Their boys ( ghost hunt ) ( mai and naru )

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

It wasn't long before all the equipment had been unloaded and set up at the Base. After ordering his tea, Naru sat down to look at the file of information that Lin, Mai, Yuki and Yasuhara had compiled. Yasuhara had been employed part- time shortly after Naru came back to Japan, to help with the work-load.

There wasn't much in the file, for there wasn't much on the house. An English trader who had married a young Japanese woman built it in 1876. The house was three stories tall with an attic and a cellar. There were approximately twenty bedrooms, seven bathrooms, a large dining room, a smaller secondary dinning room, a lounge, study, medium sized library, a large kitchen and a parlor. This was not including the secondary building for servants, which was two stories tall and contained ten rooms, a medium sized dining room, two bathrooms and two shower rooms with toilets, a small kitchen and a common living area.

The couple had four children, three boys and one girl. They had lived a happy life until their deaths, having lived long enough to see seven grandchildren and twelve great-grand children and hear the pitter-patter of their feet as they ran through the house. The house was more appropriately described as a manor, with gardens, walkways, a small menagerie and a pond.

The house had no history of any poltergeist phenomena, unexplained deaths or serious accidents of any kind. If anything were to be expected, it would be that the house was blessed! Every one who had lived in that house had lived long, happy, healthy lives and died perfectly natural deaths in their old age while sleeping. So why would this be happening now? It made no sense, but it did seem to be happening and had been occurring for about 7 months.

"Mai, gather up the children who have experienced these phenomena, send them in three or four at a time, and if you think any of them may know more than the others, separate them from the group. I'll talk to them one at a time." Naru placed the folder on the table. "Yasuhara-san"

"Hai?"

"I need back info. What was this land before the house was here."

"Got it, boss!" Yasuhara flashed a smile, picked up his computer bag, and headed out the door to the local library.

Naru went back to sipping his tea.

Later that evening...

"Geez, what a day! One hundred children and over seventy-five adults to interview. I have to hand it to you, Naru, you certainly know how to pick cases that could give a girl blisters." Yuki stretched before accepting the cup of tea Mai offered her.

"If you have a problem Tara-"

"I know, I know! I can go home." Yuki cut him off as she fanned herself with an empty folder. "It's so hot!" As Yuki continued to fan herself, her gaze went back to Naru, "Tell me something, must you wear that jacket in the summer time? You're going to end up with heat stroke, you know."

Naru glared at the twenty-three year old, who was sprawled on the couch, her feet propped up on the arm revealing her black painted toenails. She returned his glare with a lazy smile that clearly said 'As if I care that you don't like me right now'.

"I think you're both in danger of heat stroke. I mean, all the two of you ever wear is black." Ayako, who aside from being a miko was also the unofficial nurse of SPR, frowned with disapproval at Yuki's black capris and button-down black cap-sleeve shirt and Naru's black slacks, black button-down shirt and black jacket.

"Okay! Just for the record, black is not the only color I wear, thank you very much! I do, on occasion, wear bright colors. Also, I'm not wearing long sleeves, long pants, or a blazer. Therefore, I am in less danger than everyone's favorite narcissist." Ayako shook her head at Yuki. Yuki ignored the miko in favor of talking to Mai.

"Ne, Mai, what did you think about those twins? You know, the ones that ran into you?" Yuki asked sitting up so she could drink her ice-tea.

"What do you mean? They seem like bright, well behaved little boys."

"Exactly! How many seven year olds have you meet that are that calm? I mean, the older one is a personality duplicate of Naru! Which, by the way, is down right freaky!"

"You're right. He really is. The younger one is a lot like Gene too. I think all that's missing are the psychic abilities. Even then, I mean, they just seem to know what the other one is thinking." Mai placed a finger on her chin.

"That's just a freaky twin thing. Whether they can communicate telepathically or not remains to be seen." Yuki sipped her tea, taking great care to slurp slightly to annoy Naru. "By the way, totally off subject here, but how are your Chinese lessons?"

Ever since the case in Suwa, Lin had been teaching Mai a little bit of Chinese here and there. After Yuki entered the picture, Mai started taking classes on-line, with Lin and Yuki tutoring her when she needed it.

"It's going well. I managed to have an entire conversation the other day without making an idiot of myself, so I would say I'm doing pretty well."

"Good. You can go play mother hen to the kids now." Yuki smirked as Mai started sputtering.

"Mother hen? Who hit you on the head?" she asked.

"Fine then, go play 'Onee-chan'." Mai huffed as Yuki shooed her out, but turned and quickly walked out of the room before Naru could give her any orders.