I stared after Mai as she darted out of the tea shop. Something wasn't right, Mai had been acting strange throughout the entire conversation. It was like she didn't want to be here, but at the same time she did. Then there was the entire issue between her and Gene.

Tattoos? Why would Mai have any tattoos? She said she didn't, but Gene's not a liar. Then again neither is Mai, so it has to be something else.

Turning to her coworker this Argyle fellow I asked, "What was that all about?"

He looked at me as if appraising me before he smiled saying, "None of your business. If Mai wanted you to know she would have told you by now. She obviously doesn't trust you, so now if you'll excuse me I have to get back to work."

I was somewhat shocked at his rude behavior, but I couldn't say much as I too could be rude. I wanted to make him tell me what I wanted to know, but my mother stopped me which irritated me further. Looking at everyone I saw that they were equally confused and frustrated. Did Mai truly not trust us or was Argyle trying to make a jab at us. What did he know that we didn't?

Sighing I turned back to Gene and asked him, "Are you sure they were tattoos?"

He looked surprised that I'd questioned his word. Gene thought about it for a couple of minutes before answering my question. "They looked like tattoos, but they could have been anything. They were an odd design and weren't the typical shade of tattoo ink, they were a greenish shade almost mint green, but not quite."

I nodded in answer glancing over my mother who looked to be in deep thought which was troubling in itself. I went to ask her what was troubling her, but before I could ask she called for that Argyle guy.

He came back and said, "Is everything all right ma'am?"

My mother smiled and said, "Yes, everything is fine. I just had a question for you that I'd like you to answer and I want you to be completely honest."

He looked wary, but answered with all right before my mother continued. "The person you mentioned to Miss Taniyama. Stephen, his last name wouldn't happen to be Summers, would it?"

Argyle looked floored the moment my mother asked that question, but to be honest it surprised the hell out of me at hearing the possibility that Cousin Stephen wanted to meet with Mai. It worried me.

Why would Cousin Stephen want meet with Mai?

Noll. Gene said through telepathic communication.

What?

Why would Cousin Stephen want to talk to Mai?

I don't know. It could be for any reason when it comes to him. It might not even be our cousin. I thought as I cut our connection so I could pay attention to Argyle's answer.

"It is, how did you know that? No one was supposed to say what his last name was. I know I didn't say anything other than his first name and Mai does not like him so I know she wouldn't say anything," he said looking perplexed. I don't know if he realized he was babbling.

My mother being the woman she is gave him a motherly smile. Most people would feel comforted by that smile, but Gene and I knew better. That smile motherly it may be, but it meant trouble for everyone involved and sometimes those who aren't involved. "Stephen is my nephew. I want to know what he wants with Miss Taniyama and you're going to tell me."

Argyle paled and gulped before saying, "I-I'm sorry I can't tell you. I know nothing of why Stephen wants to see Mai for. Even if I did know I wouldn't tell you anything. I've finally earned Mai's respect and I don't plan to blow that trust by saying anything to people I don't know or even if I knew you. After all, how do I know you know Stephen. If you want to know anything you'll have to ask Mai yourself."

It was odd that he wanted Mai's trust more than anything. Argyle made it seem like she was very important. Well she was important to a lot of people, but he didn't seem like the type of person she normally hung out with. Then again, I hadn't expected her to have graduated at seventeen and could have graduated at sixteen.

My mother narrowed her eyes at Argyle and said, "Young man, I can make your life miserable. I want to know what my nephew wants with the young lady that was just in here."

Argyle looked at mother and something seemed to change in his attitude as he replied through gritted teeth, "I told you once already. I know nothing and if I did I wouldn't tell you anything. I don't know you all. For all I know you lot could be working with the anti-council."

Mother and father both looked at each other. They looked confused and so did everyone else. Even I was slightly confused as to what this anti-council was. "Anti-Council?" Gene asked in a questioning voice, but it was too late Argyle had left without waiting to see if anyone of us spoke.

"We'll see Stephen tonight. We can ask him about it then," Madoka said calmly.

The rest of the gang looked skeptical and I felt just as skeptical as they looked. The only ones that looked hopeful were mother and Gene. Father and Lin looked as if they were debating whether or not they should be hopeful. I was definitely skeptical because when it came to important things Cousin Stephen was never around when you needed him the most.

"We'll see if he's even at the apartment," I said sounding as doubtful as I felt.

Madoka rolled her eyes while Gene gave me a questioning glance. I sighed and decided to ignore them both. Turning to everyone else I said, "Since everyone has agreed to come back to work for SPR could you all come in tomorrow around two o'clock? I need to update the information I have on file from the last time I worked with you all. I will also need times of when you're all available so I can create a work schedule."

Everyone nodded their heads in agreement saying that they'd be in sometime around ten o'clock. Madoka looked like she wanted to ask something, but she never opened her mouth. Lin did ask a question though, "What about Taniyama-san? Shouldn't we wait until we get an answer from her? She never did give us one as she had an appointment to make."

He brought up a good point and I didn't know if I wanted to know her answer to my question. Mai was the only person I was completely nervous about hearing the answer from. She's the only one I truly wanted to say that they would come back and work for me again. I know I was a complete ass with my round about rejection of her feelings, but I have come to realize that she means the whole world to me, and I would do anything to protect her. Part of the reason I came back was to convince Mai that I return her feelings from three years ago and if she didn't feel the same way, I planned to change her mind and make her fall in love with me again.

It took both Gene and Lin to convince me that Mai wasn't in love with Gene, but me. Once I realized this I felt like a huge ass. I wonder if I'll ever be able to apologize. "No, we'll more than likely see her again and soon, especially if she's meeting Stephen," I said in reply.

Lin nodded and said nothing else. The rest of the gang looked at me questioningly, but I refused to expand on what I had said. Mother thought we had talked about work long enough as she changed the subject. Everyone decided to talk for an hour on mundane things much to my irritation. I could have been doing more useful things than listening to them complain about life. I didn't need to catch up with them as I was not a major part of their lives like Mai was.

Noll there is no need to look so glum. You don't need to be back at the apartment doing work. You work too much as it is, live a little and open up to everyone here. Oh, wait I know why you're not happy and focusing on work, it's because Mai isn't here. Gene said speaking through our connection once more.

I didn't bother replying as I did not want to egg him on. When everyone started to finish their conversations saying that they would see us tomorrow I sighed in relief. Now all we needed to do was get home so I could question Stephen about him wanting to meet with Mai.

Paying for our orders we headed outside and towards Gene and mine's apartment complex. We had to pass the main park to get to the complex which I was grateful for as I had felt something on our way the tea shop. I wasn't sure what it was exactly as I only felt it for a moment before it vanished, whatever it was; it was definitely paranormal. On our way by the park I didn't feel anything not even a residual residue of whatever it was.

"When we passed this park on the way to the tea shop did any of you feel anything paranormal going on?" I asked hoping that I wasn't hallucinating because I'd been overworking myself.

Gene grinned at me as if in victory before stating, "It looks like I won the bet. Madoka and father it looks like you owe me twenty bucks each."

I could feel my left eye twitch at hearing that they took bets to see if I would say anything about the park. "You took bets to see if I would say anything about feeling any paranormal activity?"

Madoka and father looked at me with a sheepish grin. Mother looked amused while Lin just shrugged scanning the area before saying, "I don't feel anything and I don't see anything out of the ordinary, but I had definitely felt something when we passed it earlier."

"I know that's what I'm wondering about. I don't even feel the residual residue of anything paranormal so whatever it was didn't leave the surrounding area and there is no way for it to hide its signature from us. I want to know what happened to it."

Gene looked at the entrance of the park and apparently saw something as he started to walk towards the entrance. We followed him until we got near the park equipment for children. At first, I thought he was going to the equipment, but he stopped in the middle of the basketball court.

"This is where the spiritual trail ends, at least the one I picked up ends here," he said turning to face us.

"How did you find a spiritual trail, Gene, when I couldn't?" Lin asked which was a good question that I wanted to know the answer to because a spiritual trail meant that it was a ghost.

Gene blinked at Lin confused and looked around before replying, "What do you mean you couldn't find a trail? I thought you were just saying that so Noll wouldn't get side tracked into whatever was going on here. You really can't see the green aura floating around?"

Lin surveyed the area again before shaking his head. "No, I don't see anything. I haven't checked to see if my shiki see or sense anything."

Lin gave a shrill whistle summoning his shikigami. Lin's shiki flew around the park in streaks of white before one by one the materialized into their human forms. Lin had a total of four shiki for now, he tends to capture new ones that are temporary.

Naoki was Lin's oldest shiki and was at one time a demon. He had silver hair that was spiked with eyes the same shade as his hair. He was as tall as Lin was and had piercings in each ear. As far as I knew Naoki wasn't someone you messed with, but other than that not much is none.

Lin's second oldest shiki was Daisuke. Daisuke had flaming red hair that reminded me of Ayako's hair, but he has Monk's mentality. He was laid back where as Naoki was uptight and by the book, worse than I am. The only way you know Daisuke is upset is when his blue eyes turn red. Daisuke is around my height and is always eager to aggravate Naoki.

Haruka the third oldest of the four and in my opinion, was the wisest out of them all. She may be third oldest of Lin's shiki, but actual age wise I think she's the oldest out of the group. She has blonde hair paired with a caramel coloring for eyes. She was tall and slender. She's often cool headed and doesn't lose her cool often, but when she does she is a force to reckon with.

Saki the newest member of Lin's shiki was around the same height as Miss Hara and Mai. She had strawberry blonde hair and iridescent green eyes. I don't know much about her and was afraid to find out much. Every time she's in her human form she gives me these flirtatious grins. Quite frankly she scared me.

"There was a demon in this park, though it is gone now," Naoki said giving a slight bow to Lin.

Lin nodded before asking, "Did this demon leave?"

Naoki looked around and shook his head before saying, "No, there was a demon hunter here and they took out the demon, which is shocking."

"Why is it shocking that a demon hunter is doing their job?" I asked eyebrow raised. Naoki looked at me and blinked. Out of all of them I could relate to Naoki the most.

"I forget you all don't know how demon hunters work. Demon hunters usually hunt in groups, it's safer that way. There was only one demon hunter that fought and killed this demon and this wasn't any ordinary demon it was a level four demon. I can say that another demon hunter showed up, but after the fight was over."

"How is it unusual that a demon hunter fought the demon on their own?" Gene asked before adding, "I know you said they hunt in groups, but so do ghost hunter and that doesn't stop a lot of them from hunting ghosts on their own."

Haruka took over explaining this time because she knew that I was the only one that Naoki tolerated asking him questions. "Demons are very different from ghosts. They are more deadly to begin with and they can take out a lone demon hunter if that hunter is not careful. It is unusual for a demon to take down a hunter, but like demon hunters there is usually more than one demon inhabiting a place. It is unusual that there was only one demon in this location. The only demon hunter I can recall hunting alone and being able to fend off more than one demon at a time is the Celtic Demon. I never caught what her real name was, but last, I knew she was in Scotland where the demon hunter society's headquarters is located."

Naoki nodded in agreement, but didn't add anything to Haruka's story. Lin looked around said a couple of words that I didn't catch and snapped his fingers. A light green mist swirled until a picture of a person was in front of them. The person was Mai and she had a slash across her face starting from her left ear and across her temple. She was standing in a fighter's pose as if she was waiting to be attacked.

"Naoki is the person you saw kill the demon?" Lin asked.

Naoki shook his eyeing Mai as if he knew her and said, "I wasn't able to see the battle. Whoever fought and killed the demon covered their tracks enough to where I couldn't see the battle. They even got rid of any blood that could have been used to identify them. The only reason I could tell there was a demon is because there is a faint residue that the demon left behind that the hunters couldn't get rid of."

"Thank you that will be all," Lin said and each shiki faded back into their ghostly form, but not before Saki winked at me.

"Well that was unusual. Do you think that was really Mai in the vision Lin brought up?" Madoka asked.

I looked back at the court as we left the park and said, "I don't know."

When we got back to the apartment there was a note from Stephen stuck to the door.

I had something come up and need to take care of it. I won't be back tonight; I'll see you in the office tomorrow at 1:00.

~Stephen

"Looks like we'll have to wait till tomorrow to ask what Stephen wants with Mai," Gene said.