Mai burst in the partially dismantled base as I finished wrapping up a wire, her eyes wide with shock. "What's going on? Where's Naru?" She demanded, partially out of breath.

"Cleaning up. Sleeping in the van." I gestured to the half empty bottle of coffee. "Want some?"

It took me a moment to realize that she'd left with the coffee. Sighing, I grabbed the other bundled up wires and trotted after her.

I caught up to her as she pressed her face to the side window, and began knocking impaitiently on the glass. "Na-ru! You're going to catch a cold, sleeping out here!" She chided, moving around to the open trunk to get a better look at the black-clad corpse.

The corpse twitched. After a minute, the jacket/blanket slipped off as Naru sleepily unfolded and then opened his eyes. "Mai." He muttered, running a hand through his hair. "What are you doing here this early in the morning?"

Mai flushed, no doubt flustered by how impossibly good-looking he was right when he woke up. "Ear-early in the morning? It's already past 11 am. Ah, would you like a cup of coffee?"

"Sure."

He sat up stiffly as she poured, coughing to clear his throat. I'd almost feel bad for him if he hadn't ordered me to sleep in the passenger seat ("I'm tired. If you want to leave, walk back yourself.") with no guarantee that we wouldn't be mugged in the middle of the night ("It hasn't happened yet, has it?"). When I'd gotten up to pray Fajr, I'd spent a few minutes stretching out my cramped limbs before I could even stand up straight. "Sleep well?"

He ignored me.

Mai handed him the steaming cup. "Did you find anything last night?"

"Yeah."

Silence.

"Really?!"

"Hey, what's happening in the lab?" Ayako demanded as she, John and Bou-san strode up after having checked the base. "What's going on, little boy? You're already packing up?"

"Correct." Naru replied, standing as he finished off his coffee.

Their eyes widened simultaneously. "You must be kidding!" Ayako shrieked the same time Bou-san demanded, "Why?!"

"I'm closing the case."

"Did you exorcise?"

"No, I didn't." Turning to where he'd been sleeping, he sifted through the pile of papers and handed them to the confused monk as if they were all the answer they'd need.

Bou-san raised an eyebrow. "What's this?"

"A level scale graph." Naru took the wires I'd been holding and tucked them on one of the shelves. "The building sank more than 0.2 inch just overnight."

"Whaaat?!"

"Land subsidence." Naru's laptop pinged from where it sat in the corner, it's screen partially lowered. He slid it over to me. Pushing back the top, I saw an email from Lin. Kuroda-san has entered the building. She went straight up the stairs.

Lin had harangued Naru into setting up a camera specifically for the purpose of keeping an eye on the base. I'll let him know.

"That's it? The psychic phenomenon was caused by this?" Ayako asked disbelievingly. I tried to hold back a snicker as Bou-san and Mai gave up trying to read the graph.

"This whole development was built in top of damp ground. Based on the number of wells that I checked, directly underneath the school is a big water vein running through." Naru explained. "There are two other wells, but when I checked for the amount of water in both of them they were both empty. So that's what's going on."

Mai's eyes widened, and for a moment I thought she understood what was going on. She deflated immediately. "What is going on?" She asked, peeved. "Explain, please."

He sat back down for the translation, taking the graphs from the stunned Bou-san. "What I'm saying is the foundation is weak because this structure was built on damp soil. In addition, an underground water vein is half dried out. All of these factors are causing the land to shift and settle." Flipping through the papers, he selected a graph and placed on top of the pile to point out a shaded part. "This area is the most severely affected. The settling is progressing more rapidly on one side of the building and as a result various parts of the building start to distort and disform."

Genuine understanding filled her eyes this time. "Then that's what would have caused the chair to move and the ceiling to collapse."

He dipped his head in a nod. "Presicely. The classroom floor on the west side is three inches lower than the one on the east side."

"Three inches..." I could see the gears turning inside Bou-san's mind. "That's about 7.8 centimeters. That's a big gap."

"It wasn't a rapping. It was the sound of the building creaking as it sank." Naru set the papers aside, his dark eyes deadly serious. "The area around this building should be declared unsafe to enter. Sooner or later this building will collapse. What was it, Nira?"

"Kuroda is waiting at the base." I reported.

He sighed, clearly not looking forward to explaining all of this a second time. "Wait out here. Mai, come on."

I had no desire to go inside a building that was supposed to collapse, but I also didn't want to sit around with a pair of crazed mediums—John didn't count, of course. The moment Naru was out of earshot Ayako rounded on me, her red hair whipping around. "Who are you, anyway? Your type doesn't believe in the paranormal."

My type, huh? How hard was it to say Muslim? Well, for some people it was hard to pronounce, but I wouldn't kill them for that. Panic registered in John's eyes as I carefully set the laptop down. "Um..."

"No, it's okay. I'm not mad." I said overbrightly, a sure sign I was mildly annoyed. "See, I can understand why Matsuzaki-san might get confused. It happens when you're ignorant by choice."

John paused. Bou-san turned his gaze to the sky, very obviously trying to keep from grinning.

Ayako loomed over me. There was something familiar about her, maybe because teasing her was like teasing my older siblings. Her reaction was so much more satisfying and I was starting to understand why Naru took so much pleasure in snarking her. "Say that again. I dare you."

"See, I can understand why Matsuzaki-san might get confused. It happens when you're ignorant by choice."

"Why, you little..."

Bou-san stiffened. "What's that sound?"

At first I thought he was just trying to distract Ayako, but soon we all heard it. Shattering glass. A scream. Without waiting for them I shot to my feet and set of in the direction of the commotion, channeling all of my energy into my legs. Just as we rounded the corner to the east side of the building, Naru and the two girls were scrambling towards, ashen-faced and shaken. "The windows." I asked, puffing as I screeched to a halt. Naru nodded, tiny and almost imperceptible. He was careful to keep himself facing away from the others, but I could practically feel his self-disgust radiating off of himself.

"Incredible." Bou-san said shortly as he took in the damage. The glass had shattered completely, and several shards littered the outside. Having absorbed it all, he gave Naru a cold stare. Meanwhile, Ayako and Mai were tending to Kuroda.

"Are you okay?"

"You're bleeding. Let me see your hand."

"Do what was all of that about? You're gonna tell me all that was caused by the land sinking?" Bou-san snapped, his eyes flashing. "That, my friend, was definitely a poltergeist!!!"

"Lay off, will ya?" I retorted. "Look, Naru—"

"Not only did we hear the building warp, but we also heard someone banging on the wall!" Ayako joined in the Naru-bashing. He remained stock still, taking the torrent of abuse as it came. "That's some noise. Maybe there's a giant inside? I wonder if he's the same guy that's sinking it too?"

I tried again. "Naru—"

"This is ridiculous! I can't believe we almost fell for this little boy's silly joke!" Bou-san exploded. He took a deep breath, shaking his head.

"We need to take this more seriously." Ayako agreed disparagingly as they stalked off.

Mai couldn't hold back her annoyance. "What's with them?! All of the sudden, they're acting like buddies..." She turned around and instantly caught sight of what I'd been trying to point out. She blanched. "Naru! Your hand!"

"Oh." For a moment I shivered at his voice. It was toneless and apathetic. "It's nothing. It'll stop bleeding soon."

"You need to get a bandage on that."

"Go take care of Kuroda-san."

"Na..."

"I just...I just need to be alone for a while." His voice quaked very slightly before he steadied it. It didn't take away from the full impact of his words. "I hate myself so much it makes me sick."

Mai's shoulders slumped. "Oh." She said quietly, watching his receding back.

I cleared my throat. "I'll make sure he treats that before it gets infected." I assured her with a quick smile. "He'll be fine."

"Really?" She brightened. "Thanks, Narumi-san. Should I keep cleaning up?"

"That would be great. See you soon!"

Naru had covered a decent amount of ground for someone who hated himself that much. I coughed weakly. "I got lost in a library once."

No response. He kept on walking, still a bit pale. A cup of tea would make him feel better. "Thing is, the exit was right behind me. And I genuinely couldn't find it." I laughed wryly. I could still remember my sister's incredulity when I sheepishly retraced my steps to the table we'd been sitting at. "That was embarrassing. Be grateful that will never happen to you."

"Unlike you, I'm not dumb." Came the sharp response. "This..."

"Is a chance to learn. See, I hate it when people shame others about mistakes." I said conversationally. "Mistakes aren't bad at all. Even the smartest people have something to learn. For example, if we don't get a bandage on that cut it'll get infected and we'll have to chop off your hand."

He gave me a skeptical look, but some tightness in his shoulders relaxed. Satisfied that his ego had been soothed in just the slightest, I followed him inside the house where we'd been staying. The owner—a teacher at Mai's school—was still working, but Lin was resting in the living room with his leg spread out in front of him. His eye widened when he saw us, but I thought it was going to pop out of it's socket when he noticed the blood coating Naru's hand like a glove. "What happened?" He demanded, reaching for his crutch and struggling to his feet.

"Just an accident. Nothing too major." I assured him, but still he followed as Naru went to the bathroom to treat his hand. While he badgered him, I went to the kitchen and began boiling water in a small pot. After a long struggle I finally found honey, clove and cinnamon and in that time Naru had finally gotten his wound cleaned and bandaged. He found me and wrinkled his nose derisively at the pot.

"What is that?" He demanded. Lin stumped into the kitchen, looking resigned.

"Tea." I covered the bottoms of the three cups with a layer or honey. "It tastes good, trust me. Sorry there's no English Breakfast or Earl Grey, Your Majesty."

He leaned against the wall, seemingly recovered. "What's going on?"

"Exactly how it looks." I watched as the water very gradually turned a pale brown. A few minutes longer, I decided.

"I would've thought you wouldn't believe in poltergeists."

I raised an eyebrow at him. "I never said I did. I'm only speaking so you can understand me." I replied. "Like you said, a poltergeist—a poltergeist caused by Kuroda. Of course, she did do a bit tampering."

Lin's face darkened. "A bit?"

"She didn't break anything." I pointed out. Turning off the stove, I distributed the water between the three cups and, mixing in the honey, gestured fro them to take one each. "You'll need to prove it's a poltergeist, so autosuggestion should be the best route. Yeah?"

Naru nodded in agreement, taking a tentative sip. Finding it tolerable, he took a longer swig. "We're fresh out of veneer boards. We'll need to go shopping." He ticked items off of a mental list. "Nails. Some hammers. A crowbar."

I knew what he was talking about, but that last one still caught me off guard. "This is going to be interesting." I remarked.