Disclaimer: I'm not gonna put this in every chapter (let's face it, it'd get annoying quickly), so the disclaimer'll just be right here ^-^ I don't own Ghost Hunt. If I did, Mai and Naru would be together, there'd be a season two and Gene would be alive and teasing Noll like crazy. Unfortunately, life kinda sucks, so I don't own Ghost Hunt T^T

-Case 1-

(Terror Rate-* of five)

I

"Mummy Won't Wake"

Some days were terrifying at SPR-some were quiet and peaceful-and then some days were plain outright boring.

This was one of those days.

Mai yawned to herself. The sun was nice and warm against the back of her light blue sweater, but Mai heard it was supposed to rain today. As soon as she thought that, the familiar pitter patter of rain started to hit the window. Oh, great, that's super. Another thing to make me fall asleep to. Mai sarcastically thought and rested her chin in her hands. She had done all the filing for today, made Naru's tea, cleaned up a bit, and it was only four. It started to rain harder, and the tick tock of the clock gained a hypnotizing sound. Mai's head started to lull back and forth, and her eye lids felt heavier with each passing moment... So…sleepy… Mai nearly fell asleep, but jerked her head back at the last second. She shook her head, but laid it down on the desk. Can't…fall….asleep… So, when someone knocked on the door, Mai was so surprised she fell out of her seat. With a blushing face, Mai scrambled to open the door.

When she did, however, she got quite a surprise.

A kid with dark red hair and brown eyes stared intently at Mai. His hair and clothes were dry, but the yellow rain coat he dragged behind him was sopping wet, like it was dragged through a bunch of puddles. The boy's eyes were, at first, warm and full of light, but then narrowed to a dark and unforgiving meaner in a matter of a second. The aura or mistrust the boy gave off was slightly surprising, but Mai guessed this was only because they had never met. Some little kids were wildly unpredictable.

"Hello there!" Mai smiled and crouched down so she was the same height as the boy. "What's your name?"

"You better not be the manager, you're way too young." The boy bluntly insulted and frowned. Excuse me?! Mai screamed in her head. Who does this little boy think he is? I'm at least nine years older than him!

"N-No, I'm not the manager." Mai weakly laughed her anger away. Maybe the boy was harsh to her because he used insults as a defense, since none of his parents were in the room?

"Good. A manager like you would've made this place go to the dumps." Why you-!

"Hayato!" A teenager stepped through the doorway. "Don't be mean to her!" He turned to Mai. "I'm very sorry about the behavior of my little brother. Normally he's very kind, but..." He shook his head and bowed. "I'm Juba Kazuo, by the way. Sorry we've showed up out of the blue, but something recently happened, and we need help right away. Our electricity is out right now, so we were unable to call you. The electrician said it wouldn't be fixed until tomorrow, and we really need to solve this...problem of ours." Up close, Mai noticed how much Kazuo and Hayato looked alike. They both had dark red hair and brown eyes, but Kazuo's were much warmer than his little brother's. Mai smiled and waved his apology away.

"Don't worry, it's fine." Mai replied. Kazuo smiled at her, and Mai felt a blush creeping on. "Oh, I'm Taniyama Mai, by the way." She bowed, and Kazuo did so, too. His smile only grew. Naru cleared his throat behind them, and Mai gave a start.

"Are you another assistant?" Hayato asked.

"Don't mind my little brother." Kazuo finally tore his eyes from Mai and smiled at Naru. Naru didn't return it, but gave a glare Mai had never seen before, and she had gotten plenty of glares from Naru. The edges of Kazuo's smile turned into a thin line. That's strange… Mai thought. Is Naru jeal-no, she shook her head, Naru is never jealous.

"Ne, ne, how about I make everyone a cup of tea?" Mai asked to break the tension. It seemed to work, because the two boys finally stopped their staring contest and nodded a "yes", so Mai set off to make the tea. When she came back Naru was already ready to interview, and Lin had already set up his laptop. Naru started by asking what paranormal experiences Kazuo and his family were experiencing. Mai set down the tea on the table, and Kazuo gratefully drank it and thanked her. Naru, as per usual, didn't say anything, but silently drank his tea.

"Well, it started when my parents bought a house after my mother got pregnant," Kazuo began and set the tea down. "My father was a little bit suspicious as to why the house was so cheap, but my mother ignored him. She loves cheap things. She didn't even question when we barely got any information on the house. Anyways, as soon as we moved in, strange things started to happen. We'd find that the stove would turn on in the middle of the night, even when we unplugged it ad items would move around all the time."

"What kind of items?" Naru asked.

Kazuo shrugged and replied, "Nothing much. A napkin holder or a stuffed teddy bear. The only thing that's gone missing and hasn't been found is my mother's emerald necklace. We have no idea what happened to it, and we've checked everywhere. Moving on, I walked into my room one time, and everything was on the opposite side from where it was before, but I was home alone and heard nothing. Another time my mother, Hayato, and I went out to eat, but when we came back, we found my dad cowering in the bathroom. He said he heard us screaming, and he ran upstairs, but everything from our rooms was thrown out into the hallway-our books, our clothes, and even our beds.

"He also claimed that he saw two dark figures standing in the middle of it all, and that they ran towards him at an alarming speed, considering they had to travel over a bunch of mess. Dad said he panicked and ran off to hide, and he's the bravest man I know. Recently, things have been getting worse. One of our knives went missing, and we found it stuck on a picture of my grandfather in the hallway upstairs, but his eyes were slashed, along with the rest of the painting. And..." He gulped and took a breath. "We think the ghost made our mother loose the baby. It was only twenty three weeks old." Mai let out a gasp. The typing stopped for a moment, then resumed.

"No!" Mai's had flew over her mouth. Even Naru seemed surprised. Kazuo nodded sadly.

"What made you think the ghost did it?" Naru asked.

"Because my mother said she was pushed down the stairs by some unknown force, and when she hit the ground, she said she felt someone strangling her, but once my brother came to help her, she could finally breathe again. That happened two days ago, and we're fed up and scared out of our minds, and we've only spent two months there. Not to mention that out electricity went out for no reason this morning. Please, we need to get rid of these ghosts. Can you help us?" Kazuo pleaded. Naru stayed silent for a moment, and then finally said, "We'll take it." Kazuo let out a sigh of relief and told them the address of his house. "It's the only house in the woods. There's a trail of red stained rocks leading to it, but we've never figured out why they're there or how they got like that.

"Is ten A.M. this Sunday a good time for you?" Kazuo inquired.

"It's fine." Naru replied. Kazuo nodded and took his brother's hand.

"Thank you for the tea, Taniyama-san." Kazuo thanked her and left. Mai shut the door behind them.

"Those ghosts sound really violent," she said as she cleaned up. Hmm, Kazuo didn't really drink much. I guess he doesn't have much of an appetite? "For so many things happening in such a short time…" When Naru didn't reply, Mai looked back and saw that he was immersed in thought. She stared for a while longer when Naru looked up and said, "Mai, as attractive as I am, you don't need to stare at me all the time." Mai puffed her cheeks out in anger.

"Who says you're attractive?!"

"You're red as a tomato, Mai."

"Because of you!"

"So you admit that I'm attractive?"

"I didn't say that!

"But you're not denying it." Naru smirked. You are so lucky I'm in love with you, Oliver Davis! Mai screamed in her mind. "Mai, you're spilling the leftover tea all over your clothes." Mai looked down and gasped.

"Gah! No! And this is my favorite shirt!" Mai grabbed a paper towel and tried to dry it off, but it was too late. The tea had already stained her shirt. "Now I have to buy another shirt," she grumbled and turned to Naru. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"You should have been paying attention. Oh, and while you're there." He set aside his empty tea cup. "Tea." Naru found it amusing when his assistant turned around and started to grumble to herself. Speaking of which, Mai had seemed to occupy his mind these days. The narcissus thought he would finally stop thinking about his assistant when he would return to Japan. That had to make sense, right? The girl would surely stop appearing in his mind once he would see her in person, but he couldn't have been more wrong. In England, Naru would often find himself reading, and then his mind would drift off to Mai before he would shake back into reality. Now, Mai would pop into his mind anytime, and a small smile would threaten to appear on his face.

Naru didn't like it. No, let's rephrase that: He didn't like how he liked it.

"I don't see how you can drink so much tea." Mai set the tea down in front of Naru and took his other cup. Naru ignored her and drank from his cup. To be honest, nothing could compare to how well Mai made her tea. It made everything else seem bland and tasteless.

"I suppose we'll call in everyone else, then?" Mai inquired.

"Yes." Naru took another sip, and Mai went off to call her friends. By now, Mai was used to her boss's short replies. After all, Naru was a man of few words.

Mai wanted to scream and shout so badly, but she couldn't. She wanted to jump out of the car and run around, but that wasn't such a good idea in a moving car. The car ride had lasted a long two hours, and they still had an hour and forty five minutes left to go. After poking Naru and demanding he entertain her ("You're my boss, Naru, so that means you have to think of something to entertain me!") to which Naru replied that, as her boss, he would cut her pay check in half if she didn't quiet down, which successfully made Mai shut up. She sighed and slumped in her seat. Maybe she could take a nap? After all, yesterday she wasn't able to, so why not now?

And before Mai knew it, she was asleep.

"Kaniji, Noberu! Come inside now!" Mai called and smiled to herself. Her kids were always so adorable. Wait, kids? Mai thought. I must be having one of those dreams… A boy with black hair and gray eyes ran up to Mai and jumped into her arms. Mai spun Kaniji around and set him down. "Ne, ne, did you find any sea shells today?" She asked.

"We did! We found a lot!" Noberu ran up to Mai and held out his palms. Like his brother, his eyes were gray, but his hair was brown. Noberu's hands were filled with sea shells, many of them threatening to fall off the boy's small hand. Mai smiled and said they were beautiful. She held the door opened and said, "Come on, it's time for lunch." The boys cheered and ran inside. I must be seeing this through the mother's point of view, Mai commented in her head. Mai pulled out the chairs for her children and set the food down on the table. She watched in enjoyment as her pride and joys gobbled down the food, then ran outside to play. Mai smiled and started to pick up the plates. I'm not worried, the thought of the mother echoed in Mai's mind. They've gone down to the beach a thousand times, and they've never gotten hurt. Why, if you blindfolded them, they could still point out every little detail of the beach!

"And where's my food?" A gruff voice interrupted Mai's (or to be precise, the mother's) thoughts. Mai turned around and started to tremble, but forced herself to calm down.

"It's still cooking," she lied. "But I promise it's going to be delicious." The man stepped forward (Mai guessed this was the woman's husband) and raised a hand. Mai flinched. "It better be." He lowered it and left the room. Mai fell to her knees, amazed at her luck that, for once, she wasn't hit.

Mai woke up to a jolt on her shoulder. Her eyes traveled from the tips of the fingers to the man's gorgeous indigo eyes. Mai felt a blush creep up to her cheeks, and Naru let go of her shoulders.

"We're here."

"R-Right." Mai got out and gasped. "Wow!" She exclaimed. The house was gigantic, much larger than any house. From the outside, it looked like it was at least three stories tall. It was made of wood, but it looked like it was polished recently. There was a magnificent garden hugging the stone path that led to the polished wooden house.

"This is beautiful!" She whispered in excitement.

"Mai, once you're done gaping at the house, would you be as kind as to help bring in the equipment?" Naru impatiently demanded.

"Hai!" Mai chirped. Normally, she would have groaned, but Mai couldn't wait to see what the inside looked like. Walking up the stone pathway, Mai found herself humming an improvised tune.

"Your voice is lovely," Kazuo commented. Mai looked around and saw that Kazuo stood on the porch.

"Thank you, but I'm not that good. Can you show me where our base is?"

"Certainly." He led her into the house. The floors looked as if they had been recently cleaned, and nothing was dusty. Mai could have sworn the floors were sparkling.

"Why are there so many rooms?" She asked. Kazuo shrugged and said that they heard the previous owner of the house wanted to turn it into a hotel, but never got the chance to. They stopped in a room next to the wooden stairs.

"I hope you don't mind this room. It's the largest room we have." He opened the door with a smile. Indeed, the room was certainly large enough to fit all of the equipment, and even more. There was even a little kitchen and two couches.

"This is perfect." Mai nodded and set the equipment down.

Kazuo smiled in return and said, "Any time." Mai smiled back. Kazuo's smile couldn't have been more different than the narcissistic boss she fell in love with...wait.

Naru.

Mai slapped her forehead and scolded herself. How could she have been so forgetful?! Her dream! "Ah! I need to tell Naru something!" Mai raced out of the room and ran down the halls.

Hayato opened the door to his room, then sighed annoyingly and shut it. So, those ghost busters wanted to change life here? Please. Hayato smirked. They wanna make my life hell for the next week? Fine. Then I'll make their life their living hell.

A/N: R&R, por favor!