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Chapter Text

Voldemort had successfully gained entry into Harry's mind, and was now using it to try and goad the Great Albus Dumbledore into killing the boy, using Harry's own voice to do so. Voldemort was concentrating all of his energy in taking control of Harry's voice, and making him say what he wanted it to, it left Harry able to see what was going on around him. Looking through the whirlwind of sand, dust and magic that had surrounded him, Harry saw his friends, who had just walked into the Ministry of Magic's hallway, expressions turning to confusion and fear as they watched Headmaster Dumbledore, and Harry, though the things he was saying was not the friend they knew. Harry grimaced at the wounds on his friends. This didn't begin to describe on how he felt about the ones that were all ready gone from this world. The feelings evoked from this spurred him to fight Voldemort's hold even harder than before. If he didn't get rid of him, then his friends would be the ones to suffer even more.

Harry knew more about suffering than most his age, he had lost his parents before he could even remember them. Then last year he had lost a friend and rival in Cedric Diggory to the Tri-Wizard Tournament. And just moments ago he had lost his Godfather, Sirius Black; someone he had quickly began to feel what was like a father to him. Harry wished he had been able to save his family and his friends, but he hadn't been strong or quick enough. He made a vow right then and there that it would not happen again. Just then a break in the whirlwind and the faltering of Voldemort's grip on his mind gave Harry the opening he needed and with his vow giving him his will power back, he dove in with renewed vigor.

Harry suddenly found himself standing on an open plain within his mind and right across from him stood Voldemort.  With his resolved strengthened to never let Voldemort hurt him or his family and friends again, Harry took a large gulp of air and shouted with confidence, "I won't let you win, I can't let you hurt anyone else."

"You don't have the power to go against me," Voldemort said with confidence, from within Harry's mind.

What Voldemort didn't know is that Harry had been able to talk with his parents over the last year. He had come across a book within the restricted section of the library at Hogwarts concerning Necromancy. He had taken what he could from it and started to practice the Old Ways. This meant he was now a vegetarian; this helped strength his ties to Mother Earth and purified his abilities. He had privately celebrated the Eight Sabbats since the middle of his fourth year. It was during that time he first tried and seceded in summoning his parents, which was not too long before the third task of the Tri-Wizard Tournament. This helped him immensely for when they came out of Voldemort's wand, for instead of being shocked he was able to carry on fighting without being distracted by seeing them and talking with them.

Then, during his summer holidays before fifth year, he found another book within the Black Family library. With that book, he learned even more about Necromancy and found out he had an unnatural talent for it. Using his newfound abilities, he called his parents back for an even longer time, than he had before. After speaking with them for a few hours over a span of several months, they had come up with a way for Harry to kill Voldemort, but Harry had to be willing to make a sacrifice. Harry, of course, was willing to make any sacrifice, if it meant nobody else would have to suffer the death of a loved one or their own demise.

Thinking of the plan, Harry quickly locked Voldemort’s soul within his mind. This meant that Voldemort would not be able to return to his physical form, but stay within Harry’s mind until vanquished to the underworld. The ritual Harry planed on using was a long one, but since Voldemort had no body to return to and his soul was trapped inside him it wouldn’t be a problem.  

The reason for this longer ritual was because the ritual that Voldemort had used was a basterdize variation of the Unblessed Necromantic ritual to bring a person back to life after death. A true Blessed Necromantic Reanimation Ritual would have used a sacrifice of life from those that loved the person being brought back, normally a few years off each of their lives, and a little blood from them as well. The Necromancer bringing them back would help with the magic that was needed, tiring them out. They would also have called the spirits to ask for them to bless the Ritual. An Unblessed Ritual would have sacrificed the full life of two people to bring them back, causing the Necromancer to become unstable and damned, as well as damming the Unblessed. For Voldemort he had forgone the sacrifices, and used a potion to create a new body as well as blood, flesh and bone.

Smiling a little, Harry began to speak the ritual in a low, calm and commanding voice, "I call upon the Spirits, hear me now." A small gust of air flew by them and then settled directly behind Voldemort, a purple flame appeared and a tendril of light raced across the ground to Voldemort’s right. Within the flame you could see shadows of people standing around within it, "I call upon the Spirits of Earth and ask them to hear my plea," a breeze with the smell of freshly cut grass and blossoming flowers came forwards from where the purple flame had ended its run, it then sent out a tendril of green light which stopped to the left and behind Voldemort. "I call upon the Spirits of Water and ask them to hear my plea," a moist breeze blew across the plain, and where the green light ended, a blue flame took its place, as another tendril of blue light this time shot behind Voldemort. "I call upon the Sprits of Air and ask them to hear my plea," a cold breeze came through, before a dancing yellow flame made its home at the end of the blue tendril of light, shooting its own tendril down past Voldemort and settling before him on the left. "I call upon the Spirits of Fire and ask them to hear my plea," A warm gust of air came through the plain and took up its home at the end of the bright yellow light and shot off a bright red light towards the dancing purple flame at the top. The star was complete, made up of the different elements, Spirit, Earth, Water, Air, and Fire.

Harry then started the incantation that all Necromancers’ should know by heart, "I call to Thee Spirits of old, hear my plea and come to me, with sacrifice of Blood, Magic, and Life." Following his incantation, Harry squished his right hand, making the cut that was on it bleed even more, making a trickle of the red liquid run down his hand and drip on the ground where he stood just below it between the spirits of Earth and Fire. As soon as the first drop of blood hit the ground a flash of light blinded the two of them momentarily. The light faded and the five pointed star was now a pure white, with the different colored flames still in place. Around it was now a white circle, the purple flame was brighter and larger than it once was, and the shadows that were within it, were more distinct. Harry felt a moment of weakness as he could feel a drain on his energy, as part of his magic was taken, as well as some his life energy, taken as payment.

What Harry didn’t know is that in the hallway of the Ministry of Magic a shinning white Pentagram had also formed and that the whirlwind of dust and magic had reformed into the body that Voldemort had once possessed.  Everyone stood in amazed shock as the snake like man froze in place at the centre of the circle, with Harry’s standing body positioned between the two bottom points of the star.

Back within Harry's mind Voldemort was fighting, trying to free himself from the prison that Harry had created. Harry watched as the Pentagram did not break, but started to shine brighter and brighter the more he tried to get free.

 "You have called us Necromancer Harry, what is your sacrifice for?" a voice, deep and rich, came from the bright purple flame at the top of the star.

"This man before me has darkened his soul using Necromancy; he is one of the Unblessed, but has used a basterdize form to bring back his body. He should have passed from this life almost fifteen years ago, but he still stands before us alive." Harry answered in a commanding voice.

The flame remained where it was for a second, before rushing over to Voldemort.  The flame surrounded him and would brush up against him as if they were trying to read his soul.  It didn’t take the purple flame long, before it came back to its resting spot and burning intensely. "You have given us the truth Necromancer Harry; he is an Unblessed, but not. For a sacrifice we will only take a year off your life. We shall gather this soul and take him to where he belongs." The purple flame stated, before it was joined by more voices and continued. "You have proved to us that you follow the path of the Necromancers, for this you will be marked as one of them, for you have learned all there is.  We look forward to meeting with you in the future." Then all the different colored balls pulsed brightly around the circle before rushing toward Voldemort.

This happened not only within Harry’s mind, but also outside.  Voldemort let loose a blood curdling scream as his soul was pulled from this world and into the underworld for the final time.

Those outside watched as Voldemort’s remade body began to fall to the ground, like a puppet, whose strings had been cut.  Then shocked cries rang out, as Harry's own form collapsed onto the ground. Dumbledore sent a spell to Voldemort's body to confirm that he was dead and then rushed over to the young wizard.

"Harry, wake up! Please, come on child." He begged in a heartbroken voice as he patted Harry's check trying to bring him around.

Slowly green eyes opened and looked up into light blue, "He's gone, truly gone now. He won't be able to come back again." He stated in a soft, rough voice for the elderly wizard.

"How?" Dumbledore asked him, curious on what had just happened.

"I'll tell you later." Harry answered in a stronger, but still rough voice, knowing that if others knew what he had done to get rid of Voldemort, it might cause a problem.  For in Wizarding Britain, the Art of Necromancy is consider a part of the Dark Arts.  The reason that they give is because they use blood and a sacrifice in their spells and rituals.  This seemed strange to Harry, for the rest of the world didn’t, they understood that the only person to be affected by this was the person casting the spell or ritual and nobody else, unless a Necromancer's light and dark is out of balance and the darkness has taken over their minds.

With some help from Dumbledore, Harry was able to stand, both of them looking over the dead form of one Lord Voldemort. Slowly, as if walking on eggshells, family, friends, and Ministry officials made their way over to the two people standing over the dead body.

Finally, the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, was the first to make it to the pair.  He had just opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off by Dumbledore. "We will talk in the morning Minister; I wish to get my students back to the school so they can be treated properly."

"Dumbledore we need to talk about this, now!" the blustering minister said as he stood there wringing his hands, still in shock at being made to see that Voldemort had returned.

"We shall do that tomorrow, for now have the body of Voldemort secured and make sure those that were arrested within the Department of Mysteries are locked away securely. And Cornelius I will not be happy if I find that some of them have been let go." Dumbledore told the Minister in an authoritative voice.

Not waiting for the Minister’s reply, Dumbledore pulled out a few items from one of his many robe pockets and tapped them, turning all of them into portkeys. He handed them out to the students, who had managed to make it over to them by now, and activated them before anyone could interfere with what he was doing. All six students, Neville, Luna, Ginny, Ron, Hermione, and Harry, landed in the Hospital Wing of Hogwarts, each of them glad to be back at school.

Harry turned to the others looking all of them over, seeing each of them hurt in one-way or another, tore at his heart. Madam Pomphrey was already rushing over to them, shooting diagnostic spells at them all. Harry moved out of the way of the one that was shot at him, not wishing to be forced to stay, not just yet.

"Guys, there is something that I need to do I'll be back in a few hours.” Harry yelled as he started to back towards the door, keeping an eye on Madam Pomphrey. “If Dumbledore comes to see where I am, please just tell him that I need a little alone time and then I will be back." Harry finished before turning around and running out of the room to the shock and protests of those in the room, none more vehement then Madam Pomphrey’s.

Harry, having escaped the clutches of the medical ward, and in his mind the dictator Madam Pomphrey, he walked through the halls and out the doors on to the Hogwarts’ grounds.  Spying the three greenhouse buildings to his left he headed straight for the one in the middle.  This one housed all the different types of flowers you could possibly find.  Going in he quickly found the Lilies and smiled as he picked a dozen of them.  He then fled the greenhouse and made his way back into Hogwarts.

Once he was inside, he almost ran towards his dorm room to get the Athame dagger that Sirius had given him for Christmas. He quickly decided against going there, just in case Madam Pomphrey decided to try and catch him and drag him back to the Hospital Wing, it had happened once before. He would ask the room for one when he got there.

He was just lucky he had a bag of herbs on his belt, so he didn’t have to go and get those. The bag he had on was his spirit summoning bag, it contained the dried and crushed remains of Dittany of Crete, Dandelion Leaves and Sweet grass, each of them bringing something to the mix (1). He did have a bag for exorcism, but he had left that in his room, he wouldn't need it this time around. In fact, Harry had only needed it the one time, when he had gone to a haunted house in the Muggle World, just before going to Sirius' house that summer.

Without noticing, Harry had made his way down the left corridor on the seventh floor. He snapped out of his thoughts as he looked around, making sure no one was around. He went past the unusual tapestry depicting Barnabas the Barmy, trying to teach trolls how to do Ballet. He walked to and fro three times, thinking of a room that would be suitable to do his summoning ritual in and the much needed Athame. After the third time back a door appeared and he walked up to it and opened it, walking into the Room of Requirement. Inside he found a plain grey stone room, the most ideal place for what Harry had in mind. In the middle of the room was the one thing he still needed and that was the Athame dagger it was plain, but he didn't need the showiness of the one Sirius had given him. He made sure that the place would be locked to anyone else trying to get in using a quick Colloportus and disillusionment charm, for he wished for some time on his own.

Harry set down the knife and the flowers and opened up his bag of dried herbs.  Slowly, he went around the room, using the dried herbs to draw a pentagram on the floor. He started at the top point, where spirit would come to rest, then sprinkled a line all the way down to where Earth would come to rest, he then went up to the right, stopping where Water would settle, he went across to Air and then down towards Fire and back to the beginning. It was necessary to do this to summon a spirit, for this circle is where spirits would appear, but be unable to escape from.  Then he drew a circle which encompassed the whole star inside. He had learned of a quick way of doing this, but it was better to do it the long way when summoning the dead, it showed respect to the Spirits, the dead and the elements.

Harry finished and knelt down outside the summoning circle, between the two southern points of the star, Earth and Fire. He picked up the Athame dagger and the dozen Lilies and laid them in front of him.

"Spirits of Fire, Water, Earth and Air, I give to you the life of these flowers," Harry started as he placed the flowers within the circle, but not within the star. The moment he let the flowers go, they started to whiter and die. "I give to you my blood," he then said as he picked up the Athame and cut his palm open, letting drops of blood drip onto the dried herbs in front of him. With a small flash of light the herbs glowed. The last thing he did was gather some of his magic into an electric green ball above his hand and then spoke softly, "With this magic added, I call upon the spirits Of Lily May Potter, James Charles Potter and Sirius Orion Black. I ask the elements to allow them to come forth for a moment on Mother Earth." He then tossed the ball of magic on top of the dead flowers and blood.  Once it hit those two things a whoosh of air ran throughout the room and tossed Harry’s untidy hair around.

It wasn't even a second later when three gray colored spirits started to form within the star part of the summoning pentagram. Harry smiled at them when they took their final shapes of those he had called, answered it and were now standing before him.

"Mum, Dad, I did it, Voldemort is gone. I did what you said, and it worked. I lost a year off my life, but I don't mind that at all, because now everyone is safe." He told them softly.

Lily smiled back at her young son and said softly, "I'm glad of that. I don't want to see you on this side for a very long time. I'm so proud of you Harry."

"I agree with your mother on this one, I truly don't want to see you until after I have some grandchildren running around. I'm proud of you son, I couldn't ask for a better son than you.” James said smiling softly, wishing he could just hold his son, but his face quickly lost its smile and turned serious as he said, “Don't forget Harry, you shouldn't call us too often, you don't want to fall into the trap that a lot of other Necromancer's have fallen into."

"I won't dad, I promise." Harry nodded and then turned to the last one in the circle that had been quiet while he was talking with his parents. "Sirius?" he asked hesitantly.

"Well done kiddo. Don't blame yourself for me dying. I was stupid when I teased Bella, I should have paid better attention. I know that, since Lily has been so kind to make sure I know that." Sirius said ruefully, a grin aimed at said witch.

"I'm still sorry.” Harry’s voice cracked a little as he gazed at his Godfather and person he had considered a father figure, only after knowing him for a short time.  Not wanting to lose it in front of them, he quickly changed the subject, by turning his emerald gaze to encompass everyone as he said, “I don't think I can remain here for much longer. Especially with how the press always acts, when my name is brought up.  I don't want to be around when it gets out that I finished off Voldemort for good."

"Then ask Dumbledore in helping you get away. I have no doubt he will help, if you talk with him." Lily spoke up before her husband or friend could.  She looked to her husband and then their friend, "No matter where you go, we will still be around, in here." She added as she touched her right hand over her heart with a reassuring smile.

"Before we go let’s talk a little more about what you want to do with your life," James said, as Harry got comfortable.

"Don't forget I only have around twenty minutes to talk with you before you go back to the otherworld." Harry reminded them as he then began to go through the things that he would like to do.

His parents and Sirius were giving him the advice that he had always craved when he was growing up. He had never been so thankful, as to finding the book on Necromancy within Hogwarts and the ones from the Black library. Harry was also glad he had shown a talent with it. When the spirit’s of his family faded away Harry stood up and with a simple Incendio, done wandlessly and silently, the dried herbs set alight and turned to ash.

"Spirits of Air take this ash and scatter it to the four winds so evil may not use it," he said as a wind tore through the room scattering the ash and taking it out of the room.

Harry looked sorrowfully to where his parents and Sirius had stood moments ago, before turning and taking down the dissalusiment charm and Colloportus  spells, then left the Room of Requirement.

I needed to talk with Dumbledore, Harry thought as he headed back to the Hospital Wing. Madam Pomphrey was probably throwing a fit about him leaving before getting his cuts and bruises seen to. A little sleep wouldn’t hurt too much either, before he had to face the headmaster, of course.

After his talk with his parents and godfather, he had figured out he would like to go to Japan, before the school year began. If he was right, it was already the 14^th of March and the school year in Japan started in April, he didn't want to be late for it, as he wanted to go to a regular school, along with doing magical studies from home. He also enjoyed the idea that he would be going to a place that his mother had always wished she had time to go to. She loved learning about new cultures and he was going to get that chance.

Chapter Text

Yume no Naka ni Seishin

Chapter One

Harry had made it back to the Hospital Wing without bumping into anyone, he was about to walk in when he stopped and stared at his wrists. On each wrist were tattoos that hadn't been there a couple of hours ago. He pulled out his wand and waved it over them, making them both disappear; it wouldn't do for anyone to see them just yet. He then walked in and was about to ask if Dumbledore had made it back from the Ministry, his mouth closed as he was met with the sight of his friends asleep, the only people awake were their parents, or in Neville's case, Grandmother, sitting next to them. At that moment Harry felt a pang in his heat as he realised that even though he could talk to his parents every once in a while, he would never get the comfort or care that his friend did with their parents being alive. He gave a small sign, and instead of disturbing them with his question he just gave a sad smile.

Harry was about to turn around and walk out when Madam Pomphrey waylaid him and examined him as he stood there. Seeing she couldn't get a good read on him as he stood there she bustled him over to a spare bed and began to examine him properly. It was while she was giving him the exam that she told him that Dumbledore had sent word saying that he would be staying at the Ministry till the next day and he would send for him as soon as he returned. She then handed him a Dreamless Sleep Potion, made sure he drank it down, and told him to get some rest. With that, he drank the potion and smiled as he sank into soft sheets and let sleep over take him.

Harry slowly felt consciousness coming back to him the next morning. He stretched as he realized that today would be his first day without the threat of Voldemort hanging over his head. He smiled as he stood up from his bed, and saw a fresh set of clothes on his bedside table. He brought the curtains around his bed and got ready for the new day. He finished and ran a hand through his hair, to put it into some semblance of normality as he pulled the curtains away. He looked around to see how everyone else was fairing. Luna, Neville and Ginny were up and seemed to be getting ready to leave, where as he had nobody with him, they all had family fussing over them. He shook his head and laughed as Ginny once again swatted her mother's hands away as the motherly witch tried to do her daughters hair. He moved his emerald gaze to where his two best friends still laid in bed. Harry's smile faltered at the sighed, as out of all of them, Hermione and Ron had taken the most damage during the fighting. Not wanting the two of them to think he had forgotten about them, he nodded his head, and walked over to stand between their two beds, running a hand through his hair once again.

"How are you two feeling?" he asked them as he looked from one to the other.

Hermione smiled, "I feel a little tired, but Madam Pomfrey said I should be fine by tomorrow."

Ron nodded his head, "Basically the same with me too, but Mum's going mental. She wants us both home as soon as I am free. She said she is going to take Ginny, Fred, and George as soon as Ginny is ready to go." A smile was on his face as he finished.

Harry smiled back, but his mood dropped when he saw Hermione giving him a sad, but cautious look. He found out why quick enough, "We're sorry about Sirius", Hermione said in a soft voice.

Harry's smiled had completed disappeared by now, but he didn't want his friends to get the impression that he was mad at them for bringing it up, he nodded his head at them both before giving them a soft, "Thanks," to their condolences.

Ron and Hermione gave him a small smile, as Hermione reached out a hand and was able to grab one of his and gave it a squeeze, "We're here if you ever want to talk," she told him, Ron nodding his head in agreement.

Wanting to get off the subject of his Godfather, Harry told them about his plan. He looked at them, making sure he had their attention and said, "I'm going to be asking Dumbledore to help me leave England for a while." he stopped as he saw both of them going to protest, but he held up a hand for them to listen to him first, "I need to get away for a while. I know that the media is going to go into a frenzy and Fudge, along with the Ministry as a whole, will want a piece of me. I just think it would be best for me to get away from that now, before it really starts." He then waited for the explosion that was about to come from his two best friends.

Hermione of course was the first to fire off questions at lightning speed, "What do you mean leave!? Where will you go? What will you do? WHY!?"

Harry smiled sadly as he tried to answer her questions, "I would be leaving England, and I plan to go to Japan. I really want to travel the Muggle way and I am going to be going to a Muggle school. All of my magical training will be done through owl mail and self-study. I already gave you the reason as to why I am leaving, to avoid politicians and the media, as well as some of the public who will think it is their right to have a piece of me and tell me what I am to do and not to do."

By now Ron's face was as red as his hair, Harry wasn't sure if he was sad or angry, but then Ron shouted, "You can't do that!"

Harry had his answer if Ron was angry or sad. He flinched at the look of anger being shot his way, Harry tried to reassure his friend, "I need to Ron, and we will always be friends that would never change. I just really need to get away; beside I never really planned on staying full time in the Magical World. I wanted to try and do things outside of it, especially with my life always being in print. I want to carry on with my Muggle education. I did my best to keep up with it, thanks to the library in Little Whinging and Dudley's old books. I think I could do it in Japan instead, that way the Ministry would leave me alone. I just need to talk with Dumbledore about all of this. I need his help in getting everything organised." Harry could see his little speech had an affect on his best friend, as his face no longer matched his hair.

"Just don't forget us Harry, you're our best friend. We don't want to lose you, and if you move far away it will feel like you are leaving us behind." Hermione said just as softly, looking at her friend with sad eyes.

Harry was taken aback by Hermione's statement so badly he had to sit down on the end of her bed, looking at her with shock on his face. Still stunned at what Hermione thought and said, Harry asked her, "How could I forget either of you? Both of you mean so much to me." he told her emotion thick in his voice. Turning so he could face Ron he said, "Ron, you are like my brother, someone I've had fun with, argued with and who has been there for me." He then moved his gaze back to Hermione and stated, "Hermione you are like the sister I have always wanted, reminding me that sometimes it takes smarts to make things work, standing by me always, and making me smile and think of all the fun we have had together. You guys are my family, and I could never forget family, you mean too much to me." He ended with a soft smile on his face, taking in both of their reactions.

Ron's eyes had gone as wide as saucers and Hermione had a huge smile on her face, but it was Ron who stuttered out, "You really think that about us?"

Harry nodded his head and said, "Have for a long time now. Both of you have been with me through some really crazy shit and..."

"Harry! Language!" Hermione's sharp reprimand cut into what he was about to say.

"Sorry, Hermione," Harry ducked his head for a moment before he continued talking. "But with all the crazy stuff we've been through, we became closer, even moments of idiocy made us closer in the end."

"That is true." Hermione said as Ron nodded, going at little red in embarrassment at the thought of his reaction during the Tri-Wizard Tournament.

"Anyway, I'm going to see if I can find Dumbledore. I really want to get things sorted as soon as I can." Harry said as he stood up from where he had sat on Hermione's bed.

Before Harry could get very far Hermione's voice stopped him, "My parents are in the Great Hall having breakfast, and Madam Pomphrey is in her office at the moment. We've already finished our breakfast, but if you hurry I am sure there will be something left in the Great Hall."

"Thanks Hermione, Ron. I'll see the two of you later. Hopefully Madam Pomfrey will let you out early." Harry nodded and then left the two of them alone to recover.

Harry soon found himself walking through the deserted halls of Hogwarts, as lessons were on at that moment. He wasn't really looking around at anything, as he reminisced a little about the castle that had been a home for him, the moment he stepped through the large wooden doors. He remembered being so awe struck the first time he walked in, but now, the magic at the sight was gone. The place had lost its charm over the years, and he figured it had to do with the fact that ever year he had been there, his life had been in danger. Though there were still certain areas that took him back, though not always to a nice memory. One of those places would be the classroom everybody in the DA had detention with Umbridge. No one knew at the time if Dumbledore would ever return to the school, after the DA was caught and Umbridge was made the new Headmistress. He remember sitting in detentions, writing with a Blood Quill, only to have a vision of his Godfather being tortured by Voldemort in the Department of Mysteries. Already the vision felt like it happened a lifetime away, when it had only been yesterday.

It was then that Harry realised that he was standing in front of the magnificent doors leading into the Great Hall. Taking a deep breath, Harry cracked opened one of the doors and slipped into the room. Immediately, every eye was on him as the noise in the room dropped and everything went silent. They stopped what they were doing to stare at the boy that had just entered. Harry just held his head high and headed straight for the head table. Not a sound was uttered even when he did reach the head table and passed all the teachers. He didn't stop until he was right in front of Headmaster Dumbledore. Umbridge had yet to return from the Forbidden Forest and the clutches of the Centaurs, Harry hoped she would be gone for good, as he and many other students didn't like the way she dictated life at Hogwarts, or how she had basically tortured the students.

Shoving those unpleasant thoughts to one side, Harry looked into Dumbledore's eyes and asked, "Headmaster, can we talk in your office?" This officially broke the silence as many people now broke out into whispers behind him, wondering what the young teen could need to speak about to the Headmaster.

"Do you not wish for breakfast first? We can always talk after you have eaten." The headmaster said, smiling at his student.

Harry shook his head, "No thank you headmaster, I really just need to talk with you. It's also important that I do it now and not later." He said adamantly.

"Very well, we'll have a little something in my office while you tell me what happened yesterday. Would it be all right for Professors McGonnagall and Snape to join us?" He asked as he stood up from his seat.

Harry gave a mental grimace at the mention of Snape, but was able to keep it hidden. He also didn't want Professor McGonagall there, for the simple fact that it was going to be hard enough to tell Dumbledore about what he did, without adding more people. Trying to get that across to Dumbledore, Harry met his eyes head on and said, "I would prefer it if it was just us for now, you can relay some of what I say later on. For now I would appreciate it if it was just you that know what I did," Harry shot an apologetic look to his Head of House and she just returned it with a small head not, he didn't even bother with Snape.

"Very well Harry." Dumbledore said as the two of them then left the Great Hall and went to the Headmasters office.

The two settled down inside and Dumbledore called for a small breakfast and tea from one of the many Hogwarts house elves. He poured the two of them a drink and Harry took a slice of toast. He wasn't that big on breakfast.

"So why don't you tell me what you did yesterday to get rid of Voldemort?" That was the first question Dumbledore asked him as they started to eat and drink.

Harry was extremely nervous now. The one piece of toast he was eating now felt like it was stuck in his throat and his palms were beginning to sweat. Figuring that the best way to do this was to just be blunt, Harry put that half eaten piece of toast onto a plate and wiped his palms on the top of his trousers and taking a big breath, blurted out, "I'm a Necromancer."

Dumbledore's eyebrows raised up almost disappearing into his hairline and only one word left his mouth, "How?"

"Well, you see I came across a book in the library here at Hogwarts last year, between the first and second task. It didn't take me long to find out that I had a talent for it, especially when I successfully summoned my parents between the second and third tasks. I didn't talk to them for long, but it was enough to get me through the last task, when they appeared, with the rebirth of Voldemort." Harry looked up now from Dumbledore's desk top and saw that the old wizard had folded his hands together and had positioned his chin on top of them, giving Harry his full attention. Seeing no malice, anger, or disappointment, Harry continued on. "It was during the summer, while I was helping clean out the Black's family home that I found a more advanced book on Necromancers. I quickly hid it away in the room I was staying, and once I was sure everyone was asleep I would read it. When I finished I decided I would try summoning my parents again. Once again I was successful and was even able to extend the time they were to remain. By now I was fascinated with the subject and since it came easy to me I just kept on studying it." Harry stopped there and watched, as Dumbledore got ready to ask questions.

"That tells me how you came about learning of such a craft, but that doesn't tell me how it got rid of Voldemort." Dumbledore stated.

"Well you see, about that," Harry was now even more nervous than before, what he was about to say was a big no; you should never do it or speak of it, in the Necromancer World. Again he took a deep breath before continuing, "By summoning my parents we were able to come up with a way to get rid of him once and for all. You see, Voldemort was supposed to be in the otherworld after his defeat when I was a baby, but something interfered and he instead became a wandering spirit, stuck here in this realm. Last year, when he came back, he used a butchered form of what we Necromancers call the Unblessed Resurrection. This meant that neither the elements nor the spirits sanctioned his return to life. All I needed to do was to get both his body and spirit in one place, invoke the spirits and the elements to come and cleanse him and take his soul into the otherworld. As you can see it worked, and now Voldemort will never be able to come back." Harry finished with a sigh, as he watched Dumbledore mull over what he had been told

Dumbledore leaned back a little in his chair, as his right hand began to stroke his bead as he thought deeply about what had been said. Slowly it cleared away as he gave Harry a calculating looked before saying in an accepting voice, "I can certainly understand why you didn't want anyone else to know about what you have done to get rid of him, but as for being a Necromancer, why didn't you say anything to me? And also all Necromancers have a mark of some kind on their body. It is unique to each individual, yet I see no such mark upon you?"

Harry smiled and made the decision to tell his headmaster why, "I know that being a Necromancer is looked down on here in England. It's viewed as a Dark Art, and to be honest I don't want any more publicity then I already have. I saw last year how the public's opinion is swayed so easily in this world, and to be frank, I just don't want to deal with it anymore. Especially with this, since I know if it got out there will be cries of me going Dark, that I am the next Dark Lord."

Dumbledore nodded his head at this explanation, but sat waiting for Harry to continue on his mark. Harry saw this and pulled his wand from his back pocket and then rolled both of his sleeves up to his elbows. Tapping his left wrist first he quietly said, "Dellusiono." It instantly felt like a trickling of warmth, where just moments ago it had been cold. He quickly did the same to his right wrist before bringing his wrists together and holding them up for Dumbledore to see. Each one had a ring of green braided Sweet Grass going all the way around his wrists, like a bracelet. Then spaced around the bracelet were three white Lilies on his right wrist, and three pink Thistles on his left wrist, but instead of being braided into the Sweet Grass these looked to be actually growing on top of it

Dumbledore took Harry's left hand and twisted it this way and that before taking his free hand and running his fingers over it. His hand jerked back when the softness of the grass and flowers felt actually real. He looked up at Harry with a puzzled expression on his face. Harry gave a chuckle before explaining, "That is the one thing that truly remains the same, is that they will feel real if I wish them to, I can pluck one of the off my wrist and use it, just in case a spirit attacks me, since not all spirits can be seen."

"Simply amazing Harry," Dumbledore's awestruck voice reached his ears as said headmaster leaned back in his chair, releasing Harry's hand, "you are right, you know. We shouldn't let others come across what you can do, it could cause a lot of problems, and not only the calls about you turning Dark, but also people trying to get you to bring people back for them. Nicolas told me that Necromancers went into hiding in the first place because they were often kidnapped to bring someone back from the dead, if they refused they were often killed." he told the young wizard seriously, worried a little for his safety should his abilities be made public, "I will help you in thinking up something that we can tell people about what happened with Voldemort," he finished as he started to run his fingers through his beard, trying to think of something that would work.

"I thank you for any help you can give me," Harry said sincerely, a smile on his face, it soon fell as he leaned back into his chair and became serious once again, "There is one last thing I would like to talk to you about."

The aged Headmaster saw how serious Harry was being and so to encourage him he smiled and asked, "What would that be?"

Giving a small sigh, Harry began, "I want to leave England. You already know what the papers were like when they thought I was the devil incarnate at the beginning of the year. Now that they were proved wrong they will all be clamouring for me once again, but this time to be nice to me. I really don't want their fickle attention. I don't want fame, interviews, or anything like that. I don't want to be a part of it, I never intended to stay within the Wizarding World after my graduation, but with all this nonsense, I think it might be best if I accelerated my plan a little."

Dumbledore didn't look shocked at all by Harry's statement; it was as thought the wise old headmaster had expected it. Instead he asked a very important question as he looked to the young wizard before him, "Harry, while you will never be able to truly part from our world, especially with the strong magic you have within you. I understand wishing to leave this world behind for a while, and maybe for a longer time. But, where would you go?"

Harry smiled at this as he answered, "I know I will never be able to leave magic behind, and to be frank, I don't want to. It's a part of my life that I love, like everyone else, but I don't want to be here in Wizarding Britain. I was thinking about going overseas, because even in the Muggle world here, I would be found and harassed. I know I'm not yet sixteen, but I can take case of myself, I've done that for most of my life."

"Are you sure that you have thought all of this through?" Dumbledore asked

Harry nodded his head while saying, "I've thought about it a lot over the last two years, especially after the drawing of the Champions in my fourth year. I think it would be best in the end. I even have a place in mind. I just need your help in making sure that only a few people know where I am going to go. I just want to be my own person and have some control over my life now that Voldemort is gone. I just know I wont get that if I stay here," Harry's voice held a solemn note in it as he spoke the last part.

"Than I will help you get emancipated and help you set yourself up. Are you going Magical or Muggle?" he then asked, seeing the seriousness about the young wizard and wanting to do his best by him.

"I'll be going Muggle, and Headmaster, Thank You." Harry answered with a smile.

"Don't worry about it Harry. Now where are you planning on going?" Dumbledore asked as he got out a quill and parchment.

"Well, I want to go to Japan. I've been fascinated by the place since I was a child. I love the language and the culture. Also, I found out it's a place that my mother would to have loved to visit. I am planning on going to Muggle School there, to get my Muggle education. I still want to learn magic, of course. But I don't want to be in Magic School. I want to do it via owl, and the occasional visits to the school for practical's in Potions and such. I also want to live in a Muggle area, for the simple fact that I don't want to be around Wizards all the time." Harry finished, as he then looked to his wrists and did a quick concealment charm on them, to hide the Necromancer Marks.

"All right then, I shall have everything sorted over the next few days." Dumbledore said as he finished up his writing on the parchment before also standing up. "Hopefully by then we will have something to tell the press about how you got rid of Voldemort also."

"Thank you again Headmaster." Harry said as he shook the old wizard's hand.

"Again no thanks needed Harry my boy. Now why don't you go see how your friends are and I will get started on this right away." Dumbledore waved him off.

"Yes sir." Harry said as he turned and walked out of Dumbledore's office feeling better than he had for a while. With no threat of Voldemort hanging over his head, and with the prospect of leaving England and going somewhere where he won't be recognized for a scar on his head, he couldn't help but to smile as he headed to the Hospital Wing to see Ron and Hermione.

Chapter Text

Harry yawned as he walked down the stairs of the Burrow; it had only been a few days after leaving Hogwarts, for the last time. He couldn't believe that in a few more days he would be starting his new life in Japan.

First he had to settle some things with Dumbledore and the goblins at Gringotts. Most of it had to do with the Black and Potter holdings, this meant that he would have to sign some paperwork. He also needed to ask the goblins what he needed to do to make Dumbledore his overseer, since he didn't know when he was going to come back, if ever.

Then Harry had a sobering thought. He not only had to sign the papers today, making him the head of the Potter and Black houses, but also Sirius' memorial would be taking place later today. Harry could admit to himself that he wasn't looking forward to the service. The simple reason was that he still missed the Marauder and he just wasn't ready to say goodbye for good. Part of him still expected the man to walk into a room and say it was all a joke, especially since the Ministry had exonerated Sirius two days ago, but it was too little to late.

So lost in his thoughts, Harry didn't even realise he was almost to the kitchen until he heard several voice nearby. Looking up and through the doorway he spotted everybody sitting at the table, except for Ron, as he was still in the shower after Harry woke him up with a bucket of cold water dumped on his head. Stifling a snort of laughter, Harry walked all the way into the kitchen with a grin on his face, nodding to everybody that said good morning to him. He quickly took a seat across from Hermione and in between George and Bill.

"Morning Harry, is Ron awake?" Molly asked him as soon as she spotted him sitting at the table.

"He is now," he grinned, unrepentant for what he had done. His best friend had done it to him once when they were in third year, payback was always fun.

"What did you do?" Hermione asked him as she narrowed her eyes at her friend.

"Just a little payback, I did tell him it might take me a while to do it," he said cryptically and quietly, so no one else could hear their conversation.

"You didn't!" Hermione exclaimed as her hands flew to her mouth, not believing he would do such a thing.

Harry looked over to her and raised an eyebrow, "Oh yes," he laughed as a bright grin came over his face.

"I can't believe you would do something like that, he is gong to kill you." She told him, shaking her head at him in exasperation.

"Harry!" A shout came from above as a thunderous noise came rushing down the stairs.

"Yes Ron," Harry said calmly as he looked at his friend that now stood in the doorway of the kitchen, the two of them had the attention of the rest of the family, who had all stayed quiet, wondering what Harry and Hermione had been whispering about.

"Did you have to do that?" he complained, then a devilish look took over his face and he pointed a finger at Harry and said, "I will get you back for that."

Harry chuckled and said, "It's only payback, if you try and get me again, I'll do something even worse," he looked over to his friend with a smirk on his face, reminding Ron once again who Sirius had told all of his prank ideas to.

"Marauders son," Ron murmured as he quickly sat down in a huff.

"Yep, and damn proud of it," Harry agreed as the twins looked to Harry, their mouths wide open and eyes staring at him in awe and disbelief.

"Harry, language!" came the joint shouts of Hermione and Molly.

"Harry, do you have to leave?" Ginny asked him her voice laced with sadness and affection, as she stared at him from down the table.

Harry looked to her and shook his head, "I'm leaving Ginny and as much as I don't want to leave a few good friends here, I want some peace and quite, and I won't get that if I remain here."

"But, Harry, I really don't want you to go," she whined at him, her eyes holding sadness and rejection.

Ron turned his gaze to his little sister and with a comforting, but hard tone said, "Harry wouldn't get any peace here and over there he will be able to. I don't want him to go, and neither does Hermione, but we both understand why."

"But Ron, he belongs here," she huffed a little as she sent a shy look towards Harry.

Before Ron, Hermione, or Harry could say anything else to Ginny, Molly interrupted them as she lay breakfast out on the table and told everyone to dig in. Harry remained quiet as he ate, going over everything that he would have to do today. He didn't miss Ginny's constant looks filled with affection and love. Every time she did it, Harry couldn't help but grimace a little, he hoped that once he left she would finally get over her stupid childhood crush. Everybody else at the breakfast table was trying to talk over each other and once in a while a quarrel would break out over something that had been said, but Molly would stop it immediately before it could go further. It made Harry a little sad when he realised that this would be one of the things he would miss the most when he left for Japan; though it wasn't enough for him to stay. Breakfast went by too quickly in Harry's opinion, even with Ginny's uncomfortable glances at him, and soon it was time for everybody to start their day. This meant Harry had to get cleaned and dressed, before heading to Diagon Alley and Gringotts.

XxXxX

Harry smoothed down the dark green robe that he had put on as he headed towards Gringotts bank in Diagon Alley. He tried to ignore the people that stopped and stared at him as he walked by. He was just glad that they didn't try and stop him to talk about Voldemort and how he defeated him. He walked up the steps, glad that he was at the entrance; he then grabbed a hold of the handled and walked in.

Harry smiled a little, when he spotted Headmaster Dumbledore, which wasn't that hard since he was wearing a bright purple robe with shooting stars whizzing around it. He was standing near the back of the bank, talking to one of the many goblins that worked there. Harry hurried over to where they were standing and not wanting to interrupt what looked like an important conversation, he stop a few feet from them and leaned against a wall. The two talked for a few more minutes, before Headmaster Dumbledore noticed him and greeted him with a cheery, "Why, Hello, Harry my boy."

Harry nodded with a smile, in acknowledgement, before he pushed off the wall and over to where Dumbledore and the goblin were standing. Once beside them Dumbledore looked over and gave a happy smile while asking, "You are looking well, I take it Molly's cooking is as good as ever?"

Harry gave the old Headmaster a smile back as he replied, "Yes it is Headmaster and she wanted me to ask if you are coming to dinner tonight after Sirius' memorial. She is setting a few things up for those that are coming."

Dumbledore nodded his head and said, "You may tell Molly that I will certainly try to stop by."

Getting the answer he needed Harry nodded his head and then turned his attention to the goblin standing next to them. "Hello," Harry greeted.

"Greetings to you also, young Mr. Potter." The goblin answered before continuing, "You are both to follow me. Gnarltooth is waiting for both of you." Without waiting for them he turned around and headed down one of the few corridors that led off the main part of Gringotts.

Quickly, both Harry and Dumbledore, followed after the goblin. After walking quite a ways they came to a stop in front of the last door in the corridor. The goblin that was guiding them knocked on the door loudly and waited till a deep growling, "Come in," sounded from inside.

The goblin opened the door and ushered the two of them inside, before closing the door behind them. Harry took in the room he had walked into. The walls were the colour of dried blood and there was nothing hanging on the walls. Though in one of the corners sat a suit of armour, which could easily be worn by a goblin. A large black desk, with two office chairs sat in front of it, was in the middle of the room. Behind it was another goblin, which they assumed was Gnarltooth; they found that to be true when the goblin that had brought them introduced him and then left them to their business.

"Mr. Harry Potter and Headmaster Albus Dumbledore," Gnarltooth said, his voice low, with a gravely tone to it. Harry looked to him and saw an old scar that ran down the left side of his' face, he couldn't help but wonder what had caused it, "Please sit down," the goblin added as he gestured to the two seats in front of them.

Once they were seated Gnarltooth then began, "I was told that you are here to lean about your holdings and to sign for them, since thanks to your Headmaster you are now emancipated, am I right Mr. Potter?"

"Yes, he told me that I had a few things that I would need to sign," Harry nodded as he looked to Dumbledore.

"Right, the first thing we will look into are the Potter holdings." Gnarltooth then pushed a stack of papers that had been sitting in front of him toward Harry. "This is a list I made of all the properties and vaults, along with all contents in each." He then pushed a second stack of papers that sat to his right toward Harry. "This second pile here is a list of all the firms and companies that you have an investment in." He then folded his hands in front of him as he continued. "Please read through them all and then sign this document," He unfolded his hands and sat piece of paper between the two stacks, "that states you will be taking over. After you are done signing you will then have to make an oath with your blood, wand, and magic."

Harry's eyes went about as wide as a dinner plate, as he took in the two stacks of paper, giving a weary sigh he picked up the first piece of paper and began reading. It took him a good hour to get through all of the paper; all the while he could hear Dumbledore and Gnarltooth holding a conversation.

By reading the stacks he found out that he had six homes in Britain and even a few overseas. He hadn't missed that the home he had picked out in Japan and have given Dumbledore the okay to purchase for him was also included in the list. The vault list showed that he would have plenty of money, and that he would never have to work, though Harry couldn't see himself not working. The very last paper he picked up, talked about the family values and tradition. There really weren't that many. The main key points were to be brave, help those he could, do what was right, and be ready for anything.

Having read everything, he then turned his attention to the last piece of paper in front of him. He gave a shudder as he picked up the pen sitting next to it. The pen happened to be a blood quill and Harry remembered those horrid things, thanks to Umbridge. Quickly he signed it and then dropped the pen just as fast when the familiar sting of pain took over on the back of his hand.

Harry then grabbed his wand and crossed it over his head as he said the oath, "I, Harry James Potter, do herby declare my loyalty to the Ancient and Noble House of Potter. I swear to up hold the traditions of the Potter family and make my ancestors proud, so mote it is." As soon as he finished a bright light came out of his wand and surround his whole body before collecting around his middle finger on his right hand and forming the Head of Potter House ring. This showed that his oath had taken hold and he was now subject to punishment if he did not uphold his families' values.

Harry gave a sigh and then turned his attention to Gnarltooth as he said, "Congratulations Lord Potter." Gnarltooth then turned to the last two stacks of papers and pushed them towards Harry. "Sirius Black never had the chance to be heir to the Black House, but since he was the next in line to inherit we will go by his will, which named you as his heir to the Black family. These here are all their holdings, please go through it just like you did for the Potter holdings."

Harry started in on the new stack of papers with an aggravated sigh. Just when he thought he was done he got more paper work. The Black family had more homes and vaults then the Potter's did and so this stack took about an hour and half to go through. The money was way more than the Potter's and if Harry had thought he would never have to work again, he defiantly had enough now to not have to work for multiple lifetimes. What surprised him was that there were notes on some of the things; these would have to go to the people mentioned. Finally he was done and picked up the finally page that gave a list of the Family values. It surprised him to read that they weren't as dark as people thought they were. They were always to think of family first, protect the family, and to make sure that the family was pure of heart. He stopped at that and wondered when that had changed in some of their views as to make sure the line was always pure.

Not wanting to waste any more time Harry once again picked up the blood quill and signed his name. Once that was done he did the same thing with his wand as he did last time saying, "I, Lord Harry James Potter, do herby declare my loyalty to the Ancient and Noble House of Black. I swear to uphold the traditions of the Black family and to make my ancestors proud, so mote it is." Once again he was surrounded by a white light that then faded, only this time around his right ring finger, next to the Head of Potter Family ring, appeared the Head of Black Family ring.

"Well, Lord Potter-Black, I look forward to doing business with you again." Gnarltooth said with a grin, showing off his sharp teeth and causing the large scar to warp slightly, making the aging goblin look even more feral and menacing, then welcoming.

"Actually there is one more thing that I would like to discuss with you right now." Harry cut in before the goblin could dismiss them.

Gnarltooth nodded his head for Harry to continue and so he did, "I am heading for Japan soon and I won't be able to come to England all the time to see to my families holdings. I would like Headmaster Dumbledore to take over while I am gone. What I am wondering is there something special that I have to do to make that happen?"

Gnarltooth sat there for a few minutes, looking the two of them over, seemingly thinking before he spoke, "Yes that would be possible. All the Headmaster would need to do is to make an oath before you, showing that he has the families' best interests at heart and that all decisions will be made as you would make them."

"That would be fine." Harry stated before turning to Headmaster Dumbledore and asking, "Can we do that right now?"

"I would be willing to take the oath right now." Dumbledore said as he nodded his head.

Gnarltooth smiled again and brought out a piece of paper from a drawer in his desk and sat it in front of Albus, before motioning for him to go ahead. Headmaster Dumbledore took out his wand and glanced at the piece of paper in front of him. In the next minute he crossed his wand over his heart and began, "I, Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore swear on my magic that I will do my utmost best in the interest of the Ancient and Noble Houses of Potter and Black as long as they are in my care. I will do as Lord Harry James Potter-Black would do, so mote it is." When he finished a familiar light emitted from his wand, before surrounding his whole body for a moment, then it slowly faded away, seeming to sink into his body.

"Now that we have finished with that, I will be sending you both the information that Lord Potter-Black has looked over today and also anything that comes up. Is there anything else that you need to know?" Gnarltooth asked switching his gaze between the two.

Harry glanced at Dumbledore who shook his head no. Seeing that, Harry turned to Gnarltooth and shook his head saying, "No I think that is it for now. Thank you for your help and I hope you have a nice day." With that he stood up and shook hands with the goblin.

"Good bye to you then," Gnarltooth told them as he finished shaking hands with Harry and then Dumbledore.

Both of them nodded and left the goblin's office heading to the lobby. Once in the Gringotts lobby they both stopped and turned to each other. "Shall I see you a little later at the memorial in Godric's Hollow, Harry," asked Dumbledore?"

"Yes, you will Headmaster, Remus and I will be arriving earlier so he can take me to my parent's grave. It will be the first time in seeing them." Harry answered his Headmaster.

Dumbledore just nodded his head that he understood before saying, "I will see you later then Harry." He then turned and made his way out the doors of Gringotts.

Harry watched him go and smiled a little at the robes the old man was wearing. Moments later he followed the aged Headmaster out of Gringotts and to the Leaky Cauldron, before taking the Floo back to the Burrow. Once there, he had an hour left to get ready before Remus showed up and they would head out to Godric's Hollow.

Chapter Text

Harry and Remus strolled into the graveyard; there was still two hours before Sirius' memorial. Harry let the werewolf lead the way to his parent's graves, as he knew his way through the maze of gravestones. This didn't surprise Harry, as he was sure that the older wizard had come here often over the years.

Remus came to a sudden halt and Harry, not paying much attention, almost ran into the back of him. Looking around Remus, Harry spotted a large marker with the names of his parent's engraved into it. Slowly he stepped around his honorary uncle and walked up to it. He came to a stop just before it and knelt down, he brought up his right hand and ran it over the name of his dad, and then over his mother's. He paused for a few seconds and took a breath, as he then read the inscription carved below, 'The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death,' it reminded him of Dumbledore a little, and knew it would have been something that the old man would have had carved into it.

He stayed kneeled there for a few more minutes, trying to sear into his mind this moment of actually seeing his parent's final resting place for the first time. He was thankful that Remus remained quiet as he thought about his parents.

Giving a sigh, after a few moments, he stood up and put his hand on top of the cold stone monument, turning his head a little towards Remus, but not taking his eyes off the two names, he whispered, "I never thought I would get the chance to come here."

Harry heard Remus shuffle a little closer and could feel the guilt now radiating off the old werewolf as he responded with a voice laced with the same feeling, "I'm sorry Harry, and we should have brought you here a long time ago."

Wanting to make sure that Remus understood that he had nothing to feel guilty over, he turned around to face the older wizard saying firmly, "Remus, it's fine, you have nothing to be sorry for. I know it was the last thing on anyone's mind, especially with the way things happened while I was at Hogwarts."

"It does matter though Harry, you should have been brought here as soon as you were brought back into the Wizarding World. They're your parents, and I know that you never got the chance to say goodbye to them." Remus argued in a soft voice, mixed with sadness at failing to take him. He moved closer to the teen and put a comforting hand on his shoulder and gave it a squeeze to make his point.

At that moment Harry wanted to tell Remus everything about his Necromancy and how he had the chance to see them, get to know them a little, and to even say goodbye, but he quickly realized now was not the right time to reveal one of his biggest secrets, so he settled with saying, "Maybe you're right Remus, but the important thing is that I'm here now."

Remus smiled and brought the young teen into a hug, and squeezed him gently while whispering into his ear, "Well, you now have a chance to tell them anything you wish. I'll be over by the gate so you can have a little privacy." He then let go of Harry and walked away, with his shoulders hunched slightly and a small limp, towards the gate.

Harry stood and watched Remus walk away; he turned back to his parent's grave and knelt down once again. He was there for the rest of the two hours, just talking about anything and everything. It was nice and therapeutic, even though he had gotten to talk to his parent's face to face, it was never to sit and chat. It was always about something he didn't get or how to defeat Voldemort. He felt a little closer to them, being able to tell them everything that was on his mind, things most kids and teens would have been able to tell their parents face to face.

At the two hour mark Remus walked back to Harry and not wanting to startle the boy he said very softly, "Harry, it's time, people are beginning to arrive."

Harry had sensed Remus approach and had already started to wrap up his one sided conversation. Hearing the older wizard's voice he looked up and nodded his head. He then slowly stood up and took one last look at the grave, before turning around and following Remus toward the crowd of people that had started to gather in the middle of the graveyard.

As Harry drew closer to the crowd he started to make out many of the faces. Most of them were from the Order and some even from the Department of Ministries. There happened to be a pair of faces that shocked him in being there. Toward the back of the crowd and a little away from the actual main body of people, stood Draco Lucius Malfoy and his mother, Narcissa Black Malfoy. Harry wondered why they were there, as Narcissa had never seemed to like Sirius and totally disowned him, like the rest of the Black Family.

Shrugging it off he continued towards where Sirius' marker would be placed, next to James and Lily's. As he drew closer to the small stage and podium, he saw Ron and Hermione making their way towards him and not too far behind them was Headmaster Dumbledore.

"Harry, are you all right?" Hermione asked as soon as she reached him and quickly had her arms wrapped tight around him and gave a strong squeeze. Harry could just feel the worry and concern she had for him, but underneath it radiated the sibling affection she felt towards him.

When Hermione finally let go, he stepped back and gave a nod of his head along with a reassuring smile, it was a little watered down from his normal smile, but it was all he could muster under the circumstances, and replied softly, "I'm fine."

"Are you sure?" Hermione questioned, having caught the weak smile. By now Ron had caught up to the both of them and was looking Harry over to make sure nothing was out of place.

"I am, don't worry so much." Harry told her firmly, but also looking at Ron and giving a nod.

"Well, all right mate." Ron said giving Harry a nod back that he understood he didn't want to get into it.

Dumbledore had just made it to the group as Ron spoke and watched the three of them with a smile on his face before he addressed Harry, "Well Harry, as I mentioned, Remus set this up, but he has forgotten to get somebody to speak."

Remus, who was feeling a little odd being around the three teens, spoke up now to answer Dumbledore, "I haven't forgotten Albus, I was hoping Harry would say a few things and I plan to speak as well." He then glanced at Harry to see if he would be okay with his arrangement.

Harry's eyes widened and his voice held a little bit of panic as he looked up at his friend, "I don't know about that, what would I say?"

Remus smiled at the little bit of fear Harry was showing and just patted him on the shoulder as he stated, "Whatever is in your heart Harry."

Harry stood there for a few minutes staring off into space and mulling over in his mind what his heart wanted him to say about his Godfather. Once he settled on something he gave a nod of his head to Remus, Dumbledore, Hermione, and Ron. Seeing his nod they all smiled and made the rest of the way to the small stage and podium that had been set up earlier that day for the occasion.

It didn't take long to get there and a few more minutes of waiting for everybody to get settled and once they were sure nobody else was coming Remus gave a reassuring smile to Harry and motioned for him to go ahead. Harry slowly made his way up the stage and over to the podium, he didn't have to wait long for people to quiet down, once they saw him standing at the podium.

Clearing his throat and trying to hide his nervousness Harry shakily began his talk; "We are here to say goodbye to my Godfather and someone who quickly became a father figure to me in the short amount of time I was able to know him." He once again cleared his throat, but found his confidence rising and continued a little steadier now, letting the feelings he had towards Sirius strengthen him, "Sirius Black had a sense of humor that not many people could appreciate, but one that made me smile and laugh when I thought things could not get any worse. When I was down, a letter from my Godfather would lift my spirits once again and remind me that I wasn't alone and that I had him, my friends, and many others standing beside me." Harry smiled at the memories that were coming to the surface and decided to share a few with the gathered crowd, "Sirius told me of the things he got up to in school with my father and Remus. I am sure not all of his time was good, but he only told me those stories that made him remember the happier times in his life, when he was surrounded by his friends." His smile going a little sad at that before he carried on, "He also told me of the things that happened when I was a baby; he gave me precious memories of a time I would never be able to remember. Many of you here know that I only got the chance to spend the one Christmas with him, but it is one that I will always remember. I was surrounded by friends and family, but what I will remember most is the pranks he played on the Weasley twins and Remus. The one prank that stands out the most in my mind though, is the one he did on Molly Weasley."

At this Molly exclaimed, "I don't believe it!"

This had everybody in the crowd chuckling and Harry was even laughing a little. Smiling he looked at Molly and said, "I'm sorry, but he did and it left us laughing for hours. I'm sure you remember it as it left your hair in an afro that was bright green and your skin would change colors depending on the mood you were in during the day, and at the beginning it was a vivid red, then it mellowed to yellow and I believe I saw purple, and I know that was because of mischief being planned. I remember being so disappointed when it went away after a couple of hours and I believe you were trying to pin it on the twins and even went as far to try to get them back." By now the whole crowd was roaring with laughter and poor Molly was red from embarrassment and had a look of mock anger on her face.

Shaking her fist in the air she yelled with a mischievous smile on her face, "Oh, I would have so loved to have got him back for that one." That just made everybody laugh more, for everybody knew the Weasley twins got their pranking streak from her.

Sobering up from his laughing fit Harry could now feel the tears threatening to fall and he was sure his voice quivered a few times, but he had to say it, "I don't want to say good bye to Sirius, so for now I will say see you later, because I know that when it comes to my time to pass on, he will be there to greet me along with my parents. So, see you later Sirius and play a few pranks on my mum, she sounds like the more serious one out of my parents."

Done with his speech Harry bowed his head and moved aside for Remus to take over and tell his own stories. Remus speech was a little longer then Harry's as he had known Sirius longer and interacted with him more. He made everybody crack up with his stories of them in school and everybody grew sober as they learned how his family treated him before he had run away to the Potter family. Remus' speech lasted a good half an hour and he ended it with a see you later like Harry had.

Then Harry came back to the front with Remus and lead everybody over to where James and Lilly Potter's graves sat. Once they reached their destination Remus and Harry both took out their wands and recited an incantation that slowly formed into a stone marker next to the other grave marker. On it was carved, Here Lies Sirius Black; Marauder for Life and of course in Death, Harry smiled at it and then him and Remus told everybody that there was food, drink, and social gathering of friends at the Burrow.

Slowly the crowds began to disperse, but Harry turned around to look at the two memorials of three people he deeply cared about one last time before he left. While he was standing there he felt the presence of someone else standing behind him. Turning around he was shocked to find it was Malfoy, looking a little nervous, but still with his nose up in the air, his snobby attitude still there.

"Potter," came the usual smooth cold greeting from Draco.

"Malfoy," Harry responded back. Then he asked, "What are you doing here?"

At the words Draco started to shift his feet a little back and forth, as his nervousness showed up. Finally he seemed to collect himself and his face went blank as he looked Harry right in the eyes, with his own gray ones showing resolve, he voice serious as he spoke, "Sirius may not have been close family, but he was still family." his eyes left Harry's as he looked to the gravestones and over the three names on them before he continued, "You do realize my mother was a Black before she married my bastard of a father?" he brought his gaze back up to Harry's with a questioning look.

"Yeah, I knew she was Sirius' cousin, I'm just more shocked you called your Dad a bastard." Harry answered trying to mask his surprise.

At this Draco snorted and with venom lacing his voice said, "After seeing what the supposed Great and Powerful Dark Lord did to my father after you escaped last year I wanted no part in any of it, but my father had already decided that I would take the Dark Mark next year. He then wanted me to do some mission and begged Voldemort to pick me. My father kept telling Voldemort that I would be able to complete the mission and I wouldn't fail. Voldemort told him that if I did fail that he would kill my mother and me as punishment for my father." Draco's hands curled into fists at his sides and his arms were visibly shaking from his rage, as he looked at the ground spitting out the next sentence. "I would do anything to protect my mother and here was my own father, who supposedly loved her, gambling with her life. I wasn't worried about my own, but my mother is a whole different story, she means everything to me." Draco let out a loud breath of air and finally got control of his emotions before looking up at Harry and letting gratitude into his voice continued, "I guess what I mean to say Potter is thank you for getting rid of Voldemort. You ended up saving my mother and I would do anything to protect her, which means I will show you gratitude, though I still have a slight dislike for you." he finished with a raised eyebrow to his school rival.

Harry could no longer keep the shock off his face at hearing those words and just stood there staring for a few minutes till Draco started fidgeting and snapped at him, "Don't just stand there staring Potter, people might start questioning your intelligence, if they haven't already."

Harry snapped out of it at Draco's remark and sent him a glare, before softening his look and asking curiously, "What do you plan to do now?"

Draco gave what looked like genuine smile as he replied; "My mother plans on getting a divorce, and now that father is in Azkaban permanently, and is taking back the Black name. I plan on taking the Malfoy Lordship and try to restore the family back to its former glory. What about you Potter?"

Nodding his head Harry smiled and said, "Well, I have already taken on the Lordships of Potter and Black and as for what I am going to do after that; I'm not going to tell you. Though you'll hear a little about it in the papers soon enough."

Another snort left Draco as he then replied, "Fine Potter, I will see you around, I suppose." He then turned around and walked toward the gate, where Narcissa was waiting.

Harry rolled his eyes at the strange encounter he just had with Malfoy and was glad to be moving to Japan. At least he wouldn't have to deal with him anymore. Deciding he had spent enough time in front of the graves he also turned around and headed toward the gate. He saw that Remus, Ron, Hermione, and Headmaster Dumbledore were standing just outside of it waiting on him to join them.

Harry was glad all of the planning and paperwork was done, but a sharp pain still lingered in his heart over Sirius. He would never be able to talk with him again or ask for his advice on anything; he could not even summon him, knowing that it could disrupt the flow of souls if he did it too often. The thing Harry knew he would miss the most would be pulling pranks on people and having fun with his Godfather. Harry hoped that by moving away from all the stuff that reminded him of his Godfather will help lessen the pain, but he knew it would also take time. Harry would always remember Sirius and he hoped one day he would be able to look back on his memories in fondness and not with the sharp pain that lingered in his heart at that moment.

Chapter Text

Yume no Naka Ni Seishin

Chapter Four

The digital alarm next to the bed was blaring away, telling all within hearing that it was time to get up. Harry opened his eyes and slammed his hand on top of the poor machine, just hitting the button to turn it off. He rolled over onto his back and stared at the white ceiling. Today would start his first day at Muggle School in five years and he could already feel the butterflies circling in his stomach letting him know that he was slightly nervous about it.

Harry had done his best to prepare himself and to make sure that he was up to speed with all the subjects that he would be learning about at his new school. He also managed to get an excellent grasp on the language, both written and spoken, but that was all thanks to a spell that Dumbledore had shown him before he had left England.

Flinging the blanket back, Harry got up and headed to the bathroom. He took a quick shower, all the time wondering if he should hide his Necromancy Marks that stood out on his wrists. He knew that if he hid them, then they would have to stay that way, for it would draw a lot of attention to him if he forgot just once, and he didn't want the questions that would lead to. Finishing his shower, he stepped out and dried himself off, slinging the towel around his waist, and made his way back into his bedroom. Still mulling it over, he thought of another good reason way he didn't want to hide them, he was proud of the Marks, he had worked hard to get them. Reaching into his closet he grabbed his white school shirt and pulled it on, his black trousers went on and he tucked his shirt into them. As he was tying the red tie around his collar he made up his mid, he would let them show, and anyone asked why he had them, he would just tell them that it was private. He grabbed his new cream-colored blazer off the hanger and slipped it over his arm, not wanting to wear it just yet. He made his way out of his room and to the stairs.

Harry smiled when he saw Hedwig happily sleeping on her perch at the bottom of the stairs. He went over to her and frowned a little when he saw she still had mail attached to her leg. Slowly he reached out a hand and tried to be gentle as possible as he went to untie the envelope. He really didn't want to wake the majestic owl. He knew that she was tired, since she hadn't woken as Harry moved around her, like she normally did. Unfortunately, it didn't work, he tugged just a little too hard on the string that attached the letter to her, and it woke her up, she blinked at him in curiosity.

Sighing Harry said, "Sorry Hedwig, and good morning," she blinked at him again before cooing her greeting, making Harry smile at her.

"Thanks for getting the mail," he watched as she dipped her head a little in acceptance.

He then asked her, "Will you be all right on your own?" She looked at him and gave a small hoot and a head bob as if to say 'of course I will silly'.

"All right then Hedwig, I left the window open for you to go in and out when you want." He paused for a second before saying, "Just, please don't bring ay dead animals into the house," he added the last part for the simple fact he forgot it one time and came home to a dead rabbit in the middle of his living room.

He knew that she understood him, because as long as he reminded her, she never did it again. Hedwig gave another small hoot of understanding and tucked her head back under her wing, going to sleep once again.

Harry smiled at her and shook his head as he then walked into the kitchen to leave her alone to sleep. He put his blazer on the back of one of the chairs and his letter down on the table as he passed them by. He put on some toast and started to make himself some tea. He pulled out his favorite strawberry jam and some butter as his toast popped up from the machine. When he had finished he went over to the table and sat down looking at the lone letter he had gotten. He finished his breakfast and washed his hands before picking it up.

He smiled as he recognized the handwriting as belonging to Hermione.

Dear Harry,

It has bee n hectic here for a while after you left. I can't believe the reaction in the Press when it was mentioned that you had left England. People have been writing into them saying that you should have stayed and that you had a duty, things like that. I can't believe how idiotic the Wizarding World is. You've done what you needed to, even though I still say that you didn't need to do so. Now it's time for you to be able to be yourself without idiots dictating how you should live your life. Though I still can't believe that you didn't stay and take your O.W.L's before you left, what are you going to do over there? Will you be able to take them still?

Hey mate, ignore the O.W.L talk, Hermione has been doing it almost none stop since you left, only blah, blah weeks, ect. She's driving me nuts, you sure you won't come back and save me from her and her homework planner? I am so going to miss talking to you about Quidditch and playing chess, nothing more fun than beating you for the hundredth time.

Well someone has to worry about the future, ignore Ron. Anyway, Professor Lupin is teaching DADA again; so nice to have someone teaching DADA that actually knows what to teach us. He did tell us about where you are living; I hope it would be all right for me to visit one day, maybe during the summer? He said that you would be starting your new school soon as well, you'll have to tell us what it is like there, how different is it from Hogwarts?

School, that's all she wants to know about. Thought if it's all right for her to come and see you, I want to as well. I'll even go Muggle. At least then I'll have something that I can talk to my dad about. I think Snape is pissed that you aren't here anymore. He hasn't taken a single point from Gryfindor since we got back to school. Shocking I know.

Anyway, write back as soon as you can, Ron agrees with me on that one. Enjoy school and make sure to take plenty of notes and pay attention; I know what you are like sometimes (Binn's Class).

Miss you Harry.

Yeah, miss ya mate.

Setting the letter down and taking a sip of his tea he decided he would write them both back after he got home from school. Since Hermione had asked he would tell her what his first day was like. As for Ron, he would ask about the Quidditch team and knowing that Angelina was captain, he wanted to know how she was doing, though he wondered who was going to be replacing him on the team permanently. He had been looking at training Dennis and Ginny to take over for him, since both had shown promise when he and Angelina had decided that it would be a good idea to have a few reserve players.

Seeing the time he swallowed the last bit of tea and took the plate and cup to the sink, rinsing them out and putting them on the towel on top of the counter to dry. He then grabbed his blazer off the back of the chair, putting it on. He walked toward his front door, stopping to grab his bag he had prepared the day before off the hook and left his house. He had an entrance ceremony right away this morning and then he would be shown to his classroom and teacher.

XxXxX

Harry made it just in time for his entrance ceremony and found it to be different, but yet the same. It was different as there was no magic candles floating all around the gym and there was no Sorting Hat to sort them into classes, but it was the same as it was introducing the new students to the older students and faculty that would teach them the things they would need in order to succeed. He wondered if they did that every time they started at a new school. Harry decided he would have to ask one of his fellow classmates when he had a chance.

He now found himself following his homeroom teacher and fellow classmates to their classroom. They had made it to the door and the teacher was ushering them through the door when someone bumped into Harry from behind. He caught himself before he could fall on the floor; he then turned around to see who had run into him. He found a girl with chin length coffee colored hair and big cinnamon brown eyes staring apologetically up at him from her place on the floor.

"I am so sorry," she said quickly.

"It happens," Harry said back with a smile as he held out his hand to her so he could help her up.

She took his hand and he pulled her up, "I'm still sorry though. I can be a little clumsy at times." She finished sheepishly as she looked down at her feet.

Harry laughed a little, "I have a friend that is the same. She can fall over her own two feet and the air sometimes."

The girl seemed to cheer up at that as she glanced up from the floor and gave him a big smile. She then introduced herself, "I'm Mai, Mai Taniyama."

"I'm Harry Potter, nice to meet you." He replied as he smiled back at her and then motioned for her to walk into the classroom with him.

"That's an unusual name, where are you from, England?" She asked, cocking her head to the side looking at him as they walked in together.

"Yeah, I am. I've recently moved out here, needed to get away from a few things." Harry answered her as they found two seats that were right next to each other.

Mai smiled, "That's a long way to move with your family, how are they finding it, living in Japan?"

Harry didn't want to put much of a damper on their conversation so he just skimmed over as much as he could, "My parents died when I was still a baby. I was living with my Aunt and Uncle, but I got emancipated so they could have their wish of getting rid of me. So I moved here and I actually really like living on my own." Harry hadn't wanted to lie to her and he really didn't see the point in lying to her about his basic history. He was sure it would come out sooner or later anyways.

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that, though I do know what you mean about living on your own. My Dad died when I was little, I barely remember him. My mother became ill and died a few years ago. I lived with a teacher for a while, but I live alone now. The only thing I have to say I miss is having someone there waiting for me when I come home." She told him softly, her voice filled with sadness and understanding.

"I'm sorry to hear that. Treasure those memories that you do have, the only memories I have of my parents are of the night they were murdered." Harry said as he reached a hand over and squeezed her shoulder in comfort.

"Thank you," she gave him a small sad smile.

Just then the teacher called out to the class, "Alright class, settle down so we can start."

The rest of the day Harry spent learning his way around his new school and making friends with some more of his classmates. Most of them were curious about why he moved from England to Japan, but Harry enjoyed not being stared at and whispered about behind his back. If anybody wanted to know something they would simple walk right up to him and ask and Harry found that to be a very refreshing difference from the back stabbing talk he got at Hogwarts.

XxXxX

Harry finally made it home after a long day at school and quickly changed out of his uniform and into some grey sweat pants and plain green t-shirt. He made sure to hang up his uniform so it would be wrinkle free and ready for the next day. He then walked back into his kitchen and sat down to write a letter back to Ron and Hermione.

To Ron and Hermione,

This place is different from Hogwarts and in a good way. There is no one trying to kill me or interview me about something that doesn't matter anymore. I am just another student among hundreds. We had an entrance ceremony today. We were walked into the Sports Hall, where all the older students were sitting with their parents and a lot of my classmates parents were there also. The principal and teachers all sat up front and welcomed all of us new students to the school. They introduced each other to all of us and let us know that if we have any problems we can come to them. Two of the older students came up and welcomed us as well. It was a lot different to being sorted.

It really felt as though we were going to be a part of a big family, while at Hogwarts they tried to make it feel like you were part of a family, but once you were separated into your houses that all went away. Here, even though we are all separated into different classes, it still feels like family and I don't feel afraid to ask somebody I pass in the hallway something. I feel way more comfortable here than I ever did at Hogwarts.

When we finished with all of this we were assigned a homeroom and then our new teacher took us to our classroom. While on the way another student bumped into me, her name is Mai and she's an orphan just like me. She seems very nice and understanding in the way that those who still have parents will never be able to. We talked for most of the day, and even though I did make some more friends besides her, I did mainly stick to her. She interests me in that she never lets anything keep her down for long.

Hermione, one thing about homework and planning for O.W.L's make sure to have some fun and don't forget about third year when you were doing nothing but school work. You ended up snapping at everyone and missing classes as well. So plan in some time for fun, even if it is only taking a walk around the grounds, just do something that doesn't need a book, quill, or parchment.

Ron, do some homework at least, you have to work if you want to get somewhere in life. I know I have my work cut out for me as well; I may have taken an exam to get into this school, but I still feel as though I'm behind everyone. Then again, I haven't had a lesson yet, they start tomorrow in full. Today we just got our books and timetables.

Off the subject of school; how is everyone doing? I have to admit that I do miss you both and the others, though I'm enjoying myself here.

Anyway, I'll finish here and send this on, take care! Don't forget to have some fun Hermione!

Harry

Finishing up with his writing, Harry then sealed it up in an envelope, glad that he didn't have to use quills or parchment anymore for writing. He wrote down the Hogwarts mailing address as well as whom it was to go to on the front, since it was international post. If there was one thing he would like to see changed in the Wizarding World it would be getting rid of those horrid things. It was just so backwards when compared to the modern world.

He walked into the hallway and over to Hedwig, who was now fully awake and looking a little bored. He couldn't help but smile at her. Harry knew she was having a tough time adjusting to this new place and away from what she knew to be right.

"Hey girl, can you take this to the main owl office to be sent out?" Harry asked her, holding out the letter towards her. Hedwig bobbed her head and held out a leg for him to attach the letter to it. Harry quickly wrapped the string holding the letter around her leg and tied it into a nice easy knot to undo.

"Okay girl, out you go and have a safe flight." He told her as he stepped back away from her.

Hedwig spread her wings and took off from her perch to the small window just above her perch on the opposite wall. She flew safely out the window Harry had charmed to keep open and flew off to the main owl office in Japan. From there they would send it on to England, for it required larger birds to do the long distance, and was the only place to receive out of country mail. If he needed to get a letter to England quicker, he would have to pay a little extra and use Floo Mail, which often left the letter a little singed around the edges. Harry then turned back to the kitchen to figure something out for dinner, vegetable lasagna sounded good actually.

Chapter Text

Yume no Naka ni Seishin

Chapter Five

It had been a little over two weeks since Harry had started at the Muggle High School, and to be honest he was enjoying himself. He was especially glad that he had done all that studying before leaving England, since with it; he had found out that he wasn't behind. Mai and he had become good friends over the days and she had introduced him to two of her friends, Keiko and Michiru. The three of them had somehow talked him into joining them after school to tell ghost stories, and so this is what Harry found himself doing on a rainy day after school.

"Okay Harry, it's your turn," Mai said as she turned off her light and faced him.

Harry nodded his head and started out kind of hesitant, "Well, it's not really a ghost story, but something that I experienced at my old school." With those words the girls sat up and became a lot more interested, learning in further with curiosity and wonder evident in their faces. Seeing their looks encouraged Harry to carry on, confidante that they would enjoy what he had to say. "You see, my old school, Hogwarts, is a big and majestic castle, up in the highlands of Scotland. Cut off from the outside world, which means there are no phones, mobile or otherwise, TV or any modern comforts that you will find around the house these days." he could see that he really had their attention now.

"How awful," Keiko murmured as she had a hand over her mouth in horror at the thought of no modern comforts.

Harry smirked as he carried on with his story, "In my first year attending Hogwarts I had the unfortunate chance of running into the schools well known poltergeist, which had been named Peeves. I was walking down a stone corridor with only flame torches lighting the way, throwing shadows everywhere, old suits of armor lining the walls, giving off a feeling of someone standing behind you all the time and portraits of past teachers, some from centuries ago, hanging on the walls, feeling as though you were being watched. I wasn't really paying attention, getting used to the armor and portraits as time went by, then there was a sharp squeaking noise from behind me. Quickly I turned around thinking I would catch one of the other students playing a prank on me." At this Harry smiled a little remembering what fun Fred and George had been, his smile dropped a little when he realized he wouldn't be around them all the time now.

"Harry are you all right?" A worried Mai asked as she put a hand out and touched his shoulder.

Harry was quickly brought out of his thoughts at Mai's touch. Seeing the look of worry on her face he realized he had paused in memories for too long. He gave her a genuine smile as he said, "Yeah, I'm fine, just remembering some of the fun friends caused, I miss them." She gave him a smile in understanding as he then said, "Now, where was I?"

"You were saying you turned around to see is somebody was behind you." She told him, smiling back.

"So as I said I turned around to see if anybody was there, but the hall was completely empty and the spooky eyes of the portraits were still following me and the suites of armor hadn't moved. Giving a shrug thinking my ears were just playing tricks on me I turned around and continued walking down the corridor. I was almost to the end of the corridor when something icy cold and wet fell on top of my head and drenched my whole school uniform. What followed is a creepy cackle of laughter and then a little man dressed in a short sleeved pink shirt with an orange bow and blue pants appears in front of me and on his head of black hair is a joker's hat with three bells. He is grinning and laughing at me. He then stops and leans about an inch from my face and says," Harry paused as the others leaned in wanting to know what had been said, as soon as they were close enough he shouted, "Boo!"

Harry quickly turned off his light and watched in satisfaction as all three girls jump, sliding all the way back into their chairs, in fright. Mai he could tell was not happy with him as she was the first to scold him, "Harry don't make us jump like that." A scowl then took over her face as she says, "There is also no way that could be true, how could your old school can have a poltergeist?"

Harry smiled as he said, "Mai I told you my school is a castle which means it is thousands of years old. It has been the sight of countless battles, murders, and who knows what else. That is what created the ghosts known as The Bloody Baron, The Fat Friar, The Grey Lady, and Nearly Headless Nick. I am sure Peeves came about from something like that. I can tell you that you sure learn to try to avoid him quickly, but it doesn't always work as I have been caught in a few stink and water bombs. What I told you was only my first encounter."

"Whatever you say Harry," Mai said waving him off with a hand as she turned her attention to Michiru. "I think it is your turn Michiru as you are the only one left with a light still on."

Harry gave a sigh of relief that Mai just blew him off. He was worried there for a second that he had given too much away about the Wizarding world. He didn't want people to start getting suspicious about him or the school because he couldn't say anything about it. Letting go of his worries he then tuned into what Michiru was saying.

"Okay, I'm going to tell you about the old schoolhouse." Michiru said

"You mean that old half-collapsed wooden one?" Keiko asked in a scared whisper.

Michiru nodded her head and said, "It didn't collapse. Construction work on it was stopped, because of a curse. There have been a lot of people that have died in that old schoolhouse, including a teacher who committed suicide."

"Oh," Mai said softly, her eyes going wide at the words her friend was speaking.

"So, when they were going to build the new school, I heard that they were working to knock it down, but then the ceiling collapsed killing some of the workers." She carried on as she looked to her friend.

Keiko's eyes went wide as she shivered a little, murmuring, "Oh God."

"So, the work was suspended. Last year, they started again, to rebuild the gymnasium, but then, a truck went out of control, and crashed out onto the field where they were having class, and a student died." she added more to the story, from what she had been told.

"That's a lot of incidents," Harry spoke softly, a shake of his head at the words.

Michiru nodded to him as she then carried on with her story, "What's more, and I heard this from one of the upperclassmen, but one night, as she was passing by the old school when she saw a figure in the window looking at her and then it just disappeared." Michiru flipped off her light right at the end of her sentence.

There was a moment pause before Michiru said, "Here it goes. One…"

Keiko had a frightened look on her face and her voice shook as she said, "Two…"

Even Mia looked a little scarred as she whispered in a similar shaky voice, "Three…"

Harry wasn't scarred at all and even gave Mia a slight smirk when she looked at him. In a confident voice he said, "Four…" That was all of them and none of the girls were expecting what happened next.

"Five."

All the girls screamed, "No!"

Michiru jumped out of her seat and tried to hide behind one of the desks screaming, "It's here!"

Keiko jumped out of her chair and threw her arms around Mai's neck, burying her face into her friends shoulder, screaming as she did so. Mai choked a little as her air was cut off thanks to the desperate hold Keiko had on her. Mai was trying to pry her away; but Harry could see the fear in her large eyes.

Harry couldn't help it; he chuckled at the craziness around him, shaking his head. He had felt the stranger's emotions as soon as he came to stand in the doorway. He wasn't fazed at all by him pretending to be a fifth person in the room. He looked from Mia, who was now calming Keiko down, to the teen in the doorway as the light was flipped on.

The stranger was a young teen, taller than Harry, hair a raven wing black, and eyes a deep blue. It was the eyes that truly caught Harry's attention; they were filled with sadness, pain and loss. A soft smile curved his thin pale lips, but it didn't reach his eyes at all. With Harry's observation and empathy ability he could easily tell that it was a fake smile and that the young man was feeling anything but happy.

"W-Was that you just now?" Michiru stuttered out, standing up from her hiding spot behind the desk.

"Was I out of line?" The young man asked as he stepped further into the room, his voice had a smooth even quality to it.

Harry watched as the Keiko and Michiru both let out sighs of relief. Keiko let go of Mai letting her and Michiru both sunk into their seats like their strings had been cut. One of them muttering, "Oh…I was so scared, I couldn't move!"

Harry watched as Mai took in a huge gulp of air and started to message her neck and shoulder as she glared at Keiko. She turned her attention back to the new guy as he continued to speak, "Excuse me. It was so dark, I didn't think anyone was in here, but then I heard voices, and couldn't help myself." He walked further into the room as he said this and stopped just before Harry's chair before giving a bigger smile and tilting his head a little to the side, though once again it didn't reach his eyes.

Harry watched as the fake smile still had the desired effect on the other two girls in the group, who promptly blushed and then began gushing, just like the girls in Hogwarts when they saw a cute boy, and saying that everything was fine and they were okay with him scarring them. It reminded him a little of the way the girls had acted around Victor Krum during last years tournament.

Harry noticed that Mai had hung back and was standing next to his chair. She was giving the stranger a funny look, as though she was trying to figure something out about him. Harry was content to stay back and let them fawn over the new comer, he had enough of people doing that to him, and he had no desire to get in the middle of it once again, not even to save the young man. He sat back and listened, as he knew Mai would soon figure out what was wrong in time and would say something.

"What year are you in?" Michiru asked her and Keiko jumping from their spots and running up to him.

"I'm seventeen this year." He answered

Harry frowned at that and wondered what kind of answer that was. He glanced over at Mai and saw she had a similar look on her face. It didn't take long for her to look to him as though something was clicking into place in the puzzle she was working on.

Keiko and Michiru weren't fazed at all, which showed in Keiko's next sentence, "Then, you're one year ahead of us, huh?"

Michiru then followed up with, "We were telling ghost stories."

Mai still had a thoughtful look on her face and then she met Harry's gaze and he raised an eyebrow as if to say, you caught it too. Mai nodded her head and they both turned to their two friends and the new comers' conversation.

"I see." He stated before asking, "I wonder if you'd let me join in?"

"Huh? Sempai, you like ghost stories too?" Keiko asked with her hands folded beneath her chin and Harry was sure there were little hearts in her eyes and both of them were fluttering their eyelashes at him.

"Sure." The teenage boy answered; not at all bothered by the way the two girls were acting.

This lead too both girls giggling in a high annoying pitch, Harry decided he had enough and got up and started walking around the desks and toward the group. He saw Mai had decided to come with and they both gave each other suspicious glances.

"Um, could you tell us what your name is?" Michiru asked in a flirty voice.

"Shibuya Kazuya." He answered now giving a smaller smile then before.

Harry and Mai had stopped just behind Keiko and Michiru and Harry watched as it dawned on Mai what the problem was. Her eyes got a little bit bigger before they narrowed and she asked, "Um, Shibuya-san what is it you're doing here?"

Harry had wanted to ask that, but apparently Mai wanted to beat him too it. So he just stood back and watched for the reaction and answer.

"There's something I needed to take care of." He answered as he began walking toward the front of the room gazing at things as he went.

"Then, shouldn't you get to it?" Harry said

Just as he finished Keiko and Michiru both piped in, "We'll, help you." Then running over to where Shibuya-san had stopped in front of the white board.

Harry looked at Mai as she looked at him; they both rolled their eyes at their two giggling infatuated friends. Harry then shook his head and gave her a small smile.

Completely ignoring Mai and Harry he turned to the two girls and said, "That's okay. Instead, would you let me join in the next time you tell ghost stories?"

Both of them bounced up and down on the balls of their feet as Keiko answered, "Of course! You're most welcome!"

Michiru then chimed in, "How about tomorrow after school?"

"That's fine. Where would you like to meet?" He then gave both of them another smile.

"In our classroom 1-F, it's the best place and we can decide from there." Keiko enthusiastically said.

Mai and Harry glanced at each other once again. They could both tell it was another fake smile. Mai leaned over and whispered to Harry. "Something is off about him."

Harry wasn't really listening to Mai, as he was trying to see if he could hear some of his thoughts and so wasn't thinking when he mumbled, "He's sad about something."

"What do you mean sad?" Mai questioned back in a low voice, before looking back at Shibuya-san and studying his eyes some more and saying, "All I can tell is that his eyes are empty."

They both continued to watch as Shibuya-san, with Michiru and Keiko following, walked out of the room and took a right into the hallway.

"Well?" Mai said in an aggravated tone as she smacked Harry's right shoulder.

Harry gave a little jump, like coming out of a trance, and turned to her saying, "Sorry, what did you ask?"

Mai rolled her eyes at him and repeated in an annoyed voice, "What do you mean that he is sad and how could you tell?"

"I've seen a lot of people hide things away, and he was doing just that. Besides I just get a feeling that he is sad about something." Harry answered in a roundabout way, avoiding answering her directly.

"If you say so," Mai said starting toward the door. "Well, let's get going home." She added.

Harry nodded his head and the two of them left the room to go home.

Chapter Text

Yume no Naka ni Seishin  

Chapter Six

The next day Harry found himself getting up earlier than normal and joining Mai on her walk to school. The Cherry Blossoms were in full bloom and both were enjoying the tranquil feeling they got from being underneath them. "So Harry," Mai said as she looked over to him, "What types of ghost stories will you be telling us about this time?"

"Well, I don't know just yet, I do love a good ghost story, I just don’t have many of them to tell people," He answered her as they walked past the older school building.

Mai stopped and started at the old building, a small shudder taking her over as she asked Harry in a curious voice, "Do you really think that the place might be haunted?"

Harry came to a stop beside her and at her question his green eyes gazed to the building. Stretching out his empathy, he tried to get a feel if there were any spirits within. It was a little like what a medium would do, but where they could communicate and see them clearly, all Harry could do was feel their emotions and occasionally see them; most of the time though they would overwhelm him, for spirits emotions seemed to be more extreme than everyone else's.

Harry couldn't feel anything, and he turned to Mai to tell her that he didn't think so. He frowned as he noticed that she was no longer beside him. He rolled his eyes and went to try and find her, she always did have a tendency to wander off and explore what ever had grabbed her attention. This time it was unfortunately the old school house and it was no thanks to Michiru's story last night.

He turned the corner of the wall, just in time to see Mai entering the building. He gave a sigh as he started to walk towards the entrance, rolling his eyes, just imagining all the trouble she was about to get into. He was halfway down the path when he saw a tall man run into the building shouting something as he entered. He must have spooked her, because he heard her scream, followed by a loud crash.

Harry's eyes wet wide as he broke out into a run. He had just placed a foot on the first step when another young man came up. Quickly glancing over as he went through the door, Harry realised it was the same young man that had scared the girls yesterday after school, when they had finished telling ghost stories.

The two of them came to an abrupt stop when they were only a couple of inches into the entrance hall of the old school building. Shibuya Kazuya was the first to say what he was thinking, "What's going on in here?" He then left Harry's side and walked over to the man lying on the ground and kneeled next to him asking, "Lin, what just happened?"

Harry wanting to know what happened as well walked over to the guys other side and just as he got there, he saw a drop of blood hit the ground. Looking over to Mai who was kneeling in shock, he stated softly, "Mai, you really need to stop wandering off on me."

Lin, you're bleeding, can you stand?" Shibuya-san asked, not showing he was concerned outwardly for the older man, but that couldn't fool Harry, for his emotions clearly said that he was.

"Yeah, I can," said Lin-san in a soft low voice.

Mai by now had stood up and Harry could tell by her face that she felt bad, it showed even more as she began to stutter out her apology, "Oh my gosh, I'm really sorry, so sorry. He startled me and I guess I turned a little too fast and knocked the…"

"Never mind about that, do you know where there is a doctor?" Shibuya-san interrupted her ramblings.

"Yeah, I do. There's one just down the street." Harry answered his question since Mai seemed too flustered to think straight.

Shibuya-san started to help Lin-san stand up, and Mai collected herself enough to reach forward to also help, but Lin-san lashed out at her hand knocking it away from him, "I think you've done enough at the moment, don't you." his voice had gone cold as he spoke.

Shibuya-san ignored Mai's look of hurt and inquired, "I met the two of you yesterday didn't I? What are you names?" Harry could tell that Shibuya-san hadn't actually forgotten their faces, but as he didn't catch their names he was just asking for a chance to know.

"I'm Mai," she almost whispered, as she was embarrassed by what had happened.

Harry met Shibuya-san's gaze giving a little inward shrug stating, "It's Harry," this granted him a strange look from both and so he clarified, "It's an English name."

"All right then, Mai, Harry, I thought you should both know that you are going to be late for your first class, since the morning bell has just rung." Shibuya-san smirked a little at this.

Mai's eyes got as big as dinner plates and a blank look was on her face for a moment, before it completely sank in what he said and she was off like a rocket out of the building and towards the school. The whole time her thoughts were being projected to Harry and he could help but laugh to himself, 'I'm late! I don't believe this, what the heck was that all about. I never want to step foot in that creepy place again!'

Recovering from his inner laughter at Mai, Harry gave his head a small shake and then focussed his attention on the two men in front of him, "You sure you'll be able to get him there without any help? I don't mind missing a class or two, I can always catch up on the work later."

"We'll be fine," Shibuya-san said.

Harry shrugged it off as he could feel that Shibuya-san's pride was doing the talking and not the actual anger towards him, so Harry said softly, "If you're sure, I'll leave you both be, but I don't mind helping someone."

"We'll be fine," Lin-san stated this time; there was no anger in his emotions, just curiosity and slight pain.

"All right," Harry nodded his head to both of them and calmly walked out of the building instead of the frantic running Mai had done, "I'll see you around." He yelled back over his shoulder, giving a careless wave to them both.

"Now onto lessons and to see if Mai has calmed down a little," Harry muttered to himself in English as he walked towards the school.

By the time he had gotten to the classroom, he had to dive immediately into his lessons, he didn’t get the chance to catch up with Mai until lunch, and by then she had calmed down, though still a little annoyed at what had happened that morning. She didn't show it, but Harry could still feel the curiosity radiating off her, he just didn’t know if it was the building or Shibuya-san and Lin-san.

After lunch he watched her carefully, he caught her glancing out of the window and towards the building several times. She also didn't put her all into any of their assignments during class. Harry couldn't express how happy he was when the final bell for the day rang. He planned on going home, but after taking a look at Mai's downcast face he decided to try and cheer her up instead.

Harry felt as though he was swimming in guilt with a topping of annoyance as he approached his friend. He didn't know if his shields would be able to hold up against such an onslaught for long, so he grabbed her bag, and then her arm and hauled her out of her chair and started to head to towards the door. He was glad he did as her emotions immediately snapped out of their funk and into shock, which was a lot easier to deal with.

They were stopped by Keiko's whining voice just before they could leave the room, "Mai, Harry, don't tell us that you are going home now?"

"Yeah, we're supposed to be telling ghost stories with that cute guy," Michiru's voice added, her voice going all dreamy as she thought about Shibuya-san.

Harry and Mai both turned around and looked at the two of them, standing right behind them with hearts in their eyes. Rolling her eyes, Mai stated, "Not me."

"Not me either," Harry added a small smile on his face.

Keiko put her hands on her hips and tried to reason with Mai, "Come on Mai, this is our chance to tell ghost stories with a senior."

"Did you say ghost stories?" a voice asked from the classroom door. Harry and Mai turned quickly to face this new voice as it continued, "Is that what the four of you do after school every day? Then it's no wonder that I have had this headache for so long. I'm very much attuned to the spirits and when they gather in groups I get headaches." Harry and Mai recognized the person as she spoke; it was Kuroda-san from the class next door.

"You're blaming us for that?" Mai asked, annoyance lacing her voice.

"Of course I am," Kuroda-san replied in an angry voice, "when you tell ghost stories it calls to the low level spirits and when so many of them gather they attract the stronger spirits and so on." She ended up stating, in a matter of fact tone.

Harry couldn't believe this girl, it was utter rubbish what she had said and he was going to call her on it, "That's bullshit. Stories don’t attract spirits unless there is one around already and that's only because they are interested in what the living are telling about the dead."

He watched Kuroda-san's face flush with indignity and anger, along with both emotions battering at his already weak shield. He got ready for the explosion that was about to happen, and wasn't fazed at all when she began to shout at him, "It's the truth, when you entertain yourselves with these stories you are putting me at risk!"

"If you are as sensitive to the spirits as you claim, then can you sense anything at the old school house?" An all too familiar voice questioned.

Harry watched Mai cringe a little at the voice, and knew she wasn't quite over what had happened that morning. His attention shifted to Michiru and Keiko who had come to stand by his side when Kuroda-san went on her little tantrum fit, but now that Shibuya-san had shown up, they were once again, all in lovey, dovey mode, which made him roll his eyes at them. As for him, he just wanted to know if Lin-san was okay.

"Did you put this lot up to telling those ridiculous ghost stories?" Kuroda-san accused, as she pointed a finger in their directions as she spoke harshly to Shibuya-san.

Shibuya-san ignored her question and answered her with his own question, "You didn't answer my question, could it be your psychic abilities are made up?"

Kuroda-san huffed in aggravation and crossed her arms over her small chest and started to state, what Harry called bullshit, as if it was fact, "For your information there are a lot of spirits in that old school house. Most of the spirits that gather there are soldiers that have died in the war. In fact, I'm positive that the place was used as a hospital during the war, since I have seen many injured spirits wondering around in there."

Shibuya-san thought for a moment, bringing his right hand up to his chin as his brows crinkled slight in concentration, he then spoke, but it was low and quiet, as though he was speaking out loud, "I was not aware that there was a hospital here during the war, I know that this school was founded well before the war, so maybe this was a medical school."

A shocked look crossed Kuroda-san's face before it quickly went back into a scowl as she answered him, "Look I don’t know anything about that, but I really do see spirits, it you're not psychic then you wouldn't understand."

Kuroda-san and Shibuya-san were now both locked in a glaring contest, when Keiko piped up from beside Harry, her voice sad, "I'm sorry Shibuya-san, and can we do this another time?"

Michiru not wanting to be left out of the attention said, "Yeah, I just don't fell like telling ghost stories today."

Shibuya-san broke his stare with Kuroda-san and gave the two of them his fake smile, "No, then perhaps another day then." He turned liked he was about to leave the room, but stopped just on the threshold and turned his head to say over his shoulder, "Oh Mai and Harry, can you come with me for a moment."

Mai seemed upset at the thought of spending time with Shibuya-san, but Harry didn't mind, for this gave him the perfect chance to find out what happened with Lin-san. He still had a hold of Mai's wrist, over her blazer and ended up dragging her with him as he followed Shibuya-san out into the hallway and then came to a stop beside one of the many windows lining the corridor.

"How is your friend doing?" Harry asked before anything else could be said.

Shibuya-san felt a little shocked at Harry's abrupt question, but answered anyways, "Yes, about Lin, he suffered a sprained ankle and I am afraid that he won’t be able to do any walking for a while."

"I am so sorry," Mai spoke softly as she bowed her head a little in shame. "Can you please tell him I'm sorry," she added turning her big brown puppy dog eyes on Shibuya-san.

Shibuya-san just nodded his head in agreement and Mai gave him a weak smile. Harry grabbed Shibuya-san's attention once again with his next question, "What were the two of you doing in the old school house?"

Harry would admit to himself that he was a little curious as to what the two of them were doing. His instinct and curiosity to know what was going on around him at all times had saved his life more times than he could count. People would often call him paranoid if they knew, but he didn't care, he would rather not be caught by something unexpected.

"Working," was Shibuya-san's quick and short reply.

Mai having gotten over her pity party had decided to join in and satisfy her curiosity as well, "Oh, so you work for him, are you his assistant or something?"

"No, more like he was the assistant and I am the boss," Shibuya-san stated with arrogance, then adding on, "and now, because of you, he is stuck in bed unable to help me. I believe it is up to you to take his place." His full attention was focused on Mai and Harry could see her visibly shrink under his piecing stare, before she took in a big breath and puffed up her chest.

Harry stood on the sidelines watching as a smirk began to form on his face. It had been a while since Mai had gotten this worked up and she was due for a good rant. This was going to be fun to watch.

"Hey now, hold on a minute. Who said I would…" she was waving her arms all around as she began to lay into him.

"You also broke my camera, my assistant tried to stop you from touching it and now it's in several pieces." Shibuya-san added, stopping her from carrying on with anything else she was about to say.

Harry felt bad for Mai as she brought her hands up to her cheeks to cover her embarrassment and squeaked out, "Well, can't I just pay you back for it?"

Harry certainly felt worse than he did before, there was no way that Mai would be able to afford to pay him back for the camera, granted he could help her out easily. Harry wouldn't mind at all, but knew that Mai would never ask him for financial help, or take anything that was offered.

"It's an expensive camera," Shibuya-san told her.

"Well… then… I don't know what to do," Mai almost wailed.

Harry could feel that she was getting more and more upset as the moments passed by and stepped towards her to say something to Shibuya-san when the young man spoke again, "You can't afford to reimburse me, and therefore you can pay off your debt by working with me as my assistant."

It wasn’t a suggestion and Harry got the feeling that Shibuya-san just wanted someone to help him more than anything else.

"You seriously think I should do this?" Mai asked Harry as she looked to him with confused eyes.

"It'll be fine, Mai," Harry told her as he gently smiled and patted her shoulder in encouragement.

Shibuya-san shifted his gaze to Harry and with a thoughtful look on his face said, "Since you were there as well Harry, you can help too. If you had paid attention to your friend she wouldn’t have wandered off on you and gotten into trouble."

"What?!" Harry exclaimed turning his head so quickly he was sure he heard something crack, "No way," he stated.

“If it will be fine for me to work with him, then same goes for you Harry.” Mai growled out shaking her small fist in his face.

Harry cringed away from the fist for he knew Mai could throw a painful punch when she was motivated enough, so with a defeated, “Fine,” Harry joined in with Mai.

Wondering what they had agreed to both of them turned to Shibuya-san with curious looks, but it was Mai who asked, “What is it that you do anyway?”

“I hunt ghosts,” was his reply, but went into further detail at Mai’s incredulous look and Harry’s perplexed one, “in other words I find spirits or ghosts and I exorcise them.  My company Shibuya Psychic Research was hired by the school to come and investigate the old school building.”

“Psychic research,” Harry murmured, his mind remembering researching such topics.

“Psychic research is just another term for spiritual investigation. We examine and scrutinize reports of supernatural phenomenon. Oh, and I run the company.” Shibuya-san said as he turned away from the two of them and started walking down the hallway.

Mai gave Harry a shocked look and he could tell she was impressed that someone so young could own and operate a company. Harry wasn’t as surprised since he knew the Weasley twins would be opening their new store when it came to the summer months. They had already bought a place and were now trying to organize it the way they wanted it.

Shibuya-san’s voice called to them from a little further down the hallway, “Come to the old school building as soon as you’ve packed your things away, you can start working for me now.”

Both of them nodded, but considering all their stuff was ready to go they went back into the classroom to grab their bags they had dropped during the confrontation with Kuroda-san and to tell Michiru and Keiko that they had a new job to go to.

Chapter Text

Yume no Naka ni Seishin

Case File One - Evil Spirit's All Over

Part One

Harry and Mai walked up to the back of the van that was parked in the driveway of the old school building. Shibuya-san was unloading many different types of equipment, which they assumed he would be using during the investigation. They didn't move to take any of the stuff he was putting on the ground, for fear of grabbing it the wrong way and breaking it, so they waited for instructions.

Shibuya-san must have sensed they were there for he began to explain a little of the buildings’ history as he unpacked, "A week ago your principle contacted me and asked that I come out and have a look of that old school house. I looked through the records and verified that up until eighteen years ago, while the school house was still being used, there would be one or two deaths per year.  It is also true that when they were demolishing the place that there was an accident where the roof collapsed.  No one died, but some were injured.  In the end the incident was blamed on human error.  Construction ended after that, with only a third of the demolition done." He stopped for a few minutes and handed Harry a couple of metal trays and bars. He then turned to Mai and gave her three big microphones, before turning back to the van and grabbing what looked like a TV monitor. Shibuya-san motioned for them to follow him as he moved away from the van and towards the entrace. As they walked he began to talk again, "A teacher did in fact commit suicide within the building, but it was all explained within a suicide note.  As for the incident with the truck last year," Shibuya-san paused as he glanced into one of the classroom and then carried on walking towards the stairs and carried on, "it was said the driver of the truck was intoxicated.  I have no doubt that the rumors of the building being haunted helped in making that decision.  Based on my own research, the existence of any paranormal activity here is nothing more than fiction.  That is because everything that has happened here has a reasonable explanation." Shibuya-san finished as he chose a classroom next to the stairs and set the heavy monitor down.

Turning to face Harry and Mai he said, "We'll set up base here, and will be conduting all out observations from this room," he glanced over to Harry as he pointed to a desk and said, "Set that stuff over there and then come with me to bring the rest of the equipment inside," Harry nodded as Shibuya-san turned to Mai, "Put your stuff next to this monitor and then I want you to go over to the shelving that Harry brought in and start building them up," he finished with his instructions and walked past them both and out of the room.

Mai went still as Harry turned to her, "Harry?"

Harry could feel how scarred Mai was and he calked it up to being left alone in a supposedly haunted building. Wanting to try and calm her down, he reassured her, "Mai, this place is not haunted. There is nothing to be scared of."

Mai put her stuff down and walked over to where Harry was standing, then murmured, "He is so stuck up."

A smiled took over Harry's face as he replied, "He might had a good reason to be. You know Mai, you did cause some damage."

Mai gave Harry a glare and he smiled at her, "I better get going. See you in a bit," he said as he walked out of the room and back to the van, leaving Mai alone.

It didn't take long for Harry to get back to Shibuya-san, who was busy grabbing more equipment from inside the van. When he spotted Harry he handed him a large rectangular box that had many knobs and bittons on it saying, "Harry, take this."

"Okay," Harry nodded as he wrapped his arms around it.

Out of the corner of his eye Harry noticed Shibuya-san watching him with curiosity and wasn't shocked when he finally spoke, "You don't seem to be protesting working for me like I thought you would."

Harry returned the other teen’s aprasing gaze and replied, "It fills the time, and I'm getting a little bored with just school and homework."

Harry didn't know what else he could say. He was bored, while at Hogwarts he had done a lot more, things were exciting, quidditch, and lessons were exciting for him. Since going to regular school there was less exciting things to do, and so he ended up with a lot more time on his hands.

Shibuya-san took his answer with a small shrug, then grabbed some equipment and walked back to the building and Harry followed wondering what state Mai was in. he didn't have long to ponder as they walked towards the classroom. Harry could fell Mai freaking out from being in a presumed haunted place all by her-self, totally ignoring what he had told her before leaving. Granted Harry didn't tell her about his abilities, but he wanted to keep them to himself. In fact if he ever had to tell someone the first one would be Dumbledore, for those born with his abilities, he had seen, heard, and read them being left alone, no hugs, no casual touches from friends. All of them too scared to do such a thing and to Harry that would hurt more than angry or painful touch could.

Shibuya-san flipped the light switch as he enterd the room, Mai almost screamed in terror when the two of them walked in. Shibuya-san sent her a chilling glare and started, "Stop goofing around and get the shelves up."

Harry just snickered and found the nearest empty table to set the box down, before heading out and grabbing another load from the van.

It took them another hour to have everything set up the way Shibyua-san wanted; he had taken to ordering them around as they worked. It had taken Harry a few moments to remember everything he could about electronics, for he hadn't been around electronics for a long time, since Hogwarts didn't support them.

After everything was set up and ready to go, Shibuya-san grabbed two cameras and placed them down in front of the monitors. Mai was curious and went over to them, examining them closely. These two cameras where completely different from the ones she had noticed sitting in a row against the wall.

"What are these for?" She asked her tempory boss as she looked over to him.

"One is a thermal imaging camera, and the other one is an inferred camera," Shibuya-san explained.

Harry felt the annoyance coming off him like sickly waves, and he was sure it had to do with all the explaining he had to do in the last hour. Harry smiled as Shibuya-san went on after Mai's look of confusion, "They are used to shot in total darkness. This one," he pointed to the one with a large lens on it, "uses thermograph to record temperatures.  When a spirit appears the temperature will drop and will show up on the camera."

"Wow, it's so amazing that you know how to use all this stuff," Mai said with a smile as she looked at her boss.

"No it isn't, my brain just works differently." Shibuya-san said with confindence oozing out of his voce.

Harry couldn’t help but give a small chuckle at the statement.  Mai may not have caught it, but he did and was amused that Shibuya-san had his own way of calling Mai stupid, without telling her straight out. He was lucky; he had no doubt that after a while she would hit him for it. Mai shot her friend a dirty look and raised her fist towards him in warning.  Harry held up his hands in surrender and innocent smile on his face, and she nodded claiming victory, obviously she had caught the barb.

Harry watched in silent amusement as Mai turned back to Shibuya-san with murder in her eyes, “Obviously, after all you are Mr. Hot Shot Boss.  You may as well do everything,” sarcasm dripping from her voice like venom.  Abruptly her voice changed to curiosity as she asked, “Why did you decide to go into the ghost hunting business?”

Shibuya-san’s answer was quick and to the point, “Because someone has to do it.”

Harry wasn't fooled by the simple answer. There was a lot more to it than just that, he could tell. Shibuya's emotions were all over the place with that question, and still were. Harry could feel the fear and the sadness the other teen felt, and wondered what it was that could be causing it.

Harry was watching Shibuya-san so closely he was startled from his thoughts when Mai moved a little closer to Shibuya-san and asked with enthusiasm coating her voice, “Have there been any cases that you haven’t been able to explain?”

Shibuya-san gave her a sharp look, which made her back up to her previous spot, before he turned back to what he was doing and said, “No, I’m very good at my job.”

“Amazing, he is as smart as he is handsome,” she said, before covering her mouth with horror written all across her face.

Harry tried to stifle his laughter for he knew she didn’t mean to say that out loud and from the way her cheeks were turning red he could tell not just from her emotions that she was embarrassed.

Shibuya-san turned to her with a straight face, “So, you think I am handsome huh.”

That statement did it for Harry and he didn’t try to cover up his quiet chuckles.  In between his laughter he managed to get out, “Oh Mai, you are priceless at times.”

“Huh, what…I mean…” Mai stammered as she tried to think of something to cover up what she had said, “It’s what the girls at school are saying. Harry you heard them,” she pleaded giving him her best puppy dog eyes she could possibly give.

Harry just rolled his eyes saying, “Yes they did,” but it was a partial lie since a lot of them also said Shibuya-san was smart.  Harry also didn’t say that the girls at school thought he was handsome for this wasn’t about him, but Shibuya-san.

Shibuya-san glanced between the two of them, turned back to the machines, and said, “Well, they have very good taste then.”

Harry didn’t have to see Mai’s face to know she was annoyed beyond all reason.  He wanted his teleapathy to work so much, or for Mai to project her thoughts at that moment in time, since he had no doubt they would be amusing. Mai fumed beside him, so he took the safer route and moved his eyes to look out the window. 

He noticed the sky was starting to darken and wanting to know if they would be heading home walked over to Shibuya-san and asked, “So what do you want us to do next boss?”

“For now we just sit and wait while watching the monitors.  We also do some investigating on anything we might have missed on the building or surrounding area.” Shibuya-san answered as he looked down at Harry, for he was a good six inches taller than him.

Harry grabbed a chair and sat down in front of the monitors with a sigh for he knew it was going to be a couple more hours before they could leave.  He heard Mai also pull out a chair and sit behind him somewhere before he went back to scanning the screens before him.

Like he had predicted it was a couple of hours later, after darkness had blanketed the whole sky, that Shibuya-san finally let them go.  The two of them grabbed their things as Shibuya-san went around the room checking on all the equipment.  Soon they were walking out of the building, only to have two pairs of flashlights directed at the two of them.

“What are you two still doing here?” Keiko’s soft voice came from the darkness behind the flashlights.

“Have you both been with Shibuya-san all night?” Michiru asked lowering her light so Harry and Mai could see them.

“It’s a long story,” Mai said in irritation.

Harry didn’t want to go home just yet so he turned to Mai and said, “Mai, why don’t you go with them, they’ll make sure you get home all right.”

Mai gave him a confused look, but answered him, “Sure, Michiru, Keiko, come on. Let’s go.” She then turned and left with them as the other two said bye over their shoulders.

Harry watched the three of them walk away, before he started back to the old school house.  He wanted to make sure Shibuya-san made it home okay.  He knew the other teen was older than him and could probably take care of him-self, but Harry just wanted to make sure everyone was safe.  He chuckled to himself, maybe Hermione was right that he had a saving people complex, he would have to tell her one of these days.

He passed one of the cameras they had set up in the entry way and knew Shibuya-san had seen him coming, so when he made it to the base and saw Shibuya-san sitting with his gaze locked on the monitors he wasn’t at all surprised by the question, “Why are you still here, I told you to go home.” Shibuya-san didn’t look away from the screens the whole time he addressed Harry.

“I don’t like leaving people alone or behind in any way.” Harry told him as he went over to the desk and glanced at the screens himself.

“And why would that be?” Shibuya-san asked while looking out the corner of his eye.

Harry turned his emerald gaze on Shibuya-san full force as he answered, “If I leave anyone behind they could get hurt and there would be on one around to help.” He paused a moment, “Normally you would be working with someone until it was quitting time, yes?”

“So…” Shibuya-san said in a voice gone low with suspicion.

“Simple, I'll go home, get changed, and be back here within about half an hour to sit with you till the job is done.  I really don’t mind. I'll even bring some food, it will be vegitarian though, I have no doubt you're hungry just like I am.” He told him with a smile on his face.

“Why would you want to do that, your work is done?” Shibuya-san was now staring at Harry like he was something new to be discovered.

“I’m bored, and it’s better than going home and just doing homework.” Being bored seemed to be the new excuse for him.

“Fine, but if you don’t leave anyone alone, then shouldn’t Mai still be with you?” Shibuya-san questioned.

Harry smiled and said, “That's simple.  She went off with a few friends.” Shibuya-san gave a sigh and then waved him off.

Harry left for home and once there quickly changed and made them both something to eat. He then made sure Hedwig had enough food and water, for when she came home in the morning and headed back to the old school house.  It didn’t bother him to stay away; it wasn’t like there was anyone at home to care about where he was or what he was doing.  Besides, anybody that did were all back in England and they couldn’t tell him off at this exact moment.  The only thing that bugged him was when he would be getting any sleep.  He shrugged it off and decided he would cross the bridge when he got to it.

Chapter Text

Yume no Naka ni Seishin

Chapter Eight  

Case One-Evil Spirit’s All Over

Part Two  

Harry woke up to the sound of his alarm, shrilling in his ear, and the ringing of his doorbell. Groaning he leaned over and shut the alarm off, taking a peek at the time and wishing he didn’t. It was only 7 o’clock in the morning, no wonder he still felt tired. He ended up leaving with Shibuya-san at around 2 in the morning, which left him with around five hours of sleep. He ran a hand over his face and jumped a little as someone banged on his door again and decided that he had better answer it. He quickly threw on some clothes and headed downstairs.

Passing Hedwig on the way, he grimaced a little as he noticed she was awake and looking at the front door in anger and annoyance at being woken up. He gave her head a small pat as he went by and heard her give a small coo before moving her gaze back to the door, which now sounded as though someone was trying to bash it in. Harry opened it and was just in time to catch the arm that was coming down, along with the person who had put all their weight behind the knock.

“Morning to you too Mai,” he chuckled, smiling as he helped her stand up straight. Letting go of her arm once he was sure she wouldn’t fall over, he gave her a curious look, “What are you doing trying to bash my door in?”

Motioning for her to come in Mai answered as she took his invitation and started to take off her shoes, “Well, we have to meet Naru in a bit.”

“Naru?” Harry enquired, trying to figure out who she was talking about.

Mai seeing his confusion explain, “I’ve decided that will be Kazuya’s new name, Naru, short for Narcissist.” Her voice sounded like she was announcing it to the world instead of just Harry. Harry had to duck his head, to make sure she didn’t see the smile on his face that just confirmed she was nuts.

“I hope he’s having a sneezing fit somewhere,” she added with a grin and a small giggle.

“I’m sure he is Mai,” Harry laughed, before growing serious, “I’m going to get changed into something more appropriate and then grab something for breakfast. Feel free to make yourself at home while you wait. Oh and don’t touch Hedwig, she may bite you since you woke her up and she isn’t happy.”

He turned and began to go back up the stairs, when Mai stopped him with her question. “Hedwig…” she began and then stopped, “Erm, Harry, why do you have an owl here?”

Twisting his head enough to see Mai giving Hedwig an examination with her eyes, Harry quickly thought of something to tell her that would be plausible and not sound like a lie. Figuring that telling her the almost truth would be best, he replied, “That is Hedwig,” he smiled as he moved back, remembering his warning from a few moments ago, “She was a gift when I was eleven. The school I went to was cut off from the outside world, no TV, no Radio, absolutely no electronics at all. The only way to communication with those outside of the school was by sending letters with an owl. They are specially breed and trained for that very reason. I still get post by owl, even though I live out here, she knows to bring anything home, unless it’s important, and she is trained to find me straight away when that happens.”

“Oh, okay,” Mai nodded as she returned her attention back to Hedwig with a new light in her eyes, “Can I pet him?” she asked, not reaching out just yet, though she wanted to.

Hedwig let out a loud squawk of indignation at being called a boy, she pinned Mai with an angry stare. Mai jumped back a little at the loud sound and looked up to Harry. Harry laughed at the scene, only to receive a glare from his Hedwig. Raising his hands in surrender, he told Mai, “Hedwig’s a girl and might let you, though after being woken up and being called a boy, she may nip you. So please be careful.”

“Okay,” Mai answered hesitantly as she started to reach forwards slowly, Hedwig was eyeing her fingers with a calculating manor as though trying to decided weather to try and bite them or not.

Figuring that Hedwig would be able to make her own decision, Harry started back up the stairs. Every once in a while, he could hear Mai talking to Hedwig and considering he never heard her squeal in pain, Hedwig must have decided to let her pet her. He knew that is what would happen anyway, since Hedwig loved attention, and wouldn’t ever turn it down if someone was willing to give it to her.

Stripping quickly, Harry jumped into the shower ad rinsed off the grime from yesterday and last night. He didn’t take long and soon was out and dressed. He walked down the stairs and smiled as he saw Mai still stroking Hedwig.

“Ready for something to eat?” he asked, watching with a small laugh as Mai jumped a little at his sudden appearance.

“Don’t sneak up on me Harry,” she growled at him, giving him a thump on the arm, Harry was thankful that she didn’t hit her hardest, “and no, I don’t want anything to eat. I already had breakfast.”

Giving a sigh at her lose Harry continued into his kitchen, saying over his shoulder, “Well, I’m going to have a little toast then, and I’ll make the both of us some tea.”

“I guess some tea would be nice,” Mai relented giving one last pet to Hedwig and then following Harry into the kitchen and taking a seat at the small dining table. “Harry, I was wondering, do you still talk to your friends over in England?” she asked him as she settled on the chair and looked over to him.

Taking out some bread and putting it in the toaster, Harry paused for a moment, he then filled the kettle as he finally answered her, “Yeah, I do. They plan on trying to visit during the summer months, which will be somewhere around the July or August. Though I think
they will turn up around the end of July,” he said as he set the full kettle onto the stove, he grabbed two cups and the loose tea leaves and prepared the teapot.

“I see, will I get chance to meet them when they come?” she questioned with a slight blush on her face at her boldness, she had no right to ask, but she couldn’t help feeling curious about the friends he had left behind.

The kettle gave a shrill whistle and Harry removed it from the stove and poured the water into the teapot, and let it steep for a few minutes, thinking about Mai’s request. When it had steeped enough he poured two cups and brought them over to the table, setting one down in front of Mai and one in his spot, saying as his toast popped up, “I would love for you to meet them, but why don’t we wait until they get here for us to set up a time.”

Mai hummed her response as she took up her cup and blew on it, before taking a tentative sip. A look of bliss came across her face and she relaxed exclaiming, “Harry you really have to teach me how you make your tea. It tastes so good!”

“Years and years of practice,” Harry answered a slight bitter tone in his voice.

It reminded him of the Dursley’s, for if he ended up making it wrong he would soon be punished for it, which meant that he was shoved into his cupboard and locked in there for hours, only to be let out for more chores after his punishment was over.

“How many years?” Mai asked him.

“I started making tea when I was very little,” Harry answered shortly, not wanting to go into any detail about his relatives.

Sensing that Harry didn’t want to discuss something, Mai move on, “How do you get it to taste like this, mine is always so weak in comparisons to yours?”

“It’s a matter of making sure that the tea steeps right, and that the water is at the right temperature. Just follow the basics and practice, and I’m sure that you’ll get it soon enough,” Harry said giving Mai a smile, glad for the change of subject.

Mai returned his smile, “I will then,” confidence lacing her voice. Her smile changed to mischief as she then enquired, “You’ll be my taste tester, won’t you?”

Harry stopped as he walked back to the table with his toast and jam and glanced over to her, at seeing her look he couldn’t help but give a shiver of fear, before he said softly as he went to the chair, “I’ll think about it.”

He sat down and began to eat, as he took a bite out of his toast and went to clasp his teacup for a small sip he heard Mai gasp. He looked over to her and frowned, wondering what it was that had made her react like that.

“Harry,” she exclaimed as she pointed to his wrists, where his tattoos sat, “when did you get those?”

Examining his left wrist as he took a sip from his cup, he then answered her softly, “I got them just before I left England.”

“How come I’ve never noticed them before?” Mai puzzled as she studied the left one, since it was closer to her.

“That’s simple,” Harry smiled to her, “I’ve always worn long sleeves, which cover them up. Today, I’m wearing a T-shirt so they are on show.” He finished shrugging his shoulders and going back to finishing up his toast and tea.

It wasn’t like he was trying to hide them at all, and he had been wondering when someone would catch a glimpse of them. So far no one at school had, which shocked him greatly, it could be that they had and decided not to say anything.

“Do they have any special meaning at all?” Mai questioned, pulling Harry out of his thoughts and back to the conversation between them.

Swallowing another bite of toast he smiled at her as he answered, “There is a meaning to them, but I’d rather not say anything for now.”

“Why not,” Mai asked, showing Harry once again that she was a very curious person.

Taking the last bite of his toast, Harry met her gaze with his emerald eyes and started, “It’s very personal,” before going quiet with only the occasional slurp as he drank his tea.

Mai deflated a little, getting the hint that he didn’t want to talk about it any more, and so finished up her own tea. Watching as Harry got up and set his dishes in the sink, she followed. He turned to her and smiled at her cheerfully and said, “Come on Mai, we need to get going.”

Smiling back at him, glad that his good mood was back, they went to the door and she put her coat and shoes on; Harry right behind her. They left the house and headed to their temporary boss and the supposed old haunted schoolhouse.

XxXxX

It didn’t take them log to reach the place, and as they drew closer they could hear a tapping coming from the other side of the van. Walking around they found Shibuya-san sitting partially in the van looking at the laptop in front of him and making notations.

“What are you doing?” Mai asked as she walked towards him and started looking over his shoulder at the screen.

“Checking the data from last night,” was Shibuya-san’s short answer, continuing on with his work like Mai wasn’t there.

Harry walked up and leaned sideways against the open door so he was facing Shibuya-san, “Did anything happen after we left last night?”

Looking up and meeting Harry’s gaze Shibuya-san answered, “Nothing happened while we were there and nothing happened after we left either,” he then glanced back at Mai and then back to Harry with a calculating look.

“What do you mean after you left, didn’t you leave when I did Harry?” Curiosity and frustration sounded in her voice and Harry figured she was curious as to why he had stayed behind, and frustrated because he didn’t tell her during their conversation this morning.

Thinking it would be in his best interest to answer the girl Harry stated, “I went back to stay a little longer. I don’t like leaving people on their own Mai,” giving her a small smile to soften his words.

Mai was interrupted from her reply by another female voice, though this one sounded older, “You have a lot of fancy equipment, a little too high tech for a few kids to be playing about with.”

Shibuya-san, Mai and Harry whipped their heads in the direction of the haughty voice to see an auburn haired woman and standing next to her a young man with dirty blond hair held back in a short ponytail. Both had tight smiles and seemed to be looking down at them with slight disgust.

Seeing that she had their attention the woman introduced her-self, “My name is Matsuzaki Ayako, and I’m a Shrine Maiden.” He eyes narrowing a little as she examined the three of them, “The principal wasn’t too sure about you, so he called me in to drive the spirits out.”

Shibuya-san glanced at her and looked her over; he then closed his eyes saying, “I was under the impression that only innocent virgins could be Shrine Maidens.” The way he said it was like he was looking through his memories to find what he needed.

Mai chuckled, but tried to hide it by covering her mouth. Harry tried to hide his own mirth by coughing, a lot. They were trying not to be rude at the moment, but it was just too funny. Harry noticed that the man beside Matsuzaki-san was also trying to hide his laughter, by doing the same thing as Harry, but what threw Harry off was that Shibuya-san wasn’t showing a hint of a smile, though Harry could feel the amusement coming off him in waves.

“And your point would be?” Matsuzaki-san bit out, clearly showing off her anger at the insult.

Harry could feel the anger in her emotions and was quick in trying to strengthen the shields he was using. Shibuya-san’s amusement battered him as well, but it helped to soothe the anger Harry was feeling from Matsuzaki-san.

“At the very least I would say you are looking to be too old to still be a virgin,” Shibuya-san stated in the same stoic manner as before.

That did it for both the men and Mai as they all gave up the pretences of being nice and laughed outright. Mai’s shoulders were shaking hard and she had her arms wrapped around her stomach. Harry leaned more against the door, trying to keep his chuckle in, but his shoulders were also shaking, until he was hit with her anger again, even more than before, making him gasp out a little.

“How nice,” she growled with narrowed eyes, shooting daggers at Shibuya-san, “Smart ass,” she added as an embarrassed flush coloured her cheeks.

“What about you?” Shibuya-san enquired, moving his eyes to stare at the man that was still shaking with laughter beside her, “I would guess that you’re too intelligent to be the Shrine Maiden’s assistant.”

The man stopped laughing and met Shibuya-san’s gaze with his own as he took a small step forwards, “I’m a Monk from Mt Kōya, the name’s Takigawa Houshou.”

“And since when are Monk’s allowed long hair?” Shibuya-san asked.

“Hakaisou (1),” Matsuzaki-san said with a smirk, before covering it up with her hand.

“I’m just on vacation for a little while,” Takigawa-san defended himself while running a hand through his bangs, “At any rate playtime is over kiddies. You may have been able to get this job just because your office is nearby, but the principal thinks that you’re just playing a scam since there’s a teenager running the show,” he accused as he looked over the three of them.

“Did he now,” Shibuya-san murmured going back to his laptop, not the least bit concerned by what Takigawa-san had said.

“Matsuzaki-san began glancing around at all the people gathered around the van and stated, “The principal is just wasting his money having all of us on the job.”

“Yeah, he only needed to call me in,” Takigawa-san stated in a confident tone.

Matsuzaki-san gave him a side glance with a challenge in her eyes and a smirk on her face saying, “We shall see about that.”

Harry watched the two as they tried to stare each other down. He was wondering where they got their confidence from. Sure Shibuya-san was confident, but seeing as he had never found a case he couldn’t solve made that easy for him. Granted though, he knew nothing about these new people.

Harry was brought out of his through by a grateful voice he recognised coming from the other side of the van, “Oh, thank goodness that you have come. That place is a nest of spirits and it has been bothering me for a long time.”

“Oh here we go again with all the fake crap,” Harry muttered to himself in English, thinking that nobody could understand him as Kuroda-san started babbling about all the spirits.

“Why do you say that, Harry?” The soft cynical voice of his new boss, Shibuya-san, inquired.

Harry hadn’t expected anyone to understand him so he was shocked when somebody spoke back, which made him whip his head down to stare in astonishment at Shibuya-san, “I didn’t think anybody around here spoke English. Anyways to answer your question, she isn’t a medium, but she definitely has some type of power, I just can’t figure out what it is.” Harry wasn’t really sure how to explain to his boss that her aura was all wrong.

“How would you know, sometimes it is not obvious who is a medium and who has any abilities.” Shibuya-san pondered while moving his eyes between Harry and Kuroda-san, studying them both.

“It’s just what she said about spirits. It goes against everything I know to be true. Not because I am a medium,” Harry said waving a hand towards Shibuya-san heading off the question he knew was going to come from his previous statement, “but because I have been around spirits for the last five years. It’s hard not to pick up on the things that they know and tell you.” Harry didn’t really want to reveal too much of his past, but he figured this little bit was fine.

“Where could you have been that would have spirits around without someone coming in to get rid of them?” Shibuya-san asked rising an eyebrow in question as he went on to explain why they would need to, “Spirits tend to become dangerous after a while on this plane of existence.”

Harry shrugged his shoulders and answered him as truthfully as possible, “I went to a boarding school that was over a thousand years old, and it has a type of aura around it that stops them from becoming dangerous. Though they can sometimes cause harm, though it’s more scaring the other student. We even have a poltergeist named Peeves, which has taken on human form causing all kinds of trouble.” Seeing Shibuya-san’s look of worry Harry stuck up for the ghost, “Nothing too harmful, just school yard pranks. Like throwing water balloons or stink bombs, mainly delaying us to class to try and get us in a little trouble.” He smiled as he was the victim of those pranks often enough in first year. “He also likes to scream out that you are out of bed after hours, or past the school boarders. He takes great pleasure in getting people in trouble. I should know. I’m one of them that he has caught quite a few times.” Harry said with a chuckle and a small grim on his face.

Shibuya-san didn’t show his amusement at the last part, but Harry could feel it in his emotions, as plain as day as he said, “For some reason, I can believe that of you.”

They were both taken out of their conversation when Kuroda-san yelled out, her voice dark and angry, “I’m going to call a spirit to haunt you,” directing it to a just as angry priestess.

Harry gave Shibuya-san a ‘what the heck’ look, as he could fell the hurt and anger coming off the younger girl. Shibuya-san gave him a confused look back as he had no clue as to what was going on either. They both turned their attention back to the other four, figuring that they would find out sooner or later, though Harry thought it might be best to ask Mai a little later on.

Mai snapped out of her shock first and said softly, “Hang on Kuroda-san,” trying to calm the other girl down.

It didn’t work though as Kuroda-san pierced Matsuzaki-san with a glare saying, “you’re the fake, not I. I see spirits and feel them, you’ll see, you will regret this.” She added then stalked off the way she had come from.

“A fake physic calling a spirit to haunt me, I don’t think so,” Matsuzaki-san snorted as she turned away from where the girl was walking away and faced everybody standing around the van.

Mai wanted to just forget the whole incident, so she turned to Shibuya-san shaking her head and asked, “Hey Naru, what are we going to do today?”

Chapter Text

Harry was not prepared for the bombardment of shock coming from Shibuya-san, especially at a simple innocent question. Looking down at the other teen, Harry was surprised to see a small amount of shock showing on his face as well. Shibuya-san stood up and moved a little towards Mai as he looked at her, his shock almost immediately replaced with anger, though Harry had no clue as to why he would be angry. In fact Harry couldn't remember even once being mad at Mai since they had all got together.

"What did you just say?" Shibuya-san all but growled out as he took another small step towards Mai, "Did you just call me 'Naru'?" he asked her, his voice low and dangerous.

Mai had a look of fright on her face as she stumbled back a little, all the while stuttering out, "Erm… Sorry?"

"Where did you hear that?" Shibuya-san then enquired his voice still low.

"You mean that you have been called that before." Mai's voice quivered a little, and then growing with confidence, she smiled and patted him on the shoulder saying, "Of course, I couldn't have been the first one to come up with that for you. It's obvious someone would have come up with Naru the Narcissist," she laughed nervously as she looked at him.

Before Shibuya-san could respond to her, behind the group someone cleared their throat, drawing their attention to the Principal who had a boy with blond hair standing next to him. Seeing he had gotten their attention he said in a low and scratchy voice from age, "Hello all, I have brought someone else to help out," motioning to the blond, who Harry thought was a teen about his age.

"Hello," the young man said, in a soft, but almost squeaky voice, as he bowed, "My name is John Brown and I'm from Australia."

Mai, Matsuzaki-san, and Takigawa-san all hunched over and stated laughing at his strange sounding dialect. His Kansai accent mixing with his natural Australian accent just made for a strange combination.

The Principal seeing this, quickly stepped in on behalf of Brown-san and said almost sternly, "Mr Brown is new to this country, so please help him fit in well."

"We will sir," Harry said pushing off the door to stand straight. He could see Mai out of the corner of his eye nodded and straighten a little as well.

Matsuzaki-san just couldn't seem to keep her opinions to herself as she said rudely, "Oh my, let me guess, you're looking for a playground," looking at Brown-san while saying it.

Brown-san didn't even blink as he stated, "Actually no, I'm an exorcist."

Those simple words shut everybody up really quick, Shibuya-san's voice cut through the silence like a knife as he queried, "Only those that have been ordained by the Catholic Church as a priest have the ability to conduct exorcisms." Shibuya-san ran his eyes over the young looking man as he stated, "You seem a little young for that."

John smiled making him look extremely cute and young, as he rubbed the back of his head saying, "You really know your stuff, and to be honest I've only just turned nineteen, it's why I look so young."

Harry walked the short distance to Shibuya-san's side, before stopping and commenting, "You look even younger." A welcoming smile on his face, he had a feeling of openness and warmth coming from the young exorcist.

John smiled back and said ruefully, "Yes. I know I look younger than I actually am."

Harry nodded his head as he turned with the others to say their goodbyes to the Principle, who had to get back to the school to do some work. All six of them started to walk into the building, Shibuya leading the way to the base room. Harry could see he was confused and figured it was because the others were following him, when in reality Harry and Mai were Shibuya-san's employees, so it was only natural for the two of them to follow. Harry wondered why they didn't just go their own ways and do their own investigating, but shrugged his shoulders, as they would all fit into the base room.

Shibuya-san made a beeline towards the equipment and started to look over the video feeds, making sure that everything was working and still recording. Harry moved over to help him, and started checking the audio feeds to make sure they were still in working order. Shibuya-san had showed him last night how to run it so he would actually have somebody to help him, instead of just standing around like Mai was at the moment. In fact she and the other three new investigators were just loitering in the doorway glancing at each other and the equipment with confused looks on their faces.

Matsuzaki-san being the most vocal of the group gave a deep sigh, bringing her hand up to her forehead saying in her smooth alto for everybody to hear, "Well, we have an exorcist, a Hakaisou, and a ghost hunter," she complained. "Obviously this bone head principal doesn't have much faith in my unique cleansing abilities." She snorted crossing her arms as she began to boast, "just watch I'll clear this entire place myself," turning around on her heel, she quickly walked out of the room and Harry could hear her heels click down the right side of the hallway.

Takigawa-san nodded his head in agreement with her, "You know, I'm going to have a look around as well, see ya," he gave a little wave as he walked out the door and down the opposite side of the hallway.

Harry noticed that Mai watched the both of them walk out of the room with concern, before turning towards them and walking over. She sat on the corner of a desk facing the monitors and started studying them. Harry then turned his attention to the Priest still left in the room. He could feel Brown-san was feeling a little out of place and it made him wonder if this was the exorcists first time doing something like this. This was a little different from what he would be used to, coming in after they knew what they were. They didn't know what type they were dealing with and would have to figure it out as they went.

"Erm, excuse me?" Brown-san questioned softly as looked towards Shibuya-san.

Shibuya-san didn't even look up or turn away from the data he was looking at as he said, "You may do as you wish."

"I would really like to work with you on this, Sir." Brown-san stuttered out nervously. Harry could feel that he was somewhat unsure of how his statement would be received, especially after the first cold brush off from Shibuya-san.

Wanting to reassure the Priest, Harry glanced over his shoulder and shot a smile towards him, drawing his attention to him, "Well, there isn't much that we can do other than wait for something to happen at this point in time."

"Oh I…"

"AAARRRRRRGGGHHHHHHH!" a scream came down from the right side of the hallway, where Matsuzaki-san had gone down a few moments before.

Harry, Mai, Shibuya-san, and Brown-san's heads shot up and whipped around to look in that direction and Brown-san confirmed their fears by saying, "That sounds like Matsuzaki-san."

Shibuya-san almost leaped from his chair with so much force that it almost fell backwards. Mai hopped off the table, while Harry just started running out of the room and towards the sound of the scream. He noticed that Brown-san was right beside him. They soon came to a stop at a door, with Takigawa-san was standing in front; they could hear Matsuzaki-san's yelling coming from the other side.

Takigawa-san was pulling hard on the door, trying to open it, but it held tight. Shibuya-san walked from behind Harry and started to look all around the door to see if something was making it stick. Mai, Harry and Brown-san stood back watching them, there were already enough people trying to help, and they would just be in the way. Harry thought about maybe using a Bombarada spell if they couldn't open it, but would do it wand less and silent so it could be seen as spiritual activity and not him.

"Open the door, someone open it up!" Matsuzaki-san's panicked cries sound out from the other side of the stuck door.

Takigawa-san had enough of pulling on the door and stood back from it and yelled out, "Matsuzaki-san, stand back, I'm going to try and kick it open."

"Hurry up then," she yelled back, sounding slightly further away than she had before.

Hearing Matsuzaki-san's version of understanding, Takigawa-san leaned back and gave a powerful kick to the door. The door shuddered but didn't open, he kicked it again, and on the second time the door gave a crack and fell into the room, raising some dust up into the air as it hit the floor, making them all cough and wave their hands in front of their faces to get rid of the dust.

Matsuzaki-san stepped over the door after the dust had settled back down, and put her hands on her hips and sent a glacial glare at Takigawa-san, "Took you long enough." She looked like her usual calm, arrogant, and collected self, instead of the screaming and hysterical sounding woman she had moments before.

Shaking their heads, they heard Takigawa-san mutter under his breath, "Ungrateful old hag."

Harry chuckled to himself as he heard the words. He knew that Takigawa-san was lucky she didn't hear him, for Harry could easily see an argument starting between the two of them. Everybody started to make their way back to the base room, Harry staying close to Shibuya-san, as he started to examine the door coldly. Harry watched as he bent down to look at the slide on the floor, just outside the room. He stood back up and held a nail in his hand.

Harry saw the thoughtful look on his face and wondered if he was thinking along the same lines as he was. Turning around Shibuya-san spotted him and motioned for him to walk with him back to base. When they got back they found Matsuzaki-san sitting in one of the chars, and seemed to have relaxed somewhat after being trapped. Mai was back, sitting on the desk, but had turned to face Matsuzaki-san. Brown-san and Takigawa-san were both against the wall watching the self proclaimed Priestess. Harry and Shibuya-san both walked over to the monitors and turning their backs to them, they also turned their gaze to the auburn haired woman, waiting for her to recount what had happened.

Matsuzaki took a deep breath and started to talk, "I walked into the room and stared to look around. I hadn't been in there very long when all of a sudden the door slammed with a bang, showing it had some force behind it. I ran over and immediately started to pull on it, but I wasn't strong enough to get it open." He voice had a slight quiver to it at the end, but she quickly got her composure back as she then added, "there is definitely a spirit here."

"No there isn't," a soft-spoken, feminine, voice echoed into the room, all heads turned towards the voice as it carried on speaking "I don't sense a spirit within this building."

Chapter Text

Yume no Naka ni Seishin

Chapter Ten

Case One-Evil Spirit's All Over

Part Four

"ARGH! Ghost!" Mai yelled in fright as she grabbed onto Shibuya-san's sleeve, pressing herself closer to him as she almost fell off the edge of the desk in her haste to be near someone for comfort.

Harry snickered a little at her reaction, "Mai, she's not a ghost." He smiled as he studied the young teenage girl that was now standing in the doorway.

She was cute, with her chin length black hair, and porcelain heart shaped face, and dark eyes looking intently at the people gathered in the room. He noticed she was also wearing a red kimono with sakura blossoms on it, and could hear the clack of wooden shoes as she stepped further into the room. Wondering who she was he glanced over at Shibuya-san and had to hold back a snort of laughter at the scene.

Shibuya-san was trying to pry Mai's fingers off of his sleeve, while sending her a death glare, which she was completely ignoring as she was now looking at the other teenager. Giving a sigh as he finally got loose, he looked at the girl and stated for everybody's sake, "Her name is Masako Hara. She is a spirit medium."

Mai still completely focused on the young girl, shot her a smile and said, "Oh, really, another one."

"So now they have called in a TV star," Takigawa-san said, shaking him head in disbelief.

Matsuzaki-san stood up and snorted, Harry could only imagine what her smart remark was going to be and wasn't to be disappointed when she finally spoke, "Ridiculous. It's easy to fake results on television, but out in the real world it won't be so easy. The only reason she gets ratings is because she is pretty and wears a kimono all the time."

Hara-san didn't miss a beat as she answered with a shape retort, "Why thank you for that last statement, I'll take that as a compliment."

Matsuzaki-san seemed taken aback for a few moments, but she soon got her tongue back and replied, "Well trust me it isn't."

Shrugging her shoulders as if she could care less, Hara-san then turned towards Shibuya-san with a curious look, as though seeing him brought back a memory, and she asked, "Forgive me, but have we met before?"

"No Miss Hara, we have not met before. I have heard of you and your reputation precedes you." Shibuya-san answered in his calm voice, all the while examining the nail that was still in his hand, not paying any attention to the young medium.

"Right," Hara-san said, but her voice and the emotions that were coming through clearly stated that she didn't believe that to be true.

Harry's curiosity was spiked, and he knew that he would be trying to figure out what that was all about. Matsuzaki-san's alto voice cut into Harry's thoughts as she once again stated her thoughts on the building, "There is a haunting here that is my professional opinion. It is an Earth Bound Spirit, called a Seirei."

Harry just rolled his eyes at her, he just couldn't figure out where she got her confidence from, but it was beginning to annoy him. Takigawa-san couldn't be left out and threw in his own theory of what was haunting the building, "Well, I think it's a Jibakurei."

"Jibakurei? Seirei?" Mai's confused voice asked and filled the silence left in the room by the other two statements.

"A Jibakurei is a spirit that has been bound to an area or place. A Seirei is one that is bound to the land." Harry answered Mai's question.

Mai's head whipped around so fast in his direction, that Harry was sure she had to have given herself whiplash, "How would you know that?" she asked in an awed tone.

Harry smiled at her and shrugged his shoulders saying with a smile, "I'm interested in spiritual things. It's something that I picked up when I was younger, and researched it even more when I went to my old school. Also I read a lot, but only the things that interest me."

"Well, it just so happens that you are right," Takigawa-san said as he nodded to Harry, drawing everyone's attention towards him, "but I think this entity may be afraid it will lose its home."

"Brown-san, what do you think?" Shibuya-san's question echoed through the room as he asked the only person who hadn't said anything so far. Everyone turned towards the young priest and waited for him to speak.

Brown-san was shocked that he had been asked for his opinion on the matter, so he quickly stuttered out, "I don't really know, but usually a haunting does originate with a ghost or a spirit occupying a structure."

"So it's either a haunting from a Seirei, Jibakurei, or a Yuurei," Shibuya-san speculated while tapping the end of the nail against his chin in thought. He then stared at Mai and said, "Are you listening to this Mai?"

"What do you take me for!" she almost snarled as she added, "Of course I am, but why don't you tell Harry that as well?" Mai's voice began to rise as her cheeks turned pink from her anger and pointed towards Harry.

Shibuya-san smirked at her and answered in a calm but amused voice, "These are the things that you need to learn, as for Harry, he has already shown that he knows about the supernatural. I suggest that you ask him to teach you as well." He turned to Harry, who gave him a nod in confirmation.

Matsuzaki-san having enough of their antics butted in, "Enough, I am leaving. I will get rid of these things as soon as I get back from lunch." With that she walked towards the door, muttering loud enough for everybody to hear, "I don't know how long I can put up with this." She came to a stop at the doorway, when she found it blocked by somebody.

"I wouldn't be so confident in your abilities Priestess," a cold smug voice floated through the room. Harry groaned out loud as he recognised it immediately as Kuroda-san, as she followed up with, "The spirit that haunts this place is incredibly powerful."

"Kuroda, what are you doing here?" Mai questioned her classmate as she had walked over and came to a standstill behind Matsuzaki-san.

Having enough of the fake psychic, Matsuzaki-san pushed the girl out of her way, speaking through gritted teeth, "Move aside," as she did so and then promptly disappeared out of the room.

Kuroda fell to the floor with the rough handling and Mai was by her side in an instant, worriedly asking her, "Kuroda, what's wrong?"

In a weak voice, missing its former confidence, she rasped out, "The spirit attacked me."

Mai's eyes widened as she exclaimed, "What? No way!"

Kuroda-san seeing Mai's reaction sat up against the wall and told her what happened, "I was walking down the hallway and something grabbed my hair and pulled me backwards. I tried to get away but something went around my throat, it felt like hands, and began to strangle me." Her hand came up to rub at her throat and her voice had taken on a shaky raspy quality it didn't have before and she was still talking quietly, "It was threatening me."

Shibuya-san gave the girl a cold hard stare and asked her, "when did this happen?"

She looked up at him and with no hesitation gave him an exact place, "A few minutes ago, by the lockers on the second floor."

Hara-san stepped forwards and said vehemently, "I don't think so, there are no spirits here."

Kuroda-san flushed as the words filled her with anger and showed through on her next statement, "There is a strong spirit here, plus many more and they are all angry. I am not lying." She was practically yelling by the end of it and Harry could feel she was getting frustrated with everybody not believing in her.

Shibuya-san had turned to the monitors by this point and was looking for the one that she had said. To make sure he had the right one he asked her, "You said that you were by the lockers on the second floor?"

"Yes," she once again answered without hesitation as she looked up to him.

Harry turned around and watched as Shibuya-san kept scanning the monitors, "I'm sure we have a camera around there," he commented as Shibuya-san found what he was looking for and started to push a few buttons to rewind the tape.

Felling everybody's gaze on him and Shibuya-san, Harry began to fidget a little, as Shibuya-san stopped the recording and pressed play. Harry watched as the other cameras caught Kuroda-san coming into the building and heading up the stairs, but as soon as she got to the second floor camera that she mentioned the screen went fuzzy and you couldn't hear anything that was going on. Shibuya-san hit a couple more buttons, but all they got was static. Harry continued to stare at the camera and couldn't help but think that this felt wrong, somehow.

"What happened? Did the camera break?" Mai asked when Shibuya-san stopped messing around with the console and turned to face them.

"No, but it is strange. When a spirit becomes active it sometimes causes the electronic equipment to malfunction. I am not too sure that is the case in this instance." Shibuya-san seemed deep in thought as he spoke aloud, more to himself than to the room full of people, "Is it a spirit or Electromagnetic Interference?"

Harry thought about it for a minute and neither one of those suggestions seemed right to him, he was about to say something when Kuroda-san spoke up with her own theory, "It has to be a spirit. Interference doesn't cause someone to be attacked."

Mai gave Kuroda-san a confused stare as she questioned, "Hara-san says that there were no spirits here? And even Harry doesn't believe there to be either?"

Kuroda-san scowled at Mai and then turned it on Hara-san as she crossed her arms and said, "Well, I'm a little sceptical about her." She then turned to Harry and said, "He has no abilities, so what would he know."

"It is common that female mediums tend to be either right or way off base. She may not be able to sense anything now; it doesn't mean that the haunting is active." Shibuya-san cut in, trying to stop an argument from happening, he then turned to Harry as he asked, "Though why do you believe that there are no spirits here?"

Harry looked at him and answered as simply as he could, "If you went to the school I did, then you would know what spirits feel like when they haunt a place. I don't feel that here."

Shibuya-san nodded his head in acceptance, though Harry could tell that he wanted to question him a little more about it, he looked back to Kuroda-san and said, "it maybe that the spirit haunting this place is very in tune with your wavelength."

Kuroda-san smiled up at him and murmured, "Yeah," happiness coming through at the thought that someone believed in her.

Harry decided to add what he was thinking, even though he didn't truly believe there was anything here, "That would also mean Kuroda-san that the ghost stories we tell have nothing to do with the spirits that are bothering you. The ones here are already attracted to you and a story won't call up any other. If it is an intelligent haunting, a Yuurei, then it may come around to see what we are talking about but only if it is part of the school. I know for a fact that the main school building isn't haunted, so it's only logical that it would be from this building." He then muttered under his breath, only Shibuya-san being close enough to hear, "Even though there isn't anything here."

"But it does call them!" Kuroda-san tried to argue, but Harry shook his head.

"No it doesn't. It may gather the spirits that are already around to you, but it can't summon spirits. You need certain things and ways of calling spirits to you, or to a place, and not one of us has done such a thing. You only do it when it is necessary and only then under certain circumstances; it goes against the order of things." Harry finished, crossing his arms and leaning back against the table edge.

From the other side of the room Takigawa-san's deep rough voice asked, "And how would a high-schooler know something like that?"

Harry looked the monk right in the eye and with confidence said. "It is something that I became interested in when I was younger. It became even more so when I got slightly older. Back in England, I live in an old castle, it was my school, and there are a high number of spirits residing within it. Some are from be-headings, murder, accidents, just about any way you can think of dying, there is most likely a ghost that went through it in that school. In fact, we had a spirit named Professor Binns; he died in his sleep in the school some one hundred years ago, maybe even two hundred years ago. He is the only residual haunting in the school, and would give the same lesson plan that he used the day he died. It was interesting listening to a history lesson that's over a hundred years old," he smiled a little as he then carried on, "it was also because of him and a few other things that I decided to do even more research. I ended up doing a lot more than I had planned and before I knew it, I was hooked on the subject and took to looking up things as often as I could, and still do." Takigawa-san seemed satisfied with his answered and nodded his head. He could tell that Shibuya-san was still interested in learning more from him.

"Will you show me a few books that I can read Harry?" Mai asked him as she smiled over at him.

"I have one or two at home, though I will have to have those translated, ones in Latin, I will give them to you as soon as they are done." Harry answered her, smiling back to her.

"Thanks Harry," Mai said, grinning.

"Latin?" Brown-san asked as he looked to the teen, it wasn't a language that most would know.

"Yes, my old school did an extra course in it; I took it and carried on with it." Harry answered him.

Shibuya-san looked at the three and nodded a little, he had to admit that he liked the fact that Mai was willing to learn about things. He turned back to his equipment and started to adjust things back to normal, Mai come with me, I need to look at all the cameras and the microphones to make sure nothing is damaged. Harry, remain here and monitor everything." He then whirled around and headed out the door.

"Okay, hey wait up!" Mai shouted as she ran out of the door to catch up with her boss.

Harry pulled out a chair and sat down as he started to check each monitor to make sure they were recording properly. He heard Kuroda-san stand up and heave a sigh before walking out and appearing on the monitors as she left the building. Takigawa-san left shortly after her to study the building more he said. Hara-san also left, but didn't say anything, much like Kuroda-san. Brown-san pulled out a chair next to Harry and sat down.

"Brown-san, you have never done something like this before have you? The investigating of a haunting, I mean." Harry asked the Priest giving him a sideways glance.

"No, I haven't. I have only ever been called in after things have come to some sort of conclusion about what is going on. I hope that I can actually learn something from this. So I hope your boss doesn't mind me sticking around a little and please call me John." He said, honesty written all over his face.

"As long as you call me Harry and I don't think Shibuya-san will mind as long as you don't get in the way, but I would ask him just to make sure. The Priestess will be back soon, and so too will the Monk and Hara-san." Harry answered as he continued to look at the monitors seeing Mai ad Shibuya-san going over each camera and microphone; he caught Monk checking out some of the classrooms on the first floor. Hara-san was now on the second floor, but all the way down on the south side, and then he caught Kuroda-san coming back through the door, and heading in the direction of the base room. All they were missing now was Matsuzaki-san.

Chapter Text

Yume no Naka ni Seishin

Chapter Eleven

Case One – Evil Spirit's All Over

Part Five

Harry and John continued to sit and watch the cameras, as Kuroda-san came into view, slowly making her way towards the base room. She stopped on occasions, looking closely into the classrooms she was passing. A few minutes later Monk walked past her, he stopped when she started to speak with him. He replied in kind and then moved on to the front door, before disappearing out of sight.

The door behind them opened a few moments later and Mai and Shibuya-san walked into the room, having finished taking the temperatures and adjusting the cameras in all the rooms of the old school building. Shibuya-san walked over to them and stood next to Harry looking at him with an expectant look on his face.

Harry glanced up at him, reporting, "Nothing has happened, Shibuya-san."

Shibuya-san nodded his head, "I didn't think there would be," he then glanced over to John and raised an eyebrow at him, as he looked back over to Harry.

Harry shrugged and whispered, so John wouldn't be able to overhear, "he wanted to help, so I figured having him watch the monitors with me wouldn't be such a bad idea."

Shibuya-san looked thoughtful for a few moments as he then nodded his head at Harry and grabbed a nearby chair to sit on, bringing out his laptop and typing on it. Seeing that he had been dismissed, Harry tuned around to see what Mai was doing. He found her sitting at one of the empty desk looking completely bored out of her mind.

Chuckling to himself at her, Harry turned back around and saw that Kuroda-san was almost to the base room. Hopefully she could help Mai in her boredom. Glancing at the monitors once more he saw that Matsuzaki-san had made it back and was dressed in the traditional white shirt and red pants of a Shrine Maiden. Her hair had also been pulled back from her face in a low ponytail, with two strands left out forming into loops that hung on each side of her face.

Takigawa-san soon followed after her, carrying what seemed to be a small table. He watched as Matsuzaki-san gestured for him to put it down in the centre of the entrance. Takigawa-san didn't look to happy about helping, but followed her as she walked out again. They walked back in a few moments later, with a white cloth, a few candles, a couple of bowls, and a little shrine. Matsuzaki-san and Takigawa-san set it all up; she walked out once more, coming back in with two small vases, filled with some type of flower, setting one on each side of the mini shrine.

Kuroda-san noisily walked into the room at this point, making Harry glance over his shoulder at her and watch as she looked around before zeroing in on Shibuya-san. A slight blush appeared on her cheeks as she asked him, "Is there anything that I can do to help?"

"No," Shibuya-san abruptly said without looking up from his typing.

Kuroda-san looked a little upset at that, but Mai soon called her over and the two started talking quietly. He gave a smile and shook his head a little, wondering what the two could be talking about.

Deciding it was probably nothing he wanted to know, Harry turned his emerald eyes back to the monitors, noticing that Matsuzaki-san and Takigawa-san seemed to be putting the last touches on the table. Looking away from the monitors again, he turned to Shibuya-san, "Looks like Matsuzaki-san is ready to begin with her cleansing. Do you want to go down and watch, or stay up hear and watch through the monitors?"

Shibuya-san thought for a few moments before he answered, "Let's go down and watch. We might learn something that we won't get through the cameras."

Nodding his head, Harry stood up, as did John. Mai who was still talking quietly with Kuroda-san, saw the movement and asked them all, "Where are you all going?"

"We are going to watch Matsuzaki-san's cleansing ritual." Harry answered as he walked by the two girls.

"Oh!" Mai exclaimed, "Wait, I'm going too." She yelled, jumping off the desk and quickly following after the three teenagers.

Harry didn't look back to see if Kuroda-san was coming, and frankly he could care less if the annoying girl did or didn't. Mai came up to his side saying, "I wonder what it will be like?"

Looking at his friend, Harry was slightly surprised, "You have never seen a ritual like this before?"

Nope," she replied, popping the p with a grin.

Soon they came to the bottom of the stairs and fanned out just in front of them as the Principle and the Vice Principle walked through the doors. Matsuzaki-san turned to them with a gentle smile, "Gentlemen if you would please stand right over there by those old shoe lockers, I will get started."

"Oh, of course," the Principle said as they both did as she had instructed.

Takigawa-san came and stood next to Shibuya-san crossing his arms in front of his chest as he looked towards the red haired woman. Harry watched in fascination as Matsuzaki-san took up the Haraegushi, a hexagonal wooden wand with many Shide, zigzagging paper streamers, attached to it, with both hands and began her prayer, waving it back and forth over the mini shrine. "I perform this ritual to beseech the Gods. I call upon them to descend from Heaven to this place where no Gods dwell, to purify and end this ceaseless suffering." Her voice was strong and commanding, each time she moved the Haraegushi from left to right, over the shrine, she would give it a little jolt, making the paper rustle. "Please accept our plea for peace and tranquillity." She carried on with her prayer, ignoring the curious looks from the others as they watched her.

Mai leaned in towards Harry's ear and whispered, "What is she doing?"

Harry didn't really grasp the concept, since he wasn't that familiar with it, but he had heard a little about it, "Have you not heard of Norito?" not taking his eyes off Matsuzaki-san.

"No, what's that?" curiosity lacing her voice.

Takigawa-san had heard their whispered conversation, and before Harry could impart the little he knew, the Monk jumped in with a hushed voice, "They are Shinto incantations," looking at Mai before returning his gaze back to Matsuzaki-san with a contemplating look saying, "Though I have to wonder if she can actually pull this off."

Shibuya-san joined the conversation, his voice low, so as not to disturb the woman, "I have never seen anyone perform a Shinto exorcism before."

"Neither have I, so it should be interesting," Harry agreed.

"Let's watch and see how she does it then," Shibuya-san answered with a bit of a bite to his words, it was his way of telling them all to shut up and watch.

"Let this place be as the High Heavenly Plain. Gather here, all ye Gods. Hail Marishi-ten, Goddess of Light." Matsuzaki-san intoned, still waving the Haraegushi left to right, "Grant us protection and light in this school." She let the words linger for a few minutes before she lowered the Haraegushi, setting it gently on the table and then turned to the Principle and Vice Principle. "That is it. Now you will have nothing to worry about," a smile on her lips.

The two men smiled back at her, happy that it was over and that they would be able to carry on with demolishing the building. The Vice Principle clapped a few times as he walked towards her saying, "I am impressed, it was beautifully presented. Thank you."

"Yes I agree," the Principle said stepping forwards and putting an arm around her lower back, "What would you say to coming out and having dinner with us, in celebration of you accomplishment?"

Matsuzaki-san stepped to the side, letting the Principles hand fall from her back as she answered in a polite voice, "I'm sorry, but I can't. I have to stay here for the next twelve hours to make sure the ritual worked."

"Well maybe some other time then," the Principle seemed a little disappointed, but he didn't let it show in his face as he kept his smile firmly in place.

Seeing that the ritual was over Harry turned around to head back up the stairs and to the base room, but was surprised to find Kuroda-san sanding right behind him, blocking his path. The feelings of anger that rolled off of her made Harry wonder how he had missed her. They were building quickly, and he staggered back a little as they assault his weak shields. He had a bad feeling that something was going to happen soon, and whirled around when he heard the cracking of glass.

He watched in horror as the glass that was still in the doors, warped and bent inward, small cracks appearing in them. Everybody seemed frozen by them, but Matsuzaki-san and the two men were too occupied by their conversation to notice. They headed towards the front doors, so the Principle and Vice Principle could leave.

Just as the Principle reached for the door handle the glass finally gave way with a resounding shatter, throwing glass at all three of them. Matsuzaki-san gave a scream, her arms coming up to protect her face, ducking down to avoid as much of the glass as possible. The Principle and Vice Principle were not as lucky as they both fell to the floor in a heap.

Harry and Takigawa-san were the first to run towards them, "Ayako, are you okay?" Takigawa-san frantically asked as he knelt next to her on the ground.

"Yeah, I'm fine," her voice was shaking and a little unsure, but it could have been from shock than an actual injury.

Harry knelt down next to the Vice Principle and began looking him over for injuries. There was a large gash on his arm, and he quickly shouted out "He is hurt and bleeding badly," quickly he took out one of the many pocket hankies he had and pressed down on the gash, trying to get it to stop bleeding.

Monk had moved over to the Principle and shouted out, "This one is too." He looked to the others that were standing there and said, "One of you call an ambulance."

Shibuya-san whipped out his phone and dialled 119, putting it up to his ear and speaking rapidly. Harry went back to trying to stop the bleeding as best as he could. Making sure that nobody was around him to see what he was about to do, he then let his magic flow into his hand holding the handkerchief and wordlessly said a weak healing spell. Immediately the wound stopped bleeding. Harry put an end to the spell, making sure that it still left a nice sized gash, so no one would be suspicious of what was going on. He didn't want to try and explain magic to them all at that point.

Moving his eyes away from the Vice Principle he spotted Matsuzaki-san standing around with a confused look upon her face. He got her attention and motioned her over with his head. She walked over slowly and he asked her, "I got his arm to stop bleeding, but can you try and get his other ones to stop. I'll go over to Takigawa-san and see if I can't help him, until the ambulance comes."

"Sure go ahead," she said kneeling down and started to look for the more serious wounds.

Harry stood up and waved to Mai to come over. When she reached him he asked her, "Help Matsuzaki-san with him."

"Yeah, no problem," Mai said kneeling down on the other side of the man and asking Matsuzaki-san, "What do you need me to do?"

Satisfied that there would be two people on the man he made his way over to Takigawa-san, he glanced over to his boss and saw that Shibuya-san was still talking on the phone to the hospital. "What needs to be done?" Harry enquired when he made it over to the Principle and looked down at the Monk.

"He has a nasty gash on his shoulder," Takigawa-san told him as he added, "could you try and get it to stop, while I take care of the one on his leg?" looking up at the teen.

"Yeah, no problem," Harry knelt down next to the man and pulled out another clean handkerchief, pressing it down onto the man's shoulder.

Harry heard Shibuya-san tell John that there were some clean towels in the back of his van, John nodded his head and immediately left to get them. He was back in a few seconds and handed them out to all four of those that were attending the two men. Harry was thankful for a bigger piece of cloth and wasn't afraid to tie it around the Principles wound and then press down on it. A few minutes after that they finally heard the sirens of the ambulance approach, getting louder and louder. It finally arrived and everybody moved out of the way for the EMT's as they loaded the two men onto stretchers and then into the back of the ambulance.

They all watched as the ambulance pulled away before they all turned around and walked back into the building. Shibuya-san didn't stop until he reached the base room, everyone else following him. He walked over to the monitors and replayed what had just happened, all the while with his hand on his chin and a slight frown between his eyebrows.

Matsuzaki-san and Kuroda-san were standing next to each other, and Harry could feel the ill will coming off of Kuroda-san as she smiled smugly at Matsuzaki-san, "I thought you said there would be nothing to worry about? Looks like your little exorcism didn't work. Your failure sent my principal to the hospital." her voice full of spite.

Before Matsuzaki-san could say anything back, Hara-san butted in, "That was just an accident."

"Thank you, I thought I did my job very well." Matsuzaki-san nodded her head in confidence as she looked between the two girls.

A small smug smile showed on Hara-san's face, before as she covered it with the sleeve of her kimono and said, "I am not saying that your exorcism worked, because there are no Spirits here."

"Yes there are," Kuroda-san shouted at the smaller teenager. "I was nearly killed by one of them," still denying that there was nothing in the building.

Harry could feel John's uneasiness with the disagreement and Harry let out a sigh as he stepped between the two teenage girls, who were glaring angrily at each other; with his hands rose saying softly, "Maybe it was a coincidence."

Both girls turned away from him still angry. John gave a sigh of exasperation as he lowered his hands, at the same time his shoulders sagged in defeat. With an air of depression he walked over to Takigawa-san and stood beside him. Takigawa-san feeling bad for the guy gave him a sympathetic smile, but added more fuel to the fire by suggesting, "Or maybe whatever is here was too strong for Ayako to drive away."

Matsuzaki-san threw Takigawa-san a murderous glare, but didn't say anything. Shibuya-san, having been in quiet thought all this time as he listened to everybody, finally stepped in with his own thoughts, "If that was the case then I would have more conclusive readings," shaking his head at the last part.

Harry gave a sigh as he leaned against the table with the monitors on it, watching as everybody bicker back and forth, granted most of the arguing was done by the Monk, Priestess, Medium, and Kuroda-san. Getting board with the pointless bickering, which was leading them to nowhere he looked around for Mai. Finding her, he smiled as she came over and stood beside him, leaning over the desk to study the TV screens. With Harry being so close to her he was able to pick up a few of her stray thoughts, 'I wish I could sense something, have a power that would be able to tell us what is here.'

Shaking his head slightly, Harry thought to himself, 'Having power didn't really matter, what it all came down to would be if anyone believed you. Just look at Kuroda-san and Hara-san, both were saying something different, yet no one really fully believed either one of them.'

He was brought out of his thoughts by Mai's gasp as she then stuttered out, "Naru, did that room have a chair in the middle of it yesterday?" Pointing to one of the monitors at the top of the stack.

Chapter Text

Yume no Naka ni Seishin

Chapter Twelve

Case One – Evil Spirit's All Over

Part Six

Harry, Shibuya-san, and John all crowded around Mai to see what she was pointing at. Shibuya-san was the first to comment, "It's one of the classrooms on the second floor," dismissing it, as there were a number of chairs dotted around the rooms in the second floor classrooms.

"I set the camera in there yesterday with Harry, and I don't remember a chair being in the middle of the room." Mai explained to Shibuya-san, trying to get him to see what was wrong with the picture. She turned to Harry, "Do you remember a chair Harry?" her eyes pleading with him to agree with her.

Harry gave a quick nod of his head as he agreed, "No, there wasn't one there." He then brought his gaze to meet Shibuya-san's as he told him, "If I remember right they were all neatly stacked on the right hand side of the room, out of the way."

Shibuya-san gave Harry and Mai a calculating look before looking to Takigawa-san and John, "Have either of you seen anyone going into that room?"

"No I haven't," Takigawa-san said shaking his head slightly, confidant in his answer.

"Me neither," John agreed.

Shibuya-san twisted back around to the equipment and began fiddling with the dials and knob's on the controlling board. The screen started to rewind, but it went to fast for them to really see anything, but once the chair wasn't in the middle of the room, Shibuya-san stopped it and pressed play, watching intently.

Now even Hara-san, Matsuzaki-san, and Kuroda-san came over and stood behind the other four to watch the screen. Shibuya-san turned up the volume, so that everyone could hear what was going on. Faintly in the background, you could hear the Principal ask Matsuzaki-san out to dinner and her reply, then a few moments later the sound of glass breaking and her shriek of terror.

Right after that, a scraping sound filled the room. Mai gave a gasp beside Harry as the chair slowly came into the view of the camera, its feet dragging along the floor in jolts, causing the noise. After a few minutes it stopped in the middle of the floor, right in front of the camera.

"Was that a ghost?" Mai's voice came out in a shaky whisper, her hand covering her mouth in fear.

Kuroda-san, who Harry hadn't noticed came to stand beside him, said, "It could be a Poltergeist."

Mai lowered her shaking hand from her moth and stuttered out, "Poltergeist?"

Seeing her chance to appear smart and show off to Shibuya-san, Kuroda-san explained, "It's a German word, meaning noisy ghost," pushing her glasses up her nose at the end.

Rolling his eyes a little, Harry twisted his head around to looked at Mai as he added a little more to the girls explanation, "A Poltergeist is a type of ghost who likes to move objects around, which in turn makes a lot of noise, so hence the term 'noisy ghost'."

He heard Kuroda-san give a snort of annoyance and he couldn't help the small smirk that appeared on his face, because he knew he was getting under the annoying girls skin. He had to admit it was a bit petty, but the things that she had been saying about spirits, and trying to gain attention from a certain Ghost Hunter, was so wrong that it annoyed him more than Snape and Malfoy.

"That's right, but I don't think we are dealing with a Poltergeist." Shibuya-san stepped in with a thoughtful look on his face as he studied the other monitors, before he pointed at the Thermal Image hat showed the room as the chair moved onto the screen, "Objects that have been moved by a Poltergeist are warm to the touch, and my thermal camera shows that the chair is not radiating any heat."

It was true; the chair remained the same iced blue colour, with some dark blue here and there, much like the rest of the room, as it moved across the floor, until it came to a stop.

"Maybe not, but going by Tisane's criteria…" John started to say, only to be cut off by Mai.

"Tisane?"

Harry looked down at her, as she stood on his right, and enlightened her, "E. Tisane, he was a French Police Officer, who was the first to classify Poltergeists."

Shibuya-san went on to give more details, when Harry finished talking, "Yes, the list has shaking objects, opening and closing of doors, rapping noises, knocking, and so on. Are you listening Mai?" Shibuya-san asked her giving her a pointed look.

Mai fumed and in an irritated voice replied, "I'm listening, thanks for the concern."

Harry snickered beside Mai, but stopped when she raised a threatening fist his way. Seeing the threat, Harry grimaced and stopped his laughing, Mai went back to listening to Shibuya-san and so did Harry, with a sigh of relief. "There are nine of them in total," Shibuya-san was saying, "and if we apply them to what is happening in this building, we have doors closing objects moving and glass breaking, which makes that three of the nine needed."

"What about the attack on Kuroda-san?" Mai questioned as she looked to Shibuya-san.

It wasn't Shibuya-san that answered her; it was Hara-san, "It was her imagination."

This of course sent Kuroda-san into a rage once again, the anger pouring off her, "Why can't you admit that there is an evil Spirit here?" she shouted at the Medium.

Harry took a step back from the angry girl rubbing his left ear as he did so. It was tingling slightly from having her shout so close to him.

Hara-san shot the poor girl a condescending look, before whirling around and walking calmly towards the door. When she was part way out she stopped and glanced back into the classroom with one hand on the door frame saying in a soft voice, "I will look around once more, but I don't think I will find anything," with that she disappeared out of sight.

Harry was surprised that it was John who spoke up this time, for the Priest had mostly been keeping to himself, unless asked for his opinion. "If we are truly dealing with a spirit and Hara-san can't sense it that would be a shock."

Shibuya-san nodded his head in agreement saying, "I have collected no evidence that there is a spirit here."

"I agree with Shibuya-san and Hara-san on this I don't think there is one either," Harry decided to add in his two cents, scanning everybody to see what they thought.

Mai's thoughts all of a sudden entered Harry's mind, and he couldn't help but roll his eyes at them, 'All three of them are sticking up for her? I guess anything for a pretty face.' He thought Mai knew him better than to think he would go for a pretty face. Sometimes he wished he wasn't a partial telepath, for the simple fact he didn't want to hear what his friends truly thought of him, especially when he was worried for them, as he was with Mai.

"You guys are just suckers for a pretty face," Kuroda-san accused all three of them, sending them all glares.

Shock and fear radiated out from Mai, as he was pretty sure she thought she had either spoken her thoughts out loud, or Kuroda-san had read her mind and just voiced it for her, because Mai was too polite and nice to say something that mean aloud.

Harry noticed Shibuya-san's muscles tense and felt his anger at Kuroda-san's remark; it didn't surprise Harry too much when he defended himself, "I know of her profession and talents which are highly regarded as the best in the field. So I am giving her the respect that she deserves."

Harry glanced over to Kuroda-san and said, "She might be pretty to those that are straight, but I'm not. I just know her reputation."

Kuroda-san's eyes went wide as she looked to Harry, not even able to say anything as she registered what Harry was implying. Mai already knew, since he had told her after she had tried to set him up on a date with Keiko. Matsuzaki-san and Takigawa-san looked to him, a little shocked that someone could be so open about themselves.

John stumbled a little at the admission as he asked, "You're gay?"

"Yes, though back in England only my close friends and Remus know. I don't hide it, if anyone asks I'll answer." Harry admitted with a smile. John smiled back to him and nodded.

Shibuya-san rolled his eyes when he noticed their reactions, "Shall we get back to work instead of discussing Harry's sexuality?" he said, he wasn't shocked by the admission, he had been able to see the subtle signs since meeting him.

"If you want me to get back to work, I wish you would show me some respect as well," Matsuzaki-san huffed from her position by the door.

A smirk took over Shibuya-san's face as he turned piercing dark blue eyes on the Miko, "What is it about you that I should hold in high regard?"

Matsuzaki-san became flustered as she said, "What did…"

A loud crack echoed around the room, cutting off whatever she had been able to say. "Creaking noises?" Takigawa-san stated as he glanced at the ceiling.

"Don't ghosts make those sounds?" Mai yelled as the sound began to grow louder, she latched herself onto Harry's left arm, taking some comfort from her friend.

All of a sudden another loud crack was heard, along with a scream of terror from above them. John, who had been watching the monitors, trying to find out where it was coming from, turned to them in a panic and said, "It's Hara-san, she's fallen out of the classroom upstairs."

Everybody rushed out of the room and Harry happened to see Shibuya-san pulling out his cell phone and dialling for an ambulance again, as they all ran outside.

They found Hara-san lying in some bushes on the other side of the building. She had been knocked out from the fall and Matsuzaki-san quickly took over in what Harry could only call a Doctor mode. She told them not to move her until she had examined her and made sure nothing was broken or out of place.

During her examination of the Medium, Hara-san woke up and said her head was hurting her and that he vision was slightly fuzzy. Matsuzaki-san said she was fine to move and surprisingly it was John that picked up the small Medium and moved her to lie on a towel that had been placed on the pavement.

A few minutes after moving her, the ambulance arrived and Shibuya-san took over telling them what had happened, after getting the story from Hara-san. The rest of the team meandered back into the building as they started to load Hara-san into it, but Shibuya-san and Harry stayed at the Medium's request to talk to them alone before she left.

"It was just an accident, I leaned against a wall." She told them in a low voice, "I hold to my belief that there are no Spirits here."

At Shibuya-san and Harry's nods she closed her eyes and the emergency crew took that as their cue to get her into the vehicle. Watching it drive away Shibuya-san turned to the building with a thoughtful look and said, "This is turning out to be an interesting case."

Harry nodded his head in agreement, following his temporary boss back into the building, wondering what is going to happen next.

Chapter Text

Yume no Naka ni Seishin

Chapter Thirteen

Case One – Evil Spirit's All Over

Part Seven

Shibuya-san and Harry had barely stepped into the base room when Takigawa-san asked them his questions, "What did Hara-san have to say? And how did she end up falling from the classroom?"

Shibuya-san ignored him and immediately walked over to the monitors, Harry following closely behind him, wondering a little about what his boss was up to. Shibuya-san, finding the camera he wanted, pressed a few buttons and rewound the video. Harry noticed that it was a camera they had placed in the same classroom that Hara-san had fallen from. He smiled when he realised that they had caught her fall and would be able to show everybody that it was not caused by spirits, making Hara-san right.

"Hey, are you going to answer me?" Takigawa-san's annoyed voice sounded loud in the rather small and quiet room.

Harry looked at the Monk, "We are, but he thought it might be better to show you than actually tell you. Probably wouldn't believe him or her unless he did." Harry then went back to watching the tape rewind.

"Oh," was all Takigawa-san had to say after that.

When the recording got to the part where Hara-san entered the classroom, Shibuya-san stopped it and pressed play while addressing everyone, "As you all have seen, part of the building has started to be demolished, but was never finished. They put a tarp over the majority of it to keep out the elements." He pointed to a part of the classroom on the screen that Hara-san had gone over to investigate, "Here you can see that part of the wall on the Eastern side of the classroom was missing, but instead of extending the tarp for that little bit, they just used plywood, instead of both the tarp and plywood." Everyone watched in fascination as Hara-san walked over to the plywood and leaned against it, only for the wood to crack and then give way, sending Hara-san falling to the ground. Stopping the tape Shibuya-san turned around and finished his explanation, "Like the tape just showed, once any amount of pressure was put on the plywood, which had also been exposed to the elements for an unknown amount of time, it gave way, causing her to fall. It had nothing to do with spirits, a simple accident."

Matsuzaki-san snorted and crossed her arms, "There is no way that the plywood would be that weak. That stuff is normally pretty strong and takes more than a person leaning against it for it to give way like that."

Harry shook his head as he almost bit out rudely, "Didn't you hear, the wood had also been exposed to the elements, rain, hail, sleet, snow, cold air and hot air, that weakens the wood over time, and who knows exactly how long that has been."

Matsuzaki-san ignored him, sending him a scowl as she made sure they knew her opinion, "There is no denying it any longer: there are evil spirits at work here."

"Yeah, the ones that you have failed to exorcise," Takigawa-san remarked as he looked to her, Matsuzaki-san threw him a murderous glare, which the Monk ignored, "We're playing with fire, an unsuccessfully exorcised spirit is like a wounded bear. It will attack again."

'Ugh,' Harry thought while rolling his eyes, 'these people just couldn't let something go could they? Shibuya-san had just given them proof that it was bad plywood and they still deny that there are no spirits.' Part of Harry didn't even want to work with them any more, they were just so stuck on things.

Mai's voice entered the conversation with a simple statement, guised as a question, "Then is it Matsuzaki-san's fault that Hara-san was hurt?"

Matsuzaki-san opened her mouth to give a retort, but was cut off by Shibuya-san's stern voice, "From what we saw on the video it was an accident."

Mai whipped her head towards her temporary boss and all but yelled in a panicked tone, "But they keep happening, over and over, that's why they say this place is cursed."

Harry was surprised that Shibuya-san didn't scold her for the freak out, but explained in a cool calm voice, "That maybe true Mai, but there is no evidence to suggest that. I have no temperature drops, ionic polarisation, and all E.M.F readings are normal." He looked straight into her brown eyes. "Everything points to no spiritual activity."

Seeing that Mai was still stressing out, even though Shibuya-san had explained it to her rationally, Harry went and put a hand on her shoulder. Mai glanced up at him and he gave her a small reassuring smile and she returned it, though it was only half hearted.

Harry's attention was taken away from Mai when Kuroda-san butted into the conversation, "But Matsuzaki-san was trapped in that room, and how can you explain what attacked me?" a smug look began to take over her face, "How can you explain the broken glass and that moving chair and the video being erased?" her hands had planted themselves on her hips at the end and her smug look now resembled one of deep satisfaction.

Shibuya-san stared the girl down and slowly her look faded to one of uncertainty. All he said was, "I'm still not convinced," then went back to looking over the monitors and equipment.

Kuroda-san gave a small huff and walked over to a wall before sliding down it and crossing her arms over her knees, pouting as she did so. Harry watched her for a few moments, a thoughtful look on his face, before he patted Mai on the shoulder and took a seat near the monitors himself.

Thoughts were whizzing though his head at an unbelievable speed, and he needed to take the time and sort them out. He agreed with Shibuya-san and Hara-san about there being nothing here, his empathy would have caught something the moment he stepped inside, even if he had his shields up, he couldn't turn off his ability at all. He had always been able to feel spirits emotions, granted his shields right now were really weak, so if something was here, he definitely would have felt it, and not just the subtle push of them going towards him, but a large wave of them.

The thing that was really confusing him was the stuff that Kuroda-san had mentioned. The camera he could chalk up to malfunctioning equipment, which does happen. The door being stuck could have been because of that nail Shibuya-san had found, and as for the attack on Kuroda-san, she could have made that up to try and convince everybody that there were spirits here, since he felt some deception around her. The glass had no reason to break the way it did and he knows for a fact that chairs don't move on their own. So that left two out of the five incidents that couldn't be explained, that still left him unsettled and puzzled.

Harry was pulled out of his thoughts by Takigawa-san asking, "Could it be an intelligent spirit that is strong enough to pretend that it isn't here?"

"What do you really think Takigawa-san?" Shibuya-san asked him instead of answering him, giving the other a hard stare, trying to make sure that the other would answer.

"Like I said, I think it's a Jibakurei, a site bound spirit." The Monk answered with confidence.

Shibuya-san turned to John, "What about you, John?"

John seemed to once again think for a few minutes before saying with some confidence, "I don't know, but I do agree that it is dangerous to be here."

Nodding his head in agreement Shibuya-san turned his steely dark blue eyes on Harry, "What about you Harry? You seem to have some experience with spirits?"

Giving a sigh of frustration, Harry ran a hand through his hair, messing it up more than usual before he answered, "I know that there isn't a spirit or anything like that in here. It's something else, I just can't pin point it though." Looking up at Shibuya-san with irritation and annoyance written on his face he asked, "What about you Shibuya-san?"

"I think I will reserve my opinion for now. I wish to investigate from a different angle for now." That was all he said before he walked out of the base room, leaving Harry and everybody else confused and annoyed.

"What do you think of this guy?" Takigawa-san questioned, not expecting anybody to answer, "He makes a grand show with his equipment, but is he capable of anything?"

Harry glanced to the Monk, "I did some research on his company, they have an excellent reputation, so I believe he knows what he is doing, they have been working in the area for around a year, and not one failure. He knows what he is doing and so does his assistant. I even talked to some of the people that have left reviews on him, they say he is professional and helpful."

Takigawa-san raised an eyebrow at Harry, making him shrug his shoulders. They both turned to John as he stood up from his position next to them, "What are you going to do John?" Harry enquired as the Priest headed for the classroom door.

Stopping at Harry's question John turned and said with a small nervous smile, "I've decided to try and exercise what ever is here."

"I see," Takigawa-san said as he nodded his head slowly.

"Good luck, but I don't think there is anything here to exercise," Harry replied leaning back in his chair.

John just smiled and walked out of the door. Mai who had been quiet for a while, threw her hands up in the air and with exasperation shouted out, "What are we suppose to do now?"

Both of them laughed at her and Takigawa-san ruffled her hair with his left hand, which earned him a glare as she tried to pat it all back down into place. Harry chuckled at their antics before turning back to the monitors saying softly "I suppose we could just watch the monitors until he comes back."

"That is so boring," Mai whined at him as she pulled a face.

"Then go and talk to Kuroda-san over by the wall. It looks like she could use some cheering up." Takigawa-san said, before Harry could say anything to her.

Mai gave a nod and walked away from them and over to Kuroda-san. As soon as she got there the two girls were engaged in a conversation. It then left Takigawa-san and Harry to watch over the monitors in peace, as they waited for John to come back in.

Chapter Text

Yume no Naka ni Seishin

Chapter Fourteen

Case One – Evil Spirit's All Over

Part Eight

The sun was beginning to set when John finally returned to the building, dressed in his Priest robes and holding onto a Bible and a bottle of Holy Water. Takigawa-san, who had been in a heated argument with Matsuzaki-san, spotted him first on the monitors and made a comment, "The teenage exorcist finally makes his appearance."

"That he does, and he makes for quite an intimidating figure," Harry replied as he looked, "Though I wonder where he is going?" As John didn't return to the base first, but went through the first floor classrooms, before heading to the second floor and finally seemed to choose the room Hara-san had fallen from.

"He must be anxious to show us what he can do," Matsuzaki-san said while examining her fingernails on her left hand, acting like she wasn't impressed or even interested in what the young man was doing.

Harry shot her a glare, but Takigawa-san couldn't let it go, "I am sure he will have better results than a useless Priestess I know."

Matsuzaki-san huffed in aggravation, sending a death glare at the Monk, before ignoring him completely in favour of watching what was happening on the monitors. Harry suppressed a chuckled and watched John walk through the room and stop in the middle of it, opening his Bible. Harry turned to Mai who was still in conversation with Kuroda-san, and called out, "Mai if you want to watch John do his things, you better get over here, as he is just starting."

Both Mai and Kuroda-san stopped their conversation and almost ran over so they wouldn't miss anything, crowding behind Harry and Takigawa-san as they waited for him to start. The young wizard wondered if Shibuya-san knew what was going on, so he got on the small walkie talkie and asked, "Shibuya-san, John is starting his exorcism, do you want to watch?"

There was crackling for a few moments as Harry let up on the button, but then Shibuya-san's cold deep voice came over the device, "I'm watching it from the laptop in the van. I have seen this type of exorcism's before, so I'll continue with my research while taking a glance every once in awhile."

"Okay then," was the only reply Harry could think of.

Setting the walkie down in front of him, he then reached over and turned up the sound, enabling them to hear what John was saying and any noise that wasn't made by him. By now John had taken the cap off his Holy Water and began splashing it in the air in front of him as he said in a monotone, but authoritative voice, "Our Father who are in Heaven, hallowed be thy name."

"What is that water," Mai asked leaning closer to Harry so she could whisper it in his ear, and not disturb anybody else.

Turning his head a little, he whispered back into her own ear, "It's Holy Water, water that has been sanctified by a Priest. It is normally used for Baptisms, Blessing, and in this case, to ward off evil," he finished with a smile as she nodded her head in understanding.

Both looked back at the screen in time to see John put the cap back on the Holy Water, tucking it into a pocket beneath his robes, and then turned to the open Bible held in his left hand and started to read a passage from it, "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."

Just as he finished a loud crack was heard throughout the room, but John continued to read unfazed by the noise. Takigawa-san looked at Harry, "Can you turn it up a little more? I think I can still hear some smaller creaks."

Harry did as asked and sure enough behind John's voice you could hear pops, cracks, and groans of wood shifting. John still continued on seemingly unaware of the sounds going on around him, "He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made; without him nothing was made that had been made. In Him was life, and that life was the light of men. Light shines in the darkness but the darkness has not understood it. There came a man who was sent from god; his name was John." The creaking noise continued to become louder the more John read, but still the Priest didn't flinch.

Needless to say Harry was impressed by John, but he needed to figure out where the sounds were coming from. Studying the room intently though the monitors his eye caught on the ceiling. As he continued to watch, it looked as if it was rippling, like water when it was disturbed, before it started to bow inwards, right above John. Mai must have seen it too, but since she wasn't sitting down, she was the first to bolt out of the room, with Harry not far behind her.

Takigawa-san shouted behind them, "Hey!" as he followed them out.

Harry easily caught up with Mai; just as she reached the classroom and shoved open the door shouting, "John!"

"Mai, Harry?" John said, jumping in surprise at the intrusion.

"Move, the ceiling is coming down!" Harry exclaimed as a very loud and ominous crack echoed through the room.

John looked up at the ceiling above him as small snaps and pops echoed out. A look of horror took over his face as a large piece finally gave way and headed straight for him. Without a second thought Harry raised his hand a little bit next to his side and shot a wordless blasting curse at it. The piece broke apart into several smaller pieces, showering John in some of them, but giving him enough time to gather his bearings and run out of the room. It was just in time as a little less than half the ceiling then decided to come down, revealing the dark night sky outside.

Waving a hand in front of his face to remove as much dust as possible, Harry squinted to try and find Mai and John through the dust. He gave a sigh of relief when he found them standing a little ways from him, coughing but unharmed. He then heard the thundering of footsteps as everybody else made their way to the classroom. Harry was shocked to even see Shibuya-san there, but after thinking about it he realised that the other teen must have heard the noise and saw the ruin of the classroom.

"Are you guys all right?" Shibuya-san asked with a slight hint of concern in his voice.

"Yeah, we're fine, or at least I am." Harry answered glancing over to Mai and John with concern.

Still coughing from the dust Mai just nodded her head in confirmation. John, who was bent over with his hands on his knees, stood up straight and looked to the teen, answering, "I'm fine, but if Mai and Harry hadn't shown up when they did I would have been in real danger," at that he gave Harry and Mai a grateful look and smile.

Both teens returned it, glad that they could be of some help. Shibuya-san patted Harry on the shoulder and gave Mai a small nod in approval. "I think it would be best if we pull out for the night," He stated letting go of Harry's shoulder ad addressing the rest of them.

Matsuzaki-san didn't put up a fuss, "I'll go, no need to tell me twice," giving a wave as she headed for the stairs.

Takigawa-san followed her with his eyes and a teasing grin on his face, saying to her before she had made it two steps, "Just admit it, you're scared."

Her steps faltered for a minute and you could hear a small huff, but she kept on walking. Not getting the reaction that he wanted, Takigawa-san gave a quick goodbye and jogged to catch up with the temperamental Priestess. No doubt to tease her further, until he got the reaction he wanted. Harry just shook his head at their antics, but a small smile could still be seen on his face.

John was the next to go, saying, "I think I will be doing the same. I've had enough excitement for the night."

Harry shot him a sympathetic look and John just gave a weak smile in return. Harry watched as Mai said goodbye giving the Priest a small hug and telling him she was glad that he was okay and she would see him tomorrow. John returned her hug and told her thanks, before going towards the stairs. Now all that was left was Kuroda-san, Shibuya-san, Mai, and him.

Shibuya-san had entered the ruined classroom while everybody left and Harry was now watching him as he slowly made his way through the wreckage, studying it. Kuroda-san seeing that she was being ignored gave a huff and said goodbye to Mai and marched out in anger, pulling out a phone and calling someone to pick her up. Shibuya-san must have heard her for he lifted his dark blue eyes up to find Mai and Harry still standing there watching him.

"Mai, Harry, you both can go home as well." At their looks of confusion and weariness he gave a sigh, "I will not be staying here for much longer."

"Okay, if you're sure," Harry reluctantly replied shifting his feet not wanting to leave the older teen alone.

Shibuya-san gave him a knowing look, "I am, I plan on doing some research tonight and I don't have to conduct it here."

Letting out a sigh Harry nodded his head, "Fine," then turning to Mai he said, "Mai I'll walk you home."

Mai gave a nod of her head and facing Shibuya-san waved and said, "See you tomorrow Naru."

Harry let out a small chuckled as Shibuya-san frowned at the nickname, but he still nodded his head in acceptance, before going back to examining the room. Harry, knowing that the teen would be annoyed if they stayed any longer, took hold of Mai's wrist, who was still watching their temporary boss, and dragged her off to the base room so they could collect their things and leave.

Walking out into the cool night air and enjoying the feel of the fresh breeze, Mai was the first to break their silence as they walked, "I can't believe what has happened?" Her voice was full of awe at what she had been witness to today.

"Yes it was quiet a day today wasn't it?" Harry commented still trying to puzzle it out.

Mai glanced over at Harry and noticed his furrowed brow and asked curiously, "Harry, you really don't believe it is spirits do you?"

Coming out of his thoughts Harry gave her a small smile, "You're right Mai. I don't believe it is a spirit, though it is acting like one. I just can't seem to pin point what or even why something would want to act like one." He looked down at the sidewalk as they walked, puzzling over it a little more.

Giving Harry a small smile and a pat on the back, Mai's voice filled with frustration, "I don't know what to believe in all of this either Harry, it's all so over whelming," She threw her hands up in the air to make her point, which made Harry laugh at her antics and forget about the problem for now.

Getting a sly smirk on his face Harry decided now would be a good time to ask her something, "So Mai, what do you think of Shibuya-san?" Her reaction was immediate in that her face scrunched up in annoyance, but it also flushed a bright red.

"Umm, well," she stuttered trying to gather her thoughts, "Let's see, he is arrogant, narcissistic, and not to mention a complete jerk to everybody," she ranted, but seemed to lose some steam after a moment, and Harry could feel the slight attraction she had for him, "but, he did show some concern for our safety throughout the day and," here she paused again and if possible her face turned even redder as she ducked her head down and mumbled, "he is quiet good looking."

Harry couldn't contain his laughter at her last statement and he was rewarded with a glare and then small smile as he threw his arm around her shoulders and gave her a squeeze. "Yes Mai, I have to agree with you there, he is quiet cute."

Mai shoved him away with her face once again resembling a tomato as she raised her fist in warning and hissed out, "If you tell anybody that I said that, you will find yourself in a world of pain."

Backing away from her Harry put his hands up in surrender and still chuckling, he assured her, "I swear that I will not tell a soul as long as you don't tell anyone that I agreed with you."

"Deal," Mai shouted sticking her hand out for him to shake.

Shaking his head in amusement, he took her hand and gave it a firm shake. By this time they had reached Mai's apartment complex.

"Night Harry and thanks for walking me home again." She said giving him a warm smile and hug before she turned around and went up the stairs and to the third floor where her apartment was.

"Night," Harry called out when she made it to her door and leaned over the railing to give him one final wave.

He turned around and headed to his own home, which was ten minutes to the south from Mai's. Making it home the first thing he did was shed his coat and then go and check on Hedwig. She was on her stand with her head underneath her wing fast asleep. Not wanting to wake her up he topped off her food dish, adding a few owl treats on top, checked to make sure she still had water, and last but not least made sure the window was still open and charmed to keep people out.

Seeing that everything was done, he quickly heated up the last of his vegetarian lasagne from last night for his dinner and while he ate it he pondered over the case.

He felt like he was getting closer to figuring it out, but every time he thought he had got it, the idea would once again escape his clutches. It was irritating to say the least, and infuriating as well. He finished his meal and put the dishes into the sink for later, then trudged up the small staircase and into his room. He stripped out of his cloths and put on some grey jogging pants before falling into bed.

He lay there for a while with the case still buzzing in his mind, but once again the answers seemed to elude him. Giving out a deep sigh he finally just pushed it to the back of his mind and closed his eyes, maybe some sleep would help him out.

Chapter Text

Yume no Naka ni Seishin

Chapter Fifteen

Case One – Evil Spirit's All Over

Part Nine

Harry waited patiently in front of the gate that led to Mai's apartment complex, pushing the button a second time to let her know that someone was waiting for her. Finally Mai's voice came over the speaker a few seconds after the second buzz, "Harry is that you?" she sounded out of breath.

Smiling he pushed in the button that would allow him to answer her and leaned over so his mouth was only a few inches away from the intercom, "Yeah it's me Mai. Are you ready to go and why are you so out of breath?"

He let go of the button, only to hear Mai's out of breath reply, "Yeah, I'll be done in a minute. I will tell you the reason when I see you."

"Okay, see you in a few." Harry answered, before leaning against the stonewall and waited for his friend.

Like Mai had promised she came running down the stairs and came to a stop beside him, pulling on a tan jacket as she did so. Harry smiled at her as she got the gate and opened it. The first greeting Harry got was Mai explaining why she was out of breath, "My alarm didn't go off, and so I was hurrying to get ready," closing the gate behind her, that automatically locked, before they both started walking in the direction of the school.

"Oh," Harry gave a smirk, "Are you saying I actually woke you up when I called to tell you I had some errands to run this morning and would come and get you?" e thought she had sounded pretty groggy when he had called.

A small blush appeared on Mai's face, Harry not even having to feel her emotions to tell that she was embarrassed, as she nodded her head. "I'm glad you called. not only did you wake me up, but I was planning on coming and getting you this morning."

"Good thing I called then, because I would have bee out o the house." Harry answered her as they slowly made their way down the sidewalk.

Mai's blush faded and she asked, "Did you get what you needed done?"

"Yep," he replied thinking about how his house was now clean and since he had stopped by the Magic School, he now had a week's worth of magic assignments. Harry was hoping none of them would be hard, but if they were he always had the weekends or after school to get in touch with the professors.

He was brought out of his musing when Mai asked him, "How does Hedwig like this place so far?"

Surprised by her questions and the curiosity she had towards his owl Familiar, Harry shrugged his shoulder, "She's fine, and I think she would like it better if I had more things for her to do," poor Hedwig, Harry thought. She loved to get out and deliver letters, but now with him living in Japan, she didn't get the usual letter to deliver and he could tell she was getting restless.

Mai surprised Harry out of his mind once again by doing a complete subject change, "What do you think will happen today?"

He couldn't help but stare at her at the abrupt change in subject. He could feel her emotions were going all over the place and it worried him, he realized that she was actually waiting for his answer this time he shook his head back and forth, "I don't know, we'll just have to wait and see."

Her face scrunched up in dissatisfaction with his answer, but she nodded her head once and turned the corner that lead them to the school. The Cherry Blossoms were still in bloom and lined both sides of the sidewalk creating a picturesque scene. Mai got a little ahead of Harry and began twirling around with her arms out murmuring, "This is so nice and peaceful, don't you think?"

Chuckling at her actions and shaking his head softly in fondness he answered her, "Yeah it is." Harry continued to watch her, but became even more concerned when her emotions showed anything but contentment. They were still all over the place, but the most prominent was worry and fear. Not one to beat around the bush Harry schooled his face and outright asked, "Mai," he called out grabbing her attention, "what's wrong?"

Stopping her twirl, she gazed up into the multiple branches laden down with Cherry blossoms, "Why do you ask?" She tried to make her voice sound innocent and carefree, but failed.

"You're jumping from one subject to the next rather quickly. That usually means something's bothering you and you're trying to avoid it." Harry pointed out, watching her closely for anything that could tell him besides her emotions.

Giving a sigh of resignation at being found out, Mai turned her gaze to Harry, "My mind is all jumbled up from what has been going on at the old school house. Things keep happening, but everybody is all on a different page. Hara-san, Naru, and you all say there are no spirits. Takigawa-san, Matsuzaki-san, Kuroda, and John all say something is there, but all have different opinions on what it is." Her voice grew quiet as she looked down at her hands, which she was wringing together, "It's making it hard to know who's right and who's wrong."

Seeing her in such distress hurt Harry and wanting to make that stress go away he did the only thing he could think of. He walked up to her and wrapped his arms around her shoulders in a hug. Mai automatically hugged him back and laid her head on his right shoulder. "Don't worry," Harry said trying to reassure her, "Things will work themselves out." He gave her another squeeze before pulling back and looking into her big cinnamon colored eyes, "All right."

Mai gave him a reassuring smile and nod. Harry returned her smile and they began walking in a comfortable silence. He could feel her emotions had settled down somewhat with his reassurance and he was glad for that. Glancing up he then noticed they were almost to the school.

Harry and Mai turned the corner of the chain length fence and grey concrete wall that surrounded the old school house and found parked on the drive was Shibuya-san's black van. They could just make out that the back doors were wide open. The two glanced at each other in worry and curiosity, wondering what was going on, they walked around the right side of the van. Inside, they found Shibuya-san fast asleep in the back, with his coat thrown over the top part of his body.

Harry narrowed his eyes a little in irritation at the sleeping figure of his boss. He had told Harry that he was leaving and then obviously ended up staying the night anyways. If there was one thing Harry couldn't stand, it was being lied to. Especially since something dangerous had happened just before they had left. That was the last time he would leave the teenager's side, unless he left the same time as he did.

Walking a little away from the back of the van he watched in annoyance as Mai went over to their boss and called his name, "Naru. Hey, Naru!"

Shibuya-san gave a groan and slowly opened his eyes blinking a couple of times to get the sleep out of them. He ran a hand through his hair as he began to focus on Harry and Mai, "Hello Mai, Harry, what are you guys doing here this early?"

"It's almost noon," Mai answered in disbelief, with a small blush beginning to appear on her face.

Giving Mai a confused look he shrugged his shoulders and started to sit up, making his coat slide off his body and pool in his lap. Mai seeing this took a step back, putting her next to Harry, giving Shibuya-san enough room to move.

Harry could no longer hold back his anger and snapped out, "Have you been here all night?"

This got Shibuya-san's attention, and he glanced over and up to Harry with confusion in his deep blue eyes. They immediately went calm when he saw Harry's slight frown and remembered what the other teen was like when people were alone, "No, I did go to my office for a while."

Harry snorted and crossed his arms in frustration at the answer, asking, "What happened to not staying here?"

Shibuya-san seemed like he was about to give him an answer, but was interrupted by the arrival of Takigawa-san, Matsuzaki-san, and John. Harry gave another snort at the interruption, but let it go for now and turned his attention to the three new comers.

"Hey, what's up with everything being packed away?" Takigawa-san questioned, gesturing to the back of the van that was almost full of equipment.

Eyes widening in surprise, Harry glanced back to the van, and sure enough most of the equipment was packed away. He had been so angry with his boss he had completely missed it. Feeling Mai's surprise as well let him know he wasn't the only one.

"Yeah, it looks to me like you're trying to leave early," Matsuzaki-san stated, giving Shibuya-san an accusing look.

Harry's attention was taken away from the van to the conversation that was going on between everybody. It seemed that two out of the three didn't seem too happy about this little development.

"I am," was Shibuya-san's short reply as he took up his coat and started putting it back on.

Mai's surprise and disappointment hit Harry like a wave from the ocean and it took all his power and strength not to take a step back from her. Wanting to ease her fear, he put a hand on her shoulder, which seemed to calm her down somewhat, then leaned over whispering into her ear, "Its okay Mai, I'm sure he will explain. Plus you still have a debt to pay, so I'm sure this isn't the last time we'll see him." Pulling away he saw her give him a grateful smile and nod, which he returned, before focusing back on the conversation in front of them.

Matsuzaki-san snorted and pinned him with a smug smirk, "What you mean is that you are running away, because you can't figure out what is going on here or how to take care of it."

Stopping in the middle of putting an arm through the last sleeve of his coat, Shibuya-san gave the Priestess a death glare that made her lose the smirk and shrink back a little. John saved the day by coming between them, "This isn't true," he directed towards the Priestess, but then seemed to hesitate and looked to Shibuya-san asking, "Is it?"

Focusing on John, he finished pulling on his jacket, and answered, "No, as I have determined what is going on here and so have started packing up in order to leave as soon as I give my findings to the Principle."

Takigawa-san's mouth was hanging open in shock and he stuttered out in amazement and disbelief, "You've exorcised all the spirits on your own?"

Harry couldn't help the snort of laughter that left him, but covered it up as a cough when both males shot him a glare.

Making sure Harry was done with his antics; Shibuya-san turned his attention back onto the Monk, "No I didn't. There is no need, since there are no spirits here." He went to the back of the van and pulled out his laptop, pushing the button to start it. As it booted up he went on with his explanation, "Last night I complied the results of all the measurements that have been taken since I got here." A graph appeared on the screen as soon as the computer had finished loading up. Taking a step back, he motioned for everybody to come up and take a look, "This is a graph of my survey levels."

Everybody took the invitation to come and look. Harry ended up standing on Takigawa-san's right, John was on his left, and both Mai and Matsuzaki-san stood right behind them, waiting for their turn.

"The school house is sinking; in fact it has sunk 0.2 inches last night alone." Shibuya-san continued as Takigawa-san still continued to lean over the laptop and study the graph.

Takigawa-san stood up at that and gave a shouted, "What," not understand what Shibuya-san was trying to say.

Taking the opportunity to look at the graph, Harry leaned over and ended up bumping heads with John, who had also leaned forward. Harry shot John an apologetic look, to find John doing the same thing. They both smiled and nodded their heads, before both went back to studying the graph.

"It's called Subsidence." Shibuya-san said, thinking this would get across what he was trying to say.

Not understanding a thing the graph was trying to show, Harry stood back up and watched Shibuya, hoping it would bring more light to the subject.

Noticing Matsuzaki-san wasn't buying Shibuya-san's theory at all, Harry wasn't surprised when all he could hear from her was doubt as she stated, "So you think this Subsidence is to blame for all the phenomena that has been going on here," she threw a hand out to take in the old school building.

Sighing in frustration and pinching the bride of his nose between his thumb and pointer finger, Shibuya-san explained, "This ground is built on reclaimed swampland. When I looked into the distribution of wells in the area, I found out that there was a large waterway that passed underneath the school." He glanced up at this and saw that he had everybody's attention, "I checked the wells and they were mostly dry around this area."

"Which means what Naru?" Mai asked as she now had enough room to squeeze in between Takigawa-san and John to get a proper look at the graph, her face scrunching up in concentration, making her look cute.

"It means that the ground here was weak to begin with and now that the water is all dried up, a hollowing effect is happening." Mai glanced up from the computer with a confused face, eliciting another sigh of frustration from Shibuya-san, "It means the earth is caving in, which in turn is making the building sink into the ground."

Mai's face lit up into a smile as it all finally registered in her mind what was going on. Harry had to cover his mouth to hide the smile of amusement caused by her.

Wanting to make sure that he had this all figured out as well, Takigawa-san asked, "So the glass breaking, the chair moving, and the ceiling collapsing were all due to the Subsidence?"

"Yes," Shibuya-san bit out and Harry could see and feel his frustration of having to repeat himself, "The floor of the classroom at the Eastern end, where the ceiling collapsed, is three inches lower than the West side."

"So structural failure," Takigawa-san said in a thoughtful voice as he brought his hand up to his chin and stared up at the sky.

"That doesn't explain the creaking noises," Matsuzaki-san threw in with a doubtful tone.

Harry wanted to bang his head against the wall. Just how dumb could she be, honestly? A wave of annoyance and irritation hit his shields from Shibuya-san and Harry did end up having to take a step back, so he wouldn't be overwhelmed. Taking a look at Shibuya-san, Harry had to contain his laughter. He had his jaw locked together and you could see the slight movement, which meant he was grinding his teeth together.

Closing his eyes Shibuya-san said in a dull tone, "The building would be warping as it is put under stress and strain, which in turn causes the creaking noises that we hear." Opening his eyes he pinned everybody with a hard glare, making all of them back up in fear, "The area around the old school building needs to be declared off limits, it could go at any time." He then stalked forwards and slammed his laptop shut, hoping to end the argument, which it did.

"Harry, Mai," he said called out turning to them, "let's get the equipment packed away, a lot of it already has, but there is always more." he then walked away from them and into the building.

Harry and Mai both gave each other weary glances, before following after their boss into the old school building. The irritation was just flowing off of Shibuya-san and Harry was glad Mai and him were a couple of feet back from him.

Shibuya-san had just entered the base room when Mai stopped in the threshold, making Harry stop beside her and give her a questioning look.

Mai was looking around the room with sadness as she gave a small smile and whispered, "Well, this is it," taking a small step into the room and headed over to the table with several missing pieces of equipment.

Harry saw Shibuya-san taking the monitors off the shelf a little past Mai and wanting her to cheer up, Harry patted her on the back on the way by and softly said, "Cheer up Mai, I am sure this isn't the end," before continuing on to his boss.

"What do you want us to gather up first Shibuya-san?" Harry asked as he finally made it to the teen's side, though keeping some distance as the teen's emotions were still pretty strong on the anger side.

Turning his head enough to see both Harry and Mai in his vision Shibuya-san barked out, "Mai," she jumped a little at his tone, but met his eyes, "the second floor has four cameras still up and running, along with accompanying microphones. I want you to dismantle them and bring them to this room as I want to make sure we have everything before it goes to the van."

Mai gave a mock salute as she shouted out, "Yes sir!" then speed walking out the door at Shibuya-san's glare.

Harry couldn't help but let out a chuckle at her antics, but clamed up when Shibuya-san pinned him with a cold glare. "Harry, I first have a request for you."

"What's that," he asked?

Truthfully he was worried that it was going to be something along the lines of shut up, but was relieved when Shibuya-san said instead, "Will you please call me Kazuya instead of Shibuya-san all the time. It is beginning to get annoying."

"No problem, Kazuya," Harry answered with a smile. The only reason he hadn't done it yet was because he didn't want to seem to forward, plus it was considered rude if not given permission by the person.

Nodding his head Kazuya went on, "Good, now on this floor there are two cameras and microphones, start bring them here."

Harry simply nodded his head and left, deciding Kazuya wouldn't find him saluting like Mai had very funny. An hour later the base room was filled with all the equipment they had been tasked to gather.

Mai was exhausted from running up and down the stairs so many times, as she could only carry one camera and microphone at a time, and now sat in one of the classroom chairs to regain her breath.

Kazuya was packing some of the smaller equipment up in some boxes and Harry was starting to take apart the shelf the monitors had sat on, when Kuroda-san walked in.

The first words out of her mouth when she saw them packing up were, "You can't be leaving! What about the spirit that attacked me?"

Kazuya still somewhat worked up from this morning's little argument, whipped around and spat out, "If that did happen, which I am very inclined to think you just made it up, it could be the work of a floating specter that is following you around."

Kuroda-san puffed up like a blow fish and exclaimed, "Something did attack me, it really did, and it is not the work of a floating specter that is following me," she crossed her arms with a huff, turning her face up and away from him.

Harry rolled his eyes at her and went back to what he was doing. Kazuya obviously had enough of her as well, for he ignored the little fit and went back to putting things away in boxes and ticking them off his inventory list.

The only one who didn't get back to work was Mai, as she watched Kazuya's back for a moment; she finally spoke up in a small and timid voice, "Are you really leaving Naru?"

Without turning around Kazuya answered her, "Yes, the job is done," Harry thought he heard a little disappointment in his voice, but could defiantly feel it in his emotions.

Mai on the other hand didn't hide her disappointment as she whispered, "Yeah, I guess it is," she then got up off the chair and began to unplug and wind the cords together.

Kuroda-san, not happy to be ignored by everybody, stomped her foot and declared, "There is a spirit here, there truly is."

That was the breaking point for Kazuya, he slammed a notebook down into the box, spun around and glared at the stubborn girl, "No there isn't," he stated with venom in his voice. "The outcomes of my investigations were completely blank."

"Maybe you just can't tell where it is, because it's avoiding all of your little tests," Kuroda-san tried to reason out.

"Then you can drive it out yourself," Kazuya spat out, "especially if you have spiritual abilities, like you keep saying you do," his tone full of disbelief and spite.

Kuroda-san's mouth snapped shut and a death glare match took place between her and Kazuya. Poor Harry could feel the anger building and banging against his weak shields. If somebody didn't do something soon he was afraid his shields would break and he would be completely overwhelmed by the mix of frustration and anger that these two felt towards each other.

So lost in trying to keep his shields up he didn't notice Takigawa-san, Matsuzaki-san, and John walk into the room. All three giving puzzled looks at Kuroda-san and Kazuya, turning to Harry, who they noticed looked to be in pain, before settling on Mai, who was on the verge of a panic attack, which then turned to determination as she watched Kuroda-san and Kazuya.

Harry's savior ended up being Mai, who broke into the argument with her soft and gentle voice, "Guess this dream is over." Kazuya broke his stare with Kuroda-san, to give Mai a confusing look, wanting her to elaborate, "Well, here we are in an old building that is so creepy that you think it should be haunted. Not to mention all the ghost stories about it." She now had Kuroda-san's attention as she smiled and nodded her head, but let Mai continue. "There is a certain sort of romance to it all, isn't there?" She finished looking up at Harry, who had made his way over to stand beside her, trying to get as far away as possible from Kazuya and Kuroda-san's strong emotions.

It was as he was moving he noticed the others in the room all giving Mai a soft look. This made him smile as he answered her, "In a way I suppose you are right, this has been interesting," then he glanced up at everybody. "For me, it's not the romance, but more of the mystery that needs to be solved."

Mai nodded her head in agreement as she also looked at everybody in the room, "Now I wouldn't have wanted somebody to really die or anything, but now that I think about it, the ghost stories really did give this place an air of mystery and fun."

"Maybe so," Harry agreed.

Just then some sharp cracking sounds came from the ceiling above them and echoed all around the classroom. Followed by the tinkling of glass as it is about to break. Harry frantically glanced over at the glass windows, on the hallway side of the classroom, and noticed the spider web cracks appearing and spreading out. Kuroda-san was standing right next to them and without thinking he ran over to her.

Grabbing her around the shoulders and forcing her body to the ground just as the glass shattered. Harry was able to protect most of her with his body as the glass shards showered down on his back and around him, but he noticed that a piece of glass had been able to hit her arm, as it was bleeding pretty heavily and small dots of blood where appearing on the floor beneath it.

A look of surprise was on Kuroda-san's face as she peered up at him her position against his chest, but when his emerald eyes met her dark brown ones, the shock fell away and a small smile of gratitude took over.

She didn't get a chance to thank him, because right after that the knocking and banging sounds from before began to echo through the room. Followed by the classroom doors slamming open and close, without any human help.

"What's going on?" Matsuzaki-san shouted in bewilderment and terror over the noise.

"This is more than ground Subsidence this time," Takigawa-san pointed out to them all.

"Yes, knocking sounds are another of Tisane's criteria," John yelled out as he looked at the ceiling.

Harry didn't care about that; they needed to get out of there. Takigawa-san must have had the same idea as Harry, for he shouted, "We need to get out of here now!"

Frantically looking for Mai, Harry found her next to Kazuya, who seemed to have protected her from the glass as well. He had to do a double take when he saw his boss's face, for this was the first time he had seen a total look of shock on the teens face. He wasn't eve concentrating on one thing, just staring into space as he tried to figure things out.

"Naru," Mai called out over the noise, breaking him out of it as he glanced down at her scared face.

Seeing her scared and unsure, when most of the time she was so feisty and defiant did a good job of bringing him back to the now and then, his face hardened into one of determination as he shouted, "Everybody out!"

"But the door," Mai stuttered out as she went closer to Kazuya looking for comfort and safety.

"I'll take care of that," Takigawa-san said raising up a chair and flinging it at the doors as hard as he could.

When the chair hit the doors, they fell down, leaving an opening for everybody to run through. Harry helped Kuroda-san off the floor and she quickly took off into the hallway. Harry waited for Mai as Kazuya pushed her in front of him saying, "Go Mai!"

She finally found her legs and breezed past Harry, who didn't move until Kazuya was beside him and they all ran out of the building. Everybody else was either standing or crouched down, staring up at the building when they emerged.

Kuroda-san had sunk to her knees and just staring off into space, towards the old building. Wanting to make sure that she was okay, Harry walked over to her and kneeled down beside her.

"Harry," Kuroda-san said as she came out of it and looked at him, "Thank you," a small smile graced her face as she said it.

"Don't worry about it," he said, smiling back at her.

Digging into his pocket he brought out a clean hanky and pressed it against the cut that was bleeding sluggishly on his cheek. Seeing her hand still bleeding he dug into his other pocket with his free hand and brought out another clean hanky. Handing it over to Kuroda-san, who have him a perplexed look, until he gestured to her left hand.

"Oh," she took the offered hanky and pressed it down on top of her hand. Looking back up at him she asked, "Does it hurt at all," gesturing to his cheek with her head.

Shaking his head, making sure to keep pressure on it, he said, "No, I've had a lot worse than this, trust me."

She gave him a curious look, but didn't get to ask her questions as Matsuzaki-san came over at that point and kneeled next to them. Taking Kuroda-san's hand and looking it over she asked, "You all right?"

Seeing that he wasn't needed anymore, Harry stood up and went over to where Mai was standing next to Kazuya, who were both looking at Takigawa-san, who was facing them looking angry.

Once Harry was close enough he heard Takigawa-san yell, "What was that? You can't tell me that was caused by the ground sinking. That was a full on Poltergeist."

Harry jumped a little as Matsuzaki-san's voice rang out behind him, "Exactly, something was definitely knocking on the walls, that wasn't even close to regular building noises." She finished tying Harry's hanky around Kuroda-san's hand and stood up, her hands on her hips as she faced them.

Even John got in on the blame game, which surprised Harry greatly, "That makes four of Tisane's nine criteria," looking at Kazuya in what Harry could only make out as guilt while he said it.

Kazuya didn't say anything; he just continued to stare up at the building, ignoring all of them. As Harry finally got close enough he could feel the confusion and the frustration that the teen was going through. His fists were clenched at his side and Harry could almost see the wheels turning in his head as he tried to figure out where he had gone wrong.

Harry wanted to say something, anything, but at that moment he thought it would be best to keep his idea to himself, though he was pretty sure he was right. It had come to him when he grabbed Kuroda-san, but he would wait for the right time to tell his boss.

"Just goes to show you that you can't rely on technology in this field," Matsuzaki-san sounded almost disappointed as she stood there looking at Kazuya. "For a moment I was actually close to believing what you were saying."

Takigawa-san didn't have any problems rubbing it in, which once again surprised Harry as he would have figured it would have been Matsuzaki-san doing that, "Stick around Naru," he said as he walked away, "it's time for a little grown-up action."

"I can't even be near you at this moment in time," Matsuzaki-san commented as she followed the Monk.

"What is with them?" Mai huffed out loud to no one, "I haven't seen them do anything and now they start to get along." She glanced down at the ground, but shot her gaze back to Kazuya's hand which was dripping blood onto the ground, "Hey Naru, you're bleeding," Mai panicked, reaching out to grab his hand.

"It's a small scratch, attend to Kuroda," Kazuya's voice was cold and stopped Mai's hand mid air.

"But Naru…" Mai tried to protest only to be cut off.

"I would appreciate it if you would leave me alone right now." Kazuya's tone was harsh and full of irritation, "I'm so mad at myself I could throw up." With that he walked away from them and towards the opening in the fence.

Harry watched as Mai's face fell in defeat as she watched him walk away, before she turned and headed over to Kuroda-san, who was still kneeling on the ground holding her hand. John for his part shrugged his shoulders and gave Harry a sad smile, before going after the Monk and Priestess.

Making sure everybody was going to be fine, Harry then ran to catch up with Kazuya. As he came up beside the older teen he was given a death glare and saw Kazuya about to open his mouth to tell him to leave, but Harry beat him to it, "First, before you bit my head off, here." He reached into his pocket and pulled out the last clean hanky he had and handed it over to the teen. "It's a good thing I carry a load of these."

Kazyua jerked it out of his hand and wrapped it around the cut on his own. Harry saw it was more than the scratch he had assured Mai it was. Seeing that done Kazuya brought his cold gaze back onto Harry and hissed; "Now you can go."

"Nope I can't, there was a second reason," Harry stated which earned him another glare. He had to give Kazuya credit for his glares, but it didn't hold a candle to Snape's. With that in mind he plowed on, "Remember that I said there was something else going on here." Kazuya gave him a withering look that clearly said get on with it. Smiling a sly smile Harry simply said one word, or rather two letters, "PK."

At that one thing Kazuya's whole face took on a new look. The frustration was lost and replaced by quiet contemplation. "Harry, take over for a while. I may not be back today," he handed over the keys for the van to Harry.

Harry took the keys and nodded his head in acceptance. He then watched as Kazuya took off at a faster pace towards the exit, taking a right and disappearing from sight.

With that Harry swung around and walked back to the van, where he saw Mai, John, and Kuroda-san waiting for him. He figured the Priestess and Monk were either in the building or had gone off to lunch.

Thinking it would be better to eat lunch now and help settle the nerves a little. Harry asked the three standing by the van, "Would you guys like to go to lunch with me?"

They all answered in the positive, so Harry locked the van up, and led them all to a small café down the street. He knew they served both regular meals and vegetarian.

They sat at one of the tables in the outdoor area and were waited on immediately. While they were sitting there waiting for their food to be brought John asked him, "What did you talk to Kazuya about?"

Harry smiled at the man as he replied, "I finally figured out what was bugging me about the case. It was something we were all overlooking."

"Oh," Mai curiously leaned forward as she looked at her friend, "What was that? I know it has been bugging you since this case started."

Harry chuckled at her and shook his head in the negative; he didn't think Kazuya would want them to know just yet, "Yeah, but I think I'll keep it between myself and Kazuya, for now." At the looks of disappointment he explained, "I just have a feeling that I need to remain silent about this for a little while longer."

John nodded his head, "If you think it's for the best, but I can't help but be a little curious about what you think. I know you said that you don't believe there are spirits there, but do you still believe that after what happened today?"

The green eyed wizard smiled a knowing smile, "I know there isn't a spirit, but there are a number of other things which does include Subsidence. I still believe Kazuya was right in that theory as it can cause most of what we have seen."

"There is a spirit there, it attacked me," Kuroda-san protested, though right now she was saying it quietly so as not to attract the attention of people around them.

"Kuroda-san it might be that you are sensing something, but it is defiantly not a spirit." Harry told her knowing that some people were more sensitive to all kind of energy, rather it be spiritual, magical, or electrical.

Kuroda-san shook her head and stated firmly, once again bolstering her resolve, "I know there is a spirit. I'm not lying."

Harry rolled his eyes, becoming exasperated with the girl now, "I know what spirits feel like and there is nothing like that in that building."

Mai could tell her friend was getting frustrated so she stepped in, "Like you could at your old school?"

Nodding, though that wasn't the true reason, it was good enough to pass for now, "Yeah."

There food arrived just then and everybody dug in not realizing how hungry they were. A comfortable silence descended on the group as they all ate and it was only interrupted once in a while with comments of how good it was or if somebody could pass something. They all enjoyed their lunch and didn't talk about the case again until they reached the old school building.

Chapter Text

Yume no Naka ni Seishin

Chapter Sixteen

Case One – Evil Spirit's All Over

Part Ten

The group of four returned back to the old school house, with their stomachs full and nerves not so rattled. Harry unlocked the van and contemplated what they should do. He noticed that Matsuzaki-san, nor Takigawa-san, had returned yet from lunch. The other three where standing around him, looking at him, waiting for him to tell them what they should do next.

Harry didn't want to enter the building just yet, not until he had a chance to make sure it wasn't going to fall down on top of their heads. Kuroda-san broke him out of his pondering when she waved goodbye to Mai with the excuse that her Mother had sent a text and wanted her home. He could feel the deceit, but didn't comment on it. If she wanted to get hurt to cover a lie that there were spirits here, let her.

Mai after saying goodbye turned to Harry and asked, "So what are we going to do?"

"Well, Kazuya asked me to take over for a little while, so I suppose that we should pack up some of this stuff." Harry answered her as he pointed out the empty slot in the van. "I figured we could set up a camera in the classroom where the chair moved, just in case something happens. Also I think I am going to move one of the microphones from the first floor to the second floor hallway." Glancing over at Mai and John to make sure they understood the rest of the unsaid sentence.

"Okay, I assume you want the rest packed away?" John asked, wanting to make sure he got the unspoken order correct.

"Yes," Harry answered shortly, "I'll set up the camera. Mai, can you and John wire up the microphone." Looking at Mai and then John he saw both nod their heads in agreement, so he continued, "After that is done we can finish packing up the rest of the stuff." Kazuya had left the inventory list in the base room, if he remembered right.

"All right, let's get to work then," Mai shouted in excitement as she took off towards the building.

John followed after her quickly, chuckling at her a little as he did so. Harry started after them at a slower pace; casting a strengthening charm on the building, when he was sure nobody was looking. He didn't want the place coming down on them anytime soon.

Harry left Mai and John on the first floor to unhook the microphone and headed straight to the second floor. He grabbed an extra camera that had been left in the base room and headed to the classroom, where the chair had moved. It didn't take him long to set everything up and when he walked out of the room he saw John and Mai were pretty close to finishing up with the microphones placement.

Trying to remember where he had last seen Kazuya's laptop he wandered into the base to find it sitting in front of the practically empty monitor stand. Smiling he sat down and opened it up, finding it was still running. He connected it to the camera and microphones wireless signal and started to record what ever came through. At that moment John and Mai walked back in and stood behind him.

"Done," Harry smiled at them as he turned around to face them.

"Yep," it was actually pretty easy," Mai replied with a big grin on her face. John just gave a small smile.

"Right, let's get the rest of the gear packed into boxes and in the van," Harry left the laptop on the table and stood up, heading to one of the already packed up boxes that Kazuya had checked off. "Make sure the box is checked off, they have a number on the top, match it up with the ones in the book." He then said as he pointed to the book that sat near the laptop.

"Okay," John said, following him to the table and started to load another box. As Harry picked up the box, John's voice made him stop and turn, "I see you know how to take charge of a situation."

Peering at John with his emerald green eyes, he shrugged his shoulders as much as he could, holding the box. "It comes with practice." At John's raised eyebrow Harry explained a little more, "During my fifth year of school we got a teacher that refused to teach us anything that would help us. In fact it got so bad that she started banning things from other subject as well and if we were caught studying something she had banned she would punish us."

"What kind of teacher would refuse to teach kids what they need to know?" John questioned with a sour look on his face.

Harry gave a small smile and answered, "The kind that is afraid of being taken out of her position." He jostled the box into a more comfortable position, "Anyway, a bunch of us got fed up with her and formed a group that would learn in secret. I got voted to be the leader of the group since the subject we were studying I was the one with the highest grades."

"Well, that's good that you guys were able to learn it, but didn't you ever get caught?" he enquired softly.

"Eventually we did, but by that time the school year was almost over and we weren't learning anything new. We all got punished, but somebody from the school board stepped in and saved us. Thankfully after that school year she was kicked out, but ever since then, if I'm given the position to lead, I can do it, I just don't like to if I have a choice." Harry finished with a smile.

John shook his head muttering, "I just don't understand some people, but I'm glad that everything worked out. Don't worry about being a leader though, you fit the role perfectly."

"Thanks John, though I suppose we better get to work now. It looks like Mai is getting ahead of us." It was true; Mai had already packed two boxes and was almost done with the third. Harry was just thankful that each box had a list inside of what was to go in them.

"You got it boss," John said in a teasing tone and he got back to work on filling his box.

Harry jut laughed and headed out of the door with his. It didn't take them long, with the three of them to finish. They started at the top and worked their way down; to make sure they hadn't missed anything. It was over an hour later when Matsuzaki-san and Takigawa-san decided to show back up from lunch.

Harry was disassembling the shelves, John was taking the smaller bits to the van, and Mai was taking out the last microphone.

Harry caught a glimpse of Takigawa-san as he walked past the classroom in his purple Monk robes and prayer beads in his hands. Matsuzaki-san stopped in the doorway watching them in curiosity, "You're not going to watch the Monk's attempt at exorcising this thing?"

"No I am not," Mai said in a huff.

Harry didn't even comment, just nodded his head that he was with Mai. Peering at John from the corner of his eye Harry saw that he looked conflicted on staying or going to watch.

"Don't tell me you still buy your bosses explanation?" Matsuzaki-san gaffed at them.

Mai whipped around and glared at the Priestess with irritation as she forced out, "Do you have any proof that he is wrong?" Mai paused for a minute, "Well come on if so, let's hear it," she waved her hand out in front of her in a sarcastic go ahead gesture at the snobbish Priestess.

It was at that point that Takigawa-san came into the room. His face had a hard look and instead of contesting against Mai he went and sat down in the middle of the room, in a meditating position and started chanting, "Un sunba ni sunba un bazaar un hakku."

Mai sent both of them a glare before huffing and picking up the microphone and stomping out of the room. Harry finished up a few shelves and followed after Mai in a more dignified manner. He noticed that John came after him carrying the last box.

They made it down to the van and put everything inside. Harry closed the doors and locked them before turning to both Mai and John.

"Thanks for helping out John," Mai beat Harry to thanking the kind hearted Priest.

"I don't mind, I think I am going to watch Takigawa-san. I have never seen a Buddhist exorcism before."

"Go ahead, I might just do the same thing, since we have nothing else to do and I don't want to leave until Kazuya comes back." Harry answered as he glanced towards the building.

Hearing footsteps right after that, Harry, Mai, and John all turned to see who it was. Mai called out, as they got closer, "Naru?"

She was disappointed when Kuroda-san came walking around the side of the van, "Oh hi Kuroda," her words were lacking their normal warmth.

"Well?" Kuroda-san asked when she saw them.

"Well, Takigawa-san should be finishing up his exorcism soon and Matsuzaki-san is with him. John and Harry were about to join them and since I don't want to be the only one out here I think I'm going with them." Mai answered her question, with a sour expression on her face.

"What about Kazuya?" Kuroda-san enquired with hopefulness to her tone that Harry didn't like.

"He's gone off somewhere. Don't think he will be back tonight," Harry stated, enjoying the look of disappointment from her a little. He couldn't believe that she still liked him, even though he had been extremely mean to her the last time she had seen him.

Mai had tuned them out and was once again looking at the building muttering under her breath, "I wonder if there are really evil spirits here."

Kuroda-san heard her and jumped all over it, "There are, I've seen them."

Mai gave her a tight smile, "I know you've made that clear."

With that Mai walked back inside the building and everybody else followed. They made it to the bottom of the stairs just as Matsuzaki-san reached them.

"Well, you don't have to worry about evil spirits anymore, the exorcism was successful," a smile of satisfaction on her lips.

Harry smirked at her, "You've said that before Matsuzaki-san and it failed if I remember correctly." He knew nothing was here, but he just couldn't pass up teasing the poor woman. Her reactions were too much fun and she annoyed him somewhat with her attitude.

"This time I'm sure of it," her hands going to her hips and taking a defying stance as she glared at him.

It was Kuroda-san's softly spoken words that made her back down, "They are still here. I can feel them, there are still many spirits here."

Matsuzaki-san had enough of this girl, "Are you still pretending to be spiritually sensitive," the disgust and irritation showing through in her voice, "Give it a rest will you, we're the professionals here."

Kuroda-san snapped back, "Unless I'm mistake you haven't done anything."

Takigawa-san came down the stairs at that moment, no longer dressed in his Monk's robes but in his original jeans and t-shirt, breaking up the miniature catfight with his words, "They are gone now. Ayako may not have been able to do it, but I did." The confidence was just oozing out of his voice.

"What did you say?" Matsuzaki-san shrieked raising her fist like she was going to hit him.

"Well, it's true isn't it?" Monk defended himself by raising his hands in a placating manner.

She still smacked him on the arm yelling, "You think you can take the credit for my work!"

"Hey," he yelled back in indignation, "Same goes for you."

Face red now Matsuzaki-san raised her fist once again shaking it at him, "Come off it and get over yourself."

Harry found this all quite entertaining and slightly irritating, but it turned to irritation when he thought he heard something from inside the building. "Will the pair of you shut up!"

John followed with a lot quieter and nicer voice, "Hush, I hear something."

Both of them clammed up immediately and sure enough there were faint footsteps up above them on the second floor.

"There's someone up there," Matsuzaki-san whispered.

"There couldn't be," Harry stated looking around at everybody, "No one else is here but us."

Without saying a word Takigawa-san took off running back up the stairs. Everyone waited for him to come back down and it didn't take too long as he came back with a puzzled look on his face.

"Was anyone up there?" Harry asked him.

"No, must have imagined it," was his answer along with an unsure grin.

"What!? Imagined!? All of us!?" Mai shouted in exasperation, throwing her hands up in the air. Harry could feel she was done with these two idiots, "We all heard something."

"It must have been the wind," Matsuzaki-san threw in her two cents once again.

'Oh boy,' Harry thought as he could feel the irritation building up in Mai, here it comes.

Sure enough Mai exploded "I'm sick of this. Both of you failed to exorcise them!" she pointed a finger at first Takigawa-san and then Matsuzaki-san. "After what you said to Naru earlier it makes you look stupid." She dropped her hand to her hip, "He didn't make any such sorry excuses. You grown-ups act pretty disgrace…"

She was cut off mid rant by a loud knocking sound that magnified as it echoed through the empty school. Everybody froze and began looking around frantically, trying to figure out where it had come from. Then the lights along the corridor started to blow, one by one, from the end of the hallway all the way to them. Glass showered down on them from the last two. Harry grabbed Mai and sheltered her as best as he could, using his body. After that dozens of pounding footsteps sounded like a football team were running up and down the second floor hallway. Bangs began to happen downstairs from the empty classroom.

"This is the most activity we have seen yet!" John shouted over the din.

"Sounds like more than one spirit," Takigawa-san agreed, also trying to make himself heard over the noise.

Mai was clinging onto Harry for dear life and Harry himself was feeling a little uneasy from everything that was happening, though that was because there was a strange energy in the air that just rubbed him the wrong way. Taking charge, he yelled out, "Everyone out! Now! It's too dangerous to stay here."

He felt bad for doing it, but he shoved Mai away from him and towards the door. Pointing at her to take Kuroda-san's hand dragging her behind her as she shouted, "Right, come on Kuroda."

Harry was right behind them as he ran to get out of the building. Everyone else was behind him and he could feel something was building up and if they didn't get out of here quick, somebody was going to get hurt.

Mai was almost to the exit with Kuroda-san when it happened. As she ran by one of the bookcases it wobbled and began tipping towards her. She stopped in fear and raised her hands to cover her face letting out a strangled cry.

"Mai!" Harry yelled, running towards her without even thinking about using his magic, or pushing her out of the way. He ran in front of her, grabbed her around the waist and tucking her into his body as his back faced the bookcase.

He let out a grunt of pain as the bookcase hit his back, sending a large spike of pain shooting through his body. It was too heavy for him to keep holding up and so he was knocked down with Mai still underneath him, clinging to him for dear life. That was the last thing he remembered as the world around him turned black.

Chapter Text

Yume no Naka ni Seishin

Chapter Seventeen

Case One-Evil Spirit's All Over!?

Part Eleven

Harry slowly opened his eyes, only to be greeted with darkness all around him. He sat up and groaned a little as his back and head twinge in pain. Ignoring it, he began to look around his surroundings. He had never been in a place like this. Waking up a little more he could now see that the whole place was as empty as he first thought, it was filled with bright white orbs that floated upward continuously.

As he scanned his surrounding more his eyes fell on a circle of yellowish white light and lying in the centre was Mai and kneeling next to her was Kazuya. He and Mai were talking, but Harry couldn't make out what they were saying. He watched as Mai tried to sit up, only to look a little dizzy as Kazuya pushed her back down all the while listening to what she was saying.

Harry blinked his eyes not really believing what he was seeing, and subconsciously lowered his head to try and make sense of it. It was difficult to do this as his head and back was screaming in agony now. Bringing his fingers to his temple he tried to massage the pain away, but even that didn't seem to help.

All of a sudden he felt a gentle hand land on his shoulder making him jump and glance up, making him cringe as a sharp pain went through his head. When the pain subsided he found himself staring into the same emerald green eyes as his own, "Hello Harry," a soft familiar voice greeted him.

He couldn't help the smile that took over his face as he stared at his mother. Her long red hair flowed out behind her, almost too her waist. She had on a simple, but beautiful white dress that made her look angelic. Her eyes were sparkling much like the jewels in the Potter vault. A soft smile also graced her face reassuring Harry that he wasn't in any danger.

"Hello mum," Harry greeted back before asking the one question that was on his mind, "Could you tell me where I am at all?"

"You're in the spirit realm, sweetie." She answered him as Harry titled his head in confusion, Lily smiled wider at his expression as she explained, "You came here with the help of Mai. She is really the only one that has the ability, though with your powers as an empath you have the talent, but it's not strong enough to come here without a little boost."

"Okay, that explanation is about as clear as mud to me," he grinned to her.

Lily laughed at her son's statement, as she then tried to clear it up a little, "When you protected her from the bookshelf her spirit unconsciously called to your own, pulling you into this realm with her. It's like a trigger. When she feels threatened her mind and spirit will call for the person that makes her feel safe. This time it was you and like I said before, you have talent for this as well, so it was easy for her to bring you with her. I doubt she has even realized what she has done, because this is the first time for her as well."

Finally everything made sense and Harry nodded his head that he understood now. His mind then grasped onto her earlier statement, "Wait, you said I also have this ability?" Lily nodded her head but before she could say anything, Harry carried on, "Then why haven't I been able to do this until now and why did Mai need to call me, instead of doing it myself?" Harry finished, confused.

Kneeling down in front of him, Lily took her son into her arms and gave him a hug, hoping to calm him down as she explained, "Yes you have this ability, but it isn't as strong as Mai's. In order for you to come here you have to be called by either her or a spirit."

Harry returned the hug and then pushed away enough to see her face, "Are you saying a spirit can also bring me here?"

"Yes," Lily said, brushing some of his bangs away from his face so she could see his eyes better, "Because of your empathy. If the spirit's emotions are strong enough, then you can be pulled into this realm to witness either their last thoughts or what happened to cause such a strong emotion to linger, though there are not many that will have the strength to do so."

Letting go of his mother, Harry adopted a thoughtful look as he tried to process what she had told him. A scary thought hit him and he quickly glanced up at his mom with fear shinning in his eyes, "Wait, what about Mai? Will this happen to her as well?"

Sadness came over Lily's features as she nodded her head, "Yes it will, but Mai will have a spirit guarding her, they will help guide her and teach her how to control it."

"Who's her guide?" he had a clue as to who it was, but figured he would ask, just to be sure.

"I am," Lilly chuckled as she ruffled his hair affectionately.

That brought a smile to his face, but it faded as he glanced over towards Mai and Kazuya "If you're her spirit guide then why is he here?"

Lily gave a sigh, "He is trying to desperately get in touch with somebody on the other side to tell them something." At Harry's questioning look she shook her head, "I have no clue what it is, but I am sure it is important for he practically begged me to let him take over for a while. I relented cause I know what it feels like to want to communicate with the living, but can't." She gave him a sad smile, as Harry then returned it.

"He looks a lot like Kazuya," Harry paused, inspecting the other boy, though the distance wasn't helping him with this. After a few minutes of hard studying, Harry's green eyes widened in surprise, "They are twins aren't they?"

Lily smiled, "Took you long enough to figure it out. Yes, they are twins, and that is one of the other reasons I let him take over for a while. I figured Mai wouldn't be as scared if she had a familiar face with her."

They watched in silence as Mai disappeared from the Spirit Realm, "Come on let me introduce you to him." Lily said grabbing a hold of Harry's arm and helping him to stand.

Harry couldn't believe how weak his legs felt, but after a few minutes of walking they soon got their strength back and he shook off his mum's arm. She smiled and soon they were standing in front of Kazuya's twin.

"Thank you Lily, for letting me talk to her," his thanks was heartfelt as he looked at her.

"You're welcome," Lily answered and then gestured to Harry, "This is my son that I have been telling you about, Harry Potter."

The boy swung his gaze over to harry. Seeing the boys eyes, Harry knew there would always be a way he could tell the two apart, for this one's eyes were a blue-grey colour, while Kazuya's were a deep blue. There was also a smile present on his face, which Harry had yet to see Kazuya do. Holding out his hand for the other to shake, he said smiling, "Nice to meet you, but what's your name?"

The boy smiled back and took Harry's hand and gave it a firm shake as he answered, "Eugene, but most people call me Gene for short. Nice to meet you too."

They let go of each other's hands, standing in silence a few moments before Gene broke it, "Umm… Don't know if Lily told you or not, but Kazuya is my twin."

"Yeah, she told me already, though I'm a little surprised and confused by all of this." Harry gestured to where they were.

Gene chuckled, "It's quite a bit to take in all at once." He got an unsure look on his face before asking. "Could you not tell Mai about who I really am? I want her to be comfortable with this power and I think a complete stranger would make her more afraid."

"I understand what you're saying, so don't worry I won't tell her." He reassured him, but then seemed to think of something else to say. "Please don't keep her in the dark for too long though. I know I wouldn't want to be lied to for long, even if there is a good reason for it," giving a sharp nod of his head as if agreeing with himself.

Gene gave a smile and also nodded his head in agreement. It was then Harry noticed he was feeling something pull at the back of his mind. Looking down at his hands he could see them starting to turn translucent and he was feeling very sleepy. Lily smiled, "It's time to go Harry."

"Wait, I forgot one more thing before you go," Gene yelled, panic entering his voice.

"What?" Harry mumbled feeling sleepier as the time ticked on.

"Don't say anything to any of the others or my brother. I don't want him to feel guilty that I am still hanging around." Harry could hear the regret in Gene's voice and so, he nodded his head in agreement, "Thanks, and I hope we met again soon." He heard, but this time it sounded like it was very far away.

Hoping Gene and his mother would still be able to hear him Harry shouted out, "Bye and I too hope to see you again soon." And then his world went completely dark.

XxXxX

Once again Harry found himself opening his eyes slowly, but this time as his vision came into focus he found himself staring up into three pairs of concerned eyes. There was also metal above them and carpet under his fingertips. He quickly realized that they had moved him to the back of the van.

Matsuzaki-san's relieved voice was the first thing he heard, "Oh good, he's coming around."

Her statement was soon followed by Takigawa-san's concerned voice, "You and Mai gave us a scare." He then scanned Harry with his eyes trying to find any injures as he asked, "How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine," he answered as he started to sit up.

His gaze then scanned the group for Mai and found her sitting up beside him, "You all right?"

Mai gave him a small smile, "Yeah, I'm fine."

Their attention was quickly brought back to Matsuzaki-san as she began talking again, "Mai came around first about four or five minutes before you, but you both were out for quite a while. In fact it is five minutes past four in the morning." Mai and Harry gave each other wide eyed stares before looking back at Matsuzaki-san in shock. "You guys really should go home and try to catch a few hours of sleep before school starts." She advised sounding very much like a doctor.

"Okay. Hey, did Naru ever come back at all." Mai asked as she jumped off the back of the van?

John gave her a questioning look, "No he didn't."

"What about Kuroda?" Harry asked not seeing the annoying girl anywhere.

Takigawa-san smiled, "I took her home some time ago. She was fine."

Hearing this Harry let out a sigh of relief as he pushed himself up into a standing position. Turing around so he faced all three of them he bowed, "Sorry for worrying you so much, but thank you for looking after us."

John seemed a little embarrassed by Harry's show of gratitude as he rubbed the back of his head, "It's no problem you would have done the same for us."

Harry gave the kind Priest a smile. Takigawa-san and Matsuzaki-san both said, "You're welcome," at the same time also seeming to be embarrassed.

Matsuzaki-san looked at the building and repressed a shiver as she stated, "Something feels wrong here, and the exorcisms had no effect at all. I think it is a good idea if all of us go home and rest for a little while."

Mai shot her a devious smirk, "So you're going to run away?"

"Need I remind you it was your boss that ran away first," Matsuzaki-san snipped out waving a finger in Mai's direction.

"Kazuya didn't run away, he is off doing some research." Harry butted in to defend his boss and keep Mai from losing her temper.

Takigawa-san scoffed, "How would you know?"

Rolling his eyes Harry said, "Because I talked with him before he left."

"Kazuya told Harry to take over for him while he was gone," John said standing up for the teen.

They all heard a sniff as Matsuzaki-san said, "He probably went home crying instead."

That was it for Mai, "Don't be ridiculous," she shouted, "Harry already told you what he was going to do."

"I wouldn't blame him for just going home though, we did gang up on him yesterday," Takigawa-san sounded guilty for the way he had acted.

"Yes, but you have to remember that this is the biggest swollen headed, stuck up, self absorbed, holier than thou narcissist we are talking about here," Mai stated to everyone with a smirk on her face.

"Or maybe Kazuya is at home stewing in unbridled rage as he makes straw effigy dolls of us," Harry could hear the humour in John's voice not to mention feel it, but the Priest was trying very hard to keep a serious expression on his face.

Everybody in the group remained silent, glancing at one another as they all thought about the ridiculous notion just thrown to them. A few minutes later they all started laughing and John dropped his serious face unable to hold it any longer and joined in with them. When they all got themselves under control again they told each other goodbye and went home to get a little sleep before their day began.

Harry and Mai walked side by side towards Mai's home first. The two were silence, each of them going over what they had just been though. Mai was thinking it was all just a strange dream, while Harry went over why exactly Gene wouldn't want his brother to know he was still around. Harry also wanted to say something to Mai, but didn't know how to approach the subject.

"Well," Mai sighed as they reached her apartment complex, "Night Harry, and thanks for walking me home."

Harry blinked a little, he didn't think that much time had passed, "Oh, night Mai, see you tomorrow."

He watched as Mai turned and unlocked the door and walked in, he opened his mouth to call her back and ask her about the dream, but clicked his jaw shut. He would have to talk to her another time about it. He was unsure about how she would take it. He smiled a little and then turned towards home, the sky beginning to lighten around him, he just hoped he would be able to get a little bit of sleep before school started, he was tired.

Having an uneventful walk home, Harry pulled out his key and unlocked the door walking inside. Instead of being greeted with a gentle coo from Hedwig he was bombarded with the owl as she flew at him and screeched.

"What?" he yelled out, wondering why she was acting like this?

Hedwig screeched again as she dived towards Harry, clipping his head with one of her wings.

"Whatever it is, I'm sorry." He pleaded as he held up his hands, not being attacked again it gave him time to think about what had her so mad. It was then his tired brain realized what the problem was. Looking over at Hedwig, who had now taken up her perch on the stand glaring at him, he asked, "Hedwig, did you feel what I just went through?"

A bop of the owl's head was the only answer he got, as she then resumed her glaring.

"I'm sorry girl," he said soothingly as he went over to her and stroked her chest, "I didn't mean for something to happen. I don't like to worry you." He soothed.

Hedwig bopped her head a little and almost cooed a little as she ruffled her feathers in forgiveness.

"I'm sorry," he said once again as he then left the calmed down owl and went upstairs to get ready for some sleep.

Changing quickly, he set his alarm, so he would have enough time to shower before school and then almost collapsed into his bed. He was tired, and while he was on the astral plane, it wasn't as though he was getting any sleep. He yawned and quickly drifted off to sleep as he curled up under his blankets.

Chapter Text

Yume no Naka ni Seishin

Chapter Eighteen

Case One-Evil Spirit's All Over!?

Part Twelve

Harry had dragged himself through his morning routine, getting a look at himself in the mirror he cringed at the unusually pale skin and bags under both eyes. I look like a zombie, he commented to himself before heading out the door to pick up Mai.

The poor girl wasn't even awake and he ended up using the spare key she had given him. He went inside and had to wake her up. She didn't look much better than he did and both of them dragged their feet as they made their way to school. Hunched over and shuffling like the zombies they resembled they barely made it through the class door when the warning bell rang. Dropping into their seats like a sack of potatoes, both of them laid their heads on their desks and closed their eye, wanting more sleep.

Unfortunately neither Harry or Mai made it into dreamland as the teacher took that moment to call out their names, "Taniyama-san, Kuroda-san, and Potter-san you are all wanted in the principal's office."

Harry lifted up his head and gave a sigh of exasperation, then turned to Mai and poked her in the arm, "Mai, Mai, MAI!" he called out, trying to get her attention.

Her head shot up like she had been shot as she mumbled, "I swear I wasn't sleeping."

As the cloudiness cleared from her vision, she noticed that the three were snickering at her. She sent them all death glares. "Why did you wake me up?" she complained moving to lay her head back down.

"We need to go to the principal's office," Harry answered her, shaking his head.

Nodding her head they stood up to go, but Keiko stopped them with a question, "I heard something happened to the two of you yesterday?"

"Yeah, fill us in on the details?" Michiru chirped beside Keiko, looking at the two tired teens.

Mai and Harry gave each other confused looks. Mai swept her gaze back to Keiko and asked, "Where did you hear that?"

Michiru was the one to answer her, "Kuroda-chan, she's been bragging to the whole class about it." Pointing a finger to where the girl stood in the corner surrounded by a few students, looking as though she was telling a story

Harry's eyes took on a frustrated shine as he stared at the girl muttering, "She should have kept quiet."

"Maybe Harry, but we'll discuss it later we need to get going." Mai said tugging on his sleeve to get him moving.

"Oh," Keiko interrupted them before they got to the door, "and you'll never guess what, Kazuya-kun called us last night." She finished, her eyes alight with the adoration she felt towards him.

Once again the two stopped and stared at the bubbly girl. Mai broke the stunned silence, "What? We haven't seen him since yesterday afternoon." Michiru and Keiko shared questioning looks at Mai's statement, but soon turned back as she demanded, "What did you talk about?"

Harry turned his head to the side to hide his grin. He had a pretty good idea about the topic of conversation and only listened with half an ear as Michiru answered Mai, "He asked me about the old school house, and about Kuroda-chan as well." Her face was scrunched up in thoughtful confusion, "It was a little weird."

Mai huffed a little at not being contacted by her temporary boss, and Harry knew she had been worried about him, especially after what was said to him and the way he stalked off. He could feel Mai's emotions turning towards curious as she tried to puzzle out what was going on.

Just then their teacher walked back in and gave them a disappointed look, "Potter-san, Taniyama-san, and Kuroda-san I told you to go to the principal's office, now move it."

He watched as Mai and Harry quickly bowed in apology before heading out the door. Not a few seconds later they were joined by Kuroda and walked silently down the hallway. Harry couldn't read their thoughts, but he could feel their emotions and most of it was curiosity, though with Mai there was slight frustration as well.

Harry let a smirk take over his face. He walked behind the two girls and wondered if Kazuya had called everybody else that had worked on the case so far. Harry was pretty sure they would be there since this involved all of them, though he believed they only needed the one person to solve the case.

Mai knocked on the principle's door as soon as they arrived, after being told to come in, she opened the door.

Mai's eyes went wide as she shouted, "Naru! Guys!" She paused for a moment looking around in curiosity, "What are you doing here?"

Harry nodded to them in greeting, as he expected everybody was there sitting in chairs, except for Kazuya, who was standing off to the side of the principle's desk by the windows.

Kazuya didn't look up at Mai's outburst, but continued to stare out the window, "Please take a seat." The principle said gesturing to the three empty seats on the left hand side of the group.

Harry took the first seat, which happened be right next to Masako who gave him a small smile behind her kimono sleeve. Mai sat next to Harry with a huff when Kazuya still didn't acknowledge her and last was Kuroda who sat down without so much as a sound.

It wasn't until they were all seated that Kazuya looked from the window and addressed them, "Good, these make up everyone that has been involved in the case," making eye contact with each of them, but gave a small smirk and nod at Harry, which he took to mean he had figured it out. Harry returned the nod and smile and then waited for Kazuya to continue, "This should only take a few minutes of your time." He closed the curtains, throwing the room into complete darkness.

Before Harry's eyes could adjust to the darkness he heard Kazuya shuffle towards the desk and then a reddish pink light was turned on. It was pulsing in a timed manner, drawing his attention to it as well as everyone else's. Kazuya was standing right next to it and asked, "Everybody please concentrate on the light. Let your breathing sync with the light." Harry could feel himself start to get sleepy and knew he was being drawn into a trance like state. Harry's instincts were to fight it, but knew he had to go along with it for the experiment. Again he heard Kazuya's voice, but this time it sounded like it was muffled by something, or was very far away, "Tonight in the laboratory on the second floor of the old school house a chair is going to move."

Just as Harry felt himself start to fall asleep he was blinded by bright white light. He gave a groan as he tried to cover his eyes with his hands and he could hear the others around him do the same. When the light didn't hurt his eyes anymore, he looked over at Kazuya an immediately focused on the old wooden school chair that was right in front of him. Everybody else was also looking at it, fixated by it.

"Thank you and that is all I need," Kazuya dismissed everybody still with a small smirk on his face. Mai and Harry both stood up, along with everyone else, but as they were turning to leave Kazuya called out, "Harry please wait a moment."

Harry stopped, Mai did as well, but Harry waved her on, "I will see you in class." Thankfully she didn't argue and gave a puzzled nod before following everyone else out of the room.

The door closed and Harry walked back over to Kazuya, he took out the keys from his pocket and put them in Kazuya's out stretched hand. "Thank you," Kazuya said wrapping his fingers around them and putting them in his pocket he then asked, "Did you do anything else last night?"

"We set up a camera and microphone on the second floor. I had John put the camera in one of the rooms and had the angle set up where it could cover most of the room. I left the microphone placement up to Mai and she ended up placing it in the same room as the camera. I believe she said something along the lines of if we picked up noise in that room and nothing moved it would show something paranormal happened." Harry had to smile at Kazuya's slightly shocked and approving nod at in Mai's theory.

"Okay. I will meet you and Mai after school. We still have some things to do." Harry nodded at Kazuya and went out the door. He was a little shocked when he saw Mai leaning against the wall next to it.

"Mai, why aren't you in class?" He questioned as he gazed at her.

Smiling a predatory smile, Harry shivered at the look, before she answered in a frustrated tone, "I want to talk to Naru and figured I would corner him before he could leave again."

"Oh well good luck, I'm going to class, see you later." He gave her a little wave goodbye as he headed down the opposite side of the hallway towards his class.

XxXxX

Mai returned back to class about fifteen minutes after Harry with red cheeks and an irritated look. Harry could only guess at what Kazuya had said to her to set her off. He hid his smile as she stomped over to him after the teacher scolded her for being late, since both Kuroda and Harry had arrived back earlier than her.

The rest of the day past by uneventfully and Harry was glad when the final bell rang. He gathered his things and waited for Mai by the door as she did the same. Making sure that Kuroda didn't follow them they practically ran to the Kazuya van.

They slowed down when it came into view and both caught their breath as they walked slowly toward the back. Kazuya was sitting in the back with headphones covering his ears listening to something the computer had recorded. Seeing them come into view he pulled the headphones off, letting them rest around his neck. Harry watched as Mai's face turned a slight pink and almost laughed as he felt the lust in her emotions. Oh yeah she was defiantly developing a crush on their boss.

"Mai," Kazuya said getting her attention, but also brining Harry out of his amused thoughts, "did you place the microphone in the room with the camera last night?"

"Yes, but it was Harry's idea to place it somewhere." Mai answered honestly.

"But he didn't tell you where to place it, just to place it somewhere on that floor." Mai just gave a short nod. "Well, good job in placing it where the camera is. For we got some noises, but nothing moved in the room, so it makes it credible evidence."

Now Mai's blush went from a faint pink to full on red at actually getting a compliment from Kazuya. She glanced to Harry with an unbelievable look on her face. All Harry could do was smile and nod his head at her for a good job.

Kazuya startled them both when he turned back from the computer, "Since we picked up the interesting noises, did I miss anything else while I was gone?"

At this Harry and Mai exchanged glances, as Harry gave a slight incline of his head to encourage her to tell him. Mai peeked back at Naru hesitantly, "Well, a bookcase fell on me as I was trying to leave the building during an episode of banging." Kazuya gave her a shocked look. Apparently nobody had told him about the incident, Mai saw the shock in his eyes and quickly continued, "Harry made it just in time to shield me, but we were both knocked out, but I remember just before I blacked out that the bookcase felt warm to me." His eyes then narrowed at this, but didn't interrupt, "I remember you saying that when there is a poltergeist moving objects that they tended to become warm." Mai finished staring at the ground hoping her boss wouldn't be mad.

"Harry did it feel warm to you?" Kazuya asked turning to his gaze to the younger teen.

"To be honest I don't know, I was to busy trying to protect Mai and plus it hit my back, which was clothed, so if it was warm I couldn't tell since it didn't touch my skin." Harry answered, shrugging his shoulders, sending an apologetic look to Kazuya.

Kazuya brought his hand up to his chin thinking about what was said. Mai fidgeted a little bit, which drew his attention back to her, "I'm impressed that you remembered that little bit of information. Once again well done, you might shape up to be a good investigator one day."

"Thanks," Mai chirped straightening her back and lifting her head proudly.

"Oh, hello Mai, Harry, and Kazuya," the voice of John said as he came into their view from around the van.

"Hello John," Mai said enthusiastically.

Harry gave John a smile and waved, Kazuya just gave a short nod of acknowledgement. "Right, shall we get started then," Kazuya commanded more then asked as he closed the laptop and stood up.

The three gave a nod of approval and followed him into the building. Harry hung back a little and waved his hand a little to check that his wards were still holding up before hurrying to catch up when the result was positive. They ended up on the second floor in the classroom that the camera and microphone resided in.

Kazuya had Harry and John move the camera and microphone to right in front of the doorway and pointing it directly at the same wooden chair that had been in the principal's office this morning. He then had Mai draw a chalk circle around said chair.

"A chair and camera," Mai sounded puzzled. "Naru, what are you doing?"

"I'm setting up a radar," was his simple answer as he typed on his laptop.

Mai tilted her head as she tried to make out what was on the screen of the laptop, "The thing that's on airplanes and stuff?" At his nod of conformation she asked, "Why do you have one?"

"If I told you, then the experiment wouldn't work," was his only reply as he continued on working.

"Yeah, but I'm your assistant," Mai tried to reason and Harry could tell it was bugging her that Kazuya wouldn't say anything.

Kazuya finally spared her a withering look, "Yes you are, so can you and Harry take the plywood over there and start boarding all the windows and doors in that room for me."

Seeing the sour look on Mai's face Harry quickly went over, snatched up a hammer, nails, and a piece of plywood and headed over to the right hand side to begin. He so did not want to be in the middle of that argument. A few seconds later John also joined him along with a reluctant and angry Mai. With the three of them it didn't take too long before they were done.

"Ugh; my arms are killing me," Mai complained as she stretched her arms above her head.

"What are you complaining about?" Harry told her with an irritated stare, "John and I did most of the holding and high stuff, while leaving you with the nails in your reach."

Mai guiltily studied the floor at Harry's reprimand muttering, "Well, it's not like I am used to work like this."

Feeling bad for snapping at her, Harry patted her shoulder, "Sorry Mai didn't mean to snap at you, but you're not the only one that's hurting."

Looking up from the floor Mai gave him a smile, "Yeah, but it seems like I'm the only one complaining." She snorted a little, as Harry and John started to laugh, with Mai soon joining in.

Kazuya's annoyed tone broke into their laughter, "If you are done with that I need you each to take a marker and sign each board you can see, with your name."

Mai had enough of him ruining her fun, "We were just waiting on your next command, no need to get angry over it." Snatching the marker he held up, marching over to the first bored and started to write her name.

He just gave her a cold glare, before looking back to his computer. Harry gave a sigh and chose a green marker from the ground next to Kazuya. He had an idea of what Kazuya had in mind, but he was still in the dark for most of it, just like Mai. It didn't take them long to finish and when they were done they stood around Kazuya waiting for his next order.

"Now write your names on this paper, and then you can go home." Kazuya gestured to a large piece he had tacked up over the boarded up doorway.

Mai once again tried to get Kazuya to tell them what this was all for as she signed her name, "Are you going to tell us the meaning?"

"You'll find out tomorrow morning," He told them as he put away his laptop and got ready to leave.

Harry signed his name after Mai's and watched as Mai spluttered, "Tomorrow?! I can't wait that long!" she almost shouted.

Wanting to avoid an argument as much as possible. Harry put a hand on her shoulder, "Kazuya has something in mind, and we'll just have to wait."

"I agree," John popped in as he stood on the other side of Mai. The Priest then said out loud to nobody in particular, "I wonder if everybody else is going to be here tomorrow?"

Harry smiled as they began to leave the building, "I am sure Kazuya will contact everybody to make sure they are here."

John nodded his head in agreement and they soon found themselves outside the old school building, finding the black van already gone. John quickly said good-bye to the two teens as he headed for home.

Harry and Mai walked to her flat first, where Harry said his own goodbye and carried on to his house. He walked inside and gave Hedwig a little fuss before he went into the kitchen. He took out his wand and cast an obscuring spell on the house, so no one would be able to notice what was going on inside.

Harry was falling behind in his Magical schoolwork, he was only a little behind, so it wouldn't be much to catch up. But with the ghost hunting he was doing, he was not doing his homework and classwork each day, as he should have been. He went to the unit and pulled out the book he had hidden there. He opened up his transfiguration book, and using a mug, he began to change it from one thing to another.

Chapter Text

Chapter 19

Case One-Evil Spirit's All Over!?

Part Thirteen

Harry groaned as the sound of his mobile phone ringing woke him for a sound sleep. He reached out for it blindly as his hand patted over his bedside table. He swore as he accidentally knocked his glasses onto the floor as he finally found the noisy object. He pressed accept call and answered with a groggy, "Hello?"

"Morning Harry!" came the way too cheerful voice of Mai as she almost shouted down the line, "Do you want to walk to school together again today?" she asked, her voice still a little too loud.

Harry rubbed his eyes getting rid of the sleep in them as he let his hand fall over the side of the bed. He used wandless magic to Accio his glasses and quickly cleaned them of fingerprints and slide them onto his face. He was finally able to see the time and flopped back onto his back, "Mai, you do know what time is it, don't you?" he almost growled out. He was not happy about being woken up at five in the morning. Especially since he didn't get to bed until one in the morning, he'd had a lot of magical homework and class work to catch up on, and was able to get a lot done.

"I'm sorry if I woke you up," she apologise, "But I just couldn't sleep," she added, her voice held a slightly whining tone to it.

Harry resigned himself to the fact that he wouldn't be getting any more sleep and let out a long sigh, "Why don't you come over and I'll make us some breakfast. Then we'll walk to school together." he suggested to her.

"Harry you are the best friend ever!" Mai squealed, "I'll be right over," with that the line went dead.

Harry took the phone away from his ear and looked at it. He shook his head before he set it down on his bedside table and got up. If he was right, he would just about have enough time to shower and dress before Mai started banging on his door. He trudged into his bathroom and began his morning routine, with many yawns and grumbling about annoying morning people. Hermione had been the same as well, usually the driving force at getting Harry and Ron out of bed in time for the early breakfast, and not the late breakfast that most students arrived at the Great Hall for.

Harry had just finished getting dressed and had began to walk down the stairs when he head the doorbell ring, and then someone banging on the door. He noticed that Hedwig wasn't on her perch. Harry figured the owl would be back soon as the sky was starting to turn a soft pink as the sun continued to rise. He opened the door to a very hyper Mai. She stood there on his doorstep, a huge grin on her face and dark bags under her bright eyes.

"Morning Harry," she chirped as he invited her inside, giving him a quick hug as she passed by.

"Good morning Mai," he replied with a sigh and a shake of his head, he was still tired, but quickly returned the hug.

"So what's for breakfast, because I am starving?" Mai asked, as she bounced onto his small kitchen and sat down at the table, looking to Harry as he followed her.

Harry shuffled over to the stove and yawned as he asked, "How does eggs, toast and tea sound?"

"Sounds great," she answered smiling widely as she settled into the chair properly to watch him and continued talking, "So I couldn't sleep because of that experiment we set up yesterday. Do you have any clue as to what is going on Harry?"

"Mai," he sighed, "Slow down. I can't believe the energy you have with no sleep," he shook his head as he cracked a couple of eggs into the pan, "runny or hard?" he asked her as he glanced over.

"Runny," was the bubbly reply, "I'm sorry for being so anxious, I just really want to know. You can't tell me you're not curious," she said, tilting her head tot he side as she studied him with questioning cinnamon eyes.

Harry gave a sigh as he filled the kettle with water and flicked it on. He turned around and looked to her, "Mai, I have a slight clue as to watch Kazuya-san is planning," he quickly held up a hand to her from interrupting him with a question, "But I'm not sure. So I'm not telling you what I think. I'll let him explain it once we get there today."

Mai's lower lip jutted out in a cute pout as she tuned her puppy dog eyes onto her friend, "Harry, that's not fair. You have to tell me or I might burst from the constant need to know."

Harry almost laughed, but settled for a slight chuckled. Mai was completely adorable when she pouted and sent the puppy look at the same time, but he had put up with it a lot of the years. Hermione had done the same thing when she was trying to get him and Ron to do their homework. "I'm pretty sure it is almost impossible to burst from curiosity, so my answer is still no," he poured the water into the tea pot to let it steep for a bit as he carried on cooking.

He grinned as he saw Hedwig come swooping in through the window. Mai's attention immediately went to the owl as she began to coo and stroke Hedwig as soon as she landed on the back of her chair. Harry was able to finished cooking and making the tea with Mai's attention taken over by the owl and not the experiment. He walked over to the table and set down breakfast in front of her. He picked up his own and began to walk to his seat.

Mai's immediately whipped around, snatching her chopsticks crying out, "Itadaki-masu!" before digging in.

Harry started to go around Mai's chair Hedwig stuck out her leg out in front of him. Seeing the four letters attached to her leg, his gaze darted to Mai, to see if she was looking. Mai though was paying attention to her food and nothing else. Moving his unoccupied hand underneath the owl's leg, Harry shot off a wordless and wandless untie spell. The string untied and the letters fell into his hand without a sound. Curling his fingers around them he shoved them into his back pocket as he leaned closer to Hedwig. He was glad that Mai hadn't noticed the letters when she had been cooing over Hedwig. Though there was a little magic around them to keep the out of sight.

"Thanks girl," he whispered, making sure it was low enough Mai couldn't hear.

She gave a soft hoot before jumping off the back of the chair and winging her way over to her perch. Mai glanced up when she left and gave the owl a small smile as she watched her tuck her head underneath her wing to get some sleep. Harry made his way over to his seat across from Mai and began to eat.

Having finished before Harry, Mai sat their sipping her tea as she waited for him to finish, but she didn't stay quiet for long, "Do you think Kuroda will be there?"

Swallowing his eggs Harry locked his emerald eyes with her cinnamon coloured ones as he answered, "Yeah I am pretty sure she will be. Along with everybody else that was in the Principal's office yesterday."

"Really, why do you say that?" Mai questioned setting down her empty cup.

With his plate clean he took a sip of his tea before answering her, "I just have a feeling that whatever happened in the Principal's office is in connection with the experiment we set up in the old school house. That means that all people who participated should also be there today, for proof that we didn't rig anything."

"Oh, you mean so scientists will take us seriously," her face was scrunched up in a thinking pose and Harry couldn't help but laugh at her.

"Yes Mai," he got out through his chuckles, shaking his head at her.

She stuck her tongue out at him and he laughed even more. He saw her eyes dart up to the clock that hung beside the door and sighed, knowing she wanted to get going. Moving his gaze to the clock he read six-thirty, he guessed by the time they got to go the school it would be around seven o'clock. "Okay Mai we can go now. Just let me run up to my room really quick though."

"Sure, I'll just wash the dishes while you do that," getting up and grabbing the tea cups and plates.

"Thanks Mai," Harry told her before taking off for the stares.

By the time he came back down Mai had finished the dishes and was standing next to the door bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet, impatiently. "Harry you took so long, come on lets go."

Shaking his head he took his bag off the hook near the door and waved at her to open the door, "I'm here now so what are you waiting for."

"Humph," Mai snorted as she opened the door and all put dashed through it.

Harry looked to Hedwig, asleep on her perch and with a small subtle flick of his wand he quickly made sure that the house would be secured without him there. Harry walked out and shut the door and locked it. Glancing around he couldn't find Mai anywhere, but then heard her yell from the bottom of the steps, "Come on slow poke."

"How does she have that much energy after no sleep," Harry grumbled to himself as he walked at a normal pace down the stairs. Mai of course was waiting at the bottom and was urging him to walk faster, "Mai calm down, we have plenty of time to get there and besides once we get there Kazuya probably won't say anything until everybody else arrives."

Her face paled and her jaw dropped in horror, "He wouldn't!" Harry just gave her a smirk, which made her pout, "Oh I know you are right. He can be such an arrogant, self-righteous, Narcissist!" she ranted still a good two steps in front of him. Harry chuckled at her, until she whipped around and pinned him with an evil stare as she walked backwards, "You are almost no better. Keeping things from me that might be able to help me figuring this stuff out. You are such a snake sometime."

Harry's steps faltered a little, all he could think about was the snake coming out of the dark mark and he shuddered at it. It hurt to be reminded of it and it hurt him when she said it. Harry could only think of Voldemort, and what the Death Eaters had done. Mai turned and frowned when she saw the hurt look on her friends face. She didn't know why he looked hurt. She took a few steps towards him and reached out a hand, "huh," he startled as he took a step back as soon as her hand touched his shoulder.

"I'm sorry Harry, I didn't mean to bring up something bad. Sometimes my mouth runs away with me before I think," she apologised, not liking the fact that she had inadvertently hurt her friend with something she had said.

Harry gave her a small smile, trying to make her feel better. "No, it's all right Mai. I know you didn't mean anything by what you said, and you couldn't have known what calling me a snake means to me. There are things about me that you don't know, things that I can't talk about because they are so painful. But the snake symbol has an evil meaning for me because of it. The people behind it were true evil, you can't imagine what things were like. I was accused of being one of them when I was young, the heir of evil basically. It hurt and the things that happened, it almost killed me," he told her, thinking of his time in the Chamber of Secrets, "There is a lot more to it than that, but at the moment I really can't talk about it, just thinking about it still hurts," he shuddered as he remember Sirius.

Mai's face dropped and guilt began to fill her eyes as she went towards him and pulled him into a tight hug, "I am so sorry Harry, I didn't know. I feel like an awful person for being up something so bad for you. When you want. I'm here for you to talk to. I'm so sorry Harry," she told him.

"Mai, it's all right, like I said it's fine. You're not an awful person at all," he told her as he hugged her back and let her go looking down at her, "I know you were joking. It just took me off guard a little. So don't worry about it, all is forgiven."

She nodded as he let her go, "Okay," she smiled back a little as the two of them began to walk side by side. Mai had lost the cheerful mood she had been in.

"So," Harry said, wanting to change the subject and to try and cheer his friend up, "I haven't really asked, but what do you think about the other people that we are working with?"

This brought Mai out of her slump as she began to tell Harry what she thought of them all. The bounce slowly returned to her as she was now a couple of steps ahead of him. By the time they reached the old school house she was even further ahead of him. Harry couldn't help the eye roll as Mai went on about Takigawa-san and Matsuzaki-san and how they would make the perfect couple, and that they should lock them in a room together so they could do something about it. Mai told him that no mater what happened, it would happen one day.

Mai stopped short and even gave a small whimper as Harry almost ran into her back, "Mai, what's wrong?" he asked as he looked ahead of them as he felt guilt and a small amount of fear coming from her.

Stood at the back of the van, hovering over Kazuya and on crutches was Kazuya's original assistant. Mai's guilt was crashing over Harry's shield and they were threatening to buckle under the pressure. Harry sighed once again, and he knew it was going to be one of those days. He took hold of Mai's hand and practically dragged her to the back of the van.

Kazuya's assistant looked up as soon as he saw them out of the corner of his eye. His dark brown, almost black eyes narrowed in irritation as he caught sight of Mai. Harry let go of her wrist as though it had burned him, and in a way it had. Her guilt had sky rocketed. Not only that, but the feeling of anger and distaste being thrown towards her by the assistant didn't help his shields.

Kazuya frowned as he spotted them and glanced to his watched, "You're both early, why?"

"Well, you see," Harry said in an exasperated tone, "Mai here decided that sleep wasn't needed, so she made the decision that I should be awake as well and make her some breakfast," he said, narrowing his eyes and glaring a little at Mai, a small smile tugging at his lips giving away his slight amusement.

"I can't help it that you're a better cook than I am," Mai argued back, but retuning his smile, "Besides, I was only up because of that stupid experiment that we set up yesterday. My mind kept going around in circles about what it could all be for. So thanks to you Naru," she said as she pointed a shaking finger to her temporary boss, "I didn't get any sleep," she huffed.

Harry could feel the slight amusement from Kazuya at her announcement, and it only grew large at his next statement, "Well, you will have to wait a little longer, everyone else needs to get here first."

"See, I told you that you would have to wait," Harry grinned to mind, not keeping the smile of satisfaction from his face.

Crossing her arms in a huff she stuck her tongue out at him. She then turned her attention to Kazuya's assistant and went over to him a little. All her playfulness had fled as guilt took over once again, "I'm really sorry for getting you hurt. How are you feeling?" she asked as she apologised.

Kazuya's assistant didn't answer her at all. He started at her, not hiding the fact that he disliked her. Mai seemed to be having a mini freak out in her mind, as all she could do was stare back at him in fear and guilt. Harry didn't think the assistant would kill Mai at all, but figure he wouldn't be nice to her either. He grabbed Mai by the shoulders and with a short nod to Kazuya's tall assistant he led her over to a quiet spot to discuss something else with her until everybody showed up.

XxXxX

Thankfully they only had to wait another hour for everybody to show up, but Kazuya didn't let them sit around and do nothing. No he put them to work breaking down the rest of base camp and also making sure Mai stayed out of the way of his other assistant. This left Harry around the stoic man the most, though he didn't seem to mind him as much and even told him his name was Lin Koujo when Harry had introduced himself.

They were just shutting the doors to the van, while Kazuya and Lin were off to the side discussing something, when John showed up, "Good morning everybody," He said before his gaze rested on the new addition with a questioning gaze.

"Good morning John," Mai enthusiastically responded as she walked away from Harry and toward the Priest.

"Good morning," Harry echoed Mai as he followed her at a more relaxed pace.

Kazuya and Lin both gave short nods of their heads before returning to their discussions. John gave a minuet shrug of his shoulders and brought his attention back to Mai and Harry, "Who is that tall man with Kazuya-san?"

"That would be his actual assistant Lin Koujo. As you can see with the crutches, he is hurt, that's actually how Mai and I became Kazuya's temporary assistants," Harry filled in the golden haired Priest.

"Wait you and Mai aren't actually his assistants?" Poor John was a little shocked and confused.

Mai shook her head, "No this is actually the first time we've ever worked with Naru. It is actually my fault Lin-san got hurt in the first place. I also broke one of their cameras so I'm doing this to pay for my mistake."

"Wow," was all John managed to say through his shock.

It was at that point that Matsuzaki-san and Takigawa-san showed up and they had to explain it to them as well. Matsuzaki-san was a little bit more vocal in what she thought about it, but that was to be expected. Takigawa-san shrugged it off and came out with something along the lines of you reap what you sow. Nobody thought once to ask Harry why he was here if it was Mai's fault, but he didn't really mind or care to explain.

Finally Kuroda-san showed up and Naru didn't even give her time to say hello as he ushered everybody to follow him into the building. It wasn't until they made it to the top and all stood in front of the classroom that John, Mai, and he had boarded up that Harry noticed Lin holding a small camcorder.

Takigawa-san was the first to speak up, "So Naru, what are you going to show us today?"

"Shouldn't you give it up now, before you embarrass yourself?" Matsuzaki-san chimed in with a smugness creeping into her voice.

Kazuya ignored all of them as he glanced over the three in front, "Mai, John, Harry could you all confirm that the paper you signed yesterday has not been torn in any manner," gesturing for them to walk forward and take a closer look.

"Sure," Mai answered for all three of them as they moved forward.

After a few minutes of examining it Mai said, "It looks like it did yesterday."

"Same here," John agreed nodding his head.

"Yep," Harry also agreed as he moved back to stand next to Mai.

Giving them a sharp nod Kazuya then pulled out a long crowbar and Harry could feel the excitement radiating from the older teen as he shoved it between the two pieces of plywood and gave it a good yank. With a loud screech and crack the board covering the doorway was ripped away, exposing what was inside.

Mai and John were the first two to approach it and Harry didn't need to see their faces to know they were in shock and awe.

"Shibuya-san! The chair…" John stuttered out, "The chair moved!"

Everyone crowded around and looked inside. Harry was not surprised when he heard Kazuya's nonchalant tone as he said, "Yes, it has."

Kazuya walked over to the laptop that was in the room and began to type away on it as he started to study the video.

"H… Hang on, what does this mean?" Matsuzaki-san spoke, her voice confused as she looked to the young man at the laptop.

"Hey, Naru-chan!" Takigawa-san yelled out, trying to get the young teens attention when he didn't answer straight away.

Kazuya continued to stare at the laptop for a few minutes before he looked up to everyone, "Thank you all for your cooperation. I will be leaving sometime today."

Harry gave a small smiled as he realised that Kazuya and he had been right. He didn't need to know by looking at the laptop, since Kazuya was radiating smugness, though Harry would like to know if it was whom he had thought it was, was doing this.

Matsuzaki-san wasn't satisfied at the answer as she let Kazuya know it went she took a step forwards and said, "You're not saying that you've solved the case again, are you?"

"That's what I'm saying," Kazuya replied staring at her, irritation in his voice and on his face.

From beside Harry, Mai spoke up, "The ground sinking?"

"Yes, I believer that explains everything about the case that the principal hired me for," he nodded as he explained.

"Ha! So how do you explain the disturbance the day before yesterday?" Takigawa-san asked in a toe that said he clearly didn't believe what he was saying at all.

Kazuya didn't miss a beat as he gazed towards Takigawa-san and started, "That was a poltergeist."

"If you know that, then how…" Takigawa-san started to say but was cut off by Matsuzaki-san.

"What else could he do. He's incapable of driving the spirits out, right?" she turned a smirk towards the young teen.

"I do not believe that would be necessary. Would you like to see?" Kazuya said as he turned the laptop around and everyone crowded around it to watch what was playing on the small screen.

The picture started out with the chair sitting in the circle Mai had drawn around it, but after a few seconds it began to shake and scrap across the wooden floor to the wall. It then stopped and lifted up onto one of the back legs and fell over onto its side, before it became still once more.

Everybody that was watching gasped and when it fell over Mai clung to the front of Takigawa-san's shirt in fright. "W-What was that," Mai asked in a shaky voice?

"It was a full-fledged poltergeist, wasn't it?" Takigawa-san told slash asked Mai before looking at Kazuya.

"Humans are to blame for half of the poltergeist phenomena that we see," Kazuya told him while he studied everyone else, but let his gaze linger a little bit longer on Kuroda-san.

Mai had let go of Takigawa-san's shirt by now but Harry could see her thinking, "Do you mean like a prank, but no one could get in here," she trailed off as she continued to try and puzzle her way through this.

"True, we sealed off every entrance to the room. I even had John, Mai, and Harry sign everything so that we could tell if someone had gone in and tampered with anything," Kazuya explained to everyone.

John nodded his head along with what Kazuya said before adding in his bit, "If someone had broken them, they wouldn't have been able to perfectly duplicate our signatures or put the pieces back together to make it look like they were untouched."

"So, this only proves that I have been right and that it is the work of spirits," Kuroda-san's tone was smug as she pointed it out to everybody.

Harry groaned in frustration, but Kazuya was quick to point out what truly happened, "Yesterday when I called you all to the Principal's office I placed a hypnotic suggestion within your minds. It was a suggestion that this chair would move that evening." Everybody had stunned expressions on their faces Harry saw, except for Lin, Kazuya, and him of course. As Takigawa-san came out of his shock and looked to protest what Kazuya said, he wasn't given the chance as Kazuya pinned him with a cold gaze and said, "Using this method has never failed me."

Next out of their shock was Mai, "Yeah, but still, no one was able to get into this room," she argued.

"Harry, why don't you explain, as you came up with this as well as I," Kazuya said as he stepped back.

"Poltergeists can be a form of latent mental powers as well as spirits," he began getting everybody's attention, "It mainly happens from people who have an unconscious craving to be noticed by people. If something stresses that person a self-defence type of mechanism can be triggered, which then leads to the type of activity we have seen in this building before," seeing he hadn't lost anybody yet he continued, "With the hypnotic suggestion that Kazuya did it actually gives the person something specific to focus on and so you get the same results as we did," Harry stopped his gaze on Mai and could tell she had already worked out who was behind all of this.

Apparently Kuroda-san had figured out as well for her soft voice sounded loud in the quiet room, "So you're saying I'm the one who did it?"

There was really no blame in Kazuya's tone as he spoke to the young teen, "From the moment I met you I knew you were trying to get my attention. For example, you said there were spirits here from the war, but when I did my research there were no stories about this area being bombed or it being a hospital during the war or at any other point in history. That meant you were either mistaken or intentionally lying." Kuroda acted like she was going to protest, but Kazuya carried on, "I thought you were just pretending to be spiritually sensitive, so when things started happening that could only be considered poltergeist activity I began to believe. Granted once I examined the data from my equipment and got nothing back I began to doubt. Then Miss Hara showed up and said nothing was here, it pushed me further away from believing it was spirits and maybe something else."

Harry noticed Kazuya now gazing at him, so he went on for him, "That meant it had to be human. Any time you were confronted about there being no spirits or an exorcism being successful something would happen to prove us wrong. Activity like that is often caused by children in their early teens, mostly girls. It's a form of Psycho Kinesis that can come about during periods of great stress."

With Harry stopping Kazuya once again took up the explanation, "You were known through middle school as being spiritually sensitive, but once I came here and proved that the evil spirits you talked about didn't exist and it was all due to ground subsidence you would have nothing. You ended up losing faith in your physic abilities, which caused you great anxiety and so you told yourself it wasn't true that there really were spirits here and I knew nothing of what I was talking about. You couldn't face the truth."

At that point Kuroda started to cry and Harry was shocked it was Takigawa-san that went to comfort the poor girl, "You had no idea you were doing it?"

"I believe that you are a latent psychic," Kazuya stated and Harry nodded his head in agreement.

Mai gave them a puzzled look, "And that means?"

"Someone who has supernatural abilities. She is not aware of it, but she had some low level PK. For you Mai, PK stands for psycho kinesis," Kazuya said with a smirk on his thin pale pink lips.

"Why thank you, I couldn't live without knowing," Mai retorted sarcastically.

Kazuya ignored Mai's sarcastic comment and brought his attention back to Kuroda-san, but Harry could tell he was very amused, "You believed that there had to be some spirits in the old school house for you to gain the attention of those around you. This made you feel like somebody important and gave you an identity, but you already had that without it," Harry was shocked by the softness in Kazuya's voice and the feelings that he was getting.

"I can understand a little of how that would feel," Mai chipped in quietly, "It's natural that everyone wants to think that they are special in some way. A desire to stand out from the crowd and be unique as a person. It could be a simple talent or recognised as an honest and kind human being," meeting Kuroda's brown eyes, she gave her a smile, "In your case Kuroda, it would have been your spiritual abilities."

The other girl just nodded and returned the smile. Harry was sure she was afraid of talking, as she was still wiping away her tears. There was nothing else that Harry felt he could add to make the young teen feel better, that and he was still a little annoyed at her for the last couple of days.

Glancing at Kazuya he noticed him looking at everybody with a self-satisfied smirk on his face before asking, "Does that explanation satisfy everybody?"

"Not quiet, her stress was increased when you gave her your explanation, but that was not the case when I became locked in that room or the video being erased?" Matsuzaki-san had by this point walked to the front of the group with her hands on her hips, waiting for an explanation.

Harry tried to smoother the grin that wanted to take over his face, but couldn't so he just turned his head away. It didn't help matters that he could feel Kazuya's own amusement along with his, "You being shut in the room was because of a nail jamming the door shut." When Kazuya shrugged his shoulders Harry couldn't help the snort of laughter that came out, "I didn't think it was worth mentioning at the time."

Matsuzaki-san's anger was growing, but it only made Harry want to laugh more, "So someone trapped me in that room?" she whirled around and pointed a finger angrily in Kuroda-san's direction, "It was you!"

"You just meant it as a little prank, to get back at what Matsuzaki-san had said to you, since she had just verbally attacked you moments before?" Kazuya asked and was confirmed when Kuroda nodded her head.

"What about the video then?" Matsuzaki-san grumbled at being fooled.

"That was intentionally erased when you became trapped," at her puzzled look Kazuya gave a sigh of aggravation, "We all left the base to help you, there was plenty of time for someone to come in and erase the tape without being seen."

"Ridiculous," she muttered under her breathe as she looked away from them.

Takigawa-san came into the conversation as he smiled at the irritated Priestess, "So what do we do?" meeting Kazuya's navy blue eyes he continued, "The principal hired us to make sure that this place was ready for construction."

"I plan to report to the principal that the old school house was haunted by those that died in the war, they have all been exorcised and it is now clean of any paranormal activity," peering at Kuroda he asked, "Is that okay with you?"

"Yeah," she quietly answered while ducking her head down and a faint blush across her cheeks.

Hara-san stepped past the girl with her kimono sleeve covering the lower half of her face as she faced Kazuya, "That is very kind of you Naru, but will you really lie to the principal."

"Kuroda is doing a good job of suppressing herself, I don't think it is necessary to embarrass her any further," he stated in a cold manner.

At this point Matsuzaki-san strolled up to Kazuya in what she must have thought was sexy, but Harry thought she looked ridiculous. Leaning up against his right side she hummed into his ear, "Naru I had no idea you were so sensitive, got a girlfriend?"

"I don't understand the question," Kazuya pretended to be innocent as he looked to her, but Harry could feel playfulness rolling off of him.

"Well, I wouldn't mind getting to know you a little better, even if you are a little young," she flirted with him. Harry took a glance over at Mai and had to stop from laughing at the complete astonishment, jealousy, and anger warring on her face.

He did laugh at Kazuya's reply though, "I appreciate you saying so, but I can't. I'm too used to looking at myself in the mirror."

Immediately Matsuzaki-san backed off with her cheeks a rosy colour due to her embarrassment. Trying to cover it up she snipped out, "Who are we going to say performed the exorcism?"

"Everyone worked together. Is everyone okay with that?" Kazuya took a turn at meeting everybody's eyes to see if anybody had a problem.

Each person nodded their agreement when he looked at them and so after he got everybody's okay he came back to Mai and Harry, "Mai, Harry."

They glanced at each other and together said, "We know."

Giving them a smirk he then turned to Lin, "Let's break everything up."

"Right," Lin answered as he shut down the laptop and unplugged it before heading out the door.

Mai and Harry took down the camera and microphone, going down to the van with the others walking behind them and chatting. Harry had the camera and handed it to Lin, who then put it in its place in the van. Mai did the same with the microphone. Harry waited for her and they both waved goodbye to the others as they left before going back in to collect the cords and wires.

When they made it back down with the last of the stuff Kazuya stopped them at the back of the van and asked, "Shouldn't you two be going to class?"

"We were going to help you pack everything up, after all you are still our boss for a little while longer," Mai gave him a big smile after answering his question.

In a deadpan tone Kazuya regarded Mai, "I can handle it, why don't you head to class you don't want to get stupid Mai."

"Ugh, you must really enjoy putting me down, I'm a lot smarter than you take me for," Mai yelled as she snatched her school bag up and stomped off. She was only a little ways before she stopped, whipped around and shouted, "See ya later jerk face!" Turning back around just as fast and running towards the school.

Harry shook his head and gave a sigh of resignation. It had been fun and interesting, just like he thought it would be when he watched a program like it while staying with Mrs Figg one time. Then while he had been at school he found out one of his teachers was a paranormal investigator that went on cases, and had explained a lot to him. That had only cemented it as his dream to do this one-day. Now that he actually got a taste of it, he still wanted to do it. Too bad Kazuya wasn't hiring or he would apply for more than a temporary job.

Shrugging his shoulders he waved goodbye to Kazuya and Lin and headed after Mai. Now he was going to have to put up with a brooding and moody Mai for the rest of the week.

XxXxX

Mai was still brooding a few days later, and Harry couldn't help but shake his head at her each time he got a wave of her brooding emotions. It was the last class of the day when a loud crack rang through the air. The teacher stopped in mid-sentence and all the students were glancing around, trying to figure out where the sound had come from. Another crack sounded through the air, followed by a low rumbling that drew everybody's attention out the classroom windows and toward the old school building. With wide eyes they all watched as the left half of the building cracked and crumbled away from the right half of the building. As the dust settled all the students broke out in urgent whispers and the teacher called an early dismissal as she hurried from the classroom.

Harry and Mai stared at each other with knowing looks before they began to gather their things. Harry was in the middle of putting one of his textbooks in his bag when Keiko and Michiru came over to talk to them. Mai just ignored them as she finished putting her things away.

"You really should have got his number or even his address Mai," Keiko moaned in horror at her friend's forgetfulness.

"Yeah, since he isn't in the phone book," Michiru complained, though the only reason she would know is if she had looked on her own.

Then the secretary's voice came over the school intercom system, "Attention, Taniyama Mai and Potter Harry in room 1-f, you have a telephone call. Please report to the main office."

Curious on who could be calling them Harry shot Mai a confused look, only to be receiving one back. They both stood up at the same time and made their way to the office in befuddled silence. Once there Harry let Mai take the phone, but leaned in against her so that he would hear what was being said.

"Hello?" Mai questioned in a tentative voice.

"Is that you Mai," came the familiar voice of Kazuya.

"Oh, HI!" Mai shouted into the phone making Harry cringe and back away a little bit.

"You don't need to yell," Harry was able to hear Kazuya scold her, making him chuckle slightly at the red tint to Mai's cheeks.

Mai sent Harry a glare, but returned her attention back to the phone, "So, what are you calling about?"

"Your and Harry's fee's," came his monotone reply.

"What?" Mai sent Harry a questioning look, but he shrugged his shoulders in an 'I don't know either' gesture.

"Your payment for assisting me," Kazuya clarified for both of them, "If you don't want it fine, but I will send it to you within the week," he paused for a second before adding, "I'm curious if your school will allow you to have a job? I have a position for you, it's just office work."

If possible Mai's smile light up the hallway they were standing in like the sun as she answered in a bright voice, "Sure, that sounds great."

"Great, come down to my office after school, it's in Shibuya, off Dogenzaka," Kazuya told her and as Mai got a pen and pencil to write it down Harry heard him ask her, "Could you put Harry on?"

"Sure, and I'll see you there," she chirped as she handed the phone to him and began to write.

Harry put the phone up to his ear, "Hello Kazuya."

"Ah Harry, I was most impressed with the way you handled things during the investigation. I was wondering if you would like to work with me. I have already asked Mai and she will be doing office work, though she will come along on cases. I would like you to come in as a trainee investigator, as you seem to have some knowledge and a knack for it," Kazuya explained without even a hello back.

If possible Harry was sure his eyes would be as wide as saucers and he could feel his cheek muscles protesting from being stretched so far as he eagerly answered Kazuya, "Yeah that would be great."

"Good, come with Mai when she comes after school as she already has the address. I look forward to working with you both, goodbye." Kazuya hung up the phone before Harry could even say anything.

Setting down the phone, they then asked the secretary if it was okay that they would have a part time job. She told them it was and the rules that went with having one. They would be allowed to miss school for their job as long as they kept their grades on a B average, which wouldn't be hard for either of them, because even though Kazuya called Mai stupid she was far from it and had an A average most of the time. Same thing went with Harry, though that wasn't including his magic homework. Signing some forms and getting permission they said their goodbyes to the receptionist then began the walk back to their classroom to grab their stuff and head to Kazuya's office.

Mai was so excited she was bouncing down the hallway a little ahead of Harry, "I can't believe that I will be working for Naru the Narcissist again," looking over her shoulder at Harry, "but you know it should be fun."

Giving her a huge smile Harry agreed, "Yeah especially with your clumsy butt around."

"Hey," Mai gave a shriek and stopped long enough for him to catch up and smack his shoulder, "I am not that bad to have around."

"No Mai you aren't," Harry said slinging an arm around her shoulders, "but it will be interesting that is for sure."

Mai nodded her head in agreement as they reached their classroom. To say their friends were happy for them was an understatement and they barely made it out of their without having to answer a thousand and one questions. They also were able to get away without letting them know where they were going.

It was about a ten-minute walk to the Shibuya office after getting off the train. Mai and Harry filled it with mindless chatter about the new job and what it all entailed. When they got there Lin and Kazuya first showed Mai what she would be doing and then took Harry with them to get him up to date on things he needed to know about the equipment and other odds and ends. Needless to say by the time Harry got back to his house there was a big grin on his face and he felt lighter than he had in years.

He was finally getting his dream job and he knew Lin and Kazuya would be able to teach him a lot in and out of the field. He also felt like he belonged at the office and with those he worked with, it was even more than when he started at Hogwarts. He couldn't wait until tomorrow when he would finally get to go back to Shibuya Psychic Research.

Chapter Text

Yume no Naka ni Seishin

Chapter Twenty

Interlude One

Searching

Harry and Mai were walking down a street in Shibuya, heading to work. This was the beginning of their second week working in the Shibuya Psychic Research office.

The two had been a little nervous at first, especially since they didn’t really know Kazuya and Lin. Walking up the stairs to the second floor office first, with Mai reluctantly following behind him slowly. He could feel her apprehensiveness about coming to work and he couldn’t blame her. It seemed like every time she bumped into Lin he would shoot her a dark look that seemed to promise pain if she didn’t leave his presence immediately. She also remembered how he acted so cold to her when he came back to work with crutches after the first case was over and she wanted to help pack up. Ever since then it hadn’t gotten any better for the poor girl. Harry seemed to be an exception as he at least got a nod of the head or a thank you when bring tea, but he could still feel the man only slightly tolerated him and if he was lucky he could feel something along the lines of irritation with both of them as if they were postponing or threatening something.

Harry reached the office door first and opened it enough to peek his head around and see if the tall dark mysterious man, known as Lin, was in the entrance area. Not seeing him, Harry walked in and held the door for Mai as she came through right behind him. Closing the door, once she was in, they both took off their spring jackets and hung them up on the coat tree by the door, with Mai also hanging her purse on top of her coat. Harry was glad it was getting warmer outside, as it showed summer was just around the corner.

Having done that both Harry and Mai continued past the small reception area and into the more open conference area, where their desk where located off to the opposite side of the office spaces of Lin and Kazuya. Their they found Kazuya sitting on the couch, a cup of tea in hand and in front of him, taking up almost the whole coffee table, a map. The two watched in curiosity for a few minutes as Kazuya placed a finger on it and slowly went over it as though he was searching for something.

“Erm, Naru?” Mai asked, letting her curiosity get the better of her, walking a little closer to the table and map.

Kazuya’s head snapped up so fast Harry wondered if he got whiplash, as he pinned both of them with an irritated gaze, “Yes?” his voice impatient and a little annoyed.

“What are you doing?” she asked him as Harry followed her a little more into the room.

Harry was also curious and so let his eyes fall to the map before them. As he began to scan over it he could make out the more rural areas in Japan. This made him even more curious as why would Kazuya have a map of rural Japan, unless they had a case out in this part and Kazuya didn’t want to get lost, but that didn’t seem right, so with a little of his Gryffindor courage egging him on he asked, “Something you need help with?”

“You don’t need to know anything of what I am doing, as it is none of your business.” Kazuya bit out with his empty hand slamming forcefully onto the map with a loud smack. “As for any help, I don’t think you could, so please carry on with your work,” he frostily finished, now turning his glare onto Mai who seemed to shrink somewhat. Seeming satisfied with her reaction he quickly gulped down the rest of his tea and forcefully placed the now empty cup down onto the coffee table, “I shall be in my office if I am needed, other than that, do not disturb me.” He snapped as he stood up, rolling up the map and all but storming into his office.

“I wonder what that was all about?” Mai asked as she looked to Harry, wondering what her friend thought about it all.

“I don’t know,” Harry said as he looked to Kazuya’s door, “I’m going to make some tea, I’ll see if Kazuya would like some...and Lin,” he added as an afterthought, as he looked to Mai, “I think you should be able to put those files away,” he told her as he glanced over at her desk and the small pile of files sitting on it.

Mai nodded her head and walked towards it saying, “Make sure to make me a drink, I could do with one after that temper tantrum.”

Harry chuckled a little as he went over to Lin’s office first and knocked on the door. He waited a few moments before a brief ‘come in’ sounded through it. He opened the door and walked in, “Hello Lin-san, I was wondering if you would like some Tea?” he asked politely, feeling that the other didn’t want him in the room.

“Yes, please,” Lin quickly replied and then went back to typing on his computer.

Harry briefly wondered what the other was typing , but decided he wanted to live, so walked out with a brief, “Okay Lin-san.”

Going over to Kazuya’s door, he knocked on it and waited for a moment. The door opened and Harry could feel annoyance and some anger coming from the other teen at being disturbed, “What?” he asked coldly.

“I just wanted to know if you would like some tea,” Harry asked calmly.

Kazuya sighed a little and nodded his head, “Come in when it is done, I am trying to concentrate on something.” He bit out as he walked back into his office, forcefully closing the door behind him.

Harry frowned a little, he could feel sadness, hope, along with an urgency coming from Kazuya and couldn’t help but wonder if it was about his brother, Gene, who he had met in the astral plane when Mai and him were unconscious. Harry shrugged his shoulders and walked away. If Kazuya wanted him to know he would tell him. Going to the small kitchenette that was off the side of the main office, he quickly went about making some tea for the four of them.

A few minutes later he was pouring the water and finishing up the tea. He placed them all on the tray and took them out. His first stop was Mai’s desk and seeing she was still in the filling room he called out, “Mai, tea on your desk.”

“Okay, thanks Harry,” came Mai’s reply as she stuck her head out of the room, giving him a smile.

Harry smiled back and went over to Lin’s office door and knocked on it, waiting for the gruff ‘come in’. He opened the door carefully with the tray still in hand and walked over to Lin’s desk and placed the cup down beside him. “Here you go Lin-san,” he smiled as he began to walk out of the door.

“Thank you,” Lin’s voice drifted to him as Harry nodded his head and closed the door behind him, letting the older male carry on with whatever he was working on.

Harry then walked over to Kazuya’s door, remembering what the other teen said, he opened the door and walked in. Kazuya was standing over the map that had been laying on the coffee table, but was now spread over his desk. Harry could make out the slightly confused look on the others face, wondering what had brought it about.

“Here you go Kazuya-san,” he said softly as he took the cup and placed it on one of the few free areas on the desk.

Kazuya looked up for a moment, giving a quick , “thank you,” and then immediately going back to studying the map.

Harry waited for a moment, watching as the older teen stressed over something before interrupting the silence that had fallen, “Are you sure I can’t do anything to help?” wondering if there was anything he could do with his magic while Kazuya wasn’t looking.

Kazuya shook his head, “No, there isn’t,” he answered softly, sadness evident in his voice.

“You sound sad,” Harry whispered to himself.

Kazuya must have heard him for his head shot up and he gave Harry an ice cold glare, “It’s not any of your business.”

Shocked Harry backed up a small step, shaking his head, “I know that, but you are a friend and if you are doing something that makes you sad, of course I want to help, as does Mai. I know you would rather that we keep our noses out of it, but if there is anything you can think of that the two of us will be able to help with, make sure to say something,” meeting Kazuya’s cold indigo eyes with his own emerald green, and trying to convey his feelings on this matter.

“I doubt there will be,” Kazuya said as he went back to looking at the map before him.

Harry, seeing he wouldn’t get any further with the teen, shook his head in a defeated manner, and started to leave the room, but at the door stopped for a second and left a parting message for Kazuya to think over, “You’re sad because you lost someone, I have been their before and can tell you it is better to have somebody to help, than keeping it bottled up,” with that he walked out of the room and softly shut the door behind him.

He did feel some guilt over not telling the other teen about the dream and the fact that he had met Gene, but at the same time he didn’t want to reveal his powers or magic, until Kazuya shared something personal with him. With a sigh and clearing his mind of depressing thoughts, Harry went over to his desk and placed the last cup of tea down and took the tray back to the kitchenette. Coming back, he sat down at his desk and wonder what he should be doing, since it seemed nobody had left him any instructions on what they wanted him to do.

Right at that moment Mai walked back into the main part of the office and declared, “I am done with that job, thankfully they all belonged in the same cabinet,”

“Good thing for you then,” Harry sarcastically replied with a smirk on his lips, before taking a sip of his tea.

Harry almost choked on it, trying not to laugh at Mai, when she gave him a glare for his smartass comment, which melted into a frown as she asked “Well, were you able to find out anything from Naru?” picking up her tea.

“No I didn’t,” he replied, his sour mood showing about the whole conversation.

“Okay, we’ll have to bug him about it another time,” Mai said, trying to cheer him up, as she sat down, looking at the appointment book to see if anyone was going to be coming to the office.

Harry gave a frustrated sigh as he glanced over at Kazuya’s door, “No, don’t do that Mai,” he muttered setting down his tea cup and giving Mai his full attention, “I am sure that whatever it is he will tell us in his own time and us badgering him about it will only make him more closed off.”

“I guess you are right Harry. It just makes me sad to see him like that,” Mai said as she ducked her head to scan the appointment book one more time to see if she had missed anything.

Harry didn’t know how to respond to that as he felt the same and so a thoughtful silence descended onto office. Harry was trying to come up with ways in which to get Kazuya to open up to him, so he could see if it really was Gene that was bugging him and if their was anyway that he could help. Also by what he was feeling from Mai she was thinking along the same lines.

Chapter Text

Yume no Naka Ni Seishin

Case File Two

Where Are You?

Part One

Chapter Twenty-One

It had been over a month and a half since the end of the case in the old schoolhouse. Mai and Harry were enjoying their new work, even though it was beginning to get a little tedious with no cases for them to work on. Due to the lull, Kazuya had tasked them both with reorganising the filling room. Harry had also been told to go through the old files and see what he could learn from them.

Walking into the filling room with an armful of case reports he had finished looking through. Harry paused and glanced around the room looking for Mai. He smiled when he saw her near the back of the room getting ready to climb up the step ladder to put a couple of files onto the top shelf.

Harry quickly walked over, putting his files down on a lower shelf, next to the ones Mai was putting away and began to hand her them one at a time, so she didn't have to keep going up and down the step ladder. She smiled and nodded her thanks as she put the last file of her pile away. Harry then started to take off of his pile and give them to her. As Mai was filing the ones handed to her, Harry scanned the room looking for what was left to do,from what he saw there was only one task left. Harry reasoned that boredom would be setting in once more after it was done. He hoped that a client would soon walk through their office door as he didn't know how much longer he could stand not doing anything.

That wasn't to say that people had not been coming to the office to request Kazuya's help. The problem was the older teen would turn them away, some didn't even get the chance to say anything, before he dismissed them. Harry had been confused by his actions and wondered why he would do this. It had taken almost a week for him to get up the courage to ask the older male and he was surprised he was rewarded with an answer. Kazuya told him that as the clients were talking he felt like they were either leaving something out or the whole thing felt made up. With this in mind, the next time a potential client came in, Harry lowered his shields and instantly knew what Kazuya was talking about. He could feel the distrust towards Kazuya, it was a sense that they were going to test his validity on being a paranormal researcher and being able to exorcist ghost. Though Harry did question if all the potential clients were like that or just a few of them.

"Right," Mai stated, snapping Harry out of his thoughts in time to watch her climb down the step ladder, "What's next?" she asked, dusting off her hands and putting them on her hips.

Harry pointed to a stack of disks in the corner next to them, "We just have those left to put away."

Mai gave a loud,"Yes," while fist pumping the air, ecstatic they were almost done.

"If you do that I'll go make us all some tea," Harry suggested, waiting for Mai to agree or not.

"Sounds good to me, I could do with something to drink," she grinned as she went over to the pile of CD cases and began to sort through them.

Seeing he was able to get out of that tedious task, Harry left the filing room and headed out into the main office. He looked over at the office doors of Lin and Kazuya and wondered if they would like some tea as well.

Going to Lin's office first he gave the wood door a solid knock and waited only for a few moments before he heard, "Come in."

Opening the door, he poked his head into the room and asked, "Would you like some tea Lin-san?"

Lin shook his head and said, "No thank you," without taking his eyes off the screen of his laptop or faltering in his typing once.

Harry gave a little shrug as he closed Lin's door and went over to Kazuya's office. He gave another sharp rap on Kazuya's door, waiting a minute or two before he heard, "Enter."

This time he walked into the office and stopped in front of Kazuya's desk. He saw that he was sitting back in his office chair and looking over some case files as well. Harry couldn't help the small smile on his face knowing he wouldn't get any sort of acknowledgement as to why he was there, so Harry started speaking, "Kazuya-san, would you like some tea?"

At the question Kazuya finally looked up , "Yes please," and went immediately back to what he was doing before the interruption.

Harry rolled his eyes as he walked out of the office, closing the door behind him, and headed for the small kitchenette. He picked up the kettle and filled it, setting it on the burner to boil. He looked through the small selection of tea leaves, and sighed a little, missing all the types of tea that Hermione always had with her. Coming out of his slightly depressing thoughts, he selected the Earl Grey tea leaves they normally used, and added the right amount to the teapot, sitting on the counter next to the burner. He put the tea leaves back just in time, as the kettle began to whistle. Harry turned off the burner and picked up the kettle, getting ready to pour the hot water into the teapot, when he heard the bell above the office door jingle. He set the kettle back on the warm burner and wiped his hands on a dish towel. He stepped out of the kitchenette, a smile on his face, ready to welcome the customer.

He found an average man standing in the entrance, looking nervous and scared, "Good afternoon," Harry greeted him making the poor man jump a little in shock, for he hadn't seen Harry enter the room.

"Hello, erm, I know I don't have an appointment, but I was hoping that I could talk to someone," his voice was shaky with nerves.

Harry could sense the fear and worry that was coming from him,"Of course, please come in and have a seat, I shall go and get my boss and colleagues," he told him as he directed him to the sofa, before leaving to get Kazuya.

The man nodded and went to sit down murmuring, "Thank you."

He once again knocked on Kazuya's door and waited until he was called in. This time he opened the door fully and stood in the doorway as he addressed Kazuya, "Kazuya-san, we have a walk in client."

Kazuya nodded, "Very well, call the others, you take notes in Japanese and Lin will take them in English, as always," he instructed as he put the file on his desk and stood up.

Harry nodded his head and left to go get Lin. On his way past the conference area he spotted Mai talking softly to the man. Harry gave her a little smile as he went to Lin's office door and knocked.

Receiving a, "Come in," Harry fully entered the room and began speaking right away, "Lin-san we have a potential client. Kazuya-san would like you to come out and take notes in English."

Lin turned away from his laptop and addressed Harry, "Tell Naru I will be out in a minute," he then swung back around in his chair and began collecting what he would need for the interview.

Harry left and saw that Kazuya was already sitting in one of the armchairs, "Lin-san said he would be out in a minute." Receiving a nod in acknowledgment, Harry continued on his way to the kitchenette and decided to add another cup of tea for their poor frazzled client.

Lin was just walking out of his office when Harry came back carrying a tray filled with four steaming cups of tea. Harry set down a cup in front of the nervous looking man and received a thank you as he griped the tea cup like a lifeline. Harry set one down in front of Kazuya and Mai as well, his cup of tea he put down on the coffee table in front of an empty spot on the couch across from the potential client. He then went over to his desk and gathered up his notebook and a pen. He sat down on the couch and picked up his cup of tea. He took a quick sip, before putting it down and picking up his notepad just as Kazuya cleared his throat signaling the start of the interview.

"May I ask your name?" Kazuya asked his voice a little softer than it had been to some of the other potential clients.

"My name is Sasaki Ryota," the man answered taking a tentative sip from the tea cup, his hands shaking a little as he lifted the cup to his lips.

"Well Sasaki-san, please tell us what happened?" Kazuya asked him politely, "And please, start from the beginning."

Sasaki-san nodded his head as he began, "I, my wife, Erika, and my four year old son, Hideki, moved into my late mother's home just over three months ago. For the first two or three weeks, nothing happened, but it didn't take long for us to notice that something was different."

He paused, taking another sip of his tea before continuing, "Our son, Hideki, he started to talk with someone, someone we couldn't see. At first we just thought that he had an imaginary friend. We found out that it was a boy and that he didn't remember his name, we thought it was all in his head," he gave a nervous chuckle as he took a nervous sip of tea, which seemed to calm him down somewhat, "It wasn't until I went on a business trip to the US that things changed again.

Again he paused, seeming more upset than the first time, "My wife told me that she had heard crying during the night. Thinking that Hideki had woken up, she went to his room to comfort him and to find out what was wrong. When she got to Hideki's room, she found him fast asleep, but she could still hear the crying. In fact it seemed louder in Hideki's room, but he never stirred at all while she was in there, in fact the next day when she asked him, he told her that he hadn't heard anything," Sasaki-san stopped, his hands shaking a little more.

Kazuya watched the man , giving him a few minutes to collect himself, before prompting. "Please continue Sasaki-san."

"Ah, yes, sorry, where was I. Oh the cries, they are still happening, nearly every night around two in the morning," Sasaki-san said looking up at them. Harry felt Sasaki-san's fear and worry spike even higher and he quickly erected his shields as high as he could, so he wouldn't be overwhelmed. "But they are now accompanied by the sound of someone running through the hallway at same time of the night. The most disturbing thing about all of this is that none of it disturbs Hideki, in fact it is the same thing every morning. We ask him if he heard anything the night before and he always says no or asks us what we are talking about," his hands were shaking so much now he had to put down the cup of tea for fear of spilling it.

Sasaki-san stared at his shaking hands and clasped them together, he took a deep breath and brought his gaze once more upon Kazuya, "Then three weeks ago, my wife walked into the playroom and let out a horrible scream. I was home that day, so I ran to her thinking she had hurt herself or Hideki was hurt, but as I ran into the playroom all I could see was my wife sitting on the floor crying with toys scattered all around her and Hideki playing a little ways away from her, seemingly unaffected by how hysterical Erika was. It took almost an hour to finally calm my wife down. I asked her what had happened, as both of them were unhurt, she told me all the toys had been floating about a foot off the floor and when she had screamed they all fell to the floor."

This time he covered his face with his hands and seemed to be trying to collect himself. Kazuya grew impatient with Sasaki-san after a few minutes of him like this and snapped out, "Sir, is that everything?"

Sasaki-san ran his hands down his face at Kazuya's sharp tone and shook his head in the negative, "No, the worse happened three days ago. I came home from work and found Erika and Hideki on the front steps of our home, waiting for me. When I asked why they were outside instead of in the house, Erika lifted up Hideki's shirt to show me four deep scratches on his stomach. She had bandaged them as best she could, but I could see some blood starting to leak through. They were too frightened to stay in the house any longer after it happened. Erika told me that she had seen Hideki arguing with his imaginary friend and that after Hideki said something like, yes she is, he had fallen to the floor clutching his stomach and crying. When she ran over to see what was the matter she found the scratches, which were bleeding heavily," at this point Harry could make out unshed tears in his eyes and his voice at the end had a catch to it.

"Do you have any evidence of these scratches," Kazuya asked in a softer tone than his snappiness from before.

Sasaki-san nodded and reached into his left pocket pulling about five or six photos and holding them out for Kazuya to take and look at, "Just these," he said, shakily.

Kazuya took them and hummed in thought as he scanned through them all, "Are these the only injuries he has ever gotten?" he asked.

"Yes, I decided it would be best to come here before anything worse could happen. I should have done something earlier, why did I wait until my son was hurt before I did," at this little rant a tear did escape and ran down his cheek, before Sasaki-san angrily swiped it off his face.

"Right," Kazuya said as he looked at the pictures a few minutes more before handing them to Harry to look at.

"I would like to keep those pictures and make copies of them to add to your case file, if you don't mind." Kazuya stated more than asked.

"Does this mean you will take my case," Sasaki-san's voice was full of hope and slight apprehension.

Kazuya gazed intently at the man before him for a few minutes and then his face changed into one of determination, "We shall be taking your case."

Sasaki-san's eyes widened in surprise as he choked out, "Really?"

Kazuya nodded, "Yes, Sasaki-san. Now, we will need two rooms for sleeping, and another room to use as a base and to set up all of our equipment in. That room will need a number of plugs for us. We will also be setting up cameras and microphones around the property."

"Yes of course, I will give you free reign to do whatever you need to sort this out," he said eagerly, obviously thankful that they believed him and didn't think he was crazy.

"Please give your details to my assistant Mai," Kazuya said gesturing at her as he stood up. "We will be arriving tomorrow, Mai will call you, to give you a more accurate time," he added as he walked into his office.

As soon as the office door closed behind Kazuya, Mai smiled at Sasaki-San and asked him to join her at her desk. She quickly got his information and directions to his home. Harry set aside his notebook and pen and got up, collecting the cups on the tray he had brought out with him. He walked into the kitchen and put them on the side to be washed up. Harry then walked over to Lin who was finished typing up the case notes. He gave a short nod to Harry, as he stood up, and then bowed to their client, who had looked over at the noise. After receiving a polite bow in return he headed into his office, closing the door behind him with a soft click.

"Thank you Sasaki-san, we should be there by noon tomorrow," Mai told him, once she got his attention back, a gentle and reassuring smile on her face.

"Yes, thank you," he said, a small smile on his face, as well.

Harry could tell he was relieved to have someone who actually believed him and that they had offered their help. He gave the two teens a bow as he then left the office.

"He was so scared earlier, but now he seems relieved," Mai commented to Harry once the door was closed.

Harry nodded in agreement, "He is, and who can blame him. His son was attacked by something he can't see. His wife and he have been kept awake by noises that they have no explanation for. I think he has a right to be terrified."

Mai nodded along with each point he made. Once he was done she gave a sigh and asked him, "Do you think we should get in contact with the others. We might need their help?"

"I think you need to ask Kazuya-san that," he answered her.

"Why you don't call him Naru," she huffed a little, her hands going to her hips as she almost seemed to glare at him.

Harry chuckled at her, she reminded him in that moment of Mrs Weasley, and his heart gave a slight jump, he missed the motherly woman. Harry smiled, "I'm too polite," giving a shrug of his shoulder. His smile turning into a smirk as he mentioned, "Though I have noticed that you've got Lin-san calling him Naru as well now."

Mai smiled at him, "Yep."

Harry shook his head in exasperation at her antics, turning he threw over his shoulder, "Go wash up the tea cups and teapot and I'll go ask Kazuya about inviting the others to come," he said with a smile as he walked over to Kazuya's office door and knocked.

"Enter," came from the inside.

Harry walked in and over to the desk, "Kazuya, Mai and I were wondering if we should call the others and see if they want to come with us?"

"No, I think we will be fine with this case on our own," Kazuya told him as he locked his deep blue eyes with Harry's emerald green, "I believe that things got a little crowded at the old school house, so being alone might be best for this one. I also want to see how the two of you work without them."

Harry gave a sharp nod of his head, "All right."

"Was there anything else?" Kazuya asked him, since he was still standing in front of his desk.

"Oh, sorry, no there isn't," Harry could feel his cheeks warming up from embarrassment, so he quickly turned around and left the office.

Mai walked out of the kitchenette as Harry sat down at his desk, "Finished cleaning up. Are we calling the others," sounding eager to do so?

"No, it'll just be the four of us for this one," he told her as he grabbed the notes that he had made.

He would type them up in a bit and print out a copy, so they could be filed. Harry went over to the main desk and brought out the laptop from the bottom drawer and booted it up. Mai watched him for a moment and then headed back into the file room. It still wasn't finished, after all.

The rest of the day went fast, Harry finished typing up the notes and put them into a new file folder. With that all done, he was putting the laptop away when Mai came out of the filing room announcing she had got all the filing done by herself.

"Want to come to my house for dinner?" he asked her, as he didn't feel like eating alone tonight.

"Sure," Mai answered going to grabbed her school bag.

Their last day of school had been today, as tomorrow was the start of Golden Week. Golden week lasts a week and covers four national holidays, Shōwa Day on the 29th of April, Constitution Memorial Day on the 3rd of May, Greenery Day on the 4th and ends with Children's Day on the 5th. In that mass of holidays Harry would be celebrating one more, Beltane on the 1st. It was definitely a week filled with celebrations and one that most people looked forward too as they had time off.

As Mai and Harry finished getting ready to head out the door, Lin and Kazuya walked out of their offices, their own summer jackets on, ready to leave. Mai and Harry said their goodbyes, Lin giving the a nod, and a reminded from Kazuya, to not be late. They headed out into the mild April air, the sun was just about to set, but the weather was warmer than normal for the time of year.

Mai and Harry chatted the whole way back to his house. They talked about their newest case and then moved on to school work and their friends. Soon enough Harry was unlocking his front door and invited Mai inside. Hedwig was resting on her perch when they came in, the noise waking her up. She ruffled her feathers and stared at them, hooting softly. Harry went over and began to pet the front of her chest and she gave an affectionate nip to his fingers. Mai watched the interaction with a smile on her face and came over to join in on petting her.

Mai was continually fascinated with Hedwig as she continued to pet the snowy owl, long after Harry left to start dinner.

"She is a beautiful owl," Mai said as she stroked the feathery chest gently.

Harry's voice echoed from the kitchen, "That she is," his voice holding nothing but pride, "She also makes a great companion and listener."

Hedwig seemed to puff up and preen at the compliment making Mai laugh as she gave her one last pet. Hedwig gave her a nip of thanks on Mai's retreating fingertips, which made Mai's smile grow, until it looked like it hurt.

Mai came into the kitchen and sat at the breakfast bar still with the large grin on her face and it made Harry ask, "What has you in such a good mood all of a sudden."

"Hedwig just nipped my fingers, like she does to you," Mai answered in a dreamy voice.

Harry gave out a short bark of laughter, "I'm glad she likes you."

Mai scowled at him for the laugh, but went back to smiling as she asked him, "What's for dinner tonight?"

"I thought of doing a stir-fry?"

"Fine with me."

Harry gave another chuckle and began to pull out what he needed. Mai already knew that he was a vegetarian and was perfectly fine with not having any meat in her meal when she came for dinner.

As Harry prepared the dinner for him and Mai and chatted with her, he was making a list in his mind what to do after she left. Since they would be gone for a few days on the case he would have to get all his magical homework and regular school work done. Though he could do some of his regular school work while they were on the case. Right now though he wanted to have some free time and maybe a bit of fun.

XxXxX

Harry slapped his hand down on the button of his alarm clock and groaned. He had been up till almost three in the morning, trying to get all of his Magic homework done before going to bed, since he couldn't take any with him on the case. He managed to finish and would be sending it all off with Hedwig before heading out to Mai's apartment and then the SPR office. He gave a sigh as he reached over once more and grabbed his glasses, putting them on as he slowly crawled out of bed.

Yawning, he headed to the bathroom, a little smile appearing on his face as he thought about last night. It had been fun, as he and Mai had watched a film, and when it was over he walked her home, since it had been almost ten at night, and too dangerous for her to walk home by herself.

Twenty minutes later Harry opened up the door for the bathroom and walked back into his bedroom in a cloud of steam, stretching his arms above his head and giving another massive yawn. He was still a little tired, though the shower had woken him up a bit, he still wanted to crawl back into bed and sleep for another couple of hours. His alarm had gone off at seven, and just over three hours of sleep wasn't enough. He gave a thought on trying to find a time turner for extra sleep, but just snorted as he headed to his wardrobe and drawers.

He quickly changed into a pair of jeans and a dark green long-sleeved button down shirt. He pulled up his right sleeve and put on his wand holster and once it was strapped on he put his wand in it. He gave a glance to the tattoos and decided to leave them, they couldn't really be seen with the long sleeves of his shirt. He headed out of his bedroom and walked down the stairs, giving Hedwig a stroke on her feathers. The owl ruffled them and gave a coo, before settling down once more. Harry smiled and walked into the kitchen.

With a flick of his wrist his wand appeared immediately into his hand from the wand holster. He grinned, he loved doing that, when he had first got the hostler he practiced over and over until he could bring his wand out and fire off a reducto in one fast move. With a wave of his wand, ending with the tip pointing at the burner underneath the kettle, it flipped to on and began to warm up the water.

Harry was so proud of himself for charming all his Muggle electronics to withstand and work with magic, it made his life so much simpler and he didn't have to worry about getting stuff repaired all the time. Seeing that the burner wasn't going to malfunction, Harry headed over to the toaster and put in two pieces of bread, pushing down the button to toast it. While that was going and his kettle wasn't whistling yet, he grabbed the several scrolls of homework he had completed and headed back over to Hedwig.

"Hey girl," he said softly, stroking her feathers once more. The owl perked up and looked at him, "I need you to take these to Professor Kakashi, he should be in his office," he told her as he began to attach the small bag to her leg, and put the scrolls inside.

The bag itself was small, but it had an extension charm on it, making it larger on the inside and able to hold any sized homework he had to send to his Professor. Which occasionally included making a potion or two in the basement lab.

He smiled at her as he finished, "I'm going to be gone a few days, so the window will be open and you can hunt freely when you need to. If you need me, I am sure you will be able to find me." he whispered gently stroking her feathers and feeding her an owl treat.

Hedwig ruffled her feathers and took the treat, finishing it in two sharp clacks of her beak. She then spread her wings and gave a powerful thrust downward, propelling her towards and out the window Harry had charmed to always stay open. Once she was out of sight Harry ran a diagnostic spell on the charms he had placed to make sure they were all fully charged. Seeing as they were all intact, especially the one to allow only post owls through, he went back to the kitchen to finish making his breakfast.

Back in the kitchen he quickly fried up some eggs and put it on his toast. While eating he made himself some tea and drank that down as soon as his eggs over toast was done. With another wave of his wand, the dishes floated over to the sink and started to clean, dry, and put themselves away. Harry gave a small nod with a smile, he would have to thank Mrs Weasley for the 1001 household magic book she had given him before he left. It came in handy. He headed back up to his bedroom to pack a small suitcase for the upcoming case.

It ended up taking him just half an hour to get everything together. Standing up and stretching he heard and felt his back pop in several places and felt instant relief. Muttering to himself , "Right, I should go and pick up Mai on the way to the office," grabbing his small suitcase and heading down the stairs.

He stopped at the bottom of the stairs and also picked up a backpack and a book that had arrived from Hermione a couple of days ago. He also grabbed the two small belt pouches he had placed next to the book last night. He might need them or he might not, you never know what you might come across. Placing the book and two dark green pouches into the backpack he set this and his suitcase by the door and stood there a few minutes, trying to remember if he was forgetting anything. With a roll of his eyes and a muttered, "Stupid," he quickly darted into the living room and snatched up a red cloth bag lying on the recliner. This one bag had a few smaller bags inside and he would be needing them. He had already sent off four more small bags to the others, with a small card to explain what they were.

Smiling at himself, he headed back to the front door saying, "Now I am ready."

Once at the front door he swung the backpack up onto his right shoulder and then took the handle of his rolling suitcase and opened the front door. Walking through it he made sure his suitcase stayed up right, as he then turned around and shut the door, locking it with the normal lock and with a quick glance to make sure nobody saw him, he waved his wand and locked it with an intricate locking spell. The only way anybody would get in now was if they were keyed into the wards and those people where Remus, Dumbledore, Ron, Hermione, and himself. With that done he grabbed his suitcase and headed towards Mai's apartment, with a smile on his face.

Fifteen minutes later, Harry was standing in front of the gates in front of her apartment complex. Reaching out he pressed the number of Mai's apartment and waited for her to answer.

"Hello?" came her slightly distorted voice.

"Hey Mai, I'm here, we need to get going if we're going to be on time," he told her.

"Oh, Harry, yeah, be right down," she said, and Harry could hear the excitement in her voice.

Harry gave a small chuckle as he stood and waited. There was no point going up to her third floor apartment and then coming all the way back down. He was fine with waiting outside, and it wasn't cold, even for the early morning. It took almost fifteen minutes before the door opened and Mai ran out almost running into him.

"Sorry," she said, giving a small bow to him.

"Don't worry Mai, come on, let's get moving," he grinned at her and began to head down the sidewalk.

Mai followed him walking side by side down the empty street.

"Did you make sure to bring some of your homework?" Harry asked after a while.

"Of course I did, though I don't know if we will be able to get any of it done," she gave a small shrug of her shoulders as they entered the train station and waited for the train that would take them to Shibuya.

"Yeah, I know what you mean," he nodded in agreement, "Though we don't have a lot to do thankfully," he added as an afterthought.

Mai nodded her head and the silence once again descended upon them as they waited. It was only a few seconds before the train arrived and they stepped onto it. Harry was able to find an open seat on the crowded train and had Mai sit it in as he stood in front of her to keep her safe from some of the seedier characters that traveled on the trains. Fifteen minutes later they arrived in Shibuya station and got off the train and had a ten minute walk to the office. As they got closer they could see Lin packing things away into the black van. Smiling at each other they picked up the pace and made it there in time to grab the last couple of boxes that were on the sidewalk and load them.

"Morning Lin-san," Mai said brightly, not hiding the fact that she hoped he would answer her this time.

The only thing she got was a glare and Harry stifled the laughter that wanted to burst out of him as he heard Mai yelling in her head, 'One day he is going to kill me!' Harry shook his head a little and carried on to the office to get the next bit of equipment to go into the van.

"Good morning Kazuya-san," Harry greeted as he walked in.

Kazuya looked over to him and nodded, "Morning, those four need to go into the van," he told him pointing at another stack of boxes. He paused for a minute looking behind him Harry and asked, "Where is Mai?"

"I'm here," Mai huffed a little as she walked in.

"Good, print out the case notes we need," he told her as he pointed to the laptop that was on and hooked up to the printer.

Mai glared at him, waiting for a moment for a please that was never going to come. Harry chuckled and shook his head as he watched her almost stamp her foot when Kazuya once again went back to ignoring her. Harry looked to Kazuya and smirked a little as he felt amusement coming from the older teen. He picked up one of the boxes and headed down to the van. It didn't take long for the van to be fully packed, and their own cases to be stowed away as well. Mai had called their client Ryota-san and told him they should arrive at noon and with it being ten it meant a two hour long car ride, in complete and utter silence if Lin and Kazuya had a say in it.

Mai and Harry climbed into the back of the van, keeping hold of their backpacks so they could to try and do some homework on the two hour silent car ride. With a sigh Harry and Mai buckled up and leaned up against the back of their seats. Watching out the back windows of the van as Lin pulled away from the office and it shrunk into the distance, this would be their first official case working for Shibuya Psychic Research.

Chapter Text

Yume no Naka ni Seishin

Case File Two

Where are you?

Chapter Twenty-Two

Two hours was a long time for Harry and Mai as they sat in the back seats watching the scenery, they had given up on doing any homework after an hour. They grinned at each other as Lin started to slow down and turn onto the driveway of a nice and very large, family home. Lin parked the van and got out, followed by Kazuya. Mai and Harry climbed out of the back door of the van and watched the two approach Sasaki-san, who was waiting outside of the house for them.

As Mai and Harry hung back by the van, Harry began to examine the house and its surroundings. It definitely was a nice, fancy, modern two storey building. Scattered around the property were trees and a nice big privacy fence, as there were other houses, though they were far enough away to make sure the occupants had their privacy. As Harry finished with his assessment he saw Kazuya gesturing for him and Mai to join them and the client. Harry tugged on Mai's sleeve, to get her attention, and they both walked up to Lin, Kazuya, and Sasaki-san, who started talking once they got there.

"Welcome to my home," Sasaki-san said with a bow to them.

"Sasaki-san," Kazuya greeted back, "Where are we going to be setting up?"

"If you follow me I will be more than happy to show you," he said as he turned around and began a steady pace to the front door of the house.

As they entered the front door they removed their shoes and put them on the shoe rack that sat to the left of the entrance. When they were done Sasaki-san led them through the living room and into a hallway that had a set of stairs at the end of it and a few doors on each side.

Passing one of the doors situated on the right Sasaki-san paused pointing it out, "This is the bathroom on this floor and next door is where you can set up. I use it as my library and study, so I hope it will work for what you need it for," he finished opening the door and walking in, making sure to hold the door for the rest of them.

Kazuya looked around the room and nodded, "It will do," turning to the others he ordered, "Start bringing in the equipment."

"Okay," Harry and Mai chimed, while Lin only nodded his head and left the room with the other two following.

Reaching the door they all once again stopped to put on their shoes, before heading to the back of the black SPR van. Harry didn't know if he would ever get used to taking his shoes on and off every time he entered someone's home. It got tiring very quickly, especially when they were moving equipment back and forth.

Unlocking the doors of the van and opening them, Lin stopped Mai from grabbing the first box, by seizing her wrist. When she gave him a questioning look he explained, "I want all the equipment put in the entryway first and once everything is there then we take it to the base," glancing up at Harry at the end.

Harry and Mai nodded and only then did Lin let go of Mai's wrist and take one of the heavy computer monitors, heading back towards the house. Mai shook her wrist out a little and grabbed the box she had originally been going for and followed Lin. Harry gave a sigh as he took one of the computer's hard drives and also followed. At least now it wouldn't be so bad in taking his shoes on and off. At least he only had to do it once more, instead of multiple times.

Harry passed Lin on his way to the entranceway, but the tall man said nothing as they passed and so he continued on. When he got to the front door he found Mai waiting patiently for him. Setting down his piece of equipment and heading out the door he wasn't surprised to find Mai right next to him.

"Do you really think this place is haunted?" Mai asked Harry softly as they made their way back to the van.

Harry smiled, "Yeah I do."

At his answer Mai gave a hesitant nod and gazed thoughtfully over her shoulder at the large house.

"You might want to turn around and watch where you are going before you run into the side of the van," Harry commented in amusement as Mai whipped her head around and was able to stop in time before she did just that.

Giving a sigh of relief and frustration she walked around the open door, shooting a glare at Harry, who was grinning at her in amusement, and picked up another box. Spinning around she began to march back to the house, but as she got closer her steps slowed to almost a crawl, forcing Harry to almost push her the last few steps to the door. He could see her glancing up at the house every few minutes with a mixed look of fright and curiosity in her face and eyes.

"Mai come on, if you don't hurry up Lin will have the whole van unpacked by himself and he will be even more unfriendly to both of us." Harry had seen the tall Chinese man pass them several times already and each time his glare got darker and colder.

This did seem to hurry Mai up though as she began her once hurried pace and dropped her box off and went back to the van, this time not saying anything to Harry. Harry did the same and before long the entryway was full and the van was empty. Now came the fun part of moving everything from the entryway to their base room.

As all three of them were bring their first load to the base together, Lin, who was in front, almost ran into Sasaki-san as he was coming out. "So sorry," Sasaki-san apologized moving out of the way so they could move past him, "I was just leaving to get my wife so Kazuya-san can interview her. After that she will show you to your rooms and since we have so many you each get your own room." He gave them a big smile at this, which Mai and Harry returned, but Lin again nodded his head and walked into the base.

Sasaki-san seeing this as a dismissal said goodbye to Mai and Harry and hurried off down the hall, that they had just come from and made a left at the end of it. Harry and Mai glanced at each other and shrugged their shoulders as they walked into base to find Kazuya and Lin figuring out where to put stuff.

Setting down their things next to Lin's they waited for their instructions. They didn't have to wait too long as Kazuya saw them standing there and started to bark out instructions, "Mai, start putting up the shelves here," pointing to a large cherry colored executive desk in the middle of the room. "Harry I want you helping Lin and I bring in the rest of the equipment from the entryway."

"Yes sir," Harry answered giving a mock salute before bolting out of the base and down the hallway, wanting to avoid any discipline he might receive for his cheek.

Moving the equipment didn't take long with the three of them and soon everything was in the base, including their suitcases. Harry was rifling through a box with all the cords they would need to connect everything together for recording and viewing purposes. Mai had finished setting up the shelves only a few seconds ago and Harry had to stifle a laugh as she jumped when she found Lin standing next to her with a monitor already in his hands and wanting to put it on the shelf she had finished.

Frowning Harry began to wonder where Mrs. Sasaki-san was. It couldn't of taken Mr. Sasaki-san that long to find her and tell her to come talk to them. They also needed to figure out where to set up cameras and microphones within the house and the only way they could figure that out is to talk to the person who was in the house the most, which would be Mrs. Sasaki-san.

Handing the cords in his hands to Lin, who was standing in front of the shelves with his hand out, he glanced at the door as it opened revealing a woman in her early thirties with dark brown hair pulled into a high ponytail. He saw out of the corner of his eye both Mai and Kazuya had also stopped their arguing to look at the door. Of course the only one not looking was Lin, who was putting the cords in the right spots.

"Hello, my husband asked me to come and show you the bedrooms," she smiled giving a bow in greeting.

Harry could also feel the slight tendrils of fear and worry that surrounded her form, much like her husband. Not wanting to have it affect him, he immediately started building his mental walls to block her out.

"Sasaki-san," Mai greeted as she went over, "I'm Taniyama Mai, please to meet you," giving a bow, "This is my boss Shibuya Kazuya, and colleagues, Lin Koujo and Potter Harry," each bowing as she gestured at them.

"Oh, please call me Erika, and thank you for coming. Shall I take you to your rooms now?" she asked as she looked around the slightly changed room.

"Before we do that, I would like to talk about the happenings in your home," Kazuya said pinning her with one of his calculating stares.

Erika gave a nervous nod of her head and walked more into the room, closing the door behind her.

"Lin, Harry," Kazuya ordered.

Both left what they were doing, Harry going for his notebook and pen, taking a seat next to Kazuya on the sofa. Lin snatched his laptop from a nearby desk and settled in the folding chair at the small coffee table, setting the laptop on top of the coffee table.

"Please sit down Erika," Harry smiled trying to be reassuringly.

Nodding she sat down in the only arm chair in the room, leaving Mai to sit on the folding chair opposite Lin at the small coffee table. Harry gave a soft snort at the wariness on Mai's face as she sat down. Her eyes kept darting to Lin as if he was a dangerous dog and any minute he was going to jump and bite her.

Sitting so close to Kazuya, Harry could also feel his amusement, but the teen chose to ignore it as he addressed the woman before them, "Start from the beginning, when did you first start to notice that something wasn't right?"

Erika cleared her throat and clasped her hands in her lap, "Hideki has always been a playful child. He was always outside playing with the other children around the neighborhood. In fact the only time I could keep him inside was if the weather was bad outside and even then he would have to invite one of his friends over to play. That all changed after we moved here three months ago." Pausing she took another breath and unclasped her hands to fidget with the material of her pants, "Around a week after moving here he started wanting to stay inside. It was strange, as with being in a new neighborhood I thought he would want to go make new friends, but I figured he was missing his old friends and so didn't push it. A few days after that I was walking by his playroom and I could hear him talking. I stopped and poked my head into the room, thinking he had invited one of the neighborhood kids in without telling me, but when I looked into the room there was nobody there. In fact the minute I became visible he stopped talking and looked at me asking me if I needed something. I shook my head no and left, but I only made it a few steps down the hall when I heard him start talking again. I told Ryota that night after dinner and Hideki had been tucked into bed." Erika stopped playing with the material of her pants and re-clasped her hands, now gazing up and meeting Kazuya's eyes, "Ryota assured me that he probably had an imaginary friend, which isn't uncommon for a boy his age to have, and so the next day, after Ryota went to work, I asked Hideki who he was talking to yesterday. I thought he would give me some made up name and some fantastical story, but all he said was he was friends with a little boy and that they like to play together."

"When did you first realise that it wasn't an imaginary friend?" Kazuya asked her.

Harry studied Erika for a moment as her fear rose another notch and he had to shut everybody out completely, he didn't want be overwhelmed.

"It was about two weeks after the first incident , he stopped going out to play completely and spent all his awake time in his playroom. I was taking his lunch to him and as I walked into the room I found him holding a stuffed rabbit. He was holding the back end and the ears on the rabbit were straight out, parallel to the floor, and every once in awhile I could see the fabric stretched as if something was pulling on it. I was only standing there for a few minutes, holding the tray with lunch on it, when Hideki hit the floor hard and the rabbit was now limp in his hand. I brushed it off as him playing around with me, but something in the back of my mind was screaming at me that I was wrong and it was something I should be concerned about. I couldn't, no I didn't want to think about it," she corrected herself, "even then I was too scared of the conclusion I would come to." a small visible shuddered running through her body.

"Did you tell your husband what you saw ?" Kazuya's voice held curiosity at this new story.

Erika shook her head in the negative, "No I didn't, I thought I was going crazy, kept telling myself it was in my head. It was that night that the crying started during the night. When it woke me up I thought Hideki had woken up from either a nightmare or had fallen out of his bed. I immediately jumped out of bed and practically ran down the hall to his room. When I got there and opened his bedroom door I found him fast asleep, but the crying had gotten louder as I had gotten closer to his room and even now with the door open it sounded like it was coming from his room. It was so loud, but Hideki didn't even move, as if he couldn't hear it at all. Royta called the next night, just before dinner and I told him what had happened. I don't think he believed me over the phone, but when he came back a few days later and heard it for himself and saw the same thing I had been seeing for the past couple of nights, he became a believer." Erika paused and took a deep breath and exhaled it slowly as if she was gathering her courage for what Kazuya was going to ask next.

Seeing the woman need some prompting to continue, so he could get the full timeline of escalating events, Kazuya gave her the push, "What happened next?"

Harry saw the distressed woman's hands clench so hard around each other her fingertips were turning purple and her knuckles were white, "For the next few weeks it was the same, almost every night at the same time, midnight, the crying would start and Hideki continued to talk and play with somebody that wasn't there. It was late in the morning and I was bringing Hideki his snack, when I walked into the playroom to find all of his toys floating about a foot off the floor. It was at that point that I knew something more was going on and I panicked. When I screamed all the toys dropped out of the air and I felt as if something pushed me to the floor and that is how Royta found me crying on the floor. That night is when the running up and down the hallways started to go along with the crying," her voice was shaking and Harry saw a tear fall down her cheek.

Mai immediately got up and found a box of tissues sitting on a bookshelf behind Erika and handed the box to her. She gave a quiet thank you as she took a tissue and dabbed at her eyes. Harry had to close his eyes for a moment as Erika's fear assaulted his shields, causing the beginnings of a headache as he tried to keep his shields from collapsing.

"What about the attack?" Kazuya prompted, wanting to know if anything new had happened after it.

"After the incident with the toys I didn't feel comfortable leaving Hideki in the playroom alone, so it was a couple of days later we were both in there. Hideki was playing and talking happily and I was reading a book. All of a sudden he started yelling, 'Yes she is,' over and over. Then he… he screamed and fell to the floor, clutching his stomach. I ran over to him and there was blo… blood and four deep scratches on his stomach. I had to get him out of there, I was so scared, I… I couldn't stay in the house. It didn't feel safe for us to be in there anymore and to be honest it still doesn't feel safe," she finished, her voice shuddering as she dabbed at her eyes with her tissue and fixed her watery eyes on Kazuya.

"Thank you for sharing that with us, I know it was hard, and that you're scared, but we'll do our best to help," Harry reassured her, a smile on his face as he continued to reinforce his mental shields.

Erika looked at him, "Thank you," she said softly.

"We would like to talk to your son as well," Kazuya told her.

"Oh, yes of course," she nodded as she got up a little flustered, "Do you want to talk to him in his playroom or here?" she asked as she got up to leave and collect her son.

"It would be nice to talk to him in his playroom, but I believe it might be best if you come here with him for now, Mai and Harry will be talking with him," he told her.

"Right, I'll go and get him," Erika replied as she went out the door.

"Why us?" Harry asked Kazuya.

"I think you both would be better in talking with the child then I would," he told them with a little smirk on his face.

Mai gave a snort as she muttered under her breath, "Most likely you would scare him."

Kazuya looked over at her, "Much like I scare you."

Mai jumped and blushed at being caught. Harry laughed and shook his head as he interrupted before the two of them could get into an argument, "Right, we'll take the lead," he then asked Mai, "Mai, can you take the notes?"

"Yeah," Mai grinned, happy to be given something to do besides sit and listen to others horrifying stories.

Kazuya got up and joined Lin at the table. It was a few minutes later that Erika came in with a scared little boy holding onto her hand.

Harry smiled at the little boy as he said softly, "Hello, I'm Harry and this is Mai, is it alright if we ask you a few questions?"

Hideki looked at his mother, who gave him a reassuring nod and smile, "Go on," she told him.

Hideki nodded and they walked over to the sofa and sat down. Erika pulled her son into her lap, giving him the comfort that he needed, "Okay," he said quietly, looking a little nervous.

"Right, Hideki-chan," Harry said with a smile, "Can you tell me about your friend?"

Hideki became a little nervous and looked to his mother once more. He got the gentle smile and nod from his mother and so he glanced back at Harry, "He likes to play with me, but he has been very bad and I'm scared of him."

"I know you are, we know you're very scared because of what he did to you," Harry said with a reassuring smile on his face, "But we want to find out why he did it, and if we can help him."

"He wanted to play," Hideki answered him.

"What does he like to play the most?" Harry asked, hoping they could use it to bring the spirit out.

Hideki waited a moment before he answered, "He liked playing with Koji the most. But now he keeps hiding him," Harry had let down his shields once the mother had left and could now feel sadness coming from the little boy.

Harry looked to the mother as she mouthed to him, 'Teddy Bear.'

"So Koji has been hidden again, and you can't find him?" Harry asked him

"Yes," he nodded his head, "I can't find him. After he hurt me, he took him away from me, saying it wasn't mine," he said as he began to sniff, "I want him back, daddy told me he was special," he said as he turned to his mother and cuddle closer to her. Erika tightened her hold on her son a little more and soothed him as best as she could.

"I'll do my best to find him for you," Harry couldn't help but promise the child, "as well as helping your friend."

Hideki looked from his mother and over to Harry, "Really? You promise?"

Harry nodded his head, "I promise to find Koji and help your friend."

"Okay," he said as he sat up properly.

"Now, we need to know about your friend. Do you know why he hurt you and took Koji?"

Hideki looked sad as he answered, "He was mad, really mad. He said that she wasn't mummy," he looked up at Harry.

Harry could feel Hideki's fear getting stronger, and knew he wouldn't be able to get anything else from him. He was too scared at the moment to truly tell them what was going on. They would have to try and talk with him again when he had calmed down some.

"Okay, thank you for talking to me," Harry smiled at him, "Why don't you go and play for a while, if it is okay with your mother?" glancing at Erika to see what she would say.

Hideki looked at his mother, "Can I?"

Erika smiled at him, "all right, go and play," she affectionately told him, but Harry felt the fear in her spike a little and knew it was because Hideki would be going to the playroom.

Hideki climbed down from his mother's lap and ran out of the room. Erika watched him with worry in her eyes as she then turned around to look at all of them, "It will be all right Erika," Harry tried to reassure her.

"I'm scared that something even worse will happen to him, he is only four and already had something happen to him that should never had happened in the first place," slight panic, fear, and concern showing in her voice.

Kazuya got up at that point and walked over to them, "I will be putting cameras up in a moment."

"Put them where ever it is you need to, my husband warned me that you might need to," she said, "Do you want me to show you the rooms now?" she asked trying to get back some form of control.

"I'll go with you," Mai said as she jumped up and handed over the notebook to Harry, "I'll take our things up to the rooms as well," she added as she went over and grabbed two cases.

"Thank you," Harry grinned at her.

He watched as the two women left the room, between them they had the four cases and took them to the rooms. Harry turned to look at Lin and then over at Kazuya, "So do we have any places that we need to put the cameras other than the playroom and Hideki's room?" he asked walking over to the table.

Instead of answering Harry, Kazuya asked him, "Where do you think they should go?"

"Well, the playroom and bedroom obviously, since most of what has gone on is there. The hallway outside the bedrooms is another, since they have heard a child running around," Harry was starting to feel nervous as he had stated the most obvious, "I think we should put one on the stairs as well, to make sure that there isn't someone playing a prank. Though I don't think so in this instance." He paused for a moment and closed his eyes, letting his shields down, letting his mind wander as he tried to pick up on the feelings of the spirit. He instantly felt Lin and Kazuya since they were in the room with him. Mai and Erika were upstairs and in one of the bedrooms. A little further away from them was Hideki. Downstairs he could feel Ryota-san in what he assumed was the living room. Harry felt a smile take over his face when he found the spirit in the bottom part of the house, which he could only assume was the basement, but the minute the smile formed it was gone as Harry had to take a slight step back to keep from falling over as extreme loneliness assaulted him. This spirit was not happy in the least, but at the same time he couldn't feel any malice or hate coming from the spirit, just loneliness.

"Are you alright ?" Kazuya asked in concerned when he saw Harry almost fall over from absolutely nothing.

"Yeah," Harry replied in a little more subdued tone than he meant to, but as he put his shields back up he began to feel more like himself and so was able to give a small smirk at Kazuya, "Forgot that there wasn't a wall behind me to lean on."

"So have you thought of anywhere else we could put the cameras?" Kazuya asked him, not amused in the least with the lie he was just told, but let it off for now as their were more important things at the moment.

Harry gave a decisive nodded, "In the basement," making sure he didn't sound like he was questioning himself.

Lin looked a little confused, "Why would we put something in the basement, no one has said anything about that room?" he asked.

Harry looked over to the older man as he replied, "Most of the spirits that I have come across in the past normally stay in an area out of the way of the living. When I looked at the map earlier, almost all of the rooms had a comment, except the basement." Not to mention that is where he had felt the spirit, but he couldn't tell them that part, at least not yet.

Kazuya nodded his head and smiled, "Then we shall put one in there as well, since you make a good argument," he told Harry as he turned back to the map before him and marked the basement with an x to mean a camera would be placed there.

"Thank you," Harry replied.

Kazuya then addressed Lin, "Lin, Harry and I will be setting up the cameras and microphones, you'll be directing from here."

Lin glanced over at him, "Alright," he then walked over to the monitors and got out a headset and put it on his head as he sat down in front of the monitors.

Harry and Kazuya picked up a camera, microphone, and one walkie talkie, which they could use to talk to Lin and receive instructions. Leaving the base they walked down the hall to the end of it and took a right and headed down the stairs into the basement. They started to set up the equipment, starting with the stand the camera would go on. Kazuya watched as Harry locked the legs all in place before setting the camera onto the mount.

It was nice to have everything be wireless, that way there was no need for wires to be in the way or stopping them from putting cameras wherever they needed them. Everything that the camera or microphone caught would be sent to the main hard drives upstairs in the base room and recorded to an SD card, though each card would have to be changed every six to eight hours, along with the batteries for the cameras and microphones.

Kazuya pulled out his walkie talkie and pressed the button, "How is that Lin?"

"The location is good, and I can see the whole room," Lin's deep voice came through the walkie with some static, "the feed is coming through nice and strong."

"Good," Kazuya said and then turned toward Harry, "We're going to be using a night camera in here, since it's mainly dark all the time."

Harry nodded his head in understanding and with that they left the basement and set up the cameras and microphones in the other locations marked on the map.

XxXxX

The last place Kazuya and Harry decided to set up in was Hideki's playroom. When they walked in they found Hideki playing on the left side of the room, so Kazuya headed toward the right side of the room and the back corner. Harry followed with the camera shooting Hideki a smile when he saw the boy was watching them with curiosity all over his face.

Harry set down the camera near the stand and began to set up the microphone on the left side of the camera, while Kazuya set up the rest of the camera stand on the right side. It only took them a few minutes to do their task and while Kazuya radioed Lin to ask if the angle was okay Harry walked over to Hideki to talk to him about not touching the equipment.

"Hello again," Harry said giving Hideki a big smile as he knelt down on one knee to be at eye level with the small child.

"Hello sir," Hideki replied shyly, ducking his head so he wouldn't have to met Harry's eyes.

Seeing how shy the boy was made a large grin break out on Harry's face, but he really needed the boy to look at him so he knew how serious he was about not touching the equipment. "Hey can you look at me?"

At Harry's question Hideki brought his head back up and his brown eyes connected with Harry's startling green ones. Seeing he had the boy's full attention now Harry continued, "Can you do me a huge favor." The boy nodded his head up and down, "Can you not touch that equipment over in the corner," Harry softly asked, while pointing to the corner where Kazuya was now adjusting the camera angle, with Lin's voice crackling over the walkie talkie.

"Why?" Was Hideki's childish response.

"It is very fragile and if you touch it might break and it is very expensive to replace," Harry replied, hoping his simple explanation would deter the child's curiosity. "Just pretend like it isn't even there."

"What's it for," Hideki's curiosity obviously not quelled.

Harry gave a small smile, "It will help us see your friend, so we can help him." he knew by answering any child of Hideki's age was the best thing to do instead of putting them off, because that would make them all the more curious and he really didn't need Hideki breaking Kazuya's equipment.

Hideki nodded, giving a small smile as he then turned away from Harry to go back to playing with his small car, his curiosity satisfied and Harry was sure he wouldn't touch the equipment now.

Standing up from his kneeling position Harry turned around to find Kazuya leaning against the wall watching him and Hideki, obviously done with adjusting the camera, "Are we done here?"

Harry nodded his head in the positive. Kazuya pushed himself off the wall and walked to the door, with Harry following, giving a glance back as he passed through the door to see Hideki not paying either of them any attention.

Striding into base they found Lin sitting at the monitors watching them intently and Mai standing a little behind him and watching the screens over his shoulder. Kazuya headed straight towards the monitors, but not before stopping behind Mai and whispering loudly by her ear, "Mai. Tea."

Harry couldn't help but chuckle as Mai jumped a mile with a loud squeak, before whirling around only to find that Kazuya had moved away and sat down in the chair next to Lin and reading his notes as if he hadn't done anything, but walk into the room and sit down. Mai's glare was smoldering and Harry was sure if she could Kazuya would be a pile of ashes right now. With a huff she stomped out of the room to go to the kitchen to make her boss his much needed tea. Harry shook his head in amusement as he continued on to where he had left his notebook on the coffee table from earlier. Picking it up he sat on the sofa and began to page through them, reading what Mai had wrote down, when they interviewed Hideki. After a few minutes of silence Harry broke it, "You know she will hurt you one of these days if you keep riling her up."

Harry could feel a burst of amusement from Kazuya as he only answered, "We'll see," he then continued in a more serious tone, "Lin, you'll take the first shift from midnight to four in the morning. Harry I want you to take the second shift from four to eight. Once Mai and I come to the base to relieve you I have no problem with you going back to bed for a little while, if you want to."

"I should be fine, I normally don't sleep that much," Harry muttered, not looking up at Kazuya to see his reaction.

So, Harry completely missed Kazuya nodding his head in acceptance, only heard his voice, "The schedule for tomorrow night will be me taking the midnight to four and Lin will do the four to eight. From there it will rotate to Harry doing the midnight to four and I having the four to eight. We will continue this schedule until the case is solved."

Just as Kazuya finished the door to the base crashed open and in walked Mai with a tray and four cups of tea on it, "Here's your tea your Highness," was her sarcastic reply as she set the tray down on the coffee table in front of Harry. Looking at Harry she asked, "Harry how would you like your tea?"

Harry could feel a wave of annoyance from Kazuya as Mai started with him and not Kazuya, but Harry hid his smirk, figuring it served the teen right for scarring Mai earlier. She took their orders and quickly handed them out one by one, leaving Kazuya until last.

"So what are we going to do now?" Mai asked after a few minutes of looking at each of them in turn.

"We still have some time left before dinner, I suggest that Harry takes a walk around the house,"Kazuya suggested.

Harry nodded his head, "That's fine with me."

"What about me," Mai asked with a little bit of annoyance in her voice.

"If Harry wants an idiot to go with him that is fine with me." Kazuya replied to her question as he took a sip of his tea.

Harry could see Mai was about to yell at the teen, but stopped her before she could, "I don't mind. Mai want to come with me?"

Mai, ignoring Kazuya completely, brightened up at Harry's question, "Yes," a big grin taking over her features as she drained the rest of her tea and took a hold of his arm.

On their way out the door Harry snatched up one of the walkie talkies by the door of the base and switched it to on before hanging it off his belt on his left side, since Mai had a hold of his right arm.

They were getting to the end of the hall when Mai broke their comfortable silence, "I am so happy to get out of base and actually do something, besides be the tea service."

"I could understand how that could get annoying," Harry replied in sympathie, "but for your information I don't see you as a tea maid." He received a blinding smile for his comment.

Once they reached the end of the hall Harry stopped, "Let's go down to the basement first and work our way up, like Kazuya and I did with the equipment." Harry stated as he steered Mai toward the basement stairs on the right and flipping the switch for the light before heading down.

"How do you know where you are going without looking at a map," Mai questioned as they started down the narrow stairs?

"I memorized the map, especially after looking over so much to figure out where to put the equipment." Harry replied as they finally reached the bottom of the stairs.

The real reason Harry was going to the basement first is because he could still feel the spirit down there. He wanted to see if he could find out why he hadn't passed on or maybe why he wanted the bear. As they stepped off the steps Harry could feel the spirit's curiosity as to why they were down in his area.

Harry walked into the room more, letting go of Mai's arm in the process, "Search around and see if you can find the bear," Harry instructed as he felt the spirits curiosity spike and mix with a little anger at the mention of the bear.

"Why would the bear be down here and what's up with a camera here?" Mai asked as she began to look at the shelves placed next to the stairs.

Harry looked back over his shoulder at her for a second, "I thought it might be a good place to watch," he paused for a moment as he felt the spirit's emotions move over to the back of the room and stop in front of one of the shelves. It had a feeling of protectiveness and slight anger directed toward Harry. Harry continued his explanation as he made a show of looking at some of the shelves closest to him as he moved down the line to the ones the ghost had stopped in front of, "Most spirits will have a place out of the way where they can hide, like a home base. Most of the time there will be very little to no activity in such a place. So far this is the only one that hasn't had anything said about it by the family. Plus, if they want a certain object that is where they would hide it as well," he told her.

"Really?" she asked.

Harry gave a nod, "Yeah," he answered.

Mai finished her line of shelves and knowing Harry had already looked at the next shelves she began to go to the ones hidden underneath the stairs, but stopped when she saw Harry move to the back of the room and to a certain stack of boxes, looking them over intently.

"Harry?" Mai asked, a little frown on her face as she watched him.

Harry smiled as he said, "I've found Koji the bear," he could see it just peeking out of some clothing and blankets that were near the back of the room.

"Really?" Mai exclaimed, "Already?!"

"Yeah," Harry smiled as he began to reach for it.

Harry could feel the spirit become even more angry at his declaration and new he had to keep Mai back, "Stay over there Mai and I will come over to you in a minute," he warned.

Feeling the anger coming at him from his right side, Harry slowly reached out his arm to get the bear. At this point the temperature dropped to the point Harry could see his breath in the air as he exhaled. Pushing the button on his walkie talkie with his free hand Harry began speaking, hoping it would pick up his voice though he didn't have it up to his mouth.

"Lin-san, the temperature in the basement is dropping very fast, can you watch to see if we pick up anything?"

"Will do," came the reply, "Be careful."

"I will," Harry said just as his fingers touched the bear he felt a surge of anger come at him and overwhelm his sense making him fall backwards and land on his butt hard. It felt like he was floating in the air and really not part of the living world anymore.

"Harry, Harry!" Mai's panicked voice sounded far away and fuzzy, but he knew he had to let her know he was okay.

Feeling himself slowly come back to the world the first intelligent thing Harry could say was, "What?" Even as he felt the satisfaction of the spirit as it left the room.

"Are you okay?" Mai asked, her voice shaking, "You wouldn't answered me when I called you, and then Lin came across the walkie that they captured a voice when you were thrown back."

"Mai, Naru is on his way to you now," Lin's voice came through the walkie-talkie on Harry's side.

"I'm fine Lin," Harry told him after pushing down the button.

"Harry, you didn't answer any of us for almost three minutes," Kazuya voice came from the middle of the stairs above their heads as an answer.

"Three minutes?" Harry asked him, confused as he watched Kazuya walk down the rest of the stairs and approach them.

He thought for a moment, and the only thing he could think of that happened was that he had been put in a mild trance when the spirit shoved the anger towards him. The spirit might have been trying to communicate with him.

"Yes," Kazuya said as he walked over to Harry and held out a hand for him to take.

"Thanks," Harry smiled at him as he took it and was helped to his feet.

After standing he felt something soft in his left hand and looked down and found Koji the bear in his hands. Studying the small blue bear with the red ribbon he wondered what was the significance behind it for the spirit. Taking his attention away from the bear he stared at Kazuya and Mai, "I don't understand," he muttered, pretending to have no clue what had happened to him.

The reason for playing dumb was because he didn't want anyone to know about his empathy. His only reason for not having told anyone, even Hermione and Ron, was because of the way they were treated. When somebody was found to be an empath in the Magical world they were isolated from any type of physical touch, because if somebody touched them with too much emotion it could hurt them. Harry didn't know how they reacted in the Muggle world, but he didn't want to find out, so he kept quiet.

"Let's get back to the room, Harry should rest," Mai said as she looked at him worriedly.

"I'm fine," Harry insisted.

They both didn't listen to him as Kazuya began heading up the stairs and Mai was practically smothering Harry as he followed Kazuya up them. It didn't help with Kazuya glancing back at him every few seconds to see if he was still following or had collapsed. Harry rolled his eyes at both of them and shrugged off Mai's hand when they finally walked through the base door.

Harry was thankful for Lin when the Chinese man spoke up grabbing both Kazuya's and Mai's attention, "We got something, I'll bring it up," he finished pointing to one of the monitor screens that had been paused on the basement with Mai hovering over Harry who was on the floor with his eyes glazed over and a dazed look on his face.

As soon as everybody had gathered around the screen Lin rewound the tape to Harry and Mai first entering the basement.

Pressing the play button Harry's voice came on over the speakers talking to Mai, "I thought it might be a good place to watch," there was a small pause as he turned back to the boxes before speaking again, "Most spirits will have a place out of the way where they can hide, like a home base. Most of the time there will be very little to no activity in such a place. So far this is the only one that hasn't had anything said about it by the family. Plus, if they want a certain object that is where they would hide it as well."

"Really?" Mai's voice was curious as she moved a little towards Harry.

Harry nodded on screen as he answered, "Yeah."

They watched as Mai finished her line of shelves and turn around to look for something else to search and began to head to the shelves underneath the stairs, but all of a sudden she stopped and watched Harry with a look of curiosity. The Harry on screen didn't even acknowledge her as he moved to the back of the room and seem to study the boxes intently.

"Harry?" Mai asked, a little frown on her face as she watched him.

Harry smiled on camera as he said, "I've found Koji the bear."

Really?" Mai exclaimed, "Already?!"

"Yeah," Harry still smiling took his left hand and started to reach past a few boxes, before his smile fell and he stopped.

A few seconds later Harry's voice filled the silence of the room and it was tinged with worry, "Stay over there Mai and I will come over to you in a minute," he warned.

After the warning the Harry on screen slowly began to reach for the bear once more. It was at this point that they could see Harry's breath on the screen, but they couldn't see Mai's who was standing by the stairs. Harry once again paused and they all watched as he reached his other hand down and pushed the button on his walkie before speaking.

"Lin-san, the temperature in the basement is dropping very fast, can you watch to see if we pick up anything?"

"Will do," came the reply , "Be careful."

"NO! Leave it alone!" came a child's voice, shouting.

"I will," Harry said letting go of the button right after he finished talking.

Just as his fingers touched the bear a voice shouted out,"No, leave it alone. It's mine, not yours. Give it back, give it back now!" A second later Harry fell backwards onto his arse and froze, staring at the place where the bear had been.

"That's all we got," Lin said as he stopped the recording and it went back to the live feed video of the basement.

"Right," Kazuya said as he looked at the other teen, "I'll be taking your watch tonight," Harry could feel the worry that the other was emitting.

Harry gave a little sigh, "Really Kazuya, I'm fine," hoping to reassure the older teen.

Kazuya ignored him, "Erika-san, came in while you were gone. Dinner will be ready soon, she will come back and get us when it is done. She has been told of your dietary needs Harry,"he told Harry as he turned to the two, "I believe that you two can work on some homework, while Lin and I monitor things until dinner."

Mai and Harry nodded, gathering the small amount of homework they had to do and settling at the table. Twenty minutes later Erika walked into the room to announce dinner.

Chapter Text

Yume no Naka ni Seishin

Case File Two

Where Are You?

Chapter Twenty Three

Harry gave a sigh as he looked over at the alarm clock next to his bed and saw the bright red numbers only read five minutes past three a.m. After being sent up to bed at 10, Harry and Mai had stayed up for another hour getting their homework done. Only now did he wish he hadn't finished it so he could have something to do. Harry berated himself for not thinking ahead and bringing up a book or even maybe some of his magical lessons. Closing his eyes he rolled over once again and tried to fall asleep, but all he did was toss and turn for another five minutes thinking about the case and how nothing had happened after they found Koji Bear. Giving up on going back to sleep Harry gave another sigh and stretched as he sat up in his bed and decided to get ready for the day.

Not wanting to waste any more time he stood up and made his way to the bathroom. After freshening up, along with a five-minute fight with his hair, he rifled through his bag and pulled out some gray sweatpants and a black hoodie. If he was going to be up this early, he was going to be comfortable. Stripping down to his boxers he immediately grabbed his dragon hide wand holster and strapped it to the inside of his forearm, putting his wand in it, giving a flick of his wrist, he smiled when his wand jumped into his hand. Happy with how the holster was working he put his wand back in it and then finished getting dressed. After he finished getting his clothes on he slipped into his black converse, grabbed his bag, and headed out the door into the hallway and towards the stairway. As he passed the camera shooting the stairway he gave a smile and a small wave, letting Lin know he was on his way down.

Harry walked into the base room a few minutes later to see Lin sitting at the monitors, "Hey Lin-san," he greeted him as he went over and sat down on the other chair, doing a quick once over of all the monitors himself.

"You should be sleeping while you have the chance," Lin told him, glancing over.

"I can't sleep at the moment," Harry said giving a small shrug and pausing for a few minutes before asking, "So, has anything else happened?" Meeting Lin's concerned gaze.

Lin shook his head, "No, nothing since the basement incident," he replied still studying Harry.

Harry gave the nod with a murmured, "Right."

Lin observed him for a minute before he inquired, "Are you going to tell me what happened in the basement. Because I don't believe for one second the excuse that you gave," he stopped for a moment, "There is no way that you don't know what happened to you," he accused.

Harry froze for a moment and then turned to look at Lin, "All I remember is a lot of anger coming towards me. I thought it only lasted for a second at the most," he gave a small shrug, hoping that would be an acceptable answer since it was close to the truth.

Lin watched him and then nodded, "I'll leave it there, but you and I both know that there is something more going on. I'll wait for you to tell me, but if it is something that can put you or other people in danger, then say something."

"If there is anything I will," Harry agreed,

"You are an odd one Potter-san," Lin stated as he went back to checking the monitors.

"You and a lot more people think the same thing," Harry grinned a little as he asked, "Can you try and call me Harry? I hate hearing people call me Potter. Reminds me of a teacher at my old school."

"If you wish," Lin gave a small shrug, as he couldn't help but ask, "How did the teacher say it?"

"With disdain and hate," Harry replied with venom. At Lin's questioning gaze he went on to clarify, "My father bullied him while they were at school together. His hatred for my dad ended up transferring to me when I started there," finishing with a shrug. It didn't bother him that much anymore, but his mother had promised to hex him when she saw him in the afterlife.

"He does realize that you're not your father?" Lin queried.

Harry nodded his head, "He does, but it doesn't matter to him. To be honest, I am not bothered about it anymore. I am in a new school and learning is so much more pleasant now that I don't have to put up with his constant hateful comments or extreme scrutiny."

"Right," Lin nodded, a little smile playing on his lips.

"I think since nothing is going on, I'll do a little reading," Harry said as he got up and went over to his school bag he had left in the room.

Shuffling some of the larger books out of the way Harry found his great, great, great, great, great grandmother's journal and pulled it out. Seeing as the sofa was looking more inviting than the wooden office chair he plonked down onto the couch and opened up the cover to start reading. His great, great, great, great, great-grandmother had been an empath as well, and his hope was that she had some information that might help him on repairing his shield. What he had read so far talked about her shields and what it could do, but so far nothing about fixing one. The information he was learning would have been very useful before his occlumency lessons with Snape. He might not be suffering now if his shield had been stronger, but then again if Snape wouldn't have torn through his mind because of some grudge towards his father he would have been fine too. It was sad that he hadn't the foresight to go into his vault to look before his lessons had started. What was that Muggle saying? Hindsight is 20/20 or something like that.

Harry had only been reading for a few minutes when he felt the spirit begin to move from the basement. Frowning, he closed his eyes and opened up his shields a little bit more to see if he could tell where the boy spirit was moving too. The spirit only spent a few seconds wandering around the main floor before making a hasty move to the second floor. Harry could feel significant amounts of anxiety, but mixed in with it was a right amount of frustration and worry, but what shocked in the most was the little underlining of sadness. To Harry this where the emotions of somebody trying to find something. There was always a healthy dose of anxiety and frustration, but depending on what the person is looking for the last two emotions always differed. With worry and sadness being the last two Harry could only conclude it was something precious for the ghost. What that valuable thing is Harry had no clue, but maybe if they could find it, the spirit would move on.

All of sudden the sadness tripled in strength, completely blocking all the other emotions and making Harry jump off the sofa as a heart-wrenching cry filled the whole house making the air heavy with the sad feeling. His great, great, great, great, great grandmother's journal had fallen to the floor in his haste and Harry quickly bent down, scooping it up, before rushing over to Lin.

"Do you know where it's coming from?" when the sadness had become too overwhelming Harry had immediately erected his shields, so as not to be overwhelmed, and now had no clue where the spirit was.

"No, I can't seem to pinpoint it as it appears to be taking over the whole house," Lin answered in frustration as he began to check the audio feeds from each of the microphones and cameras.

Harry gave a sigh of resignation. Steeling himself he slowly lowered his shields as much as he dared, but had not prepared himself for the overwhelming amount of sadness and loneliness that met him. Swaying slightly, he immediately put his hand on the counter to try and steady himself as he sought to pinpoint the ghost. It was no use the emotions were too high to get a reading of where in the house the boy spirit was and so Harry quickly brought his shield back up and scrutinized the screens in front of him.

The crying had now reached a fevered pitch, and Harry wasn't surprised to see Mai, with her hair all a mess and a bewildered look on her face, come out of her room and head for the stairs to come to the base. Right on her heels was Kazuya, immaculate as ever with his lips in a thin line and a determined look on his face, as he left his bedroom not two minutes later following the same path as Mai. A few moments after that Erika and Royta-san also came out of their room, but instead of heading going towards the stairs and base, they made a beeline to their son's bedroom.

"I can't seem to find the source, in fact, it is coming from everywhere," Lin informed Harry.

Harry was confident that if Lin had been anybody else, he would be growling in frustration, but Lin kept his calm face only showing minor signs of frustration through the narrowing of his eyes and thinning of his lips, as he studied a screen.

All of sudden he leaned back from the screen and started to say, "But..."

At that moment Kazuya flung open the doors to the base room and marched in and headed straight to the monitors barking out, "Anything else going on besides this infernal wail?" Mai followed Kazuya in, but at a more sedated pace and even covering her mouth as a yawn took over.

"No, the sound is coming from everywhere in the house, except Hideki's room." At Kazuya's lifted eyebrow Lin clarified, "There is no crying going on in Hideki's room. In fact, that room is completely silent, even when his parents entered the room no sound followed them across the threshold."

Kazuya looked at him and then back to the monitors as he saw movement. It was Erika and Ryota leaving their son's bedroom. "Interesting," Kazuya mused.

They continued to watch the monitors, with a glimpse of Erika and Ryota every so often; they seemed to be making their way towards base now. The crying only continued for a minute or two and then stopped leaving a feeling of emptiness in its wake. Harry let out a small breath of air and sagged a little in his spot as the dark emotions also left. They had been so powerful that they had slowly been breaking down his shield. Finding the empty office chair, Harry fell into it and zoned out for a minute as he tried to pull what he could of his shields back up.

Coming back from the tedious task Harry found Kazuya and Lin going over the footage with a fine tooth comb, but as far as he could see, there was nothing they were going to get from the video or audio. Mai seemed to have the same idea as she was now sitting on the sofa and appeared to be falling back to sleep, but startled into awareness as the door to the room once again opened letting in Erika and Ryota.

Erika didn't waste any time, in fact, she blurted it out as soon as she came through the door, "We just came from Hideki's room and the same thing we have told you happened. It was completely silent in his room. We couldn't hear anything!" The poor woman was close to panicking as she tried to make sense of what was going on.

Harry tried to calm down Erika by saying, "It does show us that he is considerate of your son."

Unfortunately, it backfired as Erika grew more stressed out, "How could you say that? He hurt my precious Hideki! How could you forget that!"

Seeing that Erika need a lot more than simple placating to calm her down Harry took her arm and steered her to the recliner. Having her sit and seeing that she was as comfortable as she was going to get he began to talk to her in a soothing tone, "I did not forget that Hideki was attacked Erika-san." The woman looked up at him with tears in her eyes, "I believe what happened to Hideki was a case of a distressed child acting out when they don't get their way. I don't think it was meant on purpose, especially of what I have seen of the case so far."

Harry had been so focused on calming Erika down that he startled a little when he heard Kazuya's voice right behind him say, "I agree with you, Harry." Turning to Erika and Ryota, who had come to stand next to the chair he continued, "Hideki hasn't been hurt before then, am I correct?"

"No, only the once," Ryota confirmed, "But I still want to know what is going on, and why this spirit has latched onto my son."

"And we will be doing our best to help you," Kazuya reassured him, then added, "I believe that we should all go back to bed."

There were murmurs of agreement from Mai, Ryota, and Erika as they left the room. Harry watched them go and then turned towards Kazuya, who was glaring at him. "What?" he asked.

"You were already in here by the time Mai and I got here," he stated. "Why are you up, you should have been resting."

Harry gave him a sheepish smile, "I couldn't sleep anymore. So I got up and came here."

"Then I suggest that you go to bed now and try and get a little more," Kazuya suggested to him and turned around to talk to Lin some more about the case.

He stopped though when Harry said, "Look, I am not tired. I think I will stay here and read some more."

Kazuya glared over his shoulder at him, but he seemed to realize bullying Harry back to bed wasn't going to work as he turned back to Lin saying, "You might as well go to sleep Lin. It is only a half an hour until four; I will be all right."

"Alright," Lin agreed, getting up and heading to the door. As he passed Harry he paused for a second, "Naru is right, you should go to bed and sleep while you have the chance."

Giving a sigh of exasperation Harry laid it out for both Kazuya and Lin, "Look I'm fine. I don't sleep that much and never have. I have always slept for no more than five hours. After that, I can't sleep anymore, even when I try," Finished with his little speech he ignored Lin and Kazuya look of disbelief, walked over to the monitors and sat down in an empty office chair.

Lin shook his head as he walked out of the base room without another word. Harry looked at him, a little shocked that he had been able to hear Lin at all. It had been a few months into his fourth year when he had first started to hear people's thoughts; it wasn't very often at first. Only occasional from Hermione and Ron, but then he began to hear others. Most of the time it only happened when their thoughts were robust enough to come through. Kazuya came over next to Harry and took the other office chair and continued to stare at Harry making him feel uncomfortable.

Knowing what the other teen was wanting from him, he finally gave in, "I will only stay up a little bit longer, then I will try to get some more sleep."

Kazuya nodded his head. "Very well. You do know that I am only pestering you for your good. You never know what will happen in a case and being well-rested keeps your energy up for those unknowns." Kazuya lectured.

Harry gave him a small smile as he opened the journal back up, realizing it had been in his hand through the whole incident. He had only gotten halfway through the first page when he felt Kazuya's stare once more on him, "Yes?" he asked looking up from the page.

"What is the book you're reading?" Kazuya asked him, as he examined the cover for any title.

"It's my great, great, great, great, great grandma's journal. She started it as a young child, so she could learn how to write. In actuality, most of my family for generations have written a journal. In fact, I have started one myself not too long ago." he said with a smile all the while thinking about what they were used for, but Kazuya didn't need to know that.

In fact, all the journals, including Harry's, were filled with spells, potions, and rituals that a witch or wizard would devise as they grew, as well tell about what was happening around them at that time. Harry didn't start his journal until his fourth year. He had filled it with everything that had happened from his time with the Dursley's up to everything that had happened at Hogwarts at the time.

"What things are written in there? If you don't mind me asking," Kazuya asked with a nod towards the journal, Harry could feel his curiosity spike.

"Well, my great, great, great, great, great grandmother was around during the witch trials. She writes a lot about the innocent people that were tried, convicted and then burned at the stake or hung. My family took it upon themselves to help them escape the persecution. She writes about things that she has seen and done. Along with other things that are personal," he explained to Kazuya.

Kazuya looked at him in interest, "I've not heard of personal accounts from the witch trials still being around."

"That is true; I am sure a lot of them were locked away like mine where to be kept safe. I think I might be the first person in my family to have read what she wrote." Harry said with a loving smile.

"Still unusual," Kazuya murmured as he glanced back at the monitors.

The two drifted into silence as Kazuya continued to watch the screens and Harry read a little more of his great, great, great, great, great grandmother's journal. It wasn't until an hour later when Harry yawned that the silence broke.

"You should try and get a little more sleep," Kazuya said as he turned to the other teenager.

Harry nodded in agreement, "Yeah, suppose you're right about that," he grinned a little as he bound the journal and stood up, "I'll be up in a few," he murmured.

"Night," Kazuya gave a small, barely there smile as he turned back to the monitors.

Harry smiled, "Night," he then went back to his bedroom and climbed into bed. Yawning as he quickly drifted off to sleep.

XxXxX

Breakfast was over, and the four of them were back in the base room. Kazuya went over to one of the arms chairs and sat down. The others quickly did the same as they waited for their boss to tell them their orders for the day.

"Right," he said as he looked to Mai, "Mai, I want you to spend the day with Hideki, he seem to have connected with you during breakfast."

Mai smiled happily, "Right boss, I'll watch over him. I know that he is going to be in his playroom while Erika does the housework and Ryouta-san is going to work for a couple of hours today."

Kazuya nodded and then looked to Harry, "You and I will be doing a walk-through of the house."

"Okay," Harry nodded in agreement, wondering why the two of them would be doing so.

"We may try an E.V.P session as we go," Kazuya then added as he glanced to Lin, "You will be here monitoring us all. Please make sure to get in touch with one of us if there is a need."

"Will do," Lin nodded as he went over to the monitors and sat down, looking through them.

"Let's get to work then," Kazuya said as he grabbed two walkie talkies and handed one to Mai. She gave a mock salute and then headed to the playroom.

Kazuya and Harry walked out of the base room and headed toward the basement first. The whole walk they said nothing to each other, but Harry could feel Kazuya's curiosity and even caught him looking at him from the corner of his eye occasionally.

"Right, now what," Harry stated once they made it down into the dark and cold room.

Harry opened his shields a little, and once he was able to filter out Kazuya's emotions, he found that the spirit was still not in the basement, but wandering the second-floor hallway.

He had to bit his tongue on saying anything when Kazuya announced, "Let's start an EVP session."

Knowing they wouldn't catch anything, Harry still went along with it. Asking a question and then waiting a few minutes and then Kazuya asking a question and waiting for a few moments. All in all the EVP session only lasted a few minutes and surprised surprise when they were done and played back the tape they received nothing.

Kazuya seemed to be a little frustrated, "Well since that didn't receive any results let us go to the main floor and do one in each of the rooms. Maybe they will turn up something."

Harry wanted to tell Kazuya that it would be a waste of their time and that the spirit was on the second floor, but he had no idea how he could do it without bringing any suspicion on himself. So with reluctance Harry followed Kazuya up from the basement and into the first room they came across. They repeated this several times with the same results. It took them an hour to finish the ground floor and by that time Harry could feel Kazuya's frustration like his own.

"This is getting us nowhere," Kazuya grumbled as he turned off the audio recorder in the last room on the ground floor, once again with nothing on it but their voices.

At this Harry decided to speak up. "You know the spirit seems pretty attached to Hideki; maybe it is in the playroom with him?" He glanced at Kazuya hoping he had bought his little white lie to get them to the second floor.

Kazuya seemed to think about it for a moment and then gave a nod of his head, "You might be right Harry. We'll head to the second floor."

Giving Kazuya a smile, Harry agreed and followed Kazuya out of the room and up the stairs to the second floor. They were halfway up the stairs when Harry had to stop altogether and grab onto the railing with both hands to keep from falling over. A wave of anger had completely caught him off guard and made him feel dizzy and weak.

His sudden stop and grip of the railing with both hands must have alerted Kazuya who was in front of him because the older teen came back. "Harry," concerned laced Kazuya's voice as he reached out a hand to touch Harry's shoulder.

Thankfully before Kazuya's hand made contact with him Lin's deep voice came over the walkie talkie with a sense of urgency, "Naru, there is a temperature drop in the playroom. Something is going on. "I'm heading there now."

Kazuya snatched up the walkie talkie from where it had been hanging on his belt and pressed down the button answering Lin, "All right, we'll meet you there," clipping the walkie back into place he turned his dark blue eyes back to Harry just as he was straightening himself back up.

Harry met Kazuya's eyes with his emerald green,"Let's go," ignoring the concerned look that KAuzya was still sending his way, "We need to hurry." Harry stated as he moved passed Kazuya and up the last few steps.

The whole time he was trying to pull up his shields as best he could, but the anger was so strong that it was showing itself to be a futile task. Of course, Kazuya didn't take long in catching back up to Harry, and as they reached the top of the steps, the older teen passed Harry taking the lead once again. Hitting level floor the two started sprinting down the hallway to the playroom. They both say Lin reach the door of the room, while they were still two doors down. Lin had just stepped through the doorway when a high pitched scream rang down the hall. Both boys recognized it as Mai and increased their speed to a sprint to cover the last two feet as quickly as possible.

Skidding to a stop in the middle of the room Kazuya and Harry took in the aftermath of what happened. Mai was crouched in the far left corner of the chamber. They could barely make out the top of Hideki's hair as Mai had all but wrapped herself around the boy as if shielding him from something. All they could see of Mai was the right side of her face, and that had a slow trickle of blood running down to the side face from a small cut on her cheek. Seeing as Harry still didn't have his shields up all the way, he could not feel the spirit in the room anymore. In fact, it was back in the basement, and the anger had subsided back into sadness and loneliness.

Kazuya was the first to move out of them, and he immediately went over to Mai and Hideki, kneeling down in front of them he asked, "Are you both all right?"

Mai gave a sharp nod of her head to answer Kazuya's question and slowly loosened her hold on Hideki, who now revealed, had tears running down his face. Harry could see both sets of eyes filled with fear. He didn't even need his empathic ability to tell they were both scared.

Harry slowly made his way over to the small group and kneeled down on Kazuya's left side. Placing a comforting hand on Mai's back, he began to make slow, soothing circles trying to calm her down. Seeing Hideki needed comfort as well Harry put his other hand on the little boy's back and began doing the same thing. Giving them what he hoped was a reassuring smile he whispered, "We should head back to base," giving a quick glance at Kazuya.

Kazuya gave a small nod, as the two of them helped Mai and Hideki off the floor, Erika came into the room them as they got up. She didn't even stop to ask what happened, she immediately went to her son and took him from Mai, holding him carefully as he continued to cry. There was fear in her eyes as she went and took her son from Mai. Holding him closely as he cried.

"Come on let's get back to base and talk about what happened," Harry suggested out loud for Erika's benefit as he kept his hand on Mai's back applying slight pressure to get her moving out of the room.

That was all it took for everybody else to move, with Kazuya heading out the door first followed by Erika and Hideki, and then Mai and Harry, with Harry leaving last, giving the room one last look before following everybody else. Making it to base Harry found Lin had gone to the kitchen to get some tea for all of them at Kazuya's request. With a little more, they were able to get them all back to the base room. Harry went and found the first aid kit and sat next to Mai on the couch, setting the bag on the small coffee table and opening it up took out some wipes and bandages. Harry sat down, a first aid box on his lap as he asked Mai to turn towards him so he could take care of the cut on her cheek.

As Harry started doing this Lin walked in with a tray full of tea cups and a steaming teapot. It didn't take long for Harry to finish with Mai's cut and as he placed the bandage over it, a cup was put in her hands, and one sat next to the first aid kit for him by Lin. Harry nodded his thanks and began to put everything away.

He watched as Mai took a small sip and seemed to relax some. Kazuya must have seen this as well for he finally spoke, "Mai," he waited until she looked at him before continuing, "Can you tell us what happened?" Kazuya asked her as soon as everyone had a cup of tea in their hands and Mai's cheek was taken care of.

Taking another sip of her tea, Mai seemed to collect herself before launching into her side of the story, "We were playing with the toys like we had been all day. As we were playing the room felt like it suddenly got colder," Mai paused to glance at Harry, "kind of like what happened in the basement." Harry gave her a nod that he understood what she was saying. Mai gave a small smile before turning back to Kazuya and continuing, "It was then that I heard Lin over the walkie saying that the temperature had dropped drastically. I was getting ready to hit the button to tell him that I could feel it when I saw something out of the corner of my eye. I noticed just in time that it was one of Hideki's wooden blocks and dodged it." By now Mai's voice was shaking a little, and she had to stop there and take a sip of tea to try and calm down. Harry could feel her fear as if it was his own and had to erect his shields to stop from being overwhelmed quickly. Mai seemed to have collected enough of herself to continue, "As the toy missed me Hideki cried out to leave me alone and that I was playing with him. The whole room at this point got very still, but it only lasts a second before Hideki's toy train lifted off the floor and came flying at me. I was so shocked by this that I forgot to move out of the way and it hit me on the cheek," gesturing to the band-aid that covered the small cut, "Then Lin showed up, and the temperature went back to normal." She finished with a frustrated look on her face.

Harry took Mai's hand and gave it a squeeze as he felt her frustration, confusion, and fear at the attack on her. Wanting to bring her back to the now he said, "Thanks for telling us what happened." squeezed her hand, reassuring her a little. He could still feel her terror and fear as he held her hand. The emotions were strong, but not strong enough to cause him any true problems.

Mai gave him a small smile for his words. Giving him a squeeze back before removing her hand so she could pick up her tea cup and take another sip. Harry, seeing he wasn't needed anymore also reached for his teacup and moved his gaze to Kazuya, but as he did so he caught an object by the monitors that he had forgotten until now. Setting his cup back on the small coffee table, he stood and walked over to the little blue bear, picked it up, and turned around holding it out to Hideki.

"Koji!" Hideki yelled in happiness.

Everyone in the room followed his movements as he went over to where the monitors were and pulled out Koji, "Koji!" Hideki yelled, happiness colouring his voice as he saw the bear in Harry's hands.

"Yes," Harry smiled as he walked over to him, "I was able to find him yesterday, I forgot to come and bring him back to you," handing the bear over to the excited child. over the bear.

"Thank you," Hideki said as he took the bear and hugged it tightly.

"Let's hope he doesn't go for another walk around," Harry teased, smiling. smiled to him.

"Hideki," Kazuya called the attention of the little boy, "I need you to tell me what happened in the playroom?"

"But Mai-chan already said," Hideki he answered, confusion apparently coming through a little confused.

Harry smiled atto him as he knelt in front of the small boy, sitting his mother's lap, "I know she did, but we have to hear it from your point of view as well. So, can you tell us?"

Hideki studied Harry's face for a few seconds and seeing what he was looking for nodded and hesitantly started his version of events, "I was playing with Mai-chan and was having tons of fun, though I did think it would be more fun if Koji were there. The little boy showed up, but after last time I saw him I still didn't want to talk to him so I didn't. He got mad and said I was mean and that I should play with him. When I kept on not talking to him, he became even more angry and stated that Mai was stupid and he was going to hurt her so that I would play with him. That is when he threw the block at her. I got mad at him for trying to hurt Mai-chan, and so I yelled at him to leave her alone and that I didn't want him there. He seemed to get even madder at that and threw my train at her and hurt her. It was after that I grew scared of him and thought he was going to hurt me next." He huddled into his mother who had brought him closer as his story progressed.

Not wanting to distress the child more Harry patted his head saying, "Good lad," ruffling his hair for extra measures Harry smiled to him, ruffling his hair.

Hideki gave a small smile, which quickly turned into a scowl, as he tried to bat Harry's hand away from his hair. , "Okay."

Erika seeing her child had recovered somewhat from his fright said into the silence,"I think I shall go make some lunch since it is almost that time." Standing up with Hideki on her hip. "Is everything to be the same as last night," looking at Kazuya for confirmation.

"Yes, the same as last night," Harry answered her instead of Kazuya. He could tell she was only asking to keep her mind off the fear she felt for her family. smiled to her, "And thank you,"."He added with a smile.

"You're Welcome," she nodded with a smile and gave a small smile as she turned around and walked out of the base room, taking Hideki with her.

Mai turned to the others after watching Erika and Hideki leave with Hideki, "Naru, do you think the same thing that happened with Kuroda could be going on here?"

Harry shook his head from where he was sat beside her, "No, I don't think that is the case here."

"But we can still check for that tonight, just to make sure," Kazuya said in a deep, thoughtful tone. "It would be a good idea to eliminate all possibilities," even though he believed that it wasn't the cause of the goings on in the house.

"We'll do that tonight before Hideki goes to bed. We'll tell them that we have something we need to do, but nothing about what it is," Harry suggested as he got a nod of agreement from Kazuya.

Harry knew that PK wasn't the cause of the goings on as, he could feel that spirit at that moment back in the basement. There was once again a feeling of sadness and loneliness coming from him.

"I think I should go and see if Erika-san would like a little help in the kitchen, or for me to watch over Hideki while she cooks," Mai said as she stood up and went over to the desk, grabbing a walkie talkie from it.

"Keep us informed of anything that happens, no matter how small or even unimportant you think it is," Kazuya told her.

"Will do," she nodded as she began to head out of the door. There was an air of seriousness about her that hadn't been there before.

Kazuya gave a sigh, "So far," he began, as the door closed behind Mai, "we have the spirit crying in the hallway last night,. A a voice in the basement, that sounded childish, and then now the attack on Mai in the playroom just."

"I think we are dealing with the spirit of a child," Harry said as he could feel that from the spirit.

Kazuya nodded, "Yes, but why is the spirit coming through now. From what we have gathered from the family. Ryota was living here with his mother when he was a child. Nothing happened during that time. But when he came to live here again with his child, things have started up."

Harry nodded, "I don't know, I think we're going to have to investigate a little more. There is a library near here; they might have some local records,?" he suggested?.

Kazuya looked at him, "I would have suggested going there, but I think we shall have to leave it for another day. They close early today," he told Harry when he saw his questioning look, "I looked up the times for the local library. They are an excellent source of information when it comes to finding out about the spirits that might be in a house."

Harry smiled, "Right, I think I might do some homework then if we don't have anything pressing to do?" he queried.

Kazuya nodded saying, "Do as you need," then went over to Lin, who was sitting in front of the monitors.

It was then that Mai walked back in, "Ryouta-san is back from work. He is with Hideki and Erika is making lunch."

"All right," Kazuya said nodded to her as he turned back to the monitors.

"I'm going to finish my homework, you joining me?" Harry asked her as he picked up his backpack and went over to the table on the far side of the room?.

Mai nodded and grabbed her bag, "Would be a good idea, wouldn't do to go back to school without it done," she grinned a little as she sat down and began to pull out the work she had left.

Harry grinned back as he did the same and the two set to work until Erika called them for lunch twenty minutes later.

XxXxX

Kazuya, Mai, and Harry gathered in the living room. In front of them sat the Sasaki family, Hideki on his mother's lap and Ryouta-san on her left. The red light from the lamp pulsed slowly. Giving an air of calmness to the room as Kazuya stood before them with a small vase in his hands.

"Tonight the vase that is in my hands will move in this room," Kazuya's voice sounded hypnotic as he spoke almost in a rhythm as he let the words sink into the unconscious mind of the three before him.

All eyes went to the vase. Moments later Mai turned the light on and broke the three out of the semi-trance. They looked to the vase once more before Mail then led them out of the room.

"Harry goes and gets the other cameras, I want them set up in here now," Kazuya said as he followed Harry out of the room.

"Sure," he murmured as he walked to the base room, he could feel feeling the curious eyes of Kazuya on him.

It didn't take long for Kazuya and Harry to have the room set up and locked so no one else would be able to get in there. Mai was in the base room with Lin when the two of them came back and gave them a smile when she saw them.

"Everything set up,?" she asked?, although she already knew the answer as she had been watching them through the monitors.

"Yes, now we just have to wait and see if anything happens," Kazuya said as he went and sat down at the table and looked at the notes he had made earlier.

"Want to do a little homework?" Harry asked Mai, as it was only four hours until midnight and there was nothing else they could do.

"Sure," she agreed as she the two of them grabbed their school bags.

Harry also grabbed his bag and followed her to the couch and began pulling out books and notebooks. Harry could feel Kazuya's stare on them, along with a feeling of relief and Harry could only guess that he must be happy he didn't have to do this.

A little while later, Kazuya's voice interrupted Harry and Mai from an argument over a math problem, "Harry, you will have the midnight to four shift. Lin, you'll have the four to eight shift."

"All right," Harry answered not even looking over at Kazuya and Lin did the same. nodded as Lin did the same.

The rest of the night passed and soon all, but Harry had gone to bed. It was quiet for most of the evening; it was only when four in the morning was beginning to approach when Harry felt the spirit stirring. He looked at the monitors and saw him in the hallway upstairs. It was a small child, maybe even a toddler walking down the halls, looking sad.

Harry quickly wrote down the time and the monitor he first appeared on and then watched. He turned up the sound, hoping that he would be able to hear something as the spirit wandered towards Hideki's room. The door opened, and Harry watched on the other monitor as the spirit went to Hideki's bed. The covers flew off, and Harry was glad that the little boy was in his parent's room that night.

"Where," came the sad voice of a little boy.

Harry looked on sadly as the spirit left the room and walked along the corridor. Moments later Harry lost track but soon felt the spirit back in the basement. Harry sighed as he thought of the loneliness that the spirit was feeling. Harry began to make notes on what had happened and where the spirit was on the monitors. He leaned back and waited for the end of his shift.

"Anything happen?" Lin asked as he walked into the room.

"Yeah there was something," Harry answered.

Lin's face showed his shock, but it quickly disappeared as he went into work mode. "What happened?"

"I was watching the monitors when I caught sight of a spirit of a small boy wandering the second-floor hallway. I marked it in this notebook for you guys to review later," Harry said lifting up the said notebook.

Lin nodded, "Anything else."

"Yeah," Harry answered, "He walked into Hideki's room and the camera in that room was also able to capture the spirit, so I also marked that down in the notebook too," Harry said tapping the notebook. At Lin's nod he continued, "As I watched him, he went over to Hideki's bed and tore all the covers off like he was looking for something and then the equipment was able to catch him saying, 'Where?' and right after that he just disappeared. Nothing else happened after that" Harry finished, holding back that he knew exactly where the spirit had gone.

"Interesting," Lin said as he pondered over what Harry told him, "Did the vase move in the locked room or anything else peculiar happen in there?"

Harry shook his head, "No, nothing at all." He stood up and stretched a little before moving away from the chair so Lin could take it. "Honestly, once you see the footage you will know that it is a spirit causing all that is going on," a little grin on his shook his head as he stood up, and moved aside.

Lin nodded once more as he took Harry's seat, "All right, I'll have a look and then get it ready for when Naru gets up in the morning.," he told the teen.

"As I said all the times you need are on the notepad. Goodnight Lin and take care." He said as he headed for the door and hopefully a good rest.

"Goodnight Harry," he heard Lin say as he left the room.