Where Demons Hide

by Lonesome Road

Naru was back. 5 years passed since that day by the lake, and Naru had finally returned. But Mai was different, she hasn't said a word since his arrival, not one. She was different, she was no longer the lively girl who cared way too much about everyone and everything, she was broken. What had happened while he was gone?

1. Prologue

Naru stared at Mai with sad eyes, watching her every move.

Five years.

It had been five whole years since he and Lin had left for England, 3 months since they had come back.

As soon as he had set foot on Japanese soil, Naru set out to find Mai, Lin focused on everyone else. It hadn't taken long, Ayako had returned to her parent's hospital and rather successful career as a doctor, it seemed she was only a miko on the side. Monk had gone back to doing gigs with his band, yet he still worked on cases. Masako had gone back to her show, and gotten engaged as well apparently, to one of her sponsor's sons or something. John continued work with his church helping orphans and Yasu had gone straight into college, the best college in fact, he was accepted into the best university in Japan. He was in very advanced classes and had just gotten his Master's Degree in psychology, at that rate he would get his Ph.D in no time.

But Mai, oh Mai...

After Mai had graduated high school, she had all but disappeared. After he had left, she had risen and become the top student in her school halfway through her 2nd year, taking all advanced classes. However, she was underqualified for scholarships and didnt' have enough money for college.

She was forced to move out of her apartment and, as far as Naru could tell, nobody from the old team had kept in touch with her, save Yasu, who seemed to have spared her a phone call about once a month.

Once Naru had found her, he'd been prepared for a huge argument and explosions of emotion on Mai's behalf, instead he'd found a broken girl with dead eyes. She had stared at him, like she didn't recognize him, and once he asked her to come back, she simply shrugged.

He hadn't been the only one to notice. Everyone was ecstatic to see Mai, and they all ran in for bear hugs, but she evaded them all.

No words, no explanations.

In fact, Naru didn't think he'd heard Mai speak at all.

It was sad, the Mai he knew, his Mai, was gone. She changed, she came back a completely different person. A new outlook, a new mindset, a new soul. And the girl that had once cared way too much about everyone and everything... no longer cared at all.