(A/N): Happy 10th Chapter Anniversary! Wow, I didn't think we'd get up to 10 so quickly...Thank you so much for reading this fanfiction, and I hope that you enjoy the chapter! Also, thank you very much for your lovely reviews, they make me happier than you'd imagine :)

The hospital meeting hall was solemn and lugubrious. Rows of seats had been arranged, all filled with workers dressed in complete black clothing. Not a speck of colour could be seen. Everyone was silent as they stared towards the front of the hall. There, a black clothed table was positioned, and on top of it a framed photo of Doctor Nakumura had been placed. Next to it, a glass vase filled with white chrysanthemum was positioned.

A man walked stiffly to the front of the hall, and stood in front of a podium with a microphone. For a moment, he was silent. Then he began to speak gravely.

"Doctor Nakumura was a good and diligent worker." He began. "Not only was he honest and clear to his patients, but loyal. He did not allow money or politics or even the pressures of society repel him from making the best choices for his patients."

The rest of the hospital workers listened in complete silence.

"The kindness of Doctor Nakumura did not end with his clients, and not even with his friends, but to all those around him. He was a good man, and a man I wish I could have known better." The man's words echoed across the meeting hall.

"We have all felt the effects of this tragedy, and we are still reeling from it. The accident that claimed Doctor Nakumura's life will remain in our memory. But we must hold precious the memory of his compassion and humanity. It is something that we cannot allow his death to conceal. What he has contributed to this hospital will never be forgotten."

After the speech, the funeral ended abruptly, for there was work to do and patients that needed to be seen. Hospital life began to continue as if nothing had ever happened. There was no time for grief or shock.

"I can't believe it happened, though." Amaya insisted to talk about it, as did most of the other nurses. Whenever there was a death in the hospital, the death of a colleague, it seemed that the nurses were the ones who carried on talking about that person for a while to come. However, eventually, the news died down and everyone carried on their normal work.

As for me, I was still shaken up. Doctor Nakumura's death was surely not a coincidence. My amnesia had finally given way slightly, and I had discovered information that either the police or Doctor Nakumura should have told me about. And when I tried to find him, ask him what 'Mattaku' was, his car crashed into a river after the brakes failed.

"Poor man. I guess it makes you think," Leiko agreed, "that this kind of thing could happen to any of us. At any time."

"Who was the man who made the speech?" I asked, for I did not recognise him.

Amaya looked surprised. "It was the hospital manager. Didn't you know that?"

I shook my head. "This must be my first time actually seeing him."

Leiko laughed bitterly. "For good reason, he doesn't normally make appearances for lowly nurses like us."

"To be really honest with you," Amaya added, "he probably made up most of that stuff he said. I'd bet he doesn't really know a thing about Doctor Nakumura."

"But did you hear?" Leiko spoke up. "About the flowers?"

Amaya frowned. "The flowers?"

"Yeah." Leiko nodded. "Apparently, someone placed a load of orange lilies with the white chrysanthemum in the vase."

Hearing this, Amaya looked appalled. "How disrespectful."

I knew that in Japan, funeral customs were seen as obligatory for everyone to follow, and one of these included the only flowers allowed being white chrysanthemum. It was a flower especially reserved for someone who had passed away, and at a normal funeral each attendee was supposed to bring some.

Leiko scowled. "And of all the flowers, orange lilies."

"Why are orange lilies so bad?" I asked. Leiko and Amaya did not mind my cultural knowledge gaps, and were often eager to explain rather than take offence.

"Well, in Japan we have a thing called Hanakotoba." Amaya explained to me. "It's kind of a language using flowers."

"Oh, I see." There was a similar Victorian custom in Great Britain that involved this. "So what do orange lilies stand for?"

"Hate." Amaya said the word bluntly. "Revenge, too."

"The person in charge of setting up the hall says he has no idea where they came from." Leiko told us. "Of course, he's gotten into loads of trouble. Doctor Nakumura was very interested in Hanakotoba, so I reckon someone who didn't like him put those there through spite."

"How terrible." I understood now why they had both sounded so shocked.

"Well, I bet you're weirded out." Amaya suddenly spoke up. I gave her a puzzle look.

"What do you mean?"

"Two car accidents within three months? Both because of failed brakes? And both people were slightly related to you in some way?" I froze. "What?"

Now Amaya looked puzzled. "What do you mean? Remember, Itsuke Watanabe?"

I shook my head. "No…"

"He was one of your patients."

One of my patients? "When?"

"Umm…sometime in February, I think…"

I strained my memory, turning the name over in my head. Itsuke Watanabe…But I could not remember it at all. A thought occurred to me – was this something to do with my amnesia? Yet apparently this patient was in hospital in February, before the month gap. I could remember everything up until then just fine.

Then again…well, I hadn't really been thinking about what happened before the 5th of March. Instead, I had been trying to figure out what happened within that date and when I woke up in hospital. And thinking back…well, I couldn't remember anything particularly important happening. It was three months ago, so it would be normal not to remember what happened each day. Even so, I should be able to remember something like that. So why couldn't I?

Unless…there was more missing from my memory then I initially thought?

"Is he still alive?" I asked Amaya. However, she shook her head.

"No, he passed away a few hours after he was admitted."

For the rest of the day, I thought about this man. Itsuke Watanabe…Itsuke Watanabe…Who was he? Was he important? Why had my memory blocked him? During my break, I tried to find records of him. Strangely, there was no record of him being admitted to the hospital, not even an autopsy report. I pointed this out to Amaya.

"Well, you were the one who mentioned it to me."

"What exactly did I say?"

"You just said that a man you met from your other job was admitted here, and you were surprised."

"Which job?"

"I can't remember."

So I began my search for Itsuke Watanabe. Was he important? Maybe he wasn't. Maybe he was just an unlucky man who I knew by coincidence. But it did not explain why I had forgotten him, and it did not explain the fact that he had apparently succumbed to the exact same accident as Doctor Nakumura.

The next day, I headed over to the SPR office. Perhaps he had been a client who wanted us to solve a case. Knocking first on the door, I headed into the office. So far, I had not seen the strange man who had been watching me a few nights ago, but this did not lift my unease whenever I walked the streets. After the news report announcing Doctor Nakumura's death, Takigawa and I had not really spoken much. If anything, it was my fault – the news had shocked me into silence, and Takigawa had sensed this. I was thankful that he had not pursued the topic, although I could tell he had many questions he wanted to ask me.

Entering the office, I could only see Mai sitting behind the desk, and she ran up to greet me.

"Oh, hi John-kun! What brings you here? If you're looking for Naru, I'm afraid he's out right now."

"Oh, that's ok." I stepped into the office, closing the door behind me. "How have you been?"

"Umm, ok, I guess…I can't help wondering about that house, though."

"I know, I wonder who bought it." I agreed with her.

She beckoned to me. "Do you want some tea or something?"

"No, thanks. I just came to check something…"

Mai sat down behind the desk. "What do you want to know?"

"Um…did a man called Itsuke Watanabe come by at any point?"

"For a case?"

"Maybe…"

Mai frowned and stared at the ceiling. "Um…not that I can remember…let me check through the records…" Reaching into a drawer behind the desk, she took out a wad of papers and leafed through them. After a while, she shook her head regretfully.

"Sorry, he never came here. Why, is he a friend of yours?"

"He was a patient at the hospital I work at."

"Oh, ok…Wait, you work at a hospital?!"

I nodded. "Yeah. You sound surprised."

"I always thought you were just a priest…"

A thought suddenly struck me. "Hey, Mai, do you recognise this man?" I took out my mobile and opened up a browser. After a moment of searching, I came to the hospital website. There, a picture of Doctor Nakumura had been posted, informing people of his death and the small service. I showed the picture to Mai.

"Ummm…" She squinted at it. "Wait a minute…that's the guy from my dream!"

My heart thudded in my chest, but I hid the feeling of both dread and revelation.

Mai looked at me, confused. "Who is he? What made you think to show him to me?"

"He was a doctor at the hospital." I explained. "A few days ago, they found his car and body in a river. They examined the car and found out his brakes stopped working, and they think that's how he died."

"Oh…I wonder why I had that dream…" Mai pondered the information. However, there was something I hadn't told her – she had had that dream on April 14th. Yet the body was only discovered a few nights ago, on April 21st. And during this time, when I was searching for Doctor Nakumura, I noticed on his timetable that someone had been changing and cancelling his appointments. As far as I was aware, Mai didn't have dreams of future events, only the past and present. That meant that Doctor Nakumura must have died on or before April 14th. So why did his appointments with his clients get cancelled and changed? If he was already dead, then it couldn't have been Doctor Nakumura that changed them.

So someone had changed them for him? Someone who already knew that he was dead?

At that moment, there was a slow, steady knock on the door. Three times, no more. Then nothing. Mai hurried over to the door and opened it.

"Hello, can I help you?" Then she stopped abruptly.

"What is it?"

"There's no one here…" She peered curiously down into the corridor. "That's strange…"

Almost nervously, I followed her to the door, just as she exclaimed, "Ok, this is weird."

"Hm?" I looked down at the door way. A single, orange flower had been placed there.

Mai picked it up. "A lily?"

The sudden realisation came to me. An orange lily. Just like at the service. What did Amaya say it meant?

Hate. Revenge, too.

Leaving from the office somewhat hastily, I hurried to the church. This must have been the other 'job' that Amaya meant. While I headed over there, I felt even more nervous than I did when I set out this morning. The orange lily left behind had set me on edge. Someone had left it there deliberately for me, they knew only I would understand what it meant. So as I walked down the streets, I was constantly alert, keeping my eye on every individual that walked too close to me, or seemed to be following me from a distance. Nothing happened, but as I arrived at the church, I was so full of adrenaline that I couldn't stop my hands from shaking. At the gate, a group of the children from Father Toujou's day-care spotted me, and ran over to me excitedly.

"Father John! Father John!" There were two of them, carrying skipping ropes. I forced a smile, despite my nervous state.

"Hey, what're you playing?"

"Skipping!" One of the young girls thrust forwards the skipping rope into my face.

"That sounds like fun. Hey, you haven't seen Father Toujou by any chance, have you?"

One of the boys shook his head. "But a man came to the gate a minute ago, and he had something for you!"

My heart froze in dread. "Oh?"

The boy held out an orange lily proudly. "He asked me to take special care of it for you!"

Hiding the sick feeling at the pit of my stomach, I took the lily from him. "Wow, you've really taken care of it! Thank you!"

The boy beamed, and he and the girl ran back to the playground, where they continued their skipping.

I examined the lily gingerly, resisting the want to throw it onto the road and let it be trampled by the traffic. Whoever was doing this was messing with me now. All subtlety was gone. The message was sick and clear.

Just then, I heard someone calling my name. I saw Father Toujou walking out of the church.

"Father Brown! What brings you here?"

I hurried up to him thankfully. "Oh, good day, Father Toujou. How are you?"

"I'm fine, and the kids are doing great, too. Yesterday, two siblings finally managed to get into their foster home."

"Oh, that's good. They weren't split up, then?"

"No, which is very good."

"Actually, Father…" I turned back to the gate. "Two of the kids told me that a stranger talked to them. Maybe you should make sure they don't go near the gate…"

Father Toujou frowned. "That's strange, I always tell them never to go near the gate. They normally listen. What did this stranger say?"

"Umm…nothing much, apparently." I held the lily behind my back as inconspicuously as I could.

Still frowning, Father Toujou began to walk back to the church, beckoning me. As we walked, he asked me,

"So, what brings you here today? I wasn't planning a service today."

"Oh, well, there was something I wanted to ask you." As we walked past a flower bed, I quickly dropped the lily onto the soil.

"Hm?"

"Have you heard of a man called Itsuke Watanabe?"

Father Toujou paused. "Hmm…"

I held my breath as he thought.

"I believe I have." At this news, relief washed through me. "Yes, he came here a few months ago."

"Oh, why?"

"Well, I never saw the man myself, but you told me he wanted us to include a mention about his granddaughter in one of the services."

"His granddaughter?"

"Yes, I think she was ill at the time."

"What was her name?"

Father Toujou gave me a slightly bemused look. "Well, you were the one who told me, Father Brown." He laughed. Hastily, I tried to think of an excuse.

"Oh, I just wanted to check I had the facts right."

"Well, I believe her name was…Sayomi, I think?"

I stopped dead in my tracks. "Saymoi? Are you sure?"

Father Toujou nodded. "Why, what's the matter?"

My heart was racing in my chest. "Oh, well…she passed away, recently…"

Father Toujou's face fell. "Oh, how unfortunate. Poor girl. How did she die?"

I felt myself becoming light-headed, but I pushed the feeling away. "I don't know the details."

"I assume that Watanabe-san must be upset."

"Well, umm…he died as well. In a car accident."

"That really is dreadful." Father Toujou shook his head sadly. "How tragic."

Something clicked into my mind.

…"We've never actually met before, so I wasn't certain. But you looked just like Oji-chan described."…

…"How do you know me?"

"Oji-chan told me."…

Sayomi mentioned she had a grandfather, and this grandfather had told her about me. Now I knew that he was dead, and through exactly the same way Doctor Nakumura had died. There was no way this was a coincidence. And, remembering the lily, someone knew that I was beginning to piece the puzzle together.

Saying good-bye to Father Toujou, I walked slowly out of the church, slightly dazed. Heading over to the gate of the church, I was alert for anyone suspicious. However, there was no one at the gate. Tentatively, I edged out, looking around carefully. Again, no one was there. I stepped out onto the street.

"I see you didn't like my gifts, then."

I froze and turned around slowly. A man was leaning on the gate. He had not been there a moment ago.

"What a shame. I went through so much effort…" His voice was smooth and silky. But underneath the surface, there was a clear malice.

At once, my entire body became paralysed. I could not move. Only stare at the man.

He wore a suit, complete black. From head to toe, everything was black. So my eyes were drawn at once to the orange lily he held in his fingers, rolling the stem back and forth between them.

"You know, that service was a complete bore. Good man…tragic death…it's always the same." As he spoke, he examined the lily carefully.

"The only reason I went was to see you." At these words, his gaze rose and he fixed two black eyes onto me.

"So you should be glad. Thankful, really." The corner of his mouth twitched into a smile.

I swallowed. "Who are you?"

The man laughed. A small, gentle chuckle.

"Oh, my dear John. Don't you remember?" Then he stepped forwards towards me. I tensed immediately, every part of me wanted to flee and cower before the man. Yet I stood my ground.

Finally, the man reached me. He was taller than me, so he leaned down until his mouth was next to me ear. For a moment, he said nothing. Then, ever so softly, he whispered in my ear.

"I'm your colleague."