File 3

The air was heavy, tension collided with fear as the SPR group sat in a long bench inside the waiting room near the ICU. Their faces had bruises, Takigawa's arm was wrapped with bandages, but it seemed that they didn't notice at all or that they couldn't care less.

"How is it?" Ayako stood from her seat as soon as Lin came rushing inside.

"Both of them are in the operating room." He said before pausing in hesitation. "The doctors said they'll do everything that they can." Ayako's eyes watered while his darkened ever so slightly, it was a message enough for all the SPR members to know what he meant. All of them accepted the news without further question.

"Thank you, Lin." Masako said, breaking the silence.

The man nodded at her and remained standing. Then after a few heartbeats, he smiled softly at her. "She'll be fine."

The girl in the kimono showed a startled expression before she smiled at him. Her worry must have been crystal clear, a testament that Masako had grown unexpectedly fond of her rival over the course of time that they had spent with each other.

The room became quiet after that as Masako pondered heavily about what she had seen right before Mai fell from the rooftop of the school that they had been investigating, the expression on Naru's face was flitting but it wasn't like any of his expressions before.

Masako smiled sadly to herself, understanding what it was. She clenched her hands and ignored the pang in her heart as the visions kept playing past that telltale moment to the time when Naru used his qigong to brace Mai's fall to the ground. To stop an object (and a living one at that) in such an accelerated phase, he must have used a great deal of Pk and in the end he collapsed. They were brought to the hospital, Mai had a severe concussion on her head and a broken limb that required operation while Naru was being treated as well, although his case wasn't severe, his weak and unstable condition wasn't comforting enough.

"Lin, do you know who did it?" Masako stared unblinkingly at Lin. "It's true that she's clumsy but I know it's not an accident— someone pushed her but I didn't sense any spirit close by."

The rest of the group heard their conversation and was listening intently. Everyone had several expressions on their faces but surprise wasn't among it. Anger lit up in Takigawa's and Ayako's faces. John looked troubled while Yasuhara was expressionless. They must have already sensed that something was wrong.

"Yes, I know who did it." Lin looked at her and then at the rest of the group, changing the topic. "I'll be permanently cancelling the case since there's no need to continue it anymore."

"Why?" Takigawa said, his face serious and there was a knowing glint in his eyes. "We have the right to know why you're going to cancel it."

Lin drew out a deep sigh. "The case was a set up." Everyone's eyes widened except Takigawa who continued to stare at the Chinese man, his eyes narrowing into slits, hating the fact that Lin had their boss's habit of saying short sentences when they needed a long explanation.

"A set up? Why?"

"Yes. But that's all I can tell. The information is strictly confidential and Naru bade me to keep silent."

Takigawa remained unfazed at the dismissal, his eyes didn't waver from Lin's dark ones, in fact, the determination to get the truth from him made him more grimly serious than ever.

"It's about his brother, isn't it?" Takigawa said. Lin didn't say anything but it was enough.

...

To be continued

...

AUTHOR's NOTE:

Just to clarify things, Naru kept on searching for Gene's killer because she's the only one who has the key to make his spirit move on. Naru found the woman and the set up was her doing. That's all I'm going to explain. Further information can be classified as spoiler and the story about Gene's death is only a sidetrack. I'm not going to focus on it but on something else entirely.

Once again 'Read and Review' please.