CHAPTER 1

DAY 1 8:20
TOKYO, Dogenzaka in Shibuya

Mai grinned. Her wristwatch read 8:24. She couldn't wait to see Naru's surprised face when he saw her—if he and Lin were already in the office at all.

Before Naru and Lin arrived back in Japan, Naru's parents, the Davises, had bought their son a two-bedroom condominium unit just a few kilometers off Shibuya. It was to the chagrin of her boss, of course, but it looked like Naru could not say no to the highly persuasive Luella Davis. He ended up caving in and staying in the condo unit with Lin instead of spending thousands for a night in a hotel.

From Naru's residence, traffic to the SPR office was a little unbearable, if not uncomfortable. At least, that was according to Madoka, who had already been there. Putting her faith to Madoka's words, Mai would not be surprised if the two men would take a lot of time before they got to the office.

Naturally, that was wishful thinking, and Mai should have expected more from them—because there they were, sat coolly in the reception area, while the rest of the on-call team irregulars lounged comfortably on the sofas.

Mai literally felt her jaw drop.

"Good morning, Mai!" greeted Takigawa Housho. His bleached hair was not tied at all. If someone would ask Mai, she would say that she preferred Takigawa with a half-ponytail. "Congratulations on coming to work ways off early!"

The people that were sat around Naru played their roles and clapped while relaying their congratulations. To the surprise of Mai, even Lin played along with a small smile. She loved her friends dearly, but Mai would prefer it more if they would not tease her endlessly.

"What—how come you're all this early?"

You have got to be kidding me!

"You mean how come you're this early?" Matsuzaki Ayako quipped. The woman reached over to the coffee table and took a cup of tea.

It looked like Yasuhara or one of the guys had already brewed some. Just how early did they report to work?

"If there's something to congratulate Mai about, I believe it should be her finally not getting Naru all riled up," said Hara Masako. She threw a condescending smile to Mai's direction before covering her mouth with her yukata-clad hand. "A first, don't you think?"

Mai flushed and pointed at each of her friends. "You!"

"Us?" asked John Brown, head tilted curiously to the side.

Mai sighed, her shoulders slumping, when she realized that John probably did not understand the context of her pointing at them. She was pointing in exasperation, and John just innocently couldn't get it.

"Anyway, let's stop teasing Taniyama-san," said John. He smiled and gently patted the space beside him. "Take a seat, so we could start early."

Naru was sat in the loveseat at the north of the coffee table. On his left were Takigawa and John. On his right were Lin, Masako, and Ayako. Yasuhara stood behind the couch where both Takigawa and John were and was also gesturing for Mai to seat beside John.

"Oh, Father John, Father John," Takigawa called. "You're way too kind."

Mai was sitting beside John when she said, "Please, Bou-san, John is definitely way above you."

"You're such a brat, you know that, jou-chan?" Takigawa, who was sat on John's right side, reached over and ruffled Mai's hair.

As soon as Mai sat and everyone had settled, Yasuhara pulled a chair and placed it on her left. Mai realized that their group was getting bigger, and the sofas just weren't cutting it whenever they convened for a meeting like this.

All their eyes traveled to Naru when he spoke for the first time since she arrived. His attention was directed at her, and Mai could feel heat creeping from her neck upward. "As Hara-san mentioned, congratulations on failing to rile me up this morning, Mai."

Mai heard a lot of badly concealed snickers.

"Say what?" she hissed, raising an angry fist. She gave Naru the best smile she could muster.

"But I would have preferred it more if you have been the one to make the tea."

Mai blinked at Naru and exchanged incredulous looks with Yasuhara. Was that a compliment—as best as a compliment from Naru could be?

"Which roughly translates to come to meetings even earlier, Mai," said Ayako. "Otherwise known as 'you did well today but I expect better.'"

There was another round of giggles and an annoyed grunt from Mai before they finally followed through their meeting's agenda.

"Our new client works at a place I believe you are all familiar with… or at least heard of," said Naru. He was now looking at the clipboard containing all his notes from the previous night's interview. "Her name is Watanabe Emiko, 53 years old, an associate professor for physics at the University of Tokyo, better known as Todai."

There were collective gasps from Mai and the others. Lin, who sat quietly beside Masako, remained coolly working on in his laptop.

Associate professor? thought Mai. Wasn't she a dormitory manager?

"Todai!" exclaimed Takigawa. He looked at Yasuhara. "Hey, shounen, didn't you take the entrance tests for Todai?"

Yasuhara grinned timidly and scratched the back of his head. "As a matter of fact, I did. However, as expected, Todai is incredibly hard to get into. I was unfortunately a few points behind the quota grade."

"It's still very cool that you did, Yasuhara-san!" exclaimed Mai.

"I appreciate that, Taniyama-san." Yasuhara sent Naru a sly smile. "I bet I would have done better had our Boss blessed me even just a small portion of his intelligence. Together with my already big brain and a tiny bit of his, I bet I would have made it in."

Mai laughed along with the others. Yasuhara's occasional conceitedness was a really good competition to their boss'.

"If you're all not interested in the case, I'm willing to drop this any time," said Naru, shutting his clipboard close.

Everyone was rendered silent while Yasuhara jokingly mimed zipping his mouth. At that, Naru resumed.

"Watanabe-sensei owns a private five-story dormitory for students a walking distance away from Todai. Dormers aren't exclusively from the same university, as some come from nearby community colleges as well."

"Dormitories are usually female or male-exclusive," commented Ayako. "Very rare are they co-ed. So this Watanabe-sensei's dormitory…?"

Naru nodded. "This dormitory that she runs is co-ed. The first two floors, which have five rooms each, are for the male students. The third and fourth floors, also with five rooms each, were for female students. The top floor is the cafeteria and study hub. Reception area and office are in the first floor.

"Watanabe-sensei would not have reached out until the students started threatening to boycott the building."

It was John who spoke next. "Why would they want to boycott the dorm?"

"As Watanabe-sensei does not live in the same building, she has had no experience in what the students were going through. They only ever reported sparsely. She hasn't experienced any of these personally."

"What kind of reports were these?" asked John.

"Watanabe-sensei is a physicist, and as such only believes in physical reasonings behind random instances," said Naru instead. "When students complained of random power interruptions at night, it looked like the suspect was faulty wiring. Call receptions are very bad, the same way they are in our previous case, Agawa-san's house.

"Students get locked up even when they're alone in the floor. Every night, students would hear harsh knocking on their doors, often distracting them from either sleep or their studies. In other words, more than these complaints, Watanabe-sensei is more worried about how these greatly affect their student services."

Masako looked thoughtful when she said, "Those look like results of unlucky instances. At least, in my opinion."

Naru nodded, but his eyes remained on his notes.

"Is this another placebo?" asked Takigawa.

"Placebo?" asked Ayako and Yasuhara.

It was Mai who answered, "Ah, both of you weren't there when Naru explained this. Bou-san is talking about the placebo effect, where the patient feels better after a treatment. However, that treatment does physically nothing, and the patient only felt better because he believed in the treatment."

"In short, you're only accepting this to placate the students' fears that the instances could be more than they actually are?" asked Yasuhara. But he looked confused. "If that's the case, what do we need the whole gang for in this case? And why the interest?"

"Because we're not after a placebo effect," said Lin finally, after a long silence. "In a meeting, it appeared that one of Watanabe-sensei's employees raised the fact that there have been three cases of suicide in the dormitory in the last one and a half years. This, along with the circumstances of the students, makes Watanabe-sensei not want to solve the problems half-heartedly."

The rest of the group looked sufficiently appalled.

"Three suicides in under two years?" Mai exclaimed. Dread overcame her, and she couldn't find the right words to express her feelings. "That's—That's—"

It looked like the others were rendered speechless as well, as everyone else gaped at both Lin and Naru.

"The reasons could vary, but we won't know for sure because not one of those students left any note behind," said Naru, as though Lin had not shared a surprising detail. "Investigating these is not our priority objective, but Watanabe-sensei wishes for us to look into it anyway."

Everyone still seemed surprised at the development of details. Mai's thoughts were all over the place, but they all pointed to the news that there were three students who took their lives in under two years. Mai finally understood the worry of the professor and dormitory owner, which pushed her to finally seek their help—there was a possibility that the three events could be not exclusive at all.

"As for the reason in taking the case, the reports alone do not warrant my personal interest," continued Naru. That just made everything more confusing for Mai. "As this statement could possibly confuse Mai more"—Mai grunted out an annoyed Hey!—"let me clarify for her sake. Watanabe-sensei is a visiting professor in Cambridge and is an acquaintance of Madoka. I was hence instructed to look into the matter."

The last time Naru was instructed to accept a case, the situation went from normal to downright dangerous in a matter of two days. Mai gulped. It was at a time like this that she wishes she could once again channel her dreams to reach Gene, her spirit guide and Naru's older brother. It was selfish, but…

"And while the instances of Watanabe-sensei's dormitory could be simply physical, psychological, or maybe even supernatural, there is only one directive for everyone: do not let your guard down."

They all nodded, albeit weakly.

"Roger that."

DAY 1 11:00
TOKYO, Bunkyo City

As soon as the van stopped, Mai hopped off the vehicle and looked up at the five-story building. More than a dormitory, it looked like an apartment complex with balcony corridors on each floor, except the top and ground floor ones. From the exterior, it seemed that the building had been around for a few decades already. There was nothing off at first glance, but Mai couldn't be sure unless they got in.

Beside the building were a couple of parking spaces where they settled the van. The premises were lined with trees, and Mai wondered if any of these trees would be up to Ayako's preference.

Parked in the spot beside them was the white car that Takigawa and Ayako took. Masako and John both had prior commitments set after their early morning meeting and promised to join them after sun set. Yasuhara, on the other hand, was left to man the office and to tend to external research relating to the case at hand.

Mai had no idea what Naru's specific instructions were to Yasuhara, but she knew they had to be significant in the coming days.

As if she knew that they were already around, Watanabe Emiko appeared by the entrance of the building and greeted them. She courteously bowed a welcome to them that they returned.

"Welcome, and thank you for coming," said Watanabe. Her wrinkled face seemed to relax at the sight of the additional people with them. "I see that you have brought your specialists with you. My name is Watanabe Emiko. It's nice to meet you."

Both Takigawa and Ayako did not waste time introducing themselves. Mai also took the liberty to explain that additional specialists were expected to arrive by nighttime. As expected, it was not a problem at all for Watanabe.

"As requested last night, I have prepared one of the rooms as your base," said Watanabe after the exchange of pleasantries. "It would be here in 1F. I have also prepared another two rooms for your accommodations. Both are in 3F. I hope you don't mind that they are in separate floors."

"Oh no, it's all right!" assured Mai. If she didn't, she doubted her unconcerned boss would. "We'll manage."

Watanabe smiled and gestured towards the entrance. "That's good to hear. Come with me and I'll show you the rooms so you can start settling in."

Everything for Mai felt average—that was, nothing was out of the normal as far as her sixth sense went. At least, until she finally stepped foot inside the building.

Notes:

Anything relating to Todai (except the address) from here onward is a wild guess. Mentions of Agawa-san's case refer to the Akumu no Sumu Ie arc. Also, the timeline assumes that Mai is now in her second year of high school, and Yasuhara is in his first year of college.