Chapter 1

Mai's P.O.V

"I like you Naru!" I said suddenly feeling my face start to burn from embarrassment. We were in the middle of the woods and waiting to find out if they found Naru's brother and I just confessed. Oh my God, Mai! What wrong with you!?

If I wasn't around Naru so much, I would have never noticed his eyes widen a fraction but it disappeared and was replaced by anger. "Is it me you like or Gene?"

I collapsed to my knees and cried. How could he ask that question? If he really cared about me he would have known that I fell in love with him first. And that was it. He didn't care at all. So, in return I just smiled and said, "You might be right."

And he answered with a grumble saying, "I know I'm right."

. . .

I sighed and looked back at the files. Why was I even thinking of that?! It's over. Naru's been gone for a full year and I did not miss him or anyone from SPR. We all gave each other our numbers (besides Naru) and we did keep in touch. For like two weeks.

A few weeks after Naru left and I lost contact with everyone, I was transfer to a school for kids with special talents. Most of the population of the school were normal teens that were really, and I mean really, good at art, music, sports, and any other talent you can think of. They were upcoming stars while the rest of us, the 1% of teens with psychic abilities, were signaled out and blamed for any weird occurrence and since I've been here there's been a lot. So, a few kids and I started a ghost hunting club and I had experience at this.

If Naru was here he wouldn't believe what happened to me. I'm the head honcho of a club and I'm ranked number one in my class. This is hard to achieve in a class full of really talented teens.

. . .

Naru's P.O.V

I rubbed my shoulder as I dropped the last box on the floor. I called; sorry Lin called the whole gang and told them we were back. It was only a matter of seconds before they all came rushing in. "3- 2- 1—"

"Naru!" Monk yelled as the door slammed open and the whole gang filed in with a disgruntled Lin rubbing his forehead. I watched behind and waited for a little brunette with bright chocolate eyes to come in laughing and saying 'sorry I'm late'. But she never came.

"Welcome back Naru-san," John said and everyone else threw their hellos in. I answered them with a grunt as I lifted the box to the kitchen.

If Mai was here I knew she would chase me in here screaming that I should more considerate since everyone took time out to come see him. But, she wasn't here so Madoka did the honors of scolding me. I don't even know why she's still here, she only came to see Mai and she's not here so why bother me.

"By the way," Madoka pulled me by my collar out of the kitchen and placed me back in front of everyone where I tugged my collar out of her fingers and sat down on the nearby chair. "Where's Mai? I really wanted to see her!"

Everyone in the room stared at the floor as if it was much more interesting. Masako was the first to look up but she didn't answer, instead she covered her mouth with her sleeve and didn't look me in the eyes, which was weird because by now she'd be all over me.

"Well," Yasu started and then looked at everyone else. "we all kind of lost contact with one another for a while and then one day I thought we should all get together and have some tea, Mai was the only one I couldn't get a hold of. I called her apartment and someone else answered saying Mai moved out a month ago. So, we have no clue where she is."

Masako now wouldn't look anyone in the eyes. Her eyes told me she was holding something back.

"Masako, what do you know?" I asked.

Her face went beet red as everyone turned towards her. "Well, you see, since I'm famous I hear a lot of news and see things that haven't been released to the press yet," She trailed off. "Do you have a working computer?"

I gestured to my office and everyone filed in as she typed something in. Her hands left the keypad and turned it towards us so we could read the head line.

My eyes were drawn to the picture that showed a brunette talking to a man in his mid- twenties. The girl was gesturing to a clip board she was holding and around her stood some professors I've met before. Most of them were friends of my father's. And this is what the article said:

"Kori Sanders found?"

"A young girl going by the name Mai Taniyama has impressed professors over the nation with here rag tag group of young 'Ghost Hunters'. She solved some remarkable cases that even the top professors had trouble with. She is a young genius in her school and has some remarkable talents. When asked about her past and what led her to do the things she's been doing, she answered with, 'If you told me when I was younger I would become a ghost hunter, I would have laughed at you. It wasn't my dream to do this; after all, when I was a middle school student, the only thing I worried about was making money and staying alive, which is hard to do when you're an orphan with no parents. When I entered high school, I was extremely depressed and acted out in class putting me in a bad spot for class grades. I felt like I didn't belong. Then one day we had a ghost hunter and his assistant come check out the building next to our school. I kind of, accidently, hurt the assistant and the ghost hunter tricked me in working for him, saying I had to pay him back for his camera that I later learned was actually insured. But while working for him, we met a monk, a miko, a catholic priest, and the famous medium, Masako Hara. After some fights we easily connected and later the next day after finishing the case I was called and hired to work for that ghost hunter. After so many cases together, we become one big family and when we came to our last case together and went our separate ways, I knew what I wanted to do. I wanted to help people, and make sure they never felt like I did. It was all because of a little office called SPR that I become who I am right now.'

When we told this girl about another girl named Kori Sanders that would be around same age as her. Miss Taniyama said she never heard of a girl with that name. But days later when we went to Matt Sanders, Kori's uncle, and showed him a picture of Miss Taniyama, he said that she shares a striking resemblance to his niece. So, could this Mai Taniyama really be the missing Kori Sanders?"

We all stared in shock at the article. Of course, I heard the name Kori Sanders before and knew exactly who she was but I never once matched it up with Mai. Not once.

The door chimed and someone called out. Lin and I were the first to turn away from the article and leave to talk to our client. Moments later the rest of the gang filed out. I gestured to the couch.

The client sat and began to tell us her story.