My girl

A/N: So I was distracted with my other fics and kinda didn't update this one… sorry. Slight hints at spoilers.

Disclaimer: if I owned I wouldn't be worried about late papers

:-:-:-:

Lin sighed to himself. Yes, the man had the capability to sigh even if he hardly ever did it. So what could cause such a man to sigh? The object of the frustrating sigh was walking towards him now. Masako was clinging to Naru as the boy was trying to disentangle himself from her grasp. Mai had seen the two and after taking one look had quickly ran in the other direction. Lin really felt for the girl, and thus his sigh.

As it was, Naru had surprised Lin by taking the case Masako brought to them. There was a local haunting and Masako had been approached about it. It was only after she had taken on the assignment that she had found out about other physics and mediums being there, one of which she thought was a complete fraud. So she had asked Naru to assist her in the same way they had done when investigating the former Prime Minister's house. It had taken well over a week before Naru had caved in and Lin thought it was due more to the fact that he was annoyed beyond anything than actually wanting to look into it.

Carefully watching to insure that the media did not see Naru was a task when Masako did not let go of the boy, even though they had used Yasuhara as a decoy for Shibuya-san it looked as though Masako did not think about the fact that the media would see her as dating Naru. 'Or she did think about it and doesn't care because she would rather be trying to impress someone else with that… she really needs to not be so selfish sometimes, though I could say the same for Naru." Lin thought.

Walking back towards the base, Lin stiffened as he felt his Shika start to act up. 'Great, here comes trouble.'

'Trouble' came in the form of two tall boys which everyone in SPR now knew of, especially after the monk had met them. The 'strange one' (aka Watanuki) came up to Lin and looked at him and then at what Lin could only assume were his Shika.

"Good Morning" The boy greeted.

"…" Was the response Lin gave.

"They seem different today… what'd you do?" Watanuki asked a very surprised Lin.

"I went and purified them and myself not long ago… you can tell that?"

"Yes, though it's hard to describe."

"Well that's a first. No one has ever been able to see a change in me after that since I normally don't change much myself in appearance… guess that they do though."

Watanuki nodded in answer to Lin's question and then quickly scanned the grounds.

"If you are looking for Taniyama-san I believe that she is in the base. I'm going there myself so I can show you the way." Lin offered

"Oh, Thank you but I was looking for someone else. Maybe you've seen her Kohane-chan?"

Lin instantly knew who the boy was talking about, and it surprised him to some extent. That was the girl Masako was positive was a fraud. Lin didn't know the details, just something about how Masako and some other medians were on a TV show and the girl had said they did not see a ghost that she claimed was there. Even Masako did not feel or see the spirit. Nodding Lin started to lead the boys in the opposite direction to where he had last seen the girl.

"Kimihiro, what are you doing here?" Kohane said the moment she saw the boys.

"Kohane, I came to see you since you did not come to the park. I had to sneak past your mother and three camera men to get here too." Watanuki said as he pouted at the last part.

Kohane smiled at him, "Thank you for coming to see me, but I don't think this is a good place for you. There are not many spirits, but there is one very powerful one that might try to harm you. Please go and I'll come tomorrow."

"It's ok. I brought spirit repellent." Watanuki answered as he pointed at Doumeki who exchanged nods with the girl. "Besides, there's another person I want to see who I just found out is here and I want you to meet her too."

"I've only seen one person here who looked like he was connected to you, though this man is the same. I take it they know you through this girl?" Kohane asked as she indicated Naru and Lin.

"Yes he does. Please come this way if you would like to meet her." Lin said in response, he really needed to get back to the base.

Once in the base Kohane looked at Mai, then at Naru (who had just escaped Masako) and back again. Mai was growing uncomfortable with the stare and Watanuki was looking at Kohane with interest.

"So do you pick up on that better than me?" He asked the girl.

"You cannot see it well?" She asked in response.

Mai growled and said, "Hi Watanuki, Doumeki. What brings you here today?"

"Ah, Mai. Sorry, this is Kohane-chan and I came to see her. Once I got here I found Lin-san and he was kind enough to help me find her and bring me to see you." Naru glared at Lin. "So what are you working on?"

"Just investigating this case… you are adorable. Can we go play?" Mai asked Kohane.

Kohane looked taken back for a moment; Watanuki was about the only one who had ever tried to treat her as a child, and not an object or a means to get what they want. Nodding to Mai, Kohane left with the other girl as they went outside. Watanuki and Doumeki followed the girls to play with them and the base was suddenly much quieter.

Naru looked at Lin and glared at the man followed by requesting tea. Lin would have rolled his eyes except that it was out of character for him to do so in front of people. Lin then decided to let Naru suffer for a bit and went outside to observe the playing children. Mai was picking flowers while Doumeki held them for her. Kohane and Watanuki were sitting on a bench not far from where Lin was standing and he listened in on their conversation just because he could. Also, he just wanted to find out more about the girl so that he could get out of the case.

"Have you not seen it?" Kohane was asking Watanuki when Lin quietly came up behind them.

"No, I don't always see the connections that bind people together. I have seen them before, but not most of the time." Watanuki replied.

"But that is such a strong bond, it really surprised me to see that and you to have not noticed it before… those two will have some troubles ahead of them, but they will always end up seeing one another." Kohane said rather cryptically, according to Lin.

"But why do they have such a strong bond? You said it looked like they had a person in common who was helping to make the bond even stronger?" Watanuki prodded, much to Lin's delight.

"Yes… it's someone who is close to both, but I couldn't figure out who it is." Kohane said.

"What could keep you from that?"

"If the person was dead or didn't want to be known." Kohane answered, Lin was about to fall over.

"Who are you talking about?" Lin interrupted, not caring that he was being very rude. Watanuki let out a yell in surprise and Kohane just looked at the Chinese man

"Mai and Naru." Kohane said after a beat. Lin looked at her again.

"What did you see?" He asked.

"I saw a bond that tied the two together very closely. It was red and black with other colors mixed in, like some white and yellow. The presence of the black confused me because both are alive but this indicates the presence of death in their relationship. Did someone they were both close to die?" Kohane explained a bit more.

Lin just looked at her for a moment.

"I do not know of any one that they both were close to who has died. Please do not tell them about this, they need to come these realizations on their own." Lin requested.

Kohane nodded, "That is why I did not say anything back there. You are a very interesting person as well. I do not believe that I have meet someone as powerful and dark as you before."

"I'm dark?"

"Well you do know much, and you have to deal with darkness daily... I think you do know the person that binds those two together…"

Lin gave her a questioning look as Mai ran to the trio with a bunch of flowers. She had made a crown of flowers for Kohane and apparently Doumeki had made one for Watanuki to which Watanuki's reply was, "WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU WANT ME TO WEAR THAT?!"

Kohane wore her crown and looked even more adorable. Watanuki had his crown put on his head rather unwillingly, thus he looked very cute (even Lin thought so) as he pouted. Mai was about to go back into the house when Kohane grabbed her hand.

"Watanuki, can you see it too?" Kohane asked as her grip on Mai's hand tightened

"If you are talking about the big black thing that is staying in the doorway then yes." Watanuki replied.

Lin just shook his head, 'Leave it to Masako to not be able to admit when she is wrong… this girl seems even more powerful than Masako, I wonder if she could rival Gene.'

Lin looked at the four children, "I'll go and talk with Naru. Mai I have a feeling that we'll be leaving soon so you don't need to worry about going back in anytime soon."

Mai blinked at Lin, "Uh, Ok"

Lin turned to Kohane, "Do you think you can handle this? Or would you like some help?"

"I think that I will borrow Doumeki for a moment and then it will be fine." She replied, to which Doumeki nodded and indicated that Lin should stay with Watanuki and Mai while they took care of the spirit.

"Why would you want this useless, bottomless pit? The only thing he is good for is eating!" Watanuki cried as his cute little friend walked with his 'spirit repellent' towards the dark and formless cloud.

Lin stood with the two as they watched Kohane start to talk with the spirit. It did not take long before Doumeki had drawn out some of his own power and released it. Lin took Watanuki's sigh as the sign that they were done, and the three walked to the house again.

"We were able to cleanse the spirit, though we did a rather hasty job of it…" Kohane explained.

"I think that he is at peace, which is the important part." Watanuki replied.

Mai smiled, "I'm going to go and tell that narcissist that everything is good now. Maybe I can be home in time to have dinner."

Lin wanted to smile as Mai led the way back to the base. 'I can't wait to see Masako's face when she is told that her 'fraud' was able to cleanse something that she had a hard time seeing… or if I told her that I think this girl is more powerful than her or about the very strong bond that girl saw… Watanuki does know how to pick winners.'

:-:-:-:

A/N: probably sucked, but I don't care because this idea was in the back of my mind and Innocent Illusion just made me want to write it even more… the Naru meets Yuuko is still in progress, if you have any really good ideas for it please let me know.