"What do you think of her Lin?" The younger man asked as they sat once again in their hotel room.

"She's Japanese." Lin, the elder of the two, replied. The younger man rolled his eyes.

"Well observed."

"I fail to see how she will be of any use."

"As cover." The younger man explained. "Anyone looking at her won't suspect a thing. And if anything goes wrong, no one will miss her."

"That's true, Noll." Lin said quietly. "Who does she think we are?"

"Private investigators. I've set the office up as such." Noll said and Lin nodded.

"She's your responsibility then."

"I know."

It was only when I got home that I really thought about the gun. No one in Japan had guns. Well farmers did for hunting and the police did. But for an ordinary citizen to get one was nigh on impossible.

After some research on the internet, I found out that handguns – like the one he had had – weren't allowed to be owned by citizens at all, just some rifles and shotguns. In the process, I found out a lot about gun laws and the process of applying for a permit – it looked like a lot of effort.

I also searched for his company Shibuya Private Research, but there was nothing. So unless it was new, did it really exist?

After eating dinner, I continued my search, but suddenly I was finding results where my previous criteria had proved fruitless.

It was like a website for his business had appeared out of nowhere sometime during the twenty minutes or so that I was away from my laptop.

There was a picture of the building, directions to the office, an 'About' section, a contact form, a little about Shibuya Kazuya – though no picture – and then the option to see the entire website in English as well. The whole thing was very professional. Frowning, I sat back in my chair and read the paragraph about him.

Shibuya Kazuya has been a lead investigator for three years, and prominent within the field before that. Despite his young age, he and his team have solved every case taken without fail. Specialities include missing persons and unsolved murders.

And that was it. It wasn't exactly illuminating, though exactly what I expected of that narcissistic jerk.

But why had the webpage not been there before? Surely even if it had been down for maintenance, there would be some other record of it?

I returned to the search results. There were now several reviews of this place, some dating months back and all of them were positive.

Sighing, I shut down my laptop, and headed to bed. Something wasn't right, I could feel it.

Tuesday flew by and before I knew it, I was packing up my bag to head to his office. I hadn't told Michiru and Keiko were I was going, just in case, I didn't want them getting hurt.

Though I did feel a little more confident about going myself, I knew he had a gun that he was almost certainly not allowed. If I told the police, he'd be in a lot of trouble. I knew this was hardly leverage over him, but this knowledge might give him reason to pause – or alternatively, prevent him from hesitating pulling the trigger.

As I left the main school building, I passed a couple standing near the remains of the old school building. The man looked to be in his mid-twenties with very light brown hair, possibly a foreigner? It was hard to tell from this distance. The woman looked to be of the same age and had obviously dyed red hair but I couldn't see her face as she was speaking conspiratorially with the man.

I only realised I had slowed down to watch them when the man seemed to spot me. Nervously, I looked away and picked up the pace; starting towards the address on the back of the business card.

I had tried to protest yesterday that I doubted I would be able to get there for 4pm, and looking at the time, my suspicions were correct.

Even if he was a private investigator though, what on earth could I help him with?

It was yet another reason to doubt his story.

I arrived at 4:10pm, not too bad really. My heart was pounding against my ribcage as I ascended the stairs to his office. Words on the door read: S.P.R: Shibuya Private Research.

I knocked and entered. The office was minimalistic, a chair, two sofas and a coffee table, a small kitchen area and along the back wall were two doors, presumably leading to individual offices. There was a good view out of the window of the street below.

"You're late." His voice said. Naru was sat in a chair reading a little black book; he had not looked up upon my entry.

"Sorry, I tried to tell you yesterday that 4pm would be cutting it very fine but you'd gone."

"Do I have to search you?" He asked in an almost bored voice.

"What?!" I exclaimed.

"For wires? Bugs? Etc etc." The fact that he still hadn't looked up was starting to annoy me.

"Why would you have to do that? Especially if you are only a private investigator?" I tried to put as much scepticism into my voice as possible to show I wasn't falling for his little act.

"Do I have to search you?" He repeated, but before I could answer the door burst open.

"Geez! Why don't you ask her more politely?" The woman said as she entered. I recognised her; she was the woman from yesterday morning with the weird hair. But she was no longer scared and cowering, but standing tall and confidently. "When you ask someone for something, there's a thing called your tone of voice, you know?" She scolded Naru like I wasn't even there. "I keep telling you but you just don't have the ability to learn." Then she turned to me. "I'm sorry; this boy just doesn't know his manners." 'This boy'? Did this woman know that 'this boy' had a gun? I was sure she wouldn't be talking to him like that if she did!

"Madoka, would you please shut up? This conversation is going anywhere." Naru said, obviously iritated.

"Then please be more careful with the way you talk!" Then she finally introduced herself. "I'm Mori Madoka."

"How are you related to him?" I asked tentatively.

"I'm basically his teacher!"

"His teacher?" I asked incredulously. She taught him how to kill people?!

"I was the one who taught him about being a private investigator." She said cheerfully. I had to admit, her smile was slightly infectious, though Naru seemed immune to her charm.

"What?"

"I had him take you on because of my situation. I realise it's a bother, but thank you for helping him." And she bowed to me. I returned the bow. There was no way this woman was a killer. Was my initial assumption wrong? Was he really just an investigator who just didn't respect people's privacy and broke into their homes to snoop on people? Only now was I starting to doubt my original thoughts.

"You're too stupid to wire yourself and I know you haven't spoken to anyone else about this."

"You're scaring the girl!" Mori-san reprimanded. "He's only asking because we have to respect the privacy of our clients. Their privacy comes before all else you see!"

"Right…" I looked between the two people in front of me.

"Mai, tea." Naru said.

I saw Mori-san glare at him before speaking to me again.

"Don't make any for me, I was just popping by." And with that, she left.

I made tea with the things I found in the small kitchen area and brought Naru his beverage.

"She was woman yesterday morning. The one those two men were ganging up on." I said, breaking the otherwise very uncomfortable silence.

"Yes." He agreed.

"Why didn't you help her?"

"She is capable of dealing with such situations."

"But why was she in such a position in the first place?"

"She was gaining intel."

"And I stopped it." I suddenly felt rather guilty. But how was I to know?!

"Yes." He said and I waited for him to continue speaking, but he didn't. He merely kept reading his little black book.

"So what do you want me to do?" I asked apprehensively and he finally looked up.

"Filling." At my confused expression, he continued. "There is a box over there of files and tapes, I want you to alphabetise them and place them in that cabinet." He seemed incapable of keeping the patronising tone out of his voice.

"Aye sir!" I replied with as much sarcasm as I dared and turned on my heel to start my task.

"You are available at this time every day?"

"Yes." I replied as I opened the box.

"Good. And you are free at weekends?"

"Yes?"

"Then I expect you here." And with that, he stood up and walked into one of the two rooms leading off from the main, presumably his office. What?! Did he mean he wanted me here all the time?! Was this some perverse way of him stopping me from telling anyone what was happening? By working me to death?

"But I need time to do my homework!" I protested. He paused at the door.

"Judging from your test scores, I did not think you did homework."

"Hey!" I squawked. "That's mean!"

But he had already entered his office and closed the door.

Author's note: So in the past 4 days I have watched the entire Ghost Hunt anime 3 times. I really need to get a life. Thank you everyone for your reviews, favourites and follows! They mean so much! Please review and tell me what you think of the story so far, any predictions you may have etc etc! I love hearing from you all :)