A giggle leaves me as I fall on my backside once again. Naru sighs, but I see the mirth dancing in his eyes as he helps me off the floor. He yanks me up gently.

"Is it even possible to be that stupid?" A whispered voice comes from my right. I turn to see one of the girls whispering to her friend and pointing at us (or more specifically, me).

I turn back towards Naru while trying to push down the angry and embarrassing blush. Why couldn't they just leave us alone? I'm not bothering them.

"Ignore them, Mai." Naru says in an undertone. I look up in to his midnight blue eyes to see him staring down at me with a steady but (surprisingly) gentle gaze. My bangs flop out from behind my ear, and Naru reaches up and tucks them back in, "It really isn't that hard when you understand the movements." My heart drops as Naru turns me around and places himself behind me.

No way.

Naru was doing the flirty "let-me-show-you-how-it's-done" thing that happens all the time in movies! Is he trying to make me die from over blushing?!

What a way to go.

'Well, at least I'd approve.' Gene's voice, drowning in mirth, bounces around in my head.

'Go away!' I hiss back, and push him behind a wall so I can't hear his voice.

Naru hands me my small brown bowling ball and places my fingers in the correct holes. Instead of speaking, he just pulls me closer and practically melds his body to mine. He grabs my hand, and in one single motion, swings it behind us and then grabs my hand so I let go of the ball at the perfect moment. The bowling ball rolls forward until it connects with the very first one and all of the bowling pins fall down.

"No way!" I yell excitedly. I turn towards Naru (who had noticeably backed up) and do a little happy dance that consists of me moving my hips in a back and forth motion with my hands going the same way.

The corner of Naru's mouth lifts, "Idiot." I grin at him as he picks up his ball and moves toward the lane. I sit at the table and watch his nearly perfect frame as he bowls.

He's changed since he went to England. I don't mean that he's suddenly really nice and super happy (his name is Oliver, not Eugene), but he's just different. Before, Naru wouldn't have even thought of allowing me to come to work (as weird as that may sound), but he would have said no and it would have been the end of the discussion. On top of that, Naru wouldn't have thought about coming bowling with me. He would have just stayed close to the building and he would have been back exactly an hour later. And, to top it all off, Naru would have never thought about being in any type of intimate position with me, much less anybody. So yeah, I'd say he changed. However, I wonder what made him change?

—

"Shibuya-san!" Karura-san calls as we're walking in to the newly bought SPR building. She completely ignores me and walks straight to Naru, who had held the door open for me, "I need you to look over the designs I came up with for the building.

Naru raises an eyebrow, but follows her to the front desk. I follow behind him and murmur, "It's a three story building, and the very top of the building is apartments. What could she possibly do to two floors?" Naru doesn't acknowledge me, but I know he heard.

Karura-san explains how she'll style the office and the front desk and how she wants to take the apartments apart and put it as a room for the equipment. Then with a flirty smile towards Naru, she says, "I'll leave you to think about it. If you need to make any changes, just mark it with this red marker." She places a marker with a red cap on the blue print before walking off with a jerky hip motion that I'm sure was supposed to look sexy.

"Mai." Naru says, staring down hard at the blue prints, "What do you think?"

I walk next to him where Karura-san was, and glance at the blue prints. I point to the very top flor, "I think you should leave the apartments. You and Lin live there, and now that the entire building is bought, there's extra rooms. You could probably take down all those walks and make it in to make shift homes for the two of you. Then Lin and Madoka can probably move in together." I move to the second floor, "I think you should take down the wall that separates you and Lin's office, and make that one large office for him. Then you could probably take down the kitchen, and you can move your book shelves and other things where my desk is, but leave the couches so you and Lin could still interview clients."

Naru's silent for a moment, before he picks up the marker and begins marking all of the changes I said. However, instead of pushing down all of the apartments, he just pushes down two on Lin's side, while adding enough rooms to make it a two bedroom apartment with a bathroom and a kitchen. Then he moves down to the bottom floor and scratches out all of the changes that Karura-san made.

By the time he's done, the building looks beautiful, from what I can see.

"You should've been an architect." Naru comments, looking over the changes.

I smile at him from my position. I was leaning on the desk, "No, I don't think so. I like my job."

The corner of his mouth lifts up slightly, before it drops as the click and clank of Karura-san's heels echo throughout the office. She smiles at him (once again, 'flirty') and looks over the blue prints. Her eyes widen as she sees all of the red marks all over the page.

"Y-You didn't like the changes I made?" Karura-san asks, the shock painfully apparently in her voice.

"No." Naru says, his voice cold, "I didn't. It appears that my secratary, who had no experience in your field what so ever, knows how to do your job better than you do. If you'd spend a little more time going over your client files and less time staring at my face, then you'd know what I wanted." He tosses her a glare, before walking towards the elevator for the office. I smile at the scowl that she's throwing my way. With a nearly inaudible giggle, I follow after the black haired professor.

"So you've been with Noll everyday since the construction began?" Madoka asks as she walks along side me up to the apartments. At my nod, she shakes her head, "Well, why?"

"Madoka, you never gave me a day off." I say, my annoyance at her constant badgering shining through my words, "I don't even know what todo in my free time after work anymore."

Madoka snorts, "Yeah. Sure. More like you wanted to spend the day with the man you're in love with."

I blush, and then glare at her, "Shut up, boss." She laughs but continues to follow me in to the elevator and up to Naru and Lin's office. Naru is standing there with Lin, and I can hear the end of their conversation.

"You haven't bowled since you were in high school, Noll." Lin looked surprised.

I grin, "I don't understand why, though." They both look at us as we walk up to them, "He's an excellent teacher."

Naru glares at me, and Lin gives a small grin. Madoka laughs, "I bet he is."

We all strike up a conversation (more like Madoka and I) until the rest of the team shows up. Masako doesn't say anything, but I can tell she likes it by the way she gives me a small smile. Yasu and Monk loudly praise it and Ayako gushes about the new couches. John just simply says he likes it.

"But wait a minute," Yasu says, breaking everyone out of their revere, "What about you, Mai? Where are you going?"

"On the first floor, of course." I say with a smile, "I am the secretary."

"How is Naru-bou gonna survive without your tea?!" Monk yells suddenly, making Masako and I jump slightly.

"Simple." Naru says, "I won't."

Everyone's silent for a moment before Ayako speaks up, "Um, you're going to make Mai go up in the elevator several times a day just to bring you tea?"

"Of course not." Naru says cooly, "I do pay her to work, not travel back and forth." Naru stands and opens a small door right next to his desk, "I had them install dumbwaiter."

Everyone's quiet, and they all look at me waiting for my reaction. My jaw drops, "That's why you installed a kitchen next to my desk?!" Naru smirks, and I groan, "Idiot tea-loving scientist!"

Walking in to work the next day was certainly interesting. I don't just go to the elevator like I've done millions of times for the four years that I've been working with this company.

I sit down at the overly large desk that is seated next to the elevator and I boot up my computer. The black phone rings, and I pick it up with a cheerful, "Hello. Thank you for calling Shibuya Psychic Research. This is Mai speaking, how may I help you?"

"You should pay more attention to the phone, Mai." Naru's smooth voice wafts through the black phone, "If you were paying attention, then you would know that the phone has an 'office one' and 'office two'. Another words, Lin and my own phones. Try not to be such an idiot, Mai."

I tighten my grip on the defenseless phone as anger boils in me, "Shut up, jerk. I just walked in!"

"I know." He says in a monotone, "Once again, if you'd pay more attention, then you would know that there are camera's that watch all three floors. Including the kitchen and elevator."

I growl audibly, "What do you want, you idiot scientist?"

"Tea." He says, before hanging up the phone. I shriek. He's such a jerk!

'But he's a jerk you love.' Gene's voice says, filled with love and laughter. He's laughing at me too!

'Oh, shut up, stupid medium.' I bite back, and he laughs loudly.

About an hour later, the door chimes and I look up to see a group of teenagers in high school uniforms walk in. Two female and three males. I greet them with a smile, "Hi. Welcome to Shibuya Psychic Research. Do you have an appointment?"

"Listen lady," one of the women start, "Just tell your boss we're here and—"

"How about you tell me if you have an appointment or not." I tell her, narrowing my eyes at the disrespectful teenager, "We don't accept clients that do not know what manners are, little missy."

She turns red and one of the boys behind her laughs, he sneers at the girl, "I guess even strangers are tired of your shit, Miki."

"Excuse her, please." A boy with glasses says, stepping forward and taking my hand in his. His gives me a meaningful glance that I'm sure was supposed to be some type of flirting technique, but he looked like he had something in his eyes.

The desk phone rings, and I see that the 'Office 2' is flashing, indicating that Lin is calling me. I glare at tell group of teenagers, and pick up the phone, "Yes?"

"Send them up. You come up too. Lock the door." Was all Lin said before hanging up the phone.

I sigh and hang up the phone, simultaneously pressing the button underneath my desk that locks the front doors electronically. I stand from my chair and walk towards the elevator. After it opens and I step in, I wait for the group of teenagers to get the picture. They all seem to get it and they follow me in to the elevator.

The ride up is awkward, to say the least.

The door bings, and it opens to Naru sitting on the couch beside Lin. I walk over and sit down next to Naru, who casts me a side glance before looking at the teenagers, "Sit."

They all move towards the couch and they sit down. I stare at the disrespectful girl (Miki) from earlier. She avoids my gaze and continues to look down. She should. Bitch.

'Now, now, Mai.' Gene's says, his voice full of mirth and false reprimand, 'Don't get angry at the poor little girl.'

'That poor little girl makes me angry,' I silently seethe, 'She better be lucky I'm on the clock.'

'Oh hush up, Mai.' Gene laughs, 'You wouldn't hit her. You're too nice for that.'

I mentally roll my eyes, 'Shut up and leave me and my empty threats alone, Gene.'

"Explain to me why I shouldn't throw you out of my building right now." Naru says coldly, glaring at every single student, "Not only do you not have an appointment, but you rudely spoke to my secretary."

Joy fills me at the fact that Naru is defending me, in his own 'I-own-her' way. It was sweet and made me happy… even if it was just because I'm his secretary.

"We just really needed to talk to you, sir." The second girl says in a quiet and shy voice, "Miki may have gone about it the wrong way—" the only people that ignore my snort are my coworkers, "—but she's just really worried about our school."

"Our school has always been a popular place for ghost stories and things like that." The boy from earlier (the one who tried to 'flirt') says with a flourish, "I remember when I was a first year that we were all told the ghost stories."

"How does any of this pertain to us?" Naru asks.

"We believe our school is actually haunted." The snarky guy from earlier says.

"I'd think my school is haunted too if I was told stories about it being haunted since I entered the school." I snap, still annoyed with the 'Miki' girl from earlier. She looks up at me with a glare and I glare back. She shrinks in to the couch.

Yeah! I learned to glare from the best.

"She does produce a good point." The last boy says quietly. I look at him, I'd forgotten there was three boys. This one looked older than the rest, and he had silver hair and very dark eyes. He sounded very proper, but not proper like Naru. Naru's just mean about it. It sounded like this guy was only speaking like this because that's how he knows. Like it's all he's only ever known.

"I'm sorry," I say softly, leaning forward towards him, "You never told me your name." He seemed like he was… the little brother type. He was quiet.

"I'm Shuto." He says so quietly it's almost a whisper. He wasn't looking at me, but he was leaning forwards, as if acknowledging me, "Shuto Hakashi."

I stretch out a hand, "Mai Taniyama." He reaches forward and gently takes his hand in my much smaller one. After a gentle shake, he let's go.

"You still haven't explained why you are all here." Naru says, his normally monotone voice not to… monotone. He was agitated.

I mentally roll my eyes. He's just annoyed because he hasn't had fresh tea in an hour. Stupid tea loving narcissistic idiot scientist.

"Odd things will happen around our school." Miki says, "At first it was just our skirts going missing from the locker room or something, so we thought it was the boys' playing some type of stupid prank, but then it got worse. All of the mirror in the girls' locker rooms and bathrooms would be broken and then the toilets would over flow and eventually it became a hazard for us to even go in to the bathroom."

"This only happened in the girls' restroom?" Naru asks, the familiar gleam in his eyes that I'm used to seeing by now. Madoka has the same gleam when a case interests her.

"Not exactly." The other girl says.

"Explain." Naru commands.

"It's happened all over the school," The first boy says, "But it seems to only happen to girls."

"That's why there are three boys compared to the two girls." I say quietly, and all five of them nods.

Naru glances at me from the corner of his eyes. I look up at him and silently beg, 'Take the case.' He raises an eyebrow, as if contemplating my silent plea. He sighs, "We'll take your case, but I warn you now, don't disrespect any of the people on my team, or we will no longer be at your service."

"Yes, of course." Miki says, smiling at the dark haired man.

"Give all of your information to my secretary." Naru says before turning to me, "Mai—"

"Yeah yeah." I roll my eyes, "I already know."

Naru is the first in the school with Lin and John as Madoka and I stay outside. We'd asked everyone else to stay home so that it would be less female to watch. I wonder why they didn't just make us stay as well, and all the men go solve the case.

"I know what your thinking, Mai." Madoka says, a fond smile on her face, "I can read you like an open book, you know."

I laugh awkwardly, "Yeah, I know."

She shakes her head, "If you're thinking what I think you're thinking, then yes, it is a bit odd for them to bring us if females are at high risk. If you think about it though, both you and I are admittedly stubborn. Do you really believe you would have listened if Naru told you to stay home and let the men do the work?"

I grin, "Not likely."

She nods, "Exactly. Naru knows you're too damn stubborn for that. Lin also knows I'm too stubborn as well."

I give her smile, "But that's why he loves you."

She laughs, "Yes, I suppose."

"Mai, Madoka." John says, walking over with a smile. He smiles, "Kazuya said for us to bring in the equipment." Both Madoka and I nod, before grabbing some boxes and beginning to follow John.

As we walk down the hallway, people turn to look. Everyone was watching as we all walked down the hallways and in to the room that we've been provided for base. I was used to this by now. Whenever we had a case that people seemed to be around for, everyone liked to be curious about it.

As I'm setting up the shelves for the monitors, Naru and Lin begin to interview some of the students. They all pretty much say the same thing as those five kids did in the first place.

"Mai!" Madoka yells, and my head jerks up in time to see the shelf fall over. I duck my head and wait for the impact. The pain never comes, though.

I look up to see Shuto Hakashi holding up the shelves with one hand. I smile and stand up as he pushes them back in place. I turn towards him, "Thank you, Hakashi-san." I say cheerfully.

He nods once, "You're welcome Taniyama-san." He was nearly as tall as Lin, dammit. I don't understand how a high school kid could be this tall!

"Mai." Madoka says, walking over to us, "Are you alright? You should be lucky that Naru and Lin are out right now, otherwise you'd be getting a scolding for not being more careful." I look around to see that Naru and Lin are in fact gone. John was reading a book and hadn't realized I was nearly hurt. Good thing. I really do like John, but he's some what of a tattle tail. He'd have told that jerk-face.

I laugh awkwardly, "Uh, well, Madoka, this is Shuto Hakashi. He comes to school here." Madoka offers him a polite smile and he nods.

"Do you need any help?" He asks quietly, his very deep voice sounding odd with his quiet demeanor.

I bite my lip before answering, "Well, there's some more supplies in the van that I'd like some help with."

Hakashi nods and turns to walk out of the room. I wave to Madoka (who gives me a sneaky smile) and leave the office.

Before I know it, both Hakashi and I have everything set up in the base. Naru doesn't seem to mind that I have the silver haired boy helping us because he doesn't say anything.

"Do you play sports?" John asks Hakashi, sitting down on the couch next to me. Hakashi was sitting in a chair quietly, reading a book.

"I used to." Hakashi says, "But I was kicked out and now I'm in the chess club."

"But you're huge, Hakashi!" I exclaim, "You've got tons of muscle and you're at least six-two! Why'd they kick you out?"

"For a really stupid reason." Hakashi comments, and I get the feeling that he doesn't want to talk about this anymore. John apparently had the same feeling, because he changed the subject.

—

I place Naru's tea in front of him. All of the high schools have gone home and it's surprisingly late. I hadn't even realized what time it was until Naru ordered tea.

"Any theories yet?" I ask Naru, leaning against the desk that he was sitting at.

He glances up at me before looking back down at the computer and his little black notebook, "A few."

'That's all I'm going to get from him.' I think.

'Not nessisarily.' Gene tells me, 'Give him your opinion.'

'How do you know I have an opinion?'

'I'm permanently in your mind, Mai.' Gene says matter-of-factly, 'Plus, I've been knowing you for nearly four years now. You're like the little sister I never had. I know you defiantly have an opinion.'

I sigh, "Do you think it's maybe a male spirit who is getting back at all of the girls around him because they never noticed him while he was alive?"

Naru looks up at me fully now, "It's defiantly a possibility."

I bite my lip, "It could probably also be a spirit who has a dislike for other females. Most likely a female. She would have probably had a boyfriend who would have left her for another girl. So she created an instant dislike for anyone else who spoke to her ex-boyfriend. Somehow, all of these girls came in to contact with the same guy, and now they're all being terrorized."

Naru was leaning back in his chair now. His arms were crossed over his wide chest, and I could see the mark on his neck again. What is that? It can't be a tattoo. Naru couldn't have got a tattoo. It's just… it's Naru!

"You're a lot more perceptive than you used to be." He comments in the same matter-of-fact tone that Gene had used not five seconds ago.

I smile down at him, "Blame Madoka." He raises an eyebrow, but I see the corner of his mouth lift up. He's been doing that a lot more lately. Letting the small smiles drift just slightly above the surface of his mask. It's not much, but it's enough. The more I see of the real Naru, the more I fall.

"Noll." Lin calls. Naru stands and I follow to the monitors that Lin are watching. Lin turns up the volume on the camera and I hear it as well.

"Vade contra eum!" A female voice shouts.

"What language is that?" Naru asks Lin.

"It's Latin." I tell Naru, "I think it means… 'Stay away from him.' But if this is a high school girl, why would she be speaking in Latin?"

"Maybe it's not a high school girl." Naru says, "Mai, call Yasuhara and have him research the history of this school building."

"On it." I say, pulling out my cell phone and dialing Yasu.

"Hey Mai." Is Yasu's tired reply.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Did I wake you up?"

"Nah. I'm study for my test that's coming up soon." He yawns.

I laugh, "Alright, well, do you wanna take a break from that?"

"What you got for me, boss?" Yasu says excitedly, probably happy to be pulled away from all that studying.

"We're at Hakitori High School. I need you to research the school and find out if anything at all happened with some type of girl who spoke Latin." As a side note, I add, "She would have been dumped by a man who's descendants might be alive today."

"Gotcha boss. I'll get on it now."

"Thanks Yasu." I hang up.

John and Madoka are siting on the couch and going through an old year book. I walk over to them and curl up by Madoka. She grins at me and pats her lap. I rest my head on my teacher's thigh, and then I'm out like the light.