For starters, I want to be clear - I don't own any of the characters in this story, except my own OC's. Ghost hunt belongs to Fuyumi Ono.

Also, the story is nearly done, so I will post chapters pretty quickly. This story will have mild sexual content in later chapters, both heterosexual and homosexual. If it bothers You, please don't read it. Most characters are underage, so please don't expect many detailed sex scenes.

Right, I almost forgot. All cultural information and references (where they will be needed) I'll write at the end of chapters.

I hope You enjoy this as much as I enjoyed writing it.

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It was just another quiet evening in the office. Some of the irregulars were hanging around and Mai was more than ready to leave work an hour early to go shopping with Ayako. Monk was just picking up his jacket to leave, as he had a live tomorrow, and Lin was rearranging files in the corner shelf.

Just three months have passed since Naru's return from England and the work has already returned to normal. Surprisingly, Naru, or rather Oliver, has kept his promise and came back after only two months. Mai wondered whether he would change somehow after finding Gene, but no, the stubborn, bossy narcissist remained relatively the same, so she found it hard to call him by his real name, and still preferred the nickname Naru.

Said narcissist was currently nursing another cup of tea peacefully barricaded in his lair and "away from the unnecessary noise of the idiots in the common space of my office" as he put it. Just a few minutes after Monk walked through the door, Mai was getting ready to sneak out as a quiet knock on the door made her groan out loud.

"Oh why now?" she complained quietly "It's only an hour before closing time. What did I do to deserve this?"

Much more loudly she simply stated "Come in" and as the door opened, greeted the unwanted customer "Welcome to Shibuya Psychic Research, is there anything we can do for you?"

Through the door stepped a tall and elegant young woman. Closing the door behind her quietly she turned to bow to the inhabitants of the office.

"Good evening, I hope I am not intruding, but I'm afraid I have a problem you might help me with. May I come in? "

Mai, Ayako and even Lin held their breaths as the woman stood straight again. Bathed in the orange light of the evening she looked stunning, her alabaster skin and light amber eyes reflected the light beautifully. Black hair pulled up in a neat bun and the pencil skirt with a silk blouse clearly showed she was a professional of some kind, but likely not a common office worker.

Mai was the first one to react "Of course." She said politely, and looked over to Ayako, who was frowning. They had a girl's night out planned for tonight. "But we are already closing for the night. Perhaps you could come tomorrow, if it's not too much trouble?"

The woman sighed but held Mai's gaze "I'm very sorry to inconvenience you at this time, but I'm afraid I might not survive until tomorrow." She said firmly and slowly started to unravel the scarf she had around her neck. As the lovely piece of cloth fell away, all eyes instantly locked onto purple bruises in the shape of hands clearly pressed into the pale skin.

"My problem is a bit pressing, as you can see." She stated tonelessly.

This time Lin was the first one to react "We're sorry to have assumed otherwise. Please take a seat and I will take your statement." Turning to Mai he simply said "Please tell Naru we have a customer and make some tea for us, then you are free to go."

Happy to know she was let off the hook Mai knocked on Oliver's door and told him they have a client. The workaholic didn't even realize it was almost time to close or didn't care, so he stalked out and plopped onto his personal armchair without complain. Mai hurriedly pranced to the kitchen to make the tea as she heard Lin starting the standard interview.

"Please state your name, age and occupation" he recited automatically, laptop already set on his lap to take the notes.

"My name is Kamishiro Yukiko, I am currently 27 and I work at the Tokyo medical university hospital."

"You are a doctor?" Ayako suddenly asked, apparently interested in a prospect of meeting a fellow physician.

"Not exactly. I am a coroner and also the medical examiner for the ward police." That was enough to warrant even Naru's surprised expression. Seeing three pairs of eyes staring at her, the new client continued. "I am aware it is not exactly a common profession for a woman my age, but I have held this occupation for the last five years quite successfully."

"I see," Naru said flatly "but as it has nothing to do with your case, I assume, please skip to the relevant part."

"I'm afraid it does have something to do with the case. This" she gestured at her abused neck "happened at my workplace." Naru remained quiet allowing the woman to continue. "As a coroner I am quite used to the dead and well aware that the spirits of the dead sometimes remain in this world for one reason or another. However…I have never had an encounter with something this violent."

"That implies there has been other paranormal activity before this incident." It was not a question on Naru's part. At that moment Mai came with the tea and placed the cups in front of people at the table, surprised, that Ayako was listening so keenly. She wanted to ditch just few minutes ago. However Miss Kamishiro's answer made even Mai's ears perk up.

"Of course," she explained a bit exasperated at the question, as if it was common sense "it's the coroner's office, Mister Shibuya, do you have any idea how many people pass through my office daily? It's only reasonable some for the spirits remain for a while after their death and come along with their bodies to my office. So there were always the little noises in the examination room, breaths, knocks, sounds of shuffling. Also some of my tools would frequently be misplaced. "

"And it did not bother you?" Asked the big boss sharing a look with Lin and trying to hide his slight surprise at the nonchalant way she spoke about paranormal activity. That kind of occurrences would make other people run to them in fear.

"Not really. My tools would always turn up, one place or another and the sounds really did not bother me, as they were only that – sounds. Even the occasional shadow I would see from the corner of my eyes never tried to approach me, so I let them stay as long as they wanted and move on in their own time."

"And when did this peaceful cohabitation change?" The question was asked in Lin's smooth baritone. He was more than surprised at the young woman's courage and could not help but silently admire the way she honored the spirits of the recently deceased.

She sighed and looked straight at the tall Chinese man with unusual haircut. It was hiding his right eye fully and for a moment she wondered if there was anything wrong with it. Quickly braking out of her reverie Yukiko took a deep breath and started the strange tale.

"This mess started three days ago when a man was rolled into my examination room. He was a murder victim and the police requested the autopsy to be performed as soon as possible, but as I opened the bag, it was clear the autopsy was already done, while he was still alive, most likely." Everyone looked shocked and Mai suddenly felt sick to her stomach. 'What it should feel like to be cut open while you're still alive' she thought with a shudder. The coroner continued without missing a beat.

"The central incision was made while the victim was still alive and afterwards sown with a thick black thread, which I had to cut through to get to the internal organs. Also, the body was covered in some sort of symbols, which were carved onto the skin ether when the victim was alive or very shortly after death."

"What symbols exactly?" Naru asked.

"If you choose to take my case, I will show you the photographs of the symbols afterwards. For now, I don't think I should disclose official police evidence without even knowing if you intend to help me."

Naru was not happy, but he couldn't see any fault in her reasoning, so instead he just rushed her to finish the statement.

"Very well. I think we will take the case, but before confirming that I need to hear about the actual activity after the incident, to make my final decision."

"Activity…The same evening lights started to flicker, and as they turned back on, one of my scalpels was missing off the tray. I was preparing to leave for the evening, it was late, so I didn't intend to look for it, but in a minute that scalper was flying at me from the corner of the room. I evaded it, and probably not so wisely decided to berate the spirit for the outburst." She seemed a bit uncomfortable to remember her own actions and looked down at her hands folded neatly atop the black skirt. "I yelled at it, that this is my laboratory, and it has no right to cause chaos, touch my tools or threaten me in any way. I threatened to kick it out if this kind of situation ever happened again. After that I just flipped the lights and left for home. It probably was not a very good idea…"

"Actually" Lin spoke up "It's on the contrary, weaker spirits usually obey the wishes of the house owner if they state it clearly and loudly, staking their territory. However if the spirit is strong or malevolent enough, it may only spur it further. So I would not say it was unwise, you simply did not evaluate the strength of the spirit correctly." Silence fell for a second as Yukiko looked up to the man defending her from herself, and the rest of the group just stared, surprised to hear Lin utter more than one sentence. Clearing his throat the man in question returned to typing, obviously not very comfortable in the center of attention. The coroner smiled at him gently; unfortunately he looked down before he could see it.

"Lin is right." Naru echoed, completely missing the gentle expression on the client's face "I take it the response was pushing back instead of giving up?"

"Yes, the next morning as I came to work my entire examination room was trashed, things thrown around the floor, even some furniture toppled over. I could not go to my superiors and state that a ghost messed up my laboratory and I cannot work, thus I simply cleaned up the mess along with my assistant, Tsuyoshi, and we went back to work. Even though nothing awful happened that day, I could see a shadow standing in the far left corner of the examination room. It was not a see through gray mist, like usual, this was a solid black mass, and it felt like it was staring at me, though it had no facial features, so I can't be sure. Several times it spoke, but the voice was so low and distorted I could not understand the words. "

"How could you keep working with that thing staring at you?" Mai asked frantically. She was shivering now, eyes wide and terrified.

"She's right, you know." Ayako stated, also clearly taken aback. "Didn't you try to do anything, leave the room at least?"

"I had three autopsies scheduled for that day, so I couldn't just leave." She said firmly, but the golden eyes darkened a little at the clearly unpleasant memory.

Naru decided to join the conversation, as this little interrogation was not only up to him anymore. The case has shocked his coworkers and he could already see the mayhem that would happen if he denied this case. Not that he had any intention to. "Did your assistant see anything?"

"No, Tsuyoshi was not bothered by it, and he didn't see the shadow ether, so after the necessary work was done, I made an excuse about feeling ill, and left the office. As you can see, I did run away." she smiled bitterly at Ayako.

"Well, I would call that self preservation…" the priestess trailed off making the client chuckle humorlessly.

"And when the accident involving your injury happened?" the young CEO asked, unwilling to waver from the main subject.

"That was today, around three in the afternoon. I came back to work this morning and the office was orderly and quite calm, so I got to work. I had only two autopsies today, but after the two, another unexpected body from the police department was sent in, so I started to fill the documents and asked Tsuyoshi to help me with the examination. Through the whole procedure I could hear the shadow growling and muttering in the corner, growing louder and louder. When the main bulk was over, I sent my assistant home, as I was starting to get worried about his safety. "

'HIS safety?' Lin thought. 'This woman is too brave for her own good.'

"Did you consider your own safety?" Naru questioned, mirroring Lin's thoughts.

"I didn't intend to stay for very long, but I suppose it was foolish of me to stay alone in the whole basement."

"B-basement?" Mai muttered stuttering with fear. She clearly could not dissociate from the clients situation, as usual. Just this time the client was calmer than the brown haired assistant.

"Yes, Miss…?" the lovely woman trailed off looking at Mai.

"Mai, Tanyjama Mai."

"You see Mai-san, autopsy rooms are most commonly in the basements of hospitals, as it is the coolest place. Also it's away from the main traffic and prying eyes. People don't really like to see such things." Yukiko explained politely, smiling gently at the young woman, who seemed so taken by her misfortune.

"Oh, I see…but aren't you afraid in the basement on your own?" the poor girl looked terrified at the thought alone.

"I wasn't until today." as those words left her mouth, the coroner absentmindedly lifted her hand to rub her own neck, where the dark blue bruises shone brightly against pale skin. "Now I'm not so sure anymore."

Directing her gaze at the young man with dark hair, who seemed to run this business, she quickly saw, that he intended to bring them back on topic the first chance he got. So she decided to spare him the effort.

"After Tsuyoshi left, I finished filling some papers, as I heard clattering on my instrument tray. I really didn't want to have anything else flying at my head, so I stood up and went to cover it up in hopes that nothing will be thrown anymore. As I stood there, clasping the locks shut, I heard growling very loudly, and very close. Then suddenly something grabbed my neck from behind and started to squeeze. I couldn't breathe and I couldn't call for help... so I just instinctively did what I would have done with any human attacker. I grabbed my heavy instrument bag and swung it back behind me. Surprisingly the hands let up and I managed to grab my bag off the chair and run out of the room coughing." She had to take a breath and arrange her thoughts, but tried to do it as fast as she could, until a voice interrupted her scrambling.

"Please don't rush yourself." the tall man on the laptop –Lin, she remembered - spoke to her in a low and quiet voice. "There is no hurry. Speak as you feel comfortable to do so, Kamishiro-sensei." At that Ayako gave Mai a questioning look. Neither of them could understand why the unsociable and usually quite harsh Lin-san was suddenly being so considerate.

"Thank you for your kind words, Lin-san, but I wish to get this over with as quickly as possible." She was smiling at him once again, this time he saw it, but chose to simply hum in reply and look at his laptop. "As I finally stopped running, I found myself on the first floor, in the staff bathroom. My neck was getting nice and purple already. Walking out in that state was out of the question, so I pulled a scarf out of my bag, steadied my breathing and walked out. First I tried to go back to the basement and see if it was still there, but as I reached the stairs the shadow was already waiting at the bottom of it. At that…I guess I was nether brave, nor stupid enough to try and get rid of it on my own. Thus I am here at this late hour, bothering you all and hoping you might help me to survive tomorrow at work. "

Sillence fell as the last sentence was spoken.

Needless to say, Naru took the case, but as it was her workplace not her home, they could not just drag all equipment there and stay for the night. Eventually the team agreed to come over the next day at noon and set up few cameras along with other recording equipment. Even Masako agreed to do a quick tour of the place on last minute's notice.

Little did they know none of this will come to pass.