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There was a crashing sound and Mai, having ducked instinctively, raised her head, eyes wide. There was a hole in the wall directly behind where Naru's head had been a moment before and, sitting innocently on the floor in front of it was-Mai balked. "Is that my frying pan!?"

With a sigh of relief, Bou-san released Naru and then sprawled out where he was on the floor. "Man, that was a close one. You alright there, Naru-bou?"

Naru just blinked slowly, still on the floor.

"Naru?" Mai reached out, shaking his shoulder slightly to try to bring him back to focus, worried. "Are-are you okay, Naru?"

Finally, Naru nodded. "Yes, yes, I'm fine." He sat up slowly, and looked over at the hole, grimacing at the sight. "I can't say I have ever had a frying pan thrown at me before."

Unable to help herself, Mai laughed in disbelief. "You are seriously too calm about this."

"Being calm is better than getting worked up," said Naru, getting back up to his feet. He looked over at Mai. "I'll have that repaired before we leave," he said, nodding towards the hole in the wall.

Mai blinked. "Oh, um, yeah, okay." Unsure of what else to say, she watched as Naru made his way back to the Base, the flying frying pan clearly having calmed him down from his earlier rage. Once Naru was out of sight, Mai turned to Bou-san, who was still laying on the floor, and sat down beside him. "What happened?"

Bou-san shook his head. "I'm not really sure," he said. "Lin was watching the monitors after Naru stormed out, and I was watching too when you followed, and then we just saw the frying pan coming at you guys, and I ran out to try and stop it, and grabbed Naru-bou to get him out of the way. Didn't really think about any of it. It all just sort of...happened."

Mai nodded slowly, still trying to wrap her mind around what had just happened. It was all just so strange, she didn't know what to think. Naru suddenly lashing out the way he had had been odd enough, but a frying pan of all things being thrown? That was just... "Why was the pan aimed at Naru though?" she asked out loud.

Bou-san frowned. "Do you ever bring people over? Do they ever get attacked?" Because it was awfully strange that the frying pan had been heading towards Naru's head, rather than Mai's. They knew the entity was targeting Mai, so why had it just tried to attack Naru instead of taking another shot at her, like it had been for all these months?

"Not anymore, no," said Mai. "My friends, Keiko and Michiru used to come by in the beginning, but they said they didn't like the way the house felt, so they stopped coming. They weren't attacked or anything, they just didn't like the feel." She frowned. "The weird thing is that this was before activity actually started up."

"Neither of them are sensitives or anything, are they?"

Mai shook her head. "No, not at all. That's why I thought it was weird that they felt something here before I did. Usually it's the other way around. Nothing actually started happening until a couple of months after they stopped coming over. I guess that's why it surprised me so much when it started. I didn't really think anything was actually wrong when they were saying that stuff, since I figured I'd have sensed something if there was."

Bracing his hands on the floor, the monk sat up. "So while we aren't the first group of people who aren't you or Ayako to come around here, this is the first case of someone other than yourself getting attacked." It was a statement and question rolled into one.

Mai nodded anyway. "Yeah, I think so."

Of course, this only made things stranger. If Mai's friends used to come around here before, and the rest of them had been here for some hours already, why was it Naru of all people that the entity had suddenly chosen to try to attack? Why not any of the rest of them who had more noticeable abilities-ones they could actually use safely, unlike Naru? Or why not just Mai? Why attack at all? Had Naru said or done something to upset the entity? Did it just not like him?

Bou-san sighed heavily, and stood. "C'mon," he said, holding a hand out, "might as well head back to the Base."

Accepting the hand, and allowing the man to help her up to the feet, Mai sighed as well. "This whole thing is making less and less sense," she said quietly.

"It really is, Jou-chan."

No one seemed to know what to say in the Base once they were all back in there. The frying pan incident had managed to catch them all off guard, and though it had ended without harm, the implications were still rather alarming. If this wasn't a one-off, and the entity decided to attempt to attack others, would it try to go after the rest of them? Were all of them now in the same amount of danger as Mai?

It was hard to say for sure after just a single attack, but they decided in unison that it was better for them to be safe, rather than sorry. Even if none of the rest of them would be attacked, it would be better and safer for them all to take precautions and be even more careful, and do what they could to prevent possible future attacks, if they would even occur.

But they knew nothing. Nothing about who or even what the entity was, nothing about what the entity's motivations were-nothing about what they were doing, why they were doing it, what they wanted out of any of this. This was only their first day investigating, yes, but over all these hours, hours that seemed to have passed so incredibly slowly, they were finally beginning to realize that they really knew absolutely nothing about this case at all.

They ended things there that night. It had been an incredibly long day, and they were all utterly exhausted. There didn't seem to be anything else they could do at the moment so, making sure the cameras had fresh tapes, and the recorders new batteries, they called it a night and headed to bed.

Cautious about anyone remaining alone after the earlier attack, especially in such a state as vulnerable as sleeping, they made sure to pair up and share rooms. It would be much safer that way, they all figured.

That's it for now. Looking forward to reviews! Laterz!