A/N: Thanks everyone, once again, for your reviews and comments on the awful story that I am writing. Well, this is the final chapter to my very first case, so I can only hope that it ends the way that you like it. Well, here you go

Case One: Strategies in the Schoolyard

Part 7: Epilogue

"It just doesn't make any sense" Mai had heard an officer say as she was checked over by the medical staff. Checking to make sure that she didn't have a concussion from the hit from behind that one of the girls had given Mai when she had her eyes on Saito. "There is no logical reason to why the guy is dead. He didn't have a scratch on him, and if he had a heart attack it wouldn't make any sense since he is perfectly healthy." He continued, his partner by his side as they looked over they're matching pads of notes.

"Some just don't make sense." The officer at his side said "Like my sisters ex boyfriend. He was gone for no apparent reason, completely healthy with no medical problems and up and died one day in his apartment."

The truth was, there really wasn't any logical reason for the death of Saito. She had been there and knew that first hand, it had been supernatural. And Naru and Gene had been the cause of it.

Still, even if they were killers, she couldn't possibly hate them for it. They had saved her life somehow, even at the cost of their apparent friend and member of their team. She knew that they wouldn't go and kill him for no reason. So as they said that there was no real logical explanation for the whole thing, she couldn't quite help the wave of relief that came across her.

Slowly, minutes turned into an hour and the hour turned into two hours, and soon, she finally saw Gene and Naru's figures. Walking towards her through the mass of kayos that surrounded them as though the world had suddenly slowed down, and they were the only normal things around. But by the apparent things that were happening around them, it became obvious that they were far from normal. When they reached her she was met by Lin who hung by their sides, and brought towards their car where she was quickly brought to her school and into the office that they had been working in to deal with the case. Left in Ayako's sobbing arms. Her body quivering as ripples of fear shook through her body off of Ayako's. Making it hard for Mai to really settle her head on Ayako's shoulder like she wanted to with all the shaking. "Thank Kami-sama..." she heard Ayako sob into Mai's hair in a quivering voice, "I thought I lost you, Mai. Never do that again!" She whispered, her voice breaking when she looked at Mai's face.

"I'm sorry." Mai croaked "All I was trying to do was have a break like Gene said, and I found this ghost, and...-"

"Ghost?" Bou-san's voice broke through the silence that had come through the room since Mai and Ayako's reuniting, "What ghost?"

"Well...-" Mai started, noticing that the rooms eyes hadn't just landed on her now, but had been on her ever since she had entered the room. "Ever since I left this office, it's been terrible." Mai said dryly, her throat parched from the weeps that had begun to arise from herself too. "I left the office, but I heard this noise. It was like it was following me, these weird footsteps." She said, recalling the feeling that made her feel like she was being followed by this sound. Or chased. "And I realised that the footsteps were actually coming from the pool. And being a part of the student council I had to make sure no one was in there after hours."

"So that's when you found Saito-san?" John cut in, his voice low enough to make her have to lean in to hear him.

"No," Mai interjected him "That was when I met Hisako-chan for the first time." She swallowed, recalling the body floating at the center of the pool.

"Hisako-...Chan?" Ayako broke in, her voice starting to not sound as shaky "Isn't that one of the girls that you said was dead?" She questioned.

Everyone was silent, waiting for her to continue on about what had occurred. "Hisako-chan told me what we all knew, that Fuschida Chikako-san had killed her." She said numbly, confirming they're thought's.

"And then what happened?" Naru said in his usual monotone voice, not hesitating to hear the details.

"Then I was dragged under. With Hisako-chan, and Fuschida-san holding me under both ways." She shivered, John's mouth hung open in horror similar to Ayako's, Bou-san had a look of disgust at what had occurred on his face, and the rest of the room hung silent. Not saying a word. "All I remember was that I was dieing." She choked suddenly, her eyes starting to well up with tears that she would not release as realisation dawned on her that she had died almost twice today. That was a new record for sure. "-That's when I saw Saito-san." She stopped, her throat aching.

"Mai, you don't have to go on." Ayako whispered in Mai's ear as she hung over her shoulder in motherly support.

She shook her head in protest "He pulled me out and dragged me to where his bag was. We were fine for a few minutes, but when he went to grab us towels, that's when I noticed the...-"

"The?" Ryuu erged her to continue. That was such a guy thing to do. Make the girl that was crying continue why don't you?

"The hair." She stopped short at the sudden look of horror that flashed through everyone's eyes, "Hair was stuffed in his bag, and... it resembled mine so I thought..." She sighed in exhaustion. "And then I turned around, and he was there in front of me, with this... with this weird look in his eyes." She swallowed hard, the memory forming in front of her eyes once again.

"Mai-chan, you don't need to go on. I'm sure it's a very unpleasant thing to remember." Gene said with a sudden pause, him and Naru meeting eyes so suddenly that you could almost see sparks. Sometimes, it seemed as though you could cut the air with how tense it was in the moments that they objected to one another's idea's. "And something that you don't want to recall so suddenly after such a short time span."

"Oh! No, don't worry" she tried to smile "I'll be okay, I know that you need to know the details in order to get things sorted out." Whatever those things were. "After that...well, I can't exactly remember." She confessed, "Everything went dark suddenly."

"It must have been the spirits. They have a very aggressive air about them" Ryuu breathed in with a sigh.

"So they knocked her unconscious?" Ayako yelled in outrage, her face growing as red as her locks of hair with rage.

"Matsuzaki-san, it would be best if you would stop yelling." Naru cut in, his usual arrogance prevailing even on her own teacher who quickly shut up. "But you did get hit hard Mai. I noticed that a bump was already forming in the car." He said, making her unsure if he actually cared or was just pointing out the obvious.

"I'm fine, I was checked out by the paramedics and they said that I didn't have a concussion or anything." She smiled lightly, noticing that her head actually really did hurt.

"Did they say that you should get more checked out?" Gene cut in. Being as fast as Naru and catching on to what she hadn't actually told them yet.

"They did say that I should get checked out more." She admitted sheepishly as everyone stared at her worriedly "But Ayako's the daughter of a doctor! So I was sure that she could take care of it." She lied. She hadn't even thought about Ayako's medical profession. But that didn't matter right now. What mattered was to find out what she had missed in her absence without anyone scolding her for her uncertainty of her safety.

Everyone watched her worriedly when she quickly stopped speaking. Their eyes on the swollen bump at the top of her head that Ayako released her horror at when she gasped at the sight.

"Mai! Come here." She ordered, quickly dragging Mai to the loveseat that Bou-san and John quickly got off from as she came over. "Sit down." She ordered again as she pushed Mai's shoulders downwards, Mai following command obediently since she was scared what she would have to face if Ayako got angry. Ayako quickly took charge as Mai seated herself on the seat and looked into her eyes wearily which were storming with thoughts. Grabbing at the back of Mai's head gently and moving it so she could see Mai's injury.

"I'm fine, really." She repeated uselessly as Ayako continued her handy work at the back of her scalp.

"Just continue where you left off." Naru said gruffly, his eyes deep with concentration.

"O-Oh, okay...Where was I again?" she muttered to herself cluelessly, feeling stupid that she couldn't even remember where she had left off in her story.

"The pool, everything went black...?" John answered her questionably.

"Oh, yeah." Mai said slowly, remembering "After everything went black, I had this dream. Where Kino-san and Chikako-san were arguing, and Kino-san was against what they were doing."

"Against?" Naru said quietly, hand to his chin in a thoughtful manner

"Yeah. I was trying to stay focused to what was going on, but I couldn't really with me not knowing how I fell asleep, or...-" she sighed "well..." And so she continued, telling them about her dream and Kino-san's death, and how she woke up and realised who Saito really was. The girls killer. Finally getting to how she came up with an escape idea when she realised that she had her phone with her, and Ayako's number on speed dial.

"That's how we found you." Bou-san cut in suddenly as Ayako made a few more side notes about Mai's head. "The old women came in suddenly and asked where you were because she thought someone had broken into the pool, or someone with the keys had opened up the door and hadn't locked it-" there was a sudden smack in the silence and it took Mai several seconds to really notice why Bou-san has stopped speaking mid sentence until she recognized the red hand print that had started to swell at the side of his jaw.

"So I assumed that you were the only student council member who would stay this late at night and came to see if you were the one that had left it unlocked by mistake." Ayako continued for Bou-san, her face subconsciously growing more gleeful with the satisfactory of hitting Bou-san back for his comment about "Being an old lady", which, obviously, she had angrily tookin to heart. Bou-san muttered curses under his breath as she continued "I went here because I knew that this would be the only thing keeping you after hours, and came to find out that you weren't here."

"That's when her phone rang" John went on, frowning slightly in distaste to what had happened "And Mai-san's voice was on the other end."

Bou-san crept in quickly, rubbing his cheek thorough and vigorously as he gave a glare in Ayako's direction "We recognised the voice easily, and Naru-chan and Gene put the pieces together and realised who Yamoto really was."

"I know the voice is an easy give away, but what made you realise that it was Saito-san..?" Mai murmured questionably, her curiosity peaking.

"We had theories that he wasn't who he said he was." Gene said slowly

"He came late in the second semester suddenly, and caught Yamada-san's attention." Naru murmured, his eyes glistening with a memory.

Ryuu walked forward, leaning against the sofa's arm chair and looked at her. His eyes as deep as the night sky "There was something...off about him." He said in his deep voice, gruff from disuse "And then I noticed the spirits that were attached to him..."

"Chikako-san and the others..." Mai whispered under her breath. They had followed him even after their deaths. They didn't have any regrets after what he had done to them... At least Chikako-san didn't.

Ryuu nodded, clearing his throat "I didn't think much of it later on though. Because it became so natural to see spirits attached to anyone. I just thought that they may have been ex girlfriends. Maybe an accident had claimed them and that was how they're relationships ended." He grumbled "Now I see how stupid I was, it was obvious that there was something off about him, and I didn't want to admit it because I didn't want anymore trouble to have to deal with."

"It's only natural, Yamada-kun." John smiled lightly, trying to make light of the situation "Sometimes it just doesn't occur to some."

"Yes." He said soberly "But not me. I saw the way girls looked at him. Like the way they looked at us; and assumed that he was just someone who dated plenty and... something just happened to the girls randomly that were attached to him..."

"It's not your fault." Mai said suddenly, shocking herself with the overwhelming pity that she suddenly felt for him. He was lying to himself because he had been scared. Scared about what his new "somewhat" friend would think when he told him that he was haunted by 4 female ghosts. Just like she had been scared for almost half a week about what was happening to her. And how she suddenly knew things and saw deaths unfold in her dreams. Wouldn't she sound crazy? Insane? About what she was seeing. She didn't want to except any of that, and in the course of a few days, began to make up logical reasons for it, or told herself it wasn't real, when, in fact, it had actually occurred. The truth was, she was seeing the living become the dead. "You had no idea that that would happen, and no one blames you." She said slowly, checking for the correct wording for the situation.

He looked at her this time. Really looked at her, with an expression that she couldn't quite decipher. But made her realise that she had said all the right things. "Everyone makes mistakes." Bou-san cut in, grinning "Just look at Naru-chan, and how many mistakes he makes."

Everyone laughed. Well... except for Naru. Really, he rather grumbled something under his breath and walked towards his desk. Lin and Ryuu didn't laugh either, but she did fully see the small smiles on their faces this time, so she was brought to ease that they had had some affect on Ryuu's mood.

And that's when she found herself grinning. A real grin. And she realised how hard her face had felt since Masako's accident. And how cold her insides had felt. And suddenly a growing warmth spread throughout her body, and her insides tingled with butterflies. Because it was over. Almost over, at least. Naru and Gene were most likely not going to be blamed for Saito's death because there was no way to prove that they had harmed him. And the Chikako-san and the others spirits were most likely going to be laid to rest finally. At least after the school had a proper exorcism, and the building was purified.

Little did she know that there was so much more to it than that.

Day 6, Later in the Evening

She was warm, engulfed in silence at last. A dreamless and restful sleep that she could say she had missed plenty of. Her thoughts were silent as she stood in a surrounding blackness.

Very much similar to where she usually found her mind settling into when she was unconscious. Her body stood frozen, watching the calming darkness become brighter and brighter, right before her very eyes. And, suddenly, figures began to appear in front of her now weary but calm eyes.

Kino Hisako, Fuschida Chikako, Modegi Kinu, and Saeki Ko stood in front of her now, their eyes glazed over as they watched the darkness fade away in the ultimate light. Pure and breathlessly warm, inviting even herself to run into the arms of whoever was up ahead. But instead of just a light, as Mai saw it, the others saw something beyond it. Names were whispered in utter pleasant joy. Names of Grandparents, parents, or any sort of relatives were whispered as they began to joylessly walk towards the light in happiness. Their arms snagged together as they walked as friends. Even after what they had done to one another, they had forgiven, and as they walked ahead, Mai saw that they had forgotten too...

Then, just as suddenly as they had appeared, they disappeared into the brightness ahead. Their steps sure and powerful and...peaceful...

Mai's eyes burned as she watched ahead, tears slipping down her cheeks at the scene. The warmth just as warm, hugging her body.

"Your going to regret now for sure" she almost thought she heard someone whisper grudgingly. Turning around slowly she saw-

"Mai" She heard someone whisper by her ear, bringing her all too suddenly to the present.

She was in the office where she had last remembered she had been. Lying uncomfortably on one of the cushions that had been placed under her after she fell asleep. Her head positioned almost as terribly as her sleeping position.

"Mai..." She heard someone whisper once more, all too gentle and comforting. Recognizing the voice as...Naru's?

No. That couldn't be right. Naru? Gentle? That wouldn't even happen even if hell froze over. He was Naru, the narcisstic. Gentle wasn't in his vocabulary.

Ignoring his voice, she tried to act as normal as a sleeping person could be. Grumbling nothings under her breath incoherently and she turned onto her back so she wouldn't have to deal with whatever Naru wanted. Probably a cup of tea, or either to ask her more questions about the case. She didn't have any answers, and didn't have the energy to make tea. She didn't even have enough energy to open her eye lids. She just wanted to go and slip unconscious again, back into that peaceful dream. What was it again? Oh, yes... the light.

She felt his hand touch her cheek. Catching her off guard almost enough to make her respond to the burning sensation that followed the back of his hand as he moved down her jaw line. Why was Naru touching her? Was something wrong with her face? Had the spirits tookin half her face off with that earlier hit? She hadn't gotten the chance to really look at herself in the mirror since the paramedics checked her out, so she wouldn't know. But she hadn't noticed any grossed out faces while she was walking around. So why was he touching her this way to make her stomach do back flips?

He stopped at the end of her jaw line, only to caress the crease at the croak of her throat with the tips of his fingers. Sliding along her cheek till it reached her lips where his fingers traced them. Fire running along all the base lines that he touched. Her heart pounding in her throat and her body heating up like the Fourth of July. His fingers stopped. Her whole body going rigged with the sudden freeze in time. Every breathe she took making it more and more difficult to not gasp and try to breath normally. Just as suddenly as everything had begun and stopped, she found air batting her face. The tips of her bangs tickling her face enough to make her want to swipe them away. But she could feel it. Feel his presence. And the more that she recognized it there, the more it seemed to be drawing closer with the small shallow breaths that she felt Naru breath out as he came closer and closer to her face. Their lips-

"Oi, Naru." She heard someone cut through the silence. The breath left her face, and the loss of contact overwhelmed her. Bou-san had entered the room...

Someone shushed him and she recognised the person to be John. Being quiet John, she knew he was embarrassed to tell someone to shush so abruptly. But, at the moment, she wished that she could have done much more than shush him...

"Oh." Bou-san said quietly, realisation that she was "sleeping" dawning on him. "I just needed to know what you have packed yet so I can start putting it away." He said.

The rest of the conversation she tuned out. Trying to figure out what had just happened? And why was she feeling so... so... discouraged that it hadn't ended in a certain way? Why did she feel so utterly horrible at the same time? She didn't understand as her heart continued to beat a mile a minute, and she tried to quiet it, and why her gut felt so queasy.

And as much as she couldn't believe it, she fell asleep with these thoughts continuing in her head...

"Mai-chan!" Masako ran towards her, her pale form almost transparent in the darkness as she leaped into Mai's waiting hug. Tears running down both their faces just as similarly as Masako had appeared to Mai in the classroom.

"Are you really here?" Mai whispered into Masako's shoulder as they sniffled tears of joy, "I mean, you can't be-" she started, but failed to continue because the word died on her toung just as fast as Masako answered her

"No!" She laughed, smiling delicately as she wiped her tears on the sleeve of her uniform. Very un-ladylike for Masako, Mai realised. "I'm not dead. I just...I'm not sure..." She whispered, trying to come up with the correct way to put it "I'm here but... but something's different. I feel like my mind is clearing. Like everything is becoming sharper, and I can think, and..." she mumbled on, failing to know what else to say.

"Maybe...Could it...-Could it be that your waking up...?" Mai whispered, unable to keep the pure hope out of her voice "I...I mean, Saito's gone. He's dead...- Maybe... maybe he was just holding you back from doing so?" she whispered. It seemed to make sense, he had been the one threatening both her, Masako, and the teams life. He had been the one to push her down the stairs. That must have been it. All along, he had been the one holding her back from opening her eyes.

They cried once again, rejoicing in the hope that maybe they were correct. Maybe she was waking up...? If that were true, Mai couldn't even put into words how joyful she felt.

With much needed effort they finally moved out of each other's arms and looked at each other, their eyes glistening from the tears that continued to fall. "I'll...I'll see you soon then, Mai-chan." Masako smiled, her tears rolling down her pale cheeks as Mai's consciousness began to come.

"Yes." Mai grinned "Yes, of course! Definitely..."

Later, 8:51 p.m

"Did you have a good dream, Mai-chan?" She heard someone whisper, smiling; arising her to open her eyes. Her eyelids fluttering open, she looked up at the voice that was near her face.

Gene's face was raised directly above hers, looking down at her with warm eyes and a small smile as she moved her head off his shoulder where she had been sleeping, and rubbed her eyes tiredly. Blinking away the sleepiness, and, as much as she didn't want Gene or anyone else to know, leftover tears from the dream she had just had. Looking around awkwardly, Gene watched her with amused eyes as she tried to remember where she was. Or at least recognize it.

Finally beginning to give up, she realised where they were. They were moving. To be more specific, moving in their van where they often placed their equipment and storage. Or at least that was what she had guessed when she had first saw Bou-san struggling with the computer monitors up the stairs of her high school. Lin was lodged in the driver's seat with his back to her and eyes on the road while Naru sat in the passenger seat with his gaze now lowered onto her.

"I'm sorry," she started, with her mind groggy to what was happening and her head throbbing making it even more difficult."I fell asleep. How long have I been out?" She asked, stating the obvious right away. Knowing Naru would make a cocky remark about it later on. She just hoped she hadn't drooled on Gene's shirt or something when she was unconscious.

"Almost 4 hours." Gene answered her, his gaze resting on her head "You must have been really tired. How's your head?"

"Oh" Mai said, not really expecting the question to come so suddenly "I'm fine. A little sore, but I'll live." She smiled

"Matsuzaki-san said that it would be best if you'd go to the hospital and get it checked out." He went on, ignoring what she said "You may not have a concussion, but you may have something else damaged."

"I'm sure they would have noticed if it was that bad." Mai cut in "Besides, if I put ice on it, it'll be okay" she smiled again. It still didn't seem to fool him.

"I'm not-"

"Mai" Naru cut off his brother. Looking at Mai now in a way that made her think that he was about to say something important. But... "You can get out now."

"Get out?" Mai repeated dumbly. Was he kicking her out of the car because he knew that she knew what he was about to do in the office? Then again, she actually didn't know what had happened in the first place.

"Yes." He said, his face set in stone "Or do you not even know where you live?" he questioned her in a smartass way.

"Oh!" Mai gasped, sliding half way down the seat to look out the large van window, and, sure enough, there it was. Her small apartment, number 521 among a series of other homes in the little lot. It was late, so most of the children's bedroom lights were off, while her neighbours lay awake doing their daily routine. "My house." she said, feeling just as stupid as she sounded.

Pulling the van doors open, she jumped down from the somewhat high van and took a double step when she did so. Losing her footing as soon as she came into contact with the ground below her. Walking towards the passenger side window, she looked through the glass at Naru, who quickly returned her gaze and slid the window down so he could hear her.

"How did you know where I lived?" She peered at him through slitted suspicious eyes. Was he following her or something?

"I heard it from the principal." He answered dully. Oh yeah, Naru had better time than stalking a teenage girl like herself around at night. Well, a girl can hope, right? "Any more questions?" he asked numbly, breaking through her thoughts. Irritation obvious in his voice.

"Oh. No." She said lamely. Quickly glaring at him. But, inside, she felt something. Maybe the pull of her heart strings, because all of a sudden she couldn't hate him. It came to her as quickly as everything else did, a punch in the gut. Would she ever see him, Gene, Lin, or the others again? She had been there in repayment, to pay a debt as the school's student council member back to them after he suddenly agreed to helping her school. She had hated him at first. But, now, everything began to ach. Because, really, she wanted to know more about them. She had grown so close to them that it almost felt like they had known each other since the beginning. But now, it seemed like they were being pulled apart after meeting again in such a long time. Like she was losing them...

Silence suddenly came over them all, with her heart caught in her throat, she looked at Gene and Naru. Her eyes becoming moist, and her throat growing dry. Her cheeks flamed.

The cars ignition rumbled and grunted as the seconds ticked by and she knew that she had to leave or she would look like a real idiot. Starting to turn around, tears threatening to release, she began to walk towards the stairs that she had to take to reach her door. Only to be stopped by Naru's voice. Turning once again, she looked at him, really looked at him, and saw him wave something with his hand. Taking a few steps forward, she saw that it was a card. Lodged in between his index finger and thumb, he reached over to her. Taking it, she squinted at the small print on the card. Some of the writing in both English and Japanese. She didn't speak English.

"What is this-?"

"You still owe me." He said, his eyes dark enough for it to be hard to see his pupils. His face hidden under the clouds that covered the moon, making it impossible to read his expression. Not that he'd ever make it easy to do so in the first place.

"Sorry?" Mai questioned, unsure of what to make out of what he had just said.

"You owe me for all of this. I believe that it is only proper that you say yes to assisting me with more cases." He said numbly, not waiting for an answer as he clicked the button for the window to go up. "Be at that location at 9 a.m tomorrow. And don't be late." With his window now all the way up she knew that there was no way she could resign from the offer... or, rather, order.

Outside she put on an irritated face and gave a grudging glare at the vehicle as it started along the street, inside she was screaming with joy. She'd see them again. Better yet, she'd see them tomorrow. She wasn't sure if she'd regret it later on or just continue to feel as happy as she was now. But what mattered at the moment was that she was happy about this. Releasing a quick bright grin in the vehicles direction, she continued up the stairs and into her warm apartment. Not knowing what was ahead in the future...

A/N: Well, you guys have to admit, this one was faster than the last update FOR SURE. I was thinking about not posting for a bit to be evil and have more of a reason to come up with a new case, as well as hopefully get more reviews. But I wanted to post, so here you go, lol.

Also, as I messaged some readers before, I AM continuing this story with new cases to come, as well as small little chapters with Mai/Naru/Gene/Team moments, lol. But all I need is idea's for a new case. I have idea's of my own, but all it is, as I said, is an idea. I don't have any idea on how to make it... pop. Lol, but, yeah, if ANY of you have any idea's on cases/ideas/extra's that I can use, please message me, or tell me in the review that I hope you will post So, yeah, thank you SO much for being there through my terrible writing moments, and helping me improve in some way. Thank you!