The job seemed boring, but Mai rather liked the house.

It was very old, but not in a creepy way; the architecture was gorgeous, and it smelled like something musky that Mai couldn't exactly identify. The entire time that Lin and Naru were moving in, Mai was peeking behind corners and sliding down railings, fascinated by each new discovery she made.

Of course, this earned her several disapproving looks from Naru.

"Stop playing around," he told her sternly, and put another heavy box down with a slight grunt. "We could use your help, you know. Go get the lighter camera tripods."

Mai gave an intentionally loud sigh. "Fine…"

It took them only a couple of hours to get a home base of sorts set up in one of the numerous spare rooms. Once that had been completed, Mai and Lin headed off to set up cameras around the house.

They didn't actually have enough cameras to put one in each room, so they prioritized bedrooms, hallways, and kitchens, mounting one on each room's wall or on a tripod. Lin was quiet, as could be expected, and Mai was babbling endlessly about the house.

"It's so beautiful," she rambled, and gave Lin a smile. "Have you seen the kitchens? There are three of them, Lin! They're huge! There's one that has this giant sink with this curved silver faucet with designs engraved-"

Lin sighed. "We're in that kitchen right now, Mai. I can see."

This did not deter Mai in the slightest, and she continued to go on about each room they entered.

Just once, Mai thought she felt something in one of the rooms-the wine cellar. It was dusty and well lit enough, but for a fraction of a second, she could have sworn that something was watching her. It was such a strong, terrifying presence that her knees wobbled, but it went away so quickly that she only got as far as opening her mouth to tell Lin before she felt fine again.

Lin gave her a questioning look, but because she doubted herself-or perhaps because she just never learned-she kept quiet about it, and soon forgot.

It was nearly nightfall by the time that Monk and Ayako showed up.

"Took you long enough," Naru commented, and turned grumpily back to his computer. Mai thought he seemed, if possible, more unhappy than usual, but she didn't know why. Lin also seemed a bit wary, but he tended to be on edge, especially when the numbers of the group rose from just Mai, Naru, and himself to include the others. His job was hard enough already, keeping him up all day and night, and on top of that, he was the one who battled off angry spirits until the other exorcists arrived. Mai imagined that using his shiki was probably rather tiring. By the time the others got there, he was generally already worn down, and then he'd have to add the buzzing sound of additional conversations to his list of annoyances. Luckily, he hadn't had to use his spirits on this case yet, so it wasn't as bad as it could have been.

"Sorry," Monk said, overriding Ayako's offended noise. "We were waiting to carpool with Masako and John, but their plane was late, so we ended up coming without them. They should be here very early in the morning, though." Spotting Mai, he gave a wide grin, which she returned happily.

"Yasu's really not coming, then?" Mai asked, disappointed.

"He's got an exam of some sort," said Monk, rolling his eyes. He winked, however, adding, "I think he intends to throw us a 'surprise' party at the office once we finish this case. Don't tell him I told you, okay?"

"Any activity yet?" Ayako asked, ignoring him.

"Nothing," Mai told her brightly. "No cold spots or noises or anything."

"That either means it's hiding or very weak," Monk reflected, taking a look into Lin's screens. "Hopefully, it's the latter."

Naru's eyes seemed to harden a bit at this, but Mai supposed that she could be imagining it.

"It's probably an earth spirit," Ayako determined confidently, and both Mai and Monk had to contain their laughter.

"It's best to get to sleep early," Naru told them, not even cracking a smile. "It will be a long day of investigation tomorrow." He indicated the numerous sleeping mats on the floor-there had been enough room in the base this time to set up sleeping quarters there-and Mai, Monk, and Ayako climbed into bed. Naru, however, stayed by Lin's side, staring unblinkingly at the glowing monitors.

Long after Monk and Ayako had started snoring, Mai was unpleasantly awake, blinded by the lights from the screens. Resigning herself to a night without sleep, she tiptoed out of the room as quietly as she could, then fumbled her way around in the dark until she reached the front door. The door squeaked more loudly than she'd have liked, but it was far enough away that she felt confident it wouldn't wake the others.

She was only alone on the house's front steps for a minute or two before Naru silently joined her, making her think of a rather lanky bat. Stifling a giggle, she turned her head so that she could see him properly.

He looked faintly displeased. How unusual.

She stopped. It's too late at night to be sarcastic, Mai.

As was typical, Naru was silent, despite being the one who came to sit by her; instead of talking, the pale boy preferred to stare distantly into space, as if nothing could ever equal the importance of the hue of the night sky, or the glimmer of the stars.

Mai allowed a few minutes of this quiet before cutting in. "Everything okay? I know this job is really boring…"

Naru glanced at her rather quickly, his dark eyes betraying not the slightest hint of emotion. Mai felt a heat in her face that indicated irritation, but she couldn't go off on him–not in the middle of the night at a house they were supposed to be investigating professionally.

Maybe she could cheer him up, though. Struck with inspiration, her clumsy fingers grabbed a random rock from the gravel at their feet.

"Hey, Naru," she said in a higher-pitched voice than her own, showing him the pebble. "Is your coin friend around? I wanted to say hi!"

She knew as Naru glared at her that she sounded like a total idiot, and she grimaced. She'd just wanted to make him laugh, but apparently, her attempt was so horrendous that it went beyond humor and straight to pity.

To her surprise, however, the coin was suddenly in Naru's agile hand, peeking out from behind his pointer finger.

"He thinks your pebble is mentally unstable," Naru informed her in a flat tone.

Mai laughed so hard that she accidentally dropped the pebble, but quick as a flash, Naru had caught it and was handing it back to her. His hands were surprisingly warm, but Mai tried not to think too hard about that as she tucked the tiny rock into her pocket. She wasn't sure why she was keeping it, except that Naru had caught it and given it back to her.

"Leave her alone," Mai snapped at him instinctively, still laughing. "Just because your coin's all shiny he thinks he can insult good pebbles like that…"

The banter between the two of them continued for several minutes before Naru became noticeably tired, and Mai suggested that he go to bed. He seemed oddly hesitant, and Mai wondered to herself if something about the case was bothering him. She'd sensed it earlier, too-something about the case was making him uncomfortable, but she couldn't think of what. They'd been on plenty of cases nearly identical to this one-even if the spirit was strong and just disguising itself, they'd never been beaten in a situation like this before.

"You're not sure about this house, are you?" she finally asked, wondering if he'd be angry at her for asking.

Naru gave a sigh and looked down at his hands, clearly deep in thought. "What kind of haunting that is severe enough to warrant the vacating of the house stays quiet for a whole day?" Mai knew by his tone that he didn't want an answer, and so she said nothing in return.

It was a good question, and it made Mai nervous, but she managed to convince Naru that it was time for bed; she was worried by how unnerved he looked. After they took their respective places on the floor of the base, Mai subconsciously watched him. She knew by the unchanged speed of his breathing and his stiffness that he hadn't fallen asleep, but she couldn't stay awake long, and soon drifted off despite her concern.