Well Look who has appeared! I'm back-ish! I was missing for a while, but I have been found! Anyway. For those who have left a review and such, thanks so much. I completely forgot about this story for so long, then I checked my e-mail and there were so many e-mails about reviews and stuff, so I had to finish it. It may feel a bit awkward because its been so long since I thought out the plot of this story, but I found my messy notebook

I'll try to do better now

So here we go

Disclaimer: In chapter 1

2-

It was after 6 in the evening of the second day they spent in Mai's apartment. Yuri had managed to sneak out and get some coffee without drawing attention to the apartment. Neither one said a thing to the other about it, but they were both concerned that Taniyama-san had not woken up even for a minute.

Shohei left the door to the room she was sleeping in open, and they could clearly see that she hadn't even moved since he punched her. There was one point where He even thought that he may have accidentally killed the girl unintentionally, but her skin was warm, she was breathing, and she did have a pulse.

Her being dead would be a big problem. That would be harder to get out of. They hadn't been caught yet, they weren't going to be this time either. "I'm going to go check up on her..." Shohei said with no real sense of resolution, almost as if afraid to find suddenly a corpse, or an empty bed.

Thats when the commotion started. The door to the apartment suddenly burst open, thanks to someone outside kicking it in.

Yuri could tell right away it wasn't any sort of police.

No one could think of anything they could do. It was like stalemate. You've been told there's no moves, but you can't help but look for one.

Naru dismissed everyone telling them to come back at 5 in the evening the next day.

Lin looked helplessly as Naru played the recording of the person's voice over and over again. The problem with phones, cheap cell phones especially, was that the quality of sound was never that good. There didn't appear to be background noises, but you can't quite tell.

Naru finally turned off the phone and sighed. "Now what?" Lin asked. While Lin didn't have any ideas, and he knew they had to do something soon, it might be just the right thing for the teen for him to finally realize what he may have been denying for quite a while now.

There's no way Lin would have wanted this to happen, but sometimes things need a bit of a push in the right direction.

Naru picked up his jacket, and ignored Lin, leaving the building.

Lin sighed and replaced the phone where it was supposed to be. He knew they had experience with the supernatural type of dangerous situations, but humans think differently than spirits. Honestly the best thing to do would be to contact the police, but that wouldn't secure Mai's safety.

Lin got the feeling Naru might have gone out to just grumble about the fact that he couldn't do anything. But then again, it was Naru that he was talking about. Maybe he did have an idea. Hopefully he wouldn't do something stupid and end up getting hurt, or taking everything into his own hands.

Teenagers, even those as smart as Naru rarely make good decisions when someone they care about is in trouble. He had proved that over and over with his actions in previous cases.

Correction.

Very few people in general ever make good decisions when someone they care about is in trouble.

What were they going to do?

Naru closed the door to the SPR office before walking outside and thinking about the situation. Really, there didn't appear much that could be done with the amount of information they had now.

So the question became how do you get more information about what was going on?

Firstly, he could go to her apartment, and maybe something would come up. Something important.

Decision made.

Naru started walking to the apartment building which was not that far away.

Ayako had been out of the SPR office for about 20 minutes before she decided to come in and... Well, Mai wasn't there right now, so she would have the opportunity to tell anyone that was there about it.

This was the best time now, right? Maybe not. After all, everyone was concerned about whether or not she would be okay.

And what if Naru was the only one there? Would she be able to tell him? Ayako wasn't sure that Naru would even take her seriously, rambling on about Mai being in danger of forgetting everything important to her, then...

No! don't think about! Ayako thought forcefully. But there was another part of her that was angry.

It's not going to change just because you deny it mentally. Quit dancing around the idea. The sooner you accept that may happen, the sooner you'll be able to actually tell someone yourself. But even so, she just couldn't even think about someone like Mai just...

you're denying it again...

...dying.

Ayako shuddered a bit and found herself just at the bottom of the set of steps that would take her to the door to the SPR office.

She started to climb and opened the door.

Once at the top, she opened the door, and Saw Lin sitting on the couch listening to the story of a young woman.

"...and I can't think of anything else anymore." She finished.

Lin finished typing up what she had said. "Well, unfortunately, we're currently dealing with a situation that has our president's full attention. Although hopefully we'll sort it out right away. I'll call you back as soon as its dealt with."

The young woman nodded and stood up. She walked out, past Ayako who hadn't yet moved.

Ayako closed the door after the girl, and walked further in. "Where's Naru?"

Lin shook his head. "No idea." He said packing up his computer. "Why'd you come back?"

Ayako worked up her resolve.

"When Mai was in the hospital after falling off the roof..." She started now she was obliged to continue. There was no way to get out of it now. She paused only to search for the correct way to phrase it.

Lin waited, not moving.

"I didn't tell you guys about something..." She continued. "There were a few complications that I didn't mention..." Definitely no turning back now. If she stopped, it would be forced out of her at some point. That was her plan. Corner herself, then blurt out the truth.

Ayako proceeded to tell Lin what the doctor had said to her, and pulled out a printed copy of the article she found on the Internet.

"This is..." Lin said, scanning the article.

Ayako turned to the side. "I haven't told anyone else. I think... that you should use your discretion regarding who finds out about it..."

Lin nodded, and pocketed the article.

Ayako turned completely and left the SPR office.

Naru entered the building that Mai lived in. He looked around the foyer area. It wasn't that nice of a place. There were a few plants. They were probably added to fill up the very empty space.

Naru spotted the staircase, and walked up. Once on the floor he knew Mai's apartment was on, he, rather than going to hers, went to her neighbours. He knocked on her direct neighbour's door.

An older woman answered. "Oh, I think you have the wrong door... Perhaps you're looking for Taniyama-san?" She said, pointing at the next door, just down the hall.

Naru nodded. "I am, but she has been absent from work for a while. When was the last time you saw her leave the building?"

The woman frowned. "Last time I saw her she came in. I never saw her leave. But she usually says goodbye before she goes out." She said frowning. "No, she didn't leave."

Naru nodded. "Thank-you." He walked over to Mai's apartment, the woman closed the door. Naru looked at Mai's door, but didn't touch it.

If indeed she hadn't left, then she was still in there. Meaning so were those idiots who dared pull this kind of stunt on a teenager.

Naru turned and walked away, down the stairs and out of the building.

The next day, at 5 in the evening, everyone was waiting in the SPR office. Naru was the only one absent. For 6 silent minutes, everyone just stared at each other, no one said a single word, almost as if they were scared to break it. Yasuhara even wore a serious expression, that really didn't suit him.

Naru walked in, an agonizing 6 minutes and 18 seconds later. Lucky for the rest the door opening finally disrupted the silence. There was no doubt that someone would have gone crazy.

Naru looked at the group from the door.

Lin was thinking about if he would tell Naru about Mai's condition. He didn't know how to tell Naru. Ayako wasn't going to be telling anyone, since she had left it up to him. Maybe Takigawa... No. The best person to tell would be Madoka. Madoka and Yasuhara might be able to uncover something the Fake Miko would have missed. She somehow expected him to believe that she really couldn't find anything else about it from anywhere. Yes, as soon as he could find a moment, Madoka would be the one to call. But if suddenly Madoka showed up at the SPR offices, Naru might get suspicious. Especially if she has information about some crazy psychic related disease. It would have to stay on the down low...

Ayako was thinking about who Lin was going to tell. If he told Naru maybe he would believe it from Lin. It would be important that Naru know about it soon. Maybe if he knew he could help in some way. After all, "There must have been some cases you couldn't solve?" "Never, because I always can". So surely such an accomplished investigator would be able to figure out this one. If not for Mai, then for his reputation. How would it feel to no longer be able to brag like that for someone like him? Ayako didn't like the idea of reducing him to someone like that, especially considering how much Mai liked him. But sometimes...

Takigawa briefly wondered what it was that Ayako was going to tell him the other day. But more so, he looked at Naru's expression and wondered what they were going to do. Honestly... Naru did have a few expressions, they were just confusing. There should be a book somewhere... Yeah right. But this was a very serious and tense situation. Naru... What was he planning...

Masako wondered what Naru was doing late for a time he set. There was no way he was just late. He had been doing something significant. Maybe he had been trying to discover something. And his expression... had he succeeded, or failed? Honestly Masako wasn't sure. Somehow, this was turning out weirder that she could have thought possible. After she heard the message left on the machine, Masako had been thinking about it constantly. Who wouldn't? But she couldn't get it out of her head for even a moment. Her friend was in trouble... Why did she feel like it was partly her own responsibility? Evrything was really sudden...

John surveyed the group. No one was saying anything. He wondered when Naru would get around to explaining what he had discovered. Mai was in a dangerous situation, and it would have to be corrected soon. What will we do now...

Yasuhara was thinking about Mai. It was unfortunate that a person like her be put in such a situation. And maybe if she didn't have such strong feelings for her cold boss... That didn't matter right now. What did matter was that whether or not Naru had anything to help their current situation. But then he noticed, and as did everyone else, that Naru had a case which contained a camera. Judging by the shape of the case (slightly more padded, as well as taller to accommodate the special lens added to the top), most likely a heat sensitive one. What have you been up to? Yasuhara wondered...

Naru set the camera case on the table in the middle, where everyone stared at it as if it were going to speak.

Nobody said a thing for at least 2 more minutes. Everyone had something on their mind, and wanted to start speaking, but what about everyone else? At least, that was everyone's reasoning. It was time, Yasuhara decided, to say something.

"And so what have you discovered?" Yasuhara said. Naru took his time answering.

After a few breaths, he finally answered. "I have discovered their location." Nobody said anything, waiting with baited breath for whatever came next. It wasn't much of a surprise that he had. He was brilliant after all.

"They never left her apartment."

Yuri was immediately on his feet when the door burst open. Shohei at the end of the hall in Mai's room heard the noise, and was into the main room just soon enough to see Yuri getting punched out by someone he couldn't quite make out. But there were at least 6 people he could see. He surveyed everything in an instant.

One, a particularly short one was staying by the door. All the others were standing inside, gaze either fixed on him, or his companion on the ground.

Yuri may have not had a chance to defend himself, but not only was Shohei Yuri's senior in years, but in fighting. He had a better chance.

Most of those present seemed to be tag-alongs, connected to the girl in the room, but none of them had the air of a parent. No, there was little chance that a parent would be reckless. After all, these people couldn't know anything about Shohei or Yuri.

Maybe... they had made the mistake of going after the daughter of a crime family... that would make sense. That would be the reason they could send this girl to live on her own. They'd have plenty of money. But then, why would she be working? No, that wasn't the situation either. But something didn't seem right. No matter, there was no time left to wonder.

All this observation took place in the space of a millisecond.

After that immediately one of people approached at an alarming rate. Shohei carefully took more defensive stance and nimbly side-stepped a kick. Shohei followed up with a powerful punch; more powerful than the one he had used against the girl sleeping in the room behind him. If this worked, he might have the opportunity to run. Although... he had never been in a situation where it would have been needed before.

He had misjudged the skill of his attacker, who blocked it effortlessly and returned with an uppercut to the nose.

The action brought the attacker's face just close enough for Shohei to notice his blue eyes before he was hit on the head somehow and knocked out.

Naru had carried Mai back to the SPR office. He left everyone else at Mai's apartment to deal with the two idiots once they came to. Originally he intended to be alone with her for a bit, but Lin came out with him in the end, and drove him to the office.

Lin looked to Naru once they had arrived. It was a questioning gaze. Can I come in?

Not a chance. Was Naru's response, also conveyed with only the eyes.

Lin turned the vehicle around, and drove back to the apartment, while attempting to think of fitting punishment for the two offenders lying unconscious in Mai's apartment.

At Mai's apartment, the younger one came to first. Not surprising, considering how much harder Naru hit the other one. Takigawa was overseeing the the two. Yasuhara sat next to him, and was deep in thought.

Ayako wandered around the apartment. Not too much seemed to be out of place. There was a cup lying on the ground, and there was a bit of damage to the floor. Someone must spilled something.

Masako stood at the door, figuring that Lin would be back soon. Naru would want some time alone probably. Did that mean that Mai won? No, not yet.

As the younger one came to, he tried to not let to show that he was once again conscious, but Takigawa noticed. "Hello."

The kid didn't say anything. Takigawa couldn't help but wonder what on earth was the reason some kid this young was living by stealing. While it was just wrong, he had made a bad move when he broke into this apartment. Maybe the older one was forcing him. That wouldn't be good. But chances were that that was not the situation. And if he tried to use that to get out of trouble, then shame on him for unloading the blame on the other.

Ah, but this didn't matter what were they going to do now? It would have been easier if the kid would have just stayed out for a long time, then they could have just stared. Not that they couldn't knock him out again, but that felt wrong regardless of the situation.

There was a knock at the door. Masako checked to see who it was, then let Lin in. Lin had looked around the room, then pulled a piece of paper. He had made up his mind. The easiest thing to do would be to right now, tell everyone except Naru. "Matsuzaki-san gave me this." Masako looked at first. Her eyes widened as she read the article, and recognized exactly what she was supposed to recognize in it. John looked over her shoulder to read it at the same time before sitting down on the couch.

Takigawa immediately walked over. He too read the article. He knew who it was pertaining to. As Takigawa sank back into the couch beside John, Yasuhara took the sheet of paper.

"So, what you mean is... Mai..." Masako said, the first to speak. Yuri on the floor had no idea what was going on, but obviously everyone in the room was upset about something. And that was not something he would know about. They must have had some really bad luck when they chose this specific girl. It seemed too perfect.

"As if it wasn't enough that she's an orphan, she's going to..." That was all that Takigawa said.

Orphan? Yuri figured they couldn't have screwed up that badly. No wonder she didn't have any contact with her parents. Her job must have been all she had. But, what were they going on about?

Yasuhara stood up. "Tell Madoka, and tell her that I will be working over here." Yasuhara stood up and left the room. But he paused before exiting. "Tell her to get in contact with me by e-mail. If we work together, we can figure something out." He was gone.

Masako sat down on the floor, near tears. In the end, was it... her fault? Only moments ago she had been concerned that Naru would choose Mai over her. Now what did it matter. And what on earth would Naru think if he knew what she had done to Mai? The same thought continued to run through Masako's head. From the beginning, it was my fault.

Yuri sat up, and all attention in the room shifted to him. A subtle groan came from Shohei, as he too came back to consciousness. The two theives regained a sense of what what going on. The looked at their situation. The captors become the captured.

A simultaneous thought ran through every person presents' head.

What is going to happen now?