all. Smarts, looks, attitude… and the money that let him act this way, and let him act any way he desired.

"And you carry it around with you?" Mai continued tentatively. Maybe he was just insane… or utterly infatuated with himself. She wasn't ruling out that possibility.

"Certainly. I don't want anyone stealing it," he sneered, tucking it back into his inside coat pocket. Mai snorted, crossing her arms and rocking back and forth, from heel to toe.

"Who would steal a mirror that doesn't show reflections except your own? Isn't that just a little pointless?" The blade of sarcasm cut easily though her voice and she stuck her chin out at him.

"One as naive as yourself would think." Shibuya again evaded her question with simplicity on the tip of his tongue. Her eyes now ached from the amount of eye rolls she had given this boy. Once more wouldn't hurt. Something needed to be done about his behavior. This upfront, sarcastic, intolerable… narcissist!

"Ugh, I don't know how I'm going to be able to stand living here, Naru!"

The nickname had merely fallen out of her mouth. Really, it did fit him, but that look on his face…

Before she could even blink, he turned toward her with a sharp intensity. "What did you say?" His cool tone had gone from collected to, if she was interpreting it right, anxious in a matter of seconds. Mai took several stumbling steps backwards, unsure of this response.

"Well… because you have that mirror and can only see yourself in it, I'm going to call you Naru-chan. Like narcissist. 'Shibuya-san' is too stiff." Mai shrugged half-heartedly with a lopsided grin on her face. "'Narcissist' isn't too far from your personality anyways, either." She added the last sentence under her breath, hoping newly proclaimed 'Naru' wouldn't hear it.

He hadn't. "Oh." The ice factor had returned to his voice. The smile dropped from Mai's features.

"Very well then, Mai. Now instead of slacking, go make some tea and bring it to my room. Lin will show you were both the kitchen and my room are. Don't be lazy," was his parting.

Mai stared blankly after him as he disappeared back into the shadows. She sighed heavily, coming to a final conclusion. This boy had no soul. Even now, the air seemed slightly warmer after he had left, and she felt only a 

little more comfortable. Mai hung her head and shuffled unceremoniously back into her given room, forgetting temporarily she had been given orders to fetch 'Master Naru,' she though bitterly, tea.

She felt so alone. She clasped her hands into a fist and set it under her chin, resting her head on top. She closed her eyes and, inhaling deeply, tried to find peace in herself for a moment and a home for her heart. Why could this be easy? Why could she just live a normal life? What was so wrong with an ordinary day?

For once in her life, she wanted a place where she belonged. A place where she was wanted and loved. A place that she could call her home. And yet fate continued to play her cruel tricks on Mai Taniyama's life. It was the way things were and always would be.

With a grave breath of air, she knew deep down she did not belong here, of all places. Home was…

His voice broke through the doors and rung clear in her ears, barking orders.

"Mai, where is my tea?!"

Mai keeled backwards onto the bed, her anger building. That arrogant, pompous, overbearing – oh, wait, she had used that one already – loathsome, egoist! Mai buried her face in her hands, on the brink of explosion. She let out her feelings with one, long, exasperated yell.

"RGH!!"

Home's a lie

A/N: Anyone recognize those lyrics? Come on, the song title's not that hard. It's from the Broadway musical of Beauty and the Beast and it's called (what else?) "Home." Big surprise there, huh? Anyways, I don't own that either. Now, please, I'm asking kindly, review! I love to hear feedback, good or bad! :)