woohoo! another chap! sorry i haven't updated in a while but i had exams this week but now im free! sorta...you see summer's here so i should be updating more, but i have several jobs this summer as well as a dance recital coming up and a week to spend at my grandparents but i should be able to upload a oneshot if i have time then lol oh and for those of you who may think this case is kinda of boring i expected that because...

1. Dai is a child's spirit he just doesn't have the power to cause too much mayhem

2. there are a lot of characters and Mai's interacting with many of them, which can lead to laughs, awkwardness, fluff, and boring parts but i can honestly guarantee you that you will not see the ending i have planned for this one coming but we are no where near finished lol

3. the most important one...MAI IS ALMOST NEVER ALONE ON THIS CASE! ever notice how Mai is almost always alone when some weird paranormal activity is going on? lol enjoy :D

Chapter 4-Understanding

August Day 3, 6:30 A.M.

"Mai? Mai!" a whisper awoke the petite brunette from her puzzling dream, as well as the sun and the force of some sort of shaking.

Groggily, Mai sat up and rubbed her eyes, recognizing the voice. "Setsuko? What's going on?" she asked, her eyes barely open, she glance at the clock. "It's 6:30."

It was only then did she see the tears threatening to spill over her roommate's eyes. "It's Wakana!" she whispered, her voice cracking. "Her body's been found!"

It took less than five minutes for Mai to be dressed and the two to run to the river, where many of the counselors and a few members of SPR were gathered. Mai found her charge talking with a man in police uniform. "Naru!" Mai ran up to him.

"And that's all you know?" Naru asked the man, ignoring his employee.

"That's right, Shibuya-san, there is no indication of any foul play, but if our autopsy analysis unit uncovers anything, we'll let you know." The man bowed and repeated the speech to Tamotsu.

"Mai." He finally turned to her.

"Naru, what happened?" Mai asked, seeing the crowd at the river's edge.

"Wakana!" Setsuko gasped, racing through the crowd to the small area blocked off by police tape.

"Setsuko, you have to stay back," a young man probably around nineteen said, grabbing her shoulder.

Naru waited a moment before even attempting to explain the situation to Mai. "Ever since Oscar went missing this summer, Tamotsu has had members of the police force, whom he is close to, come in and secretly patrol the woods. If they found any signs of the children, they were to report immediately to him, including when their bodies were found by the river. This morning, the most recent child to vanish, Wakana, washed up. The rest of our team and counselors are running the camp in case the children wake up. This is to be kept as quiet as possible."

Mai's eyes were wide with sympathy, she could only nod to her boss as she walked toward the small crowd and the body of the little girl. Ignoring the protests of her charge, she edged herself toward the police tape. She gasped.

There she was. The girl that looked like a miniature Mai, lay on the ground, eyes glazed over, a few sticks protruding through her pink shirt, rings of blood surrounding them. The girl's neck twisted in an ungodly position. Mai felt tears pricking her eyes, wanting release. "Riku, take Mai and Setsuko back to the camp. They've seen more than anyone should," Tamotsu taped his son's shoulder. He nodded and tried leading the two girls away.

Setsuko didn't move.

"Setsuko, come on," the nineteen year old boy from before urged, putting an arm around her shoulder, leading her away.

Setsuko had been given orders to stay in the main cabin with Hisako until she had calmed down, while Mai was sent to kitchen duty with the boy who helped Riku get Setsuko out of the scene. After breakfast was finished, Mai was washing dishes while the boy had been drying them, the perfect time for her to remember his name and do a little investigating of her own. "Arata-san, you have the same name as one of the boys who went missing this summer," she blurted out of the blue.

"Huh? Yeah, it's a little creepy, especially since he was in my kids' cabin. What about you? You look like an older version of Wakana-chan," he replied, swiftly putting away some of the pots.

"That is creepy, especially in my line of work. It's even creepier that the first body I've seen is a mirror image of me when I was her age," she added the last part softy, rinsing the plates.

"Wow, with everything you guys do, you've never found a dead body?"

"We've found dead bodies but the guys usually move us away because they're usually grotesque. And one time we found one on one of our cameras, but that doesn't really count. Plus they were never the bodies of children," Mai ranted, carefully washing each knife.

"Damn, and how old are you?" he teased, receiving a small smile from the girl.

"Seventeen," she chuckled, looking back at the knife, seeing her reflection. It reminded her. "Setsuko seemed really upset about Wakana."

"She and Wakana were pretty close. Setsuko doesn't have any siblings close by, she's the youngest and her older brother and sister are in college. I knew Setsuko from school and when we met Wakana for the first time this year it was scary how they looked alike. Not as much as you do, but before Setsuko had long brown hair, which is probably why the two became so close. Setsuko will never admit it out loud but Wakana was definitely her favorite camper. She somehow stayed strong when she first disappeared. Maybe she fooled herself into believing that maybe it was all a dream or that Wakana really had just gotten lost or whatever…"

The two had finished the dishes leaving Mai to think of one thing and one thing only. Whatever's going on here, it's not right. Something is just plain off…

"Nee, Naru, Lin told me you were in here, I brought you some te-" Mai had opened the door to their temporary Base only to find Naru in there. Standing there in his black pants and…

A white undershirt…

Needless to say Mai blushed. She had never seen that much skin on him before!

"Close your mouth, Mai, you'll attract flies," he said coolly, making her blood boil.

"I-I brought you tea." She placed the cup on the table next to her boss's files. She couldn't help but stare. "Um…Naru…Why are you changing your shirt in Base?"

"Riku-san decided it was a good idea to let the children have a water balloon fight…I was the prime target…" he finished, buttoning the last buttons on his shirt. "What do you want?"

Mai's shock and want to laugh, instantly changed to slight rage and annoyance. "Well, I came because I thought you wanted some tea, and I thought you might have wanted to hear about the dream I had last night. But maybe you'd rather try to figure out this case without even the slightest hint that my dreams have given you in the past! Maybe I should just go back to my job as a counselor instead of wasting my time!" She headed for the door.

"You had a dream?" he questioned, sitting down, and motioning her to sit in the chair across from him. "What happened?"

Mai sighed and relayed the events in her dream. Conveniently leaving out Dream Naru and just saying she heard herself telling her not to tell anyone but Naru about this dream. Leaving her charge to put on his thinking pose as she finished. "What do you think, Naru?"

It was about a moment and a half before he spoke. "I'm thinking either Dai or another one of the children's spirits is trying to contact you." He stood up. "Trying to tell you that you were right, there is something else at work here." He picked up one of his files.

Did Naru just admit that I was right about something? Is the world ending!

"I also think that if you have anymore encounters or dreams you should report them to me in private." he finished, Mai couldn't help but think how controlling he could be.

"But why Naru? I understand not telling anyone about my dreams but other encounters? Is that really necessary?" Mai argued, crossing her legs.

"It is quite possible that you may become a target of whatever is causing the phenomena around here. You wouldn't want us to find you like how we found Wakana this morning, would you?"

Now that was harsh, especially with the uncanny resemblance the two shared. A chill raced up her spine as she let out a long slow breath, causing her boss to feel that maybe he had been a little too harsh. "Go."

The brunette's head popped back u, noticing tears had unwillingly made their way to her eyes, she quickly wiped them away. "What?"

"You're supposed to play a camp counselor, go do your job." With a slight smirk on his face he left, leaving Mai very confused.

After the lunchtime rush had commenced, the day left Mai with scrap booking with the ten year olds and Nami and another counselor a boy around twenty years old with bleached hair. "Why do we have to scrapbook?" Nori asked annoyed. The older counselor ruffled his hair.

"Nori, no need to be difficult, scrap booking can be fun if you make it fun," the twenty year older man teased.

"Yeah? How?" Nori kept up his defiance.

"Like this!" Makoto suddenly appeared, using a rolled up piece of paper as a telescope, and marched straight up to Nori. "Peek-a-boo!"

"Makoto! That's stupid!"

"You're not nice, Nori. Do you know that? Or maybe you're just in a bad mood and don't realize you're not nice. Or maybe that man with the power to make kids cry has rubbed off on you! Or maybe you were never nice in the first place! Maybe you're a mean mean mean boy and will always be like that! Or maybe-"

"Makoto!" Nami warned.

The little seven year old took a star shaped sticker and stuck it right in the middle of Nori's forehead. "May the villain's powers be gone!" she moved her fingers in a wiggly fashion, trying to conjure up some sort of spell.

"Makoto, you're so weird!" Nori stood up and walked away.

"Nori!" Nami called out.

"Nori! Wait up! I need to know if the villain's powers have left you!" Makoto raced after the boy, leaving Mai to sweat drop.

"Is Makoto always like this?" she asked, helping one of the kids glue a picture.

"She's a very hyperactive seven year old, we've all just gotten used to it. Orochu, toss me a water," Nami replied as the twenty year old threw a water bottle in her direction.

"What I want to know is what's up with Nori, he's been in a mood lately," Orochu added, looking at one of the kids. "Avaron, any ideas?"

The little brown haired and green eyed girl looked up and shook her head. "PMS? My sister has that sometimes and has mood swings."

The counselors looked at each other and laughed.

"What's so funny?" the girl asked genuinely, her big green eyes confused and embarrassed.

"You are," Orochu replied, as the laughter slowly died down.

"Guys don't get PMS," Mai explained, not wanting to have to explain that topic.

"Well, they can," Nami added, with a sly smile on her face.

"Nami, we can't get into that here!" Mai's face was red with embarrassment and shock.

"I'm not talking about that! I'm talking about P-Oed Male Syndrome." her face held a triumphant smile.

The three of them laughed along with a few of the campers whom had older siblings and understood this type of logic.

"Should we get Nori? Or Makoto?" Nami asked after a while.

"I'll go look for them," Mai offered, standing up as the children finished their scrapbooks.

Now where could they be? she wondered as she searched the bathrooms to no avail.

They have to be around here somewhere…

"Aw! Nori-kun is no fun!" the little girl with purplish black hair in two pigtails pouted, walking away from one of the boys' cabins. "I just wanted to make sure Mr. Meany's powers were gone!"

She walked around with her arms crossed against her chest, very annoyed. The area seemed far quieter than usual. Had she been more like the other girls she would have been freaked out by the ten year old boy with black hair and emerald colored eyes…

"Who are you? I've never seen you around here before? Are you new to the camp?" Makoto asked at the speed of sound, like any other quick talking girl.

The boy had a scared look on his face and opened his mouth to speak-

"Why are you scared? There's nothing to be scared of here? My big brother protects us! You're kinda cute! Wanna sit next to me at dinner tonight? Or maybe at lunch? How old are you? Nine? Ten? Eleven? Twelve? Wow! You're older than me!" Makoto continued to ramble on going into some rant about how unicorns we made from butterflies and pixie dust and whatnot. Continuing with her encounter with Naru the day before.

She noticed the boy point behind her, in the midst of her ramble she turned her head quickly to see Mai and the several people she had recruited in her hunt. "Mr. Meany! I was just telling that boy about you!" she exclaimed, hopping over to Naru. "Setsuko-san! I haven't seen you all day! Where have you been!"

The older girl smiled and patted Makoto's head. "I've been around, you just haven't looked hard enough," she concluded, looking over to the space the little girl had been ranting to. "Who did you say this boy was that you were talking to?"

"Oh! Midori-kun!" She excitedly turned around only to frown at the empty space. "Where did he go? Midori-kun! It's okay! Mr. Meany isn't that scary! I'll protect you!"

"Mr. Meany?" Mai and her charge questioned at the same time.

"He looked scared. I told him you weren't that scary, Mr. Meany, but you still scared him off! You really do have the power to make children cry!" Makoto concluded with slight disbelief.

Naru knelt down to her level. "If I have the power to make children cry, then how come you're not crying? You're a child right?" Naru inquired a slight smirk on his face.

"I'm not a normal kid. That's why!" Makoto retorted, skipping and humming on her merry way. "Maybe Midori-kun will still sit with me at dinner! Then he can tell me his real name so I don't have to call him the color of his eyes!"

The little girl had her way of making the others around her have their eyebrows twitch. It was only when the girl was a long ways away did anyone of the four have the composure to speak. "Did she see Dai?" Miyuko asked, scratching her head.

"I think she did," Mai concluded, slowly nodding her head. She turned to her boss. "Naru, this case is really confusing."

Naru simply nodded and headed for Base, leaving the three girls standing there. "It is."

Again, the three waited until Naru had completely left before being able to say a word. "Naru just admitted that he was confused! What the heck is going on here!" Mai gasped, rubbing her head. After the day's event, she had gained a migraine, as well as no idea as to what this case revolved around.

"Have you two gotten together yet?" Setsuko asked, placing her hands on her hips.

"WHAT!"

"You know? Dated? Boyfriend girlfriend style? Gone out? Need anymore explanation?" the redhead teased with a laugh.

"O-of course not! Why would I want to go out with someone like him!" Mai huffed with a blush creeping its way to her cheeks.

Setsuko and Miyuko laughed, then sighed. "Never mind," the redhead laughed, as the two walked towards the Mess Hall. "You coming?"

"Yeah!" Mai raced after them.

"Mai? Are you okay? You don't look well," John asked, placing a hand on the girl at Base. Dinner had finished not too long ago and the group was trying to come up with answers.

The petite brunette snapped her head up, grimacing slightly at the pulse in her temple. "I'm fine, John, just a headache," she assured him, rubbing her temple.

"Are you sure? You look a little pale," Monk agreed with John, as the Priestess placed her hand on the girl's forehead.

"You don't feel too warm, it may be either a slight fever or you're a little overheated," she concluded. "Either way, I think you should go to bed."

"I'm not gonna be able to sleep with this migraine," Mai groaned, clutching her head.

"My mom has ibuprofen in the office if you want some," Riku offered, Mai just nodded painfully. "Come on, I'll walk you over there."

"Okay…" She stood up and allowed the young man to escort her to the only source of pain relief she could think of.

"I think it's kind of cute," Yasuhara commented after the two had left the cabin. Everyone stared at him. "What? It was bound to happen eventually."

Mai sat in a comfy chair in the office cabin as Riku rushed to grab the painkiller and some water. She recalled how dizziness had nearly overcame her several times on the walk there, in which Riku had to steady her tiny frame. After a minute he came in with two pills, a glass on water and a little cookie.

Mai gratefully took the pills and water, but stared at the cookie. "Sometimes, those pills can upset your stomach, usually if you eat a cookie or something, it helps," he explained with a smile.

"Arigato," she replied, taking a bite. With her head pounding like it was she had no encouragement to eat dinner.

"Okay, let's get you back to your cabin so you can sleep this of." He offered her his hand and she took it.

They walked slowly as the pulsing in Mai's head started to die down ever so slightly. "So I hear you convinced the kids to throw a water balloon fight on Naru this morning," she started, a slight smirk appearing as she remembered the conversation.

"I convinced the kids?" he asked, sincerely, then shook his head. "No, actually your boss suggested the water balloon fight and then Makoto convinced the other kids to peg them at him. The only thing I did was fill up the water balloons."

Mai's eyebrow raised. Could that really have been what happened? What was up with Naru recently? Him letting a little girl braid his hair? And now him suggesting a water balloon fight? The world must be ending.

"That doesn't sound like Naru," Mai commented as they reached her cabin.

"How so?"

"Well, Naru's never been one to, well, entertain children. Actually in the past he tries to stay away from them."

Riku just laughed. "What's so funny?"

"I think you need to give your boss more credit," he replied, smiling. "Now, go get some sleep. I think you're gonna want some energy if you're going to confront him about his behavior with children."

Mai nodded confused, but entered her cabin nonetheless. She changed and fell asleep in her bunk before her head hit the pillow. The headache draining all of her energy.

Me: wasn't that exciting!

Naru: no.

Me: *under breath* killjoy

Naru: excuse me?

Me: nothing...

Mai: Kiki, this is why i tell you that you shouldn't have contests with Naru on who can stay up longer...and who can be more intimidating

Me: but i'm having fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuunnnnnnnnnnn :(((((((((((((((((

Ayako: Kiki go to bed.

Me: no

Monk: now you're sounding like naru

Yasuhara: while we try to force both Kiki and Naru to sleep for once...*sweatdrop*

Lin: please leave a review

Masako: and Kiki would like to give a special thank you to every one who read and reviewed this story

John: especially adanyasophia07, Jade Starlight, twighlightangel61090, and XxHate's-A-Strong-WordxX i dont think kiki would have continued this story if it weren't for you :D

jaa nee! :P