October 20, Late Night

A middle school girl and her family, caught in a head-on collision with another vehicle.

Yasuhara had said there had been three deaths. Naru replayed the scene in his mind—both cars had been roughly the same size; the girl and her father had been sitting in front; in the other car, there had only been the driver. Those were probably the three who had died, then. Was the father a ghost as well, or just the girl?

Either way, he had enough information for Takigawa or Matsuzaki or even Mai to perform an exorcism or purification. Lin would need a bit more, but it would be a simple matter of checking the obituaries. The ghosts didn't seem to be particularly dangerous, either, so there was no rush. The problem wasn't the exorcism itself.

What exactly did the police want to do by setting up this case? How much would they be satisfied with? How would they react to whatever they did? Would things turn ugly if they didn't get what they wanted?

If he simply displayed his psychometry, perhaps they would be satisfied with continuing to pester him with more pointless requests. That might be the best case scenario; after all, if the department was as desperate as Yasuhara had made it sound, he couldn't imagine them simply leaving them alone.

On the other hand, if they got the feeling that Naru and the others were hiding something, or if they smelled the possibility that they might be able to get their hands on more psychics… He didn't like where that line of thought took him.

He and Lin would be annoyed, but fine, since their international status and SPR's protection gave them some measure of immunity. Hara would also be fine; as a celebrity, her managers would be used to dealing with all sorts of unsavory attacks, and her fame meant that the police couldn't mess around with her as they pleased without consequences. John was a high-ranking clergy, and practically a saint besides, so they wouldn't be able to do anything to him. Frankly, Matsuzaki and Takigawa didn't have enough spiritual sensitivity to be of interest, and anyways, they were adults who could take care of themselves anyways.

That left Mai. At first glance, her sixth sense wasn't anything impressive, but if they knew enough about her abilities, she had precisely the sort of talent the police would want—instincts that led investigations in the right direction, and a nose for danger. He could only hope that they left it at "at first glance." Moreover, as an orphan, she was in a uniquely vulnerable position; if they got their hands on her criminal record, her future prospects could be utterly shot.

Could he do anything about it? Perhaps have her transferred to another SPR branch? She didn't know enough of any other language to make living in a foreign country bearable, but truth be told, her adaptive skills weren't poor, so learning the language after going might not be terrible. She did have some knowledge of English, after all—enough to get a foothold.

He shook his head. It was much too early to be thinking so pessimistically. The priority right now was solving this case in a way that would satisfy those insipid fools at the Tokyo Special Investigative Unit. He would have to check with Yasuhara tomorrow to see if he'd found anything.

Slowly, he stood up and put aside the case file in his hand to turn off the lights to his room. It was then that he felt, rather than heard, the sharp, ragged intake of breath in the adjacent room. Before his cerebrum had fully processed the source of the sound—almost reflexively—he had slid open the door and was already in the next room.

Gene, what the hell are you doing? He whispered viciously.

Her limbs were tangled in her futon, her shoulders heaving violently, as if fighting something that didn't exist. Her eyes were clenched shut, and she was shivering, whether from fear or from cold, he didn't know.

He grabbed her arm as the first hoarse scream dragged out of her throat. Patting her cheek, he called in a low but urgent voice, "Mai!"

She opened her eyes, but they were unfocused. She muttered something over and over, and only on the last few repeats did he catch the words, "—turn—don't hit!"

"Mai!" He repeated sharply, and she stopped.

Slowly, she seemed to wake up, looking around the dim room wildly. Her breathing seemed strained, as if something were stuck in her throat.

"Breathe," he commanded.

She took in a deep breath, and the rise and fall of her chest fell into a steady rhythm. "The car," she muttered, her voice still hoarse. "Blue. Father was drinking. Shouldn't. Didn't see—"

"It was a just a nightmare," he said evenly, and her eyes regained their focus. She nodded jerkily, understanding the warning behind his words. She was still shivering, so he drew the scattered blankets back over her. "Wait here," he said, then disappeared.

He returned a few minutes later with a cup of warm tea. She took it gratefully and murmured, "Thank you."

There was a long silence, and he finally asked, "Did you see him?"

She shook her head.

He sighed. "Will you be fine alone?"

This time, she didn't answer.

With another sigh, he sat down, leaning against the wall behind him. "Go to sleep," he ordered.

She looked first surprised, then perplexed, then hopeful, all in the span of a few seconds. Nodding obediently for once, she lay back down and closed her eyes. Her sleep seemed to be peaceful this time, her breath shallow and steady and no trace of tension in her face.

Relieved, he closed his eyes and turned his thoughts back to where he had left off. He would have to see what Yasuhara might have managed to collect tomorrow…


October 21, Early Morning

Mai rubbed the sleep from her eyes the next morning and pushed the blankets away as she sat up and stretched, feeling unusually refreshed for having had a nightmare the night before. A car accident. The father had been drinking that night; she shivered, recalling the young girl's guilt for not stopping him, and her terror as the blue car approached—

Her grip on the blankets tightened, and she drove the image away. Had Gene been trying to tell her something? She hadn't seen him even after going back to sleep. She glanced around—and her hands flew to her mouth to cover the startled gasp that almost escaped.

Naru was still sitting against the wall, fast asleep. She'd assumed that he would have left right after she'd gone to sleep. Had he been here all night? What if he'd caught a cold? It was already October, and it was getting chilly. Guiltily, she tiptoed to the closet and found the spare blankets, draping them over him. He stirred, but didn't wake up.

Ahh, he really was obnoxiously handsome, she thought. Wasn't it a bit unfair that he didn't even drool or snore embarrassingly in his sleep? Or even sleep-talk and blurt out all his shameful secrets. If people were assigned looks based on how good their personalities were, he wouldn't be half so smug.

What should she do now? It was too early to wake him, and she didn't feel like going back to sleep, either. Sitting there and staring at his face, while tempting, was too embarrassing and unproductive of an option. She got up and brushed her teeth, then wandered into the kitchen to put the water on boil as she tried to sort through her dream again.

Naru had used psychometry yesterday in the cellar, she was certain. Gene must have transmitted the scene to her telepathically, so Naru must already know everything in the dream. There was no point in telling it to him again, even without the added risks of being overheard. Why had Gene transmitted it, then? Was he trying to emphasize that it was important? Was he trying to tell her something? Or tell Naru something? Why hadn't he appeared? She had waited, yet he hadn't appeared.

No matter how hard she concentrated, her thoughts only ended up going in circles, so she gave up and went back to making coffee. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed an elegant blue lighter lying in a corner of the kitchen, and she picked it up to inspect it. Had it been there when they'd first arrived? She didn't think it was Naru's, and it certainly wasn't hers.

She shrugged and turned back to stirring.

Mai was already gone when Naru woke up, and he didn't notice the blankets around him until he stood up, and they fell to the ground. He folded them back up and placed them in a corner of the room, then headed straight for the bathroom.

The square mirror above the sink was visible the moment he entered. His twin smiled ambiguously at him from the other side.

You idiot, was the first thing Naru said.

(It's nice to see you too, Noll.)

Useless. Hurry up and pass on already.

(Somehow, I knew you would say that.) Gene's voice sounded amused.

Naru sighed. I hope you know you have some explaining to do.

His twin's voice sobered quickly. (I know what you're thinking. It wasn't me.) He hesitated. (I can't get into her dreams at all lately.)

Naru's eyebrows drew together in concern. Why not?

(Her wavelength is a bit disoriented. She's distracted, or maybe confused—it's like trying to call out to someone wearing headphones.)

How did she receive that telepathy, then?

He could sense Gene contemplating. (She probably did it on her own, unconsciously. I may have helped her draw out her abilities, but they were originally always hers, after all. And—) His brother's voice shifted into a clear, deliberate cadence, the sort of voice he used when discussing his research. (It's not exactly telepathy. I transmit the psychic stimuli you receive to her, but she interprets them with her own extrasensory perception. That's why her visions are slightly different, more first-person. It may also have to do with the differences in your personalities.)

The father was drunk, Naru recalled. I didn't notice that.

(He wasn't visibly drunk. That's probably why. But the girl was thinking about it the whole time.)

So then, why is she receiving telepathy for no reason? Did you leave the line open? Naru's voice had a hint of accusation to it.

(No, the line is only there when I deliberately connect it. It could be her natural post-cognitive sight. Or maybe that psychic pathway has become familiar to her.)

Due to your meddling.

His twin only smiled in reply.

(Noll.)

What is it?

(Stop dawdling.)

He stayed silent.

(Just hurry up and kiss her or something.)

A scowl crept up his face. You should have stayed alive so you could do that yourself.

(You don't actually mean that.) His twin pointed out amiably.

Naru rubbed the bridge of his nose with a sigh of resignation. Only half of it.

(You know, it's not so bad being dead, actually… At least…)

But Gene's voice faded away before he could hear the rest of his sentence. Naru kept staring at his twin—no, at his own reflection—for several more minutes. Eventually, still thoroughly unsatisfied by the less than conclusive conversation, Naru returned to his own room to pick up his discarded case file from last night.

When he left the room again, Mai was already sitting at the table in the dining room, staring dazedly out the window. She had a cup of coffee—two creams, two sugars, he knew—in one hand, and was absentmindedly tracing patterns in the table with a blue lighter with the other hand. The morning light filtered in through the half-closed shutters in such a way that they perfectly struck her brown hair, making it gleam with sparks of gold.

"Mai," he said, for no reason in particular.

She jumped a little, startled out of her reverie, and looked at him questioningly.

"Isn't a bit too early to start dozing off already?"

The corner of her mouth twitched in mild annoyance, and her lips parted reflexively to retort—as always, a few seconds before her brain caught up to supply a suitable comment. Sometimes it never caught up at all.

"I wouldn't have to, if someone hadn't spent half an hour in the bathroom preening," she told him.

He was feeling gracious enough to let her have this round, so he sat down in front of the other cup of coffee she'd made and turned his attention to the object in her hand instead. "Where did you find that?" He asked. He couldn't remember her ever carrying a lighter around, and blue wasn't a color she normally picked.

"It was in a corner of the kitchen, on the ground." She held it out to him.

He took it and turned it around in his fingers. There was a presence clinging to it—faint, but that person must have carried it around with him for some time. A short man with neatly trimmed hair—lighting a cigarette—entering this house—talking with a woman. Kurahashi's.

She was watching him expectantly, waiting for him to say something, but he changed the topic. "Mai, go look over the equipment with Lin for now."

"You're going out alone?" She asked, dissatisfaction etched clearly on her face.

He gave her a short nod and headed outside. She dumped both coffee mugs in the sink and followed behind quickly. When he turned left instead of right at the street outside, he heard her footsteps stop.

She drew in a breath and hesitated, as if searching for something to say, then finally called, "Be careful!"


Day 10, Noon

Yasuhara was waiting in front of the local library, and Ayako and Takigawa had evidently tagged along, to Naru's convenience for once.

"Any further information on what the Unit's precise goals are?" He asked.

Yasuhara shook his head. "I probed their secretarial staff and a few interns—discreetly, of course—but none of them even had a clue that this was going on. Whatever they have planned, only the top brass seem to be privy to it."

"There's no choice, then. We'll have to distract their attention from whatever it is they want. Takigawa-san, do you feel up to performing an exorcism? As flashy as possible."

"Of course—" The monk began, but Ayako interrupted him.

"If you're trying to have him act as bait, that's out of the question," she said bluntly. "I won't have you trying to push the attention on you onto him. It's not even a big deal to you, is it? You may find it pesky, but you're well protected, legally. The rest of us might as well be sitting ducks if some sort of shady business starts up."

Naru looked at her steadily. "Matsuzaki-san, I don't believe I asked for your opinion. As I stated in my message, if you were scared, you should have stayed in Tokyo."

"Don't think I came here because I wanted to see your face. Someone has to look out for this empty-headed monk because he doesn't know how to turn down a request for help, and he's far too trusting of you, which I'm sure you knew full well."

"That's a little harsh," Takigawa said, scratching his head with a half-hearted grin. "Look, Ayako, I know you're just worried, but I know my own limits. Besides," he joked, "It just feels strange to have you concerned about me for once when you can't even do a proper exorcism on your own yet."

It was the wrong thing to say. "Well then, pardon me for having a head on my shoulders!" She spat, glaring at him. "Go and risk your own neck if you want to, but I'll have no part of this."

As she stormed off, Takigawa rubbed his neck regretfully. "Ahh… I shouldn't have said that. I just blurted out what I would usually say, but she was seriously mad this time."

Naru said nothing, and Yasuhara smiled reassuringly. "Don't worry, she's only angry because she's concerned. Judging from what she's said of her past, it seems like she has pretty bad memories of these sorts of things. I'm sure she'll forgive you once she's calmed down."

"Yeah…" Takigawa nodded absently. "I'll treat her to a drink later and try to persuade her. Never mind that for now, though—what about the exorcism again?"

"One, possibly two ghosts—the man who caused the traffic accident twenty-six years ago due to drunk driving, and his daughter, trapped by guilt for the accident. The center of activity is the dining room," Naru explained tonelessly.

The monk nodded. "You think they'll be satisfied with that?"

Naru shrugged, knowing he wasn't referring to the ghosts. "Since they're amateurs, they won't have a clear idea of what they're looking for. Something that conforms to their preconceived notions of what 'psychic abilities' look like will easily convince them."

"Alright. So you want me to dress up, wave my vajra around convincingly, and so forth? Mumble a bit about spirits and the other world?"

"Their primary motive is ESP, so act as much as possible like you're seeing ghosts or receiving information from unknown sources. I also plan on 'demonstrating' something or other later today. With that much, they should be satisfied."

"I see. If you're using yourself as a decoy as well, you're not actually trying to find a scapegoat, are you?" Takigawa asked thoughtfully. "At any rate, I have to collect my tools from the hotel before I do the exorcism, and I'd prefer to consult with Yasuhara to try to make the act more convincing. How urgent is the exorcism?"

"The spirits don't appear to be aggressive. Tomorrow should be fine."


Day 10, Afternoon

"The lowest recorded temperature was in the dining room—a seven degree difference," Mai noted, examining the screen. "Probably where the spirits are, then?"

Lin didn't say anything, but his silence was more or less a sign of tacit approval.

"Where is Kurahashi-san, anyways? He's usually here by now."

"He called this morning to say he would be late due to sudden trouble," Lin said briefly. She nodded and returned to looking at the screen.

"Distinct rapping sounds, noticeable electrostatic imbalance, and shifts in the air flow. That should be decent data, right? What is Naru's research, anyways? He's always vague and saying 'evidence that ghosts exist' and things like that, but he actually has some theory in mind, right? I bet he just doesn't want to explain because he thinks it's troublesome."

Lin shrugged, which more or less meant "I know, but I don't feel like explaining, either." Sometimes, Mai wondered how she ended up in the company of so many people who resembled rocks more often than not, but she supposed that a certain deal of blockheadedness was necessary when dealing with dead people all the time. Something like "fight fire with fire"? Or maybe it was more like "birds of a feather flock together." What did that make her, then?

She was going through the video feed from early morning when a wisp of green on screen caught her eye. Rewinding the tape, it looked like a corner of fabric from somewhere off-screen that had been blown into the frame by a gust of wind, but first of all, there was no wind inside according to the air flow sensors, and second of all, the camera was pointed at the middle of the dining room. The only hanging fabric in that room was the curtain in front of the back door, and it wasn't green. She let the video keep playing, and the fabric disappeared. Then, the screen began to blur, and just before it faded completely into static, she saw a human silhouette.

Hastily, she rewinded the tape again and stopped it precisely on that frame. It was nothing more than a silhouette, and the static made even that much hard to make out, but it was unmistakably a person. As she straightened up excitedly, she noticed that Naru had just happened to come back right then.

"You found something?" He said immediately when he saw her stand up suddenly.

"A spirit, I think. It's on tape." She pointed to the screen.

He walked over and leaned in to gaze at the screen with intense concentration. After a minute, he rewinded the tape and let it play from before the fabric had first appeared.

"I can't believe we actually managed to get one on tape. I guess it's even worth all these… inconveniences?" She gestured vaguely at their surroundings.

The corner of his mouth pulled down for the tiniest fraction of a second as if he were about to disagree, but it was so brief that she thought she must have imagined it. Instead of answering, he said, "The camera needs adjusting."

She looked back at the screen. Sure enough, the video had forwarded ten minutes since the ghost's appearance, but it was still nothing but static. She kept fast-forwarding until it had caught up with real time, but there was still nothing. "I'll go fix it," she said, but he suddenly stopped her.

"Wait." He looked like he was deep in concentration. "Were the spirits here strong enough to materialize on screen?"

"Huh? Now that you mention it… Kurahashi-san mentioned rapping noises and the disappearance of small items, but nothing like seeing ghosts. And there aren't any rumors about this house, either, other than from the people who lived here."

"It's possible that the spirits are distorting. They might have absorbed all the negative emotions nearby." He glanced accusingly at the neighboring house, whose windows were still drawn closed except for a crack. "It doesn't matter; Takigawa-san will be performing the exorcism tomorrow. For now, Mai, go with Lin to fix the camera—no, actually," he said, as if he'd suddenly thought of something, "I'll go. There's something I want to check."

She nodded and headed toward the dining room, with Naru close behind. When they reached the camera in question, she grimaced. The lens had cracked. Luckily, the rest of it was intact, but they would have to replace the part. Naru was surveying the room and seemed to be looking for something, but a loud shattering noise interrupted both of their thoughts.

"What was that?!" Mai asked, looking in the direction of the sound. Without thinking, she ran upstairs to see that the windows of both upstairs rooms had shattered completely, littering the ground with shards.

"Idiot!" She heard from behind. "Haven't you learned yet to run away from loud noises, not toward them?" A hand grabbed her arm and started to pull her back downstairs.

"Wait, Naru. Look at that." She pointed to something that looked like dust on the glass.

He frowned and walked closer, and she followed, kneeling down to pick up a slightly blackened piece. "It's warm," she said with surprise. "Poltergeisting?"

Naru didn't say anything, but he picked up a clean shard with a troubled expression. "It shattered inward," he muttered.

Before she could ask what he meant, there was a loud bang behind them. They both turned and saw that the door had somehow swung shut. Panicked, she reached for the doorknob, but it was firmly locked.

"What... What should we do?!" She tried the doorknob again, but no matter how hard she twisted, it wouldn't budge. Distracted by the blood thumping in her ears, she didn't notice how tightly she was gripping the doorknob until her hand had turned white, and the cold metal had become the same temperature as her skin.

"Calm down," he said levelly, laying a hand on her wrist. "Panicking won't help."

At his touch, she noticed that her hand was tense to the point of hurting, and she let go. The blood returned all at once, and she winced at the pinprick sensation. "Y-Yeah… What about Lin? If we yell out the window…"

"He's inside the base. He won't hear us if we yell outside."

"Th-then, if we stomp really loudly…" She could see every muscle on his face rejecting the idea of such an undignified act, but she was ready to do it herself if it would get them out of here one minute sooner.

"There's the possibility that he'll just think they're rapping noises. At any rate, Lin will come looking for us sooner or later, so it doesn't matter."

"No, he won't," she breathed suddenly, the color draining from her face. Her eyes were slightly unfocused. "He won't come."

"What?" Naru looked at her sharply.

She turned abruptly and ran toward the window. They just barely managed to catch the sight of the silver van turning the corner of the street and disappearing from sight.

"Did he get called out…?" Naru murmured, the barest hint of a frown on his face.

"The purification. I can do it right now. It'll solve everything."

"No. There's no guarantee."

"I know I can," she insisted. "The spirits here aren't stubborn, or violent. They're just a little… lost."

"That's not the issue. It's too dangerous."

"It'll be more dangerous if we stay here! And Kurahashi-san will be coming soon. He might be in danger."

She thought she heard him say I highly doubt it under his breath, but it was barely audible, and it could have been her imagination.

"He's a policeman. He can take care of himself," Naru said firmly.

"Not against spirits! Besides, he's our client, so it's our job to protect him, isn't it?" Naru looked like he was about to say something in response to that, so she pressed on hastily. "And, if we don't take care of it soon, something worse will happen," she said with certainty.

He studied her expression. "That's how you feel?"

She nodded, and he sighed wearily and closed his eyes. "It's not that I think you won't succeed."

"I know. There's some other reason, right? But I have to."

He didn't say anything, which she took as a sign of agreement. She sat down carefully against the wall, closing her eyes and letting her limbs fall. She was trying hard to relax, but he could see the slight flutter of her eyelids and the occasional twitch of her fingers. Her lips moved faintly as she counted silently in an attempt to steady her breathing. The situation and the thought of imminent danger were unnerving her; she had always found it difficult to think around her fight-or-flight instincts, and adrenaline was the last thing she needed when trying to go into a trance state.

"Relax," he said in a soft, steady voice, called easily from practice with countless suggestion trials. "Clear your thoughts… Focus on your breathing… Count to eight… Then exhale…" As he spoke, he bent down to check her breathing. It had steadied, and she looked for all the world like she was asleep.

After about ten minutes, Mai slowly opened her eyes. He didn't need to ask to know that she'd been successful. It was too bad the dining room camera was still broken, he thought ruefully, or he'd have had the rare opportunity to record the visible light that accompanied purification.

"They left together…" she mumbled and closed her eyes again.

Just when he thought she'd gone back to sleep, she suddenly seemed to wake up and stood up. "The lock?"

As he'd expected, it still hadn't opened. "Why?" She asked, utterly perplexed.

"It'll open soon," he said with certainty.

She still looked confused, but she didn't question what he'd said. "Then… We wait?"

He raised an eyebrow. "Does it look like there's anything else we can do?"

"Call for help," she suggested. "Break the door. Look for secret passageways." She put down a finger for each suggestion. His snort made it clear that she could indulge in such activities if she so wished, but he would be taking no part in it.

He was staring in the other direction, so at first she'd thought he'd stopped paying attention, but when she sat back down with a huff, he suddenly spoke.

"Good work," he said, almost off-handedly.


October 21, Evening

"Explosives."

The other five faces in the room were all dumbfounded.

Earlier, Lin had returned to the house half an hour after the purification and unlocked the door with a worried look on his face and Kurahashi in tow. Naru had promptly informed Kurahashi that his request was complete and started packing everything without another word. The officer hadn't commented any further, either.

After they had retrieved all the equipment, they had driven to the hotel Yasuhara and the others were staying at, and they were meeting in the room he was sharing with Takigawa. Naru had briefly recounted the events of the past three days and then pulled out a glass shard that still had traces of black dust on it from his pocket.

"You're saying the police broke the windows?!" Takigawa ran his fingers through his hair in disbelief.

"They must have weakened the glass earlier, then attached a small explosive to it from the outside so it would shatter when detonated. That's why the glass flew inward, and why there were traces of soot on parts of the glass. The spirit can't exit the house, so it can only exert force from inside. If the spirit had done it, most of the glass should have landed outside the house."

"But… What was their motive?" Even the normally-composed Yasuhara looked astonished.

"To induce fear, most likely. They wanted us to believe the entity inside the house was dangerous so we would hurry the exorcism."

"Then… the door?" It was Mai who asked. "That wasn't poltergeisting?"

"No. The dining room has a back door, and the camera in that room was broken earlier—on purpose, most likely. Someone could have easily passed through there unnoticed to close the door upstairs. They must have been afraid the cause for the window breaking would be noticed, so they tried to pressure us into panicking."

"So… the purification was completely unnecessary?"

He was silent for a moment. "They may have been ready to use more extreme methods if we didn't proceed with the exorcism. The proof of that is that they called Lin away."

The entire room was speechless for a few moments. Finally, Takigawa stood up. "This is absurd! We can't just let this go. If you don't want your image to go public, Yasuhara or I can act as a proxy, but we need to take this to court—"

"Unfortunately," Naru interrupted, "there's no law against someone breaking their own window. Locking a door is hardly a punishable crime, either, and we have no evidence of any other actions."

"So, what? We're just going to do nothing? That doesn't sound like you."

"There is nothing we can do about this right now," Naru said flatly, his tone ice-cold—he was truly upset, Mai could tell. He visibly took a breath before continuing, an indicator of just how shaken he was. "I don't intend to just sit around. I'm going to ask for advice."

She tried to figure out what kind of person Naru would ask for advice on something like this. None of the people who worked with SPR were particularly influential, except possibly Masako. However, no matter how famous Masako was, Mai didn't think she had the power to stop policemen in their tracks. Perhaps Madoka, or Lin? Or one of Naru's famous parapsychologist colleagues? But she still couldn't see what a researcher would be able to do.

"Well," Yasuhara said light-heartedly, trying to alleviate the mood, "it looks like I win the bet after all. Locked room, right?"

"You said dark room," Ayako pointed out. Mai was just a bit surprised that she had joined them at all after hearing about her argument with the others. The priestess still looked rather cross, but Takigawa must have been able to assuage her in the end because she wasn't glaring daggers at Naru… at least, not that much.

"The 'dark' part was a matter of rhetoric," Yasuhara argued. "The essence was the 'locked' part. Besides, I was the closest, which makes me the victor."

"Hey," Mai cut in with irritation. "Can you not use other people's misfortune for your betting games?"

Takigawa patted her on the head. "It's our way of showing concern. Besides, my intentions are pure. I'm raising funds to treat you for lunch sometime."

"Don't worry, Takigawa-san, I'll treat her in your place," Yasuhara said with a wink. If she didn't know better, she would have sworn he was winking in Naru's direction.

Ayako shook her head with exasperation at Yasuhara's comment. "Listen up, Mai, you musn't ever fall for a man who treats you to an expensive dinner and buys you pricy things on the first date. It means he thinks you can be bought with money."

"Huh?" Mai looked startled. "That makes sense, but I never thought you of all people would say something like that."

"How rude." Ayako scowled. "What kind of person do you think I am?"

"Well…"

"Look here, young lady. My policy is to never buy something for myself that a vapid, useless man can buy for me, but none of them are worth anything in the end. Understand?"

Takigawa elbowed her. "Ayako, don't teach her strange things. Heavens knows two of your kind running around is the last thing we need."

"'My kind'? You better explain carefully what you mean by that."

A well-aimed pillow promptly caught the monk square in the head, and just like that, the conversation disintegrated.


A/N: And that wraps this case up, in some sense. It feels nice to be able to end at the end of something rather than at a cliffhanger for once.

(Somewhat late) Disclaimer: I don't know the first thing about the Japanese police, legal system, or anything else, really. Everything here is pieced together from cursory glances of Wikipedia articles, general tidbits buried in my memory from who-even-knows-where, and a (probably somewhat inaccurate) interpretation of what's been written in GH canon, and the rest is filled in by substituting in my vague knowledge of American law and law enforcement. If you actually do know any details about Japanese police, etc., I am so, so sorry, and please feel free to tell me if anything is amiss (aside from the obvious parts like 'I don't think the police are actually involved in weird paranormal conspiracies') and I will try to make any future references more accurate.

Aside from that, I was pleasantly surprised by how many people expressed approval/expectations for a slow romance; it's nice to know I'm not guilty of false advertisement just yet, and I'm glad there are people more patient than I am in this world. I'll try my best to make it worth the wait.

Hopefully this doesn't sound old and stale by now, but as usual, thanks for reading and for your feedback! It's always interesting and encouraging to hear what people liked in particular, especially when it's something unexpected. Of course, criticism is always welcome as well!