Chapter 1

The next day in Tokyo Japan…

"Hey Naru! Where do you want this put?" A tall dirty blonde haired man carrying a large brown box asked the slightly smaller dark haired man who stood with a scowl on his face.

"I don't know yet Monk there's too much dust in here to make out where anything goes" The man answered.

"Yeah well if you hadn't run off for 3 years to England maybe the office wouldn't look too bad" Monk answered, Naru turned round with a glare that could slay a walrus, "okay… I'll just sit it over here" Monk said as he sat the box down. "All I'm saying is you could have at least called every once in a while or at least after the funeral to let us know what was going on"

"Enough Monk, I don't want to share my personal life with you" Naru snapped, "not that it matters I'm back in Japan and I want to start SPR back up again." Monk just blinked in response. "Would you mind calling everyone into the office for tomorrow so that we can discuss new cases?"

"Uhh… sure Naru I'll see what I can do"

The next day

The woman in black made her way through the dark alleyways of Tokyo, as she tightened her hood around her face, the sky crackled above her threating to drop rain. She quickened her pace 'I need to hurry up and get back to the hotel so that I can get packed to move onto the next case. Damnit why didn't I put on my mask' She tended to avoid going out during the day and she always wore her mask since her face tended to attract unwanted attention. Her next case had been advertised in the newspaper, an old set of production warehouses that had been out of commission for many years and locked up was opened last week for inspection for sale and a dead body of a young man was found. There was no obvious entry and the police statement said he died under suspicious circumstances which for her meant there was a high chance of the supernatural being involved. As she ran into the lobby of the run down hotel she shouted to the front desk that she would be leaving tonight rather than tomorrow morning. The hotel manager grunted a response, it was the kind of place where there weren't any forms to fill in when checking out, it was more of a cash in hand and don't ask any questions.

Other than hotels, inns or resorts of cases it was the only type of place she could stay at since everything that had happened 3 years ago, letting out a sigh she unlocked the room door and slipped inside to head through to Local Steel Works Ltd before anyone noticed.

Meanwhile at the SPR offices…

6 adults perched on half covered couches and love seats waiting for Naru to start explaining to them why he was back.

"I guess I'll just ask then, why the hell are we here Naru?!" yelled the angry red haired miko

"Ayako calm down I'm sure he'll explain when he's ready" said Monk

"Shut up I never asked you, I asked him! He can't just disappear one day and then come back 3 years later and expect us not to ask any questions or without an explanation." Ayako huffed

"I agree with Ayako" stated the young blonde priest

"As do I" said another young woman dressed in a kimono

"Come on now guys, boss man will explain and update us on his plan" a young man with dark hair and glasses said.

"Yasuhara is correct if you would all calm down for a minute I'll explain. Lin would you be able to get me some tea before we start" Naru looked over at the tall older man who was typing at his laptop. Lin looked up "We don't have anything unpacked so I can't make you tea without the kettle. Perhaps we should just explain and then we can unpack the office"

Naru sighed "Fine. Well as you've gathered myself and Lin are here to reopen SPR. After being in England for the past 3 years we've established that Japan has much more spiritual activity than before and my research will benefit more from being here. Thus I'd like to rehire all of you as we were before. Any questions?"

Ayako jumped out of her seat "You little… I have half a mind to smack you upside that giant head of yours"

Monk was holding Ayako back, "calm down would you" He turned to Naru "You have to admit Naru how can you expect us to come back to work with you after how you left things last time?"

Naru sighed "I understand if you don't want to but the offer is there take it or leave it" Silence fell over everyone.

After a long pause Monk broke the silence "alright I suppose I could help with a few cases"

The young woman wearing a kimono responded "if I'm not busy with my filming I too will help you", this set of multiple of similar responses agreeing on reforming SPR. Naru nodded seeming satisfied with all the responses. Then the blonde priest John then pointed out something that everyone had seemed to be avoiding, "Monk, when you called all of us to meet up did you not phone Mai?"

Monk froze and the atmosphere suddenly darkened. "Yes I would also like to know where Mai is? Was she not able to come at this time?"

Monk paled "well to be honest I had no idea how to get in touch with her?"

"What do you mean?" responded Naru

"None of us have seen her or heard from her since that day at the lake three years ago…" Naru just stared at Monk in disbelief.

"Why? I thought you all were meant to be taking care of her"

"We tired but we couldn't, once you came back from getting…-pause-"Monk swallowed "Gene's body…. Mai followed but she seemed really dazed, I don't know what happened between you two but either way it wasn't good"

"We assumed she'd be alright after you had gone but it got worse. We dropped her off at her apartment and myself and Ayako decided to come back the next morning to check on her and she seemed alright. She let us in and was her cheerful self but then we got busy and we couldn't get round to see her for a few weeks. It wasn't until Masako got a strange phone call from her that we rushed round to her apartment. When we got there the place was trashed, there was barely anything in the apartment and what was there was broken or in disarray"

Yasu cut in "we tried calling her but her phone was disconnected, her landlord said she hadn't seen her in weeks but that she left in a hurry despite having paid for another 3 months use of the apartment. I went to her school but they said she'd withdrawn, her school friend said she hadn't been there since before our last case."

"We tried as best we could but how are you meant to find someone who doesn't want to be found?" Ayako finished.

The group sat in silence for a few minutes Naru had a severe look of concentration on his face as he processed what he had just been told. "Fine, we'll start working on cases and I'll see what I can do to find Mai, I want you all to try finding her as well." Everyone in the room nodded.

"so…. Where is our first case then?" Monk broke the awkward silence.

"It's an old out of business warehouse, the owner of the factory died many years ago and it has been sitting empty since. We were asked by someone who wants to buy the land for apartment blocks to investigate after the body of a young man was found in the warehouse. It appeared as if his chest had been ripped open and part of his arm was missing." Naru paused "That's all the information I have for now; everyone be here tomorrow at 8am so we can through in enough time" Everyone nodded "Naru what's the company called so I can do some background research before tomorrow" Yasu asked.

Naru answered "It's called Local Steel Works Ltd"