Summary: What happens when the SPR gang meets Saya and Hagi during that year they disappeared after Riku's death?

Disclaimer: I do not own Ghost Hunt and Blood Plus, unfortunately.

Hurrah for longer chapter:)

CHAPTER 3

"And this is…?", asked a frowning Naru as he glanced at a piece of paper that his assistant practically slapped unto his face when she came inside his office for his morning tea. He didn't get enough sleep last night and he was certainly not into the idea of entertaining Mai's ridiculous attempts at art. "If indeed, this is what she considered art", he thought, looking at the paper with an expression of distaste and, well, amusement.

"Is this supposed to be a gorilla or a horse?"

And as predicted, Naru looked up to see a very distressed, very annoyed Mai. Inside, he was smiling.

"THAT," she said with her arms flailing at her sides, "is what I saw last night! It… it was attacking this girl! And she had a sword! And she killed it and… and…"

"—wait, so the gorilla was killed by the girl?", came Takigawa-san's question, startling Mai as she didn't notice the monk walking into Naru's office, and took the piece of paper from Naru (which earned him a scowl).

He was examining Mai's drawing with a bit more interest, flipping it upside down and back again with his other hand rubbing his chin thoughtfully.

"Should we call the zoos? Kidnapping and killing gorillas is just bad.. tsk tsk!" he said, a look of feigned sadness over his face followed by an ever-growing grin.

Mai is fuming. Even the monk won't take her seriously!

"You know what? Forget the drawing!" she said, taking the piece of paper from Takigawa-san and crumpled it to a tight ball. "Just trust me on this! Naru, I SAW a monster last night!" Mai said, her face red.

Naru looked unconcerned.

"If that really was a monster, Mai, then the girl took care of it." And with a wave of his hand, it was a clear sign for Mai to just shut it and carry on organizing some files he asked to do an hour before.

In usual Mai fashion, she's not giving up.

"Naru! What if there'd be more of them? Shouldn't we be concerned?" she pleaded. Naru sighed. "Not a good sign", she noted. He was not looking at her and was studying a pile of notes from his desk.

"Mai. Get back to work."

Mai gritted her teeth. She was shaking all over and all she wanted to do right now is to take the serving tray she's holding beside her and give the narcissistic bastard's head a good whack… (and then maybe after she would say sorry and offer to kiss the pain away)

"Mai, focus!" a voice on her head said, "You must find proof!"

And with that, she stormed out of his office, collected her coat, and went outside.


Mai was a girl on a mission. Determined, she traced back the path where she followed the two from last night and ended up at the street corner where the fight ended. Somehow the area before her didn't look as frightening… the daylight seemed to take away all the horrible events she witnessed just a few hours before, like it never happened. She wondered if someone cleaned up the place…

She walked around the small perimeter, looking for something the two might've left behind. "Please… please let me find something!" she said over and over in her head. She turned towards where the familiar trashcan stood, remembering how it was the only barrier between her and the monster (until she decided to throw the lid at it… which, she reflected, was a stupid, stupid thing to do).

Suddenly she was attracted by a tiny wink of light near the bottom. She crouched closer to examine and her eyes led her to a tiny crevice. Nestled on it was a speck of crystal, blood red and sparkling somewhat with malevolence.

"AHA!" Mai exclaimed triumphantly.

Excitement pounded on her heart as she picked the crystal and wrapped it carefully with her handkerchief. "This will show Naru!", she thought happily, looking around to see if there were more specks scattered around the cement floor. "Nothing…" she sighed. "But this is enough." She got up, placed her handkerchief on her jacket pocket, and decided it wouldn't hurt to go ahead and look some more. "Besides, running off from work like that… Naru will fire me if I didn't have a good reason!"

She remembered how the girl named Saya and the tall man she was with jumped right up towards the roof above. Mai looked up, taking a few steps backward to better see the rooftop of the building. It was not impressively tall… but still, it was not possible for anyone to just… jump up there, right?

Curious, Mai decided to see what's up there. Walking around to the front, a sign said it was an apartment building. She went inside and after encountering a few curious glances and maybe telling a couple of lies (I'm here to visit my cousin…), she made her way to the rooftop. She looked around, once or twice stopped and examined something on the concrete surface but it was either a small piece of broken glass or a discarded foil packet of some gum.

"This was useless", Mai thought, sighing and turned around to go back inside. "Obviously they just stopped here to hop onto some other roof."

Sighing some more, she made a final sweep of the place when something small was swept up by the wind as it made the tenants' drying laundry dance lazily in lines of nylon chord. It was a small piece of paper, being played haphazardly by the air, threatening to be swept away from the roof had Mai not ran towards it and caught it just in time.

"It's a photo…" she noted as she tried to uncurl the edges, the entire thing looked as if it has been folded over with the telltale lines running over three people. There was a young boy, his eye color very much like hers. There was another boy, much older than the other, maybe around Naru's age (He forgot to smile, Mai observed). And a girl… Mai's eyes widened.

"This is her!" she whispered. "Her eyes… her eyes were different… but this is positively her! I… I have to take this to Naru!" she said, running towards the door that leads to the stairs.

As Mai frantically walked towards the SPR building, the picture held securely in her hand, she ignored a small crowd gathering over a cello player. She did not acknowledge the gloomy allure of his music as she walked straight on. And certainly Mai couldn't have caught the man's eyes following her as she speedily made her way to show Naru what she found.