ONE MONTH LATER
It had been a month since Naru and Lin had returned to England. As Lin had mentioned, the closing up of the office had been tasked to Mai and Yasu. Mai and Yasu had spent scattered hours at the office sorting through the files that had been left in Lin and Naru's offices.
As they stopped for lunch, Mai reached for her phone and saw that she had a new email from Madoka.
Hi Mai,
I just wanted to check in! Our men arrived safely and are now recovering from jetlag. You know how Noll can be - actually I'm just going to call him Naru. I like the name you gave him!
He was insistent that he could just jump straight back in. I'm pretty sure your name came up at one point while Lin was trying to push him back to his bedroom like a grounded child. That's a funny thought isn't it? Naru being grounded! Although if he continues, Luella might actually do it. Normally it was Gene who would get grounded.
Speaking of which, Lin told me about Gene and how he guided you through your dreams. Have you seen him recently?
Enough chit-chat. We'll have time for that soon enough.
There's already been some discussion with the BSPR Board. Lin is in charge of building the case for the reopening of SPR, even if just to have you and the others available for cases in Japan. Part of his case was presenting the pros of having multiple "competitors" when they can all be joined under one roof. Of course, one of the things that the Board is currently debating is how it will function, from a legality perspective.
We think there is a high probability that it will be approved, but probably not for another year. Another thing that remains to be seen is if anyone from BSPR will be based in Japan. We hope that is the case.
Write to me soon! Lin has requested you keep Yasuhara out of mischief. It's a tall order, but maybe you'll have better luck there than the rest of us.
Love,
Madoka
Mai smiled as she read the email, although felt a small pain ease its way into her heart when she read, "Our men"… Surely Madoka meant Luella and herself.
Try to keep Yasu out of mischief? That was very unlikely. However, she could always push that to Monk… John would be able to but he hadn't done anything to deserve that.
Despite their assurances that the team would keep in touch, Mai had hardly spoken to anyone since that day at the airport. She didn't take offence to it though. She understood that they all had jobs outside of SPR. The exception was Yasu who had decided to move himself into Mai's apartment. She wasn't sure how it had happened, but it was as if she had taken in a stray cat.
"MAI. I'M BORED." came his voice from her living room as she lay on her bed looking at the poster of beautiful constellations she had recently purchased. Knowing she wouldn't have a moment's peace unless she answered, she heaved herself up from her bed and grabbed a pillow as ammunition as she left her bedroom.
She grinned at Yasu who had let out a rather satisfying umph! at the unexpected pillow which hit him in the face. "Why don't you find something useful to do?" she said as she sat down next to him, trying to grab her pillow back. Unsurprisingly he decided that he would be keeping the pillow as a hostage.
"We need to meet up with everyone! Especially Monk. I miss Monk. I'm sure he misses me just as much…" he said dreamily, before laughing. "Seriously though. We don't have much more free time before our courses resume! Oh my little Mai. Off to do your degree. I'm so proud of you."
The words would have been heartwarming had he not grabbed her, while patting her head like a puppy.
Mai managed to free herself from him, "Yasu, we spend most of our free time sorting the damn office! Most of that has been trying to sort out the mess of paperwork left by him ."
"Who knew the boss could be so messy? I would have thought that he would be overly organised, like he was during cases. Mind you, we would probably have ended up even more lost trying to understand his sorting system. Anyway, let's call Madoka and bother her for a bit. It's…" Yasu checked his watch, "11am in England!"
"You know there are things like boundaries right? And this little thing called emailing?" she said as she got to her feet. "Oh, we need to make dinner. Did you remember to go to the supermarket? If you forgot (" again" she thought ) we'll have to go out and grab something to eat!"
As she made her way to the fridge, Yasu ran and blocked it from her. "Nope. I didn't forget. I ..erm.. elected to omit your order from my memory shortly after giving it to me. Come on, let's go eat some udon! The thought of it is making me drool. Do you want me to drool all over the floor?"
Before she could say anything, Yasu was pushing her towards the door. "YASU STOP MANHANDLING ME!" she said laughing, "Let me at least grab my bag and maybe some shoes?! Anyway, weren't you just going on about calling Madoka?"
Yasu stopped briefly as she put her jacket on, "Oh about that, I texted her. We'll talk with her later."
They walked off to their favourite restaurant and as they approached she heard her phone ringing. Briefly looking at who the call was from, "Monk! I thought you were up in the mountains! Are you back?"
"Mai! Mai! Tell Monk I miss him!" Yasu was saying, or rather yelling, in the background.
"Yes and I'm starving! Yasu said you were off to your usual place." he replied with enthusiasm. "Can I join you?"
Yasu snatched the phone from Mai, "Join us! Bring Ayako with you. And John. And Masako! Bye! See you in a bit!"
Mai snatched her phone back from him and realised the call had ended. "Yasu. Have I mentioned how impulsive you are? How do we know there will be enough space for everyone?"
She didn't have a moment to register what was happening as she walked into the restaurant. All she knew was that she was being ambushed by a mass of pink hair.
"Madoka?! What are you doing here?" she smiled at the woman in front of her who was practically bouncing. Looking sideways at Yasu she said, "Did you plan this?"
"Actually, I didn't plan this! For the first time, I don't have to take the blame." he laughed, and in a sing-song voice said, "I get to blame Madoka!"
"Who said you could start the party without me?" came a voice from behind.
Mai turned away from Madoka and Yasu, and was greeted with the sight of the old SPR gang.
She sighed, "Okay, does anyone care to tell me what is going on?"
Masako stepped forward first and smiled at Mai, "We thought it was time to get together again. That, and Yasu wouldn't stop going on about how much he missed Monk. I think Ayako has some competition there!"
Madoka piped in, "I also needed to come back to fix up the house a bit. Who knows what those two men did to it while they used it. To be fair, I did tell Yasu to tell you that we would speak later. This is later so…". She broke out into a grin as she looked at the rest of the group. "I'm so happy to see you were all able to make it!"
As it turned out, Madoka had already booked a table for them all, requesting a round one so they could speak easily with each other.
After they had all eaten their share and could eat no more, Madoka filled them in on what the plan was likely to be for SPR. Masako had been the first to see merit in Lin's case. She said she would be prepared to come forward to BSPR if needed to expand on it since she was a 'celebrity'.
Mai looked around the group that was her family and smiled before frowning momentarily. John, observant as ever, spoke up, "Mai, what's on your mind?"
She spoke quietly while looking down at her empty plate, "I was just thinking about how grateful I am for this family… Since we still don't know exactly what will happen to SPR, I'm just - well - afraid we'll drift apart and there won't be…"
Before she could finish, Monk and Ayako had pulled her into a hug. She hadn't even noticed them getting out of their seats.
"Mai, we promise you that will not happen. We may not speak every day or see each other as frequently as we used to, but we will always be a call away. We know you'd do the same for us. Besides, someone has to give you a break from that " Monk said, as he motioned towards Yasu who acted offended despite his grin. He really was like the Cheshire cat from Alice in Wonderland .
Masako and John had been speaking quietly while watching Mai, Monk and Ayako. She spoke up, "What if we try to meet up once a month, if possible? We can rotate the person who will get to choose the activity, location and whether it will be a day trip or weekend trip. Of course, this would all be privy to people's schedules."
Mai smiled as she asked, "I like it. Since Yasu likes planning things, should we let him have the first go?"
Yasu was practically bouncing in his chair before he spewed out ideas. He eventually settled on something that was so cheesy, that it even brought out a groan from Madoka.
Visiting a 'horror house' at the local fair.