Chapter 44

Yasuhara was seated in front of his laptop.

He had nearly memorized every detail of the file he'd given to Mai. He let his head fall backward and stretched his neck from left to right hoping to ease the tension. Yasu had always been a true master of concealing his emotions, always cunning and shrewd. It could have a lot to do with his father and his role in the police force. Or even from his experience being bullied in school at a young age and not wanting to shame his family.

Regardless of the reason, it had always served him well, and now he was attending a prestigious university. As always, he was on track for a successful career in a number of different fields, but he was sure his father wanted him to follow in his footsteps and become a private investigator. Of course, Yasu was excellent and definitely possessed all he needed to pursue that goal, but he couldn't help but wonder what else was out there for him.

After the case and all the chaos with Kasai was over, he was planning to ask Mai's advice on the topic. Even though she was the youngest member of the team; she was definitely well versed in perseverance and listening to her intuition. He'd always admired those characteristics in the girl, and hoped her unique perceptive would help him to follow the right path.

Yasu was sure the others saw it in her as well, and he'd even seen nearly all of them asking her advice at one time or another in hopes that her abilities would lead them in the right path.

He almost wished he could ask her now what to do.

This was the first time he was so emotionally attached to a subject of investigation, and it wasn't boding well for his skills. Every five minutes he had to consciously prevent feelings of panic from bubbling to the surface.

He couldn't recall a time where he'd been so emotional in his life.

"The hour is gone. Have you been contacted?" Naru inquired nearly startling the boy from his stupor with his silent approach.

"No…I have not." Was all he could say as he hurried to pull up his phone record in disappointment.

"Then I trust you will do what you must." Was all his boss uttered before retreating back his own spot near Lin. The two of them seemed to be researching every method in the book of combatting shiki gami. He admired their diligence in the face of such high risks.

Yasuhara Osamu prayed for Mai to give him a few words of encouragement, somehow.

It was then he recalled one of their tutoring sessions after school in the library.

They were reviewing for her class debate on space exploration for her politics class. She was supposed to argue for it, while a lot of her class members had done a fantastic job at discussing better ways for the country to invest in the betterment of the people. It was in their practice she said something phenomenal that he, to this day, couldn't forget.

"Imagine the kind of world we would live in if we no longer explored the unknown and remained satisfied in simply maintaining our existence. It's completely human to wonder and explore the unknown. It's a quality we all share to think 'what if', but it takes the truly brave among us to pursue it. So many of these ventures have brought us vaccines, resources, and countless other discoveries that have benefited our entire species as a whole. All because someone was brave enough to present an idea and go after it. How many times in a day do we think of an idea, and estrange it by never trying? Life is so short we have to go after the unknown or we'll never know, ya know? I don't know I'm just rambling." Mai closed as she nervously moved her hair behind her ear.

He remembered simply being in awe of her statement.

Not that he didn't think she was capable of forming concise thoughts and opinions that could withstand public scrutiny. This moment had come after Mai had been completely frustrated with her choice to pick space exploration and was trying to earnestly say what initially drew her to the topic.

Almost incidentally she'd set the basis for her entire argument.

All by simply speaking from her heart.

'I know exactly what Mai would say and do now. She'd let it all out, but then let it all go. That's always how she moves forward.' Yasuhara pondered finally allowing tears to come out as he removed his glasses and wiped his face.

"Osamu." The deep baritone known as Lin called softly.

Yasuhara looked up from his spot to meet a hot cup of tea from his silent teammate. He nodded and accepted it graciously.

"Do not give up. She wouldn't so you are not allowed to." Lin remarked in his grand stoic way of communicating.

"No worries –sniffle- Lin. I gave myself the very same encouragement before you came over. Thank you for the tea, but I'm afraid it will go cold. The rest of this will require me in the field. Good luck with this case." Yasuhara quickly got his stuff together and bowed before making a hasty exit.

Naru was pretending to be reading about Haitian voodoo but wasn't blind to the unfolding of his coworker. He'd seen that same ability to suddenly pull it all together somewhere before, but he wouldn't let his mind go too far in that direction since he'd entrusted a worthy colleague to handle her rescue until he'd completed this case.

Before she'd knew it, she had fallen flat on her back and had the breath completely knocked out of her. Luckily, the larger body of her now unmasked captor had fallen off to her right saving her another injury. Although it was too soon for Mai to count her blessings knowing that even with this small stroke of luck she was still in deep. As quickly as she could manage, which to most was glacial for the amount of danger she was in; Mai attempted to get some distance between them.

The unmasked body was unresponsive except for very shallow breathing. Mai wasn't sure who was occupying the vessel currently, and she didn't like any of the methods of finding out.

'Oh crap. What do I do now? That was our big chance.' Mai panicked as she began looking around the room for anything to help her.

Suddenly her eyes caught something within the room that was plain as day that made her weak with relief.

A phone.

Now it wasn't a cellphone, but there was a cordless house phone laying precariously on the counter.

With new invigoration, Mai slid over to one of the bar stools and tried to pull herself up far enough to reach. After what felt like an eternity Mai was able to pull her stomach into the seat and grabbed onto the counter. She took a moment to wipe the sweat that had accumulated on her forehead before pressing the on button.

A wave a disappointment hit her all a new.

'There's no dial tone. Of course, the whole thing has been disconnected Mai! This thing is five feet away from the door and you haven't heard it ring once. Why would someone like Kasai even chance leaving something like this so close to the door.' Mai berated herself as fresh tears clouded her vision.

She took in her surroundings again hoping something else would present itself to her. She did at least note that it was daytime but had not the slightest inkling for how long she'd been trapped. She took in the trees around the window, the décor, and the earthy smell to determine they must have been in some sort of cabin.

Meaning that they were likely far away from the city in the woods somewhere.

"Errmmm." Mai nearly broke her neck as sound emerged from the body on the floor.

There she was like a sitting duck praying that whoever had won the battle for dominance was on her side. The figure rose slightly and Mai pushed herself upwards against the wall in hopes of finding something close to defend herself with. Her eyes fell on a bottle of wine and quickly lugged herself over to it.

"Uh…hey." The figure spoke behind her, but Mai didn't dare turn around until she had the throat of the bottle tightly in her grasp. She didn't even realize she was shaking until she heard the sloshing of the red liquid.

"G-Gene. Please... please let that be you." Mai begged as the figure began to slowly approach her wordlessly. Her back was already against the counter and she couldn't possibly maneuver away from her position.

"Gene! Please! Say something!" Mai yelled forgoing her unsteady balance and placing two hands over the wine bottle, threatening to swing at a moment's notice.

"M-mai." The figure mumbled and sway holding its head as if unsure of its surroundings. The tone of the voice made Mai's heart leap, but she was in no position to let her guard down, so instead, she pressed more questions.

"Tell me how you died! "Mai demanded as the unmasked stranger looked up at her for the first time since coming to.

"I-I drowned….in…in a lake." He said and Mai made a loud sound of relief before leaning her body back against the counter.

"Gene… what happened? "Mai asked completely confused about the chain of events after she summoned him into the unmasked man.

"It was like coming through a tunnel and out to the light again. I'm also not used to the weight of a body anymore, especially not one this big." Gene responded looking down at 'his' hands and opening and closing his fists.

"Are you alright?" Mai asked still hesitant to approach him.

"We don't have the luxury of finding out. We don't know how far away Kasai is and we have to get you far away from here as possible. Come on and climb on." Gene said as he bent down and motioned her to get on his back. She placed the wine bottle down and thankfully obliged as the Gene made quick awkward movements and exited the cabin.

Naru had a solid plan and he was determined to execute flawlessly.

But something was off that couldn't place.

Lin seemed to agree with his plan of action, but Naru still felt like there was some key piece of information that he was forgetting that could turn the entire plan upside down. It was unlike him to not perform his tasks meticulously and record all of his details, but this case definitely wasn't holding his undivided attention.

He no longer had time to contemplate it as the rest of his team filled back into base after a short bit of time, none of them appeared to have slept very much at all. Not that he could blame them after the information they'd all had to swallow earlier that day. Unlike usual they all filed in quickly and quietly seated themselves awaiting their orders. Even the great Oliver Davis had to admit that it was chilling to see his usually rambunctious team so frigid.

"Tonight, we'll be confronting our number one suspect in this case. Usually, I'd suggest that we bide our time and learn as much as possible before taking action, but we don't have that privilege. We don't know just how many shiki this person possesses and that is why we are taking a different approach. In order for someone to take a human soul as a shikigami they must have something that the spirit was very attached to in life. There is likely a number of these objects in their possession for each one of their shikigami. If we properly dispose of each of these items, we should be able to break the ties of the spirits in her possession. What will differentiate these items from other ordinary items should be one of these five symbols engraved on it. She would also need to have them close to her at all times, which will work to our advantage." Naru passed around copies of the symbols to each member and proceeded.

"First, before we can hope to dispose of those objects we must locate and neutralize this 'master'. If we aren't careful, she could do something drastic or harm the spirits under her influence." Naru explained stoically.

"How are we going to neutralize her? I don't suggest using physical force or violence, or anything else that could incriminate SPR. In the same breath, this person is dangerous and we'll have to defend ourselves." Monk asserted.

"I agree. That's why I've decided to ask Ayako to use the seal of the immovable one. How long do you think you can hold her?" Naru inquired of the team's miko who was taken aback at the request.

"Well, that will depend on the location and the height of her spiritual abilities. If I were outside, it would definitely increase the length of time, but again I don't know the extent of her strength. The safest I can estimate is fifteen minutes. It would definitely have to be after school hours and when all the clubs have let out for the day. Distractions would make it even more difficult." Ayako surmised hoping it was enough.

"Very well then. Lin and Ayako will be in charge of confronting our culprit, Masako and John will be tasked with finding and properly disposing of the spiritual attachments, Monk… you and I will be luring her into the trap we lay outside. All of you make the necessary preparations. Classes and after-school activities will be ending in a couple hours." Naru ordered.

"Umm… Kazuya. You still haven't told us who exactly you believe is behind all the kidnappings and enslaving the souls of the students. Or even stated your evidence that said person is guilty. If we are going into this confrontation, we need all the details." John cautioned hoping for more clarity on their mission.

"The one person who has been linked to all the accounts from everyone who was interviewed was the guidance counselor. She may have convinced more than a few of these students to commit suicide or worse yet used some sort of spell or hypnotism to force them to commit the act. This, unfortunately, means that any of the missing students would be presumed dead." Naru divulged grimly.

"My God." John whispered and prayed silently.

"What kind of deranged person forces children to kill themselves. It's disgusting." Monk spat and Masako covered her face and nodded.

"We've spoken offense, but what about defense Naru? What's keeping us from getting drawn into her hypnotic death trap like these poor kids?" Ayako crowed.

"In order to hypnotize someone, you need their undivided attention. The subject must lower guard and trust the person conducting the hypnotism. Relaxation of the body is also important for it to be a success. I'm quite sure none of you trust or will allow yourselves to relax around this so-called 'master'. I suppose now she will be known to us as Yura Eto." Naru relayed to dispel concerns.

"I see." John mumbled.

"Naru. Suppose this plan does go flawlessly and we are able to free all of her human shikigami. Is there any way that she'll be able to pay for her crimes? Once we leave, what will prevent her from doing this all over again with more unsuspecting kids at a different school?" Masako considered how to create absolute justice.

"Once we inform the headmaster of all that has transpired here, including the statements from the students I do believe there will be enough for a case for voluntary manslaughter on several counts. As for preventing Eto from performing this again if all else fails, isn't within the scope of the case." Naru addressed solemnly.

"Not in the scope, huh? Sounds like quitting. Is there no way of sealing this woman's spiritual abilities?" Ayako hissed.

"That falls into the realm of injuring her physically, which I have no interest in pursuing. Besides every time a shikigami is contracted it puts a strain on the body. Miss Eto will most likely already be feeling the weight of all the spirits she's captured. My guess is she wouldn't be able to pull something off again on this scale without drastically shortening her lifespan or organ failure. The odds are stacked against her once we disarm her. " Naru concluded.

"I still find this result unsatisfactory, but what else can we do. This would usually be where Mai would usher righteous fury to make you think of a better solution." Masako conceded and sighed.

"Will that be all then?" Naru looked around at his team and took the lack of response as the metaphorical green light.

Yasuhara noted that the police vehicle was no longer in front of Mai and Naru's apartment building and cursed.

'Figures the idiots didn't call me, now I have to play bad cop.' Yasuhara sighed and walked into the lobby. The receptionist saw him approach and remembered him from the previous day.

"Welcome back Sir. How may I help you?" The receptionist said with a look of sadness in her eyes.

"Hello again. I was sent back here by the police to view the security footage of the kidnapping. They've already started the investigation so they don't have time to show me at headquarters." Yasuhara lied smoothly.

The woman seemed hesitant, but nodded slowly and waved him around the counters.

"Oh, I see. I'm not too good with computers, but one of the detectives was able to separate out the footage, and saved it to the desktop. Here you are." The woman volunteered as she brought out the video.

They both watched as the man in questioned slipped into the parking garage as one of the other residents was driving out. He entered the elevator and stopped on the first floor and entered the mail room. There he began to swiftly read which names were connected to which apartments. From there he reentered the elevator onto the eighth floor and picked the lock in a minute flat before entering the apartment. Then the clip sped up to Mai noticing the door was open and entering cautiously. Then there was the culprit again leaving with the large suitcase. He left back into the parking garage and exited the building.

It didn't escape Yasuhara's attention throughout the entire time Kasai was wearing gloves and sunglasses with a black fedora hat.

Though his outfit was extremely suspicious he was lucky enough to not encounter any of the building's other residents.

"So that's how it happened." Without asking Yasu inserted his personal USB and uploaded the video.

"Um… sir." The woman looked on nervously.

"Have you reported this incident to your upper management?" Yasu inquired after ejecting the thumb drive.

"No, I have not. The police did so I didn't need to." The woman replied nervously.

"I see. Well then. There is a major flaw in your building's security. It shouldn't have been so easy for that man to come in here and take my friend. I suggest that this is remedied in the next few days or my team might be forced to take legal action for all that has transpired. That is all." Yasuhara proclaimed coldly and left the nervous woman.

He walked to the area outside the parking garage and noted where the street cameras were located. He calculated all the methods that Kasai could choose to escape but narrowed down a few immediately.

'Naru said that Mai iss still alive. Meaning Kasai couldn't take the suitcase anywhere he could be discovered if Mai came too while inside of it. That narrows out all forms of public transportation. So he must have driven himself somewhere or even been picked up by someone who knew about his plans. If I can link a car to him tracking him down will be effortless. Shibuya Police Department would have definitely figured that much out by now. So it's time I pay Dad a visit.' Yasuhara resigned himself to his fate.

Luckily before they left Mai convinced Gene to throw some water, food, and supplies from the cabinets into a plastic bag. Mai also asked for the blanket she had so righteously "earned" from that sicko. Currently, Gene was in the forest parallel to the road in hopes of reaching some help soon. They had yet to pass any signs of civilization or see any car driving on the road either. Things weren't looking good them.

"Mai. I need you to listen –huff- to me carefully. I'm-huff- not sure how much- huff- longer I can keep –huff- this up. The physical exertion isn't –huff- helping the possession either. So I'll continue on for a bit longer –huff- but then you need to continue on your own." Gene informed as Mai could feel her heart drop.

"Gene, I'm in pretty rough shape. I don't know how much further I can get on my own. Also, i-its completely dense forest out here. I'm not sure how I'll fair after dark." Mai acknowledged her bleak situation. The last thing she needed was to confront a mountain lion, a bear, or wolves out here.

"Well, it will be even worse if this guy comes too, and it's just the two of you out here. So I'll carry you a bit further, but then I have to take this body back to the cabin and mask our steps. Last thing you need is both of these psychopaths tracking you." Gene countered catching his breath a bit.

"I-I know we are making progress, but I don't want you to leave me out here alone." Mai admitted as her grip on his back tightened.

"Mai, I'm your spiritual link. You and I are bonded forever. Our bond is something greater than physical life. I'll always be by your side, even if you can't see me. Besides, that idiot brother of mine is a professional at finding the missing. Tracking you down will be easy for him. Keep on moving forward, don't give up, and he will find you." Gene implored as he stopped at a shallow cave.

It was merely a few large boulders piled together creating a small alcove.

"Alright, this will most likely be as good as it gets. It's no five-star hotel, but it isn't far from the road and it's out of sight. I'm sorry m'lady, but this is where we part ways." Gene lowered her off of the masked man's back.

He wrapped the blanket around her and handed her the bag of provisions.

"Make sure you keep moving every couple of hours to a new spot. Try not to sleep either if you can help it, but if you do, I'll be there to wake you up on the astral plane. You're gonna make it Mai. You've been through tougher binds than this. I'll see you later." Gene convinced as he nodded and began running off in the other direction.

'You'd better be here soon you blazing idiot Oliver. Damn. I spent way too much time in this body, and this guys gonna kick me out soon. Need more distance between them.' Gene thought as he continued to run back towards the cabin.

Long time no see readers! Hope you enjoyed this new chapter! The plot thickens…. Anyway as always rate and review because I love to hear from you guys! See you next chapter!